HOOLIGANS [SWEET PEA] [✔️]

TWENTY THREE || NO BLOOD LEFT TO SPILL

Dad?" Jughead groaned as he woke up, and FP gasped. "Jug."

"What did I miss?"

"What you did brought every Serpent I've ever known out of the woodwork and you would've been proud of 'em, boy. It looked like we were gonna win the day, but in the end there were just just too many Ghoulies. It was like shooting snakes in a barrel." FP said, his voice heavy with shame.

"Why? Why did you go?" Jughead sighed, and his father's face fell.

"I wanted to avenge you." FP said quietly, which made Jughead's heart drop. Going to Penny had been for nothing.

"I had an agreement with Hiram Lodge." He said, but his father shrugged listlessly.

"There was no stopping the others. They were churned up about you and Fallon. Even though Fallon is...well, she's alive. She and her baby."

Jughead's eyes bugged as he stared at FP in shock. "Fallon is alive? Her baby?! But I thought a deputy called you and told you they were dead!"

A smile ghosted across FP's lips. "Yeah, she had a pretty little thing she named Forsythia. After me and you. And yeah, that was a lie."

"A ploy, you mean. To goad the Serpents into a fight they couldn't win. All of riot night was a Hiram Lodge orchestrated mousetrap." Jughead snapped, and his father couldn't meet his eyes.

"And the Serpents followed me right into it.
Sunnyside Trailer Park fell, and while our trailer's still standing, most of them burned. Jug, after the rumble, some of the Serpents defected, they...they joined the Ghoulies, others were arrested. More went into hiding, the rest, they left town. The Serpents, they don't exist anymore. We had our time. Nothing for you to do but to get better. And to be there for Betty."

Jughead's heart dropped to his toes.

"Betty? What happened with Betty?"

______

Sweet Pea ran down the hall as fast as he could carry himself, followed closely by Fangs and Toni. After what FP had just said, they needed to know what was going on.

"And kids, there's something else. I need you three to go straight to room 407, don't pass go, don't collect 200 dollars, go now. As fast as you can."

They reached the hospital room and stopped, chests heaving.

"Who do you think is in there?" Toni asked, and Sweet Pea shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, Topaz."

The door opened as Fangs pushed it aside, and the world spun violently under Sweet Pea's feet when his eyes landed on the two people FP told him were dead. That he thought he'd be mourning for the rest of his life. That no one could ever replace.

Fallon Fogarty turned around, their child in her arms and surprise on her face, her crystal blue eyes filling with tears.

"F-Fallon?" Sweet Pea choked, Fangs rendered speechless and Toni in tears. "Y-you...you're alive?!"

"Oh my god," Fallon gasped as Sweet Pea staggered towards her, crushing her and his daughter against his chest.

He placed kisses on every inch of skin he could reach on her face, saying "I love you, I love you, I love you" like a chant.

"Is...how did you...how did she..." Fangs gestured wildly to the baby in Fallon's arms, and Fallon smiled. "She inherited my penchant for near death experiences and sheer dumb luck. Mrs. Klump's bullet missed her by two inches and lodged in my rib, and I lost so much blood that both of us definitely should have died."