Chapter 2: Ripples In The Water

"Like a drop in the vast ocean, each of us causes ripples as we move through our lives. The effects of whatever we do - insignificant as it may seem - spread out beyond us. We may never know what far-reaching impact even the simplest action might have on our fellow mortals. Thus, we need to be conscious, all of the time, of our place in the ocean, of our place in the world, of our place among our fellow creatures. For, if enough of us join forces, we can swell the tide of events - for good or for evil." -- Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman.

The botanical garden was already crowded when they arrived. They weren't in uniform and there technically shouldn't have been anything to distinguish them from anyone else except to avid TV fans that had seen their faces on the news. However, transporting five people had made Ecto-1 the vehicle of choice and so the arrival of that highly distinctive car aroused a great deal of attention.

As usual, Peter lapped it up and even signed the autographs of a few children that came running up to him. The others, however, sneaked off into the gardens, quickly distancing themselves from the car and, for the most part, interest waned when people realised the Ghostbusters had not arrived to bust any ghosts. It was with relief that they decided Egon had done the right thing in convincing them not to bring Slimer along after all.

"What time does the lecture start, Janine?" Ray asked as they walked around the gardens. He wasn't exactly a fan of botanical gardens but he had to admit some of the plants were impressive.

"Two." At some point during the excited scuffle in the parking lot, Janine had slipped over to Egon. Not exactly shy, she didn't crave the attention either and the public had always found the physicist to be the least approachable Ghostbuster. He was too tall, too stern, too intelligent - and too good at utilising these personality traits to ensure himself privacy.

Taking advantage of the situation, she had followed him out of the way, snaking an arm through his and found herself left alone as well. He had neither objected to nor acknowledged the gesture and waited only long enough for Ray and Winston to catch up. With Peter's cheerful "Catch ya later, guys!" ringing in their ears, the four had disappeared inside and now, half an hour later, they were enjoying the relaxing atmosphere of the gardens and Peter still hadn't rejoined them. If Ray and Winston noticed that Janine and Egon were still arm-in-arm, they were too polite to draw attention to it.

Besides, they were on Janine's side.

The engineer checked his watch. "That'll be soon then. Maybe we should find Peter?"

"Shouldn't be too hard," Winston said with a grin. "Just follow the legions of outraged women."

They shared a laugh that was cut off by a muffled exclamation from Janine. Darting away from Egon's side, she crossed the garden. For a moment, the three men thought it was an odd blotchy bush that had attracted her attention but they quickly realised it was the tall tree standing behind it that had excited her. Exchanging mystified glances, they walked over to join her.

"What is it?" Winston asked curiously. He chuckled openly as he spotted Egon surreptitiously checking for any sign of a plant label. The physicist just did not like it when he didn't have all the answers.

"A pukatea, I think," Janine was peering at the bark closely and then glanced up to study the thick, leathery leaves.

"A what?"

"It's from New Zealand," Janine sighed and stepped back. "My sister and her boyfriend went out there recently for a visit. They decided to bring me back a souvenir," she pointed to the tree. "One of these."

"That was nice of them," Ray said.

"I suppose," she said dubiously. "But do you know how big they grow?" She stared at their blank faces. "118 feet," she clarified.

The three men exchanged amused looks. "That's almost as big as that geranium," Ray laughed as he tried to picture Janine fitting a 118-foot tree into her apartment. "What are you going to do with it?"

She sighed. "Take it to a plant doctor I guess. It's dying, I don't know why. I've been trying to find out but this is the first healthy tree in this country I've seen."

"Perhaps you can find someone to discuss this with when the lecture is concluded," Egon suggested to her.

She nodded in agreement and was about to respond when the speakers crackled into life, announcing the commencement of the Charles Austin Memorial Talk in fifteen minutes. Taking that as their cue, they hurried out of the garden and made their way to where the lectures would be taking place. "No sign of Peter," Winston mused thoughtfully when they arrived. "He's going to miss the show."

