Darkness at Noon
Chapter 3: You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie
The next day Janine came to class feeling more than a little fed up with the doctor. Genius or not, he could still show such difficulty in defending himself. She found that particular quirk of his annoying to deal with; he had a strong tendency to stop to analyse the facts behind an argument and often was left behind by the time said argument was done and over with.
What bothered her more was his tone of voice when dismissing her last night. At the time she had felt too hurt by it to do much more than simply leave, but now that she had time to think on it the hurried way he had behaved was more worrisome.
Egon almost never lost his temper about anything unless something was drastically wrong. It just wasn't his way.
The fact that he wasn't already present and waiting for his class by the time she arrived five minutes late confirmed her suspicion that something had gone wrong last night and she simply had not seen it.
"Oh dear," she said with an exhale. "Egon hasn't shown up yet, has he?"
"No, haven't seen him," Roland supplied, blinking at her.
"Maybe he's dead..." muttered Eduardo under his breath.
Janine artfully ignored him. "It's just that we went out ghostbusting last night and I think something might have happened while we were out..."
"That old geezer? He could bust a gut!" Garrett laughed.
"That old geezer has saved this city I don't know how many times!" Janine lost her cool in an instant, squaring her shoulders and marching up to him.
"Whoa, bite my head off..." Garrett frowned up at her.
"Oh forget it, I'm going to go see if he's alright," she waved a hand at them. Who needed them anyway.
"Hey, wait up, I'll give you a ride!" Roland caught up to her just outside the doorway.
"If he's in trouble...maybe we can help?" Garrett suggested, trailing on his heels. Eduardo must have figured he had nothing to lose because he was shuffling along behind them with his hands stuffed into his jean pockets.
Janine briefly considered turning them away, but then thought better of it. If Egon was possibly possessed she could send one of them to call the guys while she dealt with it as best she could. Yes, having more hands would help at least, even if they had no idea what they were doing.
"Alright, but I want you to hang onto this." She fished her address book out of her purse and pressed it into Garrett's hands. "If I tell you to get out of there you listen to me without question, got it? And you go call one of the guys to come in and help. Venkman, Stantz, or Zeddemore; they're all in there."
"Got it, now let's get this show on the road!" Garrett saluted her, whipping past them towards the parking lot where he knew Roland was parked.
Almost an hour later they arrived at the Firehouse. Janine had bitten her tongue more than once trying to resist asking Roland to speed it up. I knew I shouldn't have taken thesubway today...
Once they were parked she hurried ahead of the other three, pausing before the door to mentally prepare herself for what might potentially be inside. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Slimer came to meet her, obviously upset.
His hands twisted together, spattering ecto on the floor below him with every wringing motion. He made a distressed sound she couldn't determine the exact meaning of and looked over his shoulder nervously.
"Slimer, what is it?" she asked softly, looking around the dim garage in apprehension. "Where's Egon?"
Slimer made a soft wailing noise and looked over his shoulder, towards the office.
She glanced over her shoulder at the kids, who had by now joined her. "Alright, listen, I'm going in first and we're going to check the place out. Eduardo, Roland, I need you to stay right on me and do what I tell you to do. Garrett..."
"Yeah, I know, go call if somethings up," Garrett sounded bored by the very idea.
Janine chose not to respond and entered cautiously, creeping around Ecto-1 and pushing open the door of one of the lockers, hefting out one of the packs and slinging it over her shoulders. Her shoulders still ached from last night's excursion. Despite all her racquetball and gym visits she still wasn't used to running around with roughly forty pounds of nuclear accelerator strapped to her back.
She pulled out a meter from the shelf above, but grimaced when she saw that the back had been ripped out of it and just put it back where she found it. Slimer hovered overhead, seemingly confused by her actions. He touched her shoulder lightly, just enough to leave a small trace of ecto and get her attention, pointing over his shoulder and babbling again.
"Egon?" Janine called, gripping the proton gun. She didn't turn it on, but had her thumb poised to do so if need be.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, that one had an overheating problem...Can you shut the door please?" His voice drifted towards them.
