The Whole Being Alive Thing

Getting the Low Down

The first steps to helping the former demon with adjusting to not only being alive and human, but also his human state and his body, were simple: start off with explaining human emotions to him then go from there. They still couldn't get the memories of the first time out of their heads even then - fearing that said memories were going to haunt (no pun intended) them for the rest of eternity.

But they still had the next month and a half to help him adjust. And since they were unsure of how to go about or even figure out where the best place to start was, they decided to turn to Betelgeuse in hopes that he had a good idea on how to begin.

Betelgeuse, still sat on the edge of his bed with Adam and Barbara now on either side of him, looked from one ghost to the other. Noting the looks of expectation that were on their faces, Betelgeuse grew nervous - turning his attention away from the Maitlands and not bothering to maintain eye contact with either of them when they both tried to grab his attention.

After it had gone on for quite a little while, Barbara quietly coughed to grab Betelgeuse's attention. That worked. He turned his attention away from the floor in his bedroom and over towards Barbara. The nervousness he'd been feeling earlier faded and was replaced with a feeling of confusion and curiosity mixed into one.

"What?" he asked, sounding a little uncertain.

At first, nothing seemed to come to Barbara when she tried to think of what to say. Then she turned her attention to Betelgeuse. "You okay?"

"Fine...." he grumbled.

Barbara tilted her head to the side. From Betelgeuse's tone alone, she could automatically tell that he was not fine. She and Adam scooted a little closer, almost causing Betelgeuse to stand up and move off to one of the corners of his room. Barbara put a hand on Betelgeuse's back, causing him to turn his head to look at her.

"You are not fine," she said softly but calmly. "I can tell there's something on your mind. Is there something on your mind?"

"Nothing." That was a complete lie. Betelgeuse was, in fact, thinking of himself still as a demon and not alive. He wasn't even aware of the fact that he had zoned out a bit. At least until Barbara waved a hand in front of his face.

"Betelgeuse?"

He snapped out of it, shaking his head rapidly from side to side. Then his eyes flicked to Barbara, who was giving him a confused look. "Heh." He rubbed a little at the back of his neck. "Sorry 'bout that, Babs."

She looked at him, bewildered. "What're you apologizing to me for?"

An equal look appeared on Betelgeuse's face as he cocked his head to the side.

"I-..."

"You know what? Never mind that!" Barbara stood up from Betelgeuse's bed and turned to face her husband and Betelgeuse. "Beetle, we need to start getting you adjusted to your human state and being alive starting now."

"And the deal we made about me helping you and Adam out with your ghost powers by the end of next month?" Betelgeuse queried.

Barbara nodded, focusing her attention solely on Adam. "But we all need to figure out exactly how to go about it first. Because nothing seems to be coming to me right now. Do you have any ideas, Ad?"

Shrugging, the male ghost supplied, "not that I know of. At least right now. But until we think of how to go about it, it's best for us to understand exactly how all this happened in the first place." Adam turned his attention over towards Betelgeuse as a curious look appeared on his face. "Betelgeuse?"

"I don't want to talk about that right now..." Betelgeuse murmured, looking unsurely down at his bedroom floor and away from the equally as confused Maitlands. "Don't bother asking again. Besides, it's not that important, anyway. And it's the least of worries."

"Betelgeuse, c'mon," Barbara constrained, giving Betelgeuse a soft, concerned look. "We really want to know."

Betelgeuse briefly looked up at the Maitlands and the Deetzes, then back down towards his bedroom floor. Kicking uncertainly at it. "I forgot. That's it. I've been so busy worried about my new state that it's been pushed to the back of my mind. No doubt to be forgotten soon anyway."

Adam and Barbara turned to the Deetzes, giving them equal distressed looks - to which the three of them all immediately returned. They turned back to Betelgeuse, Barbara and Adam once more sitting down on either side of Betelgeuse. Lydia had moved so that she was now standing beside Barbara and Charles and Delia had since moved so that they were standing right beside Adam.

Betelgeuse, though still a little unsure of himself, once again looked up, looking from Lydia and Barbara to Adam, Charles, and Delia. Upon taking notice that each one of them was giving him equal curious looks, he closed his eyes and relaxed, putting his hands in his suit jacket pockets and taking a deep breath he had no idea he needed.

But things went silent for a little bit. Nothing seemed to be coming to Betelgeuse when he tried to think of how to phrase this. He looked discomforted, now playing with his hands and looking down towards his carpet. Again. The Maitlands and the Deetzes glanced towards one another and shared baffled looks before turning back to Betelgeuse. And when things remained silent for a while longer than she and the others had hoped, Barbara was the first to speak up.

"Betelgeuse, how'd this happen? How'd you become alive in the first place?"

"I-" he started to say, before pausing and trailing off. "I- well... it turned out that my ma had regenerated sooner than I thought she would-"

"Wait?" Adam spoke up, cutting Betelgeuse off before he could continue. "So you fed your mother to a Sandworm even though you knew she'd regenerate?"

Betelgeuse focused his attention solely towards Adam and nodded, sounding nervous when he spoke. "Yeah... I really got on her bad side after that."

"How bad?"

"She..." Betelgeuse bit at his lip as he tried to find the right words to say. "Let's just say that she threatened me with the same almost-fate as hers. She'd gotten through the Netherworld waiting room rather quickly and got right back to her office and her job. That was a couple of weeks ago, which, if I recall correctly, would have been a couple days ago here in this world. She called me right into her office immediately afterwards. Which just so happens to be the exact same time I first became human and ended up back here in the living world."

Things went silent briefly, then Adam said what he knew was on his and everyone else's minds at the moment. "So, what you're trying to say is that your mom's the reason why you became human in the first place? Did she happen to say anything to you before that?"

Betelgeuse thought to himself for a brief few moments, then nodded as he turned to look over towards Adam. "The last thing I remember her saying to me, before I became both alive and a human being and ended up back here in the living world, was 'let this be a lesson to you, Lawrence'."