Bughead One-shots | Riverdale

"I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

She could've just walked away after they found him.

Tabitha was at the hospital with her, she could've left whilst Jughead was still sleeping and she wouldn't have had to face him or the conversations that were sure to take place once he was awake.

It had taken days to find him, and it had been the most scared Betty had been since she thought he had died in their senior year of high school when he was taking classes at Stonewall Prep. How things had changed, she couldn't help but think bitterly as she watched him sleep in the hospital bed.

Sleep - it wasn't really that, was it? That was just what the doctors were saying to make it easier to understand. But Jughead wasn't asleep, he was unconscious. And maybe that was worse, or maybe it was better. Jughead was similar to Betty in a lot of ways, including how the stress of their lives also affected their sleep. When she would sleep in the same bed as him - it was painful to look back that far in her memories, but over these past few weeks she had found herself doing that more and more - Jughead would suffer from nightmares when he was stressed, like she did. So maybe unconscious was better than sleeping, because he wouldn't be dreaming about whatever had happened to him. They didn't even know that yet.

He was out for hours. He had been barely awake when they found him, covered in his own blood and injuries and, god, she hadn't felt so sick since her own kidnapping. He probably didn't know who had taken him back, or even that he had been taken. But they locked eyes when she found him, and his dazed though familiar look made her stomach twist uncomfortably.

Seeing him in the hospital bed, all scratched up and fragile; it brought her further back into her memories to riot night. The image of FP carrying a bloodied and beaten Jughead out of the forest still made her feel sick at the thought, and the similarities it struck her when she looked at him hurt, but the differences hurt more. She wouldn't be able to cuddle him in the hospital bed this time and tell him it would be okay. She wouldn't be able to kiss the small cuts on his knuckles better and hug him until he fell asleep. It was so different it ached in her chest like it her heart was physically breaking.

A low groan broke the silence in the room that had lasted for hours, and as Tabitha shot out of her seat to stand beside the hospital bed, Betty froze in place and held her breath. She watched as Tabitha spoke to him softly as he woke up, explaining how happy she was that he was okay and how worried she had been. Another wave of nausea crashed through her at his low strained voice as he replied, and the urge to run from the hospital room was even stronger in that moment than it had been before.

But as Tabitha said something about getting a nurse, and turned and walked out of the room past Betty, he saw her, and she couldn't leave after that.

"Betty." Jughead's eyebrows furrowed a little as he stared at her, his expression a little unreadable, which just made her feel worse.

"Hey Jug," She breathed out, hesitating before she rose from her chair to move beside his bed, sitting in the seat positioned there. She hadn't been this close to him for a while. "Are you okay?" She asked softly.

"Yeah, I think at least," He mumbled, and gave himself a once over in the bed before he looked back up at her and frowned a little. "Not that I'm not uh, happy to see you, but why are you here? I thought-"

"I found you with Tabitha." Betty explained, her voice somewhat harsh, and his eyes widened a little before he nodded.

For a moment she was brought back to their senior year again, hearing his voice over the phone telling her "I think I know deep down that if I ever went missing that you would be the one to find me" and it caused an ache in her chest and had her sighing softly as she looked at him.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, and his gaze was softer when it met hers, because he understood that she wasn't just apologising for not finding him sooner.

"I'm sorry too." Jughead's voice was gravelly as he spoke lowly, and gently reached out his hand over the edge of the bed to take hers. It was such a familiar touch Betty didn't think twice before gently intertwining her fingers with his.

She opened her mouth to say something else, knowing that this conversation had to start somewhere, though she was interrupted by her ring tone taking over the sound in the room and Betty cursed under her breath as she pulled her phone out of her pocket to look at the caller ID; her mother.

Betty almost stepped out of the room to take it for a moment, but after taking one glance at the man in the hospital bed she knew where her priorities laid from that moment onwards. She put her phone on silent and sat it in her lap, looking back up at him.

"Do you need to go and take that?" Jughead asked, his tone quieter than usual, and Betty could see such a vulnerable child-like feature in his expression that it probably would've pained her to leave the room.

"No," She whispered and shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise. Not for a long time."

Betty met his gaze again, and smiled slightly, earning one from him in return at the double meaning in her words. Yes, they still needed to talk. Betty knew it would be painful and harsh, a sharp reminder of mistakes they had made in their youth, but after that she wasn't going to make the same mistakes twice. She was going to make it right and keep it that way.