Disclaimer: I do not own Riverdale. Any similarities in storyline or dialogue originated with the show.

A/N: Caroline would resemble Scarlett Leithold. I also want to give a big thanks to WildRecklessYouthInMe for being an amazing and supportive friend. I never would have finished this without you.

Prologue

It was the pain that eventually lured the girl back to consciousness. The intense throbbing that radiated from the base of her skull elicited a soft groan as she raised her head from the cold, concrete ground. She forced her eyes open slowly, fighting the urge to cover them when the artificial lighting streaming down on her only worsened the pain. Her palms slid beneath her and she used what little strength she could gather to push herself off the floor. She managed to get to her knees before the intense headache stopped her. The teenager brought her fingers to her temples, massaging them softly as she took in her surroundings. Her mind was still in a fog from being pistol-whipped, but she could make out the stairway in front of her which led into the bar above.

"Caroline."

The blonde turned her attention towards the voice. She recognized it as soon as it reached her ears, but she didn't want to believe it.

"FP," she sighed when she met the older man's gaze. Her throat tightened so she forced herself to swallow. It did nothing to lessen the weight on her chest, though.

"Hey, Care-bear," FP Jones murmured as his eyes surveyed her quickly. He was checking for other wounds, she knew.

"Don't call me that," Caroline said with a harshness to her voice that she rarely used. It would take a lot more than a blow to the head for her to forget what he had done.

FP blinked slowly as he pursed his lips and Caroline's gaze flickered to his hands, which were now curled into fists. She looked up when he opened his eyes again. The pain in his expression was plain to see, but she ignored it. They had been estranged for most of her life and while they had grown closer over the span of the last few months, he had ruined everything the moment he placed his greed above the welfare of her friend.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

Caroline shook her head in disbelief. "Now you care?"

"I've always cared about you," FP said, a determined look in his eyes. "Even though your mother never let me to see your family, I still cared and I always will. The last thing I wanted was for you to get hurt."

"It's too fucking late for that, FP," she responded without missing a beat, her tone as cold as ice.

"It was Mustang who hit you," he revealed with a sigh. "I'm sorry I wasn't here to stop him, but you should have come to me the second you—"

"Where the hell is he?"

FP held her gaze for a moment and gestured at the door at the top of the stairs. "In the bar."

"Not Mustang," Caroline said.

"Same place you found him," the older man said, not needing her to explain who she was talking about. He nodded towards the doorway behind her and Caroline turned around quicker than she should have. The sudden increase of pain made her stumble as she tried to stand, but FP caught her by the arm before she could lose her footing. The second she was steady on her feet, she yanked her arm out of his grasp and continued into the adjoining room without sparing him a second glance.

Seeing it for the second time was almost worse than it had been the first time. She was knocked unconscious by Mustang before it had a chance to set in, the fact that her godfather had kidnapped her childhood friend and decided to hold him for ransom. Her and Jason weren't nearly as close as they had been when they were kids, but there was no mistaking it. The red-haired teenager tied to the chair in front of her was Jason Blossom. He was the protective boy next door that she had spent years of her life swapping her deepest, darkest secrets with. Yet, at the same time, it wasn't Jason. He was no longer the smiling or carefree teenager she knew and loved. Instead he was unconscious and hunched over, beaten and bleeding. This was all that was left of him after being kept tied up in a bar basement for a week.

She only hesitated for a moment before she willed herself to move. Nothing was going to stop her from getting him out of there. Caroline dropped to her knees in front of him, swallowing hard as she began to fiddle with the ropes that held him to the chair. She inhaled sharply when a hand wrapped firmly around her wrist and pulled her to her feet. FP stared down at her, a mix of emotions in his dark eyes.

"What the—"

"You can't untie him, Caroline," the older man instructed with as much resolution as he could manage. She had seen a similar look of determination in his eyes before, but this time was different. He didn't actually want this. Any of it.

"Why not?" Caroline asked, her expression softening for the first time since she had awoken in the basement.

"His dad is almost here," FP revealed, dropping his gaze to Jason. When he spoke again his voice was nearly a whisper. "It's almost over."

"He's a child, FP," she said quietly in an attempt to appeal to his fatherly instinct. Her godfather returned his attention to her, but there was barely any resolve left in his eyes.

He exhaled slowly as he ran a hand over his face. "I know."

