Chapter 16: Adversarial Ally

Sunday, June 23, 2002

Ghostbusters HQ

7:30 AM

Lita was up early. The change in sleep schedule going from a day ahead to a day behind was still playing havoc with her ability to tell time in New York. She had decided to treat the morning crew to something she was otherwise an artist at: She decided to cook breakfast. In the kitchen she put on an apron as she began with something simple that she knew American's liked; Pancakes.

As she prepared, Garrett had rolled into the garage early. He saw Janine at her desk working away on her computer, "Morning, Janine, what's shakin'?" Janine stopped what she was doing and was rather surprised Garrett was at the firehouse so early, "Garrett? You're the early one today."

"Yeah, I was wondering if Egon was available to talk; I think we need to have a conversation about…" He smelled something in the air. It was sweet with a dash of cinnamon, "Say, what's cookin'?"

Janine finally smelled it too, "I donno. It can't be Egon; he would've set the building on fire by now. Can't be Dan either; he usually starts with bacon."

"Not that there's anything wrong with bacon. There's the only thing we have in common," Garrett looked to firepole in the corner in the approximate location of the kitchen, "We both love being carnivores."

He heard Janine sigh, "Garrett, I wish you'd stop saying things like that about Dan."

Garrett turned back to her, "Like what? I didn't even insult him that time."

"No, but you insult him every other time!" Janine put her elbows on her desk as she - like before - rubbed her eyes from behind her glasses, "The man's been through enough. Can't you just make up with him and call your grudge off?"

Garrett turned his chair and sighed, "Janine, it's not as easy as all that." Janine took her hands from her eyes and looked at the wheelchair bound Ghostbuster before her, "It was a Playstation! It was two hundred bucks he already paid you back for! What the hell else do you want him to do; buy out Sony Computer Entertainment for you?" Garrett lowered his head and closed his eyes. He let out another sigh as he felt the anxiety start to rise within him. He turned his chair, "Janine, I'm gonna tell you something; something I never, ever let the others know about." He paused as he worked himself to say it. Janine was worried about what he was about to say. He took a deep breath through his nose then turned all the way to face her, "I have claustrophobia."

There was silence.

After a moment of the two of them looking each other in the eye, Janine responded, "And?"

Garrett blinked in surprise; a twinge of anger rose up inside, "Whaddya mean, 'And'?" Janine realized too late what she just said. It actually was his worst fear. She had to think of a fast way to repurpose the question when something actually did occur to her, "Garrett, it's a common fear people have, but what does this have to do with you being upset with Dan?"

Garrett had stopped a moment and thought about it. He hated to have to say it, but it was there laying in the open. He needed to address something first, "Let me just state that I've spent my life living on the edge. I prided myself on being fearless with nothing to stand in my way. For the others to find out I'm afraid of anything would get the trust I worked for crushed. It was already bad enough what happened after."

"After?" Janine was riddled with confusion. He was starting to make little sense. Garrett turned his chair again and sighed again, a small grunt finishing it off, "It happened 2 years ago about 6 months after he came here. We were on a call…"

May 8th, 2000

6:22 PM

Ecto-1 pulled in front of a building that housed a family restaurant. The headlights of the Cadillac reflected off a black Chevy S-10 pickup with two red and white light bars, red and white hazard tape, and had Ghostbuster logos on the doors and tailgate. Slightly younger versions of Dan and Eduardo came into view of the windshield as Dan walks up to the driver side door where Roland sat piloting the vehicle. They exchanged information as Roland and Kylie stepped out of the vehicle. Garrett tried to hear what was going on through the window, but couldn't. He rolled back to the back of the vehicle and deployed his ramp.

The restaurant was wrecked. One ghost was throwing coffee cups to another that was breaking them with a frozen fish like a very stupid version of baseball. When they ran out of cups, the ghost with the fish started pounding the other counters and tables with it. Dan raised an eyebrow at the situation as he commanded everyone to start their throwers. Trying to blast the pair, they split up and vacated the area. Dan tells the team to split up into two teams with him and Garrett making one team. As the others covered the dining room, the two went to the kitchen.

