Isabelle Amelia Tate was seated next to Archie Andrews at Riverdale General Hospital staring at her blood stained clothes and hands wondering how they got here exactly. The day kept on replaying in her mind in a series of flashes and snapshots not that there was much to remember it was barley nine o'clock in the morning the day had hardly began and yet and still Fred Andrews got shot in front of her, his son and her grandad .

Izzy had braved the twenty minutes walked into work and had arrived just as the sun rays were hitting the top of the Chock'litt Shoppe sign.

Noting that lack of customers meaning the normally Herculean task of convincing Pops to leave the restaurant in her more than capable hands might be downgraded to a half hour argument contains various pleas, bribes, and/or blackmail before he finally gives in and goes home for a few hours before he came running right back.

It had only taken her five minutes to get changed out of her casual clothes into the classic wear of the yesteryears that was her uniform; at this time she had the act of changing clothes down to a fifty second performance if she put her mind to it.

Unfortunately, Izzy already knew that the beautiful Saturday morning was about to take a turn as she spotted Fred and Archie Andrews seated in a booth knowing that her grand father was most likely not leave his restaurant without some type of monumental effort from her part in convincing him.

"Izzy your shift doesn't start to eleven, you are about five hours too early" her grandad stated getting ready to take the Andrew's breakfast order knowing exactly why his granddaughter was here so early in the morning.

"I heard you leave the house at four, what happened to resting? What happened to Joseph doing the morning shifts?" Izzy stated arms crossed staring at her grandad.

"I let him go early to spend some time at home you know Olivia is only six months old, he needs to spend some time with her" Pop countered trying to walk past her only to be stopped when she moved to block his path.

"No, what Joseph needs is a job to support his family, he needs the money and if you keep cutting his shifts short just because you can't spend more than a few hours away from here he can never earn enough to support that little girl you are concerned about" Izzy retorted, this time going so far as glowering at the man in front of her to get her point across. "Plus you need time away from this place… you can't keep working like this, you are barely home I only see you when I have a shift here. You can't keep doing fourteen hour days, you don't have time to rest let alone try to bring your blood pressure down. You promised to take weekends off, you promised"

Noah Tate felt a twinge of guilt as he knew what she was saying was right, he had barely seen his granddaughter at home in the last few weeks knowing how lonely she would have gotten being at home all by herself "Izzy…"

Sensing she needed only a few more well placed point she pressed on "Please… at least take the morning off, is usually quite plus Anne and Jorge will come in about and hour to start their shift so I won't even be by myself for long and if any more people come I will ask them to come in early plus everyone will understands, they won't care about waiting.

x.x.x.x.

Fred Andrews sat quietly in his booth waiting for his son to return from the restroom well aware of the reason why Izzy Tate was awake so early in the morning arguing with her grandfather in the corner; every couple of weeks the young girl will walk in and cajole, bribe or out right demand her grandfather take time away from the diner. The sight of the little tete-a-tete happening behind the counter brought a small smile to Fred's face as he could tell by the grin gracing her face that Izzy was already managed to convince Pop to go home within the space of ten minutes.

It was something of a regular occurrence in the restaurant; something which started a couple of years ago when little Izzy had turned fourteen and her grandfather -her only living relative as far as she knew- had suffered a mild heart attack while working.

As the story goes the first time Izzy had thought Pop Tate had been working too much after his ordeal she had stormed into the little Chock'litt shoppe with the fury of a pint-sized hurricane and had apparently screamed the place down demanding that he return home immediately even going so far as pushing a couple of customers out of the restaurant and locking the door so no more could enter, Izzy had managed to cause such a commotion that Alice Cooper had written a front page editorial titled "The love (and fear) of a Granddaughter" detailing a granddaughter's fear of losing her grandfather due to over-working and stress even going so far as "Isabelle Amelia Tate was a shining example of what a child should grow up to be despite what could initially be seen as disrespect her actions detailed the highest form of love there is; Love of Family."

After the initially incident Isabelle would randomly show up at Pop's to drag her grandfather away whenever she felt like he was working too much, over the years her tactics had evolved from outright closing down the restaurant to convincing Old man Tate to hire more people to ease his burdens, taking shift work herself in order to keep an eye on her grandfather and on days like today she would argue until the old man decided to go home and rest.

The sound of bell above the door jingling dragged Fred Andrews out of his daydreams to come face to face with a man wearing a type of balaclava pointing the gun directly him. His sole focus was on the gun, his partial focus was on his son who he could see has just sauntered out of the bathroom unaware of the danger.

x.x.x.x

Isabelle could not and would not remember a SINGLE thing that was said after hearing the bell above the door ring that Saturday morning.

It was as if she had suddenly become deaf, as if someone had turned all her senses off leaving her only with her sight; she could not her the man talking to Fred, she could not hear her Grandad's frantic whispers, she could not feel his incessant tugging of her arms trying to move her to safety, trying to push her behind him.

The only thing that captured Isabelle's attention was the gun; the gun that was being pointed at her friends dad. The gun that was primed and ready to cause injury and death. The gun that was in her safe place, her second home.

Time stood still and sped up all at the same time; one second a man was in restaurant with a deadly weapon ready to be used the next he had vanished out the door and Fred was on the ground on the other hand it felt like hours had passed it was as if the man had not yet decided what to do, as if he was nervous and unsure of his finale cause of action.
Izzy could see his mouth moving, repeating a mantra but she was too far away to hear it even if her ears had decided to work for her to actually hear anything apart from the her own heart beat.

BANG!

BANG!

... and just like that Isabelle regained her hearing

x.x.x.x

Fred Andrews watched as the man moved closer to him, moved close enough to hear what the man had been repeating since walking in "All Sinners must pay; All sinners must die" with those final words he felt a sharp jolting pain pass through him before his brain could process the fact that he had been shot.

Fred watched as the man turned and run, he watched as his son and Isabelle knelt at his side trying to stem the bleeding, he watched as true innocence faded from their eyes as his blood stained their hand.