Caroline shook her head. "This is kidnapping."

"I know."

"What are you going to do if you get caught, FP? What's gonna happen to Jughead? Did you even think about him before you—"

"I won't get caught, Caroline," he said, cutting her off, but she couldn't find any reason to believe him.

"Let me untie him, at least," Caroline begged as she stepped towards him slowly. "Please, FP."

He held her gaze for several seconds before he shook his head. "Your uncles should be here soon to get you."

She sighed as she shut her eyes. There was a part of her that wasn't surprised that her family was involved, but until that moment she had been desperately hoping that this was one crime they had stayed far away from.

"Did they know?" Caroline asked after she opened her eyes and set them on FP's. When he didn't answer she repeated herself, unable to keep the frustration from seeping into her voice. "Did they know?"

"No," FP said. "Not until I called them about you."

"Please, don't lie to me, FP," Caroline pleaded in a barely audible whisper, but she knew he heard her.

"I'm not, Caroline. I swear," he said and for reasons she couldn't truly understand, she believed him.

She looked down at Jason, who was just starting to regain consciousness. Caroline turned away from her godfather and friend and went to the sink attached to the opposite wall. She wet a clean rag that was sitting on the workbench beside her and returned to Jason, dropping to one knee in front of him. The older boy lifted his head slowly when she placed her hand under his chin. His eyes remained shut as she surveyed the wound on his cheek, but she hoped that even if he couldn't see her, he could still hear her.

"Hey, Jase," she murmured as she ran the towel under the cut on his cheek gingerly. "This is almost over. In a couple hours you'll be back at home with Cheryl and your parents. Everything will be okay."

"Someone want to tell me what the fuck is going on in here?"

Caroline swiveled around and shot to her feet the second the voice reached her ears. Standing in front of her was the only family she had left: her uncles, her protectors, her influencers. She swallowed as she met the second eldest's gaze. Joseph had become the de-facto leader since his older brother was deployed overseas and like his siblings his appearance reflected his Navy SEALs background. He was well-poised with a military-grade haircut, muscular build, and a stern expression pulling at his features. His eyes betrayed no emotion, but Caroline knew him well enough that he didn't need to speak for her to know what he was thinking.

"She came down here and found him," FP explained as he gestured towards Jason, who was beginning to stir in the chair. "Mustang hit her over the head with his gun and she was knocked unconscious, but she's fine."

Joe turned to his niece, his expression softening the moment their gazes met. He closed the distance between them with two long strides and Caroline pursed her lips as she stood there, unmoving. He lifted a hand and wrapped it around the back of her head. She winced when his fingers brushed against the tender spot where she had been struck. There was blood on his fingertips when he pulled his hand back into view, but Caroline didn't give it a second glance. If life had taught her anything so far it was that she knew how to take a hit.

"She doesn't look okay, FP," her uncle said as he held up his hand. She stepped in front of him when he made a move towards the leader of the Southside Serpents. She pressed her palm against his chest to stop him.

"I'm fine, Joseph."

"You sure?" He asked. His niece nodded weakly, knowing that her uncles would have no problem going after FP for what had happened to her. They had done way worse to people for less than that.

"I'm okay, I promise," she reassured him.

"Take her home, Rich," Joseph instructed as he glanced over his shoulder at his brothers, but Caroline shook her head.

"No, I'm staying," she said adamantly. She didn't want to leave before she knew that Jason was back with his family.

Richard, the next eldest, exchanged a look with his brother before turning back to his niece. Much like Joseph, his appearance seemed to contrast Caroline's in every manner of speaking, but even though they had shared no blood relation they were her family. "Care…"

"He's my friend and I'm not walking out of this bar until he does," Caroline said, refusing to back down. Her uncles were bigger and stronger than her. If they really wanted her to leave there wasn't much she could do to stop them from carrying her out the door, but she hoped that they'd let her stay with Jason.

She stared up at Joseph until he met her gaze. "Please, Joe."

"Let her stay," Charlie said, drawing her attention to him. He had always been the most sensible of the siblings and his brothers tended to actually listen to him. He was probably her best shot at convincing his brothers to let her stay. "Nothing's gonna happen to her with us here."

Caroline turned back to the acting patriarch of her family. She watched as he struggled with the idea of allowing her to stay in a possibly volatile situation. Ever since she came to live with them, her uncles had worked hard to be good guardians and keep her safe, but there was always a chance that their line of work would eventually endanger her. All they could do was try to prepare her for it in case the day ever came.

