On the first beep of Betty's alarm she shut it off immediately. Taking a long breath, she dreaded the thought of leaving her bed for the last time. She'd been here for a little less than two weeks after she'd gotten out of the hospital and it was time to return to her old life back in New York.
Betty turned to look at Jughead sleeping beside her. This wasn't the first night they'd slept together, they'd done this every night since the hospital. She'd gotten so used to sleeping beside him, Betty wasn't at all ready to leave him behind again. In the last two weeks, they'd gone out on late night dates, spent time together with Juliet and rekindled their relationship, Betty felt closer than ever to him and leaving him killed her.
She carefully crawled out of bed and freshened herself up in his bathroom, trying to be as quiet as possible as not disturb him. After she retrieved her suitcase by the bedroom door, Betty gave Jughead one last look before she closed the door slowly behind her.
She tip-toed into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee, she had a three hour drive back to New York City to make it in on time for work at eight a.m.
As she sat at the table in the dim lighting, she heard the faintest footsteps coming from down the hall other shadows. "Mommy?" A tired, timid voice said.
"Jules, you should be asleep. What are you doing up?"
"I had a nightmare." She whispered, hugging her Nancy Drew book tight against her chest.
"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry. What was it about?" Betty ushered for Juliet to come over to her. Juliet did and curled up on Betty's lap.
"You were driving away, and I kept calling out to you but you didn't answer me. You didn't see me, then you disappeared and grandma told me you got into a car crash. I dreamed you died mommy, and you didn't even say goodbye to me." She sniffled, burying her face into Betty's body.
"Oh, Jules, I'm so sorry." Betty rubbed circles around Juliet's back.
"Mommy, please don't go. Stay with daddy and me forever. We could live in Riverdale, why do you have to go mommy?" She questioned, her big blue eyes holding Betty's green ones.
"Sweetie, I wish I didn't have to go, but I have work out there. I need to make money to buy—"
"Buy me toys and food and the apartment. I know, but you can do that here. You can do that with daddy, he can help you and you can help him too." Juliet pushed, she'd heard this a million times and she was old enough to understand that her mother was not happy back in the city. Juliet has never seen her mom so happy until she saw her here with Jughead, it didn't make sense to her at all as to why her mom was going to run away from the people who made her happy.
"Sweetie, I wish it was that easy, but I can't stay here. Even though I want to more than anything." She said truthfully.
"Everyone you love is here mommy. Grandma, Ronnie, Archie, Alec, daddy and me. Why are you leaving them? Why are you leaving me?" Juliet's little voice cracked and tears began to roll down her cheeks. Betty hugged Juliet tighter and rocked her back and forth.
"I'll only be gone for a few weeks, and I'm not leaving forever, it's just for a little while. I'll call you everyday, and I'll call aunt Veronica and uncle Archie once a week. I'll still be here, just not in person. I won't be leaving them all ever again like what I did before." She answered honestly.
"You're still leaving mommy."
"I want to stay, but I have to work. I promise I'll call you the second I get to my office. But you'll get to have fun with daddy all day, and for the rest of the summer. You'll have fun, and I'll see you very soon." Betty promised, standing up and carrying Juliet back to her room.
"I still don't want you to leave mommy."
"I know, I know you don't. Do you want me to tell you a story to help you fall asleep?" Betty offered as she lay Juliet back down into her bed.
"You can try, can you tell me a story about you and daddy?" Juliet snuggled into the covers.
"About when we were little or when we were teenagers?"
"Tell me about how you first met. You haven't told me that one yet." Juliet requested.
"Well, Archie and I were always close friends. And Archie and Jughead had been friends long before I'd met Archie. But I met your father when we were three years old in preschool. Archie and Jughead were playing basketball and I was sitting on the blacktop reading a picture book. Jughead was really good at basketball but he didn't really like it. Jughead was good at lots of sports but never really enjoyed playing them.
"Anyways, I was watching them and the next thing I knew, Jughead was walking towards me. He stood in front of me, blocking the sunlight and I looked up at him.
'Hey, you're in the way of my reading light.' I'd said.
He laughed at me and said, 'what are you reading?'
I told him I was reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Jughead sat down beside me and asked me to read it to him.
'Why? Can't you read?' I'd said.
Jughead laughed and responded, 'yes, but it's more fun to hear someone read, I like to create the story in my head.'
'You like to write books?'
'Yes, well, I guess so. That's what creating a story is right?' He'd asked, making me giggle.
'How should I know? I'm only three years old.' I answered, making him laugh.
'You have a funny laugh, I like you.' Jughead told me.
