CHAPTER TEN – Lost And Found
Returning home from Pop's that evening, Betty feels defeated.
She has just sent Archie and Veronica home, relieving them of babysitting her daughter who is now well and truly fast asleep.
Haphazardly, Betty takes a seat at her small dining table which she'd bought from an op shop when she and Bailey had first moved in. Then, her face falls into her hands as her body is overcome with her distress and her fragile frame is overwrought with cries that tremble and quake silently throughout her to ensure that she doesn't wake her daughter.
Then, when her tears finally stop replenishing themselves and as her whimpers grow silent, Betty drags herself up from her seat at the table; every inch of her body feeling as heavy as lead.
Yet, as mentally and emotionally exhausted as Betty is, in that moment she finds her feet carrying her and guiding her to her daughter's bedroom, rather than her own.
From where she stands in the door-frame, Betty quickly catches sight of her beautiful little girl sleeping peacefully in the darkened room, with the light in the hallway hitting Bailey's wild, golden curls that are sprawled out across her pillow. One of her arms is slung around and tightly clutching onto her favourite teddy, the soft toy version of Hot Dog that FP had gifted to Bailey as a baby; which had belonged to the little girl's father before it became hers. Then, Bailey's other arm is relaxed, raised above her head and on her pillow around her locks of her hair.
As she slowly and quietly enters Bailey's bedroom, Betty collapses at her daughter's bedside, her eyes still red and moist. She just sits there. She just sits there watching her daughter's rhythmic breaths, admiring the little girl's innocence and peace that is worlds away from her own pain and anguish. Then, from where she's sitting at Bailey's bedside, leaning against the wooden panels of her daughter's bed, Betty exhales the deepest, quietest sigh that she can muster.
The young, single mother watches her daughter, following the pattern of her small, silent breaths; in and out and in and out...
Bailey looks so peaceful, so immune to the problems not only around her in the world, but the pain that has been brought into her own home upon her father's return to town.
As she watches the little girl sleep, it's as if her calmness is contagious, radiating through to Betty as her daughter unknowingly, slowly begins to give her the peace that her mother so desperately needs. Then, after Betty shifts a stray golden strand of hair that is hanging in front of her daughter's sleeping face, she takes a big, deep breath, wiping away the fallen tear on her own cheek that at long last doesn't seem to regenerate itself.
As much as she loves her daughter with her whole, entire being, Betty tries to determine whether having Jughead's child has brought her more or less peace. It's hard to tell...
On one hand, Bailey is Betty's entire world. She couldn't imagine a reality without the little girl that has brought her so much happiness and purpose to her life. But, she wouldn't have that little girl in front of her without the man who has brought so much pain to her life. And, as much as she loves every fiber of Bailey's being and every cell in her body, Betty can't help the sting that she feels from seeing so much of Jughead in his daughter... Every smile, every expression, every little mole on her body just brings a fresh ache to Betty's wounds that haven't healed over the last four years.
Jughead and Bailey have both been such enormous parts of Betty's life, in very different ways.
However, in spite of being father and daughter, they are like two parallel lines. No matter how close together they are, they never quite meet and they never quite touch. It's as though where and when Jughead left Betty's life, Bailey entered it. So much so, it's still hard for Betty to believe that the last time that she saw Jughead and on the night when her heartbreak began, Bailey already existed deep within her, unbeknownst to them both.
"I love you so much Bailey..."
As she whispers the affirmation of her love for her sleeping daughter in an undertone, Betty doesn't realise that her tears have begun to fall and slide down her face once again, dampening her cheeks that hadn't even had the chance to dry in that time.
Then, after pressing a final kiss to her sleeping daughter's head, Betty pulls herself up and drags herself out of Bailey's room before she collapses into her own. She releases her grief and cries her heart out until she's numb, knowing that by morning she's going to need to be strong enough for the both of them tomorrow, once again, then the day after that and the day after that.
Betty knows that she's going to need to be strong enough for both herself and for Bailey, day in, day out...
#
The following day is Riverdale's seasonal market, held quarterly, right in the middle of the town.
