Chapter 8

An Epilogue: Out with the Old

He was lost, his mind drifting in and out with every bit of air he took. And still, the familiarity that wrapped around him was almost too recognizable.

Wide open hands under the bends of his knees. Hot breath against the split of his head. A shadow along a jaw, a quake in the muscle, a deep grating voice he was always desperate to hear.

It all built to a half-concocted image of a man who always raised his broken hopes for a fraction of a moment and then-

And then he was tumbling down, back into darkness again, alone. Back downhill, back to reality. Back to where he was still lying in a frozen crumpled pile. Still waiting for no one to come because this was a Riverdale that -

"What are you doing?"

Archie, whose hands were gently placed on the sides of the laptop bouncing on his knee, went scrambling to catch the device before it tumbled to the the tiled floor in his surprise. Catching it upside down in one hand with half his body hanging from the bed, he slowly turned to meet the squinting eyes of his friend.

"Were you reading my stuff?"

Archie cringed. Though, Jughead's tone was flat and without anything that sounded like he was pissed.

"… if I said it was good, would that make it okay?" Archie asked, settling the open laptop back in the space where the thin hospital blanket spooled around the pillows. He stood from the bed and shifted weight between his feet. Jughead blew a sigh upward that jostled his bangs, so Archie added: "You need help?"

"No," Jughead answered and then seemed to immediately rethink it. "I mean, 'no it wouldn't be okay." He leaned back to place a hand on the door knob he had just pulled closed. "But," a smirk appeared and Archie found himself returning it, "I think I'll get it over it as long as you don't tell the nurse that I fell on my ass in there." He jostled the door knob that led to the bathroom. Archie was already across the room before Jughead could finish with a mumbled, "But, uh, yeah, if you could just let me lean on you again."

"You fell?" Archie repeated, a panicky thump catching in his chest as his eyes darted over every inch of his friend. The pallor of Jughead's cheeks and forehead swelling had definitely improved with the full day he had spent resting, but his chest was still painted in angry splotches of red and purple. He was also carting around the patch of white gauze that was covering the hole for the (recently removed) tube for his lung.

While Archie hadn't heard anything from the bathroom, besides the sink and toilet flushing, he knew Jughead wasn't one for crowd drawing theatrics - especially when it came to his own pain - and he couldn't exactly miss how Jughead was curling around his injured side.

So he offered an arm. "Are you sure we shouldn't call the nurse?" He nearly lost his balance when Jughead took said arm and leaned all his weight against it. "Jug."

"I'm sure . It's bad enough having you drag my ass back and forth, but having some sixty year old woman hold me up while I piss? Yeah, I'd rather break my neck on the toilet." Jughead tried to contribute with a single leg as they shuffled back to the hospital bed. Archie had almost forgotten the sprained ankle in the wake of all the other shit Jughead was suffering with.

Once at the mattress, Jughead settled back against the pillows, a deep exhale leaving him. Archie pulled up his usual chair and gave Jughead his best Betty-look, which meant he ignored the joke and went straight back to the point.

"But you're okay?" he asked, watching Jughead's chest rise and fall, searching for a hint of pain across his friend's features.

Jughead shook his head and then turned to the machine that held an oxygen mask, "You collapse your lung once …"

"I'm pretty sure once is all it takes," Archie couldn't help the laugh that snuck out of him. "Especially when you could collapse it again falling on your ass because you're too embarrassed to pee in front of an old lady that probably doesn't give a shit."

Jughead snorted.

"She's probably seen worse dude," Archie offered.

"Oh wow, thanks for the confidence."

"I'm talking about... I'm not talking about your stupid dick!"

A real laugh broke from Jughead as Archie hit him on the arm while fighting the near hysterics that were bubbling up his throat.

"I think that pain medicine is finally going to your head," Archie chuckled, falling back into the chair.

Jughead opened his laptop that had folded shut in the fake tussle. A few coughs broke from his mouth and he rubbed his chest before he responded.

