A lover & a fighter

9. No Serpent stands alone

"Enough with your fucking meaningless threats, Penny! You want to shoot me? Go on, do it!"

"Jughead!" he heard JB's voice and turned around to see his sister running inside the building, behind him.

"JB! I told you to run away!"

"Watch out!" he heard her voice pitch and instinctively throw himself at her to get her out of the line of fire as a series of gunshot thundered in the warehouse.

* * *

One of the shot missed JB's head by a hair just as Jughead felt a sharp blow to his left shoulder.

Then everything seemed to unfold in slow motion as another gun fired twice. He turned around and his knees failed him.

Betty heard a thud when a body collapsed to the floor and she heard JB scream.

"Oh my God" the young woman crumbled to floor under the weight of her brother's body. "Juggie!"

She was panicking, she had blood on her hands. "Betty! Betty he's been shot!"

Betty holstered her gun and took a few steps, kicking Penny's gun out of the way in the process. She crouched down and checked her pulse, just to be sure, but she hit her twice in the chest, her lifeless eyes were wide open, fixed on the ceiling. Penny Peabody was dead.

Then she rushed to help JB to lay her brother on his back on the floor to assess his injuries. He was conscious even though he was writhing in pain. He'd been shot on his left upper arm, near his Serpent tattoo and he was losing blood.

"Fuck it hurts!" Jughead managed to whimper as Betty gently rolled him on his right side and ran a hand around his arm.

"I know, Jug. I can see the exit wound, the bullet went through and out." Betty looked around, and saw JB's terrified expression. She'd never seen someone getting shot, let alone one of her family members and Jughead was the most important person in the whole world.

"It's ok, he's gonna be ok" she cracked a little smile to reassure JB who was sitting on the floor near them, clasping her hands together anxiously.

"JB!" Betty tried to shake her out of her trance. "Hey, listen to me," Betty said softly but firmly enough to draw her attention "Jug is gonna be fine but we need to stop the blood loss and get him to the hospital. I need your flannel."

JB's eyes were glued to his brother's bloody arm and she couldn't move so Betty reached for her shirt and loosened it from JB's waist and folded it a few times to make it more compact.

When she put a hand on the young woman's knee and squeezed she seemed to snap out of her reverie.

"You need to call 911, can you do that for me?"

When JB nodded, Betty took the phone out of her pocket and handed it to her. "Here."

JB dialed the emergency number and took a few steps towards the exit where the signal was stronger.

Betty kneeled beside Jughead again. "Jug? Jug!" His eyes were closed and she panicked, smacking his cheek lightly a couple of times.

He wrinkled his nose and shook his head, whining.

"Hey...hey! Open your eyes, come on."

He tentatively opened his eyes and focused on her face. "That's right. Look at me."

"Hey, Betty?" he groaned biting hard on his lip.

"What?"

"Stop slapping me" he groaned. Despite the seriousness of the moment, she couldn't help but smile.