It was Charles Deetz who broke the pregnant silence as everyone watched the killing in disbelief. Charles was kept to his seat by the hands of Walter's men. Thrashing violently, Charles attempted to break free so he could save his daughter, even while knowing that it was too late.

"You bastard! You killed her! You murdered my little girl!" The father roared, fighting his own tears as well as the men who restrained him.

Walter was dumbfounded by what he witnessed, what he still witnessed. Neitherworld's most wanted was a lot of things, but compassion wasn't one of the traits he would ever stick onto Beetlejuice. Yet the man had given the woman a good, clean death and still held her as a lover might.

"If I didn't know any better," Walter started as he approached the dead woman to make sure it wasn't just a show. "I would say you actually cared for her," Walter stated, a hand reaching out to touch Lydia's face.

At the last second Beetlejuice dropped Lydia's body like a bag of rocks, her corpse hitting the floor with a thud, making Walter jump, not so much for the sound but the action itself. He was a killer, back when he was alive and in his afterlife, but the cruelty against the dame's remains was surprising- especially after the way the man had treated her. The mobster was conflicted in thought until he saw the look on Beetlejuice's face.

If joy and fury could ever blend, it would be the expression that the infamous ghost looked at him with now. His smile was expansive, a shark's grin had nothing on this mouth, but what concerned Walter at present was the eyes of the man. It was as though his eyes had been replaced with flames that threatened to burn all that they saw.

"Care is a strong word, Walt," Beetlejuice said bitterly as he stepped over Lydia's body to close the distance between them. "I'm just a sore loser, that's all." Walter cleared his throat as he backed away from the ghost, nodding apologetically as he looked at Lydia's still body.

"Well- no hard feelings from me on this round Beetle. We'll just say water under the bridge, right? I mean, it's not as though you could actually attack an esteemed member of the board." Walter said, checking his surroundings. He was close enough to his men to where he felt comfortable making threats again, but he couldn't forget the state of the warehouse he had questioned Lydia in. The Russian twin barely qualified to be called 'remains. "What do you say we head on back to the Neitherworld and consider this a draw, yea? I get the board off your back and you keep your mouth shut. Sound like a deal?"

"On a good day, Walter, I would take you up on that in a heartbeat, so let's time Lyds heart to that deal, shall we?" Beetlejuice asked as he looked back at the corpse he made. Beetlejuice chuckled and shook his head and eyed the mobster once more. "Guess not." He said before moving past Walter, making his way to the seat that Charles was placed in. Waving the men aside they released the outraged father who aimed a fist at the dead man's face, but Beetlejuice simply stepped to the side and Walter's fell face first to the floor.

Everyone watched in confusion as the ghost grabbed the furious and grieving father by the collar of his shirt and dragged him to the nearest wall. Producing a piece of chalk in his freehand, Beetlejuice began to draw a door.

"Fine, go ahead and take this to Juno, hell, take it all the way to the rest of the board! It'll be your word against mine, Beetle," Walter scoffed as he knelt down to pick up the bloodied steak knife. "Truth is I saw you kill a living woman!"

"Yeah, I admit it. I'll even turn myself in, but you are forgetting two things asshole," Beetlejuice grumbled back as he knocked on the outline and the green light illuminated the room. "I've got a license to kill the living, being a bio-exorcist and all, the union is pretty tough when it comes down to making sure those certs are good."

Walter frowned. The bastard had him there but there were several other violations he could pin on Beetlejuice, but he was hoping for the big charge- but hell, it wasn't murder or booze smuggling that brought down Capone, it was tax evasion. At this point just about any infraction could give a one way ticket to the Beetle. Turning his lips up, D'Angelo shrugged.

"Fair enough, but what's the second missing piece?" Walter asked as Beetlejuice hauled Charles Deetz to his feet and shoved him through the open door to the Neitherworld.

"You let those suckers out of the closet, Walt, and the house is all out of Lydia,'" Beetlejuice stated simply as he gave a nod to the pair of soul suckers that managed to seep through the glass and creep upon the unsuspecting gangster. Walter's eyes widened as he saw Beetlejuice hold up the evil eye necklace that was once around Lydia's neck. "It's dinner time," the ghost said with a grin before he stepped through the portal and it closed behind him.

All at once, the soul suckers flooded into the Deetz household. Denied the morsel that had been calling to them, the wispy figures descended upon Walter and the other ghosts in the room, devouring their very essence. Delia and Otho did not witness the cloaked ghosts- they only felt the room temperature drop several degrees and watched the intruders writhing and screaming in agony before their images faded to nothing.

