Chapter Text
“You’re going to New York?” FP demanded. “Tomorrow, when your is supposed to be in school?”
“Yeah?” Penny looked at Betty and sighed.
“Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, FP, tomorrow.”
FP sat back in his chair. “Fuck, Pen.”
“Is he actually mad?” Betty whispered to Jughead, seated beside her.
He dropped a hand to her knee. “Nah baby, maybe concerned, but the only time my dad has ever been mad at your mom was when she drove herself to the hospital when she was in labor with you. And even then, he was just mad she didn’t call him.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “That sounds about right... on both ends.”
Jughead snorted.
“Are you... actually mad at me right now?” Penny demanded. “Because, one, I’m not a child, two, I don’t work here anymore, and I haven’t since Elizabeth was three, so I wouldn’t be putting the bar in a bad position by taking a daytrip to the city, so I don’t see what the big-”
“Yeah, Pen, I’m mad at you,” FP cut her off. “I’m mad that you keep trying to do this crap on your own when you have a family more than ready and willing to support you.”
Slowly, a smile made its way onto her mother’s face as she gazed back at her.
Jughead drew an arm around Betty’s shoulders, pulling her closer.
“Looks like we’re going to New York, baby.”
***
“Hey Penny, can I talk to you about something?”
She looked up from whatever she was doing on her bike to give Betty her full and undivided attention. “What’s up, kid?”
Betty took a deep breath. “Are you... are you sure about this?”
She had been up worrying about it all night, digging her nails in three different times. Poor Jughead had been the one to receive the phone calls, but he’d assured her each and every time that she was doing the right thing by calling him. Her reopened scars began to sting, and she pulled on her sleeves to hide them better.
“Hey, baby, look at me.”
Reluctantly, she met Penny’s gaze.
“I’m prepared for all of this to go to hell, okay?” Penny smiled. “I know this is a longshot, but it’s something I need to try and do for myself, okay?”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure,” she promised, moving towards Betty to hold her by the shoulders. “Listen to me, Elizabeth Regan, even if I don’t find out who my parents were, I still have the best family out there. I’ve got you, kid. What more do I need?”
***
“You’ve never ridden with me for this long,” Jughead mused, handing her a helmet.
“What,” Betty tightened her black leather jacket around her. “You don’t think I can handle it, Juggie?”
He tweaked her nose. “Oh, I think you can handle anything, Elizabeth Peabody.”
***
The drive took a couple of hours.
With FP and Penny in the lead, and Jellybean sulking in a sidecar because she was weeks away from her sixteenth birthday and could not yet legally operate her own motorcycle, Jughead and Toni brought up the rear.
Betty grinned against Jughead’s back.
It was a beautiful morning.
They found a parking garage to stash their bikes, choosing to walk. Penny had done enough work over the phone in the last forty-eight hours, providing the proper documentation to be able to obtain her original birth certificate, but now it was just a waiting game since the registrar’s office didn’t open back up until one o’clock for an hour lunch break, and it was just nearing noon.
“Can we go explore?” Betty wanted to know.
“I need to sit down,” Toni mumbled, dropping down onto the nearest bench. Jellybean followed suit. “Rest now, explore later.”
“I need to... see a man about a horse,” FP mumbled, rushing off.
Penny sighed. “I’ve never understood that expression.”
“Can we go?” She asked again.
Her mother looked doubtful. “Baby, I need a little time to prepare myself...”
“We can go,” Jughead offered, already taking hold of her hand. “Why don’t we go find some food for everyone or something? That way we can make sure we all eat before we go find out who was insane enough to want to give up Penny, and Betty can get a little taste of her desires to travel.”
Playfully, she hit his arm. “I’ve been to New York before, Jughead.”
“Not with your real family, you haven’t,” he argued, and Betty’s grin widened.
Her real family. She loved the way it sounded.
“Please, Penny?” Betty pleaded. “Pretty, pretty please?”
“Go on,” her mother laughed, shooing her away. “Get out of here, but Elizabeth...”
“I know, I know,” she held up their conjoined hands. “Stay with Jughead. Way ahead of you.”
“I love you honey.”
“I love you too!”
She didn’t miss the way Jughead looked at her, both pride and fondness evident in his features. Even Toni and Jellybean shot her knowing smiles.
“Get out of here,” Penny was still laughing. “Bring me back a hotdog, or something.”
***
“Hey Juggie.”
“Yeah angel?”
She looked longingly at the hustle and bustle of the city surrounding them. While she had grown to love Riverdale in such a short amount of time, coming to consider it her home, especially the Southside, but…
A few years in the city would suffice.
But only if Jughead was okay with it too.
She didn’t need to define her future around the man she loved, but she did love him, and whatever adventures she faced next, she wanted him right there by her side.
“Where do you want to go for college?”
He looked thoughtful as he paid for their food.
“Whatever school has the best writing program,” Jughead answered. “And, wherever you want to go.”
Her heart started to melt. “Jug…”
“In case I haven’t said it before, Betts,” he gathered her hands and held them close. “You and I are in this for the long haul.”
Oh, her heart.
“Well I’m glad we seem to be on the same page then, Forsythe.”
Jughead grabbed the two bags filled with hotdogs and pulled her after him. “Elizabeth Peabody, I love you.”
