"How did it go?" Ray greeted the young couple as soon as they entered the firehouse. He was seated behind the secretary desk computer, his reading glasses perched on the end of his nose as he surveyed the rest of the week's schedule according to Nikki's organization.
"Easy peasy," Nikki chided as she shut the door behind her, welcoming the cool air-conditioned building after their lengthy late-afternoon taxi ride from Ally and Mitchell's apartment. She trailed a finger along the Ecto-1, blanching at the grime that had gathered on its iconic white paint job. She sighed as she rounded the car and wiped her hand on the back of Shawn's t-shirt. He playfully slapped her hand away and bounded off to the staircase leading up to the lab where what sounded like Peter's yodeling drawls sang along to a radio as he presumably pretended to work on whatever task Egon or Ray had set him on. Nikki scoffed at the casual weirdness that constantly went on in the Ghostbusters' firehouse and then fell lazily into the adjacent chair across from where her father sat at the desk. "Her daughter was relieved. This ghost woman had been hovering for quite a while."
Ray gave her an understandingly weary smile over the computer. His eyes ran over her tired expression and she held his gaze levelly for a moment before she placed a small takeaway container on the desk beside his hand where it clutched the computer mouse. He curiously glanced down and lifted an eyebrow in question.
"Want some ghost-baked cookies? They're supernaturally delicious." Nikki joked lightly. Ray removed his glasses and threw a look over his shoulder where Peter's so-called singing had been halted by Shawn's presence urging him to actually focus on his work upstairs. Ray then reached hungrily for the container where he popped the lid and grabbed a chocolate chip cookie to stuff into his mouth lightning fast.
"Wow, you weren't kiddin'." He commented, savoring the half-cookie he'd engulfed in one bite. His eyes closed in relish. "You don't know how long it's been since I've had a homemade cookie like this."
"That's why I figured I'd share." Nikki laughed quietly. "Ally said her mother made them a home-cooked meal and dessert every night after she died. I know they're gonna miss that…"
Ray finished his cookie and reached for another one. He closed the lid of the container and nudged it back towards Nikki, fixing her with a melancholy look as he took another savoring bite.
"Amazing they'd want to let that go, but also uplifting that she cared enough about her mother to want to see her at peace." Ray remarked quietly. Nikki nodded in acceptance, her eyelids still heavy from the cross over despite the several sugar-filled cookies she'd inhaled while conversing with Ally and Mitchell afterward.
"I can't imagine what it was like for her…" Nikki murmured. Ray chewed his cookie in quiet consideration.
"The ghost?" He asked, not following her thought. Nikki shook her head and pulled her leg up in the chair beneath her, sitting on it with a tired sigh.
"No…Ally. And Mitchell, for that matter. They can both see ghosts, and they both knew this one very personally. How hard must that have really been for them?" Nikki voiced her thoughts aloud. Ray stopped chewing and frowned at her, warning sirens almost physically present in his hesitant expression. Nikki ignored him in favor of picking absently at her hands. "…I can't imagine what it would be like if I ever had to cross a family member over…I don't think I could do it."
"Nikki," Ray's voice pulled her out of her dwelling thoughts. She slowly lifted her weary gaze up to his stern one and breathed another sigh at the lecture evident in his features. He gently set his half-eaten second cookie down on a nearby paper and leaned forward, tilting his head in scrutiny. "Did you just say that both of these people were able to see ghosts? Like, See ghosts?"
"Yes, we talked all about it. That's how they met, actually. Ally told me all about it afterward. She had been following a ghost and bumped into Mitchell who was following it too. It sounded kinda crazy at first, a little too cliché ya know, but I think it's sweet. Means people with similar gifts really can find each other. I mean, look at how Shawn and I came together…"
"That was a totally different scenario, honey. And it could've really turned out for the worse…had he not grown a conscience…or come back to life in some weird psychically enhanced twist…" Ray said, his frown deepening. He patted the desk to get Nikki's drifting attention. "But Nikki, don't you think it's odd that you're stumbling onto these people gifted with similar psychic abilities all of a sudden? I mean, why now?"
"I don't know Dad, but honestly I'm kinda relieved. Maybe we can recruit them too! I don't know if they can do what Mark and I can do, but maybe we can run some tests with all of us here together? See if we can strengthen each other, you know, share the workload and whatnot." Nikki's eyes brightened with anticipated excitement. She waved a hand in front of her clearly exhausted self. "Hey, maybe that can help reduce the after-effects of crossings–"
"Slow down," Ray cautioned her halfheartedly. She settled back in the chair, placing her hands in her lap patiently, though her excited smile remained. Nikki shifted her gaze to the cookie container, drifting away in her thoughts.
