It was becoming unsettlingly common for Hiram to come home finding Lane with his daughter in these last few days. They were almost always discussing school in some fashion, whether it be homework or Veronica's campaign. It wasn't until he heard Hermione asking Lane's take on her own campaign that Hiram had decided to put a tail on the girl, one with more access to her than the man he currently had watching her.
"What'll you say if someone asks your opinion on the prison?" Lane pitched prepping Veronica and Archie, who was currently absent from the table, for the school hall meeting that night.
Veronica popped a chocolate covered strawberry in her mouth as she thought, that she'd specifically gotten to share with Lane. "I'd tell them they can take that up with my mother, and then redirect to what Archie and I want for the school."
Lane nodded liking that answer, having to remind herself she wasn't supposed to be liking anything with the name Lodge attached to it. "If you can figure out how to make it sound less argumentative it'll be perfect," she said seeing the way Veronica smiled. And behind them sitting elegantly on the couch was Mrs Lodge, who was very pleased with both girls.
"On an unrelated note," Veronica said, something she was saying more frequently as she slowly chipped away at the thick walls Lane surrounded herself with, "I've notice a little distance between you and Sweet Pea, is everything okay?" A little was an understatement they were practically avoiding each other at school now. All the Serpents seemed to be, more often than not Lane was alone, and since most of the people were keeping their distance from Veronica herself she often sought Lane out.
She'd been approaching more personal questions lately and Lane sighed. "We've been better," was Lane's simple, unapproachable answer. She decided to change the subject. "Speaking of boyfriends, where's yours?" she asked looking for his shocking splash of red hair she didn't remember disappearing. "You're smart enough to handle yourself, his mouth's the one I'm worried about."
Chuckling quietly to herself Veronica placed her hand over Lane's. "Let me worry about my Archiekins," Veronica told her, knowing if by then she hadn't taken to Archie that Lane just wouldn't have him. "I promise to groom him to your satisfaction."
His absence told Lane a few different things: boy wonder was tied closely to Hiram Lodge, and Hiram was using him to watch her in an effort to find whether she'd run off her leash because he was surrounded with evidence he couldn't tie her to.
…
Archie sat in the dimly lit study trying not to look confused by what Hiram was asking of him. "Is Lane a threat?"
If only he knew, Hiram mused. "Her father and I worked on a project not too long before his death. It was," he took a breath as though it troubled him, "the unfortunate reason he was killed. The wrong people caught wind of it, I had protection and he didn't."
"She blames you," Archie said seeing Hiram nod. It explained Lane's extreme aversion to Veronica when she first came to town, no matter Ronnie's best effort to befriend her. "Lane has to know it wasn't your fault."
Hiram raised a hand with a gentle smile. "It was a terrible thing, and she was too young to have witnessed it. I do regret that," he paused contemplating the small hidden truth to his words. "But I'm afraid she's using Veronica to get to me, and I worry she'll use the Serpents to help her."
Archie found himself nodding, because that explained Lane's sudden change of heart when before it was arguable whether she even had one. "Anything in particular you want me to look out for, Mr Lodge?" he asked, willing to do this if it meant protecting Ronnie.
A smile hid behind his glittering eyes. "She and I had a sit down not too long ago, ever since she's been distant from the Serpents. I believe this is a ruse and I'd like you to confirm it."
Once more Archie nodded and verbalized his agreement before shaking Hiram's hand. He didn't know what Lane was doing or why but it was bad enough to have caught Hiram Lodge's attention. They left the study and joined the three that stood in the foyer, Lane but mostly Veronica were laughing at what Hermione had craved most when she was pregnant.
"What did we miss?" Hiram asked as he stood beside his wife. The ease in which Lane was able to get along with his wife and daughter was disturbing, as was how well she played her part – there were times, few and far in between, she almost convinced him.
Hermione turned to him still smiling. "Oh, just a few memories of when I was pregnant with Veronica," she answered raising a hand to brush Veronica's hair back. She missed it sometimes, her being little. Lane might've been several years too young but she had as good a plan as a high schooler could, considering she didn't have family. "Well, Lane, you are always welcome."
