Three nights before her temp job was up, Gabby decided to summon Gertrude for some conversation. There was no rope spiral, no red candles, no chanting in Ancient Sumerian. It was the same familiar ritual that she had always done and she didn't want to do it any other way.
"How have you been, dear?" asked Gertrude.
"It's been quite a month," said Gabby, "I'm actually helping Egon with his inventions."
"That's great! He must have seen potential in you."
"He does. It's unfortunate that he probably won't be able to figure out what we've figured out before it actually happens."
"You're still worried about your witchy identity?"
Gabby sighed. "Yes."
"It's completely understandable but it's not the fourteen-hundreds, though. If you told them that you were a witch, they're not going to burn you at the stake. Such a thing was no longer done when I was alive and I'm pretty sure it's no longer done right now, either."
"But how many people have used magic for nefarious purposes? People who the ghostbusters have fought? Also, the public seems to think that 'witch' automatically equals 'Satan-worshipper.' People across the country are being put in jail for doing awful things in the name of Satan and I don't want to be lumped in with them."
"I guess people today still don't believe there can be a good witch."
"Maybe they will eventually but not yet."
"Not being true to who you are can be done in life but it can also hurt. You have to weigh the pros and cons of keeping your secret. What's more important? Your identity… or the people of New York City, who will be pestered by an actual evil witch?"
Gabby faced plenty of difficult decisions in her life but this was a doozy of one. She had self-worth, even though it took her twenty-three years to gain what little she had. She had enough to have some sense of self-preservation. But the people of New York City were pretty important. One reputation was a bargain to pay for the safety and happiness of an entire city of people. And would the ghostbusters even care about her magical powers if she made it obvious that she wasn't using them for evil? How could she prove to the boys that she wasn't, in fact, attracting children to her gingerbread house in order to cannibalize them?
"I… I… don't feel ready," said Gabby, "I'm still scared. Maybe once they let me go, I could let them know. After all, it's not like my job with them will be on the line."
"Only you know when you'll be ready to tell them," said Gertrude, "I don't want to pressure you to do something you don't want to do."
"We've got your back, Gabby!" said a tiny fire spirit, "We still love you even if other people fear you!"
"Aw, thank you, fire spirit," said Gabby as she looked at the little flame with a face on it.
"My name is Flynn."
"Okay, Flynn."
Gabby decided to leave that topic alone. Hopefully it wouldn't end up rotting in its solitude. Or exploding. Or whatever it was that secrets did. Then again, she could be confusing secrets with dreams deferred.
"So, what have you been up to? Ghost things?"
"Yes, ghost things. I scared several cats away the other night."
"Don't do that too often, Gertrude. They keep the mice away."
"The thing is, I don't do it by appearing suddenly and saying 'boo.' I do it by placing cucumbers behind them. They seem to be afraid of those."
"Still, don't do that."
The next afternoon, the firehouse got some special visitors. Janine brought Little Casey in with his stroller. The stroller had a detachable top that doubled as an infant carrier and Janine placed it on her former desk so that Casey could get a good look at the garage and Ecto-1. Placing him on her desk also made it easy for the other coworkers to fawn over him…
…the other coworkers except Egon, who was sitting on the hood of the Ecto-1 with his nose buried in The New York Times.
Casey liked the attention he was getting from the three men and one woman who were standing around him. And how could he not get attention? He was wearing custom-made footie pajamas that he just started to grow into. They looked like a scaled-down version of a blue ghostbusting suit, including the Ghostbusters logo on the shoulder. On the left side of his chest was sewn a fake nametag that said "Little Spengler." He couldn't have been dressed more appropriately.
As far as babies went, Casey was rather interesting-looking and it was when Gabby saw him in person (as opposed to photos) that she could appreciate it. This baby reflected the daytime in his looks. He had pale blue eyes like a cloudless sky. The yellow and red in his scant amount of hair reminded Gabby of the sun. She supposed that the main differences were that Casey was much smaller than the sky and that she wouldn't go blind if she stared at the top of his head.
"Oh, Janine, he's beautiful," said Gabby.
"Handsome, Gabby," said Peter, "He's handsome."
Whatever, thought Gabby.
"Thanks," said Janine, feeling rather bubbly, "It was a joint effort, although I did most of the work."
"Yep, sounds like a group project to me!" said Winston.
