Abby was standing with the crowd listening to Betty and Jughead who put themselves in charge of the search party for Polly. "Okay, the Sisters of Quiet Mercy are due north. The getaway car was west, on the Old Route." Betty points in the directions she was talking about.
"The closest bus station is east, headed towards Sweetwater. If Polly wanted to leave Riverdale without anyone seeing her, she probably would've left through... " Jughead explained why this location was so important.
"Right here. Evergreen Forest." Betty walks off to start looking. Everyone split apart to look around for the missing blonde.
"I was hoping to take a hike through here for nature shots, but not like this." Tomoko had her Sony a6100 in her hand as she waited for something to give her inspiration.
"Hopefully, we find her. I can't imagine the nuns would give her the footwear for this." Abby walks through the rough terrain.
"Guys, the Blossoms are here." Trev nods.
Through the trees, you could see the Coppers meeting the Blossoms who showed up on the scene. "Alice Cooper, where is she? Where's Polly?" Penelope demands.
"You think if I knew that, I'd be out here with the mosquitoes?" Alice shook her head at the lady's stupidity.
"Face facts, Mommie Dearest, Polly killed Jason." Cheryl glares.
"After that sleepover at her house, I would say Penelope is the Mommies Dearest of Riverdale," Abby whispers to her friends.
"She escaped from the asylum once, who's to say she didn't before, say, the day Jason got murdered?" Clifford gave his theory.
"The noose is tightening around your murdering daughter's neck. I know it, Sheriff Keller knows it." Penelope steps forward to get in Alice's face.
"Hold on now." Keller protested him saying anything like that.
He was ignored by Penelope, "And I promise you when we find her, and we will find her, the entire town of Riverdale will know too." With that last word, they walk off to do their own search. But, sadly no one found her or even a clue that she was there.
Alice Cooper was standing on the steps of a church being filmed by the news with her husband and youngest daughter. "There's been a swirl of rumors today about our daughter, Polly. And we're standing here to tell you that they're all false. Yes, Polly was seeking treatment in a private care facility, and she was under strict observation even at the time of Jason Blossom's death. When she found out about the murder, she was beside herself with grief. You see, my daughter, Polly, is pregnant with Jason Blossom's baby. Polly wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone the father of her unborn child. Polly, darling, if you're watching this, please come home."
"Holy shit." Abby, Tomoko, and Trev said together. They were watching from the tv in Abby's room.
"Does this mean they hid her because she was pregnant?" Trev squinted at the tv.
"That's what it sounds like to me." Abby nods.
"That is crazy, who thinks a mental illness sounds better than a pregnancy?" Tomoko shouted at Alice through the TV.
"Can you put people in the asylum for that? It feels illegal." Trev looked over at Tomoko who knew odd facts.
"Sisters of Quiet Mercy isn't an asylum. It's a home for troubled youth and an orphanage." She corrected him.
"Still seems gross to me." Abby shivers.
"It is." She agrees.
"I don't even like driving past that place, it gives me the creeps." Trev put on Hulu and played Living Single. He needs a distraction from this terrible news.
Fred, FP, Archie, and Jughead came in after Abby's shift ended at Pops, so she sat down for dinner with them. "Anyway... We spent the whole summer fixing up that old VW bus." FP was telling a story from their teenage years.
"Yeah." Fred nodded.
"Remember what we called it, Fred?" He smiled at his old friend.
"The Shaggin' Wagon." They laughed.
"That is so disgusting." Abby pretends to gag through her laughter.
"This was before your dad had game. Senior Year, he started a band, and then the girls were all over him." FP pats his friend's back.
"We were awful." He clarified when he saw Archie's eyes light up.
"Yeah, yeah, we were. But it was great. Best time of my life." FP laughs.
"You know, your dad was what is commonly known as a BMOC, Jughead. " Fred told the teen.
"Come on. The hell I was." He shook his head.
"In what way?" Jughead asked.
"Football, for one. He single-handedly defeated our arch-rivals, the Baxter High Ravens." Fred named his top high school achievement.
"He doesn't care about that stuff, Fred. Football, sports. Takes after his mom in that respect, and I mean that as a compliment. I'd rather see you spending your time writing, thinking up stories, you still do that? Nose in a book? Typing away?" FP pretends he was typing.
"Jughead started up the school paper with Betty," Abby told him.
"Betty? Ooh…." He taps the table. "Who is Betty? Is that your girlfriend?"
