Chapter Text
Blood in the Water: Play with Fire: Part 1: You Don’t Know Jack: Chapter 1:Penny
“Insane, Inside
The Danger Gets Me High
Can’t Help Myself
Got Secrets I Can’t Tell
I Love the Smell of Gasoline
I Light the Match to Taste the Heat
I’ve Always Liked to Play with Fire”
Play With Fire - Sam Tinnesz
It had been a really shitty few months for Jughead Jones. His father had been in jail for a crime he actually didn’t commit, he’d had to change schools, dealing with the Serpents and now he had Penny breathing down his neck to continue transporting illegal goods for her in exchange for getting his father released. The only bright spot he’d had in his life had been Betty and even that had crashed and burned. It was as if everything he touched turned to shit. She had been very helpful with his dad’s situation. She’d gotten Cheryl to tell the police how her father had blackmailed FP into confessing by threatening to kill Jughead. It had helped towards getting FP released almost more than Penny did. But the last month before Betty broke up with him (via Archie) she’d been acting weird. He hadn’t noticed it at the time. Too much was going on, but looking back on it now he could see how they had been falling apart and he had no one to blame but himself. He could have been better at answering phone calls, returning text messages, and being more attentive when he did see her.
Honestly, he’d be lying to himself if he said Penny’s offer wasn’t somewhat tempting. He’d never looked too much into his dad’s business with the Serpents. He’d watched Sons of Anarchy. He could figure out what they did behind closed doors. Now that he actually had contact with the gang and had been pretty much recruited by them he could see the actual appeal to it. As much as he liked being alone it did have its drawbacks. He liked being alone by choice, not because he didn’t have any options. At least before he had Betty and Archie and when he was sober, his dad. He’d made the choice to move out. But he’d had a job and a place to stay. After his dad was arrested he had no job and hadn’t been interested in spending time in a foster home. At least with Penny and the Serpents he could stay at the trailer and make some money. Someone had to pay his cell phone bill, utilities, food, and gas for the motorcycle. All that required money. Money he didn’t have. A few weeks after Betty broke up with him his dad had been released and was back home. Sober, so he decided to stick around. But all of those things still required money. His dad surely didn’t make enough. It didn’t help that as soon as his mother found out FP had a job she planned on hitting him with child support for Jellybean.
Now he found himself walking home from Toni’s. It wasn’t far so why waste the gas? Toni was a nice distraction from the shit going on in his life. It was just sex. He’d gotten a taste for it with Betty and really enjoyed it. It wasn’t the same with Toni but it was better than nothing. They weren’t together. And she seemed cool with that for now. Hooking up whenever was a great stress reliever. It also helped him make headway with making friends with Sweet Pea and Fangs. They sure did seem to spend a lot of time sitting around Sweet Pea’s trailer getting high. Whatever. At least it wasn’t alcohol. He didn’t need another habit like his dad and grandfather. Though he had picked up a smoking habit. Out of his two new habits, the only one he actually had to pay for was cigarettes. The weed was just a social thing and someone else always seemed to have enough. Sweet Pea had a guy that would sell him cigarettes since he looked old enough. His dad didn’t like it but he had no room to judge. And as long as he looked “not high” coming home he’d never have to find out about that anyway.
As he was about back to the trailer he heard his phone ring as he lit a cigarette. He wasn't really surprised when it was Penny Peabody on the other end.
“What do you want Penny,” Jughead groaned into the phone.
“Just wondering if you're ready to make a deal, Serpent Prince,” Penny was so fucking cocky.
“Penny there is no way I’m ready to make a deal with you. So far the offer isn’t good enough to face the wrath of my father,” even though FP’s reaction wasn’t the real deal breaker. His dad was out of jail and was working but that didn’t mean he still didn’t need the money if it was more than he could make doing some crap job.
“Tonight you might change your mind when you hear my offer. I have something that belongs to you,” she taunted.
“You have NOTHING I really want,” he threw back at her. He paced around in front of the trailer. He sure didn’t want his dad to know he was on the phone with Penny.
“So you’re not interested in getting your pregnant whore back,” Penny asked with a dramatic flare to her tone.
“What… I don’t have a… Who,” now Jughead was deeply confused.
