Chapter Text
About eleven months later, Jughead was standing at the stove cooking dinner for himself and Betty while he had Olivia in her high chair at the island. It became clear very early on that Liv was a daddy’s girl. She almost always wanted Jughead. Whenever she saw him her little face lit up and she flashed him a two-toothed grin.
Betty at first was a little put off by this. She grew and fed the baby herself, so she had to wonder why Olivia instantly bonded with Jughead. But really, watching Jughead interact with her was the hottest thing she had ever seen. Sometimes, when he is done babbling nonsense to the baby he’ll catch her eye and see how flustered she is. So, for good nature he’ll send her a wink so she knows she’s caught. Plus, with Jughead home with the baby Betty got to go back to work sooner than she thought. And wow did she ever miss adult conversations!
So tonight, Jughead knew she was having a long day at work based on the show me my baby text he received before lunch, so he sent her a selfie of him and Liv, with her trying to bite at his nose. Betty promptly responded sigh……. I meant in person, then sent another text that said lunch? Of course Jughead couldn’t deny her that when he was hogging the baby all day long. So he texted her back, packed a bag and got little Olivia ready to go to Pop’s.
After their rejuvenating lunch with their little family, Betty and Jughead kept in touch throughout the day. It didn’t sound like Betty’s had picked up much. So there Jughead was, chatting to his daughter about which one of The Wiggles is best, and clearly it’s Emma because it really took them over 30 years to get a female Wiggle? That is not the world he wants her to grow up in. All while Olivia stared up at him with her big blue saucers mirroring his own and a big tuff of curly blond hair that was all Betty.
“Are you hungry baby girl?” He cooed in her general direction.
Olivia responded by banging her little fist on her high chair and letting out a squeaky laugh.
“Well, today my little Livvy we are serving you some cucumber and just a little bit of cheese!”
The little girl continued to babble as he went about serving her meal. Just as she started eating he heard Betty come in the door.
“Where is my baby?” she sings out, Jughead could hear the laugh in her voice.
“In the kitchen!” He hollered back.
“Hi!” Betty said in greeting.
Jughead stuck out his cheek for her to peck, and she does “Hi babe.” he said.
“And hello to you!” her voice raised an octave when she addressed her baby at the table.
Olivia’s little face lit up and a huge grin grew on her face. She let out her gibberish ma ma ma, then raised her arms for Betty to pick her up. She does, cuddling Olivia into her neck, while cooing to her about how much she missed her and asking how her day with Daddy was. “Oh hello my beautiful baby.”
“She just gave up food for some cuddles!” Jughead said from the kitchen “Are we sure she’s mine?”
Betty laughed in response “Oh Juggie, I seem to remember a couple times when you gave up food for my cuddles”
The insinuation in her voice made his jaw drop in shock.
“Watch it, babe, you can’t say things like that when you’re holding my little girl.”
She giggled back, and drew the baby away from her neck to start gently gnawing on her big cheeks. This elicited a huge belly laugh from Olivia, which made Betty and Jughead laugh in return. He tried to stay focused on cooking but the giggles from the other side of the kitchen get to him and he pushed the frying pan to the back burner before pulling a chair up beside his wife and joining in the tickling of his daughter. Her laugh is hands down the best little sound he’s ever heard, especially because her laugh almost always precedes Betty’s laugh that has always sounded like coming home to him.
“God, that sound,” Betty breathed with a light smile.
“She is so damn cute,” he leaned into her face “Yes you are!”
Olivia’s little hand rested on his cheek as her giggles take over once again.
“Jug, you’re so good with her!” Betty looked at him with eyes full of love and Jughead reached over to take the baby from her arms.
“Well, when she is this cute how could you not be?”
“I don’t know, Juggie. Lots of people have adorable kids and their dads aren’t involved at all. You’re an amazing father.”
“And you are an amazing mother.”
“Well when she is that cute..” Betty cut herself off with a giggle, taking a single finger to tickle her babies cheek and getting her to giggle yet again.
Betty paused and shook her head feel in thought, “I love her.”
“I love you,” Jughead leaned in to kiss her, then tucked Liv into the crook of her arm “I want to take you out tomorrow Betts, it’s been a long time and we could use a date night.”
Her face lit up “Date night? Yes!”
