Ally had hopes that her second day in Riverdale would be marginally better than the first.

The day started with her phone being stolen by a ghoulie.

She had managed to locate a coffee shop, thanks to the help of a colleague, a nurse by the name of Jacob. He had offered to be her chauffeur for the morning, until she could pick up her own wheels from the auto shop later that evening.

With a hot cup of java to go in her hands, Ally had barely made it out of the door of the quaint little coffee shop when a spiked body collided with hers.

The coffee cup was sent flying, and Ally was almost knocked off her feet, before the person responsible grabbed her to stabilise both herself and him.

"Watch it!"

She hissed angrily at the teen with a close shaved head, which he quickly covered with a hood, ducking his head down and mumbling a half-assed apology. Ignoring the puddle of untouched coffee, she watched the retreating form of the kid, his skull studded jacket sparkling in the sunlight.

Realisation hit her as soon as his casual walk increased in tempo and he started to leg it down the street.

Slipping her hand into her pocket, her assumptions were confirmed.

"That little shit."

She growled, just as Jacob joined her infront of the cafe.

"What is it?"

"That ghoulie kid just stole my phone."


Without her morning coffee, Ally was miserable for the rest of the day.

After the residents were lined up for a long lecture, they were separated into various departments.

Ally prayed to be put in resus, and was instead stuck with cubicles.

"We have a 17 year old patient in cubicle four, he had an accident with a motorbike."

Jacob nodded to said cubicle, where Ally noticed a jacket she had seen earlier that morning.

With a smile on her face she accepted the patient from him.

Pushing back the curtain she smirked when the teen caught sight of her, eyes wide as he jumped up in shock.

"Argh!"

He groaned, wincing due to the sudden movement.

"Careful."

Ally warned, stepping closer and pushing the kid back down on the bed with a shove.

"Keep nice and still, I wouldn't want you to get hurt anymore by trying to run away."

She spoke to him, her tone sugary and as false as her friendly smile.

The boy tried to get up and move, but stopped as she tutted, putting a hand on his shoulder and guiding him back down to the bed.

"What did I tell you." She hummed.

"It's funny how karma works out isn't it, the woman whose phone you steal just so happens to be the doctor who is going to treat you."

She smiled at him as he gulped.

"Don't worry kid, i'm very professional."

She checked the chart for his preliminary assessment; suspected rib fracture and a sprained ankle.

"Suspected rib fracture, let me see..."

She hummed, pressing her hand down over his ribs, perhaps applying more pressure than she would usually.

The boy groaned and yelled and whimpered.

"Yep" She popped the p," Definitely a fracture."

Her eyes flickered to his ankle, and as she moved towards it, he jumped up, pulling the leg away from her before she could examine it.

When the ghoulie kid let out a shockingly loud yell, one of the senior doctors pulled back the curtain.

"Everything okay in here?"

Ally blinked innocently.

"Everything's fine."

"I don't have your phone alright!"

The boy moaned, sucking air in through his teeth.

Ally folded her arms.

"Of course not, by now you've probably sold it on right?"

Then she turned to the senior doctor.

"I've got this it's fine."

He didn't budge.

"I want a new doctor, get me a different doctor, she was gonna hurt me."

Ally arched an eyebrow.

"I was assessing your pain levels, if you're hurting that much I can give you a needle."

The boys arms widened in alarm.

"No, no needles."

"Dr James." The senior gave her a firm glance," Why don't you go check on cubicle 7?"

He wasn't asking but telling.

"Fine." She huffed.

"But that kid's a thief so make sure his treatment is as painful as possible." She said with a wink, waggling her fingers at the ghoulie before turning on her heels.

10 minute later Ally had successfully managed to redress a wound and prescribe two people medicine. She led one of her patient to the reception to discharge them, finishing up the necessary paperwork before handing them over to a nurse.

When she turned around, she spotted a limping ghoulie.

"Going somewhere kid?"

She clamped a hand on his shoulder and he jolted, stumbling in panic.

"B-bathroom."

"Toilets are over there."

Ally spun him around, pointing in the direction opposite to where he was heading.

"Oh, right,"

The teen scratched his ear.

