I'm Darkness || Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones [2]

Happy Family

HAPPY FAMILY

Eleanor rushes to Chic's bedroom when she gets home, the screams echoing through the whole house. And she can't feel more relived that her Mom didn't come home with her right away, because all this yelling would shatter her heart.

Betty has her hands on her head in a form of pure desesperation, and desbelief. She turns around in an – almost – slow motion movement as she hears someone approach the room, it's Ellie, and she drops her hands to her side.

"You are a fucking liar!" Ellie accuses, her tone is not soft or controlled. She's done playing dolls' house with this stranger, and they're ending it now. "Mom is coming home in a minute, and you will go downstairs and you will tell her who you really are."

"I'm Chic! I don't have Blossom blood because I'm not a Blossom," He tries to explain. "I already told Betty, I don't know what else you want me to say."

"Stop lying!" Betty shouts at him.

They all turn their heads to the door once they hear the front door opening, and in someway they all know what's coming next. Betty tears the papers away from Chic's hands, and rushes downstairs, the other two following close behind.

Alice Cooper sits down as soon as she sees the three of them, because she just knows it can't be good, it never is. It's Betty who breaks the news, while they all sit down on the couch. Chic can't look away from his hands, and Ellie is just hoping her Mom doesn't snap over this.

"Girls," Alice says. "The truth is, Chic's DNA doesn't match... because Hal isn't his father." She turns around to face the boy then, and comforts him. "But I am your mother, you understand me?"

"Hang on." Betty is beyond confused, both sisters are. "What?"

Ellie leans forward, and blinks her eyes several times to process the new information, before she questions. "What do you mean Dad isn't Chic's Dad? Then who the hell is Chic's father?"

"Chic's my son." The woman states once again as she looks between her two daughters. "And whoever the father is, he won't be part of our lives. So there's no reason to open old wounds that have healed many times over." She turns to face her son, and pulls him in for a hug. "Come here."

Eleanor glances over to her sister, and she's already looking her way. Now they have more questions than they did before, and somehow everything just seems to keep getting worse, and more confusing. And Chic will still live with them, so they're still prisoners.

God, Ellie could use a win by now.

. . .

"Ellie," Fred greets but his voice seems surprised.

"Hey, is Archie home?" She asks, her eyes trying to take a look inside. "We agreed to go out for breakfeast today."

"Come in." He steps aside so the girl can enter, and he closes the door after. He gestures for her to follow him to the kitchen, but there's no red-haired boy waiting for her there. "Archie left rather early to go to the Lodges before school."

Ellie bites down on her lip, and looks down. The disappointment is written all over her body language, and Fred Andrews notices it. And he sympathizes with her, because the feeling is mutual since his own son abandoned him when Fred refused to run for Mayor. He just let his Dad walk out of Pembrooke alone, choosing Hiram over him, and apparently over Ellie.

She finally sighs, and speaks up. "Well, please don't tell Archie that I passed by."

"Maybe he should know, Ellie." Fred tells her, because honestly if there's someone that can bring him back, that's her. "I'm not running for Mayor after I found what Hiram's plans are for Riverdale, he told me because he thought you and Jughead were about to go public about it."