“007Steve AU: Stranger Things 2” Chapter 3: “Three Strikes, You’re Out”
Despite the people all around as well as the EMTs and Paramedics insisting on Will getting into the ambulance, the young boy refused as he clung onto Steve’s wrist and arm, now standing almost tucked up against Steve’s side. Even when they tried to bargain with him, insisting that he should at least allow them to check him over, Will screamed like he was about to be kidnapped as his nails dug into Steve’s arm painfully.
Which was very unlike the usually calm, shy, and not at all clingy child.
Well, Steve didn’t know Will that well to make that kind of assumption…but he highly doubted that Will would cling to him of all people.
Billy had taken Max and Lucas over to the cabin with El before Hopper showed up with Joyce and Joyce’s boyfriend Bob. Dustin and Mike stayed behind to vouch for them, saying Lucas wasn’t feeling well and Max and Billy had to be home by a certain time due to curfew.
Steve didn’t miss the look Hopper gave him about the latter part of that statement, knowing that Billy had stayed at the cabin late a few times before. At the moment though? He had no choice but to believe them and focus on Will. For Joyce’s sake.
Upon seeing Joyce, Will finally let go, but Steve could feel eyes on him still. Will would answer the questions asked of him, but his eyes would always somehow find Steve’s. An odd sensation would radiate up Steve’s spine and up the back of his head at that, making his stomach churn.
It felt like times back at the lab when One would look for him in the Rainbow Room…or when they were apart but still close enough in proximity for One to reach out during tests and trials.
Steve pushed it down and shook his head. No. Not possible. One was still alive, but if he had made peace with him and El, he would have left them alone for the time being. But Steve still wasn’t quite sure what One had told El and Steve’s own memory of him was still recovering. Everything still hadn’t come back to him completely and the memories that did conflicted with others that he had.
He really needed to start writing this shit down.
“Is he gonna be okay?” Mike asked him suddenly, Steve looking down at the kid, “Can’t you sense this kind of stuff, Harrington?”
“Hopper.” Dustin corrected, but Mike waved him off.
“I can…but his brain felt odd.” Steve admitted.
“”Odd”? Odd, how?” Mike asked.
Steve didn't know how to describe it, shaking his head and admitting he could be wrong, but it felt like something else was there. That Will wasn’t himself and Steve had seen memories of the lab…or a lab of some sort.
“Because Will's been going to the government facility in the woods for a while now.” Hopper informed them, having overheard their conversation, “He's experiencing PTSD and they call what's happening the “Anniversary Event”.”
While Hopper explained to the kids what that meant, Steve shook his head but kept whatever it was that he was going to say to himself instead. Maybe he too was experiencing something similar and what he had seen was all in his head. Both as memories and as paranoid visions. Maybe it was all…nothing.
“But you said you felt something.” Mike’s voice cut in and drew Steve out of his daze as he looked down at the kid, “You said his brain felt odd.”
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