"There's a connection, I'm realizing that now," She murmured softly. Her eyebrows pinched together as she fidgeted with the hem of her shorts on her thigh. "That's why I wanted Shawn with me today. He's a good judge of character, you know."
Ray stifled an ironic bark of laughter and cleared his throat. He nodded and popped the lid off of the container to snatch up one more cookie before snapping it closed again. Nikki's distant gaze drifted back into focus as she directed a smug look in her father's direction while he guiltily bit into his third cookie. She raised an eyebrow at him and he rolled his eyes.
"Now, his character judgement may be a little naïve in your eyes, Dad, but I trust him. You know what he did for me – for us. He's grown up a lot since then." She gently scolded him. Ray hung his head wearily as he bit once more into his cookie.
"No more manipulating damsels and serving his ghostly parents anymore, you mean." Winston's voice startled them both as he emerged from the storage closet just by the stairs to the basement. Nikki pursed her lips, still leaning casually back in her chair with a slightly amused expression on her face.
"Exactly. Pretty sure all that's out of his system." Nikki replied icily. Though she knew the guys chose to joke about the traumatic experience to make light of the living horror movie they had all been involved with, she couldn't hide the shiver that went through her at the recurring drawback to the first week she'd been back in New York with her father. She'd met Shawn for the first time at the coffee shop down the street, but in reality she'd really first met him at the first Ghostbusters' call she'd been allowed to witness – some poor unfortunate guy's backyard swimming pool, haunted by the glowing green ghastliness of the ghost cult headed up by Shawn's parents. As their slave, he had attacked Nikki as a ploy to warn off the Ghostbusters but had accidentally exposed her psychic power to the cult and made her that much more desirable for their hunger.
"I'm glad you're letting him tag along with you," Ray's voice stirred her from her brief reflection. She blinked up at him and smiled with a nod, about to respond but her father swiveled around in the rolling desk chair to face Winston as he continued a little louder. "I know you're embarrassed of your old dad and his friends these days."
"I'd never be embarrassed of you –" Nikki called after him in contradiction. She snapped her mouth closed as, almost on cue, the radio volume from the second floor of the firehouse erupted to a deafening pitch. A blaring harmonica whined throughout the building and Nikki's hands reflexively reached up to clamp over her ears in an attempt to soften the music. Ray lazily half turned in his chair, his expression mirroring Winston's look of wondering shock for a few seconds before they both burst into song along with two other voices from upstairs.
"Everyyyybody…needs somebody…Everyyyybody…needs somebody to love…"
Nikki lowered her hands with a deadpanned look, trying to hide her amusement and joy at seeing her father and his comrades enjoying themselves. A few seconds later, Ray was up and out of the desk chair, pointing and sidestepping alongside Winston who grinned and mimed playing the drums. In the next instant, Peter's voice boomed even louder through the bottom half of the firehouse and Nikki looked up to notice that he had moved out onto the landing of the stairs miming rocking out on the saxophone along to the music. Shawn's face peered around the doorframe behind him and Nikki shared an amused headshake with her boyfriend as they observed the out-of-control middle-aged adults.
"Sometimes I feel….I feel a little sad inside…when mah baby mistreats me…I never,never,never have a place to hide, I need you!"
Peter's shrieking voice wailed throughout the large garage/office space and Nikki found herself clapping along to the song as Winston waltzed by her and towards the foot of the stairs, abandoning his air drums in favor of clapping to the beat as well. Ray stomped over to Nikki too, seeming to make it a point to test her denial at ever being embarrassed by him. Nikki shook her head and rolled her eyes lightheartedly as he mimed playing the harmonica following after Winston. When Nikki lowered her gaze back from the ceiling, she froze mid-clap and stared at the tiny figure standing against the filing cabinets behind the secretary desk.
"…Janine?" She murmured, unintelligibly over the loud, droning of the music. The figure by the cabinets jerked, startled. Janine Melnitz blinked widely behind her huge red glasses, her bright red hair still as perfect as the last day Nikki had seen her. She stared back at Nikki hesitantly, her hot pink lips pursed agape with surprise in contrast to her lavender outfit from the day she'd died. Nikki's joyous mood from a moment before clouded over with cautionary grief.
"Nikki…" Janine's mouth moved, though the girl couldn't hear her over the Ghostbusters' continuous attempts to outdo each other in their singing. Nikki made one more quick glance up the stairs where Winston and Ray had joined Peter in the middle of the staircase, all dramatically pointing and leaning to and away from each other with the music. When her gaze shifted back to Janine, she found that the secretary had moved forward a few steps to survey the desktop computer. Her face was creased with distaste as she appeared to look over the schedule Ray had been working on.
