Out of Sight, Out of Mind//A Beetlejuice Fanfiction

||Chapter Nine|| Scary Faces? Not Enough

When Charles and Delia returned home from the grocery store with food, they had intended on starting dinner for them and Lydia, they didn't intend for the Maitlands to scare them once they went upstairs to ask Lydia what she wanted for dinner (the teen had woken up from her nap and gone upstairs to do some homework, leaving Betelgeuse enough time to teach the Maitlands how to make the scariest faces possible to prank the living couple).

There the Maitlands stood, right in front of Lydia's closed bedroom door, their hands raised and outstretched in front of them to appear as scary as possible. They hoped and knew that this would work as they had worked so hard on these particular faces with Betelgeuse's instructions. Betelgeuse lounged on Charles and Delia's bed and took a drag of one of Delia's unused vape pens (the living couple would be in for the fright of their lives when they entered their room to find the demon there). The first thing the Deetzes saw as they approached Lydia's room were the Maitlands and they stopped and stared at them for a few minutes before bursting into bouts of laughter. The Maitlands glanced at each other then returned their faces to normal as they turned their attention back over towards the Deetz couple.

"I thought for sure you guys would find that scary," admitted Barbara, stifling a laugh. "It was our best prank yet."

"Well, if it was a prank, then we didn't find it all that scary," replied Delia, she and Charles walking over towards the Maitlands. Both living adults felt the familiar sensation of coldness as they passed through the Maitlands (or was it the other way around?) The Deetz couple turned to the Maitlands in apology and the four of them smiled at each other before entering Lydia's room.

It turned out Lydia wanted pasta for dinner, which her dad and Delia were both fine with as they figured something simple would be easier than the harder things Delia often made for dinner with Barbara's help.

Both women stood in the kitchen, talking and laughing, whilst Delia poured the pasta into the appropriate pans (egg noodles for her and regular pasta for Charles and Lydia). Once that was all done, Barbara used her powers to make the pasta cook itself on the stovetop whilst she and Delia went to set the table.

"I can't believe you and Adam tried to scare us with those faces. Was it Betelgeuse's idea or Lydia's?" asked Delia as she set the last of the silverware onto the table. Barbara, who was making the drinks and getting out the plates, turned to her with a smile.

"Betelgeuse's," she replied as she placed three glasses of water and two glasses of wine onto the table then used her powers to stir the pasta.

"I see," commented Delia. "This is far from the usual prank that you guys play on us. You seemed nervous, as I could sense. Did you fear something was going to happen?"

"Yeah, Ad and I kinda feared you were no longer going to trust us to care for Lydia if all of it backfired,,which it seems it did."

"What makes you guys think we're ever going to stop trusting you with caring for her on the weekends?" asked Charles as he entered the kitchen with Adam following closely behind him.

Barbara turned the stove off with a snap of her fingers. "We just thought you guys were going to be annoyed by the amount of jokes we played on you guys and were going to stay home on the weekends and-."

"Nonsense." Charles put a hand on Barbara's shoulder, wincing a little at the cold touch but then regaining composure. "Lydia's a good kid and she loves you guys just as much as you guys love her. We can't imagine a life without you guys here, it's certainly made us all a bit happier since everything that's happened. Delia and I will be going away for a week soon anyway, so we would like you guys to care for Lydia. If you don't mind that is."

Adam and Barbara, ecstatic, turned to each other and smiled then turned back to Charles and nodded.

Putting the appropriate pasta on the respective plates, Barbara levitated them over to the table and set them down on the appropriate p,ace settings as Adam called Lydia down for dinner (she seemed to like it better if the adults of her family took turns calling her down for dinner and tonight it was Adam's turn. Yesterday, it was Delia's and tomorrow, it was going to be Barbara's). Lydia bounded down the steps and tapped Adam on the head as she leapt off the last of the steps. Heading into the kitchen, she shouted for Adam to chase her, to which he agreed just for fun.

Lydia sat at her appropriate place at the table right in between her dad and Delia and across from the Maitlands: the usual settings. She turned her head towards her dad and noticed he was glancing towards her. Looking towards Delia, she noticed the same thing.

"What's going on?" asked the teenager, looking back towards her dad. "Did something come up?"

"Yes actually," said Charles after clearing his throat. "Lydia, your grandmother, my mother, has fallen ill, and Delia and I were asked to come up and take care of her for a week. Maybe even longer if her conditions worsen. The Maitlands will care for you whilst we're gone up to New York. Okay?"

"I'm fine with that," replied Lydia, taking another bite of her pasta. "When are you guys going?"

"A week from today," was Charles' reply. Lydia nodded in response.

"What'd she come down with?" asked Barbara, curious.

"Her doctor didn't disclose that to Delia and I. All he said was that it was super rare and super unusual for someone that old to have it."

"Well, I hope she gets better," said Barbara. "The last thing we all would want is you guys having to deal with another death in the family. With how badly Lydia took Emily's death, one can imagine how badly you would take your mother's death, Char."

"Yeah." Charles nodded sadly, looking down. "I was pretty close with my mom."