"This place is pretty big, it can be confusing."

Ally nodded, pretending to be understanding.

"Why don't I get you an escort so you don't get lost."

Waving her hand in the air she flagged down the first nurse she spotted.

"Jacob!"

"What no, I.." The teen sighed slumping in defeat as Ally guided him to a wheelchair.

"Come on, back to cubicles with you."

Jacob joined her as she returned the injured ghoulie to his cubicle.

"Hey senior," She shouted, drawing the attention of the man who had dismissed her earlier.

"Found something that belongs to you."


Ally was in the on call room, draped over a couch trying to get at least 10 minutes of shut eye, when a panicked looking Chloe hurried in, shaking her shoulder incessantly until she budged.

"Alright, alright. what?"

She whined rubbing her eyes and switching to a sitting position. Chloe sat down beside her, trembling as she tugged on Ally's arm.

There's a huge group of ghoulies in reception, they're threatening our doctors."

Ally groaned.

"What do you want me to do about it? Don't we have security?"

Chloe chewed her lip, smudging her pink lipstick.

"I heard that security are dealing with another issue up in orthopaedics."

Ally rolled her eyes. Of course.

"I also heard that one of our security guys is a ghoulie."

Gathering her hair, Ally pulled it up into a ponytail and grabbed her stethoscope.

"You wait here, i'll go take a look then."

Chloe's eyes widened.

"No maybe we should both wait, I don't think its a good-"

Ally had already made it out of the door.

"Idea."

When Ally got to reception, it was flooded with rowdy gang members. They were a variety of ages, from what she guessed was early teens to late 20's, perhaps even 30's

Only one of them actually seemed to be injured, slumped in a chair with blood dripping from his ear.

She met eyes with Jacob, who was a safe distance away with a team of his nurses.

He shook his head in a warning as she stepped closer to the scene.

The senior doctor closest to the injured ghoulie was thrown into a medicine trolley.

"Senior what've we got here?"

She smiled at the older man who was currently picking himself up from the floor.

The thug that had just shoved her senior walked towards her.

"What are you a nurse?"

He asked looking Ally up and down with a smarmy stare.

She sneered.

"Can't you tell? I'm a doctor."

Her senior straightened out his glasses.

She turned to him, ignoring the thug.

"What's wrong with that guy?"

She nodded her chin towards the bleeding ghoulie.

"Hard to tell no visible signs of head injury, so we need to run tests."

Ally nodded.

"Let's get him to a bed then." Waving her left hand she motioned towards the group of nurses.

"Jacob get him into a wheelchair would you."

The nurse widened his eyes, hesitantly nodding.

"What do you think you're doing?"

The ghoulie grabbed Ally's arm as she took hold of the wheelchair.

"What is it you think doctors do?"

As they moved down the corridor the whole group of ghoulies followed.

Stopping she turned to the gang with a disgruntled sigh.

"This is the area where we treat patients, so unless you have an issue that needs seeing to by a doctor or nurse then get out."

The ghoulie in the hospital bed peeled his eyes open.

"Tell this woman to get out."

Ally spun around to him.

"Excuse me? What did you just say?"

"I wont be treated by a woman, get me another doctor."

Ally laughed planting her hands on her hips.

"I'm a woman to you? All i see is a doctor and a patient, so quit being pissy and let me look at your or i'll let you die."

The ghoulies weren't so happy with the last words of that sentence. Ally was grabbed roughly, pulled away from the bleeding ghoulie.

"Hey watch how you speak to us, Don't you know who we are?"

"Yes yes I get it, you're a gang that's big and scary."

She pulled her arm out of the thugs grasp with a hard tug.

"And this one right here." She pointed at the ghoulie in the hospital bed.

"Must be pretty important to you guys right, that's why there's so many of you all worried about him."

His consciousness was slipping again, and the bleeding didn't seem to be stopping.

"He's in a really bad way right now and the longer we leave it the worse he's gonna get."

Making sure she had his attention, she bent down in front of his face.

"So you can get over the fact that i'm not a man and tell these boys of yours to wait outside hmm?"


