Jun 17
i NEED hucklerobby fics with michael robinavitch is john carter AUs please 😫
seen from Palestinian Territories
seen from United States
seen from Poland
seen from Brazil
seen from China
seen from Morocco
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from Italy
seen from Colombia
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
i NEED hucklerobby fics with michael robinavitch is john carter AUs please 😫
Nancy’s Wedding | Steve Harrington x Reader (ch.1)
Series Masterlist
Chapter Two.
Pairings: Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader.
Word count: 3369
Nancy's Wedding | Chapter One.
The cold air of Chicago was freezing her ideas. Inside the subway, she had felt so much warmth due to the number of people occupying the space that her nose had started running. Just after the County General stop, she went out and the cold March air slapped her in the face. It was March 17th and just that morning it had been snowing and about three o'clock in the afternoon the rain was intense as fuck. She could feel her nose freezing with the cold, the air wetting her eyes. Hugging herself so her coat was closer to her body, Y/N arrived at her workplace and she'd just slipped twice on ice, not falling this time. The last time she knew she was running late to work, she made the awful mistake of walking faster, therefore she fell and broke her wrist. She was sent to the County General Hospital and Doctor Mark Greene had been very nice to her, even nurse Carol Hathaway even made small talk to her about how much she hated the peachy color of their uniforms. Although she had been wonderfully treated there, she'd rather not get injured instead.
Taking off her gloves, she pushed the personnel entry of the nightclub she worked at: The Silver. Small bits of snow fell from her boots as she hit the ground with force before heading to the locker room. Robin Buckley was already there, yawning.
"Jesus, Buckley, it's five in the afternoon. How are you still half asleep?"
"I'm old, Y/N. You're still barely twenty-four, but when you get my age, there are things you can't do anymore."
Rolling her eyes, she opened her locker to put her coat inside. "Don't speak like your life's ending. Aren't you twenty-seven? That's young! Just a week ago you were screaming that this year was your year, ninety-four baby, you said."
"I was mistaken."
As they got out of the ladies' locker room, Steve Harrington was getting out of the other one. Y/N put her foot in front of his making him trip, but not fell. He never fell. He stumbled to his feet, balanced himself with his arms, and cursed before straightening himself up, he ran his hands through his hair staring at the fake innocence in Y/N's eyes.
"One day, I'm going to break my neck because of you, kid."
"Oh, old man, I would pay to see that day. By the way, why is Robin so down?" She stared at him and grimaced, "You look like shit too, dude."
"She had a date…"
"I'm old!"
"...with someone who was twenty-two, apparently…"
"I'm going to die alone!"
"...so when she got home she drank everything we had and I'm the one who had to hold her hair. I have questions."
"Life runs so fast you woke up one day and… puff!! You're old."
"As much as I love your crisis, Roberta, could you, please, behave in the workplace?" One of the owners intervened.
"Sorry, Mr. Spencer."
As the three of them apologized without sentiment in their voices, the man sighed, gesturing for them to start working.
The Silver was a nightclub owned by Michael Spencer and Vicent Dewey since the late seventies. Since then, its looks and its menu had changed and adapted to current fashion. They had booths, square tables, lots of room by the bar counter, and a small kitchen to prepare the typical diner's food to nibble on while drinking. It wasn't so bad and they were very well known in the area.
Y/N started working there when she was seventeen thanks to the goodwill the owners had for needed people. She didn't have the age to work there at the time, but they just hired her as a dishwasher keeping her hidden from the public. They even allowed her to stay with them at the apartment they shared until she had the proper age to officially work there. That's how she knew so much about them and the relationship they had, although she never betrayed any of them. She was still working there, behind the bar with her fresh twenty-one, when Robin and Steve had gotten inside looking for a job. They had just arrived from someplace in Colorado and they were living in their car, both their faces and bodies had been badly beaten up. Steve's protective strike toward Robin was noticeable from the beginning, so much so that Y/N had been certain they were in a romantic relationship. When she had mentioned that to Dewey the man had laughed at her with such affection that she just had to connect the dots. Steve was clearly straight, but Robin wasn't so they probably had been beaten up in Colorado by some assholes who found out.
Three years later, they were part of The Silver family.
Robin tied up her hair and entered the kitchen. Steve and Y/N cleaned up the main area with a couple of waiters. At half past five, the band for the night entered the place making a beeline to the stage at the back; at six the doors were open and the first clients started to come in.
The first hours of the night were always slow. Young people entered the place at the time the band was playing some new pop or punk or rock or whatever it was for the night, occupying the dance floor and drinking beer, mostly. After supper, groups of friends, couples, and regular workers got inside looking for a drink. As midnight hit the clock, the band left but the club kept filling with drunk people who danced poorly to whatever was playing through the speakers. From three to five was usually a slow couple of hours in which the workers would clean as much as they could before closing time at six thirty. Harry, one of their older cooks, was so well-built that he was the one in charge of waking the sleepy drunks and walking them to the exit.
Y/N stretched her back to make it pop as Robin got out of the kitchen sitting on one of the stools by the bar.
"The kitchen's spotless. When are you two going to finish?"
"A few glasses, the counter, and the floor," Steve listed unbuttoning his vest.
"It's still six, people, we still have half an hour for clients to come inside," Spencer pointed out reaching for the tip jar under the counter, next to the cash register.
"At this hour people look for breakfast and coffee, boss, not a drink," Y/N complained.
"Who's turn is to clean the washrooms?" Dewey dried some sweat from his forehead on his way out of the kitchen. He was the main cook. Steve and Y/N pointed at each other. "Don't start kids, I'm too old for kindergarten fights."
Before Steve could argue the door opened and a regular customer came in. He was there last night, as he always was the nights he wasn't on call at the hospital and had a rough date, he would come into the club, sit on a stool and drink himself blind while complaining to Y/N. This time he was wearing a green scrub under his jacket, big black bags under his eyes, and sadness written all over his face.
"We're about to close, Doctor Ross," Spencer offered kindly.
Nodding, Doctor Dough Ross walked towards his stool, he sat, rested his elbows on the counter, hid his head between his hands, and started crying. Y/N took a bottle of scotch and a bottle of cold water, putting both of them in front of the man.
"Pick your poison, Doctor Ross."
Smiling sadly he caressed the scotch bottle but finally took the water. "She tried to kill herself," he whispered. "She seemed so good all day… Happy as always! Then her turn was over, she went home and a few hours later she was coming in with the ambulance. She took everything that was in her cabinet. With scotch, apparently. Why haven't I seen it? Why– Christ!"
Y/N had been Dough Ross' confessor for three years now; she knew everything that was to know about the man, and that's why she knew he was referring to Carol Hathaway, the nurse that once treated her so well in the ER, the woman he loved the most.
"Is Carol going to recover?"
To her question, Ross looked up and gave her one of his smiles, sinking his chin towards his neck. "They don't know. She's in a coma right now. How did you know I was talking about Carol?"
"I told you so many times by now, Doctor Ross. I know everything. I'm that good. You should go home now, she's in a hospital surrounded by doctors who would take good care of her."
"I don't want to go home. I would drink everything I have there if I go."
"Then drink it. If you do so you wouldn't have more alcohol to drink tomorrow."
He took a long sip of his water and nodded. "I feel responsible."
"I know. I noticed. You're not very good at hiding it, by the way. However, how can you be sure you're responsible for her choice? I think that's egocentric of you."
"If I–"
"Doctor Ross, with all due respect, do you think she has more things in her life than the relationship she had with you, and that ended nearly five months ago?"
"You're good. She's good, Spencer, treat her well. I'm going home," before turning around he offered his hand to her, as she gave him her hand he kissed it, shook it, and let go.
