Chapter 16

Ray was in the shower when the fire alarm went off. Quickly rinsing off he turned the water off and stepped out, grabbing the towel on the rack nearby.

As Ray dried off he heard footsteps outside the bathroom door. He knew that he was going to be the last one to the garage and as such he wouldn't be driving Ecto-1A.

Ray tossed the towel into the hamper and grabbed his underwear and blue jeans hanging on the back of the bathroom door. Dressing quickly he opened the door and hurried down the metal stairs in his bare feet.

It was cold and he hurried towards his locker marked R. Stantz. Ray saw Winston in the driver's seat using the garage door opener to open the firehouse's doors and cursed at himself for taking that shower. Peter was at Janine's desk getting their next assignment and Egon and his daughter were loading up the back of Ecto-1A with their proton packs, ghost traps, and other equipment that they would need.

They had just come off of a job an hour ago and he had been the last one to take a shower. "It couldn't be helped," Ray told himself as he pulled his long sleeve black shirt over his head.

"Hey Ray," Peter said as he passed him on his way to the car, "put a move on it will you."

"Yeah Peter," Ray replied as he pulled the tan flight suit out of his locker and stepped into it, "I want to see you showered, shaved, and dressed in under ten minutes."

"Ha!" Peter laughed as he opened the passenger side door to Ecto-1A, "That will never happen."

Ray grabbed a pair of long black socks and his eight inch high, leather toe side access zippered, Magnum Response black boots. Closing his locker Ray walked over to Ecto-1A carrying his socks and shoes.

"Why?" Ray questioned as he slid into the back jumper seat behind Peter.

"First off," Peter said as he closed his door, "I would have let you all go without me. I don't give up my shower time to anyone."

"Ain't that the truth," Echo said sliding into the car to face Ray.

"Isn't," Egon corrected her, "that the truth."

"Isn't," Echo said rolling her eyes and putting her seatbelt on.

"Hey Egon," Peter said turning around in his seat to face his friend, "give the 'Coconut' a break will you."

"I will," Egon said putting his seatbelt on as Winston placed the car into gear and backed out of the firehouse, "if you will stop teaching my daughter your bad habits."

"Who me?" Peter questioned as he turned back around.

Ray just shook his head as he put on his socks and shoes watching as Echo opened up her laptop in front of him. She then opened up her backpack that sat in the seat to her left and pulled out a composition book. Opening the book to the page that she wanted she sat the backpack on the floor of the car and put the book in the seat next to her.

"What are you working on?" Ray asked as he sat up in his seat watching her type into the laptop.

"I'm finishing up my doctoral paper for my Doctor of Musical Arts in piano," Echo replied, "then I have to work on my essay for applying to Columbia University."

"Columbia?" Winston questioned her as he turned left onto Greenwich Street heading downtown, "Isn't that a little early? You're not even graduated from Juilliard yet. What do you want from Columbia?"

"A PhD in cell biology," Echo said as she continued to type into her laptop.

Egon turned his head to look at his daughter and glanced down into her book to see what topic she had picked for her doctoral paper. Her heading read: Beethoven's Sonata No. 14 and its connection to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.

Lifting his head up to look Echo's way he could see her typing quickly and he read along to himself as she did so.

"My life is once more a little more pleasant, I'm out and about again, among people-you can hardly believe how desolate, how sad my life has been since these last two years; this change was caused by a sweet, enchanting girl, who loves me and whom I love. After two years, I am again enjoying some moments of bliss, and it is the first time that-I feel that marriage could make me happy, but unfortunately she is not of my station-and now-I certainly could not marry now." (Quote from a letter to Franz Gerhard Wegeler 16 November 1801)

Egon leaned back into his seat and smiled. Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata, was Echo's favorite piece to play. Eden had taught her the first movement, Adagio sostenuto, when she was five years old.

Egon closed his eyes and remembered back to when Echo had played the piece for her piano recital at the age of six. The movement opened with an octave in the left hand and a triplet figuration in the right. It had a powerful impression upon Egon, who was listening, of a nocturnal scene in which a mournful ghostly voice sounded in the distance.

