Chapter Text
THE BOY WHO CAME BACK TO LIFE
The former missing child Will Byers has been found after a week of searching. He’s presently in stable condition in Hawkins General Hospital. Byers’ mother, Joyce Byers, alleges that Will was the subject of a secret government program run by the Hawkins National Laboratory. The allegation comes amidst a massive investigation into the hidden organization and its elaborate experimentation in perusal of mind control. The abuse detailed in the first report includes prolonged physical duress and psychological interrogation. This government sanctioned torture has provoked outrage amongst the American people.
“Mind control? Government sanctioned torture? This is just outrageous,” her dad mutters from behind the paper.
“Just to think, all this going on right here in Hawkins, right on our doorstep! The things they hide from us,” her mom sighs.
“Here I thought the Church Committee was supposed to have weeded out this sort of thing,” dad grumbles.
“What’s the Church Committee?” She wonders.
“Hm? Some senate hearings during Nixon. When we found out about MKULTRA and other things they were up to back in the 50s and 60s. Stuff just like what they’re writing about now. They were supposed to have stopped long ago. This is just unbelievable.”
“Huh.”
In a way it almost tickles her that for once their father sounds almost upset and a bit angry. At the government no less. She’s so used to him being laconic to the point where he always seems to function in slow motion compared to the rest of the world. But even he is shaken up in his own way by what’s happened. She wonders how school will be today. She wonders how people in town will react. She wonders how the country and the world will react.
She wonders what Jonathan’s doing right now. She wonders what Barb’s parents are thinking right now. She wonders how long it will be before she stops getting chills, her stomach dropping and she has to blink away tears as soon as any fleeting thought of Barb pops into her head.
“How did you sleep honey?” Mom suddenly asks, changing the subject.
“Fine,” she lies.
Really she laid in bed crying over Barb for hours and hours until she finally dozed off for a few hours out of sheer exhaustion. She wonders if she’ll ever sleep like normal again.
NANCY WHEELER IS A SLUT
It’s spray painted in big red letters on the large wooden fence by the Bartley’s yard on the end of their block. She didn’t see it during the drive home from the hospital Saturday night. Maybe it was too dark to see then. Or maybe Steve and his friends have been busy with the spray paint all weekend.
”What in the world… Nancy?”
Of course her mother sees it. Mike too. She purposely looks away, avoiding her mom’s searching gaze. She’s sitting in the passenger seat with Holly in her lap and pretends like her baby sister needs her undivided attention.
”Nancy, who did this? Did Steve do this?”
”I don’t want to talk about it. It doesn’t matter,” she tries to deflect, still refusing to look at her for fear that her face will give away that maybe it does matter a bit, in spite of everything.
Barb is dead, monsters are real and the government is evil. That’s important. This isn’t. Or shouldn’t be, in the grand scheme of things. Being called a slut to the whole town. Yet it bothers her. She hates how much it bothers her.
”Nancy-”
”I said it doesn’t matter! Barb is gone, whatever that Lab does… that’s what matters! I don’t care about this, it’s just bullshit.”
She pointedly fixes her gaze out the window while Holly babbles nonsense. Thankfully her mom drops it then, probably sensing she won’t be receptive to whatever she has to say right now.
The closer they get to downtown the harder it gets for her to keep her resolve and for her mom to stay silent. Because it’s everywhere. On the side of buildings, fences, brick walls.
NANCY THE WHORE WHEELER
JONATHAN BYERS IS A PSYCHO
JONATHAN BYERS IS A PERV
NANCY WHEELER FUCKS PSYCHO CREEPS
BASKET CASE BYERS
NYMPHO WHEELER FUCKS ANYONE
PERVY BYERS CREEPS IN YOUR BUSHES
NANCY WHEELER PRINCESS OF PERVERTS
”Nancy, please…”
”I don’t. Care.”
She holds back some tears while chastising herself. She’s fought a monster for god's sake who cares about graffiti?
”Did Steve do this?”