"You're officially crazy." Jacob exclaimed flailing his gangly arms in the air as he rejoined Ally, once she returned from neurology.

Ally shrugged.

"This hospital is on the Southside, we gotta learn how to handle gangs since they make up the majority of the patients in here."

Jacob's mouth dropped open in a mixture of awe and disbelief. He shook his head as she followed him to the nurses station to collect a patient file.

"As cool as you were, the ghoulies really aren't ones you should get on the bad side of, especially not that one that you just sent up to the neurosurgeons."

"Why, he their leader or something?"

"No, the leader of the ghoulies is someone called Malachai, that was his second in command Drac."

Ally pursed her lip. Nodded. Shrugged again.

Jacob pinched the bridge of his nose at her behaviour.

"Ah, just say you'll be careful."

Walking along the aisle of cubicles Ally flipped through the patient file in her hands. In the corner of her eye something caught her interest.

She paused, backtracked and stopped in front of the half open curtain revealing an empty bed.

"Jacob, please tell me this kid has gone up to x-ray and not ran off again."

The nurse made a quick phone call, the look on his face told Ally that her suspicions were true.

"I'll see if I can chase him up."

Jacob offered, "Can't of gotten too far with an injured foot."

Ally hummed an approval, moving on to the next patient.

A young girl with a dreamcatcher tattoo on her neck and a suspected distal radial fracture.

She was shortly joined by Chloe and Jacob.

"I don't think my patient would approve of an audience."

She clucked, giving the two a pointed stare.

The patient sucked in a sharp breath.

"Give the lady some more morphine Jacob."

Turning to Chloe she raised an eyebrow.

"What is it this time?"

"Jacob told me about the boy that ran away and I was just thinking, what was he running from?"

Ally shrugged. (She did a lot of shrugging.)

Truthfully the thought had been niggling in the back of her mind. It wasn't uncommon for patients to up and leave but something about the situation didn't seem right.

"Book this one in for an x-ray." She told Jacob, leaving with Chloe to pick up a new patient file from the nurses station.

"Maybe the kid doesn't like hospitals, he didn't seem too happy when I suggested giving him a needle."

Chloe nodded.

"Wait maybe he thought you were going to call the cops on him, he was the one who stole your phone right?"

"Perhaps, kid's a ghoulie so he's probably got an extensive criminal record already."

They both agreed that was the case, but something still didn't sit 100% well with Ally.

Seeing the look on her friends face, Chloe pouted.

"What else could there be?"

That's when it hit her.

After the exhibit in the reception earlier, the ghoulies had quietened down significantly, and now were nowhere to be seen.

"When did the ghoulies leave?"

She asked the guy at the front desk who told her they had vanished not too long ago.

"You stay here, I think i know where that kid is."

She told Chloe, heading out of the hospital doors and around to the entrance of the morgue.

She didn't expect Chloe to follow, but the girl was like a puppy and obediently (and unnecessarily) tagged along.

"I see them, I see them."

Chloe exclaimed, pointing over to a swarm of studded leather.

"Hey!"

Ally yelled, drawing the attention of the ghoulies.

Chloe squeaked from her side.

"Nothing to see here doc, we're just getting some air, hospitals can be real stuffy."

"What about the kid bleeding on the floor? Is he just getting air too?"

A young ghoulie moved his hand into view, the sharp piece of metal glinted, a threat with a none verbal warning.

Ally smirked.

"You really think you know how to use one of those better than a doctor?"

"Ally!" Chloe hissed from behind the blonde, trying to tug her away.

The gang members looked between one another, shuffling to try hide the body, one of them coughing to try disguise the kids pained groaning.

Ally was starting to get annoyed.

"Because to me it looked like he was getting attacked, and Assault and Battery is a criminal offence," She took a daring step closer.

"But most of you if not all are probably familiar with that."

"Now sadly, i can't call the police." She sighed sliding her hands into the pocket.

"Your guy hugging the ground stole my phone this morning you see."

She pushed through the ghoulies to reach the boy crouching down beside him.

"Isn't that right?"

The boy looked up at her through a swollen eye and spluttered, he winced as his cut lip stretched.

"Please."

