Saving Her

Chapter 58. Gut Feeling

FP and Alice came back around eight-thirty p.m. and they were broken; they hadn't any luck in finding their baby and they were being urged by everybody, including their son, to go home and rest.

Walking through the front door, FP allowed Alice ahead of himself.

"Mom," Betty stood up from the couch and she walked over. "Did you--"

"We didn't find anything yet," FP answered.

The teen then embraced her mother and near father, keeping them close.

"I have to go," he broke away and he went upstairs.

Alice watched him and she kind of started crying. "He's so different right now, I know he's scared, but he doesn't want to talk to me either," she explained.

Betty nodded, understanding how upset he must have been. "What else happened? Was there really nothing?"

"No, they haven't found anything yet. But we did find trails in the forest, your brother has been on top of everything."

"I would imagine... you're out of sorts," she explained. "Fred was positive it was my dad."

"How is he?"

"Archie and Vee came by, they told me that Jug was out with Serpents and then they took him home. He's okay, Archie is really worried that his dad got attacked again, but..." she sighed. "I don't know."

"This is my fault," Alice claimed. "I was so adamant on going with FP and then I had a bad feeling. I didn't think Hal would have used the investigation as a way to convict more crime. Penelope must have known that we were going to search her house and therefore, Hal must have known. I don't know, I'm just coming up with so many scenarios," she began crying.

Betty stepped forward and she hugged her mother tightly, releasing tears of her own.

"This is a nightmare. She's been gone for so many hours..."

"I know. Mom, why don't you go and get changed. Try and get some sleep, maybe?" she offered. "I'll stay down here... I'm waiting to hear anything from Jug. The Serpents are really pissed off about this because Lana is a Serpent and they want the Black Hood dead. Charles told me that the agents won't hesitate to arrest Serpents if something goes down, but they're close to rioting."

She nodded, "I'll tell FP, maybe he can get them to calm down."

"No, Jughead has it handled. Don't bother FP with anything more... He's... he's upset, mom."

"I know," she nodded. "Okay..." she sighed. "Let me go and get changed, we'll stay down here together. I think he needs some space, but I'll try to be with him."

Betty nodded and she went back to sit down on the couch.

Alice then went upstairs and she noticed that FP was already in different clothing; a charcoal gray tee shirt and in regular, dark denim jeans. "Are you... are you going somewhere?" she asked.

"I don't know yet," he mumbled.

She then turned and grabbed her long nightgown from the closet and she grabbed a knit sweater to go over it. "Betty just told me that the Serpents are going wild... They're close to starting something bigger," she only mentioned it just to see how he would react.

"Okay..." he shrugged it off.

"You mean, you don't care?"

"Alice, I don't give a fuck about anything right now. Lana is missing! Our daughter!"

"I know exactly what's going on," she assured. "Don't yell at me, I didn't do anything. I'm in just as much pain as you are and fighting with me really isn't going to help anything."