“We snatched her right out of the Pembrook lobby,” Penny began.
“Veronica… that isn’t my girlfriend. She’s not even pregnant,” he couldn’t help laughing at Penny’s painfully idiotic attempts at blackmail. Though he wasn’t 100% positive Veronica wasn’t pregnant. Archie wasn’t the smartest guy but he figured Veronica was smart enough to not get pregnant.
“I don’t know what the slut’s name is. She’s not too talkative. I do have it on good authority that she’s yours. Do you want her back or not?” Penny asked but she was beginning to sound rather impatient and about to lose her temper. A surly Penny was never a joy to work with.
“Penny, I don’t have time for your games,” Jughead was getting frustrated with this whole conversation and wanted to end it before FP decided to stick his head out the door.
“Look at your phone, Serpent Prince,” Penny shot out to get his attention before he hung up on her.
A text notice popped up on his phone. A picture of Betty’s face. Blood dripped down from her forehead.
“Penny. Hate to break it to you but that’s not my girlfriend anymore. Just let her go and come at me directly.” Though seeing Betty hurt did have the desired effect Penny was hoping for. Dead panic was rapidly filling up and the weed he’d smoked at Toni’s was not helping as much as he thought it would to squash the growing tidal wave of panic. Regardless of how things had ended between them Jughead still had feelings for her and the last thing he wanted to do was drag her into this mess along with him. With all of this Serpent mess, she’d done the right thing by dumping him and getting the hell away from him.
“If she’s not yours then you don’t care if I gut this bitch,” Penny threatened.
Another picture showed up. This time a knife pointed at Betty’s surprisingly rounded stomach. It wasn’t big, but big enough to see the difference a month had made.
His eyes closed and he passed a hand over his face. ‘What the fuck?! Betty WAS pregnant.’
“Wait. What is it you want,” Jughead asked, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.
“Thought that would get your attention. I just want to make an exchange. I’ll let her go in exchange for you. Then we can sit and chat about the way things are going to be going forward,” Penny offered.
“Where?” It didn’t really matter where. He’d be there. If only to rescue Betty and find out what the fuck was going on.
“I’ll send you an address. Come alone! Don’t even think about calling daddy,” Penny threatened.
“I won’t. But listen to me, Penny. If one hair is out of place on her head I WILL kill you!” He’d never killed anyone, never even thought about it but if she hurt Betty he’d find the resolve to put her six feet under.
“She’ll be fine as long as you get here. You have one hour.”
After Penny had hung up he looked at the picture of Betty again and cursed. “Fuck!” What in the fuck was going on?
There was no time to waste but first, he needed to know the truth. He’d grabbed his bike and went in search of his good pal Archie. He luckily found both Archie and Veronica at Pop’s which was the first place he looked. He stormed through the door and slammed his hands on the table between them.
“What in the fuck is going on with Betty,” Jughead demanded. His high had already worn off and now he was just plain pissed off. Simple as that. This was the last place he wanted to be right now.
“What do you mean,” Veronica asked as she pasted on a mask of innocence.
“Don’t play with me. Where was she tonight,” Jughead was in no mood to play games and didn’t have the fucking time to beat around the bush while Veronica tried to cover for her friend.
“My place. Why,” now that mask of innocence was slipping off and fear was taking its place. She didn’t really know Jughead very well but she knew he wasn’t known for being a hothead. So if he was going off right in the middle of Pop’s, making a scene, it was serious.
“Well, she’s not there now,” Jughead practically shouted at her.
“Why don’t we take this outside,” Archie suggested as people were really starting to stare at the three teenagers.
Jughead didn’t seem too concerned with putting on a show for the other people in the diner but Archie surely did not want Betty’s private business exposed to the whole town this way. He knew what was up. Obviously, Betty’s secret was blown. Also, if Jughead decided to start throwing punches over Archie’s obvious part in this whole mess he wanted the room to get the hell out of the way. So he managed to push Jughead out the door with Veronica scampering after them into the parking lot and off to the side to try to keep this confrontation as private as humanly possible.
“What the hell, Jughead! What is your problem,” Archie demanded. Trying to stall the inevitable and look a lot less guilty than he actually was.
