"Someone needed to pay for that! So you can hate me or you can understand."
✿
When the Lodges first arrived in Riverdale, it felt like a decent place to Mickey. It felt like the total opposite of their life in New York, which was sinful and dangerous. In reality, Riverdale is more like their old hometown that she thought. Everyone is hiding something in Riverdale. Jughead likes to describe it as a town of lost sounds. He thinks everyone is wrestling with demons.
Mickey can relate to that. She is currently facing two demons—one being her father, who is laid up in ICU at the hospital, fighting for his life. That should be the biggest problem of all, but the real issue is that her father was her and Veronica's mightiest protector. At least against the rival mob families. His blood is now in the water and the sharks are closing in.
"From my family to yours," Elio smells the flowers in his hands before handing them to Mickey. His family, the Grandes, have clearly sent him with the gift for business.
"While I love a grand gesture, Elio," Veronica begins, "diamonds are a girl's best friend."
"I have a feeling this is less about Elio trying to flirt and more about Daddy, Vee." Mickey eyes Elio suspiciously, "I'm right, aren't I?"
"You've always been the savvy one," Elio nods. "These are for your father. I heard he was still in the hospital and wanted to come here, personally, to let you know I'm praying he pulls through."
Veronica folds her arms over her chest, "To paraphrase Samuel Clemens, reports of his death have been greatly exaggerated." Her fashion statement doesn't co-sign with her words. She's wearing all black and an even darker lipstick shade to add sorrow to the recent events.
Mickey's the complete opposite. Fathers are suppose to protect their children and all their father has done is inflict fear and try to put them under his control. There aren't any feelings of distress coursing through her body. Or maybe she's compartmentalizing.
Elio takes a step closer to the sister, looking over their faces for something. "The vultures are circling. They're eager to swoop in on your father's territory."
Mickey runs her hand over his tie without a hint of hesitancy. "Are you talking about yourself, Elio? Was that a threat?"
"I would never," he takes her hand into his. When she pulls away, he continues, "Jobs like the hit on your father? It's very rare they go unfinished." Elio leaves after that without saying anything else.
All Mickey can think about is whether they need to worry about another attempt or if they're in danger.
Veronica senses her sister's concern, so she tries to get her mind off of it by telling Mickey that she hired Jughead to find out who shot their father. "I paid him half up front. He'll get the other half when he gives us a name."
"You hired my boyfriend without telling me?"
"This is what Jughead does. Why shouldn't he get paid for it?" Little does Veronica know, there are plenty of reasons why he shouldn't; there's too much going on and he didn't need a case to top off the pile of crap. "I told him to start with Mom."
Mickey rolls her eyes at the thought. "I seriously doubt it, but if she did...why now?"
"I heard her and Daddy arguing about a broken promise. Maybe she expected something from him and he didn't deliver."
"And if Mom did it?" Mickey raises an eyebrow.
"Then I'll handle it like a big girl."
✿
"Hey," Jughead greets Mickey when she walks into the Blue & Gold's office.
"If you asked me to come here to tell me Veronica paid you to look into my father's shooting, I already know." She pulls her jacket off and hangs it over a chair.
He sighs heavily. "I wish that was the worst of it. Mick, Hiram was having an affair with this woman." He opens a folder and points to a blonde in a picture.
Mickey picks up the stack of photos to get a better look. "Where did you get these?"
"Your Mom."
"And she just showed them to you? Doesn't this prove she had a motive?"
"I don't know," Jughead shrugs. "She said your Dad stopped seeing the woman the second she found out." He stands up from his seat and moves behind Mickey. He begins to rub her shoulders, "Are you okay?"
She drops the folder on the table. "Nothing surprises me with my parents anymore. There are so many lies that I can't even keep up."
"It kind of makes me feel bad about lying to my Dad about Tall Boy."
"How did that go?" The plan was to keep Tall Boy's death between them and Sweet Pea and Fangs. Not even FP could know, so the boys told him that they forced Tall Boy on a bus out of Riverdale.
"Let's just say, he didn't fall for it at all."
✿
"Arch?" Mickey knocks on the Andrews' garage door later that morning. She hasn't seen him in a few days and felt the need to check up on him. She felt even more the need to do it because Veronica accused him of shooting their father, which was a surprise to her. Their father being shot after Archie left the SATs was just a coincidence. There's no way Archie did it even if he is different.
"Come in," Archie calls.
She walks into the garage to find him playing with a pair of drumsticks and notices the bottle of bourbon beside the couch. "What's going on with you?" Mickey picks up the bottle. "You're drinking now?"
