Chapter 3.
❙. the next day rolled by fast. tara was the last to wake up, having a hard time sleeping due to the nightmare she had had. so, it only made her more exhausted than she was. ❙.
"tara, get up." she could hear her father say.
she turned onto her side, hoping he'd get the hint and go away.
but knowing him...
"tara, come on." he pleaded. he then sighed. "i didn't want to have to do this.." he said in a sing-song voice.
as soon as he said that, he plopped himself onto her making it hard for her to breathe.
"dad?! what the hell!" she yelled.
"you asked for it." he answered.
"no, i didn't! get off of me." she ordered, trying her best to wriggle free.
peter laid down, having his head hanging off the bed.
"no, i'll stay here. maybe take a nap, who knows what i'll do here." he decided.
"egon! ra-!" peter clamped his hand over her mouth.
"nope. nobody can hear you no-" peter let out a pained yell when tara bit his hand, which also caused him to fall off her bed.
she jumped out quickly, running to wherever egon was aka safety.
*
"are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night?"
"do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic?"
"have you or any of your family ever seen a spook, specter or ghost?"
"if the answer is yes, then don't wait another minute. pick up your phone and call the professionals."
"ghostbusters!"
"our courteous and efficient staff is on call 24 hours a day, to serve all your supernatural elimination needs."
"we're ready to believe you!"
"cut!" the director yelled.
ray turned to tara the second the camera was off.
"so, what did you think?" he asked her.
"freakin' corny." tara answered him.
"do you think people will take it seriously?" he pondered.
"not everyone. unless, they get a firsthand experience at what we saw." tara shrugged.
the boys went off to the side, to converse with one another.
as tara stood off to the side, watching them with a smile. she all of a sudden felt lightheaded. her smile faltered, when she also felt something trickle down her nose.
she reached up to touch it, when she pulled her finger away to take a look. she was shocked to see that it was blood.
her nose was bleeding.
*
"you don't think it's too subtle, marty?" asked peter as he watched the man put up the sign. "you don't think people are gonna drive down and not see the sign?"
"for once in my life, i agree with you." tara mumbled.
peter turned to her, going to say something until he noticed the bloodied up tissue stuck up her nose.
"what's with the tissue?" he pointed.
"i have a bloody nose. egon put a tissue up my nose the second he saw me." tara explained.
peter chuckled. "you look ridiculous."
"looked in the mirror lately?" she shot back.
a siren sounded coming from near by.
tara cringed at the noise, putting her hands over her ears.
a grey vehicle with bits of blotchy blue paint pulled up to the ghostbusters building.
peter made his way over to the vehicle saying jokingly; "you can't park that here."
ray got out of the car. "everybody can relax. i found a car." he announced.
tara removed her hands from her ears. "yeah, but that sound that came from it was annoying." she complained.
she wasn't particularly fond of loud noises, especially sirens.
ray shot her an apologetic smile before going on to talk with her father.
she made her way inside, she took out the tissue from her nose and tossed it into the garbage bin.
she still felt light headed and also had a splitting headache.
she leaned up against the wall, setting a hand to her forehead.
"damn, my head hurts." she groaned.
she sighed, before moving herself inside.
she saw janine, their new secretary sat at her desk busy flipping through a magazine.
as soon as she walked in, her father came trailing behind her.
it was like wherever she went, he went too.
"janine, any calls?" peter asked her.
"no." she said, sounding bored.
"any messages?" peter asked.
"no." janine said again.
"any customers?" asked venkman.
she glanced up from her magazine and went; "no, dr.venkman."
"it's a good job, isn't it?" he asked her, sarcastically.
she smiled.
"type something, will you? we're paying for this stuff." he snapped.
"not her fault you guys haven't gotten any customers." tara muttered.
as he started to walk away, he went; "and don't stare at me. you've got them bug eyes."
"real mature." she said under her breath.
"janine?" peter then called. "sorry about the bug-eyes thing. i'll be in my office."
janine rolled her eyes.
just as peter left, egon popped out from underneath janine's desk.
tara did a double take. did he just, why was he?