With the new tip in hand, Spencer did the maths again and separated the tips into equal piles that he gave to his employees. Steve and Y/N were the ones who work the hardest for tips just behind the bar counter, but they did it from the beginning with the idea that it was money for everyone.
"Mickey and I would clean the washrooms, kids. Get out of here."
"Thank you, Dewey," she gave him a kiss on the cheek on her way to the locker room.
As she was unbuttoning her vest she felt exhaustion overflow her for the first time in the shift. Her uniform, like Steve's, consisted of high-waisted plaid black pants, a white cotton shirt, and a black vest that had a silky part on the back in bright red. As for the shoes, she used boots with a thick sole, almost like platforms that gave her an extra few inches of height. The waiters' uniform was similar, although instead of vests, they wore ties and a slightly squared apron. Inside the kitchen, the workers wore big black pants that looked incredibly comfortable, a white cooks' jacket (usually with its sleeves rolled up), and the shoes they found more comfortable. Vincent Dewey had a little rainbow pin in the lapel of his chef's jacket that nobody saw. Michael Spencer didn't have a uniform, he just dressed as he pleased, smartly and professionally as a nightclub owner.
"That Doctor Ross is creepy," Robin pointed out as she was changing next to Y/N.
"He's harmless."
"That's how we call it now? He came right after his shift, knowing that we were about to close, just to talk about his day with you. He doesn't come when you're not working."
"I call that not having friends outside of work. Look, you can ask Harrington about this, but as bartenders, we play the confessor role for a lot of clients. We listen to them, and we gave them a safe place to cry, curse, or just be vulnerable. Sometimes they want advice, some other times they only want someone who listens to them. Mrs. Orville doesn't order anything unless Steve's the one who serves her, just because she likes the way he treats her. Ross is just the same. He never had any weird ideas with me, if that's what you're implying, Buckley."
"He could've fooled me…"
"He's just flirty. When I broke my wrist last winter, he saw me being treated by one of his friends. Doctor Mark Greene. And girl, let me tell you, Ross flirted with him like there was no tomorrow. I marked my lines the first time he came in here, and he had always respected them."
When they were all covered in coats and warm clothes, the girls got out to find Steve Harrington waiting for them next to the back door. The scarf was loose still, but his wool hat covered his full head and ears.
"How do you keep all your hair inside that thing?"
"You should see him at home. The moment he took it out he looks like a wet dog," Robin laughed.
"Shut it, Robs! So, L/N, want a ride home?"
She wanted to say yes. Since they had started working on The Silver, Y/N developed feelings for Steve although he never seemed interested in her. They argued, they bantered, they joked, but they barely talked. The first time Steve had offered her a ride home she had accepted thinking that they were getting closer, they were finally going to be friends. The ride was lonelier than taking the subway because in Steve's car he and Robin had a dynamic; they had inner jokes, and the conversation flew between them easily as she was relegated to the position of the spectator. It was discouraging noticing how any effort she made to start a conversation with them, or to contribute something else to theirs, there was an awkward silence that followed.
Yeah, she could totally understand the need Ross had to go looking for her to talk his mind out. He didn't have friends outside the workplace and she didn't even have friends there. Her coworkers seemed to like her and with some of them she was able to go grab a coffee or watch a movie, but it was always superficial.
Saying that after that first time she hasn't accepted another ride offer from Steve or Robin would be lying. She had. If the weather was too violent she always accepted. She didn't accept this time.
"Thank you, but I can catch the next train. I live next to the stop anyway," she always said.
"We don't mind," Robin assured her, now trembling due to the cold of the morning.
"It's fine! See you later!"
Y/N walked fast, not looking back, with her hands deep in her coat pockets. Usually, The Silver had two working shifts, but from time to time they had to do a double, just like this time. She loved doing doubles, really, that way she got home while her roommate was away and slept for a few hours, woke up at noon just in time for some chores, and was back to work again. No time to think. No time to feel lonely.
And that's exactly what she did. At five in the afternoon, she was back at The Silver, her laundry all washed, dried, and ironed, her pantry full again and she even bought a new book. Things were kind of good. Her mind had been blank and harmless all day.
She wasn't technically late when she got inside the club, but Steve and Robin were already arguing by the bar counter. Steve's hair looked terrible, a sign that he'd been running his hands through it nonstop in anxiousness.
"Are you having a stroke, Harrington?"
"Bite me."
"Only if you say please, pretty boy."
"He's having a meltdown," Robin staged whispered to her.
"About?"
"His ex-girlfriend's wedding?" She moved the white envelope she had in her hand.
"Linda?"
"No."
"Trish?"
"No."
"Maggie?"
"Think older."
"As in age or–"
"It's Nancy! My ex-girlfriend Nancy is getting married!"
"Who's Nancy?" Y/N was so confused.
"He dated her for less than a year when he was in high school."
Y/N gasped, "Are you still in love with your high school girlfriend, Stevie? Oh, boy, this is gold."
"Shut up! I'm not. I'm not in love with her still, alright? I'm not," he pointed his index finger at Robin before she could contradict him. "The point is that she's getting married in Hawkins. I don't want to go back to Hawkins."
"Who's the groom?" Y/N totally ignored him; Robin enjoyed it so very much.
"Jonathan Byers. They've been together since she and Steve broke up," she explained in a conspirator's way.
"Don't tell me that–"
"Oh, yeah. Steve and Nancy hadn't technically broken up when she started her relationship with Jonathan."
"That's not true! We had broken up. We did. Kind of…" As the insecurity made his voice wobbly, Y/N had to bite her lips to prevent smiling. Damn, he was cute.
"To sum up, he doesn't want to go to the wedding because he doesn't want to see the girl he still loves marrying the boy she cheated on him with. Am I correct?"
"Point number one, I'm not in love with Nancy. Stop it. And point number two, she did not cheat on me with him!" He blushed with frustration.
"Then where's the issue?"
"I can't go back to Hawkins…"
"Too many bastard childer running through its streets?"
"I do not– You know what? I'm not playing anymore. What I don't want is to show up and see how successful and happy everybody is. With their partners and their money and their whatever."
"This is a wedding, not a high school reunion. They'll be more focused on the couple than on you, Harrington."
"That's what I said to him."
"Good! Someone has sense between you two."
"She also said I should bring a plus one."
"It shouldn't be hard for you to find a date."
"Well… You see, he can't just bring someone he doesn't really know."
"You two should go together then," Y/N offered. The other two shared a look she didn't like quite a bit.
"Uh-huh, and I would if I wasn't already invited. I don't really need a plus one because I'm expecting someone would be there and… you know."
"Why are you so afraid of going back, Steve?"
He stared at her, "I'm not afraid. I just… I have something to prove, alright?"
"Are you sure? If they're your friends they must know you pretty well. I'm sure they already know that you've dated almost every single woman in Chicago."
"And a married one," Robin pointed out.
"Uh, yeah. I forgot about Jenny. Yeah, what she said."
"That's what I want to prevent. I want to prove to them that I've changed. That I grew up. I'm twenty-eight and my longest relationship had been Nancy Wheeler!"
"Then I said that he needed someone to pretend to be his girlfriend. Like his long-term girlfriend, you know? As if they've been together since he came into Chicago and they know each other and love each other and work together and–"
"Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to like this?"
"It would be just for a weekend. A long weekend."
"Robin, I don't like this."
"You just have to pretend to be dating Steve. It's not that hard!"
"Why would I do such a thing?"
"I already told her you wouldn't do it."
"You'll be helping out a friend, Y/N. Huh? Um… Steve would clean the washrooms for the next year if you do it!"