Egon stifled a laugh and opened his eyes. Leave it to him to compare classical music to the work that he did.

Ray frowned looking out the window as they turned onto Chambers Street heading for the eastern end of the road where the Manhattan Municipal Building sat. Ray knew that Winston would take Centre Street south to the entrance for the Brooklyn Bridge.

Echo paused in her typing and looked up at her uncle to see him pouting; head in his left hand with his left elbow on the window sill.

"What's wrong Uncle Ray?" she questioned.

"I wanted to drive," he muttered back to her as he watched the web like pattern of the bridge's cable arrangement as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

"On the way home Ray," Winston stated to him and then turned his attention back to Peter.

"Peter," Winston said, "where do we have to go again?"

"Atlantic Avenue and Court Street," Peter read from the paper that Janine had given him, "We are to meet a Mr. Bob Diamond at the Trader Joe's grocery store."

With sirens blaring the "Ghostbusters" made it to Atlantic Avenue and Court Street in a little under ten minutes. Parking on the right hand side of Atlantic Avenue Peter went to find Mr. Diamond while the rest of the team geared up.

Egon helped Echo put on her proton pack and then turned to help Ray on with his pack. Echo reached back into Ecto-1A and grabbed one of the two PKE Meters that sat in a plastic box under the seat. Making sure that the instrument was charged she placed the Meter into her homemade belt holder on her right. Her father carried the other PKE Meter on his belt too but her holder also had a place for three empty test tubes in case she came across anything that she wanted to collect.

The last thing that Echo grabbed before she closed the back of the car up and followed her father across the street was her new 'med' kit. She had just turned sixteen years old last month and Sal, her paramedic mentor for four years, had given the 'med' kit to her as a birthday present.

"I wish I could be handing you your paramedic certificate but unfortunately you can't even take the test until you turn eighteen," Sal told her as she unwrapped her gift.

"It's too bad too," Ray had commented, "she knows everything on the test now."

"Yeah," Sal had replied as he watched Echo explore her new 'med' kit, "but rules are rules."

Echo smiled as she placed the strap over her shoulder and hurried to catch up with her father. She did know the test and had passed an old National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians-Paramedic one that Sal had given her to study with. Crossing the street she slid to a stop under the clock that said Trader Joe's above it, hanging on the side of the brick building.

Peter was talking to a heavy set man with a receding hairline in his early forties as Echo came to stand by her father and Ray. Listening into the conversation she heard that there was a "poltergeist" type problem in the neighborhood. Eerie noises and stones being thrown at people's feet at night. Echo took out her PKE Meter and started scanning the area as Mr. Diamond continued on with his story.

"I was at the corner of Clinton Street and Atlantic Avenue," he said as he pointed up the street, "I was just coming out of the Bistro and had crossed over Clinton Street when the ghost grabbed me."

"It seized me by the back of the collar of my coat and pushed my hat down over my eyes."

"Are you sure it wasn't just someone trying to mug you?" Peter asked pointing the pen he was using to take notes with at the man.

"Not unless muggers have a Psycho Kinetic Energy reading," Echo stated to Peter.

Egon turned his head to see his daughter's PKE Meter's wings halfway-raised and the green light on the screen slowly traveling from left to right.

"What have you got?" Egon asked.

Standing facing Atlantic Avenue Echo slowly walked forward, across the street, swinging the Meter back and forth. In the middle of the street she stopped and turned to her right. The wings on her Meter were now fully-raised and the green light was traveling quickly across the screen but when she turned to her left the wings went back to halfway and the green light slowly made its way across the screen, only this time from right to left.

"I don't understand," Echo said turning to Ray who had followed her out into the street to stop traffic for her.

"It looks like you have two readings," Ray commented to her, "Spengs what do you think?"

Egon came over and stood next to his daughter. He pulled his own Meter out and turned it on. Sure enough when he stood with his back to hers Egon's Meter went wild.

"You're right Ray," Egon replied bending down towards a manhole cover in the street, "there are two readings here. Echo what's your reading?"

"301," she replied.