Fog covered the floor; the freezer door was left open as the people ran away. Dan had instructed Garrett to keep his eyes open, Garrett returning the warning with a smartmouth quip. Dan looked at him as he noticed from behind the wheelchair bound man a kitchen knife levitating in the air. Dan dove and knocked Garrett down as the knife flashed past both their faces. One of the ghosts materialized and grabbed Dan by his pack throwing him across the kitchen into the kitchen's dishwasher. The other one appeared and grabbed Garrett by his uniform lifting him into the air. It unbucked him from his pack causing the nuclear device to hit the floor, fog covering it out of sight.

The first ghost knocked over the freestanding refrigerator and decided it would be funny to shove the Ghostbuster inside. They promptly knocked the food out of it, then shoved the man inside closing the door behind him. They then flipped the unit onto its front trapping the man inside. As they had a good hard laugh, they failed to notice the other Ghostbuster they threw just moments ago stand back up pissed off.

Inside of the fridge, the lack of light and cramped quarters started to make Garrett panic. He turned on his PKE meter; its green display lighting up the inside of his fridge. He laid on the door trying to get a good leverage point to push the bulk of the machine off of him. It wasn't enough. He heard yelling and the proton beams flying around in the opening of the kitchen. The next thing he knew there was an explosion; he felt the whole refrigerator shake as he heard more yelling. He went to try and push the device off of himself again, but with lack of legs, his arms weren't enough to maneuver himself out of the device. He did manage to see one thing once, and only once, he made the door pop open; orange light, the roar of fire, and the smell of smoke came from the small opening in the door. Once the smoke seeped in and reflected the light of the still running PKE meter, Garrett panicked harder and dropped the large, heavy commercial refrigerator back onto himself.

A few minutes had gone by. He was feeling himself running out of air, not that he wasn't consuming more than he needed already scared to death being inside this small box. The heat was becoming unbearable; the refrigeration had stopped some time ago and the insulation of the device was starting to fail. He was fading in consciousness. Fading…

Darkness.

"Next thing I knew, I woke up in an ambulance heading to the hospital. I was told later Kylie got knocked out, too. From what I heard, Dan fired his beam and it hit an exposed gas pipe," Janine watched as Garrett bared his soul. Remembering the inside of the restaurant's refrigerator was making him feel the panic once again, him gripping his chest in stress as the thought crossed his mind, "That son-of-a-bitch caused that fire!" he slammed his free fist into the arm of his chair and he placed his head into his chest-gripping hand, "He almost killed me, Janine!" He looked back up to her with his tear-glossed eyes. He was both scared and angry about it and it reflected in his eyes, "Ever since that day, I never forgave him for that. And after Lita almost blew my head off the other day, I can't trust her either. They're a matching set."

He turned to go to the elevator when Janine stood from her chair and called him out, "Garrett, wait!" The man stopped before rounding the corner to the elevator. He didn't turn, but he listened, "You may be upset about what happened, and you may be upset with Dan, but Lita didn't do it to hurt you. Misfires happen in this job; the beams aren't exactly stable. Don't judge her too harshly, for my sake?" She didn't hear him make a sound. He didn't move. She tried one more thing, "Come on, Garrett. It's not fair to her. Please?"

Garrett tilted his head forward, "You're right; I am being too hard on her. I'm just so angry at Dan, I…" the sound of him breathing through his nose was heard, "That means I have to do something I'm not known for."

"I know, Garrett, but the longer we take to apologize, the harder it becomes. The worst that could happen is we lose the chance to, even though we had so much time. Don't do that to them… or yourself." Garrett looked to the team secretary, but then quickly looked away. Head still hung low, he wheeled himself to the elevator.

Lita flipped a pancake out of the pan and on it's uncooked side like a pro. She placed the skillet on the stove as she grabbed two eggs and cracked both open into a bowl. She repeated this move three more times then grabbed the whisk to make scrambled eggs. On the kitchen table was toasted bread, maple syrup, and an already complete stack of pancakes.

The elevator door opened on the opposite end of the floor as Garrett came out. He moved his way toward the kitchen prep area as he watched Lita coordinate a symphony of kitchen utensils and various cooking and serving vessels. She poured the eggs into another skillet then began putting breakfast sausage patties on the griddle. Garrett stopped and watched as the woman gracefully switched between tasks without so much as missing a beat. It was almost like a dance she was doing as she kept working.

