Fall 2014

Jughead Jones figures out as the leaves are changing colors in the fall that he will defend Betty Cooper without question, even if she's wrong. Maybe especially when she's wrong.

"I'm sorry, Jughead," Betty tells him morosely, reaching out to touch the tender skin that's turned a combination of blue and purple.

Flinching when her fingers make contact from the pain under his eye he shrugs at her. "It's alright, Betty. I think I got him pretty good, though."

A small smile crosses her face. "Yeah, his nose was so gross and bloody, I bet he whistles when he breathes for, like, at least three days." The smile falls off her face. "I'm sorry you got detention for a week, though."

"Hey, you got detention, too," he reminds her. "So at least we'll be doing it together."

"Yeah, but I deserve it, you don't," she whispered, looking down to the ground. "I should have walked away."

"He was wrong, you know that, even if you were wrong too, he was wronger than you," he says, pushing his hair back off of his forehead. "He shouldn't have said that to you."

"I did pour my drink on him, Jug," Betty says as her eyes meet his again. "He just made me so mad."

"Chuck's a jerk," he insists, thinking about how when he walked into the cafeteria he saw Betty standing there in tears as Chuck, wearing a wet and stained t-shirt, yelling at Betty, calling her all sorts of names in front of everyone.

Walking up to her, he asks her if she's okay when Chuck picked up his own drink to throw on Betty and Jughead doesn't think before he turns around, swinging his fist and punching Chuck in the face. Before he realized his hand hurt, he was on the ground and his eye was throbbing.

"Still, you defended me and now you're in trouble," she counters, pulling the straps of her bag around her shoulders. "My mom is going to be so mad."

Jughead just grins at her, "Probably. But just think of Chuck's whistling nose when she starts yelling."

Finally laughing she smiles at him. "That's a great idea."

"Betty, you know, you never told me what he was saying to you."

She just shrugs at him. "Just stupid stuff, Juggie, you know how he is."

Nodding at her, he agrees. He does know how Chuck is. "Yeah."

Wednesday Morning

"So, as it turns out, Robert Phillips is a teacher at Southside High," Betty tells him, pinning his name next to the already pinned paper that says 'Sugarman'.

Jughead is taken aback by that. "He's a teacher? How did you figure it out?"

Betty continues to look at their board. "Joaquin, actually. I asked Kevin if Joaquin knew anyone by that name on the Southside since that's where the Ghoulies are based and turns out, he's the English teacher for the high school."

"Wow, that's just-"

"Yeah, I know."

"Betty," he continues after she cut him off, "don't you think we should let Sheriff Keller handle the rest of this? I think busting up a drug ring is probably a little out of our capabilities."

Turning to look at him, she asks, "Do you think he'd take it more seriously if it were anonymous? If he blew it off because it was us-"

"Which I wouldn't put past him."

"Me either. Anonymous is probably best."

"The real question is, will it be enough to take down Clifford Blossom as well?" Jughead questions. "Because if not, he'll just get another Sugarman, right?"

Betty is staring hard at the board in front of her. "Aside from the drugs and wanting the Twilight land, what is Clifford Blossom guilty of?"

"Worst father of the year?" he quips at her.

She rolls her eyes at him. "You know what I mean, he helped put Hiram Lodge in jail because of a feud. He wanted the Twilight land for family history and he wanted Jason to learn to take over his drug business. It's all family orientated."

Standing and walking over to her, crossing his arms as he thinks he says, "But Hiram Lodge, it's about money. It's about power. His motivations don't extend past himself and that makes him dangerous."

"We know he's behind the SoDale thing, he's helping Jason and Polly to benefit himself, he's blackmailing my parents. That part doesn't make that much sense, Jug-"

"The money-"

"No, I get that part, it's the why of it. There has to be another reason he's holding the paper against them and they're going with it."

Wrapping his arms around her, he pulls her into a tight embrace. "Are you going to finally confront the dragon?"

"I think I have to."

