Gabby was excited to use her magic to help the ghostbusters. But at that exact moment, Egon didn't need her magic quite yet. On Tuesday of that week, Egon woke up bright and early to work at The Firehouse. He arrived there before the other ghostbusters had even woken up. He had found the recording device that he had used before, still in good condition but COULD be improved. It looked like a regular recording device with a place in the front to close in a cassette. However, Egon insisted that this was no ordinary cassette player and that it had the ability to record discreet noises that ghosts made which couldn't be detected by regular equipment. Gabby wanted to hear about how it did this but Egon wanted to get started on updating it so it can be ready in time for their plan… whenever that was going to be. He outsourced the assembling and testing of the new proton pack to Ray.

For those next few days, Janine brought Casey with her to work and he mainly sat in his bouncy infant seat by his mother's desk. During the ghostbusters' downtime, Ray would play with Casey, often pretending to make his Dopey Dog stuffed animal talk to him. Ray usually made the stuffed animal say cute, happy things but every so often, Peter would drop by and make Casey's plush ladybug say things (also in a cutesy voice) like "Existence is suffering" and "Everyone you know and love will diiiiiieeee." This was usually followed by Janine angrily chasing Peter up the stairs with a stapler, an occurrence that never got old, at least to Gabby. Whenever an emergency call was made, Janine made sure to put a pair of tiny earmuffs on Casey before setting off the alarm. This was especially important if he was sleeping.

For the time being, it was mainly Janine who cared for Casey (with some occasional help from Winston) since Egon was all the way upstairs. At least for now, Egon had a legitimate reason to hyperfocus on his work. Now, they knew for sure about the nature of the threat and what time in the future it would strike.

Every so often, Gabby would check in on Egon, making sure he didn't notice her. It seemed like people in general needed breaks from work in order to stretch their legs and get their basic needs met. But not Egon. Okay, maybe he would get up to use the bathroom, but that was about it. Other than that, he was a machine, just going and going and going. As much as Egon insisted that a perpetual motion machine couldn't be built, he would secretly take that as a challenge and tried to become a real-life version of one.

Gabby watched as Egon did the work at his desk, muttering to himself every so often, hurriedly looking through old notes before tinkering with the device.

"Is Egon still egoning?" asked Peter as he walked by.

"He very much is," said Gabby.

"I can't stop using that word ever since you made it up."

"Well, I couldn't think of any other word to describe him when he's in this state."

Egon was busy enough that he either didn't know or didn't care that people were literally talking about him behind his back.

Ray came around with the proton pack prototype in his hands. Compared to the previous one, it had a smaller, sleeker design and looked more like a backpack that anybody could wear – anybody who was a trained ghostbuster, that is.

"Hey, Egon!" said Ray, "I've finally got the proton carrier stabilized enough to stay in the pack. We're on our way to testing this thing out!"

"Uh huh…" said Egon as he tightened a screw, "That's good."

"Egon, you've been spending weeks on this proton pack. Don't you want to see it for yourself?"

"Ray, don't disturb him," said Peter, "He's egoning."

"Okay… there… so I've got to carry the two… put this next to this part…" said Egon as he went back and forth from his blueprints to the recording device. Suddenly…

THUMP

His forehead hit the desk and his work came to a halt. He was quiet for a few seconds.

"Ray?" said Egon.

"Yes, Egon?" asked Ray.

"I forgot to eat again, didn't I?"

"We haven't seen you at the table for the past few meals, so… yes."

"Uhhhhrrrrr…"

"Would you like me to get you some food?"

"Yes. Can you please go to Isaac's Deli and get a Rubin on marbled rye with some extra pickle spears on the side?"

"Would you like chips with that?"

"Uhhhrrrrr…"

"I'll take that as a yes."

Later that night, Gabby decided to pay a visit to her empty house to do some ritual work. She wanted to summon Gertrude to prime her on some things before the other ghostbusters visited the house – a pre-visit visit, so to speak.

Gabby felt a bit back in her element as the elemental spirits swirled around her and she felt the warmth of the circle that encapsulated the World Between Worlds. She curled her toes into the carpet as she conversed with Gertrude.

"I can't wait to meet your coworkers!" said Gertrude.

"Okay, so there are things you need to know about them," said Gabby.

"Like…"

"Well, Peter can get a bit cocky and full of himself."

"Uh-huh…"

"Ray would probably get a bit overly-excited and ask a bunch of questions that have nothing to do with the topic at hand."

"Uh-huh…"

"Egon tends to take things literally. As smart as he is, he tends to get confused and annoyed at expressions and metaphors. He once lectured us for fifteen minutes straight about how a barrel of monkeys is NOT, in fact, fun."

"Uh-huh…"

"And Winston is a pretty polite guy who is no-nonsense when he needs to be. Oh! And the most important thing of all…" Gabby took out a folded, partly-crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. "To my understanding, there were a whole lot of terms that you used back in the day to refer to his people. I have a list of the terms that people largely don't use anymore and it would be GREATLY APPRECIATED if you didn't use them."

She unfolded the piece of paper and held it up to the faint flash of light that Gertrude was presenting herself as. She took some time to read the list.

"Oh my…" she said, "That's most of them, isn't it?"

"Yeeeeeaaaah…" Gabby scratched the back of her head in her awkwardness.

"So, what am I allowed to call his… group of people?"

"From what I hear, they don't mind being referred to as Black. But the topic of his race will hopefully not come up in our future conversation, so just call him a person, okay?"

"Well, that's confusing. One of the terms on your no-no list is 'You People.'"

"Yes, and as long as you use the singular version of that word without the 'you,' you'll be fine."

"Okay. That's simple enough to understand. You don't need to be so nervous, dear. I'm sure I'll do fine. In all my years that I've haunted this house, I've picked up on some of the changes in social attitudes based on the people who have lived here, although I can't say that I'm crazy about certain fashion trends I've seen. I'm really not much for short shorts."

"They'll be wearing protective jumpsuits when they visit, so nobody's bare legs will be shown," said Gabby. "We have yet to entertain Peter's idea of selling a sexy calendar."

"I'm sure we will all be lovely to each other."

"You know, maybe it's about time that you showed your regular human form. I feel like you'd be a lot more approachable as a ghost if they saw you as a human."

"Hmm… I suppose I could give it a shot. I've long since forgotten why I don't show my human form. I think it was because I was self-conscious about my old-fashioned looks."

"If anything, people nowadays think that it's charming. They know you're from a different time. There are people today who dress up as people from your time period to give tours or reenact historical events. If I can come out as a witch, then you can come out as a person."

"Okay, you've convinced me. I will show the person that I am!"

Gabby smiled. She felt bubbly sweetness rising from within her. "That's good to hear." Gabby was a bit less nervous. She had only ever had a solitary magical practice. This would be the first time she invited anyone into a ritual. She would have to be a leader. But this was necessary and, for that reason, she felt as ready as ever.