Two weeks had passed since Gabby started becoming a part-time ghostbuster. She spent six of those days at the firehouse and the rest of that time with her parents. Although her mother had been concerned for her safety at first, she calmed down a bit and, in time, her parents became proud of her for making a life of her own. They were also happy to still have extra help for the shoe store. Splitting her time between two jobs didn't bring much stress or any identity crisis. On the contrary, she felt like she was a member of two families instead of one. She loved all of them even though some were bound to say or make her do things that were quite disagreeable. But that's family for you.

Wednesday evening of the second week had her back at her parent's house and in her old room. It was good to take a break from that lumpy sofa. She was in the mood to talk to her ghost friend, so she waited until her parents were asleep and set up the alter to summon her.

"Gertrude," she said, "Do you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, my dear," said Gertrude.

"Actually, I'm not very loud at all."

"I know. I just like how it rhymes."

"So? Are you going to ask me how my time with The Ghostbusters is going?"

"Be patient, I was about to ask that."

Gabby sighed happily. "Okay… so on Monday we had this tangle with demon that did not want to come out of this vase but the owner didn't want us to break the vase in the process. Long story short, we got him out by luring him with store-bought cookies. Later that day, we encountered that ghost bull that was haunting that China shop. The first time the boys encountered the bull, I was still their secretary but this time, I saw the bull in person but GET THIS… it is actually the Bull of Heaven that is mentioned in The Epic of Gilgamesh! Ho boy, it took a lot to get him to leave that China shop and hopefully never come back. And then there was the ghost of that confused whaler that kept trying to harpoon eighteen-wheelers on the highway…"

"Slow down, slow down! That's quite a lot to take in!"

"I know, I know. But so much exciting stuff happens at this job and I don't always know where to start. I always want to tell you everything at the same time."

"Well, it warms my heart that you're having a good time and helping people."

"But…"

"But what?"

"I thought that becoming a ghostbuster would make people take me seriously. I know all about ghosts and yet people would rather listen to the other guys."

"Unfortunately, I'm not too surprised. You're the only woman in your ghost-hunting group. In any group of people, people want the man's opinion. It's something that I never thought about much when I was alive. I sort of accepted it as part of the natural order of things. It was only recently that I've noticed it and realized how unfair it truly is."

"I mean, some of those guys have more credentials than I do. Peter has a Ph.D."

"It doesn't mean that he's right when it comes to everything. He makes you sleep on an old, lumpy couch when there's a perfectly good bed that's vacant."

"That is true. They still find me useful, though. They wouldn't have me on the team if that weren't the case. In order for people to take me seriously, I feel like I have to become bigger than I am. And I'm not quite sure how to do that."

"Perhaps you should give it time, dear. You haven't been on the team for all that long. You need to establish yourself. Don't expect a mighty oak just weeks after planting an acorn." There was no denying that Gertrude had gardening on the mind, enough that she felt like using gardening-related metaphors.

"Gertrude, I want to someday plant that garden that you've always wanted, but…"

"But what?"

"But it would mean that your spirit will finally be at peace and you won't be haunting this house anymore. I like having you here. You give good advice and you make me feel like I'm being listened to. I don't hang out with friends all that often. With you gone, who do I have left?"

"There are plenty of people who listen to you, Dear. You're certainly not invisible to your parents. What about that Janine woman from your work? You can always confide in her. You can already relate to what she does on a daily basis. Why not start there?"

"That is true. I'm sure she would like some company." Gabby thought about how much Janine was usually talking to other people over the phone. This was the reason why she didn't talk to her very much. But there were other times when she was just filing her nails or chewing gum. That would be a good time for a girl-to-girl talk.

"I don't mean to change the subject, but I would like to bring up something important."

"What is that?"

"That witch's attack that will take place in exactly three weeks' time."

Oh, damn. Gabby was so caught up in her work that she forgot about the evil witch. Nobody in The Ghostbusters knew about the Halloween attack. She didn't know how long it would be before Egon figured it out himself. He was busy enough with the creation of that new proton pack that he probably put the issue with the nightmare demons on the back burner.

"Did you find out anything else from listening in to The Demon Realm?" asked Gabby

"I have bad news and good news," said Gertrude.

Gabby gulped. "What's the bad news?"

"I've been found out by Yasmine the Witch and they tried to capture and imprison me for what I did. Fortunately, I escaped just in time. However, it means that I can't contact The Demon Realm anymore."

"How long would they have imprisoned you for?"

"For an eternity, I assume. It's something that would make one wish for death before they remember that they're already dead."

"What's the good news?"

"Before I was found out, I gained new information about what the witch and her demons are up to. Not only are they planning on attacking on Halloween, they're planning an attack before Halloween."

Gabby lost her breath and felt a sudden heat within her body. "An attack before the attack?"

"Yes. They're calling it The Ruckus. I don't know quite what it entails but it sounds… messy."

"Did you get any more details about it?"

"Unfortunately, no. I'm not sure when or how they're doing it."

