What We Once Were: A Bughead Fanfic

Chapter 6.

Jughead returned home early that night, for the first time in a long time, he actually had a good day at work and was looking forward to going back tomorrow.

Geller gave them the files they needed to start their investigation about the murders that had occurred two weeks ago in Fox Forest. Three sixteen year old girls were found bruised, beaten and marked. What was strange about them however, was the fact that they hadn't been raped or anything. Just bruised and marked with a triangular symbol.

Jughead entered his dark and silent townhouse. Newspapers of the recent murders cluttered the kitchen table, and by his couch was his new in-home murder board. Red tacks and red string linking the papers and post it notes connected various dates and times. There were so many holes, so many things that didn't make sense about this unknown criminal, no one even knows what he or she looks like. Jughead had his suspicions that whoever this was, was definitely connected to the Fourth of July shooting. He'd have to run it by Betty tomorrow and see what she thought.

In the mean time, Jughead had a case to crack of his own. He cleared the wooden table where he usually sat at night and tried to write a book, but inspiration and motivation to write had been hard to come by since Betty left.

Instead Jughead placed a cube of sticky notes beside his laptop and did some social media stalking...well more like investigating on Betty and Juliet Cooper.

He first checked to see if Betty had a Facebook page, sure enough she did. Of course, Betty was a private person so there wasn't too much stuff on her page. Most of it was pictures of Juliet, either on her birthday or if it was some kind of milestone in her life.

As Jughead scrolled through her page, he saw pictures and videos of Juliet riding her bike, blowing out her candles, her on the beach and many others. Betty was a proud mom and was not afraid to show that side of her.

As Jughead saw pictures of Juliet on the day she was born, he stopped for a second and stared. He could hardly believe that, that little girl with the bubbly personality and endless energy was that small and helpless at one time in her life. She needed so much love and help in order to grow up and become the delightful and happy girl she is now, and Jughead missed all of it. He missed bringing her out of the hospital and home for the first time. He missed her first steps, her first time riding a bike, her first day of preschool and teaching her how to read.

Jughead knew just from the newborn and every picture after that one, that Juliet Cooper was his daughter. She wasn't born prematurely, she looked healthy in her newborn pictures and on the outside, she looked exactly like him. Juliet looked nothing like Betty, and Jughead had to confront her about this. He'd already missed out on the first four and half years of her life and he wasn't planning on missing another day.

He thought back to that day five years ago, with them down at the lake...

"How many times do you have to learn this lesson Jughead? I love you, I want to be with you. Why can't that be enough for you? How many times do we have to push each other away?" She'd said with tears in her glassy eyes, Jughead vaguely remembered that she'd laid her hand across her stomach.

"Until it sticks, we are done Betty. Good luck at N.Y.U., you'll fit right in there." He'd turned to face the lake, his posture was tall and rigid, he crossed his arms and didn't turn around.

He heard her let out a whimper, then heard the rustling sound of her feet sprinting into the woods as fast as she could.

Jughead snapped back into reality, she'd put her hand on her stomach! She had been wanting to tell him something all day and of course since she was so modest, she would let him say what he'd wanted to first. How had he been so stupid? How could he have been so careless?