They arrived back in Bo's bedroom very late. Outside, all the other houses on the little street were dark, and only the streetlights and moon illuminated the room.

Bo's arms were still around Beetlejuice's neck, and at the moment, he seemed to be the only thing holding her up. BJ gently lifted her head up to see if she was sleeping.

He was immediately answered with a loud snore.

Solves that mystery, he thought.

With a flick of his hand, the bedcovers were pulled back from Bo's bed, and he gently lay her down. He wondered if maybe he should get her into some pajamas. BJ definitely didn't mind undressing the girl, but he doubted very much that she would be as thrilled as him.

However, as Bo let out another giant snore, BJ decided to go for it.

With another flick, he opened her dresser drawer and pulled out a cotton nightgown.

Guess she's not the sexy underwear type, he thought with some disappointment.

He pulled off her dress, slowly, so he wouldn't wake her up. That was easy.

But the bra. A problem. BJ had never been all that great with those things.

Shit, why are there so many damn clasps? How hard is it to hold up a couple of tits?

He turned her over, struggling with the clasps in the back, and finally got them undone.

As soon as he did, he wished he hadn't, because it was then he noticed the scars all over Bo's back.

They were everywhere. They ran like little rivers all over her pale skin, criss-crossing over each other. Like somebody had taken a knife to her again and again.

He flipped her over so she was on her back, and in the dim light, Beetlejuice saw there were more on her stomach, even a few on her breasts. Even a few reaching below her waist, dipping into her panties.

Beetlejuice ran his cool fingers over the scars, trying to zap them away. But he couldn't. No matter what kind of juice he gave it, the scars stubbornly stayed.

"What happened to you, babes?" BJ whispered out loud.

But Bo only snored softly in response.

He kissed the top of her head, a tender gesture he usually makes sure to only show to those he loves, those he keeps a shrine to in his head. Which, last time he checked, was reserved to only one person who was gone now. And she wasn't coming back.

He quickly put the cotton nightgown over Bo's head, and pulled the covers up to her chin.

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When Bo woke up, she was in her own bed, which was strange, because she distinctly remembered last being in the Neitherworld.

Maybe I'm dreaming, she thought. She pinched herself. Then she realized the absurdity of the action. If anything, she realized, I should've pinched myself last night, because that most likely was the dream.

It was very vivid. There was a man named Beetlejuice…and she knew him in a past life…and a giant spider…and dancing…

"Mornin' babes."

"Aaaaaaaahhhh!" Bo hit her head on the bedpost in her panic. Beetlejuice was floating right above her, grinning.

"Sleep well?" he asked, coming down to sit on the bed.

"Surprisingly well," she said, rubbing her scalp.

He was snickering. "I thought you weren't easy to scare."

"I'm not," she said. "So that must've been pretty scary."

Beetlejuice would not wipe the grin off his face. "Can you expect any less from the ghost with the most, babes?"

He seemed positively gleeful that he had finally scared her. Not anything out of the ordinary. Although the thought did make Bo wonder.

Before she could stop herself, she mused out loud, "Well, I can see you're very easy to scare."

The grin dropped right from BJ's face…literally. He plucked his mouth off of her bedcovers, slapped it back on his face, and said, "The hell are you talking about? I never get scared."

Bo continued to muse. "Well, no, not like other people, but I've seen you scared plenty of the time."

BJ turned into a steaming teapot. "LIKE WHEEEEEEN?"

Bo cocked her head. "Like when we were with Doomie, the car. Like when we were with Ginger. You were scared practically all day yesterday."

Beetlejuice rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "And what am I afraid of?"

"You're afraid of losing her again."

Beetlejuice froze.

And Bo continued. "You know that I'm her, that much is clear. I doubt I'm exactly like her, whoever she was, but I probably retain the core of who she had been. And you lost her, and you were upset. You finally buried the memory of her in peace, and she comes back to haunt you, in the form of an unfamiliar girl. You don't want to get close to this girl, because if you do, it'd be like having her back, and then….then you might lose her all over again."

Beetlejuice didn't speak. Bo didn't wait for him to.

"I know what it's like to lose things. I lose things a lot."

BJ cleared his throat. "Like what?"

"Well, I lost myself in Afghanistan." Bo smiled. "See, there was this regime called the Taliban—"

"I know what they are."

Bo's smile remained. "Yes. So you know they were ruthless. They killed without reason. Or good reason, anyway. My father kept a lot of books, and anything with pictures was banned in Afghanistan. Someone tipped the Taliban off about our paintings that we hid in a cupboard in our house, so they barged in one night, arrested my father, shot my brother, and dragged me off to the back room. One of them had a glass eye, and he took a particular liking to me. After he finished with me, he took his knife and carved his name in my back. The others did the same."

Bo paused. She didn't tell this story to a lot of people. She didn't like pity, especially when it wasn't needed. But she had to drive the point home.

