AN: So sorry for nearly abandoning this but I had some issues.

Alternate Universe warning: Since Beetlejuice is a protagonist in the cartoon, it makes sense that their meeting was a lot more benign than in the movie. I actually prefer the cartoon. I should also warn that I no longer have a way of watching the cartoon.

Chapter 2

Beetlejuice returned to the Neitherworld with an added skip in his step. He chuckled as he started preparing his own supper, a cockroach steak with a baked potato. Lydia had turned him onto the soft, fleshy, starchy vegetable, smothered with sour cream and cheese. They even made broccoli taste better.

When they'd met, she had just been a pre-teen, coping with her widowed father remarrying eclectic artist, Delia. They'd moved into the shopworn Victorian home in Vermont. The same house that Beetlejuice was assigned to haunt for some reason. No one else could even see him. Until the first night, when they were eating their first dinner in their new home. He remembered them opening the pizza box, the smell of the tomato sauce still tickled his nose as he prepared to scare the timid Charles Deetz until he saw the young girl was staring. Directly at him. He quickly retreated back into an empty room. She saw him. How could she see him? She was living. No, that was impossible. He was imagining it. She must have been focused on that hideous monstrosity in the dining room that was supposedly a sculpture.

Later that same night, when everyone was asleep, he decided to try again. This time, she was his target. He was poised and ready when her eyes snapped open. They were as dark as the night and he froze. For a moment, he thought he felt something he couldn't identify.

"It's you! I saw you at dinner!" She said with a tone he had never heard before. "What are you? Delia and Dad couldn't see you."

His mouth went up and down like a fish. "But you can. Why? I'm a ghost. A poltergeist. This is the house I haunt when I'm not at home."

She smiled. "A ghost? A real live ghost? I knew it! I knew ghosts were real! I knew it was all real!" She jumped out of bed and grabbed a notebook off her bedside. "You have to tell me more. What's your name? How is a poltergeist different from any other ghost?"

The man shook his head as he realized she wasn't afraid of him. "My name is Beetlejuice. And poltergeist was never actually alive. They are created by the mating of two ghosts in the Neitherworld."

She wrote down the definition. She had many more questions from there and he couldn't help but want to answer them all.

He gave up on frightening her though she was happy to let him play his pranks on her parents and her living friends as long as they weren't dangerous. Her enemies were also fair game.

They became fast friends and they soon discovered she had latent powers of her own. Powers that he helped her to awaken and use. She was the first and the only living person to visit the world of the dead, the Neitherworld.

She was special and he'd had the pleasure of watching her grow up from a prepubescent child into a young lady. He found his feelings towards her changing, evolving. He didn't know what to call them but he knew that he would never let any harm come to Lydia or her family. And he couldn't abide her being sad.

That was why after eating, he went to one of the doors in his boarding house. He took a deep breath and knocked. The door opened just a little.

"Beetlejuice? What is it? I was just about to work my legs." A skeletal skull asked in a thick French accent as his door opened wider.

The ghostly con-man sighed. "Jacques, I need your help. I'm taking Lydia to a dance on Saturday and…. I need… to look my best and… well, alive."

Jacques smiled. "Mon dieu! Leg day can wait! I have been looking forward to getting my hands on you for a long time." He pulled Beetlejuice inside. "First, a bath. Yes, we will have you looking as handsome as a prince. And you'll see, you'll love your new look so much, you'll never want to go back."

"Don't count on that, Jacque, I'm still the ghost with the most. This will last until Sunday morning. Not a minute after," he said. "I just want Lydia to be happy and no one asked her to go to this dance yet."

Jacques laughed. "Well, I'm sure she's more than happy to go with her best friend. The whole Neitherworld knows she adores you. There's no accounting for taste." He sat Beetlejuice in a chair and turned on the shower head. He was well aware of the man gagging and trying to hold himself together. "Don't think about the water. Now the question is, are you finally going to tell her?" He asked as he leaned him back and pulled the shower sprayer to the oily, bug infested hair.

Beetlejuice frowned. "Tell her what?" He asked incredulously.

