Bughead: opposites attract

Chapter 71

When jughead woke up the next morning it was from a buzzing on the bedside table. He looked to his left and saw that Betty was still sound asleep. He sat up and looked for the source of the noise. The buzzing started again and jughead realised it was Betty's phone; when he picked it up to silence it he noticed a new message:

Hal (dad): sure, we can meet today? How about pops?

Jughead sighed. He knew how much Betty was hurting with all of this and he didn't know how she would handle any new information Hal might give her. He turned the phone off and lay back down pulling Betty closer to him and in her sleep she wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled deeper into his chest. He stayed awake for a while holding her, wishing he could keep her away from all the pain in the world.

When Betty and jughead woke up again later that morning jughead showed her the message and she replied agreeing that both her and jughead would meet him at pops at 1pm. After the message was sent Betty was pulled into jugheads lap where he held her while she tried not to cry. "Come on Baby, let's get some breakfast" Jug said as she helped her up and took her into the kitchen. He sat her on the counter while he started to make pancakes. "Why am I sat here?" She asked him. "So I have something pretty to look at while I slave away over making breakfast" he joked and she burst out laughing. "Well in that case... I better make it worth your while" she smirked and started pulling silly faces at him causing him to laugh and kiss her softly.

When breakfast was over with and the couple had showered and gotten ready for the day, they were getting ready to leave for pops. Before the could get to the door Betty stopped and said "I can't do this". Noticing the rising panic in her voice her rushed to her side and held her shoulders while she tried to breath. "Yes you can. I'll be with you the whole time and we can leave whenever" he said. "I.. i. What if... what if... i..don't" she couldn't get any words out. "Baby. Breath for me" he said softly as she started to copy his breathing. "We don't have to go if you really don't want to baby, but I think you do" he said. "You're right" she breathed out. "I need to do this, for me." She said and he kissed her. "That's my girl" he smiled and lead her out of the apartment.

"Betty!" Hal said as he spotted jughead and Betty enter the diner. He beckoned them over to his booth and they sat opposite him. "Thank you for meeting me" Betty said. "No problem. I miss you" Hal said sadly. Jughead took Betty's hands under the table, so she couldn't harm herself. "I.. I need answers. I need to know what you know" Betty said, her voice never wavering. "Okay..." Hal sighed in defeat. "You're mother, had an affair and in result had you... i don't know who your biological father is...I'm sorry I wish I knew but I don't. All I know was he was from Greendale and your Mother was seeing him for about 3 months." Hal admitted and Betty squeezed jugheads hands. "I... I have a picture" Hal said and pulled out an old Polaroid. It was a picture of a man with his back to the camera so you couldn't see his face and Betty's mom next to him smiling into the camera. "That's all I have" Hal said. "I'm sorry it's not more" he apologised. "Thank you" Betty whispered, not taking her eyes off the photograph. "Erm.. I... I want to meet up again before the wedding, I want you to be there" Betty blurted out and jughead nodded in support. "I'd like that" Hal smiled. They made small talk for a while later before saying their goodbyes. In the car back to the Whyte Wyrm jughead noticed Betty staring at the photography intently but didn't press her to talk. When they arrived at the bar she ran ahead of him and shut herself in the office, confusing everyone but jughead let her have some space.

Later that evening when the serpents were having dinner jughead went into the office to get Betty. He found her on the computer, the photograph still in her hand. "Hey honey" he said. "What are you doing?" He asked and kissed her head and he never expected her answer. "I'm going to find my real dad"....