He sounded tired, but not possessed. She relaxed a little and headed for the low railing, stopping just short of it. No sense in being too comfortable just yet, she'd been fooled before.
"Oh Egon, when you didn't come to class I was worried something might have happened to you, thank goodness you're alright," the words tumbled from her mouth like water while her eyes searched the back of his head for anything unusual.
"I'm not," he said in that same tired monotone, turning in his chair and squinting against even the soft light from the doorway.
Janine swallowed a gasp and put a hand up to her lips reflexively.
His face was liberally covered in a scaly green texture peppered with pus-filled boils which seemed to pulse with his heartbeat. He looked terrible. "I've analysed the boils, they seem to be a result of a cross dimensional dermal transmogrification..."
"Say what?" Eduardo seemed entirely grossed out by the sight of him. He backed away several steps.
"I think he means ghost zits," Garrett supplied.
"That's...one way of putting it. There's a disease provoking entity out there, you should all stay indoors at all costs." Egon slumped against the rail in a worrisome way. Janine scowled, holstering the proton gun and hefting the pack onto her desk to free her arms.
"Janine, hand me the spectral proto-capacitator..."
She stared at him for a moment, completely at a loss with that one. Apparently teaching undergrads for the past several years had not informed him of the need to explain things in laymen's terms.
"The ghost beacon," he clarified, staring up at her miserably. "I mean to use it to lure the ghost here, and I'd rather you all left beforehand."
"It's not on my desk anymore," Janine sighed, looking over said desk once again. She glanced at the workbench it had been on before.
"That girl Kylie...The way she was looking at it..." Roland said thoughtfully, helping Janine look.
"She wasn't in class today, either," Eduardo piped up, having shut the door and lingered there.
"You would notice." Garrett smirked.
"Hey, shut up! There's only four of us, of course I notice!" Eduardo snapped, crossing his arms sullenly.
"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," Garrett needled with a grin.
Eduardo's retort was cut off by Roland. "I can't find it anywhere over here."
"Not here either." Janine swept the dust off her knees from looking beneath her desk.
"She was the last to leave..." Garrett trailed off. "Roland offered to give her a ride, but she said she could just catch the subway."
Egon banged a fist on the railing, startling all of them. "She has no idea what she's doing! Activating the beacon is just inviting trouble! I have to get back out there and undo the damage that's already been-" The air left his lungs in a whoosh and he collapsed, shivering, into his chair.
Janine shook her head, shoving the gate open and stalking over to him. He squinted up at her in the dim light and seemed a little relieved when she stepped between him and nearest window. Hm. She turned on the desk lamp. He flinched, turning his face away from it as though it had burned him.
"Gah!" he hissed, pressing a hand over his eyes.
She flicked it off with a snort, having confirmed what she had suspected. He looked much worse up close; covered in sweat with dark circles forming under his eyes. The lights being off wasn't a lack of energy to turn them on so much as a sensitivity. And he thought he was in any shape to be running around with a live nuke? As if.
"Oh no, you're no good to anyone like that. You'll kill yourself or someone else trying, and then where would we be?" She pressed the back of her palm to his forehead, ignoring his mumbled protest against it potentially being communicable. Eduardo made a sound of disgust behind her. If she got it she got it; it would hardly be the worst she'd have had to deal with.
"Just look at that, you're burning up, Egon. Just how long have you been sitting here?" He was still wearing the same clothes from last night, dirt from the asphalt and all. She put her hands on her hips disapprovingly.
He turned his head to the three boys. Apparently he gave them a pleading look because Roland shook his head subtly and Garrett just shrugged.
"Why don't you let us handle it?" Roland offered.
"Yeah, teach us to be ghostbusters!" Garrett looked thrilled by the idea at least.
Eduardo gripped the door handle, tense. "What are you guys, loco? You wanna end up like him?" He pulled the door open. "I'm gonna take in a double feature."
"Fine, go then, we don't need you!" Garrett snorted. "Better take in that flower show at the convention center though, I hear they've got a special on daisies."