"Whatever I'm on I need more of it," he said with a hand carefully around his bruised ribs. It'd be another hour before he could have anymore medication. He turned to Archie with a ridiculously serious expression. "Actually I changed my mind, call the nurse. Tell her I fell on my ass. I'll just tell her my best friend Archibald offered to accompany me while I piss - then , maybe I'll let you off the hook for reading my shit."

"Yeah, you do that and after she drugs you again I'll tell her you actually meant to say Betty ."

"Pretty sure you'll lose both me and Betty as friends if you pulled that," Jughead smirked before turning to start typing away.

Archie followed with a soft closed mouth laugh and let the conversation end. The quiet of the room was sweeping over them again and he couldn't bring himself to disturb it.

They'd been like this before. Ever since Alice Cooper had shown up and Betty had been convinced to head home. (She hadn't actually been convinced. She'd only agreed from what Archie heard from the hall; to go home to shower and change before she was "... coming right back to the hospital, Mom. If I have to walk that's fine by me . I'm staying with Jughead. ") And since Fred had come back with a bag of stuff, it had been the two of them. The room was without a tv or radio, and Jughead had been without the breath to talk, so Archie had enjoyed the peace and quiet by playing on his newly charged phone while Jughead typed away.

Up until the point Jughead had awkwardly asked for help getting to the bathroom.

Archie grabbed his phone from the side table where he'd left it. The soothing clicks of a keyboard filled the room and even without checking the screen, with the curtains drawn closed over the single room window, he swore he could feel the time. Or at least, he was starting to feel how long they'd been here.

He was definitely feeling it in his back.

"Ugh," Archie groaned, stretching backwards until his neck could crack. "Do you think there'll be school tomorrow?"

"Probably," Jughead answered not turning from his laptop screen. "Doubt Weatherbee will go for two snow days in a row."

Archie dropped his elbows to his knees, and opened his phone.

1:18 PM

It wasn't that he was particularly enjoying sitting in a cramped hospital room for almost seven hours straight, it was just…

He cleared his throat before asking: "They're keeping you here until Saturday, right?" Though he already knew that. He had wandered from Jughead's room early this morning just to arrive at the front desk when the doctor was giving FP and his dad what was apparently his non-negotiable opinion: Jughead would be stuck in the hospital for two days.

"So says the doc," Jughead replied. "At least now I've got the weekend to finish that lab report. Guess you'll have to suffer through science alone tomorrow."

Archie placed his phone back onto the side table.

"Yeah, that is, if I actually go in tomorrow," he said with as much lightness as he could, hoping Jughead would read the air. He did, and stopped mulling over whatever sentence he'd just written to raise his brows and blink before meeting Archie's eyes. The look on his face was holding all the features of annoyance but Archie knew well enough what they were hiding.

Jughead's eyes seemed to be looking for something. "You know you don't have to stay here right?"

Archie felt the ghost of a hand clench around his own and the chill of snow draw across his knees. He looked Jughead dead in the eye and relieved the entire night.

"Yeah, I know."

A noise responded, but Archie opened his mouth again before Jughead could get another thing out.

"And Betty knows too."

Jughead seemed to shrug or shift awkwardly as if he didn't know. Archie almost sighed all the air from his lungs.

"Come on Jug, do you really think Betty's not going to stay? It's Betty. She's probably coming back with a sleeping bag so she can camp out on the floor until Saturday night. We know we don't have to stay."

A pause sat between them. Jughead moved to rub his hand down the left half of his face.

"She really would bring a sleeping bag."

"Yeah, she would." Archie reached across to grasp Jughead's shoulder. A quake ran across it.

You know I would too, he wanted to say, as Jughead's breath got choppy, and he moved a hand to skim across the bruised patterns of skin along his ribs. You know how fucking terrified I was, right? He wanted to ask, as Jughead's fingers traced around the bandages stuck to his chest.

Instead, the screen of Jughead's laptop turned to black, hiding the work Jughead had done and reminding Archie of the words he almost couldn't believe were there.

-waiting for no one to come

His fingers clenched around the collar of Jughead's unbuttoned hospital shirt while he fought to get his voice beyond a whisper.

"You didn't really think that...did you?"

Jughead seemed to speak over something lodged in his throat. "Think what?"

