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The first time they ever truly talk about their future together is in a hotel room, at the Five Seasons after he’s just asked her to be his Serpent Queen. Not immediately after, the fact that they’re alive is too important not to celebrate again. He’s given her yet another reason to kiss him with every ounce of love and passion in her body. Serpent Queen, his Queen. Together they’d fight through whatever the hell life decided to throw at them, I mean it couldn’t possibly get worse than a serial killer father and gang wars, right? The very notion of his simple question meant unity. A strong front. Together, they’d stand, with nothing to tear them down.
It’d been chaotic, the past year. Though their love was unwavering, the outside forces threatened to destroy what they had. Let that be a serial killer father or an instinct, a need to protect each other no matter how much it hurt. They’d learnt their lesson. They were stronger together, not apart. Together they could put up a fight. Being apart, felt like missing a limb. The promise was made. No matter what happened they’d talk, communicate, they wouldn’t keep things from each other.
And now that the worst part is over and Jughead is safe, and she can ground herself, Betty thinks the future seems rather foolish without him. She hadn’t given it much thought, in a serious way, they’d never made plans even if they were an unspoken truth. They hadn’t had the time to think, to dream, of their future life together. But now that she’s here, in his arms after having him almost die, it comes easily. The picture of a life together, forming so clearly in her head, she swears if she reaches out, she can touch it. There’s a yearning in her heart for peace, for happiness, for nothing if not a normal life. And she knows that she wants all of it with Jughead.
Her fingers trace patterns on his chest as she smiles. “I can feel you smiling.” Jughead murmurs, placing a kiss to her head. “What is it?”
“Would you ever marry me?” The question falls from her lips and she expects him to freeze beneath her, to freak out over a question like that, over the serious commitment it implied.
But he doesn’t.
Instead he laughs softly, making her look up at him. “I thought you knew, Betts.” He grins. “I will marry you. No doubt, in my mind.” He tells her earnestly and she kind of wants to marry him then and there. But she knows they’re too young and a ring on their fingers doesn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things. It’s just a piece of paper, legally binding them together. They’re already bounded by their hearts and their souls, she’s sure. And anyone can say it’s puppy love and that high school romance never lasts but not many people have been through what they’ve been through. The certainty of their love and how no matter what happened, they’d fall together at the end of the day.
But still, it makes her heart flutter at the thought of a ring on her finger. Of being able to call him her husband, because boyfriend suddenly feels too little to label what they are to each other.
“I’ll take your name.” She tells him with a smile on her lips.
“We could always hyphenate.” He suggests but she shakes her head.
“I’d rather be a Jones than a Cooper any day of my life.” And he understands, the weight of her words. He knew that for her, Cooper meant Alice and it meant Polly and it meant Hal, the Black Hood. It meant pain and perfection. It meant all the things she never wanted to touch again. So, he kisses her again, this time with a whisper of a future, cementing inside of them. He promises himself that he’ll call her his wife someday.
Betty Jones has a nice ring to it.
From then on, it’s always there. The underlying notion that they’d have this future. They’d get married, they’d vow to love each other for the rest of their life until death does them part and maybe even after.
A lot happens from then on, there was a crazy game of Gargoyles and Kings that caused kids to have seizures, there was/is a crazy organ harvesting farm cult, the town was quarantined, marking the longest they’d been away from each other since the beginning of their relationship and the Joneses now lived in the Cooper house. And Betty kind of lived with them. With her boyfriend, in her old bedroom, still basically untouched since Jughead refused to. And also, her semi-mother-in-law was a drug lord.
The other fun part? Her father was back. He had chased her down the halls of Riverdale High on Prom Night almost killing her, killing other students and he had escaped. Mr. Jones and the police force had already gotten their reports and now her and Jughead were back home. Safe, in their bed, holding onto each other, attempting to find the comfort they desperately needed. Jughead was just relieved she was alive and couldn’t let go until he was sure she wasn’t about to break down again like she had in the shower they took earlier. Betty just needed the safety his arms provided.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” He whispers, brushing her hair with his fingers. “I should’ve been there, Betts.”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I made the mistake to go by myself. It’s not your fault we have a million problems thrown at us.”
