Hello again readers! Hope you've been enjoying this story so far. I'm hoping to get a little extra free time over the holiday weekend to get some more writing done - it's been a struggle over the past few weeks so I apologize for the delay in updating this time. I'd also like to remind you guys to check out some of my other fanfics if you haven't already, the first prequel to this one being Hardest of Hearts. I keep referencing to it trying to stifle any confusion those of you who haven't read it before this one have, but as always, if you have any questions on things that may seem unclear, feel free to PM me or leave a review! I haven't gotten any during the time I've been working on this one so far, but I hope that's just a fluke! Another one of my stories that I'm super proud of is my crossover fanfic, The Ghostbusters with the Most which is of course Beetlejuice X Ghostbusters. I had a lot of fun writing that one, and it made the trailer for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice coming out this past week SO much better! I'm super excited for the sequel to one of my favorite movies ever and usually that's not the case after the sequel comes so much later than the original. If you haven't seen the new trailer yet, GO NOW. And then maybe come back and read this chapter. ;)
Nikki lay comfortably in the warm grass, surprised at how soft the ground was beneath her. She inhaled deeply and the increasingly familiar floral scent of the greenery around her tickled her nose. She slowly opened her eyes and found that she was lying on her side, her face nestled into the crook of her elbow bent beneath her. She blinked and a wave of purple, pink and yellow flowers lazily rocked back and forth just a few inches in front of her face. Curiously, Nikki reached up with her other hand and gently tapped at the nearest blossom, a purple aster flower. She ran her pointer finger over the top of the flower and then traced it down to the stem, snapping the flower off a few inches from the bloom. She slowly sat up from her resting place in the grass and scanned her surroundings hesitantly.
The warming sun continued to shine down, but not to the extent where it made everything beneath it blindingly bright. The willow tree from her previous dreams still draped lazily towards the bottom of the gentle slope Nikki lay on, its branches swaying back and forth in a seemingly nonexistent breeze. Blooms from the larger dogwood trees fluttered by and rested like snow among the high field grass.
Nikki's eyes swept across the trees and light shadows beneath them, checking for any suspicious movement. The last time she'd dreamt about this place, Nikki had been suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of fear so this time she wanted to be ready in case the calm sensation of the hillside decided to become one full of confusion and uneasiness again.
"Anybody out there?" Nikki called out softly, twirling the flower lazily between her thumb and fingers. There was no response, other than a brief pause in the waving of the high grasses and willow branches, then just as suddenly, the gentle movements resumed. Nikki sat upright in the grass for a few moments longer, surprised at how steady and relaxed her breathing was. She closed her eyes, relishing in the sereneness of the dream place.
She had a distant memory of a time full of sadness and dread, but the radiating warmth of the sun kissing her bare shoulders chased that feeling away. She opened her eyes and peered down at the aster flower still pinched between her fingers and she tucked her knees up underneath herself, swiping a hand over the pure white dress skirt that fell over them to her shins. The purple flower had gained a disheveled, wilted look already, just in the short few moments she'd held and twirled it in her hands. Nikki placed it gently on her lap, noticing the stark contrast of the flower's vivid color against the white cotton of her dress. She braced a hand against the ground, flattening out another few blades of grass as she leaned forward to pluck another flower nearby. A blue cornflower caught her eye and as she reached to snap its stem, she paused as she heard the gentle clip before she herself even pinched the flower away from its base. A flicker of movement brushed across the bottom of her vision and she was startled when a tiny cluster of colorful panicles hit her lap on top of her aster flower. She stared at the stems of the lavender panicles, her eyebrows pinching together in confused and hesitant thought as she tried to place where they'd come from.
"Who's there?" She called again, the lazy relaxation she'd allowed herself to enjoy noticeably retreating in favor of her fight-or-flight response. She was conscious of her heartrate steadily climbing, but still, she reached down and held up the flowers in her fist for a brief examination. "I know someone else picked these, who did it?!"
