It was late morning on Saturday and, even when she made it to the firehouse, Gabby could still taste the coffee in her mouth. Her dad was known for making the mud strong. She was back at her dumb little temp job but this time, it wasn't dumb and little, nor was it temporary, or at least she didn't think it was temporary. She didn't know how long Egon's work arrangement was going to last. She didn't think he knew, either. Still, she had to remind herself not to belittle Janine's position by calling her job dumb and little. Being the secretary to a ragtag team of guys who have saved the world on several occasions was nothing to sneeze at. But actually being a part of that ragtag team, at least for part of the week? That was an honor. Anything that made your mom freak out and worry about your safety was an honor.

Before entering The Firehouse once more, she took some magically-charged salt she kept in a tiny satchel and threw it over her shoulder. It was a powered-up version of what her mother liked to do for good luck. She didn't know whether it was warding off The Devil or demons or just bad forces in general. It was something bad and she wanted to use her magic to keep it well away from her.

When she walked inside, she couldn't help but smile when she saw Ray.

"Welcome back, Gabs!" he said. He gave her a big bear hug that calmed her nerves and brought about a big smile.

Peter, Winston and Egon walked up to her as well.

"I guess that pizza party was unwarranted," she said.

"Aw, don't say that," said Peter.

"Now that you've arrived, we can take your measurements," said Egon. "Winston, can you jot down the measurements?"

"Certainly," said Winston.

Egon gave Winston his notebook and pencil. Egon then unfurled the tape measure in his hand.

This was happening so fast.

"What are you measuring me for?" asked Gabby.

"For your jumpsuit," said Egon.

It sounded like they made up their mind about her joining the team. They must have been desperate for new members. Why else would they resort to putting her on the team? No. She couldn't think like this. This was her nerves talking, not the ones that made her excited but the ones that brought doubt. She had to have some redeeming value to her.

"In the meantime, we put safety pins on the spare jumpsuit so that it would fit you better for this training."

Once Egon told Winston of her measurements, Egon stood back up and retracted the measuring tape.

"You won't be doing your training here," said Egon, "One of our wealthier clients let us use her backyard for your training. There's plenty of room to make mistakes on her well-curated lawn."

Winston gave Egon back his notebook and pencil. Egon looked back at Gabby. This time, Gabby didn't feel as intimidated by his stare, maybe because he looked a little more relaxed than usual.

"I'm off to do other things while you take my place," he said. "One last thing I need to say before I go."

"What is that?" asked Gabby.

"I'm proud of you. I trust you to make the right decisions and work well with the others."

"Well, Egon, I'm proud of what you're doing as well. Family is important." Gabby couldn't help but think of her own family, how they would have to do slightly more work because she wasn't there. But she trusted them. They brought her up to work hard and now she was bringing that ethic to the firehouse.

"Good luck out there." Egon nodded his head and smiled before leaving.

"Now that we're all here, let's head to the Ecto-1 and get the show on the road," said Winston.

Gabby couldn't wait to get to her training. She could take on the world, or at least this person's expansive backyard.

It took quite a while of driving but they made it to the gated community where Gabby would do her training. Slimer tagged along as well, although not without getting his trademark slime on the car seat. Gabby wasn't quite used to seeing all this green open space. She felt like things needed to be put there, whether they be other buildings, people, trees, garbage cans, the list was endless. But then again, fewer things in the way meant fewer things to be accidentally destroyed. Gabby made sure to tie her hair up for this occasion.

There were the fake buildings and obstacles that were set up in this person's backyard. They were mainly painted cardboard being propped up by thin pieces of wood but they were true in size to what they were supposed to represent, mainly buildings, trees, people and garbage cans. They were arranged in a way where there could very well be roads and side streets between them. Other parts of the yard were set up like a traditional obstacle course with tires, ropes and platforms. The guys really outdid themselves with this one.

"First thing's first, we'd like to welcome you to The Ghostbusting Team," said Winston.

Gabby felt tickled at this.

"Thank you for inviting me back!" she said, "It's an honor."

"Although I can tell you ahead of time that they won't give you discounts anywhere," said Peter, "You save the world several times and they don't thank you in that way."

"We're not here to be bitter, Peter," said Ray.

"Yeah, Peter," said Gabby.

