AN: I hope the mental conversation doesn't confuse anyone. Thanks to Crow-kun, Eris-chan, and Animekitty-chan? for their reviews!

Chapter 11: We will not realize what is most precious until we have lost it

One of my most memorable days was the day before my seventeenth birthday. Austin asked me to prom, and Paul asked me to date him. I really think the only reason I rejected Paul and accepted Austin was because Austin asked first. That and Austin was older than me, while Paul was younger.

What?! I like older guys!

But, years from now, if you asked me what one of my most memorable days are today would be right up at the top.

I have been kidnapped, once again, by Alpha on my twentieth birthday.

What. The. Fuck.

It seems he learned from his last mistake. I was tied, spread eagle, on a table. There was a cloth tied around my head, gagging me, and there was duct tape on my mouth. He wasn't taking any chances with me. Also, he kidnapped me with a four-man crew. Fuckin' insultin'. Okay, technically it was a two-man, two-woman crew, but that wasn't what Riddick said to Tombs.

Alpha was currently checking the bonds at my wrist. He made them tighter, and I winced. Ow!

"Make sure she stays gagged," he told the black haired woman. I didn't like her. She was femme fatale incarnate. I absolutely hated to admit it, but I was jealous. That was the kind of body that broke necks. And I wanted it.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever." Hell, she even had the sexy voice! God fucking damnit!

He left and she leaned against the wall, filing her violet nails.

Damn. I needed to contact Beetlejuice, but I couldn't talk.

I was still kinda pissed at what happened. He had left to go get my birthday present. I told him I just wanted to go dancing for my birthday. But he said we did that all the time, so it wasn't all that special. Even though it had been a month and a half since we started going to the dance clubs every Saturday, I still thought it was something special. Anyway, he had left, and I sat outside the Roadhouse waiting for him. All I was doing was looking at the Neitherworld night sky. I loved the stars over here. They were brighter and seemed so much closer than in the Livingrealm. And I thought the three moons were pretty damn amazing.

That's when the four of them got me.

And now I was bound and gagged. No way for me to contact my Kowai.

Unless . . .

No. It was too dangerous. I still needed to do research.

It's worth a shot. Would you rather try your luck with these people?

Hell no!

Then try it!

Fine.

I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. I needed to be absolutely calm for this.

Okay.

Beetlejuice, I mentally called out.

Nothing.

Beetlejuice?

Still nothing.

BEETLEJUICE!!

Kitty? Where the fuck are ya?!

Oh my God, it worked. I've been kid--

Kylie? asked a voice that didn't belong to Beej.

Oh shit. I knew that voice. I hadn't heard from him for a year.

Hi, Billy.

Who the fuck is Billy?!

Umm, long stor--

I'm a friend of hers. Who are you?

No one ya wanna mess with. Go away.

Hello! Damsel in distress here! Men.

I could sense Billy grinning. I'll save you!

And Beej really didn't like that. I had to cut the connection since he was so pissed.

Crap. What the hell was Billy doing here?! I thought I told him to move on! Okay, okay. I needed to talk to Beej again so he could come for me. Taking a few more deep breaths to calm myself, I reached out again.

And they were both still there.

Listen boys, I said, Alpha kidnapped me again. Can I have a rescue, please?

Where? Beej asked, a tad bit more calm.

Hell if I know!

Don't worry, old man, I can find her. See, me and Kylie go way back. I'm kinda attached to her.

Billy, shut up.

But Kylie! I thought what we had was special! Didn't you have fun?

Kitty, Beetlejuice growled, we're gonna have a loooooong talk when I find ya.

Kowai, can we talk after you save me?

Fine. Just keep the connection open so I can follow it.

Okay.

I'll find her first!

Shut up, pup, and let the professionals work!

If you two don't stop I'm going to kick both of you in balls. I could do without them trying to be all macho, thank you very much.

I concentrated on keeping the channel open, and ignored Billy's ecstaticness at being reunited with me, and Beetlejuice's extreme hatred for the young ghost. Not an easy thing to do.

It seemed like it took forever for them to, well, come to my rescue. I opened my eyes and dropped the connection.

I heard Beetlejuice tell Billy to get me loose and he went towards Dark Girl.

"Beta, it's great ta see ya again."

"Likewise, Juice," Beta purred.

I really didn't like her. But my attention switched to Billy as he started to untie me. He hadn't changed a bit. At least, I didn't think he had. See, I never actually saw him. But I did have a mental image, that I think he provided. Messy black hair falling over blue eyes, light blue jean jacket with the sleeves torn off, black wifebeater, blue jeans, and biker boots.

I gave a muffled yelp when he tore the duct tape off.

"Sorry," he mumbled, moving to the bonds at my ankles.

