Okay this is the only warning, and really for this chapter I sould have bumped the rating up but I wanted to give you guys fair chance to make your own choices about whether you'd continue and tell you WHY I'm chosing to bump this up to an "M" rating.

Language-- that's obvious. I'm trying to keep this more like the movie and Beej did have a mouth on him.

Dark Themes -- I'm not talking about suicide or rape or even real violence. But it does deal with some dark things. I mean he kidnapped her, forced her to marry him and now is keeping her alive only because it suits his purposes. Think 'Misery' by Stephen King, with less snow.

I'm a sissy -- This is the cartoon section. People come here mostly expecting to see Fics from the cartoon universe. I've take this and warped it into something dark and while I have my own beliefs about how kids should be raised it isn't my place to scare them senseless or jade them to the universe or whatever. So I'm going to be a complete sissy and bump the rating up to cover my own ass.

I don't own them, thought that much should be obvious. Please don't sue me I'm saving to have a plumber come because my faucet won't stop leaking and it's killing my water bill.


Even as he moved about his small set of rooms he kept one eye focused on the door he knew Linda was behind. That was her name wasn't it? It was "L-something" he knew that much.

She wasn't going to die at least, so beyond that he didn't really care what she did. That was the problem traveling the way he was used to, for ghosts it was fine, but in small percentage of mortals their organs would just stop.

Once he had known what happened to them. Why their organs stopped, why only some experienced this, all those things. Of course...once he'd been Juno's lapdog too so really what had once been didn't matter in the slightest. He stopped pacing—only then realizing that he had been pacing outside the room she'd locked herself into—and stared at the door, approaching it and raising his hand to knock.

He paused and thought better of it. Why knock? It was his house! He could just hop into the room whenever he pleased. The transporting might come near to killing Lindsay or whoever she was, but to him it was second nature.

Better yet, he should just rip the door right of it's goddamn hinges if he wanted in to see her. Power aside she'd be the one to fix it too because she had no right to lock him out of a part of his home. It would be scarier too, prove to her that he didn't need magic and power and energy to be stronger than her.

A cold snap of power caught his attention away from his mortal bride.

"Do you have any idea what sort of trouble you're in?" For such a small woman, Juno truly could bellow when she wanted to, which was more often than not around Betelgeuse. In fact he wasn't certain he had ever heard her speak when she wasn't yelling at him. He cocked a grin at that and Juno narrowed her eyes at him, gesticulating with her smoking cigarette. "Marrying a mortal, a child for that matter!" She sighed, pacing around, looking like a caged animal and twice as dangerous.

"Hey, she agreed to it. I did everything by the book." He narrowed his eyes at her. "You ain't got nothing on me, so why are you here?" He asked. Juno had more power than him, she was just bound to the rules and had no desire to break free of that lifestyle. And so it gave him pause to have her here when—for once in his afterlife—he hadn't done anything wrong.

"You kidnapped a mortal child and nearly killed her just so you could force her into your quarters. I don't know what you think but she can't get you more power." Betelgeuse would have equal power to Juno, even more, but it was sealed away, behind too many barriers for even him to break. But the girl who was in the other room—she could free him, whether she knew it or not.

"Hey Juno, what can I say? We're in love! You know how it is, I saw her, she saw me. There were sparks." He shrugged and plastered on his most charming grin. And when he wanted to he could be damned charming thank you very much.

"The hell you are." She hissed, and the room darkened. He often wondered if she even had to think about it anymore, or if she was so used to atmospheric changes it came without thought. She had always been so much smaller than everyone, even if they were less powerful they didn't take her seriously, so she had found ways around her size.

They worked against each other, opposite sides in an ongoing war, but he did respect her. She might even be the only one he respected in any world.

"What? That hard to believe?" He asked, trying to convey a look of hurt and failing miserably. Juno knew him too well and she knew his masks better than he did.

"Betelgeuse--" Juno didn't have the power to say his name if the truth was to be told. She acted like she did, but between the two of them the fact was she had given that power. Each knew the other's true name, so they had made a Pact, from their lips, names had no power over the other. It had been a concession made shortly after Betelgeuse turned away from her teachings. "You look at her and see only a pawn, but she has a family, people who really love her. For once think of someone other than yourself! She's never going to unleash your power and other than that the only purpose she serves is a pathway from this world to hers. There are other ways."

"Aw, Juno I'm hurt, you think I can't fall in love? I do love her. I get all befuddled and goofy when I'm around her. If I had a heart it'd pound whenever she looks my way you know? Aww...are you jealous? Juno, you're just not my type you know? I go for that damsel in distress." He said reaching out to throw an arm around her shoulders. She pulled away and looked at him with a glare of such hatred it actually made him pause.

