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Jerk of Hearts, Queen of Spades	By : xyggimartak Category: Comics > Archie & Co. Views: 4306 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: All characters and related concepts copyright Archie Comic Publications, Inc. This is a not-for-profit work of fanfiction.

Chapter List
- 12
- 13
- 14
________________________________Chapter 13

Everyone turned to the rear of the car, and nobody was more shocked than Midge to find Moose Mason standing there, a chef's apron around his midsection. Understandably, everyone gathered had been too preoccupied with the subject matter at hand to notice the arrival of the quarterback. "Hey, youse guys."

"What the heck are you wearing?" Jughead asked.

"I'm washin' dishes down at the Pizza Panic," he said with a slow shrug. "Tryin' to earn some extra dough for a used car. Betty and Reggie didn't notice me in the booth next to 'em on my break, and I heard 'em talkin' about doing this, so I came right over when my shift was done."

"Moose..." Midge swiped furiously at her eyes. "What do you mean, you knew? How could you know?"

Giant shoulders shrugged as he stepped forward, ignoring everybody but his former love. "Everybody thinks I'm a lot dumber than I am. I'm not stupid..."

"...just slow," she finished for him, sniffling. "Which means you take the time to catch things other people miss. Oh, Moose..."

"You really went out with her, knowing she was a dude?" Chuck asked warily.

"Don't make no difference," he said with a shrug. "Midge is Midge. She could be a three-legged chicken and I'd love her. 'Cause she's a beautiful person... and real easy on the eyes. That don't hurt."

"And that's why I never had any problem with her dating Marmaduke," Miss Little said gruffly, jabbing a thumb over her shoulder at the new arrival. "I knew he was a young man of good character, and that he would defer to my daughter's best interests if and when she chose to share her condition with him. This cur, however..."

"I told you, though," Betty said, "Reggie's not some horrible man-beast!"

"W-ell," Chuck said, "I dunno.... I can see how she'd be more worried about Reggie than Moose in that sense..."

"That's true," Archie affirmed. "I mean, sure, WE know him well enough to see he's a good guy deep down... really deep down... really, really, REALLY deep d-"

"Oh, I'm loving all this undying support," Reggie muttered.

"I still can't believe this," Veronica babbled numbly. "You blew me off... for a guy in a skirt..." Nancy stepped on her shoe, and she cried, "OW! What the heck was that?!"

"A warning, girl," Nancy said in a carrying whisper. "If you want functioning toes, you better sew it up."

"All you know is Reggie's reputation," Ethel informed their opponent. "If you knew HIM, you'd know he's not the kind of guy who'd take advantage of anybody's disability or condition - certainly not if it's really going to hurt them. It's only superficial things he manipulates; a fast buck, a cheap laugh..."

"Thanks a heap, Stilts," he snapped. "Why don't you just lock me in your E-Z Bake and broil me? You always did have it in for me..."

"Why do you think I keep testing you all the time?" she said with a raised eyebrow. "Gotta be protective of my best girl-friend; and you passed when you refused to let the cat out of the bag, even with me pushing. Keeping you honest and modest is almost a full-time job."

He didn't know what to say to that.

"Reg is the better man for Midge," Moose said sadly. Now everybody was looking at him again, especially Reggie. Where was THIS coming from? "You know, maybe he was just tryin' to make up for stealin' my girl, but... he was a real pal when I was down in the dumps over it. Made me stop mopin' around and start tryin' to get into college; I gotta get my grades up or I ain't gonna make it."

"Don't say he's better than you," Midge choked out. "That's... that's not what it is, you know that, right?"

"He is - for you. He ain't too jealous like I can get... an' he's not so slow on the uptake. I knew you was always havin' to slow down for me, an' now you don't have to." The awkward smile on his face only twisted the knife. "'Cause Reggie's the fastest talker in Riverdale."

"I resemble that remark," he told him, breaking into a grateful grin.

"This is more than I can bear," Miss Little said in a quiet voice. "You're really all trying to tell me that... even though he's a self-absorbed, spineless, amoral pig with greedy eyes and a lecherous heart... somehow, he's not the worst candidate for my daughter's affections? He'll turn her into his own personal prostitute!"

"REPUTATION," Ethel said once more.

"The thing you don't realize," Betty said, "is that Reggie is all those things. But he's also passionate, well-rounded, self-assured... and loyal to a fault. This kind of proves that he will literally do anything for his friends."

"That quick wit we always complain about?" Archie said with a laugh. "It's because he's pretty sharp. I bet he scores a full ride for at least one Ivy with his natural athletic AND academic abilities. Me, I'll be lucky if I get into a state school."