She offers up a shrug.
”Why would-”
”Look can we please drop it?! I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to get through this stupid day.”
Hopper comes in with a head of steam and waving the newspaper with Will’s photo on the front page.
“What did I tell you yesterday? Stay quiet, don’t talk to any more reporters.”
“What? I haven’t,” his mom protests. Skimming the article she continues. “Do you see any direct quotes from me? He must just be going off of what I said on tv, I haven’t talked to anyone else.”
“You didn’t?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“About who I have spoken to? Yes, Hop.”
“Right. I’ll see you later, I gotta take care of some things,” Hopper grumbles and is out of the hospital room as quickly as he came into it.
His mom just shrugs and turns her attention back to Will who just woke up. Thankfully mom finally slept a few hours of the night. He fulfilled the promise he made to her yesterday, grabbing a few hours of sleep at home when he went back to feed Chester and let him out. He also assessed all the damage to the house and made a to do list of everything else he has to do besides looking after Will, mom and Chester like he’s been doing:
- Tear out and replace the carpet
- Tear down the wallpaper in the living room and put new up
- Permanently fix the hole in the wall
- Put away all the lights
- Clean the whole house
- Make sure mom sleeps more
- See how Nancy is doing
The first three items stress him out, thinking of the costs. But the last item feels the most pressing. Nancy is incredibly tough, but at the hospital he’d seen how her collected facade faltered and she finally broke down in his arms as the loss of Barb became too much to bear. He wonders if she’s been able to sleep or if she still sees the monster every time she closes her eyes.
And he wonders if she’s seen the graffiti decorating various surfaces all over town now. He’s seen it driving between the hospital and the house. He doesn’t care what they say about him. But he feels horrible for Nancy. If she’s gone to school this morning she must have seen it. He wonders how school is for her. He wishes he’d already had washed all the slurs about Nancy away, but there’s just been no time. He adds it to his to do list instead.
He feels terrible for her, that her association with him last week led to this. He assumes she probably will want to have nothing to do with him now, when things go back to normal. Though normalcy is an outdated concept now, he realizes. Last week irrevocably changed the world for him, for them all. Her. He got Will back. With her help. But what did she get out of their association last week? Confirmation that her best friend died before they could save her, knowledge of the fact that monsters and evil dimensions are real, and several near death experiences. Enough trauma for a lifetime. On top of that a ruined reputation in their close minded town, all because she was seen with him.
So he’ll understand if she wants nothing to do with him going forward. Hopefully he’ll be able to fade into the edges at school again with time. Last week he brought a lot of unwanted attention to himself. It was his own fault. He wants to apologize to her again for the photos, the dumb, creepy photos he shouldn’t have taken, he just got so caught up in the moment and wasn’t thinking. He apologized in the darkroom and she moved past it quickly but he needs to make sure she knows how much he regrets them. How sorry he is for them. How sorry he is that she’s been called horrible names to the whole town just because she was seen with him. And again tell her how sorry he is about Barb, and just make sure she’s holding up okay. If she is, just let her know all that and that he’ll then leave her alone like she must want.
He’ll need to find an opportunity to talk to her privately, so she’s not further publicly embarrassed because of him. He thought about calling her yesterday but he didn’t have any change for the phone booth outside the hospital and when he briefly went home to rest and look over the house he didn’t think to do it then. He was just too exhausted and then focused on looking over everything that needed to be fixed, before he hurried back to the hospital. Maybe he’ll try calling later when he’s home, because he can’t really spare any money at all, not even change for the phone booth if he wants to both get the house in order before Will’s discharged from the hospital and be able to feed his family.
The doctors are going to do some more tests with Will today. He needs to be here for that, to make sure his little brother is alright. If they all go well he plans on leaving Will and his mom for the afternoon to fix up the house. Maybe he’ll have time to stop by the Wheeler’s house after that to see if Nancy will speak to him. So he can check up on her and apologize for everything. And thank her for everything she did. And maybe, if he can muster up the courage to say it, and find a way to express it without it coming off super weird, tell her that in spite of everything he at least is thankful he got the chance to kiss her. At least he’ll have the memory of kissing her, even if she’ll never want to see him again.