"I've got 451," Egon replied, "so either you are picking up the tail end of the ghost that came this way and went down the manhole or…"

"Or…," Echo said interrupting her father, "I have a different ghost altogether. I'm reading a Class II. What's yours?"

"Class III," Egon said standing up again.

"Alright!" Ray said getting excited, "Who's in for some sewer action?"

"Not me," Winston said holding up his hands, "I've had my fill of sewer tunnels with Vigo."

"Peter?" Ray questioned.

"Are you kidding," Peter replied, "I'm not going underground. I just showered."

"Yeah, so did I," Ray retorted back, "but I need someone to back me up."

"I'll go Uncle Ray," Echo said turning her Meter off and placing it back on her belt.

"Echo you can't!" Egon said grabbing her arm and turning her around to face him, "That's a Class III down there!"

"So?" Echo replied, "I've dealt with them before and besides Ray's coming with me."

"But…," Egon started to say before his daughter cut him off.

"Look Father," she said placing her hand onto his arm, "I'll be fine. You have the only other PKE Meter. Go help Peter and Winston before they get themselves into trouble."

"You heard the 'Coconut'," Peter said patting Egon on the back, "I'll go get the crowbars and my pack."

"Her name is Echo!" Egon shouted to Peter's back as he watched him walk the rest of the way across the street to Ecto-1A.

"Then you and Eden should have named her right away when she was born," Ray replied as he pulled his flashlight off of its place on the left shoulder strap of his pack and turned it on to make sure it was working.

"Yeah," Egon answered sadly putting his Meter away, "I guess we should have."

Peter came back with two crowbars in hand and between him and Ray they were able to pry the cover from its place. Echo shined her light into the open hole. It wasn't that far down, only about three feet deep, and full of dirt. Ray lowered himself into the hole and shinning his flashlight looked below the street. Raising his head back up he turned towards Echo.

"Looks like we are spelunking Echo," Ray told her.

"I'll grab the rappelling rope, helmets, and gloves," she said heading across the street to Ecto-1A.

"Ray," Egon said when Echo was out of earshot, "Promise me you'll keep her safe."

"I promise," Ray said waving his hand to where Peter and Winston were following Mr. Diamond down the street, "Now go before you lose those two."

Egon smiled and nodded his head leaving Ray to take care of his daughter.

Leaving their proton packs in Ecto-1A Ray went first down the hole. Ray crawled ahead of Echo, his face in the dirt, down the long two feet height tunnel with only the light from his helmet showing him the way as they talked about Echo's doctoral paper.

"Countess Giulietta Guicciardi huh," Ray said spitting out a mouthful of dirt, "too bad Beethoven's love life was hampered by class issues."

"Yeah I know," Echo replied back, "I really think deep down that if Beethoven hadn't been a commoner he would have married her."

They had been crawling like this for five minutes and Ray was about to call a halt to their progress when Echo shouted out to him.

"The readings just went up Uncle Ray," she called out her voice sounding strange in the confined space.

"Okay ghostie," Ray said to himself, "where are you?"

Traveling a few feet further Ray saw a bulkhead wall in front of him. There was just enough room for Echo to join him in the tight fitting little space before the wall.

"It's definitely here," Echo said holding out her PKE Meter to the wall its wings fully-raised up.

"Alright," Ray said feeling along the ground by the wall, "there has to be a way in. You start on that side Echo."

Putting her Meter away Echo and Ray worked together feeling down into the dirt until Ray's hand came to something that felt different.

"Here!" he shouted at Echo starting to dig away at the spot.

Echo dug with her Uncle Ray pushing the dirt to the side to produced a gray keystone on an archway.

"There has to be a door underneath," Echo pointed out as she dug deeper, "here look!"

Echo's hand found wood beneath the layers of dirt. Ray helped Echo dig out the dirt until the upper third of the wooden door could be seen. The hinges were not on their side so Ray demised that the door must open away from them. Ray turned around and placed both of his feet against the top of the door, braced his back against the dirt behind him, and placed his hands on the ceiling above him.

"Here goes nothing," he said as he pushed with all his might.

Slowly, creaking sounds could be heard and then suddenly the door gave way taking Ray and Echo through it with one hundred cubic yards of dirt following them.