"I took a page right out of your book..."
"That was mean."
Archie gives an apologetic look. "I've been thinking. Maybe college isn't for me. I tried working with my Dad in the construction company again."
"You want to work for your Dad now? Where's this coming from?" She sits beside him. "Is this because of Veronica?"
"No," he grunts. "I want to work with my hands. There's no shame in hard work. I can try to make peace with things."
"Well if you're serious, you need to shape up and the bottle isn't going to help."
"I think I already screwed things up. I got into a fight with one of my Dad's guys and he fired me."
"I'm taking this," she drops the bourbon into her purse. "You don't need to fall any further into the rabbit hole, Arch. Don't let these past few months define you like that."
✿
"The Gargoyle gang is all riled up," Jughead says from the other line. "They're looking for Tall Boy."
"Are you with Sweet Pea and Fangs right now? What do they think?"
"They want to move the body," Jughead tells her.
Mickey looks around to make sure no one is in earshot of her conversation before saying, "I think it's a good idea, Jug. Disposing the body removes any connection to us."
He shoots the idea down with a hard, "No." He explains, "It's too hot to move him. We need to remain calm and collected or mistakes will be made."
"I think you have too much on your plate."
"Don't we all?"
"How is the investigation into my Dad's mistress?"
"I'm on it."
Veronica appears down the hall and signals for Mickey to come over. "I have to go," Mickey tells Jughead. "My Dad's goons have arrived." When she reaches Veronica, she says, "I don't understand why we're suddenly being sucked back into this family's mobster ways."
"If Daddy's rivals get their way, we'll be vulnerable. I know you don't want to have to look over your shoulder every time you go outside," Veronica mutters. "The Serpents may be mighty, but they're nothing compared to the mob, so even if you don't like it, I need you to have my back." When they're standing in front of her father's guards, she says, "Nico, Leo, we're in a crisis. The mob underworld smells blood in the water, and we need to change the narrative, obscure the fact that my father is down for the count and present a strong front."
"It's too late for that," Nico states. "People are talking. No one's seen the Man in Black recently—and no one's collecting the vig."
"Why the hell haven't our cuts been collected?" Mickey asks. "We need to be collecting immediately."
Leo clears his throat, "Nico and I have been discussing options. It might be in your family's best interest to align with the Grandes."
"You mean Elio's family?" she scoffs. "Of course that's what they want to happen and it's not gonna."
"Your father took a bullet two inches from his heart," Nico says sternly. "If we're not careful, our next play could be our last."
"I don't need you to mobsplain to us what's best for our family!" Veronica snaps.
"Due respect, you're not being realistic."
"Due respect, you're fired! Both of you."
Leo's brows bump together in a scowl, "Seriously? You're getting rid of the only capos you have left?"
"You mean the same two clowns who didn't protect my Dad from getting shot? Yeah, no, we're good."
Mickey waits until they're gone to glare at Veronica. "They were our last line of defense, Veronica! I didn't even want to keep up Daddy's shady business affairs and losing them doesn't restore any faith in me!"
Veronica's eyes burn with irritation. "Don't worry about it. I will handle it!" She storms off.
✿
"I think we're in a good position," Mickey tells her mother. "Daddy is under no condition to make any decisions and we have all the power."
Hermione nods in agreement. "I never wanted any part of the drugs being made in the prison."
"What's going on here?" Veronica walks into the dining room with a flaring nose. "Are you two really talking business without me?" She's still a little fired up from their heated discussion at the hospital about Nico and Leo.
"Vee, just sit down," Mickey insists. "Mom and I are talking about making a big move right now."
Veronica looks between her mother and sister, "What kind of big move?"
"That quarantine was a smoke screen to shut down the manufacturing of fizzle rocks," Hermione explains. "Your father lied to me, mija. He combined everything into the prison."
"I think we should destroy the drugs and all of the equipment before Daddy can stop us," Mickey says. "It can be as simple as that."
Hermione shakes her head. "I have something better. We can sell it. I already have a buyer interested. Why shouldn't we get something from your father's faults?"
Veronica looks at Mickey for an answer, "What do you say, Mick?"
"I say we're on burrowed time so we should sleep on it and make the decision tomorrow."
✿
"What's wrong?" Veronica sits up in her bed and turns on her lamp light.
"Listen to me," Mickey closes her bedroom door and moves to sit beside her. "I think you were right before. I think Mom is as shady as Dad and she's hiding behind the trapped wife facade to trick us!"