Early Thursday Afternoon

"Jughead," he hears a female voice whisper to him, as someone grabs his arm, pulling him into an empty classroom.

Thrown off by being caught off guard he whips around and relaxes as he sees it's Veronica. "If this is part of your goal to kiss all of your friends, I'm flattered but you know I'm taken-"

"Oh god, shut up," she interrupts with an unamused expression.

"Although, if you ever wanted to kiss Betty again, I have to tell you I'm oddly torn between being jealous and intrigued-"

"Jughead!"

"I know, it's disgusting of me but I have come to accept my flaws-"

"Knowing you is part of my karma, isn't it?" Veronica interjects, arms crossed and eyebrow arching.

"That...is completely possible."

"For the record, I want it known I have no idea why Betty lets you see her naked."

Blushing, Jughead decides to shut up with his banter and finally listen to her. Bringing up Betty naked makes him think of a naked Betty and he can't do that with her best friend in the room or when he's not alone. Or not in the shower. "What's up, Veronica?"

"My dad is coming home," she tells him with an uneasy face.

"Hiram Lodge? Is coming here to Riverdale? Where he's feuding with the Blossoms, buying up property anonymously, essentially holding Jason Blossom hostage in the name of safety and revenge? That Hiram Lodge?" he asks, suddenly anxious.

"That's the one."

"How long have you known?"

She's standing there, looking down at the floor with her hair falling in her face. When he sees her reach for the pearl necklace around her neck he knows she's known for a while.

"Veronica, how long?" His tone is harder than before. "How long?"

Her head pops up at the anger in his voice. "Jughead…"

"What the fuck, Veronica!?" he shouts, turning around to lean against a desk to steady himself. "Have you told Betty?"

"No, of course not, not yet."

"Archie?"

Her silence is the answer and he sighs out audibly in frustration. "You told Archie. Of course you did. Why are you telling me before Betty?"

Veronica is shifting her gaze nervously and avoiding eye contact.

And then he gets it. All the pieces fit and he can't believe she would do this to her friend. "How could you? Betty has never thought you were lying to her, not once and she defends you first in any situation, how could you not tell her?"

"I wanted to-"

"Is that why you've been on her like a shadow lately?"

"Part of it, yes. But Jughead, you have to believe me that I love Betty, I don't want anything to happen to her."

His face is passive as he replies, "I believe that, I know you care. But you are lying to her. To me, even, which isn't something I usually expect from someone I consider a friend to be honest. I'm not even giving you a day this time, if she doesn't know before eight o'clock, I'm telling her."

Nodding, she's got tears in her eyes as she looks at him. "That's not even all of it, Jughead."

Less than a minute later, Jughead slams the door into the wall as he opens it and storms out, a tear streaked Veronica on his heels, calling for him to stop.

Thursday Afternoon

"Did you hear, Betty," her mom asks her as soon as she walks in the door, "that some teacher was the one responsible for distributing that Jingle Jangle drug? He was arrested this morning."

Betty feigns surprise. "No, I had no idea."

She hears her mother murmur, "They should just tear that school down."

"Mom!" she calls out before she can stop herself. "I need to talk to you."

"If you're pregnant so help me god, Betty, I will bury that Jones boy where no one will ever find him," her mother tells her, walking back into the room.

"You immediately assume I'm pregnant?" Betty asks, shocked.

Her mother shrugs at her. "I am well aware of the allure of the Jones men," she says, looking up to the ceiling and lost in thought.

Her mom? And FP? Gross.

Betty is disgusted. "You and FP, Mom? Really?" At her mother's indication of a yes she grimaces. "Ew, Mom."

"Elizabeth," her mom scoffs, "Jug-Head looks just like his father, you know. So you're only insulting yourself and that beanie wearing hoodlum you're so fond of."

"I'm going to pretend I never heard you insult Jughead or say anything about FP." Betty shudders in revulsion at the thought. "And no, I'm not pregnant."

