Shopping. *DUNH DUN DUNNNNNH*

[gone_byebye]

... all right, maybe not.

*ahem*

Ray emerges from the bar with April O'Neill in tow, heading along at that peculiar walk one assumes when one is thisclose to running but doesn't want to leave someone else behind. "She's right over there- see? Bonnie's been working on her, I've been working on her, it's been an amazing project- just be careful, Bonnie says she's not completely dry yet and I'd kind of like to be the first one to put a hand on her- anyway, this is her. Ecto-1..."

[Summary: Ray shows off Ecto to April, takes her back to his New York, acquaints her with Louis Tully's creepy product endorsements, and they head downtown to buy Ray a decent suit at Brooks Brothers for his high school reunion. There is also some breaky because the Brooks Brothers store in question is across the street from where the Twin Towers used to be.]

Comments

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April emitted a squeal of delight when the car came into view. She ran over to the vehicle and circled it once before turning her face back to Ray, grinning.

"Fantastic. Just amazing."

[gone_byebye]

Ray's smile was nearly as broad as the front bumper. "Isn't she, though? 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor rear loader, V-12 engine, every last part replaced at least twice by this stage... it is going to be sweet to finally get her going again. There's just one thing I haven't done yet."

He moved forward a few steps, wiping his left hand on his shirt; then, very carefully, he leaned over and rested the palm of his hand on the center of her hood.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April arched a brow, watching Ray. "Communing with the car, or saying a prayer?" she chuckled. "Or, maybe just closing the hood?"

[gone_byebye]

"Testing, actually," Ray said absently. "The hood had to be completely reworked to make room for the engine modifications. Plus, she's just been sprayed down with MBS and I wanted to do a temperature check. And since I don't have a contact thermometer on me..."

He shrugged, straightening up. "We're good. Let me get that door for you, unless you wanted to sit in the back or something?"

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"No, I'll ride up front, thanks," April laughed. "And what a gentleman." She slid into the passenger's seat, gazing in rapt awe at all the gadgetry inside. "So how do we get back to New York in the car?" she asked, fastening her seatbelt. "Do you have some sort of portal or something?" Obviously, they weren't going through the front door. At least, not the normal way.

[gone_byebye]

Ray held the door for April, closing it behind her before scurrying around to get into the driver's seat. "Well, I haven't got the details, exactly," he said as he started flipping switches. "But from what I understand, driving through that back door right there and across the open space of the Bar should do the trick. I mean, I drove her in from out in front, after all."

"Music? There's some CDs in the- no, not the glove box any more, I forgot, we put the CPU in there. Well, they're around here somewhere..."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April laughed brightly. "Really, I'm fine without the music. I am plenty entertained just by being here, I assure you." She settled herself against the seat, fingers curled over the edge beside her thighs in anticipation.

"I almost feel like Marty McFly," she grinned. "We don't have to get up to 88 miles per hour, do we?" she teased.

[gone_byebye]

"Nah," said Ray. "Probably for the best that we don't, actually. I got Ecto here by passing through the Jersey entrance to the Holland Tunnel. I don't think you want to see what happens in the tunnel if we come out of there doing 88. Besides, no flux capacitor. Although I am working on the Mr. Fusion."

He cracked several of his knuckles, smiled a very quiet smile, and turned the key. "Sit back," he said as the engine roared into twelve cylinder life, "and hold on tight- New York City, here we come."

He released the parking brake and brought his foot down on the gas.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Why does that not surprise me?" she laughed, in response to the comment about Mr. Fusion.

April bit against her bottom lip, fingers white-knuckled against the edge of the seat as the car lept forward. The idea occured to her that she was preparing to travel through time and space with a Ghostbuster.

It tickled her down to her toes.

[gone_byebye]

Good, because the next part involved driving through the suddenly-open back door, into the actual main room of Milliways, past the people, straight at the front door-

*THUNK. THUNK. thunk. thunk.*

- and into the weirdly unhealthy-looking lighting of one of the longest tunnels to cross the Hudson River.

"Made it," said Ray with some satisfaction, happily easing back in the seat. The engine was purring like a kitten, the reflectors set into the tunnel's asphalt thunking away all but unnoticed, and forty miles an hour was no problem at all with the bare handful of other vehicles in the tunnel with them. "Welcome to my world, April. Such as it is."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April's head whipped around to look out the back window and behind them, but all that was there was tunnel. She grinned, turning back around in her seat. "That was painless," she remarked, and leaned forward to gaze up and out of the windsheild.

"Looks the same. Well, except for you, of course," she smirked.

[gone_byebye]

"Beats the heck out of my original transit back to New York, yeah," Ray said. "And it's early in the day, too. I left New York around ten in the morning so that I wouldn't have to contend with Canal Street traffic backing up into the tunnel- ugh, what a nightmare. Oh, there's something you should be aware of about the way things stand in my time..."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Which is?" April asked, arching a brow as she swept her unruly hair from her face.

[gone_byebye]

"The billboards. Brace yourself."

As the car shot out of the tunnel and into the roundabout that separated Tribeca from the rest of Manhattan, the subject in question came into view.

Louis Tully was doing product endorsements. Big-time.

Some people shouldn't be allowed to advertise eyeglass frames.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

A meep of surprise flew from April's lips before she covered her mouth with her hand, giggling.

"Oh my. Well, he certainly used that publicity to his advantage, didn't he?" she laughed.

[gone_byebye]

"It really only gets worse. There's an ad on the building across the street from the firehouse- two words. Keymaster. Cologne."

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you're kidding me," April replied, gaping. "Please tell me you're kidding me."

[gone_byebye]

"I wish like hell I was," Ray said as the car rounded the corner of North Moore street. And sure enough, there on the building that had borne an ad for Stay-Puft Marshmallows in the movie... 'Unleash your inner terror dog!' and all.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"What does it smell like, dog breath?" April laughed, staring up at the ad through the glass. "No, wait, I know. Dog breath and roasted marshmallows, right?"

[gone_byebye]

"I would sooner gnaw off my own arm and eat it with badly-made Hollandaise sauce than find out, April. No offense or anything, but Tully's turned out to be kind of a creep now that he's got money." He eased off on the gas as the street briefly went to cobblestones. "And here..."

... was the Firehouse.

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April snickered. "Oh, c'mon. A woman can't resists a man that smells like dog breath, Ray, didn't you know?"

Any further ribbing was cut short, however, as April gasped at the Firehouse. It didn't look all that much different from any other firehouse, really, except...

The sign.

She could have exploded with glee.

[gone_byebye]

Ray just smiled quietly and brought the car to a complete stop.

[OOC: 2 AM-ish at the moment. Shall we pause for the evening and go shopping tomorrow? stupid Eastern Standard Time...]

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

"You must realize that inside I am squealing like a preteen at a Beatles concert," April remarked, giving Ray a sideways glance and a smile.

"Seriously."

[gone_byebye]

"I'm still getting used to that, to be honest," Ray said. "It's one thing to have fans in my own world, but being known so darn many places... that's a little overwhelming for a guy like me. Venkman, yeah, he's cool with it, but that's him, you know?'

[the-damsel.livejournal.com]

April chuckled at that, because yes, she knew. Peter did not seem to be shy of the limelight.

"Well, I promise I won't start screaming uncontrollably or crying or anything," she said, grinning.