Sage sprinted as fast as her legs would carry her to FP's trailer, pounding frantically on the door like a wild woman but when she got no answer, she knew where he had to be.

The Whyte Wyrm.

She took off in the opposite direction. She needed to find him. She flew up the stairs to the entrance, flinging the door open and scanning the bar for FP.

"Where are you? Where are you?" she murmured to herself, her heart protesting by thudding against her ribcage and her lungs burning for a deep enough breath.

He wasn't there either. At least, downstairs.

She dashed to the stairs ignoring Hog Eye who greeted her with a "Where's the fire?", and ran up the stairs hurrying to FP's office.

As she opened the door, she found FP passed out in his chair, head tilted back, mouth agape, knees splayed open. A mix of full and empty bottles littered every space in the room, the floor, the desk, the bookcase.

"Son of a bitch," she swore, moving swiftly over to him, kicking empty cans out of the way. "FP."

He didn't stir.

"FP!" she yelled louder, shaking him by the shoulders. "Wake up!"

He groaned sluggishly, head lulling side to side as his eyes rolled back in his head.

Anger erupted from the pit of her stomach, radiating to her chest. "You're supposed to do better!" She shook him harder.

"Sage..." he drawled slowly, his hazy mind trying to catch up. " What-what are you doing in my office?"

She grabbed a half-full bottle of beer, tipping it over his head, shaking out every last drop.
That seemed to sober him up. His limbs flailed as he was drenched with stale, flat beer, sputtering angrily as he jumped to his feet. "What that hell do you think you're doing?!" he bellowed.

She met his furious eyes with a look of her own. "You promised to do better. To be better! It's one in the afternoon! What the hell are you doing?"

With his hand, he wiped his face off in one swift swipe, exhaling sharply. "You want to rethink that tone, girl. I don't answer to you! You answer to me!"

"Jughead just got arrested for the murder of Jason Blossom," she spat, dropping the bottle back onto the desk with a loud clatter.

All movement stilled, his face going slack and paling. Wordlessly, he brushed past her and left the room leaving her standing there alone.

Now she realized she had no idea where Jughead lived. This created a new flurry of anxiety in her. She didn't know how to find him. She didn't know what she would say when she saw him. She didn't know what she would do.

She just knew she needed to see him. It was like a reflex at this point.

Standing in FP's office, it dawned on her to simply wait at the Sheriff's office for him. Maybe if she was quick enough, she could still catch him.

As she drew closer to the jail, she saw a familiar face that made her pause. It had been quite a while, longer than a year maybe, but she knew his face well.

Archibald Andrews. He had changed so much. He was much taller, more muscular but yet, still had that endearing boyish charm about him.

"Archie!" she heard herself call as she watched him walk away from the building.

Archie looked up, confusion coloring his face before he realized he recognized her. "Sage?"

She jogged up to him, cutting right to the chase. "Jughead?"

He exhaled a gust of air from his lungs. "He's already back at my place right now. He's okay, all things considering."
"Yea, what happened?"

"Sheriff Keller tried to pin Jason's murder on him, but he has an alibi for that entire week. He was working for my dad."

Sage felt a weight lift instantly lift off her chest, her shoulders physically relaxing down. "Oh god, okay. Good."

Archie nodded. "Yea, I'm actually on my way to my dad's work now. We have to drop off the timesheet to the sheriff's office for proof"

"I was so worried," she sighed. "I knew he didn't do it."

"Yea, me too," he agreed. "They pulled him right out in the middle of school."

They sighed a breath of relief at the same time.

"I should go. My dad's waiting," he said with a small smile, inching away.

"Wait, Archie, do you know where he is staying? I really need to see him."

"He's actually been crashing with me and my dad. Like I mentioned before, he should be there now."

"Perfect, thank you, Archie. It was good seeing you again."

He offered her another smile and wave. "You too, bye, Sage. Good luck!"

She realized as soon as he was walking away, that she hadn't been to Archie's house in a long time. But even so, she felt confident she could find it even after all that time.

And she could. Northside was a neatly organized display of cookie-cutter houses. All she had to do was verify that the house she was looking for had an old wooden treehouse somewhere in the backyard that you could see from the street. The very few times she did spend in the Northside had been with Jughead and Archie in the treehouse, goofing off, swapping stories and making empty promises.