"But we're here to tell you that, today, we're not going to be Mister Nice Zeddemore or Mister Nice Venkman or Mister Nice Stanz or Mister Nice Slimer," said Winston, "During this training, we're going to give you a hefty dose of tough love, and I mean TOUGH… LOVE."

"It's still going to be love, though," said Gabby.

"Emphasis on the tough part."

Gabby surprisingly wasn't shaking in her protective rubber boots. She got plenty of tough love when she busted that sleep paralysis demon. If anything, there were far fewer stakes when it came to this training session.

"I'm ready," she said.

"Good. Now let's get to work!" Winston blew his whistle to indicate that the training would start ASAP.

First thing they had her do was the traditional obstacle course – jumping through the tires, crawling under the barbed wire, swinging on the ropes. She became winded and wheezy during her first round but nobody reprimanded her for it. That was odd. Where was that Tough Love that Winston said he was going to give her? It had to be around here somewhere.

During her next round of tires, she looked behind her and saw Winston's stern look. Ho boy. That was enough to get her back on her feet after catching her breath.

"Move, move, move!" shouted Winston as he clapped, "Let's go!"

"Vamanos," she told herself.

These jumpsuits weren't terribly breathable and she became sweaty in no time. Surely, they didn't have to rely on physical movement all the time. After all, some of those ghost-busting missions consisted of car chases. But no matter what, she had to pull through. The look of Winston remained on her mind even when he was out of sight.

"Vamanos," she told herself. If only she had mastered that levitation spell. All she could do was float several inches off the ground. But this was not a place for magic.

After a while, Ray decided to join in on the obstacle course while Gabby was back in the tire section once more, possibly as encouragement. For a man with a bit of pudge, he was surprisingly fit – even more than Gabby was. She had a hard time keeping up with him but eventually, he stopped and looked behind him.

Gabby eventually caught up but became winded once more. When she caught up, Ray held out his gloved hand.

"C'mon, Gabs!" he said, "You're not alone in this!"

Gabby couldn't help but drool a little while catching her breath. Her legs shook. Her heart pounded in a dance beat. She didn't hesitate to take Ray's hand. She deserved this help.

She continued one last lap while she held Ray's hand. It was significantly easier to finish the course now that she was being partially dragged. Once she completed the ropes course again, Peter and Winston caught up with her.

"All right, Gabby!" said Winston, "You can rest now."

Gabby couldn't believe she had done a grueling training regimen, one that brought back memories of gym class.

"Thank you," she said.

"C'mon, let's go to the water cooler," said Peter, "We've got so much gossip to get out."

After rest – a lot of rest – Gabby moved on to the next lesson. This time, it was amongst the fake two-dimensional buildings propped up by thin wood. She wore a fake proton pack with a gun that fired beanbags. This time, Slimer played a part in this training exercise, wearing a white sheet with eye holes cut into it. None of this was necessary since he was already a ghost but at the same time, he was a familiar-enough sight that nobody would want to fire at him except for an annoyed Peter. Slimer had to wear something that made him just different enough to fire at.

"OoooooOOOOOOooooh," wailed Slimer.

As soon as Gabby was given the signal by Winston, she began firing the beanbags at Slimer. Slimer stole away down the "city street" and Gabby ran after him. He zigzagged between the buildings, going high and low, making his presence known by his wails. Gabby managed to get some clean shots of him but the ghost was smaller than the more ferocious ghosts that the guys battled and was therefore a difficult target. This made it all the more satisfying when a beanbag did hit Slimer and stained his white sheet green with slime.

After a while, Slimer turned around and flew in Gabby's direction, simulating an attack. Gabby dodged his attempt at a tackle but his next attempt hit her in the shoulder and caught her off guard.

"Ow!" she said.

Shake it off, she thought. She rubbed her shoulder before setting her targets back on Slimer. She held up her "proton gun" and fired more bean bags. Soon, Slimer slowed down, simulating the ghost finally getting tired.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" wailed Slimer, feigning defeat, "OH NOOOOOOOOOOO."

Gabby fired a few more beanbags before Peter slid a fake cardboard trap under Slimer. Slimer drifted toward the ground and landed on the trap, closing his eyes and making sure his tongue was hanging out of his mouth.

After a few seconds passed, he tossed off the sheet and applauded Gabby's effort.

"Yay!" he said.

