Bugheads Baby

And it felt good

Jughead

I arrive home around 3 hours after Betty left, and go upstairs and check the screening room to see if she's there. Sure enough, Emily is awake watching some teenager beachy show, and Betty is asleep. "Hey dad," Emily looks over and says to me. "Hey bear, can you please go watch this on the tv in your room?" She nods her head and says, "Hey? now that my friends have seen our place, they want to come over a lot more. Can they?" "Of course," I tell her, and she smiles and leaves the room. I go over to Betty and wrap my arms underneath her and pick her up. I carry her up the stairs and into our bedroom, and go into the closet and take out one of my 'S' t-shirts. Then I sit Betty up and change her out of her current outfit, and lie down next to her, shutting my eyes. But only moments later I hear the door to our bedroom close, and Betty is no longer next to me.

Betty's pov

I wake up the next morning in an unfamiliar environment, then I remember leaving my room last night and sleeping in a guest bedroom. I'm still so angry with Jughead, and that makes me angry at myself because I know he did what he did under duress, and then I hate him for making me hate myself. It's just a never-ending paradox. I go downstairs to where Jughead and Emily are eating breakfast. "Morning mom," Emily says. "Good morning bear," I reply and walk over and kiss her on the forehead. Before anything else a car honks from out the front, and Emily says, "That's my ride, bye, love you." "Love you." Jughead and I say simultaneously. He's keeping his distance which makes me glad and sad at the same time. "I have a doctors appointment today," I tell him. His mood changes now that I've thrown him a bone, "That's great! Can I come?" "I don't mind," I say, "when should we tell Emily, I'm pregnant? I mean the serpents already know after yesterday, so I think it's only fair we tell her." "Yeah. Maybe we can tell her tonight? Together." He says. "Sure." I tell him emotionless. "Look Betty, I'm so sorry for what happened yesterday, and I've done everything I can to pretend it didn't, but the sad truth is, it did happen and I can't change that. It will be something I regret for the rest of my life, but I'm begging you to give me another shot for like the hundredth time." I consider everything he said, and despite my better judgement, I nod my head in agreement and walk around the kitchen island to hug him.

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At the bar Jug walks with me around the counter and wraps his arms around my waist, "Serpents!" he yells, "As you may know from yesterday, Betty and I are pregnant again. With twins." All the serpents are quite, which only ominously increases the suspense. Tony steps forward and I expect her to say something along the lines of 'congratulations', but instead she says, "We know. In fact we knew before Jughead." I'm silent for a moment, and I finally say, "What? How?" She continues speaking and says, "When you found Jughead cheating on you," she quietens at the end of that sentence, but continues, "you left your purse at the bar and when I was moving it to a locker, the sonogram image fell out and we all looked at it assuming it was a picture of Emily, but then saw that the date was recent. Sorry." "It's ok," I assure her, "we just wanted to tell you." "Well congratulations," Fangs says, and hugs go around the room. Everyone gets back to what they were doing and Jughead spins me around and cups the nape of my neck. He pulls me towards him and kisses me intimately. I separate from him when I realise that I have a lot of work to do today. "Bye baby," I tell him, and he pouts his lip and walks upstairs.

