Chapter Text
Beetlejuice couldn't let her go. After hours of reacquainting himself with her body, hours of listening to her cry, scream, moan and whisper his name, hours of drying the tears from her face and telling her that he loved her as many times as either of them needed to hear it, he could not take his hands from her body. As she slept, he held her, terrified that if he let go, everything would just stop. She would go back to not knowing what they had been, her memories would, once more, be locked away, and he'd be damned if he was going to let that happen. Ten long fucking years of faking it, of putting on some ridiculous act to maintain a distance deemed "friendship worthy" between them…there was no way he was going back to that.
He shifted his weight and Lydia curled further into him, her manicured hand splaying over his bare chest. She sighed softly, the beginnings of his name slipping through her parted lips and he quickly covered them, grinning down at her. He would never admit it to a soul living or dead, but he has missed having her like this. When she was sated and sleeping, her dark lashes casting the barest of shadows over her pale cheek bones, when she unconsciously showed the depth of trust she had in him…he had missed it.
He brushed his fingertips over her forehead, the hair sifting back and joining the midnight tresses that fell over the pillow behind her head. Aside from why, she hadn't asked him a thing. Well…that wasn't true. He very clearly remembered her asking…no…begging…for more. But aside from those first few questions, she hadn't mentioned at all what had suddenly shifted and allowed her to have her memories back. He knew she would have questions. Hell, he had questions. What had happened?
As if someone or something had known his exact trail of thought, the temperature in the room dropped quickly. A frown pursed Lydia's brow and she moved even closer, seeking warmth though she would find none from him.
Beetlejuice pulled the blankets up around her with one hand, tightening his grip on her with the other. If anyone had come for him, they'd have a hell of a time. He hadn't used his full power in years and just thinking of the opportunity to do so made him thirsty for blood.
"It's borderline necrophilia, you know."
Beetlejuice turned, his lips pealing back in a snarl of hostility. "What do you want, ya hag?" he hissed.
Leaning against the wall beside him and looking irritatingly professional, as always, was Juno. Delicately ashing the slender cigarette between her two bony fingers, she pushed away from the wall. "Relax, Beetlejuice."
He wouldn't do a damn thing she told him to. His fingers itched to juice the ever-loving hell out of her, to make her scream and writhe in pain. "I did exactly what you told me to do. I kept her safe, I kept a fucking distance. I think I've more than served my damn time. If you think-."
"I think," she shot back in clipped tones, effectively cutting him off. "That you've served your sentence, Beetlejuice."
The fight went out of him, replaced by an unsettling emotion. Gratitude. It sat thick in his stomach and made him ill. "What?"
"Your sentence…has been served. You are, by no means, a free man. But the sentence you owe the Afterlife has been fulfilled."
For once in his nonexistence, he had no words. To thank her felt wrong. To slander her feel equally so. He had…nothing.
"For what it's worth," she murmured, lifting her cigarette to take an unnecessary drag before continuing, "You did the right thing. I know that's unnatural for you. But…you did do the right thing. Lydia would have suffered a lifetime knowing the fate of her father had she stayed. She never would have forgiven herself. And although she would never say it, she never would have forgiven you. Her afterlife would be exactly what it should be…suffering for her selfishness. What you gave up saved her from that. You might not think the ten years was worth it…but trust me when I tell you that it was." A ghost of a smile curved her thin lips. "Enjoy your time here. And I hope to never see you in my office again. Goodbye, Beetlejuice."
With an airy hiss, she left, the smoke from her cigarette obscuring her figure until there was nothing left but the lingering sulfuric scent of death and paperwork.
"Fuck me," Beetlejuice said after a while, shaking his head and frowning. That was it. Just like that…he was a free man.
"Beetlejuice-."
He looked down into Lydia's tear filled eyes. Tear filled eyes that promised him her lifetime.
"Lyds…how much-."
"All I needed to."
She sat up and slid into his lap, her legs straddling his waist. Her hands brushed his face, her fingers twined in his hair. "I never thought I'd see the day where you unselfishly chose someone over yourself."
"I do a lot of shit I wouldn't when it comes to you, babes," he admitted freely, stroking her back with the tips of his fingers and reveling in the way she shivered under his touch.
Her gaze turned soft enough to briefly tamp down the desire she'd evoked by the simple touch of her bare skin against his. Her lips fluttered briefly over his and she murmured in a low, nearly inaudible voice, "thank you."
He would say it once. Only once, and only for her.
"You're welcome."
"That had to be difficult," Lydia muttered with a little smirk.
He grinned back, anticipation building in his gut, his hands tightening around her hips. "Hardest damn thing I've had to do in ten years, Babes."
"Maybe you should do something easy then. You know…counter balance it and all that good stuff."
Her eyes were full of suggestion, her body warm and ready. His grin turned downright wolfish and he twisted until she lay beneath him.
"Babes, when it comes to you, the only thing that's ever easy…is lovin' ya."
Tears glistened in the glow of the moonlight filtering through her windows, slipped from her eyes as she closed them, pulled him down to her and whispered, "I love you too, Beej."