"And I'll be lucky if I get into a vocational school," Moose followed up.

"I've seen them together," Betty said quietly, a tear rolling down her cheek. "And they are really, really together. Inseperably together. You trying to undo them is like trying to put a leather jacket back on the cow. It's just too late; they've got it bad."

Ethel shrugged. "None of us ratted; not a single one of us who found out told another of us. Sorry to point this out, ma'am, but Reggie's right; you're the only one who tried to blow it wide open. Which makes you the one who failed Midge."

She was huffing and puffing by now, outraged that she was being treated this way, that no one sided with her. She turned to look at Midge, betrayal in her eyes... and Midge looked away. It seemed that the exposure of her secret to such a large gathering had meant she had fallen out of her daughter's favor. With that, she turned back to the crowd at large. "Wonderful. In this accursed stage play you're writing, you are the good guys, and I am the villain. Mark it down in your diaries. But none of that means I won't pack this family up and move it away from such poor influences."

"You know," Dilton said, "Midge has every right to file to be an emancipated minor; she's of age to do so."

"What?!"

Nancy nodded, pleased with this line of thinking. "And then she could keep going to Riverdale, and you could move anywhere you want. She wouldn't need you anymore."

"But- that's- NO! You can't seriously be entertaining the thought of a girl so young as she living on her lonesome, trying to take on rent and bills and groceries! ATOP her studies! She'll fall apart in seconds flat - no, that will never work, I won't allow that; she hasn't the funding!"

"She could stay in our poolhouse," Veronica volunteered. At the wealth of skeptical looks, she rolled her eyes and said, "Fine, so I don't really understand her being a man who looks that good in a halter top and capris, but Midge is still one of us. What good is my daddy's vast fortune if I can't use it for something good once in a great while?"

"Y-you..." Midge's watery eyes moved all over, staring the gathering of individuals who cared so much about her. "This... this is... are you sure? Even with me lying... and me being... and none of you are..."

"We're hurt," Jughead told her easily, not sounding the least bit hurt. "We'll get over that part easy enough. But how can we all make up later if you take the last train to Nowheresville?"

Midge could find no more words.

"What's it going to be?" Reggie demanded sternly, arms sweeping wide to indicate the cavalry regiment behind him. "Ruin her life... or let her live?"

The woman was completely and utterly speechless. Her mouth opened and closed several times, and every time her eyes focused on one of their friends, that person folded their arms to reinforce their solidarity. After what felt like years, she turned to Midge and whispered, "All right. I'm not going to win here; these brats seem to have every base covered. So I will ask one last time. What do you think is best for you?"

They could all tell her throat and brain were working toward a scathing retort, or a artfully-conceived rebuttal. But with a hiccup that brought even the most stoic of them closer to crying themselves, she finally was able to choke out, "Reggie."

"What?" he said automatically, trotting up to the car door.

"I... I think Reggie. Reggie is... best for me," she sobbed, more or less horrified at her own inability to hold herself together.

"You disappoint me, Mitchell," the woman said in such a quiet voice that Reggie, as close as he was, could barely catch it. Then, waving her hands in a surrendering motion, she tromped up the drive, shoving her way between Ethel and Chuck, and went inside.

"WHEW!" Archie said aloud. "Glad that's over!"

"Over, schmover," Jughead said. "I bet that old biddy still pulls some odious stunt on us when we're least expecting - hey, Midge, your lawn doesn't have a sprinkler system we can get doused by, does it?"

The girl of the hour's face was burning with embarrassment. Seeing this, he leaned in and hugged her, whispering, "Nobody else heard it. You're still just Midge to us."

"But you heard it," she whispered back, a vulgar amount of regret and hatred and shame in her words. "Oh God, I never w-wanted you to know what I used to be called! It's the worst kind of... how can you ever see me as- as-"

"As Midge," he repeated, fingers gouging into her back as he tried to hold her even closer than he already was. "Just Midge."

He more felt than saw everyone converging on their position. When he turned, he found Betty standing just behind him, arms out to the sides. "Halt!" she commanded.

"What?" Archie said. "We were just going to say-"

"Not one of you try to touch her," Betty said carefully. "And you know what I mean. I... made that mistake when I found out, let my curiosity get the better of me, and... that was really unfair and inappropriate of me. So when I tell you I felt it and it's real, please just take my word for it, okay? This isn't a petting zoo."

Reggie blinked when he observed the slight guilt budding in Nancy, Archie and Veronica's features; they had been thinking about it, even if they weren't going to go through with the idea. He reached over and clapped a hand onto Betty's shoulder, and she spared them a nervous smile before turning back to the gang.

