How Ch. 21

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At this point if you haven't listened to "How" by Maroon 5 that inspired this whole fanfic, please, please, please go look it up on Youtube, and listen to it with this chapter. A few lines from it kind of coincides with this chapter like:

"I can feel it in my guts. What's going on with him now? Don't patronize me with lies I'm a man be a woman now."

Also….

"Why does the one you love become the one who makes you want to cry?"

Anyway on with the story, as always I don't own Beetlejuice or any of the original characters.

Beej's POV:

Lydia headed towards the stairs, and that's when I noticed her limp.

This caused flashes of her limp bloody body in my arms in the field, her being rushed to the operating room, and the look in her eyes when she looked up from her gunshot wound and back at me as her eyes silently pleaded for me.

I shook those images from my head as I followed her, just as she walked up the first step.

"Lyds, wait…"

Nothing

She kept going as fast as her little pale feet would take her.

I dissolved and appeared two steps above her, on the small landing between both sets of stairs, and she stopped. She wouldn't look at me, she took a few deep breaths before turning completely around and walking back down the stairs.

I re-appeared at the bottom of the stairs. She closed her eyes in frustration, stopping again.

"I can do this all day, you know."

She looked exhausted.

She turned to climb the stairs again.

"Come on Babes, you're really just gunna ignore me?" I said frustrated

"Ignore you?" She said like she was offended.

She then walked down the stairs and stopped just two stairs shy of being eye level with me, her eyebrows pulling downwards into a frown.

"Do you even remember what our last full conversation was like?" she asked her eyes searching mine for an answer.

My jaw tightened at the memory of her on the floor of her apartment holding her bleeding leg as glass and debris flew around her, and her screaming with tears in her eyes for me to stop.

I took a deep unneeded breath, closing my eyes in frustration at the thought of how she must have felt when she already had everything with Dylan on her plate.

"Lyds, listen…"

But her voice cut me off and pulled my attention back to her.

"You left me." She said her voice filled with anger. She waited a moment to continue before changing the subject.

"I've had nightmares for years, of you standing over his dead body, with that same twisted face that you get when you're angry." She didn't lose eye contact with me for a minute, glaring down at me. Her voice started to shake a bit, as she got more and more upset.

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe what you did to him in the shack was the exact reason I didn't tell you? If I hadn't stopped you, you would've gone through with it."

I watched her with a frown glaring right back.

"I ignored every fiber of my being that screamed at me to tell you the truth." She swept a loose piece of hair behind her ear in frustration. "It didn't stop just because you were back in my life again."

My blood started to boil.

"Babes, just listen…" I insisted trying to take her hand in mine, she yanked it away.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled tears starting to glaze over her big brown eyes. "And don't 'Babes' me, you're the one that left me… I'm dead to you, remember?"

Her voice boomed through the otherwise silent house, and it was only then did I remember the four person audience behind me.

She laughed choking back angry tears, and wiping her nose.

"I honestly don't know why I'm so surprised."

"Because this…" She gestured from herself to me and back again. "Wasn't real anyway." She said in strangely calm voice.

"What are you talking about?" I growled loud enough for only her to hear.

"It was all just a business deal, right B?" she accused

B. not Beej

She was mad, no pissed and hurt, but her words were starting to hit a nerve.

" 'A marriage of inconvenience' you called it, if I remember correctly." She shook her head "You got out and I got to say I was hitched to the most eligible bachelor since Valentino, Right?"

I glared at her as she mockingly threw my words back in my face. This hurt, like a knife through the heart.

"But I fell for your con, so Bravo!" She clapped the frown still present on her face.

"It wasn't a con. You know better!" I snapped

"Come on, you didn't really think I was that stupid did you?" She asked "The whole 'fake love story with a seventeen year old school girl', how did I not see it before?!"

I bit my tongue, snarling.

"You were probably gunna ride it out until I was eighteen. Get me to sleep with you then leave checking in every few years to make sure I hadn't killed myself!" She yelled tears starting to form in her eyes again.

"That's enough!" I yelled before looking down; I had to control my anger. I could feel juice pumping through my veins.

"Look me in the eyes, and tell me that wasn't the plan!"

I couldn't, she had hit the nail right on the head.

Just like Juno had said, that had in fact been the plan back when I was in the waiting room, wanting revenge for being turned into Sandworm bait; but the minute I saw her I knew I wouldn't be able to go through with it.