"I know it's not how you would be running things, but I'm trying. It's not like I trained under you or anything." Nikki said quietly. She glanced up as the Ghostbusters laughed together upon the song's completion. Janine pursed her lips and Nikki didn't miss the evident shine in the woman's eyes behind her glasses. "I thought you would…be around forever."
"So did I…" Janine breathed absently. Nikki casually rounded the desk and pretended to reach for the cookie container so it wouldn't appear to attract any attention from the Ghostbusters on the stairs. At her sudden movement Janine took a hurried step back, her stare shooting directly to Nikki's face, eyes wide again with fear. Nikki paused, her hand on the lid of the container. As they stared each other down warily for a moment, Nikki heard Ray call down to her, something about how he was going up to oversee something Peter had been supposedly fixing up in the lab.
"Okay!" Nikki called with a hasty wave, urging her father to move on. She tried to keep any alarm out of her voice, but knew she was a terrible liar. She gave the men a few moments' pause and when the bottom half of the firehouse grew quiet and she could hear the voices resuming at a more conversational level upstairs, she backed a step away from Janine herself, raising her hands up. "What did I do? What happened?"
Janine, the clear fear now beginning to ebb away slightly, regarded Nikki with an apologetic wince. She straightened back up, though she still kept her arms wrapped around herself as if she were freezing. Her lips twitched, revealing how nervous the former secretary was. Nikki blinked, looking the woman up and down worriedly.
"Janine…are you okay?" She asked softly. Janine looked up at her again and the ghost of the sarcastic expression she seemed to favor wafted over her face. She scoffed and shifted on her purple high heels, though the sound it should have made was muffled by whatever ghost physics were at play.
"Am I okay?" Janine repeated with a tinkling laugh. "Are you really asking me that, hun?"
Nikki shifted her stance as well, feeling slightly embarrassed. She conversed with ghosts on nearly a daily basis though with Janine, a close family friend, she seemed to be at a loss for appropriate wording.
"Okay, what I mean is…are you…you? I mean, you seem to be…just a more frightened version of the you we know. Well, I mean, anyone in your position would be…it's awful what happened–"
"Nikki." Janine's voice hushed her sharply. The girl snapped her mouth shut immediately. Janine shook her head, still clutching her thin arms across her chest. "You're rambling."
Nikki deflated, slowly sinking down onto the corner of the desk. She spared a glance both to the stairs leading to the second floor and in the direction of the basement, silently thankful that no one had come to check on her yet. She directed her sorrowful attention back to Janine, not missing the fact that the ghost secretary stiffened involuntarily at Nikki's gaze back on her.
"Are you afraid of me?" Nikki asked, blurting out the reaction she could sense clearly from the other woman. Janine blinked in surprise and then forced out a scoff of laughter.
"Nikki, shouldn't it be the other way around? I'm the ghost here…"
"You're lying," Nikki remarked, her voice level. She looked back up the stairs, hearing a bark of laughter from Winston. When she lowered her gaze back down to Janine, she let her expression form into a pleading one. "Janine, tell me what's happened…please. What are you afraid of?"
"Afraid…?" Janine breathed, her voice cracking emotionally. Nikki nodded rapidly, urging the woman to speak up. When Janine merely shook her head, her face wracked with hesitant confusion, Nikki bit her lip nervously.
"Is there something else here? Something else you've seen that's worried you? I know you were in that alley with me yesterday with that other homeless woman ghost…have you seen her again?" Nikki asked hurriedly. Janine's eyes darted across Nikki's face warily and she leaned away from the frantically prodding girl as she resumed her persistent pleads. "Janine, please…we have to know. How else can we make you safe?"
"Safe?" Janine repeated, her voice but a whisper. Nikki cautioned herself to straighten back up and get out of Janine's face. She caught the ghost secretary's brief glance at the upstairs doorway. "I feel nothing but safe here…at least, I did…"
"Did?" Nikki repeated. She frowned at Janine worriedly. "What about now?"
Janine didn't say anything, her gaze merely fell back to land on Nikki's face with a chilling look of unspoken wariness. Nikki felt the chill all the way through her own chest as realization finally hit her.
"You're scared…of the Ghostbusters? Janine, you've known us all forever! We know you! We wouldn't –"
"I know…but it's…that's not…" Janine's eyes darted to Nikki's lap and when the girl thought to trail her eye line to see what she was focusing on, Nikki instantly clenched her hands into self-conscious fists.