There was something off about the flowers she held, she realized. The long, slender panicles were dotted all around with tiny blossoms of lavender color, though they weren't from a lavender plant. She untucked her legs and stood up, staring from the stems of the small flowers in her grip to scan her surroundings as she stood up. She whipped her head back and forth hurriedly, hoping but also not hoping to find the culprit who was invading her previously pleasant dream.
"Someone, answer me!" Nikki almost pleaded, though she knew if she actually did receive a response, she'd jump out of her skin and break the calming silence with an ear-piercing scream.
Upon her third cycle of spinning around, she noticed a bush resting along the hillside, in the shade of a large ash tree. The lavender-ish spotting of color dotted the bush and Nikki hastily made her way over to it, the small bouquet still clutched tightly in her hand. About halfway to her destination, she stopped, glancing down at the knee-length grass parting wildly to allow her passage through their blades. She turned back and studied the visible path she had trekked through the greenery, her bare feet crushing the luscious field grass that had appeared untouched before she'd made her way from her resting spot. She turned back to the ash tree and scanned the bush beneath it, even squinting for a better view of the grass around the bush. Eerily enough, the long tendrils of grass surrounding the bush and tree remained perfect and uncrushed, unlike the area she had just come from.
"A butterfly bush…" Nikki murmured, tilting her head ponderingly. She shrugged away the questionable absence of a path around the bush where the mysterious flowers had to have been picked from. She lifted the small handful of panicles in her grasp, noticing what had seemed off to her before. "But…no butterflies…"
Nikki shook her head, wondering how she had come to that conclusion at first glance. The long, reaching strands of color stuck out at every odd angle from the bush as if to entice non-existent insects to their luscious blooms and Nikki was struck again at how oddly silent the dream space was. There was the soft rustling of the grass and leaves sure, but no other signs of life seemed to be present apart from herself. The tree over her swayed gently in the warming breeze and Nikki glanced up at its towering branches causing one of the only sounds in the near vicinity. A soft tap tickled her nose, startling her, and Nikki went cross-eyed as she found that a brightly colored butterfly had landed there.
"Where did…?" Nikki breathed in question. She strained her eyes staring at the almost-luminescent aquamarine colored insect in such close proximity. After a few seconds, she carefully lifted the hand that still clutched the tiny bouquet of purple panicles from the butterfly bush and brushed at her nose gently. The butterfly lifted off of the tip of her nose and hovered a few inches in front of Nikki's face before it alighted on the offered flowers. Nikki lowered the colorful creature slowly, examining it with awed curiosity.
It appeared to be just as normal as any other real-world butterfly, although by Nikki's dream-like awareness the attention to detail was amazing. Each spot and vein-like crease in the butterfly's wings was perfectly accurate and the slow opening and closing of the large aquamarine wings in contrast to its small body had Nikki questioning whether or not this indeed was a dream at all. She chanced testing another thought, and she gently reached up with her left hand, curling her fingers into her palm until her pointer finger lingered in front of the butterfly's tiny, twitching antennae. Its delicate legs crept onto the tip of her finger and Nikki's heart hammered with puzzled amazement at the tickling sensation of having the butterfly crawl fully onto her finger. She could feel every little movement, even the brush of its wing on her knuckle as it opened its wings as wide as they could go before closing them again. Nikki felt herself drop the small tendrils of purple flowers as she focused wholly on the tiny creature. Movement from the bush in front of her suddenly caused her to snap her attention back to it, and she noticed that the bush was alive with different, multi-colored butterflies of every size. Before she could even form a questioning thought at the instantaneous emergence of the previously non-existent insects, they all froze where they had lit on the panicles sticking out from the butterfly bush. In the next second, the butterflies all flew up from their perches, swirling in a winding spiral until they'd all congregated into a swarm.