Lane bid her a quiet thanks and walked with Veronica towards the door. "I'll walk out with you," Archie offered, seeing Hiram's pleased expression.
But Lane called back, "uteruses only," before she shut the door after them.
The two girls walked down the hall towards the elevator, Veronica slipping her arm through Lane's in a way Lane was only used to Toni doing. "I know you're only doing this to get to my father," Veronica admitted feeling the way Lane tensed. "But it's been kinda nice having a friend."
Reaching the elevator Lane pressed the button and waited, having figured out Veronica was too smart to not eventually figure it out; she was honestly surprised it'd taken Veronica that long. But that only served to show her desperation for companionship. Lane didn't know why she did it, everything in her was telling her not to, but there were a lot of thoughts and feelings she'd been having lately that contradicted her nature. "Sweet Pea and I are fine," Lane told her honestly, seeing the way her dark brows drew together. "But as far as your father knows we're not."
Lane watched the other girl try to process that, that whatever was happening between Lane and her father was close to imploding and yet Lane was willing to trust her. She blinked and her face softened as she threw her arms around Lane's shoulder. "Veronica," Lane whined holding her arms at her side.
"Ronnie," Veronica told her, "my friends call me Ronnie."
With a growled sigh Lane let her keep hugging her, hearing the ding of the elevator as it reached the floor. "We're not friends," she told her sounding irritable.
But Veronica smiled still squeezing her. "We'll get there. And I won't tell him," she said pulling back to look at Lane's searching eyes, knowing this was most likely a test. "I don't know what's happening with the two of you but I know the story he wove about you was a lie; you are many things, Lane Vivian, but irrational is not one of them." She'd known her father was lying about Lane for a while, so she didn't feel too bad going back on their full disclosure agreement when he wasn't upholding it himself. Suspicion of her father had been slowly building with each nefarious scheme, Veronica was starting to realize Lane might be her greatest ally should she ever need one.
Of all the things for Hiram to find out she was lying about Sweet Pea seemed the lesser of it all. And Lane would find out soon enough whether Veronica could be trusted. So Lane nodded and hit the button again so the doors would open. "I'll see you at the meeting," Lane said stepping into the elevator before adding, "Ronnie." She left Veronica with a small smile as the doors closed.
…
Later that evening, after the school hall meeting, Lane sat on the couch watching Sweet Pea pace the length of the living room in quick stomping strides. "Did you see him sitting up there, acting like he was one of them?" Sweet Pea seethed as he reached the wall and whirled around to stalk back across the room.
"I did," Lane agreed in a monotone voice. She might've been sitting on the other side of the auditorium but she'd seen Sweet Pea's face at Jughead's tactfully lackluster response regarding how they'd help the Southsiders. He and Betty were being smart, turning it so they were helping all of Riverdale High not just the Southside – but Lane knew that would only serve to turn Sweet Pea's anger on her.
"Him and his Northside Princess, who acts like she's entitled to the Serpents cause she's screwing our leader's son."
Reminding Sweet Pea that she herself started this as a Northsider wouldn't do anything good for either of them, so she responded with a halfhearted, "I know."
He continued pacing nowhere near done, because beneath the self-righteous anger towards Jughead and Betty was the actual problem he wouldn't address. "It's gonna be the Snake Charmer all over again; he comes up with a plan promising results and it only gets us screwed over."
"And after he doesn't listen to me I'll end up being the one to fix the problem," Lane added agreeing that screwing up was becoming Jughead's pattern.
This was the actual problem, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut this time. "If you can get your head out of Lodge's ass long enough," he muttered just loud enough to be heard.
An anger that was more familiar to him than it was to her set her blood to boiling. "You wanna run that by me again?" she dared.
"No, you don't get to sit there and act like you're above this," he said turning on her as she rose to her feet. "Like you're above me. I've done everything you asked and all it's done is separate you from us. And we sit there everyday watching you rub elbows with the enemy. Goddammit Lane, you're gonna help them win."