"Hey!"
She shouldn't. She really shouldn't. "Fine. We have a deal."
Yeah, fuck it, because pretending to date the man you like and who's not interested in you is always a great rom-com plot.
The wedding would take place the last weekend of April. They had to arrive in Hawkins on Friday morning because they had a rehearsal dinner that evening, a brunch on Saturday morning, and a big party in the Hawkins High School gym, prom style, for the night. The actual wedding would take place Sunday at four in the afternoon. Robin and Steve convinced Y/N that to get their story straight, they should spend more time together.
Was it too soon to regret it?
To be continued…
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Nancy’s Wedding | Steve Harrington x Reader (ch.7)
Series Masterlist
Chapter Six.
Pairings: Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader.
Word count: 5371
WARNING: disgusting descriptions of what happened to Y/N in the Upside Down.
Nancy's Wedding | Chapter Seven.
Denny knocked on the door for the third time to make sure, again, that she was still alive. She was alive, but she wasn't great. For the last three hours, Y/N had been locked in the bathroom.
The moment she arrived home, she slept until Denny came back from work in the afternoon, then, she spent hours reading and analyzing the information Steve had given her in the file. That unlocked something strong in her mind that rushed into her soul like a waterfall. She picked up paper and pencil and she drew and drew and drew and drew although her wrist hurt, and although her muscles were cramping, she drew. Monsters, places, people… She wasn't very skilled in human anatomy, so those drawings weren't as good as the monsters or the places, but they were still familiar.
She went inside the bathroom after a whole night of drawing and remembering. Her intention was to have a shower, clean the graphite, ink, and other marks off of her hands, wash her pain away and get some rest. Unfortunately, once naked, she stared at her reflection for so much time Denny started to get worried. Her scars were paler than her skin, and she had a bunch of them. Until this moment, she hadn't been able to remember how she got hurt and her mother once told her that she went into an accident, although she never gave her details. Now she was more aware of them. Some of them seemed to have been produced by claws, deep into her thigh and stomach; others looked like some kind of animal had torn her skin in their aim to eat her. She remembered the bats. Those scars on her body were left when she was only nine, with time they became part of her body, only noticeable because of the lighter tone and their rough edges.
Looking at her hands, covered with graphite and ink, all she could see was dried blood and wet dirt. She could feel them under her nails, deep down, unable to be washed completely. The memory of a chewing sound struck her mind; she remembered the bloody and raw meat she had to chew like gum, over and over, and over and over again, to have something to eat. Monster's meat.
She threw up.
"Y/N, dude, you're freaking me out!!" Denny wrestled with the door trying to open it.
Flushing the toilet, Y/N responded, "I'm fine!! I'm fine!! I'll shower now."
"If you're not out in ten minutes I'm breaking the fucking door."
"Fine!!"
Because she only had ten minutes (she strongly believed Denny was able to break the door), she took a quick and steamy shower treating her bandaged injuries carefully. Seven minutes later, she went out of the bathroom and Denny cleaned and covered the wound at the back of her head again. She had been very careful with the bandage on her sprained wrist.
Y/N waited until Denny went to work to pick up the phone and call Dustin Henderson.
"Dustin speaking, who is this?"
"Hi, I–"
"Y/N!!! You called!! I'm so glad you called. Are you alright? Did Steve apologize already? You kno–"
"Did he tell you?"
To her question, Dustin was silent for a few moments before sighing in sympathy. "He told me after the wedding. I scold him about what he had done at the party and then he– yeah, Steve told me about your time in the Upside Down."
"Is it real, then? All of it? All my nightmares, all the monsters… everything?"
"I'm sorry. I know it's shitty, but yeah, it's all true."
"Fuck the X-Files, man, they should do a documentary in Hawkins."
The man laughed. "I totally agree. So, how are you?"
"I don't really know."
"You can count on me. If you need someone to talk to, I'm available. We're friends now, remember?"
"Yeah," she smiled despite herself, "but I'm sure my three months were more intense than your adventures."
"I'm sure of it. By the way, do you remember how you survived for so long?"
"You don't want to know."
"Oh… that disgusting?"
"More."
"Ew!!"
"Yeah… Anyway I– I just needed to– I don't really know what I needed to, but you helped. Thank you, Dustin."
"Anytime. Take care."
"You too."
*
Although Steve had fulfilled his promise of visiting her to make sure she was alright, Denny had been the only one to answer the door, allowing both, Steve and Robin, to come into the living room and talk to her, but not with Y/N. Denny had become the guardian of her friend, who was still suffering the effects of her concussion, unlocked trauma, and nightmares that were so strongly violent that her screams woke the neighbors.
It was Friday night, nearly midnight when Denny came home with a strong reek of alcohol, not from her mouth but from her clothes. She was moody and was frowning and cursing under her breath. Y/N watched the whole display from the sofa slightly entertained.
"I'm such a loser," Denny claimed, throwing herself into the other side of the sofa, once she had changed into something clean.
"What happened?"
"I went to The Silver." With her grunt, Denny messed up her very short and colorful hair. "Do you remember I had a family dinner? Well, turns out that my dear mother was trying to set me up with a dude. A dude! Look, I get it, tradition is important for them, but I came out to them when I was in high school and they kicked me out! It's been a long way to be where I am and be comfortable with who I am. When my parents wanted to resume contact last winter I was thrilled. I thought they had finally accepted me, you know? I'm such a fool."
"You shouldn't blame yourself for keeping up the hope of being with your family."
"Yeah… Whatever. The point is that all this time they've been scheming. At least my mom had. She wants me to marry Robert Chen because his family is respectable and has money. I told her that we are in America, not in China. I am American. I was born and raised in Chicago, I don't play by her rules anymore. I'm not going to just lay down and accept to marry a man just because it's what she wants."
"What did you do when you saw it was a trap?"
"I introduce myself to Robert Chen saying 'Hi. I'm Denisse Wang, but please call me Denny. I'm twenty-eight. I work in a record store and I'm a lesbian. How are you?'. My mom went berserk, obviously."
"Did it make you feel better?"
"You had no idea. So much power in a few words. Anyway, so the dinner went down from there. Everything was very awkward. Once the torture was over a headed to The Silver."
"Why The Silver?" Y/N already knew the answer.
"I was expecting to see Robin," Denny mumbled. "She was in the kitchen, of course, so I just saw Spencer and Steve. I'm going to have to give points to Steve because every time he was free, he went to where I was and talked to me. And, more points, because he didn't talk about you the whole time, which I'm sure was a real effort seeing as you are his favorite topic."
"Shut up."
"He talked about Robin and it makes me think that she might be interested in me as much as I am in her. I mean, three years of you two working together and I have to meet the woman of my dreams when you fell down the stairs. That's destiny. Serendipity!"
"I didn't know you were that romantic. Is sickening."
"Hypocrite."
"How did you end up covered in liquor?"
"Some drunk asshole dropped his Silver Sin all over me!! That top was fucking new!"
After the conversation, they went to their rooms. While Denny was having a deserved rest on her bed, Y/N was looking at the extraordinary amount of new drawings that had pilled out on her desk. She stared at them for long hours.
*
"This is our only chance. Listen to me, honey, I want you to run as fast as you can to the door open in that tree."
Her dad pointed to the tree the flower-face monster had used to go out and drag inside a dying dear. The door, as they've been calling it since God knows when, was some sort of membrane that pulsed with colors from purple to magenta. The bark used to grow faster to cover the membrane. Because the flower-face monster was bigger than the ones they had found on the journey, the bark was growing slower.
She looked at her dad again. He was dirty, skinny, and covered in dry blood. His beard had never been this long, it made him look older. He had been limping since their last encounter with one of the monsters, and it seemed like the blood kept coming out from the wound in his stomach.