"Then what do you want, Betty? I'm on a deadline."

Steeling herself for the fallout she looks her mother in the eye. "I know where Polly is. I know she's pregnant and I know you had her locked away before she escaped some twisted nunnery with Cheryl Blossom's help." Taking a deep breath, she keeps going. "I know Hiram Lodge is holding the Register over your head. And I know we're related to the Blossoms."

The shocked face her mom is wearing would be funny in any other situation but this time Betty just stands there nervously.

Alice Cooper is an intimidating woman. She can cut you with words, she can stare you down and make you wish you'd never even spoke to her. The ability she has to rip you to pieces is a well known character trait so Betty was almost horrified to see her mother's shoulders slump and her head fall as she burst into tears.

"Mom?" Betty asks, walking to her mother, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She's shocked when she throws her arms around her, sobbing into her shoulder.

"You know where Polly is?" her mom brokenly whispers to her. "Is she okay? Have you seen her?"

Confused, Betty just nods. "I've seen her twice. She's fine and so are the babies, she looks happy. I thought you knew where she is?"

"Babies?"

"She's having twins," she tells her, causing her mom to sob even harder.

Shaking her head and wiping the tears off of her cheeks she replies, "We were told she's okay, but we haven't been allowed to see her. I don't even know where she is!"

"What? How can you not know?"

"Hiram Lodge is holding the cards, Betty. All of them."

"Polly didn't tell me you haven't seen her-"

"Why would she?" Alice huffs out.

"I don't understand, why are you letting Hiram Lodge blackmail you into no contact with Polly? Is the paper really in that much trouble?"

Averting her eyes, her mother wrings her hands together. "It's not in trouble anymore." Taking a breath she stands up and disappears into her office coming back a few moments later with a large manila envelope. "We finalized the sale to Lodge Industries last week after these showed up."

Taking the envelope and opening it, Betty pulls out a stack of photos. Looking through them, getting more and more upset and anxious she questions her mother. "What is this?"

"Leverage. I didn't want to sell, Betty. Neither did your father. It's one thing to be blackmailed into submission financially for Polly's safety. But this? I can't-" Alice stops suddenly, breaking into more sobs.

Betty flips through the pile of photos once more. They're of her.

"What?" she murmurs, seeing images of herself, walking to school, from school. At Pop's. There's even one of her kissing Jughead good night on the sidewalk in front of her house, his hand seemingly one frame away from being a full on ass grab. Well, that's why she assumed I was pregnant, she thinks wryly. "Mom?"

Alice sniffs and holds her head high again. "We either sell, which means Hiram Lodge dictates the articles we print, or we take chances with our daughters lives."

"I thought he was just using money to intimidate you," she tells her mother, setting the pictures on her lap.

"He was, at first. It's gotten worse over the last few weeks and I don't know why."

Betty sucks in a breath, wanting to ask why she sent Polly away, why she hid the letters from her, a thousand whys she's been dying to ask but all she says is, "I think there's some things you need to know."

Late Thursday Afternoon

Jughead is still pissed when Archie walks in the door after his football practice, sitting there waiting for him while his anger at the situation builds.

"You know, Arch, I've never not thought of you as loyal," he starts. "It's always been this thing I have never once doubted. Not about you or Betty."

"Jug?" he asks, a little surprised once he notices him just sitting there. "What are you talking about?"

"Did you know about Hiram Lodge coming to Riverdale when you sat on this sofa and let Veronica berate me about Betty's safety? When I asked her if there was something else going on and she said no?"

Archie's face pales and he lets his bag drop to the floor. "Look, Jug, you have to understand-"

"No, I don't. I really don't. You have been my friend since we were kids. You have been Betty's since we were kids. When did you start lying to us? When Veronica says so? Were you that desperate to get in her pants?"

"Do not go there," Archie states, a dangerous tone coloring his voice. "Do not talk about Veronica like that."

