"You * do * know that I didn't mean what I said, don't you?" She asks, cuddled into his side in bed. His arm is draped around her shoulder, pulling her closer to him when he feels her tense up.

"Of course I do" He assures, pressing a kiss into her hairline and smiles when she relaxes against him again.

They had had this exact conversation at least ten times since yesterday afternoon. After pulling her off the stage, he had led her to his office, pushed her gently inside and closed the door behind him when he'd turned to leave. He'd made his way back into the main room to retrieve her clothes and watched her silently as she got dressed again. She'd slid into the leather jacket without hesitation. He had pulled her next to him onto the small couch. And then they had talked. Talked for over an hour, said everything they should have said days, if not years, ago, explained and apologized, and somehow she'd ended up losing her clothes again halfway through him expressing how pushing them away had been the biggest mistake of his life. After, they had talked and apologized some more, neither really sure when they had said everything they needed to but still afraid of saying too much too soon and disrupting what they just repaired. She had asked if he believed her a number of times then and he had always answered in the same fashion. But somehow she still seemed to be uneasy about it.

Another half an hour later she'd been about to kill him once again, when they'd been interrupted by Toni and he'd casually stricken up a conversation with the girl behind the door, while watching her fall apart under his talented fingers. When she'd bitten the hand he'd put over her mouth to keep her from screaming, hard, she'd instantly forgotten what she'd been mad about. The look on his face had, however, earned him a slap when he'd leaned over to kiss her briefly before leaving her to get redressed again.

He had left to attend whatever business he'd come to do in the first place, and she had relocated back into the main room, claiming her seat at the bar again. FP had found her there an hour later, deep in conversation with Toni, looking for all in the world like she'd never been anywhere else. It had been the moment when he'd realized that he should never have tried to talk her out off it.

She shifts against him now, lacing her fingers with his around her shoulder and pressing a quick kiss to his lips. She's smiling when she pulls back and he thinks that he'd finally made her believe he doesn't hold what she'd said yesterday against her. He knows her for long enough to know, that if the moment would come where she's enraged enough to reach that point, rational thought is mostly gone from her mind. Her thoughts get all tangled up inside the other and she's saying the very most thing that comes to mind, often without even realizing she'd said it at all. He won't pretend it hadn't stung, hearing her accusing him of abandoning their child back then, when that's technically not exactly what happened. But he's learned a long time ago to put his own hurt feelings aside to find the reason * she's * so pissed and trying to fix it. With sixteen, he hadn't been sure why that seemed so much more important, but with time he'd come to find, that that's simply what you do for the people you love.

He leans down to kiss her again, longer and more passionate this time, while his hand wanders down her side to trace the faded ink on her hip bone. Her parents would have killed her for that tattoo with sixteen and so it's a little smaller than his and located where she's able to hide it under her clothes perfectly. The position had helped quite a lot in the last twenty years, too, since she's never walked around her own house inappropriately dressed, hence her children had not seen it, either. He squeezes her flesh slightly, making her squirm under his touch, showing her again, how extremely okay he is with how yesterday had turned out in the end. And she finds she does believe him. Still, there is one thing she has to tell him again; to ask him again. She wants to believe he knows it, after all he would never have taken a second chance at her again if he didn't but she's still afraid she might not have made it clear enough yesterday.

"I did not for one minute believe you when you said you didn't love me or our son" It's almost a whisper, because as much as she needs to get this off her chest, she's not sure if she should do this now. They had talked this all over yesterday and had come out stronger and better for it. What if she's opening up that wound again now with her confession? What if today they will fight it over once more but this time they won't make it past the pain and hurt? "I didn't like it and I tried to hate you for it for a long time, but I knew what you did and why you did it. You know that, too, don't you?!"

His hand on her hip stills, and her lets out an almost inaudible sigh. They'd gone over this already and it's not that he doesn't want to clear up their past so they can move on to their future and happier times, but he doesn't know what else to do to make her see that. He doesn't answer right away though, instead he kisses her again; pours all the love he feels for her into that action and she reciprocates in kind, only letting go of him, when she needs to breath. He keeps quiet after pulling back just long enough to take a few deep breaths, then he looks her directly in the eyes and speaks. "Yes, I know" Another quick kiss to erase any still lingering doubts. "I hated myself for saying those things and I wouldn't blame you if you did, too. But at the time I was sure you deserved something better than me, and if that meant giving you and my child to someone that could actually provide for you, I don't regret that."

Her eyes cloud over at the mention of their son, and she opens her mouth to say something, but he interrupts her, anticipating where her thoughts had been. They might have discussed their break-up and the shitty way they had dealt with all of this, but for some reason or another they had more or less avoided the child they share. It hadn't even been a conscious decision made by either of them, but after she'd apologized for throwing their son into a room full of people who don't even know he exists, they had just mutually moved on to cover the more important topics for that moment. "No, I don't hate you for giving him away" Hell, he just told her he'd have let Hal Cooper raise his son if that meant he'd have a better life than a shabby trailer park and parents leading a biker gang. How could she think he'll resent her for giving the boy exactly that? "Neither of us three had been ready for a kid in this moment and we should definitively not have raised him here"

He's wiping a lonely tear from her cheek. "You did Jughead and Jellybean though" She had never thought about it like that, but he just said this was no place for their son, so she thinks she's a right to ask what changed when Jughead was born.

