Loop Number 1
Before everything, there was the first day, the day that never looped.
Steve woke up to his alarm, cursed himself for caring about Robin enough to drive her to school hours before his shift at the store, and got out of bed. He ate breakfast, checked the answering machine for messages, there never were any but he liked to hope, and left.
He argued about music and the kids and boobies with Robin, dropped her off then headed to work. He sat in his car until his shift started, nothing better to do with all his friends in school, sometimes he wished he was just slightly stupider so he'd have been held back.
His shift is slow, Robin doesn't work today. He clocks out, picks up Jennifer Cindy Heidi and heads to Lucas' game. He drives home, skips dinner and goes to bed.
He wakes up again to his stupid alarm, he had terrible sleep, another nightmare. He picks up his clock and throws it against the wall, breaking it. He'll buy another one when he can bother.
Breakfast
Answering Machine
Robin
Carpark
Work
Dustin
Dustin?
It's back again, they never even get a full year before it's back again. Dragging another teen into this mess, Steve wants to apologise to Eddie but he doesn't know what for. He's full mom mode again, trying desperately to keep Max safe as well as the other kids. He's glad the Byers moved, Will doesn't need this mess but he sure wishes El was here to help, maybe Jonathan would stop Nancy looking so sad.
They've got a plan, the kids will be fine on the Top Side, Dustin will be safe as a decoy with Eddie and he can protect Nancy and Robin as they torch this fucker. It goes perfectly. Erica radios that they're in position, Steve hears the first few notes of Eddie's guitar crackled through and then it's their turn.
Maybe if Steve had been a bit faster he would've seen it. Too many things to watch, too many sides to protect, Nancy had warned them it's a hivemind.
"Steve?"
He wants to scrub his brain until he can't remember the sound of Robin saying his name like that.
He turns to see one of the vines impaling Robin.
"No, no, no, no Robin! Robin you're going to ok, alright?"
There's so much blood, he can't keep enough pressure on it, the gate is too far away, the hospital is too far away. Robin is dying in his arms.
"Knew I had a bad feeling."
"Don't say stuff like that Robs, you're gonna be fine, you've got to be fine, who's going to call me out for being a dingus huh?"
Robin smiles at him, but it's far away, she's blurry through his tears. She gives his hand a squeeze, it feels like goodbye.
As her body goes still he wishes for another chance, he wishes to fix it.
He wakes up to his alarm.
He really thought he broke his clock.
Guess it was another nightmare.