Chapter Text
El’s eyes adjusted to the contrast of the harsh hospital lighting as opposed to the darkness that loomed outside. Storms persisted over Hawkins now, leaving the whole town feeling gloomier and more depressed than it already was.
The gates had mostly been covered up by large metal plates by now, and the excuse of an unforeseen earthquake was the accepted consensus of what happened just a few days ago. The accepted consensus of why so many people went missing or died.
Her face morphed uncomfortably at the thought. So many people are gone. What did Hawkins ever do to deserve it? Her mind raced briefly until Nancy interlocked their arms and placed her other hand on El’s shoulder, beginning to direct her to the elevator so they could go see Max.
Will and Mike trailed behind, keeping a little distance between themselves and the girls. Mike was tense and shifted uncomfortably, putting his hand on his upper arm in a self-soothing gesture. Will noticed this and placed his hand on Mike’s, giving him a gentle smile to try and comfort him. I’m here, his smile practically spoke. Mike relaxed a little bit, enough that his hand shifted down from his upper arm to his wrist.
As they entered the elevator, a few others crowded in with them. It was silent as the elevator beeped with each floor they passed. Beep, next floor.
El glanced up, waiting to be at the floor Max was on. Beep, next floor.
The door opened and a few people walked out, leaving the group there by themselves. As the doors closed, Will cleared his throat. Beep, next floor.
The doors opened once more and the group finally stepped out, and Nancy led El back to Max’s room even though El could have gone by herself. Nancy knew El didn’t want to approach by herself, if she even would have approached if by herself.
El felt almost as if she didn’t deserve to walk back into Max’s room after leaving so abruptly yesterday.
She hated to think it, but she kind of hoped that Max wasn’t able to fully process her surroundings while in her coma. So that she wouldn’t have heard what El said.
Outside Max’s room they stood, and Lucas saw them and perked up a little.
“El, you’re back!” He stood to greet them, beckoning them inside the room. Nancy released El and stayed outside the room as El walked in, waving her hand a little bit to indicate she had no reason to enter. She turned and sat on the chair outside the room.
Lucas stood off to the side as El stared at Max once more.
She approached the opposite side of the bed from where she stood yesterday, moving towards the windows in Max’s room. She pulled one of the visitor chairs forward and slowly sat down, never taking her eyes off of Max as if she would disappear if she looked away or even blinked.
Lucas observed, slightly unsure if he should leave, until he heard Mike and Will approach and gesture that he should come with them.
He glanced at El once more to check that she was alright, but she didn’t even look up at him, so he let out a small breath through his nose and left. He was there all morning, so he guessed he could use some time out of the room.
El’s eyes were glued to Max’s shut ones, observing the dark sheen that was over her sunken eyes.
She leaned forward in attempts to see if her eyes were moving under her eyelids, but no. No movement.
El glanced down to her own hands very briefly, considering if she should even touch the bed, let alone touch Max herself.
Did she have the right to interact with Max at this point? There was so much she wished she could say to Max right now. She didn’t want to wait for Max to wake up if she even would.
Her eyes then flickered down to Max’s hands, the same hands that took care of El when she was in Starcourt with her leg practically bursting at the seams in pain.
Max was so quick to direct everyone to help her find materials to take care of El, not even a moment of hesitation, and she thought back to the first time that she witnessed Max fall off her skateboard outside her house.
“Agh!” Max huffed, hands and knees on the pavement, small pebbles digging into her palms. El gasped and reached out, starting towards her. Max lingered there for only a moment before pushing herself up, knees bloody and hands freckled with small indents from the pavement. El winced at the sight of her knees, but Max simply walked inside her house as El slowly followed behind, but didn’t even make it back in the house before Max was back outside with a first aid kid (and now-wet knees that she had rinsed off with water).
She and El sat on the porch in front of her house as Max pulled out some disinfectant from the first aid kit and began pouring a little over her knees, sucking in a breath through her teeth as she did so. Once she was done, she wrapped her knees with a bandage roll and taped the ends of the bandage up so they would stay. Max looked over at El, smiling.
