Chapter Text
It'd been a month since the 'incident' as they so lovingly put it and things were going great. The first few weeks were hard, both families still adjusting to living together as well as recovering from the chaos they all experienced, but before they knew it, they were all functioning as one. Lydia started school and made some friends, Barbara and Delia bonded over their shared love of cooking new recipes and even Adam and Charles were able to geek out over woodworking. No one really even thought about the demon who caused all this. All they wanted to do was put it behind them. Which worked! Almost...
Lydia was walking home from school, excited for the weekend and when she approached the house and it just seemed... wrong. There was a sort of bad vibe coming from the house. She approached nervously and opened the door to see all the adults huddled together whispering and surrounding something? Her view was blocked by the couch but from what she could see it seemed to be a bundle of black. Speaking of, a black liquid seemed to be all over the room, specifically coating Delia's boujee rug she'd bought recently. The air spelled like a damp cemetery, and suddenly she remembered when she last smelt that.
"Dad? What's going on?" At the sound of her voice all the adult's heads popped up and she could see their faces all lined with fear.
"Nothing Lydia. Stay there."
"Dad you can't just expect me to stand here." She began to approach them, "what's going o-" Her voice faded as she looked at what they all were staring at. It was Beetlejuice, but something was wrong. He was passed out, his suit was ripped and soaked with the black liquid that was surrounding him. It dribbled from his lips, a stark contrast to his even paler skin. Even his hair was wrong, it was dark purple, maybe even black. His face was pulled in a pained grimace.
"What's wrong with him?" She asked, her voice shaky, realizing then that the black liquid was his blood.
"No idea. That other demon...Juno, she tossed him in here and left." Charles explained, his tone dark.
"She said something about punishment and breathers before she left, but he passed out before we could ask questions." Barbara added. She stared at him with a pointed and hateful glare, looking around, Lydia realized all of them, except Delia who just looked scared, had that same look on their face.
"Well he's probably hurt, we need to help him." Lydia tried to reach him but was stopped by Charles' hand.
"No Lydia. This might be a trap. Don't try and help him.
"As if he even deserves it."
"Barbara!"
"What? It-it's true. He manipulated us."
"I just feel so bad, he looks in pain." Delia whispered. She bent down, much to the other's chagrin, and placed a gentle hand on his face. He was freezing, yet sweating, but he seemed to lean into the touch, a pained breathe escaping his lips. His eyes squeezed tightly as he curled into himself another pained mumble following. Lydia felt a wave of sadness go through her hearing his pain, upset she couldn't go near him when she realized what he dad was carrying. After the 'incident' he bought genuine holy water, salt, and an iron blade.
"Dad..." She spoke slowly, almost scared to ask, "did you hurt him?" He stared at her for a second in confusion before looking at the demon harming substances in his pocket and back at her.
"No no sweetie, this is just protection."
They looked back at the demon on their floor just as he was opening his eyes,
"Delia-" Charles warned.
Beetlejuice's eyes flickered around the room quickly and widened with fear. Delia tried to touch him but he flinched aggressively hitting his head on the coffee table. In a moment of fear he clawed at her and ran into the corner, not before being hit with a nice big splash of holy water.
The water hit his many wounds and 'holy shit that hurts' he let out a pained cry and curled tightly into a ball. The water burned and all he could do was cry in a ball and wait for it to stop. But everyone kept approaching him.
'Stop stop stop' he repeated in his mind, but they grew closer.
"Stop stop stop" He whispered, tugging at him hair and rocking back and forth.
"STOP" He sobbed, pushing himself further into the corner. The light bulbs flickered out leaving only the dim light from a window lighting the house. The approaching stopped, only for him to be met with yells and shouts, people and ghost calling him name, his curse tugging at him stomach, it was all too much. He sobbed in a ball, not even understanding what everyone was saying. He tried to escape from this corner feeling too trapped, but was met with burning. He peaked and realized Chuck has created a salt line around him, effectively trapping him. His cries became louder and the pain and fear and everything became too much.
"Guys..." Lydia noticed the distressed demon. "Guys stop!" She yelled and slowly everyone went silent, looking at the shaking, crying demon in the corner. And that wave of sadness Lydia felt earlier, hit everyone, even Charles. His hands dug into his scalp pulling at his hair, black blood still coating his entire front and now dripping from his mouth and he sobbed, the holy water and salt causing his arms to sizzle slightly but the worst part. He was mumbling something, soft pleads to stop and weak apologies.
"Please- I'm sorry please- lemme go- I don't wann- please" words stumbled from his mouth and everyone realized this wasn't a trap. Hesitantly, Charles dropped the supplies and kicked them away, Barbara and Adam backed away, pulling Lydia with them, and Delia slowly approached.
"Hey Beetlejuice..." He flinched at him name being called and curled in tighter. "It's ok. I'm not going to hurt you, just gonna clean this salt up ok?"