"How…?" Nikki sputtered out just before the butterfly swarm barreled straight into her. She was instantly blinded, feeling the odd, tickling beat of the insects' wings against her face and on her exposed shoulders and arms over the thin straps of her dress. She threw her head from one side to the other, spitting out the butterflies that had tried to fly into her mouth. The tickling feeling evaporated into stings that itched with every motion the thousands of butterflies made on her body. She swiped desperately at her face, trying to brush the swarming butterflies off of her, not caring how many she accidentally damaged in her flailing panic. The colorful insects continued to crawl and beat their fluttery wings all over her and Nikki's legs took on a life of their own as she turned to flee, hoping to shake the butterflies off as she gained momentum. Her retreat lasted only a few seconds however, as she smacked forcefully into the ash tree as a result of her blind terror. She fell back onto the ground, her body immediately losing all fight as her mind rushed to join it. The last thing she saw before her vision blurred completely was the continuous flutter of the butterflies' wings as they overtook the few slivers of sunlight she could still see through her waning sight.
Shawn was so exhausted, he'd fallen asleep soon after he and Nikki had cleaned up the aftermath of their dinner. He'd known she was drained from her ghost attack, so he'd offered to put together a light dinner for the pair of them while she showered. He scrounged up a salad, grilled up a few chicken breasts and some macaroni and cheese to split between them and they'd eaten hungrily while taking their minds off the stresses of work by half-watching some television. Nikki's nonchalant reassurances of her violent ghost encounter had Shawn worried though, and they'd argued for a bit until he'd put his foot down and stated that he would accompany her to the bookshop tomorrow to help her and Rachel tidy up some more of Ray's old occult items from the storage room. Nikki had wearily agreed finally, even suggesting that after they finished there, they could pay a visit to the girl she'd met at the Crystal Skull bar the week before. Shawn was relieved that she was willing to have him attached to her side for the entirety of the day, it had been a while since their schedules had coincided.
Shawn was enjoying an entertaining, slightly wacky dream featuring a bust that he, Ray and Peter had been called to. The ghost was so gluttonously robust that he couldn't even leave the ground and float through the air like any other normal ghost they'd dealt with, and he left a putrid trail of green slime wherever he went like some giant yellow snail. Peter made some snarky comment on how one trap might not be big enough to contain the bulgy ghost and the gelatinous thing had appeared to get offended, throwing its massive weight around as it switched from dodging the Ghostbusters to sliding across the slime-coated floor of the restaurant they were in trying to attack them. The three men were inconsolable with laughter at watching the poor fat creature struggling to move, knocking over tables and chairs and even the three Ghostbusters themselves in its maneuvers. Shawn was in the process of picking himself up from the sticky floor, though his arms were too weak from his hilarity to pick him up in time to avoid the ghost's next blow and one of the snail-like creature's tiny, stick-like arms swiped him in the face dead center.
"Hey-!" Shawn exclaimed, jerking upright in bed. A light weight flopped off of his chest and into his lap, causing Shawn to raise both arms in the air with disgust as he let the after-image of his dream ghost fade away. Reality took hold a few seconds later as his eyes adjusted to the darkened room, and the figure in his lap morphed into Hal, Nikki's beloved cat.
"…Mmrow." The black furry animal commented dully at Shawn's stare. Shawn lowered his arms, his right one brushing against Nikki's back where she lay curled up beside him. He silently cursed, hoping he hadn't disturbed her but she didn't stir and he went back to staring at the cat. Hal had straightened and was staring fixedly back up at the young man as if trying to communicate the reason he had deemed it appropriate to wake him.
"Whaddayu want, cat?" Shawn grumbled in annoyance, glancing over to the bright red numbers on the nightstand clock beside him. It was only about three in the morning and he was longing to get back to enjoying his last few hours of sleep before the start of the day.
Hal finally moved as if given permission, and he crawled carefully over Nikki's legs and rounded the girl, pausing to sit upright on the edge of the bed by Nikki's face. Shawn set his jaw worriedly, knowing the attentive awareness the cat had with his owner. He studied Nikki's form cuddled underneath the blanket, her face turned down against the pillow in serene slumber. The cat batted gently at the sheet by Nikki's nose and Shawn hastily reached over and tried to shoo the cat back.
"Don't…go on now, Hal. She's fine." Shawn ordered the cat in a hiss. The black furball merely spared Shawn a bored blink and then resumed pawing lightly at Nikki's nose. Shawn shifted in his spot in bed beside her and extended an arm over Nikki's shoulder, reaching for her hand tentatively. He didn't want to disturb her, but if Hal had indeed sensed that she was having the workings of one of her traumatizing nightmares, he hoped she would forgive him for waking her up.
