A few days later Angel stands in front of the Jones trailer late at night after she couldn't sleep. Knocking on the door, she realizes either FP isn't home or he's already knocked out so she takes the extra key he gave her a while back and steps into the dirty home, walking into the second bedroom and cuddling up in the sheets, trying to sleep again.

But not long after, the front door opens and she hears two voices she knows too well. One is FP's voice, slurring while the other one belongs to his son, Jughead who talks to his father but suddenly stops midway, the man probably asleep.

As the door to the room opens and the lights turn on, Angel sits up, scaring the boy as he didn't expect to see anyone in his old bedroom. "What are you doing here?" the two ask at the same time, the girl pulling the sheets over her silk nightgown. "I sometimes sleep here when I have a nightmare" she tells him the truth patting the mattress besides her to silently tell him to sit down. "How did you even get in here?" he asks, taking his shoes and jacket off to lie behinds the girl. "Your dad gave me a key about a year ago." Questionable he looks at her.

"My mom and your dad were best friends in high school and I invited him to her funeral a few years ago. Since then he sometimes took care of me when I visited Riverdale and had a fallout with Cheryl or Jason" she finally tells the boy who never knew about the girl before she walked into school a couple of weeks back. "I'm sorry about your mom." "Thanks, but it's okay, she loved her life and fought for it until her last breath. She's in heaven now."

The two just lie there for a while, enjoying the moment while looking at each other, without saying anything.

"Do you want to talk about it?" "About what?" Angel asks the boy in a whisper. "Your nightmare, maybe it helps." "Something happened about two years ago and I witnessed it and sometimes I dream about it but it's okay" she tells him, not wanting to get into details.

"How are your mom and sister?" she changes the topic having heard a bit earlier as he talked to his father. "They're good. My mom takes online classes to get her GED and Jellybean helps her study. Or JB how she wants to be called now, she's ten already" he tells her, a small smile on his lips. "That sounds nice. I'm sure you will all find back together" she says, her eyes slowly closing.

"Your dad always talks about you. He's really proud of you, even if he doesn't show it." Looking at the girl as she falls asleep, he keeps repeating what she just said in his mind. "Good night, Rosella" he whispers, closing his eyes as well, falling into a deep slumber.

—

"Thanks for not throwing me out last night" the girl says as the two make their way to school the next morning, stopping at Pop's for a little breakfast on the way. "Of course." "Can I ask you something?" Expectantly Jughead looks at her. "Where do you live? I know you don't live with FP" she questions. "I lived at the drive-in a while until it got shut down and since then I live here and there" he tells her after a moment. "What do you mean with here and there?" "The closet under the steps in school" he honestly replies, stopping her in her tracks. "You what? Jughead..." Angel is shocked, she thought he maybe lives with Archie but not in the school in an old closet.

"You can live with me, if you want. I know, we don't know each other for a long time, but I don't want you to stray around." "Thanks, but Archie talked to his dad and I may stay with them for a while" Jughead tells her what his best friend proposed yesterday. "My offer stands. My doors are always open for you, Forsythe" she smiles at the boy as the duo step into the school, him walking towards the Blue and Gold and her looking for Cheryl.

"Morning Little Red... Tia, Gina" Angel greets her best friend who's standing next to Tia and Gina. "Good morning Angel" the girls greet her as Angel hands the red head a beverage from Pop's. "Strawberry milkshake for a good start in the morning" she tells her, sipping on her coffee.

"So, how are you holding up?" Cheryl asks after sending her two minions away, taking a sip of her milkshake. "With Polly's pregnancy" she adds. "I'm good." Skeptically Cheryl looks at her. "Okay, I had a breakdown when I found out about it yesterday morning but I'm all good now. I forgave Jason which means I'll forgive her too and now that she's pregnant, I feel like Jason is not completely... gone" Angel tells her friend, playing with the straw of her iced-coffee.

Pointing at something behind the brunette, Angel turns around to see what her best friend is looking at, just to see Jughead getting escorted out of school from the Sheriff and their principle. "Oh Hell" she exclaims, pushing her coffee into Cheryls hand to look for Archie or Betty, or both.

"What's happening?" she asks as she finds the two a hallway further down. "I don't know, but I'm trying to call FP" Archie tells her. "We have to go get him out of there" the brunette states as the three rush down to the station while trying to reach FP.
"Jughead got taken for questioning. You have to come down to the station as fast as possible. He needs you!" Angel speaks onto the man's voicemail as he still doesn't answer.

