Song for this chapter is The Apocalyptic Song.

Thank you so much to the reviewers! Now we seem to be getting somewhere :)

July 14th, 2018

"Run!" Sweet Pea yelled, smacking Betty's arm as he passed, doing away with whispering now that they were here. Betty didn't need to be told twice.

Together, the pair flashed through the forest, jumping over rocks and trees and always keeping their weapons forward, clenched.

A walker came out of nowhere, it's gaunt face and sunken eyes reflecting in the light of the moon. Betty skidded to the left, stumbling down a ravine and into a creek, falling hard face-first. Her machete slipped out of her fingers, washed away by the current.

Betty's head throbbed. She spat out rocks, gravel, and blood, running her tongue over her teeth to make sure none had been knocked out. As she raised her face from the water, sputtering out through her nose, she attempted to blink away the droplets that got into her eyes.

She pulled a face, moaning. She wiped at her eyes, but they stung and her head was still really reeling. In a haze, she muggily wondered if she had a concussion. She touched her hairline, running her fingers cautiously down, until she felt something sticky and warm.

It wasn't water in her eyes, but blood. She felt along where her head had been gashed open, trying to wipe away gritty sand and mud. It wasn't a huge cut, but she knew head wounds bleed like nothing else, and it was still nothing good.

At least, she thought, no walkers had followed her yet.

She shot up straight. Walkers, Sweet Pea, running. Her thoughts were all jumbled and she was down the weapon she was most comfortable with.

A scream echoed throughout the forest, sending birds flapping away. Then, she heard gunshots.

"Sweet Pea," Betty whispered, shoving herself up the slippery river banks, grasping sharp rocks and shoving herself forward.

She thrashed through the undergrowth, limbs flailing as her feet carried her toward where the sound had come from. Her fingers were shaking so hard they were almost vibrating as she fished out her secondary knife from her boot, trying to vanish away the fuzzy black on the edge of her vision.

Sweet Pea was on the ground, aiming at walkers that continued to advance upon him. Betty was about to scream for him to get up off the fucking ground and move, for god's sake, until she saw what had caused him to yell out.

A bear trap, tightly sealed around his leg.

"Betty, get out of here, there's too many," Sweet Pea said, "I won't be able to get this off."

"What?" Betty shook her head, "No, no way." She said.

Sweet Pea looked up, seeing her face, "Betty, you're bleeding. Please, just leave me. We can't win." He sounded defeated, but also utterly terrified. She'd never heard him sound like that. He sounded like a highschooler, like a child.

"You're still shooting, so you still believe there's a chance," Betty argued back, sinking the hilt of her knife into a walker, kicking it away.

"Cooper! You'll get yourself killed. Kill me now, okay?"

"No serpents left behind." Betty reminded him, spinning around to shove away to more. She wasn't even going to address his last comment, "Right?"

"Betty, I swear to god-,"

"No! You don't get to tell me to just leave you. If you go down, we both do. I'm not leaving. Got it?" She spat out, "Now, keep aiming and shooting."

It did seem impossible. In the depths of Betty's heart, she realized this could be the end. If she ran away now, yes, she probably could survive. She could move on. Keep going.

That simply wasn't an option for her, however. She could never live with herself if she left Sweet Pea to die.

She saw Sweet Pea glare hard at her, but continue to fend them off. Betty noticed him, in between, trying to work the trap out of the soil. If he couldn't get it off now, maybe they could take it with them?

Betty reached in her back pocket, clenching a lighter tightly in her fists. She'd taken to never going anywhere without one, since fire was of utmost importance in a lot of ways now. She recalled Sweet Pea saying that walkers weren't killed by just flames, however, it might buy them time.

As soon as she saw Sweet Pea get the device out of the ground, she lit up the dry grass around them.

"Stand, c'mon, c'mon," Betty said, throwing his arms over her shoulder and helping him up, "I know it hurts, Sweets, but we have to go."

"You're just like fucking Jughead…" Sweet Pea's speech was beginning to sound slurred, "Always gotta be a hero."

Betty navigated them through a thorn patch, sucking in through her teeth as the thorns riddled her skin, leaving blood trailing behind them. She saw a couple walkers that had gotten past the fire becoming tangled in the brush, just as she'd hoped.

