„I love you Alice"
Alice and FP were snuggled together on the couch in the living room. He had his left arm around her waist, while his right arm was on the arm rest so she could place her head on it.
"I am glad we were able to finally work everything out between us. I know we have been through a lot, but if all of this was necessary for us to be finally happy together I would do it all over again."
"Me too, Al. Me too."
About two months had passed since Charles and Betty were able to locate the place the farm had been staying at. It was an abandoned motel, that was owned by one of the farm members beyond the Mapel Barrens.
All the time when Charles and Betty were working together to get their mother back they didn't told FP anything about it. The siblings thought it was Alice choice when and how to tell him everything about her being undercover and also about Charles. Charles really wanted to meet his father, yet he knew it was better to wait until Alice was back.
When Edgar had called Betty it was clear to her that she had to do this on her own, without Charles. He couldn't help her when the goverment said no. Edgar didn't made it that easy for her, but in the end she found her mother and they were able to take Edgar down together and bring the farmies to a safer place.
That same night Betty and Alice drove back all the way to Riverdale to the Jones house. Betty had been staying with Jughead, Jellybean and FP the whole time after Alice had left to live at the farm permenantly to finish the investigation.
Betty opened the door with her keys and they entered the house.
Jellybean was already in bed and Jughead was still at the Prep School since it was a wednesday night. FP was sitting on the couch in the living room. He got up from the couch to greet Betty and walked in the direction of the front door.
"Betty! You're home. I was getting worried..."
He stopped mid-sentence, when he saw Alice coming into the house behind her daughter. He let go of a breath he didn't knew he was holding.
"Alice...what...are you..."
He was to shocked by the sight of her standing in front of him after all this time. He didn't knew where she was, how she was doing and if he would ever see her again. He took her appearance in.
She had a bruise on her right cheek and a slightly black eye. He lip had a cut. Beside that she seemed to be okay to him.
Alice just said nothing. She should've been prepared to run into him. It was his house now after all. She just stared holes into the air. She couldn't look at him. There were so many feelings between them. Hurt feelings and a lot of secrets that had to be told.
"I will give you two a moment. Mom, if you need me, I am in my room."
Betty already expected that her mother and FP would need some time when they would come home. She and Charles had talked about what he knew from what Alice had told him and Betty had told him the details of what had happend with them back in High School. They both knew that Alice and FP would eventually end up together. And even though Betty though it was weird at first, she knew she would support her mother in everything she wanted to do that would make her happy. She deserved it.
Betty went upstairs to her bedroom and left the two adults standing in the hallway.
"Alice...how...how are you? Who did this to you?"
He was slowly approaching her to let his hand brush over the bruise on her right cheek.
"Edgar. But I am okay. The farm is taken care of."
"What are you talking about Alice?"
He was confused. He didn't understand what was going on. What did she mean? The farm is taken care of? Didn't she go there to 'heal'? None of this made any sense for FP.
Alice could see on his face that he wasn't even close to understanding. So Betty didn't told him anything about what had been going on the last few months. She wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad thing.
"It's a long story. Maybe it's better if we sit down. I will try to explain everything to you then."
FP and Alice went into the living room and set down on the opposite ends of the couch.
"Maybe I should start at the beginning. The first few weeks went to the farm Edgar was really getting into my head with, what he was saying. I wasn't myself. Or as Betty would put it I was brainwashed. But that was just for a short time.
I was approached by a young man from the FBI, who asked me to help him to take down the farm. In exchange the FBI would give me and all off you immunity for what happened with that shady man. I was a FBI informant. I just wanted to get Polly out of there as soon as possible after Charles had told me what they were really doing to people. It took me longer than I had expected. "
FP was just sitting there listening to her story completely stunned. Alice was a FBI informant. That was something he never would've expected from her. He was so lost in her story that the name 'Charles' didn't triggered anything in his mind.
"But now everything is good. Edgar is dead and all the other Farmies are taken to a safer place. Polly is in a special clinc, where she can hopefully deal the right way with what has happenend to her at this place."
They were in the middle of their conversation, when they heard a knock on the front door. They looked at each other neither of them knowing who it could be on such a late hours. Both stood up and walked in the direction of the red wooden front door. Alice was staying a bit behind FP since it wasn't her house anymore.