Eduardo halted, one foot out the door. He turned, glowering. "You callin' me a daisy?"
"If the shoe fits."
"Alright, I'm in!" Eduardo growled, slamming the door. Which promptly fell off its hinges. Eduardo ducked it with a yell.
Hopefully this was not a sign of things to come.
"Now wait a minute...We can't let them do it, they're just kids. We should call the guys." Janine bit her lip, looking down at Egon.
"Who you callin' 'kid' lady?" Garrett looked affronted.
Roland crossed his arms. "I'm 19, not 12."
"I don't think we have any choice right now, Janine. Time is of the essence, if this keeps spreading..." Egon let the rest hang in the air.
Janine ran a hand through her hair. "Alright, but I'm going too. I know how to use a proton pack and can halfway read a PKE meter."
"Oh, the equipment," Egon lamented, pressing his palms to his forehead. "It's in absolute shambles. There are only two proton packs and three traps that are still functional. I can't send you out like that."
"No sweat; if it's got an engine, I can fix it, if it's got wiring, I can reconfigure it," Roland said brightly, pulling a multi-tool from his jacket pocket.
"And if it's got a nougat center, he can eat it," Eduardo added, jerking a thumb at Garrett who had just pulled some sort of energy bar from his pocket and was consuming it, much to the distraction of Slimer.
"Then let's get this party started!" Garrett grinned, forgetting to guard his energy bar for the barest moment it took Slimer to permanently confiscate it. He glared up at the spud.
Janine glanced back at Egon, who was slouched back in his chair and looked miserable. Not that most people could tell, but she had become so accustomed to his subtle tics to know when he was well and truly out of it. "Alright, we'll work on Ecto. Egon, if you have a list of parts that need replaced on the packs, give that to us and we can track them down."
"Uh." He made a move to get up but she cut him off.
"Just tell us where it is. You, on the other hand, are getting upstairs and under some blankets."
"Now, really," he muttered, scowling. "I'm capable of assisting."
"Do you want me to call your mother? I will call your mother."
"Now that isn't fair!" he squawked.
Janine just pointed at the stairs.
He blew air through his lips in a derisive sound and rolled his eyes. "One of the file cabinets has it in amongst the design sheets, I made notations on each individual pack's needs." He paused. "Unless it's in the lab."
"Okay. Now, get to bed!"
"I'll help you up," Roland said, crossing into the office and holding out a hand.
"I can do it myself," Egon replied sharply, hauling himself to his feet and brushing past both of them to the stairs, where he took a graceless seat.
Janine rolled her eyes. "You boys take a look at Ecto and the file cabinets - look under P and S first - start making a list. I'll be right back."
She strolled over to the stairs and helped Egon up by the elbow, letting him get an arm over her shoulders. Between the two of them they managed to make their way upstairs, despite it being very awkward for her due to the fact he had at least a foot in height on her.
There she deposited him on the couch and turned to at least get him a blanket out of his bedroom before heading down to help the kids.
"Janine?"
She stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder at him. He had put his hand over his eyes again, shielding them from the sunlight coming in through the window.
She crossed and shut the blinds. He sighed out loud in relief.
"I apologise, I did not mean to be so short with you last night."
"That's the second time you've apologised to me since the semester started. Maybe I should be keeping a record." She let the ghost of a smirk filter through. "It's alright, I understand. Just trust me a little, alright? I know what I'm doing."
"Yes, well..." he shifted uncomfortably.
She waved him off with a hand, leaving to retrieve a few blankets from his bedroom. She folded them over an arm thoughtfully and sighed aloud. "Wish I actually did know what I'm doing."
Going out in the field to hunt some potentially deadly spook with a trio of neophytes wasn't her idea of a good time. But - considering Ray was about 28 hours away by car, Winston was further, and Dr V was clear over in Hollywood - there wasn't any other option aside from letting Egon get himself killed.
Maybe Roland would prove to be as good at repair as he said he was. For all their sakes she hoped he was.
You, Me, and the Bourgeoisie is a song by The Submarines.