Beetlejuice is not mine. Not the bigger, greater idea of him, the original, that everybody, including me, loves and fan-fics. However, the Beetlejuice in this story, is as much mine, as he can be, without violating copyrights… Which I don't want to do. Get it? Main characters, not mine, backdrop, not mine, story, mine. Enjoy, and please don't sue!

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Okay… To avoid voicing my insecurities about this chapter, I'll offer a quick question… You all do realize that it was Vincent's touch she felt as she was dying, right? Both times, I mean. She just assumed it was Beej, but the fact is, he couldn't reach her where she was. She was able to come back because Vincent reminded her why she had to live… Albeit without realizing it. Or intending that to be the reason. And then, he didn't even get to keep her. So try being a little sympathetic to the gloomy prince's plight… He gave her everything he had, and it wasn't enough. That sucks for anyone.

Makes me want to hug him until he's not sad anymore… And makes me feel positively evil for doing this to him, too. But they couldn't both get the girl…

Damn it.

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They'd been sitting in silence for hours, long past the time when visitors were supposed to leave, none willing to abandon the still unconscious girl. But she was just unconscious now, Beetlejuice knew. While the two others cast worried glances at their prone daughter, he knew what she'd looked like before, when she was really dying, and could only feel something like relief in his gut, that she didn't have that corpse-like look to her pretty pale features anymore.

The silence of course, was driving him to gnawing his arm down to the bone… Or rather, he stood there, not noticing as he methodically scratched at an increasingly large red mark on his left wrist, eyes too busy watching his babes for the faintest sign of waking. Despite saying his name some time before, she hadn't really emerged from her near-death dream yet- not fully.

Neither of the Deetz's, mind, had any idea he was even there. But they had to suspect it. Olivia in particular kept lifting her head, casting a long glance around the room with red-rimmed eyes, parted her lips, as if to say something… And then offered nothing at all, just turning back to her daughter.

As far as Beetlejuice was concerned, that was a good thing. Not that he was opposed to a little more venting, this time with the bitch whose fault all this shit was to begin with, in his opinion… But the way he was feeling just then, he'd probably kill her. Then exorcise her ass. And silver tongued devil that he was, he still didn't think he'd manage to talk his way out of that one with his girl.

It was almost midnight before she stirred again… Just the slightest twitch of her fingers, caught immediately by her fanatically staring best friend, before her eyes fluttered open, and for an uninterrupted span of breaths, just stared into the darkness above herself, looking slightly puzzled. Then, softly, again… "Beej?"

"Lydia!" He didn't get to say a damn thing from his hidey-hole in midair, not two feet from the girl, before her mother's cry ripped through the air, making the girl startle, grab at her chest again, and give a little shriek of fear.

Before any further damage could be done, Beetlejuice shoved the woman back into her chair, hard enough for one of the legs to snap, and tip her backwards onto the floor. "What the fuck part of weak heart don't you understand?" He growled, not considering for a moment, that he might be upsetting the girl every bit as much as her mother.

Olivia stared up from the floor, not bothering to get to her feet, aged more in one night than she had in the last seven years. "Beetlejuice!" She snapped, clearly not thinking this through any more than he was. "Beetlejuice! Beetle- urg!"

This was a game the poltergeist had played for a long time, and no way in hell he was letting that woman get his name out a third time, not now. The fact that he had her by the throat, pressed against the wall, her feet dangling a few inches above the floor, didn't even really register with him. Or the fact that she was no longer breathing. He just bared every jagged, off-color tooth, eyes flashing like nothing human, and hissed, with forced control, "Shut. The. Fuck. Up."

A hand took hold of his shoulder, not a second later, pulling him away from her, and he spun, fists at ready, still burning for a fight- only to meet Edmond's warning frown, as the man made none of his wife's efforts to send him away. "Lydia's been through enough tonight already." He said softly, coldly, but unlike Beetlejuice's efforts, his words the ones of a man who actually was in control. "I won't have either one of you upsetting her more. Understood?"

Grudgingly, Beetlejuice released his grip, and paid no further mind to his former fiancé, now folded like a wet doll on the floor, gasping for air. Behind him, Edmond helped his wife to her feet, but after that, he didn't spare her so much as another glance. His expression was nothing less than disgust.

Lydia had watched this entire scene unfold without saying a word, her dark eyes large and worried, and oddly subdued. Her lips, not just her skin, an unhealthy shade of her usual pretty pale, as her fingers tugged at her sheets wordlessly, gaze flicking from one to another, taking it all in.

Finally her attention came to a rest on the poltergeist himself, and something in her expression changed, becoming pained. "I screwed up pretty good, huh Beej?"

