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 Twenty Three: It's Lydia's Decision

Tea. Lydia looked at the tea in front of her. It felt like her whole life was just one big farce. Having her best friend's kid, losing her family and friends, losing her best friend forever, gaining everything back, and now what?

Having tea with Donny and Beetlejuice. Well, not quite. Beetlejuice wasn't drinking anything. Lydia didn't want to start the conversation, but Donny was oddly quiet. "Can someone please talk to me already?"

"Yes, I believe some conversation would be help-" Donny stopped mid-sentence as his pinky had a spurt of spark come from it and hit the table, singing it. "Oh, I just bought that."

Beetlejuice just hit his own face and rubbed his hand down it. "This isn't going to work long."

Lydia took a deep breath. "Listen." She looked at the two quiet guys in front of her. "I." She ticked her fingers off one by one. "Lost the ability to speak my G's. I was impregnated with what I thought was a ghost's son. I lost my family. I lost my friends. I lost the ability to be me." She pointed toward herself. "And BG never had the opportunity to be himself. So, please. Please, for one time, give me some good news!" She looked toward BJ. "Be straight. Please, I can't take any more of this. Is this all over? Am I losing you all over again?"

Aw. BJ looked toward the table. Lydia had gone through as much misery as him. Even though she went through child birth, he went through hell. Kind of a tie breaker there. He did kind of surprise her last night by taking over . . . uhh . . . "Okay, Babe, the truth is you're fine. We're fine." He tapped his foot. "We've been fine, until everyone else made it not fine."

"No more riddles!" Lydia exploded as she grabbed her head. "No more riddles. No more guessing. Just tell me. Do you get to stay?"

Yeah, that wasn't an easy answer. "It's . . . " He scratched his neck. "Okay, no more riddles. Yes, I physically will be here." He tried to smile. "Just not a hundred percent until you make some decisions."

"Make some decisions?"

"Yes, and when you decide what path you want to take, then you can go back to your old life too." Donny smiled at her. "It will be a happy day for everyone. Depending on your decision."

"My decision?" Lydia looked at each of them. Nothing had ever been her decision so far. "What are my decisions?"

"Before we get to that, I've got to tell you something. It's not gonna make you happy."

"If you can stay, then I'll deal with it," Lydia insisted. "What?"

"You never had to have BG or go through any of this. It was all pointless."

Lydia blinked. "What?"

This. This wasn't easy to tell her. Lydia had been hurt beyond measure already, and BJ had to hurt her one more time. "After I tell you this, you'll know everything, Lyd. No more secrets. The rest is up to you, however you want to go about it." Okay. He beat his tongue at the top of his mouth, feeling his throat go dry.

Donny was silent. The more he spoke and interacted the harder it was to contain the juice. This was all up to him. "We were separated because a kid between us had the power to basically make a second hell."

"Yes."

"It happened anyway."

"Yes."

"The WDP made you leave your whole old life behind and raise BG with nothing supernatural around him."

"Yes."

"Okay. Um, none of it mattered. They were just the steps to trick us to where we are now. The only thing that went wrong is BG's too big of a whimp." BJ caught the beetle bottle that was thrown at him from BG but didn't complain back to him. It wasn't the time. He had to do this and crush Lydia so she could move on.

Her shining eyes, filled with wonder. That smile that made him happier than a bathtub of beetles. It was about to go away. "I was never dangerous until I joined with Benny."

"Until you joined with Benny?"

"The neitherworld can't join split souls easily. When I was alive before, that was a whole new body. Benny was part of my soul, kept away from the neitherworld's knowledge of it. The neitherworld didn't bring me back to this body." He sighed. "I got it when I was in hell. I got it because I agreed to take it back. I didn't think, and I didn't know, and I didn't care!" He slammed his hand on the table. "All that mattered was getting back to you. I saw you and Benny eating spaghetti and . . . and I wanted to join my soul to come back."

Donny tried to help, sensing the conversation was getting heavy to hold. "But he couldn't do that until he was in hell, and he was tricked into sending a WDP there, which would normally send him to hell. But, the WDP he sent there, was just a ruse. However, my brother had no way of knowing that, he thought he was being punished. The neitherworld didn't send him though, only assumed he was missing."

Lydia scratched her head. "What's this mean?"

"Well. Um." Donny grabbed a napkin and a pen. "I know. Just, if I can keep the sparks from burning this."