Locals throughout town bring their businesses and their goods to set up stalls, making the temporary marketplace. All sorts of stands are set up for everything ranging from Mrs. Hedger's famous cupcakes, to the Baker family's law firm, to Emily's enormous scented soy candle range... Almost everyone in town has stands set up to promote their businesses in Riverdale, providing a little snapshot of their services and their goods.
Although it's the last thing that Betty feels like doing after having dinner with Jughead the night before, she had promised Veronica that she would help her with her stall for the market. After all, Betty has slightly more of a grasp on the high end luxuries that comprise Veronica's business than what the Latina's husband does. So, in exchange for Betty helping Veronica with her stall, Archie is looking after Betty's daughter in the back corner of the stall, keeping Bailey preoccupied as the two girls work.
So far, the morning had been quiet and it had turned into part two of Veronica wanting to hear every nitty-gritty detail of Betty's meeting with the father of her child last night. Currently, the blonde is recapping the evening for the third time, clarifying Veronica's questions once again.
"So, he didn't say anything else. He didn't tell you why he left Riverdale? He didn't clear anything else up?"
Before answering her friend's question that she hasn't raised for the first time, Betty momentarily glances behind them to where Bailey is sitting on Archie's lap, talking his ear off about every, single Disney film ever made in great detail; the three-year-old girl already being quite the little movie buff. Then, after checking on her daughter's current whereabouts, Betty turns back to Veronica to answer her friend's question, feeling her patience beginning to wear thin.
"V, I love you, but you've heard the whole story three times, now. It hasn't changed since last night and it hasn't changed since the last time I gave you every little detail."
Veronica ignores Betty's gentle way of trying to tell her friend to move on and just clarifies a different detail instead.
"And then at the end, he just walked out? Again?!"
"Well, to be fair, at least he said goodbye this time so that's some solid improvement in four years..."
The corner of Betty's lips upturn in the smallest of smirks, but there's really nothing funny about it. Veronica misses her friend's sarcasm, putting another question to her instead.
"And you didn't mention anything to him about Bailey?"
"No, I didn't say a word about her. He still has no idea she exists..." Betty pauses, exhaling a deep sigh, dodging her friend's eye as she makes an honest confession.
"But, honestly V, at one point I nearly told him. I was going to... Just looking him in the eye, I got swept up in the moment. I fell in love with his eyes all those years ago and I see those eyes in Bailey every day. I don't know... It felt familiar. It felt safe and warm. I felt like I could tell him. I felt like despite everything that's happened, I wanted to tell him about how we made a beautiful little girl who has his eyes. But then, before I had a chance to say anything, my head overruled my heart and I piked out."
Veronica releases an obvious exhale of relief. As much as Betty loves her best friend, she can't help but feel like she and Veronica are on very different wavelengths. As the blonde divulges details about her moment of vulnerability from the previous night, her fiercely protective raven-haired friend bypasses the emotion and is more focused on being gladdened about the fact that he didn't find out.
"Good... You dodged a bullet, B. After all, if he just upped and left you again last night like he did all those years ago, then he doesn't deserve to know about our girl. He's not dependable."
Hearing Veronica's firm, decisive comments, Betty bites her lip. As much as Jughead's return has stirred up the pain of her past and reopened her old wounds, a part of Betty feels like she's finally found the closure that she needed by finally letting go of the hope that she has unknowingly carried in the back of her mind for years... The hope of him returning, pleading for her forgiveness and one day, being a family with their daughter. There's no hope of that now and that is a bittersweet realisation.
"Veronica? I don't think he's ever going to come back... I think that this was the goodbye he should have said four years ago..."
Suddenly, seeing the fragility in her friend's face and hearing the thick emotion in her words, Veronica is moved. While she had been fiery just moments earlier, seeing her friend's emotions that she's been so desperately trying to hide, Veronica reaches out to grasp Betty's hand as she gives it a big, reassuring squeeze.
"Oh, B..."
As Betty swipes at her eyes, she feels the fresh tears that she didn't know had fallen. It takes her a moment, but after a sniffle, Betty feels far stronger and more composed.
"It's okay. We're going to be okay. His fly-in, fly-out visit won't change anything... Bailey and I have got by without him so far. We don't need him in our life."
Veronica gives her friend a small, sympathetic smile as she squeezes Betty's hand with another show of encouragement and reassurance. Then, Betty gives her concerned friend a smile in return before she continues speaking.