All eyes fell on Jughead waiting for his answer. "She's... I wanna know more about the band. What was the name of the band?" His avoidance was answered enough, so they moved on from the subject.
FP laughs and looks over at his friend to answer the question. "Ah, yeah. It was called The Fred Heads." Fred admits.
"Wait, what now?" Archie laughs.
"Yeah, that's why it doesn't come up very often." He knew it was a silly name, he had no idea why as teens they thought it was a cool name. Pops came and gave him the bill. "Oh, thanks, Pop." He put his card down.
"Oh, come on, Fred. This was supposed to be my treat." FP's smile fell.
"Hey, you get it next time. " He shrugs. Pops took the card and made his way to the register.
"Hey, excuse me. Pop?" FP called for the man. Pops turned around and waited for the issue to be solved.
"We invited you guys out. Let me pay. " Jughead reaches in his pocket for his wallet. Abby was confused by why they didn't think FP had money. Even though it was his first day back at work, she assumed he was making money the same way Sweet Pea does through the Serpents.
"Put your damn money away." His father hissed at him.
"FP, take it easy. " Fred tried to calm him down.
"You owe me this. " He reminds him.
Abby looked at her father, wondering why exactly he would owe FP. "Yeah. Go ahead. You get this one. You know, if I'd have known, I would have gotten another milkshake" Fred ease the tension with a joke. FP pulled out his wallet to pay the bill.
Abby, Jughead, and Archie are sitting with FP in the garage. Archie and FP were having a little jam session. "Damn, Hoss, you're good. Way better than your dad." He put the guitar down and pointed at the fridge. "Hey, does Fred keep any beer in there?"
Archie and Abby looked at Jughead to see where he wanted to go with this. "Dad, don't you think it's a little late?" He stood up from the stool he was sitting on.
"Kinda... Oh, yeah, yeah. No, it's alright. You know, I got a big day tomorrow anyway. " He put his jacket on.
"Hey, Mr. Jones, before you go, can I ask you a question?" Archie stood up. FP nods his head. "Earlier tonight, you said my dad owed you. What did you mean by that?" Abby looked at FP wondering herself what that meant.
"Hey, Archie, why don't we quit while we're ahead?" Jughead didn't want this night to end badly.
"I want to know too," Abby spoke up from her spot on the recliner.
"It's ancient history, but your dad and me, we... We started Andrews Construction together." He began the tale. Jughead turns his back to the three of them, not wanting to be a part of this.
"You and my dad were partners?" Archie asked.
"He wouldn't call us that. Anyway, we, uh... We struggled at first. Fred, he had you two and your mom to provide for, I had Jughead, Jellybean, their mom, and hospital bills. So I took some odd jobs that weren't exactly on the level. And sure enough, one of 'em landed me in some hot water, and your dad was good enough to bail me out. But then he said we should part ways. That I was a liability. Made me sign a paper saying the bail money was him buying me out of the company. Never mind that my share of the business was worth probably three times that, easy. So that was that. He went his way, and I went mine. You know, I think I need something a little harder than beer." He pulled at a flask out of his jacket to take a shot before walking out of the garage.
"I'm sorry, Jug." She felt horrible, her dad made a decision that tore his family apart.
"Nothing, you have to be sorry for." He shrugs.
"Jughead, what your dad told us... I had no idea." Archie looks at his friend.
"Me neither. Illuminating, isn't it?" Jughead looked down at his hands.
"My dad must've had a good reason." Archie knew his dad wouldn't do something like that without a good reason. The man wouldn't even fire some of his workers when he couldn't afford them.
"For screwing over my dad?" He scoffs.
"Are you ready to roll, Jugs?" FP called out. Jughead shoved something under the couch cushion before grabbing his bag. FP leaning against the doorway to throw the keys to his son.
"See you tomorrow." He nods to the redheads before walking out.
"How was your jam session?" Fred walks into his son's bedroom where his kids were laying on the bed staring up at the ceiling.
"It was great until FP told us you forced him out of the company he helped found." He turned his head to look at his father.
"That's his story, wanna hear mine, hmm?" He sat down on the chair. They sat up and nodded. "FP was a mess. He was stealing from the company and selling stuff on the side. All things considered, I was pretty generous." He told them.
"Generous? Dad, you knew the situation he was in. He was desperate." She narrowed her eyes.
"Yeah, dad, you could have given him a second chance." Archie agrees.
"I did. You have no idea how many times I bailed that man out of jail. When someone is drowning, you can try to save them, but not if they're gonna drag you down with them. I did the best I could for my family. For you guys." He didn't want to abandon FP, but after bailing him out so many times he was taking food from his kid's mouths.