"You're not just scared of the Ghostbusters…" Nikki murmured, feeling her stomach twist into knots. "You're afraid of me."
Janine winced, her hot pink lips morphing into a deep frown as her eyes took on another deeper sheen behind her broad glasses. Nikki lowered her head to stare at her clenched fists, her throat tight. She'd always thought her abilities were a gift sought out by ghosts to help them…but in this case it seemed to be clearly the opposite.
"Janine…you know I would never…" Nikki choked out. She felt her eyes well up with tears at the thought of her closest friend – one of the first friends she'd made in New York at that – now being terrified of her. Was she afraid she would send her away, cross her over against her will? Or did she think Nikki would turn the Ghostbusters on her and send them blasting their proton packs after what they couldn't see wasn't a random ghost?
"I know…" Janine whispered, her jaw clenched anxiously. Her arms finally released their tight hold around her torso and she pressed one perfectly manicured hand to her head, closing her eyes in frustration like she'd been known to do when she was faced with a particularly frustrating task. Nikki herself had seen her perform that very motion many times when trying to put together a hectically busy workweek of schedules. The familiar motion distracted Nikki for only a moment before Janine finally let loose with an outburst Nikki was almost amused to hear at first. "But…I dunno…I guess when I died I didn't expect there to be so many ghosts and things hanging around…they're everywhere!"
"Well…yeah…" Nikki said, trying to keep the surprised smirk off her of her face. Janine rapidly continued to shake her head, flopping down into the desk chair Ray had previously occupied. The chair rolled a few inches backward which would've given her presence away if anyone else had been in the room.
"No…they're literally everywhere! The alley yesterday…and she was mean! Nikki, that was terrifying! And the one down in the basement…I got curious the other day and went down to see what she looked like…my God…how can you act so normal around them?!" Janine exclaimed. Nikki shrugged, but before she could respond, Janine blasted off again. "And just around the block – I've had a lot of time exploring the past few days – there was a parade of some kind of protesting ghosts! Walking all around our firehouse!"
Nikki frowned deeply, her gaze shifting to the front doors of the building. She did a double take and fully turned her head, pausing as she waited and listened for any sign of the ghost mob Janine had described. Janine waved her hand dramatically to draw Nikki's attention back.
"They're only there sometimes, but I swear, they were screaming obscenities about the Ghostbusters nonstop for like an hour. They won't get too close though, thankfully."
"That's…interesting. I've never seen anything like that before…" Nikki murmured. When she looked back at Janine, the other woman's face was equally concerned.
"They really must keep their distance when they know you and the guys are coming in or going out. But I tell ya, they're really a ragtag bunch. And around my old apartment…ugh…I never put two and two together on the noises coming from the other apartments around me…but…" She shivered. Nikki fixed her with a sympathizing look. She wanted to reach out somehow to provide comfort to her friend, but knew already that her very presence worried Janine in her vulnerable state as a ghost in the Ghostbusters' firehouse.
"I'm sorry…I know being a ghost has to be a huge difference. I really didn't think about other ghosts suddenly now being visible to you and engaging with you. But I guess that does make sense…have you talked to…?"
"No, and I don't want to! Ever!" Janine interrupted shrilly. Nikki snapped her mouth shut abruptly, taken aback.
"That's fair," She remarked with a nod, backing down from her prodding intrigue. She chewed her lip thoughtfully and then straightened herself up on the corner of the desk. "Hey listen…I can help you. You stick close to me, and we'll try to navigate this new lifestyle. If you want to stay at the firehouse, maybe there's a way you can still help us around here. Training from the grave, as it were. What do you say?"
Janine's face was creased with worry, a hand raised to her mouth where she looked to be nibbling at her fingers nervously. Her eyes regarded Nikki carefully and her gaze shifted towards the computer on the other end of the desk. She looked almost forlorn as she seemed to think over the option. She lifted her chin and looked towards the Ecto-1 where the garage doors blocked out the street outside the building. She let her hand fall away from her mouth and to her lap soundlessly as she huffed out a breath of air.
"The world's just gotten so much scarier since the accident…" Janine breathed. Nikki swallowed the lump forming in her throat, waiting patiently for Janine to continue. "I don't know…"
"…Winston? Winston, you still up here?" Egon's voice drifted up from the basement. His footfalls sounded closer and closer as he appeared to be climbing the steps. Nikki's gaze shot to Janine's face hurriedly. The former secretary squeezed her eyes shut, pain washing over her face. Nikki's heart wrenched, knowing the grief Egon had gone through with Janine's passing. It only made sense that Janine too, shared the same kind of pain being separated from him caused.
