They search for four days straight before they find him.
In the end, it's his ridiculous crown beanie that saves him. Archie doesn't know if the Scorpions hadn't noticed it slipping off his head in the woods or if Jughead had intentionally dropped it to leave a clue, but he swears that stumbling upon that goddamn hat half-buried in the melting snow was one of the greatest moments of his life, right behind actually finding Jughead.
Betty really finds him, of course. There's no one in Riverdale with as much perseverance and determination as Betty Cooper when someone she loves is in trouble, and Archie is well aware that it would have taken him twice as long to track down Jughead without her. She was the one who figured it all out – that the Snakes and Scorpions were locked in a furious and violent gang war, that a couple of Snakes had just viciously attacked a few Scorpions on their home turf, and what better way to retaliate than to kidnap and torture their leader's very own son?
In the beginning, things feel hopeless. Jughead hasn't shown up to school or responded to messages for two days, and Archie last saw him in his usual booth at Pop's, cup of black coffee by his side, nose hidden in a beaten paperback. He never came home that night. Sheriff Keller is convinced that Jughead skipped town (Archie nearly punches him when Keller suggests this, because Jughead had left his laptop behind – not to mention all of his belongings - and no way would Riverdale's resident author dare to abandon his precious novel). FP is a dead end, too deep into a drunken bender triggered by his missing son to be able to offer any help. Even Archie's own father is skeptical; after all, Jughead did have a reputation for disappearing for days at a time, but never without at least a text or a call to Archie or Betty letting them know he was safe. Eventually, Fred agrees to help them search, and he, Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Kevin begin scouring every inch of Riverdale for their missing friend.
On the first day, Archie refuses to entertain any thought besides that of finding Jughead. He goes over hopeful scenarios of their reunion in his mind as he carefully searches the streets, checking up on all of Jughead's old haunts. They would find Jughead, they would reunite, he would forgo the "bro moments" and instead hold tightly onto his best friend and never let him go. He would make sure Jughead knew how much he meant to all of them, that his disappearance had thrown them into a frenzy of confusion and worry, that somewhere on the other side of Jason's death and the discovery that Jughead was living at the fucking school they had made that unspoken step from friends to family.
On the second day, the guilt eats Archie alive. Jughead's face floats in front of him as his feet carry him once again through the snow-covered town, that mischievous expression and devil-may-care attitude ever present even in his imaginations of his best friend. He should have taken better care of Jughead, he should have been a better friend, should have noticed that FP had fallen off the rails again and that Jughead was carrying his whole life on his back and doing it all alone. He should have noticed that the increasing darkness of the bags under his eyes and the haggard expression weren't normal, even for the chronically tired Jughead. At the end of another unsuccessful day, Archie can't bring himself to look at Betty and see her crestfallen expression, and his dad's supporting hand on his shoulder burns him with shame.
On the third day, Archie begins losing hope. No one has seen or heard from Jughead in five days, and Archie is painfully aware that the likelihood of finding a missing person decreases to almost zero after two days. This fact twists itself tightly around Archie's neck and suffocates him, suffocates him, suffocates him until the shrill ringing of his phone pulls him back to the snow-covered street he's stopped on, breathing heavily. It's Betty, breathless and speaking quickly, telling him she went to see FP again, learned about the gang war, and thinks she knows what happened to Jughead.
On the fourth day, they begin searching Scorpions' territory, the woods on the other side of Sweetwater River. It's dangerous, too dangerous to search alone, so they split off in pairs: Betty and Archie, Veronica and Kevin, and Fred and a newly sober FP. Betty and Archie are silent and serious as they scour the woods for any sign of Jughead, relieved that they are close to the end of this horror, but equally terrified for what could be waiting for them there. They search for hours, picking their way carefully through fallen tree branches and steadfastly ignoring the cold that seeps through their winter coats. Archie tries hard not to think about the fact that Jughead doesn't own a winter coat. The sky darkens quickly, and Archie is about to call out to Betty to suggest they begin heading out of the woods when something catches his eye and stops him. There, not three feet in front of him, is Jughead's beanie.
It doesn't take the two of them long to piece together what most likely happened to Jughead while they wait for the others to meet them. His beanie wasn't lying too far from the road, meaning the Scorpions nabbed him while he was walking home from Pop's, threw him in a car, and drove him out here, probably to drag him to a hideout deeper in the woods.
"Oh God," Veronica gasps, as she and Kevin emerge from the woods. Veronica pales at the sight of Jughead's signature accessory, clutched tightly in Archie's fingers.
