TWENTY NINE.
❛ TOBY, THE FAMILY LAWYER. ❜

Sheriff Keller was far from pleased to see Toby Hale walk into the station after the arrest of Jughead Jones with his little sister, Lexi, in tow. He couldn't even hide the disgrunted look on his face when they passed him to go straight to the front desk where the receptionist sat, all without sparing him a second glance.

As soon as the receptionist gave them the directions to where they could find a certain secret cousin of theirs — who was escorted from school grounds to the Sheriff's department for questioning on the murder of Jason Blossom — they were off. Not ten minutes later, they were sitting in an interrogation room with Judhead facing them with a still shell shocked expression washed over his face, confused as to why Lexi and Toby Hale, of all people, made an effort to visit him in jail.

"Are one of you going to tell me what the both of you are doing here or are you waiting for me to guess?" Jughead asked, half-expecting a game of hot or cold so that he would try and guess the correct reason for their highly unexpected visit.

Toby glanced towards Lexi who only smirked at the amount of sarcasm in the Jones boy's voice. Rolling his eyes, Toby sighed. They were definitely related. Sarcasm must run in their blood because he'd heard enough of it from both Cole and Lexi for a lifetime.

"Well, to put it simple," Toby began, ignoring the suspicion on Jughead's face. "I'm your new lawyer."

"You?" Jughead echoed. "Why would you volunteer to help me? I can't pay you to be my lawyer."

"Let's just say I'm a close acquaintance of your father's." Toby tried not to cringe at the slight lie that came from his lips as Lexi snorted in amusement.

Jughead leaned forward in his chair, his arms folded on the desk in front of him as his eyes darted between both Hale's before deciding to settle on Toby. "Wait, my dad called you?"

"Yup." Lexi smiled sarcastically. "Personally, I'm the preferred contact for prison breaks, not legal advise or whatever. But Toby here, thought I should get to see the inside of a Sheriff's Department a least once when I'm not the one in cuffs."

Toby shot her an annoyed look before turning back to his new client. "I'm good and I'm cheap with fam—"

Lexi jabbed him with her elbow as soon as the whole family was about to leave his mouth. Toby bit his tongue, both from annoyance that he had almost said too much and at the pain that now erupted from his side from Lexi's bong elbow.

"Look, kid." Toby refrained from running a ran over his face in exasperation. "I'll get you out of here real quick, plain and simple. Quickest route, an alibi. So all you need to do is answer who you with the night of Jason's murder?"

Jughead stayed silent. He didn't trust that Sheriff Keller hadn't just tossed the first lawyer and familiar face he saw into the room with him so he could get a confession. He wouldn't put it past the cop that had it out for anything and everything Southside related. Of course, he would get the blame for Jason's murder — being the only Southsider that had easy assess to the quarterback.

Rolling her eyes, Lexi leaned back in her seat in boredom, the legs of the chair balancing on the back two. "You can say no comment, Jughead."

This time Toby rolled his eyes at his sister's sarcasm. "Alright, put it this way. You need an alibi. So who could be your alibi?"

"I'm not asking someone to lie for me."

"Pay me fifty bucks and I'll do it for you," Lexi winked at him resulting in Jughead glaring back at her.

"Wasn't Jason your best friend? Why are you here helping someone accused of his murder?" Jughead interrogated, knowing it didn't make any sense to him why she was willing to lend a hand.

Lexi let her chair drop back to four legs and she copied his posture by placing her arms on the table, and leaning forward in her seat. Letting her cold eyes meet his with an eerie smile playing on her lips. "Because I know you don't have it in you to kill someone. You don't even have it in you to stand by the Serpents."

"Lexi, why don't you go get Jughead a drink of water?" Her brother suggested, seeing a murderous look flash across Jughead's face at her words.

Her smile didn't fade, in fact it widened a little as she slid her body out of the chair. She didn't let her eyes leave Jug until she turned to get the door, the latter of which gritted his teeth in a silent rage.

          When she got to the reception area where the water machine was, her green eyes quickly found Fred Andrews, Archie and Betty talking to the Sheriff. From what she could tell, Keller didn't look too pleased about what he was hearing before he caught her gaze and waved her over. "Lexi, why don't you go tell Mr. Hale his client is free to go."

          Lexi arched her eyebrows in shock. "He is?"

          The Sheriff nodded. "On account of Fred Andrews providing legal documentation of his whereabouts on the night of Jason's murder."

          She didn't need to be told thrice. As soon as the words left his mouth, she was sprinting back down the corridor, leaving Fred to fill out a few documents before they'd join her. Toby's and Jughead's eyes shot up to meet her when she burst through the door like a lunatic.

          "You're free to go. Fred Andrews gave you an alibi," she rushed out, hands on her hips as she tried to catch her breath.

          "Well that was easy," Toby commented before the Sheriff appeared at the door behind Lexi, casting her an odd look before moving to unlock Jughead's cuffs to the table.

          "For your sake, Jughead," Keller began with a heavy expression, "I better not see you back here anytime soon."

          "Trust me, Sheriff, I won't be." Jughead snapped, rubbing his wrist once it was free from the handcuffs.

          Toby stood up and pulled his briefcase up with him, sending a polite smile in the direction of the only other adult in the room. "Nice doing business with you Sheriff."

          The Sheriff returned the business smile and nodded dutifully. "Always a pleasure, Toby. It was nice seeing you here without bringing bail money for Colton."

          Both Toby and Lexi glared at him for the comment but said nothing on the matter as they lead Jughead out of the room and back to where Fred, Archie and Betty were waiting for him. Archie stepped forward first and engulfed Jug into a tight hug. "How's the the side look?"

          Jughead smiled and shook his head as they pulled apart. "In a word; foul."

          "I'm so glad you're okay," Betty sighed in relief as she wrapped her arms around him, frowning as she met Lexi's gaze over his shoulder before the brunette hastily looked away.

          Fred hugged him next, quick and short as he patted the boy he looked at like a second son on the shoulder. "Welcome back, Jughead. Let's get ya' home."

          Before they left, Lexi and Toby paused by the door. "Jughead," Toby called breaking apart the moment he was having with Betty and the Andrews. "Do us all a favour and visit your father."

          Jughead scoffed in disbelief. "Why would I when he didn't even visit me?"

          Lexi offered a small smile, a genuine one. She remembered Toby talking with FP over the ohone and telling him not to show up in order to keep him from tearing Keller a new one. God only knows what FP would do once he found out Keller arrested his son on the charge of suspected murder. "He does care about you, you know. He just has a fucked up way of showing it."

          But it turned out as soon as the two Hale's got out the door, they were about to eat their own words. FP was marching towards the station with a frantic look plastered across his face. "Fuck sake," Toby cursed before shaking his head, "I'm not dealing with this."

          The two strode forward and halted FP in his path. Toby placed his hand on his uncle's shoulder and gave him a pointed look. "Calm down. Don't do this now."

          "Don't tell me to calm down, my son's in freakin' jail!" It appeared Jughead and the other three followed them out the door just in time to see FP shove Toby back with an angered expression. Jughead gulped as he watched his father turn to him from behind Toby's figure, "Jughead!"

          Lexi looked over her shoulder and frowned at the look on Jug's face. She had never seen him look so broken before. His eyes looked red, even from where she stood and she could tell he was anything but pleased at the sight of his dad. In fact, he looked like he was holding back tears of frustration. She heard Toby sigh from beside her as FP pushed him out of the way to get to his son.

          "C'mon," Toby grabbed her arm gently to pull her away from the scene. "This doesn't involve us anymore."

          She let him guide her towards his car and internally wished her mother was here to set FP straight for his son.