Ah, cliffhangers... but here is chapter fifteen! :)

Thank you for the wonderful review, Living Lucid Dream! I'm so glad that Clark remains a fun character (he's got a place in my heart, for sure), and I think they'll have to come clean to him before too long. It's starting to get obvious that the situation is weird. We shall see! I am also glad you're finding Alice and Sweet Pea interesting together. I think your analysis is excellent, and I'm really curious to see how it plays out when everything is put under increased pressure... and the speech-related events begin this very chapter, so I will love hearing your thoughts! :)

Guest, thank you for the lovely review as well! Clark will hopefully understand, I agree; he's a good friend and I think he and Jug do well together. I'm so glad you continue to like Alice and you like her dynamic with Sweet Pea! I loved your observation that Alice and Brand do not get along in part because they are alike. That was Jug's observation about Alice and FP, but I think you're right about Brand as well; Alice is uniquely polarizing. :-D And the cliffhanger is being resolved! I hope you like this chapter. :)

Enjoy!

-Button

00000

Brand let one guy connect with him and land the first blow for the benefit of the security cameras.

Then he let 'er rip.

There were only five attackers, which seemed very unfair. Brand would have loved to take on the same odds that Jones had only a day previously - and tear them limb from limb. He wouldn't have minded trashing someone's fingers, too, given the chance, but he had to keep himself clear of the gang members between landing crippling blows of his own.

Because these were not teenagers, and they were not here to fracture Brand's ribs.

They might (foolishly) want to abduct him as leverage against the agency - or they might intend to leave a body behind, as a message. The Southside had gone nuts under FP's rabble-rousing influence.

Regardless, Brand had a movie night to get to. This was ending here, on his terms.

Brand slammed an elbow into one man from an intentionally awkward angle, and when his fist followed - hopefully rupturing something painful, if not vital, in the man's abdomen - to deter that attacker from coming back for more too quickly, he was left well-positioned when a second and then a third Serpent closed on him. They were dropped very effectively and at least one made a satisfying sound when his head hit the pavement. They did not get back up right away.

If Jones had been here and in fighting shape, they'd have been done.

But it was kind of nice that Jones wasn't here; Brand was savoring this.

He could take the time to put one guy into a more satisfyingly painful hold and rip his knee powerfully while twisting his right arm in an unnatural direction, since the only remaining attacker could do very little other than put himself into range to be next - and when that final Serpent jumped Brand from behind, it was even simpler to let his momentum do most of the work.

Brand trashed the man's nose for fun (though he winced in disgust when the warm spray of blood caught the side of his face), and he briefly considered destroying one or both of his hands just for symmetry and solidarity with the kid. The surveillance cameras gave him pause, though, and he settled for an unnecessarily violent jerk to the man's left arm and shoulder that tore something quite badly.

Then he let them run away.

00000

"Let's get you back to your cars." Brand had rounded the corner at a jog and not been surprised to see Clark's vehicle parked precisely where he'd been told to go. He was also not surprised to see that Jones had forced his way out of the vehicle and was leaning against the car door, breathing hard. "They're gone. Sweetie might need to answer some questions, but I don't know that he was actually recognized."

"Sweet Pea."

Brand blinked. "I really wouldn't correct people on that."

"Special Agent Davies, I can give you all a ride back to the RA's parking lot. Sorry about the mess." Clark was sweeping papers off of the passenger seat.

"I... broke a sweat. I can walk." Brand cracked a small smile. "Give Jones and the other two a lift. We'll call it good. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

"That's not Shakespeare."

"Jones," Clark's tone was sharp in response to the kid's reflexive response. "Are you okay? Do you need another pain pill?"

"Do not encourage him to overdose." Brand frowned. They probably needed to have a conversation with Clark. He was starting to get weird about Jones' apparent unprofessionalism when it came to his godfather. "That's from the Bible, Jones. How are you feeling?"

"I can walk."

Brand shook his head reflexively, but then thought better of it. "You know what? Sure. Let's keep you ambulatory. It's good for the ribs. Go home, Clark. We'll talk tomorrow. Nice work."

Clark looked very dissatisfied, but he was still unwilling to disagree with Brand.

"Yes, sir."

Clark drove away slowly while the others walked back to the parking lot together.

Brand pulled Jones under one arm as they walked. "I always appreciate backup, killer, but don't try anything like that again while you're this injured."