"What? You just said—"
"I had to make it look like we weren't on to her."
"I'm not," Veronica says. "Can you fill me in?"
"Isn't it weird that she already has a buyer? I think she hired someone to shoot Daddy so that she can make a profit from his drug business."
The corners of Veronica's eyes crinkle when she squints her eyes and she tries to analyze what Mickey's saying.
"Veronica, you have to call Reggie. We need to destroy all the drugs and equipment tonight. She shouldn't get a payout for manipulating us and shooting Daddy."
Her phone vibrates in her hand and she unlocks it to see an SOS text from Jughead, "Can you handle this? I have to handle something else."
✿
"Why did you want to meet here, Jug?" Mickey and Jughead are in the Sheriff's station. "Did you find something?"
He pulls her into his Dad's office and closes the door behind them. "Just that your mother has been playing us the entire time!"
"I know that already. I have good reason to believe she had my Dad shot so that she can sell his fizzle rocks operation."
"There's more," he whispers. "Hermione was fooling around with Minnetta for months and I know it's true because I saw them tonight. He's alive!"
Mickey's lost now. Jughead's not making sense. "What are you talking about, Jug? Minnetta is dead!"
"Your Mom also paid the coroner to fake his death reports." Jughead says, "They're going to try to pin it all on my Dad."
"Why would my mother want FP to take the blame?"
As if on cue the door opens and FP walks into the office. "Did you tell her yet, boy?"
"Tell me what?" Mickey turns to Jughead for an answer.
"That I shot your old man," FP says slowly.
"You tried to kill my Dad?" When Jughead grabs her arm, she snatches away from him, "Did you know this all along?!"
"No! I just found out," he insists. "Your Mom hired my Dad to help with Hiram."
Mickey glares at FP as she corrects Jughead, "To kill him."
"Your Dad is the reason Jughead almost died on riot night!" FP whisper-shouts. "I know you remember how it felt when you saw his lifeless body in my arms that night. You thought he was dead. Someone needed to pay for that! So you can hate me or you can understand."
Mickey runs her hands through her hair frustratedly. "The lies just keep spinning, huh? So what now?"
FP says, "I know about Tall Boy. We're going to use him as our scape goat. Say he resisted arrested after I figured out he shot your Dad and then I had to shoot him."
"We're going to kill two birds with one stone."
✿
"Qué hicistes, mija?" Hermione comes flying down the hall like she's on a mission. "What the hell did you two do?"
"I assume you're talking about the drugs," Veronica tilts her head to the side.
"We burned them last night, along with the equipment," Mickey tells her.
Last night was a long one. After cooking up a scheme with Jughead and FP on what FP's story would be when he reports to Betty's mom, Mickey ended up in the woods around the prison just before day light to burn her father's entire drug operation.
Hermione's face sinks and she begins to stutter. "But I told you, I had a buyer lined up. They paid in advance!"
Veronica rolls her eyes, "So I saved you from being a drug dealer, Mom."
"May I suggest you give your buyer a refund?" Mickey suggests.
She says, "I can't. I used the cash from the sale to pay off Governor Dooley to keep our names clean.
And now my buyer is coming, girls, and they are going to want blood. You have no idea what you've just done!"
Veronica and Mickey share a look before looking back at their mother. "We know exactly what we did, and we know what you did, Mom. And we're not the only ones on your case."
It's not until the girls are away from their mother and in the elevator where they talk about it. Mickey says, "I don't think this is the end of it. Someone's coming to Riverdale, Vee. Did we just put a target on Mom's back?"
"I can't feel bad for her," Veronica shrugs. "It's her karma." She reaches into her bag and pulls out an envelope full of cash, "Hand that to Jughead will you?"
"You don't even know who the shooter is."
"I assume you do," she says. "I don't really want to know. It's Riverdale after all."
✿
"Consider your job paid in full," Mickey drops the envelope on the table in the Blue & Gold's office.
Jughead looks up at her, "Veronica doesn't want to know?"
"I think it's for the best. Daddy believes that Tall Boy shot him and I think we should leave it at that. All of us should."
He stands up so that he's eye level with her. "So your forgive my Dad?"
"I...understand why he did what he did," she settles on. "Riot night was scary. It's one of the reasons I'll never forgive my father. So I'm willing to look past your father's attempt."
"So what now?"
Mickey picks up his envelope and holds it in front of his face. "How about you get us a room and we can try to forget everything for a few hours..."
"Nothing sounds better."