Beetlejuice is a phenomenon. My poor human mind has difficulty understanding how someonecould own Beetlejuice… Though as I am told, it is true, nonetheless. However, that person is not me, however I may wish it. Therefore… Come on. Just read and enjoy. Don't sue.
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School had ended, for once, much too quickly. This was not to say she hadn't been given hell by those who, like her mother and her doctor before, assumed she'd gone on some depressed cutting episode. But home? She stared at her grandparents' car in the driveway as she approached, far more slowly than she needed to. Home was a mess just waiting to happen.
"Say the word, Lyds," A breath whispered, not an inch from her ear, though by all appearances she was alone, "I'll make it a real party." Lyds, as it happened, wasn't remotely tempted. She had a pretty good idea that when he said party, what he really meant was revenge.
"Not a word, not a twitch… Goddamn it Beej, don't so much as move a fork, please!" It was muttered under her breath, only to be followed by a low, distinctly menacing laugh. He didn't promise anything. But then, she'd known he wouldn't.
The smart thing to do of course, would be to avoid home like it was some kind of diseased rodent. Especially with the way things were between her mother and Beetlejuice at the moment. But no, her grandparents had come all this way, and insisted on seeing her… It wasn't that she wasn't happy to see them. She just desperately hoped that they would survive the encounter intact.
Pushing the door open, Lydia released her bag to the floor, and said quietly, hoping no one would hear, "Guys, I'm home…"
A squeal shattered her eardrums as her Grandmother Delia descended on her with hugs, and bright red kisses. "Lydia, it's so good to see you…" She examined what seemed to be every inch of her, while almost too late, Lydia pointedly hid her ring behind her back. "My how you've grown… It's only been a year, after all! Very much a young woman now… Oh, but the way you dress…" She made a small, disappointed sound with her tongue. "Well, you are your mother's daughter, aren't you?"
Was there even any point in telling her this was her school uniform?
"Pumpkin!" This greeted was echoed in a sort of snide singsong in her ear, as she swore fingers tightened on her shoulders in excitement. Charles smiled at his granddaughter broadly, blissfully unaware of his proximity to the ghost who'd given him what might have been his worst nervous breakdown yet. "Look at you, so beautiful… Picture of your mother, at your age!"
"Damned if that's true," Beetlejuice muttered, in her ear, before finally drawing away from her, "You look a hell of a lot better than that sellout ever did!"
Lydia's lips twitched helplessly in the myriad of emotions overwhelming her. Amusement, annoyance, affection… Disgust, at constantly being referred to as simply her mother's daughter. It was even why Beej had gone after her in the beginning… She pushed that thought away quickly. No good could come of that.
"Bar-Barbara made dinner," Charles went on, stuttering only slightly when he referred to the ghost woman, "It's a little early, but we know you have places to go…" He clapped her on the shoulder, and steered her towards the dining room. She had the distinct feeling of walking further and further into a bad movie. "Tell us everything that's happened lately! Your mother doesn't tell us anything!"
In addition to Beetlejuice, her marriage, and the cliff dive she'd taken, Lydia supposed there could be any number of things her grandparents didn't know about. The bandage on her arm didn't seem to be one of them though, as Delia took her arm delicately, pursed her lips, and said something about having never liked cats…
The room they walked into had the distinct feeling of a time bomb, about to go off. Her family sat there with strained smiles, wary eyes, and altogether a sense to their features that this would go anything but well. As inappropriate as it was, Lydia wanted to laugh. Hell, it was just Beej… She caught that line of thought quickly, and twisted her lips. She was too used to him. She forgot sometimes just how much trouble he'd caused her… Caused all of them.
Delia and Charles seemed a little puzzled by the tense atmosphere, but otherwise unaffected. Lydia liked her grandparents, her easy going grandfather reminded her much of her dad, if not quite as, well, strong. And Delia? Delia was a wave of gaudy colors, bright smiles, and utter obliviousness towards her own inappropriate… everything. It drove her mother nuts, but Lydia loved it. If there was one person in this world less afraid of being absolutely themselves than Beetlejuice, it was her grandmother.
