Time | Bughead

Chapter Five

Nine Months Later

"Breathe, Elizabeth. It's going to be okay," one of the nuns in the Sister's ER spoke softly to the blonde in labor. "Is she crowning yet?"

"Not yet," the doctor said, getting a pair of metal utensils from his tray as a nurse put two more pillows behind Betty's back. "Eight centimeters. Don't start pushing yet, okay?" Betty nodded briefly, continuing to take deep inhales as she gripped the side of the bed.

Another sharp pain came from her cervix, making the blonde tilt her head up and yelp out. "Can this...please be over?" she asked between pants and yells. 

"Nine centimeters," the doctor called out, motioning to one of the nurses to hand him a pair of forceps. "I'm gonna need you to start pushing now." 

A loud groaning yell came with Betty's first push, the pressure felt throughout her whole body as she swore at herself for not asking to have local anesthesia. "I can't do it," she cried, her body drained from her thirty seconds of strain.

"Crowning," the doctor announced before looking back up at Betty and remarking, "Again. Push again, but don't forget to breathe." Betty cried briefly before mustering up her strength to push again, this time trying to ignore the pain and manage through. "Again."

"I'm not strong enough," Betty thought to herself with tears in her eyes. "I'm not strong enough, I can't do it. It's too much."

With one last dreadful push and glass-shattering scream, a new cry filled the room; the cry of Betty's baby. "It's a boy," the doctor announced, holding the newborn as the nurse cut the umbilical cord.

"W-Wait, I wanna...I wanna see him," Betty said, trying to look at her baby in the doctor's hands before he handed him to a nurse to be cleaned. "Can I see him? I wanna see him," she said, looking around at the nun and nurses around her.

"Shh, Elizabeth, you need to rest," the Sister said, her hand on the blonde's shoulder as she tried to sit up, continuing to look around the room for her baby.

"No, I wanna...I wanna see him, I wanna see my baby," Betty said, her voice weak from all her screaming. With her head foggy and hearing practically shot, the last thing she could distinguish hearing was the Sister calling for a nurse before the feeling of a shot in her shoulder sent her to sleep.

---

Betty woke up the next night in her room, the presence of someone sitting beside her bed strong as she opened her eyes slowly. "Mom?"

Alice nearly jumped as she heard her daughter's voice, looking at the blonde with a sympathetic and yet cheerful expression. "Oh, honey," she said slowly, putting her hand on Betty's. "I'm so glad you're awake.

"What're you doing here?" Betty asked as she sat up slowly, still groggy from her awakening. "You haven't come to see me since I got here."

"Honey, I'm here to take you home. You were only gonna stay here until the baby was born and then I was gonna bring you home," Alice explained, sending flashes of memory to the waking blonde.

"Baby," she said softly before looking at her mom and asking, "Did you see him? Did you see my baby? They wouldn't let me see him, I asked, but they took him--" Betty started to ramble before Alice cut her off.

"Honey, they've already had him adopted. They had a family waiting for him, for when he was born." Alice watched how Betty's expression changed as she told her about her baby, any hope she'd had slowly faded out.

"So I can't...I can't see him?" Betty asked with tears in her eyes, watching her mother sigh pitifully and try to gather the right response.

"Betty, you knew this would happen. You chose to give him up--" Alice started before Betty began stuttering out her defense.

"I...I know, I know what I chose, but I don't...I don't want him to be adopted anymore." Betty breathed in and out deeply as she looked around her room before focusing her eyes back on her mother. "They didn't even let me see him, Mom. He's my son," she said with tears in her eyes.

"I know, baby," Alice sighed, moving from the chair beside Betty's bed to her side, holding the girl in her arms and kissing her forehead. "What made you change your mind?" she asked as Betty laid her head on her mother's chest.

And truthfully, Betty didn't know how to answer. She thought back to her second night in the convent when she dreamed of a family of her own; a baby in her arms and Jughead by her side. But then she thought of the birth; how that first cry kicked in motherly instincts.

"A lot," Betty answered. "I'll never be able to see my son, will I?" she asked before sniffling, Alice's hand running down her hair comfortingly.

"Maybe one day. But first, let's get you home, okay, honey?" Alice said gently, helping the blonde to stand up and walk out the door.

---

Betty was sent home in the same clothes she came to the Sister's in nine months ago, sitting in the car with her leather jacket and ripped jeans. "I ordered some Pop's on my way to pick you up," Alice said as she pulled into the parking lot of the town diner. "You wanna go pick it up?"

Betty nodded before getting out, her hips still sore from labor as she walked up the small steps. As soon as the bell chimed, Betty could feel the eyes on her from customers, which she should have expected; the girl had been gone for nine months.

And no sooner than she tried her best to ignore the patrons did a voice strike her in particular, sinking her heart as she heard it behind her.

"Betty?"