12. History
The years passed by and both Emi and Cooper grew from toddlers, to small children, into adolescents and then teenagers edging closer and closer towards young adulthood.
Emi had grown to become an incredibly kind and strong-willed sixteen-year-old with a fiercely protective nature when it came to her family and her loved ones.
Meanwhile, at fourteen, her younger brother Cooper was a marshmallow. He was sensitive and thoughtful, but being the brother between two sisters, Cooper easily displayed a similar over-protection when it came to those two girls.
However, despite the differences in their personalities and nature, the two Jones siblings definitely had an incredibly close connection to each other.
The older that Emi and Cooper became, the more their bond and connection grew. In fact, with just two years of age separating them that seemed to feel less and less each year, the two siblings almost became like twins as they grew up together.
Then, one night when she knows that their parents are well and truly asleep, Emi Jones appears in her younger brother's doorway interrupting him from where he's reading in bed before he tries to sleep, turning to her partner in crime to confess to a matter that's been on her mind lately.
"Coopey" Emi whispers in the dark, catching her brother's attention as he casts his eyes up from the book that he's reading by the light of his lamp and over to his sixteen-year-old sister who is standing in his doorway.
"I'm going to try and find out the truth about my real dad. Wanna help?"
Emi's sudden question had been prompted by a recent burst of hearing the same phrase over and over again just lately.
After having Emi and Cooper, Jughead and Betty had thought they were all done and dusted on the kid's front... Until, seven years after having Cooper, they were presented with another little surprise package in the form of their second daughter, Violet, or 'Lottie', as she was better known.
For the first five years of Lottie's life, she'd forever been likened to Betty. However, just recently there seemed to be a change and now the Jones family were constantly hearing: "isn't she just like her dad?"- it was the question that had lead the sixteen-year-old in the family to try and investigate the answer to the question that had been glazed over for the first sixteen years of her life.
Emi and Cooper knew that Jughead wasn't her father.
It wasn't something that was ever really discussed nor was it acknowledged with no one in their family ever acting like he or addressing that Jughead wasn't Emi's father, but as soon as they reached certain ages, they just knew he wasn't; not biologically, anyway.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, from early on Betty and Jughead had chosen two guiding principles when it came to deciding how to manage the truth.
The first was that while they have raised Emi to know Jughead as her father, they would never lie. If Emi asked them a question, she'd get the truth; even if it was only the answer to that one question.
Then, their second principle was that while they have spent years protecting her from it, Jughead and Betty had decided that they would tell Emi the truth only once she was old enough and once they believed that she was at a point in her life where she was ready for the truth. While they didn't have a set age -they'd toyed with the idea of when she turned eighteen- they knew that whatever age their daughter was, the most important part was that they wanted her to be in a good place and secure with herself to know that the whole story doesn't change her life or who she is. After all, while as much as they wish they could always protect her from the truth, Emi deserved to know the whole story and the answers she would inevitably look for.
So, thinking about his sisters question and with concern etched into his face, Cooper just looked up at his sister hesitantly telling her that he didn't think it was such a good idea. He reminded her that their dad was their dad and that surely if there was anything she needed to know about the unknown man, their parents would tell her; that'd always been good at that, at treating their children with respect.
However, Emi had made up her mind and not even her best friend was going to unmake it.
"My question wasn't whether or not I should find out the truth about my real dad... I am going to find out the truth about him. My question was whether you want to help me or not."
As he closes his book with a sigh knowing his strong-willed sister is going to want to start now, Cooper just climbs out of bed, recalling some clichéd phrase about siblings, or friends, or family, or people not letting each other do stupid things, alone.
"Alright... I'm in."
#
Cooper was right. Emi had started her search for the truth right away after enlisting him, beginning with ordering a copy of her own birth certificate to see if the truth was as simple as attaining a legal piece of paper.
However, given that there was at least fourteen business days that stood between them and the next step before they received the certificate, after they ordered it Cooper encouraged Emi to in the very least ask their mother for the truth before they turned it into a whole investigation.
So, as Betty was making breakfast the very next morning, Emi took up the first opportunity to ask her mother the question, at the cost of picking what may have been the worst timing possible.
Needless to say, as Betty almost dropped the piece of Lottie's toast that she was buttering from the shock of hearing her eldest daughter's question, Emi did not get anywhere at all.
"Drop it. Don't think about it. Don't worry about it. Don't even consider that question again. Trust me when I say that your dad is your dad and that's all you need to know. Promise me that you'll drop it, Em."
