The Forgotten Blossom | A Riverdale Story

Chapter 23: Nightmare

Fred woke up early the next morning. Desperately wanting that last day of the year to be over so that he could take time off to spend with his family. Carefully pulling his arm out from under Hermione, he got up and got dressed. Putting on the normal clothes that he wears to work, he was about to go downstairs when he heard Hermione say.

"Don't leave me Fred" he turned around and noticed his fiancée sitting up in bed nearly crying. She reached out for him to come back to bed.

"What's wrong love?" He asked her as he sat back in their bed.

"I'm scared, I had a dream that Hiram came back and took me and you didn't know where I went and-" he cut her off, wrapping his arm around her, pulling her closer to him and lying down.

"It's okay, it's okay" Fred shushed Hermione, stroking her hair and wiping away her tears.

"Please stay here" she gripped onto him, shaking.

"Don't worry, I will. Just go back to sleep" Fred kissed the top of her head. He felt as her breathing relaxed and her heavy eyes closed. Everything was calm. Until it wasn't. Hermione gasped sitting up again, feeling around, lifting up the covers.

"What are you doing sweetheart?" Fred asked as the look of shock dissolved off of Hermione's face to be replaced with that of relief.

"The dream came back" she whispered.

"The one with Hiram?"

"No, well yes, but I... I dreamt that I l- lost the baby" Hermione seemed ashamed. Fred's face crumpled as he held his entire world in his arms. Seeing the one he loved so broken, broke him.

"But you didn't, my love. The baby is okay and so are you. You'll always be safe with me, I'll never let anything harm you or our little angel." Fred spoke softly. Hermione turned and looked up at the man, holding his face in her hands, stroking his beard.

"What did I do to deserve you Fred Andrews?" she asked.

"Everything" he replied, kissing her gently.

Next door, things weren't going as smoothly. Claire dragged herself out of bed as her alarm went off.

"Ugh" she groaned, looking at herself in the mirror. She put on a pair of black jeans and the most Christmassy t shirt she owned. Claire grimaced at her reflection, picking up her hairbrush and attempting to tame the mane that is her hair. Eventually it was sitting semi-decently but she was interrupted by the sound of Alice and Fp arguing in their room. They were unaware that she could hear them, stopping whenever she walked in the room. At this point, neither of them even knew what they were arguing about, they were just arguing for the sake of it. When Claire finished her makeup she heard the shouting stop followed by a knock on her door. "Come in" She said loudly.

"Morning babe" it was Alice. "Merry Christmas Eve!"

"You too, so where are we going today?" Claire asked.

"You are going shopping with Betty and Veronica, Archie and Jughead are going to the construction site to fill in for Fp and Fred and you don't need to know what we'll be doing" Alice explained.

"I thought Fred was going into work today" Claire queried.

"He was but he said something on the phone about Hermione not being great after last night and feeling kind of unsafe on her own so he's taking the day off"

"Oh, that's nice of him. So what's going on with you and Fp?"

"What? Nothing" Alice laughed, clearly lying.

"You are the worst liar ever" Claire said frowning.

"Fine, we've been arguing recently. I'm just under so much stress from the wedding and Christmas and The Register, it's all a lot" Alice explained. Claire walked over to the woman and wrapped her arms around her.

"It's okay, slow down, take a break and get back to it when you're ready"

"I know, aww baby this isn't fair on you. Look at me I'm a mess, I can't even plan my own wedding. You should be living with Hermione and Fred." Alice said, hugging the girl back.

"No, I'm staying here and I'm going to help you plan that wedding. Starting after Christmas, take a couple days to relax and then we can get down to business"  Claire said seriously. Alice couldn't help but giggle at the statement.

"I love you munchkin"

"I love you too Alice" Just then Betty walked in and rolled her eyes.

"Are you ready Claire? V's outside" she asked.

"Yeah I'm ready, bye Alice" Claire said, following her cousin downstairs.

"Bye girls" Alice called after them. A few minutes later, she heard a knock on the front door.

A/N

What'd ya think? Also Claire is a mood though