Author's note (2003): This is one of the first stories I wrote in English. I found it on my old harddrive and thought I'd share. It's unbetaed and not spellchecked or anything, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless.
About this story: When I wrote this story in 1995, my friend and I had had lengthy talks about how the Ghostbusters' future would look like. As you can imagine, when "Ghostbusters Extreme" hit the screens a couple of years later, I was extremly amused. :)
Warning: As a non native English speaker, my English was even worse in 1995 then it is now, so please be kind. I'm probably going to edit this story at some point in the near future, but until then, any kind of comments (flames, too) are appreciated, as long as you keep them directed at the story. If you think you have to flame me as a person, I'll send Slimer after you. You have been warned. :)

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps
present in time future,
And time future
contained in time past.
T.S.Eliot

Time Out

by Birgit 'Lee' Kohls (May 1995)

based upon an idea by Sharra

Dedicated to all the poor victims of Ghostbustermania... And to Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, JMS and all those writers, directors, actors, artists and countless staff who breathed life into the characters and made Ghostbustermania possible!

"This time you really did it, Egon!" Peter Venkman said, freeing himself from debris, and starting to take inventory of his body to see if everthing was still working. 'That's what you get for helping out Egon', he thought. 'I knew it was a mistake.'

"I'm sorry, Peter. But I was sure that it would work this time...Oh, nuts!"

"Egon? Are you all right?" Peter was worried. When he had pushed away the last of the boxes that had been a neatly pile just before Peter crashed into it. "RATS!... What the hell...?"

The psychologist looked around. Though this definatly was the room in which the Ghostbuster's lab was situated, it somehow looked different. Instead of the organized chaos that usually dominated the place, were neatly arranged displays. In fact, it looked like a room in a museum with everthing neatly arranged.

Egon Spengler was as much surprised at this as his colleague. Except for broken pieces of machinery they had brought along, it seemed that this room hadn't been used by them in years.

"What did you do, Spengs?" Peter asked, being prepared for almost anything.

"I don't know." Egon frowned. "We should go and look for the others."

"Anything you say, oh wise one."

The two Ghostbusters went to the door, but stopped dead in their track when they entered the hallway. This didn't look like their Ghostbusters Central, it looked like an exhibition.

"Look, Egon!" Peter had spotted a sign. It said 'Ghostbuster Central'. A map of the old firehouse was printed below it. Venkman spotted a 'You are here'pointer on the map. "What the hell happened?"

But Spengler just shrugged and went to the stairs. Peter followed. They were half-way down to the firehall, when a voice stopped them.

"Freeze! What are you doing here?" An armed guard barred their way. Spengler and Venkman looked at each other, and then at the man.

"We live here." Peter said calmy. "So the question should be: What are you doing here? And where are the others?"

"Buddy, don't kid with me. This is the 'Ghostbusters Museum'. No one has lived here, since they opened the new Ghostbusters Building ten years ago."

Peter's jaw dropped. "Museum? Ghostbusters BUILDING?"

"Uh-oh." Egon's voice held a tone Peter didn't like. "Excuse me, but what's today's precise date?"

The guard looked at them as if they were insane. "2026, January the 7th. Why do you ask?"

Both, Peter and Egon had paled. "Egon, that's not true... That's FORTY years from now..." the psychologist gasped.

At that, the guard frowned. "Just a minute. Your name is Egon? Yes, the uniforms ARE the same... You're not by any chance Dr. Egon Spengler and Dr.Peter Venkman?"

"Now we're getting somewhere. Yes, of course we are. And now tell me what happened. Where are the others? And what's this nonsense about 2026?"

The guard shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. "I think, I better get you to Dr Stantz. She'll know how to answere you."

Peter beamed. "Yes, show us to... wait a minute... SHE?"

"It might be possible, Peter... we've jumped forty years into the future!" Egon looked as if he'd just received the Nobel prize.

"That's good for you, but I'm not keen to..." The three men had reached the firehall, and Peter spotted a familiar red haired woman at the secretary's desk. "Janine! I knew it was a put on! I don't know how you did that, but now you've had enough fun! Where are the others?"

When they came closer, Peter's face fell. "Who are you?" he asked cautiously. She looked very much like Janine, but had hazel eyes, wore no glasses, and her features reminded him of someone else.

"I'm Dr. Louise Stantz. And you are?"

"Dr. Venkman and Dr. Spengler. But... Louise Stantz?"

"Exactly. I'm the owner of this place. Well, I own it together with my brothers, Egon and Peter. They should be here any minute."