As the headstrong teenager stormed out of the kitchen with a huff and without a promise, Betty felt her stomach begin to churn within her, fearing the Pandora's Box that Emi's curiosity is teetering towards; desperately hoping that she will listen to her but simultaneously knowing she needs to find a better time and way to have that discussion with her daughter...
#
In the time between approaching her mother and receiving her birth certificate, Emi continued following leads and clues on her paternity, with assistance from Cooper who was still rather apprehensive about their mission.
Then, when they eventually received Emi's birth certificate in the mail it had been quite a dampener on the investigation and a dead-end when it had held the potential of being the answer to Emi's big question.
So, as the siblings -who in so many ways were almost like twins- opened the envelope together, Emi exhaled a deflated sigh as she read the name which revealed nothing new to her.
"It's hardly surprising, Em" Cooper said to his sister as he looked over to her from where they stand side-by-side, reading the name 'Forsythe Pendleton Jones III' on the printed page in front of them.
"Dad's our dad, after all."
However, while it had not been the answer that she was seeking and it didn't help her with the name that she was looking for, Emi just brushed the blow off resiliently, looking for where to turn their investigation to next.
As they embarked on their own mission, those two Jones children never knew just how much they resembled the older generation of Joneses, following in their own parent's footsteps as they pieced the mystery together through their very own comprehensive investigation...
#
Over the weeks that followed, Emi and Cooper dug and they dug and they dug into the past. They dug into what they knew, they dug into what leads they had and they dug into what new information came to light as they worked together to try and find the answer to Emi's question.
They tried searching online and seeing what they could dig up, but, without a father's name, it limited the results of their searches.
Then, searching through their mother's high school years, they only found recurring links connecting their mum to just two men. One was their father himself, turning up with results on the 'Blue and Gold' and their work on the paper together, while the only other man that would pop up along with their mother's name was their Uncle Archie.
So, the next path they took in their investigation was scouring Betty's diaries that were filed away in storage in the garage.
Counting back nine months from her birth date, give and take a month or two to broaden their search range, Emi and Cooper then searched through Betty's diaries from throughout those months, reading their mother's words from when she was not all that much older than Emi herself is.
Looking through the diaries from that time in Betty's life, her children learned that if Emi was overdue she could have been conceived during the late stages of Betty's summer internship, otherwise just under nine exact months and between the two dates was the end of summer dance, or if Emi was born premature, it could have meant that she was conceived right after school went back.
Then, following their calculations, they quickly learnt that their parents only got together a number of weeks after school went back for the year. This was followed by the discovery that not long at all after they read the entries where Betty first began to suspect and then learn that she was pregnant with Emi, their mother ended her new relationship with their father.
But, the problem that the Jones siblings encountered was that a number of pages had been torn out from two-thirds of the way through their mother's old diary. And, both Emi and Cooper would bet good money that those torn out and burnt pages had held the answer to the questions that they were looking for. After all, from the pages that were missing and the pages that were not, they determined that Emi had mostly likely been conceived within those missing pieces.
After several pages detailing Betty's summer internship, the final pages before the following ones had been torn out and destroyed described the day she returned home, detailing her meeting up with Kevin and Archie and being introduced to a mysterious raven-haired new girl who she learned would be joining their year at school. Then, finally came the entry that Betty had scrawled as she changed into her pink dress that she had eluded to secretly hoping would win her the heart of the man she'd been concealing her feelings for from the sidelines; marking the start of a night that a sixteen-year-old had held such high hopes for.
This entry in particular had made for a bit of a turning point. After all, for all of about five minutes, the siblings played devil's advocate after they stumbled across the familiar name that had also been frequently linked to their mother's in their searches through her high school life, questioning whether or not their uncle was perhaps the unknown identity they'd been looking for, right under their noses.
"Uncle Archie's not my dad, is he?" the disbelief in Emi's voice was clear not only in her words but also in the way that her face scrunched up, as though she doubted her own words.
Meanwhile, Cooper's face showed exactly what he thought of his sister's question.
To be perfectly honest, Emi was on the same page as he was but she reasoned with him nonetheless.
"Journalists have to be the ones to ask the hard questions, Coop..."
After all, they had read about their mother's feelings for the boy next door and her childhood best friend. And, in a far-fetched attempt, they'd reasoned that both Archie and Emi have dark brown eyes.
However, they knew just how much their uncle adored his own kids; his seven-year-old junior, AJ, and baby Bella. They knew how close both their parents were with their Uncle Archie. And, they really did not think they that their parents would have been able to get over that and get to the point that they are with their uncle, nor could they find a single reason why if Archie was her father, he would not be acknowledged as her father.