Jughead pulled his phone out and flashed the first picture of Betty.
“What happened,” Veronica gasped in fear. She had promised Betty she would be safe there until they could figure out what their next move would be. Betty had big plans, plans that Veronica was concerned about. Plans that weren’t exactly practical but she wanted to be a supportive friend where she never had been in the past.
“I thought you had security at the Pembrook,” Jughead asked, seething with righteous anger.
“We do,” Veronica insisted. Betty had been tired and had wanted to lay down and take a nap instead of joining them at Pop’s. Veronica had planned on grabbing her some takeout when they left.
“Then how did Penny get her,” Jughead demanded as he paced around. His hands shook in rage as he tried to light yet another cigarette.
“When did you start smoking,” Archie asked in shock. He knew they hadn’t talked much lately and he knew it was his fault. He hadn’t meant to take sides but even he knew he couldn’t keep a secret if it saved his soul and it was never a secret he even wanted to keep. He never thought it was fair of Betty to keep this kind of secret in the first place. He was starting to resent Betty for putting him in the middle of this but it had been too hard to argue with both Betty and Veronica.
Jughead looked at him like he had grown a second head, “Really? You ask that NOW! Who fucking cares? It’s completely irrelevant right now. Stop stalling. I don’t have time for this shit. Betty’s safety is the first priority. Everything else can be sorted out after that.”
“Penny took her,” Veronica asked. Steering the conversation back to the more important topic at hand - Betty’s kidnapping.
“Yes! Oh and here’s a question for you two. Is Betty pregnant?!” And the other shoe finally dropped. The BIG secret. The one topic neither of them felt it was their place to confirm or deny.
“Uh, umm,” Archie stuttered. He knew from the start that it was only a matter of time. He was surprised it had lasted this long. Archie was never a good liar. That’s why he’d spent the summer during his affair with Miss Grundy avoiding Jughead as much as possible. He couldn’t keep a secret from Jughead, ever.
“Don’t even bother lying,” Jughead snapped as he pulled up the second picture Penny had sent him with the knife to Betty’s stomach. “Penny called to tell me and I quote ‘I have your pregnant slut.’ Since when is Betty pregnant?”
“Look, Jughead…,” Veronica tried to start so she could avoid Archie running off at the mouth and confessing everything. She loved the redhead but he wasn’t the smartest.
“No, just tell me the truth,” Jughead now had his hands flying around and was very close to setting his hair on fire with that cigarette.
“Jug….,” Archie tried again. Honestly, he had no clue what he even wanted to say to help make Betty look not so bad in this situation and it was nearly impossible. Nothing he said was ever going to make this better and once Betty knew they’d told him there’d be hell to pay but what other choice did they really have? He looked helplessly at Veronica hoping she had the answer, somewhere, anywhere.
“Say it! If you were ever my friend Archie just tell me the fucking truth,” Jughead pleaded desperately.
Archie decided quickly that less was more. The only way to keep from blabbing the whole story was to say as little as possible. “Come on….It wasn’t our place to tell you. I told Betty to just be honest and tell you.”
“How long,” Jughead demanded. Not that it mattered. As much as Betty lying to him about this hurt it hurt just as much that Archie lied to him too. Wasn’t there one person in this whole world he could trust to be honest with him ever? He expected lies and deceit from his parents but he thought if there was anyone he could lay all his faith in it would be Archie and Betty. This disappointment hurt almost more than the lie.
“How long what,” Archie asked as innocently as possible, stuffing his hands in his pockets and trying to find anywhere to look at that wasn’t making any kind of eye contact with Jughead or he’d lose it.
“How long have you known? How long has she been pregnant?” Jughead was ready to fire off a million questions. All of them felt equally important at the moment.
Archie was quick to interrupt, “All I know is that it was before she asked me to talk to you.”
“You mean when she asked you to dump me for her, right,” Jughead corrected him. Leave it to Archue to try to sugarcoat it.
“I didn’t want to. She begged me. What was I supposed to do,” Archie whined helplessly. God, why did Betty have to drag them into this? Why couldn’t she have just been honest with him from the start? Maybe things wouldn’t be like this now.
“Maybe tell me the truth,” Jughead had stopped pacing around and whirled around to glare at Archie. “I thought we were friends.”
