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[gone_byebye]

The door into the Firehouse from the alley opens, and there is a tiny, tiny sound:

"Oooow."

"DR. STANTZ! ARE YOU OKAY?" cries Janine, who's been at her desk since 8:30 this morning. "We were all worried about-"

"Janine, if you ever placed any kind of value at all on my life or sanity, please crank your volume down about twenty notches, okay?"

Which would be fine, except:

"WURF WURF WURF WURF WURF-"

"ohgodFrancisplease, quiet, quiet boy..."

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[gone_byebye]

If you were to have a look in the Random House Illustrated Dictionary under 'agonized', the picture would rather resemble Ray's current facial expression. "Hi April," he manages as the robot dog runs up to him, WHURF WHURF WHURFing. "Migraine."

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April's mouth snaps shut and she nods, and then... doesn't know what to do. So she just stands there in the oversized men's pajamas, looking a little unsure of herself.

"Are you okay other than that?" she asks softly.

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Ray does his best to nod without moving his head. This is a thoroughly comical sight. "Oh yeah. All systems go."

Janine steps away from the desk and over to April. "Don't listen to him," she advises. "He'd say he was okay if a demon had bitten half his leg off. Ask him about that sometime." With that, she turns to face her employer. "Ray, what happened? And no handwaving this time."

"I had to work a powerful high-mana artifact while it undid one of the wards around that stupid clock, and I didn't have any PKE reserves for it to draw on. I don't know what it took, just that it was worse last night."

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April winces at the thought of Ray losing quite a bit of leg to a demon. But that's not the point here.

The point is she's trying not to get loud, because...

"You... you did it?" she asks breathlessly. "The bar's still there?"

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"Yeah. We're good. Janine, do we have any Bextra in the house?"

"Not since you took Dr. Venkman's chemistry set away.

"Damn."

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And we now have a very relieved April on our hands. She relaxes quite a bit, and her nearly-perpetual smile is back in place. She feels awful for Ray, being in so much... pain on cellular levels and all, but she's happy.

He's okay, the bar's okay, and that's what matters.

"Anything I can do to help?" she asks, looking from Janine to Ray. Yes, she's offering to help in pajamas.

Striped ones.

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"That depends. Would you be willing to take my lightsaber and run it through my eye a couple of times for me? It would hurt less."

"No," says Janine firmly.

"Just wiggle it around a couple of times?"

"No."

Ray sighs.

"Honey," says Janine, turning to April, "if I know Ray here at all, the best way we can help is by making breakfast. Bet you a dollar he hasn't eaten since all this started."

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April nods, bouncing a little and grinning. "Breakfast I can do. Eggs, bacon, pancakes, french toast?" she raises her eyebrows questioningly.

She's not the best cook in the world, but she's pretty good at breakfast foods.

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"Bacon is good," Ray mutters. "So's pancakes."

"I'll get the juice," Janine says. "And call the guys and let them know you're okay."

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So April finds herself in the kitchen, glad that they're well-stocked (and have Bisquick, as she can't for the life of her remember how to make batter from scratch), making pancakes and bacon and toast and eggs (just in case). At any rate, she'll eat the eggs, even if Ray doesn't.

Should anyone wander past the kitchen as she cooks, or come in, we'll point out (not that Ray'll notice or care, but because the typist finds it adorable) that she's gotten ahold of a walkman and has headphones on, listening to some tape or another, humming and dancing a little as she cooks. Awww....

So, 20 minutes later, Ray's got a plate all prepared and April sticks her head out of the kitchen, headphones dangling around her neck. "Hey, Ray?" she calls (quietly, so as not to make the Supersonic Migrane From Hell (tm) worse). "Breakfast's ready."

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"Oh, good," Ray says, glancing up with a wobbly smile. "Slimer, you can come out now."