"you're very handy, i can tell." janine complimented egon. "i bet you like to read a lot, too." she said.
"print is dead." egon denied, plugging in her computer.
tara sighed of relief. she thought that egon was-
"oh that's very fascinating to me." janine told him. "i read a lot myself. some people think i'm too intellectual, but i think it's a fabulous way to spend your spare time. i also play racketball." she informed him.
tara took notice that egon really wasn't paying attention to what she was saying. he did this thing, where if you were talking to him about something he was disinterested in he would look at you like he was listening but in reality he wasn't. he just didn't want to be rude.
"do you have any hobbies?" she then asked him while taking off her glasses.
"i collect spores, molds, and fungus." egon answered her.
the second he turned to tara, he had sped walked over to her. taking a quick inspection at her nose to see if it was still bleeding.
the first time her and egon met. egon felt he needed to protect her at all costs, since peter wasn't very good at doing that. it left ray and egon to basically take over the roles of her father.
"i'm fine, i'm fine." tara assured him, while he lifted her head up to see if there was any blood.
"janine, hand me a tissue." he requested.
after janine handed him one, he stuffed it up her nose. "keep it there." he ordered before leaving the room.
tara fixed the tissue, so it wouldn't be so up her nostril and mumbled out a "thanks, egon."
a minute passed and a lady with brown curly hair came walking in, going up to janine's desk.
the woman quickly glanced over at tara, in which tara put her hand up to her nose to try and hide the tissue sticking out of her nostril.
the lady turned her attention back onto janine.
"oh, excuse me is this-" she looked around for a second before going; "the ghostbusters office?"
"yes, it is." janine nodded. "can i help you?" she asked, leaning forward in her chair.
"i don't have an appointment. i'd like to talk to someone please." she requested.
just like that, peter was up out of his chair heading straight for the girl. he jumped over the gate, startling her a little.
tara rolled her eyes. in which she quickly regretted doing so, when sharp pain shot through her head, making her let out a small moan.
"i'm peter venkman." he introduced himself to her. "may i help you?"
tara went out into the garage, to see what ray was up to.
ray was busy working on the car he brought in.
"hey." tara made herself known to him.
he pulled himself out from the hood of the car.
"hey." he then noticed the tissue up her nose. "still, got a nosebleed kid?" he asked her, while grabbing a towel to wipe his face.
"nope. just egon being egon." she replied.
he chuckled.
"um, can i take a walk?" tara then asked.
"yeah, sure. just don't go far." ray advised her. "also, don't be gone long. you know how worried egon gets if you are gone for too long." he reminded her.
the last time she went on a walk after a fight her and peter had, she had been gone for an hour. which was an hour too long according to egon. he sent out a search party and everything. he was that worried.
"i won't. i promise." tara assured him.
when tara went to the door, she looked back at ray and went "bye, love you!"
"bye, love you too!" ray said back to her.
(🥺🥺🥺)
*
tara walked around the city, not too far from the firehouse. her headache wasn't easing up any soon, in fact it was getting worse by the minute.
she came to a halt, she started to feel dizzy. she whimpered, closing her eyes hoping it would pass.
she reopened them a minute later, after no luck of the dizziness going away.
tara reached up and took out the tissue that she had forgotten was still up her nose. unfortunately, when she took it out a pool of blood came running down her nose and onto her neck.
she gasped holding a hand to her mouth.
"shit!" she cursed, making a run back to the firehouse.
*
just as she got there, she had the tissue opened up and held up against her face. the tissue was drenched in blood, the red substance was still coming down her nose. her whole shirt was pretty much soaked in it.
when she got to the office where janine was still sat at busy reading away. she almost toppled to the floor from how dizzy she was.
"janine." she said weakly.
janine looked up and let out a loud gasp, she dropped her magazine in the process.
"w-where's egon?" she stammered.
janine yelled out "egon!"
seconds later, egon came out looking a bit confused as to what she wanted now. that was until, he saw the state that tara was in and he came running over.
"tara, what happened?" was the first thing he asked her.