"It was five against one, Brand. Any warm body would have helped."

"You'd have been a warm hostage. We've been over this: don't put me in that position, kid." Brand ruffled the kid's hair as Jones grimaced at that thought. "And don't tell your father I locked you in the car unless you really want ice cream tonight. He might not take it in the spirit I intended."

"Dad wouldn't care about that, Brand. I wasn't locked in alone for hours or whatever. Are you sure you're okay? There's blood on your face. And your hands." The kid did a passable imitation of Brand's typical assessment pattern, running a hand through his godfather's hair to check his skull for hidden injuries and then observing his gait when nothing else seemed damaged. "Did they have weapons?"

"If they did, I was on 'em too quickly for it to matter. It's not my blood, either; they weren't pros, and they didn't land anything serious." Brand squeezed Jones' shoulders gently. "I'm fine. They're more of a mess, but they all walked away. It was over too fast to even be all that interesting."

The kid looked less than content with that after-action summary, but Brand was not going to say anything more about it right now.

"Sweet Pea, you and I should have a conversation." Brand saw some potential here. "Alice, you should get back in your car. Jones, get in your car. Passenger seat, and take a pill right now if your ribs are getting bad again."

The kid rolled his eyes as he moved away from Brand, but he did not object and Brand saw him digging in his pocket for the pill bottle as he opened his car door. He also seemed to be texting as soon as the door closed behind him.

Aha. So was Alice.

Brand must be getting used to Jones' attachment to his phone, because it was only semi-weird to see a text conversation taking place between two parked vehicles in the same parking lot. Brand shook his head, hoping that Alice had the good sense not to wind the kid up about his father. Even she should be able to see that would only end with a confrontation, and neither she nor Brand wanted to see that happen.

Trying to put that out of his mind for the moment, Brand turned himself and Sweet Pea away from the other two teens. "Want to do me a favor?"

"No."

"Good. I'm not in the market for a double agent or for someone stupid," Brand approved. Sweet Pea looked startled by his response. "You seem to actually understand the kind of fire you're playing with, and you want to help FP and not any of the other nutjobs causing problems in the Southside. That's a starting point. Now, I'm going to give you a number, and you're going to call it if you hear anything that might be worth something. You'll be compensated, and you'll scrape some of the muck off of your soul in the process."

"No. No money. It would be too easy for someone in the Southside to pick up on that."

Sweet Pea's eyes flickered toward Alice's car.

Bingo.

"She could have been seriously hurt today. There were five grown men here, looking for blood or worse, and you can't tell me that wasn't related to you two showing up at my place of business." Brand crossed his arms. "It looks to me like it wasn't your idea to drag Carter into any of this, either. That means you won't be able to control whatever comes next."

Brand recalled FP's erratic responses to his goading and tried to ease up a little with this teenaged gang member. "It's not your fault; she's responsible for her decisions. But you can make all of this a little safer. The number is for a burner phone. Don't attach a name to it in your phone or anything stupid like that."

Sweet Pea nodded. Good.

This whole debacle in the parking lot had been an irritating delay, but at this point it had really turned itself around. Brand had gotten a deeply satisfying workout, Jones was still okay, and now Brand had another source of information embedded in the Southside.

It wasn't a bad day's work. Not at all.

00000

"So, Archie texted me a suggestion for tonight. It's kind of strange, but really sweet." Veronica felt surprisingly nervous about sharing her boyfriend's idea with her friends - and including Alice in this made her feel particularly vulnerable.

Alice had also been acting strangely since she'd gotten home. Veronica wondered if it had been because she had not been invited to eat lunch with the rest of them, but that had come up unexpectedly and Alice had already been sitting with Sweet Pea. Veronica decided to ask her about it later on.

"Yeah?" Kevin was frowning at the latest cookie sheet he'd pulled from the oven. "Jughead is not going to be willing to eat these. And he might be right that they'd actually poison him. Are there more chocolate chips? I think I need to start over. Or... wasn't it chocolate chip cookies in Michigan? Is this just a terrible idea all around?" Kevin suddenly looked over at Veronica guiltily. "Uh, sorry, what were you saying?"

"Top left," Veronica pointed at a cupboard. "I have no idea what kind of cookies they were in Michigan, but I think we've got a lot of chocolate chips. Don't worry about needing a trial run, or even two. Um, Archie said that maybe we should write each other's résumés. That one of you should write the internship applications in my voice, and I should work on whatever you're doing - maybe college essays or something - in your voice."

