Shortly after the trial was over, Louis found himself experiencing a feeling of déjà vu. Once again, the Ghostbusters were the talk of the town. And once again, he wasn't quite sure if anyone knew he had been there. But he really couldn't complain. He'd gotten to meet his heroes, and he'd even gotten a chance to watch them catch some actual ghosts. That seemed more than anyone could ask for. Which was a good thing, because they hadn't exactly given him the meager payment he'd asked for at the start of the job.
Standing outside the worn-down doors of their building, Louis wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing by showing up in person to ask about it. As glad as he was to have won the case, he did feel kinda bad that he hadn't been able to make things easier along the way. It might not be entirely unreasonable to forget the money. And besides, they were probably busy. Handling ghosts had to be a time-consuming job, and they were only just getting off the ground again. He was sure that they probably had more important things to handle and just kept forgetting him. Would they be annoyed with him for stopping by to remind them?
He might have decided to forget the whole thing, but it was just…
Well, if he was being honest, he really, really wanted an excuse to see the building they worked in. After seeing them in action in that courtroom, he was more convinced than ever that this whole ghost-busting business was the most incredible thing he'd ever seen. It was only reasonable to want just a little peek into their headquarters, wasn't it?
He still couldn't help feeling like a bundle of nerves as he stepped into the large, seemingly almost-empty building. If any of the Ghostbusters were around, they had to be off in one of the other rooms, because the only one he found there was the woman at the front desk. He could recognize her voice from when she called him about the case, but he wondered if she would remember him. She was busy talking on the phone, but glanced up just long enough to acknowledge his presence and motion for him to wait. He hoped he wasn't supposed to have an appointment or something. He hadn't seen anything indicating that you couldn't just walk in, but he really didn't want to risk doing anything wrong.
Still, since standing around worrying wouldn't do anything, he took the time to look around at his surroundings. It was pretty disorganized, and he couldn't really tell what anything was supposed to be, but that was probably just because he wasn't familiar with how the business worked. All of the gadgets lying around had to be designed for some pretty amazing stuff. Plus, there was an actual fire pole, which officially made this the coolest place he had ever set foot in.
He was so absorbed in looking at everything around him that he didn't notice when the woman at the desk hung up the phone. She cleared her throat, but it did nothing to interrupt the awe-struck way his eyes were wandering around the room. She was used to agitated people who seemed like they wanted to get in and out as soon as possible. And she was used to the shaken-up people who also didn't want to be there. What she wasn't used to was seeing anyone coming in and looking happy while standing around this place. She looked him up and down for a moment, eyes briefly pausing on the bright orange vest, and then on the even brighter smile.
"Alright Sunshine, whadda ya want?"
That finally snapped him back to attention, and he nervously scurried over to her desk. "Sorry, I just…" As if he couldn't help himself, the grin immediately broke out again. "I can't believe I'm really here."
She didn't seem quite sure what to make of him, but apparently decided that this abnormality in her day warranted a few minutes of her attention. After pushing a paper or two aside, she leaned forward over the desk, still taking him in with an almost critical eye. "You know, it's not your first time in this place." She remarked. "Though I guess you weren't exactly yourself back then."
He could almost immediately guess what she was talking about. He didn't have very clear memories of the time when he was running around looking for the Gatekeeper, but Dr. Spengler had mentioned trying to run a few tests on him. It would make sense if it had happened around here. Still, even if he wasn't himself, it wasn't exactly the best way of making a good first impression. He found himself awkwardly fidgeting with his hands, first pushing his glasses further up, and then tugging at the hem of his vest.
"I hope I didn't do anything too, uh…"
She shrugged before waiting for him to finish. "Rambled about some other dimension, sniffed some things, guzzled hot water out of the coffee pot. Believe me, I've seen weirder around here."
The nervous energy was quickly replaced with a sense of excitement again. "Yeah, I'll bet. There must be all kinds of things going on around here." After another glance around the room, he turned back to the redheaded woman with a look of admiration she could never quite remember seeing before. "You're so lucky. I'd give anything to work in a place like this."
She seemed to be looking for some sort of sign that he was being sarcastic, or maybe making fun of her. As far as she could tell, he seemed pretty genuine, though she still remained a little skeptical. "You really mean that?"
"Of course! This has to be the best job in the world!"
Oh, how she could tell him stories. She'd been through plenty of things that could probably turn that opinion around real fast. And yet, there was something sort of endearing about his enthusiasm, and she found that she didn't want to do anything to curb it.
"So, you here for a reason, or just coming to look around?"