"i-i don't know. i took out the tissue and then all this blood came out." tara explained.
egon nodded.
her head was spinning, she felt like she was going to pass out any second.
"and i feel like i'm going to pass out." she confessed.
egon nodded again.
he scooped her up into his arms, making his way to his lab to run some tests.
"janine." he started.
janine was still in shock from tara being covered in blood to even respond.
"tell peter to come to my lab, once he has a minute." he requested.
janine nodded.
egon left the room, leaving a very wide eyed, jaw to the floor janine behind.
*
peter came out of his office with the customer known as dana alongside him.
as soon as he walked past janine, she grabbed the arm of his shirt tugging on it slightly.
peter rose a brow at her.
"yes?" he said, sounding confused.
"egon wants you in his lab." janine informed him.
venkman chuckled. "well, tell him i can't. i'm busy." he said.
"your daughter needs you." she expressed.
"no, she doesn't." he denied.
"we don't have to do the inspection today, we can always do it tomorrow." dana suggested.
"no, we're doing it today." peter insisted. he turned back to janine, who still had her hand on his arm. "she's fine. she prefers egon and ray over me anyways." he said, while trying to remove her hand from him.
he turned back to dana and went "let's go."
just as he went to go head out, janine cried out "she's hurt!"
*
"what's wrong with her?" was the first thing peter said when he barged into egon's lab.
ray was sat in the chair next to the table tara was laid out on, holding her hand.
"blood spilled from her nose, peter." egon briefly explained as he kept an eye on the readings.
"just a bloody nose?" peter questioned.
ray, with his free hand lifted up the jacket he gave to her, letting peter be able to see the blood stained white shirt. (never wear white)
a look of worry now plastered over on peter's face. he sprinted over to her. now being the worry wart.
he examined her.
"what the hell happened?" he questioned, turning her face from side to side very harshly.
"stop it, please. you're hurting me." she begged.
peter let go. taking one last look at her before turning to egon and going "so, what's wrong with her?"
"i don't know yet." egon responded. "all of her results have come back blank."
peter went over to him. "blank? what the hell do you mean blank?!"
he tried looking at the results. but just like egon said, they all came up blank.
"can i go to bed?" tara asked.
peter sighed. he needed to get back to dana so he could inspect her apartment.
"i need to go." he then announced, heading for the door.
"dad." tara stopped him.
he turned to her.
"please stay." she begged.
she hadn't begged for him to stay since she was very little. she had hoped maybe he would sit with her until she fell asleep, just like old times?
peter sighed. "i can't. i really have to go." was all he said before leaving egon's pab.
tara sniffled.
egon and ray looked in her direction.
"damn, i really thought it was going to work this time." she laughed. "i guess not."
*
later that evening, tara was lying in bed wide awake. she let out a small sniffle, before turning onto her side.
she heard her door creak open, letting light from the hall seep through.
"if you're coming in here to apologize, you can walk right back out." she grumbled.
peter sighed.
tara sat up, she reached over and turned on her light.
electrodes were stuck to her face, while a heart monitor was placed next to her bed.
"you look.. interesting." he commented.
"i look like a freak." she scoffed.
peter approached her. "i needed to inspect dana's apartment. it wasn't something i could get out of." he explained.
"you weren't inspecting her house. you were trying to get into her pants." tara mumbled.
"no, i wasn't." peter denied. "it was for work."
"and well did you find anything?" tara asked him.
"no." he shook his head.
tara laid back down, pulling her sheets up to her neck.
peter sighed, he came over to her bedside. he turned off the light.
just as she closed her eyes, she felt her bed dip.
she lifted her head up, seeing her father sat at the end of her bed.
"well, you wanted this didn't you?" peter asked her.
tara sighed. he was right, she did want this.
she nodded.
"okay, then lay down." he ordered.
she laid down on her side, looking out the window. she thought back to the many nights her dad sat with her until she fell asleep when she was little. she couldn't help but smile, knowing he finally went and sat with her for the first time in years.
*
once tara drifted off to sleep, peter quietly made his way downstairs and into the kitchen to have dinner with the boys.