He tried to move but Ally motioned for him to stay put. Chloe avoided the gaze of the ghoulies, squeezing through them and over to the boy to asses his wounds.

"I have my phone with me, shall I call the police?" She whispered, Ally shook her head.

"No, do that and the ghoulies will find a way to get back to this kids family."

"Then what do we do?"

"Please.." The boy begged, "I'll give you your phone back."

His words came out in struggling wheezes with coughs in between. The two doctors shared unhappy looks, concerned by it. Ally especially so since she remembered the boy had been in a motorcycle accident earlier that morning.

The boy was perceptive though, and seemed to catch on that something was not right, and his eyes widened as much as they could through the swelling, he was panicked.

"They've really got it in for you huh kid, how much you owe them?"

"Five-" His face scrunched up and he spluttered.

"Five what? Puppies, kittens, children?"

"Five-thousand dollars." The smarmy thug corrected, Ally carefully shifted the teen, checking how clear his airways were.

"Jesus kid, what do you need that kind of money for."

"To get out."

Ally's eyes softened almost instantly. Then they hardened, she stood up and strode over to the smarmy thug.

"Is that the going rate these day? Price has changed a lot."

"How'd you know, were you in a gang doc?"

One of the younger ghoulies sniggered, a couple other followed suit.

"You lot still remember that I told you to listen to the doctors earlier right?"

The ghoulies were silent, she took it as an affirmative.

"Good, well I want you to listen to what i'm about to say, you are still on hospital grounds afterall."

"Now listen a minute doc, just because we did what you wanted once doesn't mean you can start bossing us around, so why don't you just turn around walk away and leave us, this here's ghoulie business."

"Better idea."

Ally proposed.

"You turn around, walk away and let me treat the kid."

"We can't let you do that doc, the kid owes us."

Ally narrowed her eyes.

"I don't like being told no."

A switchblade was aimed at her throat.

"Here, this should cover his debt."

Ally turned her head, and so did the ghoulies, towards Chloe, who held out a shiny glittering accessory.

Ally widened her eyes, shot the girl a look that said 'what the hell are you doing?'

"it's just a ring."

It wasn't just a ring but in fact an engagement ring. A very very very, expensive engagement ring.

Ally knew her friends relationship with her fiance was a little strained, but she didn't realise that things were so bad she'd give up her ring without a second thought, when she'd first been given it Chloe had cherished it like a child.

Chloe mumbled, "This kids' life is more important."

The ghoulies were quick to snatch up the shiny thing.

They made no attempt to move the blade away from Ally's throat.

"You know your friend Drac is in surgery right now."

The ghoulies eyes her cautiously wondering where she was going with her words.

"There's a lot of trainee doctors in the hospital lately, some of them are prone to mistakes, you see this hand."

She said lifting her right hand and waggling her fingers.

"Sometimes it likes to act a bit funny and doesn't do what i want it to do, if i'm not careful i could accidentally hurt someone."

The cold metal pressed closer against her throat, she could almost feel the tiny scratch as she swallowed.

"Is that a threat? You threatening us doc?"

Ally smiled.

"Nope, why would I do that? i'm a doctor I save lives."

There was a moment of hesitation, she could see the cogs turning in their head, the pocket knife was returned to its owners pocket, one of them mentioned to another about going to see the boss, the group divided and eventually the two doctors were left with the boy bleeding on the ground.

"You scare me so much sometimes Ally." Chloe said, her big round eyes glittering with tears.

"Grab a porter and tell them to bring around a trolley."

Chloe nodded, sniffling and rubbing her eyes as she hurried back to the main building.

Ally knelt down beside the ghoulie, offering him a smile.

"Right trouble, what do I call you?"

"Tiny."

"Alright Tiny, lets get you fixed up."

Back on a ward and in a bed, Ally was greeted with a worried shadow named Jacob.

"What were you thinking taking on the ghoulies on your own? And letting Chloe tag along too."

"I don't let Chloe do anything, I told her to stay behind but she followed."

"You're crazy."

Ally ignored him.

"Jacob this is Tiny, maybe you remember him from this morning."

The boy gave the nurse a feeble wave.