"You love her? What color are her eyes?" She asked, her voice hard and sharp. "You seem stumped, I'll give you something easier. What's her name?" Betelgeuse still had no answer for her and she fell upon him like a lioness upon her prey. "You have gone too far this time Betelgeuse." She growled, smoke pouring from the wound in her throat. "You are not just making trouble and paperwork. You've torn apart a family and what is the prize? You can move between worlds freely."

"She could free me."

"Right, because kidnapping inspires such love." When she wanted to, Juno had quite a sharp tongue. "She will hate you almost as much as she fears you for the rest of her days." Juno promised, and like morning mist being burned away by the sun she vanished.

Betelgeuse didn't care what happened to that brat in the other room, but all the same Juno was right that this might not work, especially the way he was going about it. Women were confusing enough, the live ones were even worse. All the same it was a chance that had to be taken. He wasn't going to sit in this moldy pit for eternity so he had to take the chance when it arose.

"And besides," He murmured to himself. Years alone in candle light had taught him the value of his own company. "Isn't there that thing that mortals do? Yeah...some Swedish thing in their brain where when they're held hostage they get all mushy with their captors? She hangs around with a couple of stupid newbie ghosts, I betcha she'll get that. Amsterdam Symptom? Eh. Somethin'." 600 years of being dead and he'd waited in that waiting room for at least 200 of those years. He had met some of the most interesting people waiting around there.

Most of them passed on though, which was a real shame. He'd rather liked Picasso and Hemingway. Hemingway was—of course—still hangin' around but like all Suicides he was drowning in paperwork and whiskey. Picasso had stuck around for as long as he could, trading numbers with people so he could stay longer, but finally he had to pass on, the Afterlife was waiting.

With Juno gone he spun on his heel and walked back to the door. "I know you're alive in there girlie!" He shouted, deciding he had to make some allowances. This was a long shot as it was, no need to sabotage himself on top of it. "I can hear your heart beating." Even to his ears that sounded a bit creepier than he intended. He had to remember that the next time he got called out on an exorcism. "Look I just wanna talk and lay some ground rules." He hadn't done anything to her what was she so scared of?

It had scared her when she heard him shout at her. Earlier she'd awoken to the sounds of muffled shouting, too soft or too far to make anything out. However it came through crisp and clear now, and she had a mental image of him leaning against the door she had slept against.

She skittered backwards, trying to keep distance between them because a door could fall, or break...did walls even matter when he had such power?

"Go away!" She bit her tongue. Wishing death upon his seemed more ridiculous than anything. "I hate you!" She wondered if he really could hear her heart beating. "I want to go home!" She screeched, grasping at straws, desperate. Something might inspire him to let her go so she would try anything once.

"Yeah and I'm madly in love with you right now!" He walked through the door like it wasn't there and stalked up to her. Later she blamed his powers but it was her own fear that paralyzed her then. Had there been a bed she might have ducked under the covers. He bent, gripped her forearms hard with icy claws and lifted her clean off her feet so she could meet his eyes. "Whether you like it or not you made a deal with me mortal! You're my wife now and I'm getting damned sick of shouting at you." He lowered his voice and would never admit he'd learned that sometimes shouting wasn't as scary as whispering from Juno. "Rule one: No more yelling." He narrowed his eyes.

Her brown eyes were wide and he wondered if they'd just keep getting wider until her eyes fell out of her skull. Her face had gone a bloodless sort of pale and he could feel she was trembling like a scared little mouse. "Got that?" She nodded, once. He continued: "Rule two: This place is yours. You can't leave but you can go wherever you want in here." His voice dropped to a lighter hush. "Not like you can do any damage." She nodded again, more to please him than in actual agreement. He set her down and she took two large steps back, tripping over the hem of the skirts she still wore and falling hard to the ground. Once there she curled into a ball and cowered away from him. "Jesus." He sighed. "I'm not going to let you die, whether you want to or not, but if you feel like helping me with that, just come out when you're hungry. I'm not going to kill you and I'm sick of you actin' like I am!" And he stormed out through the door, though storming loses some of it's strength when you just phase through things.

He's talking about Stockholm Syndrome, if you're curious. I think it's terribly interesting but you may not so here's a quick description, sometimes in hostage situations the hostages will develop what they think is love towards their captor, going so far as to try and help them, refusing to be rescued, and even helping with the legal costs if the cops do catch the kidnapper.

Pookiespeer -- Well I have continued and I'm glad you like it so much. I ADORE the movie and I'm trying to keep this much closer to that than my other stories have been, even though they're movie based too. I will continue as fast as I can, but like I mentioned Mid-terms are here, so...I can't promise it will be terribly speedy but I'll try my hardest...

I'm a college student I live on fast food, luncheon meat and reviews so do your part and feed me. (That's harder to convey in text, I'm listenin' to "Little Shop Of Horrors" Soundtrack. It is a joke but do review.)