"to our first and only costumer." ray said, holding up his soda.
they all took a sip of their drinks in unison.
"i'm gonna need to draw some petty cash. i should take her out to dinner, we don't want to lose her." peter explained, obviously referring to dana.
"how's tara?" ray asked, changing the subject.
"she's fine. she just needed me to sit with her until she fell asleep." peter replied.
"i still don't know what's going on with her." egon confessed. "the more tests i run, the more it comes up blank."
"do you think it's some sort of supernatural possession?" ray proposed.
peter looked at him like he had three heads.
"supernatural possession?" he repeated. "are you drunk already?" peter pointed to his drink.
"ghosts have a tendency to look for living vessels." ray briefly explained.
"she gets a nose bleed every time the seasons change." he put it off.
"with copious amounts of blood coming down her nose?" stantz questioned.
just as peter was going to say something else, they heard janine cry out "we got one!" before sounding the alarm.
tara woke up with a jolt. she at first thought it was the fire alarm until she came to the realization that it was the alarm for when they got a ghost to catch.
"they got one!" she cheered.
she tore off all the sticky pads from her face before jumping out of bed. she ran to her suit case, pulling out random articles of clothing.
she did not want to miss out on this!
just as she managed to get clothed in under two minutes, she ran down the stairs almost tripping and falling in the process.
once, she got down stairs she met up with the boys who were busy getting on their flight suits over their regular clothes in the locker room.
egon spotted her right away. "no, you're not coming with us. get back in bed." he ordered her.
"no, come on! i don't want to miss out on this!" tara whined.
egon went over to her, he lifted up her chin.
"your nose is starting to bleed again." he informed her.
"so? i'll just keep a tissue up it, no big deal." she shrugged.
ray handed him a tissue.
"you need to rest." he said, while stuffing the tissue up her bloody nostril.
"no, i don't. i've rested up enough, so i can come with you guys." she protested.
"no, means no tara." peter chimed in.
"oh, so now you're being the parent?" tara sassed.
"tara, egon's right. you need your rest." ray jumped in.
tara took a look at each of them before slumping down with a sad expression written on her face.
as much as ray and egon wanted her to tag along, they still knew what was best for her and that meant rest. lots of it.
"fine. i'll listen." she grumbled.
she headed up the stairs, going to her room. she sat on her bed, with her legs up to her chest.
after waiting a few minutes. a smile came to her face and she rushed out of her bedroom, she listened for them to leave so she could follow shortly behind.
she was going to watch them get that ghost. wether they liked it or not.
*
just as they left, tara snuck right out. managing to follow them, without any of them noticing.
"the sedgewick hotel?" tara read out loud when she got there. "snazzy."
"tara?!"
tara turned around facing the three boys who were looking back at her in confusion and in shock.
"hey boys!" she greeted them.
egon took a step towards her. "you are not supposed to be here."
"i remember. but did i listen?" she asked him. "no! i never do, so let's go. this ghost can't bust itself." she said before walking inside.
"hey, anybody seen a ghost?" asked peter as they walked in.
several people dressed in fancy clothing walked by looking at him in confusion. some were seen off to the side murmuring, puzzled by venkman's question.
a woman wearing a fur coat walked past venkman, to which he looked over to her and smirked.
"uh, thank you for coming so quickly."
a man in a suit who looked to be in his mid to late fourties' appeared from behind them startling both peter and tara.
"the guests are starting to ask questions, and i'm running out of excuses." explained the man, who began to walk with them.
"has it happened before?" asked ray.
tara felt sharp pain coarse through her head. she let out a small groan which egon heard. he gave her a "you should've stayed home." look to which tara responded with a "i'm fine." look.
egon sighed.
"well, most of the original staff knows about the twelfth floor." spoke the man.
"uh-uh." peter nodded.
"the disturbances, i mean." he clarified. "um, but it's been quiet for years, up until two weeks ago. it was never, ever this bad, though." he confessed.
peter wrapped his arm around the man, patting him on the shoulder.
"did you ever report it to anyone?" egon inquired.
"no. heavens, no." he answered.