"Oh, right." He dug in his pocket to pull out a carefully folded piece of paper, and somewhat timidly held his contract out towards her. "I don't mean to bother you, but there was the whole court case and everything, and I, uh… I still haven't been paid…"
She gave out a heavy breath, but he was pretty sure it sounded tired rather than annoyed at him. At least, he hoped so.
"I'm sorry, I wrote out the check. It's…" She gestured vaguely around the cluttered room and the papers scattered everywhere. "Somewhere." She let out an even more exhausted sigh. "I know, I know, it's a mess in here. Maybe if they didn't expect me to keep track of this whole crazy operation by myself…"
"Oh, that's alright." He responded with an easy smile as he folded up the paper again. "Would you like some help? I'm pretty good at filing things."
That definitely wasn't what she was used to. Not only was there a complete lack of a snippy reaction, but he was actually offering to help instead of bugging her about doing her job faster. Was this guy actually for real? He seemed like the sort of person you'd expect New York to chew up and spit out again.
"What, you don't have somewhere better to spend your Saturday?"
He replied with a very chipper, "Nope, nowhere."
After just a moment of hesitation, she decided that she didn't get paid enough to care whether or not he actually knew what he was doing, shrugged, and motioned for him to go ahead.
Louis was soon in the process of wandering around the room, doing his best to figure out what paper was meant for what and trying to get them into some sort of order. He managed to stumble over all the clutter in the room many times, and sent papers fluttering across the floor on more than one occasion. But overall, things were starting to get into a more organized state.
As long as she was taking a break, she decided to pick up the reading she was halfway through, but she continued to keep half an eye on him. Not because she was worried, but because she was starting to find him intriguing. He was an awkward sort of guy, but in a way she thought was oddly charming. Kind of like an eager to please puppy that kept tripping over its own feet.
Louis instinctively looked up when the phone rang, but she didn't make any move to take it. He seemed about to ask if she noticed it, but she waved a hand dismissively.
"It can just go to voicemail. I'll get back to them when my break's over."
Though she couldn't tell why, Louis looked as if he'd just noticed that something might be wrong. She continued to watch as he searched through an already-sorted pile of papers, pulled out a bill, and then glanced back at the phone sitting on her desk.
"So that thing has voicemail?"
"Yeah, why?"
"I don't know if you realized it, but the phone company's charging you for an answering service. You really ought to get them to take that off the bill if you aren't using it. Makes good financial sense, you know."
She started to look rather irritated, and it took him a moment to realize it wasn't aimed at him. "Well, I know someone I'm going to have to talk to about burying things in those giant walls of text no one reads." Well, almost no one, she supposed. Louis thought she almost looked a little impressed. Not quite sure how to react, he quickly resorted to his default topic of conversation.
"Who does your taxes?" Instead of getting an answer, he saw her raise an eyebrow at him, as if to question why he was asking. "You guys are really missing a ton of ways to save money. I don't think your accountant really knows what they're doing."
She leaned forward to rest her chin against her hand. "I'd agree with you, but we don't have an accountant. It's just one of the things I get stuck doing."
His face quickly turned a shade of red that rivaled her hair. "Oh gee, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"
"No, it's alright. I just don't see much reason to break my back over something that isn't in my job description."
He still paused to give her a sheepishly apologetic smile before getting back to his self-appointed task at hand. Every once in awhile, he'd point out some other way he'd spotted for them to cut down on expenses, and she took to jotting down notes as he went along once she realized he was noticing far more than she would ever remember. He also apologized and asked if he was bothering her a few times, but she'd merely assure him that as long as it was saving them money, he could bother her all he wanted.
To her surprise, she was finding that having him around made for a rather pleasant afternoon, even if she was stuck at work on a Saturday. He really had a pretty cute smile. And he seemed smart too, she definitely had to give him that. Not to mention being a lot more eager to help than the people she was usually dealing with. And with all the times he had to bend over to pick up something he'd dropped, she was starting to decide that it was the sort of view she could get used to around here. Forget scribbling down notes while he was here, she had a better idea.
"Hey, Dr. Venkman." She called out towards one of the back offices. He didn't seem to hear her, or more likely, was pretending not to. After a resigned roll of her eyes, she went for a sort of tactic that often seemed to miraculously improve his hearing. "Dr. Venkman, did you leave twenty bucks out here?"
It was hardly a few moments later that he wandered into the room, half-convincingly pretending to poke through his wallet. "What do you know, looks like I am missing some…" He trailed off as he looked up and quickly recognized the expression on the secretary's face. "You didn't find any money, did you?"
She didn't bother answering the question. "Dr. Venkman, you know how you've been promising to hire more help since the last time I worked here?"
