CHAPTER FORTY NINE: Weathering The Storm

Betty stayed right by Jughead's side for as long as she could after he was hauled down to the Sheriff's office and refused bail, being locked into the same cell that his father had been just months earlier, when he too was wrongly imprisoned as the primary suspect in a murder investigation.

She waited outside, trying to calm herself down and focus on being strong enough to be able to give him the strength that he would need as Sheriff Keller conducted another interrogation with Jughead, repeatedly reminding him of and giving him the opportunity to confess.

Several hours after his arrest, they had finally been permitted to see each other. The two of them stood there as close as they possibly could, despite the barriers dividing them from each other as they hold each other as tight as they can and as though there aren't any solid, cold bars standing between them.

He holds the sides of her face in his palms, looking at her intently and reassuring her over and over again that it will all be okay; that they'll be okay, that he'll okay and that she'll be okay without him. Despite all the time that she'd spent trying to prepare herself to be strong enough to support him, he's the one who's supporting them and being strong enough for the both of them in that moment.

After all, it takes everything that Betty has in her to be able to stand there, to hold back her tears and to stop herself from falling to the ground as she reaches the very end of her tether after far too long of pushing through the pain and the struggle.

Then, when Sheriff Keller interrupts the newlyweds telling Betty that their time together is up, Betty nods softly at the authority, turning back to Jughead and pressing a single kiss to his lips through the bars, whispering the words that will leave him with the strength that he needs to make it through until the next time he sees her.

"I love you so much."

#

It's only after Betty gets home and once she's entered her childhood family home, closing the door behind her when her world comes crashing down, crumbling around her...

It's then when Betty loses all control of her breathing, becoming overcome with distraught sobs that wrack her body as she slides down against the back of the front door that she has just closed.

Upon hearing his youngest daughter from further within his home, Hal rushes over at the sound of her tears and the deep pain powering them. Then, he pulls Betty to her feet again as he holds his arms out to his little girl who had to grow up far too quickly.

He holds Betty securely in his arms, stroking her hair and hushing her for as long as it takes for her tears to subside and for her grief to numb down to an aching pain.

When Betty finally feels strong enough to escape from the comfort of her father's arms, he offers to make her a hot drink, telling her that both her mother and her daughter are upstairs in Emi's nursery; the bedroom beside Jughead and Betty's, which she makes a beeline for.

Hearing the door open, Alice's eyes fly upwards from where she's rocking back and forth in the recliner on the other side of the room. She can tell her daughter has been crying. She can see that her eyes still reddened, along with the tears staining a path down her cheeks, panging Alice's heart sympathetically. However, now that her tears have slowly drawn to a stop, Betty is just left looking and feeling both tired and drawn.

"How is he?"

Betty simply nods in response to her mother's concern over her husband as she strolls across the room and over to the single-seated recliner that had recently been moved into Emi's room.

"He's okay... He's doing better than I am" Betty says, exhaling a heavy sigh that she's been holding in. "The lawyer arrived just before I was told to leave."

For the first time since the police had burst into her home earlier that day, the smallest of smiles spreads across Betty's lips as she looks down to her daughter, the baby who -along with her husband- had brought the light to her life through some of her darkest days.

"Hey, baby girl..."

The four-month-old baby has fallen fast asleep in her grandmother's arms and warm embrace, clutching onto the hem of Alice's cardigan for comfort as she suckles on her dummy rhythmically.

However, Alice shuffles upon noting Betty's attention on her daughter. Consequently, she shifts Emi within her arms, holding her close and tight to herself as she stands up and hands her granddaughter over to her own daughter who seems to want her baby back.

"Thanks for looking after her, mum. I might just take her to my room and put her bassinet beside my bed for tonight."

Alice nods in understanding, laying a caring hand to her daughter's shoulder as Betty averts her gaze from her mother's blue eyes.

"Can I get you anything? Do you want something to eat or something to drink? Is there anything I can do? Anyone I can call?"

Betty exhales a heavy sigh as she settles Emi against her body, finding a familiar position that is comfortable for them both as she begins to rub circles into her daughter's small back.

"No, I'm fine... I'll probably just wait a little while and see if Emi wakes up for another feed for tonight, then I'll head to bed, too. The only other thing that I was going to do was call FP and make sure he's heard."