"That no one was coming."

That no one cared.

A choked sound, like a laugh or a cough, echoed around the hospital room. Jughead trembled under his hand. "I can't believe you read my shit, I-" Jughead cracked over the end of what was the closest thing Archie had ever heard of a sob from him. Archie felt his throat close. Jughead shuddered in a short breath. "I don't-" he stopped. "It's-"

Archie couldn't help himself and interrupted: "You've got me. And Betty, and my dad." He could hear the thousands of things he needed to say bouncing around his head, the things that had started the moment he'd run outside in a panic, realizing his best friend was gone. Instead, his mouth held shut and he let his chair break the silence they had been keeping as its legs scratched across the floor, closer to the bed.

With one arm he pulled Jughead towards him.

"I'm sorry, Jug."

Within a second Jughead folded, and an arm was snaking around Archie's back. In the space above his shoulder Archie heard him say: "Me too."

Archie sniffled, his head clunked Jughead's in their hug, and he lost whatever he was going to say.

He settled on, "This sucks," before pulling back in time to see Jughead wipe the heel of his palm across his eyes.

"Yeah, it… does."

Archie rubbed the corner of his cheek, smearing the dampness as Jughead held a frown and shifted focus to the laptop sitting at his legs. Archie found his attention drawn the same way, and he figured, to the same place Jughead was zeroing in on.

The dented, jagged corner of his laptop that had left the top of the laptop screen with a spider web of splintering glass. It was the smoking gun of Jughead's hit and run and the reason Archie had been looking at the laptop to begin with - before being drawn to the opened word document on it - to inspect another piece of damage from the previous night.

He knew they were supposed to feel lucky, or maybe relieved, that Jughead's messenger bag had been found - and he did, he had felt lucky. When Fred had walked into the room just after Betty had left, a plastic bag of goods he'd grabbed from a stop at the house in hand - Archie's phone charger obviously included but also clothes and a better pillow for Jughead's neck - it had nearly distracted them from the other bag dangling from his shoulder.

His dad had stopped by the station too.

"I just told your dad," Fred had said, placing the bag onto the bed. "They're being officially charged."

Archie had stared blankly at Jughead, Fred, and the bag, and then the laptop as Jughead had pulled it out. No one had said anything so his dad had continued, hovering closer to Archie's chair.

"Keller's coming by again to officially question you, if you're up for it."

A strange swirling had filled Archie's head and he'd followed Jughead's fingers as they brushed the cracks of his laptop screen.

"Why?" Jughead had asked.

"They found your bag in the trunk of the car," Fred said and Archie felt things fall horribly into place and then out when his father continued. "Or rather, Chuck told Keller they'd hid it in the trunk… after he confessed."

Jughead's head whirled up.

"Confessed…? Chuck- He did ?" Archie had croaked out while Jughead's mouth had dropped silently. The three of them - him, Jughead, and Betty - they'd all agreed that Chuck and his friend would probably lie to the cops until their faces turned white, or until Coach Clayton bailed them out and FP's call for justice was snuffed out.

But the look that had crossed Fred's face and disappeared into his eyes had that thought dying and still lying at their feet along with the prickling numbness of the entire night.

"Apparently… they thought Jughead was..."

He hadn't finished the thought.

Looking at the damaged laptop now, though, rather than lucky or thankful or relieved, Archie just felt like it was another reminder. Every time Jughead opened his laptop to try and do the thing he loved, he would be reminded of how he'd almost died that night. And how he'd thought he would die alone .

Maybe if he wasn't so tired, Archie might've felt sickened with anger again at that thought, or maybe felt pleased to know that Chuck was getting what he deserved with every second he sat in the Riverdale station.

A throat clearing cough pulled him from focusing on the black dented plastic cover. Jughead was staring at him, the slant of his mouth rising.

"Hey," he started and Archie wobbled back and forth in his chair when Jughead gave him a shove at the elbow. "At least...it still works, right?"

Archie raised a brow. "Since when were you the positive one?"