Not to mention, Emi and Cooper had also come across the diary entry from just weeks after Betty had Emi and after she returned to school, where the new, young mother had written that she needed to keep 'him' from Emi.
So, with the pieces of the puzzle interlocking, it wasn't long before both Emi and Cooper knew that there was no way their Uncle Archie was the answer to their question, slashing him from their list of suspicions.
Then, a few pages after those that were torn out and just after the mentions of their parents establishing the school paper together, another name popped up and Emi was convinced that she'd found the answer to the question that she was searching for...
Trev Brown.
For a while there, Trev had been a strong lead in their investigation given that the timing seemed to work and everything else that they learned about him only seemed to support the possibility of Emi having found her biological father in finding him. Then, after they found a photo of him online, Emi was convinced that they'd gotten to the bottom of it.
In fact, it had only been after Emi –along with her brother- tracked him down to where he lived just out of town along with his family and paid him a visit after school one day when her suspicions were extinguished as she mustered up the courage to ask him the question that she was so convinced she'd found the answer to.
However, the man on the other side of the door's eyes just grew wide in surprise before he began to chuckle with a kind smile that became a little more serious as he responded to the sixteen-year-old.
"Have you asked your mother that question?"
#
Along the way, the siblings had also been trying to piece together the reason why their parents had married so young; while still in high school and before Emi was born.
After all, given that Jughead wasn't her biological father, they figured that it wouldn't have been a shotgun wedding before having Emi when he hadn't even got her pregnant.
So, with that question also present in the back of their mind as they searched through the past, they never really got any further in answering that question throughout the searching they undertook over their main investigation.
However, raising the question to him one day out-of-the-blue, Emi once again asked her brother the hard question as they were walking home from school together.
"Hey, Coop? You don't think that mum lied, do you? Maybe dad proposed because he thought that I was his before they got married and before I was born ... You don't think she let dad believe that, do you?"
Cooper was the one to quickly nip his sister's suspicion in the bud, speaking sense for them both over the woman they know so well.
"No way... That doesn't sound like mum at all. We both know that she wouldn't do something like that. Besides, unless it was in one of the torn out pages, going off her diary, it looks like mum and dad didn't get together until she was several months pregnant with you. Dad would have been able to work it out."
Emi just nods. After all, with all sorts of unanswered questions floating around her life, her parents and her existence, she just needed her brother to speak the words aloud that -deep down- they both knew.
#
Despite all the time and effort that they had both poured into their investigation, the Jones siblings were growing frustrated with the fact that they were getting nowhere fast while trying to keep any evidence of their digging from right under their parent's noses.
Then, their breakthrough came on one, typical Saturday morning. It was a morning when Emi and Cooper had the house to themselves with both of their parents out of the house. Jughead had to work this morning while Betty was taking little Lottie to her Saturday morning swimming lessons.
Emi was lying on the ground with her legs kicked up on her brother's bed as she flicked through her parent's junior year class yearbook while Cooper sat at his desk nearby, telling Emi that he was looking things up for her though he was frequently growing preoccupied with searching his own interests rather than spending more time on their dwindling investigation.
Then, all of a sudden, coming across just one face and one name is what causes Emi to gasp aloud, instantly worrying her younger brother as he looks back at her, looking to see what she's looking at and what had elicited that reaction in her.
"I've got it, Coop... I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner" Emi murmurs in disbelief as she bolts upright from where she'd been lying down on the ground of her brother's bedroom floor.
"Search for the name Chuck Clayton..."
The surname had been the trigger for the sixteen-year-old. In fact, to Emi, it seemed as though everything fell into place with that one, single name.
After all, the Clayton's were still involved in the Joneses life just as 'distant relatives'. Their connection to the Joneses had never really been clarified, but neither Emi nor Cooper had ever really asked. Upon reflection, they'd only ever assumed that they were those family friends that you spend all your life calling 'family' without ever really questioning what your connection to them actually is.
Added to that, the Clayton's had had more do with Emi and her family while she was younger. After all, they had moved further away from Riverdale whilst Emi was a newborn, then they moved a little further away and just returned for visits after job opportunities arose and then once Chuck's younger sister Chloe began studying abroad, it made it difficult for the Claytons to see and be that involved with Emi and even when they did, they would try to bring things for Cooper and Lottie and show an interest in them, too, further reducing the obviousness of any special treatment.
Meanwhile, as her brother is running internet searches upon her command, Emi begins to babble away as she does, sharing her racing thoughts with him as her mouth races as fast as her mind is.