She looked at beetlejuice for confirmation and was met with scared yellow eyes. He gave her a slight nod and she wiped away the salt line, and Beetlejuice felt calmer. He relaxed slightly and watched Delia's every step. "Are you hurt?" She asked her voice gentle and he nodded again. "Can I help?" She walked forward her hand outstretched but stopped when he yelled,
"NO- please... don't hurt me" He whimpered and tensed up again before letting out a hiss of pain.
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you." She put on her gentle voice again and sat across from him. "How about we help get you cleaned up,and we can all talk this out?"
"Just you."
"Huh?"
"...only you can help." He said, almost embarrassed. And when Charles looked at him he realized he didn't see the demon that hurt their family, instead he saw a scared, traumatized child. "Ok but if you hurt Delia I swear to god." His voice was loud, Beetlejuice flinched and covered him ears.
"It's ok, Charles is just nervous for me. Not angry. Come with me." Delia stood up and shooed everyone off before holding out a hand for Beetlejuice to take.
"We're gonna get you cleaned up in the bathroom. You're safe, don't worry." She almost expected him to stay there so she was surprised when his bloodied calloused hand met hers. The 2 walked to the bathroom, Beetlejuice keeping his head down, and Delia whisper yelling at everyone telling them what to do. When they reached the bathroom, Delia guided Beetlejuice to sit on the toilet seat while she grabbed rags and bandages.
"You mind taking that shirt off?"
Delia waited for the dirty comment but Beetlejuice was too tired. He unbuttoned his shirt which grew crusty with dried blood and pulled it down. When Delia turned she couldn't help but gasp. His pale torso was soaked with blood and scars. Claw wounds ran up and down his stomach but that's not what scared her. The amount of healed/almost healed scars he had were terrible. There was bite marks, circular burns, thick ropey scars and a giant hole in his chest. Some looked familiar to Delia though. Those evenly placed thin lines running along his arms reminded her too much if herself. Turning to Beetlejuice she realized he was embarrassed of these, so before starting she pulled down the sleeve of her sweater dress to reveal the scars.
"You're not alone in that sense huh?" He looked at her, a small smile gracing his features.
"I'm going to touch you now with this rag, I just wanna get all this blood off of you." She dipped it into some warm water and began gently scrubbing the dried blood off his skin. Once most of the blood was off she managed to get him to take a shower, which surpsingly wasn't that hard. Once he was in the shower, she grabbed his clothes and replaced them with a pair of Charles' old sweatpants and a purple sweatshirt he got from an old job event. She looked at the torn suit and figured she'd mess with it later before walking into the living room where everyone was talking.
"Heys guys." They all looked up at her.
"How is he?" Lydia asked hopefully.
"Quiet. Very quiet, also very shaky. I don't know what happened to him since we last saw him, but he is scared, of all of us."
The group sat in silence for a little, the only noise being the shower running in the guest room.
"Guys, what happened?" Lydia asked quietly wanting the full story.
"Well we were all just going about our normal day when a portal opened in the living room, his mother tossed him in the living room, he was already bleeding but he was still awake. He was scared." Barbara started.
"Yeah, she said 'This is your punishment Lawrence. Go live with the breathers. They'll never love you.You brought this upon yourself.' before leaving." Adam added on.
"God I thought we finally left this all behind. Leave it to him to mess things up." Charles spat.
"Sorry..." a quiet voice startled all of them.
While they were talking no-one noticed the shower stopping. Beetlejuice stood there, hugging himself. Everyone was slightly shocked at how he looked. Without the layer of blood and filth he looked almost human. His skin was still a corpse-like grey, a small fang peaked out from his mouth biting his lip and his ears were pointed out from his mop of wet purple hair. The sweatpants he wore were rolled up multiple times to fit, and the sweatshirt fit comfortably, its sleeves going down to his finger tips. Bandages peaked out from the hood, going up his neck, and everyone realized the extent of his injuries.
"Beetlejuice!" Lydia ran to give him a hug, but he avoided it like the plague. "Beetlejuice?" Lydie frowned at the demon's behavior.
"Please don't call me that." He mumbled, avoiding eye contact.
"Ok... well Mr. Juice" Charles started while pulling Lydia to come back to the table. "Why are you here?"
"Well uh, Chuck" Beetlejuice tried to put on a grin, but it ended up turning out like a wince, "My mother was angry at me. So angry that her and her goons uh... harmed me. And then sent me here as punishment. Although I'm not sure who it was supposed to punish more, me or you..." He looked around at the varied looks of horror, anger, fear and concern.
"Your mother did this?" Adam asked, shock evident in his voice.
"Well yea. Her and her goons."
The room was silent, except for Beetlejuice fidgeting in the doorway.
"I'm sorry Mr. Juice. I guess we're all just trying to process this and figure out..."
"Figure out how to deal with me?" His voice almost sounded hurt.
"It's fine." It wasn't.
"I get it" He didn't
"who would want a demon in their home?" Apparently no-one.
"I can sleep on the roof?" He didn't want to, "stay out of yalls way?" it hurt, but Beetlejuice didn't let it show.
"Yes that's perfect." Charles nodded,
"As long as you promise to be silent." Adam and Barbara added on.