Jughead shrugged leaning into Archie's shoulder. "Since you looked like you were going to cry just from staring at my mac book- which I appreciate. I mean, really, the cracked screen is a true tragedy." His voice rolled lowly, like it usually did when he was finding himself funny. Archie started to feel a smile settling on his face.

"But it's good, my dad, he-" Jughead cleared his throat, "He said he'd cover it."

"Really?"

His mind drifted back to FP who was probably still hunched over the front desk, looking pale - though with less of a tension and fury in his face ever since Fred had come back with the news - as he shifted through the plethora of papers the nurses kept dropping into his lap.

At least one of those papers had to be a bill.

And Archie probably wasn't doing a good job of hiding how his mind was trying to align FP replacing a laptop with hospital bills, a trailer in Sunnyside park, and the fact that it was already agreed that Jughead was still going to be staying with them for the seeable future-

Two knocks saved him from whatever Jughead was starting to say about the look on his face and they pulled slightly apart to turn to the noise. The main hallway door opened and in leaned FP, not fully entering the room beyond putting forward a foot.

"Speak of the devil," Jughead snorted, throwing Archie slightly as he thought it. "Hey, Dad. What's up?"

"Hey," FP replied, his hand pressing against the door frame, he looked to the bedside where the oxygen machine sat. "Shouldn't you be wearin' that?"

Archie straightened, cracking his fingers on the arm of his chair, while Jughead tapped a knuckle to the metal contraption in question. "It was suggested."

"Don't mess around, Jug. Doctor tells you to wear it - then you better." FP stepped further into the room, though made no move to make the final few steps to the bed. "But... you sound better. How's the..." He gestured with a loose hand to Jughead's chest, though with the distance it was like he meant the bed and maybe even Archie's foot included.

"Uh, yeah, it's good," Jughead glanced down to the white patch on his chest, his palm resting over it, like he meant to hide it. A grimace crossed his face when he did.

"'Good,' huh?" FP turned and looked at him, and any promises between friends were gone as the man looked at him with eyes too clear and too like his own father's.

"He fell in the bathroom," Archie volunteered.

"Dude!"

"I never actually agreed to not saying anything about it!"

"You fell?" FP repeated brows shooting up and wrinkling his hairline. He took the remain steps to reach the foot of the bed.

Archie ignored the aura of betrayal coming from the bed. "Don't look at me like that," he said to Jughead's scowl and the words he was mouthing - something along the lines of not cool and sixty year old nurse. "He doesn't want the nurse to help him in the bathroom," he explained to FP which earned him a shove from Jughead.

FP's whole face squinted at that. "You serious, Jughead?"

"It's not a big deal, I just don't-"

" I don't care if you're embarrassed. Jesus, I'll hold your ass up if it keeps you from killing yourself!" FP nearly hissed, running a hand down his face and then through his hair. "God, boy."

"It wasn't that bad," Jughead said. Then, turning to Archie, he added in an undertone: " Thanks , man."

"But it was still bad," Archie answered, ignoring that last part. "You shouldn't risk it, Jug."

Jughead began picking at the tape lining around the gauze on his chest, though his eyes remained locked to FP who pressed the lines of his jaw with two fingers until they met at his chin.

"Should I… do you need something for the pain?" FP asked, the question becoming soft by the end.

Archie was prepared to interrupt Jughead if he refused but he turned to see his friend nod. "...yeah, but maybe you could leave out the whole falling bit."

"I'll leave out the room you fell in. Sorry but, the rest you're not getting out of."

Jughead exhaled half as dramatically as he usually did - though that could have been the recovering lung or the fact that his eyes were shining as if he were thankful for the shutdown.

FP clapped a hand to Jughead's shoulder, moving slightly into Archie's space. "Guess, I'll tell 'em to come back later."

Archie, scooted his chair back, from the bed, keeping his knee from clunking FP's leg.

"Who? Sheriff Keller?" It had been long enough. It figured that the Sheriff was back for Jughead's side of the story. Not that he really needed it now, with Chuck's apparent breakdown.

Jughead shifted back down in the bed, FP's hand following him halfway before he pulled away.