The two Ghostbusters stared at each other in complete disbelief. "Er..."

Peter inquired. "Your parents..."

"Are Ray and Janine Stantz, the cofounders of Ghostbusters Inc., yes," she replied. "Now, can you tell me please, what are you doing here? I mean, your costumes and masks are very good, but you're not seriously pretending to be my father's friends, are you?"

That did it. Peter sat down on the stairs, and Egon slumped against the railings. "Gentlemen, are you all right? There's no reason to be alarmed. We won't call the police."

"They claim to have travelled forty years into the future", the guard told her. "I've found them when they were coming from the laboratory. This is one hell of a mess."

Louise frowned. "This changes things, of course. I have to ask Peter about this. He's the braintrust in this business..."

At that, Egon began to laugh.

"That's not funny, Spengs. We're in the middle of... I don't know what, and you're going bananas. I can't give you a chocolate bar for that, you know." Peter didn't believe any of this. Janine and Ray married, with three kids... Impossible. At that moment, the door opened and two red haired men entered. Obviously twins, around thirty-five years old and only slightly older
than the woman.

"What's wrong, little sister? We came as soon as you called... And don't ask what a gorgeous chick I had to leave for you..." one of them said, with a mischievous expression on his face. His sister shot him an annoyed glance.

"Egon, no one cares about your love life. We've guests. Guests from the past, I'd say."

"That's fascinating. Time travellers?" said the other more serious of the identical twins, going over to study the faces of their visitors. "

But... that's absolutly impossible! They can't be Peter Venkman and Egon Spengler... After all Daddy told us, they were killed forty years ago in an explosion..."

"I told you, Spengs, this time you DID it," Venkman muttered under his breath.

"We are Dr. Venkman and Dr. Spengler." Egon confirmed. "But we weren't killed by the explosion. We came directly here..."

"We should get dad... Surly he can identify them. By the way, has anyone seen Uncle Winston? He should've been here ten minutes ago and bring Jerry back with him." The woman sighed. "Old men, kids and cars... Every time he goes on a ride with my son and the old Ectomobile, it takes them longer to come home. Next time, you'll go with them, Peter."

Her brother grimaced and looked at their guests. "Here I am, Peter Stantz, scientist. I've doctorates in physics, metaphysics, psychology, advanced parapsychology, medicin and engineering. And what's my little sister doing? She tells me to play nursemaid to an old man and a five year old child... Egon is much better equiped for that. At least that's what he always says when it comes to the girls..."

The two other Stantz' chuckeled, then became serious again.

"Now, what are we doing with them?" Egon Stantz wanted to know.

"Peeeter!!" A nervewrecking howl echoed through the old firehall.

"Uh-oh...! Slimer!" Simultaniously, two men went for cover. The others looked at each others with surprised expressions.

"Must be the name," Louise decided, after the little spud had slimed first Peter Venkman, then Peter Stantz.

"Peter back! Egon back! Slimer happy!" The green ghost hovered above them, and watched as the two Peters freed themselves from ectoplasm.

"I'll fetch mum and dad," Egon Stantz volunteered. "Daddy will know for sure if they're impostors or not. Remember what he did the last time someone pretended to be his old friends?"

As the red haired man left Ghostbuster Central, the Ecto 1 came around the corner. A black man with white hair got out of it, and it took Venkman and Spengler an instant to recognise him. Forty years could do a lot to a man. And Winston Zeddemore was no exception.

"Geez," Peter Venkman gasped. "Winston! You've changed!"

The old Ghostbuster stood rigid, coming closer carefully as if he couldn't trust his eyes.

"Could that be... Peter... Egon! But we thought you were dead.."

"No. The explosion pushed us into the future." Spengler was quite insecure all of a sudden. Time travel in theory was one thing, but facing the consequences of it was another thought all together.

"Seems so. Just wait till Ray hears about this..."

"Yes. The kid'll be jolly glad to get us back." Venkman frowned. "He married Janine?" he pointed to the three Stantz'.

Winston smiled. "Thirty-five years ago. And about time. Janine was in the 7th month of pregnancy..."

Peter and Egon exchanged glances. Winston could tell what was going on in their minds and chuckled.

