Disclaimer: Beetlejuice and Co belong to Geffen. Alas that he did not choose to make further use of them.

Chapter 17: Delicate Negotiations

Beth was quivering, her mouth hanging open, her hands up as if to ward off what she had seen. Lydia took a step towards her and Beth scrambled back against the wall. "Beth! It's me, Lydia! It's okay." Lydia wondered if Beth could see her strange companion, or if it was just her sudden appearance that had scared the bejeezus out of her. But Beth just shook her head numbly.

"Where the hell did you come from? How did you…?" Lydia drew a deep breath, and attempted a smile. So she couldn't see him. That was a bit of a relief, at least. Sort of. Beetlejuice meandered over to the counter, thankfully somewhere where his spectral weight wouldn't leave an impression, and looked studiously at his none-too-clean nails. Lydia raised an eyebrow at him, but he shrugged, feeling a bit helpless. His entering into it would just scare her more.

With an ironic smirk, Lydia turned back to her terrified roommate. "Travel by poltergeist is not something you should try, Beth. Take my word for it." And Lydia slumped into her chair. Beth slowly eased her posture after a moment, when nothing jumped out of the walls.

"So it's you, after all? You with Billy, and the creepy feeling in the room? And the cold spots in the library?" She leaned forward a little. "Are you a… a witch, Lyddie?"

Lydia broke out into mildly hysterical giggles at the thought. "No, not me, and no, I'm not a witch." She took a deep breath. "Do you really want to know?" Beth looked curiously at her for a moment, the fear receding in the face of her roommate's blasé attitude, and then nodded. Lydia cast her eyes back to Beetlejuice, and gave him an imploring look. He sighed theatrically, and straightened his shirt collar, and then stepped into the visible spectrum. Lydia saw the subtle rippling of the light as it curved around him rather than through him, and she thought he had never looked more beautiful. He kept his eyes fixed on her, green and full of meaning, and she received the message as if he had spoken. I'm only doin' this for you.

They were both interrupted from their thoughts with a small squeak from the bed. Beth was sitting perfectly still, shoulders rounded and both hands over her mouth. "Oh. my. God. You're a ghost."

"Poltergeist, actually," he corrected her genially. Lydia gritted her teeth, but he refrained from levitating anything or breaking coffee cups as a demonstration.

"Is he… safe?" Beth's voice was squeaky with disbelief. Lydia grinned.

"No! But yes, for the moment." The thought amused her immensely, and she couldn't help a chuckle at his expense.

"M'not a dog," Beetlejuice muttered sulkily. But Beth was getting up off the bed, and she crept carefully over to him and reached out to touch his sleeve. He squinted at her, and Lydia felt a hot rush of what could only be identified as jealousy. She fought it down in confusion.

"You're cold."

"Dead!" he agreed, cheerfully. He leaned over to Lydia. "Is this how she is normally?"

"B, she's had a shock. You're not exactly an everyday occurrence," she said with gentle reproof. He gave her that feral grin that crawled across her shoulders and sunk into her belly with prickling heat. She breathed in and out carefully, her gaze sinking to the gap where his collar was undone, to avoid his intense and disconcerting eyes. His cool skin glowed a bit in the dim halogen light, but with a translucent blue cast. She wondered if that was his choice or if his spectral body was as unalterable as her own. Of course, she had seen him change form on several occasions, but never for long. He never showed the strain, regardless. Eventually she became aware of the silence in the room, and turned to see Beth looking speculatively from one to the other.

"You're in love, aren't you?" Lydia swallowed, and Beetlejuice raised both eyebrows, completely taken by surprise. But Beth narrowed her eyes at Lydia and nodded. "You are. I can see it all from here."

"You can?" they both said at once, and then looked uncertainly at each other.

Beth pointed to Beetlejuice. "You saved her from Billy the Squid. You're the one that scared him half out of his mind. You know he had to go home for the rest of the term?" Lydia started guiltily at the same time that Beetlejuice beamed proudly. But then he saw her expression, and attempted to sober his own. Beth continued. "And then the room, how it felt, it was you hanging around so that you could see her, wasn't it? The library, too. And she's been so dazed, as if she hasn't been getting any sleep." It was his turn to look guilty.

"Well, I, um, she was going to get some sleep tonight. Honest." He stared at the floor, flustered.

"I'll just bet." Beth looked smugly at them both. "You didn't expect me to be here, did you, then?" She shook her head. "I always knew you were an unusual girl, Lyddie, but this is really beyond my ken."

In familiar territory now, and away from the yawning chasm that was the possibility that she was in love with a dangerous poltergeist that had terrorized her family for years, Lydia relaxed in her chair, and tilted her head back, stretching her shoulders and yawning. "You have no idea, Beth. I've known B since I was sixteen. We've been enemies longer that… friends." Beetlejuice shifted beside her, and she realized he had come to a decision. Amazing, how expressive his body language was, for not having a body. He leaned over her and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek.

"Second time tonight, and likely an equally bad idea, I'm gonna let you girls chat." He made for the mirror a little desperately, but Lydia stayed him with a hand on the hem of his shirt.

"Where are you going?" At her questioning tone, he turned and gave her a casual look that failed to mask his confusion. Clearly, he was as discomfited as she. She faltered a little. "My reputation hinges on your not causing a mess on my dime," she finished with some asperity, trying to make him smile. But he only twisted his lip at her thoughtfully, and she felt lost. She desperately wanted him to stay, but he was leaving her anyway.

"I promise not to send anymore frat boys home to their mommies, okay, Lyds? I just need some… some time." And a lot more to drink, he thought grimly. But she just nodded sadly, knowing that he was going to leave even if she asked him not to.

"Just, don't go far?" Lydia said, with a hesitant smile she didn't feel. He looked at her, his expression unreadable, for a long moment as if trying to memorize her, and then was gone. The temperature of the room went up perceptibly at once.

"Well." Beth's voice startled her back from her reverie. "So, tell me everything, Lyddie, because I can see you're about to follow after him." Beth sat back down on her bed with most of her normal cheerfulness back in place, amazing girl that she was. Lydia looked away from where he had been, shook herself, and then smiled wanly. Beth was right—he needed processing time, and so did she. Had he stayed, well, she didn't know whether to feel regret or relief at the temporary separation. Of course it was temporary. She settled into the chair and cast back her troubled mind to the first time she had set eyes on the country.

"It all started when we moved from the city to Connecticut, to this old farmhouse on top of a hill…"