“We ARE. It was her secret to tell. Not mine. She didn’t want you to ever find out,” Fuck it. He’d warned Betty this was a bad idea. He wasn’t going down for her lies.
“Why? Because she doesn’t want it?” Jughead figured she wouldn’t want to keep a baby at 16.
“No. She’s keeping the baby,” Veronica answered. Trying to get her big-mouth boyfriend off the hot seat. Veronica had practice at playing the bad guy and if that’s what she had to be here to get her boyfriend out of the line of fire so be it. She knew Archie wasn’t going to toe the line indefinitely.
“Oh, I see. She just doesn’t want me,” realization dawned on Jughead, an unpleasant realization. It seemed Betty didn’t mind being a teen, unwed mother as long as he wasn’t a part of it. The hits just kept on coming.
“It’s not like that,” Veronica offered, trying to smooth over the hurt feelings she saw plainly on his face. But she wasn’t sure how much she could or should even be telling him. Betty and the baby’s lives were on the line now though.
“Right. She figured out that she was too good for me,” it was clear to see that Jughead was starting to close in on himself. All that anger, all that rage was now giving way to extremely hurt feelings.
“It wasn’t like that,” Archie tried again. He felt like shit that his friend was hurting and he was partially responsible for it. They’d been friends since the cradle, even longer than they’d known Betty. They’d started out next-door neighbors before the Joneses’ lost their house. It had burned to the ground when Jughead was five and they’d moved further and further from the Northside until finally, they’d ended up at Sunnyside right before Freshman year.
“Then what? Her parents,” thankfully he’d finished off the cigarette and dropped the butt before running his hands through his hair in frustration.
“No. They don’t know. Only Ronnie and I know,” Archie explained poorly. He wished he was as good with words as his friends were. Right now he just felt stupid and inadequate. He was very dangerously close to just spilling all the beans.
“Then why? Just say it. Because I'm getting really tired of these half-answers. Stop playing games with me and just tell me.” The desperation that was coming off of Jughead in waves was starting to have an adverse reaction on Archie. It clogged his head and made him dizzy.
“Damn. She didn’t want you to know because….,” Archie was done. It was confession time. He couldn’t go on like this. It wasn’t fair to him and Veronica to keep lying for Betty, it wasn’t fair to Jughead, he deserved to know, and if they really thought about it long enough it wasn’t fair to Betty either. She needed help, more help than they could give her obviously.
“Archie, don’t,” Veronica warned. It wasn’t that Veronica didn’t agree with them to a point but she’d rather have Betty’s permission first or better yet to be able to give Betty the opportunity to come clean. It would be easier for everyone involved if Betty just confessed everything herself.
“Ronnie. I’m done. Betty is in real danger here. Look, Jug. She didn’t want you to know because she was trying to protect you,” Archie was done lying for Betty. This was more than just Betty looking for a reason to play the martyr and be a control freak.
“From what?” Poor Jughead started to get agitated again. What a confusing this evening had taken. This was the very last thing he had ever expected and still couldn’t wrap his head around it. It was too much. Penny, Betty, a baby. It was just a LOT to sift through and straighten out and he had no time after glancing at his watch.
“From being stuck here. From ruining your life,” Archie couldn’t believe how ridiculous that even sounded coming from his own mouth. This whole thing had been ridiculous from the start.
“That’s bullshit!” Where did Archie come up with this shit, Jughead wondered. Is this the load of crap Betty was feeding people as her excuse for keeping him in the dark? As excuses go he had expected better from Betty.
“I told her that. She wants you to have a chance without a baby holding you back. She said you told her you don’t even want kids,” Archie threw that in to try to lessen the blow to Betty that would be coming faster than she’d want. There would be rough days ahead for everyone. Hopefully, now that the truth was out Betty would sit and think, maybe actually listen to their advice, and would realize that she really did need and want Jughead to share this with her.
Jughead pulled out his phone and looked at the incoming message, an address popped up in the text from Penny.
“I have to go,” Jughead barely even acknowledged Archie and Veronica.
