Walking shoulder to shoulder Peter and Ray slowly traversed the lengthy corridor of the hospital. Neither man could bring themself to look at each other or make eye contact with the medical staff they passed by without a word. Hospitals were always filled to the brim with tension as countless people had battled for their lives, and many of those battles had been tragically lost. This level of tension was all too familiar with the seasoned paranormal investigators.

"Peter?" Ray addressed his friend softly. "Do you... Do you ever look back on your mistakes and wish you did something different?"

"Are we talking about small blunders or full blown regrets?" Peter inquired without missing a beat.

"I guess we're talking about regrets. I know none of us are perfect but shouldn't we-"

"I'm going to stop you right there, Ray." Peter in fact stopped in the middle of the hallway and raised a finger as if he was reprimanding the engineer's question. Ray paused a few steps ahead of Peter, his eyes wide with interest. "Yes, I've made some serious 'boo-boos' in the past and yes, I wish I had done something different. But here's the thing Ray, every mistake isn't a black mark on our personal records, they're learning opportunities."

"But if you could-"

"Should've, could've, would've!" Peter listed off. "If we focus on the missed chances of the past then we'll overlook the 'should do, can do and will do' of the present and future." Peter put his hand on Ray's shoulder and rocked him back and forth on his feet lightly. "I don't have any regrets. And you shouldn't either." Releasing his grip Peter continued walking forward. "Come on, let's go see Janine."

Waiting alone Winston was quietly standing beside Janine's bed with his hand gently resting over top of her own. The always lively receptionist was still unconscious, she looked as if she was sleeping in the large hospital bed without a care in the world. Her glasses were neatly folded and sitting on the table beside the bed, the frames slightly dented from her fall. The white bandage covered the freshly stitched cut across her forehead, resting just above her left eye. There were no monitors hooked up so here which was always a good sign as it meant the risk of her suffering a severe complication were very minimal.

Ray and Peter joined Winston at her bedside and gave their injured friend a worried glance.

"She's stable." Winston almost whisper as if he was worried about waking Janine. "But she's still out of it."

Ray reached out with his good hand to brush a lock of her red hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "Poor Janine."

Peter spoke up stoically. "She'll be fine. I'll stay here with her, you two should go back to the firehouse and check out the basement. Look for clues and try to find a way to track where that ghost went with Egon."

Winston nodded in agreement. "Good plan. There has to be something left behind we can use to our advantage."

"Peter, are you sure?" Ray didn't want to leave Janine behind without at least speaking with her.

"I'm sure. Go. If she tells me anything I'll call you right away."

Ray looked over to Winston as if he some how needed approval before making a decision. Winston patted Janine's hand gently before taking a step back from the bed. "Let's get going Ray. The sooner the better."

"Okay." Ray finally agreed. "I think a PKE scan of the basement is our best bet of finding a lead."

As Winston and Ray took their leave of the hospital room Peter pulled up a chair and sat beside Janine's bed. Despite the constant snipping going on between the abrasive psychologist and fiery receptionist the two actually did care about each other.

"Alright Janine, I'm not paying you to sleep on the job." Peter joked lightly. "It's time for you to answer some questions. Wake up for Dr. Venkman and I'll give you a raise!"

Janine didn't budge from her state of unconsciousness.

"Huh. Really thought that would work." Placing his hand on her arm leaned back in the chair to patiently wait for her to wake up. "Fine, we'll play by your rules."

Egon could taste the sickly sweet metal of fresh blood in his mouth. Blood dripped from his lips, his nose and a deep cut under his right eye; the orbit bone clearly broken from the physical abuse the tortured man had been forced to endure. His glasses had long since been broken, the mangled frames and shattered lenses littering the ground below his dangling form still suspended in the strong chains. His wrists ached mercilessly as the tight bonds cut into his bruised flesh, his shoulders threatening to separate at any moment from the relentless strain of his body pulling down on his stretched limbs.

The attacks of the shadowy minions had been precise and devastating with each blow. Deep slash marks on his arms, legs, chest and abdomen seeped blood through the torn fabric of his jumpsuit. The blood gathered in an ever growing puddle on the ground beneath him, soaking his broken glasses in the crimson liquid.

The siren and her lover ghost watched with great pleasure as the nearly unconscious physicist weakly lifted his head to look at his torturers. "For what it's worth," blood spat like bird shot from his lips as he spoke. "I am sorry that you were tormented by the containment unit, but I will not stop my work."

'Noble, if not foolish.' The siren snarled as she snapped her fingers again, calling forth a second swarm of menacing minions. 'You will beg for mercy.'

Returning to the firehouse with Ecto-1 speeding down the street, Winston and Ray made their way to back headquarters in near record time. Backing the hearse into the garage Winston and Ray prepared to begin their exploration of the basement, scouring every inch of the room for a clue to Egon's current whereabouts.

"I'll get the PKE meter from the lab." Ray decided as he hastily climbed out of the car. "I'll meet you downstairs."