"Don't look so surprised. Ray had a bad time after the accident. But he never gave up. He always said that you'd come back one day. And, as I can tell now, he was right." Zeddemore gave another chuckle, his old crinky face filled with amusement. "Anyway, after the two of you were gone, the rest of us moved closer. Well, Janine and Ray in time moved VERY close... It was Ray's decision to continue with the Ghostbusters. He picked out a couple of young scientists, and trained them. In 1997 we already had 6 additional personnel on our staff. Ray and I had stopped going on busts by then. When the kids grew up, the two boys became very much like the two of you. Don't ask me why, but they did. Louise here came after Ray. But, boy, she has a temper!" He shot her a caring glance, then frowned. "Boy... I almost forgot about Jeremy. I brought him home, Louise. He was tired from the ride and already asleep."

"Thank's Uncle Winston. Next time just will you give me a call, then I won't have to worry about you two car maniacs?" She smiled, and Zeddemore nodded apoglogetically before he continued.
"Where was I? Oh yes.. As the paranormal activities became more frequent over the last forty years, Ghostbusters Inc. became a flourishing enterprise with more than 300 employees. Busting, developement, research and merchandising. You name it, we cover it. You should see the new building. And the cars!"

The two Ghostbusters felt like they had been punched in the stomach. It was a bit too much to deal with. Meanwhile, Peter Stantz had pulled out a little device from his pocket and waved it in front of their guests. "Louise, look at these readings!"

The young woman came over to her brother. "Hmmmm. Does that mean what I think? We can get them back to their own
time?"

Stantz nodded. "Yes, but we've got to hurry. I've to get the prototype transdimensional interference amplifier over here. If I can
modify it to their resonate frequencies before they synchronize with our timedimensional spin, it should be possible for them to recross into the fabric and end up at their own time and space of origin."

Venkman looked from one to the other. He hadn't understood a single word.

"But..." Louise objected. "That thing isn't stable yet. It can kill them, and blow up Central as well."

"Then it won't matter, anyway; because, if I have understood your brother correctly, your line of history will never exist." Egon Spengler shoved his glasses back into place. Both Stantz' and Zeddemore looked at them in surprise.

"Not necessarily, Dr. Spengler." Peter Stantz smiled. "I have learned that you were a brilliant scientist in your time. But in the last couple of years some revolutionary theories have been discovered. One of them solves the problems of time paradoxons. It would take to long to explain here, but its all discribed in the 'New Advanced Quantumtheories' book. As long as your quants haven't synchronized with our timedimensional stream, you can very well go back and 'change' history, but not the history of this universe. With my device I'll be able to send you back to your timedimensional origins according to the continuing shifting in your subquantenlevel spin. If you think of it, it's not even real time travel, but rather dimension hopping. It's just that you have to make the correct decisions in your lifetime to end up with the same results. If I'm successful, you'll slip back into the timestream of your universe, and continue in it. If not, you've to stay here with us."

Peter and Egon stood there, open mouthed, trying to understand what the red haired scientist had just said.

"I see," Spengler said after two minutes. "How much time do we have?"

"Less than an hour, I guess. I'll get my equipment over there at once. Give me a hand, Louise, will you?"

"Sure. We'll be back in fifteen minutes."

They went for the door. Venkman shot them a thoughtful glance.

"In English, please!" Venkman wanted to know.

"As far as I understand, this is an alternate timeline. It exists, no matter what we do. Now, Dr Stantz thinks that he can bring us back to our... departure time, but he has to hurry, and be finished before our bodys have synchronized with this reality."

"I hope you're right with. I'm not sure I could cope with this world..."

"It has changed a lot. The old neighbourhood isn't the same anymore. Shall we have a quick look?"

"Why not?" stated an interested Egon. "Let's head outside.."

When they came back to Janine's old desk, both Peter and Egon admitted they were impressed. "What a building! We never dreamt that Ray would make it this big in business..."

"It was Janine who kept the finances together, and organized everything." Winston explained. "And when Louise and Peter went to the college, Egon learned management and now does the financial stuff. He's very successful, not only with money, but with women as well."

"This Peter must be quite a genius", Venkman remarked, ignoring Zeddemore's last remark. "Six doctorates. Not even Spengs here gained that many."

"You can bet on that. Peter's IQ is even higher than yours, Egon. Unfortunately, his tendency to blow up labs increases at the same rate." Zeddemore smiled fondly.

"Peter?! Egon!" A hoarse cry let them spin around. An old man approached them, sitting in a wheelchair. He was accompanied by an old lady and Egon Stantz.