"Rationalize it all you want. It wasn't just FP drowning, it was Jughead and Jellybean too." Archie shook his head.
"Is that why FP stopped talking to me around that time?" Abby asked.
"Yes, I ask him to stop talking to you. You idolize him, I didn't want you to end like him." Fred nods.
Abby got up and walked to her room. Her view of her father shifted that night. In her eyes, he was a stand-up guy, who always did the right thing no matter how painful it was. He was civil with his wife when she was leaving him with two kids to raise. He gave illegal citizens a job and paid them fairly, even though he knew he could get in trouble for it.
So, to hear that he screwed over his best friend, who he knew was in trouble, was hard for the young lady to process. It made her feel like she didn't know her dad. It would have been one thing if FP didn't have a family but he did. When he cut FP out, he was cutting off Jughead and Jellybean from a stable home.
"Abby," Tomoko nudged her friend to get her face out of her locker.
"Ye..." She didn't even finish the word when she saw Jughead being escorted out by Sheriff Keller. She pulled out her phone and dialed Sweet Pea's number.
"Hey babe," His deep voice came over the phone.
"I need you to find FP and tell him to get down to the police station." She told him.
"What? Why?" He asked.
"I don't know all the details, but Jughead is being taken to the police station by Sheriff Keller." She moves to watch from a window to see them put Jug in the back of the patrol car.
"Jughead like FP's son?" He remembers FP mentioning him before.
"How many Jugheads do you think there are? Will you find him?" She feels her stress levels rising as the police car pulls away.
"Despite that tone, yes I will." He walks to the entrance of Southside High to make his way to his bike.
"Thank you. Bye." She walks out of Riverdale High as she hangs up her phone. She got an uber to go to the family business, to get Fred to go to the police station.
"Jughead's not helping himself in there. I asked him for an alibi, and he gave me lip." Sheriff Keller told Fred.
"He was working for me. Yeah, the week of July fourth, was it? I had him tear down some drywall for me." Abby looked at her father, who just lied to the police. Archie walks over, hearing the lie as well.
"You can provide me with documentation to support that?" He asked.
"Yeah, we got the time cards." Abby nods.
With that, the Sheriff released Jughead to them. They were walking out of the station when FP was walking up. Sweet Pea was behind him. "Jughead! I'm sorry. I came as soon as Sweet Pea told me. I'm sorry about my phone. The battery died. I forgot to plug it in last night." He looks around at everyone's serious faces.
Abby walks over to Sweet Pea's side. "Thanks for getting him."
"Sorry, we took so long, but sobering him took a while." He whispers to her. Finding the man was easy, it was sobering him up so he wouldn't be arrested right on the spot that was hard. It was the reason that they took so long.
"What the hell happened?" FP asked.
"Nothing. It's fine now. Mr. Andrews took care of it." Jughead glares. His father proved once again that he couldn't count on him.
"What jacked-up crap did they accuse you of in there, huh? Those bastards trying to throw you in jail like they did your old man? Well, screw that. I will rip Keller a new one for trying to pull that…" He went to walk into the station.
But, Fred stops him. "FP, settle down."
"Hey! Hey! This is my son, he is my son, Fred! You'd do the same for your boy." He pushed Fred off of him.
"Dad. Don't make things worse. Please." Jughead begs him. He knew if his dad went in there he would end up getting arrested.
"Yeah. Yeah, alright, then. You, uh, coming home with me?" He walks across the street where his truck was.
"He can stay with us, Mr. Jones." Archie offers.
"Archie..." Abby hisses. The look between FP and Jughead was sad. They were desperate for a healthy relationship with each other, but it couldn't happen overnight.
"We already offered." He ignored her, making Sweet Pea let out a low grunt.
"Is that what you want? Maybe that's for the best. If you don't mind, Fred." He looked over at the man who got his son out.
"Whatever you want, FP. It's between the two of you." Fred, wiser and older, then his son knew his place in the family situation.
"I'll go with you, Dad." Jug wanted to take steps in the right direction.
When Jughead was in reach, FP grabbed his face to promise him. "Son, listen to me. I'm gonna do what you want, get my act together. I'm gonna get your mom and Jellybean home so we're all under the same roof. I promise. But I... I just need a little time to do that. Not a lot, not long, a month, two at the most. Hey. And then we'll be back on track, alright? You... You believe that, don't you?"
