Disclaimer: I do not own Beetlejuice or related characters, he belongs to Tim Burton. I do not own Beetlegeuse. I don't own Betelgeuse? I don't own any of the weird spellings for his name. I also have no ownership of Jim Beam. Just trying to cover everything.

Betelgeuse?

Written By: Melanie Ray

Chapter Nine: Mixed Understanding

Living World/ Somewhere in Western Europe...

Beetlejuice groaned as he got up. He looked down at himself. "Hey. I've seen this." He looked around himself. "I've been here. This was a dream last time, right?" He looked ahead of him. "If I go out that way, I'll probably get knocked out." Beetlejuice pointed at himself, until he remembered. He was now alive. He couldn't juice.

"But, I did in my dream? If it was a dream." Beetlejuice shrugged his shoulders. Why not try? He zapped himself back into his striped outfit. "Hey, hey, I still have my juice after all." He quickly zapped himself into his old Mr. Beetleman's clothes. Whether she was in her room or eating with her family, he wanted to see her now. Being Mr. Beetleman was his best bet. "Yep, not a bit rusty." He shook his overalls slightly and a little creaking was heard. "Oh well, not real rusty."

There was no time to waste. Beetlejuice zapped himself one more time.

Living World/The Deetz Front Yard...

Beetlejuice felt so much better, more relaxed than he'd been in months. Things were finally back to the way they should have been. He hummed a merry tune while he stuck his hands in his pockets and walked toward the front door. He was about to knock on the door until he saw Charles Deetz pull up in a Taxi. He didn't like the look of Lydia's father stumbling out of the car. Man. He doesn't look too good. As much as he wanted to see Lydia, he knew this wasn't a good sign that life at the Deetz' was hunky dory.

"Teenagers . . . should be . . . locked up until there . . ." Charles paused as he saw Beetleman.

"Hey, Mr. Deetz. Is Lydia inside?" Beetlejuice gestured inside. "Been gone awhile."

"Why do you want to see her so badly? Hahn?" Charles slurred as he slammed the taxi door. "And now?"

"What do you mean?" Mr. Beetleman asked. "What happened?"

"Mr. Beetleman?"

Beetlejuice turned around to see a smiling Delia running toward him. "Hi there. I'm back on the job, whatever you need fixed."

"That isn't even funny." Charles groaned. "You can't fix everything. You can't fix anything."

"Charles." Delia scolded him a little softer than usual. She took a small whiff of the air. "I know it's tough, but this isn't right. I know you, Charles, this is so not like you."

"Well, it's so not like her. But it's still here, isn't it?" Charles yelled. He grabbed her head. "Oh, I've got such a headache."

"Like her? What's not like her?" Mr. Beetleman asked anxiously as he remembered the demon with the ouija board last time. Did she become possessed?

"Everything, Mr. Beetleman. She hasn't been the same since you left," Charles yelled at him. "And you two, what happened? You used to look older." He glared at him with beady eyes. "You look maybe twenty, with a tan. Did you go to a beach somewhere . . . for a month?

"Stop that accusation," Delia insisted. She smiled sweetly at Mr. Beetleman, clearly trying to soften a bad blow. "Lydia's been going through a few difficult 'changes' since you've been gone. It's been hard on the family."

"What kind of changes?" Mr. Beetleman didn't know what was going on, but it was clearly serious. "Is she okay? What happened?"

"She's fine. She's upstairs." Delia smiled at him with a look that oozed coverup. "I'm sure she'll tell you when she's ready."

Hearing that cemented it. Beetlejuice stopped making small talk and headed straight up to Lydia's room. What had happened to her? Was she in an accident? Had his fear of possession come true? "Lyds?!"

Mr. Beetleman opened her bedroom door and saw Donny and Lydia. Just casually sitting on the bed, looking the other way. "Babes?" he called out to her.

Lydia slowly started to turn around.

Beetlejuice didn't sense any evil spirits within her. At least he knew that wasn't the problem. "Yo, Babe." He went over and pulled her off the bed excitedly. "Come on, say something. I've finally made it back to you."

Lydia didn't know how she would react at first. Nice and slow, to make him draw out the questions? Would she feel more bitter towards him in person? Would she feel sad? But as she saw his green jagged toothy grin, so full of happiness, she couldn't help it. For a long time she denied herself to even think about her best friend. But there he was.

"Beetlejuice!"

Beetlejuice was a little startled as she hugged him really hard. "Whoah. You have missed me, huh? Don't worry, I'm not leaving again."

Donny just smiled. "Good luck brother. You take care of her."