"Nikki, what's er…something wrong?" Egon's voice drifted over to her from behind the filing cabinets. He rung a greasy rag in his hands, trying to scrub off some of the grime he'd accumulated on them. His hair stuck up in a frazzled mess, signaling that he'd been hard at work in the basement for a majority of the day. Nikki looked up at him hurriedly, her eyesight grazing just over the top of Janine's red head. She froze in terror, her eyes levelly focused on Nikki's face.
"No, I'm just tired. Didn't wanna fight those stairs just yet to join everyone." She offered, joking lightly. Egon gave a curt 'humph' and his footfalls sounded closer. Nikki moved to glance over at Janine but as soon as her eyes shifted in her direction, the secretary was gone.
"Well, I hope you're not too tired to see what Winston and I have been working on building down here for your new friend." Egon said with his iconic bland-humored smirk. Nikki regarded the place where Janine had just been for a few seconds, her chest tightening. Egon must have noticed Nikki's dazed look however, and his smirk fell slightly as he cleared his throat and elaborated. "The Class Five Elemental…"
"Oh!" Nikki barked dramatically with realization. She made a show of running her hand down her face at her own stupidity, but in reality she was wiping away the few tears that had welled up in her eyes. Egon halted in his approach, his radar on high alert as he ventured into areas outside of his expertise.
"If you don't feel up to coming down to check it out, I can get Ray…" Egon redirected bluntly. Nikki shook her head and stood up from her perch on the corner of the desk, grabbing for the cookie container as she did so.
"No no, it's fine! I can come see your new addition to the Extra-Terrarium. I hope Ellie is okay down there…you haven't been pushing her too hard lately, have you?" She paused as she offered the container to Egon who took a moment to accept it from her and peer suspiciously down at its contents. Nikki shot one more final glance at the spot Janine had previously inhabited and then, blinking back her emotion, she turned back to Egon who was enjoying a cookie with upraised eyebrows at the deliciousness of the treat. He paused mid-chew as something she'd said baffled him. Nikki scoffed and nudged him jokingly with her elbow. "Ellie…the Elemental Spirit."
"Funny." Egon rolled his eyes blandly as he finally got her intended pun. Nikki smirked tiredly and followed him down to the basement hoping that her workday was nearing its end so she could rest and recover after her afternoon with Ally's mother.
"Wow…" Nikki could only think to mutter when Egon had moved out of her way upon stepping down into the basement.
The containment tank for the Class Five had clearly doubled, and was now the size of two refrigerators standing upright side by side. The ghost woman held within was able to float more freely through the larger space and at Nikki's presence, she moved closer to the side of the tank. The newest section of the unit was nearly all transparent reinforced glass, and this was the section the ghost hovered in with her hand upraised towards Nikki. The girl offered a friendly smile to the ghost and raised her hand in a brief wave in return. The woman studied Nikki's face for a long moment before blinking and tilting her head gently to the side as if in question her hollow eyes dark but scanning her dully.
"We've got a better viewing area for the ghost, though still, without your Sight, she's nothing but an always-changing blur of energy to the rest of us." Egon said conversationally, chewing through yet another cookie. He set the container down on the back of his nearby workbench and moved over to the control console by the tank's outer wall. The ghost woman tore her gaze off of Nikki to stare carefully at Egon, though any hostility she'd held in their previous tests was exchanged for an observant one as she watched Egon's movements.
"This is great!" Nikki said lightly, reaching out to touch the outside of the containment unit. Egon made a condescending 'ahem' and Nikki quickly took her hand off of the glass and he abruptly lifted his arm and wiped the slight smudge from the surface with his labcoat sleeve. Nikki held up her hands innocently and rolled her eyes with a knowing smirk.
"This will give us a chance to introduce new elements to her and see how she can manifest them and observe the quality of her adaptations. We've learned she can produce the different elements at will – we saw that with the lightning, the fire and the water. But if we command her to fight off each individual simulation of element, we can see how reactive she is."
Nikki, who had been staring at the ghost woman's face for a reaction, scoffed.
"You were counter-acting to her manifestations before though, weren't you? She might see it as a challenge and get really defensive. Do you really want to keep pushing her, Egon?"
Egon frowned at Nikki thoughtfully. She shrugged indifferently and twirled a strand of her brown hair, making an exaggerated motion of locking her mouth closed. Egon gave another humph of sour discontent at Nikki's questioning of his hard work.