They had learned fast in that world that the monsters were drawn by the smell of blood, therefore they had been covering their clothes and wounds with dirt and blood from the monster they had killed while trying to survive. Monsters they tried to feed from.
He put his hand, big, calloused, and heavy, on her head. It was a goodbye.
"Run. As fast as you can and don't look back."
The girl nodded, eyes fierce and brave. He approached the monster as quietly as he could before stabbing him in the back with his hunting knife; a very big and sharp knife he always took with him on the woods excursions with his child and that on this occasion had helped him to protect and feed his daughter. The monster, being bigger than the ones they were used to, howled in pain before turning towards him with a very pissed growl.
Y/N ran. Ran as if her life depended on it because it was. She went through the mushy door, the bark making the door smaller and smaller. The warm air of the end of June was fresh in comparison to the one she was leaving behind. The light was so bright for her eyes that it took a few efforts to finally be able to open both of her eyes again. As she turned towards the door, which kept closing, waiting for her father to cross it too, she saw how the monster had wrapped his flower-face around her dad's head; his body convulsed like a fish out of water, and then he went limp. The monster inserted his claws into the human's body and tore it apart.
She didn't scream. Unable to find her voice, the girl gasped for air, eyes wide open with terror. The bark covered the door and there was no trace of the monster, of the other world, of nothing. She waited there. Her glassy eyes soon went dry.
Where was she?
What was she doing there?
Why was she soaked in so many disgusting things?
Looking around her, she found a house. The fence was tall, but she followed it until she found a door. She needed to ask for help, obviously. She was so tired and thirsty and hungry and cold… The door was open, so she went inside. A big pool occupied most of the house's backyard. When was the last time she had seen that amount of water? As she approached the edge of the pool, a flash clouded her mind. She remembered being there, right next to the pool, but in her memories, the pool was empty and covered in thick roots that moved and pulsed and…
"Hey! What the fuck are you doing here?"
The voice of a person made her jump out of that cloudy state. A teenager was looking wary at her but didn't come out of the house. Hearing something about calling the police, the girl sat on the edge of the pool. The light was so bright and the tiles on the bottom were so light that she was unable to see her reflection in the water. As thirsty as she was, she sank her hands into the water in cup form, pulled them up, and drank as much as she was able to handle. It tasted awful, not only because of the chemicals in the water, but the dirt in her hands also played an important role in it. Still, she was thirsty and she couldn't remember when was the last time she drank water, therefore she drank more and more before the police came.
Chief Norton took a look at her and disappeared inside the house again.
She was alone for a few more minutes, but she wasn't so thirsty anymore. She still was tired and the cold was soon being changed with the warmth of the first weeks of summer. Chief Norton made her go with him in his car. He asked her questions, but she wasn't able to find her voice. She wasn't even able to find the need to make her mind be understood, she just wanted to sleep.
And sleep.
And sleep.
*
It was eleven in the morning when she rang the doorbell. Her nightmares woke her up early on Saturday morning, so she called Dewey to find out if Steve and Robin worked that night as well and, as it turned out, they had the full weekend off. She was carrying a thick folder with the drawings of the last few days, next to her, Denny bounced impatiently from one foot to another.
Robin, who apparently had just woken up, opened the door with her hair turned into a bird's nest. The moment Robin saw them she went through mix-up emotions and tried to tame her hair the best she could with her fingers while doing her best not to die from embarrassment. Yup, Robin had a crush on Denny. Robin rushed them inside rambling about drinks, offering them something to eat, and being very polite in her role as host.
"Is Steve home?" Y/N asked her.
Robin seemed to deflate with fondness, finally hearing Y/N's voice and seeing by herself that she hadn't just broken due to the trauma or the concussion.
"He's still sleeping. I'll wake him up."
"Why don't you get dressed and I treat you to a very late brunch?" Denny took her opportunity. She wanted some time alone with Robin to get to know her better and, at the same time, to give Y/N the chance to talk with Steve alone.
Robin blushed harder but understood the implications of Denny's offer. "Sure, let me… I'll be quick."
"There's no rush."
"That was smooth," Y/N smirked once Robin wasn't in the living room anymore.
It took Robin twenty minutes to get ready, the guests didn't mind the wait and Steve was still sleeping. Robin took care of hugging Y/N before leaving. She didn't approach Steve's bedroom door, she wasn't a creep; she prepared a pot of coffee and put on some mixtape on the stereo at very low volume.
Noon was over when Steve finally emerged from his room. He went to the kitchen, bewitched by the smell of coffee, still half asleep with his eyes half closed.
"Robs, pass me the sugar," he demanded with a hoarse voice.
"Robin went out with Denny," she responded handling him for what he had asked for.
Steve stood there questioning if he was still asleep or not. She looked rough. She had clearly lost weight in the last few days probably due to stress, nightmares, and a terrible eating schedule; she seemed to have slept poorly or nothing in the last few days. When she gave him a small shy smile, awkward by his silence and tension, he took the sugar from her hand, put two full spoons on his coffee, and poured some milk in, but didn't drink it.
"How are you feeling?"
"Exhausted," she responded honestly.
He gulped his coffee too fast and excused himself to the bathroom. With the door closed behind him, Steve took a look at his reflection, fixing his hair, washing his face, and brushing his teeth with fervor. The last thing he wanted was for Y/N to smell his morning breath after drinking because that was the only thing that made him sleep when he got home at seven that morning after work, some heavy drinks and he was ready to sleep like a baby without worrying about nightmares anymore. As he went out, he found Y/N placed on the sofa and the music was a bit louder now.
He sat next to her and waited. She opened her thick folder and showed him the new drawings. She explained what she had been remembering.
"I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"You wouldn't be suffering like this if I had never mentioned it."
"Don't get me wrong, these memories fucking suck, but I would really be pissed at you if you had known this and kept it to yourself. It still doesn't feel mine, you know? It's like I'm seeing a movie, not my life."
"I understand what you mean. I don't really get how eidetic memory works, but I went to the library and did some research; if you are able to remember everything with such detail as the book suggested, I guess it must feel more like a movie than anything else. I still have doubts about whether or not what I lived was true. I've– Well, I've been writing it down. Not only my experience, but I also collected memories from the kids and the others. I plan on writing a book about it."
"Do you think the government would allow you to publish it?"
"I don't write to publish, I write to have it all there and share it with them. Our story. What we did. What we became. What we lost. An homage of some sort."
"Would you tell me what happened to you and the others or should I wait until the book is finished?"
He laughed at that and started to tell her the most unbelievable story about a small kid who went missing on November 3rd, 1983, and his mother, who won't give up on the search. The friends of this boy found a girl in the woods, a girl who turned out to have powers. Then he told her about the government experiments in the Hawkins Lab, the Upside Down, and the demogorgon. He told him about Max showing up in 1984, how her stepbrother was a nightmare, how the Mind Flayer had gotten into the boy again, how Dustin found a baby demogorgon, and how they bonded in their hunt for the monster. Steve also told her about the summer of 1985 and how he met Robin at Scoops Ahoy, how they decoded a Russian secret transmission finding that the whole mall was a secret base for the Russians to open a gate. In the meantime, the Mind Flayer had gotten inside Billy, Max's stepbrother, and was using him to kill people with the only goal of forming a meaty host it could use. Finally, Steve told her about Vecna and Eddie and the demobats and the big earthquake that almost ends with all.
"Sound wild."