"On top of his injuries from earlier he now has some lovely facial lacerations and bruises, he wasn't K.O'd, GCS 15, pulse is at 85, bp is 125/80 and sat are at 96%"

Jacob sighed at her dismissal of his concern.

"Can you get him 1gram of paracetomol and titrate up some morphine if his pain gets any worse."

"Uh Doc."

Ally turned to the kid. "Yeah?"

His hand fished into his pocket, sliding out a smartphone, Ally took it.

The screen was now cracked.


Ally had completely forgotten that she was supposed to pick up her car from the auto shop.

Not knowing what the hours where, she decided she would head there between the normal 9-5 working hours.

Chloe had kindly offered to give her a ride.

"Do you really want to stay in a place like this?"

Chloe frowned at the sight of her friends current living space.

"Come stay with me at the five seasons, i have a spare room."

Ally shook her head, stepped out of the vehicle.

Chloe stopped the engine and followed.

"Why do you do these things to yourself, do you think your brother would be happy letting you live so uncomfortably just for his sake?"

"You didn't have to give them your ring you know."

Ally was an expert at changing conversation when she didn't want it to be about her.

"Chloe went quiet, staring at the empty space on her finger.

"Honestly I wanted an excuse to get rid of it," Then in an almost whisper, "I don't want to marry him."

"Then don't."

Chloe sighed.

"It's not so easy."

Ally rolled her eyes, and her head.

She saw orange.

An orange 1973 Camaro.

Her ugly orange 1973 Camaro.

"That car looks just like yours."

Chloe had noticed it too, but naively not made the connection.

Ally's Camaro was supposed to be in the auto repair shop, so Chloe hadn't expected it to be anywhere but there.

"Right?"

The drives seat of the Camaro opened, revealing curly hair and dark mischievous eyes.

Ally had seen those eyes before, the night her car had broke down in the rain.

"This pretty baby's yours right?"

"Oh you must be from the auto shop?" Chloe said.

The ghoulie smiled.

Ally knew he was not.

Her arms were crossed, features scrunched into a sullen pout.

He tossed the keys towards Ally, Chloe aptly caught them.

The ghoulie turned to the brunette, all smiles.

"Nice catch doll."

He winked, Chloe blushed. Ally was immune to that sort of flirting.

She turned to her friend, throwing an arm over her shoulder and spinning her around in the opposite direction.

"I'll see you at the hospital tomorrow. Go get your beauty sleep."

She collected her car keys, shoving them in her pocket, leading Chloe to her car.

When her friend was safely out of sight she glanced over her shoulder, the ghoulie was still there, still watching.

As their eyes met he waggled leather coated fingers.

"You" She addressed him and he pointed at his torso with a finger 'me?', his eyes danced with amusement.

"By the way my cars not pretty."

He laughed, not because he found her words funny, but because he found it funny that it was those words she chose to say to him, when there were other more obvious words, more obvious questions to ask, like who are you? Or why did you have my car?

She walked right past him and headed towards her motel room, the ghoulie followed.

"So you're a doctor?"

She stood there outside of the door, rummaging through her bag for her keys. The ghoulie leaned against the wall.

The ginger stray leaped up onto the balcony.

"Yeah." Her tone was cold, standoffish, the ghoulie still smiled.

"You have such a combative attitude."

Ally retrieved her room key, pushed it into the door, over her shoulder she shot him a look that said 'what of it?'

The ghoulie stepped forward, as she curled her fingers around the door handle to push it open, he covered her hand with his, pulling it shut, keeping her trapped between himself and the door.

His head ducked down, tilted towards her ear and with a dark whisper he spoke.

"I'd be careful with an attitude like that if I where you Ally, wouldn't want it to get you hurt."

The ghoulie pulled down on the door, it opened and he stepped backward.

When Ally turned to glare at him he winked then turned on his heels ,stuffing his hands in his pockets and leaving with a whistle.

Ally's hands curled into a fist. Her heart pounded.

She had never given the ghoulie her name.


A/N: I know there wasn't much of the regular Riverdale cast in this chapter but they will be arriving more frequently and predominantly from now on, just needed to get these first two chapters out of the way for some important set up.