"Just think about the Clayton's, Cooper. I mean, sure, we don't have much to do with them now but whenever we see them while they try to be interested in all of us, if you stop and think about it, we've always sensed there was a bit of a bias towards me...We just joked about the fact that I was a favourite for them. I can't believe it didn't hit us earlier. But, look here, there's a Chuck Clayton in the yearbook. He must be their son. He must be my biological father..." Emi explains, pointing to and jabbing at the photo on the page as she shows it to her brother.
Then, looking to the photo on the page, Cooper looks between his sister and the man that she is pointing out on the page, seeing ties of similarity and noting the resemblance to his sister who he knows so well in that single photo of the man on the page causing Cooper to speak up in little more than a whisper.
"I think that's him, Em..."
The sixteen-year-old feels a slither more hope after her brother utters the words that leaves her feeling a racing sensation of hope, as though she feels like she's watching the puzzle pieces unfold in front of her as the big picture becomes clearer and clearer.
So, feeling like brother is taking too long as he searches through what feels to be a myriad of words, Emi pulls her own phone out of her pocket and tries to scramble for the truth of her paternity that she has been so actively pursuing, bubbling with her newfound hope to her brother.
"It's got to be him... I mean the surname, his parents, he was in the same year as mum and dad and not to mention, I look like him... I think we've found him, Coop."
Then, having returned to his own search from their new lead with the new name that has popped up in their investigation, Cooper utters the words aloud from the article that he'd been distracted with reading and processing...
"Em... Chuck Clayton's dead. There are reports of him being killed by a fellow student when he was seventeen. It was originally thought to be murder that was then downgraded to manslaughter."
They're the words that leave Emi reeling in a flurry of emotions and thoughts as they dig through the past and the history that is so much more complicated and devastating than either of them realise.
A long, lingering silence fills the room between the two siblings as Cooper watches his sister intently, watching her closely with concern before she finally asks the single word and the single question.
"When?"
"May. The year you were born."
"I wouldn't have even been two months old..."
Emi's taken aback. She goes quiet for a few minutes, processing the information as she sits on the side of her brother's bed...
She's not sad, she's not upset and she's not angry. She doesn't really know what she is feeling but what she does know is that she is feeling a lot of whatever it is as she talks through her questions with her brother, trying to process the new twist in the tale.
"I wonder if he knew me... I wonder if he'd met me before then or whether he even knew about me."
However, after checking Emi was holding up okay, Cooper returned to looking for information and he kept searching with a thirst for curiosity, undoubtedly thanks to both his parents.
The quantity of articles he could find were limited.
After all, given that their grandparents controlled the printed and primary news feed for the small town, they'd been very selective in what information was ever published in the Riverdale Register and the bigger papers only published the main aspects of the killing, not really digging too much deeper into the intertwined webs of what had happened all those years ago and in the lead up to Chuck Clayton's death.
But, after a few minutes, Cooper found the one article that another paper had picked up and published all those years ago, reporting on the trial, reporting on the verdict and reporting on the witness who had testified and given evidence in favour of Ethel Muggs, just as she had promised to do in return for Ethel turning herself in; Elizabeth Jones.
Neither Emi nor Cooper had any idea that a single paragraph of a single article would be the big piece of the puzzle that would slot so many smaller, scattered pieces into place.
As he reads the words on his screen while his sister utters words that he doesn't even hear properly like it's just background noise, Cooper's stomach plummets within him, his face grows pale, his skin grows clammy and his heart begins to pound almost loud enough to hear it as he slams his laptop shut.
"Emi, I think this is a bad idea. I think we need to listen to mum. We need to leave this alone. Dad's your dad, too. We know that. That's all that we need to know."
Looking between her brother and his slammed-shut laptop, Emi's dark brown eyes are cast between the two over a number of times before she finally gets up and walks over to her brother and his laptop, sensing that something he'd just seen had been the reason behind his sudden change of tune.
"What were you looking at? What did you see? You've found something, haven't you? Show me."
As his hands press down on his laptop to keep it shut, his sister's eyebrows furrow and her curiosity only intensifies as she tries to fight against him to open the laptop.
"Cooper! What have you seen?! Show me!" Emi argues, her voice growing louder and louder as she and her brother fight against each simultaneously other to open the laptop and to keep it closed.
The two siblings tug and pull and wrestle over the laptop until Cooper gains a little more grip against his sister, using the upper hand to pause and look Emi in the eye.
"Do you trust me, Em?"