By the time they broke into the town's edge, Sweet Pea was more or less dragging himself. He was still conscious, but barely.

Betty helped him through the streets, leaning over and taking out one of his guns from his pockets and shooting the two walkers that stood in the way between her and the destination; a medical center. She was glad Sweet Pea insisted on canvassing a town before they stopped off for the night.

"Vodka...pour it on the ground, light it up…" Sweet Pea mumbled faintly, his shaking fingers handing her a flask that he kept on him. Betty didn't question, but did as he asked. She took a shot for herself for good measure before hand, though, to calm her nerves. She noticed that two walkers off to the side that had heard the shots were now going toward the new fire instead of them.

"Sweets?" Betty whispered, watching his head slump, "Oh, no. You're not going to fucking die on me. C'mon, just work with me a little farther," She said, lightly slapping his cheeks. When that didn't work, Betty took a breathe in and slapped his face as hard as he could. He blinked awake, though there was a glaze over his eyes. She couldn't imagine the immense pain he was in right now.

Once inside, Betty barricaded the doors, and helped Sweet Pea onto a hospital bed. It was a small care center, so Betty was able to do a sweep of it in less than ten minutes, pleased to see there was only one walker to knife down.

She returned to Sweet Pea, and saw that he'd taken his jacket off. She'd hadn't seen him without it on since the start of the apocalypse, even in the sweltering heat of this summer.

"I'm so warm…Betty?" Sweet Pea questioned.

"Okay, okay." Betty sucked in hard. She'd helped her mom clean up a guy from their ground. She'd watched murders happen. She could certainly manage Sweet Pea's leg, although it was more or less just a grotesque mess of muscle and sinews right now. The device was rusted, which told Betty it had likely been put out before or very close to the beginning of the apocalypse, but had never been retrieved. She was surprised a walker hadn't stumbled into it already.

However, it wasn't the time to count her very unlucky stars. She first hooked Sweet Pea up to a IV bag of painkillers.

"You ever done this before?" Sweet Pea asked as she readied a needle.

"No. But I've given blood loads of times and I always watch." Betty replied, "Plus, we don't have many other choices." She said, "And I broke my leg when I was fourteen, this is what they gave me, and I'm giving you how much they gave me, to be safe. We'll see." She said uneasily. She didn't completely trust herself, but as she reminded herself, there wasn't another option here.

"Do you by chance know how to open a bear trap?" Betty asked, leaning in close to Sweet Pea. He looked up, his fingers trailing over her cheek.

"You're head is bleeding," He said, frowning, "You should take care of that first."
"I'm the one standing here talking, you might lose a leg," Betty swallowed hard, "Sweet Pea, focus. God, I wish internet was still a thing."

"You think there's a wiki-how on getting a bear trap of a leg?" Sweet Pea asked, which told Betty he wasn't too far gone, he was with it enough to make jokes.

"Sweet Pea," Betty grabbed his cheeks in her hands, "I can't help you if you don't help me."

"You'll need a c-clamp to open it. You're not strong enough by yourself. It's meant to hold bears." He said. Betty nodded, running away and tearing through the storage cabinet. She managed to find one, and together they managed to pry it off. Betty threw it on the ground, kicking it far away.

Sweet Pea flopped on the pillow, "Thank god, the meds are kicking in…" He gave a low moan of pleasure, "How's it look, Doc?"

"I'm not a doctor," Betty was quick to remind him, "Ahh, well, bad."

Sweet Pea raised his head, looking at his leg, "Yuck." He looked a little green. Seeing your leg torn open would do that to someone. She ran a finger along his leg, where there was still flesh.

"I think it's broken."

"Lucky me," Sweet Pea sighed. He was pretty silent as she worked her best to fix his leg. It was deep enough and wide enough that she was sure it wouldn't close on it's own.

She wasn't able to find thread for sutures, but she did find a fancy and medical grade looking staple gun.

Sweet Pea's face paled when he saw it, but he gave a firm nod, "Do what you gotta do, Cooper." He agreed to it when Betty held it up with in question. She found a wooden stick of some sort and gave it to him to bite on. She found some numbing gel, but doubted it would do much. She slathered it on for good measure anyway.

The first staple, he cried out around the stick, forehead sweating. The second one, he reached for Betty's free hand, gripping it. Betty felt like he was breaking her fingers when she put the third one in. By the fourth, he'd passed out.