She felt strangely nervous as she walked up to the front door and knocked loudly. She waited for a few minutes.

The door opened and Jughead peered out hesitantly. When he saw it was Sage, he opened it wide, standing in the door room.

Before he could utter a word, she hurled herself at him, throwing her arms around him. "Oh Jug, I was so worried!"

She felt him melt into the hug, wrapping his arms around her tightly. "I'm okay, Sage," he promised.

Already, she felt a thousand times better.

They parted.

"What the hell happened?" she inquired, shaking her head sympathetically.

He motioned with a tilt of his head. "Come on in, I'll explain," he said.

They settled on opposite couches, facing each other. Sage took a moment to admire how nice Archie's house was, how big and airy it felt as she folded her hands in her lap waiting for Jug to speak.

"Well, it started with Betty's sister, Polly. She told us about a car that Jason has stashed away for them to run away together. Betty and I found it. There was Jason's stuff and drugs in the back. We went to the Sheriff's but apparently when they went to investigate, someone set the car on fire to destroy everything."

Sage kept quiet. She was angry with FP but she didn't want to give Jughead another reason to hate his father at the moment.

"Of course, Sheriff Keller found my fingerprints on the car and then dug into my file and found out about the incident with the matches at Riverdale Elementary School. They concluded that based on that and the fact I may have had a rough history with the jocks, that I must have had gotten revenge by killing Jason."

"That's insanity."

"I asked for a lawyer when I figured out they had me there as a suspect. And then Fred Andrews came in and gave me an alibi and they cut me loose."

"Jughead, I'm sorry," she apologized.

"Don't be. I'm alright, really."

"I saw Archie. He told me you're staying here," she added.

"Yea, it's been nice. After the drive-in shut down, I was staying in a closet at the school."

Sage shook her head, sighing heavily "Oh, Jughead."

"I'm good now, I promise."

"So you keep saying," she smiled. "By the way, Archie? What the hell happened to him? He's ripped!"

Jughead laughed, "A summer working for his dad in construction is what happened."

"Sign me up then," she laughed with him. "Everything else okay?"

He nodded, "Yea, my dad got a job with Fred and I think it's going okay."

"Oh? Is that so?" she mused.

He smirked knowingly. "I'm sure you already knew that though."

She smiled sheepishly. "News travels fast in Serpent land."

"You're doing good?"

It was her turn to nod, "Yea, I'm doing good. Even got a C on my English final."

"Well look at you Einstein, proud of you," he smiled.

She blushed, looking down at her hands. They were still folded in her lap, fingers twitching. "Thanks."

His phone beeped, pulling them out of the moment. He quickly glanced at the message.

"I'm sorry, it's Betty."

"No, no. Please, it's fine," she reassured.

He responded to the message and looked up. "She's gonna head over soon. She was with Polly," he explained.

"Oh, nice," she said, She felt lame suddenly, misplaced even.

"Yea, we're kinda dating now..." he added, clearing his throat.

She blinked in surprise. "Oh, wow, neat."

"Yea..."

An awkward silence fell between them.

"Well," she said, suddenly, unable to stand the stillness. "I'm sorry, I barged in like this. I just... needed to see you," she trailed off, looking up at him.

He looked almost conflicted for a brief moment but smiled genuinely after a moment. "Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm really glad you stopped by. I've been thinking of you."

She stood up, biting her lip trying not to be too pleased by that last statement. "I should go," she resolved, pointing to the door.

"I'll see you soon," he said.

"Definitely."

"I can walk you out," he suggested.

"No, I know where the door is," she said. "Thanks, catch you around." She waved and walked out quickly.

Her stomach continued to roll uncomfortably, her chest oddly tight. She tried not to give it much thought as she intentionally shifted her thoughts.

Jughead was going to be fine, Toni and Sweet Pea were clued in.

Everything was fine.

As she returned home, she saw in the distance FP stumbling out of the Whyte Worm, tripping over his own feet and catching himself on the banister. He barely regained his balance and continued on his way back to Sunnyside.

Everything was not fine.