(eventual)Steve Harrington x reader
Tw: panic attacks, violence, mentions of bullying and abuse, death
A/N: sorry for the wait I going through finals and graduating, but summer's starting so there will be more.
The dizziness was finally starting to subdue leaving behind only a throbbing pain on Maeve's left cheek. They had been at the police station for the last couple of ours, and she had spent the entire time zoned out on chair, once a while a woman came up and checked on her, changing the melting ice packet to a new freezing one. Nancy and Jonathan were sitting a couple of chairs away from here and, god bless them, they had both tried to come up to her multiple times, but Maeve was hurting, and the pain in her head was making all of her senses sharper and she was picking up every single sound echoing through the room; all of them overlapping and sending her into sensory overload. Her sweater was scratching the skin of her neck, her tongue felt heavy in her mouth, the heater was pointing directly at her making her run hot and the sound of officers shouting loudly one over the other was making her flinch every couple of seconds.
She kept her sweaty palms resting on top of her thighs, as she desperately tried to regulate her breathing, small shallow breath kept catching in her throat making her gasp once in a while. Her heart was thumping against her ribcage, the sound reverberating inside of her body and into her ears, but even though she was running hot a sheer layer of cold sweat was gathering on her skin making her even more uncomfortable. She kept her gaze fixated on the Hawkins map pinned to the wall on the opposite side of the room, as she traced the line of each and every roads. The room got the majority of its lighting from the windows next to the main door, filtering it so the room was dimly lit even in the peak of the afternoon.
She was too focused on herself, completely dissociated from the outside world, that she only realized that her mom had gotten there when she crouched down in front of her, placing her hands on her shoulders. Joyce's face was crumpled with worry, her brows were knitted tightly, and her nose scrunched as she examined her daughter's face, looking for any sign of hurt. When she saw the bruise on her cheek she froze, the ugly dark mark had bloomed on the left side of her face, the hematoma under her skin darkening into a deep colored bruise.
"Oh my god baby, oh my god. They told me, they told me Steve Harrington hit you." Her voice shook.
Maeve didn't have the strength to reply to her mom, so she just leaned forward, laying her head on her shoulders, her entire body sagged forward as she finally let the tension out. She shook harshly, her entire figure seizing as she tried to breathe through the hiccups. Her mom's grip tightened around her, pulling her closer and allowing her to hide in the crook of her neck. The embarrassment of the entire situation finally getting out, the pit in her stomach turning and spreading to her entire body. Steve Harrington had punched her, and even if she knew that it was a mistake, but the shame of crumpling to the ground in front of them, they had finally managed to broke her completely. She felt defeated. She felt worthless.
When the sobs finally evened out she raised her gaze, slowly tucking herself out of the safe space her mother had created, and looking up at them, tear tracks staining her cheeks, her big brown eyes wide. Her eyes settled firstly on her mom, who was crouched in front of her, and then behind, on Chief Hopper who was standing there pretending to be focused on something else to not make her uncomfortable.
Her mom squeezed her cheeks her gaze examining her daughter's face one last time, before turning back towards her son.
"Jonathan?" She frowned as she noticed the state of her son, the ice he was holding against his face and the busted lip dripping blood. "Jesus, what...what happened?". She stepped forward, in front of her son and Nancy, examining his face. The officer who had helped Maeve in the hallway and given her ice got up from his desk, approaching them.
"Ma'am..." He tried to reason with Joyce, noticing her nervousness.
"I'm fine." Jonathan cut him off, trying to soothe his mom.
"Why is he wearing handcuffs?" Joyce turned to the officer.
"Well, your boy assaulted a police officer." He explained. "That's why."
"Take them off." Joyce told him.
"I am afraid I cannot do that." The cop furrowed his brows clearly shocked by her reaction.
"Take them off!" She insisted, raising her voice as she got more frantic. Officer Callahan's brows raised in shock as he visibly reeled back, shifting into a defensive stance as he grasped that she wouldn't back down. But before the situation could escalate Hopper stepped not.