"By measuring the intensity of her retaliations, we can better amp up our equipment. In case we encounter another ghost of this level of power. This tank can handle whatever she can throw at it – Ray, Winston and I have made sure." Egon droned on, puffing his chest out defensively. Nikki shifted on her feet, staring at the woman's watchful stance through the glass. She felt Nikki's eyes on her and floated a little closer, flexing her fingers in anticipation.
"I don't doubt that," Nikki murmured, silently hoping her faith in their Ghostbusting technology wasn't too wavering. Egon glanced up at the wall as if he were trying to make eye contact with the ghost and gave a curt nod. Nikki scoffed quietly under her breath as the ghost woman floated boredly in the larger vicinity of the enclosure. Nikki noticed Egon left his protective goggles abandoned on the edge of the control board as he turned to the buttons and switches and twisted a dial slowly.
The fluorescent lights from the interior of the tank dimmed greatly and the ghost woman floated back towards the center of her boundaries. Her face lifted to the ceiling, her body language showing that she was on full alert. A projection of sorts flickered onto the glass, surrounding the ghost on all sides. Lightning bolts streaked soundlessly across the surfaces of the glass, flickering on and off in random spurts and patterns. As if in response, there was a loud crack of thunder and Egon hastily switched on the forcefield of protective lasers before the ghost's retaliatory streams of lightning exploded out from her body. The woman's face was upturned towards the lightning bolts projected on the ceiling of her tank and her arms spread wide as real lightning crackled from her extended arms to meet the projections. After a few seconds, Egon nodded and switched the projection away from the lightning to a torrent of crushing waves. The whitecaps rose, crested and fell across all three clear-plated glass walls. The ghost lowered her face from where she had lifted it with clenched arms as she had produced the lightning strikes. Nikki watched as the woman looked around at the waves, her head snapping left and right rapidly, a confused look on her face.
"Egon, wait…" Nikki murmured, reaching for his arm. Egon paused, watching the repetitive waves crashing across the glass walls.
"What's she doing?" He asked her hurriedly. He seemed to reach for his goggles hesitantly but stopped as a bright combustion of flames broke out all along the ghost's body. Nikki flinched and held a hand up to cover the abrupt brightness of the flickering fire.
"She's telling you to stop!"Nikki shouted, and Egon rushed to switch on another layer of the protective laser grid instead. Nikki squinted past the light, looking through the still-crashing waves of pounding water projecting along the walls. The ghost woman was frozen in place, not at all confident with this surrounding of water. Her body flickered in and out of sight like she was trying to disappear and then her face screwed with anger. The fire brightened in intensity and flashed from her hand and across the expanse of the tank like she had thrown a baseball. A comet of flame streaked across the surface of the glass, the lasers hissing as they stopped her attack.
"She's using fire…you want her to use water though, right?" Nikki asked wonderingly. Egon nodded hastily, switching on the projection with another loop of crashing waves. The wind pushed and shoved the ocean waters and the added thunder of rain filled the room itself. Nikki looked around, seeing that the projection had spread from previously just casting onto the walls of the tank to streaking across the whole entirety of the basement. Nikki briefly looked down at her feet and felt as if she were drowning in the hurricane projected on the ground beneath her. Her knees felt like jelly and she grabbed for Egon's elbow to steady herself.
"This is the kind of force she tried to use with us at the dock…" He shouted over the crack of the thunderous waves. Nikki looked worriedly back at the ghost woman floating in the center of the containment tank and watched in awe as the woman flickered back to her normal display of herself and then peer almost directly at Egon and Nikki through the monstrous hurricane-level waves before she seemed to reach both hands out in front of her and pulled them back to herself. Nikki felt a gut-wrenching sense of vertigo as the churning waves grew even stronger and she released Egon's arm to fall forward.
"Uh…" Nikki choked out, feeling seasick. She landed on her knees, seeing the projection of the waves crashing all along the floor around her. She was about to shout for Egon to shut the tests off but her head was pounding with a migraine brought on by the instantaneous rush of light and sound. She clenched her mouth shut as if trying to prevent herself from puking, and a swimming sensation fluttered into her head. Nikki shook her head against it, realizing that like the first time, the ghost must have been trying to trigger a vision to speak to her. Under the mental strain of already having dealt with a ghost today, and her tiredness, Nikki knew if she went under, she wouldn't be able to claw herself back out.