"Ray? Oh... Ray!" When Peter came over to the trio, he couldn't surpress the emotions that welled up inside of him. Seeing his friend Ray like that, old, unable to walk on his own, but still with an enthusiastic smile on his face that had been the trade mark of a young Ray Stantz, touched the psychologist deeply. And Janine... She had aged, as well, but she nevertheless had saved something that had kept her young at heart. When Venkman heard Spengler behind him clearing his throat, he
knew that the physicist must've had the same thoughts. Peter carefully hugged the fragile form of his old friend, noticing the
tears that ran down his wrinkled face.

"I always knew that you'd return one day, Peter. I only hoped that it would've been a bit earlier..."

"Oh Ray..." Peter softly muttered.

"I'm sorry, Raymond, but I'm afraid we can't stay. We've got to return into our own timedomaine."

"I know. Peter told me. My boy'll fix it." Janine had meanwhile scrutinzed their friends. As her husband, she was crying, but it was not until Spengler took her carefully in an embrace, that she spoke.

"We've missed you. Both of you..." Her voice was that of an old woman, not the squeeky organ she'd had when she was younger. "I'm sorry that I didn't wait for you, Egon." She whispered. "But... when you were gone... life went on, and Ray and I simply fell in love..."

"It's okay, Janine. I'm glad you did." Spengler stroked her white hair gently, then let her go. Winston had joined them, and there they stood, reunited, for a short time, each one lost in thoughts.

It was Ray who stirred to life first. "There, now, you're here and we've nothing better to do than to sit here and cry. Silly old me!"

Venkman smiled at that. "You haven't changed a bit, Ray. Still hot for action?"

"You name it, I'll do it. As long as my loving spouse lets me." He shot Janine a caring glance, and she grabbed his hand. "You know how she can be..."

"Good old Janine, still in command of the Ghostbusters, I see." The psychologist teased her. Egon Spengler just watched the others, unable to say anything.

"Did they give you a guided tour through the museum, guys?" Winston wanted to know. "You should see the stuff we've on display here! Forty years of Ghostbusting! And the new proton packs are merly the size of a rifle nowadays! Not the heavy stuff we used to carry around."

They kept on talking, and were shown around Central until Louise and Peter Stantz came back with the modified equipment.

"We've to hurry, time is almost up. Twenty minutes and counting." Peter Stantz urged, after he'd checked the readings again.

"So it's time to say goodbye..." Even if he wanted to get back to HIS time, it filled Peter with sorrow to let these three behind here.

"Yes," Ray shot him a sad glance, but then got a grip on himself. "Hey, it was good to have seen you once again, before our time here is up. And, if sending you back means that another me has the fortune to live a life with you guys, and the bad luck to loose a wonderful wife, than we should give him that chance... So, good luck, you two. And don't forget us, when you're back..."

"We'll always remember you, Ray, Winston and Janine. I..." Peter swallowed. "I just want you to know, that I love all of you."

"I agree with Peter," Spengler said, his voice laced with emotions. "Good bye!"

The two Ghostbusters saw Peter Stantz activating his gizmo, and then the world went black.

When Peter came around, he was burried under a pile of boxes. He dug himself free and smiled happily, when he saw the lab in a state of total chaos.

"Egon?!" Venkman heard a moan, then saw the physicist lying under one of the lab tables. "Are you okay?"

"Yes..." Spengler groaned. "If you don't count the headache."

"Serves you right. Be more careful next time. Do you think...?"

"That we're back?" Egon nodded. "Yes."

"Rats. Now I'm never gonna know what Louise's doctorates were." The psychologist frowned.

His colleague smiled. "Music and Old Languages. Hmmm. We've come back exactly 43 minutes after the explosion. That's
interesting. Let's go downstairs and look for the others..."

"We shouldn't tell them, Egon." Peter stopped the physicist. "Let this be our little secret... You don't want to give them any ideas, do you?"

"What do you mean by that, Peter? Be more specific, please."

"Just imagine, if Janine or Ray find the thought of an affair so appealing, that..." the psychologist teased.

Egon frowned. "Okay, okay, I get the picture. So we won't tell them."

Five minutes later, they were down in the firehall, and told their friends that Spengler's latest experiment hadn't been the success he'd hoped it would be.

"Well, that's a pity, Egon. You were so close this time." Janine smiled warmly at him. Ray, standing next to her, pursed his lips.

"Do you want to repeat the experiment? I could help you..."

Peter and Egon looked from Stantz to Melnitz, then shot each other conspicious looks.

"No!" they said in unison.

--The End... well, at least for this time!--

Look out for 'Time, Eternity and Filled Doughnuts' !
The Chaos continues... When a demigod forces Peter Venkman to become a demon, and Peter Stantz and his sister come to
search help in the past, things are getting a little bit confusing!