Abby got a call from Sweet Pea to come down to the Whyte Wyrm with Tessie and Corrie. "I told you I don't know. Your dad just said it was a surprise. He sounds happy about it." Abby walks into Pops with the nagging teenager. "We're about to find out so stop asking."
"Well, I'm just curious." She whines.
"Hi Tabi, is he downstairs?" She nods to Pop's granddaughter.
"Yup." She realized the redhead in uniform must have been her brother.
They went down to the bar. "I'll take him. Don't want you to drop him with this surprise." Sweets rush to take the baby from her.
"You can be so dramatic. I would not drop my baby for anything." She rolled her eyes.
"Hey, Abby." She froze at the sound of his voice.
"Archie?" She didn't turn, not wanting to be proven wrong.
"Yes, it's me, Abby." He chuckles.
She threw herself in his arms. "I missed you so much." She sobs and clings to his uniform. It has been seven long years. Seven years of her hoping and praying that he was alive. That he would find love and happiness. She hoped that he would never come back to Riverdale. "I missed you too. I'm sorry I never came back." Tears were forming in his eyes.
"You don't have to be sorry. I didn't want you to come back. I wanted you to get stationed somehow else and make a life there." She patted his chest.
"Is that why you didn't tell me how bad things have gotten?" He couldn't believe his eyes when he drove into town. It looked like a scene from an apocalypse movie.
"Yeah, I didn't want you to run back here." She let him go. "I want you to meet someone." She waved for Sweet Pea to come over. "This is Cornelius Frederick Cannon."
"Hey, little guy." He tickles his stomach. Corrie leaned away from the touch. "It's alright. I'm not going anywhere, you'll get used to me."
"Hey, Uncle Archie." Tessie pops up from behind her dad.
"Holy Shit, Tessie. You are making me feel like I've been gone forever." When he left she was only up to his hip but now she was up to his neck.
"Seven years is a long time." She hugs him.
"What brings you back?" Abby asks.
"I got stationed here. I'm going to be running the ROTC at Riverdale High." He was being forced to slow down.
"If you need a place to stay, you can come to ours." She offers.
"I thought I would stay at our house." Archie wonders why she offers.
"Mom rented it out." She told him.
"Then I'll take you up on your offer." He didn't have much of a choice with nowhere else to go. "Why don't we sit? We have a lot of catching up to do?" Archie goes to the big booth in the corner.
After the adults got a beer and settled in, Toni started. "Well, I had a job lined up after graduation with Riverdale Social Services, but their offices got shut down."
"Lucky for her, we needed a guidance counselor at Riverdale High." Kevin came in with the save on that one.
"You're looking at the new Mrs. Burble." She sings.
"Wait, you're working at Riverdale High, too, Kev?" He looks at his friend.
"Yes, I'm the drama teacher. Got my BA from Carnegie Mellon, in Pittsburgh, where…" He looks at Fangs.
"I've graduated from the University of Pittsburgh." Fangs and Archie cling their bottle together.
"We stayed boyfriends, believe it or not. And, now we live together here." Kevin and Fangs kissed.
"With me, in an apartment on Cloverfield Lane." Toni smiles. "We've revived the Serpents under my leadership. I was crowned the Serpent Queen."
"This place is sick… Sweet Pea, what about you, bro?" He turned to his brother-in-law.
"While Abby was going to school, I got my CDL and was driving trucks to help pay bills. A Lot of the Serpents took the same path." Sweets gave him the rundown.
"Explains all the truckers." He nods.
"Lately, I've been focusing on the orphanage. We got married and had another kid." He put his arm behind his wife.
"Marriage is so crazy." He looks at the ring on his sister's hand. "How many kids are at the orphanage?"
"We got fifty at the moment." She recently had to ask for more funding.
"Fifty?" Archie's jaw dropped.
"More than half the city is crippled with addiction. With the middle and elementary shutting down it has been a lot of adjusting to having to homeschool them all. I need Riverdale High to stay open." Her days were chaotic enough without trying to teach angst teens.
"Why are the schools shutting down?" Archie's eyebrows meet.
"Attendances and funding. Even with all my kids, it's not enough to keep them running." She sighs.
"What about Cheryl?" Archie asks with a smile. Kevin shook his head. Sweet Pea drank his beer while looking off to the side. Fangs sinks in his seat. Abby hides her face on Sweet Pea's shoulder. Tessie used Corrie to cover her face.
"It's cool, guys. After graduation, Cheryl and I broke up." She started with the information that he knew.
"RIP Choni." Kevin looks up at the ceiling.
"After I got back from Highsmith, I went to check on her a couple of times. She was distant, never letting me stay long. The last time I went, I wasn't the only visitor. Hiram Lodge was there with his right-hand man, Reggie." She sneers.
