Gathered around the small round table in the kitchen Egon, Ray and Winston flipped open the box of pizza and sat down to enjoy their late night dinner. It wasn't uncommon for the guys to order takeout seeing as the four were often too busy to prepare a home cooked meal; old pizza boxes had been stacked up in the corner until it was time to take care of the recycling, and once the pizza on the table was finished off the boxes would be added to the preexisting pile.

"Good idea Winston," Ray complimented as he took a bite of the pizza. "glad you thought of it."

"So am I. I'm not in the mood to cook."

Egon kept his silence as he dined, his thoughts still preoccupied with the impending modifications for the containment unit and proton packs.

"Does Janine want any pizza?" Ray asked he took a second slice. "If she does she better get up here fast."

"Nah, I asked when I answered the door. Something about too much grease and not enough vegetables." Winston wiped off his hands on a napkin as he finished off his first slice.

Ray stared down at his sore hand, admiring the textbook work Egon had done while treating the injury. "Hey Winston, do ever think about where you could be right now or about the things you should've done?"

"What do you mean?" Winston was a little perplexed by Ray's rather somber question. "Like do I regret becoming a Ghostbuster or something?"

"Not exactly regrets, but... do you wish you had done something different in your past just for the sake of curiosity? Me and Egon were talking about it a little bit earlier."

"Oh." Winston thought about the question for a moment before something came to mind. "I do kind of wonder what I'd be capable of if I had taken that art class with my cousin when we were just out of high school. I've never been the best at drawing, but she was phenomenal! I guess her talent intimidated me a little."

"I can get that." Ray knew a thing or two about feeling intimidated or overshadowed by family.

"Why do you ask? Something on your mind, Ray?"

"I was just thinking." Ray admitted feeling a little silly for even asking. "I mean, we have proven that ghosts can travel through parallel planes and dimensions, so I was just wondering what our own parallel selves could be doing at this moment. Like, did they do the things in their dimension that we didn't do here? And if so, does that mean there's a dimension where we never became Ghostbusters? Or, what if the Ghostbusters never existed in one dimension and now that dimension is suffering for it? " Ray cleared his throat nervously. "Guess I'm just worried that sometimes I don't always make the best decisions despite my best effort."

Egon finally chimed in. "Ray I've never known you to make a rash decision or act without thinking. Accidents happen and they always will, please stop trying to put the weight of the world on your shoulders."

"So..." For a change to a less bleak subject Winston inquired about the containment unit. "What are you guys working on down there anyway? Are you making a second containment unit or something?"

"No, but we are improving the one we already have. If everything goes according to plan the unit will effectively double in size and use only one third of the energy we're currently using."

"That's pretty slick!"

"Thank you, it was Egon's idea."

From the staircase a set of striding footsteps ascending to the second floor as Peter's cocky voice rang out. "Well, well, well!" Dramatically he jumped up the last few steps and leaned against the staircase banister with a cocky smirk. "Guess who earned themselves a second shot at love with an absolutely gorgeous woman!"

"I take it you and the wife are still getting along." Winston quipped.

"Jealous?" Peter asked as he joined the trio at the table and took a slice of pizza for himself.

"Not really. There's nothing about your dating life I envy."

"Ouch." Turning his attention to Egon with a smug smile Peter addressed the physicist. "So Egon, how's your little experiment going?"

"Promising." Egon answered flatly.

"So you got the containment unit up and running?"

"Yes. Ray and I currently working on the proton packs."

"Damn, thought I delayed my return long enough that you two would have everything done."

"Don't worry Peter," Egon sat upright in his chair and gave Peter a stern look. "Ray and I anticipated your lack of cooperation and compensated accordingly."

"I repeat: 'Ouch'. Is everyone just out to get me tonight?"

Janine called up the stairs to Peter as if on cue. "Dr. Venkman, that 'Peck' guy has been looking for you!"

"Yes." Peter decided as he playfully eyed his friends suspiciously. "You are all out to get me. Oh, and speaking of 'ouch', Ray, what happened to your hand?"

Ray looked down at the bandaged appendage and flexed his fingers lightly. "Burned myself on the exhaust port."

"Again?"

"No, first time. The last time I burned my hand it was on the muffler on Ecto-1 when I was restoring her."

"That's right," Peter remembered the event fondly. "you screamed like that time you found a spider in your bunk back in school. Too bad neither me or Egon planted that guy ahead of time, that was classic."

"Not funny Peter." Ray blushed at the embarrassing moment. "That thing was huge!"

"It was a daddy long-legs."

"With very long legs..."

"Right, well, I'm going to go deal with 'Peckerhead'," Peter decided as he grab himself another slice of pizza. "maybe I can get him to back off long enough for us to get some actual work done."