And they wonder why I turned out the way I did… Lydia smiled to herself, taking a seat next to Adam and Charles. Maybe I'm just crazy. Maybe that's it.
"Now!" Before a single bite had been eaten, before a fork had even been lifted, Delia leaned forward, placing her elbows squarely on the table, and gave a smile that would have made a clown uncomfortable. "You're almost seventeen now, Lydia dear… Tell me about… boys!"
Someone choked. Without looking, Lydia couldn't be sure who it was, but her guess was Adam. "Really," He said in fact a moment later, reaching for his glass, "I think we can probably find something better to talk about than that, Delia…"
"Nonsense!" A light little laugh, almost fluttering, accompanied by the woman staring Lydia down without so much as blinking. "Our Lydia's grown into a lovely young woman, Adam! She must have to beat the boys off with a stick!"
Lydia was certain she heard a growl from somewhere in the room, though no one else seemed to notice. "Fortunately, I have a very large stick." She said aloud, hoping to placate him. There was no more than this, so she could only assume that it had worked. "Really grandma, there's no boys…" She might have stressed this last just a little too much.
Or so she assumed from the way the woman's face lit up. "No boys? One boy, then?" Now her fingers fluttered as much as her voice. She seemed more delighted for Lydia than if it were herself. "Oh, Lydia! Who is he? When do I get to meet him?" She was completely oblivious to the heavy silence that had fallen in the room.
"No, boy, either." Lydia muttered, feeling her throat become suddenly very dry. She reached for her water. She seemed to not be the only one with a half empty glass, and untouched food. It wasn't entirely a lie, after all. Beetlejuice hadn't been a boy for a very long, long time.
Delia's hands came slamming down on the table, making everyone jump, her eyes now positively glowing. "Then I simply must set you up! One of my friends, she's a marvelous sketch artist, has a nephew just about your age… Oh, he's positively dreamy, Lydia!" Plans were clearly already clicking away in her head. A relationship, followed by an appropriately lengthed engagement… A wedding… Grandchildren!
But that would make her a great-grandmother, wouldn't it? Her lips pursed in distaste, goodness, she wasn't that old… Oh heavens! Well, maybe not children right away…
Lydia was all too aware of the way her grandmother's mind worked, and had spent much of this thought process with her face hidden in her hands. "I really don't think I want to meet him…" She heard herself mumbling, hoping this would be enough for her insanely jealous husband.
"Nonsense, Lydia." It was, incredibly, Adam Maitland speaking, a small twisted smile on his lips. "It might be good for you to…"
That smell of lightning in the air again. Barbara interrupted before she could, dropping her hand on his shoulder hard enough to make him wince, while she smiled away warmly. "I don't think that's very nice, Adam." She said aloud, talking through her smile. "Lydia's perfectly capable of finding a man she likes on her own." To this, Adam just mumbled some sort of agreement, no longer looking at anyone.
Lydia sat there for about a full minute after this, as the tension in the air grew. Her grandparents didn't understand it, but even they knew something wasn't quite right now. And at last, Lydia had just had enough with it.
"Ah hell," She said aloud, resigning herself to a scene, "I don't want to meet the kid for a reason, grandma." Before anyone could question what that was, and more importantly, before anyone could stop her, she lifted her ring hand, gave her wryest smile, and wiggled her finger. "Guess what? I'm married!"
For a long, long moment after this, no one spoke at all.
--
It was a little odd, how utterly polite everyone had been when they'd started talking again. As if how they should react had been somehow, rehearsed, beforehand. Even the knowledge that the actual wedding had taken place five months before, apparently without anyone seeing fit to inform them of it, was dismissed almost offhand.
Delia however, kept casting her granddaughter little glances, which quite frankly, were getting under his skin. Beetlejuice shifted, narrowing his eyes at her. He'd never liked the woman. She hadn't treated Olivia right, and though he might now put his former fiancé in pretty much the same group of bitch now, she hadn't deserved that then. Besides, she was such a flake…
He'd loved when his wife had decided to break the news to them, had seen it coming before any of them. But then, he liked to think he knew her that well. The looks on their faces had been priceless. But now she had to face the brunt of it alone, or mostly so. He almost went visible more times than he bothered to count, as the forced politeness went on, and Lydia bore it all with a pained look.