Echo screamed as she slid into the blackness following Ray. She could hear part of the wall giving way behind her and struggled to keep her face above the dirt and debris.

Echo's helmet came loose and was lost to the sliding dirt as she slid to a stop at the bottom of the pile, all thoughts of the ghost that they had been chasing pushed to the back of her mind.

"Ray," she choked out as she slowly stood up, took her gloves off, and started brushing the dirt and rocks off of her.

Taking her small LED flashlight out of her shoulder pocket she turned it on and scanned the room for her uncle. The place was huge. What looked like bedrock was along both sides that was thicker looking at the bottom and narrower looking at the top. Shinning her light above her Echo saw a red brick arched ceiling. She had to be in some kind of tunnel she thought and she turned around to look behind her.

"Ray!" Echo shouted as she ran to the half buried man in the dirt and rocks.

Somewhere along the line Ray had lost his helmet also. Quickly clearing the dirt away from his face she saw that he was buried waist deep in the debris and went into her paramedic mode.

"ABC's," Echo muttered to herself as she quickly took her 'med' kit off of her shoulder and sat it in the dirt beside her.

"Airway," Echo muttered to herself as she cleared away more dirt from her uncle's chest assessing his ability to take a deep breath, "check."

"Breathing," Echo said next as she leaned over Ray's face to feel his breath on her check.

Echo pulled her face back and opened her 'med' kit pulling her stethoscope out and placing it into her ears. Placing the diaphragm onto Ray's chest she listened to his breathing. She was looking for wheezing; suggesting bronchospasms or crackles and rales; indicating pulmonary edema. Thankfully all she heard was normal breathing.

Removing the stethoscope from her ears she placed the headset around her neck and pulled the diaphragm up to hang around the top of the blue tubing.

"Check," she said.

"Okay last, circulation," Echo said as she saw Ray start to move.

Echo took her index and middle finger and felt for Ray's carotid pulse manually between his windpipe and large muscle in his neck. Ray's pulse was strong and study and she let out a sigh of relief.

"Check," she said sitting back onto the ground as she started to clear away the dirt from Ray's lower body.

"Echo," Ray moaned as he opened his eyes.

"Right here Uncle Ray," she replied.

Ray opened his eyes to see a very dirty teenager sitting before him. Her glasses had a crack across the left lens and her flight suit was torn in a couple spots. Her hair was hanging loose on one side as it had worked its way out of her double ponytail that she kept it in when she was out on the job, but she looked well nonetheless.

"Are you okay?" Ray asked remembering his promise to Egon as he tried to pull himself out of the dirt and rocks.

"Yes," she replied, "how about you?"

"I'm fine…Aha!" Ray cried out as he tried to move his right leg.

Laying back onto the mound of dirt Ray closed his eyes and placed his right arm across his forehead. He was in excruciating pain and unable to move his leg.

"What's wrong?" Echo questioned suddenly alert and on her feet.

"My leg," Ray finally said clearly in pain, "I can't move it."

"Which one?" Echo asked as she went back to removing the dirt and rocks from around her uncle.

"Right!" Ray gritted out, closing his eyes tighter as tears squeezed out the sides.

Echo finally got down to Ray's tan flight suit and carefully pulled the rocks and dirt from around his waist. Starting at the top Echo worked her way down until she removed a rather large rock from on top of her uncle's right knee.

"Oh Shit!" Ray hollowed at her, pounding the dirt with his left hand.

"Sorry," she said as she carefully pushed the dirt back from his knee.

"Oh No!" she gasped out as she fell back and placed a hand over her mouth.

Before her was Ray's torn flight suit with a compound open fracture of his knee. Mixed in with the blood and bone was dirt that would lead to a much greater risk of infection. The knee was a mess and she needed to clean the wound right away but stopped on her way to her 'med' kit.

"When a person has a fractured limb," Sal's voice came into her head, "it is all too common for a paramedic to treat the fracture and completely miss the fact that the patient has a fractured spine."

Echo turned her head to face Ray and closed her eyes.

"Think Echo," she told herself, "you've done your ABC's, you know what caused the injury and you know how to fix it, what's next?"

