Peter stared at the picture, all sleep forgotten now. He looked over at Egon, then back at the picture.
"This is me?"
"Not you Peter, Michael DeWinter." Egon said.
Peter pulled his eyes from the picture again to look up at Egon. "But is this the same? I mean where's Christopher?"
"Aggie says Michael was the only DeWinter's son. I don't have an answer for what else happened wherever Janine was, but I'm almost positive that this is the Michael DeWinter Janine knows. This was the man she saw in the hospital." His face tightened, remembering Janine's face when she'd seen Peter yelling at the doctor.
"Okay, but we still don't know what Janine was to this guy, and even if he was such a bad person."
"The books indicates he was a harsh man, that tended to beat his slaves. Oddly enough, he ran away with one of the female slaves when his father threatened to have her killed."
"Okay, but that doesn't mean anything. She could have leaped in as a noble or something. You never know."
"You're forgetting the bracelet," Egon said. "Would a noblewoman be that hysterical over losing a piece like that?"
"I'm not forgetting it, I'm choosing not to remember it." he insisted. "All right, " he finally relented. "I'll back off of Janine for a couple of days, but she has to talk about this. I'm not going to let her just cope with this on her own."
"Agreed," Egon said.
"Great," Peter grinned. "And now I'm going to get dressed and find some coffee since some people insist on getting me up at this ungodly hour."
"It's 10:00," Egon said, going back to the books.
"Exactly," Peter said, walking out of the room.
"Here," she said, handing Ray the slip of paper baring the address. "Aggie said this is a creature you've fought before. It's attacking some family on the upper west side."
"Got it," Ray said, rushing over to the others. "He's back." he told the others.
"I was hoping to have the new pack finished before he came back." Egon stated, grabbing his own pack.
"We'll have it finished before the next time." Ray assured, getting into Ecto, waving at Janine, who raised a hand in return. Then Ecto was gone.
Janine sat up at her desk, where she'd fallen asleep, her eyes wide, her heart hammering.
The dream was quickly fading now, but the echos of the voice were still in her mind. A voice she would never forget.
Looking around the darkened firehouse, she was beginning to regret agreeing to stay and wait for the guys.
But the week was almost out and she had to start taking over her responsibilities from Aggie. Besides, she'd wanted to talk to Ray when they returned if he wasn't to tired. He'd come up to them last night and he, Winston, and herself had gone to a small coffee shop down the block to discuss what she'd told Winston. As predicted, Ray was excited about the entire idea of alternate realities, even though he tried hard not to show it.
Janine, your gift. You never lost it.
Janine scrambled out of her chair as she heard the voice echo through the firehouse. Her vision tearing up, as she frantically scanned the firehouse. Spotting the two-way radio, she lunged for it, trying to turn it on.
"There something here," she choked out.
"Janine?" Egon's voice inquired from the other side.
Janine. Christopher's voice came from the darkness again. Then the pain came, so fast she wasn't prepared for it. She screamed, dropping the two-way. It ripped through her stomach, and head, threatening to tear her apart. Then as suddenly, it was gone, leaving her panting in the floor of the firehouse. In that moment, she knew what it was. What the voice had been trying to tell her.
From the haze of the lingering pain, she heard her name being called, but she wasn't sure by who.
She crawled towards the two way where the voice was coming from, and picked it up.
"He's coming," she gasped out, as another pain ripped through her.