"So, when is the baby due?" Delia asked suddenly, casting any other attempts at civility into absolute silence. Her eyes were narrowed, and Beetlejuice caught a glimpse of the woman that had made Olivia's life hell, albeit briefly. When her husband started to protest, she waved him away… And he let her. "Really Charles, we've been through this before, there's no point beating around the bush."
Lydia's expression was one of shock, and somehow paler than even her soft skin had been, only a moment before. "B-baby?" She echoed, the word somehow stumbling on her tongue, like it didn't belong there. She said no more than this though, not a word to defend her virtue, not a sound of anger or reproach. Just the one word.
And that was about all Beetlejuice could take. He made himself visible, tugging at his cuff in a way that let him avoid looking at them for a moment, as he gathered control enough not to send them all shooting off in random directions, then lifted his head with his best smile. "Something you been meaning to tell me, Lyds?" He began, deciding that the best way to approach this was with humor. "'Cause I know I'm good, but… Damn, that was fast!"
Now he paused, as if only now noticing that he was the center of attention. Lydia looked devastated, staring at her glass of water as if it held the answers to all questions of life. Delia on the other hand, opened her mouth, and he saw immediately what she intended. He still remembered that high pitched shrill very well, thank you, he didn't need to hear it again. Her napkin nicely muffled it though.
He held out his hands, and as if he hadn't just gagged her, greeted them with a smile. "Come on, admit it, you knew I'd be an in-law someday…" But of course, he'd been trying to draw the attention away from Lydia, and this did exactly the opposite.
But this time, even Lydia herself didn't seem to notice, rising to her feet, not looking at any of them. "Get me the hell out of here, Beej." She whispered, in a tone he'd never heard from her before. "Now."
Beetlejuice shrugged, still smiling wildly, though at this point it was more with a desire to sink his teeth into something. "Women. What are you going to do?" With the slightest motion of his fingers, she was spinning across the room, feet several inches above the ground, and ended up in his arms, in far less time than it would have taken her to walk there. Or even run. "Say bye, babes…" He hissed into her ear, just loud enough for everyone present to hear him.
And then, before she could protest, before anyone could, even before he could think about it twice himself, he took his wife away from there, in the fastest way he knew.
--
She kept her face turned into his coat as the wind passed through them, striking her cold to the core in a way she hadn't felt since the quarry… Yet somehow, this time without pain. She swore she could feel space itself bend around, then through them, shattering with little sparks of light that were as warm as kisses, somewhere she couldn't see. It was alien, unexpected, and took her breath away… And she loved it.
Beej? In some way, her voice didn't work right in this place, that wasn't a place at all. Where are we going? It never occurred to her that he wouldn't be able to hear her. This was his place, after all. It came from him.
Where do you want to go? The words tickled across her thoughts, like a caress, or a warm breath on her throat. She squeezed to him more tightly. The truth was, she liked it here. She didn't want to leave yet. I'll circle the world for you, babes…
Somewhere far away. She couldn't bring herself to be more specific than this at first, and even when she could speak again, it was almost as vague as before. Further than I've ever been before. Someplace no one will find us.
She swore that he laughed, tangling his fingers in her hair, and pulling down just hard enough to make her face tip up. His lips met hers in the next instant, and she swore, she saw stars being born in the darkness. I guaran-fucking-tee, babes, where I'm taking you… No one will find us.
And then the sense of falling became a sense of spinning, and then flying, before they swept out of the darkness together. Yet somehow, it was still dark. Very dark. Were her eyes open? Lydia blinked a few times, and decided they had to be. She wasn't afraid, because she could still feel him pressed against her. "Beej?" She whispered softly, still trying to see. "Where are we?"
A low, slightly mad laugh answered, but it was his, so she still wasn't afraid. "Babes," He said at last, savoring the words like some fine new taste, "We're nowhere. Literally." A flare of light, and she saw him holding up a match, which still only illuminated a few feet around them. Strangely, the match did not go out. "This is as far as I can take a living girl like yourself, Lyds. You gotta be dead to go any further… Or something like it."