"Yeah… It's like a shadow for us, you know? It's something so big for us and we can't tell anybody about it. If you weren't already deep into this, would you have believed me?" She didn't hesitate in shaking her head. "When I found out that I liked you I was very conflicted because I knew there were a lot of things I must lie about and hide and pretend never happen and– It stopped me, in a way. Does that make sense? I'm glad that I don't have you lie to you anymore, but I still feel… I don't think the price you had you pay for my honesty is worthy."
"Steve, are you seriously blaming yourself for when I was attacked by a demogorgon because Henry Creel, or Vecna, or One opened the first gate in history just to have a laugh?"
Unable to respond, Steve just shrugged.
"Jesus, you're so dense."
And just like that, she cupped Steve's face with her hands, holding him in place as she dived in, closing the gap between them, kissing him with affection and care. A forgiving kiss Steve melted on.
*
"I cannot believe we're doing this."
"What?"
"Steve, you picked to go watch a kids' movie for a date!"
"Technically, it's a double date, as you and Denny had come on board with the plan. Plus, The Lion King it's been out for a week and it's the only thing people are talking about."
"Y/N wanted to watch it, didn't she?"
"Shut it."
"How the mighty had fallen. It took all the fire in Hell to make you go to see a movie with me or Dustin, and now you are going to watch The Lion King on your own free will. Outstanding!"
"Don't make it weird."
"It is weird. Can you really tell me that your sixteen-year-old you wouldn't have freaked out with this?"
"Leave that guy in the past where he belongs and let's enjoy the fucking double date, which was your idea all along."
"You know we can totally hear you, right?" Y/N spoke from behind them, a big pot of popcorn between her arm and body, holding two large sodas in her hands.
Steve and Robin felt ashamed of their conversation with the sudden appearance of their partners and blushed. Denny gave Robin the pot of popcorn and one of their sodas to have an arm free to wrap Robin's shoulders with it.
"Do you want me to wrap your shoulders too, pretty boy?"
"Shut up!" Steve pleaded, taking both of the sodas from her hands.
He had given her the tickets before she went to buy the snacks while he and Robin stayed in the queue. With her free hand, Y/N picked some popcorn and fed Steve, who took it like a show of affection louder than wrapping an arm around somebody.
The June weather in Chicago was thick and warm, and they were thankful that the theater had an air conditioner. Since their first kiss in May, Steve and Y/N had worked on their friendship and romantic relationship with steadiness. It was so much easier to have someone to talk to about your dreams, your nightmares, your flashes of guilt or trauma… Their banter and flirty mischief were still on point, although now she took more rides home than before, and there was way more kissing. There were also more longing stares and heart-shaped eyes between the two of them and they were getting into a very comfortable dynamic.
That's why she kept feeding Steve popcorn while they were waiting in the queue, and she didn't care about the gagging sounds and complaints from Robin and Denny as she pulled Steve from the collar of his shirt and kissed him, all smiles.
When the movie ended, they were as excited and obsessed as the children that had gone to see the movie with their parents. Denny was torn between how Scar was the bad guy, but at the same time, he was so relatable! Steve and Y/N were trying to sing 'Be Prepared' although they couldn't remember the lyrics properly. Robin was obsessed with how much Hamlet they had added to the plot and how Rafiki talked to Simba. And the jokes! Oh, the jokes! The four of them truly enjoyed a fucking children's movie with their hearts and souls.
As they walked, talking too loudly about the movie, on their way to grab something to eat, they crossed paths with a couple. The woman stumbled with her heels and Steve was fast as lightning to hold her and prevent her from falling face first into the floor. The woman laughed with awkwardness, thanking Steve. The man of the couple was more entertained than bothered by the interaction; he waited until Y/N looked at him to give her a smile.
"Carter!" She greeted him absolutely pleased to see him.
"It's good to see you without bleeding," he smiled, lowering his head. "Ross told me you were better."
"As good as new."
"Well, now that your boyfriend has saved my date, we'll be going now."
Before resuming their walk, Carter winked at them and shook Steve's hand. Denny and Robin were dumbfounded by the interaction, and Steve wrapped an arm around her shoulders with an insecurity strike. It wasn't jealousy; he wasn't afraid that Y/N left him for Carter, it was pure insecurity because he compared himself with Carter and the younger man was smarter than him, had more money, and had huge prospects for the future. Carter was just what Mr. Harrington expected his son to be, and Steve had strong insecurity issues. Y/N, with the great intuition that knowing one's partner provides, hugged Steve by the middle, walking just like that.
****
On October 31st, 1997, The Silver officially became a 24/7 diner. Y/N had been promoted to general manager of the day shift and did a pretty amazing job. She had been in touch with Steve's friends often and had used Owens' services as her therapist. It wasn't his job, of course, but he did it gladly; in the end, he felt some sort of pride in seeing her all grown up and sane after what Brenner wanted to do to her. Robin had been promoted from The Silver Diner to the chef, and she enjoyed her new position very much, especially since her shifts were always in the morning and she had all the afternoons and nights to be with her girlfriend, Denny. Steve, on the other hand–
"What are you doing still here? We're going to be so late!!" Robin burst into the locker room. She started changing her outfit in a rush.
With a soft smile on her face, Y/N changed her clothes too. Something classy and elegant, a cocktail white dress with the neckline off the shoulder, purely inspired by Audry Hepburn, with smart cute heels that just fitted the dress. Robin was wearing a three-piece suit with a giant flower on her lapel, no tie.
As they went out of the diner by the employees' entrance, they found Denny waiting for them in the alley. She was wearing something that fitter her usual fashion sense with tight jeans, military boots, a white crop top, and a black leather jacket, all her hair was gelled back. Whoever had seen them would say they were going to a Halloween party, of course, although four in the afternoon seemed a little too early for parties.
Denny drove them. Dustin was already waiting for them at the entrance next to Mike. Dustin threw his hands in the air while claiming "Fucking finally" in a bitchy tone.
"Wait, where's Steve?" Mike questioned them.
"Isn't he here already?" Robin freaked out.
"No. Oh my God, this is so stupid. I'm calling him on the cellphone again." Dustin walked away taking his own cell phone out. Those things were still too expensive, quite heavy and their connectivity was questionable.
"The dude who ran this shit said that if you didn't show up in the next five minutes, he was going to skip you and you would have to make another appointment," Mike explained.
A moment later a taxi stopped at the end of the stairs and Steve got out wearing a three-piece suit, still tying his tie. Robin ran downstairs and covered Steve's eyes.
"What the fuck are you doing, Robin?"
"You're late!! You can't see the bride before the wedding, it's bad luck!"
"How do you expect me to get up all those stairs with my eyes covered, smartass?"
"Let's not be ridiculous, come on!!" Y/N yelled while clapping her hands like a coach trying to focus their team. "To our places, come on!"
Dustin and Mike ran inside to tell the officiant that the groom and the bride were already there. Robin gave up on stopping Steve from looking at Y/N when Denny lift her up to her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Y/N waited at the top of the stairs for Steve to join her. He gave her an appreciative look.
"You look stunning, as always. It's so no fucking fair."
"You, on the other hand, look like shit."
"Harsh."
"Give me that," she tied his tie for him pretending not to notice the longing stare he was giving her. "What did the editors want?"
"They want to know if I can make a sequel of Stranger Things, they were very pleased with the cliffhanger at the end."
"I told you it would be better to separate the events in different books than in a big fat book. So?"
"They signed me for the three other parts of Stranger Things, and two other books with different topics. A great amount of money too."
"Steve Harrington, the next Stephen King, as The New York Times had called you."
"I think the best part of my books is your illustrations."
"Obviously."
"Guys, I know you are all flirty and all, but you were the ones that wanted to get married on fucking Halloween and the officiant wants to go home, so…" Dustin called them from the door.
