"Remind me why you guys can't do this upstairs like you usually do?"
Things were often pretty hectic around the firehouse, and they were even more so than usual while the guys were working with their slime down in the main office. Whatever they were up to, Janine seemed to be very quickly losing patience with everything going on, especially after some of the pink substance had bubbled over onto the magazine she'd been reading.
"We're waiting for the fumes to clear out." Dr. Spengler explained as he continued fiddling with a small canister. "We haven't had a chance to see if any of the chemicals involved were toxic."
Janine rolled her eyes, and was already reaching for the phone. "And was anybody gonna say anything? At least tell me when these things happen so I can get someone to fix it."
From the spot where he was hovering next to her desk, Louis saw her searching for the booklet of phone numbers and piped in with, "It's alright, I put the emergency management people on speed dial." In the midst of everything happening, he'd tracked down a roll of paper towels and was doing his best to clean things off for her. He sometimes felt like he got a little swallowed up whenever there was a lot going on, and he was honestly a little surprised when Janine noticed that he'd said something and looked over.
"I don't suppose you'd also have any ideas how to keep this stuff from happening in the first place?"
He thought for a second, and then responded, "Well, I tried putting up one of those sheets to keep track of how long it's been since the last workplace disaster."
She didn't stop dialing the phone, but looked a little curious. "How long did we make it?"
"I'm not sure. It caught fire."
She merely shrugged, as if this was all the sort of thing she'd become more than used to, and went back to the phone. It took a fair amount of convincing, but she eventually managed to talk someone into coming over, though not without plenty of glaring at the guys to keep it down with their rather loud experiments.
"I definitely think we're making some breakthroughs with getting a positive reaction." Dr. Spengler continued talking to the guys in spite of the glaring. "If we can figure out how to infuse this stuff with a positive charge, it could make an effective way to combat to effects of the rest of the slime spreading through the city."
"I think I might have a book that would help. I'll head out to the store and grab it." Dr. Stantz suggested.
"Probably not a bad idea."
"Hey!" Janine had just hung up the phone, and sent a sharp glance at the spot where Dr. Stantz was already reaching for the door. "Nuh-uh. It's less than thirty degrees outside. You aren't going out there without any layers on."
"I don't know where I left my coat."
"You left it on the car engine, I put it in the closet." She informed him.
While he was off to get it, Dr. Zeddemore was looking at his watch again, not for the first time. "Look, we've been at this for hours, and I'm ready for a break already. I'm gonna run out and get us lunch. Is everybody good with pizza?"
Dr. Spengler nodded distractedly, but Janine let out an irritated sigh. "You guys have had pizza twice this week, and it's only Wednesday. We've got sandwich wraps in the fridge, take some of those."
"Has anybody seen my drill?" Dr. Spengler interjected. "It seems to have gone missing from the rest of my equipment."
"It's not missing, it's confiscated." Janine told him with a chastising look. "You've lost drill privileges after you tried to take a sample of Louis's brain tissue."
"He signed a waver."
"I don't care."
Dr. Spengler looked down at the box of tools in his hands, noted that almost everything else sharp had been removed as well, and then asked, "What else am I supposed to use?"
Janine fished around in a drawer for a moment, and pulled out something made of bright blue plastic. "Here. Safety scissors." She announced as she passed them over to him. "You can have the power tools back if you manage to avoid nearly killing anyone with these."
Dr. Spengler held them in his hand and considered for a moment, and then shrugged and went back to trying to work.
By that point, Dr. Stantz had come back again. In addition to his coat, he also had a large bundle in his arms, which he promptly dropped on Janine's desk. "Hey, I noticed most of our uniforms are getting covered in slime again."
She seemed to be hit with a fresh wave of irritation at the green slime all over her already-messy desk. "I told you people, that's what happens when you leave food in the pockets. You know how your little ghost friend gets into everything."
"Any chance you could get them washed off? We're running out of spares."
She gave him a look of deadpan annoyance, but still began folding everything up into a neater pile. "Right, because I have nothing better to do with my time than handle your laundry."
"Great, thanks!"
"Hey, Janine…" Dr. Venkman had been working back in his office all the while, but wandered out again with a collection of restaurant listings in his hands. "I'm having trouble finding anything with spots open on Christmas that doesn't come with a ball pit. Did you call anyone about New Year's Eve like I asked?"
"Armand's, eight o'clock, and they will give your table away if you show up late. And you'd better not be late, because I practically had to promise them your firstborn child."
He didn't look up, and scribbled down a quick note. "That reminds me, one more thing. Have you got any experience looking after children?"
Janine gave him a long, stone-faced look over the mountain of clothes on her desk. "I think I could manage to figure it out."
