There were a lot of things Louis liked about his line of work. Numbers were easy to understand. Dealing with them had a clear set of rules to follow, and they always behaved exactly the same way. There was something very soothing about dealing with a bunch of neat little rows and columns, where all he had to worry about was making sure everything was in the right place and it all added up correctly.

But there were also times when being soothing turned into being mind-numbingly boring.

He couldn't stand this quiet all night. He liked it when there was noise and commotion going on. Every little tap of his foot that echoed through the large room with nothing to drown it out made him feel like the emptiness of the room was about to swallow him whole. But trying to go home for the night hadn't exactly worked out very well, so he was still staying there. He needed someone to talk to, but in terms of someone he could get advice from, there wasn't another living soul around. But even so, that didn't mean he was exactly alone.

Since his lunch rarely made it until noon, he'd long since taken to hiding snacks throughout the firehouse in the hope that at least some of them would escape notice. As luck would have it, one stashed-away box was still untouched. Of course, there was the issue of it being practically a box full of rocks by that point. He was sure his cousins meant well, but the two of them never seemed to realize that doughnuts didn't last long enough to be shipped all the way from Canada to New York in nothing but an ordinary box. Not to mention that anything they sent him always reeked of beer and cigarettes. But he'd once seen the ghost eat a can of berry-scented air freshener, so he figured it wasn't very picky.

At the very least, the giant green thing did seem to appreciate the rare occasion of someone sharing food willingly. As long as Louis kept a steady stream of snacks flowing, it was content to hover quietly nearby and not interrupt its talkative new source of food.

"It was always easier with Dana, I guess."

The ghost began to make a few restless noises, and Louis distractedly pulled another doughnut from the box and tossed it over.

"I'd always look at her and get this funny feeling, sort of like a tugging in my gut. Like a sense that something was going to happen. But I guess that was always about the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster, not the two of us."

If it had occurred to him that the only reason he had an audience was because he was bribing the ghost into listening, it didn't seem to matter much to him.

"And now… I really have no clue if I have any hope that anything's gonna happen. I just know that I really want it to. And I mean, I've already looked into all of the company guidelines. Well, the closest sort of stuff I could find, at least. A lot of stuff isn't very organized around here, by the way. Half of it's just scribbled on the back of take out wrappers. But anyway, I couldn't find anything saying that two employees aren't allowed to date each other."

The ghost grew a little louder again, and Louis once again obliged the request for more food.

"Maybe it's just common sense, 'cause everyone knows how complicated that sort of thing can get. But I just… I don't care." He paused to shake his head and let out a small laugh, as if he could hardly believe what he was saying. "I really don't care. It's Janine, ya know? It's like I look at her, and whatever makes the most sense doesn't matter anymore. Like maybe things can actually be more than I expect them to be. I just wish I knew what to do. I don't suppose you have any ideas?"

He looked up at the ghost, but it was too busy happily gnawing away in a manner not dissimilar to a dog chewing on a bone.

"Well, thanks for listening anyway."

He glanced down at the box again, and found something else tucked into the bottom under the thinned-out pile of doughnuts. He spent a few moments wondering why he'd been sent an empty beer bottle, at least until he located a note written in two different sets of handwriting, with enough things scribbled out that it looked like the writers had been bickering with each other the whole time. He made out something about how he should try putting his new pet inside to see if it would get him free stuff.

He was still trying to make sense of the jumbled scribblings when his thoughts were interrupted by a voice stating, "You know, we're gonna have to start charging you rent if you keep spending the night here all the time."

His first reaction at hearing actual words was to send a shocked glance at his newfound ghost companion, but it was still busy making sure it gobbled up every last crumb. He stood up and whirled around, and found that he must have been so absorbed in getting things off his chest that he hadn't noticed someone come in.

"Dr. Venkman? What're you doing here?"

His boss shrugged as he pulled his coat off and tossed it in a heap on a nearby chair. "Came to crash here for a few hours before work. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have them there, but babies do not sleep."

Louis rocked nervously on his feet, sending a quick glance at everything sitting on his desk. He'd planned on having a little more time to tuck things away somewhere out of notice before anyone showed up. Dr. Venkman followed his gaze, and his expression grew first confused, and then a little more serious at the sight of the small bag and the hamster cage.

"Louis, is everything alright? I thought you had a place to go after work."

"No, it's not like that. I still have an apartment." He looked away with an embarrassed smile, and stuck his hands into his pockets just to make one more confirmation that he hadn't missed anything in there. "The, uh… the landlord just says I can't be trusted with any more keys until the locksmith gets back from his Christmas vacation."

By that point, the ghost had once more found itself empty-handed, and began making its gibberish noises again. Louis decided to pass over everything left in the box, and it eagerly snatched it up and went whizzing off into the distance. A few papers fluttered in its wake, and Dr. Venkman picked up the one that landed at his feet.

"'Operation: take out'?"

He definitely needed to stop labeling his plans. He was just grateful he hadn't come up with any good ideas and had wound up crossing everything but the title out. But it seemed that had only piqued his boss's curiosity.

"So, would that be 'take out' as in you're ordering Chinese, or are you planning to murder someone?"

Louis awkwardly gave a half-hearted shrug. Truth be told, it was sort of an umbrella plan for everything he had hoped to get done in a short amount of time. He didn't want to just help himself to raiding the fridge while he was hanging out, but that part would have to wait until more places were open. There had also been his hopes of finally capturing the ghost, but he was well past the point of giving up on that. And then there was one other thing that made him even more worried to think about, but he was finding more and more that it was the only thing on his mind. But even if he didn't say it, Dr. Venkman hadn't quite finished with him.

