Peter stood back as Dr. Madison entered Janine's room and gave the newly conscious woman a quick exam to check her memory overall mental faculties and to give Janine some medication to ease the horrible headache. Dr. Madison used a small penlight to check Janine's eyes, apologizing for the painfully bright light while checking her pupillary response. Despite the headache and sensitivity to her eyes Janine tracked Dr. Madison's finger as she moved it left and right, up and down. Acing the memory test and showing no signs of secondary trauma to the skull Dr. Madison left Janine and Peter alone to talk.

"How's your head?" Peter asked sincerely as he approached the bed again.

"Still hurts but not as bad." She motioned to the IV bag hanging on the stand beside her. "Whatever that stuff is I like it!"

Peter smiled at her attempts to remain lighthearted. "Think you can tell me what happened at the firehouse while we were gone?"

"I... I remember I went into the basement," Janine slowly sat upright in the bed as she thought back to the morning. "there was a weird noise and I went down to check it out."

"We found you in the basement." Peter confirmed. "What happened after you went down to check out the noise?"

"I think I found..." Janine was struggling to recall the events, but the severe blow to the head made it difficult to remember everything exactly. "there was something on the floor. It was a piece of metal."

"Ray said it was a piece of the containment unit. Was there anything else unusual?"

"Yeah, when I touched it I remember there was something on it. Something..."

"Slimy?"

"Yeah! That's it!" Janine was beginning to remember the smaller details as all the pieces fell into place. "That new part for the containment unit was sitting in the middle of the basement floor and when I touched it I found out it was all covered in slime. And that's when I heard a voice."

"A voice? Whose voice?" The idea of someone sneaking around in the basement was of great interest. "What did they say?"

"It was a deep, angry voice." Janine recalled. "It said 'Egon'. He said Egon's name!"

"That's a bad sign." Peter muttered to himself. "You you know why he was focused on Egon?"

"Well, when I was down in the basement I was thinking out loud. I must've associated the containment unit with Egon."

"And that's why the ghost honed in on him."

"The ghost did WHAT?"

"It, uh..." Peter wanted to kick himself for being so crass. "Look Janine, I'm going to be completely honest with you but you have to promise you won't get upset of try to leave the hospital. You need to take it easy."

Janine folded her arms defiantly over her chest. "Okay, I promise."

"The ghost, well, it sort of... took Egon."

"Took him... where?" Janine asked with a heavy heart.

"We don't know."

"Oh God."

"Now Janine," Peter grabbed onto her hand and held tightly. "don't panic. We're going to find Egon and we're going to bring him back. You need to stay here and rest, try not to think about it."

"How can I just sit here and do nothing?" Janine sounded as angry as she felt useless. "Egon is a good person! I want to help!"

"You already did!" Peter reassured her with full sincerity in his voice. "Now we have an idea as to why the ghost picked him. Clearly it's pissed off about our Ghostbusting equipment and just picked the first name he could associate with it."

"So it's MY fault..."

"No! Not your fault! That ghost was pick off one of us regardless of who said what!"

There was a knock on the door as Dana walked into the room with a vase of flowers in her hands. "Hi Janine."

"Dana." Janine was a little surprised to see her. "What're you doing here?"

"Peter told me what happened." She explained as she set the flowers on the table beside the bed. "And I'm here to keep you company while the guys look for Egon."

Peter smiled warmly at his beloved wife.

"I would've been here earlier," Dana continued. "but I needed to find a babysitter for Oscar."

Kissing Dana on the cheek Peter rushed toward the door. "Janine, don't worry about anything. We'll handle it. And Dana?"

She turned to look at her husband.

"God do I love you!" On that note he disappeared from sight and made his way toward the nearest payphone.

Janine looked down as immense guilt weighed in on her heart. If she had just kept quiet then maybe that ghost would've never attacked Egon.

Dana took Peter's chair and rested her hand on Janine's arm. "I'm worried about him, too." She confessed. "But I also know that Peter, Ray and Winston are three of the bravest, kindest men I've ever known. Egon will alright."

"I hope you're right."

Leaning in Dana gave Janine a much needed hug and just held her friend in the warm embrace. "So do I."