A twist of guilt and fury wrenched at his gut, and Beetlejuice just scowled. "Don't fucking talk like that." He muttered, pulling at his chin with his thumb, angry in fact, with everyone there but his babes. "Shoulda figured something like this would happen, sooner or later… Not much of a loophole, anyway. No way in hell you could hate me, right?" This last, with an uneasy little smile. Never mind how the geis had worked, he wanted to hear it from her own lips. As much as anyone, he knew how death, or something this close, could change things.

A smile traced her lips, and something in her eyes grew a little less pained. "No," She agreed softly, lifting her hand towards him, in invitation. "I could never hate you, Beej." He paused only a second, before moving over next to her, sitting on the edge of the bed, a little clumsily, and considering her with a frown. When he didn't take her hand, she took his. But that had always been the way it worked between them.

She looked like she was still trying to wake up, like she wasn't completely sure she wasn't still dreaming. There was something weird in the way she kept staring at him, eyes devouring every inch of his face again and again, like she thought he wasn't really there, and might fade from sight any moment. It was a little eerie, the way she kept squeezing his fingers, just a little, eyes rarely blinking as her gaze took in every detail.

Then, abruptly, she released him, and laid back in the bed again, something almost physically changing in her manner. A slight flush of color touched her skin, and she began breathing a little more steadily, heavy lashes fluttering as she seemed to consider a return to sleep.

Instead she spoke, and when she did, it sounded considerably more like the Lyds he knew again. "So, it's bad, right?" She prompted, looking now to her father for the answers. "Some kind of heart problem?"

The man, though his features showed he was reluctant to answer, didn't hesitate in offering the truth. "Complete heart failure." He denied, in an odd monotone. Maybe not odd at all. Also coming over to the side of her hospital bed, and considering his daughter lying there, having come so close to losing her. "They don't know the cause, they don't know for certain how much damage was done… Lydia, they don't know if your heart is ever going to work right again."

From the surprised look in Lydia's eyes, it hadn't yet occurred to her that she might only have been given a temporary reprieve. That she might still die. "Hmm." It was a small, noncommittal sound, it meant nothing to those gathered around her. But inwardly, she was remembering, with an odd sort of clarity, the struggle in the darkness. The effort it had taken to come back just once. She had the damning feeling that she wasn't going to be able to do it again. Not without being ripped completely to pieces.

If a person tried too hard to hang onto life, did their soul die with them?

Pushing herself up on her elbows, just a little, she regarded her family. Olivia, looking more broken than she felt herself. Her strong father, desperately afraid. Beetlejuice… No, he was too hard to read, even for her. It wasn't one simple thing, like it was with her parents. Anger, fear, guilt- A hundred other things she couldn't name- making his eyes glow dully from sunken sockets, as he watched her. Nothing of the trouble-making, laugh in the face of the devil, maniacally grinning guy she loved.

Did he know, she had to wonder, feeling an odd emptiness in her gut at the thought, how close he'd come to losing her? For good?

"Huh." She said this time, just as softly, then, with a not entirely forced smile, "I think I'm going to be all right now. I'm not going to worry about it." At this answer, even her best friend looked at her like she was a little mad… But she wasn't. For what felt like the first time in her life, she was thinking very, very clearly.

Loopholes, Beetlejuice had told her before, more times than she'd ever counted, They're always there. The trick is, finding them, without letting anyone else know you're looking. And without even trying, Lydia had already found hers. Like it was staring at her with unearthly green eyes, full of worry and bafflement, not three feet away.

Finally Beetlejuice, only able to figure that the girl was either putting on a brave face, or seriously in denial, offered a knowing grin in return, and made a sound of acceptance with his tongue. "Shoulda known, babes. So what kind of bet you have going with Old Man Death, anyways? Always heard the Reaper couldn't say no to a good gamble…"

Lydia giggled, well aware the poltergeist was bullshitting for her sake, but not ready to let him know the truth just yet. She didn't want him to agree to her plan, just for the sake of keeping her around… This was one of those all or nothing deals. Either he married her because he loved her, and wanted to spend the rest of his endless afterlife with her… Or she wouldn't remind him of the ghost prince's words at all.

That him marrying someone from the living world, and her marrying someone from the neitherworld, meant the same thing to both of them.

Life.

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So the last few hands, he'd thrown to her, discarding first tie, then jacket… Now currently down to his socks, shoes, and boxers. What the hell was he supposed to do though? All she was wearing was the damn paper gown, and well… No use starting something they couldn't finish. So for now, he'd let her get an eyeful.

