The E.R. was busy with several patients awaiting medical treatment, even this late at night. A little girl and her father sat, dozing, waiting for someone to look at her sprained ankle. A man with a broken nose held his face gingerly and glared at the nurses who ignored his plight because of the accident victims pouring in from the ambulance drive outside. Beetlejuice took one look around, ignored the others and carried Claudia up to the desk.
"What's the matter, sir?" one of the ovoid ladies asked tiredly.
"She got bit by a cobra," he returned, upset that they weren't already trying to help her.
"A cobra? Are you sure?" she demanded, standing up and leaning over to observe her pale face, slightly open mouth and unfocused eyes. "My God, how long has it been since she was bitten?"
"About half an hour."
She motioned to an orderly for a stretcher and Beetlejuice laid her down on it hurriedly. He was relieved to see her eyes moving around a bit, and a slight gurgling was coming from her throat.
"Oh, jeez. I thought she was a goner. But she's waking up now, right?" he breathed, relieved.
The nurse gave him a weird look. "Sir, this isn't her waking up. Her body's going into erratic convulsions that signify her body's processing of the venom. The seizures will get worse until her brain's neurotransmitters stop functioning and she loses control of involuntary actions."
He raised an eyebrow, completely confused. She sighed. "In Laymen's terms, it means she's going into death spasms."
His heart leapt up into his throat. No!
The nurses swept Claudia away into the bowels of the hospital, and Beetlejuice was left, alone, in the waiting room. He stood, taciturn, for all of two minutes, before he heard a terrible voice bellow in his mind,
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!
…………………………..
Mrs. Lowe took one look at the coiled serpent at the foot of her daughter's bed and screeched. Picking up a heavy, dusty spade forgotten and left in the corner of the attic, she let out a war cry and brought the edge of the shovel down on the snake, cleanly severing head from body.
Dark blood spattered over everything, and Elizabeth sighed. What in all the hells was a snake doing in Claudia's room? And a nasty-looking cobra at that? She inspected the half-spread hood and was just speechless.
She looked around at the blood-soaked sheets and window drapes, knowing full well that those stains would only come out if she washed them right now. Ignoring the snake's body, she gathered up the bedspreads and carted them downstairs to put them in the washer, completely forgetting in her housecleaning rush to even look for Claudia.
…………………………..
He stood in Juno's office, looking down at a very pissed-off caseworker.
"Oh…Juno…hi. Nice to see you again. How did giving up smoking work for you?" he asked waveringly.
"Sit down, you obnoxious little-…"
"Before you say anything, can I defend myself?" he interrupted.
"NO! Now sit down!" The woman stared him down, causing Beetlejuice to lose his footing and collapse into a moldy chair.
"Do you have any idea what the hell you're doing? There is a living girl in the hospital and very close to death because of you. The hospital has no medical records of this girl, and so doesn't know not to use a certain brand of anti-venom on her because of a heart defect that is very fragile right now. A church social was destroyed because of you. And you have the nerve to pull all of this crap in the Maitlands' old house?!"
Beetlejuice looked sullen and defeated. He knew he wouldn't be able to stand up to Juno like this, so he decided to look for a different way out.
"What can I do?"
The four words out of his mouth stopped Juno cold. Did he just ask…? She eyed him warily.
"What do you mean?" she demanded.
"I mean I wanna do something to stop it. Is there anything?"
"No! You are not gonna try to "help" this situation! We've already got a crack team ready to go for this kind of situation, but if they don't help her in time, I swear to God, I'll have your spectral ass dragged from here to the far end of Purgatory," Juno raged. She was yelling so loud, her cigarette's ash flew off and landed on Beetlejuice's suit jacket. He flicked it off and stood up.
"Well if you're not gonna let me help with you and I can't defend myself, then I'm leaving and I'll fix this my own way."
He was one foot out the door when Juno's voice made him freeze.
"Beetlejuice, you step one foot outside this office and I swear, I'll have you exorcised if she dies!"
He turned back and gave her a snarky smirk. "Then I better make damn sure she doesn't buy the farm, shouldn't I?"
