Mine (a Riverdale fanfiction)

Coming At You From All Sides

Archie's mother had tried her best to find a way out for Jughead's dad, to get him to change his story, to find a legal loophole that might help, but there was nothing. The web was tangled too tightly.

On her advice, Jughead went to his father, and for once, he poured out his heart, telling his dad everything he had hoped for, everything he had wanted for their relationship and their family. His dad listened, but if Jughead got through to him at all he couldn't see it for the tears that blurred his eyes.

At last, his father got up and approached the bars, looking him in the eye. "Never come back here. You understand?"

Jughead studied his father's face. For a man who lied a lot, he had never done it well. He always went too far. He was doing it again now.

"Got it," he said, and left the room, calling Betty immediately. "You were right," he told her, convinced at last. "He's hiding something."

At school, they stood in front of the murder board, trying to figure out what his dad was lying about, and for whom. They worked their way through person by person, assisted, to Jughead's surprise, by Betty's mom, who found the way things had all been tied up too tidy, and too perfect.

He tried to keep his distance from Betty—it was no time to be distracted by her, and he still didn't know how he felt. He was too exhausted to try to think about their relationship. But he couldn't help but admire her. She was so tenacious, so determined. Once she got started, you couldn't stop her. He loved that about her.

Love? Yes. Yes, he loved her. More than he had imagined he could. Whether they could ever be together again was another question, but someday he intended to tell her. Just so she knew.

*****

Horrific as the video of Jason Blossom being killed by his father was, it was a relief to Jughead to know for certain that his own father hadn't done it. Jughead breathed easier, for at least a little while. Until it became clear that the town of Riverdale intended to use the leverage it had over FP Jones to do away with the drug trade in town if it could, and the South Side Serpents one way or the other.

It was not surprising to Jughead that his father refused to talk; and it was less devastating to have his father in jail for covering up the murder than for conducting it. But it did leave Jughead still in something of an awkward position.

*****

Without Jughead, Betty felt like her entire life had backslid. It was all the way it had been before—her family so perfect on the surface, so not-so-much underneath. She was back to digging her fingernails into her palms to keep from screaming.

She didn't know if she could talk to him anymore—he was so distant, so determined to be cool and untouched by everything. She had no idea if he had forgiven her for betraying his father and setting this all in motion, or if he had just decided it was too much trouble being with her, or what, but ... she didn't know how to break the ice that had formed in him.

She was not going to sit by while everything that had happened was swept under the rug, Betty determined. It might not be the right time to try to get through to Jughead, but she could definitely go on record about FP and what had happened to him, and Clifford Blossom. Old Betty would have sat back and quietly let the adults handle it. New Betty was not about to.

When Veronica and Archie confessed to being a couple, Betty made it clear that in her mind, she and Jughead were also still a couple, and she got one of those sideways smiles she loved in return, but ... it wasn't enough. She—they needed to be able to go somewhere and talk and for that to happen, he needed his dad's situation taken care of.

It was odd talking to Archie about it. There was still something there, the ghost of crushes past, hanging in the air between them. But ... Archie could never have understood her half as well as Jughead did. The boy she had never looked at twice in all these years had turned out to be the one who was perfect for her, who could help her become all the things she had always been too afraid to try to be.

*****

Just when Jughead thought things were looking up, that he could finally see his way clear to settling back into life in Riverdale, to talking things through with Betty and getting them right with each other again, he and Archie came home to find a case worker in the house from social services. Archie's dad wasn't considered a good candidate for a foster family, so they'd found Jughead a family on the South Side.

He was a South Sider, really—it was mostly an accident that he had ended up in Riverdale Central in the first place. And fighting bureaucracy was often an effort in futility. So despite Archie's outrage, Jughead couldn't see any reason not to go along with it.

Staring at Betty's locker, covered in the article she had been brave enough to write, fighting for his father's innocence, with "South Side Slut" written in pig's blood, Jughead was touched by her—and more convinced than ever that he had to go. He was ruining her life, too. He pulled her away so she would stop staring at it, but while he was shocked and worried for her, Betty was just ... angry.

They walked home together, in silence at first. But Jughead was convinced now that something had to be done. The last thing he wanted to do, but the most important thing for her. "Betty. Betty, we have to—we have to end this."

"This? You mean us? What are you talking about, Jug?"

"As long as you're with me, writing articles about me and my dad, trouble's just going to keep coming at you from all sides."

"It was just one jerk!"

"It's not just one jerk. It's Mayor McCoy. Sheriff Keller. It's Weatherbee. Social services. The entire multiverse telling me that I don't belong here so why don't I just do everyone a favor—"

"Hey." Betty stopped him before he could get too lost in the flow of his words. "You belong here just as much as everyone else. This is your home." She reached up to cup his cheek. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah," he muttered, but he wasn't convinced. Betty wasn't having it. When he would have turned away she held his face, looking at him, waiting, until he repeated himself with more conviction. "Yes."

She tucked her arm through his, not accepting his attempt to break up with her ... but nothing had changed, not really. He didn't belong here, and he wasn't making things any easier for her.