The hospital hadn't made her parents leave, even after she woke, though they'd been assured sternly this was a "one-time thing." So at the moment they were in the bed not ten feet away, still wearing their clothes from the day before, tucked into each other's arms in a way they never were anymore. And after Lydia staring at them for the first thirty minutes or so, looking sad, he'd flicked the curtain between them closed. No need for that.

And examining his currently dealt hand, he was left to wonder why he never had luck like this when he was trying to win. He picked at the battered edges of the decades' old deck, wondering briefly if this was the same one he was missing a card from. It sure as hell wasn't one of the royal suits, if it was. He couldn't fucking remember.

A waft of his fingers across the tops, in a sort of feigned tell, switched his currently held cards with a random spattering from the bottom of the deck. And once more, Lydia won. Beetlejuice smirked, made a slow show of standing, playing with his waistband… Then kicked his boots off, with an exaggerated air. Lydia tried not to laugh, afraid she'd wake her parents. He kicked back up in midair, and waggled his still-socked toes at her.

A twist of his ringed finger brought the cards all flying back up into his hand, and he began shuffling them again. "'Nother hand?" He was grinning, Lydia noted. He didn't look worried. Like it might have just been a one time thing, and now… Hell, life went on! Only she of course, wasn't buying it. Not that he wasn't a good bullshitter… She couldn't find even a trace of doubt in his gruesome good looks… But she still didn't buy it.

"Mm-mm." She denied, as she leaned back in bed, rubbing her forehead gently. The lack of light was beginning to be a strain on her eyes. What's more, she was getting hungry. She debated briefly on whether or not to call on her very own personal poltergeist delivery service… But was she hungry enough for hospital food?

"Come on, babes…" He leered at her, abandoning his place at the end of her bed, and coming to float directly over her, leaving them not more than a few inches apart, length to length. He indicated himself with a sense, somehow, of swagger. "It's just getting good! And I'm feeling lucky…"

Lydia snorted, reached up to press her outstretched fingertips against his bare, cool chest, and gave him a firm shove away. "Don't just float there looking sexy, Beej… This place is worse than miserable, and I'm hungry." He cocked his head at her, drifting a little ways away. Somehow his tie, and only his tie, was back around his neck, as he straightened the perpetually crooked knot with his fingers, absently. "And maybe bring me some music? And a decent blanket? And my own goddamn pillow? The one that smells like you?"

He'd started to say something, clearly some sort of flippant comment about how he wasn't her delivery boy, but at that last, he paused, considered her with a slow, sleazy grin, the kind he was best at, and cackled softly. "Well, hell babes… Since you did say I'm sexy…"

"Damn sexy." She teased right back, tugging a few loose locks of hair over her face, like falling spider-webs, hoping it looked as seductive as she thought it did. "Please, Beej?"

"Huh." He continued staring at her, still smirking, but giving her a decidedly, 'You can't con a conman, babes,' kind of look. "You know damn well I wouldn't let you get away with looking so goddamn cute, if you weren't laid up. Don't push it, babes." And then, with a snap of his fingers, all for show she was sure, he was gone.

A little relieved to no longer have to put up a show of feeling stronger than she was, Lydia closed her eyes, draping her fingers across them to block out the low light, and yawned. She figured she'd probably be asleep before he got back, if he didn't hurry. Maybe just as well. It was almost dawn…

"'Bout damn time you sent Beetle away. I thought that poltergeist would never leave!" A waft of familiar scent made Lydia's eyes fly open again, and turn to her left in surprise, to see the haggard, tired looking face of Juno there. "I tell you kid, this is why I don't take time out for doing good deeds. I just don't have the damn time!"

Lydia stared at her, wondering briefly what she wanted. Couldn't a girl even recover in peace? What had she done wrong now? A slow frown formed across her lips. "You're not supposed to smoke in here." She noted, deciding the best way to approach this, as always, was by pretending she didn't care what rule she'd broken now. But heck, maybe the woman was there to wish her well soon!

"Yeah? Well, you can go to-" It was pretty obvious what she'd started to say, but she broke off, rather sharply, gave Lydia a piercing look, and amended, "No. Never mind. Don't do that." A small puff, before the cigarette disappeared completely. "They, kid. They can go to hell."

Normally her little self correction would seem odd… At the moment, just the thought of the less than friendly destination made Lydia's stomach turn. "What do you want, Juno?" She asked softly, in no more mood to offer mind games. "I've had kind of a long day."

The social worker glanced towards the window, and smirked. "Looks like your day's just getting started, kiddo." Not deigning to grab a chair, she pulled one of Beetlejuice's moves, and sat down squarely in midair, crossing her legs with a tight little grimace. It certainly couldn't be called a smile. "So, that's pretty much it, kid. You were supposed to move on, you didn't. Now more of you is wherever you were supposed to be, than there is lying right there in front of me. I hope you're pleased with yourself."

