Ghostbusters: Resurrection

6. Act II: Callie's Kitchen Table

*Note: this work is an 18 chapter novella, not a collection of shorts, best started at chapter one. Rating PG13*

"Callie, I loved your Dad," Ray tells Egon's adult daughter, sitting across from her at her kitchen table in Summerville, Oklahoma.

"Well, I'm glad someone did," Callie says and then she notices Ray's uncertain face. Exasperated, she explains, "I'm being sincere, Dr. Stantz. I am glad."

"Oh, good," says Ray, smiling. She's not a homophobe, first hurdle jumped.

"Can you not read my tone? Does everyone around here think I am being sarcastic when I'm not and completely miss it when I am?!" Callie asks the world in general.

"Tell me about it," says Janine. Sarcastically. She gets it.

"I am Autistic," Ray explains. "If that's what you're asking."

"Ha! Knew it. And, I mean that in a good way," Callie smirks and squeezes his hand. "Phoebe will be thrilled to have a kindred spirit around here. I mean, other than Dad's spirit's spirit. Whatever. Anyway. You were saying about him, Dr. Stantz?"

"Call me Ray, please," Ray continues, clearing his throat, "I fell in love with Egon the moment I saw him in 1970, but it took me 14 years to realize it. My Autism, you know? Alexithymia? Emotional blindness."

"Yep. I'm familiar with it," Callie nods. She's still gently holding his hand.

"We got married, not legally of course, because we couldn't, but we had a ceremony in 1990. On October 21st, the 20th anniversary of the first time we spoke," Ray continues.

"It was a lovely ceremony," Janine says with a sniff. She dabs her eye.

"How come I never knew you and Dad were together? It was never in the papers or anything? I googled Egon all the time after Google was invented. It was kind of a Thing I went through. For a while," Callie moves for a bottle of wine. Tea is not going to cut it for this conversation.

Ray explains, "It was the height of the AIDS crisis in New York. It was the era of 'don't ask, don't tell.' Being famous in the 1980s and 90s was like being put in a glass box. Our publicist, our management team, all said nobody wanted the Ghostbusters to be gay. Or bi. Two of us, anyway. Winston is straight. But, I mean, who knows what Venkman identifies as-"

"A slut," Janine offers mildly, smiling, not slutshaming, just factual. Ray laughs at her nonjudgmental directness and it helps break his tension. She accepts a glass of wine from Callie. "Thank you, dear."

"We had a good life together, Callie. A marriage and a business. Egon and I built Ghostbusters and published journal articles, invented all this equipment. We pioneered a whole field of science!" Ray glows a little to be talking about it again. "And it was amazing! Spengs was so smart he made me smarter. Better. Braver, too. We were really having fun there for a while. But things got weird. He changed," Ray gulps at his wine. It's not really his drink of choice but he could use one. "It was because..."

Ray chokes for a moment on the wine. Then spits it back into the glass. Egon has surged to the front and Egon hates imbibing alcohol. Always gave him a migraine.

"It was because I found out about you," Egon's voice comes out of Ray's body. He pulls his glasses out of Ray's shirt pocket and puts them on. "I became obsessed with Gozer again when I found out about you, Callie. I needed to protect you."