"no, no. are you kidding?" peter mocked him.
"the owners didn't like us to even talk about it." he revealed.
"no." peter said, pretending to be shocked.
"i hoped we could take care of this quietly." he looked over to tara, who was stood next to egon. "who is the girl?"
tara rolled her eyes.
"i'm tara." she introduced herself.
"why do you have a tissue?" the man asked.
"because i have a bloody nose, that's why." she answered, sassily.
"i-i want the job done by tonight." the man requested, changing the subject.
"yes sir, don't worry." ray said as he put his ecto goggles over his head. "we handle this kind of thing all the time." he clarified.
*
a man wearing a trench coat and hat was waiting for the elevator, just as the boys and tara walked by.
the man took one look at them and asked; "what are you supposed to be, some kind of cosmonaut?"
peter laughed. "no. we're exterminators." he put it lightly. "somebody saw a cockroach up on twelve."
the elevator opened just as the man went; "that's gotta be some cockroach."
"it'll bite your head off, man." he chuckled.
the boys and tara all went into the now vacant elevator, ray asked the man if he was going up.
"no, i'll take the next one." the man politely declined.
ray nodded, heading inside the elevator with the rest of the group.
the elevator was a tight fit for all four of them. tara was practically sandwiched in between peter and egon.
she leaned on peter as she started to feel dizzy.
peter glanced down at her for a second before looking in ray's direction as ray began to speak.
"you know, it's just occurred to me. we really haven't had a completely successful test of this equipment." ray realized.
"i blame myself." egon admitted.
"so, do i." peter chimed in.
"well, no sense worrying about it now." ray stated.
"why worry?" peter questioned. "each of us is wearing an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back."
"yep." ray responded. "well, let's get ready. switch me on."
egon went and switched ray on, it made a buzzing sound.
tara winced. even the buzzing from their accelerators hurt her head.
"don't go near the ghost, don't interact with it." egon instructed.
thinking he was talking to her dad, tara looked over to him and went; "yeah, dad don't."
"no, i mean you tara. i don't want you getting hurt." egon corrected her.
"ha ha." peter mocked her.
tara glared.
the elevator dinged indicating they were now on the twelfth floor.
tara let out a sigh she didn't know she had been holding in until now.
the door opened and ray was the first to exit the elevator.
tara and egon were the last.
ray had out his neutrona wand as he looked around for any sign of this ghost.
ray turned to the others and motioned for them to follow.
just as tara went to go follow, egon stopped her.
"stay here." he ordered.
"no! i want to go, come on. i've got this far, now let me come with you guys." she pleaded.
"tara, you're white as a ghost." peter stepped in.
"okay? but maybe that'll trick the ghost into thinking i'm one of them, which'll make your guys' job so much easier." she protested.
"tara." peter said, sounding serious.
tara huffed. "come on, please?" she begged.
she gave them the puppy dog eyes.
"she's giving us that look." ray whispered.
if she gave the puppy dog eyes to ray or egon, they couldn't possibly say no. but god, did it ever work on peter.
"no." peter denied. "you aren't going."
"well, if she stays in the back and hides.." ray trailed off.
"ray, are you out of your mind?!" he scolded.
"i don't think i am. but, look at her. i'm sure she'll stay out of the way." ray explained.
egon sighed. "fine. but you better stay in the back."
tara smiled. she ran over to them, giving each egon and ray a hug.
"okay, let's go. we don't have all night for this crap." peter ordered.
after that...
the boys looked around the place, hoping to find any sign of the ghost being here.
or at least somewhere around here.
just as they made it into the hall. they saw a cart being moved, while hearing someone humming coming from it.
thinking, it was the ghost..
they shot at the cart, causing all of it's contents to fall onto the floor. along with the cart itself toppling over onto it's side.
tara cringed.
"i don't think she's dead, you guys." she informed them of their mistake.
"what the hell are you doing?!" shouted the lady.
"sorry." egon apologized.
"sorry." ray mumbled.
"i'm sorry." peter said as well. "we thought you were someone else." he admitted.
tara went to go help the lady pick up her things..
