Choni

13

Toni is eating dinner with Betty and Archie when she gets a blocked phonecall. She shows the 'unknown number' on her phone to them and gets up to take the call.

It's Archie and when she picks up he immediately starts talking. "Toni this has to be quick so just let me talk. Cheryl and Veronica's marriage is staged, Cheryl is essentially held captive in their apartment. I'm about to get some information on the Lodge's and Blossom's companies, I know it isn't legal" he talks fast and then says "I gotta go, see you soon maybe." He says and hangs up.

This happens a lot. Archie gets a hold of a burner phone, calls Toni and she takes notes on the conversations, then she doesn't hear from him for weeks at a time.

Archie's been undercover for about 5 months now. It's hard to be an undercover mobster without getting killed, so it's taking a while, but he's getting close.

Toni runs a hand through her hair after writing down everything Archie told her. Betty hears her sigh and makes her way into the hall. She sees Toni frantically flipping through pages of notes from weeks, even months ago, trying to connect the names and places.

She reaches a hand out and Toni halts her movements, "You should eat. And shower" Betty says to Toni, who is still staring blankly at her useless notes. She sighed and nodded to herself. She knew she should take a break from taking double-sometimes even triple cases, but she couldn't help it.

Work was all she threw herself into when Cheryl left, and all she had known for years after. But the past two years of looking for ways to help Cheryl through her work weren't working anymore. She made a new plan while she was in the shower, and maybe it would even work.

-

It was a Wednesday night, but that didn't stop Veronica from partying, and leaving her door open all night for anyone who felt like partying. Cheryl was heading to her room, like usual, but Veronica caught her leaving before she could make it there.

"Where do you think you're going baby" Veronica said, grabbing Cheryl's arm roughly as she caught up to her. "My room" Cheryl said flatly, trying to tug her arm out of her grip while dragging Veronica in the opposite direction she was pulling Cheryl. Suddenly Veronica completely froze, upon hearing an eerily familiar voice.

"V! I missed you!" Betty fucking Cooper. Both girls were shocked. How did she get here? Would she be on Veronica's side? They were best friends, but Cheryl had lived with her boyfriend.

Betty brought a stunned and stiff Veronica in for a hug, and looked at Cheryl, giving her a wink over Veronica's dark hair. So she was on Cheryl's side, but what was she doing here? Was there a plan?

-

Back at their apartment, Toni and Jughead are sat behind computers, one recording all of Betty's conversations, and the other watching a camera view of the party through one of Betty's earrings.

Toni had been focusing on listening to what was going on when Jughead nudged her. The camera view showed Cheryl Blossom. Her Cheryl Blossom. She looked tired, dressed in gray sweatpants and a large t-shirt at a party.

Definitely not like who she was in high school. The makeup and smile were missing, the red replaced with dark colors, probably expressing how her life had been.

Jughead's careful eyes watched his best friend take in the sight of the girl she used to, and probably still does love. "She still looks beautiful" Toni whispered in a quiet tone, maybe just to herself, as she put her headphones back in to listen.

About an hour later Veronica had stopped pretending. She literally told Cheryl, "you can leave now I don't care if Betty knows" and pushed her away from the couch, causing her to stumble her way down the hall.

Betty felt terrible for Cheryl, the poor girl was being treated like a stray dog. But she had to get Veronica to admit to something, so they could blackmail her into a divorce. Betty waited hours, until most people had left the party, but she'd gotten Veronica drunk.

So when Cheryl walked into the kitchen in search of some sort of food, but Veronica never bought food she liked on purpose. When she caught sight of Cheryl, Veronica jumped up and started losing her mind, getting up from the couch and stomping into the kitchen.

"Why are you out here!" she almost screamed, her voice rising as she cornered Cheryl, making Jughead, Betty, and mostly Toni cringe at the sound. A crash and then a cry and then Veronica was walking back over as if nothing had happened.

"I fucking hate that bitch" she said to Betty as she sat back down, laughing. "Why? Aren't you married?" Betty probed for an answer. "No way" Veronica laughed again. Everything seemed to be funny to her.

"We were forced to get married so our families could do illegal things together." 3 sets of eyebrows raise and Cheryl's head pokes out from the kitchen in confusion at this admission. "Wow really?" Betty feigned innocence, trying to get just a little more dirt.

"Yea" Veronica shooed the question off, taking another swig of her beer. "They want to control the world. Gonna kill the president or something." she mumbled, not realizing the gaping whole she just put in Lodge-Blossom industries.

Toni damn near fell out of her chair. Cheryl was in the kitchen cleaning up the glass plate Veronica had thrown at her. Kill the president? Hiram was clearly over Riverdale now. And the worst part is that most of Riverdale still loves him.

But this could be used in the future if Hiram really was going to try to get in the White House. In the meantime, Cheryl is getting away from Veronica. Its a cliche, but blackmail was the only way to go, especially if Veronica didn't want to go to jail for abusing Cheryl.

Toni had a plan for the new evidence already. If Veronica simply signed the annulment papers, she would offer her a plea deal in her future case on the Lodges and Blossoms, making her give all the dirt on everything her family had done, without her facing the consequences.

Toni still believed that Veronica wasn't all bad. She was forced back to New York too, anyway. She had just made friends in Riverdale, maybe she lashed out at Cheryl because she was mad at her dad. Either way, Toni would never speak to the girl again unless it was completely necessary because of the way she treated Cheryl.

Betty said her goodbye to Veronica, she had gotten everything she needed anyway. On her way out she dropped a note in front of Cheryl.

Confused, the red- headed girl picked it up. It read: "It won't be long". Cheryl had absolutely no idea what was going on, why should she trust Betty Cooper?

The poor Blossom girl hadn't had a conversation with someone she really knew in years, she had severe trust issues after being stepped on so many times the first few months she was in New York.

Sighing in complete confusion, she moved to sleep in the spare bedroom, only to find people asleep in her bed, leaving her nowhere to sleep. She ended up on the spare couch in the back storage room of the apartment. She hated the way her life turned out. She used to have someone who loved her, and a future to look forward to. Now she has nothing and no future outside of this apartment.

-

Little did Cheryl know, by 2am Toni had drawn up the divorce papers, and sent Veronica all of the information she had and the plea deal that the girl couldn't afford to decline. She sent it directly to Veronica, and waited until she heard back. It wouldn't be long now.

She couldn't help but worry though, what if Cheryl didn't want to see her? Or was different than she used to be?

And just like that, she'd stayed up all night thinking about her, and was snapped out of her thoughts by the noise of an e-mail coming through.