"Pretty much, yeah." Lydia agreed softly. She didn't feel that hollow ache quite so much anymore. Being around Beetlejuice just sort of filled up any longing she had… But she still didn't want to think on it too deeply. Still. "So, that part of me I lost… Will it grow back?" Might as well get that question out of the way right now…

Juno gave her a long, steadied look. "What the hell do you think a soul is, Deetz? Some kind of lizard's tail?" And that was pretty much as far as she went with that particular analogy, offering instead, "Let me give you some advice, kid. Next time the light calls you on, you damn well better answer. You only get so many chances."

Lydia sat up slowly, even as Juno dropped her feet back down, her piece of advice given, her good deed done… And before the ghost woman could walk away, denied softly, "There won't be a next time. I'm asking Beetlejuice to marry me, when he comes back." A slow turn, accompanied by an incredulous stare. "I'm staying with him." Lydia pressed on firmly.

The old ghost's eyes watched her, for upwards of three breaths, then narrowed slowly. "You don't want to do that, Deetz." She warned, something suddenly dangerous in her tone. "Goddamnit girl, you only get one chance to mess up that big, and then there's no turning back. I'm telling you, don't do it!" This was accompanied by much finger and hand gesturing. "Do you hear me?"

Lydia was silent for a moment, not answering right away. Seeming to give the simple yes or no question, more thought than it merited. Then she just sort of shrugged, lifted her gaze to the other woman's, and assured her calmly, "Yes. I hear you."

Clearly there was a communication problem here, but at the moment, it wasn't quite as clear which one of them was choosing not to understand the other. Juno gave her a long, steady glare, as if the girl made it her personal point in life, to annoy her… But that accomplished little, as the minutes stretched between them without a word, and Lydia clearly wasn't about to change her mind. Beetlejuice would be back soon. This had to be settled now.

"You're damaged goods, girlie." Juno stated as last, as coldly as anything she'd ever heard from the woman. "How long do you think you'll be able to hold his interest, half the person you were when he was actually willing to fight over you? She gave her head a short, thinly amused shake. "You obviously don't know that man the way I do."

"No, I don't." Lydia agreed, after a small pause. "But I do know that when I'm around him, it doesn't feel so much like part of me is missing."

Juno response was immediate, if not spoken. A sharp glance, a slight stiffening of her features… And a decidedly curious look, despite her best efforts to hide it. "So you're counting on the poltergeist to construct you an artificial soul, is that it?" She noted softly, pulling a pen and notepad out of midair, and scribbling down something Lydia couldn't see. "Not impossible… You know what he is as well as I do."

Both pen and notepad vanished, with no indication what she'd been writing. "But that's all it ever can be." She added, pointedly. "Artificial. As in, not real." A small pause, and a sort of depth-peeling sense to her gaze. "Most ghosts spend their whole afterlives in the neitherworld, trying for the very thing you're being offered on a silver platter here, kid. Something more. Something bigger than the rest of us can ever dream."

Another, longer pause, as Lydia took this in, probably without the weight she should be, right up until Juno found another way to put it. "Kid… Is staying with this lunatic worth more to you, than your own soul? The real thing?"

The question caught her off guard, and it shouldn't have. It was basically what the woman had been asking all along… And still Lydia found herself unable to come up with an answer that didn't choke in her throat, one way or another. Was staying with him worth more than…? She didn't know.

But it didn't matter, she realized a moment later, because however reasonable she tried to be about this, as logically as she tried to face this, it all led back to one thing. She didn't know if he was worth more to her… But she was still staying with him. Because for the life of her, she couldn't bear the thought of him just not being there anymore. Or rather… Her, not being there, with him, anymore.

It seemed though, that she didn't actually have to answer, because no sooner had she realized this, than Juno seemed to know it. Her lips pursed, and her eyes, rather than looking, disapproving, looked oddly, blank. "You've got no idea how long eternity is, Deetz." She noted quietly. "You're not even seventeen. You're too young to make this kind of decision."

Lydia answered with a smile, her moment of doubt fled… As she mused that, after all, eternity was just one day at a time. With her best friend. Not even confined to either world, for that matter. Only someone really greedy could possibly ask for more.

"Maybe I am too young," Lydia agreed, stretching a little, and allowing herself a small, oddly triumphant smirk, "But this is when I've gotta decide, right? I mean, even if I wasn't dying…" She spared a glance to Juno to see how she'd react to these words, deny them maybe- she didn't- then shrugged, "I'd still have to decide now, right?" And she'd made her decision. She was confident. Calm.

