AN: Mentions of drugs (powdered caffeine)

Young Betelgeuse was sitting on the floor in the living room, playing Call of Duty on the PS5 with some friends. He had a headset on and was laughing and having an exciting time with them. Because of the new Corona virus pandemic, they had to settle on talking through headsets, but no one seemed to mind at all.

"John, go careful, there is a sniper on the roof." Betelgeuse warned. Delia walked into the room and heard 'where?' come through the headset. "I don't know, just saw them peering over the roof." Betelgeuse informed.

'Okay, I'll find him' came through the headset.

"Him? John, they could be a girl, gaming is for all genders." Betelgeuse kindly reminded, and another voice, a female voice, came through, taking Betelgeuse's side. It sounded like a girl to Delia, and this was confirmed when Delia heard Lawrence. "Let's bust their arse Sky!" he chuckled. Delia shook her head.

"Now where is this sniper?" came John's voice.

"They were on the roof!" Betelgeuse reminded and smirked as he shot John's game character "Oh wait. It was just me!"

"Oh, come on!" John complained and Sky cheered Betelgeuse for his prank. The laughter was cut short when Delia crept up to the demon and squirted some medicine in a syringe into Betelgeuse's mouth to help with his ADHD. She knew that the demon would pretend to swallow the medication so gently massaged his throat instantly to encourage him to swallow.

"Oh Ma!" he complained and the two people he was gaming with laughed as the demon retched multiple times. Suddenly a silence fell from the Beetle-Maitland-Deetz household and the television screen went fuzzy.

"Beej? You there?" Sky asked through the headphones.

"Beej?" John called. Betelgeuse strained and tried hard to speak but no words came out at all. His breath cut short, and he struggled to even breathe properly. Delia stared at him and then to the storm raging outside. She took the headphones from him and put them on herself.

"He will be okay; he is having another attack!" she spoke frantically.

"Oh my god!" / "Damn! I hope he is alright." Sky and John spoke in unison. Delia scooped him up in her arms and walked over to the sofa. She sat him on her knee and cuddled him close, giving him his noise cancelling headphones with his Spotify musical playlist blaring out on full volume. It still didn't help him, and he never calmed down. He held his hands firmly over his ears and tears poured out of him like a water fountain. Delia concluded this wasn't because of the storm.

"Why are you doing this? What do you want?" Delia yelled, tears streaming down her face. Juno emerged from the shadows, smirking holding a small medicine bottle labelled 'methylphenidate'. Betelgeuse's medication. "What did you do?"

"It's not what I did. It's what YOU did." Juno laughed.

"What did you swap his meds with?" Delia barked after stopping crying.

"That's no concern of yours!"

"Well, he is MY boy, so it is MY concern." Juno then snapped her fingers and the storm got worse, each bang came louder and faster, just like the stream of tears gushing down the demon's face. Betelgeuse couldn't breathe at all now and passed out from his lack of oxygen. "MOUSEY?!" Delia yelled and rapidly shook the demon in some hopes of waking him up. He laid there still unconscious. The rest of the family walked in, Adam and Barbara carrying two large bags filled with food, followed by Charles and Lydia carrying another two but in Lydia's spare hand, she held a brown box with the demon's name written on it.

As soon as they saw what was going on, they dropped their bags and rushed over to the living room to the demon. Charles violently pushed Juno out of the way, and she fell to the ground. Adam knelt on the floor and took the demon's hand in his whilst Barbara ran her fingers through the black, gold, grey, purple, blue and black mess of fluffy hair.

"What did you do to him?" Charles yelled at the 'female dog' of a mother who had now righted her posture.

"Why yell at me? She is the one who gave him 5 tablespoons of powdered trimethylxanthine (Scientific name for caffeine)."

"What? Delia?"

"So, that's what you replaced his meds with?" Delia asked.

"I'm sorry?" Adam said, shocked, death glaring at Juno. Betelgeuse stirred and tried to open his eyes. As soon as he had consciousness, pain hit him hard. He bit his lip, but a few tears streaked down the side of his face. The storm carried on and Betelgeuse broke down even more, unable to cope anymore.

"It's okay!" Delia comforted the young demon, wondering where the eldest version was. Juno marched over to the demon, ready to punish him severely for crying. She dragged him from Delia's arms and tackled him to the ground, punching him all over his face and slashing it with her dagger nails. She was prepared to kill him and she would have done had it not been for Sandy crashing through the door, snapping her jaws at her. Juno retreated back to the Neitherworld, leaving the family alone. Betelgeuse ran to his mum, crying, facing away from everyone and snuggled his face into his mum's stomach, caressing her tightly as he rested in her lap. He silently scolded himself for being a cry-baby in front of his family like that. He was extremely nervous about what people might think of him if they caught him crying, and he was having a challenging time breathing. Pink joined the mixture of colours in his hair and Adam was the first to comment on it.