He openened the door. A young tall blonde man with blue eyes was standing on the front porch. Looking at him he noticed some fimilar features about him. He just couldn't put his finger on who the young man was reminding him of. Alice behind him was smiling.
"How can I help you?"
"I am here for Alice. I am Charles."
The young man shook his hand smiling at him. FP cocked his head to the side. You could practically see something is his brain working trying to figure out what was going on.
They were all standing there in the middle of the hallway until the penny dropped. FP's eyes got wide. This couldn't be true. This couldn't be. Wasn't he like dead? Apparently not. He looked at his face again and saw the resemblance he had with Alice and even with himself.
He turned his head around to Alice, who was nodding slightly smiling at him, while tears were streaming down her face.
This was enough confirmation for him to turn around again and pull his son into a bear hug. Tears were streaming down his face now too. He couldn't grasp it yet that this young man he was holding in his arms in this moment was his first-born son. His son with Alice.
He let go of him a bit and turned his head to look at Alice. Even though he didn't knew where they were standing he beckoned her to come into the hug with them.
Alice didn't thought twice about that. She went up to them and threw her arms around both of them. It felt special. This was their first family kind of hug. Father, mother and son all together. None of them had ever believed this day would come.
A few days later Alice decided that it would be the easiest if she and Betty would just stay at the house permenantly. It wasn't possible to find another home for them just like that and since Betty has already been living there for some time with the Joneses it just seemed less stressful to get some of her stuff in there too, instead of moving to a completely new place, which could take months.
The kids kept their bedrooms. Jellybean had Pollys old room, that she shared with Jughead, when he was home on the weekend from Prep School. Betty had kept her old bedroom. FP gave Alice her bedroom, since he thought it would be nice for her to just go back to her old enviroment, while he set up his own bedroom in the basement.
It was weird for FP and Alice to be around each other all the time. They never had adressed what happend before Alice went away and no one of them was ready to do that just yet. Their lifes were for once going normal and talking about them would just mess up the whole situation.
One night a few weeks later all the kids are out of the house. Jughead and Betty were watching a movie with Veronica, Archie, Cheryl, Toni and Kevin at the Bijou, while JB was having a sleepover at one of her new friends. That left FP and Alice home alone.
They had decided to just watch movie together after dinner, before each of them would go into their own bedroom. Alice prepared some popcorn and FP brought the drinks into the living room and placed them on the coffee table. It was just coke and water since neither of them was into alcohol anymore. FP was a recovering alcoholic so it wasn't even a question for him that he wouldn't drink. For Alice it was just not necessary to drink that much anymore. It had always been a coping mechnism for her to deal with her miserable life. Now that she was okay she didn't needed it anymore.
They took their places on the opposite ends of the couch again. FP started the movie. They were watching 'Rebel without a cause', it was a movie they had watched a million times already when they were teenagers, but never got tired of.
During the movie they unconsciously moved closer to each other. The space between them disappered more and more.
That was until their hands accidently brushed against each other. Their heads turned into the direction of each other. Shocked expressions on both of their faces. They stared at the person in front of them. Their faces were inching closer with every second. They eyes fixated on each other every once and than flickering down to the lips.
Suddenly their lips brushed against each other. Softly, yet passionate. Like they needed to savour this moment.
A few moments later Alice pulled back and pushed FP away from her.
"I- I can't do this FP! Not again! It's to hard!"
Alice stood up from the couch not caring that the movie wasn't even close to the end. She had to get away from that situation. He had hurted her too many times in the past. She couldn't do this again. The last time he had broke her heart in tiny pieces she wasn't sure how she got them all back together.
She walked past him in attempt to get upstairs to her bedroom. He gripped he hand stopping her in the movement.
"I love you"
These little words hit her like a truck. She immediately freezes. He never told her this before. Neither when they were teenagers, nor she nearly forced him to say them, when she admitted her feelings for him just moments before he broke her heart.
She turned around, shaking his hand of. She was furious now.
"You are kidding me, right? Why would say something like that? We could've just forgotten about that kiss and now you do that? You tell me you love me out of the blue. Everything was good between us until tonight! We were just two grown adults living under the same roof with their children. And now it's all messed up! And it's all your fault!"
"Hey, hey! I wasn't the only one that went in for the kiss! You kissed me too."