She then grabbed the skillet with the now finished pancake and turned to place it on the stack when she saw Garrett sitting there; it scared the life out of her. She dropped the pan on the floor causing the pancake to fall to the floor and a tile on the floor to crack, "Good God, Garrett! You scared me half to death!"

"I didn't mean to," Garrett said with some remorse in his voice, "I didn't want to interrupt the Gourmet Ballet you had goin' there," he looked to the pancake on the floor, "Damn shame, too. You have form to be a Vegas chef from the looks of it."

She saw the crack in the tile as she took the pan from the floor, "Geez! Why do I keep breaking things?" She put the pan in the sink then sat down at the table, soon after putting her head into her hands embarrassed about what just happened, "Things just keep breaking around me! I'm like the one American folk character; what was it? Constipated Jean?"

Garrett raised an eyebrow, "Uh… I think you mean, 'Calamity Jane', and I don't think that's right because you're not a raging alcoholic… At least, you're not as far as I know," He looked to the woman sitting on the table and saw she still had her head in her hands. She spoke from behind them, "Now you're gonna yell at me for that now, too. Maybe you're right," she removed her face from her hands, her eyes glassy from tears forming, "I'm just dangerous."

"Lita…" Garrett saw the woman start to close her eyes as teardrops streaked down her face. He knew it was going to be like ripping a band-aid, "Lita, I was wrong!" She looked to the wheelchaired man before her as he started wheeling himself around to speak more quietly to her, "Lita, I was about to talk to Egon about you. After what happened the other day, I had a severe lapse of judgement and I was about to get you nixed out of here."

Lita looked up and looked at the man directly in the eye, a look of pain on her face, "Why? Why would you do that?"

"This thing between me and Dan…" he closed his eyes as the thoughts of the restaurant fire passed through his mind again, he took a deep breath to suppress the feelings as he looked to Lita with an uneasy look on his face, "I almost made a mistake doing what I was about to do because of how I feel about Dan. If I hadn't talked to Janine first, I might have started the ball rollin' on running you out of here," he turned in his chair as he sighed, "The worst part, I had already made a mistake before this.

"What happened at the Pottery Barn on Friday…" it was becoming difficult for him to say it, but he remembered what Janine said. He took another deep breath, "You didn't deserve that. I imagined you were Dan in that moment and that's why I laid into you like I did. An errant proton beam isn't an uncommon thing in this job; like Janine reminded me, the beams aren't stable. An active microwave can throw the beam in odd directions. What I'm saying is, I overreacted and..." he turned back to the young woman in the apron, "...and I'm sorry."

Lita had a very hurt look on her face. Garrett saw it on her brow as he knew he may have very well made an enemy out of an ally. What he did the other day and how he was about to approach the situation today may have scarred what little friendship the two of them may have had or could have had. He felt regret about the whole thing; the apology he felt wasn't enough, "Lita, can you ever forgi…"

She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. She clearly forgave him before he could even finish his sentence. She again squeezed someone really hard. Garrett managed to choke out, "Lita, stop; I can't feel my legs!" Lita jumped back into her chair as she backed off, "Oh, God! I'm sorry Garrett, I didn't…" it took her a moment to realize, "...Hey, wait a minute."

Garrett poked his legs, "I didn't lie," he had a big stupid grin on his face, "now did I?"

"Oh, you rotten lil'…" She picked up a pancake from the stack she cooked and threw it in his face. He picked the pancake off his lap, "Hey, that's assault with a deadly pastry!" he threw it back.

Dan had finally woken up and walked up the steel spiral staircase in his shorts and tee-shirt. He saw the two of them throwing pancakes and toast at each other at the kitchen table. He raised both of his eyebrows, "Uh… mornin' guys." The two of them turned their attention to Dan, lowering their foodstuff weapons of choice with looks of guilt on their faces, "You guys planning on eating any of that, or…" he sniffed the air as something drew his attention to the stove, "Lita, Honey, I don't wanna alarm you, but your eggs are burning, and the sausage is on fire." Lita turned to the stove and saw exactly what Dan described. She jumped from the chair, "Oh, crap!"