"The Scorpions really did take him." Kevin says, eyes downcast. "We need to call my dad and get backup out here."
"No." Archie says harshly. "No offense, Kevin, but your dad hasn't exactly been helpful in this entire situation. He'll probably just think Jughead dropped his hat while he was running away. We're better off just solving this problem on our own. Again."
"Archie, Kevin has a point." Betty says softly. "We have no idea what we're going up against, and Jughead might be…" she struggles for words, "…hurt. It's better to be safe, especially given who we're dealing with. I mean, we're literally in the middle of a gang war!"
"I'm with Betty." Veronica states. "We can't take any risks. Jughead's safety is the top priority."
Archie opens his mouth to argue but is interrupted by Fred and FP, who had been further into the woods than the others, bursting from a dense cluster of trees.
"We may have found something," Fred says, breathless from the trek in the rapidly darkening woods. "Looks like some type of hideout. It's just an old abandoned building, but there are signs that people have been around. Looks like someone's been using it recently."
"That's it!" Archie exclaimed. "That has to be where they're keeping Jughead! What are we waiting for?"
"Hold on, hold on." Fred says, raising a finger to his son. "We need to call Sheriff Keller. We can't just go storming the castle like this, we're only five people and we have no idea what could be waiting for us in there. And we're losing daylight. We have to wait and meet up with the police, they'll be better equipped to deal with this."
"You don't understand!" Archie yells. "We're wasting time! Time that Jughead might not have!"
"We're wasting time just arguing about it!" Veronica counters, turning away and pulling out her phone to call Sheriff Keller.
Archie turns to FP.
"FP, you can't be okay with just waiting around. Veronica's calling, but we don't have time to wait for them! We have to move now!"
FP looks conflicted as he avoids Archie's gaze. It is deathly silent, except for the quiet murmurings of Veronica informing Sheriff Keller that there is an emergency involving the disappearance of Jughead Jones and that he'd better get out to the woods across Sweetwater River.
"Look, I wanna go running in there just as much as you do. Fred practically had to hold me back once we found that damn building." FP sighs. "But I'm afraid your father is right on this one. The fact is we don't know what we're dealing with, or what'll happen to Jughead if we just barge in there, especially since I'm a Serpent. We have to wait for the cops."
Archie's grip on Jughead's beanie tightens. He looks to Betty and Kevin for backup, but their eyes are downcast, expressions sympathetic but unwilling, and he realizes he is outvoted.
"Fine." He spits, gritting his teeth and beginning to pace restlessly.
Sheriff Keller arrives within ten minutes, but to Archie it feels like a lifetime. He spends that tiny lifetime sitting on an old, gnarled tree trunk, twisting Jughead's beanie in his fingers, staring at the faded gray yarn as if his best friend would suddenly emerge, safe and sound, from the knits and purls, until he hears Sheriff Keller's cruiser pull up on the nearby road, directed by FP and Fred.
"Finally," Betty mutters, rising to her feet, eyes concerned. "It's really getting dark now."
She's right, Archie notices. He hadn't given much thought to the fact that they were losing daylight, but the sun is rapidly sinking below the horizon, and within a half an hour the sky will be pitch black. They had to move.
"Alright kids," Sheriff Keller says, marching up to the four of them with Fred and FP. "I know it'll do me no good to try and make you stay behind, so just let us go first and do not do anything stupid. The Scorpions are not to be messed with."
Archie rises to his feet, stuffing Jughead's beanie into his coat pocket, and they set off, FP and Fred leading Sheriff Keller deeper into the woods to the abandoned building, with Archie and the others close on his heels. Archie's mounting anxiety occupies his mind as he trails behind Betty, her ponytail bobbing as she clambers over rocks and branches. What condition would they find Jughead in, if they even found him at all? What if this whole thing was a dead end, and the Scorpions and Jughead weren't at the building at all? Questions race through his mind the entire journey, and he is so preoccupied with his thoughts that he runs straight into Betty when she abruptly halts in front of him.
"We're here," she whispers, gripping his arm tightly to prevent his fall.
Archie finally gets a good look at the place Jughead has most likely been kept in for the past six days. He's surprised to find he's staring at a decrepit house, and not the gray, prison-like building he's been imagining. It's small, unassuming, and probably only has a few rooms at most. The outside is in horrible shape, siding peeling off the walls and wood rotting from disuse and weather damage. At one point, it may have made a small, quaint home, but its glory days are long gone, now simply another piece of property for gangs like the Scorpions to conduct their illegal business.