"You heard her. Take 'em off." He moved so that he was standing next to Joyce in all of his authority, his hands were on his hips and he stared at the officer with a look that didn't leave much to interpretation.
"Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see." The officer turned to his desk, and Maeve winced as he raised the box with all their monster fighting supplies and lowered it on the table in front of Joyce and Hopper, as they peeked inside.
"What is this?" Joyce frowned.
"Why don't you ask your son?" The officer turned to Jonathan. "We found it in his car."
"What?" Her brows furrowed even further as she turned to Maeve, she couldn't phantom how her son would need this supplies for, much less her sweet daughter that used to always tell her mother everything, from the bugs she found in the garden to what mean thing the kids at school had told her that day, and seeing her curl into herself, trying to hide the bruise that was forming on her left cheek.
"Why are you going through my car?" Jonathan sat up, his shoulders tensing and causing him to flinch as the cur on his face tightened.
"Is that really the question you should be asking right now?" The officer scoffed, his attention shifting from Hopper to the teenage boy, but before another sound could escape his open mouth, Hopper sighed loudly, opening the door to his office and gesturing to Jonathan.
"I wanna see you in my office." He stepped in waiting for the boy to follow him.
But Jonathan simply shook his head. "You won't believe me."
"Why don't you give me a try?"
Maeve waited outside with Nancy and her mom, Joyce settled next to her a while after Jonathan walked into Hopper's office, she had been bouncing her laugh anxiously for the last ten minutes, as silence dawned between the three woman. Nancy was pursing her lip, her hands were clenched on the table and her gaze was lowered on them.
Maeve had been sitting in the same chair for the last hour, she hadn't moved a single muscle since Jonathan and Hopper disappeared into the chief's office. Her head was laying against the mahogany cabinet and she had closed her eyes. Her breathing had finally calmed when her mom had placed one hand on her thigh as she relaxed into the familiar warmth, and the throbbing in her cheek had finally started to even out, leaving behind a slight pulse; however she still couldn't stop thinking about Steve Harrington, about how shameful the feeling of his fist against her cheek had felt, but moreover his face after he realized what he had done, the look of pure disgust in his eyes, veered towards himself, and how he stood there, unmoving, as Jonathan jumped on him.
She tried to shake the thought off in the silence of the room, that was only broken slightly by the tapping of the officer Callahan on the desk and the occasional phone call. She knew that she shouldn't be thinking about him right now, not when Will was still missing and that monster was still haunting, but the image of Steve Harrington tormented eyes had imprinted behind her lids. So to escape from it, she opened her eyes and looked at the Wheeler girl, curiously examining her while she was distracted, her short brunette hair was gathered into a ponytail, that used to be tidy but was now messy, with strands of hair sticking everywhere, her blue eyes were focused on her hands as she gently bit her lip, as she looked at her, Maeve wondered how she felt about what happened with Steve, how heartbroken she must have felt seeing what he wrote and how she felt about what he did to Maeve. But before she could get up and walked towards her, Hoppers door slammed open and Jonathan walked out, his expression unreadable.
As soon as Joyce saw her son she shot up from her seat and gently grabbed her daughter's arm.
"Come on, you two we need to talk." She walked out of the room into the corridor, shutting down Hopper's protest with the assertive look she learned raising three kids.
The corridor of the police station was quiet, the yellow lights painted the hallway, extending their shadows on the floor. Joyce led her kids around the corner before stopping and turning around to face both of them, and wrapping her thin arms around herself. She was wearing a long black leather coat, that Maeve recognized because she had helped her mom picking it out years ago at a yard sale when one of their neighbors was selling out their late mother's clothes. The woman was frowning, her disappointed gaze traveling from one children to the other, from Jonathan's hooded eyes, to Maeve's big doe ones.
"I'm sorry, Mom." The boy sighed and apologized before she could get a word out.
"What, you're sorry? You're... you're sorry?" She frowned deeper, raising her hands in desperation. "That is not good enough, Jonathan."