Nikki's hand was cool, after lying on the sheet uncovered to the air conditioning of the room. She didn't stir, apparently still deeply unconscious but when Shawn attempted to run his thumb gently over the back of her hand once he'd fully grasped it, an icy fear spread through him at how limp and unresponsive she was to the contact.
"Nikki?" Shawn asked, not bothering to stifle his voice in an effort to softly nudge her awake. He dropped her hand to the bed where it fell with a dull thud and he sat up straighter to place his hand against her cheek, lightly slapping it. When she still didn't react, he rested his hand there for a second, taking in the cool stillness of her. He moved the back of his hand in front of her nose, and to his horror he found no breath coming from the girl's body at all. The cat, still sitting ramrod straight and alert just in the crook of Nikki's body seemed to be surveying the scene with wide, unblinking eyes. Shawn threw the blanket off of the two of them, to which the cat merely moved to the nightstand by Nikki's head. Shawn put a hand roughly on Nikki's shoulder and shook her violently. "Nikki, wake up!"
The girl's head lulled on the pillow, with still no reaction whatsoever. Shawn quickly reached over Hal's head and switched on the bedside lamp before he resumed his attempts to wake the deathly pale girl beside him. He turned her face toward his, his heart hammering fearfully as he felt the cold clamminess of her cheeks and forehead. He shifted himself to the side and rolled Nikki over until she was lying flat and turned upright on the bed. He put a hand to her chest, but either because of his nerves or his rapid movements he couldn't find her heartbeat either.
"Nikki, what's wrong?! Wake up…please…" He cried out desperately, his drowsiness having long since evaporated. He slipped her pillow out from under her head and made sure her airways were clear before he braced his palms against her chest for compressions. After a few seconds of pumping and pausing to breathe for her with still no reaction from the girl, Shawn sat back and felt his own throat grow tight with dread. Hal slinked over from his tense perch on the nightstand to sniff worriedly at Nikki's forehead, his whiskers brushing the skin there lightly as he surveyed his owner with concern. Shawn moved back over her, gently running a hand over her cheek and down to her ear, pausing with his fingers draped over the side of her neck to feel for her pulse. Hal meowed softly a few times as if trying to rouse Nikki himself as he continued to run his small black nose over her forehead and temples.
Shawn felt his eyes well up with uncontrollable tears as he stared down into Nikki's unmoving features and he bowed his head trying to find the bond that connected the two of them emotionally. Usually when she had a nightmare it would sometimes stir him awake too, but this time it was different. He searched and searched for her familiar presence, but his mind was focused on his own fear.
"Nikki, where are you?" He called out internally, his desperation transferring even in his mental voice. Almost abruptly he could feel her pulse calling back to him, rapid but present. He opened his eyes hopefully and felt that the mental pulse he had latched onto in the emotional link had returned to its place of origin in Nikki's neck. His hand slowly fell away from her neck and he placed it against her cheek where it was growing steadily warmer. The cat's whiskers trailed across his knuckles, tickling him and Shawn gently shooed him away. Hal lazily moved to the other side of Nikki's face, pulling himself up with one black paw on her shoulder as he sniffed with steady concern at Nikki's nose. Nikki twitched violently and jerked upward, throwing both the cat and Shawn backwards on the bed in their surprise.
"Get them off!" Nikki woke up screaming. Her arms scrubbed desperately at her face and then she hugged herself with a trembling shake before burying her face in her hands with a traumatized sob. Shawn hesitated for only a moment before he reached up and put a hand on her arm reassuringly as he waited for her confusion to die down. Hal, who had leapt down to the floor in response to Nikki's wild wake up, jumped back up onto Shawn's nightstand and settled there watchfully.