"Reggie is working for Hiram Lodge?" Archie was shocked by that.
"Yeah, it's how we're getting our city funding." Abby talks to him when they need anything.
"She painted me and we talked. I told her my family would approve of us. She said the Blossom curse wasn't over. She believes she's like Sarah Winchester. That's why she's constantly renovating." She told them of Cheryl's mental decline. "She painted me for 12 hours and wouldn't say anything else. I got the portrait in the mail." She pointed to it on the wall where it hung.
"She didn't keep it as a reminder of what you guys had?" He was confused. Seven years ago, Cheryl would have done anything to keep Toni by her side.
"I guess she didn't want it." She held back a tear.
"She won't talk to you, Abby?" He looks at the girl that Cheryl considers a best friend.
"She won't even let me go to Thistlehouse. She said too many innocent lives depend on me for me to be consumed by the Blossom curse. She stays on the phone with me sometimes." The longest she got was an hour.
"This place is beautiful." Archie stares at the bust of his father.
"You haven't even gotten inside yet." Abby laughs, making her son copy her.
"It's amazing that it doesn't look like Silent Mercy." He could see the bones of it if he searched for them but at the first glance, he would have never known.
"That's thanks to Cody, Kraken, and Dracula. They're running the family company." She opens the doors.
"I thought I was seeing things." He couldn't believe from all the ruins that Fred Andrew's construction company looked like it had its grand opening yesterday.
"Yeah, Cody bought it with the promise of not changing the name. I sent your half to your bank account." She hands Corrie to Sweet.
"You didn't have to do that." He thought she needed the money more.
"I'll put the kids to bed and you two can catch up." He kissed her goodnight.
"Come on, we'll talk in my office." She leads him. He took a seat across from the desk. She started the coffee machine that Sweets gave her for Christmas.
"Look." She took a picture off the wall to hand to him.
"Is this Eddie?" He recognized the kid in the graduation gown.
"He's going to the Naval Academy. He got a full-ride boxing scholarship. He's got a strong 3.8 GPA. He's planning on being a doctor." She was proud of him.
"That's great." He stares down at the happy faces.
"I'm trying to help them thrive here then get them out. Maybe they'll become someone that can turn this place around." To truly grow they needed to get out of Riverdale, or they'd be like all the adults here just surviving.
"Or we can turn it around?" Archie proposed.
"Archie? What do you have planned?" She put her head on her fist.
"I don't know yet but I called Betty, Veronica, and Jughead." He told her.
"Don't get yourself killed. There are a lot of dangerous people who are making a lot of money. They aren't going to want Riverdale to change." She warns him.
"I fought wars, Abby. I'll be fine." He wasn't a teenager anymore. "How is Toby doing?"
"He got a basketball scholarship at Beazley Academy. It's a private school a few towns over. They send a car to drive him every day. He's in his senior year. Scouts from Duke and Kentucky are coming to see him." She took a picture off the wall of him in his basketball uniform holding up a trophy. "This is him. They won the championship last year."
"You're doing a great job with them." He grabbed the frame.
"I'm trying." She taps her pen against the desk. "I'll give you a tour of the place tomorrow."
"Toni coming in the morning to give me a tour of the town." He told her.
"Sometime later then. If you're going to be staying here you're going to want a tour. People get lost all the time. I had to get Fangs the last time and he works here part-time." Fangs and Toni would take shifts to help out.
"Sure, I want to see the home you build here." He smiles.
Archie was trying to make his way to the cafe. "I think I'm lost." He put his hand in his pocket to grab his phone.
"Who are you?" He turned to see a blonde child who had a striking resemblance to his childhood friend.
"I… I.." It made him stutter in shock.
"Get your hands out of your pocket. Leave whatever in there. There." He orders. "Don't take a step towards me, I'll scream for my mom."
"Is Abby your mom?" He was finally able to collect himself.
"Yes, if you think you can mess with her because she's a chubby woman. I'll have you know that if even a hair is out of place on her head, my dad and uncles will throttle you." Archie pauses at being threatened by a child. "I'm going to ask you again. Who are you? How did you get past the dogs? The last pervert got bitten by Hot Dog."
"I'm not a pervert. I'm Archie, Abby's brother." He put his hands in the air.
"I know who Archie is. You look like the picture." He analyzed him.
"Souphead! Soup!" A Mexican child came around the corner. "Auntie said you need to get to breakfast. She says if you miss another, she is going to take all the comics out of our rooms."
"Rose, does he look like Archie to you?" He nods to the stranger.
Ambrose stares up in shock at the stranger. "I'll get an adult." He ran off.
He came back with Greg. "Shit Archie, I didn't know you back in town." He shook Archie's hand.
"You're not supposed to curse in front of us." Rose reminds him.