Steve offered his arm to Y/N, who took it without hesitation.
They didn't do a big wedding. The ceremony at the courthouse was short and with only four people as witnesses. After that, they rented the wedding hall of a hotel to do a small costume party with their friends. Well, they were mostly Steve's friends and his parents, but Y/N liked it anyway.
Mr. Harrington went although he had claimed that being a writer was worse than being a bartender; mostly because he found out that Steve had done in the first month since the book was published the same amount he did in a fucking year. Maggie had forced him to go to his son's wedding and behave threatening him with divorce, which made Mr. Harrington finally understand that his whole world would collapse; there would be no more status quo.
Joyce and Hopper treated Y/N like one of their kids and Will had confirmed to her that there was no way out now, she was officially part of the family. Nancy and Jonathan came from New York too, they had finally moved there after Jonathan accepted the job at Time magazine and Nancy got a job at The New York Times with time.
The party was small and didn't look like a wedding party, but it was perfect for them. She danced with every one of their guests. She had invited Spencer and Dewey too, who were enjoying themselves like teenagers; she also invited Doctor Ross, Doctor Greene, Doctor Carter, and some of the nurses from County General as she had become close to them, but Halloween meant a busy shift in the ER, therefore they came to congratulate the new couple before going to cover their shift at the hospital.
Time After Time started to sound through the speakers. Steve was suddenly next to her with a big happy and pleased smile on his face offering his arms for the dance. They chose option number four of slow dancing, just like the first time they did so with this exact song, and it was magical. Y/N pressed her forehead against Steve's shoulder, next to her hand, enjoying the proximity of their bodies in that rocking movement that they called dancing. Steve pressed a kiss on her head, right behind her ear, and started whispering the lyrics to her.
"If you're lost you can look and you will find me. Time after time. If you fall, I will catch you. I'll be waiting time after time."
The End.
Thank you so much for following the adventures of Nancy’s Wedding. Sadly, there is no more plot to work with, so this is the end. I hope you had enjoyed this little story of mine. I’ll be working in something Eddie Munson x Reader soon, plus some John Carter (ER) x Reader.
Feel free to suggest things and fandoms and whatever you like; I’ll take it into consideration.
Again, thank you for reading, liking, and commenting on the story. I’ll keep working to improve my writing.
Taglist: @blackbirddaredevil23 @marisurmommy @lovesreality @noname10234 @p-rspective @heyyimmisunderstood @out--of-the-reality @lxdyred @i-always-come-back-xoxo @shireentapestry @popcrone818 @scoobiessnacks @mrsjaderogers @nightthou @selfdeprecatingnerd @junglecoxk @royal-sunflower @averagestudent03 @angelulls
Nancy’s Wedding | Steve Harrington x Reader (ch.6)
Series Masterlist
Chapter Five – Chapter Seven.
Pairings: Steve Harrington x Fem!Reader.
Word count: 4522
Nancy's Wedding | Chapter Six.
The room was dark, darker than it had ever been. The television was the only source of light; it was showing a reporter right in Steve's backyard, next to the pool. The woman started talking.
"On the last weekend of April, a Saturday 30th, the body of a young woman was found next to this pool. Y/N L/N was only twenty-four years old when a monster from the Upside Down came crawling from the woods I have on my back. The demogorgon sought revenge, still thirsty for the blood of the victim he once lost. Here, in Steve Harrington's house, the police had found the remains of her body, next to the remains of Eddie Munson, who went missing in March 1986, and Barbara Holland, missing in November 1983 and marked as dead in 1984.
"But what's the link between the victims and Steve Harrington? They died because of him. It was his fault.
"If he had made sure Barbara went home safely that night, she would still be alive. If he had proved to Eddie that he wasn't a coward, Eddie would've never felt the urge to become a hero and die. If he had looked for a job somewhere else he wouldn't have met Y/N, he wouldn't have asked her to the wedding and she would've never had to face her trauma in the same place her dad died.
"Also, the humiliation that Steve made her suffer while copying Nancy's drunk speech of the Halloween night they broke up. Yes, it's his fault, there's no doubt about that, and–"
"Jesus Christ, Steve, cut the pity party, it's pathetic." Eddie Munson turned the TV off and suddenly the room had more light. "You know none of that it's true, big boy." Eddie took a seat in front of him.
"It's my fault. I'm bad. I–"
"Dude, when you made me the voice of your positive conscience I thought you had issues, but, man, this is something else. Come on, dude, you can't beat yourself up like that!
"Yes, you are going to give her the bad news, but you're also going to give her her past, her truth.
"What you did with the bullshit speech was fucked up, and you have to apologize, but you already knew that. You can't just push aside the people you care and love, dude, that's the real bullshit."
"Eddie–"
"Now is time to wake up!"
"Eddie, listen–"
"Rise and shine, big boy!"
With a groan, Steve opened his eyes, finding himself, all dressed up, in his bed. His head was pulsing with a headache, his mouth dried and cottonlike. He felt nauseous and the memories of last night rushed into his mind like loud music. God, he was so fucked up!
Stumbling to his feet, uncoordinated and still dizzy, Steve ran to the room Y/N had been occupying just to find it empty and clean like she was never there. He went downstairs calling for her only to find his mother in the kitchen, sipping her coffee with a sad expression.
"Now you're looking for her?"
"Mom–"
"I drove her to the bus station half an hour ago. She told me what happened. Steve, I thought–"
"I fucked up. I fucked up and I know it, alright? I know it." He sat by the kitchen table messing his hair with his hands, feeling completely lost. "I– I liked her since the beginning, but she didn't seem interested in making friends, you know? She was always suspicious of people. Then– Shit, then Robin suggested I ask her to go with me to Nancy's wedding like asking for a favor and it worked because we got to know each other, and I– I fell hard for her. Mom, I've never fallen harder… We spent six weeks talking and getting to know each other better and better and I thought she liked me and then– then everyone was so happy about us, they were so happy for me and it was all a lie. And I found out what had happened to her dad and I have to tell her and she's going to hate me and she'll–"
"Take a deep breath, son."
"Mom," he was now sobbing, "I just wanted to make her hate me, because then when I told her, her feelings for me wouldn't change because she would still hate me."
"That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard, Steve. Especially since she doesn't hate you. She's upset and angry, but she still loves you; she still cares for you. I can tell."
"I'm such an asshole!! I'm just like dad, a grade A asshole."
"Don't say that about yourself. That's not true. You're nothing like that man. You know you fucked up, and you're going to fix it."
"I should call her. What time is it? It would take less than four hours to go to Chicago by bus, right? I need to call her. I–"
"I think it's better if you talk face to face, Steve. I also think that she needs time to digest what has happened. You do too."
*
With a sigh, she decided it was time to get out of bed. She'd been all night trying to sleep and getting very little rest; to be honest, she was thinking over and over about calling Spencer and Dewey and telling them she wasn't going to go to work.
It was Monday, May the 2nd. Robin and Steve were supposed to be in Chicago at noon so they could rest for a few hours before starting their shift on The Silver at five in the afternoon. She got to Chicago on Sunday morning and cried her heart out in her own bed remembering how for the last few weeks she deceived herself into thinking she was having friends, that Steve with all his blushing and flirting might've been interested in her. She had been so hurt and low on the spirit that she showed up at work that night; she talked to Spencer and Dewey not getting into details and without throwing Steve under the bus because the last thing she wanted was for Steve to lose his job.
She was a grown-ass woman, she could suck it up, put a smile on her lips and do her job; she could always cry later, at home.