"You're safe, Nikki. It's alright…" Shawn murmured when Nikki's hands finally fell away from her face, revealing her red tear-filled eyes. She curled her knees up under herself and leaned into him, and Shawn enveloped her with a protective hug. Her overlarge nightshirt was stuck to her body from the cold sweat she had broken out in, and Shawn could feel her trembling with her fear. Shawn put a hand to the back of her head, running his hand comfortingly down her back and smoothing her long dark brown hair as he did so. "…Nightmare?"
Nikki hesitated with her face pressed against his bare chest before she nodded a few times in confirmation. Shawn continued his repeated motion of running his hand up and down her back, nodding himself as he tried to remain grounded for her.
"What was on you?" He asked conversationally, fishing for information. If it was one of her psychical prophetic dreams, he wanted to glean as much of it as he could before it began to slip her memory. He could feel her eyelashes brushing against the skin of his chest as she blinked warily and she shifted, still holding on to him for protection.
"…gonna sound weird…" She murmured, shaking her head against him. "But…butterflies. Thousands of them. They just…came outta nowhere…"
Shawn frowned, consciously forcing himself not to react to the odd source of Nikki's fear-filled dream. He continued running his hand down through the dark brown waves of her hair and he rested his head on top of hers.
"You were so still…I thought…" Shawn stopped himself, not wanting to say the words 'dead' aloud. Nikki nestled her head deeper against his chest, her breathing growing thankfully more steady the longer she had to fully awaken.
"It started off peaceful," Nikki whispered softly. He felt her raise her head briefly and he followed her gaze to the cat still sitting in cautious observation of the couple embraced on the bed. "It was that…that place again…"
"The field?" Shawn asked. Nikki leaned back into him relentingly and nodded once more. Shawn grimaced.
After Nikki's near-death experience due to Shawn's parents and the cult they had forged in order to collect psychics and their life forces to combine for their evil uses, it had been a while before Nikki had been willing to go over the events that had transpired from that night. Her freezing figure suffocating in the darkness of the cavern beneath his family tomb still haunted Shawn in his deepest subconscious. But when she'd finally agreed to recount her experience to her father, the other Ghostbusters and Shawn who was being newly introduced to the team, what she'd described of her brief time in the afterlife had surprised even Shawn.
She'd described a place so serene and peaceful, a field of all places, where she'd been on the verge of eternal slumber. She explained that if it hadn't been for Shawn's voice prodding her to come back, she might've opted to remain there in the sun-warmed grasses and quiet breeze forever. Shawn, in his newly recovered living body, had felt her spiritual presence drifting away and had thankfully sensed enough of their connection to call her back to the living realm. That had been the basis of their emotional bond, and Ray and Egon had been bewildered at hearing of how that bond had been established. Many later days of experiments had proved the existence of that bond, which still to this day continued to baffle the Ghostbusters.
"…I just kept getting the sense that I wasn't alone. But when I went looking for who I could sense there…" Nikki murmured with a hint of dread. She lifted her head from his chest and looked up at Shawn with a serious light in her expression. "…butterflies."
"Why butterflies?" He asked gently. Nikki's dark eyes went distant for a moment and when she looked at him again, her familiar humor had begun to return. One corner of her small mouth lifted into a smirk and she shrugged, letting her arms loosen from around his torso.
"I don't know. I mean…there was a butterfly bush there under a tree, but they must have been swarmed in a nest of some kind deep inside it because I didn't see them at first."
"Huh." Shawn murmured thoughtfully, not even bothering to mention that butterflies didn't nest. "That is really weird. And they attacked you?"
"Yeah. They were…everywhere." She replied softly. Shawn had seen her terror firsthand upon her violent awakening from her deep sleep. She had flailed and fought desperately, and Shawn tried to picture just how many swarmed butterflies would've had to be present to cause her to react that way.
"Wonder what's in store for us this week, based on that. Maybe a ghost butterfly catcher?" He quipped lightly, nudging her playfully. Her mouth twitched with a hint of her bright smile and she let herself relax a bit in his arms. He stifled a yawn. "We'll tell Egon to work on some proton nets though, just in case."
"That actually sounds like a really useful idea," She snickered tiredly. "You'd better patent that."