"That's a cool idea," Alice responded immediately. Everyone turned to look at her. Alice had been quiet and very attached to her phone, no doubt texting Jughead - or maybe Sweet Pea.

Jughead apparently had some concerns about Sweet Pea that Alice was trying to dodge without actually addressing, though Alice had not explained anything more than that to Veronica - let alone why she was still keeping in touch with a Serpent after the events of the previous day - but Alice perked up now. "Can I do yours, Veronica? That will write itself."

Veronica felt herself freeze. "You... really want to, Alice?"

"I know - it's lazy of me - yours is definitely the easiest one. It would be fun, though, and making you sound less like the clichéd overachiever is probably the biggest challenge. But don't worry; I've got this." Alice grinned. She hadn't had a chance to share her writing process with anyone in a while, and this was an intriguing project with a lot of practical applications. "I can ask you questions, though, right? It's not like a challenge to see how well we know each other's lives?"

"It is definitely not that." Veronica was still feeling caught flat-footed, but then she saw Betty's eager nod as well and felt a little better about the whole thing.

"I'll do Kevin's," Betty offered. "I might be able to do it from memory."

"Challenge accepted, Betty Cooper," Kevin grinned. "Or I could do Alice's and get to know her better. I don't think I know a lot of what would go on your résumé, Alice."

"Not a huge amount." Alice shrugged. "That's the challenge with me."

"I'll do Alice's." Veronica decided to just go for it. "I'm sure you've got more than you think."

"How did Archie come up with this?" Betty wondered aloud. "That's brilliant."

"It was probably Jughead's idea," Alice offered. "Not that Archie doesn't also have brilliant ideas," Alice glanced toward Veronica, who had automatically bristled at her comment. "But Jughead's been doing some writing exercises lately. It's been a lot of different stuff, and I'm not surprised that some of it's more practical. Lately he's all about the creative and the utilitarian influencing each other in art. Which is really just a pretentious way of saying 'doing practical things with flair.'"

Veronica's eyes went to Betty, to see what her reaction was to being told about her boyfriend.

"Did you read the draft of the article he wrote about you?" Betty was laughing. "I knew something was up when I got to-,"

"Paragraph five!" Alice and Betty both started giggling as they completed the sentence together.

"Wait, what is this paragraph five?" Kevin was intrigued. "I need to make a new batch of cookie dough, and we should definitely warm up with a read-aloud before we write each other's cover letters or whatever."

"Oh, yeah." Betty pulled out her laptop. "Jughead definitely knew this part wasn't going to fly, because he's got footnotes all over it."

"There are footnotes?" Alice's eyes grew huge. "I have to see those."

"Oh, there are footnotes all right," Betty was laughing harder. "Maybe I should give my mother this version, just to see her face."

"Did he explain why he used bullet points for-,"

"Those are gone. I already edited that." Betty shook her head. "I think he really needed to write this article. He's been saving up a lot of writing ideas and they all sort of came out at once. It's really…"

"Innovative?" Alice offered, before she cracked up at her own word choice.

"Yes! I think he even said that in one of the footnotes here-," Betty was laughing again.

"Along with a Tarantino reference, I have no doubt?" Kevin was mixing ingredients into a bowl again, but grinning along with the girls' laughter.

"He mentions Tarantino, Shakespeare, and something about Wagner," Betty confirmed.

"Wagner? In an article about Alice?" Veronica came over to sit beside Betty and look over her shoulder at the article. She was starting to loosen up and have a little more fun. The fact that the teasing was at Jughead's expense would probably bother her more if it were not obvious from his footnotes that he'd been goofing off and had assumed that portion of the article would be vetoed by Betty, Alice, or - as it turned out - both of them. "Oh my goodness, this guy did what to a wolf now?"

"He just read the source material for Wagner's Ring Cycle." Alice shrugged. "Classic Jughead. I can always tell what he's reading from the way he writes. Including text messages. Maybe especially text messages."

"I know!" Betty laughed. "The British spelling has been intense lately."

"Right? He's started talking about learning Farsi. We're all going to be toast. I kind of feel like telling Agent Davies exactly what kind of a monster he's created with his insane college prep regimen."

