Chapter Six
Betty and I may have been out of the 'child porn' woods, for now, but we were still up Sweetwater River in the middle of winter without a boat or life jackets.
"Betty… we really need to talk."
Jughead and Betty were still in their room, only now they were laying down, both on their sides – Betty's back against Jughead's chest, his arms wrapped around her. As if to make his point, he slid his hand (the one that wasn't under her head) onto her stomach, right where he knew something was growing.
Betty shifted her head to kiss his other arm. "I don't know what we should talk about, Jug." It was hard for her to admit, but the not knowing, the feeling of being completely out of control, scared her the most.
Jughead planted a kiss on her neck. "We can't ignore it forever, Betts."
She groaned and rolled over to face him. "Can we ignore it… just for tonight?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You're the one who brought it up earlier…" He pushed a strand of her hair away from her eyes. "I know I didn't exactly… react positively about it…"
"I thought you were going to faint. Or throw up. Or both." Not that she could judge, considering that after she'd dragged Jughead into the Blue and Gold to tell him, tears running down her face and voice shaking, "I'm pregnant", she had almost immediately run out of the school, telling him to give her space to think after shoving two pregnancy tests into his hands.
Jughead cringed. "Yeah well… same." Their eyes met, and they both let out a small amount of laughter. Betty leaned into him to give him a slow, loving kiss. They remained in their embrace for a few minutes, just revelling in the taste and comfort of each other.
Eventually Jughead pulled back to look at her. "How long have you known?"
Betty laid her head down on his arm. "Subconsciously I think I've known for a while. My last period was at the end of February, and it's now the first week of May. So it's been well over eight weeks, and I've been feeling sick every morning for the past three days."
"Okay…" Jughead swallowed, and tried to keep the accusatory tone from his voice when he asked, "I uh… I thought you were on birth control."
"I was, Jughead. Honestly. I only stopped taking it last night because I was planning to go to that 24 hour pharmacy in Greendale to buy pregnancy tests and confirm what I already knew. Which, by the way, I almost couldn't do because you, Ronnie and Archie were in Pop's until my shift ended."
"Wait, you went to Greendale last night? When?"
"After you fell asleep, I snuck out and caught an uber." She smirked, "It's a good thing I wore you out last night or you wouldn't have slept through me opening the window."
"Betty… you should have told me. I would have come with you."
Betty closed her eyes. "I didn't want to stress you out if I was wrong. I mean, I could have just been sick from mine and Jellybean's failed attempt at making sushi the other night."
Jughead screwed his face up. "Sushi sickness aside… that's still some weak tea Betty…"
"I know… and I'm sorry. Really, Jughead. I am. And, I promise I won't hide anything else from you about – about the… our… baby." Betty let the word fall from her lips in a barely audible whisper, the first time she was truly acknowledging that what her and Jughead had wasn't just a pregnancy… but a baby as well.
"Thank you." Jughead kissed her again. "I have to admit, it feels odd, hearing you say that. Our baby… it's like I'm listening in on someone else's life."
"Believe me, I'm struggling to come to terms with this as well." Betty blinked, trying to hide the tears that wanted to escape her eyes. "Also… I'm so sorry."
"For what?"
"The sex tape being released… I can't prove it right now but I'm almost certain Donna did it, to get a leg up on me because I threatened her a few weeks ago."
"Betty, we don't know for certain that it was her–"
"And for getting pregnant. That was my fault too."
Jughead shifted up on his elbow to get a better look at her. "How about we don't do the spiral of self-destruction tonight. Neither of these things are your fault, Betty. The Stonies, whichever one it was, are to blame for the sex tape. And as for the baby… well, accidents happen, don't they? Isn't it possible for the pill to not work… sometimes? If we were really being careful, we would have kept using condoms…" he stopped short of finishing, not wanting her to feel even more guilty for being the one who'd suggested they stop using them altogether about a year earlier.
"No, no you don't understand." She sat up and pulled away from him, bringing her knees up so she could hug them. They provided a nice spot for her to hide her face from him. "The pill loses its effectiveness if it's not taken at exactly the same time every day. And I was being so careful, Juggie." She let out a sigh that threatened to become a sob. "And then… the night the Stonies tried to kill you… and they drugged me… I didn't get home until three in the morning, and–" she paused, needing to take a moment to compose herself before she looked her boyfriend in the eyes, "and I forgot to take it. And then I forgot again the next day, and the next. I was so completely absorbed by what was happening, and not knowing if you'd ever wake up… it just completely slipped my mind. I didn't take it for three whole days – and the last time we had sex was literally the morning they tried to kill you. I'm almost one hundred percent sure that's when I conceived. I thought it'd be fine, but then I got too paranoid and went to try and get Plan B with Veronica. But by then it had already been past five days after the last time we had sex, and the pharmacist didn't recommend taking it because it likely wouldn't work anyway, and I'd probably experience some side effects that'd leave me out of commission. Maybe I should have taken it anyway... but I just kept taking the pill as usual and put it out of my mind while we tried to figure out how to keep you safe and keep me out of prison."
Jughead sat up slowly, taking in all the information. He sat quietly for a moment, looking down and fiddling with the fabric of their blanket, and Betty started to worry he might run away. Eventually, he wrapped his arms around her again. "It's not your fault Betty. Please don't blame yourself… for any of it. I mean, it takes two to tap a maple tree, right?"
Betty smiled at him, amused, "I'm pretty sure that's only if you're a Blossom twin, but I appreciate the sentiment."
They leaned into each other again, their lips connecting in a sweet, chaste moment of connectedness. But then Betty felt that magnetic pull she only felt around Jughead, the desire to connect with him on a deeper level than could be expressed with words. Jughead revelled in the warm feeling of Betty's body in his arms, and slowly lay her back against the pillows so he could hover above her.
"Mmm, Juggie," she whispered, "go lock the door."
He didn't need to be told twice.
