Hiram, Jughead, Sweet Pea, and Ronnie had all come to Betty about two or three weeks of her living back in New York. It was an unseasonably cold winter morning, something like what she would have experienced in London with Toni. Hiram knocked on the door of her apartment – she and Toni had each gotten their own – and Betty answered it. Hiram, and Sweet Pea were looking at her; Ronnie and Jughead ushering their way into her apartment. "What's up?" Betty asked.
"Mija, we need to talk," Hiram said, smoothing a hand down his suit jacket. For as long as she knew him, Hiram had always been a 'suit and tie' kind of man. And she remembered him always looking well-dressed.
"Okay, yeah, come in," Betty replied, holding the door open for Hiram and Sweet Pea. The taller walked in with an uncharacteristically solemn expression on his face. She looked up at him, then to Ronnie who looked like she had been crying. "What's wrong?"
"Mija...," Hiram trailed off, shaking his head. "We've lost contact with your mother."
Betty stared at him, uncomprehending of what she was hearing. "Okay, like, you mean she's not in Germany anymore?"
"We're not sure where she is, Betts," Jughead said softly, trailing his thumb along her knuckles. She stared at him. "We had some men go check on her and it looked like her place had been ransacked."
"Are you telling me that my mom is missing?" Betty asked, horrified at the possibility.
"We're not sure, Mija," Hiram said quietly, "but it doesn't look good right now."
Betty shook her head, pressing the heel of her palms against her eyes. "What do you mean, it doesn't look good?" Betty had last seen her mom the night of her attack. Alice had put her on a plane to London and told her never to look back. It had been where her and Hal had had their honeymoon; it was where Hal was put to rest.
"We think...," Sweet Pea began, falling quiet at a look from Ronnie.
"You think what, Sweets? What ?" Betty demanded, Ronnie's wishes be damned.
Jughead cradled her cheek, tracing a soothing thumb along her cheekbone. "We think she was kidnapped. By either Malachi or someone who answers directly to him."
Betty felt the air leave her lungs in a whoosh; felt the way her heart hammered against her chest cavity. That was not what she wanted to hear. Not what she wanted to hear at all. "Don't fucking tell me that, Juggy."
Her voice was painfully small; broken in ways she hadn't felt since the night of her attack. Jughead gripped her face, allowing her to anchor herself to him. "Betty. Betts, listen to me. We will find her. We think this a ploy from Malachi to get you to come to him."
"Then I will," Betty said firmly.
"Over my dead body," Ronnie snapped.
"You can't, Betty," Sweet Pea said, shaking his head. "That would be suicide."
"I don't give a fuck about that, Sweets," Betty snapped. "It's my mom. If she is missing, I'll go to the ends of the earth to bring her back, safe and sound."
Hiram interjected before Sweet Pea could retaliate. "Mija, we all want Alice to be found unharmed. But there's protocol in a situation like this."
"Hiram, no offense, but I couldn't give two shits less about protocol," Betty said flatly.
Hiram cocked a smirk in her direction. "Ah, I've missed you, Betty Cooper. You were Hal's daughter through and through."
And Hal was dead. But as of now, Alice was not. And she would do whatever it took to keep it that way. She looked back and forth between everyone. "What do we do now?"
"Well," Hiram began. "I'm going to send my men to the remaining Ghoulies. My men have persuasive means where I do not. They can...get answers, where I cannot."
Betty knew that meant some form of torture would be involved. She couldn't bring herself to care, not when it was her mother's safety on the line. "Okay. Okay, yeah."
Jughead pressed his lips to hers, before resting them against her forehead. "Trust Hiram to find her, baby. I promise you: not one of us are going to give up looking for her."
Betty stared at him, breathing deeply. She knew her soulmate had a point. And she knew that they would all have to band together to find Alice. She couldn't find her on her own. Something Ronnie reiterated. "Don't go running off on your own, Betty. We'll all look for Alice, but you cannot go looking for her on your own. These men have already hurt you."
Betty knew the truth in that statement. She exhaled shakily, nodding her head the next moment. "We do this your way, Hiram." She would do whatever it took to find her mother, but she would be smart about it. She wouldn't go running off on her own. Her resources in England weren't the same here. She wasn't a criminal here. But she could become one. If it meant her mother was safe, she'd become anything for her. She knew that Toni and Cheryl would help; Joaquin and Kevin, too. And that's what made her feel the smallest bit better. She nodded her head, breathing deeply. "Okay. Okay. Let's get to work."
Hiram nodded his head once, leading them out of Betty's apartment, and Betty shut and locked her door. Then she met Toni, who was peeking out of her own apartment, and they all walked downstairs. Time was of the essence. They had work to do.
Author's note: Hahaha remember when I just wrote religiously, and it was beautiful and fun and all the good things? Yeahhhhhh, I'm trying to get back into that. Good news, I'm on spring break this week from work. So, I'll be able to update quite a few things if I can find the energy. Bear with me. My chronic fatigue is no joke, and I am exhausted. A couple of you showed interest in a 200-chapter story of OOTW and then a couple of you didn't. I'll definitely write 100 chapters and then go from there. Okay. Have a good day! (Didn't proofread this but what's new).