Sheriff Keller draws his weapon and begins his approach. Archie moves to follow, but his father's arm across his chest prevents him from continuing.
"Just be patient," Fred says firmly. "We're almost to him."
Archie takes a deep breath and nods. Veronica and Betty appear at his side, hands gripped tightly together, and Kevin crouches next to them, peering through the branches as his father approaches the house. From their hiding place in the trees, they can't be more than fifteen feet from the front door, which Sheriff Keller reaches quickly, rapping his knuckles harshly on its window.
"Open up! Police!" He calls, waiting for a response. The resounding silence pierces through Archie, his fear for his best friend skyrocketing. Sheriff Keller carefully tests the door, and finding it unlocked, quickly rushes in, gun raised.
It feels like another lifetime of waiting after Sheriff Keller disappears into the silent house, and Archie can't wait much longer. The prospect of finally finding Jughead overrides his common sense, and he is just about to burst out of the woods and follow Sheriff Keller when FP beats him to it.
"I'm done waiting around." he declares, face set and determined, pushing away branches and emerging from their hiding place.
"FP, no!" Fred attempts to grab FP and prevent him from leaving, but he only grasps air as FP slips away and begins walking purposefully towards the house.
Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Kevin watch Fred warily as he seems to fight with himself, before swearing loudly and moving to follow FP. Archie immediately rises and follows the two adults, barely aware that the remaining three have also joined him. Just as FP is about to reach the front door, Sheriff Keller bursts through, speaking rapidly into his radio. "…need emergency medical right now, get an ambulance out here immediately and make sure Mercy is prepared. Hello? Is anyone there?"
"Where's my son?! Is it Jughead?" FP demands, quickly covering the rest of the distance to the house.
"Get to the basement, first door around the corner. He needs immediate medical attention. I'm having trouble getting a good signal to radio this in. No Scorpions to be seen." Keller says shortly, before returning to his radio to attempt to reach the station.
FP sprints into the house, Archie close on his heels. The house is a blur as they turn the corner and rush through the open door to the basement, nearly tumbling down the stairs in their haste to reach Jughead.
When he and FP reach the bottom of the stairs, Archie thinks he leaves his body. Time slows down, stretching itself out, allowing him to take in every horrible detail of the sight of his best friend, lying prone in the corner of the tiny, dark basement. Archie is frozen still while FP mutters a low "Oh, God," and runs to his son. Archie cannot move his limbs even when Fred, Betty, Veronica, and Kevin finally reach the basement. He is vaguely aware of Veronica's and Kevin's gasps and the sound of Betty beginning to cry, but he can't bring himself to react to anything going on around him, focusing only on Jughead.
Jughead is slumped low against the wall, unconscious, with his chin resting on his chest and his thick, black hair falling over his face. His arms are restrained above his head, tied to a pipe running low along the wall, and he looks more like a skeleton than a person.
Six days, Archie thinks to himself in horror. Jughead has been down here for six fucking days.
Suddenly, time speeds up and rights itself again, pulling Archie right along with it, and he returns to himself.
"Jughead! Jughead, come on, wake up!" FP is kneeling next to his son, gently shaking his fragile body as he attempts to rouse him. Archie stumbles forward, collapsing on Jughead's other side, where he finally gets a good look at his friend.
Archie has the ridiculous impulse to laugh – he used to think the bags under Jughead's eyes and his insomniac tendencies were concerning, but they're nothing compared to the deep bruises around his eyes and the sheer exhaustion emanating from the shell of his best friend. He remembers all the times he teased Jughead for being so skinny, but his once wiry frame seems massive in comparison to the skin and bones swimming in his tell-tale skinny jeans and flannel.
His face, currently cradled in FP's hands, is bruised, sporting a split lip and a black eye in addition to various shades of green and yellow mottled on his cheekbones. Archie can't see what other injuries may be hidden by Jughead's baggy clothes, but he sees a concerning amount of blood soaking his front, just above his right hip. With shaking hands, he gently lifts Jughead's tattered and dirty undershirt, and feels the last bit of hope leave his body, feels a sucker punch to his gut as he loses the ability to breathe.
"Oh God, he's been shot." He chokes out weakly, just as Jughead's brow furrows and he begins to regain consciousness.
"Juggy…" Betty comes to kneel beside Archie, Veronica and Kevin following, with Fred coming behind FP, stripping his jacket off to press against the still-bleeding gunshot wound. "You with us?"
Jughead's eyes slowly open, the familiar striking green unleashing a flood of relief through Archie.