The middle school is still cordoned off and mysterious cars are still parked outside, they see as mom pulls into the parking lot between the middle school and high school. She wonders what they’re doing there, how the inside looks like. Glancing over at the high school she steels herself, wondering how it will be to walk in there today.
“Nancy, please just-”
“I’m fine,” she insists and shifts Holly into her mom’s lap so she can unfasten her seatbelt, get her bag and get out of the car.
She can feel Mike looking at her as they walk towards the high school together, but thankfully he doesn’t say anything. Walking with her little brother to high school feels weird. She can already sense people looking at her. Obviously everyone has seen the graffiti. Everyone in town will see it. Before last week being seen with her dorky brother at school like this would’ve mortified her, she would’ve made Mike walk at least 10 steps behind her. But given everything she doesn’t care about that at all anymore. Which is why she doesn’t mind it either when Dustin and Lucas run over from the bike racks to join them.
“Hey Mike! … hey, Nancy…?” They both greet, sound a bit wary of speaking to her.
“Hey guys,” she responds together with Mike, and gives the boys a glance to let them know she doesn’t mind them.
“Nance, are you okay?” Dustin asks.
“I’m fine. I don’t want to talk about it,” she answers curtly. “After everything, who cares about what some idiots write… all over town…” she sighs and shrugs.
“Yeah, it’s crazy how no one but us knows what really happened,” Lucas says.
“Today’s going to be so weird,” Dustin chimes in.
“Let’s just get through it,” Mike says.
“Yeah,” she nods in agreement. “Gym is that way guys, see you later,” she points them on their way for what will surely be the weirdest school assembly of their lives.
Soon as she walks through the doors the whole hallway full of people is staring at her. Last week, the morning after Steve’s party she felt like people were looking at her, like they knew she had slept with Steve. Steve had tried to convince her otherwise and she at least halfway believed him. Now there’s no doubt at all, everyone is openly staring at her. Because they all think she slept with Jonathan.
They must’ve all heard the news that Will basically came back from the dead, and that a secret government project supposedly destroyed the middle school. Yet what they care about is which boy she allegedly has slept with. High school is bullshit.
She puts her head down and makes her way to her locker and finds it’s adorned with small scribblings similar to the ones in large format all over town. Precisely a week ago she stood in this spot and tried to hide her smile and deflect Barb’s questions about Steve and notions that she would become popular now by virtue of being with him. That feels like a lifetime ago now. And she feels that the notion of being popular holds no importance to her at all anymore. She almost died like five times last week, and learned that monsters and other dimensions are real. And Barb died. Popularity at school seems a wholly trivial concept after all that.
Jonathan isn’t in the AP History class they share at the start of every Monday morning. She didn’t expect him to come to school today and in a way she’s glad for his sake that he’s spared at least one day’s worth of unwanted attention. But it’s still disappointing because she simply wished to see him. See how he’s doing after everything. She realizes everyone would be staring even more than they already do, if she and Jonathan were seen together at school today, but she’s way past caring about that. He might though, he’s always tried to stay invisible at school, the attention last week brought him is a nightmare for him she knows. Maybe it’s better if she seeks him out privately to talk first. Maybe she can go to the hospital after school?
She can’t help the tears welling up in her eyes as she watches her two eldest walk away from the car, heading into school. They seem to have grown up several years in a week. Whatever happened seems to have fundamentally, irrevocably changed them. She fears she may have lost them forever. Instead of coming to her with their problems they felt the need to sneak behind her back for a week. And now they barely talk to her.