“I love you, Betts. I love you so freaking much, and I can’t bear the thought of losing you.”
“You won’t lose me.” She murmurs. “I promise.”
“I never want our kids to go through any of what we went through. Not even an ounce of any of what we’ve experienced.” He tells her and she looks up at him, curiously. “We’re getting the hell out?”
“Did I give birth and not know?” She smiles softly at the randomness of his words.
“Shut up.” He laughs. She places a gentle kiss to his lips, sighing contentedly at the warmth his body provides when she snuggles closer.
“They will never suffer like we did.” She promises. “Ever, we’ll make sure of it, even if we have to move to ends of the earth.” The words hang in the air and Betty doesn’t really register the fact that they’re talking about kids until a few moments later.
They’d never talked about it. Truthfully, she had had a million thoughts of Jughead as a dad, all it took was him interacting with a child. And Jughead, for all his bad boy tough broody guy vibes, was wonderful with kids. When they did come to it, their kids will have him wrapped around their little finger, she knows for certain and she’s sure they’ll give them all the love they missed in their childhood, maybe even more.
“So,” She pauses. “Safe to assume you want kids?” She grins.
“Were you absent from the conversation we just had, Betts?” He teases, looking down at her. “In what world wouldn’t I have your kids? Crazy not to, they aren’t even born yet and they’ve already lucked out in the mom department.”
Her heart flutters and after the night they’d just had, everything could set off her tears and this surely does. “You think I’d be a good mom?”
“Are you kidding me, Betts? You’ll be the best.” His face is soft, placing kisses on her forehead. “If it all goes to shit, we know what not to do. We sure have excellent parental example on what not to do to fuck your children up.”
She forces herself not to think of their shitty parents, of her serial killer of a father and instead conjures up the image of a dark haired, green eyed toddler and already loves their hypothetical children with every bit of her.
“I’ll knit them a little beanie when they’re born.” She smiles.
“You don’t even know how to knit.” He laughs.
“I’ll learn.” She shrugs, her eyes are shining with the images she has of them being a real family. “Still got a while before we have them, anyway.”
Their plan was going accordingly. Mostly his plan, really. His elaborate, insane plan to get the preppies out of their way. And that meant that she was currently about to get arrested any day now. For his murder. It had been a week or so, since the Ides of March. So, she hadn’t seen him for the same amount of time and while she knew it was part of the plan, her emotions had been all over the goddamn place and she was feeling herself going a little crazy without him and with everything that was happening.
For the rest of the world, outside of Charles, her boyfriend was dead. And for her two best friends, they were playing their part, even doubting her. But it was all necessary to the part that came next. The part where the preppies let their guard down and they’d bring them down. Jughead would have time to figure it all out and then it’d be over. This nightmare.
Because they were about to snap them into bits, thrown in jail. But first, Betty, Archie and Veronica had to be arrested. And before that, she was meeting the love of her life, one last time before that went down and it was his turn to play.
She was meeting him at the bunker, where he’d been after he woke up. Charles was driving her, so no one really knew she left. And they’d have a night before she was arrested, though there were still a few steps to take them down.
“You look good for a man who was just in the morgue.” She smiles, crossing the distance to them. He runs to her, crushing her into his arms. “Are you good?”
“It’s out of my system.” He murmurs. He had been injected with a drug that slowed his heart rate to a minimum and since Dr. Curdle was in the palm of their hand, he was in on part of the plan. “I’m okay.”
“We’re almost done.”
“Yeah, Betts, we are.” He smiles, caressing her cheek. “I’m sorry I’m putting you through this.”
“I just hate being apart from you, Jug.” She sighs, leaning her forehead on his. “When all this is over, we’re locking ourselves in our room and not leaving until I say so.”
Placing his forehead on hers, he laughs softly, nodding his head. She’s the one the joins their lips together in a desperate kiss, trying to get impossibly close to him. When they pull apart, he looks down at her, noticing his jacket on her. He toys with the fabric, a small smile playing on his lips. “You’re wearing my jacket.”