"There we go, kiddo," FP says softly, a smile breaking out on his face. Archie can feel some of the tension dissipate in the room, the sight of Jughead awake bringing a collective sigh of relief to their group.
Their relief is short-lived, however, as Jughead's face immediately screws up in pain and his breath hitches.
"I know, I know," FP consoles. "It's gonna be okay, Jug, we're gonna get you out of here."
His words don't seem to have any effect on Jughead, who shrinks in on himself as though trying to get away from them all, the movement visibly causing him even greater pain.
"Don't move, Jug, you're gonna hurt yourself," Archie consoles, resting a hand on his friend's chest to keep him from moving further. Again, Jughead doesn't react to the consoling words and instead jerks away from Archie's touch, wrists straining against his bonds.
"His hands," Veronica says. "Does anyone have a pocketknife?"
"Why is he scared of us?" Betty asks tearfully, while everyone searches for a knife. Archie digs into his pockets, praying that this coat was the one he'd left his old pocketknife in from his Boy Scout-ing days. "It's like he doesn't understand what we're saying!"
Archie's fingers suddenly come into contact with Jughead's beanie instead of the cool steel he'd been hoping. He slowly pulls it out, and then Betty's words cause everything to click into place.
"His aids," he says softly. "they took his aids." And sure enough, as FP digs out a pocketknife and begins sawing at the ropes restraining Jughead, Archie takes a closer look at his friend's ears, and the telltale tan nubs that Jughead so carefully hides with his beanie are nowhere in sight. "He can't hear us. And he never speaks if he can't hear himself, it's this old habit he has."
"Jughead is…deaf?" Veronica asks incredulously.
"Not deaf," Kevin pipes up. "In his own words, he's simply 'extremely hard of hearing.' Almost deaf."
FP frees Jughead's hands from the ropes, and gently lowers his arms to the ground.
"He's got a fever, too," he says, teeth grinding in fury. "His forehead was burning up. He's probably delirious, doesn't understand what's going on."
He's right – Archie has never seen Jughead look so afraid, even when he accidentally pushed Archie too hard while they were wrestling in their treehouse as kids, causing Archie to tumble to the ground and break his wrist. The sight of Jughead then, filled with fear and anxiety as he scrambled down the ladder to the injured Archie is nothing compared to now, the absolute panic on Jughead's face as he makes continued attempts to get away from them all, but in too much pain and too weak to do so.
"We have to calm him down, he's just going to agitate that gunshot wound." Fred says, nervously running a hand through his hair. Jughead's breathing has turn to wheezing, and tears of pain and confusion well up in his eyes. "Where the hell is that goddamn ambulance?"
"We're overwhelming him. Everyone back up, give him some space!" Betty declares, carefully moving a few feet away from Jughead. Everyone obeys her command, but Archie remains next to his best friend.
"Arch, what are you doing?" Veronica demands.
Archie ignores everyone for a moment and focuses fully on Jughead. He slowly picks up the beanie and gently reaches out with it. Jughead's eyes are glazed over with fever as he stares warily at Archie, tears running down his bruised cheeks. He breathes heavily and flinches, eyes squeezing shut, as Archie gently covers his greasy hair with his most prized possession, but he doesn't pull away. Archie keeps his hands out in front of him, smiles assuredly, and slowly, messily, and clumsily begins to sign to Jughead.
It's okay. You are safe now. No one is going to hurt you.
Jughead's breathing slowly steadies, the combination of the familiar comfort of his beanie securely on his head and the signing seeming to calm him down.
Archie keeps repeating the sign for safe until finally, Jughead's breathing slows. He slowly moves his right arm towards Archie and forms a fist, the sign for the letter "A," and gently knocks it against Archie's shoulder.
Archie gasps, and can't hold back the tears of relief that escape. "Yeah," he stammers, momentarily forgetting that Jughead can't hear him. "Archie, yeah. It's Archie."
When Jughead had first admitted to him that he was near deaf without hearing aids and explained that he communicated through ASL without the aids, they had decided on a sign name for Archie. Their own little thing, just the letter "A" and a playful punch to the shoulder. Archie remembers the day they came up with it like it was yesterday, and how he'd felt so happy and so honored to be Jughead's friend and to share communication that only the two of them understood. That happiness could not even hold a candle to that which he experiences now, feeling the solid weight of Jughead's fist against his shoulder, eyes a bit clearer and breathing steady, if not interrupted by a pained gasp every few breaths. He has Jughead back.
