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.

Betelgeuse?

Written By: Melanie Ray

Chapter Ten: A Secret from Juno

Neitherworld/File Bureau

"Juno!"

Juno watched as two WDP's came running into her office. She knew what it was about. "He knew he was alive. He even knew his old and modern living name, there was no loophole. I had to send him back."

"He should not be near her!" One of the WDP's yelled angrily.

"Beetlejuice is an out of control prankster," Juno agreed. "But, I've seen enough to know he will not endanger her. That's why you need to go tell him, or give me authorization to do it."

"How did he know his old name?"
"Donny Juice? I knew we shouldn't have trusted him. We should have given her a new identity instead."

"A new identity?" Juno frowned. "Beetlejuice was separated from her. He could do nothing."

"No. No, he must have remembered." The second WDP disagreed with the first, ignoring Juno's response. "He'd need to know his original name, not what it was translated to over the years. Donny didn't know that."

"He should not be near her," The first WDP warned her again. "You should have stopped him somehow."

"I did not have that kind of authorization!" Juno yelled back as she held up two fingers. "Now you've got two choices. Keep him in the dark and see what happens, or tell him why he's been kept separate from her."

"No. Not even you know why he's been kept separate."

"What do you mean?" Juno frowned. "What have you not told me?"

"Lydia Deetz." The first WDP grumbled as he rubbed his nose. "She's already pregnant."

"What?!"

Living World/Lydia's Room...

Lydia took a deep breath. "Okay. You can do this, Lydia. Beej is your best friend. H-he needs to know," she said, trying to instill confidence in herself. She watched as Beetlejuice appeared in her room.

"Awake now?" Beetlejuice asked. He had changed back to his old black and white striped suit.

"Yeah." Lydia took a deep breath. "Beej, I have to tell you something. It's really important."

Beetlejuice held his hand up. "It's okay, Babe. I don't blame ya. It's not your fault this happened."

Lydia didn't know how to react. Had Donny told him? Did her parents blurt it out?

"Yeah, you know me. I had to find out." Beetlejuice tried to give her an uplifting smile. "Don't you worry, BJ is back on the job. I'll do a lot better than even Donny could. They should have let me come in the first place." He stuck his nose high in the air. "Just 'cause of a few pranks I pulled in my life, they didn't trust me to deal with it."

"Well, you're not taking it too hard." Strange. Maybe being dead changed the meaning of new life to him? "I figured you would run away screaming. I wanted to."

"Nah, I get it." And there's no way that thing's getting close to her again. Acted like Claire Brewster? Nasty, nasty demon.

Beetlejuice was suddenly glad he still had his juice. One tangle between him and that demon if it came back, and it'd go screaming into the night. No one messed with Lydia like that. "I'll help you get your life back in order. It may have caused a lot of damage, but hey. I know what happened, and I'll help. So give me a smile, Lyds. It'll be alright."

Lydia noticed his reaction was different than she had expected. It didn't seem quite like denial. He thinks he knows something. If he talked to Bertha and Prudence, he'd know about the strange behavior. Did they know she was pregnant yet? Did he talk to mom and dad or not? It was clear he didn't quite grasp the truth yet, but at least he wouldn't bother her about it. That would give her some time to warm up to telling him about the whole baby hellspawn apocalypse thing. For now, she could just enjoy his company. Like she used to. "You're one of a kind, BJ."

Beetlejuice turned into three king playing cards all melded into one. "Are you sure not three?"

Lydia chuckled. She laughed a little better than she had in a long while. She couldn't keep up the charade for long. But for now. For just maybe a few hours, she could act like the world was still the same. The same as the last time she saw him.

Beetlejuice turned back into his old self and fiddled around in his pocket for a beetle.

Lydia watched him pop it into his mouth. That though of normalcy was heading out the window. I really need one of those. Asking to have a beetle from Beetlejuice himself though? Donny took care of her cravings in more subtle ways. Knowing she was a bit grossed out to eat them in their live form he usually puréed them in a drink or blended them in mashed potatoes.

Still, she really needed one. Maybe it would be a good way to help break the ice. "BJ, can I have one of those?"

"One of what?" Beetlejuice started to eat another beetle. "What?"

Lydia pointed to the beetle. "Just one?"

Why does she wanna look at a beetle? Beetlejuice shrugged his shoulders and tossed it at her. "Here ya go."

Lydia closed her eyes. She needed to get used to eating the real thing sooner or later. She doubted Beetlejuice would cater to her like Donny did. Getting him to share his beetles would be difficult enough, and she didn't want to waste lots of time with preparation.

Beetlejuice held one more delectable over his mouth, but he lost his concentration completely as he saw Lydia pop the beetle he had given her into hermouth. Being dropped, his own snack quickly ran for the nearest cover it could find.

She ate a beetle? Apparently the demons taste didn't leave her. She craved beetles? Well, that wasn't good. He had to start sharing his own beetles? "That was my last one," Beetlejuice whined. "I wonder if I can go back to the neitherworld for more? They're harder to find up here."

"What do you mean?" Lydia asked.

"Oh. I didn't tell you yet? I guess I kind of forgot." Beetlejuice pointed at himself. "See the skin tone change? I'm alive now, Babe. I've still got my juice though, which is weird, but I'm just like you now."

Neitherworld/File Bureau...

"How could she be? He was here," Juno yelled out of frustration. "It can't be his!"

"The time he was 'missing'. Ring a bell?" The first WDP reminded her. "Our sources believe he was alive for a short time."

"But how? There's not many beings that can grant that order."

"Exactly. Someone high up is in control, remember?" The second WDP said. "Clearly it's more than one creature. Who knows who is on what side?"

Juno sat down firmly in her chair. The men were World Defenders and Protectors. They had the right to keep information from her. But this? "This was rushed because of us. If we had never kept them apart, this would not have happened." She threw some of her files on the ground. "We should have warned them instead. Prepared them, not just take aggressive action. Oh, at least we should have warned the human."

"We did. After the fact."

"Well then." Juno stood back up. "For once, I'm glad I did let him go."

"What do you mean you are glad?" One of the WDP's yelled angrily. "He's an out of control creature. He's alive, he's got power, and the spell cast of his name three times will no longer control him. He's unstoppable."

"Which is why I should have sent him back a long time ago." Juno sat back down. If only she'd known the truth from the beginning.

"You're nuts." One of the WDP's looked at the other. "Let's go. We can't control him, but we'll watch him like a hawk. He won't go anywhere near the neitherworld with her."

Juno grumbled as she picked up her papers. They didn't understand. Yes, Beetlejuice was a pain, a huge pain. But, she came to realize over time that he did have heart. Every day he heckled her, every day he thought about that girl, every single day he told her he'd never give up his fight to get back to her. For that one girl, he thought he would even have to give up his powers to see her.

Juno placed the papers back down on the desk. No, now she was sure she did the right thing. The WDP even held secrets from her. None of them could be fully trusted. No, Beetlejuice should be treated as an ally, not an enemy to the situation. He was the pawn, not the creator, and if anything did go wrong, he'd do whatever he could to make it right again.

After all, he'd never let anything bad happen to his best friend. No matter what.