“Smells like you.” She shrugs. “It’ll be worth it, right?”
He nods his head. “I’m looking into getting everything ready for Yale, Betts. We’re getting the hell out of here.” He promises and then a nervous look flitters across his face. “But first, I was hoping we could get one more thing done.” He tells her and she furrows her brows.
“What?” He smiles, taking a deep breath before reaching into his pocket. When he reveals what’s in his hand, a soft gasp escapes her lips. He doesn’t go down on one knee and she likes that, she likes the proximity of his forehead on hers, a ring between them. The little silver band that held a promise.
“When all this is over, I want to marry you.” Jughead murmurs and though, she’d heard the words before, whispered in their bedroom late in the night as they dreamed of future, the words had never been spoken like this. In a real way, in a tangible future. “Betty Cooper, will you marry me?”
She looks down at the ring and then up at him, a smile spreading across her lips, as tears fall down her cheeks. Without a beat, Betty crashes her lips against him, and he laughs. “Yes.” She whispers, the second she pulls away. “I’ll marry you.” She laughs loudly when he kisses her again, lifting her off her feet, laughter reverberating against the walls of the bunker.
“I know you can’t wear it for now, but just for tonight. I got a chain too, so you can wear it around your neck.” Jughead tells her, as he places the ring on her ring finger, the image cementing itself in his mind. They were promising each other a lifetime. It wasn’t as though the promise hadn’t been made before but the ring on her finger made it official. Their lives had thrown them too many curveballs, too much death, too much darkness and this was a beacon of hope, of a new beginning.
He had already been planning on proposing to her when they graduated, before they went to college, eager to make a real promise, to be hers completely. Now with this extra curveball, he decided to hell with it. He’d propose now and they’d have this night and when it was all over, he’d marry her. And that was that, they could start over, but as husband and wife.
“I love you.” Betty tells him. “I can’t wait to be your wife.”
Jughead wakes her in the morning with a trail of kisses down her body, taking his time with her before he whispers that he loves her and then she has to leave to get to school. She gets dressed, takes the ring off her finger and puts it in the chain before pressing a kiss to it and places it around her neck, while Jughead watches her from the bed. And then she’s off to school.
It takes Jughead a shorter amount of time to gather enough evidence than expected and three days later, a box arrives at the FBI headquarters and at the Sheriff’s office. Betty, Veronica and Archie are released and when Betty gets out, FP drives her home and she gets to be the one to tell him all about the plan. He hugs her so tight when they get out of the car, she feels entirely too overwhelmed by the time they go inside the house and Jughead is sitting on the couch, waiting.
She lets FP and her fiancé (!) have their moment before she launches herself at him, holding him against her body, finally free of everything else.
Alice insists on dinner, making an elaborate meal with Archie and Veronica coming over as well. And for all the overbearing qualities her mother has and as much as she wished she was up in their bedroom, she’s missed this. The simplicity of sharing a meal with the people you love, the warmth of laughter and the secret moments she shares with Jughead at the table, when everyone’s engrossed in conversation.
Afterwards, FP practically begs them to stick around for a little while before going to bed. So, they do. The last week and half had been hard enough for everyone and they owed their family at least some of their time. Jellybean gets out monopoly and they agree to play. The teenage girl is a menace in monopoly and Betty’s sees how happy Jughead is, how happy she feels, and she decides she can wait a while longer before having Jughead all to herself.
“Put the ring on your finger.” Jughead whispers in her ear, people around them are arguing over Jellybean’s play. She looks up at him, with furrowed brows and he places a kiss to her head with a smile. There’s a silent conversation between them for a few seconds, arguing if telling them now would be a good idea. But she looks around and though their idea of eloping was still in the cards, she loves these people and she wants to tell them how happy she is, how happy they are.
There’s a collective gasp from Veronica and Alice when it’s Betty’s turn to play and she picks up the dice. The ring glistens in the light and Betty’s not at all surprised her best friend and her mother are the first to notice.