She blames herself. How could she not notice earlier that something was going on? Mike she completely lost track of. And with Nancy, she screwed up. Nancy came to her, about Barb. But she drove her away by focusing first on Steve then on the fact that Nancy lied to the police. When all that mattered to Nancy was her missing friend. In the moment she felt she was in the right, lying to the police was wrong, she had to say something. But she’s had plenty of time to look back on it now. She’s tried to look at it from Nancy’s point of view. She was just so worried about Barb, and then those policemen having more questions and insinuations about what Nancy did at the party than concern for Barb. That must’ve felt awful, two grown men slyly smirking about what Nancy going up to Steve’s room “to change” really meant, when all she wanted was help to find her friend. And then she yelled at her for lying to the police when really she should have yelled at those policemen for the way they treated her daughter.
No wonder Nancy went off on her own after that. She’s so headstrong, her daughter. Of course she’d go off to try and find Barb on her own. Or together with Jonathan, she’s still not completely sure just what happened there. And no wonder she’s not confiding in her now about the graffiti calling her a slut to the whole town, why would her daughter talk to her about it after how she handled her problems last time?
“Mama sad?”
Holly’s words bring her out of her wallowing. Looking at her three year old she’s reminded of Nancy at that age. Dependent on her with innocence in her eyes. That’s all gone now. She desperately hopes she’s not lost her eldest daughter forever, that the distance built up between them now isn’t insurmountable. She misses how close they used to be. Up until a few years ago Nancy would tell her everything it seemed like, come to her for everything. It started to change in high school, which is to be expected, she was the same way when she was that age. But this distance she can’t take. She needs to try and reconcile with her, to apologize.
“No, mama isn’t sad,” she answers, wipes her tears away and smiles at Holly. “Let’s go do some errands!” She continues in the voice she uses to try to make mundane things sound exciting for her baby daughter.
The first errand is far from mundane though. It wasn’t something she had planned for today, she was just going to go grocery shopping and stop by the pharmacy after dropping off the kids. But this drive through downtown gave her a new priority.
She marches into the police station with Holly on her hip. The receptionist is on the phone, behind her she can see two officers at their desks, both on the phone too, one typing on a typewriter at the same time. It’s the same ones who talked to her and Nancy last week. Powell and Callahan.
“Excuse me,” she starts to get the receptionist's attention.
“Yes?” The receptionist answers in a tired voice, covering the end of the phone receiver with her hand. Flo, she remembers her name. She’s an aunt to the Blackburns' or something if she recalls correctly from bumping into her and Loretta at Bradley’s Big Buy.
“I would like to file a report.”
“You and everyone else. If you think you encountered a mute Russian child in town last week, or saw an armada of Hawkins Power & Light vans driving at high speeds through town, or saw a UFO over Main Street please-”
“What? I want to file a report about the graffiti all over town calling my daughter a slut!”
Flo just stares at her for a moment.
“Mrs. Wheeler, as you can see we are quite swamped at the moment. I don’t know if you noticed but in the last 24 hours we had a boy come back to life and something get loose from that Lab outside town and destroying the middle school. We really don’t have time to deal with petty teenage squabbles now.”
“Petty squabbles? This must constitute harassment or something! And I know exactly who did it!”
“I suggest you talk to your daughter about-”
“I demand to speak to someone in charge!”
“That’d be Chief Hopper. He’s out, dealing with you know, everything.”
“Someone else then. Those two, I talked to them last week. Hey!”
She strides past the front desk and calls out which makes both officers look up. Powell gives Callahan a look and returns his attention to his phone and typewriter, so she zeroes in on Callahan who hangs up his phone.
“I want to file a report about harassment and… vandalism, and whatever else I can for that graffiti-”
“Ma’am, ma’am can you calm down please?”
“My daughter is being hanged out to dry and called a slut and a whore to the whole town and you ask me to be calm?!”
“I’m just saying, can you please stop yelling at me? Look, I understand it may bother your daughter but at the end of the day it’s just some graffiti and name calling. As far as vandalism goes it would fall on the property owners to file charges but no one has so far, I’m sure if you just give them time they’ll all take care of it themselves and wash it away. Just let it go, boys will be boys you know, and we’re really swamped with things here-”
“Boys will be boys? This is definitely criminal, what he did! And I know who did it, Steve Harrington.”