"Fine," Joe said after a long silence. He ran a hand over the light stubble that covered his chin and set his gaze on FP. "When is Blossom supposed to get here?"

"He should be here any minute," the older man said, "but people like that don't run on anyone else's schedule."

"What happened to the kid?" Charlie questioned as he stepped towards Jason.

Caroline looked to FP for the answer. Her godfather would have never hit the Blossom boy, but she couldn't say the same for every person who had access to the basement. As much as she liked to believe that all of her family's affiliates were upstanding citizens, the cold hard truth was that some could be considered the scum of the earth. In Caroline's opinion, the Southside Serpents landed on the other side of the spectrum, but they weren't called a gang for nothing.

"Mustang got a little carried away, but I put an end to it as soon as I found out," FP explained, but it did nothing to lessen the anger that Caroline was feeling towards him. Despite his good intentions, he still kidnapped a child and held him captive in a dingy basement for a week. She doubted there would be anything he could do to get back in her good graces.

Caroline folded her arms over her chest. "Aggravated kidnapping, endangering the welfare of a child, assault—"

"What are you doing?" Joe asked as he looked back at her.

"Just thinking about all the charges the cops are gonna stick FP with when he gets caught," she answered with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. Her uncle let out a soft scoff.

"He's not gonna get caught, Care," he said, shooting a look at FP. "He's a friend and we look out for our friends, right?"

His niece pursed her lips into a taught line when he returned his attention to her, as if he was expecting her to agree with him. Loyalty was a foundational part of their family, but did they really expect her to stand with the person who had hurt her friend?

With a terse nod of her head, Caroline relented. "Of course."

"FP," Mustang said, appearing in the doorway behind them. Caroline turned on her heels and grit her teeth at the sight of him. If she had anything to say about it, she'd set her dogs on him and let them tear the man apart, but with her uncles calling the shots she'd probably never get the chance. She shifted her weight and dropped her gaze, knowing the longer she looked at him, the angrier she'd get. "Blossom's here."

Caroline let out a sigh of relief as the news settle in the room. This whole ordeal was nearly at the finish line. She only hoped that getting her family dragged into it wasn't going to be a mistake on her end.

"Bring him down here, now," FP said and Mustang disappeared back up the stairs.

"How much are you getting for the kid, FP?" The youngest of her uncles asked, speaking for the first time since they'd arrived at the Whyte Wyrm. It was a reasonable question, but Caroline wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer. Who was to say what someone's life was worth?

"That doesn't matter now," the Serpent leader answered after a moment of silence passed over the room.

"Guess not," David continued. He stepped forward so he was standing beside his brother Richard and shrugged carelessly. "Is it going to make all this worth it?"

"No," FP admitted, causing Caroline to look up at him. "I don't think any amount of money would make all this worth it."

Before she could respond, the sound of someone clearing their throat cut through the silence. Caroline turned to see Clifford Blossom standing where Mustang had been only a minute prior. Even though she had known him her entire life, she was never fond of the Blossom patriarch… or matriarch for that matter, but if his presence meant that Jason was truly safe then it didn't matter what she thought about him.

"Mr. Blossom," Caroline said when his eyes landed on her. He gave her a curt nod before walking past her uncles, who quickly made a path for him to get to his son. She watched him closely for a minute, searching for the anger or fear that any parent would be feeling in this situation, but she couldn't find either.

"Can I have a moment alone with my son, please?" Mr. Blossom asked as he slid a glance in FP's direction. The younger of the two men didn't hesitate to nod and start out of the room. Caroline's uncles followed him, but Joe stayed planted in the spot beside her when she didn't move. Jason was nearly fully awake by then, seemingly confused at the sight of his father standing in front of him.

"I am so sorry," she said to both Mr. Blossom and Jason. Caroline bit into her lip when she noticed the fear in her friend's eyes. While a part of her thought there was nothing left for him to be afraid of, her nerves refused to settle. It was as if someone was turning her insides with a fork, but she forced herself to ignore it.

"We know, Caroline," Mr. Blossom responded as he turned slightly to look at her. "Give us a minute, please."

"Of course," Joe said when Clifford gave him a subtle nod. He put an arm around Caroline when she failed to move on her own and guided her out of the room. She hoped that Jason would believe that neither her nor her family had anything to do with the kidnapping.

