The Damocles Solution 26
Ray climbed the narrow, turning staircase up to Janine's apartment. Holding his ear to the door when he reached it, he could hear a loud ruckus of heavy-sounding things being moved, and Janine grunting and cursing up a storm inside.
She is home…that's a start, thought Ray as he knocked on her door.
He could see shadows of feet appear under the door…
…which did not open for him.
Sighing heavily, he wiped away a tear. Getting the communicator out of his pocket, he moved away from the door, and hit the button to page Peter.
"Yo, what's up, Tex? She not answering?"
Ray sniffed. "No, Peter. I know she's home, I could hear her doing stuff in there. What do you say we should do?"
"Just stay there for another 20 minutes or so. Maybe hang out at the car so you don't look weird. Follow the anchovies, and keep this thing on when you get in there. Make sure she keeps it when she tells us what went down between her and Loverboy."
One of Ray's eyebrows shot up in confusion. "Uh, anchovies? Alright, Peter. I'll wait," he said, walking back down to the Ecto-1.
Seated there listening to the radio for a few minutes, hoping and praying Peter's plan, whatever it turned out to be, worked, Ray noticed a local pizzeria's van pulling up and parking in front of him outside the apartment complex.
He raised an eyebrow again. Anchovies? That looks like the only thing around here that could possibly involve anchovies! He started back in the seat. What the heck exactly did Peter do here?
Sure enough, two teenaged kids stepped out of the van, each young man carrying no less that what Ray counted had to be ten deluxe pizzas.
He slapped his face with a palm. Oh nooooo.
They opened the complex door, and Ray followed the kids into the apartment, keeping pace a short distance away from them.
They both went up to Janine's door, and knocked. "Ma'am?" asked one of them.
At the end of the hallway, Ray saw the door open. "Oh my GAWD! What's this?"
The kids presented their pizzas. "We got a call from here for fourty anchovy pizzas, ma'am."
Janine's face went white as a sheet. "What?"
"Fourty anchovy pizzas. That'd be two-hundred-fifty, please, ma'am. We were told to knock off another sixty for a bulk discount."
Enraged, Janine gripped her hair and pulled at a loss for words. "This..is…outrageous! I did NOT order fourty anchovy pizzas! You have the wrong apartment!"
"Someone's gotta pay, ma'am, and this was the address we were given."
She pointed at the two of them, and Ray started galloping down the hall for fear that Janine would end up making the kids regret they ever took their job.
"Haven't you idiots ever heard of a CRANK CALL! I don't even LIKE anchovies! You take that back to where ya came from right now, or I'll-"
"-I got it," cut in Ray, handing the kids a wad of green. "I'm Dr. Ray Stantz from the Ghostbusters."
"Whoa!" said one of them, "We see you guys on TV all the time! You're awesome!"
Ray blushed as Janine slammed the door shut, and waved his hand in modesty. "Hold on a minute for me." He turned toward the door. "Janine? Janine! I know you're in there now. You can talk about it, you know. We love you. We want you back."
He could hear soft crying now on the inside of the door, and a dark shadow underneath it. She was seated right at the bottom of the door.
Ray turned to the pizza kids. "Keep the change, and take these to our headquarters. We could use 'em there."
"Sure thing! Nice meeting you!" said one of them.
"Yeah, I'd gladly shake your hand, man, if I wasn't…you know…", said the other, shifting his pizza boxes and grinning.
He turned toward the door again. "Janine? We all pretty much figured out who the problem was. What did he tell you? C'mon. Open the door and tell us about it. We want you back." He couldn't help but sniff and wipe a tear away again. "Please?"
He heard a heavy, loud sigh on the other side of the door.
After a short pause, the shadow from under the door disappeared, and Ray's heart fell to the floor, fearful that she'd walk away from it and leave him there.
Utterly relieved when the door opened, he sighed deeply when the petite redhead beckoned him to come inside.
Ray walked in, and sat at the table while Janine grabbed some tissues in an effort to wipe away her running mascara.
Looking around, Ray was in shock, as everything was in boxes, neatly packed, ready to be moved away.
Janine sat at the other end of the table, wiping her face with her tissues. "It's over, Ray. He—he fired me. I'm moving, and I'm gonna have to look for another job."
Ray gazed at her in sympathy. "That's not what the three of us say," he said quietly. "So he's in the minority here. Tell us everything and we'll tell you what we can do about it. Oh, yeah—Peter and Winston are here too, on the other end of this." He presented the active communicator.
Janine stared blankly at the communicator for a moment, then slowly nodded. "I don't understand it, Ray…he kissed me back…then…he…," she cried, fading away before melting down into another storm of tears.
"Keep going, and tell us everything."
There was a knock at the door to the firehouse, and Peter opened it.
"Dr. Ray Stantz sent us here with your fourty anchovy pizzas."
Peter's eyes went wide. I was counting on him sending them back! Or make Janine keep 'em! He waved his hands in the air, and quietly tried to shoo the kids away.
They both barged in, telling Peter he'd have to talk it over with Dr. Stantz, and they're only doing what they were told by him to do, and began dropping the pizzas off in turn on Janine's desk.
Slimer, now sipping delicately at a glass of sparkling water, began sniffing the air in curiosity. "Pizzaaaaaaaaaaa…," he sangsong to himself as best he could.
He floated towards the origin of the scent, and caught sight of at least twenty fresh, warm pizzas sitting on Janine's desk, with two young teenaged kids bringing in even more. There was Peter standing in front of her desk, waving his arms and trying to block the kids' way from depositing any more anchovies in the firehouse.
Slimer's eyes shot wide in desire, and his huge mouth watered.
"PIIIIIZZZZAAAA!"
He zipped to the desk as fast as he could, not even hearing Peter's protests over his approach.
"Slimer! No! We're sending these back! It was only to-!"
SPLAT! went Slimer hard, right on Peter's face, knocking him over.
In two seconds flat, Slimer lapped up the pizzas on the desk, and devoured them, boxes and all.
"MOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRE PIIIIIIZZZAAAAAAAA!"
He followed his nose again, tracking the scent through the opened door of the firehouse to the van, where he found even more pizzas to inhale.
Peter gagged and groaned in disgust, wiping away sticky ectoplasm. "AAAGH! This is NOT what I wanted to happen when I ordered those damn things!"
Winston raised an eyebrow, and flipped to the last page of the catalog he was perusing. "Well, at least one thing's gonna be back to normal now."
"And..that's the story," finished Janine, with a sigh.
They heard Winston's voice through the communicator. "Hey, guys. I'm handlin' the distribution of the plan since Peter is busy giving Slimer a psychological recovery session."
"Yeah, Winston, we hear ya," answered Ray, rolling his eyes at what the meaning could be to that bit of information.
"Janine? Can ya hear me?"
Janine wiped her nose. "Yeah, Winston, go ahead."
"Peter told me to tell ya to keep this communicator on you at all times, turned on. He's gonna give the Mad Scientist a good chewing out, but it's gotta be done at the right time. He said he'll page ya when that is, and said under no uncertain terms to go near the firehouse until he does exactly that."
Her eyes went wide. "Oh—okay. I won't…"
"He says he's serious, Janine," reported Winston as urgently as he could. "Do NOT come near here until he talks to Egon. It won't be pretty for anybody if ya do."
She lowered her eyes, saddened that she'd have to wait an indiscriminate amout of time for a page to return to the firehouse-and to see Egon again. "Okay, Winston. I hear ya."
"I'm sorry it has to be this way. But don't worry, it'll be OK. Alright?"
"Yeah. Thanks guys."
"Hang in there, girl. You're on your way right back here already."
She smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."