"You... wanna get out of here?" Reggie asked his love quietly.

"More than anything," she said in a hushed voice. "But somehow, I think I owe everybody more than that."

"You don't owe us anything," Ethel told her without hesitation. "We know who you are."

"If you're up to filling in the blanks for us, we'll listen," Chuck said with a shrug. "But no rush."

Midge laughed - musically, wetly, joyfully. All at once. "Let's all go to Pop's and crowd into one of the corners... and I'll answer everybody's questions. For a little while only, though, okay? I... this has already been a long day."

"I'm buying," Veronica said. "Malts all around?"

"And hamburgers?" Jughead hinted. Veronica glared at him, but he only smiled wider.

________________________________

Before disembarking, Reggie had told everyone without pause they were riding in either the Cooper family minivan or Archie's old Mustang, so he could have a moment to confer in private with the woman of the hour. En route, the most important thing he stressed was that she not tell them her former name.

"But they blew me away with all that... that FRIENDSHIP," she burst out with a little sob, as if it was some strange, alien technology she would never be able to backwards-engineer. "I think they've earned the right to know everything from now on, they've been so-"

"Not everything." He made sure his voice was almost scary-sounding so she would understand he wasn't kidding. "That look I saw on your face, from just ME finding out last night? Never again. I want that to be the first and last time I see you that way."

Midge wiped at her eyes for a few seconds. "You... can call me Mitchell, I guess, if you want. Or even if you slip up somet-"

"NO. I've been calling you Midge for years now, because it's your vershtunken NAME, okay? Criminy. If you want a new nickname, it had better be a NEW one, not some recycled old bilge from your fractured childhood. You want 'Hot Lips' or something?"

"Reggie..."

"Or how about 'Bantam Beauty'?" he suggested with a chuckle. "Yeah... that's pretty good."

"You come up with that off the top?"

He debated for a moment, then broke down and told her the truth. "Nah. I've been calling you that in my head for a long time. Just... figured you might think it was offensive or whatever."

"That's because it is," she giggled, regaining some of her composure. "Your calling me a 'feisty little chicken' isn't as flattering as it could be. But, if I'm going to be with you the rest of my life, I'd better get used to offensiveness. Not in front of other people, though, okay? Unless you want me to start calling you emasculating crap like 'Reggiekins' or 'Fluffernoodle' around the guys."

Reggie gulped.

________________________________

An hour crawled by at Pop Tate's as Midge explained some of the specifics of what was going on with her, answered some of their more delicate questions, and refuted some of their bogus assumptions. Reggie more or less tuned out, since he knew all of it by heart already and the less he had to dwell on her awful past, the less he wanted to cause wonton destruction - but he did chime in with a factoid or two that other people missed. He figured by doing so, he could take some of the heat off his girlfriend.

It was impossible for Reggie not to notice the odd stares he was getting from most of the gang. Betty and Ethel, who had prior knowledge, kept shooting him encouraging grins... but everyone else was looking at him like he was pitiable, or depraved. Midge and his relationship with her was a hard sell for most of them; two boys, together? Riverdale's gays and lesbians must be really far underground, because none of them had ever known anybody who wasn't straight. It was hard to be comfortable with that sort of thing when you never had any contact with it. Sure, eventually they would come to understand that Midge was not a male per se, but they'd all have to relearn how to accept people different from them just as he had. That didn't make it any easier that his lady love had to be their crash course.

One thing was for sure: he had all-new respect for Jughead Jones. Ethel and Betty had found out at various points, and adapted almost immediately, which was beautiful. But Jughead had never missed a step. Once his momentary flare of intitial surprise had passed, he was completely at ease talking to her, asking very few questions that weren't the least bit offensive, mentioning that his mother had a condition that required the same hormones Midge was taking and other benign things. Maybe that laid-back attitude was good for something after all.

Then Betty realized she had to get home to babysit a neighbor's kid, which reminded Jughead that he had to pick his sister Jellybean up from daycare. Dilton needed to check on one of his science projects, so he hitched a ride with Betty, as well. Chuck and Ethel also had after-school jobs they were now very, VERY late for, so they bailed - but not before Ethel could give Midge a crushing hug and a kind word. Moose ducked out around the same time; Reggie suspected it was difficult to hang out with Midge while knowing he had lost her, and therefore understood the desire to be elsewhere. Archie, however, ordered sodas for the rest of them.

"Listen," he said uncomfortably as Pop Tate returned to the counter. "I... I really don't know what I'm supposed to think. They don't teach any of this in health class! But, well... we're still all friends, right?"

"Of course, blockhead," Reggie told him.