Despite every pinky promise that had been both broken and kept between the brother and sister over the years, Emi rolls her eyes at Cooper's question and her undoubtable answer to him that she doesn't even need to stop and consider.
"Of course I do..."
A frown begins to spread over Emi's face at the fact that her brother even had to ask her that question as she begins to back off, leaving Cooper feeling as though he's succeeded. However, as she glances over in her brother's direction and notices that he is backing off just as she has too, it only results in Emi snapping up and seizing the moment as she swiftly snatches Cooper's laptop up into her hands and races out of his bedroom, fuelled by her burning curiosity and her need to know the truth.
Steps behind her as he races after his sister for her own protection, Cooper is just a few steps too slow and too late to steal his laptop back off of and away from Emi as she slams her bedroom door behind her. After her own upbringing, Betty had never allowed them to have locks on their doors, so as to avoid them hiding secrets behind the closed doors and from each other in her own family's home. So, Emi has to press herself up against the door to stop her brother from pushing his way through it as she opens up Cooper's laptop to find whatever it was that had made him slam the laptop shut and call off their investigation.
While her mind had been working overtime as she tried to guess the truth behind her paternity and the answer to her question of her father's identity, absolutely nothing could have prepared Emi for what she found on her brother's screen.
Emi found all but the confirmation of almost every question she has ever had in just two paragraphs of just one web-page as it recounts the trial into Charles Clayton's death of over fifteen years ago...
The article detailed the witness who testified for Ethel Muggs in the trial, the witness who testified to Chuck Clayton's character and supported Ethel's claims of self defense after having been attacked by the same man the previous July. From her and her brother's research and just as Cooper had realised the same detail, Emi realises that it matches with coinciding nine months before her birth date. The timing matches with her conception and the identity of the man her mother had been testifying against matched with Emi's suspicions as to who her biological father was.
Then, the surge of feelings that flood Emi -with the forerunner being shock- collapses her to the ground as she plummets and drops to the floor behind her door, her stomach lurching in grief all while she clutches her brother's laptop in her arms.
Hearing the movement from where he was still pushing and banging on the other side of the door and from where he was too late to protect his sister, Cooper then pushed the door open harder at sensing that she was no longer resisting as strongly, this time making it through.
Instantly, Emi's younger brother is sitting on the ground behind her door and beside her, pulling her into his arms as he holds her tight and close while he tries to console her.
"Emi... Emi... Em... It's okay... Everything's going to be okay...
Cooper doesn't know what else to say as he just repeats the same affirmations along with her name over and over again as he holds her in his arms, holding her close.
After all, as both of them are struggling with and are trying to process the truth of the past and the darkness behind Emi's identity, neither of them know quite what to say or do, so they don't even try...
#
The minute that Betty and Lottie arrive home, Emi flew downstairs from her room with her arms in front of her, holding herself in her arms.
"Mum. I need to talk to you."
Cooper was trailing behind his sister on the stairs, following her down and catching her up to hear the tail end of what she's just said to their mother.
Meanwhile, seeing the seriousness on her eldest child's face along with the expression that is a little pensive but that she can't quite pinpoint and pick precisely, Betty doesn't delay in listening to Emi as she whisks her into her bedroom, leaving Lottie with Cooper who immediately steps in to distract his younger sister while he's concerned for his eldest.
"What's going on, Em? Is everything okay?"
As she fights back the tears that are filling her deep brown eyes, Emi doesn't say a word either way in acknowledgement of her mum's questions. Then, as Betty takes a seat on the side of the bed, encouraging her daughter to sit beside her, the sixteen-year-old just shakes her head and stays standing as she paces near the door, physically unable to bring herself to sit down.
Betty's face is filled with concern for her daughter as she watches her pace around the room, clearly struggling.
Then, as Betty rises to her feet again, it seems to jolt Emi and prompt her to speak up, finally asking her mother about what has been plaguing her since her curiosity and hunger for the truth led to her finding out a little bit too much.
"Tell me, mum... Tell me everything... Tell me about Chuck Clayton... He's my father, isn't he?"
The questions her daughter is raising takes Betty's breath away audibly, just as hearing that name spoken from her lips does.
She takes a moment, she falters, but then finally as she swipes away the tear that has sprung to her eyes and streamed down her cheek almost instantaneously, Betty shakes her head, answering Emi's questions.
"Your father is your father, Emi... That's all that's important."
Fighting off the tears that are filling her eyes threateningly, Emi shakes her head, mustering up the courage to face the truth, to face the pain and to face the devastating discovery that she and her brother had made earlier that day.
