She spends way more time than shethinks anyone would be allowed to down by the holding cells and it'sprobably not the goodness of his heart, but rather the fact that shestill holds enough of the respect people had towards her, that drivesSheriff Keller. When he does finally come to get her he doesn't evencomment on the scene he'd walked in to. She knows she's not permittedto go near the bars, let alone touch him, so she's a little surprisedwhen the Sheriff just raises one eyebrow at her when she leansforward and kisses him good-bye. She'll be back as soon as they lether.
He had asked about his son and her andBetty and how they were all holding up. She'd been honest with himand she hated how heartbroken he'd looked but he needed to hear thetruth. What good would it do if she told him they were all doingfine. He'd asked her what made her so sure that he didn't actually doit and she'd told him about Archie and Veronica and the gun and thatshe can't explain it, but even without those factors she wouldn'tbelieve him to be a killer for a second. Then he had told her she'scrazy for standing by someone who is most likely going to beconvicted of murder and she had laughed for the first time in thelast fifteen hours.
She had also told him about Gladys andhow she had refused to take Jughead in despite being his only familyat the moment. It made him angry, she could see that and she wouldhave much rather liked for his son to say himself, but if she knowsone thing about Jughead it's that he won't confide in his father. Shehad calmed him down, expressing how much of a shitty move it is onthe woman's part but promising to be there for his son no matterwhat. In the end, FP had agreed, that as long as he had Alice,Jughead doesn't need his mother. And he'd swear that he never felt somuch love for the woman than right in this moment. She's under noobligation whatsoever to look after his son as long as he's incapableof doing so himself and still, there's no hesitation on her part tooffer him all the help with the boy he needs. She'd also made itclear, that even if FP had succeeded in pushing her away again, shewould never have abandoned Jughead like this – or that she wouldhave convinced Hal of taking the boy in had the last few weeks nothappened.
What she didn't do was ask him why hesaid he did it. He still hadn't admitted he's been lying and thoughshe still believed he had she didn't want to fight. She'll prove he'sinnocent and when he gets out of jail she's going to get the wholestory from him and she won't let him hide behind a fake confessionthen. And even though she desperately wanted to know what drove himto do it, the more important thing right now was to find evidenceagainst his guilt – evidence she is not going to get from him nomatter how hard she'd try. She'd also not been sure at this exactmoment what would actually be worse – him being charged with murderand serving a twenty-five year sentence or him admitting he liedabout the confession and getting charged with god-knows-what elsewherein nobody can predict beforehand how many years of jail timethat would accumulate to.
He'd seen how hard it was for her tonot confront him about it again, to not plead with him to take hisconfession back, to not even ask. It had hurt seeing her like thisand he'd sworn to himself he'll make this right every chance he gets,but the truth was something he could not tell her. At least not yet.Maybe, when enough time has passed, he would come clean about hismotives but in doing so now, he would put his family in danger. Heknows Alice can look after herself and, to some extend, Jughead can,too. He's not sure about Betty but then, he doesn't know the girl aswell as his son and girlfriend. He * definitively * knows that Alicewould do anything to not let any harm come to either of the children,but he thinks twenty-five years of jail time is a good exchange forher not having to do that.
He had tried to get back to his seat bythe far wall when he heard Sheriff Keller approach because he didn'twant to get her into any more trouble, but she hadn't cared. Onlytightened her hold on him even more and kissed him as the door behindher opened. He'd smiled against her lips. She'd been making astatement, for everyone who will undoubtedly start talking behind herback soon, if they didn't already. Nothing, not even the minorsetback of a murder charge, was going to keep her from him and herold life on the Southside. She will not be crawling back to thehusband she still technically has and beg for forgiveness and asecond chance. She didn't regret one single moment since the nighthe'd first kissed her after twenty years. And when people want tolook down on her for that, let them. She's done caring what overpeople think of her and her life choices. When she'd finally left,she promised him to be back tomorrow, exchanging a look with SheriffKeller as if daring him to forbid her that.
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Recreating History, Repairing Mistakes
FanfictionAlice Cooper and FP Jones finally get their try at an actual relationship. A look on how this will work out and how their newfound closeness will be tested when FP gets arrested for Jason's murder. #Sequel to Reliving History, Repeating Mistakes# IM...