Whether or not he was voicing her own concerns she still felt attacked, and because it was him doing the attacking it made her more vulnerable. "Then come up with a better plan," she said finding she was very close to yelling. "Stop shrugging and saying you don't know. Come up with something. What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to back off," he cried, his loud voice echoing off the walls. "I don't want you in his house, I don't want you near his daughter, I don't want you involved in their campaign, I want you back with us."
"That doesn't work," Lane said feeling like she wanted to pull her hair out.
"Then we make it work," he said knowing she could figure it out, she was always the one with the plan. "It's not just you anymore, Lane. This is our life. That's our kid."
She ran her hands through her hair as she turned from him wondering how a stupid school election had become this. "This is the only way I know how to get him off me," she said fighting for calm as she faced him again. "And you still aren't offering any ideas."
She wasn't listening, or he wasn't, this conversation wasn't going anywhere other than downhill and he couldn't do it anymore. "I'll stay with Fangs tonight, how's that for an idea?" Grabbing his jacket he slammed the door after him and headed for his bike.
With a heavy exhale she shrunk and brought a hand to her face not knowing what she was supposed to do, and she just felt so alone. The door was thrown open and slammed shut in such rapid succession that she had enough time to turn and see the dark shape of Sweet Pea before he smothered her against him.
He hadn't made it halfway to the driveway before turning back, feeling an unbearable weight in his chest the more distance he put between them. He couldn't leave her, he'd never been to. "If this is our best chance I can get over doing this a little longer," he said giving in.
And she nodded, because she'd gone over this every way she could think and other than killing Hiram this was what she continued to come back to. "I won't go to their house again," she relented knowing if there was any one thing that scared him most it was that, and she could figure a way around it if it made him feel a little better.
Pulling back to look down at her he told her softly, "I'm sorry." For yelling at her, for holding this in the past several days til he finally exploded, for always leaving her to come up with the solution and tell him what to do – he was sorry for all of it.
"Me too," she told him in return. None of this was easy for him, she wasn't easy, and it left him rising to every challenge and at some point she'd started expecting him to. They came together again holding each other tight enough they could almost feel this thing between them.
.^.
There was a Swords and Serpents meeting after school, which he knew was just a thinly veiled front for the Serpents. But if Lane was still with the Serpents, like she was trying to pretend she wasn't, then she'd be there. So he kept a close eye on her seeing the way they watched her pass them, the distance they kept, the way Sweet Pea refused look at her. And so when Jughead broke character and stood beside her at her locker Archie hovered in the background watching.
"We need you at the meeting," Jughead told her hearing in the deep breath she took she wasn't happy with him being there. "I don't know where Toni is, which leaves you as the only one who can mediate between us and Sweet Pea."
Maybe Toni's what was missing, Lane thought having gone the entire day feeling like something wasn't there. "Fangs doesn't like it either," she said knowing the blowback was gonna come from both her boys.
"All the more reason for you to be there."
Swinging the door to her locker shut so that it clanged harshly she turned to him, seeing a glimpse of red between the rush of bodies as everyone ambled to their next class. It only served to infuriate her more, that boy wonder was there, that Jughead was going against what they agreed on and was possibly putting her in jeopardy. "Here's the thing, Jug" she said stepping closer so that Jughead bent his head to hear her, "I don't care. My opinion is aligned with Sweet Pea's, convince him and I'll go along with it. Otherwise…I still don't care."
Archie swallowed when Lane passed him, her green eyes fixed on him filled with such fire he felt like his skin might blister. He couldn't hold her stare now the same way he hadn't been able to at lunch and he quickly looked away, in doing so he saw how angry Jughead was at whatever they'd said; it hadn't looked like a conversation between accomplices.
He and Lane might not have been friends but Archie had never had a problem with her, he could still remember a time the three of them used to play together. Jughead referred to it as the time before Lane forgot how to be happy, before her father died. Archie found that the burning in his face was shame.