"A head to toe secondary assessment," Echo said opening her eyes.

Taking a small notebook out of her right breast pocket and a black pen from her shoulder pocket Echo started her neurological assessment on Ray. When she was done with that she did her respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and skin integrity assessment writing down her findings as she went along.

She knew that Ray's pain was a twenty on a scale of 0 to 10 and it was stabbing and shooting in the description he had given her. She had to give him intravenous morphine if she was even going to get near his knee to clean and splint it.

Carefully taking Ray's left arm she cut the material of his flight suit with her bandage scissors. Then she placed a rubber tourniquet around his bicep and scrubbed the area with prepackaged gauze squares with chlorhexidine scrub on them.

Echo wanted to take Ray's mind off of what she was doing and thought about how best to do that. Finally making up her mind on what to do she spoke to him.

"Uncle Ray," Echo said as she prepared to place the catheter in his arm, "what's it like to be kissed for the first time?"

Ray removed his right arm from his forehead, narrowing his eyes at her. What did she want to know that for?

"Why do you ask?" he questioned her not realizing that Echo was placing the catheter into his arm.

"Oh you know," Echo said as she pulled out the stylet and secured the end of the catheter with a cap, "at my age I should be kissing and dating boys."

"Who says?"

"All the girls at Juilliard," she replied softly as she taped the catheter in place.

"I get the feeling that you don't want that. Am I right?"

Echo nodded her head yes as a tear slid out of her eye.

"Echo what's the matter?" Ray questioned as he sat up and saw her give him a dose of morphine.

"I feel like Beethoven. You know… like a commoner. I have the feeling that if I kiss a boy he is going to want more from me," she replied placing the vial that held the morphine back into her 'med' kit.

Ray thought about what she had said to him and then it hit him as the morphine slowly worked its way into his system. She wasn't talking about Beethoven or being the only sixteen year old at school who hadn't kissed a boy. She was worrying about those boys who had molested her in the third grade. She probably was thinking that if she started dating boys that she would place herself back into that same situation she had found herself in that day at school.

"Oh Echo," he said as he reached out with his right hand and pulled her towards him.

Kissing her softly on her lips before releasing her he told her, "Just because something hasn't worked out for you in the past, doesn't mean there is not someone better in store for you in the future."

"Raymond," she said to him as he slowly laid back down on the dirt and closed his eyes.

"Wait," Ray thought to himself as he slowly succumbed to the morphine that Echo had given him. His niece didn't call him Raymond. Only her father Egon did that.

"Egon," Ray muttered out loud thinking that he had come to rescue the pair.

"No," the girl's voice said again, "it's me Raymond. Your surgery is over."

"Surgery?" Ray thought trying to fight back the cloud hanging over his mind.

He was still underground in the old Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, he had found out eight hours later after being rescued. Echo had never left his side. Supporting him because he felt that he was going to die in that tunnel. It had to be Echo talking to him but he didn't remember the ambulance ride to the hospital, let alone any surgery.

"Echo," Ray spoke again trying to fight his way up and out of his morphine bliss.

"No Raymond," the girl's voice said again, "it's Melody."

"Melody," Ray said trying to open his eyes.

Melody had met him at the hospital in Brooklyn when he and Echo had been rescued. After Ray had been evaluated he had been air lifted to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. Doctor Elton Strauss had assessed Ray's knee and had informed Melody that the only way for Ray to be able to walk again was to replace his shattered knee with an artificial one.

Ray remembered Melody cursing the doctor out and crying over him at the same time. He remembered holding her and Nokomis close and telling them that he loved them both before he went into surgery.

That must be it, Ray thought as he slowly opened his eyes. He was at Mount Sinai Hospital and he didn't remember anything because of the morphine.

Opening his eyes he saw Melody by his side but where was Nokomis?

"Melody," Ray said as he raised his right hand up for Melody to grasp it before he made it to her face.

"Yes Raymond!" Melody cried, "thank the Lord that you are alive. When I went back to your hospital room they had taken you for your surgery. I didn't even get to say goodbye."