"So you see, I lost my innocence after that little incident. I was ten. My brother was dead, and a third of my body was scarred and ruined forever. Not to mention I had been fucked like a ten year old girl should never be fucked. The part of me that could love others, that could connect with human beings, had been…shut off. I wandered around like that for years. I guess I was afraid that if I loved deeply, if I attached myself to other people, they would crumble eventually, and I would just keep getting hurt. What's the use of loving someone if they're just going to die eventually?"

She paused again, looking at Beetlejuice's face. His eyes were downcast, but she could tell he was listening.

"It was my dad who pulled me out of this funk I was in. He pulled me into his lap and said, 'Beatrice, do you know what happens to a tree when it's cut down?'

"I replied, 'It dies.'

"He said, 'No, it becomes a trunk. There's always something left of a tree.'

"I asked him, 'What happens if someone destroys the trunk?'

"'Then there are pieces left of the trunk.'

"'And if someone burns the pieces?'

"'Then there will be ashes.'

"I said to him, 'That's not much, Dad.'

"He replied, 'But it's enough.' And that's when I found myself again."

Bo put her hand on BJ's knee. "Beetlejuice, things waste away. But there is always something left, no matter how many times it dies."

He listened to her story, knowing she wasn't telling this story for attention, or pity, but to relate to him. And goddammit, it was working. She was getting to him.

But she wasn't there when Lydia died. BJ had been SO SURE that this little cancer thing would just be a detour, a quick and easy way to get her to the Neitherworld. He was upset about all the pain she was going through, and he wasn't thrilled to see her losing her hair, or weak and helpless lying in a hospital bed, but wouldn't it be worth it when they could cruise down the Neitherworld streets with Doomie, having adventures for the rest of their afterlives?

The night she died, she had been alone with him. Visiting hours were over, so naturally, that was when BJ came to see her. No one to bug them. Just the two of them. He'd make her laugh with the latest prank he pulled on Jaques, and she'd show him some pictures she took of the nurse scratching her ass, and he'd sing to her a bit as she drifted off to sleep, sometimes reading Edgar Allen Poe on those nights when the medication was making her antsy.

Just before she drifted off that night, she whispered, "Hey, Beej. You know we'll always be together, right?"

BJ smiled. "'Course, babes. Who else would I tango with at three in the morning?"

"Beej…" she sleepily said, "I love you. You know that, right?"

Beetlejuice kissed the top of her head and replied. "Yeah, babes. I know."

And then she was gone.

He waited for her for weeks, but she never appeared. And he had thought that Lydia just wasn't meant to hang around the afterlife. She was meant to go to heaven.

He whispered aloud, without realizing it, "There's nothing left. She went to heaven."

He felt Bo's slim paw tilt his head up, and he was forced to look in her eyes…not her eyes…Lyd's eyes. Because Lydia was there. Their eyes looked nothing alike; Lyd's had been dark brown, Bo's were an intense blue. But it was like Lydia was there, waving at him.

"Beej," Bo…Lydia…whispered. "Heaven would be hell without you."

It was her. It was Lyds. There was no denying it anymore. Beetlejuice got her back, in the form of a bumbling, clueless, tall, blonde, musical, BEAUTIFUL girl named Bo Khorami. He squealed with delight and pulled her into a tight, tight hug.

Juno turned away from the mirror, smiling slightly at the scene. She wasn't any kind of a romantic, but hell. That was pretty cute. And BJ technically didn't tell the girl about the reincarnation, so she supposed she'd let it slide.

She had warned Lydia things would be difficult when she had her new life. But Lydia wouldn't hear of going to heaven.

"Well, actually," Juno had said. "It's not heaven. I mean, there are no clouds, or anything like that. It's more like an eternal, blissful sleep. I've heard it's pretty damn nice. This is your last chance, kid. Speak now or forever hold your peace."

Lydia just looked down. "Juno," she said, "Beetlejuice is my best friend. Can't I just stay in the Neitherworld with him?"

Juno sighed. "No can do. You've left your life too…pure. Most people who live in the Neitherworld are there because they need time to straighten shit out about themselves. BJ was just so out of control that we couldn't keep him anywhere else. You don't belong in the Neitherworld, kid. There's no room. You have two choices. Heaven, or reincarnation."

Lydia narrowed her dark eyes interestedly. "Does reincarnation mean I get to be with Beej?"

Juno sighed again, this one much deeper. "I can pull some strings."

"I'll do it then."

And she had relocated the little goth girl. Her next life wouldn't be anything close to the one she'd had before…except that Beetlejuice would be a part of it. The personalities were different, the body types—different. But Bo carried Lydia's soul. And a person's soul was the most important part about them. Even Beetlejuice, with his chasing skirt after skirt, knew this to be true.

Juno smiled. They'd be okay.