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 26: Happy Life, Brother!

"But I wanna!" BG groaned as he strained to go up. The neitherworld was so different than the usual world, he wanted to fly around and explore it more, but his dad kept a hold of him on the top of his shoulders.

"For the last time, not going to happen," his dad warned him again. As BG tried to climb onto his head, he was pulled back onto the shoulders. "No way, my head is not a trampoline to bounce away on."

"BG."

BG heard his mother's warning. He scratched his head. Freaking annoying. Every time they visited the neitherworld, he never got to roam around. They'd visit some old stupid friends of his mom's, and his dad would pull some cruel jokes on the same people. Actually, heh, his dad's stunts were pretty cool.

But he never got to explore anywhere else, his mom and dad never let him go. Just cause he was one, seriously? So annoying. He'd be two soon, shouldn't it count for something? As he watched where they were headed next though, he really tried to bolt. "No, I don't wanna! He's gonna smother me!"

"I know it's tough, but it's like medication when you're sick," Beetlejuice explained. "We gotta do it."

No. Ugh. "Uncle Donny's annoying," he grumbled, laying his head on his dad's hair. Whenever they came down, they always had to see him. It was such a pain! His dad was just as annoyed with his loving spirit as he was, but he always managed to bottle it up. And every time he asked, he always got the same excuse of 'why'. Still, he'd do it again anyhow. He was a kid, and it was his job to at least reach half annoyance with grownups. "But whyyyyyyyyy?"

"Because without your Uncle, I wouldn't be here with you and your mom," his dad answered predictably. "You also wouldn't have half the juice you got."

BG blew air out of his mouth, showing his discontent with the same answer again. "Why?" he asked predictably.

"He could have died," his mom warned him.

"He'd been dead before. Like dad was dead for years before he was back alive," BG pointed out once again.

"Do we always have to have this conversation?" his dad said, annoyed. Good, job well done. "Your Uncle used you as a balancer, but if anything went wrong, he would have died. That would have been a good hundred years of haunting before coming back to his afterlife. It's also illegal, so he was punished. So, we're nice enough to try and visit." His dad gritted his teeth. "Just take the medication, son."

"It doesn't help that you call the visit medication," his mother warned his father. "Can't we ever have a less strained visit with Donny without you two acting like it's super hard?"

Eh. His mom was annoyed too. Not too bad, but that was boring. BG put his hands on his dad's hair and pointed at the sky. "How come the neitherworld sky is green? How come the living world sky is blue? Why are the roads all twisted in the neitherworld? Why are they dumb and straight in the real world? Why does grandpa look like Frankenstein? Why does my other grandpa look like him in the mornings?"

"Why is it I'm buying you a beetle bar after this visit?" his father asked. "Remind me again, I'm forgetting."

Ooh, a beetle bar! "Never mind, every question will be answered in due time, love you mom and dad, can we get it before we go, I promise to be good, I prrrrooooooomise!"

"After the medication. I mean, visit," his dad corrected himself.

"Yooohooo! There's my lovely brother and his family!" Donny waved to them from behind a white line. A chain kept him attached to a ball nearly ten times his own size. If it had been Beetlejuice, even more security would be needed, but with Donny, the strain was less. "Nephew! Sister!"

"Donny." Lydia hugged him lightly, backing away for the rest of the family.

For a beetle bar. For a beetle bar. I can't get those back home.As his dad ducked down, BG took the brunt of it all.

"Oh, Betelgeuse." Donny reached for him and held him close. "You are quite sprite for a one year old. Just a few months ago, you couldn't even talk. How are you doing? How are you enjoying life? Oh, I love you so much." He gave him another hug.

Ah, his Uncle used his whole name. Annoying. At first, BG was just fine, but then his mom said he was supposed to be named after his dad. He was used to BG though, so they went with Betelgeuse. Close enough to his dad, but he still preferred BG. Besides, talk about hard to see who was talking about who. (Although it was fun to use it to annoy the right people sometimes.)

"So, how's prison doing?" Beetlejuice said, making light conversation. Him and Donny never really hit it off, even during childhood. But, Donny did so much for him. Without him, BJ would be behind those bars with more than a couple WDP watching over him. They'd have to because he'd never give up on Lydia. He couldn't. He had no idea who could have hurt her or when. After all those years of doing his best to ignore Donny, he owed him. Every time they came down to the neitherworld, they had to visit.

Donny's actions would leave him in that state for at least a few more months before he'd be granted permission to get out. In the meantime though, everyone would be watching his actions with any girl. He was the dangerous one now. Even though Donny didn't use much of Beetlejuice's old juice, everyone knew he was one of the most powerful spooks in the neitherworld.

He couldn't be in the WDP anymore. He couldn't go out and roam around, trying to do good anymore. He was contained. Still, he was actually happier there because he had visitors. Them.

Yeah, he was still hard to take, but him and Lyd would have both been miserable. BG would have had a pretty miserable life too. Beetlejuice looked over at Lydia. He did the honorable thing and married her in her world, but it wasn't really necessary. He didn't need some promise between them in front of everyone to stay loyal.