Gabby gritted her teeth. This information was so sparse on details that it was about as useful as no information at all. She wanted to be angry with Gertrude but the poor woman went through so much. It drove her crazy how much information she had to keep secret due to her keeping her witch identity under wraps. Being given information was much like being given a collection of objects. Collecting it was pointless unless it was intended to be used. If not, it would collect dust in her memories. She had to let the boys know that she was a witch soon. She had to stop being small.

"You've done well, Gertrude. I can't thank you enough for all the spying you've done."

"You're very welcome."

"I've decided that maybe it's time that I told them about my magical practice. I feel ready now."

"Let me know how that goes."

"Yeah!" said a tiny air spirit floating around in the east direction of the circle, "Let us know how that goes!"

For the rest of that week, Gabby stewed over how to break the news to The Ghostbusters. Phrasing was everything. One way she could say it was, "I have something to confess…" No. That was a bit too formal. "I don't know how to tell you this, but…" No. That made it sound like somebody's loved one had passed on. "Hey, guys! Guess what? I'm a witch!" No. Definitely not that. Maybe phrasing wasn't everything. A good percentage was timing. She would tell them during a slow part of the day.

The next Monday, she was hanging around the firehouse during a slow part of the morning. But she didn't want to tell anybody about her magical abilities quite yet. Right now would be a fine time to make conversation with Janine, who was quiet and typing at her computer.

"Hey, Janine," said Gabby.

"What's up?" asked Janine.

"I gotta say, if there was one thing that was hard to do when working your job, it was staying polite all the time. Sometimes, the people who would complain just got me so riled up, you know?" Gabby sat in the chair next to the desk and rubbed her finger across the stitching on her jeans. "How do you do it?"

"It takes practice. You play polite to their face and on paper. And then, when they're not looking, you kvetch about it to others."

"Uh… I'm sorry? You what?"

"You know, kvetch. You air your grievances. You talk about them behind their backs with those who get you. What I find especially therapeutic is when I give a response to a letter of complaint the ol' Janine Melnitz Seal of Disapproval." Janine said this as she grabbed the letter that she printed out and paired it with an envelope that already had an address on it.

"What's a Janine Melnitz Seal of Disapproval?"

"It's this." She gave the letter the middle finger before folding it and putting it in the envelope.

"Oh, I see."

"Feel free to use that. It's not trademarked."

"I sure hope not. So many people use it already."

Janine licked the envelope before sticking a stamp and a return address on the back.

"Say, Janine… Considering that the guys here have excellent credentials, do you feel that they get things… you know… wrong sometimes?"

"You don't know the half of it," said Janine, "The number of times I've had to clean up an explosion that occurs in the lab is far too many to count."

"Actually, I have my own example."

"What's that?"

"Peter is a pretty smart guy but he guessed that succubae were male when they're actually female. He lost some money on that one."

"Yeah, that sounds like Peter. On more than one occasion, he's asked what time the 7/11 closed."

Gabby chuckled. "There's another lapse of judgement that he makes whenever I'm here."

"What's that?"

"He lets a perfectly good bed go to waste by making me sleep on the couch next to the Ecto-1."

"What?!" Janine sat straight up like a tiger spotting a threat in her territory.

Gabby didn't expect Janine to react so dramatically to this.

"Did you do anything to piss him off?" asked Janine.

"No, I didn't. He makes me sleep down here because I'm a girl."

"That's it?!" By now, Janine had fire in her eyes.

Gabby felt like shrinking down in intimidation but knew that Janine was only like this because she cared. "Yep."

"Why didn't you tell me before?!"

"I thought it came with the territory. You know… being a ghostbuster involves toughing it up, learning that life isn't fair, all that stuff."

Janine wasted no time stepping away from her desk and marching upstairs in a huff.

"PETER!" she shouted.

"Oh, you're gonna get it now, Peter," said Winston from the second floor.

From there, Gabby heard Janine arguing with Peter about the questionable sleeping arrangement he assigned to Gabby. Peter fought back as hard as he could against Hurricane Janine with such excuses as "There are no other options" and "It's just common sense," but Janine wasn't having any of it. Gabby sat there and waited, wondering if this inconvenienced Janine or if she considered this to be cathartic after all the times that Peter would say the wrong thing to her.

Eventually, they came to a point in the argument where Gabby could finally get her input.

"Gabs!" shouted Janine from upstairs.

Gabby ran to the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Were you planning on seducing any of the guys with your feminine wiles?"

"No."

"Oh, c'mon!" said Peter, "That's not what I said!"

"That's so what you said!" said Janine, "I just phrased it differently!"

This was a case where just smiling and acting polite was not going to fly. Neither was secretly giving the Janine Melnitz Seal of Disapproval. No. Janine had to bring out the big guns and tell Peter off.

God bless that woman. She had a sixth sense that could detect bullshit. Without it, she wouldn't be the spunky woman that she was and she wouldn't have gotten Egon to man up and be a father to his own son. Gabby learned that she could always rely on Janine to fight her battles. But when was Gabby going to fight her own battles? She was certainly taking an active role when it came to figuring out the demon situation. She was certainly capable of fighting ghosts. But in other situations, she felt the need to be docile, to not question authority. She didn't want to do anything that would get her fired and ruin her career prospects.

But she still had to tell them about her magical abilities eventually.