“Let’s go back out!” she beamed, and El giggled at her quickness to move forward.
Max always bounced back so quickly, as if nothing could stop her. El continued to just… stare at Max’s lifeless form.
Tears begin to prick at the corners of her eyes, wetting her formerly dry eyes. She didn’t even realize she had any water in her body again.
Her eyes scanned Max: forehead, hair, mouth, eyes, chest. Her forehead was neutral; hair tied into nice braids done by Lucas.
Her mouth was flat and closed, unmoving, just like her eyes. But her eyes… They were dark, but almost seemed… peaceful, in a way. She didn’t think she had ever seen Max in such a peaceful state, come to think of it.
Her chest shallowly rose and fell, breaths barely enough to keep her alive. She wasn’t quite sure how comas worked or how in the world Max was breathing on her own, but nothing surrounded Max that was indicative of something supporting her breaths.
El squeezed her lips together in a tight frown, eyebrows knitting together. The tears in her eyes were begging to fall, so she looked up at the ceiling to try and satiate them.
The tension in the air that was ultimately the doing of El, and only El, was suffocating. It felt as if Max should be waking up any moment now, as if this was a small injury she could just “bounce back” from.
No, this was so much different. She couldn’t remember if Max mentioned breaking any bones before, but she was sure that would be vastly different from how she was right now. Right now, she was a formerly dead girl. In a coma. A girl whose heart stopped for a full minute, before the “miracle” happened.
El felt her throat tighten and couldn’t keep the tears in anymore. She tilted her head back down to look at Max once more and put one hand beneath Max’s cast one, the other on top. Her vision became blurry as the tears completely overtook her eyes, eventually closing and squeezing them tight.
The first sob clawed its way out of her, sounding like a hiccup. Then the second. The third. Then she completely… broke.
She leaned her head down onto the stack of hands, El, Max, El, and she gently squeezed her two hands around Max’s.
“Max… please” she whispered pathetically, as if Max were going to wake up to the mere sound of her voice. “Please—please come back. I need you.”
El was completely hunched over at this point, shoulders shaking with each sob that tore its way out of her body, forehead tight and tears streaming down her face, leaving a wet spot on Max’s blanket. She sniffled her nose to try and stop it from leaking more tears and mucus but failed.
The hand on top of Max’s moved up the redhead’s arm, lightly gripping her upper arm.
“I can’t do this without you,” she choked out miserably, shoving her face on her arm to wipe it, “I never should have been so stupid to not mail you.”
“If I could go back, I would write to you every week. Every day, even.” She pressed her face harder against her arm before continuing, “maybe then I would have at least known what was going on in your life. I’m so sorry.”
El lifted her head to look at Max, “there’s still so much I want to tell you. I miss talking to you, Max. You were the first one to ever give me the chance to be me, not some girl who escaped from the bad men,” her voice broke at the end.
She leaned down slightly and kissed the top of Max’s cast, then her fingers that just barely stuck out.
“Please, Max,” she begged, one last pitiful attempt at bringing Max out of wherever she was.
To her displeasure, there was still no movement beyond her gentle breaths and the beeps of the heart monitor. Scooting closer and facing Max directly this time, she breathed out lightly.
“I’ll wait for you, Max. I’ll wait every day. I’ll visit you when I can… I-I’ll bring comics to read to you. I’ll look for you every day,” she promised firmly, to herself and to Max. She would never give up on Max. She had to be in there somewhere; Max would never just give up. Not the Max she knew though she barely knew the Max in front of her, she imagined.
“You’re my best friend, and I love you. I love you more than anyone, more than I’ll ever love anyone.”
It was almost a final statement, if not for the fact that Max’s heart monitor briefly raced, before returning to normal.
El decided to take this as a sign of Max still being okay, of her saying “I’m here.”
The corners of El’s lips curled into the faintest smile, and she simply rested her head back onto Max’s hand and closed her eyes.