x.x.x.x

Izzy felt comfortable seated in her armchair wearing her sweats watching a bunch of crap tv shows, she could almost convince herself that this was just another Sunday afternoon spent hanging out with Jughead watching tv and making a mess of her living room.

If she could only ignore the random flashes of blood and guns flashing through her mind it would be a perfect Saturday afternoon.

"So when are the Andrews' expecting you?" Izzy asked as the post credit scene started playing on the tv.

"I said I would come around late afternoon, early evening but I can go later, we could spend the rest of the day watching classic Tarantino movies… or you could come with me now that Mr. Andrews is out of the hospital I am sure he would want to see you." Jughead said repeating his earlier words from a few hours ago.

He didn't want her to feel like he was pressuring her into seeing Fred but he thought it might help if she saw that he was doing better than the last time she saw him being wheeled into a surgery room.

"Okay let me go get changed into something that doesn't screamed lazy Saturday afternoon while you do the dishes and grab me a bottle of water" Izzy said before leaving the room as Jughead stood up grabbing their plates and walking into the modest size kitchen.

Jughead quickly started to wash and dry the dirty lunch plates before placing it on the dish rack, washing the dishes was something he started doing around the age of ten as neither Tate no longer saw him as a guest in their house, as they put it he had been there enough times for them to keep catering to him.

By the time Izzy had returned Jug was already waiting for her by the front door with a cold bottle of water he had grabbed from the fridge ready to make his way over to the Andrews.

x.x.x.x

Visiting the Andrews was not anywhere near the list of things Izzy wanted to do that month let alone that particular Saturday afternoon but she figured she needed to try to 'move on' from the shooting.

She hadn't been the one that got shot, it wasn't her dad that had been bleeding out in front of her so it felt like after a week she should be coping a lot better with the whole incident than just getting an average of two hours of sleep per night.

Each night -laying in bed- her brain just kept going back to the morning of the shooting, from hearing the jingle of the door bell, to that look of shock on the shooters face when he saw her and that strange voice he had put on; it all lead to one conclusion whoever shot Mr. Andrews knew her or more specifically she knew them.

It was something that she had figured out last Sunday afternoon after the Sheriff had left.

She knew the rumours flying around the school saying that the shooter had to be one of the South sider that Mr. Andrews had fired but that made no sense to her, especially the stupid accent the shooter but on.

Izzy didn't know that many South siders and wouldn't be able to recognise them on sight or by their voice unless it was one of the regulars who made the journey across town on a Friday night to treat themselves to one of Pop's milkshake and burger combo deal the diner organised.

Why the hell would someone fake the way the spoke unless their voice was as distinctive and as recognisable as their face.

Or maybe Izzy was thinking about this too much, it wasn't her job to find the shooter nor was it up to her to understand why someone would go around shooting people.

There was something about the whole thing that struck Izzy as wrong.

Was the shooter a Southsider or not?

Did it even matter?

Either way someone came inside the diner and shot Fred.

Her thoughts were literally a jumbled mess and it wasn't helping her because she was still sitting in her car outside the Andrews for the last ten minutes afraid to get out of her car - even though Jughead had crawled into the passenger seat of her car about five - nope eighteen- minutes ago when he realised that she wasn't going to get out.

She had spent the better part of half an hour sitting in the car, paralysed with fear.

She was actually trying to procrastinate by convincing herself that if she solved the crime she wouldn't have to knock on the door and could some how turn around go to Sheriff Keller and everything would be done with.

The shooter would be in jail, her nightmares would stop and Izzy could put all this behind her in the rear view mirror where it didn't require her to go knock on the door and see Fred Andrews again.

She knew he wasn't dead; Jughead had told her that on Saturday in the hospital, her grandad told her how proud he was of her for saving Fred's life that evening, the whole town was singing her praises and talking about how Fred is alive thanks to her so she knew- Izzy knew- that Fred was really and truly alive but the problem with all that was the last time she saw him Fred was half dead being wheeled into surgery his blood was every where, the blood just couldn't seem to stay in his body no matter how hard she had tried.

For the past seven days all Izzy saw in her nightmares was Fred lying dead in her arms, sometimes they were back in the diner, sometimes she dreamt that he died in the back of his construction truck or maybe on the theatre table.

Each and every night Fred died in her dream she would be covered in his blood sometimes she wouldn't even know that he was there until she found her hands smeared with his blood trying to covering the bullet wounds.