“We know. We had to break up a fist fight between him and Jonathan Byers just a few days ago with your daughter there.”
“What?”
“You didn’t know that? Seems the boys were fighting over her. The Byers kid was really wailing on him too, he caught me in the nose even! We brought him in and your daughter insisted on coming with him. Chief made us let him go as a favor to Joyce, considering everything else she’s dealing with. So I suggest you talk to your daughter instead of poking this hornet’s nest, it’s the last thing the Byers need.”
“Phil! That kook Bauman’s on line 3 again, deal with him please,” Flo calls out before she can respond.
“At any rate, I really don’t have time for this now ma’am,” Callahan tells her and picks up the phone again. “Hello Mr. Bauman… No, he’s not here… No, again, I’m not at liberty to-”
Jonathan fought Steve over Nancy? Nancy was at the police station with him? She tries to wrap her mind around it all as she heads out to her car again. What else has Nancy not told her? She really needs to talk to her.
Classes are something of a reprieve. She tries to focus on the work and what the teachers say, to take her mind off everything. It doesn’t work much, thoughts of Barb and monsters creep up in her mind. At least it’s better than the breaks, when the same thoughts occupy her mind and she’s gawked at in the hallways. But now it’s noon and she dreads the cafeteria. She seriously considers skipping lunch entirely and just hiding out in the library. But she didn’t have much appetite at breakfast so she’s famished. Reluctantly she forces herself through the doors.
It’s bustling, more than usual. They’ve put in some extra tables and split lunch into different blocks to accommodate the middle school kids. She swears even the lunch ladies looks at her funny now. As she navigates between tables with her tray she tries to ignore how everyone looks at her when she passes by.
Before her very brief spell at the cool table with Steve, Carol and Tommy last week she and Barb usually sat with Ally, Stacy and some other girls she’d consider friends to varying degrees. She figures she’ll return to them now, even if it will feel weird not to have Barb beside her as usual.
“Hey.”
They all look up at her when she greets them. Ally mumbles a hello back, Stacy awkwardly looks away after a second and the others just stare. Just from the way they look at her she can tell they have a thousand questions and judgements she doesn’t want to hear. That in and of itself makes her hesitate. Then Stacy’s friend Lauren pointedly puts her bag on the only empty spot left at their table.
Without a word she keeps walking. She feels completely lost for a moment. Then she spies some familiar faces at one of the extra tables brought in, crammed into a corner. Screw it, she might as well join them. At least they’re decent and she can talk to them.
“Hey Nancy,” Dustin cheerily greets as she sits down. Lucas smiles too, Mike looks surprised to see her willingly be seen sitting with them.
“Hey guys. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Of course not,” Dustin answers. Lucas smiles. Mike shrugs.
“So how has your day been?”
“Weird. They say Will just got lost in the woods. And the teachers try to dodge questions about the school while everyone just throws out crazy guesses about what happened,” Lucas answers.
“Everyone’s stupid,” Mike sighs.
“How’s your day been, Nance?” Dustin asks.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Bad, huh?” Lucas asks.
“Yep.”
“It really sucks about the graffiti,” Dustin offers. “But don’t worry, I washed your phone number away from the boys bathroom wall.”
“My phone number was on the boys bathroom wall?”
“Idiot, you didn’t need to tell her that,” Lucas chastises Dustin.
“Well, it’s not anymore,” Dustin answers.
“... thanks. Anyway, speaking of Will, I was thinking of going to the hospital after school, check in. Do you guys want to come?”
“Yeah, for sure!” Lucas answers.
“Yes, that’s a great idea,” Dustin smiles.
“You want to check in… on Will?” Mike asks, hints of a telltale little smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
“Yep,” she answers and looks down at her food, ignoring the looks from the others.
