Undone

Chapter 4

The waiting room was completely quiet. Betty and Veronica sat on either side of Archie, each holding on to one of his hands, and exchanging worried glances over his head. Archie had his eyes closed and was leaning his head back against the wall, concentrating on breathing in and out. Anyone that looked at him could see that he was barely holding it together. Occasionally, either Betty or Veronica would whisper something quietly in his ear, to which he had very little response.

Everything changed, though, when the door opened and Jughead and Hermione walked in. Archie jumped to his feet and immediately ran over to Jughead.

"How is he? Did you find out anything?"

"I'm sorry, Arch," Jughead answered softly. "No one could give me an update, but one of the nurses said that they would as soon as they could."

Archie's face shifted through a gamut of emotions. Anger….fear….sadness…..anger again….and then finally resignation. He started pacing the small room, carding his hand through his already ruffled hair anxiously. "What's taking so long?! He's been in surgery for almost three hours!"

Hermione Lodge stepped forward, stopping him in his path. "Archie…. Sweetie….these things take time. The doctors will want to be very meticulous and that takes time."

"I can't stand not knowing," Archie whispered barely loud enough for anyone to hear, but they all did. And his words cut a path of pain through each of them. All four people in that room with him, knew how devastated Archie would be if Fred didn't make it. And they all felt helpless at not being able to do anything to help him.

"Archie, have you eaten anything since you've been here?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not hungry," he answered. "I-I can't eat."

"You need to eat something, sweetie. You need to keep your strength up. Your dad's going to need you to be strong."

When Archie didn't argue any further, Hermione stepped out to find something for him to eat. Betty and Veronica watched as Jughead started pacing around the small room with his friend, the two of them nearly colliding at times.

"Arch, Jug…..let's sit down, okay?" Betty finally said when their pacing started making her nervous.

Archie flopped back down on the chair he had been sitting in. He started softly banging the back of his head against the wall, but within several seconds Veronica stopped him.

Grabbing his face in both of her hands, she turned his head towards her. "Archie, look at me," she said. "Your dad's going to be okay. I know he is."

"But, what if he's not, Ronnie? What if it was all too much? He lost so much blood."

"They can give him more blood, Archie," Veronica answered, but Archie knew it wasn't as easy as that. Yes, they could give him more blood, but his body had still been put under a huge stress. Fred Andrews was the strongest man Archie had ever known, but he was still just a man. And Archie couldn't help but feel like he didn't deserve his dad to make it through this. He would never admit that out loud, but he knew that he had been an awful son in the last few months. Sneaking out of the house, lying, getting into fights, staying out all night….. He was a horrible son! His dad deserved so much better.

"And Archie, this isn't your fault, okay?" Veronica said, as if reading Archie's thoughts.

"Isn't it, though?" he answered angrily. "My dad would have never been there this morning if I hadn't stayed out all night. Doesn't that make it my fault?"

"Where were you all night, Archie? Your dad called several times looking for you." Betty searched Archie's face for an answer. She didn't miss the look that passed between Archie and Veronica, so her growing suspicions were confirmed almost immediately.

"That's not really important right now, is it?" Veronica asked her best friend. "Right now we need to focus on Mr. Andrews."

"Of course. It's not important."

Archie chanced a glance at Betty, only to find her looking at him strangely. Once she realized he was looking at her, she quickly looked away. "Betty…" he started.

"No, it's okay, Archie. Really."

An uncomfortable silence suddenly filled the room, but everyone was so involved in their own thoughts that they really didn't even notice it.

Almost an hour later, the door opened and a very frazzled looking Mary Andrews walked in. Archie jumped up and ran over to his mother, who desperately pulled him into a hug.

"Archie, I'm so sorry it took me so long to get here," she said. "Have you heard anything yet?"

"Not yet," he answered miserably. Before he knew what was happening or could do anything to stop it, Archie came undone. Holding on to his mother as tight as he could, he started sobbing into her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Mom," he cried. "I'm sorry…"

Mary looked frantically at Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and Hermione, before turning her attention back to her son. Neither of them noticed when Hermione suggested that they all leave to give them some time alone. Seconds later, the waiting room was empty, except for Archie and Mary.

"Archie….honey, please calm down. Look at me, sweetie…"

Archie looked desolately up at his mom. "Why are you apologizing?" Mary asked. "You had nothing to do with this."

"It's my fault!" Archie explained for what seemed like the hundredth time. Why couldn't anyone understand that this really was all his fault?! "I messed up, Mom. I did something stupid and Dad asked me to meet him at Pop's to talk about it. If I hadn't been so stupid, we wouldn't have been there and none of this would have happened."