The most chilling scenario was when Fred walked into the school having already been shot -the blood spreading through his shirt- and for some unknown reason he would come to find Izzy and would hug her until all the blood transferred onto her before he went limp and died.

"I am not sure if I have PTSD but I don't think I am coping Jug" Izzy quietly started confessing in the safety of her car, sitting in the Andrews' driveway staring at their door.

"I- I am scared all the time and sometimes I feel normal like someone else saw the shooting. It's something that happened to someone else and it doesn't affect me, like on Wednesday I told Josie that we needed to rehearse the new song she wrote and I sent all that time in the music room being irritate by the she dragon of music then I walked out of there and it hit me; Fred was shot in the diner and he was lying there bleeding nearly dying.

He got shot in front of me and so I literally take off running down the corridor and out the doors and run the mile and a half it takes to get home and I just leave my car at school and on Thursday I get out of bed and just walk to school like is normal, like I didn't spend the night wide awake terrified out of my mind having a panic attack in my room.

I can't even tell you why I am terrified. Is it cause Fred got shot in front of me or is it cause he could have died? Like every time someone goes on about how I saved his life all I can think about is that... I could have also killed him.

Am I scared cause I witness someone being shot or was it cause the guy could have shot me as well?

And I don't know what I want but I know I don't want to be here but I also don't want to leave either.

I know I am not fooling anyone; Pop's is worried about me all the time, so is Josie and Melody and like the entire student body at school and all I can think about is the fact that I shouldn't be scared, Fred lived everything turned out okay; except me- I turned out to be .… He wasn't there for me…. I didn't…." Izzy wasn't sure she could actually put into words everything that was going on in her mind.

Dragging her gaze from the door Izzy finally looked at Jughead, she noticed the frown lines on his face, she knew how worried he was; his concern for her over shadowed almost everything else apart from the steely look of determination he was giving her.

"No matter what, I need you to get me across that threshold, I need to knock and the door and see that Fred is okay with my own eyes and he isn't dead or dying. I have to replace that image in my head Jug - I need you to help me okay cause this, this is scarier than watching…. It is a real life Horror show and I need you to be next to me like you always are when we watch scary movies." Izzy pleaded knowing he won't let her down. She knew that she just had to ask for help and she would get it.

So here was step one; Ask for help to get inside the Andrews house and see Fred again.

x.x.x.x

In all the years they had been friends Jughead had learnt that the longer Izzy took to actually articulate what she is feeling and how she was coping the more worried Jughead needed to be.

He had been so wrapped up in the Blossom murder until recently that he had been ignoring his other best friend for months now; sure he saw her at Pops all the time and she sat with him during her breaks but Jug hadn't taken the time to come over to the Tate house for a couple of months now and he really had no excuse for that.

Izzy had been there for him through every major event in his life since they were six everything from him learning to ride a bike to when his mum took Jellybean.

Without the mixed race girl being in his life Jughead would have probably starved a long time ago as Izzy had also been the one to give him free meals from the diner and had instructed the other staff never to charge Jughead for a meal since she knew he didn't have enough money what with his dad being fired and with Jug only earning minimum wage from his work at the bijou.

Jughead even knew that if Izzy had found out about him leaving home to sleep at work or in the janitors' closet at school that she would have convinced Pop to let him stay in their house but as she already did so much for him Jug couldn't ask her for another favour on top of all the various one she had done and continued to do for him over the years.

By the time they were seven Jughead Jones had realised that Isabelle Amelia Tate was a once in a lifetime friend and had vowed to always have the girl in his life, to protect her as best as he could and offer any and all protection; which was why when he asked Tallboy to ask around about the shooting he had also automatically asked for the serpents to protect Izzy -and Archie- if they ever in trouble and needed help.

Listening to Izzy made Jug realise that he needed to do better by her and if she needed his help Jug would be there every step of the way.

Reaching over the console Jug grabbed onto her right hand interlocking their fingers and waited hopefully giving her some comfort.

"I am here, whenever you are ready. I am here" Jughead promised aloud.

...

Authour's note:

This chapter was very Izzy and Jughead centric. hopefully I can introduce more characters next chapter as the finally go see Fred. Veronica, Betty and Archie all make an appearance. I think opening up to Jug could be good for my little Izzy.

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