67AN: This is the last chapter of this story. When posted on Glow, it might be a little... longer. This is intended as the second part of three, so I hope that you have all sorts of unanswered questions ;). Hugs and kisses to wee-me, to Anna McNarin, to my midnight companion author Mouse, and to Wanda- this is by far the most difficult story i have written here or anywhere, and i owe you all for keeping my spirits up. Okay, here goes!
ST: In My Time of Dyin' by the Be Good Tanyas.
Chapter Ten: The Same
Lydia actually lost consciousness for a moment from the strain of traveling the wormhole. She was limp in his arms when they popped out into her apartment, and he laid her gently on the bed, cursing himself for a fool and fretting over her hair and clothes until she opened her eyes. "What the hell happened, B?" Her voice was weak. Lack of food, the stress and exertion, not to mention that he had scared her half to death, then confessed that he loved her, and then let her walk away… well, it was a miracle she was even alive, really.
"Just a wormhole. Lyds. Seemed the quickest way…"
"Beej, if you're trying to kill me, just please get it over with." She covered her eyes with her hand, and then turned over and curled up into a little ball. "I can't take anything else right now."
He cast around for some way to make this night up to her. "Howabout some food?"
Lydia perked up a little at that. "Is the Chinese place around the corner still open?" she mumbled hopefully. He grinned.
"Twenty-four hours, babe. I'll be back in a flash." And he was gone, without having to ask her what she wanted. She knew that he would come back with shrimp fried rice and crab rangoons, and couple pairs of chopsticks, and they would share from the little folded box, not even bothering with plates. That is how it had been with them, on many nights. Would that change now? When Rahim had openly condemned any possible relationship they might have, just when she was coming to entertain the notion?
Who the hell was Rahim anyway?
Lydia woke to the delicious smell of piping hot Chinese food. Her old quilt had been pulled up over her shoulders, and the soft light of a golden sky was filtering in her shuttered windows. Beetlejuice wasn't in his customary place by the window, but the little carton of hot soy goodness was waiting unopened on a fold-out tray table. She climbed muzzily out of bed, trying to remember at what point she had fallen asleep. Her body felt heavy and sluggish. "Beej?" Her stomach felt hollow. "What time is it?"
"Geez, Lyds—I thought you were gonna sleep forever." The poltergeist drifted into view, peering at the watch on his wrist. He shook it, scowled, and then looked back at the clock on the microwave. "Six-thirty."
"Oh! Well, it's still early…" She tried to focus on him as he grinned at her and shook his head.
"At night, Lyds. You slept all day."
"All day?" She ran her hand through her hair, and the cobwebs cleared a bit. "Lemme shower."
"Need help?" He had a towel slung over his arm, and looked absurdly hopeful. She grinned blearily.
"No. Can I have my towel, please?"
"Maybe." She snatched it off his arm as she walked by, and he adopted an injured expression. "Hey!"
"Not now, Beej. I need to wake up, and eat, and then you can play games." She paused by the door to the bathroom. "Wait, no. I didn't just say that. Forget I said that. No more games."
"Not even checkers?" She closed the door in his face. "Fine! Whatever!" But he did not try to invade her shower, which she took in as a sign of new strangeness between them. A few minutes later, feeling both refreshed and starving, she came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her, and with a blush of shyness saw that Beetlejuice was sitting on the bed, in t-shirt and jeans, his well-defined shoulders and wild hair traced around with sunset glow. He studied her solemnly, and she had that same sensation of bareness that she had felt right before he had brought her home. Nervously, she walked to the wardrobe and pulled out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, but then fled back into the bathroom to change, his eyes warm on her retreating back.
They ate in silence as well. He seemed content to watch her, and she fumbled with the chopsticks, dropping rice and little cubed vegetables on the bedcovers. Finally, when the silence became too heavy to bear, she asked the only question she could think to ask.
"Is this… has everything changed now?"
He shrugged uncomfortably, glancing down for the first time. "Dunno, Lyds. But all this quiet is makin' me nervous."
She gaped at him. "You're just now nervous?" An incredulous laugh escaped her throat. "I've been nervous since… since you first possessed me! Like… 24 hours ago!"