A tingle of excitement teased her spine, and Lydia drew away from him, slowly. Not only were they nowhere, but apparently there was nothing there. She didn't seem to be standing on anything, which freaked her out a little, but more than that, in all directions the little flame cast its light, there was nothing at all to see, except for her and Beetlejuice.
"Sh-sh-sh-it!" She whispered, quickly reaching for him again. It didn't feel so much like falling, as long as there was something to hold onto.
But Beetlejuice was just grinning, waggling his eyebrows at her, amused by her distinctly un-Lydia-like reaction. "Take you too far, babes?" He asked smoothly, with a tone fully confident that he could make no mistakes. "Thought if any breather could handle this place, it'd be morbid little number like yourself."
Lydia shot him a surprised glance, completely forgetting their odd surroundings. "You think I'm morbid?" He asked, a slight frown tracing her lips. She didn't know if she liked that or not…
"Hell no!" He laughed, as if the idea itself was next to ridiculous. "But you're not scared anymore, are you?" Then, with a twist of his wrist, he sent her spinning off somewhere into the nothingness, and then, before she could scream, appeared before her again, and caught her. "I know this place like the back of my hand, babes," He muttered cockily, still holding the lit match, "You don't gotta worry about getting lost." Then abruptly, even as she began to think she might actually be safe, he blew out the flame.
Clutching to him more tightly just drew a thick chuckle from him, and she squirmed as he allowed himself a little unseen grope, torn between pushing him away in exasperation, and a desperation to hold onto something, anything. In the absolute blackness, he started kissing her throat, nibbling the tender skin. "Wanna be the first to join a very special club, babes?" He hissed, fingers playing her spine like some kind of flute. "Forget the mile high club. We're talking about a million fucking miles, here…"
A little eep escaped her lips, and he laughed, a little more deeply this time, giving her one more kiss before he relented. "Come on," He put his hand in the small of her back, and led her forward blindly, "I know this little spot right on the edge of the universe… You're not going to get a better view than that."
She almost followed. Almost. Then drew back, taking his hand with her. "Beej?" Her voice was suddenly uncertain, and she could almost feel him frown in response. "I don't think I'm supposed to be here. Much less looking over the edge of the universe." Her fingers dug into his coat, and as he didn't advance any further, she pulled herself in to rest against him. "I don't want us to get in trouble, Beej."
A long pause, followed by a decidedly drawn out sigh. "Expected better from you, Lyds." He muttered, as if disappointed. "What are a few rules, when you get a chance to see eternity? All right," He tucked his arm firmly around her, clearly preparing to take her somewhere else, "Where is it ya want to go now, babes?" A pause, then, "Keep in mind, this ain't a taxi service."
"That, other place." She answered, without hesitation. "When we were going from one place to another. When I could hear you like…" And here words failed her. "Just, go around for a while." She settled for at last. In case he was starting to have second thoughts, she added, in her most pleading tone, "You did say you'd circle the world for me, didn't you?"
A low growl, like annoyance with her ploy, followed by a sort of rasping laughter. "You wanna circle the world, babes?" He muttered at last, grasping her against him much more firmly now. "Let's circle the world!"
And then the place of dancing sparks and breaths of ice encompassed them again.
--
She was very still as they stepped out of the vortex together, and he considered the girl resting in his arms with a small frown. Well hell, she'd wanted to circle the world. She didn't say how many times. "Hey babes," He prompted, giving her a little shake, "You pass out on me?"
Lydia took a deep, slow breath, stirred, and opened her eyes with a smile. "Is it over?" She whispered, her tone wistful. Pleased with her reaction, he couldn't contain his grin, and nodded, supporting her until she got used to using her feet again. She stretched slowly against him, trying out her muscles one by one, and inadvertently brushing against him in several pleasing ways.
"Is it like that for everyone," She asked at last, gathering enough strength to stand, "Or just you?" The look in her eyes as she lifted them to his, full of light and wonder, made him think that the answer to this might be very important indeed.