"But, I don't know... A part of me always thought that one day, Bailey would know about him, V... I always imagined that one day, somehow, he'd just know. I mean it's crazy to think that she's half of him, but yet he has absolutely no idea she even exists."
"Like you said yourself, you're gonna be okay. Both of you will be... You've got Archie and I, you've got Kev, you've got your parents, FP, Casey, Polly, Ethel, Pop Tate... Hell, I even think that you have Cheryl Blossom in your corner. Sure, yours and Bailey's lives might not have Jughead in it, but he hasn't left a void in it."
Betty nods at her friend's encouraging words before glancing behind them to Archie and her daughter once again. Even though she knows that Bailey is with Archie, Betty can't quite shake the habit of checking on Bailey's whereabouts as she does nineteen million times a day. As she quickly catches sight of her daughter kneeling on her childhood best friend's lap, Betty smiles, stifling a giggle as she watches on for a moment and sees how Archie is letting Bailey reach up and style his fire-red hair, shaping it to all sorts of angles and terrible hair styles.
Then, as Betty turns away from watching her daughter and as she returns to the conversation with her friend, her mood darkens instantly while she releases a sigh.
"V? Do you think that what's right for me is necessarily what's fair to Bailey? At the end of the day and no matter how he's hurt me, Jughead's still her dad..."
Veronica thinks over her friend's question for a moment, taking a second to find her stance on what Betty's asking her. Then, before long, she's giving Betty her own decisive -and a little controversial- decision.
"She's your daughter, Betty. Think of it as though he was just a sperm donor."
"But was he just that?" Betty asks, her brows furrowing as she plays Devil's Advocate. "After all, Jughead wasn't just some fling or a random one-night-stand for me. I loved him. Back then, I thought that he was the love of my life..."
Veronica's face grows intent and fierce again at the reminder of the way that Jughead had abandoned her best friend, hurting her badly. Regardless of the fact that he didn't know that he'd abandoned his daughter too by leaving Betty, the way he hurt her was not okay.
"He left you, Betty. He didn't tell you that he was leaving, or where he was going or why he was leaving. You don't owe him anything."
Veronica's firm words elicit a sigh from Betty, as she looks down, nipping at the corner of her bottom lip, thoughtfully.
"I know I don't owe him anything, but this is bigger than us... It's bigger than my hurt over him leaving me and it's bigger than whatever reason why he left. It's bigger than both of us. Because, it's about Bailey..."
As soon as Betty's words are out and before Veronica has the chance to say a single word, the two friends are interrupted.
"Guys... Is Bailey with you?"
Archie asks as he approaches the girls, interrupting his wife and his best friend. His voice is soft and apprehensive, his body language, sheepish.
"No, she was with you" Veronica fires back instantly. Her response prompts an instant, gut-wrenching realisation, among the three of them...
The young mother ignores the way the newlyweds begin to bicker, she ignores how Veronica blames Archie and she ignores Archie's desperate attempts to explain what had happened; her concentration is entirely consumed with focus on finding her daughter.
So, not only does Betty ignore all of it, but she barely even registers the fact that her friends are speaking as she's struck with feeling the all-encompassing fear that fills every fiber of her being. It's all just background noise as Betty's stomach plummets at the realisation of the enormity of the situation... Betty is riddled with panic at the first signs of her daughter being lost.
Despite the alarms that are going off within her that are impossible to ignore, the young mother tries her very best to remain as calm and composed as she can, repeating her daughter's name over and over again as she thoroughly searches Veronica's stall and the surrounding area. Meanwhile, Veronica is waving her hands around frantically, yelling at her guilt-ridden husband about the fact that he was supposed to be watching the little girl.
However, Betty can feel her tentative trepidation that is sitting at the flood gates within her, waiting to burst free. Betty's hoping to find her daughter just hiding under the table or cowering in the corner and she's willing for her panic to be alleviated and just put down to a simple scare. But, with each passing second, Betty grows more and more fearful.
After a thorough search of Veronica's small stand brings no results and no sign of the little three-year-old girl, Betty can feel the breath being swept out of her at the enormity of the situation, feeling the sinking feeling of realising that her daughter is missing.