Ray narrowed his eyes at her. What was she talking about? She hadn't left his side since she meet him at the hospital. She had cried over his body and he heard her telling him that she loved him too. Ray shook his head trying to clear it. That dang morphine wasn't letting him think straight.

"Raymond what's wrong?" Melody questioned releasing his hand.

"Melody I don't understand what just happened."

"Don't you remember silly?"

"No," Ray said looking into her face, "it must be the morphine that Echo gave me."

"Echo?" Melody questioned, now concerned about her husband.

"Yes Echo," Ray stated seeing her scared face, "She gave me morphine when I shattered my right knee under Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn yesterday."

"Raymond," Melody said grabbing his hand with her trembling one, "that was seven years ago. Don't you remember?"

Ray closed his eyes and thought back. It was just hours ago to him as he heard Melody talking softly into his ear.

"Raymond, it's June 6th, 2015 and you reinjured your leg when we were making love early this morning."

Suddenly visions of Melody and him flashed before Ray's eyes. Her hair against his chest as he kissed the back of her neck. Her round perfect breasts waiting for the touch of his hands upon them. The beauty of her back with the only flaw being a two inch scar on her left hip, courtesy of a fall at an expedition she had been on last year.

Now images of pain came to his mind as he remembered falling and his knee taking most of the force of the blow. Ray remembered the paramedics and questions in Mandarin. He remembered the gurney ride past a startled Ethan. Ray remembered being paraded down the hall with the whole expedition team that Melody commanded watching him, wrapped up in only a hotel sheet.

"Oh just great," Ray moaned opening his eyes, "what is everyone going to think about me now?"

"Don't worry," Melody told him, "I told everyone that you hurt your knee when you fell out of bed and landed on it wrong."

"And they believed you?"

"Everyone except Ethan I think," Melody replied as her voice dropped a notch.

She was sure that Ethan knew what really happened, but he wasn't saying a word to her. Her troubled mind hoped that Ethan would never talk, if he did it would be the end for her.

Ray smiled at his wife, "Well his room was right next to ours so I'm sure he heard 'noises' in the night. But Ethan is a big boy I'm sure he and his wife have done the same thing."

"Ethan isn't married," Melody said softly wishing Ray would drop the subject.

"Oh," Ray said.

Melody knew that she had to come to terms with Ray and it was going to be difficult. She knew what she was walking towards and that was her life with Ray again, but she was afraid of losing herself. When Melody was around Ethan at work she felt that she could be her 'real self'. She was afraid of doing that with Ray and had stopped being honest with him.

Melody feared the conflict and silence that was going to follow when she sat down and talked to Ray. She had told so many lies over the last year that she didn't know how to get back to the truth. Melody sighed. She knew that the beginning of honesty with others was to first be honest with herself.

She had to tell Ray the truth and that statement brought panic to her because she had no idea how it was going to turn out. Would Ray yell at her, stop talking to her, divorce her, or worse hurt her physically? She didn't know the answer, all that she did know was that she would make the situation worse if she heaped on more deception. The truth needed to come out and be dealt with, but Melody knew that it was going to cost her and those that she loved.

"Raymond I'm so sorry," Melody said bursting into tears and laying her head down on the hospital bed.

Ray didn't know what to make of Melody's statement and let it go as he placed his right hand on her head.

"Melody it's okay," Ray said softly to the sobbing woman.

Ray knew that Melody was upset over breaking his knee and causing him pain but he wondered if it was more than that. Even though Melody hadn't been talking to him lately he had noticed that she was irritable most of the time. She had trouble sleeping lately too and was not interested in any of her normal activities that she liked to do. Ray stroked her head and wondered if Melody was feeling worthless. Was she depressed?

Ray knew what depression felt like and then had a scary thought. Was Melody thinking of suicide? He had thought about suicide at one time in his life and had gone through with it too. His sister Jean had saved him that day. Ray knew that if Melody was having thoughts about killing herself that she needed help.

"Melody we'll get through this together," Ray said still stroking her hair.

Melody heard Ray talking to her. Did he know already what had happened? He must and she broke down again. She hated what had happened but couldn't bring herself to talk to her husband about it just yet.