“I love you too,” Betty whispered.
“…Betty?”
She knew that voice.
“Chic,” she stammered.
“Chic?” Jughead repeated, sounding confused. “As in... your brother?”
“Yeah, I’m her brother,” Chic snapped. “But who the hell are you?”
Betty tried to take him in. Gone was the boy that had sat on her the day her life inevitably changed forever, the boy who played football and tormented her relentlessly, and in his place was a very angry young man.
Jughead seemed to sense her change in mood, letting go of her hand to pull her into his side, draping his arm heavily across her shoulders.
“Uh, Chic... this is Jughead,” Betty introduced nervously. “My boyfriend.”
Her brother’s eyes narrowed. “Boyfriend? You’re too young to have a boyfriend, Elizabeth Cooper.”
Suddenly, she was annoyed.
This was the first time they had seen one another in months, and the only thing he cared about was that she had a boyfriend?
Fuck that.
And her name wasn’t Elizabeth Cooper. It never had been.
“It’s up to my mother whether or not I’m allowed to have a boyfriend, Charles.”
Chic snorted. “Mom would never let you have a boyfriend.”
“Alice isn’t my mother.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you saying-”
“That I’m a Peabody, Charles?” Betty leaned further into Jughead, feeling him kiss her hair. “I’ve always been a Peabody. What happened... when Hal and Alice took me?”
“Whoa, hold on for a hot second there, little sister,” Chic threw up a hand to cut her off. “Hal and Alice? What happened to mom and dad?”
“Chic-”
“And another thing, Elizabeth. They didn’t take you. Mom told me everything. They were trying to save you.”
She could have laughed. “You really believe that?”
“Yeah, Betty,” he said. “I do.”
She expected to feel pain. After all, if the choice ever came down to Chic or Penny, she knew in an instant that she would have picked her mother. No doubt about it.
Instead, she felt nothing.
It was like acceptance, because if Chic couldn’t accept her, accept the obvious truth, that Hal and Alice were the clear villains in her story, there was nothing left for them to talk about.
“Jug, we should go.”
“What?”
“Baby, you sure?” Jughead asked. “I know...”
He trailed off, but his message was clear. I know how important this is to you, he wanted to say.
But it wasn’t that important anymore.
And maybe that hurt a little, and later it would probably hurt a lot later. She couldn’t entirely fault him for wanting to believe the best in her mother.
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, she had forced herself to see the good in Alice too.
Betty hoped Chic would get there someday, and if she had to help him see the light, then so be it.
Just not today.
Today was all about her mother.
“Elizabeth-”
“Chic, I love you,” Betty declared, grabbing his hand in a squeeze. “I love you so much, but... I can’t right now. I’m sorry.”
She turned back to Jughead.
“Let’s go find my mom.”
“Whatever you want, angel,” he promised, pulling her after him. “Are you okay, Betts? That was... rough.”
“And I’m sure he’ll run to Alice and tell her all about it,” she sighed. “You know what, Jug? I don’t give a shit. Let her try to come after me. My mom is a kickass lawyer, and she would never lose to someone as toxic as Alice Smith. Fuck her.”
Jughead tugged her into a surprise kiss.
“You’re one of a kind, Betty,” he mumbled against her mouth.
***
Deciding there could be no more secrets between mother and daughter, other than the one she felt she had to keep for both her sake as well as Jughead’s, Betty told Penny everything.
To which she replied...
“Fuck that, kid,” she shook her head, flabbergasted. “You’re my daughter, Elizabeth. Not that bastard’s and certainly not that bitch’s. If Alice Cooper, Smith, whatever she’s calling herself nowadays, wants to try and win you back, she’ll have to go through my cold, dead body first. I will never let either one of them put their hands on you again, my little butterfly.”
Betty sagged against her with relief. “I love you. So, so much.”
“I love you too baby,” Penny smoothed her hair back. “You’re my entire world, Elizabeth. Don’t you ever forget that.”
“Ms. Peabody?”
Together, Penny and Betty stood.
FP had insisted they do this together while he, Jughead, Toni and Jellybean waited outside, almost as if he could sense this was something they needed to do alone.
But together. Always together.
“Gillian Bower,” a woman with hair just a shade or two darker than Cheryl’s held out her hand for Penny to shake. “We spoke on the phone?”
“Of course,” Penny smiled politely. “I’m Penny, and this is my daughter Elizabeth.”
Gillian beamed. “She looks just like you.”
The comment alone seemed to put a pep in her step as she accepted the manilla envelope being offered to her.
“Thank you so much,” Penny whispered.
Taking Betty by the hand, she led her out of the office and onto the elevator, waiting until the doors shut to meet her gaze.
“Should I...”
“Yes!” Betty cried. “Please, do it now! I’m dying here!”
Mom.
She was almost ready to call Penny mom.
With shaking hands, she tore open the envelope and reached inside. She pulled out hat Betty assumed was her original birth certificate, her eyes desperately scanning the page.
Then, Penny began to laugh.
“What?” Betty asked anxiously. “Penny, what?”
She swiped at the tears gathering under her eyes from laughing so hard.
“Well, baby,” Penny whispered, handing off her birth certificate to Betty. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”
Betty looked down eagerly.
Mother, it read. Regan Michelle Jacobs.