"Aww, it's okay to cry. There's no need to feel embarrassed about it!" he said softly, and Betelgeuse felt slightly more comfortable with crying. Charles checked the weather and informed the demon that the storm will pass in an hour's time. Delia sighed at this; it wasn't fair for the demon. A bright electric green light filled the room as the portal to the Neitherworld opened. Coming through was Emily who had a bright and jovial smile on her face. That was until she saw the demon's current state. She knelt beside him and took the hand that Adam wasn't holding in hers and massaged circles into it as her eyes welled up with tears at the sound of heavy sobs. Sandy nudged the demon's shoulder and made a soft noise like she did when she thought she broke him. Barbara smirked, getting an idea and removed Betelgeuse's socks and shoes and tapped his feet that Sandy instantly lapped at, causing Betelgeuse to become a giggling wreck.

"Sandy st-stop!" he gasped in between fits of laughter, and she did. Betelgeuse rolled over again and ran a hand along Sandy's forehead. "Thanks for that girl!" he cooed but it sounded like a struggling choke, and death glared at Barbara who smirked. Betelgeuse jumped as he heard another strike of thunder outside and Sandy licked his face, somehow calming him just enough to normalise his breathing. Charles got the first aid kit and cleaned up all of the wounds, covering the bad ones in plasters and leaving the ones that were just bruises.

Lydia walked to where they dropped the food and picked up the box with 'BJ' written on it. She handed it to the demon, and he slowly opened it. It was his favourite Lindor chocolates and biscuit flavours. He tried to thank her, but no sound came out. She got his message and smiled. Betelgeuse slowly ate his food and green gradually seeped through the other colours in it. He had only had half a biscuit before his hair went black and he made gagging noises. Charles ran and grabbed a bucket that Betelgeuse threw up into as soon as he had it.

"Aww! My poor poorly little baby!" Delia spoke with sympathy and helped him sit upright so he could get more vomit out of him. Betelgeuse threw up a few more times and pouted. His muscles trembled violently, and his head was clearly pounding from the demon's whimper sounds. His nauseousness grew even stronger, and he could not stop himself continuously throwing up.

"He can't go on like this!" Adam stated and looked around to see if anyone had any ideas, but no one had anything.

"Aww! Poor 'lil Bj!" Emily sat next to him, rubbing circles into his back just like Delia. Betelgeuse crossed his legs and bounced them, clearly trying to release pressure from his full bladder. Delia took notice of this and told him to relieve himself on the spot as she didn't want to move him. He clearly was not happy about this, but he could not hold on any longer, so he did as told. The family decided they would clean him and the sofa later. After what felt like an eternity, the storm eventually passed but Betelgeuse was still no better.

"This is the cruellest thing I've ever seen her do to him!" Delia commented in a mix of anger and sorrow as she tried to comfort the sick demon.

"This is the cruellest thing I've ever seen ANYONE do!" Adam spoke in the same tone as Delia. All of the demon's muscles shook and he whimpered in pain, again wetting himself as he had no bladder control from the caffeine.

"Poor little guy!" Charles hugged the demon and wished he would get better soon. Barbara walked upstairs and returned with a copy of The Handbook for the Recently Deceased. Betelgeuse managed to stop his arms shaking just enough to open the book and Barbara flicked through the pages with Adam but found nothing that could help.

"I'm gonna go to the Neitherworld and see if I can get you some help! Is it alright if Uncle Charles takes my spot?" Emily asked and the demon nodded. Charles sat with him in Emily's seat, stroking his 'nephew's' hair in his soft spot. It was weird as normally Betelgeuse would purr. Charles concluded he was too sick. Everyone sat with the demon and every so often, Adam would clean sick and drool from the demon's mouth and Barbara would quickly rinse out the bucket. Lydia got a blanket and a pillow for her 'brother' that she draped over him. She asked him who he wanted to cuddle and he nodded his head in Delia's direction. Lydia placed the pillow on Delia's shoulder and Betelgeuse rested his head on it. She wrapped an arm around him and kissed his forehead comfortingly. Lydia tucked the blanket under the demon's chin so only his head was visible. Emily walked through the portal with a Neitherworld doctor called Mr. Jekyll who examined Betelgeuse. He gave him some medication that was instantly brought back up. He tried again with the same result.

"It's actually good that he is vomiting as it will bring up all the caffeine." The doctor stated. He then stuck his fingers down the demon's throat, stimulating his gag reflex. He did this until Betelgeuse could not throw up anymore. After that he gave him a variety of medications and left with the instructions that if he gets no better overnight then they are to go get him again.