Chapter Text
Veronica awoke from her slumber when she heard her phone buzzing on her and Archie's beside table. She turned over to grab her phone when she saw her clock.
5:48 a.m.
Who the fuck is calling at this hour. Archie isn't home, he's staying at Jughead's.
To her surprise its Archie. She has 6 miss calls from him.
What the fuck!
She picks up her phone to see what the problem is.
"Ar-" Was all she could say before Archie started to speak, more like yell.
"VERONICA GET TO THE HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW! THE SERPENT ONE!" He all but screamed.
"What?! Why?! Archie what's going on?" Veronica was confused.
"I DON'T FUCKING HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN, JUST HURRY THE HELL UP!"
"Okay, I'm coming!"
Veronica rushed to the 'Serpent Hospital' to see what the was going on. Really called the Sweetwater Hospital, but since it's in the Southside and mostly all Serpents use it, it's called 'Serpent Hospital.'
She was wondering what was going on that was this serious. She guessed it might have something to do with one of the inner circle Serpents.
They usually called Veronica to help out since she studied in the medical field but recently dropped out because she decided she didn't need a job, her dad could give her all the money she needed.
She pulled up to Sweetwater in minutes time. Running over to the doors of the emergency room.
"Archie! Archie, where are you?!" She shouted.
In that moment Archie appeared, he was red and looked anxious. Veronica then looked down to see blood all over his clothes.
"OH MY GOD, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!" She started to panic, running up to him.
"It-it's J-J-Jughead." He breathed.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" She repeated.
"H-H-He got shot."
"WHAT?! Take me there right now!" She was already walking through the hallway when Archie's hand grabbed her elbow. "What are you doing!"
"They won't let anybody in." He sighed.
"Why the hell not! I'm basically his sister!" She was furious.
"If you're noy blood related they won't let us in. Fp can't come because he's drunk as fuck."
"So what are we gonna do?"
"We're gonna wait."
"Can't I just go in since I help out anyways?"
"No. They said only professional doctors."
"I guess while they're doing that can you tell me what the fuck happened?!" Archie sighed.
"We were playing video games like normal, then we heard a crash. So we went to see what it was, when a group of men, I'm guessing Ghoulies, came out of nowhere and attacked. They knocked me out and when I woke up, Jug was on the floor unconscious, bleeding. There was a gun wound right below the right side of his chest." Veronica just then noticed Archie's now swelling black eye.
She was tearing up, her 'brother' had just got shot.
"Wha- What are we going to do?" A tear rolled down her cheek.
"I called the Serpents, they're on their way. I guess all we can do is wait and pray."
A couple minutes later the Serpents arrived. Archie had explain to them what had happened.
Archie, Veronica, and a few inner circle Serpents stayed there waiting for the doctors to come out with the results.
A couple of hours later a doctor came out. He didn't look so happy.
"Mr. Andrew?" The doctor asked.
"Yes, yes thats me. Any updates? Has he woken up?" Archie said playing with the them of his bloody shirt.
"Unfortunately, no, he has not woken up yet. But their is an update."
"What is it?!" He was desperate to know what was going on with his best friend. The doctor sighed.
"It looks that he got a couple of blows to the head, and a deeply severe gunshot wound. He's in a coma due to all the hits he took to the head." Archie's face broke.
"What?" He whispered.
"I'm sorry." Was all the doctor said before leaving back into the room.
Once the doctor left Archie fell to the floor, tears streaming down his face. Veronica came down to comfort him, tears down her own face. They stayed there the rest of the night.
9:24 a.m.
A nurse comes walks outside with a clipboard in her hand. She walks up to the couple sitting in the same spot since the last doctor came to tell them to the bad news.
"Any news?" Archie asked.
"Yes, actually. He's in stable condition now, so we will be moving him to a room where you will be able to see him."
"Thank God. I-Is he still in a coma?" He whispered the last sentence. The nurse nodded slowly.
"I'm so sorry. He will be moved to..." She checked her clipboard and said, " Room 365, third floor."
"Thank you." Veronica answered for a panicking Archie.
Thirty minutes later they were told they can go see him on the third floor.
Archie and Veronica rushed to room 365 as quickly as they could to see their unconscious best friend.
Once they got there, Archie ran to his best friends body. He looked so small in the hospital bed, he was pale, Veronica could see the bruises on his face.