She washed up the leg after, wrapping it in fluffy gauze and letting him stay out.

She did her own medicinal routine in his room, in a grimy mirror. She saw that her hair was crispy and stained a dark brown from Betty running her bloody hands over her blonde hair. She rinsed out the wound, wincing and jumping in her seat as she did. She refused to take any medication, since one of them had to be alert. It wasn't going to be Sweet Pea right now.

It wasn't as bad as his, or in need of stitches at all. She found some of the sticky tape things to close it together, and then applied a lot of antiseptic creams, numbing gel, and other topical things over it, before patting a gauze bandage on, and then taped around the edges for good measure. Her cheeks and lips and other bare skin was cut everywhere from the forest, but it wasn't anything that needed attending to.

Sweet Pea was torn up from the forest too, but he must have hit his face when he fell. Betty had hit her forehead, but Sweet Pea must have landed on his nose, because it was a little crooked and caky blood was dried all down his chin. His lip was also split open. To be honest, there was just blood everywhere on him.

Betty's clothes were full of both of their blood, so she trashed it and found a pair of scrubs around, which would keep her clothed until they could return to the U-Haul.

"Betty," Sweet Pea's cracked voice startled her. She turned to see him looking down his newly bandaged and splinted leg.

"Hey, Sweet Pea." She was at his side instantly.

"You didn't leave me…" He frowned, staring hard at her.

"No, of course I didn't," Betty felt offended he would have thought she was going to, "I wouldn't."

Sweet Pea nodded, rubbing his forehead and swallowing hard. He didn't look like he was in pain, and his grimace was more due to the situation, as compared to actual feelings. Betty pulled up a chair, resting her chin on the mattress. God, she was exhausted. She felt Sweet Pea's fingers lifting her chin to look at her face, and his long sigh.

"You should just say thank you," Betty mumbled, trying to fight off sleep. Her eyes drooped. She was half-joking, but half-serious.

"Thank you." His voice was quiet and still sounded surprised.

"I'm here to stay. I told you, I'm not leaving you." Betty wondered, if someone were to psychoanalyze it, Sweet Pea had a fear of abandonment. His father, his mother, all the Serpents...It sorta made her feel utterly sad, especially because Sweet Pea was the type of person that deserved someone caring about him. She did. Obviously, because one didn't do all that to people they hated or only knew by acquaintance.

"I'm not used to people looking out for me, risking their lives. People die around me, but now," He paused, as though struggling to find the proper words, "first Jughead walked into death for the serpents and you risked your life for me now." He sounded amazed, "I'm not...worth that."

Betty rolled her cheek near him, ready to lay into him, because that was just the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard, "Sweet Pea-,"

"Jordan."

"Hmm?" Betty frowned, opening one eye, "No, it's Betty." Oh crap, was he hallucinating now? Crazy? Did he have amnesia? Betty was unprepared for any of those outcomes.

"No, no…" He did crack a smile, but it was replaced by a vulnerability she hadn't yet seen on his face, "It's, uh, my real name. Jordan Connor Peabody."

"Peabody?" Betty shot up, "As in-,"

"Yeah." Sweet Pea grimaced, "Second cousins. You can get why I want to distance myself."

"Jordan," Betty rolled the name over her tongue. She watched his eyes flicker with, well something, when she said his name, but she couldn't place it. She probably could have if she wasn't dizzy with pain, since she knew she'd seen that look on Jughead before, "Why now?"

"Jughead did that for the serpents as a whole. You came back for me. No one's ever been so…"

"Loyal? Stupid?" She supplied, smiling gently, slipping her fingers back into his, squeezing it.

"Yeah, something like that," He agreed.

"Sweets, you've saved me as many times as I've saved you." She reminded him, "And you totally deserve people looking out for you. We have each other's backs now, don't we?"

"Yeah, 'course." Sweet Pea mumbled. He looked at their intertwined fingers, but didn't slip his away. In fact, if anything, he held on tighter.

"What name do you prefer?" Betty asked after a moment.

Sweet Pea grinned, "Whatever you want to call me, Cooper."

July 17th, 2018

She ended up continuing to call him Sweet Pea or just Sweets, but that's not to say that she wasn't always thinking his true name. It rattled around in her brain, and she found herself directly after narrating his actions in her head, trying out that name, like it was a shiny new toy.

