by Atropos
"What'd you do with that spark plug, Winston?" Ray asked, cleaning his hands on a shop rag.
"I left it on the bench," Winston replied, sounding as if he already realized his mistake.
"You should know better than that," Ray chided. "Egon probably got it when he came through, and who knows what he's done with it by now."
"I don't know why you always blame me, Raymond," Egon protested as he came down the spiral stairs, already checking his shirt pockets but finding nothing but some scraps of paper with scribbled notes on them.
Peter sauntered out from his office as the other two converged on Egon in front of Janine's desk. "All right, turn out your pockets. If it's not there you've left it in the lab somewhere again."
"I thought you were trying to break this habit," Ray said as Egon started laying objects out on the desk: the pieces of paper, his wallet and keys, a handful of coins, a couple of subway tokens, some scraps of wire, nameless bits and bobs from various experiments. No spark plug.
"He's part crow, he can't help it. If it's shiny and fits in a pocket, Spengs will pick it up."
"I must have set it down upstairs," Egon admitted, looking rather put out by the whole situation.
"I'll go look for it," Ray said, as he was the most likely--after Egon, of course--to actually be able to find anything in the glorious disarray of the lab. Winston followed him and Peter wandered back to his office.
Janine picked a coin out of the pile as Egon started returning things to his pockets. "I didn't know you still had this." Egon glanced down--she was holding the World's Fair souvenir coin she had given him before the showdown with Gozer.
"You can have that back--I've been meaning to return it, but it keeps slipping my mind." He was starting to look embarrassed.
"You can keep it. I really do have another one." She held it out and he accepted it. "I'm glad to see it's survived its adventures."
"I suppose I should keep it somewhere safer."
"What's the point of a lucky coin if you don't carry it with you?"
He studied the coin, turning it over and watching the light flash over the raised image of the Unisphere on the obverse. "I don't believe in luck, other than as a function of random chance."
She smiled. "I figured as much. But you kept it anyway."
"Yes." He looked more embarrased. "I--er--I suspect I need to help Ray locate his spark plug--"
Peter's head appeared over the filing cabinets. "Are you still down here, Egon?" No one answered. "Am I missing something? Are you two having a moment?" He looked at them with interest, always eager for an opportunity to embarrass his best friend, especially if he could involve Janine somehow.
Egon slipped the coin into his pocket. "Just going to find that spark plug." He hastened up the stairs.
"Good luck," Janine called after him.
Last updated Tue Jul 20 2010 at 9:32:45pm