Ray painstakingly took stock of the readings on the digital display monitor attached to the containment unit. One by one he checked off the confirmed captures spirits within the unit, hoping to locate the singular escaped ghost; hoping that it was only the one ghost who managed to escape.

"Anything yet?" Winston asked as he held out the clipboard, checking away the ghosts as Ray listed them off. "We have to be at least half way through our roster by now."

"Actually we're only about twelve percent of the way through."

"You're... You're kidding!"

"Nope." Ray replied matter-of-factually. "There's a lot of ghosts in there... Some I haven't seen in years. Class-2 'gooper', Zeta confirmed."

"I forgot you guys were busting ghosts left and right before I joined the team." Winston reminisced as he checked off the ghost on the clipboard. "Think we'll ever fill the containment unit to the brim?"

"I hope not. Class-2 'gooper', Epsilon, confirmed."

"There has to be an easier way to do this!" Winston checked off the next ghost. "This is taking too long."

"If you think of something don't keep it to yourself!" Ray rubbed at his tired eyes as the bright image of the screen was starting to hurt. "Cataloging the ghosts isn't nearly as fun as it sounds... There has to be a way to narrow down the list quicker than this."

"The ghost I saw was a full-bodied apparition and it seemed intelligent. Does that help?"

"A little. It narrows it down to either a Class-3 or a Class-4 entity."

"Why are all the taxi cabs in the city covered in sugar and body odor?" Peter jogged down the basement stairs and slapped Ray on the shoulder. "I think I know a way to pinpoint the ghost exactly. According to Janine the ghost was laying in wait in the basement and as soon as she mentioned Spengz it attacked."

Ray turned and looked at his colleague with wild eyes. "Class-4. Something that can think and plan rather than existing solely on instinct is going to powerful."

"Then let's sort them out." Winston decided as he flipped the pages on the clipboard to the Class-4 ghosts that had been chronicled. "There's twenty six Class-4's in the unit."

"That helps." Ray resumed the search on the display.

Winston cleared his throat nervously. "So Janine is alright?"

"She has a headache but is otherwise okay. Dana is with her now."

"Does she know about Egon?"

Peter looked away guiltily. "Yeah. I sort of let it slip."

"Damn. I was hoping she wouldn't have to know."

"So was I."

Ray pointed his hand back toward Winston. "I think I'm onto something!"

"What is it Ray?"

"According to our data banks there is in fact one Class-4 ghost unaccounted for: Alpha, Beta, Zeta, Epsilon... I can't find Delta!"

"Delta." Winston pointed to the name on the list. "According to the list this ghost is marked under 'Intelligent Residual Phantasm'."

"The full details on this ghost should be in the second volume of the 'Spirit Tome' that Egon and I have been working on."

"Wait, volume?" Peter was astonished by the depth of the work that his colleagues had devoted themselves to. "Where are these volumes?"

"Over there." Ray pointed to the top shelf above the workbench. "There's only six right now."

"Only... six." Peter repeated. "Well I'm sure you'll get the lead out eventually."

Winston pulled down the required book and began flipping through the pages. "Okay, let's see..." Scanning each page carefully Winston located the ghost in question. "Got it, hey!" Winston turned the book for Peter and Ray to see. "This is him! This is the ghost me and Egon and faced off with!"

Depicted in phenomenal accuracy in a black and white sketch was the very ghost that had abducted Egon was portrayed in all its grisly glory. The same vacant eyes, exposed teeth and disheveled clothing were recorded in meticulous detail.

Peter took the book from Winston's hands. "According to the research you two had recorded, this ghost was a notorious gang member who was shot down by his own crew in the 1930s. Wonder why he has a beef with Egon?"

"Not sure." Ray shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe he's still pissed about, you know, being murdered."

"Makes sense." Peter squared his jaw. "I know I'd be pretty upset. I'd probably take out my frustrations on the wrong people, too."

Winston took the book back from Peter. "Says here you guys caught him at an abandoned warehouse in Hell's Kitchen. Maybe that's where he took Egon."

"It's worth a shot." Ray was getting anxious again. "Let's go take a look."

...to be continued...