I'm so sorry that it has taken this long for me to update. I promised myself that it wouldn't happen again, but school got in the way and I was having trouble finding the time to really sit down and write for long periods of time undistracted. I don't have a particular timeline on when this story will be updated, but I'm going to try and have something up by the end of next week.

So far, I haven't had too many chapters that include canon, but that it is going to change. These first three chapters were really about setting up the story and Archie and Betty's complicated relationship at the moment. Obviously, I will be branching off from canon more right around 5x08. I will stick to canon as much as possible, but this is a Barchie story and as the writers seem determined to rob us of this, it will divert from canon.

I don't really have anything else to add here except that I have gotten really committed to this story. Like, seriously. I created an entire Spotify playlist entirely devoted to Barchie and the emotions I want to convey during this story. It's a little crazy. And so...for those who enjoy listening to music while reading stories like I do, this chapter's main song was Run to You by Lea Michele.

TW: Talk of war (not very graphic); self-blaming; survivor's guilt

"Another round?" Archie asked, handing Betty a full beer.

"Last round and then I'm outta here."

"Well then I guess that this is my last round, too."

Betty huffed out a laugh as she accepted the outstretched beer, but said nothing to dissuade Archie from getting a ride to his house with her.

They had successfully driven the Ghoulies out of the Andrews residence with the help of Kevin, Sweetpea, Fangs, and Sheriff Keller. The Ghoulies were now on their way to jail with the assistance of a friend of Betty's from the nearby FBI field office. He had assured them that it would probably be a few months before Hiram Lodge was even able to find them in the system-courtesy of the jail system being overpopulated.

To celebrate their victory, Fangs had suggested that they all go out to the Wyrm to get drunk. Toni had been waiting with a round of drinks on the house when they arrived, which disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. While Betty and Archie had mostly stuck to beer (as neither was in the mood to deal with a hangover the next morning), the others had certainly not. Sweetpea crashed at the bar while Kevin and Fangs had disappeared with a bottle of whiskey a little over an hour ago, presumably to do things that everyone was better off not seeing.

"So, we haven't really had a chance to catch up yet," Archie started. "How are things going at the FBI?"

"The usual," she vaguely replied. There was no way that Archie would have missed that she was intentionally keeping it vague; he knew her far too well.

"Don't give me the standard answer that you give to everyone else. Betty...it's me. You don't have to hide your demons from me, regardless of our relationship status."

"It's complicated…"

"It usually is."

"I could always turn this around on you, you know. How was your tour?" Betty fired back.

She had him there. Archie knew that they could circle each other for hours, but he decided to take a different approach. Betty had told him the night before that he didn't open up to her during a pivotal moment in their relationship and she had her moments too. So, Archie decided to maintain a policy of absolute honesty in her presence. It was the only way that he could prove to her that things had changed.

"A few guys in my unit were killed during a raid I led to rescue some hostages at a militant compound in Afghanistan. We had a plan and practiced it for weeks, but when the actual mission came along, there were more men and weapons than intelligence suggested. It was a massacre."

The initial shock Betty wore on her face at him opening up to her quickly disappeared as what he told her sunk in. And instead of the usual pity that others wore when Archie told stories like this, he only found understanding. It was only that understanding that kept Archie from falling apart completely.

"You don't have to continue if you don't want to, Arch. Take your time."

For the next several minutes, Archie went into graphic detail of the mission. They had achieved their mission-rescue the hostages-but at the cost of half of his unit. They had been under such heavy fire that they had been lucky to escape with their lives and the hostages, but without the bodies of their fallen brothers and sisters. As the leader of the unit, Archie had felt each loss heavily. It wasn't the first time that he lost soldiers, but it had been the last. Archie had sustained a gunshot wound to the shoulder while getting a hostage out of the compound. While it was minor compared to others in the unit, it was a good enough reason for the Army to not extend his tour and to send him home with the fresh memories of watching his unit die all around him-some of whom even Betty knew from attending unit barbeques.

Betty was silent for awhile, letting Archie come back to the present. Once she felt like he was back, she grabbed his hand-for once not caring if anyone saw them-and squeezed it.

"It's not your fault, Archie."

"I was the unit sergeant. I was commanding us. It was my job to protect them."

"It was your job to complete the mission and get them home safe."

"And I only partially completed that mission," Archie replied with clenched fists. While he was happy that he told Betty what happened, Archie was not happy that he had to relive those particular memories, especially as fresh in his mind as they were.

"Alright, I'm going to close our tabs and then we're getting out of here to talk about why what happened is not your fault ," Betty said, standing up.

She quickly walked over to the bar, exchanging a few words with Toni, before walking back over to their booth and grabbing her coat. Betty held her hand out to Archie, which he took mechanically. She pulled him out of the booth and grabbed his jacket. Then, they booked it out of the Wyrm.

