the girl next door ➳ a.a ♡ b.c.

Chapter Eight: Arrests

the emts burst through the hospital door. archie was clinging onto betty's hand and looking at his practically unconscious girlfriend.
"we've got a female, 16, multiple stab wounds, needs surgery immediately." archie couldn't hear anything, but his heart beat. he wanted to scream, no he wanted to hurt whoever hurt her. he was terrified, but furious at the same time.
"i'm sorry sir you can't go back there." a nurse said as she stepped in front of a blood covered archie.
"please you have to let me, please." he was on the verge of tears and it was very obvious.
"sir i'm sorry if you'll please take a seat in the waiting room, well let you know immediately when we find something." he could see the sympathy in her eyes, but he didn't want sympathy he wanted answers.
"archie!" a low voice called out from behind him.
"dad?"
"what's going on i saw you and betty leave in an ambulance."
"someone stabbed her dad. twice! what if she doesn't make it? what am i going to do without her?"
"she's strong, son. betty's the strongest girl i know. she'll make it through." his dad pulled him into a hug noticing the blood soaked letterman jacket he had on.
jughead, cheryl, toni, kevin, and veronica rushes through the hospital doors. archie looked at them with tears in his eyes.
"what happened to her?" veronica said in an angry voice.
"she was stabbed, i came over and found her." archie said tears running down his face.
"you should've been there." veronica yelled angrily. "you should've saved her!" she yelled once more shoving archie back.
"veronica it's not his fault." jughead said.
"i-i know that." she said apologetically she had mascara filled tearing running down her face. archie looked around at his friends. cheryl was crying into toni's neck, kevin pulled veronica into a hug, and jughead just stood there looking lost. betty was the glue that held them all together. even when she wasn't fine she'd pretend she was so her friends would feel better, she'd let them talk to her about there petty problems when hers were much worse. she was amazing. archie was working every possible part of his brain trying to think of who would do this, until it hit him. chuck fucking clayton. rage filled his whole body, you could practically see the fire in his eyes.
"arch, why don't you go home and get cleaned up." mr. andrews suggested.
"dad i can't leave."
"come on archie, you'll be back way before she gets out of surgery. she'll be in there for hours."
"fine, yeah i'll go." archie said hesitantly.
"here are my keys, i'm going to call alice."
archie grabbed the keys and began walking out of the hospital with jughead tagging along behind him.
"you don't have to come." archie said solemnly.
"i'm not letting you do anything stupid, archie." jughead said as they climbed into his dads truck.
"archie i think you missed the turn."
"we're not going to my house. we're going to hurt the shit that did that."
"and who exactly would that be."
"chuck clayton."

the boys neared chuck's house and the fire was still burning strong inside of archie. he wanted to kill chuck. they parked and hopped out of the beaten up truck. when they reached the door jughead knocked.
"back here!" they heard a voice call from the backyard.
as they walked off the porch and to the fenced in backyard the rage inside archie became more than his body could take, he needed to let his anger out.
"andrews, jones what are you doing here." they heard a voice that wasn't chuck's call out. they turned around and saw reggie, chuck, and moose standing by the gate. chuck had this smug look on his face, like he knew why they were there.
"you fucking bastard!" archie yelled as he tackled chuck to the ground. he was on top of chuck and punching him with all the anger he had been bottling up. all archie could see was betty bleeding out on the floor. his punches weren't getting weaker they were getting stronger. reggie and moose finally managed to pull them off of each other, but the fire was still burning bright inside of archie.
"hey andrews, do you think she's dead yet? do you think the doctors came out and told everyone she didn't make it? do you think she could feel it as she slowly bled out on the operation table all alone." chuck slurred his words, he was on the verge of unconsciousness. reggie and moose looked exceedingly confused, they hadn't hear about betty. that's when archie snapped. he got free of reggie's grip and began beating chuck again.
"archie stop! you're killing him!" he could hear voices yelling at him, but he didn't care. it took moose and reggie just to get archie off, and jughead held chuck back.
"why? why did you do it?" archie asked the adrenaline leaving his system causing his hands to shake from pain.
"because, i wanted to. you got what i had wanted for so long. so i took a knife and i stuck it into your precious little girlfriend." he said with spite in his voice.
"moose call the police." jughead said. moose took out his phone and dialed 911. a few minutes later the police showed up and arrested chuck.
"have fun at the funeral." chuck said as the officer pushed his head into the car.
"i've got to get back to the hospital." archie said with worry in his voice.
"i'll drive." reggie said looking at archie's beat up hands.

once the boys got to the hospital they rushed in. reggie went over and hugged a still sobbing veronica, moose went over to kevin, alice and fred sat in the corner talking, toni was comforting cheryl, and jughead was sitting by himself. archie just stood there thinking of all the possible out comes. his thoughts were interrupted when a doctor walked out and over to the big group.
"are you all with elizabeth cooper?" she asked.
"um, yes we are." fred spoke up.
"okay, well i have some good news and some bad news."
"the good news is that elizabeth is stable for now, and it looks like she'll recover nicely."
"is she awake can we go see her?" archie asked excitedly.
"that's the bad news, um elizabeth went into a coma after the surgery. we're not sure if or when she'll wake up."