Beetlejuice headcanon/mini fic that just popped into my head. I’ve heard some criticism that The Ghost with the Most leaves for the Netherworld at the end of the show, even after he’s made amends with everyone and even when Juno is no longer an issue. Now I love a good found family trope as much as the next person (my AO3 history will agree lol) but what if he went into the Netherworld to find Lydia’s mother?
As a disclaimer, I’ve never seen the Tim Burton film or any of the cartoon or comics, so idk if it’s elaborated somewhere else. But if Juno is gone and therefore the regulations lifted from the entryways, what’s to stop ghosts from leaving the Netherworld?
So some amount of months to years pass and Lydia and the Deetzlands have all adjusted to their strange and unusual family dynamic. Lydia enters the living room, maybe on the way to the kitchen for a homework snack, and stops in her tracks, notebooks and pens clattering to the floor as she registers two familiar figures standing in the middle of the room. BJ launches into some monologue about how arduous it was searching through the vastness of the Netherworld and how many Sandworms he had to fend off in order to bring Emily back to the portal and that Miss Argentina sends her regards, but Lydia can’t bring herself to make a sound, her eyes still stuck on the translucent, but intensely familiar form of her mother. Eventually another grownup (my brain imagines Charles, bc obvi) enters the room to investigate the sound of things being dropped and respond in a similar manner to Lydia, attention captured by the sudden reappearance of Beetlejuice and his new ghostly companion.
Lydia eventually managed to break the silence with a shaky and disbelieving “…Mom?”
Emily smiles in response, her arms opening in an invitation. Her touch is now cool, like mist, and she doesn’t smell the same anymore due to her status of deceased, but Lydia is simply glad that she doesn’t phase through her like she feared she would.
Sometime during his journeys in the Netherworld, Beetlejuice has learned the power and value of silence, settling to lean back against the banister of the stairs with the other assembled adults, content to let this reunion play out without him. Eventually, he finds himself being dragged forward into a hug by a joyfully tearful Lydia, her dark eyeliner now running down her face.
“Welcome home,” are the only words she can say.
A/N: maybe one day I’ll expand on this more and write an actual fic, but, for now, this is the best I’ve got
Also, barring the whole green card thing, Lydia and BJ are strictly friends/chaotic family here