"Nicole?" Egon's concerned voice broke through the explosion of waves and pain clouding Nikki's head. She mentally pushed against the vision crawling through her mind, insisting to the ghost that she couldn't handle it. A fireball of light broke out somewhere above her and she looked up to see that the woman was once again on fire, staring Egon down after he'd launched another layer of shocking lasers to beat her back. She seemed to feel Nikki's gaze on her though, because in the next instant, she looked back down at her. She loosened her furious demeanor as she finally seemed to realize Nikki wasn't going to fall into the vision. The flames licking up the woman's body diminished and, with a desperate look on her haggard face, she raised her hand towards Nikki. In the next instant, a crashing wave descended over in her direction by the ghost's one final effort to reach out to the girl. Nikki braced for the psychical impact, but it never came. Instead, the projection of waves calmed greatly and among the now silent waters there appeared to be a boat of some kind.
"What'd she do…?" Egon muttered thoughtfully to himself, glancing down and suddenly immersing himself in his control board as he scanned the readings of energy the ghost was manifesting. Nikki hoisted herself up from the ground, finally able to catch her breath and she peered quizzically at the boat churning through the water projected on the glass wall in front of her.
"Egon, what do you see there?" She asked distantly, not taking her eyes off of what the ghost seemed to be trying to show her. Egon muttered to himself for a few more seconds before finally looking up where she pointed.
"She transformed the projections…there's no sign of damage, but she changed it…even through the lasers…"
Nikki watched as the boat grew closer and turned slightly, revealing its name plastered on the side.
"GEN…SLO?" Nikki read off questioningly. Egon looked over at Nikki as she spoke and then seemed to follow her eyeline to see what she was seeing. After a moment, he shook his head and looked down at his control board again before throwing his gaze back up to follow Nikki's.
"What do you see there, Nikki?" He asked her to repeat. Nikki shook her head and squinted once more to read off the letters she saw on the face of the boat before it burst into flame, startling her. Clearly Egon was unable to see the ghost's projection.
"Oh! Um…wow...it's, uh…on fire now…but it looked like a boat on the water…" She said. She straightened suddenly in thought and then fixed her gaze on the ghost floating in the center of the containment tank, her demeanor greatly changed. Knowing that Nikki had refused the vision the ghost had tried to instill in her, she had instead found another way to try and communicate with her. The ghost woman's expression was neutral as she regarded Nikki patiently, and after a brief nod with upraised eyebrows, Nikki furrowed her own. "Wait…"
"Nikki? Spengler?" Ray's voice startled them both as he stepped down into the basement. Egon held up a hand to his colleague as Nikki pressed a hand to the glass. The ghost woman seemed hyperfocused on Nikki's face for a moment, looking about to speak. Nikki, though still exhausted, stared up at the woman hopefully, willing her to communicate with her.
"A boat…there was a boat…" Nikki prodded her gently. The ghost woman nodded briefly, her hollowed face remaining stoic. Nikki, recalling her vision from her first visit with the ghost remembered the flash of light and the crushing waves. "An accident…?"
"A boating accident? Could've been anything…But something traumatic enough to create…this?" Ray asked, picking up pieces of the situation playing out before him. Egon shushed him as Nikki pressed her palm against the glass, and she was taken aback by the hum and vibrating pulse of the multiple layers of lasers buzzing along the interior of the tank.
"How can I help you?" Nikki asked, hoping the ghost could understand her through the intensity of the electricity. The woman stared hard at Nikki for the longest time as if pondering her question. Her eyes bugged slightly and she looked about to speak. She lifted her hand and the air shimmered almost imperceptibly around her palm before she looked to Nikki for her reaction. Nikki shook her head in confusion and the woman patiently repeated the gesture. The air shimmer and this time a brief flash of light was emitted in the watery air above her hand.
"Nikki, be careful…she might be distracting you…" Egon said tightly. Nikki shook her head again.
"No, she's asking me for something – she's trying to tell me how to help her…" Nikki protested. Ray rested a hand on her shoulder gently.
"Honey, I know you want to help her, but not tonight. You're exhausted…and clammy. Nikki, this is too much for you right now…"
Nikki shook off her father's hand and met the ghost's gaze once more. She lifted her own hand and tried to repeat the woman's movement and that sparked a hopeful reaction from the elemental spirit. She made the motion again, causing the air to waver and then she mimed walking, thought her feet hovered several inches from the floor so instead it looked like at odd waddle. Nikki watched her once more and then shook her head against the migraine that was making it impossible to focus. She stared hard at the ghost, willing what she was trying to tell her to make sense. As her anticipation reached a crescendo, the ghost woman's face finally fell. Nikki saw the sudden disappointment in the woman's face and she patted at the glass once more with her palm, gesturing to her head where it ached from her over-worked self.
