The next day, Egon was sitting in one of the chairs in the rumpus room and reading the latest scientific journal. So many reasons to feel hopeful. For one, the Hubble Space Telescope was finally planned to launch soon after many years of delays. Humanity could now look into the nooks and crannies of the universe in ways that the stargazers of the Renaissance could only dream of. And only then could we get enough perspective to realize how foolish the beings on Earth really were.

In between articles were advertisements. One of these advertisements had a logo that was unusual and intricate. It made Egon think of the symbols that Gabby liked to draw at her desk. He couldn't help but contrast her with Janine in this instance. Janine would normally file her nails, chew gum, read a magazine or some combination of all three when she was bored. But Gabby drew symbols. It wasn't like Egon didn't used to doodle in his notes in class. But these were all simple pictures. These symbols that Gabby drew were intricate. He wasn't sure if Gabby was just an artistic person or if those symbols had some important meaning.

Egon heard the familiar sounds of Gabby's heels clicking up the stairs. She was probably up here to get some coffee or a snack.

But it turned out to be a bit more than that.

Once she poured some coffee into her mug, she walked over to Egon.

"Hey, Egon?" said Gabby.

Egon looked up from his journal.

"Yes?" he responded.

"My family has been having a problem that I think you should know about."

"I'm not good with calming disputes between other people, if that's what you want of me."

"No, it's not that. It's something… ghost-related."

Egon's ears pricked up. "I'm listening…"

"You see, during the past week or so, my dad has been waking up with what he believes is a dark creature on his chest. It causes him to have heavy breathing and limited movement. Normally, we would think that somebody's cat had somehow gotten into the house but this creature tends to disappear in a dark mist not long after you notice it. I was wary of what he was talking about at first, but then last night, that same creature visited me."

"You know, it's funny," said Egon, "We've gotten late night calls about this same thing and, every time, we have been unable to find physical evidence of this creature. No ectoplasm, no skin samples, nothing. For the time being, we shouldn't jump to conclusions. The symptoms described by people resemble sleep paralysis, so it's safe to assume that it is probably that."

"So then why have people in this city been experiencing sleep paralysis lately?"

"That's a good question. I would guess that there is some sort of stressor causing people to hallucinate."

"Well, being in a city filled with ghosts can do that, I guess."

Egon was a little less suspicious about this woman but still terribly curious as to her whereabouts. She talked to ghosts in her spare time but he knew full well that what she did on her off time was none of his business. If she invented her own devices to talk to these ghosts, how similar were they to his own devices? If they were similar, how did she have access to protons and other things that couldn't easily be bought at a store or mail-ordered? If she lived with her parents, how were they okay with this? All he could do was wonder and not having answers drove him crazy.

Over the next month or so, Janine was visited by the other guys during her maternity leave. She greatly appreciated this. Not only was the life of a new mother exhausting, it could also get terribly lonely, even if your own mother was there helping you. It was good to take a temporary break from baby matters.

Whenever Ray cooked a meal, he made sure to make extra so that Janine and her mother could have some. The first night's meal was goulash, no doubt an inside joke about the birth preparations. Peter gave Casey his old stuffed rabbit named Chuck. When Janine asked him if it was short for Charles, Peter responded that he was called chuck because his fur texture and color was similar to ground chuck (which, as it so happens, can also be an ingredient in goulash). Peter also bought a stuffed Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, one that was fortunately too small destroy the city, even if it did become possessed by a Sumerian god. Winston bought baseball-themed onesies and sometimes brought Janine with much-needed supplies, even if she didn't ask for them. Even Gabby contributed a little since she picked out some herbs and made sachets for a tea that would be good for milk flow.

The guys were even supportive of Janine before the birth. Peter had helped build Casey's crib after many hours of swearing and finger injuries. And then Winston ended up taking apart the crib and then rebuilding it because Peter did such as shoddy job the first time. In all, Janine had a solid village to help raise her child.

And then there was Egon, the villager who visited the baby but merely just acknowledged his son's existence and nothing more. He was certainly aware of Casey's appearance and behavior. What little hair the baby had was strawberry blond, a blend of Egon's and Janine's hair color. His eyes were blue – when they were open, that is. Egon didn't know how to feel about the child. He had nothing in common with this brand-new human. Egon was a fully-grown, rational-thinking, smarter-than-average person. Casey was a newly-emerged life form who was a slave to his animal instincts. All Casey ever did was want things. He didn't contribute anything of value. He couldn't hold conversations with Egon, much less interesting conversations. He couldn't do any sort of activity with Egon like playing catch on the grass. How does one love somebody like that?

Maybe the love came later. In the meantime, Egon had more important business to attend to.

In those same following weeks, Gabby enjoyed not just hearing the guys' ghostbusting stories but also their stories about their visits with Janine.

There was Winston's story:

One time when Winston visited, he brought the game of Jenga with him. He and Janine played it at the table while talking and generally enjoying each other's company. Then came the point in the game when the tower of wooden rectangular sticks looked jagged and prone to collapse.