"Well isn't this a nice surprise!" Rachel Morgan's voice startled Nikki and Shawn upon her arrival from her lunchbreak. She found the couple huddled over a small stack of boxes in the back storage room, the absence of customers driving them to sort through the remaining bits of Ray's original decorum and knickknacks out of their boredom. "You've got the boyfriend being useful for a change!"
"Figured he ought to earn his keep around me." Nikki joked as she stood up and stretched her back. Shawn remained where he was, cross-legged on the floor with a large cylinder canteen in his lap and a rag for dusting in his hand. He offered a polite smile up to the shop owner and resumed his dusting.
"She wanted a bodyguard to walk her home today," He clarified, giving Nikki a knowing look. He twisted the canteen around as he scrubbed the worst of the dust off of it, revealing a bronze shine underneath. Nikki rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips as he let out an amused chuckle. "I'm sure she told you about her adventure yesterday afternoon."
"She did, and I was threatening to drive her home myself until she reassured me you were coming in to help her pack up some more junk." Rachel smirked, dropping her purse in the filing cabinet just inside the curtain that separated the back room from the front of the shop. "What even is that thing?"
Shawn lifted the cylinder from his lap in order to get at the bottom of it and he ran his already dust-clogged rag over the surface of it. Nikki intervened and turned to Rachel with a bright eyed scholarly expression.
"I'm glad you asked. It's a lamp belonging to an ancient djinn from Early Egypt. From about 2700 BC, I'd guess. So you'd probably not rub it like that, Shawn…"
Shawn dropped the canteen to his lap after swirling the dust rag all over its surface. He looked up at Nikki with quizzical horror and she shook her head in humorous denial.
"I'm kidding. Dad wouldn't have left it here unprotected if it still contained the djinn. It's just the lamp. Good conversation piece though, that was the last comment he wrote on the tag." Nikki stooped and picked up the now dust-free djinn lamp and tugged lightly on a small string and tag that had been secured in the lid of the lamp. She moved to untwist the lid and open it and Rachel darted forward to put a hand on top of Nikki's.
"Woah girl…let's leave that thing closed until it leaves the shop. Insurance wouldn't cover the damage an ancient mystical being could do in here, you know."
Nikki grinned at her and removed her hand from the lid to appease the shop owner. She tossed it back down to Shawn who caught the lamp easily and placed it in the corner of the nearest box.
"We've gotten a bunch more packed up since you've been gone," Nikki relayed, gesturing to the stack of boxes piled up by Shawn. "He was supposed to be here earlier but he had to go on a call early this morning with the guys. Some ghost fish at the seafood place across town."
"Is that what that smell is? I thought you'd opened up another one of those jars again," Rachel said, her nose crinkling over-exaggeratedly. Nikki patted the nearest box, which was indeed, packed with jars full of unidentified shapes and liquids. She smiled sheepishly and glanced over at Shawn who had comically raised his arm to sniff himself.
"Hey, at least I changed out of my jumpsuit. It wasn't even the ghost, it was just the smell of the place…it just clung to us…we're having to air out the Ecto-1 for the rest of the day, provided there are no more emergency calls." Shawn cringed, his own nose twitching in remembrance.
"And Dad's still okay with the plan for this afternoon? I dropped Ally a message this morning first thing, but she hasn't called me back yet." Nikki said conversationally as she flipped through some old photo albums containing ghosts and supposed ghost sightings that some mid-century enthusiast had put together. Shawn wiped a smidge of sweat from his forehead before he moved to his knees and closed one of the box's flaps over its full contents.
"Yeah, he seemed really relieved that you were allowing me to go with you. It's not good for you to do these types of things alone, ya know." He playfully scolded her, though there was a twinge of real concern in his voice. Nikki smiled knowingly, glancing down at her palm holding the large photo album open. Her normal-looking hands seemed to hold the source of her mysterious psychic gift and she'd grown to develop it and somewhat control her limits under the Ghostbusters' supervision over the past few years. She had come to relentingly admit that sometimes, crossing over a ghost of a particular strength really took its toll on her. And it wasn't always easy to decipher each ghost's strength by first approach, hence the necessity for backup.
