#contains spoilers for ghostbuster afterlife
Summary: Callie Spengler finds that her father cared for her then she previously realized and for once considers that her mother’s little contact with her father was more than just to check in.
Chapter ½: The Dirt Farmer’s Wife
They’d just bared gotten settled in, the kids had just been dropped off at school, Janine was at the house and Callie had made her way to the town’s only Walmart for some much needed groceries. She focused on what she had to buy, focused on anything not related to her dead father and near emotionally crippled mother.
“Right, milk, eggs,” she listed off going to the refrigerated section.
Meanwhile at the farmhouse, Janine looked at the red chair she’d found her husband in. She saw the track marks on the floor and how the holes in the chair looked like something pushed itself out with incredible force. She’s from Brooklyn, she’s seen rats do a lot of things but this kind of damage is not one of them.
“Zuul…” she murmured remembering the talks they had about the state the boys had found Dana’s apartment in.
There was a tinkering in the back causing her to gasp and turn to find the kitchen radio turn on on its own. The searching stopped when Love of my Life by Queen came from its speakers fuzzily. Janine gasped tears clouding her vision as she realized who was with her.
“Egon?” She called voice thick.
The PKE where Phoebe left it on the table came to life, as if he was confirming her suspicion. She went to pick it up and walked around the room seeing where it is he wanted her to go.
“I’m getting you fridge magnets,” she murmured as she did as he ‘said’. She turned when she heard the sound of something coming from the master bedroom. She walked in and sat on the edge of the bed facing the door and asked, “What now?”
A thump came from the closet.
Janine moved to it and found a shoe box flush against the door of the closet. She ignored the clothes, if she focused on that now she didn’t think she’d have the heart to open the box. She pulled the box out of the closet, sat on the bed and placed the box on her lap.
Janine gasped, hand flew to cover her mouth as tears fell. The first thing to greet her were some polaroids of them. She set them aside to sort through later when she heard a jingling in the box. She pulled out a thick envelope labeled “My Girls” and underneath she found the coin she’d given him. What shocked her wasn’t that he’d kept, it was the chain attached to it.
“You took it from…” she gasped not being able to finish the sentence.
There was a loud bang on the floor making her jump.
“Ok, I’ll take that as a no,” she said clearing her throat.
Seeing that this was all that was in the box, Janine put everything back in, bar the coin which she slipped the chain of onto her neck. Box and PKE in hand, she made her way back to the kitchen. She sat at the table and took out the thick envelope. Egon had called and written to her and Callie over the years. She wanted him to talk to Callie but he’d nipped that idea in the bud stating that if he didn’t stop this second coming, then there would be no world for Callie. So, she collected the letters he sent to their daughter and left them with Winston. He said he’d they were on their way so that in a way is a good thing.
She had no idea She set aside the letter meant for Callie and picked the one with her own name up.
“February ?? 2014:
My Dearest Janine,
Something has changed, I can feel it. The earth is shifting under my feet and that black hole that is that mine keeps driving me even more insane. I don’t think I’m insane but when others think you are I wonder how long it takes before you start believing it yourself. I should have gone home long before this point. Home to you and Callie and let the world burn for all the good it’s done for me…”
Janine noticed the tear stains, ink blots and pen scratches.
“This might be an unnecessary letter to write at this point, but as you well know, I’m not getting any younger. So, maybe it is best if I say this now rather than wait. I know I didn’t say it as often as I should have during my calls. I love you both, so much…both you and Callie. You are my world, and it wears at me a little more each day being away from you. You coming here I know has not been easy on you. I have hurt you, broken up our family, hell I’ve practically abandoned you. And yet you stay, to my great astonishment.
For this my dear I must thank you. Thank you for the love you so selflessly gave, for marrying me and starting a family not knowing this is where it would go, for following me along this potential suicide mission despite everything that has happened and all you have sacrificed because of me.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head, tears falling from her eyes, “I chose to stay because I knew better. I still know better dammit!”
“Should I survive this, should we survive this I swear that I’ll spend the rest of my days fighting to be there for you and them as I should have from the beginning. If anything does happen to me please, I beg you please take as good a care of Phoebe as you did me. She is more like me, from what you’ve told me of her, than Callie would ever accept. She needs to know she’s not crazy, that she is just as special if not more than anyone else out there, and that there is no shame in crying and loving all around you. I wish I could be there Janine, to guide her and who she needs me to be.
And Trevor, my god, that boy will go far I promise you. If he’d apply himself a little more and not focus so much on skirt chasing…”
Janine laughed at that and said, “He’s bored, cut him some slack. The only reason he’s not in summer school right now is because our boy is a year a head of his class.”
“I’m sure he’ll be an amazing tech some day. And our dear Callie…what can I say. She’s raising our grandkids, she’s got her hands full with our gene pool as it is. She’s a great mom Janine…
And I am so proud of all of you, so very proud.
Love,
Egon
P.S Tell Elon…thanks.
Janine slumped over the table in a shaking heap. Sobs wracked her body at the realization that her husband was very aware that something was going to happen, it was only a matter of time.
“Granny J?” She looked up to find Phoebe looking at her from around the corner, “You ok?”
Janine wiped her tears away and smiled sadly at her youngest grandchild.
“Come here baby,” she called instead of answering.
Phoebe sat down knowing full well when grandma had that tone it meant secret club meeting.
Janine without a word, put the coin turned necklace on Phoebe.
“I gave that to your grandfather just before he was going to face Gozer…” Janine started the story of when she gave the coin to Egon and saw Phoebe’s eyes light up.
‘They would have been two peas in a pod,’ she thought sadly.
Janine felt a hand on her shoulder, and a gentle squeeze. She gasped at the sudden touch but relaxed, she knew that hand, and she was grateful that he was still here.
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@egonspenglersweetie @localsimpmigraine