A loud bang suddenly rang out through the firehouse, and after flinching, everyone sent a wary glance towards the direction it had come from above them.
"It just occurred to me, I may have forgotten that I left one of our slime containers on low heat in the microwave."
"Alright, that's it." Janine snapped as she rose to her feet. "Out. Everybody out."
"But upstairs is still-"
"You can go work in the basement. Or better yet, take the afternoon off so I can get everything fixed without anything worse happening. I've got a lot of work to do, and everybody's driving me crazy."
Louis ducked his head and took a step back as his mouth pressed into a worried frown. Janine was quick to notice, and her expression softened into a playful smirk as she reached out to tap him under the chin.
"Not you."
Apparently, there were some times when it was sorta nice not to be part of "everybody."
Before long, Dr. Stantz had headed out to the store like he'd planned, Dr. Venkman took her suggestion of heading out, and Dr. Spengler and Dr. Zeddemore had gathered everything up to continue working downstairs. Janine let out a slow breath as she sunk back into her chair, and it seemed to take a lot of willpower to get back to folding the mess of jumpsuits into a manageable pile. Without a word, Louis fell back into place next to her desk and reached over to help her.
He only got as far as the first one before he paused. He couldn't help stopping to think as he unfurled the jumpsuit and felt the solid weight of it, idly running a thumb over the khaki fabric. This was really what the guys wore when they were out there, catching ghosts and being the sort of heroes he still could only dream of being. He could hardly believe he was holding it in his hands.
"Wow…"
Janine looked up at his breathless whisper, and any remaining irritation quickly faded as she looked at him with a fond smile. "Louis, would you like to try one on?"
He broke out in an excited grin, but it quickly disappeared again when he looked back down at the fabric trailing on the floor. "Oh, I-I don't think I could."
She gave a small wave of her hand. "Sure you could. I wouldn't have to tell anyone."
"No, I… I mean…" Too embarrassed to say what he was thinking, he hoped she would understand when he held the garment up to its full height, where it nearly rose all the way above his head.
"Oh, I see."
His face turning red, he quickly placed it back down. While he stared at the floor, Janine quietly slipped it off the pile and tucked it away under her desk, making a mental note to stop by a dryer at the Laundromat later and see how much she could manage to shrink one of those things.
Looking for something else to say, Louis made one last attempt to wipe off the cover of her magazine and passed it back over.
"Sorry, it might still be a little sticky."
"It's alright." She assured him.
"Were you reading anything good?"
She paused to flip through a few of the crinkled pages, being careful not to tear any that were stuck together. "I like reading some of the studies they've got in here. Some people think I'm too intellectual, but I think this stuff is just fascinating."
She turned it a little in his direction, and he moved closer to get a better look.
"See here, there's this whole examination of color psychology. Apparently, you can really learn a lot about a person by their favorite color." She pulled the magazine back towards her, and looked up at him inquisitively. "Do you happen to have a favorite?"
Louis smiled eagerly and nodded. "I like orange."
"Orange." Janine repeated with a small nod of her own. "Interesting. Not one I hear a lot."
Maybe it was silly, but he couldn't help feeling a little nervous, as if maybe he'd answered the question badly somehow. "W-what does that say about me?"
She quickly thumbed through a few pages, eyes darting back and fourth over whatever facts she found important. "It combines the drive and determination of red with the cheerfulness of yellow. Says here that it means you're friendly and optimistic, you're the sort of person who enjoys throwing parties, you tend to see the best in others, and you have a strong zest for life. Also says that you don't like feeling alone and crave being accepted as part of a group." She dog-eared the page, set the magazine down, and looked back over at him. "Don't know what you think, but I'd say that just about sums you up."
It didn't seem as if she thought any of it was a bad thing, and he relaxed again. "That's really neat. What about you?"
"Oh, I'm definitely a red sort of person." She leaned in a little closer, close enough that her shoulder brushed against him. "You know, red and orange are next to each other on the color wheel. Means they go well together."
He found himself swallowing back a lump in his throat, but still felt a tugging at the corner of his mouth. As much as he wanted to impress the guys, he also really liked these moments when it happened to be just the two of them. As long as they were thinking about colors, he couldn't help but notice her eyes. He always thought that they reminded him of chocolate. Dark chocolate, most of the time. She could definitely convey a hard, bitter sort of look better than anyone else he'd met. But there were other times she was looking at him, and that look turned into something awful sweet.
He wasn't sure if he'd ever met anyone who looked at him the way she did. Most people rarely bothered to look at him at all. But even if he didn't quite understand it, he knew that it made him even happier than filling out tax forms. And that wasn't something he said about many things.