"Tell me... Chuck Clayton was my father, wasn't he?" Emi speaks through gritted teeth as she struggles through every passing moment to contain the tears that are filling and welling within her eyes threatening to slide down her cheeks. Then, as she grows a little more desperate for the truth she repeats: "WASN'T HE?!"
Betty just shakes her head over and over again, but she can't say a word. After all, she so desperately wants to deny the awful truth but she cannot bring herself to lie to her daughter as her own parents would to her for so many years.
Then, as the two women stand there while tears brim their eyes, Emi's voice softens and her lips tremble as she watches her mother intently before she raises her next question that she struggles to even utter.
"Chuck... He... He- he hurt you, didn't he mum?"
Betty doesn't say another word to confirm or deny the truth that they both already know the answer to; she doesn't need to.
Rather, with tears streaming down both mother and daughter's cheeks, Betty just opens her arms out and wraps them around her eldest child. Instantly, Emi collapses into her mother's embrace as she releases an involuntary yelp while her body begins to tremble with each sob.
The two of them stay like this for a long, long time as they hold each other and hug each other and console each other through the heartbreaking truth and the pain of the devastating past.
When Emi finally composes herself enough to speak, the first thing she says as she looks up to her mother with red, drenched eyes who is holding her in her arms is "I'm sorry, mum... I'm so, so sorry."
Then, Betty just presses a single kiss to the top of her daughter's head before smoothing it over, just like she had when she was younger.
However, despite her mother's consolations, Emi is thinking back to her extensive research that she and her brother had been undertaking as she looks back up at her mum again with a renewed sense of guilt.
"You would have only been a few weeks older than I am now when that happened to you... And then after going through all of that, you found out you were having me..."
Pausing to try and compose herself despite her stomach still feeling as weak as it did from the moment when it dropped completely earlier that day as she and Cooper made the devastating discovery, Emi struggles to swallow and can barely even breathe as she emanates the terrible guilt that she's feeling, continuing to speak guiltily.
"How can you love me? How can you even look at me?!"
In that moment, Betty is honestly uncertain what breaks her heart more; her daughter's question as she looks up at her with her guilt evidently riddling her or Emi's conviction in asking that question, feeling that it's a question she even needs to ask.
Unsurprisingly, Emi looks visibly nauseated until her mother takes the side of her face into her hands, bringing her to look at her.
"Do not say that. Do not even think it, ever. I do not think it and I do not feel it; I never have, Emi. No matter what resulted in you being here, I, your dad and I, love you, Emi. We love you just as much as we love Cooper and Lottie. I promise you that."
With a small smile as she looks down at her eldest daughter, stroking the side of her face with her thumb, Betty conveys her love and her promise in her expression without another word.
Then, Betty exhales a heavy sigh as she looks down at Emi again, realising that she finally needs to address the matter that she had been dodging for so many years.
After all, now that Emi knows the worst, she needs to hear some of the other parts of that time of their life back then and what came after the most horrific night of Betty's life.
"I think it's time for you to hear the whole story, from both your father and I..."
Then, suddenly, Emi pricks up more alert and defensive as she responds to Betty's suggestion seriously.
"Okay, but I want Cooper to hear it, too. He's my brother and we've been in this together. Anything you say to me, you can say to him, too."
#
After what felt like the longest evening known to man, Betty waited until her husband returned home, filling him on their offspring's discovery, with all of them waiting through an uncomfortable family dinner and waiting until Lottie was down for the night before the four of them sat down together in the lounge room, Betty and Jughead on one lounge with Emi and Cooper on the other.
Starting with the very beginning, Jughead held her hand as she gave their children an incredibly brief explanation and the only necessary details from the night of the dance as she alluded to the most horrific night of her life when she was assaulted.
Then, from there, both Jughead and Betty shared the discussion, filling in each other's blanks and sharing their own thoughts and feelings on that time of their life all those years ago...
They talked through the aftermath of the attack.
They talked through the day when she passed out at school, leading to both a young girl's suspicions and Emi's existence being confirmed.
Betty talked through the fact that on the very same day as learning she was pregnant, she had broken up with Jughead, with a mother's love prompting her to choose her unborn baby right from the very beginning, even when it meant making the difficult decision of ending her blossoming relationship with the man she was growing to love and preparing for life as a single mother with a baby that they both knew wasn't her boyfriends'.
Betty talked through the absolute love she had felt for Emi right from her very, very first proper prenatal appointment which had only solidified her conviction to make a life for them, right from the very beginning and despite everything.