…
Lane was already at work by the time Sweet Pea got there, she'd been driving and he'd been riding the bus. From the way he stormed into her office she knew the meeting hadn't gone well. "Go take it out on a car, I'm not talking to you until you've calmed down," she told him without looking up from the expense report she was reviewing. But she noticed when the door didn't close again and she looked up to see him still glowering in the doorway. "If you're still mad when we get home maybe I'll let you take it out on me," she offered with a playful grin seeing him shake his head as he left, though she caught the way he smiled as he went.
She'd just gotten through to the right person regarding a specific auto part and was in their hold queue when she heard her name. Seeing it was Jughead and Betty she groaned and hung up wondering why this problem wasn't fixing itself.
"She's working, try again," Sweet Pea told Jughead refusing to let him go back.
But Jughead was standing his ground. "When?" he demanded. "She won't talk to us at school and you guys haven't been coming by the Wyrm. When should I talk to her?"
With a shrug Sweet Pea answered, "that's a personal problem."
"Betty." The three turned to where a visibly unhappy Lane stood in the doorway to her office. When Jughead stepped forward Lane was quick to tell him, "just Betty."
The blonde in question left her annoyed boyfriend and followed Lane into the neatly arranged office. "Why me?" Betty asked as Lane closed the door.
"Because you're the problem," was Lane's brief answer as she sat behind her desk. "Or at least your mother is."
With an irritable huff Betty shook her head. "Yeah, apparently she's Serpent enemy number one."
"What?" Lane asked finding that absurd, and Betty could only nod. "A bunch of drama queens. Lodge and his prison are Serpent enemy number one, then it's Penny, and then maybe your mother. But that's a toss up between her and the ghoulies."
She almost smiled at finding someone with a little sense, thinking maybe Jughead was right in Lane being the one to talk them down. "It's completely ridiculous that's the only reason they're against me."
"And that's the other problem," Lane said almost cutting her off, and she was left with Betty's confused face as she waited for an explanation. And this was partly the reason Lane hadn't cared for many of the people she'd grown up with, the entitlement was infuriating. "Unless you wanna fight I'm not addressing you thinking you're a badass Serpent princess because you take your boyfriend's dick real well, or the fact that you were against the Serpents until Jughead decided he wasn't. Are you cool if we skip over those two very obvious problems in favor of a more civil conversation?" Lane posed staring hard at Betty.
It was clear to Betty that regardless of what Lane was doing with Veronica, she was still very much a Serpent. And Betty found herself both offended and chastised as she nodded. "I can be fine with it if you stop verbally attacking me," was Betty's reasonable counter.
"You came to me knowing I'm a bitch," Lane countered in return seeing Betty's reluctant agreement with that statement. "I'm assuming the reason you're here is to find out how to get us to accept you, is that right?" Lane posed and waited for Betty's confirmation before continuing. "Issue number one: we are not obligated to you because of Jughead. If you at any point are asking what we are or are not doing for you then you are the problem and you need to rearrange your thinking. The second issue is why: on the one hand," she spread her hands across the desk like she was holding each argument, "why should we accept you, on the other why do you want to be accepted? Not rhetorical, I'd like an answer."
Lane's words were still sharp enough to cut but her tone was even, restrained. This was starting to sound an awful like Sweet Pea's argument, less to do with her mother and better articulated but they sounded very similar. Betty regretted letting Jughead bring her here. "I've helped the Serpents multiple times, I"
"And I'm already stopping you," Lane said speaking over Betty, who's face hardened waiting for Lane to say Betty did it for Jughead the same way Sweet Pea had. "You've helped us a whopping two times, and on both occasions the good we saw come out of it was nothing more than happenstance on your part. You're only destroying your cause by throwing your unintentional help in our face like we owe you for it. Next question, why do you wanna be a Serpent?"
Whether or not Betty wanted to admit it Lane made a good argument, and Betty didn't completely agree with everything Lane was saying but she at least had a better understanding of where the other Serpents were coming from. "I want to be apart of this world, I want to see and help things change for the better," Betty answered and watched Lane blink unsatisfied. She threw her hands up exasperated. "Well then why did you join?"