“Betty!” Veronica gapes, her eyes wide as she looks at her best friend. “Is that-”
“You’re getting married?” Alice places a hand over her mouth.
“What?”
“What?” Jellybean, Archie and FP glance up from the game at the same time.
“What?”
Jughead looks down at Betty and then at their family, beaming. “We’re getting married.”
Betty half expects her mother to completely reject the idea, to call her future husband a hoodlum like she’s done before, to argue that they’re too young and that’s she’s making the biggest mistake of her life.
But Alice doesn’t.
Instead she tears up and she looks at her with a look of absolute love and congratulates them. Tells them she’s happy for them, she hugs Betty tightly and then Jughead and then both of them.
“Took you long enough.” FP laughs, patting Jughead in the back. And then he squeezes Betty’s hand. “You’ve always been family but welcome.”
Archie’s staring at them, a bit shell shocked. As always, he’s never really expecting anything to happen so he’s likely still taking it in. While his girlfriend is gushing over the ring and complementing Jughead on getting it right. And telling them she’ll plan the whole thing and they won’t have to worry.
“Actually, we’re planning on doing it soon. Like graduation.”
Veronica gasps. “You’re giving me two months to plan a wedding? That’s outrageous!”
Betty laughs, leaning against her future husband. “V, honestly, we don’t want anything big. Preferably, just the people in this living room and good food.”
“Yeah, we almost eloped, so if you could keep it small, we’ll let you plan it, right?” Betty nods her head at his question directed towards her. “And when we say small, we meant it.”
“Oh, I’ll help!” Alice chips in with a smile on her face.
“I’ll taste cake!” Jellybean adds, in true Jones style.
Jughead insists on not seeing her the night before the wedding. Although he’s never one to go the traditional way, neither of them is, but there’s something about seeing her for the first time in 24 hours on their wedding day that makes it feel sacred, special and Jughead is always up for making it special. Especially for them, so the beginning of their future was no different.
It’s a week after graduation and Veronica had kept to her promise. One, keeping the wedding small and two, keeping it under wraps. The living room group had been the only people on the formal invitation she deemed necessary and the wedding was being held in the Cooper backyard, decorated with flowers and fairy lights and his totally uncalled for nervousness, as Alice had put it.
“It’s finally happening.” He breathes out, checking himself in the mirror.
FP watches from behind him, a proud smile on his face. “You ready to go?”
“I’m more than ready. I feel like I’ve waited to marry her for my whole life.” He jokes.
“You probably have.” Archie grins, leaning against the door frame. “I did propose to her first though. When I was like 8.”
Jughead laughs. “Well, we’re all happy she changed her mind.”
“That we are.” His best friend laughs and opens his arms out, wrapping him up in a warm bear hug. “I’m happy for you, Jug.”
They get to the alter and Archie stands next to him, FP and Alice are seated with Jellybean, Mary with them. And his palms are a little sweaty because he doesn’t want to mess up his vows and because he still can’t quite believe Betty Cooper will be his wife in twenty minutes.
But then there she is.
A white dress. Not a wedding dress, cause she refused to do the whole thing, but a beautiful dress that still takes his breath away and he’s choked up already, but there is absolutely nothing else in his mind other than that the love of his life looks like an absolute angel. And that angel has chosen him to be her partner in life.
No one’s giving her away because she’s already his. There’s nothing to hand off because they’re already one. Marriage is truly just a formality. They could’ve waited but why wait for the inevitable. When one’s soul is forged with another, the rings and the signature on a piece of paper feel too small. But Jughead’s always liked rings and if there’s one that symbolizes his devotion to her, he’ll do this every day.
“Hi.” She murmurs when she gets close enough, tears in her eyes.
“Hey.” He takes her hand, smiling so hard he can’t keep it together. “Still time to run away.” He jokes.
“Only with you.” She smiles.
