Chapter 14: Of Green And Envy

Saturday, June 22nd, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

7:00 AM

Janine had walked into the firehouse to approach her desk. As she walked passed the Ecto-1, she passed Peter Venkman's old office and heard rummaging being done at the desk behind her filing cabinets. Almost no one went back there except Dan and Egon with few exceptions; it was more of a storage area these days. She walked through the gates into the office and saw Slimer at the desk drawing with pens and markers.

The drawings were crude and unsophisticated; they looked like they were drawn by a kindergartner. Janine picked one of the drawings off the floor and looked at it; it was a drawing of Slimer and Lita holding hands and a large heart in the background behind them. The other drawings around her were of similar content, "Slimer?"

The little green ghost hadn't even noticed the secretary walk into Peter's office. She watched as he panicked and started hiding the drawings at the desk along with the markers. She looked on holding the paper out to show him, "Slimer, what's the meaning of this?" He ignored her and started flying up toward a firepole access, bunches of paper in his arms. There was this bizarre sense of tension filling the air as the Ghostbusters' secretary watched the ghost disappear to the next floor as fast as his ectoplasmic body could fly.

Janine cocked an eyebrow seeing the ghost fly off upstairs. She looked back to the slightly slimy piece of paper with the drawing on it; confusion was on her face as she looked at the picture. She only had one conclusion, "I gotta show this to Egon."

"He did what?" In Egon's lab, Janine handed the paper to Egon and showed him. Egon grabbed it and studied it, "Fascinating."

"I think Slimer is having feelings for Lita. It's odd; I've never seen him do this before. I've been noticing him hiding away whenever Lita came into the same room as him. I didn't realize…" Janine trailed off. She sighed as she put her hands on his hips, "What are you going to do?"

"I clearly need to speak with him," Egon stood from his chair and walked to the lounge area, "Slimer?" he called out, "Slimer, can I see you in the lab, please?" Janine walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder, "Egon, please be subtle. You're not exactly the fatherly type."

Slimer had floated on down the stairs from the upstairs kitchen with a small stack of sandwiches. Once he reached the bottom, he noticed Janine was with Egon. He froze as he saw the both of them. Egon raised the drawing up for Slimer to see, "Slimer, I know this is a little disturbing, but we need to talk about this." Slimer dropped the sandwiches and put both of his hands to his mouth in terror. He turned to fly away when Egon became stern, "Slimer!" He stopped, his back turned to the scientist. Egon sighed as he spoke more softly, "Please, Slimer. You're not in any trouble, but…" He heard the little ghost sniffle as his head lowered and he dropped his arms to his sides. He turned to the scientist and showed he had tears in his eyes.

Egon and Janine were taken aback as Slimer hung his head and floated into the lab. The little ghost acted like he was heading to the gallows; absurd considering he was already dead. After the little ghost entered the lab, Egon discreetly closed the door.

An hour had passed. Egon had a mostly one-sided conversation with the spud as Slimer still hung his head low with his hands folded together sitting in a chair across from him. Egon had heard what little he had to say, but the ghost ultimately stayed quiet. "So, that's the main reason something like this wouldn't work out. Do you understand, Slimer?"

The little ghost spoke what few words he could, pointed to himself as he did, "Yeah; dead." Egon took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes with his free hand; even Slimer already knew it was just making everyone more tense, but there was one thing still bothering him. Slimer started talking to Egon in his normal gibberish as the scientist shot his head up, eyes wide like he just heard the most insane thing he's ever heard, "You want to do what? Slimer," Egon scrambled to put his glasses back on, "I don't think Lita would like that. I don't even think Dan would like that; he'd have no issue putting you into the Containment Unit. He's not as controllable as Peter was." Slimer visibly looked down knowing what he was asking was walking a hard line. Nevertheless, he looked back to his old friend and spoke english, his hands placed palms together as he was praying, "Please?"

Egon was about to explain once again why, but looked to the ghosts eyes. Slimer looked so sad he actually began to hurt the man. Egon never normally let someone else's emotions get the better of him, let alone influence his logic, but there was something about Slimer's face that made him think twice about it. After a moment, Egon nodded his head, "Okay, but you do realize I'll have to talk to Dan first." Dan's name caused Slimer to recoil in horror, "No, no, nevermind! Nevermind!" Slimer was once again heading to a firepole access when Egon stood up and called out to him, "If I don't, it may be your only chance!" Slimer stopped short of the firepole, "She'll likely go back to Japan and you'll never see her again. At the least, try to do it before you make a mistake you'll have to live with for the rest of your afterlife." Egon watched as the ghost grabbed the sides of his own head and shake it around. After a moment, Slimer dropped his arms to his sides again, a sigh heard as he again spoke in English, "Okay."