Jughead weakly smiles at Archie, the fist on his shoulder relaxing to grip the material of Archie's thick coat. His eyes are slipping closed again, and Archie barely acknowledges Sheriff Keller returning to the basement with several paramedics, too preoccupied with the knowledge that they'd found Jughead, that his best friend is really and truly in front of him, and he grips tightly to Jughead's hand, the one line of true hope he has left, for as long as he can before his father pulls him away, allowing the paramedics room to load Jughead on a gurney and move him out of the basement.
They wait for four hours in the emergency room before learning that Jughead is stable. Four hours of suffocating in a waiting room, staring at bloodstained hands and shocked faces. Archie downs countless cups of coffee and spends the hours falling into himself and the warped thoughts of how badly injured Jughead could be and the millions of questions about what happened and why. Why weren't there any Scorpions there when they stormed in? Why had they shot Jughead, especially in his abdomen? Did they want to condemn him to a slow, painful death, alone in the dark basement trapped in complete silence? Archie doesn't even want to think of what kind of sick tortures the Scorpions may have thought up once they discovered that Jughead relied on hearing aids.
Once the ER doctor informs them that Jughead is "stable but unconscious and still with a moderate fever," they take turns going in to see him. When Archie crosses the threshold of Jughead's hospital room, he wants to simultaneously run as far away as he can from this horrible truth and plant himself in the uncomfortable chair at Jughead's bedside, not moving a muscle until Jughead wakes up.
He ends up compromising, standing at the side of Jughead's bed and staring at his motionless friend until his time is up. Under the harsh lights of the hospital, Archie sees Jughead clearly for the first time. His skin is pale, decorated with bruises in various stages of healing and lacerations held together with butterfly bandages or stitches. The doctors say he's lucky to be alive. He made it out of that basement with three broken ribs – one of which punctured a lung, a sprained ankle, an infected gunshot wound, internal bleeding, and a plethora of bruises and lacerations, most prominently found on his wrists, and Archie can't help but envision Jughead struggling unendingly against the tough, unforgiving rope that had restrained him for six entire days.
His time ends too soon, and eventually everyone has seen Jughead and reassured themselves that he is truly alive and on the road to recovery. Archie and Betty are steadfast in their desire to stay with Jughead until he wakes, but Fred insists on taking them home to get something to eat and get some rest. Eventually, with persuading from Veronica and Kevin, and with promises from FP that he will not leave Jughead's side, they head back to their homes.
Archie wakes the next day to a phone call from FP that Jughead's so-called "moderate" fever has escalated overnight to "severe," his weakened body unable to completely fight off the infection. Visitors are strictly prohibited, as Jughead's immune system is so compromised that any foreign bacteria could kill him. Betty cries when she hears the news, hugging Archie tightly the Andrews's kitchen while Fred leaves to pick up FP from the hospital; for once in her life she is not the perfect, composed girl-next-door. Her hair hangs loose, greasy and knotted, with leftover makeup from the day before bleeding from her tears. Archie calls Veronica and Kevin to update them, and Veronica immediately comes over, while Kevin gives them the disappointing information that the police have no leads on tracking down the Scorpions.
Archie, Betty, and Veronica are determined to go to the hospital, as waiting for news in a closer proximity to Jughead seems a better alternative to waiting for news helplessly in Archie's kitchen, but they are stopped when Fred and FP walk through the door, both looking crestfallen.
"He – he…" FP stammers, looking like he'd aged ten years overnight. "He's terrified. He's delusional, ya know? He doesn't – he doesn't know where he is, doesn't even recognize me. And they haven't found the right aids yet so he still can't fucking hear anything…" He trails off, voice breaking.
"Why don't you get some rest, FP?" Fred suggests. "Go ahead and sleep on the couch, we'll wake you if we get any news from the hospital."
FP stumbles off to the living room, looking lost and helpless.
"He's gonna be okay, right?" Archie asks tentatively. "Dad? Jughead - Jughead is gonna be okay, isn't he?"
Fred smiles sadly at his son.
"He's a tough kid," he answers. "He'll pull through. Somehow."
Jughead burns with fever and delirium for two more days, before the antibiotics or his own resilience finally kick in and the infection clears away, allowing his body to finally begin healing itself.
Archie finds himself sitting again at his friend's bedside, thinking of how tired he was of seeing Jughead hurt. He was tired of constantly being reminded of how tough Jughead is by watching him go through hardship after hardship. Maybe his dad was right – trouble had a knack of finding the Jones family and ripping them apart. He watches the finally peaceful face of his sleeping friend, and wonders how in the hell they're going to fix it this time.