Winston jogged to the basement with his his mind completely focused on the task at hand. As the only witness to Egon's abduction he felt as though the responsibility for finding any useful information was his burden alone to bear. Flipping on the overhead light Winston gazed about the room, the traps that had been knocked to the ground made it look like a bomb had gone off. There was a dark stain on the ceiling from the shadowy ghost passing through and the misplaced gasket was still in the middle of the floor where they had found Janine.

"Now why is this thing even on the floor to begin with?" Winston wondered as he picked up the metallic part. His fingers were instantly sticky from the residual ectoplasm. "That's strange. Where'd the slime come from?"

Ray, who had retrieved the necessary meter, had walked into the basement behind Winston and overheard him thinking out loud. "Slime?"

"Yeah, it's on this new gasket you guys made." Holding out the part for Ray to see he watched as the PKE meter ran over the metal object. "Since when did the containment unit leak ectoplasm?"

"It's doesn't." Ray answered flatly. "This is the result of a secondary action."

"The ghost."

"Exactly." Ray finished scanning the gasket and followed the signature reading over to the containment unit, identifying the point of origin.

"Something here isn't lining up. Why did the ghost soak the gasket in slime and nothing else?"

"Because the ghost escaped from the containment unit." Ray realized with a twinge of fear in his heart. The meter crashed to the floor as it dropped from his now limp hand. "It must've squeezed through the small opening created by the loose gasket... It's my fault..."

"What? How is this your fault?"

"I'm the one who replaced the gasket!" Ray nearly yelled in frustration. "I'm the one who stupidly burned his hand and couldn't tighten it! I'm the one who forgot to check the containment unit for stability last night! I'm the one who let the ghost escape and let... Egon... and Janine... It's all my fault."

"No Ray!" Winston wasn't about to let his friend beat himself up over something that was beyond his control. "You didn't do any of this, alright? It was the ghost! The fact that is did escape but stuck around here means that ghost had a plan from the beginning. One way or another it was going to do what it did."

"My fault." Ray repeated as he pressed his back against the wall and slid down to the floor. He pressed his face into his hands and pulled his knees up to his chest."I'm such an idiot!"

"No you're not! Listen to me Ray!"

Lost in his own personal darkness Ray couldn't hear Winston speaking to him, all he could hear was his own self deprecating thoughts reprimanding his previous actions.

"Ray, I need you to focus!" Winston put his hands under Ray's on the sides of his face and lifted Ray's gaze until their eyes were level. "Egon wouldn't want you blaming yourself, Janine wouldn't want you blaming yourself. Focus on helping Egon and Janine! We need you Ray, we all need you to focus!"

"I... I'm so... useless!" Ray whimpered, his breathing was quick as if he were about to hyperventilate. "A failure..."

"Ray, stop." Winston begged. "Don't tear yourself apart. Please!"

"Such a failure." Ray muttered. "I can't do anything-"

Unwilling to listen or watch his friend destroy his own psyche Winston reared back his hand and gave Ray a firm slap to the face. "Snap out of it!"

"Ow..." Ray rubbed at his sore jaw while giving Winston a hurt stare. "What did you do that for?"

"Why not? You were already beating yourself up, why shouldn't I help?"

Ray was a little embarrassed by the remark.

"I didn't want to do it man, but I need you to pay attention." Offering his hand Winston waited for Ray to make his next move.

"You're right." Ray took Winston's hand and let his friend help him up to his feet. "We need to work together to find out what happened."

"And we already know that the ghost who took Egon came from the containment unit."

"Which means..." Ray looked over at the ethereal prison with a glimmer now in his formerly hurt filled eyes. "we have a record of who it was that escaped and its original point of manifestation!"

Sitting beside Janine's bed Peter rubbed his hand slowly over her arm hoping she'd wake up soon. Dr. Madison had stopped by for a brief exam and was still satisfied that Janine wasn't in critical condition. Time was all that stood between the Ghostbusters and finding Egon.

Staring up at the boring, white, plain, uninspiring ceiling Peter waited in silence for Janine to finally wake up. "Any time now Janine." A gentle stirring from the bed drew Peter's attention from the ceiling and back down to Janine. "Talk about good timing! Hey Janine, can you hear me?"

"Stop... Stop shouting." Her eyes fluttered open and shut again as the overhead lights were too much to bear with her pounding headache. "Ow, my head..."

Lowering his voice Peter stood up from the chair and leaned over the bed. "Janine, I now you're hurting right now but I need you to answer some questions."

"Only if you give me a handful aspirin." She moaned as she pressed her hand to eyes.

"Answer my questions and I'll get you a truck full of aspirin." Peter offered as his hand ran down her arm and gripped her hand firmly.

"Answer one for me first." She slowly opened her eyes and squinted at Peter as she squeezed her fingers around his hand. "What the hell happened?"

"Funny..." Peter trailed off a little as doubt set in. "That's what I was going to ask you."

...to be continued...