This whole ordeal with Lita coming to the firehouse had really left things in upheaval. Egon didn't blame her, but he couldn't deny things went more the way of chaos than it ever previously did. What he just did with Slimer was the most uncomfortable conversation he ever had. Slimer had floated out of the room through the normal door to the lab with his head still hanging low. This whole time, the sandwiches sat on the floor just outside of the lab. Slimer picked them all up and dumped them into the garbage as he wandered in the darkness of the second floor.

Egon watched as Slimer roamed around aimlessly. He wasn't sure if he did the right thing, "Peter, I wish you were here right now; I really could use your help."

An hour had passed. Dan and Lita were still asleep in each other's arms as Slimer phased through the ceiling of the bunk room and floated down to Lita. Through the night, Lita had managed to remove her hair tie letting her brown hair down. Her bangs were in her face as the mild sunlight coming through the front of the firehouse window graced her face. Slimer moved a few strands of hair from her face to reveal her beauty. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He looked behind her and saw the Ghostbuster she was dating holding her in his sleep.

Slimer and Dan didn't not get along; Dan and Slimer learned a long time ago to keep distance from each other, but there was no bad blood - or ectoplasm - between them. This is what scared the spud. He liked Dan too much to not make him angry; he didn't want to lose a friend over a woman. In a very wrong way, Slimer was envious of the Ghostbuster; he was already green, might as well be. It almost made him hate the man. In his mind, he knew the girl was off limits, but his one request to Egon made him realize how much he was putting his ectoplasm in the ringer when Egon told him he needed to speak with Dan about it. It was starting to stress the poor ghost out as he started whimpering.

The noises he was making made Lita stir. She started moaning and moving around as she started to awake. Slimer froze in terror again as the woman's eyes began to open. When she shifted around, the hair Slimer had brushed away from her face fell back into her view. Slimer took this opportunity to fly back in the direction he came. As Lita began sitting up, she heard a very loud SPLAT! hit the ceiling above her. She brushed the hair from her eyes and looked up; a wet green spot was on the ceiling, "What? What was that?" Slime dripped from the spot and landed on the floor. She shook her head, "That's been happening every morning since I came here. How does Dan live like this?"

It was now mid-afternoon. Dan had also awoke and while the Ecto-1 was out on calls, the new pickup was pulled into the garage as Dan and Eduardo began conversion work on the vehicle. New decals had come in from the printer as Eduardo applied the Ghostbuster logos to the doors of the vehicle. Dan was under the hood pulling the top half of the engine apart. He was installing new lifters as Egon came down the stairs from the second floor, "Dan, I know you're busy, but we need to talk about something."

"Can I get back to you in about an hour or so?" Dan was using a torque wrench to apply the correct amount of load to the valves. Egon caught him at a critical moment in vehicle upgrades, but he felt this was more urgent, "Daniel, I know you know I never ask while you're in the middle of something, so please hear me out; I need you to stop what you're doing. This is important." Dan relieved tension on the wrench and looked to his superior. Egon looked conflicted, "Please?"

Dan nodded his head. He removed the wrench from the engine and placed it on his tool cart after he climbed down off the truck. The two of them walked up the stairs as Eduardo started unrolling vinyl red/white striped hazard tape to apply it to the truck. Before he started, he looked at the two as they ascended to the second floor.

Time had passed. Eduardo had just finished applying the tape to the driver side of the truck when he heard yelling coming from Egon's lab upstairs, "HE WANTS TO DO WHAT?!"

Upstairs Dan had his hands on his head. He took his hands away and formed a half shrug with a look of confused horror on his face, "Why the hell would you agree to something like this? It's insane! Is this some bizzare-ass experiment you're running on him or something?"

Egon was looking down with his hands on his hips. He sighed, "No. It's because he asked me," he looked up to his lead field operative, "He asked me, Dan. Pleaded with me." Dan crossed his arms and pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on; engine grease still on his hands now transferring it to his face. Dan didn't notice it until he opened his eyes and noticed the black marks on his hands. He took his hands away from his face and still saw grease on his nose in his peripheral vision, "Do you see what this is doing to me, Spengler?"

Egon grabbed a towel from his lab table and handed it to his employee, him grabbing it and vigorously removing the grease from his face and hands as Egon spoke, "He's not asking for much. He's been acting strange for a few days; since Lita came here. If anything, he's terrified of you doing something to him."

"He's lucky he isn't alive; I'd kill his ass for this."