Jordan's been sleeping a lot.

Jordan is trying to wash the blood out of his jacket.

Jordan is craving twinkies; but aren't we all? Broke open the vending machine...who knows how good it is...am I willing to risk it?

It gave her a little thrill to use it, knowing that she was one of the few people in the world that knew his true identity. Sweet Pea informed her even Jughead never got that far, and Fangs probably would have soon, but things had just happened.

He didn't make a deal out of it, so neither did Betty.

They spent three days in the clinic. Betty scoured it for useful medical grade supplies they hadn't found in abandoned CVS stores or Walgreens on their way through the states. She also found a couple medical textbooks.

While she was under no illusion that this would be a comprehensive accumulation of any medical problem she'd need to know, the truth of it was that she had no knowledge, so anything would be better than nothing. The mantel lay on Betty, since Sweets spent most of his time sleeping off his pain and recuperating. Betty managed to get the old coffee machine working in the breakroom and went to work, trying to commit each page to memory. She would be taking the most useful with her, but reading at least gave her something to do, in between worrying over Sweet Pea. It also took her mind off it all; this was the first long 'down town' they'd had since the Lodge Lodge. There was much to think about, too many thoughts, if she were to let her mind freely wander. To struggle through complicated medical text books where she had to look up a definition every twelve words was much preferred, because it forced her to use all of her mind power.

The clinic was unbearably hot. She had taken off her scrubs top and was just in a tank, using a small flicking light to guide her vision on the pages, and she was about six coffee cups in. She found coffee helped her headache, since she refused to take anything stronger than Advil.

She rolled her shoulder, wincing. Absently, she massaged the muscle with a half-hearted touch.

"Is your shoulder good?" Sweet Pea's voice startled her. She looked up to see him sitting up on the bed.

"Ah, pretty fine. I just think I yanked it weird when I was fighting," She said. She was confident it wasn't broken or popped out of place, but that didn't mean it didn't throb and whine whenever she moved it to suddenly. In comparison to Sweet Pea's leg, it wasn't worth complaining over. Sweet Pea yawned, so Betty went back to reading, as not to bother him if he were to fall back asleep.

She heard the bed shift and before she could tell him to get back into bed, he'd grabbed the back of her office chair and had wheeled her to the side of his bed.

"Hop on," He said, patting the space between his legs, "Let me rub it."

"There's no need," Betty started scooting her chair back with her feet, until Sweet Pea leaned over and began working his calloused hands over the skin. A moan escaped her lips, catching her off guard. She bit her lip, before clambering onto the bed, her back against his chest.

He leaned her forward, carefully tucking her hair in front of her, before he began massaging the whole area, but more or less concentrated around the shoulder. His fingers were surprisingly gentle and the whole experience just melted Betty like butter.

"Where in god's name did you learn this?" Betty asked, trying to speak normally. Her voice was almost sinful the first time she'd attempted to talk.

"Toni likes backrubs. She was adamant I was going to learn how to give a good one." Sweet Pea replied, his own voice very casual. The fact that this was warming Betty so much while Sweet Pea seemed unaffected made her blush. She was glad her face was away from his.

"You need to rest. No sense of both of us tiring out and dying in a clinic. That would be irony."

Sweet Pea informed her.

"Both of us?" Betty turned her head just to peek over her shoulder, "You're not dying, Sweets."

"Well, if you die, I probably will too," Sweet Pea's thumbs lavished over her skin, "So, don't. I'm sorta helpless right now." He said.

"Yeah. Not planning on it."

"Then, if that's the case, you need to rest a bit. Seriously."

Betty really wanted to protest, but her head lolled against his chest, and she's asleep before the words even make it out.

When she awakens, she's laying on her side on the hospital bed. She frantically spins around, searching for the patient; although logically, how far can a half-cripple really get? Her heart is racing, still, but when she catches sight of him it still hasn't quieted.

She breathes softly for just a second. Sweet Pea has taken her office chair and is engrossed in one of the medical textbooks. He has a piece of licorice in his mouth, hanging out- almost like a cigarette- and his thumb rubs over his chin.

"You know, you don't have to read that," Betty whispers, breaking the silence in the hopes that her body calms down. It still hasn't, "You could be doing other things with your time. I'm reading through them all."