"Bailey?! Bailey... BAILEY!"
Betty's voice quivers as she bellows out her daughter's name, over and over again, equally fearful as she is desperate. Her sea-green eyes grow glassy and each beat of her heart becomes a pounding thump, continuing to race faster and faster in her chest. Her pale skin goes tight and clammy. She's lost all colour in her face as she shakes like a leaf...
It's any parent's worst nightmare.
#
It wasn't a deliberate act of disobedience.
It was right when Archie took his eyes off of her for the briefest moment -grabbing a drink of water and telling that he'd be right back- when Bailey had just seen something that caught her eye at a stall across the path. And, the little three-year-old girl was drawn to it like a magnet, attracted to the decoration in the same way that a magpie is to a shiny object...
It was a butterfly dream catcher that just twirled and swirled so magically and so temptingly in the wind and Bailey couldn't stop herself from walking over to get a better look.
Then, after fulfilling her desire to see the object up close, Bailey manages to escape her trance and she goes to turn back to and return to her uncle, her aunty and her mother at the stall.
But, after the few, brief seconds and in just a few steps, everything has changed; looking completely different to her little eyes. The crowds and swarms of people don't help, blocking her view and range of sight.
So, as her blue eyes begin to grow wide with worry, Bailey just chooses a direction and starts walking, biting her lip. But, after a few moments of walking, the little girl realises that she is only getting herself further lost than found...
Her fear and her distress rapidly growing, Bailey begins to cry out for her mother as her baby blue eyes fill with tears and she comes to a standstill on the spot. Her little body begins to tremble fearfully and her eyes frantically look in every direction to try and spot her mother, her uncle, her aunty, someone, anyone...
#
Meanwhile, at the same time, in the same town, a certain tall, raven-haired young man is aimlessly walking around. He's on the outskirts of Riverdale's seasonal market that he is avoiding in the center of the town, dodging all the festivities and fanfare.
He's just killing time, waiting for the 3 o'clock bus headed to Oklahoma that could not come sooner. He's already been to Pop's one last time, said goodbye to his father who had a strange interest in how things went with Betty and tried to say goodbye to Archie, but his knocks on the Andrew's front door went unanswered.
He just wants to get home. Ironic, considering that for more of his life than not, this very town was his home.
However, his plans are interrupted as he spots someone else standing alone among the crowd of families, friends and couples...
A good couple of metres away, he spots a little blonde girl -no older than four and far too young to be wandering around alone- standing alone among the crowds. The little girl's head flies around in every direction as though she is looking for someone, or something.
From afar, Jughead pauses and waits for a moment. He keeps a close eye on the girl but desperately hoping that someone else will see her, too. He hopes that someone else will realise that she's lost and approach her, offering to swoop in and save her, to be the hero of the day. Or, better yet, he hopes a parent will rush over and save the day.
However, after waiting for about half a minute that feels more like half a year, Jughead can see how much more distressed the little girl has become as she looks through the crowd of unfamiliar faces, fear springing to her eyes as she bites her lip in distress with free-flowing tears.
As much as he doesn't want to be a hero and as much as he wishes that someone else had spotted that little girl, Jughead can't ignore her and he can't just wait for someone to swoop in as she grows more upset and lost. Or, he can't wait for the wrong type of person to spot her. So, he fastens his pace and crosses to the other side of the town square approaching where the action and festivities of the markets are.
Then, crouching down in front of the lost little girl, Jughead reduces his height as two pairs of baby blue eyes in an identical hue meet.
"Hi there... Are you lost?"
So, they've met! But, as this stage, Jughead and Bailey are just two strangers. So, how will things transpire from here as they work together to find Betty? Will Jughead work out who Bailey is for himself or will a reunion between mother and daughter trigger his realisation? How will he react? And how will Betty respond?
I hope you all like the way that Jughead and Bailey have finally met. Trust me, I thought about every different way that he could find out/how their paths could intercept/how he could be told so I hope you all like the way it has actually happened.
Also, a big, big thank you to everyone who left a review on the last chapter. Each and every one of them means the world. I appreciate the feedback and the support so much.
Next chapter: Jughead realises who Bailey is. How will he react?