"This is my fault, I should've stopped it." Archie whispered, gripping his best friends hand.
"Archie this is not your fault. You couldn't do anything, they knocked you out before you could stop it." Veronica assured him. Archie didn't respond, he just kept staring at Jughead. After a while Archie spoke.
"We should call Fp." It was barely above a whisper.
"We should. You should also get a clean pair of clothes." Archie shook his head.
"I'm not leaving him, not again."
"Okay, how about I get you and new pair of clothes and some food? I'll also go get Fp, sound good?" Archie nodded.
Veronica left the hospital speeding back to her and Archie's apartment to get them both a new pair of clothes.
Once she reached their apartment she got another phone call.
It's Betty.
Veronica hesitated to open it but in the end she answered.
"Hey, B!" She tried to act cheerfully normal as possible, but it didn't work.
"Hey, V! Um are you okay? You sound tired, is there something wrong? You sound off."
Veronica thought about telling Betty but they hadn't talked about Jughead the whole 6 years since Betty left Riverdale. Everytime Veronica brought anything about Jughead, Betty always shut her down.
"Um... No, I'm fine. Listen Betty, I- I really gotta go, I'm um really busy. Gotta go, talk to you later." Before Betty could answer Veronica hung up, she really needed to get back to Archie.
She quickly pulled on the first thing she saw and grabbed Archie a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
She sped to Pop's to get breakfast to go. Once she got her breakfast she rushed to Sunnyside Trailer park to find Jughead's father.
Veronica burst into the Jones trailer without knocking, not having time.
"Mr. Jones?! Hello?" She looked over to see Fp slumped on the couch with a bottle of Vodka in his hand. She remove the vodka bottle and shook him awake.
"Huh... What? Veronica what- what are you doing here?"
"Mr. Jones we need to leave now! Jug's in the hospital!"
"What why?!"
"I don't have fucking time to explain hurry your ass and get in the car!" She didn't have time for this.
"Okay, Okay." He quickly put on a fresh pair of clothes and followed after Veronica into her car. Once they pulled into the road Fp spoke, "Now can You tell me what the hell happened to my son?!"
"Last night him and Archie had been ambushed they beat Jug really, really bad. They also..." She trailed off.
"What?! What did they do?!" He was getting angry.
"They s-shot him. He's in a coma right now." She whispered.
"WHAT?! WHO THE FUCK?!"
"I-I-I don't know Mr. Jones." Fp was red, he was pissed, who the fuck do these people think they are to do that to the Serpent Prince soon-to-be King.
"When I find who did this, I'm gonna fucking kill them."
They drove the rest of the way in silence.
Once they got there Veronica quickly escorted Fp to their designated room. Fp whooshed pass her to see his helpless son.
When Veronica entered the room with Archie's clothes and food she saw Archie in the same position, except the he had his head on Jughead's chest. She also saw Fp standing in front of the bed, in complete shock, a tear rolled down his cheek, and his hands cupping his mouth.
Veronica broke the silence.
"Archie I got your change of clothes and I got you breakfast. Come now." Archie shook his head.
"I'm not leaving him." He stated.
"We should give Fp some alone time with his son." Veronica said. At that moment Archie looked up to see a shocked Fp and worried Veronica. He then nodded, following Veronica outside.
"Go change and come eat something, you need to eat something." Archie nodded again before walking to the bathroom.
Meanwhile back in LA, Betty Cooper, Riverdale's very own girl-next-door, sat there in her bedroom confused.
Her bestfriend for 9 years now just ended a call without having an actual conversation, the phone call on lasted for about a minute long. Veronica never did that, it didn't matter hiw busy she'd be.
Betty wondered what was going on that her bestfriend couldn't talk to her at the moment.
Betty left Riverdale 6 years ago and the duo spoke on the phone everyday since. The calls would go on for hours at most.
Before Veronica ended the call, Betty was about to tell really big news. She was coming home in a couple of weeks. It was a hard decision but she decided it was for the best. She'd stay for only a couple of weeks to see her best friend and family.
Betty hadn't talked to Archie in the whole six years that she left. He doesn't want to speak to her because he has been mad since she left. She broke both Archie's and Jughead's hearts.
Archie was more upset because his best friend was broken after she left and he was all Jughead had left.
So Betty believes Archie wouldn't want to see her when she came back to Riverdale. She doesn't want to even face Jughead, she's willing to avoid him at all cost.