Therefore, she finally went out of bed when the light through her window was shining brightly. She found Denny eating cereal on the sofa while watching cartoons, and they greeted each other with a grunting sound. She glanced murderously at the phone and resumed her walk to the bathroom. The fact that Steve hadn't called was revealing; he wasn't that sorry about his drunk speech and he was very glad she had left on Sunday. At least that was what she understood after he went radio silent on her.
Even her reflection seemed to be scolding her for trusting them. Her mother always told her people must not be trusted, and she was right.
That morning she did her laundry, went to Denny's record store, and returned to the apartment by lunchtime. She wasn't in the mood to eat anything and she was still tired thanks to her sleepless night, so she took a quick nap getting up with the time to get her clean uniform on and run down the stairs of the building.
If only she hadn't run…
As she ran down the stairs of the building she lost her balance, one of her feet didn't land properly on the next step and her body fell. She tried to hold herself somewhere with her hands only to get hurt. She fell and rolled until she got stopped by the wall. She was unconscious, bleeding from the hit she got on the back of her head.
She wasn't unconscious for a lot of time, maybe a minute or two if she had to guess. She woke up with a jump, her heart drumming in her chest, her head pulsing. A few bumps here and there, maybe some bruises. Her right wrist hurt like hell, but not as much as if it was broken which was a good sign. When she got up she felt all fuzzy and unsteady on her feet, that's when she felt the blood drenching her hair and dyeing the white shirt of her uniform. She started to feel like when the elevator at The Shining just opened up before her.
On one hand, she knew she should call an ambulance. On the other hand, she probably had a concussion that prevented her from thinking straight. So, yeah, she went into the subway holding a handkerchief against the wound on her head. She went down to the County General Hospital stop, they were pretty close to the stairs.
That was a challenge. Going down those stairs took her way too long. Her limbs weren't moving as she wanted to, her head was all fuzzy and she was seeing double and blurred. Not great signs, to be honest. Cursing and blaming all the gods on the universe, Y/N regretted not having called The Silver to tell them she wasn't going to work. What now?
Once she was finally on the ground, she walked stubbornly to the ER entrance. Just by the spot the ambulances stopped, Doctor Ross was playing basketball with a young doctor. The moment Ross saw Y/N, limping, moving wobbly, and with the collar of her white shirt covered in blood, he ran towards her.
"Hey– Hey, Y/N. What the hell happened? Carter, go get a chair!"
"I– I fell… from the stairs."
"Were you unconscious?"
"Yeah, I think so." It was difficult for her to keep up with the conversation.
Ross was helping her walk carefully towards the door as they talked until Carter came back with a chair where they sat her and drove her to an examination room. They helped her get into bed, Carter took an IV in her left hand as Ross listened to her lungs and heartbeat.
"And how long were you unconscious? Can you tell?"
"One or two minutes, I think…"
"Let me see the cut on your head." Both men looked at it and Carter hissed in sympathy.
"We need to run some tests and see how your brain is doing. This is John Carter, the one I told you about–"
"The cute med student?" She interrupted him.
"Precisely. Carter's going to suture your cuts and give you fluids and he is also going to be sure you don't have more injuries. Are you feeling alright?"
"A bit nauseous."
"If you feel like you're going to throw up on him, call me first, I want to watch."
"Kinky," she mocked.
Ross gave her one of her smiles and took a look at her eyes with a flashlight the size of a pen. He took Carter to one side, giving him instructions as a nurse known as Haleh was already connecting a bag of saline to her IV.
She might've lost consciousness again, or maybe she just went absent. The point is that when she was present again, Carter was suturing the back of her head very carefully.
"Do I look like a freak," she asked with interest.
"A freak?"
"I guess you shaved part of my head to do the thingy you're doing."
"Just a bit. The thingy I'm doing isn't too big; don't worry, it won't stand out."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it. So, may I ask you a question?"
"I guess."
"Why did you come here by yourself?"
"I– I don't really know. I was expecting you to ask about what Doctor Ross and Doctor Greene told me about you."
"Mark too?" He sounded surprised. "I mean… Um… No, it's fine."
"They said good things."
"Yeah?"
"Uh-huh. They said that you have potential and soul, you'd be a terrific ER doctor."
"But I want to be a surgeon."
"Oh, yeah, they know. Why do you want to be a surgeon? Is it because it's the most difficult specialty and you want to show off or prove your point to someone?"
"Wow. You nailed it! Are you a psychic or something?"
"Bartender. We have a sixth sense."
There was a rush outside the examination room, some emergency. Carter and Y/N looked up to see the commotion through the windows. When Carter resumed his sutures he was a little down.
"For Heaven's sake! You med students are really junkies aren't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"That you obviously want to have difficult and interesting cases to work on, and not a girl who fell down the stairs and would most probably throw up on you."
"Luckily for me, you're facing the other way now. And… there you go, all closed up. Come back in ten days to remove them. Now, to the wrist…"
"It can wait. You can go see if they need you over there. They seem busy."
"Ross would kill me if…"
"Go, Carter. Tell him I made you leave."
"I'll be right back. Promise."
"Have fun!"
And for some reason, John Carter blushed.
She waited in the examination room for ten minutes next to an unconscious man who was recovering from something. When she threw up she was glad Carted hadn't seen her. He was just as cute as the doctors had said, with his fluffy hair, his brown eyes, his sweet smile…
Doctor Greene entered the room making a beeline toward her.
"I saw your name on the board and I thought it was a mistake. What happened?" Greene asked her, very concerned.
As she explained it to him and answered his medical questions, he checked her up and started to wrap her right wrist. It was just a sprain. When Carter came back, he balanced awkwardly behind him making excuses about why he was absent, but Y/N cut him soon making it all her fault.
"Mr. Carter would take you to the x-rays, and once everything is clear you can go home."
"I can't go home. I have work."
"You have a concussion and–" Greene started to scold her.
"You don't understand. There's this whole situation with Steve and if I don't go to work they might think I'm a coward. And I'm not."
She explained the whole situation and Greene listened, shaking his head in disapproval.
"Going to work is not a good idea."
"I'll show up and if I feel bad I'll go home. At least they would see I'm a motherfu–"
"I'll go look for Dough. Take her for x-rays."
Carter did as he was told and he waited with her. That's when they started talking because the rays' technicians were very slow. Carter shared stories about his past and how he had resorted to fake dating just as a pretext to actually date the girl she liked.
Apparently, they shared some taste in music and both of them were obsessed with the X-Files too. He was a year younger than her and his family was loaded which meant that for them, the fact that he was becoming a doctor was more a black spot than something to be proud of. He didn't even know why he was telling her things he had never told anybody, but there he was.
Once she was back in the examination room, Ross, Greene, and Carter looked at her x-rays and the other tests and understood that she wasn't in imminent danger of dying. They weren't too happy with her decision to go to work, much less when she explained that she was going to take the subway.
"Are you still nauseous?"
"A bit; not too much."
"Are you dizzy?"
"I wouldn't say dizzy per se."
"Are you a stubborn child able to lie to us in our faces just to prove her point?"
"You got me there, Doctor Ross."
"The moment you feel bad you call an ambulance, you hear me? No more taking the train while bleeding. And– Carter, your shift is over, isn't it?"
"As long as Doctor Benton is here, I have to be here."
"Good, because he left twenty minutes ago. You're going to drive Y/N to The Silver, explain what happened to her boss and make fucking sure they understand that at the moment she looks off, they're calling an ambulance."
"Come on, Doctor Ross! He's not a babysitter!"
"He's doing it or he's going to spend his next shift doing rectals," Greene announced.
"That's abusive."
It didn't matter that she fought for Carter's freedom, the doctors were as stubborn as she was and Carter didn't seem against the idea. Therefore, she waited for him to change and then followed him to her Jeep.