"Do you think it was a good idea to play this game while Casey is napping?" she asked. She glanced over at Casey, who was in the living room peacefully slumbering in his carrier while wrapped in a cozy plush blanket.

"I guess we'll find out soon," said Winston.

"If he wakes up from your next move, that's on you."

Winston very carefully removed the piece that made the most sense. However, the tower still gave in to its weak foundation and collapsed onto the table, with several pieces falling onto the floor.

Janine tensed up and looked toward her baby. All that Casey did was groan and turn his head before resuming his slumber.

Winston looked just as surprised as Janine.

"Wow," said Winston, "He really is dead to the world, isn't he?"

"Yeah," said Janine, "Lucky us."

"I'm guessing we shouldn't test his sound tolerance by inviting over the other guys and having one of our heated games of Monopoly."

"No, I do NOT recommend that."

"Do you guys have a game night?" asked Gabby.

"Yeah," said Peter, "It used to be every third Tuesday but we haven't held one for a while."

Then there was Peter's story…

Peter's visit was an awkward and uncomfortable one. Janine was sitting on the couch while rocking and bouncing Casey, who was crying and flailing for reasons that would only make sense to a six-week-old. Peter sat on the other couch, looking around the room and not saying anything. It was a bit like witnessing a one-sided family fight.

"Casey, Casey," said Janine, "What is wrong? I wish you could tell me."

Finally, Peter did act.

"Here," he said as he held out his arms, "Give him to me."

"Okay," said Janine. She handed the baby over to Peter. Peter looked Casey right in his red, squinting face.

"Casey," said Peter, "Casey."

Casey's crying simmered into a breathy whimper.

"I have a joke for you. What do you call a deer with no eyes?" He paused for effect. "No eye-deer!" He then laughed at his own joke. "Get it? No eye-deer?!"

Casey's breathy whimpers then simmered into silence along with the blankest of stares. He lay still in Peter's arms, forgetting why he was even upset in the first place.

"Oh my god," said Janine, "That joke was so bad, you left him speechless. Thank you so much."

"That wasn't the intended effect," said Peter. "The joke couldn't have been that bad. I mean, I don't hear crickets."

"Good on you for that solution," said Gabby, "If it were me in that position, I probably would have made up an excuse to go home early. I'm not exactly the best with babies."

"If we did that during our ghost-busting day jobs, we wouldn't be running a good business," said Winston. He had a point.

And then there was Ray's story…

Ray was sitting in the kitchen with his elbow on the table as his head leaned against his hand. Janine was sitting in the other chair with her oversized t-shirt half-off while she was nursing Casey. She didn't seem to mind doing this in front of a coworker, especially since the conversation they had was distracting Ray from whatever part of Janine was being exposed (and even then, the most unacceptable part of that anatomy was covered by the baby's head).

"So, yeah," said Janine, "When the sign at a national park says 'Don't leave food unattended on a picnic table,' you don't leave food unattended on a picnic table." Janine repositioned Casey under her arm before changing the subject. "So, you wanna arm-wrestle?"

Ray took his head out of his hand. He was taken aback by this request.

"Excuse me?" he said.

"I asked if you wanted to arm-wrestle. Did I studder?"

"Are you sure it's okay to do it now when you're… busy?"

"I can do more than one thing at once. How do you think I got so good at being a secretary?"

"Okay, I'll take you up on it." Ray moved his chair closer to Janine so they met at the corner of the table. Once he joined his right hand with hers, they each pushed as hard as they could, straining and gritting their teeth. It looked a bit like Ray was going to overtake Janine but then Janine got a second wind and overtook Ray. Eventually, Ray ran out of steam and surrendered to Janine's strength. He was bested by Janine, all while she was nursing her baby.

"One, two, three," said Janine. She then stood up triumphantly while still holding Casey under her arm and pointed to the defeated Ray, who shrank in his seat. "I BEAT YOU! I FREAKING BEAT YOU, RAY! YOU CAN KISS MY BUTT!"

"Jeanie!" shouted Debbie from the other room, "Language!"

"Honestly, Mom! What part of that was a swear?!"

"That's pretty amazing of her," said Gabby, "What's her secret?"

"She said that it was years of practice and bar bets," said Ray.

All the while, Gabby thought about how busy Egon had been lately. He didn't have any interesting stories to tell in regards to his baby. Instead, he was paying attention to the stories of others in the city who were impacted by the demons. And she knew for a fact that they were demons and not hallucinations. Whenever she saw him at the fire station, he was usually looking at a map of the city with push pins in specific locations or looking at possible evidence through a microscope. Always looking in places, this man. It was like he was constantly looking everywhere for lost car keys but with much higher stakes. The fate of the city never depended on somebody looking for their car keys.

All the while, she was thinking of own ways of getting at the root of this mystery, ways that didn't necessarily have to do with science.