"Great, now they have blackmail material on me." He sighs.
"Hey, Greg." He laughs at the situation. "I got into town last night."
"This is Archie, Abby's brother. Archie, this is Paul Jones. We call me Souphead. As a toddler, he would only eat soup. It's still his favorite food. Before you ask, he's not Jughead's. But, he is Jughead's first cousin once removed. It means he's Jughead's cousin, Estelle's kid." He explains.
"I didn't even know he had a cousin named Estelle." He felt like he was time-traveling looking at the kid.
"We didn't either until he showed up on our doorstep. This is Ambrose Pipps. He's Souphead's best friend." He pats the one wearing a large hat. His half-brother, Maverick took it off his head and gave it to him after he said he liked it.
"Does he know my brother?" He looks up at him. "His name is Maverick."
"Oh yeah, I know him. He let you stay here?" Archie was surprised a Ghoulie would let their sibling live here. This place had to be considered Serpent territory.
"Why wouldn't he?" He tilts his head.
"Come on, you have to get to breakfast. Nancy will have our heads if you miss another Soup." The kids took off running.
"Ghoulies kids are here?" Archie raises an eyebrow.
"You would turn a kid away?" He asks.
"Nah, I couldn't. But I'm surprised they would accept Serpent help." He follows Greg, hoping it will lead him to the cafe.
"They didn't have much of a choice when the state put them here. They tried to break in to kidnap them. When we caught them, Abby gave them a tour. When she promised supervised visits, they agreed." He told the story. "One thing I learned is that when people love a kid, they will agree to do anything, even settle with century-old rivals to keep them safe."
"I'm happy to hear that." He had hope for Riverdale if those rivals were willing to put their differences aside for the kids.
"Get ready for chaos." He opened the double doors that were in front of them. The loud noise of chatter and giggle filled the room.
"Good morning, Arch." Abby came up to him. "I heard what happened with Soup and Rosey. I figure I should introduce you so you don't scare any of the other kids."
"I'm pretty sure I should have been scared. Soup threatens me." He wasn't snitching on the kid, just recalling what was already a funny story to him.
"Yeah, he can be protective." She nods.
"Combative." Greg corrects. "He only doesn't argue with her."
"Kids, may I have your attention." She grabs a megaphone. "This is my brother, Archie. He's going to be around. I don't want any of you to be alarmed." Archie watches the heads turn to him. He hadn't had this many eyes on him since playing ball in high school. "Want to say a few words." She held it out to him.
"Hi, no need to feel shy. Feel free to come up to me. I promise I'm nice." He didn't want them to be scared of him.
"Hey Archie," Toni came into the cafe.
"Hey Toni," He hands the megaphone back and walks to her. They walk out of the cafe. With the mystery stranger gone, the kids went back to their food.
"I hope he isn't going to stir up too much trouble." Sweet Pea came up behind her. "I got up to pick up a shipment of supplies for the Whyte Wyrm with Fangs. You're coming by after school?" Since having to homeschool 35 kids, it was all hands on deck on the weekday until after school. So, even though it was technically Abby's day off she wasn't free until early afternoon.
"Yeah, I will. Remember this Saturday, I got to take Rosey to see his brother." She reminds him.
"Did you tell him, he can't call you by pet names? He better not call them dates either." He ran into Maverick and he provoked Sweets.
"I don't eat with them anymore. I sat across from them at Pops." She thought him being jealous was ridiculous.
"Malachai not going to be there?" He asks.
"I don't know. Like I said, I don't sit with them." She huffs.
"Are you annoyed?" He didn't know what he did to irritate her.
"Those guys only act up when you're there. They aren't interested in me. They want to provoke you and you let them every time. Even if they did then you should trust me. I trust you. You go out on the road. I know about lot lizards." He made it like she would go off with any guy who paid her a compliment.
"Have you ever seen them? They look like roadkill." He wondered how any of the guys let the girls in their trucks.
"I know you go out to bars. I'm sure there are beautiful women there. I trust that you turn them down." She redid her argument.
"I do… I trust you. I don't trust them. I don't want you to put yourself in a situation where they could force themself on you." He didn't want her to be fooled into thinking they were nice guys.
"I keep things civil for Ambrose's sake. I sat there because I didn't want them to corrupt him." She didn't trust them by any means. "Now, I believe that Maverick doesn't want his brother to go down that path. He encouraged him to focus on his studies. He is funding his private school education."
"Fine, you can sit with them." He crossed his arms.
"I don't want to sit with them. Tabi keeps me company at the counter. I like talking to her." She shook her head.
"Then, what the hell are we having this argument for?" He squints at her.
"I want you to be okay with me sitting with them or anyone." She tells him.
"I love you, you complicated woman." He grabbed her face to kiss her.