"no, i've got it." she waved her off.
"okay." tara quickly nodded.
she sprinted back behind the group, blushing from embarrassment.
"successful test." peter said when turning around.
"i guess so." ray agreed. "uh.. i think we'd better split up." he suggested.
"wait? where do i go?" tara butted in.
"you go with me." he instructed. "you spend way too much time around egon, you're starting to become him." he cringed.
tara rolled her eyes. she moved herself over to be standing next to her father.
"fine. let's go then." she said.
*
now, off on their own. peter noticed how ill tara looked. there were bags under her eyes, she was as white as a ghost like he mentioned before and it looked like it pained her to even walk.
just as he went to go say something, floating before them down the hall was a green see through ghost.
"aww, it's cute!" tara exclaimed.
the ghost let out a small growl.
peter took out his walkie talkie, holding it close to his mouth.
"come in, ray." he started.
"venkman, i saw it. i saw it. i saw it!" exclaimed ray on the other end.
"it's right here, ray." he informed him.
the ghost stared down her dad, like it wanted to attack or something.
tara took it upon herself to take a few steps back.
she had a feeling this wasn't going to be pretty.
"it's looking at me." he mentioned.
"he's an ugly, little spud isn't he?" ray remarked.
"no, he's not." tara defended the ghost.
"i think he can hear you, ray." peter stated.
"don't move, it won't hurt you." ray whispered.
as if on cue, the ghost came charging at peter.
peter screamed in terror.
tara took another step back, preparing for impact.
peter held his gloved hand up in front of him as he took a few steps back himself, hoping he wouldn't get attacked by the ghost.
the ghost lunged itself at venkman, causing him to fall to the floor. in a matter of seconds, the ghost disappeared, leaving a very slimified peter behind.
tara wasn't sure how to react. did she want to laugh or did she want to ask if her father was okay?
so, she went with both.
she keeled over laughing while trying to utter out the words "are you okay?"
"peter? peter?!" yelled ray when he ran into the room.
he looked over at tara, confused as to why she was laughing.
"venkman, what happened?" ray asked, concern evident in his voice. "are you okay?" he kneeled down.
peter lifted his head up. his hair was soaked as well as his suit and part of his face too.
"he slimed me." he told him.
peter turned himself over to his daughter the best he could, considering he was laying down and there was a heavy accelerator on his back.
he smiled, having a trick up his sleeve.
peter wrapped an arm around her, putting an abrupt stop to her laughing fit. he pulled her in close, wrapping both his arms around her and squeezing her tight
tara looked horrified. she was now covered in the slime too.
"there you go, now there's nothing for you to laugh about." peter told her as he removed himself from the hug.
"ray, ray. come in please." egon spoke on the walkie-talkie.
"i feel so funky." peter admitted.
"i feel worse." tara uttered.
"spengler, i'm with venkman." ray informed him. "he got slimed!"
peter spat out some of the slime that somehow ended up in his mouth.
"that's great, ray. save some for me." egon requested.
"oh there's plenty full." tara scoffed.
"get down here, right away." he then ordered. "it just went into a ballroom."
"okay. we'll be right there." ray assured him.
ray helped peter and tara up.
tara stood next to ray, not sure if she could trust her father after this one.
*
the group stood in the door way of the ballroom.
"okay, sir, if you and your staff could please wait out here, we'll take care of everything." ray assured him.
egon nodded. before him and ray locked the doors.
"okay, tara, stay over here and don't move. we don't want anything to happen to you." ray instructed.
"but i thought the ghost couldn't hurt me?" tara asked innocently.
ray leaned in. "yeah, but you know how egon is so just stay over here okay?" he whispered.
tara nodded. "okay." she whispered back.
ray joined the group. he stuck his head out of the curtain, putting on his ecto goggles to search for the ghost.
he couldn't find it anywhere until he looked up to the chandelier, there on the ceiling was the ghost flying in circles.
"there it is!" he exclaimed. "on the ceiling."
peter popped his head out, wanting to get a better look.
"that's the one that got me." he confirmed.
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