Maeve stepped forward placing hand on her mother's shoulder to calm her down. "We know."
"That's not even close. That's not even in the... in the ballpark." She shook her daughter's hand, caught in the whirlwind of her emotions, but she didn't notice the hurt in Maeve's eyes for being dismissed. The teenage girl retreated her hand into her chest as she reeled back at her mother's sudden movement.
"I wanted to tell you, I just..." Her brother trailed off, looking at the floor, avoiding his mother's eyes.
"What if this thing took you, too?"Joyce continued. "You both risked your life... and Nancy's."
"We thought I could save Will..." Maeve stammered out."We still do."
Joyce passed her hand through her hair, her eyes widening in disbelief at her daughter's words.
"This is not yours to fix alone." Her voiced wavering slightly as she raises it. "You act like you're all alone out there in the world, but you're not. You're not alone. And Maeve, you barely even tell me things anymore, I had to find out through someone else that Steve Harrington had hit you."
The lump in the back of Maeve's throat tightened as it always did when someone said something that shook her. "I know." She whispered, the words coming out shaky.
"God damn it, guys." She shook her head again but this time, silent tears were escaping her eyes.
"I know." Maeve nodded again, and before her mother could say anything else, she moved forward and wrapped her arms around her mother in a desperate embrace. Jonathan joined them a second later, keeping his arm around her younger sister, and rubbing her back softly. Maeve tried to stop her tears, not wanting to cry again, but the saltine tracks slowly rolled down her cheeks. She opened her mouth to apologize to her mother again, when the door opened again, and Hopper walked out into the corridor.
"We have news." Was all he said.
Twenty minutes later, they were all huddled in Hoppers office. Maeve, Jonathan and Nancy had told the two adults everything, from what happened at Steve's pool, Barb's disappearance, the pictures, the deer in the woods, and finally the monsters. Jonathan sheepishly explained that they bought the supplies to set up a trap for the monster as they found out that the creature could smell blood. Then the chief explained what they had found out, Will's body being a fake, Joyce's suspicion about the lights being right, and most importantly the rest of the party's involvement in this.
"I saw them." Maeve spoke up. "The day you went to see the body, I ran into them and they looked....... suspicious."
"We need to find them." The chief ran his hand over his face. "That boy Troy, he said that a girl broke his arm to protect them. He said her head was shaved, and she looked like a boy. Was she with them?"
"No.. no." Maeve continued. "It was just the three of them. But Nancy, Mike's your brother, you might know where he is."
Nancy's ear perked up at the sound of her name being mentioned, and she stared at them, thinking hard. The regret was clear into her eyes, Maeve had understood that Nancy and Mike weren't as close as she was to her baby brother, Will had told her that Nancy was going out with Steve Harrington and that Mike considered him a jerked and never lost the opportunity to remind her.
"I don't know." She mumbled jerking her head in a shake. "We haven't talked a lot. I mean, lately... "
"Is there any place that your... " Joyce tried. "your parents don't know about that he might go?"
"I don't know." Nancy voice wavered, as she lowered her gaze, but Maeve had seen the embarrassment in her eyes. Nancy was ashamed that she had no idea Miked was in danger. Hopper sighed loudly, falling back into his chair.
"I might." Jonathan said. "I don't know where he is, but I think I know how to ask him."
The drive to the Byers house was fast, after Jonathan explained how they'd probably be able to contact them through Will's walkie talkie, the Chief sped through the streets of Hawkins, trying to get to the house as soon as possible. When they got there Joyce practically catapulted herself inside, running to Will's room, all the others running after him. Maeve was the last one to walk in, right after Nancy, when she stepped inside she was met by an orange bull of fur as Mimi ran up to her, she quickly bent down to her pick the cat up. She hadn't seen Mimi in a whole day and she felt guilty that in-between all of her worries she hadn't really paid mind to her cat.
