Mixed it up together: A Beetlejuice AU (collab with DemonofmyNightmares)

Dada Would...

Emily approached Lydia's door, growing worried when she saw the "LEAVE ME ALONE" sign taped to it. This prompted Emily to let out a quiet sigh of sorrow. Of course, Lydia had to be like that. She'd been like that since her father's death. Still, Emily managed to calm herself down. Enough to reach out a hand and gently knocked on Lydia's bedroom door, hoping for her to be just as calm. Once. Twice. Three times.

"Hey, Lydia, sweetie?" she gently called out, her fist raised and ready to knock again when and if Lydia didn't respond. "May I join you?"

Lydia angrily banged a fist against her closed bedroom door, it being loud enough to startle her mother and cause her to stumble backwards a few feet. Emily, again, calmed herself down enough, focusing back on Lydia's bedroom door. Lydia banged her fist against her bedroom door again, this time much louder than the previous time.

"Pay attention to the sign!" she snapped, under her breath, this worrying her mother even more. "I want to be alone right now!"

"Lydia!" Now Emily was much more concerned and starting to get stressed. "I just want to help you. Please just let me in so we can talk..."

Emily could hear the sadness in her daughter's voice as Lydia spoke. "No!"

Regardless, Emily stepped towards Lydia's bedroom door. Reaching out her hand, Emily relaxed. She turned it gently and carefully, pulling open Lydia's bedroom door and making her way inside. What she saw, upon entering, was her daughter laying down. Curled up on her bedroom floor in a little ball. Broken down and crying and surrounded by various pictures of her and her dad.

"Oh... Lydsie..." Emily murmured out, gently and worriedly.

Emily sat down, gently, next to her grieving daughter. Attempting to draw her into an embrace, however, was a whole different story. Lydia sagged, shifting away from her mother and turning away.

Emily just grew more worried, again pushing a strand of her blonde hair behind an ear.

"Lyds... please," Emily pleaded, softly and quietly. But Lydia didn't listen. She kept on with her weeping and sniffing. Emily's attention focused away from Lydia, for a moment, then she glanced back at her weeping daughter. "Do you want to talk about him?"

Lydia's weeping stopped. She turned, nodding as she looked at her mother.

Emily motioned for Lydia to sit closer to her, and Lydia nodded again. Albeit a bit slower this time. She pulled herself up to her mother, cuddling up next to her and clutching her for much needed comfort.

There was a brief moment of stillness before Emily broke it. "What do you remember most about him?"

Without hesitation, as she looked up at her mother, much calmer than she had been much earlier, Lydia laughed as she responded, "when he would take his foot off the gas on the way home from school. Slipping into neutral on the top of a hill and away we'd roll. There was no breaking cause breaking was breaking the rules..."

Emily stifled a laugh. "What a goofball."

"Hey! You were just as goofy as dad was, mom!" Lydia snapped, before letting out another laugh.

Emily couldn't help but roll her eyes. Lydia was right. She'd been just as goofy as Charles had been before his death. Another still moment happened, it again breaking when Emily spoke up,

"What else?"

It took Lydia quite a bit to think. More or less a few moments. Then she turned her attention back to her mother.

"Do you remember all those roleplays we did?" Lydia inquired. Emily stifled another laugh.

"How can I have forgotten those?! Me, you and him making nests in the house as if we were birds?"