"Jesus, you weren't lying when you said you had money, Carter."
"You can put whatever you want on the radio," he kindly offered.
"I don't want much noise right now."
"Should I remind you that the best option for you would be to go home?"
"Is that a sly way to ask where I live? Creepy."
"I wasn't intending anything!"
"Ross says otherwise."
"Oh, so he's been talking like that about me too."
"Are you really surprised?"
Instead of going inside The Silver through the personnel entry, Y/N and John Carter used the main entrance. It was almost nine already and the place was full. Spencer was covering her place on the bar and when he saw her, a glass slipped through her fingers. Steve was right next to him going to the end of the bar she was closer to.
"Sorry I'm late, I had an issue."
"Is that blood? Are you alright?" Spencer went out of the bar to check on her. She smiled at him, ignoring Steve as much as she could.
"Doctor Ross made me bring the med student with me as a babysitter so he can explain."
Carter did just that, insisting that she should be recovering at home. Spencer started to agree with him, but Y/N's eyes were fiercely staring at him.
"Fine! Stay! Work! The moment you feel off I drive you home myself. And I'm giving you a week off too, are you listening to me?"
"Yes, Mrs. Spencer."
"Not funny. Thank you, for bringing her safe and sound and I'm sorry for the trouble," he told Carter.
"It's not a big deal. Um… I'll be going then." As he turned towards the door, he went back to her, giving her a business card with his personal phone number. "I'm off until tomorrow at ten in the evening. Call me at any time if something happens, alright? Don't hesitate, just call."
"That's very kind of you, Carter."
"Take care. Seriously, take care or Mark and Ross are going to kill me."
He gave her just the look Ross had described. With his head a little lower, he looked up at her through his eyelashes with half a smile. All coy and shy in a very orchestrated way. The glance that he gave Steve with the wink he gifted her was enough for her to know that he was being extra flirty on purpose. She smiled at him and waved him goodbye.
She reassured Spencer on her way to the locker room to change her bloody shirt for a clean one. As she was finishing, Robin burst in, caging her into a bear hug.
"Thank God! Spencer said you fell down the stairs, are you alright?"
"I would be."
"You shouldn't be working!!" She scolded.
"Steve's alone at the bar right now, I have to give a hand."
"Wait, Y/N, I–"
"I don't want to talk about it right now, Robin, I have a concussion."
The shift went smoothly. The clients weren't too chatty on Mondays, Steve and Y/N went back to their 'too busy to talk' state pre-fake dating, and she felt almost fine for the first few hours. As closing time was getting closer, her dizziness, her headache, and her nausea came back hitting her stronger. She just wanted a dark and quiet place to sleep.
In their absence, Dewey had convinced Spencer on closing sooner, therefore it was five in the morning when all the remaining clients were kindly walked out of the club. By six, the club was all clean and the official shift was over, so Y/N went straight to the locker room to pick up her ruined shirt and her bag. She was just getting out when Robin entered, staring shockingly at her the moment she saw she was ready to leave.
"Don't leave yet. We'll drive you home."
"There's no need."
"Y/N–"
"Bye, Buckley."
May's morning air wasn't still warm, although it most certainly wasn't cold. The breeze helped her nausea to restrain itself. She took a moment by the employees' door to get used to the new light and air before walking towards the metro stop. The stairs were closer and closer. The first step and–
"Y/N!!!"
Steve was there, behind her, gasping for air with his hair a mess, his backpack open and he had put on his sweatshirt the wrong way.
That was something she wasn't expecting.
"Hi, Steve. How was the wedding?"
And that was the only thing that came to her mind at that very moment. She really wasn't in the mood right now for more bullshit. Ha! Bullshit.
"Awfully long. I– I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things and–"
"That's my train. Bye, Harrington," she ignored him, getting up the stairs as she made the turnstile move with her token.
Steve followed her, going through the turnstile as well, but not allowing her to get inside the train. He seemed desperate and she had a concussion, which was more an excuse than anything else to stop and listen to him now that the train had gone with the people that were at the platform, now empty.
"What do you want, Steve?"
"I want to apologize. I–"
"You could've called. All Sunday, not a call. Monday? Nope. What do you really want? Apologize for what? You humiliated me, and that fucking hurt because there was no need to do so. I already know that we're not friends, that you don't want anything to do with me, there's really no need to just emphasize that!"
Steve groaned, "That's exactly what I'm talking about!! I didn't call because I thought it was better to talk about this face to face!"
"And didn't you get to the conclusion that calling me to tell me you wanted to fucking apologize would have, at least, smooth the fucking mood for you, you asshole! And stop screaming, my head hurts!!"
"You're screaming too," Steve supplied with a concerned look and lower voice.
She closed her eyes for a moment, massaging the point between her eyebrows. Steve took advantage of the situation, he approached her and started talking to her in a low tone.
"This wasn't fake. This isn't fake. I like you, a lot. You said so yourself, more times than not I'm incredibly awkward flirting, and with you, it was like being a fly crashing over and over against a window. It didn't matter how hard or often I tried, you just weren't catching anything, and when the wedding invitation came in Robin suggested the stupid plan. She'd seen too many rom-coms, I can't really blame her."
"You don't know me, Steve."
"I know that you have a yellow umbrella that you love just because it's yellow and it stands out when you use it on rainy days. I know that although you're an adult, you still drink Nestquik from time to time. I know that although you haven't noticed, you have some predilection towards the many shades of the color green. I know that you've read Persuasion ten times. I know that you scrunch your nose when you see something you don't like, but you don't make it obvious because you don't want to be impolite. I know that your most honest smiles are the ones in which you bite your lips or the inner part of your cheeks to avoid smiling.
"I– I know that you have nightmares. I know that you were born in Hawkins. I know that your father worked for a lab that belonged to the government. I know that in that lab they were experimenting with children with abilities and one of them opened a door to another world."
"Steve, what are you–"
"I know– I know that the flower-face monster took you and your father, dragging you to the Upside Down. Remember when you said you remembered my pool but empty and with something that looked like roots but that was alive? Yeah, that's the Upside Down. You were there for three months, hunted by the monsters that live there. I know that your father died there, and I know the trauma was so strong on you that you cannot remember it properly, but you still have nightmares."
She had no idea what to say because as he was talking the pain in her head increased, and pictures and scenes flashed in her mind. Steve took a thick file from his backpack and gave it to her; it had a big stamp of TOP SECRET on the lapel.
"I know what this is going to do with your sanity and I– I just don't want to hurt you in any way. I thought that if you hated me it would be easy for me to give you this because you are going to hate me after this. The truth is that I don't remember how was my life before you paid attention to me, before we were friends, and I don't want to remember it. Tonight was the longest night in my time working here. First, you were late, you weren't answering your phone and Spencer freaked out. I freaked out! And then you show up covered in blood, I– Then the silence for the whole shift, and you run away."
"I wasn't running away."
"Yes, you were. You don't have to forgive me. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do and if you want to call that Carter or whatever and date him, fine, sure, I get that I lost my chance by being a complete idiot because I could have just asked you out in March. What can I say? I'm stupid. Just– If you remember anything and it's too much if you want to talk about it, I want you to know that we had also gone through that. Robin, Dustin, Mike, Nancy, Jane, Hopper, me… We know what it is."
A new train stopped, "I want to go home now, Steve." Her face showed how much her head was hurting.
"I'll visit tomorrow," he promised as he walked her to the train but stayed on the platform.
"Steve–" she started to complain when the doors shut down.
Steve waved at her on the other side of the door. The train started moving and she could still see Steve standing there, on the platform.
To be continued…
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