"Let me see if I have this right, your girlfriend, who wasn't even your girlfriend at the time, tells you that not only is her criminal dad coming to town but he's buying the Register out from under the Coopers and threatening Betty to keep her parents under his thumb?" he asks with an angry edge. "Is that right?"

"Ronnie asked me to keep it quiet until she could figure out more, Jughead, so that's what I did."

"How does your loyalty to Veronica Lodge trump your friendship with Betty? That's what I don't understand," Jughead questions. "I get that Jason Blossom went to Hiram Lodge and that put a target on Polly's back. Then it extended to Betty's to keep her parents in line, I get that, I do not get why you knew and kept it from us, the one time you shouldn't keep a secret is the one time you manage to. God, Archie, do you get how badly this could end?"

"Don't lecture me," Archie says, closing his eyes in frustration. "I did what Ronnie asked me to do. Can you say that you wouldn't do the same for Betty?"

"Betty is not Veronica-"

"No, she's not, she's-"

"Not Betty! Are you really comparing them right now?"

"Tell me, Jughead, don't you think you might be a little biased in this situation?"

He rolls his eyes at him. "Oh, I'm so sorry that I'm worried about my girlfriend, who happens to be one of my best friends, how dare I?"

Archie rubs his hands over his eyes, sighing. "Come on, man. Don't tell me you don't do things for Betty, even when you know it's wrong."

"We both know that I do," he starts. "That's not the issue and you know it."

"Are you saying if Betty asked you to keep something to yourself and it was important but she was dealing with it, you wouldn't because it involved Veronica?"

Staring at Archie, Jughead knows that he would.

Leaving the room, as he walks by Archie he says, "If anything happens to Betty because of any of this, I will never forgive you."

By the stunned look on Archie's face, Jughead knows he believes it.

Thursday Evening

He finds Betty in the treehouse after texting her.

"Talk went that well, huh?" he asks, crouching down and sitting next to her, taking her hands in his after wiping the leftover tears from her face.

She sniffs and then lets out a watery laugh. "Do you remember when were seven and we wanted to run away?"

Jughead smiles. "Yeah, I believe we had a disagreement on how many stuffed animals you should bring."

"I needed all of them, Jug," she insists. "Every single one."

"I also remember how that is what ultimately got us caught," he reminds her. "I can't believe you threw that bear at me."

"Me and the bears agreed you had it coming."

"You wanna tell me what's wrong?" he asks, pulling her into his lap as she lays her head on his shoulder.

"No, but I will," she begins. "I confronted my mom, you know that much. Turns out, she hasn't seen Polly since she sent her away, she didn't know where she is, Hiram Lodge bought the Register, someone's been taking pictures of me-"

"Wait, what?" he interrupts quickly. "What did you just say?"

"Yeah, Hiram Lodge used me to make my parents sell the paper. He sent them pictures of me as a threat. Though, there was a pretty good one of us that made my mom assume I was pregnant-"

"What the fuck!" he exclaims. Veronica hadn't said a word about pictures. Suddenly he starts praying to everything he can think of that might be holy that there is not a picture of him naked with Betty out there in the world and that her mother, her fire breathing dragon of a mother, hasn't seen it if there is.

Betty starts giggling at that. "No, Juggie, don't worry, it was just kissing and maybe a little ass grabbing outside of my house."

"Must have been a Tuesday," he murmurs into her hair, relieved that it isn't worse. "Is that all of it?"

"No," she tells him, adjusting herself to relax on him completely. "Then Veronica showed up to tell me things I already knew, but only because my mom broke down."

"I'm sorry, Betty," he says, wrapping his arms around her tighter.

"She told me she told you first and that you were really pissed at her."

"She did. I am-"

"Why do you think no one thinks they can trust us with anything?" she interrupts him in a quiet, defeated voice.

"I don't know, baby," he whispers into the side of her neck.

Sitting up, she pulls away and looks at him. "What do you think the end game is?"