"Never mind. It doesn't look like his girlfriend is putting in an appearance for this one anyway," Ray chuckled, noticing the person preparing for the speech was male and not female.

"He probably bailed on us." Winston shook his head. "We'll get him back for it later."

The lecture lasted for an hour but it was one of the longest hours of Winston's life. He wasn't one of those people who could sit still for long periods of time unless it was for a reason of personal interest. As much as he loved Janine, he was beginning to regret having agreed to come. Without any scientific training, the more technical aspects of the talk were lost on him but he also didn't have any particular love of plants. He didn't mind them; he just didn't like them enough to want to listen to people chat about them. His only respite came from the realisation that Ray was as restless as he was. Unlike Winston, Ray grasped the science all too easily but just like Winston, plants couldn't hold his interest for long.

Janine, however, seemed to be having fun and both men concluded that at least was worth it: recent events had shaken them all and it had become rare to see the secretary really relax and enjoy herself. Egon also seemed completely absorbed in the talk but that wasn't particularly surprising to either of them. They did notice that every so often, Janine would lean across to Egon and whisper something. The physicist would shake his head or nod and then whisper something back. It didn't take long for them to realise that he was interpreting the lecture for her. Janine may have known more about plants than the rest of them put together but she didn't know how to speak the scientist's language. Fortunately, Egon did and seemed willing to clarify any words and phrases she didn't understand.

When the lecture concluded, Janine disappeared off to ask the speaker something while the three men spread out to search for Peter. Egon and Winston were the first to return, joining Janine outside the room with disgruntled shakes of their heads. As Janine pocketed the address she had managed to get for a plant doctor familiar with pukatea trees, Ray strolled over to them. He was grinning.

"I found him," he announced.

"Where'd he get to?" Winston asked dryly. "Or is that a dumb question?"

"Come and see." Ray chuckled and walked off.

The engineer led them to a garden where another talk was in progress. Janine almost walked into the back of Egon before realising the three men had come to an abrupt halt near the entrance. Edging around them, she quickly discovered what had distracted them. The speaker of this lecture was a tall woman with a curvaceous figure and long blonde hair.

"Wow. Peter wasn't kidding when he said she was hot!" Ray mumbled, flushing to the roots of his hair.

"You said it," Winston agreed, momentarily forgetting the reason why they had approached the garden.

Egon quickly turned his attention away from the speaker as he caught Janine watching him with an intense gaze. Unlike Peter, he had a tendency to discern between what he considered attractive and what he was actually attracted to and while this woman was undoubtedly attractive that alone wasn't enough to retain his interest. Although the difference made perfect sense to him, he suspected trying to clarify it to Janine would cause more trouble than it would solve. Instead of speaking, he flashed her an amused smile and she blushed furiously at having been caught staring. She immediately relaxed, however, which confirmed in his mind that he had taken the correct approach to resolving the matter.

"Ray, where's Peter?" he murmured pointedly.

The engineer started and cleared his throat. "Peter? Um. Right. Peter's over there," he gestured to where Peter was stood a little way from the main congregation. He actually wasn't too far from the entrance and was watching the speaker intently.

Winston was about to move forward and approach the errant Ghostbuster but something in Peter's expression stopped him. Although concentrating on the beautiful speaker, he actually seemed more interested in what she was saying than in what she looked like. Freed of the constraints of maintaining his carefully crafted image for the benefit of those who knew him best, his expression was one they very rarely got the chance to see: alert, contemplative, thinking.

They turned their attention to the speaker again to see what she was talking about but she was wrapping up. Egon checked his programme. "'A discussion on the long-term benefits of human-plant interactions in psychological and parapsychological research'," he quoted as the others looked at him. "Hm. Fascinating."

As if hearing Egon's voice, Peter started slightly and glanced in their direction. Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, his entire demeanour changed, as if there had been two people standing in the same spot. The easy swagger and mocking gaze that seemed to define his personality were in full force by the time he reached them.

"What did I tell ya? Can I pick them or what?" he said proudly, referring to the speaker with a cocky grin.

