Undone

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Sadly, the Riverdale universe doesn't belong to me. I am just a novice writer, playing in this delightful sandbox.

Archie felt a sudden wave of nausea wash over him and his vision faded to black for several seconds. Silence surrounded him, making him feel like he was in a vacuum. When his vision returned, all he saw was a sea of red. When his hearing returned, the sudden sounds of chaos and panic were deafening. Someone was screaming for help and he wondered for a single second why no one was answering. Then, he realized that the screams for help were coming from his own mouth.

Looking down at the floor, he noticed rivulets of red spilling across the white tile. His mind couldn't comprehend what he was seeing even when he followed the streams of red to their source. All he could think about was how they looked like small scarlet rivers leading to an ocean of blood. Abruptly, his vision blackened and all sound was silenced again. His heart was beating frantically in his chest. His breaths were coming so rapidly that he felt light-headed. Another wave of nausea rushed through him, causing him to break out in a cold sweat. Taking several deep breaths, he forced himself to focus, and once his senses equalized, he looked around the diner, trying to find Pop Tate. Where was he? Why wasn't anyone doing anything?

Archie finally saw Pop Tate coming towards him with one hand holding a phone to his ear and the other hand clutching several dish towels. Once he arrived at Archie's side, he thrust the dish towels down towards Archie, who stared at them blankly before finally grabbing them. Archie could hear Pop Tate yelling into the phone that they needed an ambulance, but it wasn't until he heard him say that someone had been shot that everything finally clicked.

It was his dad. His dad had been shot. His dad was lying on the floor with his head in his son's lap. Those rivulets of red on the white tile were actually streams of his dad's blood, flowing onto the floor and forming that ever growing ocean. Archie brought the dish towels down to his father's abdomen and pressed as hard as he could. He nearly let up at the gasp that escaped his father's lips, but he didn't. Pressing down even harder, he finally looked into his father's eyes. The fear he saw was almost too much for him, but he somehow managed to hold it together.

His dad was clutching Archie's arms with both hands and Archie could see his lips moving silently. Focusing as hard as he could, Archie was pretty sure he saw his own name pass his father's lips several times.

"I'm right here, Dad," he whispered. "You're gonna be okay. The ambulance will be here soon, okay? Just stay with me."

Fred's grip tightened on Archie's arms as his breathing grew more rapid and shallow. His eyes locked onto his son's for several long seconds before finally closing.

"No! Dad, open your eyes. Look at me!" Archie pressed his hands down harder, causing Fred's eyes to shoot open. "That's it. Keep looking at me, Dad. Don't close your eyes. I'm right here, okay? I'm right here."

"I love you, Archie," Fred whispered in a barely audible voice. "Don't forget…"

"No! You don't get to do that, Dad," Archie cried frantically. "You're not doing that!"

"I need you to know…."

"Dad, please!"

Before either of them could say anything else, the door to the diner opened and Sheriff Keller walked in, followed closely by the ambulance crew. The EMTs quickly made their way over to Fred and Archie was unceremoniously moved aside.

Pop Tate moved to stand beside Archie, putting one hand on the boy's shoulder while he answered Sheriff Keller's questions. Archie's eyes never left his father, who by this time had become unresponsive. He listened as the EMTs talked to each other, but couldn't comprehend what they were saying. He watched as one held pressure on his father's wound while the other one hooked him up to the monitor and started an IV. All the while, Fred remained unresponsive.

Archie's vision and hearing started to fluctuate again and his body started to sway dangerously, prompting Pop to lead him over to the nearest booth. Archie tried to fight it, not wanting to leave his dad's side, but Pop insisted. Once he was sitting down, he focused again on his dad and the two men that were working to save him.

"…..BP's too low…..lost a lot of blood…..needs more fluid."

"…..need to go now."

"…..we're losing him… he's asystole."

Archie watched in horror as one of the EMTs started CPR. With each chest compression, Archie could see more blood seeping from the gunshot wound. With both EMTs busy with other tasks, Archie stood up and ran to his dad's side, placing his hands over the abdominal wound and holding pressure again.

"Archie!" Sheriff Keller said as he surged forward to get the young man out of the way.

"It's okay, Sheriff," one of the EMTs said. "Someone needs to hold pressure for now."

After several minutes of CPR, Archie was relieved to hear that Fred had regained a pulse. After being once more moved aside, he watched as his dad was loaded onto the stretcher and taken out to the ambulance. When he tried to climb in after his dad, he was told that he couldn't go with the ambulance. Gearing up to argue with the ambulance crew, Archie was quickly pulled aside by Sheriff Keller.

"I'll take you to the hospital, son," he said. "They need room to work and we'll probably beat the ambulance there anyway."

Archie had no choice but to climb into the sheriff's police car, but he was relieved when Sheriff Keller immediately took off after the ambulance, lights flashing and sirens blasting the whole way.

The ride to the hospital was the longest ride of Archie's life. They had followed the ambulance the whole way and Archie watched through the small window in the back door as the crew moved around frantically. He could only imagine what was going on and with each second that passed, his imagination became more and more out of control. He could feel panic rising up in him again, so he quickly rolled the window down, taking in big gulps of cold air to quell it.

Once they arrived at the hospital, Keller insisted on parking the car before letting Archie out. Archie had been tempted to jump out of the car when it rolled past the ambulance bay doors, but Sheriff Keller reached out an arm, holding him in place. The second the car came to a stop, Archie threw the door open and took off towards the emergency room entrance. Sheriff Keller followed as quickly as he could.

Stepping inside the ER waiting room, he desperately looked around, trying to find someone that worked there. Straight ahead, there was an older woman standing behind a counter. Barely noticing the line of people that were waiting to talk to her, Archie strode right up to the counter.

"Young man, you're going to have to wait your turn," the lady said immediately as she pointed to the line behind him.

"They just brought my dad in," Archie nearly yelled. "I need to be with him. Please!"

The lady behind the counter recoiled slightly at the sight of all of the blood on his clothes and hands. Suddenly realizing the enormity of the situation, she asked Archie for his father's name.

"Fred Andrews," he immediately answered. "Please, I need to know what's going on!"

At that moment, Sheriff Keller arrived at Archie's side. After a few words with the receptionist he turned to the anxious young man beside him. "Archie, let's have a seat. They'll come and get us as soon as they can, okay?"

"I don't want to have a seat," Archie yelled. "I want to see my dad!"

"I promise you that they'll come and get you as soon as possible. Right now, we need to think about calling your mother. And then I need to know what happened."

The thought of calling his mother, or anyone else for that matter, hadn't even crossed Archie's mind. Of course, he needed to call his mom, but he didn't think he could do it. Instead, he gave Sheriff Keller her number and listened as the sheriff made the call. The call only took a few minutes and after hearing Mary Andrews' reassurance that she was on her way to Riverdale, Sheriff Keller put his phone away and turned back to Archie.

"Your mother is on her way, Archie. Now, why don't you tell me exactly what happened…"

Author's note: That season finale was a doozy, wasn't it? I certainly wasn't expecting that to happen and I definitely hate the thought of having to wait months and months to find out what happened to Fred. Fred and Archie's relationship is by far the best relationship in Riverdale, so I can't help but want to play around with it a little bit. I hope you all don't mind a teensy bit of angst, because that's what I like to write best. Thanks for taking the time to read my story. I would love to hear your thoughts/suggestions/ideas.