Egon looked up from his newspaper for a brief second and scoffed a bit before looked back at the page.
When Egon looked off the page in that brief second, Gabby noticed that he had the same pale blue eyes as Casey. She leaned in toward Janine and whispered her comment.
"Casey has Egon's eyes," she said.
Janine giggled.
"I know," she said, "He won the genetic lottery on that one."
Gabby then returned to speaking at a normal volume. "Where did you get his pajamas?"
"Oh, I know a person who knows a person," said Janine, "I might just consult her for future Halloween costumes."
"Does he have a sailor suit? Please tell me he has a sailor suit!"
"I wouldn't be surprised if the nearest department store has one. I should go look."
Casey looked at each person as he sucked on the fingers of his right hand.
Meanwhile, Slimer couldn't help but be jealous at all the attention that the baby was getting. He waved his hand and whined, although he realized that this would not outdo the special guest's levels of cuteness. Gabby noticed all of his attempts at getting attention, from showing off goo-goo eyes to juggling. None of them worked.
He eventually gave up and floated down to join Egon in his leisurely reading.
"You want to read the funnies, too?" Egon asked Slimer.
"Oooh!" said Slimer, "Azabagovah!" He grabbed the other page so that he could digest the little square cartoons.
"Hey, Egon," said Peter, "Are you going to acknowledge the special guest?"
"I already said hello to him," said Egon, not even taking his eyes off the newspaper, "Saying hello to him again would be redundant." He chuckled at the funnies that he was reading. "Oh, Beatle Bailey. How long have you been in military training?"
Winston reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring of large keys.
"Look at what Uncle Winston's got," he told Casey in a sing-songy voice, "Remember jingle keys?" He made the keys do a clashing metal-on-metal dance above Casey's head
Casey open-mouth smiled and let out the sweetest giggle as he reached for the keys with his drool-covered hands. The keys weren't particularly shiny but nonetheless, he enjoyed them. Of course, Winston had to be careful to not let Casey touch them or put them into his mouth. Heaven knows where those old keys had been other than their respective locks.
"Man," said Ray, "I wonder what it's like to look at the world through new eyes."
"Every waking moment must be an existential crisis," said Egon without looking up.
Gabby didn't know what he was talking about. The baby didn't look to be in crisis at all. He was quite happy.
"I feel like calling him Fireball," said Gabby, "His hair just screams that. Can I call him that?"
Janine let out a small gasp.
"Casey, you got your first nickname!" she said.
"What are you talking about?" asked Peter, "I've been calling him Basket Case for a while."
"That doesn't count."
"I think Fireball is a fine nickname," said Ray, "He could go on to become a daredevil with a name like that!"
Peter turned to Egon.
"Hey, Egon!" he said, "Your maybe-baby is destined to jump off a cliff someday. Doesn't that get you even the slightest bit concerned?"
"Mmm-hmm…" responded Egon.
"I said, 'Doesn't that get you even the slightest bit concerned?'"
"Peter, when he grows up, he can do whatever he desires, up to and including jumping off a cliff. It's not like we're going to be there to stop him."
Everyone paused and glanced at each other in a painful awkwardness. Normally, Egon's social faux pas' ended up being funny in hindsight (even if that hindsight was just several seconds later) but this one left behind a bitter, nihilistic taste.
"I mean… he's technically right?" said Janine.
Fortunately, Ray was there to dim the tension.
"Casey, when we're not gathered at this place, we're off fighting ghosts and goblins and monsters and anything else that could scare you in the night," he told the baby, "But unfortunately, there's one monster that we can't stop. And you know what it is?"
Casey stared at Uncle Ray intently. So did everybody else.
"The RASPBERRY MONSTER!" Ray then ripped open the snap-on buttons that kept Casey's pajamas together and blew a raspberry on the baby's bare stomach.
Casey kicked and squealed with joy. Gabby had just as much fun watching it as Casey did experiencing it. It was a much-needed break from the tension.
When Ray was done, he buttoned up Casey's pajamas and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
Janine's looked back at Egon and then back at everyone else with a wrinkled look of worry that faded in and out like the ghosts that the other guys would bust. Gabby could tell that she was hurting in some way and probably had been for a while. As much as Gabby liked working with The Ghostbusters, she was more than happy that she was leaving in a few days. She didn't want to be a part of this workplace drama any longer and it was not her place to solve it.