"No please, try again…I'm sorry, it's just so hard to focus…" Nikki said quickly, trying to pique the ghost's interest again. The woman spared her one final glance before shaking her head curtly and she backed away from the glass, her face hard to read as a dense fog grew around her and clouded up the tank.
"I'm sorry…I don't know what you were trying to show me…" Nikki murmured mournfully. The woman didn't reemerge from her makeshift hiding space and Nikki finally let her hand fall away from the wall of the containment unit.
"She showed her a boat going up in flames, Ray." Egon quickly relayed. Nikki turned around with a weary shrug and Ray joined Egon by the console, looking it over curiously.
"Huh. Well, that's an unexpected reaction. What'd you hit her with first, the volcano?" Ray asked Egon conversationally. Egon shook his head, nudging the dial by his hand, though not hard enough to switch the projection on.
"Lightning. Then the hurricane waves. The water got the opposite reaction from her though…" Egon mumbled thoughtfully. Nikki cast one final glance over her shoulder where the far corner of the tank enshrouded the ghost's whereabouts. She sent an apologetic thought in that direction, not really expecting a response. The misty cloud swirled in the lower section of the tank lazily and Nikki silently hoped that Ray and Egon would leave the poor ghost alone for the rest of the night. Whatever trauma she had suffered in her life, she was still affected by it. She didn't deserve to have to keep reliving it stuck in a cage, albeit a slightly larger one than she'd had to endure for the past several days.
"There you are! You ready to go grab dinner and head home? I think we've got things squared upstairs. Peter was struggling with a trap that we kept trying to tell him needed to be scrapped, but Ray was able to fix it up. For at least one more use, anyway." Shawn met her as she climbed up to the ground floor of the firehouse. Nikki nodded tiredly, too drained to even quip back about the Ghostbusters' and their hoarding tendencies.
"I offered to superglue the doors' hinges but Ray doesn't approve of anything that's not welded. So that's what Winston's working on now." Peter said blandly, taking the bait. He was perched behind his desk, a nest of empty chip bags and crumpled up paper balls cluttering up his station. Nikki shook her head with amusement and allowed Shawn to drape his arm around her shoulders.
"Eight tomorrow?" Shawn asked, jerking his chin up towards Peter as he directed Nikki's shuffling self past Peter's desk. Peter's swivel chair creaked as he rotated to watch them walk past him.
"Yeah, I guess so. You can make it nine though if you want, I wanna sleep in."
"Don't we all." Shawn scoffed. Nikki leaned over the secretary's computer before they could pass it and she quickly glanced through the schedule, grimacing.
"Nope…we'll be here at seven thirty. We've got five stops to make tomorrow, guys. Rachel won't need me tomorrow, so I'm going to make some rounds with you. We'll need all hands on deck tomorrow to keep up with all of this." Nikki found herself saying in a motherly tone. Peter vocalized his discontent with a groan and Shawn mimed a huge frown before nudging Nikki's arm jokingly.
"She's right, we can't leave everything to pile up."
"Teacher's pet." Peter shot disgustedly. Nikki straightened back up from the computer with a helpless shrug.
"Hey, at least I'm offering to help!"
"You guys off already?!" Ray hollered, having jogged back up to the main floor of the building.
"Yeah, if we're gonna be any use at all tomorrow, I've gotta get some sleep." Nikki walked back and wrapped her arms around her father in a brief squish hug before she tosseled his hair in a mimic of how he usually did her. She ducked out of his reach before he could mess up her already-frizzy hair and she flashed him a teasing smirk as she rushed back to Shawn and grabbed his arm urgently.
"Well, you'd better stay away from those nightmares then! Or else I'm cutting you off." Ray said, forcing his voice to go deeper to sound more authoritative. Nikki let her mouth fall open in over-exaggerated shock. She whirled around and pressed her other hand to her chest dramatically, looking from Shawn to her father with betrayal.
"Like I have any control over them?" She said sourly. She shook her head knowingly, gesturing at the computer and the piles of paperwork scattered all over the desk. "Besides, you can't cut me off from Ghost-busting, you guys just make a mess of it all! And by the way…don't touch that schedule again until I get here in the morning – I mean it!"
"Yes ma'am." Ray and Peter both saluted her simultaneously. Nikki had to turn away to stifle her chuckle and Shawn pushed open the firehouse door to let them both out onto the street. Thankfully, they didn't meet with any of the Ghost Mob Janine had mentioned, but that didn't stop Nikki from glancing in either direction until the cab pulled up a few moments later.