The truth was, he'd never thought about it before, but wasn't about to admit that to her. Instead, he brushed his knuckles off on his shirt, gave his smuggest grin, and noted aloud, "Well, I am the ghost with the most, babes."
Light laughter fell from her, and she tried to walk, almost falling in the process. Her cheeks flushed, her eyes shining, and apparently unable to walk, she looked a bit like she'd had too much to drink. As he supported her though, again, she seemed to recover her sense of balance enough to step a few feet away, lean against the wall of the alley they'd appeared in, and sigh.
When her eyes opened again, there was humor in them, but a bit more coherence than there had been a moment before as well. "I think," She said slowly, struggling with a smile, "That I'm probably not supposed to do that either." Then, chuckling, she drew her hand through her now messy hair, ducked her head, and mumbled something he probably wasn't supposed to hear.
He did though, he heard very well, and it hit him pretty hard… In a good way. Like he was the one having trouble standing now. Something that good has to be breaking a few rules… He couldn't stop grinning, shoved his hands in his pockets, and rocked on his toes, pleased. It had never seemed like that big of a deal to him, moving from place to place. But hell, if she liked it…
"Anytime, babes." He offered glibly, already forgetting his warning that he wasn't a taxi service. And when she flashed him a look of gratitude, tenderness welling up in those big dark eyes… Well shit. It wasn't like he didn't do it all the time anyway. What was the big deal if he took her with him, now and then?
Suddenly a bit disgruntled that he had totally lost any sense of toughness or composure, he squinted at the sky, which was beginning to darken, and tried to sound a little less like he was becoming steadily more infatuated with the little goth girl. "Not far from your old man's." He noted, sounding a bit gruffer than he'd intended, and accepting it. He added, as an afterthought. "He better not be expecting me sleep on some damn couch, either."
She winced, and suddenly looked as if she now remembered everything she'd been trying to forget. "Oh hell." She muttered, almost flatly. "I wonder if they think I'm dead?" He cackled, reaching in his pocket for a cigarette, and somehow ending up with a handful of hard candies.
His eyebrows swept up in surprise, and he frowned. Damn, where had he put his smokes? Forget a taxi service, he was a fucking pack mule… "Lyds, babes." He prompted, matter-of-factly. "You ever think about carrying a purse?"
Lydia snatched one of the candies from him, popped it in her mouth, and grinned. "Hell no." She murmured through the mouthful of sweet. Then she stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him very softly, teasing at his lips with her tongue, and leaving him with the taste of sweet oranges in his mouth. Pulling away, she sighed, looking satisfied. Somehow, the candy had transferred to him.
He bit it, with a loud crack. "You're taking advantage of me, babes." He warned softly, giving her a scowl, only partly feigned. "Don't forget," And he advanced a slow step on her, making her surrender a small step back, "What you're dealing with."
But there she was, just smiling away, not the least bit afraid of him, for all that she'd retreated. Damn. I'm losing my touch. He spat the crushed candy to the side, narrowed his eyes at her, and walked off in a sulk, annoyed. Damn that girl. She think she had him tamed? "Whole fucking family's crazy…" He muttered, searching his pockets again.
"I heard that." Lydia murmured, tracing her fingers lightly along his back as she walked past him. Sending chills through him. "Don't forget, you married into it." She sounded entirely too cheerful, as far as he was concerned.
So what the hell was he supposed to say to that? He shook his head, grimacing. Next thing he knew, she'd have him walking on a goddamn leash… The hell with that. He was fucking Beetlejuice…
And he was going to make damn sure she didn't forget it.
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Just a note... I do like reviews. :) Man, how else do I know whether or not you like the direction I'm taking this in? Only got a couple people reviewing now... Grateful though I am. What, I lose my touch in this one? Hm... There's a scary thought. Shudder, I don't even want to consider it!
Ah, heck, maybe people don't realize how much I appreciate what they offered before? Didn't have much time for thank you notes, putting up a new chapter every day. But now I'm slowing down... And to be honest, I hate it. I'll try to have the next one up in a day or so. Then I'll have an excuse to keep a low profile, right?
... I hope so. Not much for one on one conversation... Other than the odd hello.