“Wait. What about Betty,” Veronica begged, trying to grab the sleeve of his jacket so he couldn’t just leave them there with no clue what was happening. Though if they had taken Betty from the Pembrook maybe she should see what kind of damage had been left in their wake. Just because her parents weren’t blowing up her phone didn’t mean that there wasn’t blood on the floor at home.
“I’m going to get her,” Jughead told them as he yanked his arm free, and focused on scanning the map on his phone.
“Not alone,” Archie insisted, trying to stop his friend from rushing off into danger without any backup.
“Yes. Alone. That’s the way it has to be. Once I’m there I’ll send you an address. If you don’t hear from her or me in an hour, come and get her,” Jughead informed them as he pushed past Archie on the way to his bike.
“Wait! Don’t go alone,” Archie yelled after him. “Jughead!”
Jughead just ignored him and kept moving.
After he was gone Archie grabbed Veronica's hand and pulled her towards his dad’s truck. There was no way in hell he was letting Jughead go off alone to face the psycho. As much as he hated to do it he needed to call in the big guns.
“We need to find FP. NOW,” he told Veronica as they climbed into the truck. Archie prayed FP was home because he really had no desire to have to look for him at the Wyrm.
Luckily they found him leaving the trailer.
“Mr. Jones. We have to talk to you right away,” Archie said urgently as soon as he and Veronica stepped out of the truck in front of the Jones trailer.
“Get in here you two,” FP responded, seeing these two teenagers clearly out of their natural element. Archie rarely ever stopped by since they’d moved into this place. He could tell Archie felt uncomfortable around the kind of people that lived here and he really didn’t blame him. It wasn’t the kind of place he wanted either of his kids to live in. But he’d blown it. He’d ruined any kind of good life his kids could have had and now he didn't even have his daughter. All he had left was his boy and he’s never done a very good job there either. Maybe he should have made other choices a long time ago but it was too late for that now. All he could do was move forward.
Once the three of them were in the door, FP turned to the two nervous teens and impatiently waited for what he knew he didn’t want to hear. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Jughead…..Penny called him….,” Archie started nervously. Mr. Jones always made him nervous. He was a scary guy.
“What the hell? I told that boy to stay away from her!” FP yelled.
He was clearly pissed off which only scared Archie even more. He wanted nothing more than to turn around and run away but Veronica stood strong behind him with her hand on his back. “They took Betty. He went to get her back.”
FP grabbed his phone and tried to call his son but it went to voicemail. Then he tried Penny...same thing.
“What did he say,” FP demanded, making it clear he wasn’t in the mood for any bullshit.
“That Penny took her. Not much else,” Archie lied, twitching almost uncontrollably.
“You’re lying. What else? Spill it all,” FP growled, getting in Archie’s face. Penny was as dangerous as they came and now was not the time to play around. If instilling a little fear into this kid got him the information he needed he’d do what he had to do. FP wasn’t a stupid man. He knew his boy had almost no self-preservation. It wouldn’t take much to get Archie Andrews to fold like a deck of cards. He didn’t want to have to waste the time to call Fred. It wasn’t as if he was planning on making the kid cry or anything.
“Just that…,” Archie was full-on trembling now. He felt like such a coward.
“Get on with it!” FP was in no mood to even try to find the patience to pussyfoot around with these kids.
Archie took a deep breath but Veronica just blurted it out. “Betty’s pregnant.”
“Damn it!” FP picked his phone up again and pointed at the two teenagers. “You two sit down.” He ran a hand through his hair before turning back to them. “You have no idea where he went?”
“He just said he’d send us an address and if we didn’t hear from him or Betty in an hour to come get her,” Veronica told him. She knew Archie was scared enough. Big, bad bikers didn’t scare her much. Gangsters, and bikers, are not much different. Gangsters just dressed better.
“God damn it Jughead,” FP yelled. Pacing around while he made several phone calls looking for any information on where Penny might be.
When he hung up his phone he turned to the two teens, “Alright. You two go home. I’ll take care of this.”
“We can help….,” Archie offered though he wasn’t sure how genuine the offer was. He sure as hell didn’t want to be there when FP caught up with his son. He really felt bad for Jughead. He didn’t want to be on the receiving end of FP Jones’ wrath.
“No. Go home,” FP ordered.
They didn’t need to be told twice and hightailed it out the door.