"Hey, we'll figure this out," Joseph told her when they joined his brothers and FP in the adjoining room.

"I know, I just have this feeling—"

The single, unmuffled gunshot that cut her off mid-sentence pierced through every word, every thought, every feeling. There was no misconception about the origin of the sound. Not for Caroline or her uncles. They seemed to all move at the same time, but she was the fastest. She turned and sprinted the short distance into the room where Jason was being held, skidding to an abrupt stop when her eyes landed on the lifeless corpse of her friend.

The bullet hole in the middle of his forehead should have made it absolute, his death, but Caroline still lurched forward in an attempt to go to him. Joe grabbed her roughly around the waist and yanked her backwards as his gaze shifted to Clifford Blossom. The older man was wiping the gun in his hand with a small rag, his expression and demeanor seemingly unaffected by what he had just done.

Joseph's attention returned to his niece. She had stopped trying to break his hold on her by then, having gone almost completely still. Joseph would have been lying if he said this was all he expected from her. Caroline had never been an emotional person and he had witnessed her ability to mask the ones that were strong enough to tear at her emotional barriers. Yet, he believed that the death of a friend would have been the thing to finally thing to make her walls crumble. His assumptions seemed to only prove how well really knew her.

Ever since Caroline realized there was such a thing as her and other people, she noticed that she never had the same reactions that her friends and family did. There was something that didn't fit in with her friends' innocence, with their willing ignorance of the world outside of Riverdale. Caroline enjoyed their company, but as she got older it had become apparent that she'd always be a step away. Most people didn't even seem to notice she was different—or that she felt different. None of it ever truly mattered to her, though. Not until she was staring at her best friend's dead body and couldn't shed a single tear.

She wanted to cry and scream and feel all the things that she was supposed to, but the grief never overcame her. Jason's death weighed on her in a different way, similar to the same way that the death of her family had. The realization that another person she loved was now dead landed on her like a ton of bricks and sucked the air from her lungs. As she stood there with her uncles, staring at the lifeless body of Jason Blossom, she tried to piece it all together. But the night's events seemed to blur in her mind, making it near impossible for her to understand how it had gotten to this point.

One second Jason was alive and breathing and the next he had a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. Even with a hundred questions running through her mind all she could focus on was the fact that he would never again drive her to school. It seemed like such a mediocre tradition before, but she was no longer in the before. She was now in the after and she had no idea what that meant for her or her family. Maybe that was what scared her the most. How could she protect them from something that she didn't see coming?

"Get her out of here, Richard. Now."

Joseph's voice was the first thing that managed to cut through the bubble Caroline had found herself in. She turned when her uncle's hold on her loosened, meeting his gaze as she peered up at him. The concern in his dark eyes was plain as day, but she noticed that there was also something lacking from his expression. The shock and confusion that Caroline had expected to find there was absent and she realized her uncles had been expecting it to play out the way it had the whole time.

"You knew…" Caroline murmured. She stepped back, breaking their embrace abruptly and Joe knew that she had finally pieced it together, their family's involvement. She shook her head faintly as she held his gaze. "You all knew."

"You have to get out of here," Joseph said, blatantly ignoring Caroline's revelation.

He wanted to tell her that she was only half-right, that they had gone there thinking that Jason would walk out alive. Clifford Blossom was the one who had turned the tables before anyone could stop him and now there was no going back. Joseph couldn't dwell on the fact that the murder of a teenage boy had happened right under their noses. He only had time to think about how to deal with it. He wanted to blurt the truth to his niece, but there would be a time and a place for them to discuss it and the basement of the Whyte Wyrm was not it. He looked to David and gestured weakly towards their niece. "Get her home."

Unlike he expected, Caroline didn't fight David when he took her by the arm and started to guide her out of the room. There was no reason for it. She had been living with her uncles long enough to know that was nothing she could say or do that would sway them from their decision. They would do what it took to secure their family's future, no matter who it hurt in the end. A part of her wanted to stay, to find out what they were planning to do with Jason's body, but she already knew that she would hate what she would see if she did. Caroline only stopped when she reached the doorway to the next room. Joe pursed his lips into a thin line when she faced him again, the disappointment in her eyes tearing a hole through his heart.