His smile then matched hers. “Good. Maybe we should see if one of her grandparents could take her overnight. It’s been at least a month since we weren’t woken up early by this one,” he said with a small head tilt towards the infant who is busying herself, toying with the buttons of his flannel. Her pajama clad toes stuck in the air and Betty reached out to grab them.
“Yes, yes we should.” Betty agreed with a wink.
The next night when Olivia was safely with her grandfather, Betty and Jughead went out and enjoyed an amazing night out together. They cherished their time together, reconnecting and focusing on just each other for once.
Betty scooped up a bite of her dessert and leaned across the table to feed him the bite. This same move ultimately accentuated her breasts where his eyes were immediately drawn too.
He closed his mouth around the spoon and hummed as he swallowed.
“Mmmhm that’s so good.”
She nods, “It is.”
“Y’know,” He started “Your legs look so damn good in that dress.”
She blushed . Still. After all this time.
“Oh yeah?”
He confirmed
“Well, I can’t wait to wrap them around you tonight. I’ve really missed you.”
They had a very healthy sex life since the birth of their child. They’d also talked about why their need for each other had increased to such a severe level. They’d agreed that although quieter, having their love make a wonderful tangible human being was the best thing in the world and every time they came together it reminded them.
He wants another baby, as soon as yesterday. He loves Liv and he knows it will be hard but he decided a while ago he is going to take a few years off of writing to be there for his kids. The royalty checks still make for a steady income and seeing as they are savers instead of spenders they had always planned for one of them to stay home anyway. But he had never in a million years imagined this would be that good. He approached Betty with the idea while she was pregnant and they talked about it at length. She loved the Register and she had put so much into it. His career had just wrapped up his first complete series and it seemed like a good time to take a pause. When Liv goes to school he might just pick writing
up again, but right now he is quite content to be the stay at home parent.
Him and Betty always knew they wanted more than one kid, and since Liv he knows that feeling had increased tenfold, but unfortunately due to biology pregnancy puts a bit more of a daily strain on Betty than it does him. So he’s waiting for her green light.
She’s running a single finger up and down his hand, he can barely think past her beautifully plump lips and her eye makeup that just adds a subtle hint of shimmer.
God, he’s so gone for her.
There was probably a time in his life where he would’ve attempted to blow it off to try to not get hurt but at this point it’s all he can do to shake his head and succumb to it.
“I really love you Elizabeth Cooper-Jones”
“I love you more Forsy-“
He pulls his hand away “moment ruiner!”
She grabs it back. “I’m kidding, baby. I love you too, father of my child and love of my life.”
“You know, I think that’s the best thing I’ve ever been called.”
“I’d bet on it.” She leans in for a kiss to which he quickly deepens. “You wanna pay this check and head out?”
He pulls back to see how dark her eyes are, he doesn’t need a second to think before he signals with his hand and asks for the check.
As a scene similar to their second wedding anniversary all those months ago, Betty and Jughead stumble into an empty house, completely entrapped with each other. This time, while pulling her coat off and leading her backwards towards their bed he trips over a fisher choice phone toy and quickly breathes oh shit..
Betty’s giggles pull him out of his haze,
“Betts,” he draws his face back,
“Sorry babe, the kid is cute but she isn’t great at cleaning up after herself.”
“Yea, maybe we start with the potty, then complete sentences, then household chores,”
Betty giggles, “quite the list of aspirations we have for her.”
“Babe she’s going to conquer the world”
“I actually think thats true,”
A while later Betty and Jughead are cuddled into the couch with a glass of wine each and a soft movie playing into the background. He is laying on the couch with his back to the armrest and her whole body is spread across his, their legs tangled together on the other end.
“I know that we had a nice romantic evening planned, Jug but I wouldn’t be opposed to sleeping it off.”
He rubs her back in slow, broad circles. “Hmm, I see the appeal, but also -“
He leans down and starts placing open mouthed kisses on her neck, trailing his way down to her shoulder. She pulls his face back to hers and connects their lips passionately, their tongues tangling lazily.
“Okay” she nods against his lips “feeling less sleepy now”
They got less sleep that night then they did any night their daughter is home.
Early the next morning, sometime before the sun fully rises, Betty wakes up to Jughead, his leg thrown over her own and he is nuzzling her neck.
“Hmm, babe.” She groans, partially but the hour of day but mostly because of their current position.
“Mmmhmm”
Betty Opens one eye and looks at the clock “early,” she sighs
“Sexy,” He counters, dragging his lips down her naked form.