“Look at this, Frogface, Midnight and Toothless have a babysitter.”
The new voice makes them all look up. It belongs to a boy who looks close to Mike and his friends in age. He’s got a self-satisfied smirk on his face and his arm in a sling. He’s got another boy with him.
“Go away, Troy,” Mike tries.
“No Freak today? I know the Fag’s in the hospital, but where is she? Locked up at Pennhurst?”
“Shut up.”
“Make me, Frogface. Not so tough now without your Freak huh?”
“Hey, aren’t you the little boy who peed his pants last week?” She cuts in.
“What?” The boy is flustered by her interruption.
“Wasn’t that you? Everyone’s talking about it. Is it true you have to wear a diaper to school now?”
“What? Who said that?”
“Do you?” Troy’s friend hesitantly asks him.
“What?! No, dude! Just- screw this, come on.”
Troy walks off in a huff with his follower looking at him funny as they walk off.
“Oh my god that was awesome!” Dustin exclaims and smiles from ear to ear at her.
“You totally shut him up! That was the best thing ever,” Lucas gushes.
“Yeah thanks for that,” Mike smiles. It’s the first time she’s seen him smile in a long time, she realizes.
“No problem,” she smiles and returns to her food.
The boys start talking over each other about how long Will will be in the hospital for, stuff they should bring him and other plans. She’s content to listen to them, how much they love and care for Will is really sweet. But their peace is soon broken by new passerbys seeing opportunities to take cheap shots.
“Oh my God, how sad is this. Her only friend skips town because she’s had it with the slut, Psycho Byers is a no show and now the Princess of Perverts is relegated to sit at the kids table.”
Carol’s eviscerating comment draws a laugh from Tommy H. He’s like a hyena. Steve, with half his face swollen and covered in wounds, just stares at her with that steely gaze.
”Guess the psycho didn’t kill his brother after all,” Tommy gleefully notes.
”Obviously not, he was busy screwing the Princess in some bushes somewhere,” Carol taunts.
People at the other tables are looking at them now. But she has no rebuttal. Just like in the alley, what can she say? No, Jonathan and I weren’t screwing we were hunting a monster? It’s not any of their business anyway. They’re just trying to get a rise out of her. She focuses on keeping her composure.
“You’ve really lost the ability to speak since you let Byers fuck you, huh?” Steve mutters. “You know, you acted like you’re so above other girls, like Laurie and Becky and Amy, like you’re so different. You know what the difference is between you and them? They don’t fuck psychos behind your back. Plus they were actually good lays, unlike you.”
It’s a real effort to do so but she keeps her focus on her plate, not responding, trying to not show any reaction at all even as Steve’s comments provokes raucous laughter from Carol and Tommy H, and some ooh’s from the closest tables who heard it. Thankfully they eventually move on when not even Carol calling her “No tits Nancy” makes her look up and take the bait.
“Dude, why does Steve look like Two-Face?” Dustin leans over the table and asks soon as the trio has left.
”Did Jonathan do that to Steve’s face?” Mike asks.
”Did they fight over you?” Lucas wonders.
”No, not over me. He… look, Steve misunderstood something. Jonathan was in my room, after we first went hunting in the woods. Nothing happened, but Steve must’ve looked through the window and assumed. Next day we saw them spray painting. Because apparently just having a guy sit on your bed and comfort you when you almost just died makes you a slut nowadays. I slapped Steve, we argued. It was over, Jonathan was taking me away. But then Steve started saying some real fucked up things to Jonathan. About his family, his mom, Will… so Jonathan snapped and caved Steve’s face in. Then he got arrested and that’s how we ended up with the Chief and Mrs. Byers, before we met up with you guys.”
“Wow,” Dustin reacts.
“Jonathan’s awesome,” Lucas observes.
“Steve’s a total mouthbreather,” Mike adds.
A pretty accurate summation, she has to admit.
When she arrives to pick the kids up from school they both hurry to the car with Lucas and Dustin in tow, leading their bicycles.
