As Ray pulled the Ecto out of the hospital's parking lot, he asked Victoria, "So, what would you like to do? I'm free all day."
"Hmm, well, I could use some real food. The food they had me eat all that time I was there wasn't all that appetizing."
Ray chuckled, "Yeah, we can do that. What are you in the mood for?"
"I'm not sure. What would you recommend for someone who's new here?"
"Well, for me, it's pizza. Chicago style all the way."
Victoria giggled, "Pizza sounds good." She scooted closer to him, placing a strand of loose hair behind her ear. Ray looked at her beautiful face and smiled, taking her hand in his.
****
Ray and Victoria made it to the dine-in pizza place on Columbus Ave. called UNO Pizzeria & Grill. They wanted time to themselves, so Ray ordered their pizza to go.
He parked the car around the corner, and they shared a medium box of deep-dish pizza with chunky tomato sauce, large amounts of cheese, and lots of pepperoni.
The pizzeria gave them paper plates and enough napkins for a calmer mind for a messy eat in the Ecto-1. The two sat facing each other with the pizza box between them.
Ray started the conversation, "So, that other day when I was talking with Pete, he brought up the fact that two months' vacation usually means something happened. I don't want to pry or anything. I'm just curious about what happened."
Victoria sat her pizza back on her plate and took a breath. "Five months ago, I lost my job as a retailer. I worked at this place; I don't really want to say the name of it...."
"That's fine. You don't have to. You can tell me whatever feels comfortable," Ray told her.
She nodded slowly in understanding, then continued. "I worked at this place for over eight years when they decided to let me go. I mean, they never even gave me a second thought to climbing that ladder to the top. It's like I was just old boring trash." She took another deep breath; she did not want to return to that dark place of emotion. "They never gave me any reason."
Ray kept quiet. He wanted to let her speak. His pizza was also back on his plate.
"I didn't know what to do. I was lost." Victoria shrugged her shoulders, "I became depressed. I couldn't afford to stay at my house any longer, so I had to move in with my parents."
"I'm so sorry," Ray said apologetically. "I didn't mean to make this day a negative one."
"It's not your fault, Ray. I would've had to tell you this story eventually."
"So, why did you come here to New York? It is expensive here."
"I wanted to escape the depression. I didn't know what else I wanted to do with my life. So, I took as much of my clothes I could pack, the money I already had saved up, then left my town to see what else was out there." Victoria gave a slight smile, "I heard some exciting stuff happening around here and decided, what the hell, I need some excitement in my miserable life." She stifled a laugh, "well, of course, the ghost in my hotel room wasn't my idea of excitement...."
Ray watched her as she spoke and noticed a twinkle in her eyes when she added, "But he led me to you." Ray sucked in a breath; he seemed to be doing that a lot lately; when he saw her reach over with a napkin and wipe a lone sauce from the side of his mouth. He unknowingly licked his lips as he choked out the word, "Thank you."
She, too, licked her lips as she whispered, "You're welcome."
Ray felt heat enter his cheeks; this woman was making him blush...even in places that shouldn't be this early in the relationship. "At least something good came out of all this," he said softly.
"At least something good...," Victoria agreed with the same soft voice.
The two hadn't fully realized that their bodies became like magnets as they leaned in closer to each other, their lips touching, sending sparks down their spines.
****
Peter took a seat on the couch in front of the TV and switched through the stations. He stopped and hit the channel down button three times on the remote when he glimpsed something familiar. He stopped on a news channel.
A female reporter was talking to the camera. "...a Ghostbuster leave the hospital with an unknown woman. We caught up to them around the corner of Columbus Ave. to see if we could find what this woman was about and what she needed from the Ghostbusters." She pointed with her hand toward the windshield of the Eco-1, "But, if you look behind me, we get a surprise on who she is to this particular Ghostbuster." The reporter moved out of the way for the cameraman to focus on what was happening inside the car.
Peter's eyebrows lifted. He wasn't surprised in seeing reporters always wanting to get the scoop of the Ghostbusters' lives and jobs. That was an every other week occurrence, depending on what was going on. Hell, he wasn't even surprised Ray was making out with his crush. He just never thought Ray would make it onto the news with a love interest's tongue down his throat.
He was going to help get his best friend out of that situation.
Pete got up to grab the extra walkie-talkie that was kept there at HQ for emergencies from a countertop. All their walkies were programmed to talk to anyone through the Ecto-1's radio.
He pushed the black button on the side of the walkie and spoke into it.
****
How long were they kissing? Were any of them keeping track? It couldn't have been that long. They were not out of breath; they were only kissing slowly. Neither of them wanted to stop.
"Awe! Aren't you two cute? Well, second to Dana and me." Peter said.
Victoria and Ray were in their own little world that Pete's comment went unnoticed.
"Uh, Ray? Ray?" Peter's voice went up a pitch to try and get their attention, "Hey, kissy-faces! Wave to the camera."
Ray and Victoria jumped in surprise.
They looked out the front windshield and saw multiple newscasters from the hospital now surrounding them in their new location.
Victoria made herself into a ball, trying to hide from the view of the cameras.
"There's a way to scare them away, but I need to get in the back," Ray told her.
"What are you going to do?" She asked, looking at him as she covered the right side of her face with her hand.
"I have to activate the T.U. Antenna," Ray answered.
"The what?"
"Sorry. Short terms: the Sniffer or the PKE Meter Extension. We can program it to sniff out not only ghosts but parking tickets and reporters."
"Um, okay?"
Ray only smiled at her and rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb, then got out of the car, closed the driver side door, did some fancy footwork around the reporters as he made his way from the back of the vehicle to the right side of the back passenger side door.
Once Ray was in, he went straight to work on the back passenger side, switching on the Martin Marietta UHF signal and power distribution units. He then proceeded behind the driver's side and began turning switches and nobs of the BGM-340 Guidance System.
Ray popped his head through the opening behind the front seat and said, "Watch that lady's microphone." He hit one more switch.
The female reporter's mic began to smoke and spark. She dropped it in surprise. Everyone near her also looked surprised and looked at the top of Ecto-1's roof. They saw two conjoined red tubs move. As the cameramen and reporters moved, they saw it follow them, and that's when a cord connected into one of the cameras mirrored what happened to the microphone.
"You can drive, right?" Ray asked Victoria.
"Yes."
"Why don't we get out of here? I'll show you the way to the firehouse."
Victoria nodded, "Sounds good to me."
A vehicle was parked behind them, so Victoria had to put the car in Drive and slowly pull forward toward the news crews.
The people got the hint and moved out of the way—the T.U. Antenna continued to follow the crews.
****
The double doors to the Ghostbusters headquarters opened, and the Ecto drove in.
Peter had watched the whole thing unfold on the news until Ray and his girlfriend were out of sight. The way Ray handled the reporters using the Sniffer was comical, and Pete's laughter brought in Egon and Janine to catch the last half of that segment.
The back passenger door opened first, and Ray jogged over to the driver's side to help Victoria out of the car.
Peter walked up to them, "That was smooth, Ray. Nicely done."
"Thanks. There's some pizza in the car if you want some."
"Don't mind if I do." Peter went to the opened driver's door, "You two want your slices?"
Ray looked at Victoria for an answer. She nodded.
"Yeah, sure, Pete," Ray responded.
Peter grabbed the two plates with one slice each, handed them over, then took the pizza box.
The three headed upstairs, Ray and Victoria hand in hand.