“Juggie,” She lifts her head and looks at him. God she thinks I want this man “okay” she caves, he makes it worth her while.
A couple hours later after Betty and Jughead enjoyed a big breakfast and a steamy shower, he has left to go pick up Olivia so finally Betty has a minute to answer the question she has had for a week now. She wasn’t exactly sure but after a round of puking extremely early this morning it was practically confirmed.
So as soon as Jughead sets off to pick up their daughter, Betty get in their SUV and drives to the pharmacy to pick up a test. Her hands are still shaking with nerves as she drives homes. After calling out quickly to make sure her family hasn’t arrived back early Betty rushes to the bathroom to pee on the stick.
A part of her is nervous. It was really hard to get pregnant the first time, and although they’ve been a little lazy with birth control lately Betty was never concerned about pregnancy just because of how long it took them the first time. But, she was wrong because spelled out in black letters right in the window of the stick.
Pregnant.
She feels her cheeks rise as high as possible, just as she hears the front door open and her husbands cheerful coo.
“Mommy, we’re home”
Betty rounds the corner quickly to go see her baby. Dressed in an adorable blue snowsuit that squished her tiny face up, and a grey beanie that is much too big and looks suspiciously familiar.
“Ma ma ma” she squeals
“Oh my goodness Livvy Jones, you look adorable in daddy’s hat!”
“My dad was digging through some old boxes of mine and found it.”
“Dada -at!”
“Yes baby, it’s daddy’s hat!” Betty confirms.
Olivia giggles and latches her arms around Jughead’s neck, making him beam.
Betty knows how much Jughead loves their daughter, but when they last talked about it they were going to wait, at least until Olivia was a year and a half to start trying again. They both loved parenthood way more than they could imagine, and the baby stage is something they both want to enjoy, so spacing out their children was more about wanting to savour time with Liv.
“What’s got you thinking so deep?” Jughead asks, pulling her out of her thoughts.
“Uhm, well a thing kind of happened while you were gone?”
He smiles “in the whole 45 minutes?” He starts to undress Olivia from her snow clothes.
“Yea” Betty starts slowly
“Okay,” he says skeptically “should I sit down?”
Betty knows he’s kidding but she needs to get this out.
“Actually, yes”
“Okay, feeling a little nervous “ he lets out a chuckle as he settles Liv onto his chest and she tucks her head right in, clearly sleepy. Jughead starts to stroke her hair and looks down at her lovingly, placing small kisses on her forehead.
Once again, seeing Jughead cuddle into Liv gives Betty the confidence she needs to blurt this out.
“I’m Pregnant.”
His face lifts and his eyes are wide, but nothing compares to the size of his smile. “You’re what?”
She nods, her smile matching his, “pregnant.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes!”
“Oh my god, Betts!” He reaches out for her hand and tugs her to snuggle up on the couch. Then he swiftly kisses her. “Baby this is amazing!”
“Juggie you don’t think it’s too soon?”
“It’ll be busy, but oh my god im so happy!”
Betty looks at him with bright eyes. “I love you”
“I love you!” He leans forward to kiss her
“Livy! You’re going to be a big sister!” Betty bends down to her level,
“Siss-ser”
“Yes! Sister!”
Later on that night, after their baby is in bed, Jughead and Betty are laying in bed, his hand running over her belly and his smile is beyond compare.
“Jug?”
“Mhm”
“I could really use some sleep, and - “
“I’m sorry baby but I just really can’t believe this is happening.”
She smiles and turns into his chest. His hands readjust, and start rubbing broad circles on her back. “ When do you think it happened?”
She giggles, “Juggie it’s not like we’ve exactly be careful, lately.”
“That’s not true!”
“We haven’t used protection!”
“We haven’t used protection since we were eighteen, babe.”
“Well I was always on birth control, but I’m just saying that we shouldn’t be surprised.” She smiles
“Well,” he slides down her body and peppers kisses on her belly. “I am surprised,” another kiss is planted in between her breasts, “and I’m so happy.”
Betty sighs as he continues to ravish her. “Me too.”
After Jughead has reached her face he pecks her lips, “maybe a boy this time? Or another little girl just like Liv.”
“No,” She interrupts, “a boy, just like his daddy.”
“I love you,”
“I love you too,”
After another quick peck Betty falls into slumber.