"Interesting lecture, Doctor Venkman?" Egon asked coolly, a deceptively innocent statement designed to tell his old friend one thing - that he wasn't fooled for an instance.

The psychologist managed to look shocked. "She was talking? Wow, I never got passed those lips!" He nudged Ray. "So, what do ya think? Great legs or what?"

Ray coughed and blushed then threw Peter an embarrassed glare. "I think we've had Peter off the leash too long," he complained, rubbing the back of his neck ruefully.

"I'll second that." Winston grinned at Ray's discomfort. "Come on, Flyboy. Time to lock you up where you won't frighten the decent people."

Peter chuckled but obligingly led the way back out to Ecto-1. "How was your lecture?"

"Well, the speaker wasn't so easy on the eye I can tell you!" Winston laughed.

"Should have stuck with me. I told you I know how to pick them."

"Well, I enjoyed it." Janine retorted. "I even got the name of a plant doctor who knows about pukatea."

"Do I even want to know?" Peter asked wryly.

"It's a species of tree native to New Zealand," Egon informed him.

"Which Egon didn't know before the lecture," Winston stage whispered to Peter.

"You mean there is a God?" Peter laughed.

Egon didn't respond. They glanced around, expecting to find the physicist sulking or pretending to ignore them but instead were confronted by an expression of utter consternation.

"Egon?" Janine asked cautiously.

"Ray. Unlock the car," Egon said softly, staring through the window at the interior.

"What's wrong, Homeboy?" Winston had dropped his playful demeanour and was on the alert but Egon said nothing until the car was unlocked. He quickly climbed in, picking up the P.K.E. meter that they had forced him to leave behind.

Seeing it was beeping and flashing, they all quickly piled in and closed the doors. Ray turned the engine on and twisted round. "What is it, Egon?"

"Hm." Egon absently adjusted the settings.

"We got trouble coming?" Winston asked.

"Hm," Egon responded, a little more emphatically.

"What have you got, Egon?" Peter asked impatiently. "You're killing us with the suspense here."

"Intense psychokinetic activity but it's extremely difficult to obtain a reading. I'm currently registering anything from a Class 6 to a Class 8 -- no, Class 9..." he trailed off. "It's refusing to stabilise. Hm."

"It may need fine-tuning," Ray said immediately, rummaging around in the glove compartment and pulling out a second P.K.E. meter.

"Tex, you've been hanging around Egon too long," Peter commented dryly when he saw the second meter.

Ray's eyes widened. "Wow, you're right, Egon! I've never seen readings like these. First it's off the scale, then it's on the scale. It could be have been residuals if it wasn't more powerful than almost anything we've ever seen before!"

"Why can't you get a fix on the power level?" Winston asked.

"The ambient psychokinetic energy field is in a state of extreme flux," Egon mused, still making adjustments to his meter. "We should return home and take more readings there."

"He doesn't know what's causing it," Winston told Peter and Janine.

"Egon. Doesn't this remind you of Fresnal zone experiments?" Ray was staring at his own meter.

Egon's lips pressed together in a thin line. "Yes, it does, Ray. But I need more data before I conclude that's what we're dealing with."

Ray grinned sheepishly at him then began to move the car.

"So what was all that about?" Peter asked. Egon shot him a disapproving look, so the psychologist turned to the driver. "Ray?"

Ray sighed. "Pebble in the pond, Peter. Someone's dropped a ghostly pebble into New York's ectoplasmic lake and we're picking up the ripples."

"Okay, that doesn't sound too bad..." Winston frowned, trying to decipher the expression on Egon's face.

Ray sighed and tossed his meter across to Winston. Looking down, the army veteran was startled to see the energy peaking off the chart. He glanced sharply at the engineer who nodded in agreement.

Winston swallowed. "Not too bad until I ask what kind of pebble can cause a Class 10 ripple, anyway," he rephrased weakly.

"That," Egon said, very softly. "is indeed the question."