She walked into the room with Mimi cradled against her chest, and when she stepped in all the others were frantically searching in the room. Jonathan who was kneeling next to the bed, his hands shoved inside Will's bedside table as he rummaged through it, Joyce was looking through the table's drawers, while Hopper and Nancy examined the wardrobe. It took a couple of seconds for Jonathan to find the walkie talkie and place it on the bed, as the others settled around him.
"Nancy, you need to talk to him." Hopper said standing next to the bed. "You're the one Mike's going to trust."
The girl nodded as the teenage boy turned the device on, tuning it on the right channel as the sound of static filled the room. Nancy took a shaky breath before raising the device and bringing it closer to her mouth to speak into it.
"Mike, are you there? Mike?" She asked. "Mike, it's me, Nancy. Mike, are you there? Answer. Mike, we need you to answer."
The silence between them was charged, they all held their breaths, and Maeve clutched Mimi tighter against her chest. But the line was quiet, the boys weren't responding. Nancy let out a loud sigh before speaking into the radio again.
"This is an emergency, Mike." Her tone raising slightly in desperation. "Do you copy? Mike, do you copy? I need you to answer."
Maeve had closed her eyes, as she settled deeper into the mattress settling Mimi down into her lap as she waited and prayed to hear one of her brother's friends voices. The party was the last piece in the puzzle, the girl was sure that they known what was happening to Will, and if she truly had powers like Hopper said. Nancy huffed in despair, Mike wasn't answering and they were all growing impatient as Nancy raised the radio once again.
"We need to know that you're there, Mike."
But before they could hear a response from the other end of the line, Hopper grabbed the walkie talkie from Nancy's hand, holding it up to his mouth and speaking into it. His tone didn't carry the quiet nervousness of a worried sister, it was authoritative and final. The decisiveness in his attitude made a shiver run down Maeve's spine as she held her breath, if Mike and the others were on the other side of the radio, this was their last chance at gaining their trust. However she was aware of how stubborn the boys could be and with time she had learned to never take their trust for granted, and she understood why; Will and his friends, just like Maeve and Jonathan, had gone through an abundance of bullying, and the trauma had led all of them to deep distrust towards both their peers and adults who refused to help them, so she wasn't absolutely certain that they would trust Hopper enough to respond.
"Listen, kid, this is the chief." He got up from the bed turning towards the door, his back to the others. "If you're there, pick up. We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl. We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta pick up. Do you copy? Over."
Silence hung heavily in the room as they all held their breaths, Hopper turned back to them, sighing heavily. Joyce got up from the bed, walking over the cop as they all started to loose hope. Mimi curled further into Maeve's lap and let out a tiny breathy sound, that expressed her bother against the commotion of the room, the girl moved her hand from her cat's fur to lay it on the bed, gripping the bedsheet anxiously. Then a sound broke from the walkie talkie, filling the room's silence, a voice, Mike Wheeler's voice.
"Yeah, I copy. It's Mike. I'm here. We're here."
After Mike had told them where they were, Hopper ran out of the house alone, ignoring Joyce and Jonathan's pleas to go with him. His police car drifted out of the Byers front yard. The shock of the situation caught up the other four, as they all sat back in Will's bed. Maeve was the first one to break the silence, resting Mimi back on the bed and getting up, offering to make some tea as they waited for Hopper.
That's how they all found themselves silently sitting at the kitchen table with cooling mugs wrapped in their hands. The Byers kitchen was illuminated by the dim light of the overhead lamp, outside the day was beginning to fade away as the sun was beginning to set. The usual warmth of the kitchen, given by Will's drawing on the wall, the scent of Joyce's favorite tea brewing, the picture of all three sibling attached to the fridge and Mimi's toys scattered across the floor, was undermined by the weight of the situation, but especially by Will's absence. Maeve hadn't truly understood how much she was missing her brother, but sitting in the kitchen helpless the absence of Will's shy laughter, the noise of his pencil drawing on paper, the static of his walkie talkie and his weight on Maeve's bed when he got a nightmare and sneaked into her room.