"That's what I'm alluding to. You need to let him experience this. I know what is likely to happen here, but it's something Slimer needs to learn on his own and know and experience. To my understanding of him, he was never truly… alive… to begin with." Dan stopped scrubbing the grease from his hands and looked to the physicist, "What?"

Egon took a seat at his computer chair as he spoke, "Dan, Slimer is a class 5; he was never a person before. It's possible he was a mass of emotional energies turned amalgamation from a cult that used to operate in the Sedgewick hotel perfoming black masses. After all, a holding company that was owned by Ivo Shandor performed alterations to the hotel at one point causing massive spiritual amplification possibly causing Slimer's… birth, for lack of another word."

Dan had a look of dull surprise on his face, "You have got to be kidding."

"There's no kidding involved," He turned in his chair to place his elbows on the bench and put his head into his hands, "Slimer is essentially a pre-teen at this point in his existence. I wasn't ready for this."

"Egon, despite the fact you're one of the foremost leaders in Paranormal research, there's just some shit you're not gonna expect." Egon took his head out of his hands and looked to the younger man behind him, him tossing the now grease-laden towel to the side, "Seeing it's not… that… I think there's worse things…" Dan was having a difficult time expressing something that in turn was not ultimately his decision. He figured it wasn't about that, "I'll talk to Lita about it."

Dayshift had arrived and dropped off the Ecto-1 for the nightshift to start. A few hours passed since the shift began and twilight had began falling on the New York skyline. A few calls had come in as a couple of loaded traps were sitting in the back of the old ambulance. Dan and Eduardo were slightly fatigued at this point from the work they were performing on the new truck early in the day, but Lita was alert as always. Despite Lita being awake and ready, the Ecto-1 pulled to the curb outside of a coffee shop for them to take a break. Dan was driving, Eduardo riding shotgun, and Lita in the back seat. Dan took out $20 and handed it to Eduardo, "Eddie, get us 2 coffees and a green tea for Lita, please. And please, take your time."

Eduardo looked to his partner at the wheel, then back to Lita. He knew the score, "Usual signal?" Dan nodded. After Eduardo disappeared into the shop, without even turning back to her, he spoke, "Lita? Can you please come to the front seat?" She stepped out and got into the front passenger door. She closed the door, "What's the matter?"

"Okay, I have this weird situation Egon sotra… cannonballed into my lap. Please don't get mad, but…"

From outside the car, people in the neighborhood walked by ignoring the Ectomobile's presence, that was until… "HE WANTS ME TO DO WHAT?" The woman's voice projected so loud through the old car doors and rolled up windows that people walking by started backing away from the vehicle as they walked past. Lita opened the passenger door and walked out. Dan scrambled out of the driver side door and chased after her, grabbing her by the arm, "Wait, you have to hear me out here."

She pulled her arm free and turned to him, "Hear you out? You're seriously asking me to go on a date with a ghost! What else is there to say?!"

Dan put his head into his hand, "Goddamnit, I told Egon this was an insane idea."

"What is this, one of his experiments or something?"

"I asked him that exact question; no, it isn't," Dan took his head out of his hand, "Slimer supposedly pleaded with him to do this."

"And you agreed?"

"I said I'd talk to you about it; just pass on the message. There was one thing Egon told me was set; Slimer will be waiting for you after our shift to talk to him. He'll be in the kitchen on the third floor. Whatever you decide to tell him is up to you, but remember this: Slimer is like a child. He's very simple in the mind and is very sensitive emotionally," Dan looked down to the pavement as he put his hands on his hips, "Egon said he's like a pre-teen at this stage; like a student that fell in love with his teacher. Please," he looked back to her, "don't hurt him."

It was now past midnight. Slimer sat at the dinner table in the kitchen in the dark as he was playing around with one of Egon's broken devices. There was a spring on it. Elbow on table and cheek in hand, using his free hand he kept flicking the spring on the device hearing it make a TWANG sound each time he did. It barely kept him entertained as he was clearly waiting for something, but the look on the ghost's face indicated he wasn't expecting anything to happen. If anything, he had a look of depression on his face as he was about to flick the spring again, but stopped short and just dropped his hand to the table. He moved his hands to his eyes as he started whimpering again.

That was when he heard it. There was creaking of wood-on-wood meaning someone was walking up the lower stairs. After another moment, he started hearing clanking of rubber boot soles on metal as he heard someone walking up the metal spiral staircase. He looked across the kitchen as brown hair tied back into a ponytail poked up from the horizon of the floor. Lita had walked into the moonlight; she still wore her uniform, but she removed the trap rig and folded down the top half of the uniform. She tied the arms of the suit around her waist revealing a black short-sleeved tee-shirt. She stopped short of the table, "You're Slimer, I presume?"