He'd withstand hell for her if he had to. Marriage was small time, but it pleased her family. After them being separated, and years of lying about who he was, he kind of owed them too. So yeah, marriage. It also looked good to have that on paper when her belly became a little bigger again.

Yep. They waited until after the marriage before announcing Lydia was pregnant again. But hey! Things happen, and it was pretty intense after they discussed their feelings, and when they had their own little place and time alone . . . eh, things happened. A lot.

They lived back in Lydia's original town, in a replica of the Roadhouse a few blocks down the road from her parents. Lydia had her friends back after they grew a deeper understanding of the neitherworld and what happened. She visited her parents daily, and her mom tended to come over more than her dad. Chuck was still a bit of a fraidy cat. You'd think having him as a son-in-law would've helped out things.

As for 'Benny', that wasn't real fun. It took time in the neitherworld, a lot of juice, and a lot of tears were shed by his mom, but he owed her an explanation too. She lived only a few blocks away too now. His skill as Benny were great enough to land him a simple repairman job, but most of his stuff and salary was furnished by the WDP.

Because deceived or not, the neitherworld legal system said . . . they owed him. Amazing what the right lawyer could do with some outrageous cases.

"Brother." Having his fill of holding his nephew, Donny gave Beetlejuice a hug. "How is the family?"

"Eh," Beetlejuice tried not to move out of the hug. "Growing by one."

"Oh, so good to hear." Donny hugged him tighter. "I love you, Brother. I'm so excited your life is so happy. I can't wait to meet the new family member when they come." He laughed and let go of his brother. "Lydia. You're a glowing mother."

"Hey, Donny. How you doing?" Lydia asked. "Are they bringing you out yet?"

"Soon," Donny smiled at her. "I have to sign some papers, and there will be some WDP watching me for the rest of my life, but it's worth it. My family's happy. Especially my brother." He grinned extra big at Beetlejuice. "So good to see you so happy."

"Yep."

"And visiting all the time."

"Yep."

"And sending me lots of pictures. Let me know when the new one arrives. Don't forget to tell our neitherworld mom and dad. You know they worry about you terribly. Did you tell them about the new one soon?"

"Yep." Beetlejuice looked toward BG.

"I feel wet," BG said. "Oh, I mean. Waaaah!" He cried. "I feel weeet!"

"Oh, it looks like we really got to take care of him. Diaper rash is bad, know what I mean? Gotta get going." Beetlejuice took a step back and picked up BG.

"Bye, Donny. We'll see you soon," Lydia thanked him before they bolted out.

"Thank goodness." Beetlejuice closed the nursery door lightly. "You take care of the last strings, and we'll be free."

Lydia didn't say anything about his choice of words, but she gave him a look that said she didn't like it. She headed back downstairs, to her own folks. After one heated confrontation on both sides, her family came to terms with her marriage and life with a used-to-be-ghost. Her father was the hardest, considering how little he liked the supernatural, and how protective he was of her.

It didn't help that Donny chose the most unsupernatural place in the world to stick them in the neitherworld. At his mothers. His mom was even cleaner than most living people. He never would have seen even a single bug there. Although, her father still wasn't a hundred percent behind it, he accepted it. Had to accept it more likely, but, it . . . it was working itself out. "BG's down for his nap now."

"Oh, yes, I suppose it's getting late. It's just that it's hard to get Charles to get over here sometimes," her mother said. Her father was staring at a spider on the floor. "He's a little uncomfortable here."

"It's fine," Lydia insisted. "Oh, sorry about that dad. That's a pretty big spider." Usually Beetlejuice was here when her parents visited, so that nothing otherworldy bugged them too much. To make it feel more like home for him, a lot of things were pulled from the neitherworld to their property. Nothing that would actually hurt her or BG but well . . . "Beej? Could you take care of this growing problem?"

Beetlejuice trotted down the stairs and saw a spider with deadly fangs, ready to take out Charles foot. Whoops. He snapped his fingers. "Sorry, Chuck. BG leaves his playthings out sometimes."

"N-n-no, it's f-f-fine," Lydia's father said as he rushed over to his daughter and gave her a hug. "Y-you have a good day. We'll see you again soon. Why not come over to the house for supper one night instead with your family? Where it's safer?"

"Yeah, dad, I'll come there," Lydia insisted as she waved at her family as they left out the door. When they were off the sidewalk, she knew what would happen next.

"Finally!" BJ whooshed the door closed with a gust of wind and locked it. "Neitherworld. Your friends. Your family. I thought we'd never get some time together today."

"Well, we have time now," Lydia said. "Movie?"

"No." He grabbed her hand and headed upstairs.

"Pizza?" She teased him.

"No," he insisted again as he grabbed the door handle to their room.

"Beetle collecting?" She teased him one more time before she felt herself being pulled into their own room. As the door closed, an opened letter off an endtable fell to the ground, along with a photo halfway sticking out of it. It was a picture of a young teen girl having an incredible time with a ghost. On the paper was a small note, written in its corner.

Happy Life, Brother! I hope everything is exactly what you dreamed.

Donny Juice.