With her hand on her daughter's shoulder, Alice nods in understanding, quickly snatching up the opportunity to help her independent daughter who she seldom has the opportunity to look after anymore now that Betty is a wife and mother herself.

"Leave it with me. I'll call FP, you rest. I understand if you want Emi close to you, but if you want me to take her from you at all tonight, just let me know."

Betty gives her mother the smallest smile of gratitude. It's all that she can find the strength to muster up in that moment. Then, she carries Emi out of her nursery and into her own childhood bedroom next door that she now shares with her husband.

After closing the door behind her, Betty walks small laps around her room as she rubs circles into Emi's tiny body. She's soothing her daughter at the same time as she's trying to relax herself as she rests her baby into the crook of her neck, snuggling into her daughter as she whispers into her soft, baby skin.

"We'll get daddy home soon, Emi. He'll be back with us soon..."

#

The following day and after an abysmal night's sleep in her cold and lonely bed, Betty shocks her mother when she goes downstairs –dressed and ready- to prepare breakfast for herself and hoping that she's timed it perfectly so that Emi will be looking for her own breakfast just after she's finished hers.

"You're going to school?"

Alice's eyes widen with concern as Betty nods at her question while complacently turning the kettle on and grabs the cereal box to quickly pour some cereal into the bowl that she has just placed on the bench.

After Betty had arrived home last night, Alice and Hal had spent a lot of their evening discussing their fears for their daughter, worrying how much more the seventeen-year-old can endure in such a short amount of time before she's pushed too far. So, naturally, Alice is disturbed to see that Betty is getting ready for school just like it's any ordinary day, and as though her husband hadn't just been arrested not even twenty four hours earlier.

"And you're taking Emi?"

"Yeah, of course I am. She's still too little for me to leave her for an entire day. Now, can you remind me to call Pop Tate? I'll have to do it quickly between classes to let him know that Jughead obviously won't be able to come in for work today."

As a frown settles on her face, Alice moves across the room and over to her daughter who she fears is so fragile that she's just holding on by a thread which could potentially be broken by any little thing, at any point in time.

"Betty, you know how important that I believe that your education is. But, you are even more important to me than that. Are you sure that you're up to going to school today? I'm sure your friends will help you stay up to date if you need today to come to terms with everything..."

Just as Alice is worried about, Betty has thrown on her mask, concealing all her fears, all her concerns and the fact that she is not coping at all with her husband's arrest. However, she needs to keep going and keep moving, by staying busy, focusing her attention on her daughter and getting back to normality.

After all, she's worried that if she stops, she won't be able to start and get back up again. She can't afford to fall down. She can't afford to stop...

Not when Jughead needs her and Emi needs her even more than that.

"We'll be fine, but I've got to go to school. I need to do everything I can to get Jughead out of there and that's the best way for me to do that rather than sitting around helplessly at home."

#

When Betty joins her best friends with Emi in her arms, walking over to them as they linger outside of their classroom, Veronica, Archie and Kevin all wear expressions that resemble Alice Cooper's when they realise that their friend is there at school, like it's any old day and as though her husband's not currently sitting behind bars.

As soon as she approaches the group, Veronica walks over to Betty with a look of confusion, greeting her with a question.

"Hey? What are you doing here, B?"

Looking around herself and scanning her surroundings before answering Veronica's question, Betty begins to take note of her fellow classmates and the other students who all seem to be acutely interested in her presence, too.

Holding her daughter a little closer to herself like a security blanket, Betty tries to push the pointing fingers and the glances in her direction to the back her mind as she focuses on answering Veronica's question.

"It's a school day, so I'm at school."

Betty's voice is monotone and her expression is neutral as she concentrates her attention on bouncing her daughter within her arms.

"Yeah, but Jug..." Archie begins to say before stopping himself, realising that Betty would well know exactly where Jughead is; better than anyone else.

"My life hasn't come to a grinding stop just because he's in jail, Archie. I have to keep going on without him."

Veronica reaches a hand out to rub her friend's shoulder supportively and Archie sighs, looking down to the ground as Kevin watches on uncomfortably.

However, before anyone else can say or do anything, Betty is approached by one of her braver fellow students who is hovering around her and friends.

"Betty? Is it true that Jughead was arrested?"