"Well, it doesn't make a huge amount of sense that the medical knowledge should just be in one person. Besides, I don't dislike reading, I just didn't have time." He admits, his fingers tapping the pages, "But, uh, do you get even like half of this?" The embarrassment is clear on his face.

Betty winces, "Not really." There's a lot of big words and phrases that, if she'd gone to medical school, she's sure she'd know more.

Sweet Pea clicks his tongue; "We should try to hit up a Barnes and Noble or something then. Get a 'Medical Knowledge for Dummies' book. Hell, we should take all of the 'for Dummies' books, cuz we both have to be everything all at once." He is still trying to read the textbook, "You think it might be okay for me to have coffee, Doc?" He's half-grinning at her, knowing full well her knowledge of medical things is only slightly elevated to hers, and that's mostly because she's spent two and a half days on this book, while he's spent maybe two hours.

Betty gives a half-shrug and that's good enough for Sweet Pea. He lets the book 'thump' softly on the tiled floor, grabbing the crutches Betty put next to his bed, and hobbles away.

If he's this active, they should leave soon, Betty thinks. No use in staying in this place when there's still so much longer to go. Plus, a hospital is too big to manage- even a clinic. If a herd ever got in...she sighs hard.

When Sweet Pea returns and sees Betty gathering things into piles, he understands. He downs the coffee in a single chug and starts getting things from other rooms, readying their leaving.

Betty slips out silently while he's gone, scribbling a note on a post it.

She might have made it to her destination, if something in the front of the clinic didn't stop her.

Betty is engrossed in a body of a dead walker when Sweet Pea stumbles out of the clinic, eyes wild.

"What the hell, Cooper? Do you really think you can just-woah." Betty glances up. He might think she's stopped because there's a child laying on the ground, hardly more than eight, dead and mostly nude. It's sad, Betty agrees, but that's not what caused concern. It's that this kid's skin is flawless.

Far too flawless to have been turned into a walker.

"What are you doing?" Sweet Pea stands above Betty, frowning as Betty begins to look over the body. His anger, at the moment, has vanished.

Betty does not answer. She meticulously combs through the entire, tiny and frail body fo the girl before she answers, placing her hands in the hollows of her eyes.

"Sweets," She asks, voice quivering, "Can you recall ever seeing a dead person laying on the ground? Someone that's just dead, not also a walker?"

Sweet Pea's eyebrows knit. He frowns, opening his mouth, but then snaps it closed again. Betty can tell he's coming to the same conclusion she is; they haven't seen that.

"It's not like I was looking closely at dead bodies past Riverdale," Sweet Pea finally says, but it sounds like a weak excuse.

Betty sets the girl back on the ground, closing the child's eyes with two fingers. There's a sound to the left; Sweet Pea's head swivels left and then right, before he grabs Betty's arm and hauls her back inside.

Once safely to the doors, and out of sight of the glass, Sweet Pea lets go of her arm. It's a little sore, from being manhandled up the stairs.

He's fuming, but as he paces, Betty can almost see him trying to decide which topic to tackle first.

"We have two things to talk about," He manages to snap. If Betty has grown to know Sweet Pea at all during this time, he'll go with the note she left first. He's hot-headed, easy to anger, and the sort of person that likes confrontations. She's preparing herself for it, going through the answer she'll give him in her head.

"What do you think your question means?" He asks.

"Well, I just thought that while you-," Betty launches into her reasoning for leaving him before she's really registered what he said. When she does, she's very surprised. His tone was level and his face was worried. He'd gone with the other question first.

The one about the girl.

Betty takes a moment to reorient herself, biting her lip.

"There was no bite mark anywhere. I'm not a doctor, we've established this, but do you know how I think she died? Starvation. If that's true, and if we've never just seen a dead and non-walker body lying about, you know what that means?" She asked quietly.

"I don't want to," Sweet Pea's shoulders slump. She thinks he must have came realization that she did.

"You die and come back as a walker, no matter how you died. You don't need to get bit, but getting bit for sure kills you." Betty spoke it outloud, just so that she was sure Sweet Pea was on the same page as her. From the way his whole body flinched, he was.