"Yeah, he's here, but he brought along…" FP looked over his shoulder to the door. "I left them waiting at the desk - wasn't sure if you wanted the company, besides Red, here, and well, Betty , obviously," he chuckled at that.

"Wait, brought along who?" Jughead asked.

There may have been a knock of warning but a sudden cheerful answer drowned it out.

"Two of your favorite people of course!" said another voice.

Archie cracked and pulled every inch of his sore neck as it swiveled towards the doorway. Not that he thought much of it when he was met with a glowing smile peeking over a small bundle of flowers. He hadn't even realized he'd shot up and out his chair, but he had, and now he was tripping around it and FP.

"Ronnie? What're you doing here?" Archie could feel his cheeks pinch upwards, the knot in his chest untangle and then twist into something warm.

"Hope we're not interrupting," Veronica said, stepping out of the doorway, letting Kevin appear and slide into the room - half his face eclipsed by a scarf.

"You say that like we weren't listening the entire time," Kevin said with a tug to his scarf.

Veronica moved straight across the room, placing the flowers softly onto the side table by the bed. "These are for you, Jughead," she said, spreading the stems apart. "I know bright, happy, and colorful isn't really your brand, which is why I went with what Betty would like."

"No, it's-" Jughead started, and then cleared his throat. His eyes were glued to the bundle of pink and white daisies - which obviously had Betty in mind, though the plaid printed ribbon and wrapping paper said otherwise. Archie smirked, watching as Jughead noticed the detail, his chin wobbling. "It's… nice, thanks."

Jughead pressed his lips firmly together and the quiet hung for a moment, letting a rap of knuckles on the metal end of the bed interrupt.

FP shoved his hand into his jacket pocket, glancing to Jughead and then at Archie and Veronica until he blinked, focusing back on the entire group. "I'm gonna go see if they'll give you another dose, and maybe bother your old man," he said, turning to Kevin. "Give you guys the chance to catch up, and all that."

"Oh, uh, yeah, thanks, Dad," Jughead replied, sitting up again.

Archie said: "Thanks, Mr. Jones," as the strange tension he hadn't even noticed, began to leave the room, or at least leave Veronica's shoulders, as FP gave a last look and a small shrug of acknowledgment before he left the room. It was just the four of them.

Archie offered his chair to Veronica, which she accepted with a press of her hand to his arm.

"So…" Kevin drawled, pulling over the empty chair that Betty had previously occupied, once he realized everyone was settling in. "I may have gotten the back-cover summary from my dad, but besides your whole broken torso, you don't look too bad for someone who got- am I allowed to say it? Or are we just doing that thing where it festers for all eternity and we never mention it again?"

"It's fine, Kev," Jughead said, pulling his laptop from its spot on the bed and placing it next to the flowers to his right. "Besides, on the list of shit I've dealt with, this doesn't even make the top five. "

"You know, just you saying that makes everything seem worse," Kevin moaned. "Personally, just hearing that Chuck Clayton almost flattened you - I mean, really, that's the level we're dealing with here - but this makes number three on my list."

Veronica threw a leg over the other and leaned an elbow heavily onto the armrest closest to Jughead. "You know, Jughead, it might be healthy to drop the self-deprecation and sarcasm and just embrace the fact that this is the epitome of one of the worst things that can happen to someone."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not one to skip a day of dark humor. And trust me: worst things can always happen."

"Well, times are changing," Veronica said, brushing something off the black stocking over her knee. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not one to make a guest appearance at a hospital with flowers for a friend… but then my dad turned my friendship with Ethel into a trainwreck and I ended up with Betty at the reception desk."

Archie grimaced while Veronica kept a straight face. He moved to sit against the side table - careful of the flowers and laptop when both Veronica and Jughead gave him a look.

"Then Kevin calls to tell me that you three were having a 24-hour life crisis, all while we were sleeping in on a snow day," Veronica sighs. "Next thing you know I'm calling our family's florist and sitting in the back of Sheriff Keller's police car - honestly, I'm not sure what is what since I moved here."

"Funny enough," Kevin said, with an almost perfect straight face, "I too have no idea what is what since you moved here."

