||Devil's Advocate||Betelgeuse x Adam x Barbara

(𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧) Harder to Believe

Betelgeuse's hair color switched between blue and purple at a constant rate before finally deciding to settle on blue and he shifted a little, his hands resting firmly on the railing as his attention drifted from Lydia to Adam to Barbara before focusing and locking on the ground below. The fact that everything that had happened happened only a few months prior kept running through his head, the only thing that he could think of at the moment. A teeny smidge of purple now appeared to peeking out through the top of his hair and he closed his eyes for a brief second before opening them again.

"Betelgeuse?"

That was Barbara. He turned to look in her direction, noting that she had a hand resting on his arm. Her eyes, full of softness, were focused on him and he noted the worried look on her face.

"Are you okay?"

That time, it was Adam. Betelgeuse's attention moved from Barbara to him before he shifted, looking down again. The next thing the demon said, he muttered out, his hair fully going back to blue,

"A few months ago.... I can't believe that it's been a few months..."

"Betelgeuse? Beej?"

Now that voice was Lydia. Betelgeuse turned his attention again. Lydia was now standing right in between Adam and Barbara, the three of them glancing up at Betelgeuse with equal worried, maybe even concerned, looks on each of their faces.

"I... what happened?"

"What do you mean?" questioned Barbara both softly and warily, though it was far more softly, sharing a confused look with Adam and Lydia before turning and looking back up towards Betelgeuse.

"I... umm..." Betelgeuse said in a quiet tone of voice, falling silent for a brief moment before speaking up again. "What happened in the few months I was in the Netherworld?"

Barbara turned and glanced unsurely at Adam and Lydia again, not knowing whether or not this was something that they should bring up with the demon. It wasn't his business to know about their brief and private time as a family of five, yes, but were they all in the right mind to talk this through with him? Or should they change the subject?

The second option seemed more likely.

Barbara turned back to Betelgeuse, her stern, but still soft gaze locked on him. "Can we talk about something else please?"

"Like what? How sexy A-Dog is?" Betelgeuse questioned, his hair going back to its normal shade of green. Barbara looked up at him in concern and worry.

Betelgeuse's gaze was now locked solely over onto Adam and he was winking and smirking at him. Adam backed away from him, hands held up in front of him, a nervous look plastered on his face, and Betelgeuse focused his attention away from Adam as he looked back down over the edge of the roof.

'At least he's back to his usual self,' Barbara thought uneasily to herself. 'Who knows how long it'll last until he goes back to being depressed and thinking that we don't actually want him around?'

Not long, that was for sure. The next thing to come out Betelgeuse's mouth was,

"Ah, never mind. I should just leave and go back to the Netherworld." He turned and started to draw a door to the Netherworld.

And he was only just halfway through drawing the first line when Barbara's rather amused sounding voice spoke up, "Hey now, mister 'because once I leave the Netherworld, I'm stuck in the living world indefinitely', I thought that you couldn't go back?"

God, that sounded flirty. Barbara regretted saying it in that tone.

Betelgeuse snapped his fingers and the chalk he was using to draw said door disappeared in a poof. He turned to look at Barbara, taking notice of the amused, yet confused expressions that were plastered on her, Adam, and Lydia's faces. His hair went from blue to purple before settling on a mix of the two and green.

"Oh yeah... I forgot," he finally said after a brief while, laughing slightly and rubbing at the back of his neck. "Once a deceased person leaves the Netherworld, they can never go back there. They're stuck in the world of the living permanently."

Adam looked confused, as did Barbara, the two ghosts tilting their heads to the side.

"Okay," Betelgeuse slowly moved over to where Adam, Barbara, and Lydia were and sat down, followed closely behind by the other three as their attention turned to him. "Say that Lydia's mom were to leave the Netherworld for a day. At the end of the day, she draws a door to the Netherworld to head back. What happens?"

"I'd assume that she wouldn't be able to pass through," Barbara spoke up, hoping to herself that her given answer was correct.

"You're actually half correct," Betelgeuse spoke up, Barbara's face falling slightly. "That's the first thing that happens. The second and other thing that would happen is that she would get thrown backwards if she tried to go through. I'll give a demonstration."

Before either Barbara or Adam could even say that that wasn't necessary, Betelgeuse stood up again and summoned the same piece of chalk that he'd used earlier as he moved back to the same wall on which he was drawing that unfinished door of his and drew a brand new one. Knocking three times, he turned to look at the Maitlands as said door opened, stepping towards it. And, as sure as he might, he was in fact unable to pass through and was thrown backwards just like he said he would.

Barbara and Adam looked down at him in concern as he uttered out, "you see what I mean now?" in a dazed voice.

Then Barbara turned to Lydia then looked at Betelgeuse again as Adam helped the demon sit upright, asking out in confusion, "but what about a living person that just so happens to enter and then leave the Netherworld? What happens to them the next time they try to enter that place? Will they experience the exact same things as a deceased person that tries to enter the Netherworld shortly after leaving?"

"Well, the living both don't and will not usually enter the Netherworld since doors to the Netherworld are technically invisible to the living eye..." Betelgeuse turned to look at Lydia for a brief second before turning back to Barbara. "So, I would just automatically assume that, if the entire world population of living people could see doors to the Netherworld, then they'd just enter as many times as they could and wanted to."

"I see..." Barbara turned to Lydia, taking notice of a smirk stretched across the teenager's face. "No, absolutely not, Lydia. I'd rather you not go back to the Netherworld."

"But... imagine if I could actually find my mom this time? Once I return to the living world with her, she could stay with us..."

"I'm afraid that Barbara's right, Lydia. I don't think that I would want you going back to the Netherworld either. And I'm not sure if your dad or Delia would want you going back there either."

Lydia slumped with a huff, folding her arms and pouting, a grumpy look on her face. There went her next chance to have her dead mom back in her life. As Adam and Barbara turned their attention over towards Betelgeuse and started to talk to him, wanting to know more about how the Netherworld worked, Lydia took the opportunity to stand up and head back inside, intent on heading back to her bedroom on the second floor for the time being.

And she headed back inside and shut the window behind her right as the Maitlands called out her name.