”Hey mom, can you drive us to the hospital?” Nancy asks.
”We want to see Will,” Mike adds.
She looks them over. Nancy looks okay, she worried the whole day over how Nancy was doing at school. She can only imagine what the other kids had to say about everything that wretched boy spray painted all over town. She wants to talk to her about what really happened last week, about Jonathan and Steve, but now is not the time.
”Of course, that’s a great idea. I need to see if Joyce needs help with anything anyway. You boys want a ride?”
”Yes Mrs. Wheeler,” Dustin smiles at her.
”Put your bicycles in the back and hop in.”
”Thank you Mrs. Wheeler,” Dustin and Lucas chorus.
“So you need anything from home, bud?”
Will’s tests went well and he says he’s feeling better, so he feels comfortable leaving Will and his mom for a bit to go check some items off his to do list.
“Can you bring my Green Lantern #141? It’s the one where the Omega Men are introduced.”
“Sure buddy, anything else?”
“No, I’m good. Thanks. You’ve already brought so much stuff,” Will smiles.
“No problem, I’ll be back later tonight,” he tells him and gently ruffles Will’s hair.
“Oh, and pet Chester for me.”
“Will do,” he smiles. “I’ll be back later, try and get some rest,” he tells his mom and gives her shoulder a pat.
“Do you need money?” She asks and is about to start rifling through her purse but stops herself before he can. “I don’t have any, I gave you the last I had for the copy place.”
“I know, mom. It’s fine, don’t worry about it, I’ve got it covered,” he tries to sound reassuring even though he’s not sure he’ll have enough to cover everything that needs to be done.
He walks out of the room and down the corridor. Just as he’s turning the corner he almost walks right into someone.
“Oh, sorry, my bad- oh.”
“Oh!”
It’s Nancy, of all people. Beautiful blue eyes staring back at him, eyebrows shot up to her forehead in surprise.
”Sorry about that, hi!” She greets when she’s recovered from the shock of their almost-collision.
”H-hey, I’m sorry, it was my fault,” he responds, flustered and lets go of her shoulder which he didn’t realize until now he instinctively grabbed hold of to stop them from completely colliding.
Wow, he almost forgot how beautiful she is. She’s wearing her purple coat, a forest green sweater and dark blue jeans. She’s wearing her long hair down now, not up in the ponytail she sported for monster hunting. She’s mesmerizing. He gets lost in her eyes for a second and she doesn’t avert her gaze either, just looking straight at him.
“No, don’t worry about it, I-”
“Hello, can we see Will?”
Mike interrupts Nancy and bursts their own little bubble. It’s not until now he realizes that it’s not just Nancy there, she’s accompanied by her little brother, Lucas and Dustin. As well as her mom. They all look at him, the boys eagerly expecting his answer, Mrs. Wheeler with a look he can’t quite read, like she’s carefully studying him. None look at him the way Nancy does though, he can’t really pinpoint that either but she looks at him in a way he feels no one else does and he’s not sure what to do with that.
“Oh! Yes, you can see him, he’ll be so happy to see you guys, he’s doing better. I was just heading out to- well, come on.”
He leads them all back to Will’s hospital room and the way Will’s face lights up when he sees his friends makes his day. The boys all crowd Will excitedly talking over each other just like they did when they got to see him Saturday night. Nancy and Karen come over to the bed to say hello to Will and ask him how he’s feeling too. While the boys continue to catch up and Mrs. Wheeler makes her way over to talk to his mom, Nancy’s fingers graces his arm which immediately gets all his attention.
“Can we talk?” She softly asks and nods her head towards the door.
“Y-yeah.”
The waiting room is currently empty so they find some privacy there. He glances at her nervously as they sit down in chairs next to each other. He was going to seek her out and talk to her at some point, he did not foresee her seeking him out. Just like last week when she came up and talked to him by the bulletin board at school he’s surprised and not sure what to say.