"If I had to guess, Hiram Lodge wants to run this town. Owning the paper means he controls the news. He's going to end up taking the Blossoms down. Buying land and convincing everyone you're improving the town, seems very political, right?"

Nodding she furrows her brow for a moment. "I didn't know what to say to Veronica.I mean, I already knew but knowing she did before me sucks. She said she's trying to help and I believe her but it doesn't make me feel better."

"If it helps, I think I said plenty to her and Archie on your behalf."

"Archie knew?" she questions with a hurt look on her face.

Sighing, Jughead just nods as she puts her head back on his shoulder. "He said I would have done the same for you. And he's right but I'm still upset with him and Veronica."

He kisses her forehead then tilts his head back onto the wall of the treehouse. "It's too bad we failed at running away when we were kids. Do you think we'd get away with this time?"

Jughead can feel the huff of breath from Betty's slight laugh.

"At least we can drive now? I really wasn't looking forward to sitting on your handlebars the whole time. We really needed a better plan back then."

Grinning, Jughead remembers her arguing with him ferociously to be the getaway pedaler. "Why weren't we taking your bike with us, again?"

"It was locked up, remember? It's part of the reason we were running away. I got in so much trouble for riding my bike to your house alone."

"Ah, yes, now I remember. But you couldn't be dissuaded from trying to take all of your stuffed bears."

"You never leave a man behind, Jug."

They both start laughing at that and it lightens the somber mood that had fallen over them that day.

"What are we gonna do?" he asks her, lifting her chin with a finger so he can look her in the eye.

She just looks at him. "I don't know." Leaning forward to press a kiss to her lips he lets the feeling of her take the confusion and anger and hurt out of him for a little while.

Fall 2014

Betty is sitting at a lunch table waiting for Archie and Jughead to join her when she sees a shadow standing over her. Picking her head up she's confused as to why Chuck Clayton is even near her.

"Can I help you?" she asks politely.

"You should tell that weirdo to keep his comments to himself," Chuck tells her, his face angry.

"Who?"

"Oh please, like you don't know who the weirdo is," he states with a scoff. Seeing the blank look on Betty's face he must realize she really has no idea. "The one with the hat?"

"Jughead?"

"Yeah, the weird one with the weird name."

"He's not weird," Betty insists, sitting up straighter.

"Whatever. Just tell him to keep his mouth shut."

Betty doesn't know what he might of said but it was probably true if Jughead cared enough to say it where Chuck could hear it. "Is it because he's right? Is that why you're so mad?"

Chuck's face clouds over, angrier than before. "Your little white trash friend is going to regret opening his mouth if he does it again. I don't care if Archie Andrews wants to get between us again, I'll make it hurt."

Betty is shocked by the fury in his voice. "Don't talk about him like that."

"And what are you gonna do, Baby Coop?" he says mockingly.

"That's not my name. And leave Jughead alone," she tells him with an increasing outrage.

Chuck laughs at her. "You got nothing. Nothing. Just tell your little puppy to keep his loser mouth shut."

Betty can feel herself clenching her fists, her vision is blurry with her anger and before she realizes what she's done she's thrown her juice all over Chuck and his white shirt. Her ears are buzzing and she knows he's yelling at her, calling her names but she doesn't really know what's happening until she hears Jughead asking her if she's okay.

She looks at him in time to see him throw a punch at Chuck, hitting him right in the nose, blood pouring out before Chuck moves and hits Jughead back, in the eye, knocking him down on the ground.

It's not until later when they've gotten in trouble and put ice on Jughead's eye that she knows she'll never tell him what Chuck said about him. She cares about him too much to hurt him with words she already knows he says to himself.

Thursday Night

Walking into the house, tossing her hair behind her shoulders, Cheryl makes her way to her Nana Rose and kisses the top her head. She can feel her Nana's hand come up to pat her arm with sweet affection.

Smiling down at her, Cheryl tells her, "Don't worry, Nana Rose, you won't have to worry about Daddy. Ever again."