"Well, she did say it's just the ghost of her deceased mother. And she's been hanging around her for a while now apparently, so she can't be too hostile. It shouldn't be too difficult of a visit." Nikki suspected, snapping the album shut and handing it over to Shawn who shuffled a few more things around the next box in order to fit it in.
"You're crossing over some poor girl's mother?!" Rachel's voice whined. Nikki and Shawn looked up from their work to find the shop's owner had moved back to the front of the store but that she had clearly been eavesdropping for lack of better things to occupy herself in the quiet bookshop. Nikki straightened herself and offered the blonde-haired woman an apologetic shrug.
"Well, not for certain, but maybe?" Nikki winced under Rachel's accusatory stare. "This girl I met on my birthday learned I was part of the Ghostbusters and when I told her about my abilities and the possibility at a more humane route of dispatching ghosts, she told me about how her mom had been haunting her for years since she died. She wants help in crossing her over…if she'll go willingly, that is."
"And with everything that's happened in the past week…" Shawn explained with a half-wince. "It's kinda been on the back burner."
Rachel studied the young couple sternly, her eyebrows pinched together with concern. Her hot-pink lips twitched nervously as she clearly struggled with how to word her thoughts on ghosts and their intended disposal of one. Nikki, sensing the older girl's internal controversy, held a hand out toward her in an effort to steady her.
"I'm doing it as a favor to her," Nikki assured her quietly. "If I was in the same boat, I wouldn't want my mom or dad to be hanging around worrying me for all eternity…"
Rachel's expression seemed to lessen at that last comment and when Nikki ended it with an awkward chuckle to lighten the dismal tone of her words, the shop owner smiled in agreement. She eventually nodded, hanging her head and picking uncomfortably at the uneven ends of her bleach-blonde hair.
"Yeah…I guess I wouldn't want that either. My mom was overbearing when I lived with her, I can't imagine what it'd be like having her stuck in the house with me all day, every day."
Nikki nodded remorsefully and then turned back to Shawn who had stood up and was organizing the boxes into a pile of what they would haul back to the firehouse. He caught her sympathetic eye and she sent a mixture of apology followed by supportive love drifting through their emotional bond from her to him. His parents had used and abused him even after their actions had doomed them all to an afterlife of evil, and she knew he was sometimes sensitive to mentions of bad parenting. She was relieved when he smiled and shrugged off her visible concern.
"You two done for today?" Rachel broke the silence, seeing that they were apparently finished with their packing and organizing for the afternoon. Nikki stepped over to the curtained doorway and glanced at the grandfather clock, deeming her six hours, two spent in hard-working through oddities with Shawn, enough for the day. She nodded at Rachel, who reached for her own personal romance novel where she kept it on the desk. "Well it's been fun, you two. Let me know if you'd like to come in any time this weekend. I'm sure there are plenty more things for you to sift through back there."
"Thanks Rachel," Nikki murmured as she ducked through the curtain and enveloped the older girl in a fond hug. "If you need some backup tomorrow, just let me know. There are a few calls I've got to manage for the guys even though tomorrow's Saturday, but weekends tend to be busier you know. Plus, we've gotta get our routines back up again…there's a lot of messages from lots of desperate people."
"Sure, sure…" Rachel laughed, seeing right through Nikki's already stressing façade. "Don't let your work become your life though! Make sure you take some time for you, weekend or not."
Nikki smiled appreciatively, mentally vowing that she'd try her best to give her former employer a good last few days' work over the next week as she worked her notice. Shawn handed her the lighter of the three boxes, taking two piled on top of each other for himself. She rolled her eyes as he hefted the pair of boxes into his arms, causing his arms to strain and what little muscles he had to flex under the sleeves of his grey t-shirt.
"Oh please," She griped in halfhearted amusement. Shawn's face broke into a childish grin as he followed her through the front of the shop and out the front door.
"It's all that Ghostbusting you've roped me into!" He called after her comically. "If you'd have just left me alone as a ghost, I wouldn't have such a good figure!"