BJ and Donny Juice both looked at what Donny was writing while Lydia watched. After Donny was done, he scooted it toward her. "This was . . . hell's plans?"

Lydia took the napkin, reading the front and the back

And it all made sense.

Original Plan:

1. Get Beetlejuice cursed

2. Find a way to get Beetlejuice into Hell

3. Entice Beetlejuice to join with Benny to remove curse.

4. Have the complete Beetlejuice have a baby with Lydia

5. Take over

Askewed Plan: (BJ Note: That's Donny's word for what happened since the first plan didn't work.)

1. Bring Beetlejuice to life in a temporary body.

2. Get Lydia impregnated as a decoy.

3. WDP's over interference encourages Beetlejuice to come to life with some provided help from neitherworld.

4. Kill him.

5. Ruse him into hell, and make neitherworld think WDP was behind it. Break ties between WDP and neitherworld.

6. Show Beetlejuice his split soul, and make him join.

7. Let them think everything is over, and the rest will fall into place.

Lydia swallowed. The whole time. BG. The WDP. Her. "Nothing mattered." She let her head droop, and it was hard to hold back the tears. The whole time, it was nothing but the incentive to make Beetlejuice accept his place with Benny. "Nothing mattered at all."

BG never had to be born. None of it had to ever happen.

"Beetlejuice is now dangerous," Donny spoke first. He tried to reach out to comfort her, but it wasn't his place. He could feel BJ's eyes on him. "Like Beetlejuice said though, BG was even weaker than hell had planned. Without that little fault, we wouldn't have figured it out. Anyhow, good news is I am holding my brother's juice. That means you are absolutely safe." He looked toward Beetlejuice who still wasn't talking. "But, um, without juice Beetlejuice can't always be here. Him and Benny, he is most likely going to be cycling between the two before they meld together well like before. Um . . . more tea?"

"Donny, just get out already! She got the gist!" He watched Donny get up and scamper off. He would have zapped him out as soon as Lydia got the note. It explained it already, did he really have to just keep going? He had to explain the rest of it. He wasn't leaving that up to him.

With his brother finally gone, BJ scooted over and placed his hand on Lydia's back. "Donny can only hold it for so long." The conversation wasn't going to move forward smoothly though. Lydia had kept her head bowed down so low, no one saw her crying.

He barely had time to prepare himself as she launched her arms around his neck. She didn't say anything, just cried. Could he blame her? He rubbed her back affectionately. All that misery, for her, only as a decoy. Her crying also triggered BG to start to cry.

She was in no condition to help BG, she needed comfort herself. He had no juice anymore to make BG stop his shenanigans. Oh, he already missed his juice, but then again. He might be giving it up for good. He shifted his weight to support Lydia, but to also reach and rub BG's hand. "Settle down, your mom's going to be okay. Life just sucks sometimes. You'll learn all about that when you grow up."

After a few more minutes of constant crying from both of them, it was harder to keep it together. BJ didn't want to do anything but burst into his own tears, but he couldn't do that. He had to be the strong one for them.

Lydia settled down long enough to back up from him. "Okay," she said shakily. "Now what?"

"Donny can't hold my juice for long," he informed her. "I am going to cycle between three phases." He rubbed his ear lightly. "I remember being Benny and BJ, Lyd. I've remembered since last night. I just didn't want to make you feel awkward, 'cause . . . human teens are kind of . . . anxious at times." He skipped dwelling on that subject. "The other times, I won't remember anything about my second life, or I won't remember the neitherworld. Eventually, I'll become myself again, full time. I don't know how long that will be."

"Okay." She was still keeping it together. "Then when Donny can't hold your juice anymore?"

"It's up to you," BJ answered. "There's only three choices left." He held three fingers up and ticked the first one off. "Donny will have to get rid of my juice, which means no more juice ever again." He ticked his next finger off. "I can sign some contracts to make sure no one can bring me back to the living world in any way, shape, or form until you pass." He ticked his last finger off. "The third isn't an option, but Donny's going to bring it up. We . . . could make sure kids aren't an option by having some kind of surgery."

"Surgery."

"It's for life," BJ warned her. "It's for the rest of your life, Lyd."

"I don't want any more kids," Lydia answered.

"Now. You're nineteen. You still have so much more of your life ahead of you." BJ crossed his arms. "What if . . . you find someone?" Ouch. Not something he wanted to think of, but it was always possible.