"Brand thinks it's hilarious." Betty shook her head. "Do not waste your breath. Those two are even worse when they're together."

"Okay, let's hear it." Kevin was still adding ingredients to the cookie dough, but he turned so that he could face the others. "I'm getting the feeling that I need more 'innovative' writing in my life."

"Read the footnotes too," Alice added eagerly. "I'll help with the cookies this time, Kevin. I think we might want to chill the dough before we bake it."

"Sure; we have plenty of time." Kevin nodded agreeably. "But why?"

"I'll explain after the read-aloud." Alice gestured to Betty as she pulled out her phone to text. "Can you do his 'writerly' inflection, too? I'm going to tell him what we're up to."

Betty laughed. "I can try. Maybe you should video this for him. Isn't hearing his writing in someone else's voice on his list?"

"I think you're right. Good call." Alice continued texting Jughead as Kevin measured ingredients once again.

Veronica looked around the kitchen, relieved and pleased; this was feeling a lot more like a sleepover all of a sudden.

00000

"You totally could."

"Nope. No way, Archie."

"Well, the fight was ridiculous-," Archie was talking over the movie; Jughead was disagreeing with him.

"Actually, that part was more realistic. I've done that."

"Seriously?" Archie lit up at the promise of a good story.

Everyone in the living room turned to stare at Jughead - and not for the first time this evening. "I mean, not exactly that way. But-,"

"Jones. Stop talking." Brand ran a hand over his face. "How are you feeling? Because I'm gonna need you off of painkillers sooner rather than later, or you'll have to be quarantined. You cannot keep running your mouth. Some of that is classified information, and the rest is within spitting distance."

"But Brand-,"

"Don't argue with me." Brand glared. "I will cut you off. There are relative degrees of problems that you can create, and having you in screaming pain might be the lesser evil."

"Brand-,"

"Jughead, come here." FP patted the couch beside himself.

They'd assembled extra seating for their movie marathon after they'd finally pried the boys off of their phones - apparently their girlfriends were having a sleepover as well, and were sending funny videos -, and Jughead and Archie had dragged bedding and pillows into the living room so that they could relax on the floor with Trigger.

The adults had admittedly been somewhat occupied as well, though, so that had also contributed to their delayed start. Brand and FP had quietly discussed the altercation at the resident agency, and decided to share with Fred the basics of what had happened - just in case he and Archie were targets at a job site or similar.

Fred had been horrified, but immediately pointed out that everything still seemed to target the FBI more than the construction in the Southside. He was reassured to hear that the FBI would certainly take on the investigation of the attack at Riverdale High now that there had also been violence on their own property, and the three men had let the subject drop after that.

They had finally started the movies after one more delay: Jughead had begun regaling Fred Andrews with tales of the articles he was hoping to write for The Register, and pitching the idea of 'an exclusive' with Fred about the construction on Southside High.

FP and Brand had exchanged surprised looks; neither had known Jughead had finished the article about Alice, let alone begun soliciting additional freelance work. FP had made a mental note to ask Jughead more about it, and hopefully read some of his work later in the week.

Now Jughead climbed up beside his father and sat between him and Mr. Andrews on the couch. His dad leaned in close to whisper to him while everyone else tried to give them privacy by focusing on the film. "Let's take it easy while you're on narcotics, huh? Brandon's right. You've got a lot in that head of yours that should probably stay there, and your filter's slipping."

Jughead nodded, chastened by the quiet intervention. Maybe the drugs were affecting him more than he'd realized.

FP hugged him lightly and was surprised when Jughead held onto him for a few extra moments. He made eye contact with Brandon, who was looking at him curiously over Jughead's shoulder. FP gave him a quick nod to indicate that he thought he had it handled.

Jughead returned to the floor and didn't stray away from safe topics again when he resumed joking and arguing with Archie.

When they took a break between that film and the next in the series, Brandon took the opportunity to ask FP about the exchange. "What did you say to the kid? He got right back in line."

"Just that you were right." FP shrugged. He was pouring a fresh jar of salsa into the nearly empty bowl that they'd been working their way through.

"No - you did something that actually worked. I butt heads with Jones and he pushes back like it's a game. You whisper something and he's suddenly a model citizen. What did you say?"

FP was amused. "I didn't threaten his life, if that's what you're thinking. I'm his father. It's probably as simple as that."