My eyes stayed glued to the hardwood of the stairs.

"That's what I thought." She said disgusted "Looks like I know you a lot better than you think I do."

She turned and headed back upstairs.

"It was real!" I finally yelled looking up.

She stopped on the landing I had been on earlier turning to face me.

"It was payment!"

My heart sank, and silence fell over the white house on the hill.

I could just barely see tears streaming down her cheek, as she looked up towards her room.

"If you've ever had a shred of humanity, you'll sign the papers and let me forget any of this ever happened." She said quietly, and made her way up the stairs quickly.

She was gone, the sound of her bedroom door opening and closing echoed through the house and all I could hear was the faint footsteps behind me.

Everyone seemed to be gone from what I could tell, having escaped to the kitchen.

I sank to sit on the stairs, and my face fell into my hands.

I had worked so hard to get her back, and she was gone.

She wanted nothing to do with me.

I felt someone sit next to me, but I ignored it.

"You're not going to sign those are you?" Barbara voice asked sadly.

"You heard her, it's done." I said angrily

"It's not over. She's… She's just confused, and upset. She's been hurt, very badly. And yes, you did things that didn't help, but she needs you."

I sighed frustrated

"She told me everything, and I honestly don't know how she's gotten this far by herself." She said

We sat in silence for a minute "She told you everything?" I asked resting my elbows on my knees.

Barbara just nodded sadly both of us looking at the floor in front of us.

"Is it as bad as I think it is?"

"Probably worse" She said and I inhaled deeply rubbing my eyes. "She just didn't want to lose you again."

After a few moments of silence she looked over at me. "Go be with her." She said getting up and heading towards the kitchen.

I waited until she was gone, before going up to Lydia's room.

What had this girl…woman done to me. This was the most human I had felt in my entire afterlife.

I knocked, and didn't get a response.

I phased through the door, and didn't see her anywhere, but could hear her muffled crying.

I knocked on the inside of the door again.

"Go away" She said weakly from the closet.

I made my way over to the closet, and peered around the corner.

She was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall, her knees curled to her chest, and her head in her hands.

"Barbara please…" She said lifting her face

Her eyes met mine, and they quickly fell to the floor, as she rushed to wipe her tears away.

"What?" She pulled her sleeves tighter, and her hair un-tucked from behind her ear to for a curtain, hiding her face

I didn't say anything just sat in front of her.

It was then that I noticed the empty beer bottles and cans scattered around and a bit of familiar red fabric sticking out of a cardboard box, which it seemed to have been shoved into.

"Beers , huh?" I said awkwardly pulling my knees up to rest my arms on them.

"What do you want?" She asked looking at the ground.

I waited a minute shifting uncomfortably, "I want you to talk to me."

"Why should I?" she spat trying to get up

I grabbed her arms and the force she used to try and stand made her slide towards me.

A flash of panic flashed in her eyes as she tried to pull away. "Let go of me." Her voice was frail, weak, almost scared.

I kept a firm grip on her forearms, as she struggled against me.

"Lyds…" nothing she was in fight or flight mode, tears welling up in her eyes; I could feel her pulse start to quicken in panic.

"Lyds, calm down" she continued to struggle and I finally rounded up both of her wrists in one hand, and pulled to me, by wrapping the other arm gently around her waist.

"Lydia!" I said finally getting her attention and those big brown eyes focused on me and her fighting weakened.

"Hey…" I said softly "I'm sorry."

Her eyes fell to look at my mouth for a split second, then back to my eyes.

Sorry wasn't a word I had ever really used before but, she understood immediately.

"Me too" She said weakly, her eyebrows tugging down slightly as tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to spill over at any moment.

I let go of her wrists, and brushed her hair out of her face. She leaned softly into my touch, her eyes sliding shut.

"Come 'ere" I whispered, and that's all it took. She fell against my chest, one hand clutching the lapel of my jacket, the other resting on my shoulder.

I gently wrapped my arms around her resting my chin on the top of her head.

She sobbed, not cried, sobbed.

All I could do was hold her, but hearing her cry so hard felt like torture.

I had no idea I could hurt so badly, God only knew what she felt like.

I kissed the top of her head and we stayed in that exact spot until her cries slowed, and she eventually fell asleep.

XXXXXX

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