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There's a siren going off outside.
Much like a firetruck, or a police car, or maybe a ringtone for a very peculiar person. The noise ricochets off the walls of the neighborhood homes, back and forth, bouncing off the exterior of her home and all the way to the house across the street.
It hits her ears immediately. She's not sure if she was sleeping before, or if she'd just rested her eyes for a few moments; it's too dark to tell and she's too tired to care. All she knows is her sheets are hot and her bones feel heavy, but not in a way that makes it easier to sink into the comfortable mattress; they simply hang inside her skin.
For a few long moments, Nancy can't define what exactly the noise is. Not until she sits up, throws a glance out the window, and sees, just in time, an ambulance pummeling down the road. The light flashes through her window, blinds drawn, bright red. It illuminates her room for a fraction of a second before disappearing.
The noise dies out right along with it seconds later.
She's not sure why the panic takes so long to kick in, but it does. It doesn't ambush her- not like it used to- but she can feel the way her heart picks up speed, how she suddenly becomes alert, eyes widening, lashes brushing against her messy bangs.
There's that question in her mind, the one she can't justify, asking, what if it came for you? The thought festers, and again, she wonders, am I going to wake up soon? Am I dead? Am I hearing the outside world?
She's not. She knows this. If it were three years ago, she'd call herself stupid and curse her sensitive ears for being awoken by the siren in the first place. But this is now, the present, when she can't sleep peacefully unless she knows the gun hidden in what was once a box for high-heels is loaded.
She plants her feet into the carpet, welcoming the sensation of something other than uncomfortably warm bed sheets. She'll go downstairs, get a glass of water, and realize this isn't a dream. There isn't anything waiting for her outside her bedroom door, nothing but cool darkness and framed family portraits and closed wooden doors. Familiarity. That sounds wonderful right about now.
Nancy can't bring herself to get off of her bed, however. Like leaving it unmade will invite something unwanted, like exiting her room will allow for something to enter, like she'll come back to see a hand poking out from under her bed.
It's going to be one of those nights, she realizes quickly.
She finds it in herself to stand. She doesn't turn on the lamp. She doesn't want to think about what she would do if it didn't turn on; she doesn't want to risk knowing there's no power, because that could mean danger.
A moment later, she clicks on the lamp and mentally reminds herself of how stupid she can be sometimes.
Light fills the room, warm and bright, just as it should. She glances around her bedroom and sees her closed closet doors, her dresser, the CD Robin gave her last week sitting on top of it. An involuntary smile flashes across her face.
A thought enters her mind, one born out of tiredness and an inability to think straight. She doesn't want to be the one to turn this lamp off. She doesn’t want to see shadows dance across the insides of her eyelids when she does. She'd rather do anything else.
Nancy Wheeler, who beat up a strange bat from the Upside-Down with an oar just last week, is afraid to turn off the light. To say she feels ridiculous would be an understatement.
Her hands land on her phone and she dials in the number she's had memorized for a long time. She calls often; not at this hour- not that she actually knows the exact hour- but when she's bored or wants someone to talk to or simply misses her.
Robin picks up in eight seconds. Nancy counted, because she didn't have anything else to do while she waited.
"Hello?" She asks, and her voice is crackly through the phone, muddled with tiredness.
Gradually, Nancy can feel her shoulders sink. Her heart slows down, and she feels a bit cooler. Because if she is stuck in a dream, and Robin's here, well- they'll make it out for sure. No doubt about it.
"Robin, it's Nancy."
Bedsheets shuffle on the other end. "Nancy? It's..." Something brushes against the phone; probably Robin's hair. "It's two in the morning. Who's dying?" she asks jokingly.
She laughs because she doesn't know what else to do and sits back down on her bed, holding the phone with two hands like it's a lifeline. "Nobody, I just- I couldn't really sleep."
"Oh," Robin responds gently, voice light, not an ounce of resentment behind the word despite the fact she was rudely awakened. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Nancy says. She lets go of the phone, tucks it between her ear and her shoulder, and messes around with her hands. Her nail polish is still chipped from her time in the Upside-Down. The realization makes her gut twist. "An ambulance woke me up, and... I think it kind of spooked me."
Robin hums understandingly. "That sucks. Y'know, I used to live right next to a hospital, and the sirens would go all night. It was a nightmare."
"Really? I can't imagine that." If Robin were in front of her, she thinks she'd nod. "How did you even sleep at night?"
"Earplugs." Robin sighs, and there's a noise in the background that sounds vaguely like her smacking back down against her mattress. "So many earplugs. You should invest in them if it becomes a problem."
Nancy chuckles, quietly this time, mostly out of courtesy. But she shakes her head despite Robin being unable to see it. "No, I can't. If something happens in the middle of the night, I need to hear it."