Jughead let out a breathy sort of laugh. "Guess that's one thing we can agree on."

Archie smiled down at his feet, his ruined converse sneakers an inch away from the shiny black tips of Veronica's heeled boots. His jeans brushed against the white thin blanket of Jughead's bed. "You know, that's probably the one change I'm okay with," he said, and peered up to see a small smile Jughead was fighting to hide.

"Oh!"

Archie turned his head slowly to the door, as a high startled voice joined the mix. He didn't really have to look up to know who it was.

Veronica was already out of the chair and on her feet, almost running to the door.

"B! I cannot believe you!" she chided. "Romeo here goes damsel in distress and not once did you think to call!"

Veronica threw her arms around the shoulders of a backwards moving Betty, seemingly preparing for the impact. A mild look of horror passed through her eyes, but a smile split her face soon after.

"By the way," Veronica added, "don't check your phone, it may crash with the amount of messages I sent."

Betty giggled, wiggling from Veronica's grasp. "Little late for that! But, I think it was all the voicemails Kevin sent me that did it in."

"I was worried!" Kevin protested, standing from the chair to approach the two girls.

Betty shifted her arms and bag of some kind that was against her chest. "I probably should have predicted that one way or another you two would show up."

"Actually, we were just talking about how nothing is predictable in Riverdale anymore - possibly caused by Veronica moving here - so you definitely shouldn't have, Betts," Jughead teased and Archie moved to sit next to Jughead's legs as Betty broke free of Veronica's grip.

"What can I say? I'm an anomaly!" Veronica declared, following Kevin back to his chair on the opposite side of the room.

As Betty came close to the bedside Jughead reached a hand up from the blankets to grasp her fingers as they moved from the bag at her chest, which held a familiar coloring.

"Betty, is that…?" Archie tried, feeling his shoulder loosen with a nostalgic calm as the red and green of the Pop's chock'lit shoppe logo on the white paper bag unraveled from Betty's arms and was dropped onto the bed.

"Yep, it is," she answered, though still looking at Jughead with her hand in his, "I made my mom stop at Pop's on the way back to thank him for everything, and to pick up some lunch. He was really sweet and gave it to me on the house." She looked between the two. "You haven't eaten yet, right?"

"Nope, not since lunch, yesterday," Archie said, realizing an ache was now screaming in his stomach.

"Betty, there is literally no person better than you," Jughead said right as Betty pulled two burgers out and placed them into his hand. "I'm pretty sure they have to make you a saint after this." Archie watched, a chuckle shaking his chest as she then pulled another burger out and placed it into his lap. She peered up to where Kevin was perched on the armrest of his chair, which Veronica was now sitting in. Both of them already absorbed in a separate conversation.

"Kev, V? There's some extra food if you're interested?"

"I'm good, thanks, B," Veronica answered. "Feel free to donate all my helpings to the Jughead fund."

Kevin paused, eyeing the bag, before asking, "Does it make me horrible person if I take some now?"

Betty laughed and stood, bringing the bag to the other side for Kevin to rifle through. Jughead watched until his attention dropped to unwrap one of the burgers in his hand.

Archie held his burger as the laughter of his three friends filled the room, but made no move to unwrap it. Instead, he reached over and put a steady hand on Jughead's ankle as he took the first bite of their hours late dinner.

Author's Note:

Wow. As raptorlily said, this feels like an end of an era. My very first multichapter fic every is complete! I hope you all enjoyed it! Please let me know what you think of this final chapter and the story as a whole! Feedback is always appreciated!

And, although Keeping the Old is done I do have two multichapter fics coming soon that you may be interested in (especially you angst fans, I see ya, and I appreciate ya) Here's the ones that'll be coming soon:
1. Spider-Jug (aka Jughead is Spider-man, and yes this is 100% self-indulgent)
2. An AU I like to call Dead-Jughead (there's a theme here with a word, hyphen, and then Jughead)
3. And my already posted road trip fic which I will be continuing soon!

I've also got some new oneshots planned too so stick around if you're interested!

(I'm also on tumblr as createandconstruct - feel free to say hi and ask any fic questions!)