Birth and Rebirth

The Firehouse – Four hours later . . .

The guys had dropped a very shaken Tom off at the Waldorf. Since then, they’d been going over the incident again and again. They were all feeling really guilty, including Eddie, who’d told Jake from the start that he shouldn’t worry about Jess. To make matters worse, Jake wasn’t talking to anyone. He had retreated into a shell of misery, sitting backwards on a folding chair, staring into nothingness. This only served to make the others feel like shit.

‘Numb,’ he thought. ‘I feel nothing. My pregnant wife is missing and I can’t feel.’ A sudden flash of her smiling face then crossed his mind, and he quickly felt his lethargy retreat behind a wall of utter despair. He unsuccessfully attempted to choke back the tears that threatened to spill over. He closed his eyes tightly in a final endeavor to quell the impending emotional display.

Janine saw him struggling to maintain control. She’d lost the battle against her own tears hours before. She calmly walked over to Jake, placing a comforting arm around his shoulders. Startled out of his desolation, he looked into her face. It was at that moment that he realized how much she resembled Jessica. They could have been sisters. “Oh God. You look so much alike.” His tears flowed freely, and he buried his face in his hands. Janine drew away from him, feeling the sting of her own tears renewed with the knowledge that she’d made him feel even worse, a feat she wouldn’t have thought possible. She sat down next to Egon who placed a reassuring arm around her and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” he whispered. “You were only trying to help.” She nodded mutely and settled more closely into his embrace, miserably watching as Eddie tried unsuccessfully to calm his best friend.

Peter watched the whole scene with a look of shock then suddenly darted to his feet and started pacing, a mask of pure determination on his face. “Egon, do we still have the number of that Alice Derleth babe?”

Egon brightened. “Certainly. You’re brilliant, Peter. Janine, you still have her number, don’t you?”

“No. I mean I might, but I don’t know where.”

“It’s in my Rolodex in the lab,” Ray interjected mildly. At the questioning looks from Egon, Peter and Winston, he blushed and cleared his throat. “Uh, we’ve corresponded from time to time since our second fight with Gozer. You know, one occultist to another.” He avoided everyone’s gaze.

Janine smirked in understanding. Ray deserved a little romance too. “Thanks, Ray.” She raced off to call Dr. Derleth. She returned a few minutes later with the message that New England’s leading occult scientist would be flying to Manhattan on the first available flight she could get.