Trouble Lies Ahead

Disclaimer: See prologue

A/N: Oooh, another update! THANK YOU for all of the reviews submitted, without you guys this would probably be binned by now. I wanted my fic to be dark, and i suddenly find myself wanting it to be mushy! But no! I won't make it mushy, mushy isn't good. Hopefully in the next couple of chapters it'll be darker. Here's chapter four!

Chapter Four: Crush, Crush, Crush

Lydia had always been a light sleeper, anything and everything could rouse her from dreamland and today was no exception. A small thud from her parents room jolted her awake, her eyes flashing open as the darkness of her room consumed her. Blinking several times, Lydia slowly sat up in bed and yawned, and turning to her alarm clock she noticed that she had slept all through the night. It was now eleven thirty in the morning.

"Well, that's weird."

She couldn't remember falling asleep, being so tired from her long journey must have made her pass out, all the excitement hadn't of helped either. Shaking herself awake the first thing Lydia wanted was a hot cup of coffee and a shower. She needed to look at LEAST partially human today and spend some time with her father, Delia AND the Maitland's.

The Maitland's were still a touchy subject, but she knew during her shower she would probably form an air tight plan...hopefuly. As she descended the stairs, she could hear Delia and her father talking about some room that needed redecorated. Her father was the first to look up and notice Lydia standing in the doorway looking like a zombie.

"Lydia, pumpkin. We thought about waking you but knew after that long journey you'd probably want to rest for quite a bit. Come on, sit down and Delia will make you some breakfast."

Sitting down, Lydia again yawned. "I don't want anything to eat, a strong cup of coffee will do me wonders though."

Delia smiled at Lydia. "Strong cup of coffee it is." Delia fiddled with the coffee maker as Lydia read the morning's paper. The headlines hadn't changed a bit since she'd left. How...boring.

Sipping her coffee, Lydia tried to form the plan that would hopefully fool the Maitland's into thinking she wanted nothing to do with Beetlejuice again. She didn't need to be chauffered around by two ghosts that wouldn't say boo to a spider, they were her friends, she needed them more than she needed air sometimes but something had changed within her and right now she valued Beetlejuice's company more than theirs.

' It's called a crush Lydia, you have a crush on a ghost, no wait a poltergeist. Wait till people get a load of this, the loony bin will surely be looking forward to your arrival '

So what if she had a crush on Beetlejuice? It's not as if she was in love with him or anything. He was dead yes, but hell he was fun to be around. She liked the true Beetlejuice better than the arrogant bastard he would pretend to be. Juno, her parents or the Maitland's wouldn't be able to keep her from seeing him, she truley felt that he understood her.

' He's your only friend, Lydia '

Finishing her coffee, Lydia excused herself and started her shower. Soaping her body the only thing she could think of doing was lying to the Maitland's, hand feeding them a story that would sound true to their ears, that they would surely believe. She would have to tell them that she had no need to see Beetlejuice ever again, she had said what she had come back to say and there was nothing she needed from him anymore. Closure was a great thing.

Then there was the task of trying to get rid of Juno's paranoia. She would be the only person to know that Lydia was still seeing Beetlejuice. One meeting with her was enough, a second one would truley upset Lydia. The woman - ghost was tough, and always had a lot to say...and most of the stuff she had to say was harsh and cruel and straight to the point.

Rinsing off her body, Lydia quickly got dressed and went to see the Maitland's, to try to fool them into thinking Beetlejuice was history...

Adam sat perched on a stool, a model house in one hand and an extremely small paint brush in the other. His eyes staring at the tiny object as the brush coated the house in a white coat of paint. The brush flick flick flicking. One thing about his small hobby, it always had a calming effect. He wasn't one to get angry, but right now he was furious. Beetlejuice had squeezed his way into Lydia's life and if he and Barbara weren't careful, Beetlejuice would ruin Lydia.

They had tried their hardest to get rid of the pesky poltergeist, they had even recruited Juno to help them with the difficult task, but for whatever reason he just would not go away. When they had walked into Lydia's room, all three of them had noticed Beetlejuice carefully cradling Lydia's hand that was touching the ghosts cheek. If Lydia were in her right mind, she would have never let herself touch him, never let herself be in his company by herself. Fooling people was what Beetlejuice was good at, this act of his wasn't fooling neither him or Barbara, even Juno had dismissed the idea that he might have changed for the better. But for some reason, Lydia had came to his defence, it used to be them that she defended. It was obvious Beetlejuice was up to something and Lydia was going to get hurt.

Baraba watched as Adam stopped painting the house and laid it down on his work table. He looked at Barbara and sighed.

"I'm really worried about Lydia."

Barbara's eyebrows knitted in confusion, she stood up from where she was sitting and settled herself next to her husband.

"You don't think that Lydia will call on him again, do you?"

"I don't know honey. I don't want to see her get hurt, but i think it's best if she makes her own mistakes."

Barbara gasped. "You can't be serious? If this were about her smoking then yes let her make her own mistakes, if it were about alcohol i'd also agree, but Adam...this is a powerful poltergeist we're talking about. He could start a war in an empty room, never mind leaving him with Lydia by themselves."

"We can't treat her like a child, Barbara. She's twenty next month, she's an adult. A grown woman."

