Falice 2

Loss

Alice's words would not stop replaying in his head. When she burst in through his door, he didn't know how much the words that would come out of her mouth would pain them both. It hurt him to watch her fall apart in front of him. He wanted to do so much more to help take that pain away from her. He couldn't have her blame herself for something she had no control over. It was heartbreaking for him to hear her think she was the one to blame. She had to give up their son. Now it turns out he's dead? It was a lot to take in at once. He found out he had another son, only for it to be followed with the news that they lost him. As much as he tried to fight the thought, he couldn't. He couldn't do it.

He was awfully quiet the whole drive home from the Cooper residence. Jughead was too busy sulking about leaving the women alone with Chic that he hadn't noticed how strange his father was behaving.

Once they got home, Jughead flopped down on the couch. He moved aside the laundry FP didn't finish folding. "I still don't think we should have left. I get that they have to decide what they want to do, but that guy is trouble." FP went straight to the bedroom without saying a word. Assuming he was just irritated by his insisting, Jughead continued to yap. "You know how it is. You said so yourself. Dad!" The bedroom door shut behind his father. He thought there was no use in arguing some more so he decided to let it go for now.

Behind that other side of that door FP finally felt himself ready to break. He reached his breaking point. He had been holding it in. He had chosen to be the strong one for Alice's sake. He wanted to make her feel like things were going to be okay. He knew they weren't going to be easy, but he wanted to give her that hope.

He had been a father to a child he had no knowledge about until a couple of hours ago. It broke him just as much as it had broken her to keep this secret for years. Their son. Their innocent son had his life taken away by drugs.

So many questions ran through his head. Was this his fault? He was a Jones. They had a tendency of overdoing it. He had seen it with his father. The man drank himself to death. He had seen it in himself. If he hadn't sobered up just months ago...he didn't even want to think about it. He cursed his son as his father. Would he have prevented this if he had been there for Alice in the first place?

FP took a seat on the bed before his legs gave out. He leaned his elbows against his knees and hid his face behind his hands. He released a sob and his body trembled. He didn't care about anything other than mourning his son right now.

Alice was no different back at her house. She was sitting on the last step of her staircase with a cup of wine to help her. She felt a little better than he did now. She got most of it all out with his support.

Betty came in and saw her. She knew she was hurt. She lost a son she never wanted to give away in the first place. She took a seat right next to her and offered her a hug.

Jughead got up to use the sink with the intentions of cleaning up a little. He walked over to the kitchen and his eyes landed on the photograph on the counter. He picked it up. This image was the one he and Betty retrieved from the Sisters and had shown to Alice in her kitchen. The blood on it was hers from the knife incident with Chic. What was it doing here?

He entered the hall going towards the bedroom but before his knuckles touched the door to knock he put his ear to the door. Was his father crying? It was faint, but he could hear it enough to know something was wrong. Why was his father crying? He has only ever experienced his father like this when Jellybean moved away to Toledo. Was he stressed? Did something happen that he missed? What was it?

His thoughts were interrupted when his phone rang. He moved away to take it. "Betty, hey, how are things over there?"

"My mom's having a hard time but she's hanging in there." Betty looked at her mother on the couch. "Chic's gone. I took care of it."