The person officiating their marriage is Pop Tate, who in an unexpected turn of events turned out to have a license. Veronica had somehow discovered that, and Pop seemed fitting, after all. They’d shared so many moments in his diner. Heartbreaking moments. Beautiful moments. Happy moments. Pop Tate had known them since they were born and now it had come full circle. He was officiating their wedding.
“Welcome everyone!” Pop smiles. “I’ve known these two kids since they couldn’t even walk. And I remember when I first saw the way Jughead loved Betty. I think he was probably five when he fell for her.” Their family laughs, all of them emotional already. “And since that moment, I’ve seen them go from friends to best friends to lovers. And I was always struck by the love between them and I knew that this day would come eventually. I’m so happy I get to be the one to officiate this and I can’t wait for the beautiful life you two will lead. Now, without further ado, you both have written your own vows, so Jughead, would you like to go first?”
He breathes out, smiling softly at Betty. “I always thought I’d end up alone. The boy from the wrong side of the tracks and the girl next door weren’t supposed to fit. I never thought you’d ever fall in love with me, even though I’ve loved you my whole life and I hoped you loved me back. Then a lot happened. It’s crazy how much life threw at us. And how we made out alive.” He chuckles softly. “But the broody boy and the beautiful girl fit. And the girl showed the boy love, so fiercely and so pure in its nature and the boy made a promise in his head to never take her for granted and to shower her with the love she showed him every day for the rest of his life.” He smiles, wiping a tear from Betty’s cheek before continuing. “I know I’m supposed to be a writer, but I can’t possibly find words to show the love I feel for you, I don’t think they exist. All I can say is that I vow to love you and to cherish you for the rest of my life, that no matter what else life tries to crush us with, I’ll be by your side, solving every mystery, through every happy and sad and miserable and beautiful moment, I’m yours. For the long haul, Betts.”
Betty sniffles, letting out a small laugh. “I love you.” She nods. “For most of my life, I had an idealized vision of what love what supposed to be. Fairy tale like, but that’s not love, it’s an idea of it but not the real deal. I know that, because with you, I found my home, I found real love. And love is hard and sometimes things are out of our control, but I know that with you, I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.” She smiles. “You make me so happy, you make me the happiest girl in the world, and I can’t wait to live my life with you and to love you, to fall more in love with you every day.” She squeezes his hand in her hers, blowing out a breath. “Life is short. It’s too short. We’ve learnt that the hard way and I’m so fortunate for every day I get to spend with you. To fall asleep with you and to wake up with you and to sleuth with you.” Betty jokes, making him laugh. “I’ll be thankful forever for our love and I’m so happy you climbed through my window, like a modern-day Romeo. Our story has a happy ending. Or better yet, this is a better beginning.”
“The rings, please?” Pop asks and Archie digs them out of his pocket, handing them to the bride and groom. “Forsythe Pendleton Jones the third, do you take, Elizabeth Ann Cooper, as your wife?”
“With every bit of me, I do.”
“And Elizabeth-”
“I do!” She laughs, cutting him off.
“Alright, Jughead repeat after me: “With this ring, I thee wed, and with it, I bestow upon thee all the treasures of my mind, heart, and hands."
“With this ring, I thee wed, and with it, I bestow upon thee all the treasures of my mind, heart, and hands." He grins as slides the ring down her finger, giddy with his love for her.
“With this ring, I thee wed, and with it, I bestow upon thee all the treasures of my mind, heart, and hands. Betty?”
“With this ring, I thee wed, and with it, I bestow upon thee all the treasures of my mind, heart, and hands.”
“And with that, you may kiss the bride!”
He grabs her face with both his hands, crashing his lips against hers, smiling a bit too hard, happiness cursing through both of them, as he lifts her off the floor, lips still on his wife’s. “Mrs. Jones.” He murmurs, the smile on his lips unwavering as he puts her down, and their family cheers.
“Mr. Jones.” Betty laughs. “Guess we finally did it, huh?” He kisses one last time before they’re being pulled into loving hugs and as Jughead looks around, he thinks they deserve this. They deserve this happiness, this little pocket of hope for the future and with his hand still in his wife’s, how he ever lived without her is beyond him.