Saturday // Peterick Oneshots

0.5. There's More Than Spirits in the Air

Yes, I made the title super fucking cheesy. Ghostbusters au in honor of Halloween. SRAR era. Longer than I expected it to be oops. Hope you like it!

Yes, Pete believes in ghosts. Yes, Pete loves his job. Yes, he doesn't even care about the weird hours and sleeping in an abandoned fire station because let's face it, he's not going get any sleep regardless of his occupation.

It's just...hard to meet people. Sure, he and his partners have become familiar faces across the city as the Guys Who Investigate Bumps in the Night, but nobody's eager to strip after hearing the words "ghost hunter" in response to the question, "So what do you do for a living?" And even if they are, it usually turns out to be a one-night stand. The people who aren't interested in one-night stands tend to be complete basket cases who think the moon landing was a hoax, and that's too far out there, even for Pete.

It's fine though. He has his friends and his ghosts to keep him company.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nighttime tends to be their busiest time, but the occasional day time call isn't unusual. Rare, but not unusual. Which is why Pete doesn't think anything of it when their secretary sent them a short guy in a fedora. After all, Joe is swearing up and down he got a blow job from a hot ghost the night before. That's pretty captivating, no matter how full of shit he thinks Trohman is right now.

But then he turns to address the guy and say that he'll be with him in just a minute, gets a good look of him, and his priorities change. The guy is gorgeous, and, well, that's enough.

They call Hurley down and ask their secretary to order them some lunch and get to work.

"Name?" Pete asks, clipboard in hand.

"Patrick. Patrick Stump," the guy responds, tugging on the sleeves of his cardigan.

"Address?"

"Three nineteen Market Street."

"Any family history of schizophrenia?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Tell us about your experience."

"Okay." Patrick clears his throat. "Yesterday morning while I was getting ready for work in the bathroom, I thought I saw someone in the mirror behind me. I didn't really think anything of it, I just figured my eyes were playing tricks on me, but when I was leaving I heard a voice calling my name."

"Did you stick around to investigate?" Andy asks.

"No. After seeing something in the mirror and then hearing my name in an empty apartment, I was freaked out. I left for work and told myself that I'd calm down by the time I got home."

"But I'm guessing something else happened?" Pete prompts, leaning forwards in his chair. "Otherwise it sounds like you had no reason to come to us."

Patrick nods. "When I got home, all my books had been knocked off their shelves."

Joe snorts. "What's next? See a floating candle?"

Patrick glares at him before continuing. "I put my books back on the shelves and tried to tell myself it was a fluke or something, like my neighbor had banged on their wall too hard, but when I went into my bathroom, the mirror was smashed. That's when I heard a voice calling out to me again. I ended up staying at a friend's house, because I was so freaked out. All of that shit combined...it just didn't sit right."

"Alright, here's the plan," Andy says, standing up and stretching. "Trohman, you go research Patrick's apartment building, see if you can find anything else that points to a possible haunting. Pete, you and I are going to gear up and check out his place while we wait for Troh to finish his research."