Warning

 

September 12th

Peter paced furiously, cursing at the cordless phone in his hand. "Why am on on frickin' hold AGAIN?!?"

Egon looked up from where the television which had been tuned to various news channels for over 24 hours. "Because they are very, very busy."

"All I want to do is offer some help, you know? Let them know we're willing to do whatever we can." Peter kicked at an ottoman that interfered with his pacing.

"Peter, you've already written a check to the Red Cross and all of us who could, gave blood." Ray bit his tongue, wishing he hadn't brought up what had already been a touchy issue.

Peter glared. "I still you should've just let me lie. It's not like that rule about not having sex since 1975 is still necessary or applicable."

"Look, we all want to help, Peter. That's why we took blankets and food down there and signed up on the lists they were passing around. They know where we are if they want us." Winston heroically attempted not only to change the subject but to cheer Peter up. All it accomplished was a fresh spate of curses.

"Peter, hang up the phone and put it down now."  Egon's voice held the chill of ten thousand years on a glacier. Peter kicked the ottoman again and hung up, dropping the phone on the abused piece of furniture before tossing himself onto the couch next to Egon.  The blond scientist gathered him close, offering the comfort of his body while not taking his eyes off of the screen.

All of them jumped into the air when the phone rang.  Janine won the scrimmage for it. "Ghostbusters, we believe you... Yes. Yes, they did all sign up to help. They'll be there shortly. Thank you, and may I say, your honor, I'm very proud to have you as mayor and to be a New Yorker. Bless you, too."

"Where does he want us?" Peter was pulling the zipper up to his chin while simultaneously strapping on his proton pack. The other three were doing the same while heading towards Ecto-1.

"Ground Zero."



They drove as close as they were allowed to by the  crowds of emergency vehicles and would-be volunteers before walking the rest of the way to where the two towers had once stood. As one, they stopped, trying to take in this horrific destruction.

 "Jesus Christ."

No one could be sure who said it, as they all felt the same shock, the sense of wrongness. This was not their New York City; this must be an alien land.

A fireman who looked exhausted beyond words came up to them. "Ghostbusters. We need you down there. Here's some hard hats and goggles. If your eyes start to hurt, go to triage and get them washed out." With that he turned, returning to the scene of devastation and to the work of trying to find someone to rescue.

The four men did as ordered and followed in the direction the fireman had gone, staring numbly at their surroundings. They soon saw why they had been called in. A bright, formless spirit was flying from worker to worker, hovering in front of their faces for endless seconds before moving on to the next. Several of the workers had streams of tears emerging from under the protective goggles.

"Don't hurt it." Another random firefighter, this one with some sort of rank insignia, looked up from where he was working. "We don't know what or who it is. It could've been anyone, including one of our brothers. We don't want it hurt, we just want to know what it wants."

Peter stepped forward, trying to attract the attention of the spirit. It came to him, hovered in front of him and then floated two feet away. His friends held their throwers at the ready as Peter stepped forward, following the ghost. It did a little loop in the air that looked joyous then moved another three feet away. As the Ghostbusters followed, it started to pick up speed, coming to rest at a point just out of sight of the main rescue effort. No matter where the guys moved, it didn't budge from that spot.

"My turn." Before anyone could object, Winston moved forward to where the ghost was hovering. As he drew near it sank and Winston knelt down. "Guys! I hear something!" All four threw themselves into digging, shouting for other rescue workers to come as well as shouting to whoever it was in the rubble to hang on, keep talking, help was on the way.

After what seemed an eternity, they opened enough space to see a sort of cavern in the rubble, and to hear that the voice was a woman. "Help me, I'm trapped and I don't know where my little girl is!"

One by one they entered and fanned out to search in the dark for where the voice came from. The spirit hovered behind them for a moment before floating over to a dark corner. Winston was the first one there, the others close behind. The woman was trapped by a piece of concrete but appeared to be unhurt. All four put their hands under the piece of rubble and lifted, Ray letting go long enough to grasp the woman under her armpits and pull her out before the concrete dropped again.

"My little girl, we have to find my Beth." The woman tried to stand up but the time she had spent trapped had locked her muscles and she would have fallen without Ray's assistance.

Everyone turned when they heard Winston's indrawn breath. They saw that the previously formless spirit had taken the shape of a six-year-old girl. Ray swiped at the tears in his eyes as the woman they had rescued tried to reach out for the ghost of her daughter. She collapsed into tears, moaning that she didn't want to live, that they should have left her to die.

"No, Mommy." The ghost floated closer. "Mommy, I know it's hard but you have to live. I'm with Daddy now, and we're going to stay with you and watch you."

"I want to go with you, baby." The woman couldn't hold back the sobs that shook her from head to toe.

"You have to live, mommy, because my little brother is going to be very important. You're going to meet a hero man who will love you a lot and you'll love him and you'll tell my little brother all about his big sister who takes care of him from heaven."

"Daddy, get help, I need more time." The ghost looked at a point over Peter's shoulder and he felt a piece of concrete the size of a nickel hit his arm. His tone was nervous as he said, "Guys, we need to think about leaving here."

"NO! I won't leave my child." The woman screamed, trying to break away from Ray's protective hold and sinking to a sitting position. "Bethany, come back, baby."

The ghost put her hands on her mother's cheeks, cupping her face in a loving hold. The mother brought her hands up to hold the little hands there, tears streaming as she tried to accept the unacceptable. "Mommy, forever and ever, you can put your hands like this and you'll feel me there, giving you all the love you can hold. I'll be with you, always. God just didn't want me to suffer anymore from the cancer, so he took me a little early, that's all."

There was a rumble overhead. "You've got to go now, they can't hold the walls much longer." Ray picked the woman up and started heading out of the cavern, the others following closely. Just as they would have reached the surface, the ghost called to them to stop.

"The ones who helped my daddy hold the wall want me to tell you something for them." She drifted to Ray and hugged him around his neck with her ethereal arms.  "Your mommy wants me to tell you that she and your daddy love you and always have. She says they're glad their fuzzy ray gun has turned out so well."

Ignoring their shocked looks, she turned towards Egon, floating in the air in front of him. "And your daddy said," she folded her arms and scrunched her face up, "I'm very proud of your work, son. You're a real scientist. But you can get a more accurate reading with the PKE meter if you tune the power output down two cycles."

Egon's mouth automatically said, "Yes, sir," without any guidance from his brain. Peter tugged him along as Winston pushed Ray out of the tunnel and into daylight. Just as Peter's boot cleared the entrance and they were all safe, they heard the cavern they had been in collapse. Bethany's spirit continued floating upwards, waving goodbye.

The fireman who had warned them not to hurt the spirit came running up to them and was distracted and spellbound by the sight. He crossed himself and then asked if he could take the lady to triage while the Ghostbusters cleaned themselves up. They nodded and went on their way, trying to sort out exactly what had happened.

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