Chapter Text
Author’s note: I can’t believe I am doing this again but here we go.
The first thing she remembered when she woke up in the hospital was the feeling of the dirt and soil caked into her nails from her time in the man-made hole. TBK had dug many holes and she found herself victim to one of them as well. The only difference with her and the other females was that she lived to tell the tale. Unfortunately. She had to have reconstructive surgery on her arm and the nurse, Barb, pumped her full of morphine to keep the pain at a minimum. She was dehydrated and lacked nourishments due to her two weeks in hell. TBK hadn’t given her any food during that time.
Her mind, against her will, flickered to some of the more delirious hallucinations she had had while being under the drugs’ influence. TBK, whoever he was, had kept her drugged for the hell of it. Had kept playing cat and mouse games with her. She had gone into his lair to bring Theresa home and had ended up getting abducted herself – the worst part was that Theresa was dead by the time of Betty’s arrival to his lair. She still remembers the flashlights as her FBI team found her two weeks later – how Glenn was the first face she saw and she wished it was someone else’s.
But, no. She couldn’t go there. She refused to go there. After all, when Barb had asked if there was anyone she’d like to call – she said no. There was no one. And she meant it. Her time in the hospital was filled with feeding tubes and physical therapy for her arm. She had her work cut out for her but the doctors told her if she kept fighting, she’d make it past this. She hoped that was true. Hope was a strange thing for her – coming and going in waves. One minute it was there, the next it was disappearing in a cloud of smoke, leaving her to fend for herself.
No matter. She knew how to do that exponentially well.
She sighed as she laid back more comfortably in her pillow, wondering when she’d be able to get out of the hospital. It didn’t seem like anytime soon. The doctors were still wanting to put some weight back on her. She didn’t mind that she was skin and bones now, though. It showed what she endured – what she went through.
XXX
Two weeks later and she was checked out of the hospital. She knew she needed to get back to work but Glenn and the special agent therapist hadn’t cleared her to work yet. So she sat at home when she wasn’t in the office and when she was in the office, she sat down behind a desk to do the most minimal things she could think of. Glenn didn’t want her out in the field yet – said her mental health wasn’t good. She didn’t bother arguing with her boss. But she did stop letting him come over. The sex wasn’t worth it.
Not worth it in the slightest.
She kept herself preoccupied by studying case files and had a murder board pinned up in her apartment, trying to pinpoint where TBK could be and who his next victim would be. She wasn’t sure but she knew she wasn’t supposed to have survived and she did. She could very well be taken again. It’s why she kept her doors locked at all times and kept her gun on her more often than not. Even when she went into grocery stores.
It was a mess.
XXX
One day, about three weeks after her return, she got a call she wasn’t expecting in the slightest. Archie Andrews, childhood friend turned guy she cheated on her boyfriend with. She kept those memories tucked away securely, not one for wanting to pull them out and revisit them. She answered the call. “Archie?”
Listening to what her friend had to say, she realized she was being invited back to Riverdale – she didn’t want to go and was about to tell him as such but then he mentioned everyone else would be there and she knew what he wasn’t saying – Jughead was going to be there. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to go or if she really wanted to go now. She nodded her head once, said she’d be there, and then got off the phone. Turning in her vacation time to Glenn, she packed her bags, slowly because her arm still hurt, and left behind one of the most traumatic places for herself, only to be entering one even more traumatic than the one she was leaving behind.
Once in Riverdale, Betty stopped by her childhood home, staring up at the house. She hadn’t bothered to tell her mom about her abduction, having worked hard to keep it under wraps, and she wasn’t sure what version of Alice Cooper would greet her on the other side of the door. Just then, a voice called out.
“Won’t attack you,” Betty turned to spot Jughead Jones staring at her and inhaled sharply. She still heard his drunk tone reverberating through her phone speaker as she listened to the worst message he could have possibly left her. She didn’t even know if he was too drunk to remember it. She nodded her head, turning back to look up at the house. “You don’t believe in phones anymore?”
“Would you have answered, Jughead?” Betty snapped, irritation lacing through her tone because that’s what she did when she couldn’t bear to make amends, not yet – she got defensive. If he was taken aback by her tone and words, he didn’t show it. Just turned to face the house too.
“There was some radio silence there, Betty,” he said quietly and she nodded once.
“Seven years, but who’s counting?” Betty replied, tone still sharp. She shook her head to clear it of the thoughts and then looked up at her house. “I’m going to get in there, see my mom. I guess I’ll see you at whatever it is Archie wants to talk to us about. Bye, Jughead.”
With that, she walked up the steps to her childhood home, leaving behind the man who once held her heart.
Author’s note: Glenn is not going to be TBK in this. Would love thoughts! Xx