Snakes and Ladders - Falice

I'll Be

I'll be your crying shoulder, I'll be love suicide. I'll be better when I'm older. You're my survival, you're my living proof my love is alive and not dead.  

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Twenty-three years after the summer that began it all and four marriages later, it was time for a reunion.

Unfortunately, the circumstances for such a reunion were not particularly fortunate. When Artie Andrews passed away, a big part of Riverdale banded together. Fred's friends were there for him just as their children were there for Archie. It was a tough time for everyone, Artie was a familiar face around town and had been respected by many of both Fred and Archie's friends. Everyone knew how important Fred's father was to him, so it was clear that he needed their support more than ever.

No one's lives had gone according to plan, that was clear. Except maybe Alice Cooper's, she boasted about her perfectly polished life and reputation to anyone who would listen. But, that was only on the surface. She claimed that she'd always wanted that life, but there had been a time that all she ever wanted was a future with a certain Serpent King living south of the train tracks.

But, the funeral was something that differences had to be set aside for. Mary and Fred had split years ago, Gladys had very recently left FP, and Hiram Lodge was currently on trial in New York for fraud and embezzlement. No one imagined that they'd be there, but the failures of the present were only the repercussions of the past. The couples that were never supposed to marry would never last. The changes that were never supposed to happen would never end well.

When word spread of Artie's passing, the old group banded together. In times of crisis or sadness, it's important to lean on each other. With that in mind, Mary Andrews came home to lend her estranged husband a shoulder to cry on, FP Jones sobered up for a night, Alice Cooper took organization matters into her own hands knowing that Fred was in no state to do so, and even Hermione Lodge travelled back to Riverdale to offer her condolences and support. FP and Alice may have their grudges against each other, Mary may not have wanted to return to Riverdale, and Hermione may still have been hurting from the past, but Fred Andrews had always been there for them whenever they needed.

He was a good man in a storm, he was a rock that people had used to stabilize themselves time and again. Now, it was their turn to repay that debt.

The service itself was intimate, the wake was a larger reception, one in which the majority of the town attended. But, the funeral only consisted of nine people. Fred, Mary and Archie Andrews, Hermione Lodge, Alice and Betty Cooper, FP and Jughead Jones, and Pastor Craig. Hal and Polly Cooper had been on the invite list, but their attendance actually sparked an argument in the Cooper household.

"You and Betty can go, and I'll go with Polly to her parent-teacher interview, I don't know what's so hard to understand about that?" Hal had said, pacing around the kitchen as Alice had sat and practically begged him to accompany her to the funeral service.

"Would it be so hard to just postpone the interview so that you could come?"

"I don't see the point in that, Alice." Hal shut her down, "I barely knew the guy, it doesn't bother me if I'm not there."

"That's not what this is about, Hal. I don't care if you didn't know him, I did!" Alice wasn't unfamiliar with this kind of argument. No matter what she said, Hal could never understand that sometimes she just needed to be supported, to feel safe. He thought that he had done his job as her husband after she'd made a respected name for herself. He never did any of the real husband things. Eventually, Alice stopped asking him to be there for her – he never came through anyway. She realized that she never wanted him to be there for her, he wasn't the right person.