Slimer was stiff with fear. He bit his lower lip and nodded. Lita pulled up a chair and sat at the table across from him. She saw the little ghost was terrified, so Lita started first, "I've been hearing you like me." The ghost nodded very sheepishly, him swallowing hard. Lita averted her eyes as she continued, "I know you know I'm dating Dan. I want you to know that as much as you want to take me out on a date yourself, I can't do that. It would be unfair to Dan because I love him very much; it would be like betraying him," she looked up to the little ghost, "You know what betrayal is, right?"

Slimer nodded his head again. In his heart he knew what he wanted was wrong; not just because he wasn't alive, but for the fact he loved someone that was already in love with someone else. This was the experience Egon felt Slimer needed to have; rejection. It wasn't like the type of rejection Slimer had felt before from people who screamed and ran away, or even when Peter threatened to place him into the containment unit for the 500th time. Slimer needed to know that with some people, their situation and mindset can't - and in some cases, shouldn't - be changed for one's own happiness.

Slimer sniffled a bit as he looked to Lita, pointing to himself as he spoke, "Hate me?" Lita's brow fluttered as she looked to the green ghost, "No, Slimer, I don't hate you! I mean, I just met you. I can't hate someone - or something - I just met," Lita looked reminiscent as she looked away again looking at the table, "When me and Dan were writing he would always talk about you and how you'd always fight with Peter. It always reminded me of my friends Serena and Raye and how'd they go at it," She sighed as she looked back to the ghost across from her, "Now, I can't love you romantically, but I would like to love you as a friend. Can we do that?"

Slimer now knew why people hated that line. Still, it was comforting to know this woman didn't want to scream and run away. Sad about the whole ordeal, he lowered his head and nodded. "One more thing; please don't draw anymore pictures. So far this is between me, you, Dan, Egon, and Janine. The others don't have to know, do they?" Slimer shook his head.

"Wait, pictures?" Lita had an inquisitive tone of voice as one word she said came back to her mouth, "Pictures?" Slimer looked up as a look of eureka came to her face. She snapped her fingers, "That's it! Dan was always terrible about taking pictures!" The ghost looked at her and scratched his head, "Huh?"

She noticed the ghost was confused. She explained, "When we wrote letters to each other, Dan almost never included pictures of anything. Maybe while I'm here, you can take pictures!" Slimer was still confused. Lita realized what Dan said about how Slimer's mental acuity was not-so-sharp. She had to dumb it down a shade, "I want to remember my time here; I'm gonna to be too busy running around to take them myself, and I know how Dan is with it already, so you'd be perfect for the job! Will you do it?"

Slimer looked at the girl; her green eyes shone in the darkness. He was very hurt, but there was this look in her eyes that made him want to reconsider telling her no. After a minute, the ghost hovered up and approached the taller Japanese woman before him. He held his hand out to shake as he looked at her with sad eyes, "Okay."

The young woman jumped up and hugged the little green ghost. Slimer's eyes snapped open as she excitedly stated out loud, "Oh, thank you!" She pulled away from him to realize she just covered the front part of her tee-shirt with Slimer's ectoplasm. She saw the slime string in between her fingers as she looked at the green translucent goo, "Ugh, no one told me about this."

"Uh, oh!" Slimer was embarrassed for the first time in his existence about his slime, "Sorry." She looked back to the little ghost and smiled a bit, "It's okay; I guess I know why they call you Slimer now, huh?" She patted the class five on the head as she laughed a bit, "You know, green is my favorite color. I'd like to see you around a little more."

Slimer's eyes lit up, "You do?" "Yeah. Friends need to see each other to be friends, right?" Slimer finally smiled with his crooked teeth. Lita kissed the ghost on the forehead; surprisingly enough, she didn't pick up slime on her lips from it. That kiss put Slimer over the moon; he did a sudden flip and flyby of the room from his excitement. Lita giggled a bit as she saw the ghost so happy.

Lita had walked down the spiral staircase Just as she did, Egon walked out of his lab. He caught the woman as she walked to the bunk room, her shirt covered with slime, "Lita?" She turned to him, "Yeah, Egon?"

"Did you two… straighten out… this whole situation?" Egon was having a hard time stating what needed to be stated. He still felt awkward about talking about it.

"Dr. Spengler," she said in mock offense, "A lady never discusses her relationships." She turned her body and stuck her nose up. She looked at the physicist from the corner of her eye and smiled. She walked her way to the bunk room and closed the door behind her once inside. Egon shook his head and leaned against the doorframe, a smirk creeping onto his face, "Why does everyone in this place have to be an unfathomable smart aleck?"