Then, as soon as the first person has broken the ice, going up to speak to her, several others that had been involved in the surrounding groups that were watching on, whispering, pointing fingers and glaring begin to approach too, all of them bombarding the overwhelmed young girl at the same time...

"Yeah, I heard that he was arrested yesterday and they won't let him out..."

"He's a cold blooded killer. That's disgusting. I hope he rots in jail for what he did."

"He killed Chuck? Good on him! Chuck had it coming..."

"The town's safer with him behind bars. Jughead is a murderer."

With each bitter word, each accusing glance, each whispered rumour and each glare, Betty's chest rises and falls rapidly. There is so much that she wants to say and there are so many things that she wants to fire back to defend Jughead's innocence. However, the words just don't come.

Instead, being overwhelmed by the taunts and torment, Betty holds her daughter closer against her chest, racing off and rushing away from the crowd of hecklers, her heart pounding as she breathes short, shallow breaths.

Veronica follows after her distressed best friend, holding her arms out to take her daughter from her.

She hasn't given in and she hasn't let her fellow classmate's taunts consume her, but her mask and veil that are disguising how poorly she's coping is wearing thin as she fights to stay afloat through the stormy waters that have been threatening to pull her down and beneath the surface for over the last year.

Handing her daughter over to Veronica, Betty clings onto a fence and the safety barrier just outside the main entrance to the school, looking out over the garden and the car park of Riverdale High School, in search for the fresh air that she so desperately needs in that moment. She stands there, hyperventilating and struggling to control her breathing as she fights against the effect of her classmate's slanderous words about her husband who is still locked up and behind bars at present.

After several minutes of Veronica supportively holding Emi against her with one hand and stroking Betty's back with the other, the young mother slowly begins to control her breathing as her breaths grow deeper and less erratic, inhaling more of the air that she so desperately needs.

Then, after a particularly deep breath of air, Betty looks to Veronica, speaking earnestly as her friend sees the fear in her eyes.

"I don't know how much more I can take, V... I don't know..."

Veronica exhales a heartbroken sigh on her best friend's behalf. A part of her has no idea how Betty is still going, still pushing forward and carrying on through all the cruel devastation that life has thrown her way. Yet, she is filled with wonder over the strength of the very same girl, despite all that she has been through and endured in her seventeen years and especially over the last year.

"You can do it, B. You can get through this... There are not many people would have the strength and endurance that you have, Betty. So, I have the utmost confidence in you and the fact that you will get through this until Jughead's back home -safe and sound- with you and Emi. I know you can get there. I have every faith that your strength alone is enough to get you there, but just remember you've got me, Archie, your family and Jughead's dad right behind you, too, B."

With her friend's words of reassurance behind her, Betty takes another deep breath and inhales the air that she needs to go on as she prepares herself to turn back the way that she came from just minutes earlier and to face the judgement roaming around the school hallways with a new determination to keep fighting for her little family.

#

Seeing as staff had been notified about Jughead's arrest and Betty's consequential situation, their teachers hadn't been expecting to see her today, either. So, when Betty had spoken to the teacher of her next lesson, explaining her situation and requesting to study in the library to collect herself and gather her thoughts for the rest of the day ahead, her teacher had been more than understanding.

However, despite her promises to her teacher to stay up-to-date with her schoolwork by studying in the library, Betty finds herself spending the period working on her research and investigation into Chuck's death, trying to find anything to either prove her husband's innocence or to incriminate someone else.

After that lesson came the mid-morning break which Betty spent with Kevin who joined her in the student lounge. Initially, Veronica and Archie had started off with them before offering to take Emi -who had grown a little grizzly- on a walk around the school grounds for Betty.

Consequently, Betty used the opportunity to speak to her friend who she had been meaning to touch base with, hoping to dig for a little more information on his knowledge of the woods where Chuck was murdered, knowing that Kevin would frequent them when cruising.

"Hey Kev?" Betty asks, catching her friend's attention as he puts his apple slice down in his lunchbox, turning to her as she continues talking, posing her question to him.

"I don't know how much cruising you do anymore, but I've been meaning to ask you whether you came across anything around the time of Chuck's death that struck you as unusual? Did you see anyone or notice anything that seemed out of the ordinary?"

Kevin pauses for a few moments, stopping and thinking about Betty's question to him. He has to think several weeks back, while mentally comparing that data with both before and after that date.