"Yeah, I believe you, Dad." He pulls his dad into a hug. FP let him go and walk to his truck. Betty grabs Jughead's arm to walk him there.
"I got to go, that's my ride." Sweet Pea nods to his girlfriend. He was the one that drove FP there.
"Text me when you get home." She got on her tippy toes to give him a peck.
"Hey, you're Sweet Pea. The guy who has been taking my daughter on dates." Fred walks over to the couple.
"Yeah." He nods.
"You should come over for dinner tonight." He told him.
"I.. uh... Sure." He decided to bite the bullet. He knew he had to meet her family sooner or later. He hoped at the end of the night, he would still have a girlfriend.
After getting Jughead's time card squared away, Fred and Abby went home. Archie went to Pops to meet Betty and Veronica. When Fred and Abby pulled up to the house they were surprised to see Jughead sitting on the porch. They let him in and Abby went straight to the kitchen. She made chicken parmesan, fried zucchini, and cheesy garlic bread.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when the doorbell rang. Archie, who came home a few minutes ago and Jughead laughs. "I'll get it." Jughead got up and let the Serpent in.
He took him over to the dining table. Fred sat at the head, Jug and Archie sat on one side while Sweet Pea sat on the other. Abby came in and put down a jug of ice tea. She sat down next to her boyfriend. "It smells good, Abs." He looked at the food on the table.
"You don't think I could have made this?" Fred glares.
"No, I'm sure you could. I just know she likes to cook." He looked the older man directly in the eyes. After going through the Serpent initiation, it would take a lot more than a suburban dad to scare him.
"I couldn't, but thanks for the vote of confidence." Fred broke the tension with laughter. Everyone made their plates and drinks and dug in.
"This is really good." Jughead bites into a batter and fried zucchini.
"Thanks." She smiled.
"You're lucky you're going out with her now and not two years ago. We had to go through a lot of horrible dinners until she got good." Archie pointed his fork at Sweet Pea.
"Hey! Mrs. Yoshida taught me well. But, I made some basic mistakes when I tried to make it on my own." She shrugs.
"Like the first time you made this dish, you mixed up the powdered sugar and the flour. The chicken was so sweet." Her brother had a good laugh at her expense.
"You know, Archie you shouldn't anger the cook. You might end up poisoned." She glares.
"You tried that already, it didn't work." He shrugs.
"Then I try and try again until I get it right." She leans towards him and hisses.
"Alright, you two. Calm down. It wasn't that bad. You just had to use plenty of sauce and scrape off the skin." Jug snickers.
"You don't count Jughead, you'll eat anything." Archie laughs.
"That is true." He nods.
"Let's be happy that the art has been perfected." Fred put a stop to the teasing. "Besides this is a dinner for us to get to know your sister's new friend." He looks at Sweet Pea.
"What do you want to know?" He put some chicken and pasta into his mouth.
"You meet her at tutoring, right? Have your grades improved?" Fred asked.
"It was the beginning of the year, as someone told me everyone starts the year with an A. All I have to do is maintain it, I've been doing that." He smiled at Abby.
"You feed him that corny line." Archie laughs.
"Didn't Mrs. Crawford say that?" Jughead spoke of the seventh grade English teacher.
"I thought it was inspirational." Abby pouts.
"That's what makes you, you." Sweet Pea pokes her nose.
"If I knew that bringing the three of you together would be such a pain, I wouldn't have done it." She snobs them.
"Hey, Sweet Pea. I'm going to cut the pie, why don't you help me?" Fred got up and went into the kitchen.
"Sure." He follows the older man. Abby stretched her neck to see what was going on, but her brother scooted over to block her view.
Fred grabs the apple pie out of the oven and some plate from the cabinet. "Listen, I'm not going to threaten you or anything crazy like that. But she's my baby girl and you're a serpent. I need to know that when she's with you she's not going to get mixed up in that mess." He cut five slices and put them on the plates.
Sweet Pea took a deep breath to not snap about the Serpents being called a mess. "The thought never crossed my mind. Although, she has spoken about wanting to be part of the meals on wheels and toys for tots."
"You guys do that." He walks over to the freezer to get the vanilla ice cream. He put two scoops on every plate.
"Yeah. Let me help you with that." He grabs two plates. He put them in front of Abby and Jughead before turning around to grab one from Fred who was trying to carry three. He sat down, putting the plate in front of him. After giving a plate to Archie, Fred sat down with his plate.
"I like your boyfriend," He cut a piece of his pie with his fork to put it in his mouth.
Abby let out an excited scream and gave Sweet Pea a side hug.