Author's note: Enjoy! Xx

Jughead watched as Betty and her friend, Veronica, sat together on the couch, bodies shaking with grief and sighed, wishing he could offer some form of assurance. He knew he couldn't, however. Jughead knew that until the stalker turned murderer was apprehended and locked behind bars, no one would feel safe, least of all Betty. Just then there was a knock on the door, followed by Archie's voice.

"It's just me, guys," Archie said, voice carrying but laden down with respect and Jughead knew his friend was showing the respect both Betty and Veronica deserved right now. Nodding at Sweet Pea, Jughead watched as the taller went to go open the door, standing back so Archie could walk in. Looking at Sweet Pea for a moment, Archie nodded at him, apparently recognizing the fact he knew Jughead, before making his way over to Betty and Veronica, crouching down on his knees so he was directly in front of them both.

"God, Betty and Ronnie…I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," Archie murmured, voice laced with pain. "Valerie was such a sweet girl and friend to you both. She didn't deserve this."

"No, she didn't," Betty choked out, voice raw from having cried so hard. Jughead winced. It was as if she had been crying since finding out that her friend was dead from her Dean earlier that morning and hadn't been able to stop yet. "I don't know who would have done this. But…"

"Betts," Jughead said softly, causing Archie to look up at him in surprise before smiling warmly between them, understanding the importance of him being able to call her by her nickname once more. "You don't have to say it, honey. Not if you don't want to."

"Say what?" Veronica asked, brow furrowed.

Betty shook her head, making a pained noise in the back of her throat before inhaling and speaking, looking as if each and every word cost her great energy. "It's my fault Valerie is dead."

Betty's voice was nothing more than a pained whisper that ripped at Jughead's very being. She shouldn't ever sound like that, and he had to wondered just how often she sounded like that without him around; without him there to help her navigate the pain her father bestowed upon her.

"You didn't kill your friend, Betty," Sweet Pea reminded her, but she shook her head, shrugging her shoulders defeatedly.

"No, I didn't," she conceded. "But the person who did kill her did it to send a message to me."

There was a pause of silence before Archie spoke up.

"What haven't you told me, Betty?" Archie asked, voice trembling with barely concealed pain and Jughead understood that his friend was worried and probably hurt that he hadn't been confided in with something that had such a large magnitude of impact in Betty's life that it brought about murder.

Sighing, Betty rubbed her temple as she replied. "I'm sorry Archie. I just didn't want you to feel as if you needed to go into overprotective older brother mode. I have a stalker."

It was said flatly and emotionless, almost as if Betty had to detach herself emotionally from the situation she found herself in and Jughead hated every bit of it.

"Wait, what?" Archie asked, tone disbelieving as he shook his head back and forth. "That's not – that's not possible. Who would want to hurt you?"

Betty laughed bitterly as she looked at her friend. "Come on Arch, you remember who my dad was."

Sweet Pea shifted on the balls of his feet and Jughead knew he was curious. Before he could interject and shake his head to indicate that the taller didn't need to ask questions right now, Sweet Pea spoke up. "Your father?"

Betty sighed, eyes closing for a moment before she spoke up in a dull voice. "Hal Cooper, also known as The Black Hood. Or, the serial killer that terrorized Riverdale and killed several people, one being a fellow classmate and cheerleader on my squad."

"Shit," Sweet Pea breathed, face pale and Jughead knew his friend wished he hadn't asked. "Betty, I'm sorry. I really am. However, given what we know about your stalker, this creep doesn't seem to be after you because of what Hal did. He seems infatuated with you, obsessively so, because he's in love with you. Well, his deluded version of love."

Archie looked back and forth between the three of them, before looking at Betty. "Do you know who he is? And, we're going to talk about the fact that you didn't come to me about this."

"Archie," Betty sighed, shaking her head. "What would you have done? Besides go up in arms over a battle that is not yours' to fight?"

Archie scoffed. "Don't give me that shit, Betty. I've been in your life since we were babies. You're like a fucking sister to me and dad and Alice are close fucking friends!"

Jughead watched as Betty flinched back from the venomous tone Archie was using and while he knew his friend wasn't a threat, Jughead couldn't quite stomp down the urge to protect. Clearing his throat as he leveled a look at the redhead, Jughead spoke up. "Calm down, Arch. That's enough." His tone was laced with a firmness that implied he wouldn't budge on the demand and Archie slowly nodded, unclenching his fist.

"You're right, Jug, sorry," he muttered. Turning to Betty, he gently laid a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Betty. Really sorry. I didn't mean to get angry. Please, tell me everything that's happened so far so I know how to help you."

"Tell us both, please," Veronica added in a small voice, her amber eyes watching the golden-haired woman.

Exhaling a trembling sigh, Betty nodded and began to speak. "A few weeks ago, I started to receive calls from an unidentified number. They were different than the types of calls Hal would send me. He would leave messages, using a voice modulator of some sort. Each message he left depicted disgusting things he wanted to…do to me. He said he had been watching me for a while. That he knew, in his heart, I belonged to him from the first day he laid eyes on me."

Jughead felt his stomach churning at the words Betty whispered. At the way she seemed so dejected because of this sick fuck and how he was bothering her relentlessly. He was nauseous with the mental reminder that this guy, whoever he was, had been watching her that night he and Sweet Pea went to retrieve her from her campus after she left the studio. He had been hiding in the shadows like some fucking coward too scared to reveal himself because he, ultimately, knew how weak of a man he was. Any 'man' who resorted to terrorizing people for the hell of it, was not a man in Jughead's opinion.

Archie brought Jughead back to the present conversation. "Has he sent you anything else?"

Betty exchanged an uneasy glace with Sweet Pea and Jughead that was not missed by either Veronica or Archie.

"He has," Veronica asserted. "What?"

"He got into my apartment this morning, while I was in the shower, and left Valerie's scarf on my bed, covered in her blood," Betty choked out, clasping a hand against her mouth to stifle what Jughead knew were sobs desperate to break free.

"What?" Veronica asked, aghast at the words. "Betty, the – the man who killed Valerie…oh god…he's actually stalking you. And he, what? Killed Valerie to prove a point? Betty, whoever killed Valerie – he knew her so that means…"

Betty nodded as the gravity of the situation truly settled in like a storm on land. "He knows me. And has for a while."

Author's note: Thoughts lovely per usual! Xx