Eventually the room began to warm up again, the soul suckers having consumed all the souls that they could, a few hovered around Otho for a period but left knowing that easier meals could be found. The two friends stared at one another silently, both bound to their seats.

"... What the hell was that?" Otho asked.

….

As soon as Beetlejuice stepped into the Neitherworld again he was greeted with a sucker punch from Charles. He should have seen it coming, and maybe he did, but he rolled with the punches that Charles delivered.

"How could you do that to my baby girl?!" Charles roared in frustration as he threw another fist into Beetlejuice's gut, causing the man to double over. "She's dead because of you!" A blow to Beetle's cheek was made and it sent the man down to the alley pavement. "ANSWER ME!"

While laying face down on the ground, Beetlejuice stared at the evil eye necklace in his hand in silence. Listening as the words of anger from the father were twisted into sobs of sadness. Rolling onto his back, Beetlejuice watched as Charles backed against the wall and slid down to the floor, covering his face with his hands as he sobbed.

"I hate to be the one I told you so," Beetlejuice started as he summoned a pack of cigarettes from thin air. He took his time seizing one of the death sticks. Lighting a match against the concrete floor, Beet ignited the cigarette in between his lips and took a long drag. The ghost released a trail of smoke and then a heavy sigh. "But I fucking told you so."

Charles threw his hands down to glare at the man who had single-handedly ruined his life. But it was true- Beetlejuice did warn him about all of it. The soul suckers, Lydia's being far from ordinary, about Walter… Charles closed his eyes and rested his head back against the wall behind him.

"Where did she go?" Charles asked gently as the man in the tux took a final drag of his cigarette.

"Not sure. Processing can take some time, that white light people claim to see when they bite the big one is just a waiting room," Beetlejuice said as he put out the still hot coffin nail into his hand, his thousand-yard stare giving no indication of pain. Propping himself up by his forearms, the dead man turned his head to the grieving father. "She could go up, she could go down. I doubt it, but she could have a skeleton in her closet worthy of attracting Lucy's attention. Hell, she could even end up in that house like Adam and Barb."

"God, Lydia would hate that," Charles said, shaking his head. In truth, he didn't know who would haunt who when it came to his wife and daughter. As Beetlejuice got back on his feet, Charles also began to stir, watching the nearly twice made son-in-law. "Is there any chance she could end up here? You said that given her being special she could," Charles asked with a twinge of hope in his voice. Granted, he wanted more for Lydia, but he still wasn't ready to give her up.

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Lydia's necklace tucked into the folds as well, the miserable ghost gave a meek shrug as sirens wailed in the distance. They were coming for him, he could feel it, but there was no point in running. He had nothing to fear in terms of getting hit with the book. He was up to code on his license to kill the living and the eradication of Walter and his crew could be led back to the man's faulty plan of leaving the closet door open in the first place.

"I don't know, I lied to you about that part. Your kid was a wild card if I ever saw one," Beetlejuice sighed as he felt the glass of her evil eye necklace in his pocket. "Just take a win where you can. Walter can't get her and neither can those suckers," Beetlejuice said looking over his shoulder. Charles Deetz nodded as a few police cars arrived, blocking them into the alley. The red white and blue lights flashing violently. "Ah, the colors of freedom. Gotta love it."

As the NWPD swarmed around them Charles followed the instructions to raise his hands above his head, but kept his gaze on Beetlejuice's back. "Well, as long as she doesn't come here or end up back home, you can't get to her either," Charles said with relief, making the other man scoff in response.

"And neither can I," Beetlejuice agreed as he pulled his hands from his pockets and raised them in defense as the boys in blue swarmed around them. Their timing was faster than expected, but escaping prison in the Neitherworld was pretty unheard of, and the powers that be must have been monitoring every portal that was spun up since his disappearance.

Beetlejuice didn't fight back as he was slammed against a wall, a pair of silver cuffs slapped on him again.

"You've got the right to remain silent," he heard one of the officers growl. "But if I were you, I'd be praying to God to keep you from the next flight to Saturn."

Beetlejuice smirked as he was pulled away from the wall and led to the cruiser. He didn't need God to pull him out of this, but he was sure that his rep, Linda Eaton, wouldn't mind getting the title of God. Ducking down, Beetlejuice sat in the back of the cop car and cast his eyes out of the window, watching as Charles was also hauled into another car, though the bedside manner was more gentle for him.

Sitting back, the ghost closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. Technically, he had won. Walter wouldn't be breathing down his neck ever again, and he doubted that the rest of the board would be going after him anytime soon- but damn did he feel like shit.

How else was he supposed to feel after killing the woman he adored?