They talked through Jughead's concern in both Betty and her unborn baby at that time and despite their breakup which had led him to piecing together the truth, just like Emi and Cooper had today.
They talked through the way that –despite being broken up- Jughead had stood up and declared that Betty was pregnant with his baby in front of half the school, to prevent Chuck from piecing together the fact that Emi was his.
Betty talked through the afternoon when she had been bowled over with love and adoration for the fact that Jughead had given Emi her very first gift well before she was born; the little unisex onesie that Betty had held onto and pulled out to show them.
They talked through the moment that had changed Betty's life for the better as Jughead made the offer of standing by Betty and Emi as her father, pledging himself to them out of love, not responsibility. Then, Betty elaborated on that with telling her daughter all about how proud he had been of her before she was even born; how he wouldn't shut up after an ultrasound and the way he'd treasured her ultrasound photos.
They talked through the reactions of their family and friends as Betty found a way to tell them that she was pregnant and that she'd committed herself to the idea of raising her baby.
They talked about the way that a remark from Chuck had led to a fist fight with Jughead defending his girls, before their grandpa FP intervened and finished what Jughead had started; which would incriminate them both in the murder investigation that they had no idea that they'd be facing in a few months time.
They talked through the way that for the briefest week of her entire pregnancy, her age, her situation and her inexperience all united forces to get to her, making Betty believe that she couldn't be the mother to Emi that she so desperately wanted to be, believing that adoption would be the best option for her unborn child's future at that time. They talked through how Betty struggled with the concept that she thought was best for Emi until Jughead helped her through what she was feeling and suppressing and the fact that he knew Betty wouldn't be able to live with anything other than raising her.
They talked through the way that their father proposed to their mother, explaining how he had been writing their lives and their history into a story, writing their story, with the only difference to their tale being that it ended in a proposal, making way for the fictional twist in his story to become fact as he proposed to her.
They talked Emi and Cooper through the reason why their parents got engaged at the age that they did and they explained how though they're were getting married because they loved each other, but that they did it so young because they loved Emi. They explained why they married when they did and at the age they did for Jughead to be automatically listed as her legal father as Betty's spouse and without needing to lie on the birth certificate, but to reduce any chance that Chuck may have tried to make to worm his way into Emi's life.
They talked through their wedding day as Emi and Cooper's parents made a promise as two young teenagers, pledging themselves to each other for the rest of their lives, going on to explain how after barely a week of newly-wedded bliss they then became family of three.
They talked through the moments of delirium, exhaustion and joy as they became parents and explained the story of how and why Jughead had chosen Emi's name all those years ago.
They talked through the first weeks of Emi's life as through trial and error they learnt to become parents along the way, all the while juggling returning to school with a newborn while actively protecting their baby from her biological father who walked the same corridors and classrooms they did.
They talked through some of the final days of Chuck's life. They explained how their lives felt like they had come to a grinding halt after he took Emi from them at school, then filing a paternity suit against them to fight for a part in Emi's life just two days before his life ended, explaining how Jughead had suggested for the three of them to move away and flee from their small, home town in order for them to protect their daughter. And then, they explained how just the next day they received a call from Kevin informing them that their greatest fears for their daughter had died, along with Chuck Clayton.
They talked Emi and Cooper through the same investigation that they had been looking into over the last few weeks which they had investigated fifteen years ago and with a baby on their hip in order to clear their family and friend's names who were raised in the murder investigation and to clear Jughead in particular after he had been arrested in connection to Chuck's death.
They talked them through what they found out and how they solved it, eventually leading Betty to Ethel Muggs and how she had unintentionally ended Chuck's life when she'd only been trying to protect her own.
They talked them through all of what followed, leading up to their second, wonderful little surprise just two years on in the form of a baby boy named Cooper, ending their explanation on a positive note and incorporating her brother into what had ultimately been 'Emi's story' that she'd insisted her brother hear, too.
And then, despite her families concerned gazes as they watched her closely throughout the telling and despite her brother's comforting hugs, warm smiles and his consoling gestures throughout, as soon as the story is finished and her parents wrapped it up, Emi got up and raced off from the information overload, with the back of her hand over her mouth as tears seemed to spring to her eyes.
While all three of the others were quick to rise from their seats and follow after her, Jughead holds his hand out to his wife and son, indicating that he'll take it.
#
Following behind after Emi, Jughead gives her just a few moments to take a breather from where she'd darted outside on the balcony and where she's now pacing back and forth before he joins her, slowly walking over to her and wrapping an arm around her as he moves outside too.