"And believe me, I did everything I could to keep them both from the Serpents and all the shit we've been up to when we were teenagers." It had worked, too, at least until now. His daughter is safely out of town with her mother and though he would like nothing more than to see her, he's glad she's far away from this life. His son hadn't want anything to do with him for a good while and though this had changed, he's glad the boy still doesn't want any part in the Serpent's business. He hoped to god that won't change.

"So, if I had stayed...?" She's not sure how to end the question, but he somehow knows exactly what she's asking.

"I'm not gonna lie, we would probably have three teenagers in leather jackets running around" It's so casual that for a moment she's not even sure they're actually having this conversation. They had never dared to voice the word children when they had made plans for their future, until she'd become pregnant. Are they really talking about hypothetical children they could have now? But then, she finds she doesn't mind. It's nothing she hadn't pictured before after all.

"Three, you say?" The smile on her lips makes him relax.

"Yea"

"I hope there's at least one daughter to even out the score a bit" Her smile's contagious and it doesn't take long for his own to show up on his face. He doesn't think he even had a conversation like this with his wife.

"Are you kidding? I have my hands full teaching one son how to be a proper man and to find a girl a beautiful as his mother and sisters." He laughs when she blushes. It's a faint color and almost not noticeable, but he knows her too well.

"And all of them Serpents?" She doesn't really sound displeased with the thought. He still doesn't think she would be * too * thrilled either.

"Of course" She just raises an eyebrow at him. Obviously she's of the opinion that at least one of their hypothetical children would have shown some better judgment. He gives her one of his heart-stopping grins before he makes her see reason. "Baby, what do you think the people would say when the King and Queen don't encourage their children to follow in their footsteps?" That gets exactly the intended result, when she laughs out loud with him.

"I love you" She gets out in between deep breaths to calm herself down. Then she pushes herself up on her elbows and leans over to him, but before she can connect their lips in a slow kiss, his phone rings from the nightstand behind him. He ignores it in favor of her lips and when he turns around to get it, he sees it's his alarm. With a sigh he switches it off.

"I love you, too, but I have to go to work"

"That's okay, I need to head to work, too"

He's finished gathering his clothes and halfway out the door on his way to the bathroom when he registers she's said anything at all. Then he stops, scrunches up his face in confusion for a moment, decides there's nothing he's missed since yesterday and turns back to face the bed. "I hate to tell you this, but I'm pretty sure you don't work anymore"

Her husband had been trying to be the better man and told her there's no reason for her to leave the paper; it's theirs after all. They had both known this was a stupid idea, that the thing they * really * needed right now was space to get their own affairs in order and so she had thanked him for even considering making the offer given what she'd done to him, but refused. It's not just that she thinks working with her soon-to-be ex-husband in the place that used to belong to the both of them is wrong, she really doesn't want it anymore either. She loves writing and she will never completely give it up, but the Register is part of her old life, the one she had left behind so readily to go back where she came from. So that's exactly what she's going to do – going back to where she came from.

"Ah, not yet" It's all she says before squeezing between him and the doorway and making her way into the bathroom. She blows a playful kiss over her shoulder when he calls her out for stealing his time in the shower. He has plenty of time to get to work and he knows, that she knows that, too.

After her shower she gets dressed quickly, the leather jacket being lifted from where she'd put it last night without thought. Then she walks into the kitchen to put on some coffee and prepare a quick breakfast. It's the least she can do, since right now, he's the only one bringing money for said breakfast home. She passes him a cup of steaming coffee, already prepared just how he likes it, when he joins her in the kitchen. The look he gives her has her promise herself to do this as often as possible.

"I'm guessing there's no point in me asking what you're up to?" She's dressed casually enough so he's sure she doesn't actually have a serious job interview he'd forgotten about. Her Serpent Jacket hanging over the back of her chair is another sign for that; she wouldn't wear that. But that means she has something up her sleeve and he doesn't know what it is. And he hates that.

"Of course you can" She quips nonchalantly. "I won't be telling you yet, though" She takes a sip of her coffee, ignoring his questioning gaze. She's aware he hates not knowing something – and that's partly why she's doing it.

"Allie..." If it weren't him, it would sound pretty much like begging.

"Forsythe..." And she's back to eating her breakfast. She can't help the small smirk when she hears him groan.

"Don't call me that" He's not sure she's * ever * called him that. One perfectly raised eyebrow is all the answer he receives. Point taken. But just because he can't call her Allie, doesn't mean he doesn't want to have an answer to his as of yet unspoken question. "Seriously Alice, don't do this"

She turns to look at him then, biting her lip to stifle her laugh. He'd tried to sound pissed or even angered, hoping to get something out of her, but all he managed to do was sound distinctly pathetic. She takes pity on him then. "Let me get this job, and I'll tell you everything tonight"

"You sound awfully confident" He teases. He has no idea where she intents to look for work, but he doesn't doubt her ability to land it in the slightest.

"Believe me, they'll take me back in a heartbeat" She's joking, but he actually thinks she could be right. There's only one place he can think of that would fit her description and though she'd never considered it her dream job, he can't deny that she kind of fit.