"Just wanted to put that out there," he said with a modest frown.

"Well, I for one think whoever did work on you deserves an award," Veronica said blithely. "You fooled every single person in Riverdale."

"You don't have to put it THAT way," Nancy admonished.

"What? What'd I say? She's a knockout!"

"Nevermind," Midge sighed good-naturedly. "But I tried to tell you, I haven't had all that much work done."

Veronica nodded in a would-be knowledgeable way. "Nose job? I always thought yours was a little TOO perfect..."

"I'm not saying," she laughed, folding her arms. "Then you'll always be staring at my body and trying to ascertain which are original parts and what's artificial."

"Sili-CONES?"

"Give it a rest, Ronnie," Archie laughed nervously; he clearly would rather not think about it too deeply. "She's allowed to keep that much under wraps."

Privately, Reggie was again gratified in knowing that he knew. That meant that, for whatever reason it was, Midge really did trust him with every single detail about herself. If that wasn't proof they belonged together, then there wasn't any such thing.

"So... the other kids really put you in the hospital, huh?" Nancy asked bitterly.

"As often as they could get away with it," Midge sighed. "And then some."

She shook her head, staring down into her empty malt glass. "People can be so cold."

"Yeah, I don't care what's between your legs; violence is uncalled for," Veronica snapped. "If they don't like you for who you are, why should they think smacking you around will make any difference? Typical narrow-minded brats."

The rest of them tried not to laugh at her. At least she was making the effort.

________________________________

It was nearly ten o'clock by the time Reggie took Midge home. The porch light was on, again. When he started walking her to the door, she put a hand to his chest.

"What? Just to the door."

"That's probably not the wisest course of action. I wouldn't be surprised if my mother throws something at me as soon as I walk inside."

His eyes narrowed. "Why? She do that often?"

"No, no," she followed up quickly. "But... I've never seen her this mad before. Never in my whole life - even when she was still trying to understand my transition. So... I'm kind of scared."

"We can go back to my place," he offered. "Or, if you'd rather, to Ron's poolhouse. I bet it has its own pool INSIDE the poolhouse, too."

Midge snickered. "Well, as tempting as that sounds, I have to make amends with my mother."

"Why?"

"Because she's my mother." She poked a finger into his chest. "Don't you forget that she's been doing her best to raise me from day one - and after my father walked out on us. She's allowed to make mistakes. No, I don't agree with anything she's been doing all this week, and part of me wants to lock her in the basement and throw away the key... but at the end of the day, she's my mom, and I love her. And I know you know what I mean."

Reggie nodded. "Yeah. Awfully hard to take how she was being towards me, and us, knowing that she's trying to protect you and make sure you stay out of trouble. But I'm still walking you to the door."

One noise of protest was all Midge bothered to make before she led the way up to the porch. Once at the door, she gave him another sharp look, but when all he did was shove his hands into his pockets, she sighed, dug out her keys - and had the door opened in front of her before she could put them into the lock.

"Oh," Miss Little sniffled, dabbing at her eyes with the tissue in her hand. "You brought HIM. Come to gloat, Mr. Mantle?"

"You might as well get used to calling me 'Reggie'. Make it easier on yourself when you have to tell your co-workers and distant relatives the name of your daughter's handsome and debonair husband."

"Planning for the future already?" she half-laughed. Her eyes were so bloodshot Reggie had to wonder if she'd been smoking like his dad would have been. "Is that where you've been all evening?"

"We've been talking to the gang," Midge said gently. "Now they know the whole sordid tale. And they're all okay."

"Correction: everybody but Arch. He'll NEVER be okay."

"Stop," she hissed, swatting him on the arm. "But... Mom, I-"

"Save it," her mother snapped. "You got your way, Princess; we'll be staying in this abominable town for the forseeable future. Your poor mother acted out of turn, and was very nearly done in by the consequences. And for what I've done... I am sorry. Is that sufficient, or are you going to stage more impromptu ambushes in my garden?"

"Ambushes are going around these days," he told her pointedly. "You were at both of them."

Miss Little seemed to consider this for a moment before continuing. "Point taken. This doesn't mean I like you any more than I did then, young man. But it appears there's little use in my fighting against your designs on my Midge, so... just don't do anything rash like driving through Vegas for a fifteen-second ceremony and moving to the Galápagos."

"Shoot," he gusted, snapping his fingers. "She's been snooping through our itinerary!"

When the woman let out a grunt of laughter, Midge giggled aloud. "I told you he's funny."

________________________________To Be Continued...
-
- 12
- 13
- 14
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Jerk of Hearts, Queen of Spades