"What? No!" Lydia looked around in shock, "He's clearly hurt! And you just decided to send him out on the roof. During winter?!"
"He offered. Plus he's a demon."
"Yea Scarecrow. Don't worry about Lil' ol' me" He attempted to give a reassuring smile, but the dark blue and purple hues in his hair gave him away.
"Beej..."
"Well. Glad to get that worked out. Bye." He snapped and in a puff of black smoke, he disappeared.
"Thank God. I don't think I could handle being around him another minute." Barbara sighed.
"You all suck!" Lydia yelled, tears streaming down her face. "He was just beaten halfway to death...for the dead, and you just send him off in the snow. You're unbelievable."
But Lydia" Barbara exclaimed- "The things he did to us! He almost killed us and he tried to marry you!"
"Yea but he also saved our lives from his mother, who is the reason he's here and hurt." Lydia looked around at the faces and realized everyone... even Delia disagreed.
"I'm sorry honey..." She whispered, but Lydia ran away tears streaming down her cheeks.
As soon as Beetlejuice got onto the roof, he regretted teleporting up there. His power was still drained from his injuries, the teleportation not making it any better. He collapsed onto the roof, and shivered as the snow soaked into his clothes.
"Great. Snow." He grumbled.
Cold was something so foreign to him, being a demon and living in the netherworld meant he was often burning hot. A small tear dripped down his face as he hugged his legs to his chest. He tried to not let it show while talking to the Deetz-Maitlands, but he was in incredible pain, his mother really did a number huh? A harsh sob racked his frame as he reflected on the day, he was so tired, so cold, he was in so much pain, a piece of him wished his mom actually killed him. He cried for hours, sobs turned to cries and they slowly turned into sniffles. By the time he stopped crying the sun was down, the moon replacing its spot.
"Beetlejuice?" He flinched at the name, before realizing he felt no tug.
"Yes?" He cursed at the way his voice broke. He looked up and saw it was Adam, peaking out the window, "Oh sorry was I too loud?" He meant to sound upset, but it just came off as hurt.
"No no no...it's just..." the ghost walked out onto and roof and sat next to the curled up demon.
"Are you okay?" This question caused a new wave of tears to spill out his eyes.
"No." He whimpered and his hair darkened. A hand crept onto his back and for a second he couldn't breathe, paralyzed in fear, but then it slowly wormed its way around him and pulled him into a hug, which he immediately melted into.
"I'm sorry Beej..."
"Why-" he sniffled "why are you sorry?" He pulled himself from the hug and looked Adam in the eye. "I should be sorry. I am sorry. I dont- I don't wanna be here."
At the sound of his voice, Adam's heart broke. The demon in front of him wasn't the one who they met months ago, he was so different, so hurt.
"I know. I know Beej." He ran a hand through the other's dark curls and frowned at the ice that formed in them.
"Beej, are you cold?"
"I mean yea... but demons run warm. Ill- I'll be fine." He weakly tried to assure.
"You're shivering." Adam frowned and peaked at the window. "Follow me."
"What?"
"Just come on." Adam led Beetlejuice inside, and observed the demon's state. He was shivering, the clothes he wore were soaked, and his eyelashes and hair had ice forming in them. His frown deepened as he went to grab a towel.
"Here." He offered the towel, "I'll get you a blanket." Beetlejuice cautiously grabbed the towel and dried himself off.
Adam watched as the demon dried himself off and he couldn't help the tears forming in his eyes. He felt bad for him, yet he felt guilty for feeling bad. Beetlejuice almost killed his wife...but he saw the fear in Beetlejuice's eyes, he saw the scars and he saw the hurt.
"Adam." Barbara's voice startled him from his thoughts. "What is he doing here?" Her voice was low and angry. "He's supposed to be on the roof."
"Barbara- it's the middle of winter do you seriously expect him to be out there. I mean it's freezing!"
"Well he offered."
"Because he's scared of us, and we won't let him sleep anywhere else." Adam's voice rose slightly but quickly quieted back down.
"Adam how can you just trust him like that?"
"Barbara, remember when we took that class on fostering traumatized teens..." He sighed as his gaze fell back and Beetlejuice who had the towel wrapped around his shoulders, cautiously looking around. "Well he shows all of the warning signs of trauma, and I guess I just felt bad."
Barbara sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Oh Adam," She placed her other hand on his other shoulder and rested her chin on his head. "Always caring." Barbara thought for a second. "He can sleep up here for tonight, but if he even tries one thing-"
"He won't Barbara. I mean look at him." The demon in question was now nibbling at his nails, his plum hair a fluffy mess. Barbara would never say it at loud, but he looked quite adorable. Adam smiled and pressed a gently peck on Barbara's cheek before going to give Beetlejuice the soft blanket. From where she was standing, Barbara watched the interaction. Adam was very gentle, yet Beetlejuice seemed to flinched with every movement and maintained caution the whole time. When the blanket wrapped around him, his hair lightened to a violet, with streaks of black running through it. Adam said something to him, hardly audible to Barbara, but Beetlejuice immediately relaxed. He went and layed on the couch in the corner of the room and fell asleep quickly.