There's silence on the other end for a moment. Then, a concerned, "Nancy, are you sure you're okay?"
If Robin can sense something's really off through the phone alone, then Nancy must be worse at hiding this than she thinks. But nobody else notices; not even the people around her. Maybe they have other priorities.
Not Robin, though.
"I keep thinking if I leave my room," Nancy begins, "I'm gonna come back and see some... Monster in my bed. I don't know." There's a short pause which she interrupts with a follow-up, "It's stupid, right?"
"No," Robin says quickly, but not too quickly- like she really means it. She doesn’t think it's stupid. "I get it." Nancy breathes out heavily. "Nance, do you want me to come over?"
Her whole world rocks momentarily.
"What?"
Again, Robin asks, "do you want me to come over?" Before she can answer, she adds, "I'll bring snacks and a movie."
Nancy knows she can't say no, and it's not just because she can hear Robin get out of bed and start moving around. "Okay," she answers. "Yeah, I'll be here. Are you- Are you sure, though?"
"Sure. I went over to Steve's place at two in the morning the other week, it's no problem."
"You went to see Steve?" Nancy asks, and she can't keep the laughter out of her voice.
She can hear Robin's grin even through the phone. "Yes, and I forced him to watch The Apartment. I'll do the same thing to you."
"Ugh, count me out," Nancy responds without any real menace.
Not bothering to hide her excitement, Robin asks, "you've seen it before?"
"No. Just wanted to poke fun at you."
More shuffling on the other line. Nancy glances around her room and can't help but wonder if she's supposed to clean up before she comes over; not that there's much to clean up. She's kept it as pristine as possible. Cleaning gives her something to do, distracts from the overwhelming feeling of anxiety that threatens to swallow her whole these days.
A quick, "I'll be there soon, Nance," interrupts her thoughts.
She hangs up.
The silence feels less consuming when Nancy knows Robin will be here in mere minutes to interrupt it. So she sits, and she waits, tracing patterns with her finger on her bedspread, counting the stars that are visible in the night sky, gently swinging her legs so her feet brush against the soft carpet.
Something smacks against her window, hard, and she jolts involuntarily. She makes it to her window in less than two seconds.
Robin is standing in her yard, wearing an oversized jacket and pajamas, a plastic bag in one hand and a VHS tape in the other. The wind is smacking at her violently, blowing her hair everywhere, but when she spots Nancy through the window, her smile is noticeable.
It's a bit of a surreal sight.
Robin points toward her front door questioningly, and Nancy shakes her head. Maybe a bit harshly, but she really doesn't need Robin to go through the front door and wake up her entire family. She looks confused for a moment, but then shrugs, and ultimately starts walking toward her window.
Nancy waits, and waits, feels the loneliness begin to consume her. Two minutes later, there's another knock on her window. Robin tugs it open from the outside and tumbles inside her room, landing flat on her back on the carpet.
It's quiet for a second, save for the rustling of Robin's bag, before she says, "hey."
"Hey," Nancy echoes.
"It's, um... You've got a pretty nice room. Oh, I've been in it before. I forgot."
Nancy holds a hand out to help her up, and Robin takes it. She didn't realize how cold her hands were until she touched Robin's; hers are like a fireplace. Maybe a bit rough, but that's understandable considering she just had to climb up the side of Nancy's home.
Immediately after standing, however, Robin tugs her back down. Again, there's that warmth, the hands that Nancy doesn't want to let go of, but she does. They're sitting criss-cross, across from each other, nothing but a plastic bag and Robin's favorite movie between them.
Robin takes a moment to dust herself off before straightening up and grabbing her bag. "So. I brought snacks, as promised."
"Y'know, it's- It's not actually recommended that you eat in the middle of the night. It can mess with your circadian rhythm, if I’m remembering correctly."
"Really?" Robin asks, tearing open a bag of chocolates. "That's so interesting." She pops three inside her mouth. "I'll keep that in mind."
Nancy laughs, light and real. "Okay, you've made your point."
"Live a little, Nance, come on. Oh, I brought some water bottles, too."
It seems to hit Nancy, then. How strange it really is that this girl she hasn't known all that long just dropped everything to come see her at two in the morning. She's standing in her bedroom, and she's still got her pajamas on, and Nancy knows they're her pajamas, that Robin didn't change at all, because she wore that shirt to the last sleepover they had.
She trusts Nancy; that's what she gathers from the action. And it's like she knows exactly what Nancy wanted- some water. Like she knew, somehow, that she was thirsty, that she would usually get her own glass from the kitchen, but she was too scared to, tonight, so she called her instead.
It feels so strange to be so known by someone. It's overwhelming in the kindest way.