"It's late," Egon stated firmly. "do you think calling Peck at this hour is the wisest course of action?"

"Nope. But having a bureaucratic, spiteful rancor as our 'boss' wasn't exactly the wisest decision on the mayor's part, either."

Egon couldn't argue with Peter's reasoning. "Just don't say anything that'll get us all fired."

"Yes 'dear'." Peter teased as he jogged down the stairs with the pizza slice in hand. "I'll put in a good word for you Spengz!"

Egon arched his eyebrow at the notion. "I suddenly don't feel very well."

Winston and Ray flashed cheesy smiles as they continued to enjoy their pizza and as each other's company. It wasn't until Ray looked down at his watch did he realize that it really was late into the night.

"It's almost eleven. Why don't we tackle the proton packs tomorrow?"

"Good idea." Egon agreed. "It'll take at least six hours to finish the new modifications."

"I'm going to turn in for the night then."

"Do you want me to re-bandage your hand?"

"Nah, it'll be fine until morning."

Winston picked up the now empty pizza boxes and tossed them to the top of the pile of boxes in the corner. "While you two are dealing with the proton packs tomorrow morning I'll top off Ecto-1's fluids, double check my work." Making his way to the adjoined bunk room Winston disappeared through the door frame. "See you in the morning guys."

Egon stood up from the table and slipped off his white lab coat. "Think I'll shower first, then turn in."

Ray had a new thought. "If you're ready to turn in then I'll go check on the containment unit, make sure everything is stable."

"Good idea." Egon disappeared into the bunk room just as Winston had done, only before climbing into bed he was going to cross through the room to shower off in the connected washroom. "I don't anticipate any immediate problems, however a follow up examination can only prove beneficial."

"Right."

Ray wandered down the staircase and spotted Peter sitting coyly on the corner of Janine's desk with the phone pressed to his ear. Janine herself was sitting in her chair and watching apathetically with her nail file pressed to her fingertips. Without breaking stride Ray listened in as Peter toyed with Peck over the phone.

"Well you see now Peck," Peter was as smarmy as he was calm. "I was out having a life, not intentionally avoiding your calls. You should really try it sometime!"

As Peck yelled something in response Peter turned the phone from his ear and smiled at Ray.

"The man really has no patience." Peter commented slyly.

Ray stood beside the desk and waited for the conversation to continue.

"Ya' finished?" Peter asked as he replaced the phone to his ear. "Well now that's just plain rude!"

Ray shook his head slowly. "Venkman, you're only going to make things worse."

"Worse, or better?" Peter asked with a smug grin. Putting his hand over the receiver he whispered to Ray. "Janine has 'accidentally' misplaced Peck's latest memo and all of the legal paperwork required for his little agenda to take effect!"

"Is that legal?"

"I don't know. But it works." Peter took his hand from the receiver. "Look, why don't we discuss this in person? When are you free? I'm open... uh, let me see here..." Peter mimed flipping through a planner while rolling his eyes. "two weeks from next year. Does that work for you?" A loud buzzing filled his ears. "Hello? Huh." Peter hung up the phone. "He hung up on me."

"Peter," Ray hated it when Peck tried to throw his weight around, but he hated it even more when Peter provoked him. "I wish you would at least TRY to mend fences with the guy."

"Never." Peter defied theatrically as he jumped off the desk. "Now if you'll excuse me, it was a long day and I need my beauty rest."

Janine sat down her nail file and gave Ray a sympathetic glance as Peter hustled up the stairs. "Don't worry, I already have the paperwork taken care of, it just needs to be processed."

"You're going to send it on the last day, right?"

"Of course. But I'll also make sure that the postage is wrong so it'll get lost in the mail for a few weeks."

"Anyone ever tell you that you're an evil genius?"

"Yeah, my ex from high school." Janine casually pushed back her chair and grabbed her purse from the bottom drawer of her desk. "I'll be back tomorrow to deal with Peck. Don't worry about him Ray, that man is a brick of salt but I'm sure with a little time and patience he can turn to sugar."

"Or pepper." Ray tagged on sarcastically as the receptionist passed him by for the front door. "Goodnight Janine."

"Goodnight." She replied as she exited the firehouse for the night.

Without another thought Ray ventured up the second floor to turn in for the night as well. The containment unit and newly acquired modifications slipping from his mind in lieu of the phone call to Peck.

The containment unit sat idle in the basement. The powerful piece of equipment imprisoned many ghosts of varying levels of power and classes. Within the restless spirits could sense a change in the power flow of their prison and began frantically seeking a weakness to use to their advantage and escape. Structurally the device had always been sound, but the new gasket wasn't fastened as tight as the previous gasket. With very little effort the angry ghosts within we able to combine their energies and seep through the loose metal binding, slowly twisting the gasket from the securing bolt itself...

...to be continued...