Betty practically shoved Archie into the passenger seat of her silver Kia and quickly got in the driver's seat. Archie was unsure of where she was driving them and he really didn't care. He leaned his head against the window and closed his eyes, trying desperately to remember what his therapist had told him about not letting memories overwhelm him.

The car stopped suddenly, jerking Archie out of the bubble he had put himself in. He had no idea how long they had been driving for; it could have been twenty minutes or an hour. As he took in his surroundings, Archie realized that they were parked at what used to be the Twilight Drive-In Theater.

"I figured we should go someplace private and no one comes here anymore," Betty explained.

Unable to find the words, Archie just nodded.

"Archie...I know how much losing a member of your team-your family-can hurt. Hell, we've both seen each other go through it. And I hate to sound like a broken record here, but none of it is your fault. I know that you would have gone back to save them and more importantly, they knew that, too. Yes, you might have failed to save them this time, but they also knew what they signed up for; we all do. The careers we chose...they aren't for the fainthearted. We are constantly bombarded with reasons to give up or turn our back on those counting on us to save them. You are a good man, Archie Andrews. Don't blame yourself for something that you couldn't control."

While the rest of their friends had chosen careers or lifestyles that were fairly comfortable (at least, not dangerous), Archie and Betty had chosen to serve, to put others before themselves. Their careers put them in constant danger. And while they saw the worst of humanity and the job left them with scars-inside and out-they would have not chosen to do anything else.

"My therapist tells me the same thing," Archie said quietly.

"You're seeing a therapist?" Betty asked, surprised.

"A few weeks after we broke up I started seeing one. I realized that I needed to talk to someone about everything. I actually kind of like it."

"Wow...I must say that I'm a little shocked."

"It's been helpful. She keeps telling me that I need to talk to you. Somehow, I don't think this is how she pictured it."

"My therapist would probably say the same thing." At least, her personal therapist. The FBI had their own psychologists on call to help the agency complete assessments of field agents before they returned to active duty. It was one of these FBI therapists that Betty had been forced to speak to recently after her captivity. In the wake of everything, Betty's appointments with her personal-off the record-therapist had slipped.

"You too?"

"I needed to talk to someone after...you know. With the job and everything, it became a permanent fixture."

"Does it help?"

"Yes...and no. The things that you and I have seen and done is stuff that is never going to go away. She is mainly just helping me find healthy ways to cope."

While getting the nightmares to stop might be Archie's main goal, Betty's main goal had always been to find a safe place to talk about her job, how it made her feel, and how to keep working at the FBI despite it all. If the nightmares went away while it happened-bonus. If not, then Betty would survive. She always did.

She closed her eyes as memories of her captivity flashed back into her memory. Betty forced the memories out of her mind; Archie was struggling and she wasn't going to take the attention off him, especially when she wasn't ready to talk about what happened.

"So, instead of talking to each other, we both got therapists. Do I detect a hint of irony?" Archie asked, attempting to lighten the mood.

"I think there is a lot more than a hint of irony," she said, letting him get away with changing the subject. They could only focus on the bad for so long before it sucked them in.

"Hey, Betty?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you stay tonight?"

Sensing her hesitation, Archie rushed to explain. "Nothing has to happen. I just don't think I should be alone tonight. My therapist says that I shouldn't be alone when dealing with my trauma."

"You don't have to explain, Archie. Of course, I'll stay with you," Betty replied.

"Thanks."

"Do you want to head back now?"

"Not yet," he shook his head.

Instead, he leaned his seat back and closed his eyes to savor the moment. Eventually, Betty did the same thing.

They returned to their neighborhood a little over an hour later.

It was no question whose house they'd be staying the night in. Archie's house was in need of a serious deep cleaning in every room of the house. Until that happened, it was safer if he lived somewhere else. And while Archie staying with Betty would certainly raise some eyebrows, Betty found that she really didn't care.

Her mom was thankfully getting the twins ready for bed and was too distracted to really absorb Betty telling her that Archie was staying the night. She was also too distracted to notice them go into her room instead of Archie getting comfortable on the couch in the living room.

"Your room hasn't changed a bit," Archie commented.

"I know. I told my mom all the time that she could do whatever she wanted with it, but all she ever did was keep it clean."

"She probably expected you to return to Riverdale one day."

"You're the reason I'm back, you do know that, right?"

"My point still stands."

"Whatever. Just get ready for bed," Betty said, tossing a pillow at him. Archie easily dodged the pillow with a quiet laugh.

Even before they started dating, Betty and Archie had spent many nights together. Archie had a small apartment on base near Quantico, but he was hardly ever there. Instead, he was always at Betty's. Not only was her apartment a little larger and homier, they often ended up sharing a bed to ward off nightmares. It was simple, platonic cuddling that made them feel safe. They did it so often that Archie eventually moved out of his apartment and into Betty's (though if anyone asked, he said he slept in the guestroom). A few months later, they were dating.