"But what are you doing here?" Beetlejuice demanded.

"Lydia knows everything. Give her time. She'll explain it all. Have a good life, and I still love you brother."

Beetlejuice's stomach churned. Did he always have to get mushy like that? As Donny disappeared, Beetlejuice tried to pry Lydia off a bit. She had been hugging him. Hard. "Alright, alright, Babe. Ease up. This body's not what it used to be."

Lydia couldn't ease up though. He was really there. She had needed to see him so much more than even she had realized.

"Lyds? You're really not okay, are you?" Beetlejuice tried to get her to look at him, but she kept avoiding his eyes. "You look like a deer in headlights." He turned his head into a deer's for half a second before changing it back. "What is it?"

She kept hugging him, the pressure not easing. The only change was shutting her eyes tight.

"Lyd. Come on, you've always been able to tell old Beej anything," Beetlejuice insisted. "You've got your parents worried. Like really worried. I haven't smelled so much Jim Beam since I met the guy. And when did your dad start doing that? He never seemed the type."

"..."

"What in the world could drive him to that?" Beetlejuice tried prying her off to look at her. "Lyds, will you just tell me already? What's going on around here?"

"I . . . there's . . ." Lydia let go of him and sat back down on the bed. "Oh, I don't feel so good."

Sick? Was that it? "Ya sick?" Beetlejuice asked.

Lydia lied down on the bed, squeezing her pillow for the courage. How could she ever tell him? It was such a large subject to handle.

Beetlejuice stared at her a bit longer. He did feel something different about her, but it wasn't an evil demon. "Lydia?"

Lydia stayed still. She pretended to be asleep. She needed a little time before she figured out how to tell him. Blurt it out, big and bold? Soft and drawn out? She'd never had to give Beetlejuice news that was this big.

Beetlejuice groaned. I come back and she falls asleep. He wanted to know what was happening. Mr. Deetz is too out of it. Mrs. Deetz sounded like she wanted to leave it up to Lydia.

There were only two other people out there who probably knew what was wrong. Her only other friends, Bertha and Prudence.

Bertha's House...

Bertha answered the door, a bit surprised. "Betty Juice? I-I thought you moved away a long time ago?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, we moved back." Betty Juice came in and shut the door for Bertha. "Hey, have you seen Lydia lately? She's acting weird. What's wrong with her?"

"Oh, she's not herself anymore," Bertha answered. She started to walk to the back toward Prudence. "One day she was fine, Betty. Then she was kidnapped for a month, and she wouldn't tell anyone anything about it."

"Not even us," Prudence added.

"Yeah, not even her parents. They got a professional and everything I hear. She claims she doesn't remember. She won't even say if she was kidnapped or ran away."

"So we gave her time."

"Lots of time, but the Lydia we were friends with was long gone." Bertha crossed her arms. "She stopped being all weird and freaky, started wearing makeup, and the next thing we know she was friends with Claire Brewster!"

"Friends with Claire Brewster!" Betty Juice shouted, the very notion of such a thing almost causing her heart to pull out of her chest.

"Yeah. She went psycho," Bertha agreed. "The more we tried to become friends, the meaner she became. The more we tried to give her an icky spider or something, the more she just screamed. Our friend, Lydia Deetz, she's just gone."

Betty Juice growled. I knew it. There's only one explanation. She had been possessed. Why did it leave then, did it know I was coming back? "What else did she do?"

"She wore the latest fashions, usually pink," Prudence explained. "She talked just like Claire. Walked just like Claire. And when we went to confront her one time at a party, she told us to go back to our doghouses." She pointed at Bertha. "And she poured her punch on Bertha on purpose."

Betty Juice contined to listen to them. He knew just about everything that had happened now. How dare something take over Lydia. Once I find this thing . . . The girls continued to rant to him but he'd got the gist. His next step was figuring out which demon dared to creep into her.

"She's just not right in the head anymore," Prudence sighed.

"Yeah. We'll never be friends with her again. Hey?" Bertha looked over at Betty Juice. "She didn't sendyou here to try and ask for our friendship back, did she? I heard she's putting on a new act like she's gone back to normal again." She put her hands on her hips. "We won't fall for it."

"No, she didn't send me. Thanks for the warning." Betty Juice plastered a fake smile on her face. "I have to go home for supper now, it's getting late. I'll see ya later." Once Betty hit the yard outside, he turned back into Mr. Beetleman. "Possession, and they sent Donny to her? Not me?" He growled as he started to stomp away. "I'd watch her a lot better than him." What kind was it though, and was he the reason it left? It didn't make much sense, but at least he had the important answer.