Slimer did a good job at simulating a ghost attack but there was one thing that he couldn't simulate, namely the terror that could potentially strike the person who witnessed a ghost. Slimer was cute and apparently, Gabby was one of only a few people who thought so. The boys would have to do a better job in that department.

…and they eventually did. The next training session was similar but it featured Peter dressed in a padded suit while standing on stilts. He also wore a deer skull on his head and had strips of green fabric draped over his protected body, making him resemble some sort of swamp monster. To add a finishing touch, he placed glowing yellow orbs in the eye sockets of deer skull. By this point, it had started raining and the glowing orbs were very much visible through the dark scenery caused by the grey sky.

"Hya!" shouted Peter. He threw goop at Gabby that was supposed to resemble ectoplasm. She had no idea what it was made of but they would never use actual ectoplasm in a training exercise, so she assumed that it was some sort of material that was safe enough for a children's art project. In between Peter's hurling of slime, she fired some shots from her "proton gun." The bean bags bounced off of the suit.

Peter gave his best evil laugh.

"You'll never defeat me, you little puke!" he shouted over the rainfall, "You tiny shrimp of a female human! Why, I ought to take you as my bride!"

This "monster" was right in that she was small in stature but it wasn't like she was going to get any bigger. The only part of her that could grow any more was the thickness of her skin, which was part of the point of this exercise. All of those abusive words that Peter was throwing at her were no doubt hurtful but the only one crying right now was the sky. As for Gabby, those words only motivated her even more.

"You're not taking anything!" she shouted. She shot her gun in rapid succession at Peter. She imagined all of the people she would be saving in this scenario – an entire city block – no - an entire city. As she fired, Peter intentionally wobbled a bit on his stilts.

"Whoa!" he said, "The proton beam is too much!"

He wobbled until he finally fell over like a mighty tree. Both his padded suit and the plush green grass cushioned his fall. In fact, he laughed a little when he landed.

"Would you look at that?" said Peter, "It looks like I've been defeated."

"I say that's enough for today," said Winston, "You've done a fine job for your first day of training!"

Oh yeah. This was only the first day, wasn't it?

"I say we should head back soon."

Gabby wanted to jump into the air but instead, she collapsed onto the wet grass. The jumpsuit was protective enough that she didn't get the uncomfortable cold sensation of water soaking through her clothes and onto her skin.

"I'm okay," she said.

Ray held out his hand and helped her up. Her legs wobbled, making her glad that she didn't need to walk back to the firehouse.

Peter got up as well.

"Hey, Gabby," he said.

"Yeah?" said Gabby.

"All of those mean things I said when I was pretending to be a monster… you know I didn't actually mean those things, right? I was just thinking of something that one of our enemies could potentially say in order to rile you up."

"Oh, of course I knew that you didn't mean those things."

"Just making sure. You seem like the sensitive type, that's all."

That was awfully considerate of him. Maybe if the secret about her being a witch came out, he would be considerate of her powers, maybe even respect her? But she should be careful not to make assumptions about a man that she was sort of sweet on.

"Back to the Ecto-1, everyone!" said Winston, "For some dinner and a night of boardgames!"

Oh boy! They were finally going to include her in Board Game Night. Gabby grew even more motivated to get back to the car so that she could get back to the firehouse.

After a filling meal of takeout Chinese food, the gang found themselves playing a game of Monopoly in the rumpus room… but it wasn't a particularly peaceful game.

Peter stood up from his chair with both hands planted on the table. He stared down Winston with more ire than a board game should have been capable of causing. With each breath, he exhaled like an angry bull.

"What do you mean I can't take more than one card from The Community Chest?!" he snarled, "Do you have any idea who I am?!"

"I keep telling you, Peter," said Winston in a calm voice, "You can't do that because it's against the rules."

"Rules, shmules! I own the most property out of anybody at this table. That entitles me to more than one card! Don't you have any idea how privilege works?!"

"Oh, dear," said Gabby, "He's gone mad with power."

"This always happens," said Winston.

"I'm taking two cards anyway," said Peter. He did precisely as he said.

"You know what?" said Ray, "Just for that, I'm sending you to jail." Ray moved Peter's tiny silver top hat piece to the nearest corner of the board. "If you can ignore the rules, then so can I."

Peter let out his last bullish sigh and sat down.

"Joke's on you," he said, "I'm a white-collar criminal. I'm gonna be out of jail in no time."