The girl's train of thought was interrupted by the roaring of Hopper's car braking in front of the house. Nancy's ear perked up at the sound as she shot up from her seat, sprinting outside of the door, the other ones running after her. As soon as they got out of the door, they were met with the sight of the chief, Mike, Dustin, Lucas and the shaved girl gettin out of the car. Maeve's eyes immediately fell on the girl, she was small, smaller then average, and she looked around Will's age, she was wearing a pink ruffled dress, and it looked as is she had been wearing it for a while as it had tracks of dirt and grass on it, her brown eyes were wide and her disheveled look highlighted the fear and distrust in her posture.
As soon Nancy saw Mike she moved, running to him and embracing him fiercely in a hug. Wrapping her thin limbs around her brother's smaller frame and pulling him against her chest, as she breathed in the familiar comforting scent of the shampoo Karen brought for them. However Mike's hug was more hesitant, he looked astounded by his sister sudden rush of affection and it took him a couple of seconds to reciprocate the embrace.
"Mike. Oh, my God. Mike!" Nancy words were muffled by Mike's coat. "I was so worried about you."
"Yeah, uh... me, too." Mike answered hesitantly, it was clear that the party had no idea that Nancy and the others knew about what was happening to Will.
The Wheeler girl gave her brother one last squeeze before separating from him, and stepping back into the porch into Jonathan's side. Her eyes scanned the sight in front of her, along the familiarity of Mike's friends, settling ultimately on the little girl, her brows knitting together in confusion as her eyes fell on the pink dress.
"Is that my dress?" She asked.
After ten minutes they were sitting at the table again, Joyce had warmed another pot of tea, the three younger boys and the girl, which they learned was named Eleven after the number on her wrist, were sitting across of Maeve at the table, and Dustin was holding up a piece of paper in which he had drawn the picture of a flea and a man standing on a piece of string.
"Okay, so, in this example, we're the acrobat." The curly-head explained. "Will and Barbara, and that monster, they're this flea. And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding. Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of time and space."
"A gate." Mike added."That we tracked to Hawkins Lab. With our compasses."
Joyce frowned, struggling to understand the logic of the boys' explanation as their voices overlapped and they finished each other explanations. Raising one of her hands to try calming them down and to get a better grasp of the circumstances.
"Okay, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of a compass needle." Dustin clarified again, slower this time and without the interruption of the other two.
"Is this gate underground?" Hopper asked, taking a sip of his tea.
"Yes." It was the girl, Eleven, to answer this time.
"Near a large water tank?" He asked again.
"Yes." The girl looked up from where her eyes were fixed on the table, meeting the chief's gaze as she stuttered the words out. "How do you know all that?"
"He's seen it." Jonathan whispered, but before anyone could acknowledge his words Joyce cut him off.
"Is there any way that you could... that you could reach Will?" Her voice wobbled with hope. "That you could talk to him in this..."
"The Upside Down." Eleven finished the question for her.
"Down." She whispered. "Yeah."
"And my friend Barbara?" Nancy intervened. "Can you find her, too?"
The boys explained that Eleven needed to be blindfolded to look for them, because her psychic powers worked if she was completely focused. Then Dustin held up his walkie talkie, tuning it on a random station to create the sound of static and turning the volume up. The tiny girl sat at the kitchen table, still wearing the pink dress, as her legs swung, too short to reach the ground. Maeve looked at her from her seat across the table, she examined the blindfolded girl as her lips pursed in concentration.
The sound of static suddenly increased, as the lights of the Byers house flickered just like they did with Joyce. The Byers girl breath caught as the noise deepened and shook the core of the house lightly, like a shiver running through the ground. They all tensed at it expecting for something to happen, but just as quickly as the sound increased it did the opposite, fading in the quiet of the room.
"I'm sorry." Eleven ripped the blindfold from her eyes, looking down sheepishly.
"What?" Joyce stuttered anxiously, desperate to know if something had happened to her son. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"I can't find them." The little girl's voice broke, disappointed in herself for letting Joyce down.
"Whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak." Mike explained. "The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets."
"Like, she flipped the van earlier." Dustin added, thrilled to be telling the story. "It was awesome. But she's drained. Like a bad battery."
"Well..." Joyce stuttered. "How do we make her better?"
"We don't." The Wheeler boy shook his shoulders. "We just have to wait and try again."
"Well, how long?" His sister asked, starting to grow nervous and impatient.
"I don't know." He simply responded, which made her sigh loudly, slouching back on her chair. Maeve noticed the restlessness in her new friend?s demeanor, so she reached forward and quietly placed her hand on the other girl's shoulder, making her turn back and meeting her eyes with a small understanding smile.
"The bath." The moment between the two teen girl was broken by the smaller girl's shaky voice.
"I can find them." Eleven explained. "In the bath."
A sensory depravation tank. That what was Eleven was referring to according to Dustin. A place in which she would be able to focus completely on the task of finding Barb and Will, in which all of her senses would be weakened by the saltine water and she'd be left alone with only her mind.
So as Dustin talked to Mr Clarke, his middle school science teacher, and wrote down everything they needed to build the tank, his pencil scratching the paper as he hurriedly reread his messy writing, checking one last time for everything, before thanking Mr Clarke and hanging up the phone.
"Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?" He turned to Joyce.
"I think so. Yeah." The woman replied, looking confused at the boys question, turning to Maeve to confirm her answer.
"Yeah." The teen girl nodded. They keep the pool folded in its box inside the tool shed, they stopped using it years ago, when Will started getting to big to fit inside of it, and since that summer three years ago they hadn't taken it out.
"Good." The curly-head said. "Then we just need salt. Lots of it."
"How much is "lots"?" Hopper asked.
"1,500 pounds." He checked the list Mr Clarke had dictated to him, before responding solemnly.
"Well, where are we gonna get that much salt?"
It was Hopper's idea to head to Hawkins Middle, he knew that was where they kept the salt to melt the icy roads in the winter. They split up in two cars, Hopper, Joyce, the little girl, Dustin and Lucas drove there in the chief's police car, while the rest of them move with Jonathan's old car. They drove through the night, as the sun had already sat and as Maeve set in the back with Mike sitting next to her, his leg bouncing nervously on the floor of the car.
When they go to destination they split the chores, Hopper and Jonathan went to get the ice, the boys prepared the pool, and Maeve joined her mother in helping Eleven regain all of her strengths. Mike had told them that she needed to rest in order to use her powers properly. So as they got out of the car, the two Byers' woman led her towards the school's canteen.
Maeve had been in the room countless of times in her childhood, and even after two years it smelled exactly the same as the last time she had been in there, buttery and savory, but the chocolatey undertone of the pudding resting in the fridge; the remainder that normal life was continuing for everybody else. Maeve helped the little girl sit in one of the chairs, as her mother rummaged through the cupboards, returning with a peanut bar in her hands and a blindfold.
"This will keep it dark for you." She placed it in front of the eleven when the girl finished eating. "Just like in your bathtub. You're a very brave girl. You know that, don't you? Everything you're doing for my boy... for Will... for my family..."
She sighed, tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. "Thank you."
"Listen." Maeve extended her hand taking Eleven's. "We are gonna be there with you the whole time. And if it ever gets too scary... in that place, you just let us know, okay?"
"Yes." The little girl nodded.
They led the girl to the school's basketball gym where they met with the others, they had set up the little kiddie pool in the middle, and it had been filled with water almost to the brim and they were all standing around of it, awaiting. Eleven pulled down the blindfolded as she lowered herself into the water, shivering sightly at the icy bite. As soon as she was into position Dustin tuned the radio, the sound of static echoing through the gym. They all held their breaths as her breath deepened, the sound had just stabilized when the electricity surged. The big overhead lights that they had turned on suddenly shut down, leaving them in total darkness, before smaller ones lighted.