"How you feel! Oh Beetlejuice, I have been your roommate and bone ami for a long, long time. And I have seen how you look at the beautiful Lydia. Of course she was just a child but now, she is on the cusp of womanhood," Jacque chuckled as he washed out every bug and applied a generous amount of shampoo, massaging the substance into his scalp. Beetlejuice hated baths but had to admit, the scalp massage felt good.

"I don't know what you mean. Yeah, I care about her. She's my best friend. She is beautiful but don't read too much into it. She's a fleshbag and I'm a poltergeist," Beetlejuice protested. "I'm just doing this to make her happy…"

The skeleton laughed as he finally finished washing the blonde hair. He wrapped a towel around the head and got a small table and a few tools.

"Whoa! Jacques, I asked for help getting clean, not some girly manicure!" Beetlejuice protested but Jacques simply tutted at him.

"Oh relax, you cannot hold dear Lydia with hands like these!" He held up the destroyed finger tips. "You came to Jacques, so let Jacques do what Jacques does best. Aside from pumping iron." He put the first hand in a small bowl of warm water and returned to Beetlejuice's hair.

Beetlejuice almost jumped out of his skin when he saw the scissors. "What? A haircut too? I'm not joining the fleshbag marines!"

"Just taking off all the dead ends. Just because you are dead does not mean you cannot look your best or have healthy hair." Jacques combed the hair and carefully trimmed away a couple of inches until the hair was shoulder-length. After cleaning up the hair, he grabbed a large basin with buttons and what looked like jets and filled it with warm water.

The poltergeist shook his head as Jacques took off his shoes and socks. "Oh no, I'm going to have a draw a line." With a poof, a floating piece of chalk drew a line on the floor.

Jacques didn't listen as he assessed the calluses and overgrown and splintered toenails. "Oh Beetlejuice, how atrocious. You are getting this done. Just remind yourself who you're doing it for."

Finally, Beetlejuice realized it would be over faster if he just submitted. "Lydia… to make Lydia happy…" He growled deep in his throat. "The shit I go through for that girl."

Jacques chuckled. "Because you're in love…" He gushed loudly.

——————

Lydia went down to the dinner table with a skip in her step. Sitting down, she reached to take a spoonful of mashed sweet potatoes. "Mom, I need a prom dress for Saturday."

Delia smiled gleefully. "Oh, dear Delia. Does that mean you have a date? See, I knew you could work up the courage to ask a guy. You don't have to wait for them."

Charles frowned. "Guy? Date? Who? Lydia, you're still so young. You shouldn't be dating."

The dark-haired young woman laughed. "Daddy, I just turned eighteen. I'm old enough to date. But no, just going with a guy friend. We go to school together. I'm sure I've told you about him before? BJ? It's short for… Benjamin. Benjamin Espiridion." She silently congratulated herself for thinking up the name so quickly.

Delia smacked her husband gently. "Now Charles, don't get overprotective now. Our Lydia has grown into a fine young woman. She'll do us credit when she starts at Winter River Community Arts College." She smiled with pride.

Lydia ate her meal as she nodded. "Thanks Mom. Really, Dad, BJ is the nicest guy I know. I mean, he likes practical jokes, maybe a little too much but he's a great guy." She promised. "It'll be okay, Dad. You'll like BJ when you get to know him. He's always been there for me. Even when things got their hardest."

Charles sighed. "Well…. I want you home no later ten."

Delia laughed. "Charles, don't be like that. We can trust Lydia. Go dear. Have a great time and stay out as late as you want. Tomorrow, we'll go find you a dress. Normally I'd offer to make it myself but I can't make a dress in just a few days." She apologized.

The young woman shook her head. "Thanks Mom." She wasn't sure when her father remarried this eclectic artist but Delia had tried her best to be a mother to her. "You'll see, Benjamin is the best guy in the world."

AN: Sheesh, I am so sorry this took so long but I just had major blockage. Hope you like Beetlejuice's cover name and yes, I'm giving him a makeover, he needs an updated appearance.