The Whole Being Alive Thing

Trial and Error

At first, the rest of the family had initially thought that it was easy for them to help Betelgeuse out with getting his strength under control. Within a few minutes of trial and error, they were all instantly proven wrong. Betelgeuse's bedroom door was now laying in two equal sized pieces on the floor - broken when Betelgeuse had been asked to not use his bedroom door as an example when he was instructed to break something stronger than even he was.

After a while, they had to give up - wanting to focus on something else for now. They would go back to helping Betelgeuse out with getting his strength under control later, when they had everything else they needed to help Betelgeuse with out of the way.

And the first thing on the list that Adam had written in the last few minutes was showing him how humans behaved. Adam and Barbara were willing to leave that one to the Deetzes to handle, but they were insistent that that wasn't necessary. It took a while, but eventually, the Maitlands knew they had to agree.

Barbara turned, flicking her hand and mending Betelgeuse's bedroom door, placing it back where it had been before now and stepping back a little to examine her handiwork. "And there we go! Again!"

Sighing, she turned to face Betelgeuse - who was currently sat on his bed and kicking his legs back and forth.

"Why'd you do that? Twice this week?" she demanded, her tone a mix between annoyance and anger.

Betelgeuse became nervous, scooting backwards on his bed. "I... I-"

"Well?" Barbara continued. Everyone else in the room saw a reddish colored glow surround the female ghost, her hair blowing in a wind that wasn't there.

And Adam knew he had to act fast, rushing over towards his wife. Adam placed a hand on Barbara's shoulder, concern in his tone of voice. "Barbara, calm down please. Before you end up doing something that you could regret."

That got Barbara to stop. Though she couldn't get the image of her hurting Betelgeuse out of her mind. She just stood there for a brief few minutes, the red glow that had previously been surrounding her fading out and disappearing - her hair now no longer blowing in that invisible wind. A few more minutes passed before Barbara started making whimpering and regretful noises, Adam guiding her over to where the Deetzes were standing and still looking equally as shocked as one another.

"Oh... goodness, I nearly hurt Betelgeuse..." she said softly, covering her mouth with one of her hands and hiding a gasp. Adam rested an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close and comforting her.

"I Know you did. But imagine what would've happened had you actually done that..."

Barbara rested her head against her where her husband's chest would be, ghostly tears dripping down her face. "I... don't think I want to..."

"Barbara, it's okay..." Adam whispered to her.

That calmed Barbara down, she righted herself, her, Adam, and the Deetzes all turning and looking over towards Betelgeuse again.

Betelgeuse scooted forwards again, swinging his legs over the edge of his bed as his eyes focused on Barbara. "Wow! I remember how not so scary that you and Adam had been back when I was a demon and trying to teach the two of you how to be scary, but I never expected to see something quite like that. You two must have gotten some practice in since the first time we met."

"Ha! Practice?" Barbara scoffed, a sly smirk appearing on her face as she folded her arms and glanced at Betelgeuse. "We haven't had time to practice since then. Adam and I have been so busy lately that we've had barely any time to work on our ghost powers." 

"Hey!" Betelgeuse stood up from his bed, walking over towards Barbara and looking the female ghost in the eyes. "I can help you with your ghost powers if you two, and the Deetzes of course, help me adjust to being human first. I may not be able to open the Handbook for the Recently Deceased anymore, but I got a few centuries worth of knowledge on the dead that I can give. Stuff I don't need the Handbook for to explain to you in full."

"On ghost powers or on the deceased in general?" Barbara questioned Betelgeuse, Adam giving the former demon a curious look.

"Both actually," Betelgeuse said with a nod. "If you guys can help me adjust to being human within the next two and a half weeks, then I'll help you and Adam get practice with your ghost powers. Sound good?"

"Is that a challenge?" Barbara teased, giving Betelgeuse an amused look as she rested her hands on her hips. Before Betelgeuse could even say much of anything, Barbara beat him to it as she spoke again. "No, wait! How about within the next month?"

A brief pause, then Betelgeuse nodded slowly in agreement to Barbara's suggestion. "Okay then. If you guys and the Deetzes can help me fully adjust to being human by the end of next month, then I would be more than happy to help you learn to use your ghost powers. Do we have a deal?"

Barbara and Adam looked from Betelgeuse's extended pinkie finger before looking up at him with equally confused looks. Turning to look at one another, the two ghosts had a small, but silent conversation.

Then they turned back to Betelgeuse, who had been waiting for their responses, and linked their pinkie fingers with his one after the other with knowing smirks on their faces.

"Deal!" they chimed in unison.