Summary: Jughead reflects on his time at Stonewall Prep and tries to solve his murder. Missing scene. One shot. Spoilers for most of season 4 (mostly episode 15)
Disclaimer: I do not own Riverdale or any of its characters
The Final Piece of the Puzzle
Riverdale, the town with pep. Also known as the town with gang rivalries, drug rings and fancy political investors looking to rule the town. It's home to power-crazy parents, sinner-obsessed serial killers and mystical board games that come to life to terrorize the citizens of that poor small community. To most, this place of kill or be killed would seem like a living nightmare. But to others, it's home; others being Jughead Jones: writer, high schooler, and sleuth.
At first glance, he'd look like your average loner teenager, looking for his next scoop for the school paper. But those in his inner circle - more specifically Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews and Veronica Lodge – they know more about what he was really like. Under the beanie, Jughead was a caring person even though he never really showed it. He was passionate about lots of things, his writing, whatever new mystery the town faced and Betty. He loved Elizabeth Cooper with every fibre of his being and would do anything for her. That's why he is in the situation he is now.
He is dead.
Well not really, considering the fact he was breathing, and his heart was still beating. But to the outside world he, Forsythe Pendleton Jones III, is dead.
It's all because he got into a fight with his girlfriend and she hit him in the head with a rock and killed him. No, that's not what happened at all. But, that's how it was supposed to look. Boyfriend and girlfriend fight, girlfriend kills boyfriend by accident (or on purpose) and then she drags friends in to help cover it up. But they all end up going to jail because two students that go to the late boyfriend's school claim they saw them commit the crime. Happy ending, right? Wrong.
The real reason he's hiding in an underground bunker while the world grieves the loss of a young soul is because he transferred to a new school, won a contract for his favourite childhood mystery series and got tied up in a sick game of kill a kid and win a prize. Simple. Obviously, he knows who did it. He'd be an idiot if he didn't, but now he needs to figure out why they did it. He's so close he can feel it, but one thing doesn't fit, the puppet master. What could drive someone to go so far as to scheme an elaborate murder plot for probably years and then cover up their tracks so well? What was it? Revenge, money, the thrill of the kill, maybe all three or maybe something that goes deeper into the yearbooks and maybe the secrets lie in the walls of Stonewall Prep.
Either way, he better figure this out sooner rather than later. He doesn't know how much more of being dead he can take.
"Jug?" He hears a familiar voice call from the entrance of the bunker.
"Finally!" He thinks. It feels like forever since he's seen her beautiful bright eyes staring up at him. He stands up from where he's sitting looking over their evidence board and walks over to her enveloping her in a hug and giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"Hey Betty, miss me?" He asked teasingly.
"Always." He kissed her again and he felt her smirk onto his lips. Oh lord, it felt so good to be with her. She adjusted the beanie on his head, the one she had made for him after they had been forced to burn his old one. She had learned how to knit just for him because she knew how much he loved that beanie.
Betty's fingers moved from the beanie to the stitches on Jughead's left temple, the ones he'd gotten after Joan had hit him in the head with the rock and nearly killed him.
"It's okay," he reassured her, "it doesn't hurt as much as before." She smiled sadly and he leaned in for a kiss.
Suddenly they heard a noise – ruining their moment - from where Betty had just come, and they saw a pair of legs coming down the ladder. Jughead whispered a quick "Hide!" and slid under the bed, again, and held his breath. He heard Betty gasp and caught a glimpse of her feet running into the bathroom connected to the main room, the only other room in the bunker. The silence is unsettling, but he dares not move or make a sound for fear that he'll reveal his location to the intruder. His mind is going a thousand miles an hour and just as his mind comes to the sensible possibility that there is no intruder, a voice breaks the silence.
"Hello? Jughead? B? Anyone home?" He peaks his head out of the small jap between the bed and the floor when he hears the voice of millionaire Veronica Lodge, Archie on her tail. He grins and wiggles out of his hiding spot, brushing himself off and standing next to Betty who had left the safety of the bathroom after determining there was no threat, and was now sitting on the chair at the table.
"Sorry guys, we're still on edge after Donna broke into the bunker," Betty explains. "You never know, the world is full of crazy pervs who are stalking young people and following them to secret bunkers in the woods." They all laughed a little, because it's true. Other creeps like Donna exist. Nick St. Clair is an example of that. Speaking of Donna.
"Anything new yet?" Jughead asked, more then happy to finally figure out his own murder and leave to get a proper meal.
"As a matter of fact." Veronica said and then pulled out a file that neither Jughead nor Betty had noticed until this moment.
"As it turns out my darling half-sister is actually good for something," she started. "At my behest, Hermosa put her private I skills to good use and did some digging on those Stonewall wasps and your gal pal Donna isn't so sweet." Veronica pulled out papers from the file. "Everybody brace yourselves," she warned, "because Donna Sweett, is actually…" Veronica stopped mid sentence and passed the paper, with the evidence that he needed to link everything together, to Betty and Jughead. They looked at the page and the wheels in their heads started turning.
"Oh my god," Betty muttered. "Of course," Jughead said. They both looked at the page in shock; it all made sense now, Donna, the original Quill and Skull members, M. Chipping, M. Dupont, revenge. "If this is true this is our smoking gun." Jughead looked up and met Archie and Veronica's gaze. Archie nodded. "This is the final piece of the puzzle that we needed," Jughead looked at Betty in excitement. He turned around and walked over to the evidence board, a plan forming in his mind. "I think I know how to take down these stonies once and for all."