"I already said its not about that goddamn kiss! It's about you telling me you love me!"
"And I will say it again! I love you, Alice! I have loved you since the first time I met you! The only reason I had to end it with you the last time is to not loose Jellybean again and you know that! You know I never wanted to get back together with Gladys. And I didn't! She had your bedroom, while I was sleeping in the basement, like I do now too. I love you, Alice. And that is one thing that will never change! No matter how much you will scream at me right now I will still love you after it!"
Alice was speechless. She didn't expected him to say all that. She looked down at her feet. Somehow she felt guilty for all the bad things she had thought about him, when she was at the farm. She had forced herself to hate him so it wouldn't hurt that much that the love of her life had just pushed her away again.
She slowly lifted her view from the ground with tears in her eyes. Her gaze was searching for his when she finally looked up again.
He looked at her with so much honesty in his eyes she had to believe him every word that just came out of his mouth moments ago.
She was slowly inching closer to him, her look fixated on his eyes. When she was close to him, she looked up and a soft smile crossed her lips before she placed a kiss on his lips.
"I love you too, FP."
She felt that feeling in her gut again she always felt when she was together with him. She was happy, truly happy.
"What do you say we go upstairs to my room? Leave the movie be? I just want you to hold me tonight."
"What you wish, Al"
She smiled at that nickname. He had called her that in High School.
They went to her bedroom and just laid down cuddeled in the arms of the person they loved the most in this world.
They have been together for a few weeks already. Yet they didn't told the kids. They wanted to make sure their relationship was strong enough before being confronted with their kids opinions.
"I told you to take out the trash and you didn't do it! AGAIN! It's not that hard. You even walk past the containers when you get to your cruiser."
"I said I am sorry okay. I was in a hurry this morning. I am just gonna take it out now, okay?"
"I've already done it this morning, even though I was in a hurry too. But it had to be taken out so I did it!"
"Come on, Al...I said I am sorry."
He was looking at her with puppy dog eyes now.
"I know you can't be angry at me for a long time. I love you. I love you. I love you",
he said peppering soft kisses on her neck between every word. He was right. She couldn't be enraged with him for long. Even less when he was being all cute and flirty. She couldn't resist him for one second, when he was like that.
She grabbed his head with both hands and pulled it up to place a kiss on his lips. His hand went around her waist pulling her closer, while the same time pushing them closer to the counter. The kiss got more heated within seconds. He let his hands wander to her butt to squeeze it a bit and then lifted her up on the counter.
He moved into the V of her legs to be as close to her as possible. They didn't let go of each others lips for a single second. They were literally glued to the other one. His hand and mouth were all over her.
Their make out made them both not hear the front door opening and all of the kids walking into the kitchen.
"Mom? Mr Jones?",
Betty screamed the second she saw them making out in the kitchen. FP and Alice broke their kiss immeditately and turned to their kids slightly flustered. Neither of them wanted for them to find out this way. The plan was to sit them all down and tell them in a a few weeks, when they were ready.
"Okay...What the hell is going on here, dad? Are you and Alice?"
"You really have to ask that, dummie? It's obvious that dad and Alice were making out and that means they are together. So why the dumb questions?"
Jellybean had grown close to Alice the last weeks. She was the one who was home with the parents the most and had already noticed that something had changed in their behaviour towards each other.
"And what we are not gonna do it stop them from being together, just because you two are too! They are happy and that is the only important thing!"
Jellybean was expecting her brother and Betty to react bad and she wanted to prevent them from telling the adults what they were really thinking.
"Thank you, Jellybean. This is very cute of you. "
The teenager came up to them and gave first Alice and than her father a hug. She stayed standing right in front of them. Her siblings haven't said anything after the young girl had kind of told them not too.
Betty and Jughead were just looking at Alice and FP standing there with a worried look in their eyes, while holding hands. They exchanged a glace, before Betty started speaking.
"It's okay with it. We saw how weirdly happy both of you were the last few weeks and I think we can say now it was from you two being together. And if that's what makes both of you happy, we will deal with it."
"Betty is right. We don't want jeopardize your relationship, just because it's a bit unconfortable for us."
"Come here you two. I need a family hug now."
Tears were glistening in Alice eyes. She didn't expected all of them to react that well, especially because of how they found out.
All of them would finally get the chance to live together as a big happy family.