"You have to let Jughead go" Archie exclaims as the three enter the station, Sheriff Keller walking out of an interrogation room where they see a glimpse of the said boy. "I can't do that, we're holding him for questioning" the man tells the teens while Angel tries to walk past him to the room. "You can't go in there." "I can and I will or I'll call my lawyer, David Bienvenu* and I don't think you want him here" she growls as she walks past the Sheriff into the room where she hugs the boy who has tears brimming his eyes.

"I didn't do it, Angel. You have to believe me" he says as they sit down. "I know, Jug. Jason may haven't been the nicest and I don't know how he was towards you, and we may not know each other long enough, but I know that you wouldn't do something like that" she states with a calm voice. "Well, those Paradise Lost kids went to death row, because they wore black and listened to Metallica. I don't want to be a scapegoat" he tells her, taking a deep breath to not break into tears. "I'm not going to let that happen. We all won't let that happen, Jug."

"All  the evidence against you is circumstantial. We're going to get you out of here." "Is my dad here yet?"  he asks, changing the subject. "Archie's here with his dad. And Betty is here. They're talking to the sheriff" she answers, taking his hand in hers, squeezing it. "We don't know where FP is" she whispers, not wanting to tell him as she sees his broken eyes.

They stay like this a while before Angel stands up. "I'm getting you out of here, Jug. Just give me ten minutes maximum, I promise" she states, pressing a kiss onto his cheek. "Rosella" he speaks up as she is about to open the door. "Yeah?" Turning around to look at him, she softly smiles at the boy. "Thank you." "Of course, Jug, that's what friends are for." With that she leaves the room, looking for the sheriff who's just about to finish his conversation with Mr. Andrews.

"Sheriff Keller?" the girl calls, getting the mens attentions. "I'm paying Jughead's bail" she tells them, earning shocked looks from the two. "That's a lot of money for a teen" Mr. Andrews remarks. "That doesn't matter. He's my friend and he shouldn't be in there. I want to pay it, please Sheriff." "You don't have to pay anything. He's free to go. Mr. Andrews just told me about his alibi."

Not even ten minutes later Jughead is free to go. The five of them are leaving the station just when FP walks up to them.
"Jughead" he calls out, earning their attention as they stop in front of each other. "Sorry. I came as soon as I got your messages" he stutters a bit, looking as ruff as ever. "My phone, the freaking battery. I forgot to plug it in last night."

"What the hell happened?" he asked after a moment. "Nothing. It's fine now" Jughead answers, annoyed and hurt about his father not showing up when he needed him the most. "Mr. Andrews took care of it." "What crap did they accuse you of in there, huh? Those bastards trying to throw you in jail like they did your old man? Well, screw that!" he exclaims. "I'll rip Keller a new one for trying to pull that on you-" he voices aggressive as he tries walking past the group but getting stopped from Mr. Andrews.

"FP, settle down" the man states calmly. "Hey! Hey! He's my son. He's my son, Fred! You'd do the same for your boy" "FP, stop it!" Angel calls out, getting in the way of him as he tries to walk into the station once more. "Dad" the boy speaks up, standing next to the girl, grabbing the man's flannel. "Don't make things worse" he pleads. "Please."

Nodding the man steps back. "Yeah, all right, then. You..." he starts as he walks away. "You coming home with me?" he asks his son, walking through the group.
"He can stay with us, Mr. Jones" Archie speaks up, stopping the man in his tracks as his eyes turn redder as they were before with suppressed tears. "We already offered." "Is that what you want?" When Jughead doesn't answer, FP speaks up again. "Maybe that's for the best, if... If you don't mind, Fred." "Whatever you want, FP" he tells his old high school friend. "It's between the two of you."

"I'll go with you, dad" Jughead says, choking up a bit as he walks towards his father while his friends look after him while the two speak with each other.

"Son, listen to me" FP begins, breathing deeply so he won't cry. "I'm gonna do what you want and get my act together. I'm gonna get your mom and Jellybean home so we're all under the same roof. I promise. But I just need a little time to do that. Not a lot. Not long. A month, two at the most" he tells him. "Then we'll be back on track, all right? You... You believe that, don't you?" he asks his son, holding him, while looking into his eyes, showing him he's serious about what he said. "Yeah. I believe you, Dad."

Hope. A word so close to "home", and as tricky.
As much as we wanted Jason's killer caught and the town, our home, to feel safe again, with every day that passed, our hopes dimmed more and more. There's this old clichéd saying: "It's darkest before the dawn". But sometimes, there's just darkness.

* David Bienvenu - best lawyer in the USA