"Oh, no, it's not," Fred walked over from the living room area to join them. Jughead and Archie were on Jughead's laptop, looking up bloopers from the film they'd just finished. They were already laughing again. "You've got a touch. I would normally say that Jughead's easy to work with, but Brandon's right - he's not always easy to work with, and he certainly hasn't been this evening."

FP looked startled and Brand bit back a smile. He probably wasn't used to being complimented by Fred Andrews, parent extraordinaire.

Then FP's face darkened. "He's worried about upsetting me. He's feeling insecure with me right now is all. And I guess I've earned that."

Brand shook his head. "Uh-uh. He's shaken up-," Brand raised his eyebrows, trying to signal to FP not to say anything more about his absence from the household in front of Fred, and making a point of implying that he only meant Jughead's attack at school, "-but he's willing to fight with you. That right there in the living room was you hitting exactly the right pressure point with just the right amount of force. You know when to push and when to back off. It is a touch."

"Well, to be fair, you do a pretty good job of getting what you want, too, Brandon." Fred smiled at his own understatement.

"I just push." Brand cocked his head to one side in a self-deprecating motion. "That usually gets the job done, but it's not always elegant. Or efficient. What FP did in there with Jones was both."

"Well, I can't teach you what I don't understand," FP's tone was firm and dismissive. "Just pay attention to him. He'll always give you tells."

Huh. Brand was starting to get a sense that FP was hiding some more talents that he was only just catching wind of. Brand had a number of rituals with the kid, knew quite a few of Jones' quirks, and could read him well. But not the way FP could. "You were seeing tells during that last movie?"

"Yeah. Not that the painkillers are helping." FP smiled when Jughead's laughter was louder than normal and matched Archie's over whatever blooper they were currently watching. "You know him pretty well, Brandon, but sometimes when you fight with him you stop watching him for information. Usually when you're giving him an order and he's disagreeing with it."

Brand's eyes narrowed. He had (foolishly) not expected to have FP's scrutiny turned on him. But maybe this was useful information. "Is this a consistent pattern that you've noticed?"

"Just the low-stakes orders." FP did not hesitate. "In anything approaching a crisis he listens better and you watch him a lot more closely. You both have crisis management down to a science."

"You've been watching me, old man?"

"Always." FP took a big bite of tortilla chip then, shot Brand a challenging grin, and turned away to face the living room. "We ready to bake something, boys?"

"Yeah, but can Brand do it?" Jughead did not look up from the screen he and Archie were sitting over. They both exclaimed when something dramatic played out in the video they were watching.

"I've got it." Brand gave a dramatically longsuffering sigh, but he smiled when Jughead shot him a thumbs up without looking away from the video. When Fred and FP gave him questioning looks, Brand quickly shook his head to keep them from saying anything.

"Double dark chocolate," Jughead added.

"That was lethal. Nobody will eat that crap but you."

"Pre-cisely," Jughead enunciated with a grin. This time he did look up.

"Yeah, not happening. I'll just throw in some extra chocolate chunks for you."

"Fine." Jughead looked back at the screen.

"He's eating other people's cooking again?" Fred kept his voice low. "He doesn't have to help make the brownies?"

"He usually at least comes over when I cook. Has he done this with you before, Brandon?" FP asked.

"This is new," Brand replied quietly. "He ate croissants earlier at work, and I think he took himself by surprise. I'm not planning to say anything to him about it until I'm sure it's going to stick."

"We can hear you," Jughead called over to the kitchen.

"That is a good plan, though," Archie added. "Jug will never catch on."

"Ha. I'm still not making double dark chocolate," Brand called back, "but I'm proud of you, Trip. I've really missed takeout."

"One step at a time, Brand. Don't go ordering a pizza or anything crazy like that." Jughead gave Brand a warning look.

"I'll try not to go wild, Jones."

The adults shook their heads in amusement when the two teens groaned loudly in response to whatever happened next in the blooper reel.

"Let me see what you've got there." FP left the kitchen to join the boys in the living room.

"Brandon," Fred said quietly, following up on their conversation, "that's remarkable about Jughead. You really do have a touch of your own with him."

Brand was surprised and pleased by how nice it felt to have some of Fred's approval for himself. "Thanks. That means a lot."