I sat up and removed the gag. "It's fine, just hurry up," I said, glancing at Beta and Beetlejuice. She almost had him backed up into the corner.

As soon as Billy undid the last knot, he got tackled by the other guy from Alpha's team. But I didn't pay him too much attention. I was one angry kitty, and there was definitely going to be a cat fight. I launched myself off the table, ran towards Beej and Beta, and slid in between them, facing the woman. I was crouched slightly, and my fingers curled at my side.

She sneered and copied my stance, her nails forming violet talons. Our gazes locked, but before either of us could attack, Beej grabbed me around the waist and yanked me back into him as a dark orange laser shot the wall where I was standing only a moment ago.

Beta growled and look in the direction where the laser had come from.

"Relax, I wasn't aiming for you!"

My attention turned to Alpha, standing in the blasted doorway, pointing a huge gun at me. He pulled the trigger, and I felt Beetlejuice move again and trip backwards over something.

The hell?

Instead of Alpha pointing a gun at me, there was this old lady with a slit in her throat glaring at me. And I was currently sitting on Beetlejuice. I seemed to have been doing that a lot lately. Billy was in the chair next to us, looking rather worried.

I was simply confused.

The woman took a long drag on her cigarette, her eyes flicking between the three of us.

"Beetle, do you have to cause me enormous amounts of paperwork? And Billy, did I not tell you to not cause me any paperwork? And you, Miss Kitty, what were you thinking?!"

"Juno, what are ya talkin' about?"

"She's a Reader, Beetlejuice, and an inexperienced one at that."

"I've been doing research," I said meekly, looking at my hands in my lap. "I knew I wasn't ready, but I didn't have a choice."

Beetlejuice was quite, and I wouldn't look at him.

Finally, Juno sighed. "Billy, get out. I'll speak with you later."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, quickly leaving.

"I assume by Beetle's speechlessness, you never told him."

"No. Like I said, I wasn't ready. I'm still researching." Then I turned my head to look at Beej behind me. "Why do you think I was so accepting of all of this? Of you? Sure, for a few hours after I met you I was a little . . . hesitant, but that was because my last episode turned out bad. Billy was a negative presence for me. He made me sick, and caused Nero's seizure. I didn't know if the same thing would happen with you. Which was why I kept some distance. That and you were the first one I could actually see. And the mirror going all bright light on me."

Beetlejuice was silent for a moment. Then he looked towards Juno. "What the fuck is it with me and Readers?"

"I have no idea, Beetle. Kitty, I need your legal name."

I returned my attention to the smoker, and looked at the paper on the desk. "Kyleen Marie Rutledge," I said, reading the last name on the list. Lydia Abigail Deetz. I wonder if that's his babes.

"Kyleen? I thought your name was Kylie," Beetlejuice asked me.

I looked at him again and smirked. "Kylie is my nickname."

"Miss Rutledge, I need you to sign some papers. Thanks to Beetlejuice, you know have an official file."

Nodding, I went to move to the other chair, but Kowai's arms around me tightened slightly. I rolled my eyes, and took the clipboard Juno held out to me. Taking a pen off the desk, I skimmed the papers. Basically, I wasn't to tell anyone about the Neitherworld. No problem. I signed my name, and handed it back. She slipped the papers in a file, wrote "Rutledge, Kyleen Marie" on the tab and put it on top of another folder. That one was rather fat, and looked like it was used a lot.

"Hey, Kowai, is that your file?"

"Probably."

"You get in trouble a lot."

Juno raised her brow. "Honey, this is just what we catch him on."

I looked back at Beej and he grinned.

~*~*~*~*

When we got back to the Roadhouse, Beetlejuice gave me a little square box wrapped in dark red paper and tied with black ribbon.

"Ya gonna open it?" he asked when I didn't.

"About Billy . . . I didn't know he was here. I never wanted to see him again."

He shrugged. "Hey, it's okay. Ya'd rather be with me, right?"

"Yeah, you're good for me. And . . . we're best friends?"

Beetlejuice was silent for a moment, and I was starting to panic. "Yeah. We are."

I smiled and opened my present. Taking it out of the little box, I looked at it, confused.

"Ya already have a necklace, and I wanted ta get ya somethin' ya could wear all the time."

So he got me a ring. A black band engraved with little silver stars and a red cat's eye gem matching the one in my necklace. I slid it on the ring finger of my right hand.

"Perfect," I said. Then I glomped him.

"Glad ya like it," he said, hugging me tight.

Sure I was insanely jealous earlier, but this fixed all of that.

Too bad it wouldn't last. After all, he was going to go back to Lydia. It didn't make me jealous, but it still hurt. And I didn't know why.

AN: Uh-oh. I think Kitty is falling for Beej! He's having conflicting emotions. He still loves Lydia, but he's starting to fall for Kitty, too.