I technically don't start until 12 when serpents really start to drink, so until then I start to plan for our new arrivals. I consider whether Jug and I should expand the house. I start to map out on an old piece of paper the layout of the house. On the bottom floor is the kitchen, living room, an extra large entertaining space, and a bathroom. On the second floor, are three guest bedrooms all with their own ensuite, a study/home office, move theater and an additional toilet. Then on the top floor, is mine and Jugs room, Emily's room, and a smaller second kitchen. I realise that there is space next to the kitchen to build out over the second level. We can place two, reasonable sized rooms with an inter connecting bathroom. I take the piece of paper and go up to Jughead's office, but when I walk in he's on the phone. Usually, he would let me just sit on the couch until he's finished, but with a rude dismissal of his hand and a scowl he shoes me out, and I leave finding myself apologising. I go back downstairs and behind the bar. I don't consider much how odd he was just then, and instead decide to go along with the rest of the day. A new serpent (I presume) around my age walks over. "Hello," he says in a thick British accent that could just make a person melt. "Hello," I reply with a little too much enthusiasm, "what can I get for you?" "Could I please have-" he trails off as he look at my design sketches bellow for the new renovations. "Those are quite impressive, he tells me." I blush and say, "Oh really their nothing," I reply. "No!" he says with emphasis, "they are really good. I should know, I studied architecture as my major." "Really?!" I reply, "Is there any way you think you can help me with these maybe?" "Sure, I'd love to. I can't tell you that I'm any good, but sure." I laugh at his response and he comes around the bar next to me and looks at the sketches. Oliver and I laugh and joke as we look over the the sketches. I found out that he joined the serpents about two weeks ago, and he had no idea I was pregnant. It was great to be honest. To not be known as, pregnant, or Jughead's girlfriend, or Emily's mom. But Betty... just Betty. I notice how the serpents in the bar look at me and raise silent question to my flirtatious nature, but I didn't care. However, one of them whoI wasn't very familiar left went upstairs and when he came down, Jughead followed closely behind. I knew he had people watching me! That asshole! I watch from the corner of my eye, as Jughead walks down the stairs. He walks over to me, but deciding to be vindictive I hold up my finger as if to silence him to wait a moment and I continue talking to Oliver. "Bet-" he tries to speak, but I raise my finger cutting him off again. I decide to take his frustration to a whole new level. Jealousy. I lean in slightly closer to Oliver, so my head touches his arm that leans on the counter. Then I adjust my hand so that it touches his. Jughead's annoyance, only fuelled me further, until he walks around the counter, pulls me from Oliver, spins me around and holds my hands against the wall. "You're mine," he says. "And your an ass," I reply spitefully. I try to break from his hold, but he doesn't move, and his stare never leaves me. "Don't challenge me Betty, I'm sorry for how I acted, I was just in a meeting over the phone and was stressed." "Life is stressful Jughead. Deal with it." I again try and break free, but this time Jughead lets go completely and pushes me down. At first I was confused and mad, but those emotions quickly turn to horror as the familiar voice of Penny Peabody flows through the bar. "Jonesy..." she hums in her usual sadistic laugh. Using his legs subtly, he pushes me further under the bar away from Penny. "Jones. I recently remembered that you have a debt to me, by proxy of your daughter."

Jughead's pov

"What are you talking about?!" I yell at her. "Little Emily joined my gang nearly a year ago, and the only way to leave it is to go through protocol. I mean, I don't want to be showing favouritism." "What protocol?!" I seethe. "She has to survive... the chamber." Before I can stop her, Betty gets up from behind the bar and turns to Penny, "You can't do that! She's only 15 years old!" "Blondie, I didn't know you were here, how's married life-" she trails of with a wicked smile, "Oh wait. I forgot, you guys aren't married. Trust me, I get it. All the secret affairs he has with his ex." Betty goes silent and steps back a bit. Round 1 to Penny. "I'll do, the chamber for Emily," I say. Penny mockingly says, "Well, I hadn't though of that. I guess that will be ok," she turns on her heals and exits the bar. I turn to Betty, who just starts to cry and runs upstairs. I follow her, but she locks the door to my office. "Betty, open the door," I beg her. She only cry's louder and I start shoulder charging at it. "Jughead! Stop! she yells. "Not until you open this door and I know you're alright." I don't hear anything for a while. Minutes go by and then I get worried. I go downstairs to where Betty keeps her purse, I go through it and take out a set of keys. Aside from myself, Emily, my dad, and Betty are the only people with keys to this office. But since mine are locked inside, I use Betty's. When I enter she is no longer in there, but the window is open and the fire escape ladder is down. "Betty!" I yell with both worry and frustration. I run downstairs yelling, "Is she fucking stupid! She's pregnant."

Using, find my phone I am able to track her location to the lake. I haven't been here since I was a little boy, and I remember Betty telling me about how herself, Veronica and Archie, would always come here after labour day. I walk up next to her where she dangles her feet of the concrete, "Hey," I say and sit down. "How did you find me?" she asks nonchalantly. "A better question is, why did you run off like that? Betty, please. You're pregnant, you need to be more careful." "I know, and I should have just talked to you, but... you remember when Emily and I were kidnapped and held up in the Ghoulies bar?" she asks me. "Of course, It was one of the worst times of my life, what about it?" "When Ghoulies would ask to leave, Penny would make them survive the chamber otherwise, they weren't ready to leave and she would make them stay, saying they weren't brave enough to handle it asn by extension the world." "What even is this chamber," I ask her. She takes a deep breath and I can see it in her eyes that her experience of the Ghoulies will scare her forever, and it is something that I can never relieve her of, "The chamber is a torture method Penny uses. It was first known as 'ling chi', which translates to slow slicing. Penny would slowly cut her victim, pour alcohol on the would and repeat it. If they give into the pain and ask to he to 'stop' she does, but they can not leave the Gang, if they persevere, then they an go. But Jughead, never once in my time there, did I see someone make it out there alive." "Oh," I say suddenly realising the heaviness of the situation. "Betty. I know it sounds bad. But nothing can surpass the pain I felt when our family was separated by that bitch. And, my love, for you, is strong enough to survive anything Penny throws at me." She look into my eyes and says, "Aw Jug." We kiss, simple, passionate, and yet lovingly. For the first time in a long time, we weren't using intimacy as a outlet for punishment. And it felt good.