And if some little squirming doubt did remain, questioning just how big forever really was, she was no longer giving it the time of day.

Juno was, oddly, no longer looking at her. Touching her lower lip with two fingers, as if seeking an object not currently there. Eyes, a little unfocused. Somehow detached, in a way she hadn't been, just a moment before. Unwilling to show… that maybe, in her own way, she approved. "Forget blind," She muttered under her breath, just the same, "Love makes people goddamn idiots."

This was all she said though, no more dire predictions, no more warnings given, as the case worker gave up on the girl behind her, as if as a lost cause, not even looking in her direction again as she walked back to her office. But the reason she didn't look at the girl wasn't because she disapproved of her choice, however she tried to let on. She'd had to offer this warning. She felt she owed the girl that. But she'd never been sure herself what she wanted to kid to say.

So it wasn't because she disapproved. It was because as stupid as the kid was being… Juno was proud of her. After all, every soul had its own idea of paradise… But most seemed convinced they should have it handed to them at the end of their lives, just the way they wanted it, with no further effort at all.

Instead, Lydia Deetz was determined to make her own, out of a world most people wanted nothing more than to escape from. And to find her own heaven, in a damned man's heart.

And thank god for that, too. Juno didn't know what she would have done with him, if he didn't have the girl around to keep him in check anymore…

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Beetlejuice regarded the scene of devastation fanned out around the hospital with an oddly satisfied air, a smug grin pressed across his pale lips. "Been saying it for years," He noted aloud, more to himself than the disaster relief scattered out across the damage, some fifty yards below, "Ghost with the most. Damn Royals can go to hell."

Anyone that looked up just then would have been more than a little surprised, because he was not currently trying in the least to be unseen. He was just a little too full of himself, now that the worst of the danger had passed, to think he had anything to risk from some small shit like that. Not after pounding the crown prince of the royal family into the living world dirt, just the night before. Lyds was awake, Prince Vince was no longer a problem… His world was right back where it was supposed to be.

Only of course, it wasn't. But now that she was awake, he'd just use his juice to patch her up, good as new. As long as she was alive, he could do that. Make that big beautiful living heart of hers, beat like new… Soon as he gave her a day or so to be strong enough to survive the little jolt.

He had no doubt he could do it… He'd proven what he could do, after all. He'd use the last little bit of a geis to help him repair the damage, without causing more… and then, without a word to anyone, he'd pulled that spark right back out of her, so this would never happen again. What the losers didn't know, wouldn't hurt him. Or Lyds.

So, paper bag clasped in one hand, pillow tucked under his arm, and the rest of it floating around him conveniently, he admired his 'work' with some pride, and little concern to whoever might have gotten in the way, before grunting, and ghosting through the wall between him and his babes. Already figuring out how he was gonna brag to her about it, when it seemed like she might enjoy that kinda thing again. He had no doubt she would, Lyds was his biggest fan. Even if she was acting a little weird at the moment…

He let out a little, amused curse, to see her tucked on her side, legs bent at the knees, breaths the soft whispers of a sleeper. "Wasn't gone that long…" He muttered, lifting her head ever so slightly with his powers anyway, and replacing the flat unsupportive thing under her head, with her pillow from home. The one she said smelled like him.

And he didn't stop there. By the time he slipped into the hospital bed with her, invisible, all but intangible, her thick black comforter was tucked neatly around her small body, her face buried into the aforementioned pillow with a small smile, music drifting up softly around them both, as the paper bag filled with all her favorite foods, still warm, sat off to the side, more or less forgotten. Even if it did smell damn good.

Beetlejuice tucked his arm slowly around her, careful not to wake the sleeping girl, and settled a single, chilling kiss, on the tip of her ear. Without ever waking up, Lydia's smile grew, and she snuggled back against his cold body, pulling his arm more tightly to her chest, and again, whispered, "Beej…" Like she knew.

Right here, babes. He thought to himself with a smirk, pulling her more firmly against him, and not above enjoying the lack of material between her body and his. "Lyds," He whispered aloud, his dead breath caressing the soft, warm skin of her throat, "I'm gonna take care of everything. You'll see. I'm gonna do right by you. Damn the rest of them."

This said, his eyes closed, and he listened to her breathing, such a fragile sound, promising that she was right there under his touch again. Without even realizing it, his own breaths moved to match hers. Determined that he'd never let them stop again.

It wasn't all perfect. He knew that sooner or later, there was gonna be hell to pay, for what he'd done the night before…

But for now, the poltergeist was with his babes, in heaven.

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