Despite never doing anything in her bedroom, Archie felt comfortable and relaxed as he folded back the covers and got comfortable. He watched as Betty moved her desk chair underneath the doorknob to act as a barrier against people trying to get in.

"Is that really necessary? You told your mom that I'm staying over."

Betty rolled her eyes. "It's not you. It's to keep the twins out of here. They have absolutely no sense of boundaries; they barged in this morning."

"I wonder who taught them that."

"It definitely wasn't Polly. She's hardly around. I also know that she's lying to my mom about working as a waitress. Her employer said that she hasn't been working there for months."

"I might know where she's getting money," Archie admitted.

"Don't tell me," Betty immediately insisted, climbing underneath the covers. "My guess is that it is probably illegal and therefore I am legally obligated to arrest her."

"Don't you want to protect your sister?"

"I can't protect her from herself. If she gets in real trouble, then, of course, I will do my best to help her, but my hands are tied. Besides, Polly is an adult-capable of knowing right and wrong."

Archie nodded, sensing that this line of questioning was upsetting Betty. Anything regarding Polly usually did.

Betty was a natural protector; it was her first instinct to put everyone first, to protect people. While it made her an excellent FBI agent, it also meant that Betty's first instinct when Polly got in trouble was to swoop in and save the day. She had done it for years. In fact, this was the first time that Archie had ever seen Betty draw a line. As much as he understood the instinct to protect family, Archie had long believed that Polly had been swooped out of trouble by Betty too many times. She always expected her sister to save her, even if it cost Betty everything to do it. Sometimes, the only way to help someone was to let them own up to their own mistakes.

"What you said about not being able to protect someone from themselves….were you also referring to me?" He quietly asked after a moment.

"No," Betty said firmly. "You are a good man, Archie Andrews. You recognized that you needed help and so you went and got it. That is not someone who needs protection from themselves."

"I missed you," he breathed out as they laid down fully, naturally falling right back into the positions they had adopted when they started dating, with Betty resting her head against his chest and Archie resting against the pillows.

"I missed you too."

Archie left Betty just as the sun was rising. They were both early risers-work habits-and after indulging in a few extra minutes of each other's presence, Archie left to meet with Toni about an idea he had to help save Riverdale High, but with a promise to meet a little later in the day to start cleaning Archie's house.

"Is that coffee?" Toni asked as he met her on the front steps.

"Betty let me crash on her couch and was up early enough to make coffee," Archie smoothly lied. Grinning sheepishly, he took in her belly and shook the thermos. "If I had known you had a thing against coffee, I wouldn't have brought it."

"Andrews, the only thing I have against coffee is that I can't drink it."

"Sorry."

"I'll forgive you if you tell me exactly why we are meeting at the ass crack of dawn," she replied, removing a set of keys from her pocket to unlock the doors.

"Because I have a plan to help save the school," he explained as he followed Toni to her office. He waited to continue until they had both sat down around her desk.

"Alright, Andrews. Have at it."

"You said that you need more teachers, right?" He waited until he saw her confirming nod before continuing. "Well, I might have an idea on where you can get them."

"Getting more teachers is great and all, but we don't have any funding to keep the school running if the vote goes Hiram plans it to tomorrow."

"One problem at a time, Toni. You have four former graduates of Riverdale High that just returned, each of them with very different skills that could cover classes. I can cover ROTC, Betty can cover shop class, Jughead literature, and Veronica economics."

"Well that would certainly help us out," Toni said after a few moments of silence. "But you and Betty run gym together. Kevin has been running that lately but he's...not exactly the athletic type."

Archie nodded in agreement. "Done."

"Fantastic. With that settled, if you can get a donor to help us make the school private, then I'll convince Weatherbee to hire you all."

He breathed a sigh of relief as part one of his plan went off without a hitch. Part two was convincing a donor to actually donate enough money to make the school private. Part three was somehow convincing Jughead and Veronica to go through with it (he already knew what Betty would say).

One of the things that I don't really like about Riverdale right now is that the writers are not exploring the potential arcs for PTSD with Archie and Betty. They both chose extremely dangerous careers that leave serious mental scars, including things they went through right before returning to Riverdale. They hinted at it a little with the flashbacks and Betty's nightmares and therapy sessions, but they haven't really explored it. It would be such an interesting arc to watch unfold (but its the CW so they probably won't explore it), so I will. While not every chapter, you can definitely expect Betty and Archie to delve into their traumatic experiences in future chapters while also experiencing panic attacks. As mentioned in the chapter, they are both in therapy, but therapy can only do so much. Therapy is great, especially for dealing with trauma and understanding your emotions and developing healthy coping methods for it, but both Archie and Betty are still learning how to do that so there are bumps along the way.