"Barb?" Her breathing deepened."Barbara?"
They all tensed up at the mention of the Holland girl's name, a shiver ran down through Maeve's spine when Eleven's breathing deepened even further, turning heavy, and simultaneously the lights pulsating. The electricity of the entire building came alive, the sound of a cable exploding making everyone flinch.
"What's going on?" Nancy asked worriedly turning to her brother.
"I don't know." Mike replayed.
"Is Barb okay?" She asked Eleven this time. "Is she okay?"
"Gone! Gone!" The scream through the little girl's throat violently, as she cried, shaking severely, her body almost convulsing inside the pool. "Gone! Gone! Gone! Gone. Gone."
Maeve raised her gaze, immediately searching for Nancy. The Wheeler girl had visibly flinched at Eleven's words, her body violently jerking back as a muffled wail escaped her, tears escaping her pretty blue eyes and tracking down her rosy cheeks, as her bottom lip trembled.
"Gone." Eleven sniffled, growing more panicked by the second.
"It's okay." Joyce reached forward, stabilizing her by placing both of her hands on her shoulders as she whispered into her hair. "It's okay. It's okay."
"Gone. Gone!" The young girl kept sobbing.
"It's okay, we're right here." Joyce kept shushing away Eleven's tears, soothing her with the calming motion of her thumb on the girl's forehead. "We're right here, honey. It's okay. I got you. Don't be afraid. I'm right here with you. I'm right here with you."
Eleven's breath finally subdued, going from heavy pants into quicken breaths, she stopped shaking, her body growing limp and floating in the kiddie pool, her shoulder were still being held by Joyce. The electricity finally stopped pulsating, and the quiet returned inside the basketball gym, the only sound that could be heard were Nancy quiet sobs.
"Castle Byers." Eleven suddenly muttered. "Castle Byers."
"Will." Maeve's breath caught. Eleven had found him.
"Will?" Her mother gasped loudly, her hands tightening. " You tell him... tell him I'm coming. Mom is coming."
The girl didn't answer, her body laying completely still in the pool, they couldn't hear what she was saying. When another sound broke the constant of the static, Will's voice.
"Hurry." His weak voice was barely able to be heard under the loud static, but they all recognized him. Maeve flinched harshly, her brother's weak voice made tears pool in her eyes, this was the confirmation that he was still alive.
"Okay. Listen, you tell him to... " Joyce stuttered. "to stay where he is. We're coming. We're coming, okay? We're coming, honey. Just... just hold on a little longer."
Eleven suddenly jerked awake violently, her body shaking harder than it did before, as sob tore from her chest as she convulsed. Joyce moved faster, extending her arms and embracing her from behind, wrapping her hands around the little girl's waist as she buried her face into the crook of her neck, quietly whispering soothing words to her.
"I've got you." She comforted him. "It's okay. I got you. I got you. You did so good."
It took about five minutes for her to calm down completely, between whispers and calming touches they managed to get her out, wrapping her into a thick white towel, trying to warm her shivering frame. Hopper, Joyce and Jonathan ran outside, while Maeve helped setting up Eleven in a warm spot where the boys could help her rest and warm up. She then got out of the gym and found Nancy where she was sitting in the corridor,
She slowly slid down against the wall, settling down right next to the Wheeler girl, their shoulders brushing. Nancy was sobbing quietly, tears wetting her cheeks as small gasps escaped her. Maeve knew that there was nothing she could possibly say to lessen the grief that the other girl was feeling in that moment, she had lost her best friend, so she simply laid her head on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. They stayed in total silence, until Jonathan walked back in.
"We have to go back to the station." Nancy wiped the tears away as she spoke.
"What?" Both Byers sibling asked incredulously.
"Your mom and Hopper are just walking in there like bait." She explained, sitting up against the wall. "That thing is still in there. And we can't just sit here and let it get them, too. We can't."
"You still wanna try it out?" Maeve questioned looking up at her,
"I wanna finish what we started. I want to kill it."
