*Present Day*
Betty woke up the next morning when she heard one of the babies crying down the hall. She stood up from the bed and ran her fingers through her disheveled hair before she headed for the door. When she reached Polly's room, she looked in to see her sister on her bed with baby Jason in her arms and her mother stood near the crib holding Gemini. Both were still in there pajamas as well and Betty stepped in to join them. "Heyyyy." She said to Gemini in a sweet, gentle voice approaching Alice. She rubbed the baby's light hair before kissing her on top of her head. When she looked up to her mother, they both quickly averted their eyes remembering last night's conversation.
"Do you have any Jughead plans today?" Polly asked from the bed.
"I don't know. He wasn't really answering my texts last night." Betty admitted, turning to face Polly.
"Uh oh." Alice jumped in. "You better hope he wasn't with that Topaz girl."
"What do you mean?" Betty rolled her eyes to look back to her mom. "They're just friends."
"All boys say that, honey." Alice swayed and bounced to keep the baby calm.
"Well...Jughead's not like all boys." Betty smiled to herself. "He's different."
"There's no such thing. Boys are boys through and through. No matter how different they are, they still all want one thing. And even if they don't...they're men. They don't know how to say no to girls who throw themselves at them." She smiled down at the baby in her arms and Gemini held tight to her grandmother's finger. "Just make sure you keep an eye on them, that's all I'm saying." She looked back up to Elizabeth. "I hope you're right. I just don't want you to get hurt."
Betty wanted nothing more than to give her a piece of her mind, but with the babies in the room, she decided to keep calm and think of something nice to say, for once. "Thanks, Mom."
Alice smiled down at Gemini again and continued to gently rock her back and forth while making funny faces at her. "Hi!" She playfully whispered to the infant. "Hi, Princess!" She repeated, a bit louder and with a higher voice. "Hi, Princess!" Alice giggled and Betty couldn't help but grin. She'd never seen Alice so giddy before and it almost made her forget about the glimpse of Dark Alice she saw the night before.
"Uh oh. I need to pee." Polly spoke from the bed.
"I can take him." Betty put her arms out for Jason and Polly handed him over, rushing out of the room and down the hall.
When the two were left alone, Betty sat on Polly's bed before she looked up to her mother, realizing it seemed as though Alice hadn't even noticed Polly's absence. She was so enthralled and distracted by her granddaughter, she didn't even look up to see her eldest daughter leave the room. Betty couldn't help but watch Alice smile down at Gemini with so much love that she longed for the past, when Alice used to look at her like that. She began to notice how happy babies actually made her mother and she wondered how hard it must've been to give away her son. "Do you ever think about him?"
Alice's smile faded, immediately panicking at her daughter's question. "Who?" She looked back to Betty.
"My brother...do you ever think about him?" The 16 year old sadly looked down at Jason, imagining how horrible it would be to separate him from his sister.
"Of course I do." Alice calmed down a bit, realizing she actually had been thinking about FP getting out of jail before this conversation. "Every single day." She looked back down to Gemini.
"Would you...maybe consider looking for him?" Her youngest wondered with a light heart.
Alice kept her head down, though her eyes looked up at the wall across the room. She certainly couldn't tell Betty that that was her reason for seeing FP everyday, could she? She decided to lie. "I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it."
"Well, why not?" Betty wondered as Jason's pacifier fell out of his mouth. She picked it up and put it back into his mouth, realizing how much she loved him when he blinked those big eyes up at her. Alice didn't answer, but Betty saw something in her mother's eyes while she gazed down at Gemini. "Are you scared?"
Alice looked back to her 16 year old with a small fake grin. Just then, Hal entered and she deeply inhaled, not wanting to have this conversation in front of her husband. "Betty, could you give Jason to your father and go down to set the table? I'm gonna make a nice breakfast for us this morning." Betty suspiciously squinted at her mother's sudden change of attitude.
"What's the occasion?" Hal wondered, graciously taking his grandson from Betty.
"It's just a beautiful Saturday morning and it's gonna be our first full day with the twins in the house. I'd say we should all just stay in and spend some time together...starting with a lovely family breakfast. How's that sound?" She watched Elizabeth head for the door. "Betty, if you make any plans with Jughead today, cancel 'em. Today's gonna be a Cooper day."
Betty stopped at the door, turning to see the look her mother gave her and she instantly felt confused. Shaking it off, she turned and went downstairs to obey her mother.
When Polly returned from the bathroom, Alice handed Gemini over to her so she could go change out of her silky pink pajamas before heading downstairs to prepare the food. She sent Betty back upstairs to change as well and help Polly change the twins. When everyone was out of their PJ's, they joined Alice downstairs. Hal helped out with breakfast while the girls sat at the table, feeding the twins their bottles.
After breakfast, they all sat in the living room and chatted about the babies or played with them before Hal and Alice started a puzzle. Betty checked her phone every now and then to see if she had any texts from Jughead, but...nothing. She began to grow nervous, wondering if her mother could be right about him and Toni. But she forced herself not to worry about it, telling herself that she didn't want to become paranoid like her mother.
Soon, baby Jason started to cry and Alice offered to take him. She went upstairs with the baby to change him and Polly started to fall asleep in the chair with her daughter on her chest. Hal took Gemini to let Polly take a small nap and Betty started to take over her parents' puzzle.
The doorbell rang and Betty stood to answer it. When she opened the door, she saw a young man who stood at about five foot, eleven inches. He wore a pair of jeans and a light gray Cashmere sweater over a baby blue button down. He had on a pair of sunglasses and his sandy hair was stylishly messy and the expression on his face seemed cool. An unlit cigarette was carefully placed in between his lips and he slowly reached up, pulling off his sunglasses, revealing piercing blue eyes.
"Hello. Can I help you?" Betty spoke, holding tight to the door handle.
"Yes, I'm looking for Mr. and Mrs. Cooper?" He spoke with the cigarette still in his mouth.
"Who is it, Betty?" Hal's voice came from the living room.
"I'm not sure." The youngest turned to look at her dad and when she did, she saw Alice coming down the stairs with Jason.
Mrs. Cooper set the baby down in his bassinet near the stairs before she noticed the front door was open. Stepping further into the living room, she looked to her daughter who had questionable eyes. "Betty, who's-" She began to ask, but the moment she looked out the door, the moment she saw him...she knew. She froze and her jaw dropped while her hand fell to her stomach and her eyes stung with tears.
A/N: I'm sorry to leave it on such a terrible cliff hanger. Haha I hope you liked this chapter. TODAY IS MADCHEN'S BIRTHDAY! I can't believe the Queen is 47! And...since I was such a writing machine yesterday and I barely did any house work, I'm gonna take a break for the day. Hopefully this chapter was good enough to tide you over for the next 24 hours. I'm starting to get a cold, I think so I'm due for a break anyway. I'm sorry to let you guys down though. Can't wait for tomorrow night's episode! I can't believe it'll be the mid-season finale ALREADY! That's insane, I feel like season 2 just started. Haha! Anyway, thanks for reading, as usual. You guys rock! Please let me know your thoughts on this fic so far! Love you all! MWAH!