"I don't want to lose you, and you shouldn't have to give up your juice. I know you without your juice, Beej'," Lydia insisted. "You love your juice."

"Yeah, and you don't want to know what it's gonna take," he said darkly. "This won't be some normal surgery from a normal living hospital. It could be dangerous for us."

"How dangerous?"

"I didn't even bother finding out the details. That's how dangerous."

"Well, I want to know."

"For what? If something happened to you, I'm not the only one who'd be lost, Babe. If something happened to me, you'll never see me until you pass yourself." He gestured to BG. "If both of us are lost, that little guy is going down to an unclaimed department in the neitherworld. Right next to luggage. I'm not kidding."

Lydia looked over toward BG. Beetlejuice hadn't shown much concern before for him. He had just admitted though that he remembered being Benny. "The dry diaper."

"Like he could ever go a full night? Yeah, right."

Yep, he was both. Strange, but at the same time, not really. Benny and Beetlejuice had always been kind of close to the same. "You remember your time as Benny? All of it?"

"It's more than that. I am him. I'm Beej', and well, I'm me. I can remember every time my annoying mom yelled at me for some dumb thing." He groaned. "Not to mention the yelling she'll give me for the time I've been gone now." He rolled his eyes. "Man, if only I could have juiced her for just a second. A small taste of her own medicine. You know how good I am at fixing things? I could have been rolling in dough if she didn't keep me from making money." He shrugged his shoulders. "Moms'll be mom's though. Better than my dad."

Benny had never actually talked to her about his father. "That bad?"

"Yeah, he was a real schmuk. Left the day my mom told him she was pregnant. What a deadbeat." He gestured to himself. "You know, I've been dead, but even I have no way of topping how dead of a deadbeat he was." He looked toward BG. "Kids aren't the coolest thing in the world." He caught the rattle being flung at him. "Heh, but they aren't the worst. Even wimpy ones, they're still good as entertainment."

"Yeah." She looked over toward BG. "He shouldn't have ever been born."

"Yeah, and um, the things we've been saying haven't exactly been helping him." BJ got up, took the rattle and took it over to BG. "Don't worry, we wouldn't get rid of you. You won't find yourself at the neitherworld claim department."

BG still wasn't smiling.

"Yo, I am only half the solution over here," BJ said when he gestured to Lydia.

Lydia came over to BG. "Sorry. I was overwhelmed, but, that doesn't change anything." That's right. "I'm still your mom, and I love you. I always will, no matter what."

"Don't say that last-too late."

BG grinned wide.

"He can still learn a lot more magic as he grows up," BJ warned Lydia. "You just basically gave him permission to get away with anything. Not smart. I don't even have anything to keep him under control now."

"Yeah, but it's fine." Lydia finally smiled again. "We still have his Uncle Donny, don't we?" Beetlejuice groaned. "You love your Uncle Donny, don't you?"

BG groaned and crossed his arms.

"Agreed! Lyd, I go out of my way to get rid of him!"

"We need someone if we lose your juice." If it was the option. She was still upset that she went through so much for absolutely nothing, but, she did admit. At least the choice was hers. BJ looked like he'd be okay with BG in his life. She didn't have to uproot herself right away, and soon, she'd have her family back again. It was almost all over, once she made her decision. "Benny?"

"Yeah?"

He answered, just as quick as he would with BJ. "What about Benny's missing time?"

"The brain'll just fill in whatever. I won't suddenly just go ballistic with amnesia or something." BJ rubbed his eye. "Lack of sleep as a human is hard, especially without the boost of juice." He yawned and stretched his arms. BG yawned and stretched his arms too.

Oh. Yeah. BG always imitated Benny. "I guess you better get some rest then, Beej. Benny. What do you want to be called?"

"Anything but Ben-Ben. Gaw, I can't believe I burned myself with that one." He looked toward his finger. "You know, at least without juice I can't accidentally set myself on fire."

Lydia couldn't help herself as she laughed. It felt good. "Get some rest, Beej."

"Yeah. Uh." He was about to leave, but he looked like he wanted to say something. "I'm uh, gonna cycle between memories. I just want to say . . . you know, that Benny . . . if anything . . . "

"Don't worry," Lydia assured him. "I know you're my best friend, BJ. Nothing you as Benny will do will change that."

"Well." He seemed to have gotten stuck in though. "Eh. I'll uh, I'll see you." He turned and walked out the door. "See ya tonight, Babe."