"Make sure you put the body somewhere it'll be found. Jason deserves that much at least," Caroline told him and left her family behind in the basement. Joseph looked at Richard, hoping he could give him form of encouragement, but all he could offer was a weak shake of his head. They had no reason to question her loyalty or willingness to keep what she had seen a secret. Joseph was more worried about whether or not she'd be able to understand why they did what they did.

"I'll drop her off at home and come right back," David said, looking between his older brothers.

"No, take her to our place and stay close," Charlie responded and Joseph nodded in agreement.

"Try to make sure she's actually on board with this," Joe added quietly

"On board with the cover-up of the murder of her childhood friend? That's very fucking unlikely," Charlie said, looking at his brother. He turned to David as he ran a hand over his face. "Just make sure she's okay."

David managed a nod and disappeared into the next room. Richard waited a moment before turning to his brothers. "Do we really think David is the best choice for this?"

Joseph met his gaze and shrugged. "If Caroline isn't handling this as well as she'd like us to believe then David is probably the person who would understand that the best."

"Let's just get this done and then we can all go home and worry about our niece together," Charlie said as he turned to face the corpse of Jason Blossom.

Two months later…

Caroline winced when the high-pitched ringtone belonging to Betty's phone cut through the silence that encased the bedroom. She rolled onto her stomach and grabbed the cell off the nightstand, taking a moment to glance at the bathroom where Betty was getting ready for bed.

"Who is it?" Her friend's voice reached her ears and Caroline glanced down at the screen. She sat up and ran a hand through her hair.

"Kevin," she said. "I'm gonna kill him for disturbing my beauty sleep."

Betty appeared in the doorway of her bathroom still donning her homecoming dress, a smile perched on her lips. "You weren't even asleep. Can you just answer it? He probably wants to know what happened after Cheryl's."

Caroline slid her finger across the screen and put the phone to her ear. "Someone better be dying, Kev."

"Where's Betty?" Kevin asked quickly, ignoring her measly attempt at a joke.

"In the bathroom, getting ready for bed," Caroline answered as she fought off a yawn. "And I was in bed, getting ready for sleep."

Kevin cleared his throat. "Can you put me on speaker? It's important, Caroline."

She did as he asked and waved her best friend over to the bed. Betty walked into the bedroom as she ran a brush through her hair and sat down next to Caroline.

"What is it, Kev?" Betty questioned.

"They found Jason's body. Well, actually I found Jason's body… at Sweetwater River," Kevin revealed.

Caroline swallowed the lump that had formed in the back of her throat the second Jason's name echoed through the phone. Her uncles had been gracious enough to let her know that they expected Jason's body to be found sometime that weekend. She never expected that Kevin would be the one to make the discovery.

"Oh, my god," Betty murmured as she slid off the bed. "I have to tell my parents."

"Go, tell them," Caroline said and picked up the phone, pulling it closer to her mouth. "We'll be there as soon as we can, Kevin."

She hung up the call and swung her legs over the side of the bed, letting her feet dangle above the carpet for a moment. As glad as she was that Jason was finally going to be able to have a real funeral, the unease had begun to set in. She had always been a skilled liar and an even better actress, but this was different. Jason's murder would raise questions that only a select few had the answers to, Caroline being one of them. In order to protect her family and even Jughead's dad, she'd have to keep that truth somewhere no one would uncover them.

"Are you okay, Care?" Betty's voice brought her back to reality in an instant and she met her friend's gaze. She pursed her lips softly and shrugged.

"I don't know," Caroline answered truthfully, knowing that it could be one of the last time that she had a chance to do so. Betty didn't hesitate to close the distance between them and pull Caroline into a hug. She embraced her friend, wrapping her arms around her as she rested her head on Betty's shoulder.

"We'll get through this, Care," Betty whispered and Caroline forced herself to nod.

"I know."

With anything else, Caroline wouldn't have thought twice about trusting Betty with the truth, but this was uncharted territory. Jason Blossom was dead and if the truth came out, she would lose the only family she had left. As much as she'd like to believe she would be strong enough to handle that, she knew she wasn't. Despite her resolve to protect her uncles, she knew the guilt that lingered inside her would never fade. Her friend was dead and her uncles were letting the killer get away with it. There was no way to lessen the sting of that truth.

Caroline had been asking herself for weeks, what the price of her family's crimes would be. Maybe this was it…