"And you of all people know that FP's... complicated," Fred continued, dropping his voice further. "But you should also know that he is extremely good with people; you can learn a lot from him. It's almost embarrassing how much he's done for my crews at the company since he started working there in the spring."

"Yeah?" Brand found this interesting as well.

"Don't you ever try that on a jobsite, Archie," FP pointed at the screen, and suddenly both teens were howling with laughter at the mental image he'd conjured for them.

"Yeah." Fred nodded at what was playing out in the living room. "Just watch."

FP was sitting on the floor behind the boys, with his back against the couch. Jughead was grinning at him and then he scooted back so that he could lean against his father. Archie pointed at something on the screen with a shout of laughter and then looked over to see what FP's reaction was. When FP made a face and shook his head as if it had not been funny, Archie began engaging with him, trying to persuade him of the video's merits. He quickly lost interest in the video itself and focused his full attention on FP's playful pushback.

"He just walks into a room and everyone wants him to see them. Notice them." Fred turned away to begin pulling out bowls and spoons and help Brand out with the baking. "It can be galling to see how easy it is for him, and it's certainly a kick to the ego when he works his magic and sucks up a lot of the attention that I might like just a little bit of, from my own son." Fred didn't sound irritated, though, so much as affectionate. "Bu-ut it works on me, too. It's hard to resist him."

Brand watched FP for another few moments.

When FP met his eyes questioningly - because yes, Brand was officially staring - Brand raised his eyebrows in a question of his own. FP looked confused, but shrugged it off and broke eye contact when Brand did not offer any more information.

He wasn't sure what to do about it yet, but Brand felt like he'd finally caught on to something he should have known before. Something that might be very useful.

00000

"It's your turn, Clark," Jughead said wearily; he was sore and beginning to feel like his joints were creaking with fatigue.

The speech wasn't even scheduled to take place for another hour, and Jughead and Clark had been running errands all morning and into the afternoon. It had pushed him past his drug-induced comfort zone, and Jughead was getting nervous that he might start doing damage to his ribs or muscles as his whole body tried to compensate awkwardly for his injuries in order to minimize the pain radiating from them.

"Let me guess. Someone wants more water?" Clark had offered to run all of the errands when this had turned out to be their role as interns at the Southside High speech, so at this point his teasing was just to entertain them both. "Well played. I've gotten all of the heavy stuff, Jones. But you know, I'm not going to complain - I'm going to be jacked."

"Yep." Jughead was too tired to give him a more satisfying response.

"Hey, isn't that the chicken pox guy?" Clark hesitated before heading to retrieve another case of water for the many people involved in the speech and related PR events.

"What?" Jughead couldn't even begin to parse that.

"The guy who 'gave you the chicken pox.'" Clark still wasn't making any sense, but he raised his eyebrows meaningfully.

"Are you trying to invent a secret code? Because it's not working." Jughead suddenly realized what he was talking about. "Wait, do you mean Special Agent Donn?"

"Right over there." Clark gestured subtly, so they would not call attention to themselves. "The interim SAC himself."

"I guess it makes sense. It's a big event, and it's connected to an active case." Jughead tried to shrug it off.

"I'll get Special Agent Davies first. Then the water." Clark gave Jughead a conspiratorial look. "You might have to work on a project again."

"You'd better hope not," Jughead called after him as Clark moved away quickly to find Brand. Maybe Clark thought that Jughead had been drafted into some sort of Donn-related project by Brand. Who knew; Clark seemed able to construct a whole story out of a single detail. Or less.

Brand showed up very soon thereafter. "Jones. Here's the deal."

Jughead folded his arms and waited.

"Donn's obviously here, and I'm going to have to do some work today that you can't tag along for. So, Clark is officially off errands for the rest of the afternoon once he delivers a case of water to McCoy and company. He's going to stick with you." Brand held up a finger for emphasis and to head off any objections. Not that Jughead had any.

"If Donn wants anything, you both do it. Together. Don't argue with Donn, and don't refuse to do what he asks; just go along with anything that comes up - but you and Clark stay attached at the hip. I'll find you if we get separated; if that happens, you're the little lost hikers who stay put. Got it?"

Jughead gave him a look. "So… don't scream like hell?"

"Very funny. Your dad's up there, by the way," Brand pointed almost directly above them to where FP was visible on the roof of Southside High. "Looks like he's calling some of the shots today. Could be that Andrews finally realized he was being underutilized."