“How are you?” She starts instead. Looking at him with… care. Not the apprehension or abhorrence that he feared.
“Good, Will’s better. I got mom to rest some. How are you?”
“I’m okay. But how are you? How’s your hand?”
“Oh, it’s fine. Thanks. How’s yours?”
“Good. I hope I’m not imposing, I just wanted to check in…”
“No! No, I… I wanted to see you, see how you’re doing and… just say I’m really sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?” She asks, crinkling her nose.
“Just… I’m so sorry about Barb. That we couldn’t save her. And I’m sorry I took those photos, it was wrong. And I’m sorry that… you know, that being seen with me completely screwed you over. I mean, with Steve, the graffiti. I’m sorry.”
Nancy looks at him for a long moment, like she’s processing his words. Then she lightly shakes her head, looking down for a second before meeting his gaze again.
“Jonathan, you don’t have to… well, thank you, about Barb. That means a lot. About the photos… you’ve already apologized, it’s okay. I forgive you. But you didn’t screw me over. The opposite.”
“What?”
“It’s not your fault, the graffiti and all. Steve just showed his true colors. I feel like such a fool for being with him. He’s the one who totally screwed me over. Jonathan, you just, you know, stood by me, hunted a monster with me, saved my life…”
”Oh.”
”Thanks, for that.”
”Thank you, for helping save Will. For saving my life.”
”You’re welcome.”
She smiles softly at him. He’s not quite sure what to say then, just awkwardly glances at her before she looks down at the floor. He averts his gaze too then.
“Saw your mom on tv,” Nancy’s voice, a hint of glee in it, makes him look at her again. “It was cool that she told them off,” she continues, a faint smirk playing at the corners of her lips.
“Yeah,” he smiles. “Hopper didn’t like it though. Wants us to lay low.”
“I guess that’s smart. I wonder what they’ll do. I mean, they must come up with a better explanation than ‘a project got loose and the middle school was damaged while we corralled it’? With everything else that happened.”
“I guess they’ll try to cover it up as best they can.”
“They should have to answer for what they did,” Nancy tells him with conviction.
“Yeah,” he agrees. “How was school?” He thinks to ask.
“Weird. I don’t know if you heard but they’ve squeezed the middle schoolers into our school for now. And everyone obviously saw the news, what they said about the middle school, that Will was found… yet people seem most interested in what a slut I apparently am.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. It’s just bullshit, high school is such bullshit.”
“Yeah. Still, I’m sorry you have to deal with that. That they’re saying that about you.”
“I’m sorry for what they say about you. What Steve said, about your family. It was really fucked up.”
“Yeah. Well, not your fault,” he parrots her.
She smiles a little at that. He made her smile. That feels good, he feels weirdly proud of himself for that. Like when he made her smile a bit at his bad joke about her mom not knocking. It’s nice to see her smile even with all the grief and worries she’s carrying.
“Where were you going?”
“What?”
“You were on your way somewhere, when we got here.”
“Oh, I was just going to go fix up the house, take care of some things.”
“I’ll help you.”
“You don’t have to-”
“I’ll help you,” she insists. “Don’t fight me on this. It’s not fair for you to have to clean up the mess we both made all by yourself.”
He knows better than to fight Nancy Wheeler. She’s reaching out, he realizes. Coming here, seeking him out. Now wanting to come and help him with the house. She’s not retreating from him like he assumed she would. He’s not used to people reaching out. He’s glad she is. But he has to make sure she knows what she’s getting herself into.
“Okay. Thank you. Just… I have to stop by some places downtown. Do you really want to be seen in public with the psycho?”
“I don’t mind. As long as you don’t mind being seen with the slut.”
“You’re not a slut.”
“You’re not a psycho.”
Nancy says it with the same determination she last Saturday told him she wanted to finish what they started and kill the monster. They were a team then. If Nancy still wants them to be, he won’t be the one to pull away.
“Okay then.”
They share a small smile and get up from their seats and head back into the room.