"Because I wanted a family, one who'd die for me the same way I'd die for them. That," Lane cried slamming her hand on the table so that Betty jumped, "is another problem. This is a gang not an outlet to rebel against your mom or a way to get closer to your boyfriend. You're proving our point by thinking our willingness to die for each other is the kind of melodrama worthy of an eye roll. You helped get FP out of prison for covering your cousin's murder. Shit, Betty, your own boyfriend was a drug runner, and his solution to that was cutting a chunk of skin out of the bitch's arm. If you wanna call yourself a Serpent you'd better be ready to die for it."
Betty swallowed heavily wanting to correct some of Lane's assumptions about what she thought of the Serpents, to explain that wasn't the reason she'd rolled her eyes, but Lane had effectively made her feel small and scolded. And then Lane stood coming around the side of the desk and Betty braced herself as Lane set a hand on either armrest so that she hovered over her.
In an almost hushed voice Lane continued. "And if after all that you still want this let me tell you, they have a pretty solid reason for not liking you," she said with her face just inches above Betty's. "But they can also be a bunch of rash idiots. Use as much reason as you want they're not gonna listen to you." She stood upright giving Betty a little room to breathe. "You want in you need to prove it."
It took Betty a moment to understand what Lane was getting at, that she was questioning Betty's commitment while also answering her question. It left her reeling as she tried to keep up. "Thank you," Betty said, though it sounded more a question.
Motioning for Betty to get up Lane headed for the door. "Don't thank me yet, I'm one of the ones you need to convince." She was wholly unsurprised to find both Jughead and Sweet Pea on the other side of the door, Jughead stumbled a little at being caught eavesdropping but Sweet Pea was unapologetic as ever.
"I take it we don't have your vote," Jughead said disappointed. The last thing either boy heard clearly was Lane telling Betty to take it more seriously.
A crease etched between Lane's brows as she looked at him. "I made myself clear," she replied, and when his expression didn't change she looked up at Sweet Pea. "Are we voting for them?" He shook his head and she turned back to Jughead. "Well there you go."
"Lane," Jughead sighed.
But she raised a finger at him in warning. "I have a lot of opinions on this year's candidates one of which is that all parties, present company included, are useless. Quit while you're ahead, Jug."
With a smug grin Sweet Pea left them to follow her into what had become her office, and he had half a mind to lock the door. "My girl's a goddamn Serpent," he said sitting on the edge of her desk. "Is it weird to say I'm proud?"
From where she sat in her chair she looked up seeing a familiar edge to his stare and she shook her head. "We're not having sex in this office," she informed him and watched the way he deflated.
"Come on, Vivian, live a little," he goaded with a sly smile.
But she still shook her head, though now highly amused. "We've only got an hour and a half left, take your hard on back to your car and finish up." She smiled as he tipped her head back to kiss her and rolled her eyes as he left, knowing he was swinging his hips cockily to catch her eye. And he laughed to himself when he caught her staring.
…
He made it home before she did and she barely got the door open before he was pulling her inside and up into his arms as he carried to the bed. It ended with him flopping onto his back happy and satisfied as he caught his breath. Beside him he heard her take a deep breath before sighing. "That's what every guy wants to hear," he said feeling that breath pierce his confidence.
"What?" she asked turning to him confused before she caught on to what she'd done. "No, babe, you were fine."
His brows rose as he laughed lightly. "Fine? That's not any better."
She rolled onto her side facing him trying and failing not to laugh. "It's not you," she assured him.
"I know you enjoyed it," he said, taking advantage of any hard time he could give her. He turned over as well and they laid at the end of their pillows close enough their noses touched. "What is it?"
She sighed again struck with the same feeling as earlier, it wasn't food, and it wasn't Sweet Pea. "I just feel like there's something missing," she said hearing how weird that sounded when she said it out loud. It'd been there for days, she hadn't been able to put the word missing to it and now that she had she could feel it so clearly.
"Like what, you're missing something?" he asked not knowing what she meant.
"I don't know," she said having such a hard time putting words to this. "It's like I want something that's supposed to be here and it's not, and I have no idea what it is. It's gonna drive me nuts."
He pressed a soft kiss to the tip of her nose. "Maybe it's the baby," he offered.