"Or maybe we're talking about you trying to take out a certain secretary?"

Louis didn't answer, but his eyes trailed forlornly to the empty desk across the room, which was more than enough to answer the question.

Dr. Venkman was finding it a little odd that the usually talkative accountant had fallen so silent, but chalked it up to it being late and went back to heading towards the staircase.

"Well, hope it all turns out well."

"It's not gonna."

Dr. Venkman looked back over his shoulder, and saw Louis sink into a chair and pull his knees to his chest, a creaking noise starting to fill the room as he rocked back and fourth.

"I can't… I can't catch a ghost, I can't talk to people right, I-I can't… I can't…"

Dr. Venkman gave a brief sigh, and gave up on the idea of getting to sleep quickly. "Are you sure everything's alright? 'Cause you kinda look like you're falling apart."

Louis let out a miserable groan and buried his face in his hands. "I know, please just let me."

"Do you want a drink or something?"

He slowly managed a deep breath, and then nodded. "Y-yeah, okay… that's a good idea."

He shakily pulled himself to his feet and made his way over to the fridge, rifling through his small corner for a moment before he found what he was looking for. He returned with a clear plastic bottle, and Dr. Venkman took a quick glance and then had to fight the urge to roll his eyes.

"I didn't mean mineral water."

Louis didn't seem to be listening, and Dr. Venkman shrugged as if to say, 'Oh, never mind,' and went to grab himself a beer.

For a while, the two of them lingered in silence. It was Louis who broke it first, which his boss took as a good sign.

"Dr. Venkman… do you remember when we were all in that courtroom? A-and I didn't know what I was doing, and I'm pretty sure the only time the anyone was on our side was when you were on the stand. And I lived down the hall from Dana for a long time, but she never… and with you it didn't take very long, and… I guess I just wondered, what am I doing wrong?"

Dr. Venkman let out an almost bitter-sounding chuckle. "Trust me, I'm not the one you wanna go to for life advice. I'm still trying to undo the last time I screwed everything up."

Louis cocked his head curiously. "I thought you guys were seeing each other again. That's good, right?"

"I wouldn't exactly say… well, we're still seeing where everything goes, I guess." He let out a slow breath, one that sounded more exhausted than Louis would have expected. "The crying all night wasn't even that bad. I guess it just kept getting me thinking about how I could've been used to it all by now."

Louis leaned forward against his desk, defeatedly resting his head against his fist. "Love is hard."

"I'll drink to that." Dr. Venkman cracked a small smile and reached out to clink his bottle against Louis's, though the actual sound produced was more of a dull thunk. After a long swig, he continued with, "Look Louis, it's too late and I'm too tired to start spouting all that 'believe in yourself' stuff you see on motivational posters. So let me just tell you that once you've got a good thing going, you don't want to let doubts get the best of you so much that you ruin it."

Louis wasn't quite sure what to say in response, but it seemed his boss was finished talking anyway.

"Alright, I'm gonna go hit the sack already. Try not to make a racket down here, okay?"

"Okay."

The next day, it didn't seem as if Janine was upset anymore. But even if she'd put the previous night behind her, Louis knew that he definitely hadn't. She didn't seem to mind the idea of celebrating in March, but he'd drive himself insane if he had to wait that long. It was New Years Eve, there was a girl he was crazy about, and he was going to ask her out. People did that sort of thing all the time, and so could he.

Probably.

The problem was, the right time never seemed to come. Quiet moments didn't happen often. There were a few of them, but even those didn't seem to be the right moment. Namely because the instant those moments came, the whole idea suddenly became massively terrifying. There was a very big difference between resolving to do something and actually doing it, as he was finding out very well. By the end of the day, he'd decided that March first wasn't such a bad idea after all. Then he'd be able to form a real plan and map out everything he wanted to say, and it would probably make the whole thing easier.

But then they were heading out for the day, and…

"Should I take the subway, or surface roads, or what? It's kinda busy out…"

"Well, I'm walking. Goodnight."

And there she was, walking away from him again, just like the night before. Leaving him feeling like he was missing his chance all over again. She sounded more cheerful this time, and he really had no reason to worry. But worrying was what he did, and making impulsive decisions in a panic was too.

He chased after her, frantically stumbling over his words until she stopped in the crosswalk for him to catch up.

"Do you maybe wanna… no, no…"

The worrying thing had downsides too. What was he doing? And more importantly, how did he make it stop? She was looking at him and waiting for him to finish what he was trying to say, and his mind had just gone very, very blank.

Truth be told, his reliance on having a plan was probably what made him go through with it. Because right now, he was pretty sure the only thing that kept him from trying to come up with some clever excuse and darting away again was that he was helplessly clinging to the closest thing to a plan he had.

"Do you wanna have something to eat with me?"

The look she gave him wasn't pity, which was a huge relief, but the fact that she didn't exactly light up made his heart sink.

"Well yeah, I'd love that, but I promised Dr. Venkman I'd babysit for him."

He'd almost forgotten about that whole thing. It was all his fault. He'd gotten nervous and waited too long, and now he'd missed his chance.

But then she asked, "Do you wanna babysit with me?"

He looked up from the street and found that she seemed a little nervous as well, as if she was feeling apologetic about offering a not very traditional sort of date. But honestly, he was much too concerned with the 'date' part to care about any of the other details.

"Okay, I would."

That time, she actually did light up.

"Great, his place at eight. Bye!"

He did it. He did it? He really did it? And she'd said yes?

Some part of him wasn't quite convinced that everything had actually just happened. He almost expected to run into a wall of glass any second. But he was sure he just needed a moment for it to sink in. After making sure the suddenly honking and shouting cars they'd backed up didn't run him over.