"Um... I must say that I haven't really been cruising all that much lately. And, even when I did before, I don't think it was frequently enough and for long enough to be able to pick up on trends or anything that stood out as unusual. If anything, I did see one guy just hovering around several times... I never saw him do anything suspicious as such but he never seemed to be there with anyone else and I never saw him leaving with anyone else, either. I saw him a number of times from maybe a fortnight before Chuck died? It could be nothing but that's really the only remotely noteworthy thing I can think of..."

As soon as Kevin had started speaking, Betty had pulled her notebook out of her bag, beginning to scrawl frantically into her notebook.

Then, for the first time today, Betty gives her friend a genuine smile as she puts her pen down on her notepad.

"Thank you! That's great information. I'll look into that and see if there's anything to it. Have you told your dad about it?"

Kevin shakes his head, only furthering Betty's smile at feeling a step ahead in the investigation, with fresh information at her disposal.

"No, not really... That's still not a frequent topic of discussion between my dad and I and before you asked me, I'd never even really thought of it having any bearing on Chuck's death."

Betty nods, returning to scrawling on her notepad with renewed enthusiasm as she records every detail she's receiving from Kevin, as well as a few thoughts and leads that are coming to her off the top of her head.

However, the only thing that distracts her from her tunnel-vision focus on what Kevin is telling her is when another fellow student walks past, to which Betty puts her pen and paper down, calling over to her to investigate another avenue that she had been meaning to pursue.

Since recovering from her meltdown a little earlier, Betty has come back swinging.

"Hey Ethel, have you got a minute?"

The other girl gives Betty a smile and a nod, proceeding to join her and Kevin on the single-seater beside the lounge.

"Of course... How are you? I heard about Jughead... I'm really sorry, Betty."

Betty remains silent as she gives Ethel a small, forced smile in response to the reminder of her husband's arrest, appreciating her friend's best intentions, but just proceeding with what she called her over for.

"I've been hoping to have a word with about you about what you know and what you reported about Chuck's death."

"Oh, okay" Ethel says in understanding. "Ask me anything, but I don't know too much -or anything, really- about Chuck's death. You see, I've been trying to exercise more and walk around the woods twice a day. So, after there was a call out for information and numerous sets of footprints were mentioned on the walking track, I thought I should mention that mine were likely to have been one set of the footprints around that area, if it helps the case out. "

Betty notes down the detail that Ethel is telling her before her gaze flies back over to the other girl.

"I see... Do you know anymore than that? Do you know who any of the other sets of footprints they could belong to? Did Sheriff Keller tell you whether your footprints were in fact found nearby where he died?"

Ethel shakes her head empathetically.

"No, I'm sorry Betty, but I'm not too sure... I wouldn't have any idea of who else the footprints could belong to because I only ever walk alone and Sheriff Keller never followed up with me after I reported that."

Betty nods, continuing to scrawl the detail that she's telling her down as she gives her friend a small smile of appreciation for the detail that she has divulged.

"Thanks anyway, Ethel. Can you be sure to let me know if and when you do find out anything else?"

Ethel nods in response to Betty's request with a small smile.

"Of course..."

However, just as soon as their conversation is wrapping up and before Betty has a chance to so much as smile after Ethel's agreement, Betty's attention is distracted and pulled away from both Ethel and Kevin, as well as her intense investigative efforts when her two best friend's re-enter the room, with Archie holding her daughter in his arms.

"Oh, my baby girl..." Betty smiles as she holds her arms out to take her daughter from Archie the moment that they come into sight.

Archie returns the baby to her mother as Betty presses a kiss to the very top of Emi's head.

Then, with a satisfied sigh, Betty takes a deep breath as she relishes in the feeling of being in a much better frame of mind than when Archie and Veronica had first left to take Emi on the walk with them; possibly the best since Jughead's arrest...


Thank you to everyone who is still patiently reading after her mini hiatus. There's not long left, now! Two, possibly three chapters if I split the last chapter seeing as it's almost 10,000 words.

Also, don't forget to visit my bio and vote on the poll on the top of the page to cast your vote on who you think killed Chuck.

Next chapter: A feud intensifies and erupts between the students at school after Jughead's arrest. Then, after going through every detail and every suspect explicitly, Betty finally makes a break through.