It was as good as anything, and in a way made sense. "Maybe," she said wanting her mind to be off it because she could swear it was on the tip of her tongue. "What were you and Toni fighting about today?" she asked, having forgotten to ask him about that.
He laid beside her stunned as he figured out what Lane was missing, and he'd already told Toni not to involve Lane in anyway. They had enough to deal with besides a missing person. "Nothing."
Almost to the second she was sitting up enough to look at him fully, her brows scrunched up and her mouth frowning. "Well that was a lie."
He hated how well she knew him. "We've got enough going on, you're already too stressed," he told her knowing it wasn't going to be enough.
"You know how this goes," she said seeing his jaw clench. "I'll find out on my own or I'll wear you down. Which one is gonna be?" His answer was to shove her shoulders so that she fell back on the bed, and before she get an elbow under her he'd rolled on top of her and was kissing his way down her neck to her chest. "I'm just gonna ask you again when you're done," she said knowing he was well aware his head between her legs wasn't going to make her forget.
His mouth moved lower over her small rounded stomach past her belly button and he paused gently pressing his lips to the place he knew the baby to be from the pictures on the app he looked at everyday. Another sigh. "Fine," she grumbled giving in. "I won't get involved."
Kissing the same spot he laid his head on her stomach feeling the kind of love he thought only existed in movies. "Take Lodge out of it, are you happy?" he asked feeling her fingers running through his hair.
"Yes," she answered surprising herself with how little she needed to think about it. But at his quiet, 'me too,' her brows drew together in wonder; there was a thought behind his question and it took her some time before she reached it. "Sweet Pea, I'm not marrying you because I'm pregnant."
A very small smile pulled at his mouth at her figuring out the thought he'd suddenly had. "I never said I wanted to marry you," he said in return.
"We're in high school," she reminded him. Maybe if they were already seniors she might consider it, but that was still a very small might.
"It's a bad idea," he agreed, glad his face was turned away from her because she'd spot his lie immediately. But when she didn't give a response he asked, "you thinking about it?"
"Shut up."
His smile was bigger this time knowing that answer was yes. "A proposal doesn't mean we have to get married just that we will at some point."
He just liked the claim it would have, which she knew wasn't entirely true and a lot of it stemmed from how he grew up and it honestly touched her how invested he was in this that he was already trying to give this kid more than what he had. "I'd tell you no," she said but her voice was softened. She was thinking of what she'd had growing up, or rather what she didn't have. "You worried I'll leave like my mom?"
"No," he answered without hesitation. "You're not a thing like her."
It was nice and all to hear but she still shook her head. "You didn't know her," she said remembering parts of her mother that were good.
Climbing back up to lay with his head beside hers he looked at her uncertain eyes. "I know you," he told her without a single doubt. "And that is why," he started with a mischievous look in his eye, "at some point,"
"I will turn you down," she spoke over him hearing him chuckle as his arms snuck around her to pull her closer. Settling against him she added a rather cheeky, "maybe," feeling him still as he processed that.
.^.
"Lane." The girl in question turned from the direction she'd been walking to see Veronica coming up to her. "Have you talked to Toni at all?" Veronica asked when she reached Lane. Out of everyone who should've noticed it should have been Lane.
Now Lane knew something was going on, that Sweet Pea was keeping something big from her. "What don't I know?"
She'd trusted Veronica with a secret and from the way things were going this was apparently being kept secret from Lane, and Veronica felt like she needed to return the favor. "Toni and I looking for,"
"Nothing," Toni cried having caught sight of the two. Ever since bringing Veronica into this it was like pulling teeth to get her to agree not to bring it up to Lane, at least until Toni talked to her first. "Sweet Pea said no," Toni told Veronica by way of explanation, before she remembered Lane's current plan and that she shouldn't even be near Lane at the moment. "And by no I mean he doesn't care, he's still mad at you," Toni said turning to Lane with wide eyes.
Blandly Lane responded with, "She knows I'm lying to her father about Sweet Pea." As Toni's mouth fell open Veronica nodded proudly. "I," bile rose in her throat and she cleared it, "I trust her."