He was already turning on his heel, groaning to himself about, "Not this again."
Before he could get far, she snapped her fingers a few times to get his attention, and pointed sternly at a spot in front of her desk. "Stay."
"Look, I keep telling you, I'll get around to it. Things are crazy busy right now, and I'd have to find people actually willing to take this job, set up interviews, go through some sort of vetting process… And besides, you know how many places people can go to find work this time of year. We can't just expect to find-"
"Good news. I already solved that problem for you." She interrupted. "Hire him."
Dr. Venkman didn't seem to have noticed Louis was there until she jerked her head in his direction. Louis promptly dropped every paper in his hands, though he hardly seemed to realize it.
"Me?"
She glanced over at him and shrugged. "You said you'd want to work here, didn't you?"
"Y-yeah, more than anything." He looked incredibly nervous, as if he half-expected her to yank the offer away again and laugh at him for thinking she was serious. But somehow he still hadn't lost the smile tugging at his mouth, like he couldn't help feeling hopeful. "You really think I could… I mean, you really want me?"
Apparently, Dr. Venkman was wondering something similar. "This guy? This is the guy you want me to hire?"
"Sure, why not? We could use someone who knows how to handle legal and financial issues. Besides, hasn't he already shown you that he knows what he's doing?"
Dr. Venkman continued staring back at her with an unconvinced expression. "Maybe the stories we told you didn't do it justice, because I don't think you realize what a disaster that trial was."
She only insisted, "He won your case, didn't he?"
Dr. Venkman folded his arms as he thoughtfully examined the fidgeting Louis, not looking particularly impressed with what he saw. "Okay then, give me one reason to think this is a good idea."
"I'll give you three." She stated flatly. "He's here, he wants the job, and I'll quit if you put this off any longer."
He paused to consider, and looked so reluctant that Louis was almost certain he was going to say no.
'Please' He silently begged. Things were happening so fast, but he'd never wanted anything more in his entire life. 'I'll never ask for anything ever again if I can just have this chance. Please.'
Finally, Dr. Venkman rolled his eyes, let out a huffy breath, and pointed at Louis as he sent a stern look in Janine's direction. Not that it seemed to do anything to intimidate her. "Make sure he doesn't take any of my drinks out of the fridge."
And with that, he went trudging out of the room again, and Louis had found himself with a new job. He felt so stunned that he couldn't manage to do anything but stand there, no matter how much he wanted to jump, or cheer, or do something. He was a Ghostbuster! Well, he was technically their accountant. But still, he was the Ghostbusters' accountant! Maybe he should ask that nice woman at the desk to pinch him, just in case he was dreaming.
Speaking of her…
Janine was a little caught off guard as he raced over, nearly skidding straight into her desk in his excitement.
"Thank you, so, so much! I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am for this. I promise, I don't want to let you guys down. If there's anything you need me to know, or anything you think I should-"
"Okay Sunshine, you can dial it back a notch." She cut him off. Now that he was hopefully around here for the long-term, she might have to be a little more straightforward. "Trust me, the behind-the-scenes stuff around here isn't all that glamorous."
He nodded, trying hard to show her that he was willing to listen to anything she had to say, but it still didn't manage to do anything to tone down his excitement. After a second, something else occurred to him.
"I'm awful sorry, but I just realized, I never exactly introduced myself." He extended a hand, and his smile suddenly became a little more forced, as if this was something he'd become used to thinking hard about. "I'm Louis. Tully. Louis Tully. But I guess you probably knew that already. I just, uh… I mean, maybe it's just polite to say anyway, in case you forgot or something. Not that I think you're forgetful or anything, it's just-"
She met his eyes with an easy smirk that managed to get him to relax again, and confidently reached out to take his hand. "Janine Melnitz."
She didn't release his hand right away, but he either didn't notice, or didn't seem to mind. Being a secretary, one got pretty used to people impatiently trying to get to someone more important to talk to. It was a little odd having someone look at her the way he was, like he would be happy to talk to her as long as she'd let him. And so help her, but that really was a cute smile. Yes, she was sure that she could definitely get used to this.
"It really is nice to meet you." He finally interrupted the long but not quite uncomfortable silence. "Y-you know, as me. All of the dog gone and everything."
"Well…" She briefly looked him up and down again, looking far less critical than the last time. "Let's hope not all of it."
"Um… what?"
She didn't answer, and merely winked at him. He blinked a few times, and then gave a slight, confused tilt of his head.
It would seem that he, on the other hand, was going to take a good deal longer to get used to this sort of thing.