"You're not stupid, Archie," Mary exclaimed loudly. "And you may have messed up, but it's still not your fault that someone tried to rob Pop's and your dad got hurt."

"I can't stop thinking that it's my fault, Mom," Archie said sadly. "Because it is. And not just because it's my fault we were there in the first place. I was in the bathroom when the man came in. I heard this commotion outside and when I opened the door, I noticed the man holding a gun to Pop's head. Dad looked at me and tried to tell me to stay out of it, but when the man let go of Pop and turned the gun on dad, I panicked. I jumped in front of Dad, but he pushed me away and the gun went off. It should have been me, Mom. I was the one that deserved to be shot. Not Dad!"

"No one deserved to be shot, Archie. Least of all you. You were trying to protect Dad and he was trying to protect you. That this happened wasn't your fault, any more than it was his, okay? It just happened."

Archie didn't look like he believed his mom's words. He knew that he would always feel like he was to blame, even if no one else felt that way.

It had been almost 5 hours since Fred had been taken into the operating room. Archie was once again starting to feel like he was beginning to come unglued and everyone else in the waiting room was looking worse for wear, too. They all tried to eat something, although no one managed more than just a few bites of anything. Archie had dozed off for all of fifteen minutes before jerking awake with a loud gasp. He was more than exhausted, but any time he closed his eyes, the memories of that morning came flooding back.

The indulgent look on his father's face when Archie first walked into the diner. The look of terror on Pop Tate's face when the gun was shoved in his face. The desperation in his father's eyes when Archie came out of the bathroom and into the path of danger. The sound of the gunshot, deafening in its intensity and echoing around the small diner. The blood flowing out of his dad, snaking across the tile of the diner floor like rivers flowing endlessly toward the ocean. The peaceful look on his dad's face when he told Archie that he loved him. The determination on the faces of the medical crew as they did all they could to save his dad. The overwhelming coppery smell of blood mixed with the smell of greasy hamburgers and French fries. The salty taste of the tears that were streaming down his face as he watched his father struggle to live.

So many memories haunting him every second of the day.

Just as Mary decided to see if she could find someone to give them an update, the door opened and a middle-aged man dressed in scrubs entered the room, looking at each of them. "I'm looking for the family of Fred Andrews," he said seriously.

All six of them quickly stood up, but only Archie and Mary stepped forward.

"How is he?" Archie asked immediately. "Is he okay?"

"Are you family?" the man asked.

Mary reached out and grabbed Archie's arm, pulling him back against her slightly. "I'm Mary Andrews and this is my son, Archie. Fred is my husband."

The man extended his right hand and shook Mary and Archie's hand. "I'm Dr. Casey. I'm the primary surgeon for Mr. Andrews. He's out of surgery and will be moving to the ICU in about an hour. There was pretty extensive damage done to his liver and he lost a lot of blood. We were able to repair his liver, but he will need close monitoring to ensure that he doesn't start bleeding again. We are also concerned about infection, of course, so he'll be receiving several different antibiotics over the next several days. We've transfused six units of blood products and will transfuse more, if needed. Because of the severity of the liver injury and the massive blood loss, we will keep him intubated and in a drug-induced coma for the time being."

"What does that mean?" Archie asked.

Dr. Casey turned to Archie and gave him a soft smile. "That means he'll have a tube down his throat and into his lungs and will be on a ventilator to help him breathe. We'll be sedating him with medication to help keep him calm and comfortable."

"But, he's okay, right?" Archie asked. "He's going to make it?"

"I'm not going to lie, son. Your dad's in pretty critical condition, but we're going to do everything we can for him. He'll be getting top-notch care in the intensive care unit. And I have a feeling he'll do his part and fight as hard as he can, too."

From that point forward, the doctor's words went completely over Archie's head. He felt such an overwhelming and shocking sense of relief flow through him at the glimmer of hope the doctor provided, but he didn't allow himself to completely believe that his dad was really going to be okay. No, he needed to see him with his own eyes before he would even start to believe that…

Author's note: Well, at least we now know that Fred is out of surgery, but will he really be okay? Only time will tell, I guess.

Archie is still on the verge of a complete and total breakdown, but he's stronger than he looks, I think. Especially when he's surrounded by his friends.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little addition to my story. I would really, truly love to hear your thoughts. What do you love? What do you hate? Anything you might want to see in this story?

Thank you all so much for reading. I really do appreciate you all.