"Why?" His intense green eyes seemed lit from the inside.
She set aside her food, and tucked her hands under her crossed legs. "I just don't understand any of this, B." But before she could continue with what was apparently going to be a really long list, Beetlejuice leapt forward and grabbed on to her knees.
"You don't have to, Lyds. Just for a minute, will you just stop thinking?" He had never pleaded with anyone in his life, and it felt strange. She paused, wrinkling up her forehead for a moment, and then nodded, her eyes clear and focused.
"Okay."
"Wha—?" He didn't even have a chance to ask, so quickly did she react, and lunge across the space between them, wrapping her arms around him and knocking him over, her mouth pressed against his. It took his shocked mind a moment to catch up, but in that moment her hands were already under his shirt, tugging it untucked, and the heat of her hands and mouth were seeping into him. He grasped the back of her neck and slipped his other hand under the hemline of her t-shirt, instinctively rolling her over, but she fought him, her knees on either side of his hips.
"Oh, no, Beej. Answers first." Her eyes were crinkled in mischief, and she kissed him again, long and slow and deep, until he surrendered underneath her. She felt his fast warming lips quirk in a grin, and she pulled back slightly so that she could see his face, amused and full of wonder.
"What… what's the question?"
"Did you know that you loved me the first time you possessed me?" Her eyebrow quirked slightly, and he grinned more broadly, teeth gleaming, his eyes fixed on hers.
"Yep. Mostly. Pretty much."
"Pretty much?" She kissed the place where his jaw met his neck, and his skin was like velvet there. He rippled underneath her, and a sigh escaped him.
"Possession tends to… ah, bring things into focus." He sounded a little breathless. "I knew I loved you after I possessed you."
"Ah." She nodded, and kissed him in the same place on the other side. His hands tightened on her reflexively. "So, right before you dropped me, then?"
He had to think for a moment. "Just about then, yep." He tried to pull her down to him, but she resisted, bracing herself until he abandoned that tactic. She was grinning openly now, and she darted down to kiss his nose, and then his forehead
And then she sat up, her weight pressed evenly against his hipbones, and crossed her arms over her breast. His hands settled on her thighs as he watched her warily. "So when you possessed me again, and then scared me to death in the basement… when you abandoned me in the elevator, and all the time in-between when you were plotting against me… you knew that you loved me?"
"Um…" He shifted uncomfortably beneath her, looking all of the sudden like a butterfly pinned on a board. She raised both eyebrows now and peered down at him. He chewed at his bottom lip pensively, but saw no way out of it. "Yeah," he admitted, finally. "I loved you through all of that."
Her expression had lost some of its levity, but she reached down and took one of his hands in both of hers. "Is this how it's always going to be, Beetlejuice?"
Her hands were hot against his, and the pulse from the veins in her thighs pounded heavily against his hips. He knew that their almost-beginning relationship would live or die on what he said to her next. But he couldn't concentrate while the heat of her kiss lingered, while the thrum of her heart filled him to bursting. He couldn't think of a single thing that would guarantee that she would stay. So he just told her the truth. "Yeah."
She nodded slowly, her hands tightening on his. "Good."
"Good?" He was thoroughly puzzled. "How is that good?"
She smiled at him then. "Because if you were planning on changing for me, I would've had a bit of trouble believing this might actually work."
"Work?" He must have looked dazed, because she laughed outright.
"Beej, can you do me a favor?" He only nodded dumbly, unable to process what had just happened. Lydia put a small hand over his cheek. "Stop thinking." It was the only request she could have made of him that he could have actually followed, when next her back arched as she bowed down and took his lower lip between her teeth, sucking gently. Everything else could wait.
He didn't wait for her to escape this time, but slipped his hands around her head and waist and knocked her off balance with a deft shift of his hips. She squeaked in protest, but he was on top of her in a flash, pinning her down and grinning like a ravenous predator. "Sure, Lyds. But you might be afraid of what's left." He sank down on to her and kissed her hard, teeth and lips, with her hands so tight around his back that she would have left a mark, had he been flesh. She arched into him, tilting back her head, and whispered his name.
He would never be able to recall if she had spoken his cursed name or his true. From her lips, they both sounded the same.