Birth and Rebirth

In the warehouse, Peter and Ray walked at a discreet distance behind Jake, who was carrying his wife outside. When they emerged from the building, the cheers began anew. Jake’s mood was still somber, and he barely heard the shouts of congratulations. He took Jessica over to the paramedics. They asked him what her condition was.

“I don’t know. She hasn’t woken up.”

Peter clapped him on the back good-naturedly. “Hey, if I had to look that closely at Godzilla wearing a giant octopus hat, I’d be out too.”

“She’s had too much excitement, Mr. Kong. We’re going to take her to the hospital. You can ride with us.” The EMT glanced briefly up at Jake. “We’ll take a look at your head too, sir. Make sure your nosebleed isn’t due to brain trauma.”

“My nose?” Jake touched his nose, but quickly recoiled from the stab of pain. Upon examining his fingers, he realized that his nose was indeed bleeding. “Oh.”

“You hurt?” Peter asked, worry in his features.

“No, Pete. My nose was twitching on overdrive. I’ve never been around anything as powerful as Cthulhu before.”

Peter nodded. He decided to try to keep Jake’s mind preoccupied. “You know, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. How the hell do you know when your nose is twitching that it’s not just hay fever or a cold or something?”

Jake scoffed a bit, but was grateful for Peter’s obvious attempt at distracting him. “I’m 31 years old, Peter. I have figured out how to tell the difference.” Jake never took his eyes off the EMTs as they secured his wife for transport. “And by the way, very smooth, Dr. Venkman. My head barely noticed it was being shrunk.”

Peter smirked in amusement and nudged Jake toward the open back door of the ambulance. “Aww shucks! I must be losing my touch!”

Jake’s eyes were serious as he replied. “Nt alt all. Thank you, Peter.” He then got into the ambulance. Once Jessica was strapped securely onto the gurney, the EMTs lifted her with practiced efficiency, and loaded her in behind him. They immediately raced off towards Columbia. The remaining Ghostbusters, Alice, Futura, Janine, and Tom loaded into Ecto-1 and Janine’s car to follow after them.

Most of the police took the cultists back to the station, but Frump followed the Ghostbusters to the hospital. ‘I still need their statements after all.’ He told himself this, but the truth was he wanted to know that Jessie Kong would be all right.