"Guess it's a long time coming," Sweet Pea rubbed his arms, trying to pat down the goosebumps, "Maybe it was a disease or some lab made shit. I mean, there have been people trying to prepare for the next black plague forever. Who's to say it's not this?"

The question hung between them. Betty only could swallow.

"Or, the next 'comet'." He pointed out, "Because, let's be honest, I'm seriously concerned about this being the end of the human race as we know it."

"We're fucked." Betty whispered.

Sweet Pea looked uncomfortable. She thought he'd be the first to agree, however, her despair made him look unsure.

"Well, we sure as hell are if you just do whatever you damn please." He threw something at her, the tone of his voice shifting immediately. She picked up a tiny, fluorescent, balled note from the ground.

Ah. They were coming to this fight.

She re-reads her note she'd left for him; getting the car. Stay here. I'll be back soon.

"I wasn't doing 'wahtever I dam pleased'," Betty locked her jaw, "I was making the logical decision."

"What part of the idea that we don't leave each other do you not get?" Sweet Pea demanded, "If you were ever going to leave me behind, back in the woods would have been-,"

"I was getting the van!" Betty had no qualms pushing back against his anger, "It's not that far away! We didn't get very far from the forest with that leg of yours! Plus, it makes sense. You get the shit. I get the car. You hop in, we're gone."

"But what if you never came back?" Sweet Pea asked.

"I wasn't just going to drive off into the sunset and leave you, Sweets, god!"

"What if it wasn't your choice?" Sweet Pea's voice broke a little, "What if you got killed and I was waiting for you back here?"

Betty lifted her shirt, "I'm well stocked." She said, showing her replacement knife and the gun, both tucked into the waistband of her jeans.

"You both know there's a thousand things that could go wrong." Sweet Pea said in a dark tone. Betty crossed her arms.

"So, what, we're both going to hobble all the way to the car, come back- leave this stuff unattended- and then take all this extra time, when I could be back within like ten minutes?" She asked.

"If that's what sticking together means, yeah."

Betty was so infuriated with his complete lack of logic that she had to hold in tears. She wasn't sure why this of all things was getting to her. Maybe it was because he was so afraid of her dying without him. Maybe it was the look on his face. Maybe it was her own guilt for leaving Jughead and not continuing to look for him, even if he was dead. The guilt for not looking for him before, when the world ended at the start.

"Betty?" Sweet Pea asked.

"Gosh," She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to keep her eyes dry, "Fine. Okay. Together." She opened one eye, trying to shake away her emotions, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you liked me, the way you're obsessed with me."

It was a joke, but a look flashed across Sweet Pea's face, but it was gone within a moment. It was so fast that Betty convinced herself later she merely imagined it, "Naw, Cooper, I just like to annoy you. That's all."

RIVERDALE COMES BACK TOMORROW? What are y'all most excited for? For me, to see my baby Sweet Pea :)

Someone on tumblr also thought last chapter was the end! I'm happy to tell you that I have plans for this fic to be at least 20ish chapters, so we're not quite done yet ;)

So, when I was writing this originally, I didn't know much about the actor of Sweet Pea. Then I started following him on Insta, and I wanted to give him a totally different name, but apart from Sweet Pea, the only thing I can imagine him is as Jordan. So, he's Jordan here too. As for his lastname, it's never been said, but there was a theory going around awhile with people thinking he was the son of Penny and FP. It's interesting, but it's not what I'm using, but I did like the Penny PEAbody/Sweet PEA connection, so I sorta used it here.

In the meantime, I've also begun another Riverdale fic! If you like this one, I highly encourage you to go check it out. It's called 'Blood of My Blood, Flesh of My Flesh' and is a supernatural!AU that features Betty as a witch, Veronica as a vampire, and the Serpent Gang as a werewolf pack. It starts in season 1 and is a redo of the whole series if these paranormal elements were in it. It's Sweet Pea and Betty Cooper centric, so I imagine you guys would like it. It will go through, at least, all the canon ships on the show (so, if you're a bughead fan, it will have that) but I'm not actually sure what my endgame couples will be yet XD Sweet Pea and Betty meet early on, and I have to keep dialing them back so it's not too couply on their end! At most, they for sure will get together sometime during the fic. I would love to see some of you from here over on that fic too! It only has the preface, but I should be updating a new chapter for it tonight as well.

Enjoy ;)