That was something Toni did not expect, and for the time being she decided not to address it. "Well, we've got it handled so you don't need to worry about it," she said seeing Lane's face turn to stone. "Pretend like nothing's happening."
Lane watched Toni grab Veronica's arm and pull her away wondering what the hell was happening and why no one was telling her. Exasperated Lane turned as though looking for someone and she sighed still feeling that same emptiness that came with something not being there. But her gaze landed on Reggie, who smirked when he saw her, and rolled her eyes before walking away.
.^.
Looking around the sparsely filled library Jughead slowly made his way to the back towards the rows of history books as instructed. And finding the specific book that had been texted to him he pulled it off the shelf and found himself staring at a pair of pale green eyes. He laughed to himself as he pulled out another book to better see her and set them on the empty top shelf. "You're a piece of work, Lanie."
She shrugged offhanded. "You wanna talk to me during school this is how it has to happen, for a little longer at least."
"There an end in sight yet?" he asked knowing the other younger Serpents were getting antsy with her not just befriending the enemy but actually helping them.
That wasn't easy to answer and it was something that couldn't be rushed, but with the way things were going with Veronica and Hiram she had a little confidence. "I have high hopes."
He took that in stride knowing he could sell that to the others, it also helped that Sweet Pea loudly shut anyone and everyone who questioned her intentions down. "You seem to be getting along with Veronica," he mused, having seen them eat together everyday that week, and half of last week.
"She's not," she took a breath as she thought of an adequate description, "the worst." Her voice went up at the end making it sound like a question.
Biting back a smile Jughead nodded. "That's a pretty accurate description," he said, regardless of his own personal feelings for Veronica she was by far the least of his problems. He flipped open his notebook to an empty page and set it on one of the shelves. "So why did Betty think you could help me with Mr Andrew's announcement speech?"
Not caring enough to be offended she answered with a sly, "because I've had access to Mrs Lodge and I know her angle."
His brows rose as a smile curled on his mouth. "Sneaky girl," he said seeing the grin behind the hand she had curled to her chin as she stood on the other side of the bookcase. "Always a snake." How true that was, she had been even before she was a Serpent.
.^.
After an uneventful day Lane stood in the kitchen eating apples and cheese, her post dinner snack that would get her through until her midnight snack, listening to Sweet Pea's story of the Serpents coming to the Cooper's rescue. Mrs Cooper had even sent Jughead home with a thank you to the others.
"So," Lane said swallowing what was in her mouth, "do they have our vote?"
He rolled his eyes snagging one of her apple slices, minus the cheese. "I'll believe it when I see it," he said, not one to go by faith. And from the way Lane smiled at him as she took another bite he knew she was thinking they were similar in that regard.
They both turned at the knock on their door and while Sweet Pea stepped forward to answer it Lane put down the apple in her hand in anticipation. At the sight of Toni Lane released the breath she'd been holding, wondering if she was finally going to be told what they were keeping from her.
"I found what you've been missing," Toni said with a knowing smile as she stepped aside.
Lane's questioning expression melted to one of surprised understanding at the sight of Cheryl, who still wore the blue hospital gown and sweater. In a rush Lane charged forward gathering Cheryl in a tight hug feeling the way Cheryl clung to her. And they stood for a long quiet while with their eyes closed and their arms around each other swaying ever so gently to a song only heard by them.
"Guess I'm sleeping on the couch," Sweet Pea mumbled knowing the three of them would end up in the bed. Beside him Toni nodded, though she figured she'd end up on the couch with him. All the while the two girls stood still wrapped in each other without any want to ever let go.
I really wanted to end this chapter with Lane and Cheryl. But there's actually one small scene at the end of episode 17 where Alice meets with the Serpents to apologize - I have it in my head that Betty had Lane on speaker phone, since Lane couldn't be there. Also, before anyone gets mad about the little bit of hate on Betty this chapter, that is Lane's perception of things; it doesn't mean Lane's right.
Also, that was the end of episode 17. I'm getting pretty close to the end of season two, which is when this story will go on hiatus until season three comes out.