by Atropos
"Hey guys, I'm here!" Janine called as she brushed the snow off her shoulders and shut the heavy door behind herself. All she got back was silence.
It was noon, so there was no way all four of them could still be asleep. Ecto was in her usual spot, and surely they hadn't gone anywhere on foot in this bitter March snowstorm. Today was supposed to be spring cleaning day--wintry weather or not--and after sufficient blandishment from Peter Janine had been persuaded to participate.
She hung her coat up and started silently up the stairs, a tingle of unease making its way up her spine. The firehouse was too well-defended for anything too nasty to get in... wasn't it?
She found them all in the kitchen but wasn't sure what to make of the tableau. Ray was standing at the counter, a heavy glass bowl in fragments next to him. Thick white goop coated a blast radius centered on the bowl, and Ray was liberally draped with the stuff. Egon stood several feet away, just at the the edge of the destruction, and had fared somewhat better--he only had a few shreds of the stuff on him, including several streaks across the lenses of his glasses. He was giving Ray his most stern look.
Peter and Winston sat at the kitchen table, untouched and looking thoroughly amused. Nobody was moving, and none of them had noticed Janine's arrival.
She couldn't restrain herself any longer. "What the hell happened?"
All four of them looked at her. Ray started turning a deep shade of red under the stuff all over his face. "Ray decided he wanted some fresh-baked bread like he had on the farm as a kid." Winston was obviously enjoying himself thoroughly.
Janine walked up to Ray and picked a blob of goop off him. It did indeed smell more or less like bread dough. She started connecting the dots and the corners of her mouth turned up. "Ray, there's a perfectly good bakery just down the street."
Ray blushed harder. "But it's not the same as making it yourself."
"What on earth did you do?"
"I've never made bread before. Have you?" He was giving her a beseeching look, obviously hoping for an ally.
"Haven't tried since home ec."
Peter snickered from his seat at the table. "You took home ec?"
"I got a D." She gave him a grin before turning back to Ray. "I still don't see--"
"It wouldn't rise," Ray said. "It's too cold in here. So I thought maybe if I warmed it up a little--"
The final piece fell into place. Janine looked at Egon, who was still glaring at Ray. She cleared her throat to disguise the snort of laughter that escaped. "Tell me there wasn't a proton thrower involved."
"It was just a little one," Ray protested. "Egon's been working on a miniaturized version, for imps and things, and--"
"Don't try to implicate me in this, Raymond," Egon interrupted. "You might as well blame the author of the cookbook." He took off his glasses and tried fruitlessly to clean them. Winston and Peter started snickering audibly.
"Oh, Ray," Janine said before she finally started laughing. "Even I never made bread dough explode!"
Ray looked sheepish. "It was kind of cool though, wasn't it?"
Peter and Winston finally lost it too and even Egon cracked a smile.
Last updated Tue Jul 20 2010 at 9:32:45pm