The little green blob slips through the crack between a nearby door and its frame, burbling cheerfully. It's trying to keep a low volume, but come ON! There's FOOD! There's-

"You can have Peter's Cocoa Puffs," Ray says, indicating the kitchen closet. "I'll replace them later." As the green ghost shoots off for the closet, flailing with joy, Ray turns back to April. "I hope he didn't give you too much trouble."

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April smiles and shakes her head. "No, he didn't bug me at all. Watched me surreptitiously a couple of times, but other than that..." she shrugs. "It was quiet. Oh, and remind me to leave a thank-you note for... whoever owns these pajamas." She finishes a little sheepishly.

She can't for the life of her remember the guy's name.

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Ray casts an eye at the pajamas. "Those are Winston's. The black guy? Winston Zeddmore. He's the only normal one here," he mumbles as he reaches for his coffee. "Joined the team after the fact, when things got too busy for the three of us to handle. Really nice guy, though."

The coffee demands all of his attention for a little bit, but eventually he says, "Did you sleep okay? I know Egon's snores go through the wall sometimes..."

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"Winston." April repeats to herself. "Got it. Yeah, he was real sweet last night, got me all settled, let me borrow his PJs."

She serves herself some eggs and toast, and nibbles as Ray nurses his coffee. "Oh, I slept fine, once I got my brain to stop running at a hundred miles a minute." she grins and points to the headphones. "Snores bother me not."

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"That's him, all right."

He's going to give some of that bacon a shot now. THat should be easy enough to handle.

"Oh, good. Glad to hear it. Did you want to hang around the city today, or...?"

[fallen-april.livejournal.com]

April looks thoughtful. It'd be nice to visit a couple of places... Washington Square Park, Alphabet City, the Life...

"Yeah, I think so. Let you get a little rest, I'll go wandering, be back here by dinner." She looks really excited at the prospect. "I don't suppose y'all have any sketchbooks and pencils around here..."

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"Only a couple of really small ones," Ray admits. "If you want anything decent I'll loan you a couple of bucks and my MetroCard. There's an art supply place on Canal up near Broadway. Pearl Paints, but they sell paper and pencils too."

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"Yeah, I know it, that's where I used to get most of my stuff." Because while buying from little indie shops is good in theory, it was cheaper to go somewhere like that.

She hesitates. "You really don't have to give me anything. I mean... I can't exactly pay you back."

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"Don't worry about it," Ray says. "The Metrocard's a monthly all-you-can-ride pass anyway." As a cereal-festooned Slimer bobbles out of the closet he adds, "Consider it a deposit in the good karma account. I could use some."

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April thinks about arguing... but doesn't. Partially it's a survival instinct - bohemians learn not to turn down offers of food/shelter/money/free stuff too passionately. But mostly it's just that...

Well, if it was her offering to help out, she'd want him to take what she was offering.

"Yeah, well, it seems like it." she says. "Okay, a couple of bucks and a Metrocard, and I'll be back... six-ish?"

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"Works for me," Ray says. He fishes his duct-tape wallet out of one of his pockets and finds the Metrocard, then extracts a number of bills. "I'll be here then, even if I've gone to the Bar. That no-time-passing thing comes in handy sometimes."

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"Yeah, so I hear." April says with a bit of a wry smile. She wouldn't know. "Thanks, Ray." She takes the money and the Metrocard and, after a moment's hesitation, wondering whether or not it would be... inapropos, throws caution to the wind and treats him just like she treated the guys in the loft (who weren't Roger), dropping a sisterly kiss on the top of his head. "I'm gonna go get dressed, you need anything?"

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Inappropriate? Nah. Ray tends to have that effect on women, if he hasn't scared them away. He smiles a little himself. "No, I"m fine. I'm gonna finish eating and take a few more painkillers, then go lie down in the darkroom."

(And the player's gonna go to the bank RL.)

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"Okay, I'll see you tonight. Sleep well." And April's out of the kitchen in on a breeze and a high of being home, if only for a day.

She'll have plenty of fun and plenty of sketches by the time the day's over.

(Works for me! Have... fun? I'll return to my book-reviewing)