"But Juno..."

"Forget about Juno for now. We have to make sure that Lydia isn't in any danger, but we can't hang around her twenty four seven, honey."

Barbara nodded her head gingerly, their conversation was interupted by a small knock on their door. "It's Lydia."

"Come on, let's be the friends that we are."

Opening their door they smiled and ushered Lydia in. Her eyes darted back and forth between the ghosts before settling on Adam's model of the town. "I'm here to...apologise for my behaviour earlier." Looking up, she watched as the ghosts nodded their heads for her to continue. She knew they'd be waiting for her to apologise. Lydia Deetz was not rude by nature.

"I really don't know what got into me, i was just so angry that you didn't give BJ a chance to explain WHY he was in my bedroom. I had called on him, he didn't force me into it."

Lydia sighed and cringed on the inside, right now she was about to tell the biggest lie of her life, she was letting herself down but also letting the people around her down. But she needed to do this, to keep the peace for now.

"I've come to the decision that i don't want to see Bee - BJ again. We sorted out our differences, and that's all that needed to be done. But i want to stay here for a while longer. I won't be going back to college for another three weeks. Maybe a month."

Shocked, the Maitland's stared at Lydia's still form, her words still lingering inside their heads. It was over? No more Beetlejuice, no more trickery? Just peace.

Barbara was the first to break the silence. "Oh Lydia! We knew that you'd see sense. He's a waste of time, there's no point in you wasting crucial time here to sort out his problems and the trouble he causes. We were so worried."

Lydia's heart sank. They believed her, they had no reason NOT to believe her. They were her friends and she had deceived them. Inside, Lydia's heart shattered into a thousand pieces as the truth finally settled at the bottom of her stomach, dread jerking her back to reality, she gave them a watery smile and hugged them both tightly. Would she ever be able to right this wrong? Probably not, but she needed to see Beetlejuice. With another quick set of hugs, she whispered an apology to both.

"I'm going to go back to my room, maybe read a book. I've only been here for a day and already i feel the need to relax."

Waving at the ghosts, she left their attic room and entered her bedroom and sank down on her bed, again extremely tired. What had she done?

"You've out did yourself this time, Lydia Deetz!"

Rubbing her face, she brushed a piece of hair from her face and sighed. It was time for her to call on Beetlejuice. It had only been several hours since she had last seen him, but already, she felt a small emptyness inside.

"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice."

Her usual dark room brightened up as sparks flew from every corner, wind invaded her room and before she knew it, Beetlejuice was standing right next to her with a smug smile on his face.

"Just can't keep away, can ya, Lyd's?"

Lydia shrugged and threw herself on her bed. "It's either calling on you, or sitting with dad and Delia listening to their decorating escapades."

Beetlejuice's face fell as he watched Lydia absentmindedly pick at her duvet cover. "Well, jeez! Thanks a lot."

Smiling, Lydia lazily looked up at him and patted the bed next to her. "For being extremely arrogant, full of yourself and terribly rude, you're easily offended." Laughing slightly she watched as he floated over to her bed and landed with a soft thump next to her.

"So...how is Chuck and Delia anyways? I haven't mentally scarred em for life, have i?"

"You wish! Truth be told, they aren't very fond of you."

Beetlejuice lay on her bed and chuckled to himself. "Babes, who IS? You livin folks take everythin to that little heart of yours."

Lydia sat up and stared at him. "BJ, you dropped my dad down a flight of stairs, and you want him to LIKE you? Life doesn't work like that!"

"Pfft, the afterlife does."

Lydia lay back down again and sighed. "Well, i wouldn't know now, would i? I've never been there before."

"You're not missin anything, Lyds. Everyone is stuck up, got chips on their shoulders cause they're dead. You're better off in your own perfect little world, where family's befriend ghosts and do whatever it is you livin guys do."

Lydia sighed. "Work BJ, we work."

"Yeah, that too."

Thumping Beetlejuice on his shoulder, Lydia smiled at him. "Sometimes, you can be SO infuriating."

"It isn't my BEST quality." Beetlejuice waggled his eyebrows at Lydia.

Laughing, Lydia stared up at her ceiling and sighed. Sometimes she really wished that her life was as simple as a dead persons. Beetlejuice always seemed to be having the time of his err..afterlife. Why couldn't her life be like that? Instead it was full of stress, sorrow and pain.

"What's up, babe?"

Snuggling up to his side, Lydia put her arm around Beetlejuice's chest and breathed deeply. "BJ, tell me what it's like to be dead."

Beetlejuice was taken aback by her question, and the fact she was holding him on her bed. This wasn't supposed to happen, she was supposed to be repulsed by the sight of him not snuggle up to him like he was some...cuddly toy.

"Well, what do ya want to know?"

Lydia's responce was muffled by his body. "Everything."

"Um...where do i start? Okay...you know about everyone being stuck up so...most of the time it's hard to interact with fellow ghouls, ya know? I'm bored a lot of the time too, being dead is REALLY boring, there's nothin to do. Everything is so simple, us dead folks we got nothin to worry about..."

As Beetlejuice held onto Lydia telling her what it was like to be dead, a tiny thought kept popping up

Maybe this WAS the way things were supposed to be like...

TBC...