"Hey, cool. Is Archie up there too?" Jughead scanned the workers carefully, but he and Brand were too close to the school to see the roof well - and everyone visible was wearing hard hats so the most identifiable feature of his best friend was hidden.

"I doubt it." Brand pointed to several construction workers gathered around Mr. Andrews. "I think he's with them. Whatever work they're doing today, Andrews Construction will want the best possible optics - and a hyper teenager on a roof is not that."

That seemed fair.

"What are you doing today?"

"Stuff." Brand quirked his eyebrows and grinned.

"You get to be the secret service, don't you?" Jughead grinned back. "That's awesome, Brand. Don't, like, take a bullet. But you should definitely tackle the mayor on live TV if anything looks suspicious."

"You got it." Brand laughed and tousled Jughead's hair.

Clark came jogging over a few moments later. "All set, sir!"

"Thank you, Clark," Brand nodded to him.

Jughead had noticed that he nodded to Clark like that a lot, and Clark seemed to really like it. It was kind of like his hair tousling with Brand.

Which reminded him: they definitely needed to talk to Clark and explain everything. Maybe at the demolition the following day, when they would apparently not be officially working but would still get to attend. He'd ask Brand about it later on.

Brand gave them a smile of approval as he walked away.

"Our plan is working. He likes us," Clark was grinning as well. "I mean, we never could have predicted that a violent gang would be so foolish as to come after you at the resident agency - on their property, no less - right when he was walking us out. But it's official: we are so in. Did you know that some of the agents watched the surveillance footage of Special Agent Davies destroying all five gang members? Everyone's talking about it. They're even discussing having a private screening - and we might get invited."

Jughead had already asked Brand if he could watch it, since the security footage was accessible through his secure laptop. He'd refused. Emphatically.

"Maybe."

"Get excited. We've got the best possible letter of rec writer pretty much in the bag." Clark widened his eyes to emphasize his words. "That's money in the bank, Jones."

"Uh-huh." Jughead was beginning to wonder if he should just level with Clark right now.

"Hey!" Archie bounded over from the group of construction workers Brand had pointed out. "Great hard hat, am I right? This right here is the look. Did you see the girls? They're way back there-," Archie pointed, "-but they're going to get in position to take photos so that we have before and after pictures for the demo tomorrow. Which is going to be amazing, thanks in part to yours truly." Arche grinned proudly. "Betty already got a few shots of your dad on the roof, and I saw Brand with Mayor McCoy. He's got his sunglasses on, so it's getting real."

"Oh my God, you've got your friends calling him that too?" Clark looked from Jughead to Archie.

"Yeah, I know it's weird - but you'll get used to it," Archie shrugged. "That's what Jug calls him, so I guess I eventually picked it up. Are you Clark?"

"Yes." Clark still looked unsettled, but he shook Archie's hand. "Are you the best friend from the equipment locker?"

"I can't believe that's what you remember from all of the epic stories that Jughead has no doubt told you about me." Archie shot Jughead a look. "Yeah, I'm Archie. 'The best friend.' You'll never guess what I've been doing-,"

"Hey, look alive; ten o'clock," Clark shushed Archie as he directed Jughead's attention. "We should find a better spot. One where we're less visible."

"It's Donn," Jughead explained swiftly when Archie craned his neck to try and see what Clark was talking about. "He's working here, and I'm supposed to-,"

"Oh man, yeah - no - I got this," Archie stepped in front of Jughead to hide him from view. "Come on, Clark, shield wall. Donn's a psycho."

"Jones, what have you been telling people?" Clark allowed Archie to pull him into 'shield wall' position, but his expression was pure horror. "You cannot talk about these kinds of things outside of the agency."

"You should see him when he's on painkillers." Archie snorted.

"Jones?" Clark was starting to look very upset. "Do I need to have this conversation with you? Because I really don't want to have it with someone else if your operations security isn't up to the job."

"No, Clark, it's really-,"

Jughead never got to finish his sentence.

Because the whole world exploded around them.

00000

Yeah, things just went nuts with the plot. :-D Thanks for reading! I'll be writing and posting while traveling over holidays and New Year's, because I love writing and celebrating and doing both seems awesome. Your reviews are a constant encouragement to me as well, particularly as the plot explodes (bahaha) and everything begins to collide in this story... :-D

I hope you're having a wonderful week!

-Button