"You shouldn't be in here," FP says when he sees Dean approaching his cell in the Sheriff's department. "I've gone to a lot of trouble not to get any of you Serpents in danger with the law, don't you go undoing that just for the sake of seeing me off."
"Oh, I've heard what you did," Dean replied, coming up to the bars and crossing his arms, "and don't you worry, I've got no intention of getting in trouble with the law. In fact, I'm kind of curious why exactly you did. It's not like you, man."
"Serpents were already involved," FP says. "We protect our own."
Dean throws his hands up in the air in exasperation. "You mean Mustang? He dug his own grave. You didn't need to help dig it for him."
"I did," says FP, and he approaches the bar, looking Dean in the eyes. "And now you have to do the same. The Serpents are yours while I'm in here, and that means you gotta protect them. All of them, whether you like them or not."
Dean scoffs. "Yeah, well," he starts, but FP cuts him off.
"Listen, I mean it," he says. "Now the Serpents are a loyal bunch, but there's some as don't like the direction we've been taking them. There's some as think the way the Northside's been treating us, we shouldn't be protecting them anymore, and others as think we shouldn't be protecting anybody but ourselves. You want to keep them in line, you gotta make sure they know you've got their backs, or they're gonna get yours with a knife."
"Alright, alright," Dean says, raising his hands in surrender. "You've been telling me this stuff for years. I've been listening. I just don't always like it."
"Me neither," FP says, sighing. "But you do what you gotta do."
There's silence between the two of them for a moment.
"Listen," Dean says, and he grows serious, his voice softening, "I didn't come here to argue, about any of this. I came here to let you know - while you're in here, I've got your family's back. Your son, and your daughter too if she comes back here. Might be some -" he pauses, looks around to make sure there's no audio equipment or anything " - demons or something else is angry with you and thinks they'll get back at you with you out of the way, take it out on your son. Well, I'm spreading the word. He might not be one of us, but he's still family. We owe you that much, at least."
FP's quiet for a moment. "That doesn't mean you're bringing him in to the Serpents," he says, a hint of warning in his voice.
"Not unless he wants to join up, and from what you've said, I don't think that's likely," Dean says. "Won't be no pressure from me."
FP nods. "Alright, then," he says, and then gives Dean a half smile. "It's good to know someone's looking out for him. Someone I trust."
Dean smiles back. "Hey, you've had my back for a long time. About time I returned the favour." He claps FP's shoulder through the bars, tucks his hands into his pockets, and heads off. FP watches him go, reflecting on how much Dean's grown. He might have been an adult in name when his dad left him with the Serpents, figuring it would be safer for an 18-year-old kid to learn the hunting trade in a stable place like Riverdale, and that his younger kid Sam would do better with a stable high school. But it's been his time with the Serpents that's transformed Dean from a kid always in his father's shadow into the leader and competent hunter he is today. Still, it's a hard man he's become, and FP doesn't want that for his kid.
If there's one good thing FP hoped would come from him being in jail, it was that it would keep Jughead further away from this life. He knows Jug will have to learn some of it sooner or later… but he'd rather it be later. Still, there's nothing he can do from prison, and Dean's right; Jug needs someone to watch his back.
FP sighs, and sits back on his cot, staring at the ceiling and thinking again about how everything went wrong.