'You're weird, and you dress funny. But I like you too.' I'd told him stupidly, as I looked at his grey beanie hat, dark jeans and jean jacket.
For the rest of the day, Archie, Jughead and I hung out at the craft table and chased each other on the playground. We were close for a long time, then we drifted apart and became friends again in high school. He's always been my best friend, he's always been there for me." Betty finished, now aware that Juliet had fallen asleep.
Betty chuckled to herself and kissed Juliet's forehead and closed the door behind her as she left the room. Betty then grabbed her suitcase and made her way to the front door.
"Are you really going to leave without saying goodbye to me Betts?" His voice tore through the 4:30 a.m. silence.
Betty's hand dropped from the doorknob and she let out a big exhale. Her eyes closed and she still faced the door. "We said goodbye last night Jug."
She felt him get closer to her and her heart rate took off. "Did you really think I'd be sleeping soundly tonight knowing that you're leaving again?"
"I guess I just assumed...I'm sorry." She apologized, now opening her eyes but still facing the door.
"That was a great story you told her." He said, taking another step towards her.
Betty took a sharp intake of air as she felt his warmth hover above her back. "It was cute, she's not the only one who loves cute stories." Betty said, now feeling a little bolder to open the door and go even though everything inside her was screaming for her not to.
"Jug, I've got to go, I'll be late for work." She turned to face him at this. His face was inches from hers and she could see that he had not slept well at all last night.
"Stay."
"Jughead—"
"Stay here, stay with Juliet. Stay with me, we will figure something else out. I'll quit—"
Betty shut him up with a goodbye kiss, "I'm not making you quit your job. And we have figured something out, and we both know that you'll hate living in that big city."
"I'll deal with it, I just don't want to lose you again."
"You're not and you won't. I'm yours this time, nothing will change that."
Jughead pulled her back for one more kiss, pouring everything he had into it. She let him take control because she wanted him to kiss her like this one last time.
When they pulled apart, Betty blinked back the tears in her eyes and hugged him goodbye, "goodbye Juggie, I'll see you in two weeks." She kissed his cheek, opened the door and left him, standing alone in the doorway and he watched the road long after she'd left; wishing she'd turn around but knowing better than to believe she would.
—-
Jughead had been sitting at the kitchen table in the dark since Betty had left nearly three hours ago, which already felt like an eternity. The rain had began to downpour, Jughead rolled his eyes at the sad cliche.
"Daddy? Why are you up?" Juliet's little voice sounded from the other side of the round table.
Jughead flinched as he was torn from his thoughts, "couldn't sleep. What about you?"
"Slept ok, but not really I guess." Jughead nodded, studying his daughter to suddenly notice all the fidgets and habits that Betty had given her.
"Want any breakfast?" He asked plainly.
"Sure, just plain Cheerios please." She answered sadly.
Jughead fixed her, her breakfast and even after he'd placed it in front of her, she only ate a few spoonfuls. Betty's absence was slowly killing them both.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah Jules?"
"Why didn't you fight for her?"
"I tried Jules, but her mind was made up." He answered in defeat.
"Then you didn't try hard enough, mommy loves me and she almost stayed but she said work was why she couldn't stay. You make mommy very happy daddy, if you told her no, she would have stayed with us." Juliet said, locking their identical eyes to each others.
"Kiddo, I tried, but you know your mom, she knows what she wants."
"Mommy wants us, daddy. She won't be happy there at all. She never liked the city, when I asked her why, she said that even though we were all around people, she still felt lonely." Juliet explained, recalling a rainy day like this when she'd asked her mom why she never liked the city.
Jughead wasn't sure how to respond to that, suddenly his four year old sounded more grown up than he was. "Why don't you go after her?" She asked simply.
"She won't go with me."
"Why do you and mommy always say that? Why are you afraid to go after what you want?" Juliet's tone of voice raised in anger with her parents.
"Because you can't always do that as an adult." He answered calmly.
"Why not? And don't say work, work is stupid. Mommy always says do what make you happy, and she's not happy. She's happy here working with you here and being with me here, in Riverdale." Juliet's voice stiffened, putting her father in his place.
"When did you get so grown up?" He asked with a smirk.
"Someone has to be the grown up. Go get mommy, make her come back because we both know she wants to be here." Juliet demanded.
"What if she doesn't come with me?"
"Then don't take no for an answer. Go after mommy, bring her home to me." Juliet said, holding his gaze seriously.
"You mean us, and we are going to go get her. You wanna come with?"
Juliet sprang our of her chair, "yes please!"
A/N: scratch that, now there's two more chapters left 😊