Jughead gently leads his daughter over to the step where the two sit down side-by-side while he keeps his arm around her back, holding her and supporting her, running his hand up and down her forearm reassuringly.
"Emi, I know you have been dealt an overwhelming amount of information today. But, I want to make sure that you know that regardless of what was said and what we told you, you are my daughter."
Feeling her eyes begin to glisten as they fill with tears once again today, Emi sinks into him from where his arm is hung around her, sinking into the comfort and protection of her father's touch after the answers she'd found in her hunt for the truth had led to so many more devastating truths than she'd ever expected to find following that question mark.
Looking up at him as she suppresses her sniffle, seeing Emi's big brown eyes that are sparkling with tears breaks Jughead's heart as she asks him the same question that she had asked her mum just a little earlier on that day.
"Dad? How can you love me? How can you know how horribly I was made and how could you have seen how badly mum was hurt and still love me?"
Her question isn't whether or not her dad does love her. From the last sixteen years, along with everything he and her mother had told her just minutes earlier, Emi has absolute faith in the fact that he does. However, her question is how can he.
Meanwhile, just as it had for Betty, both his daughter's question and the look on her face breaks Jughead's heart as he just casts his eyes down at her, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, followed by a heavy sigh.
"Hearing everything that you heard today is an incredibly distressing experience and it might feel like knowing all of those things changes your viewpoint for you. Know that, sure, there are a few small parts of you that are a little like him –like your beautiful brown eyes- but the biggest difference between you and Chuck is your heart... You have such a kind heart that is full of goodness towards all. But, just know that everything you've just learned has never, ever changed anything for us. You are our girl, Emilie Jones. You are smart, you are beautiful and you are strong, Em. And, your mum and I are so proud of you and the incredible young woman that you are growing up to become. We are so proud to be your parents."
This time as Emi sniffles, swiping at her eyes, her tears are not so much triggered by the pain of the horrors she's learned but rather it's her realisation that no matter what she had found out about her identity, about her biological father and about all that her mother had endured, she can't help the smallest of smiles on her face from the warmth in her heart.
After all, despite everything, her mother had been willing to give up her new relationship with one of her best friends, she'd been willing to give up the promising career that her schooling had been working her towards, she'd been willing to endure the difficulties and struggles of becoming a teenage mother and she'd been willing to do everything all on her own, protecting her from her biological father and the truth behind her identity.
Then, despite everything, her father had chosen her. He hadn't just stepped up to the plate and fulfilled responsibility. He had taken her on as a responsibility willingly. He had been and will always be her father by choice, reminding her of that as he murmurs into her hair.
"I love you so much, my girl."
#
After the long, exhausting evening, Emi and Cooper had finally gone to bed.
Cooper had offered to sleep on the floor of his sister's room in case she woke through the night, being haunted by the result of their investigation. It's just like Emi would offer to sleep on the floor of his room when Cooper suffered with nightmares as a child.
Meanwhile, in their own bedroom, Jughead and Betty are curled and cuddled up as he runs his hands up and down his wife's back, holding her close to him after the day they'd had.
As much as they had spent the last sixteen years trying to protect their daughter from it, Betty knew that today was coming from the day she found out that she was pregnant. She knew that one day; there would always be the question of her biological father and what the story was there.
And, today was that day.
"How are you feeling?" Jughead eventually murmurs into the darkness of the night, brushing a hand through his wife's golden locks from where she's laying on his chest.
"Exhausted... No matter how much time goes by, it is always still hard to go through all of that and relieve some of the toughest parts of back then. I just still can't believe that the kids were investigating it together and managed to get to the bottom of it without us even knowing..."
Betty doesn't see the little grin on her husband's face.
"We should have expected it... They're our kids, after all."
It's just two words – 'our kids'. But, even after all these years and after his absolute commitment to her and their family, time after time, those two words are still enough to swell Betty's heart with love for her husband and his unwavering support; something she never takes for granted.
"Thank you, Juggie... Thank you for everything. Thank you for being there for me, for us and for our family. Thank you for always wanting Emi. Thank you for making her yours."
With a smile on the corner of his lips, Jughead just leans down and dips his head towards hers, pressing a kiss to his wife's lips as another smile follows it.
"She's our bubba. She always has been."
A little bit more a serious one this time with quite a time-jump. However, this story is quite free form with just one-shots and little moments from whatever point in their lives I feel like writing and covering so while I've kept it quite chronological thus far as I worked through the existing ideas I had, I can go backwards or forwards again.
If anyone has any little moments you'd like to see for the Jones family, let me know!