She doesn't know when she starts crying, or really why, but she does. It's nothing dramatic- she can't actually remember the last time she cried- but the tears are there, welling up in her eyes. Pulling at her heart, dragging it down.
"Nancy?" Robin asks, and she sounds uncharacteristically quiet. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Yeah," Nancy responds, uncertain, voice wavering. "Sorry, I don't really know why I'm- It's fine. Seriously."
She smiles. Robin smiles back, a bit sadly. And Nancy can tell she doesn't entirely understand, but that she's willing to, and somehow, that's even better.
"Um, I'm not really the best at comforting people. I always say the wrong thing," Robin begins tentatively, and Nancy wipes at her eyes. "I can hug you?" She says, voice a bit high, and she means for it to be a statement, but it comes out as a question. "If you want a hug, I mean. Then I can offer one."
Nancy shifts from her spot and sits next to her, and as promised, Robin opens her arms to her. More like her arm, singular, since they're sitting side-by-side. Nancy lets her head fall against her shoulder, arms wrapping around Robin's waist, and it's like Robin purposely wore a jacket with a fuzzy exterior. She lets her eyes flutter shut for what could very well be the first time since that siren woke her up, and she can feel her worries dissipate.
Robin lets her lean against her, arm around her shoulders, rubbing circles into her upper back, somewhere between gentle and firm. There's this feeling that blooms in Nancy, followed by a fleeting thought.
This is nothing like Steve or Jonathan.
Like it's real love, like real people feel.
After a few moments, Robin says something about hating the silence, and she starts talking. Nancy listens. She clings onto every little word about the movie Robin tells her about, feels the vibrations of her voice as she speaks. She shakes her head when Robin asks if she's being annoying and nods her head when Robin asks if she feels better yet.
Eventually, they pull away, and Nancy hadn't even realized she stopped crying over ten minutes ago.
“Thank you,” she mumbles.
Robin’s smile could light up an entire town. “Of course.”
Nancy lets her gaze linger on her for another moment before she reaches out and lifts up Robin's bag, confused. "Did you... Are these just plain crackers?"
"They're called saltines, actually, thank you very much," Robin replies, and Nancy just rolls her eyes and drops the crackers. "I didn't know what else to grab! I was in a rush."
"You were in a rush?" Nancy asks, raising a brow, and Robin goes still.
"You sounded weird. Garbled. Tired - weirdly tired. You're always so ready for anything, yet you sounded like a mess."
"You gathered all that from the phone?"
Robin shrugs, slips past her, and sits on the bed, kicking off her sneakers. "Yeah. Think I've been around you long enough to recognize the emotion in your voice. I mean, usually, you just sound mad, so..." A pillow is thrown at her, and Robin laughs, loud at first, but then quiet. Nancy stands like a stranger in her own bedroom. "Well. You should probably get some rest, but we better watch that movie in the morning."
"I promise," Nancy says.
"I can sleep on the couch. I know where the blankets are," Robin says, already standing up, sneakers still on the floor. "If you need anything, just wake me up, yeah? I'm right downstairs."
She doesn't even make it two steps before Nancy reaches out, clutching her wrist.
"Stay?" She asks, and her voice sounds foreign to herself.
Robin hesitates. Nancy doesn't think she's ever seen Robin hesitate. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. If you're not... comfortable with it, then I understand, but-"
"No, it's fine. I'll stay." She hesitates again. "Just let me know if you change your mind."
They slide into the bed, and the sheets aren't so uncomfortably warm now, Nancy thinks. Robin's got her back turned to her, and it's quiet for a while.
It's so hard to sleep with the light on. Nancy had forgotten.
Robin proves to be a terrible bed mate. She shifts every two seconds, kicks the covers off and then back on, breathes too loud or too quiet. It's a bit maddening. She's not like this when Nancy actually takes the time to pull out a mattress and set her up on the floor during their more thought-out sleepovers.
It gets to be too much.
Nancy reaches a hand out. Fumbles around under her soft sheets until her hand finds Robins, and she lets it sit on top of hers for a moment, giving her time to pull away.
Robin intertwines their fingers.
"Do you want the light on?" Robin asks suddenly, turning to face Nancy now. Her bangs are falling with the gravity of being sideways. It looks a bit odd. She still looks unbelievably pretty.
"You can turn it off," Nancy says, so Robin reaches her free hand out and turns it off.
It's dark. Nancy's still in her bed. The sheets are cold now. Her eyelids are heavy, but there’s that nagging fear in the back of her mind. She’s waiting for the shadows; waiting for another siren.
Robin gives her hand a quick squeeze, almost like a 'goodnight,’ and Nancy remembers to breathe.
When she closes her eyes, there are no shadows behind her eyelids, and the only thing she can hear is Robin's gentle breathing begin to even out.