Chapter 8

Peter and Ray were each treated for their injuries and released into the solicitous custody of Egon Spengler. After an aspirin-and-champagne celebration and several hours' sleep, they returned to the hospital to retrieve Winston, stopping by mutual consent to visit Marie D'Loeffier on the way home. They found the Haitian woman sitting up in her modified hospital bed sipping a weak cup of tea. The IV was still taped to her arm, but her eyes were bright; the once slack features alive with renewed awareness. Having been informed by Cage of the events of the previous night, she greeted them warmly and declared herself quite willing to discuss her experience.

"But how can you be sure it will not be back?" she exclaimed in her accented English after hearing Egon's impromptu mini-lecture on M'Tumba's origin. "What will happen the next time I sleep? Will M'Tumba return again?"

"Not possible," Egon asserted. "Since it did not dissipate even after your dream cycle was interrupted we must conclude that M'Tumba simply borrowed the psi-energy from your dreams that it needed to open a dimensional nexus to this plane, then continued to augment its fields with your own. Once you awoke it no longer had the power necessary to fight our weapons. It's trapped now permanently in our containment unit. It won't be coming back."

"No need to be afraid any more, Marie," Winston said confidently. He shifted in his chair -- the only one in the room -- until he could see the woman's face more clearly. "Once we trap something, it stays trapped."

"And if you ever need us again," Ray promised earnestly, "we'll be back. Promise."

Marie smiled at the young occultist, then turned her head to include the others in her gratitude. "I am very grateful to you all. So, too, I am certain, is Monsieur Cage."

"Ahem." Cage left his post near the main equipment bank to take up a new one just behind Egon's shoulder. "Yes, I ... um ... I'd like to thank you Ghostbusters as well." He took Marie's hand gently in his own. "Marie has become quite important to me over the last five years; I would not like to lose her."

"But your experiment, Professeur!" She looked up as Lucy Robbins slipped through the door and crossed to stand by Peter's side. "I have destroyed it with my weakness."

"That's not your fault, Marie!" Ray protested. He shifted slightly in his seat on the edge of her bed, then winced when the stitches in his back pulled. "M'Tumba was just waiting to use you -- or anyone else it could -- to come to earth. You couldn't have known."

"Still...." Marie sighed. "I always thought it was only a story my old nounou would tell me when I was small. It is like your ... how do you say? ... your Boogieman." Her expression was one of sincere regret. "And to think that it was I who summoned M'Tumba to this world to kill again."

"It wasn't your fault, Marie," Egon echoed, patting her shoulder soothingly. "In our line of work we've faced stranger, more powerful creatures than even this."

"Yeah," Peter agreed cheerfully. "Old M'Tumba was kind of run of the mill. You should catch us on a good day!"

Marie stared pointedly at the sling supporting his stitched right arm, then shifted her gaze to Ray's pale face and the neat bandage on Winston's head. She shuddered. "I do not think this day was a good one for you or your friends."

Peter jerked his head at pretty Lucy Robbins and winked. "Oh, I don't know," he said with the trace of a smirk. "I think this could turn out to be a very good day if I play my cards right." Lucy winked and Peter proffered his good arm. "Ready to go?" She accepted his gracious gesture and allowed the handsome psychologist to usher her to the door. "Don't wait up kiddies," he called, with a farewell smile.

Cage watched the departing couple with disgust. "I've known him -- not by choice mind -- for fifteen years now." He paused. "Hasn't changed a bit, has he?"

The three remaining Ghostbusters exchanged a fond look. "No," Winston acknowledged with a smile. "And frankly, we wouldn't have it any other way."

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finis

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