What's Not to Love - a Beetlelands Soulmate AU

Ghost and Girl Bonding

Lydia stomped her way upstairs, but, instead of going up to her bedroom, she changed course and made her way up towards the attic - where the Maitlands and Betelgeuse now were. But she didn't seem at all angered and/or annoyed. Instead, she still felt bad for the Maitlands not being able to properly haunt her dad and Delia.

Stopping just outside the attic door, Lydia hesitated. Waiting a few minutes before knocking a few times on it.

The door opened up not too long afterwards, revealing Barbara standing in the doorway and looking sadly at Lydia. Adam appeared in the doorway soon afterwards, also looking sadly out at Lydia.

The teenager hung her head, clenching her hands into fists as she spoke out of anger and sadness. "I'm sorry that nothing you tried worked, guys. My dad and Delia are still refusing to believe that it was you who did all of that stuff earlier."

"Lydia, it wasn't your fault," Barbara reassured with a calm and gentle tone, reaching a hand out and putting it on top of the teenager's shoulder.

As Barbara stepped off to the side and let the teenager walk past her into the attic with her head still hung low, she couldn't help but take notice of a familiar tone of nervousness within the teenager's voice as she spoke. Which only seemed to bring more worry to the female ghost. "Wasn't it? Should I keep trying to convince my dad and Delia that you guys exist or should I just forget about it and move on?"

"Lydia, no-..." Barbara started, trailing off when Lydia sat down with her back turned to the Maitlands.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but closed it again when Adam put a hand on her back and Lydia made an inaudible groaning noise that Barbara and Adam both perceived as the teenager wanting to be alone for now. But Barbara didn't want to leave her be, instead wanting to comfort her and tell her everything was alright (like she wished she could've done if she had had children back in life).

And that's what Barbara did, Adam removing his hand from her shoulder as she moved over towards where Lydia was sat and sat down on the floor beside her.

"Lydia-," Barbara repeated, trying to elicit a response from the teenager.

Lydia said nothing, save for an inaudible grumbling noise. A grumbling noise of which only served to worry Barbara even more. She turned her head, looking worriedly over towards Adam. And he seemed to pick up on the hint, moving to sit down on the floor and on the other side of Lydia.

"Lydia, do you wanna talk about it?" he asked, hoping that that would get the teenager to respond.

And it did. Lydia turned her head, glancing in Adam's direction. "No..."

"Is something wrong?" Barbara put a hand on the teenager's back in an attempt to comfort her. But that seemed to do nothing.

"No..." Lydia trailed off, standing up at the instance of a shout from downstairs and turning and making her way out of the attic and downstairs. This left the two ghosts stunned into silence and just sitting there for who knew how long. Staring over towards one another in confusion.

"Uh... do you wanna go check on her?" Adam asked concernedly as the sound of Lydia slamming her bedroom door closed reverberated up to the attic from the second floor, a question to which Barbara seemed to respond with a simple but firm and confident but concerned nod.

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Barbara said as she and Adam stood up and teleported out of the attic at once.

They appeared in Lydia's bedroom in a flash of light, the teenager, sat with her back turned to them on her bed, turned her head to look at them briefly before looking away. Although they took that as a sign that Lydia wanted to be alone, neither ghost wanted to leave her alone exactly - Barbara instead choosing to float over towards Lydia's bed and sit down next to her.

Adam initially went to do the same, but, remembering it'd been a while since they'd last seen Betelgeuse, teleported out of Lydia's bedroom and back upstairs to the attic where he hoped Betelgeuse was. Barbara, who'd turned her head to look in his direction beforehand, nodded and refocused her attention back towards Lydia.

"Lydia, you okay?" Barbara started, again trying to start a conversation with the teenager.

But Lydia, again, said nothing. Barbara moved a little closer to Lydia, putting a hand on the teen's back.

"Lydia?"

"God! I hate my dad and Delia!" Lydia grumbled.

"Surely you don't-." Barbara paused, looking away for a brief few moments as she tried to think of something else to say, then she turned her attention back to Lydia. "What happened to make you think that?"

"I don't just think that! I know that!" Lydia grunted, gripping at her bedsheets.

"Lydia, what happened?"

"My dad decided to propose to Delia!" Lydia spat under her breath.

"Well... that's a good thing," Barbara replied, trying to make light of the situation. But that did nothing to calm Lydia down.

"And why, pray tell, would that be a good thing?" Lydia growled softly under her breath.

A sense of confusion made itself apparent across Barbara's face. "Don't you need a mother figure in your life?"

"You're like a mother figure to me unlike Delia, Barbara! And Adam is like a father figure to me! Maybe you should be my parents instead! You care about me and listen to me unlike my dad and Delia! You guys make far better parents!"

"Lydia-"

Lydia turned her attention to Barbara, noticing a few ghostly tears dripping down the latter's face. "Did I say something wrong? Something I shouldn't have?"

"No, it's not that." Barbara wiped away the ghostly tears and looked over at Lydia. "When you said that Adam and I make far better parents, that kinda brought back memories. Memories I wished Adam and I would forget. Things that I didn't want to think about. A few years before Adam and I died, we were expecting. But there were complications and Ad and I lost the baby. I was so devastated, I couldn't bring it upon myself to have another go. Adam and I had been considering adopting and then we died. But since you happened to come into our afterlives, we've felt more parental. So, if you feel like we're more parental towards you, then we can be."

For the first time, although it was brief, Lydia smiled as she reached over and wrapped her arms around the female ghost.

"Thank you... ghost mother..."