Chapter Text
Max thought Lucas was joking when he told her that Eleven had rescued Henry Creel from the Upside Down. She learned of it several days after the fact, when she was finally lucid enough to understand words again after being hopped up on pain medicine. Lucas wisely waited until Billy wasn’t around to tell her, because it was all too easy for her to imagine him freaking out like those basketball players had over some girl (who was fine, and most certainly not part of a satanic cult).
“Don’t joke, Lucas,” she snapped, blinking to try and clear her vision, which had not yet returned completely to normal. “Everything’s crazy enough.”
“I’m not joking,” Lucas said.
“Why would she do that? He’s insane!”
“It’s not like we thought. He was being controlled by the Mind Flayer, like what happened with Billy, but ten times worse.”
A shiver ran up her spine. She wouldn’t wish what Billy went through on anyone, much less something even worse than that, and Vecna’s dark form was forever burned into her mind. “So what Nancy saw…was it real?”
“Yes and no. He killed his family, but it wasn’t…him. And you know how Eleven lived in a lab? He was there too, a test subject like her before she sent him to the Upside Down.”
Questions swirled like a tornado in Max’s mind, most of which Lucas would probably not be able to answer. “Where is he now?”
“Eleven took him with her to her old house. She’s being hunted by the government or something.”
“Of course,” Max said, using sarcasm to cover the fear for her friend. All she could see was Vecna’s form looming over her, tall and terrible, claws stretching out to take her… “Lucas?”
“Yeah?”
“Does he still…look like Vecna?”
“No. He looked like a normal guy.”
Of all the unimaginable things she had seen, she could not envision Vecna looking anything like a person. “And was Eleven happy to see him?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so happy.”
Max didn’t know what to think. There was too much going on at once, and that was yet another thing to add to the overwhelming pile, so she put it aside for a few days. Her main concern was getting out of the hospital, an objective shared with her mom and Billy, but it would be a while before she could, with a broken arm and leg, and a dislocated wrist. It seemed normal communication with Eleven was not possible anyway, so she tried not to think about it.
She didn’t tell Billy about it. The Vecna incident had left him deeply shaken in a way she hadn’t thought possible. After the Mall, he had become so distant from her that she thought he would never recover from, but the past week had awakened something different. The image of him running towards her floating body, screaming her name, the fear written starkly across his face that had incited her to break free and run towards, was forever burned into her mind.
When it was over, he held her close, pleading with her to stay. She assured him tearfully that she would stay, and it was a mistake to ever think about leaving…
He had not left her side after that, only agreeing to let her participate in the plan to kill Vecna because they had no other choice. Sleepless, late-night conversations whispered in the dark, showed her the length of his pain and guilt over how he treated her over the years, and how what he had done beneath the Mind Flayer’s influence haunted him.
“What do you remember?” she asked him quietly while the others slept.
Billy looked at her, his eyes hollow and haunted. “Everything.”
She knew what was him, and what was the Mind Flayer. He may have done a lot of bad things, probably with no thanks to Neil’s abuse, but the Mind Flayer was on a different level, and she told him as much. She still wasn’t sure if he believed her completely, but it seemed to have some effect. Almost overnight he became closer to her, and with the threat of Vecna’s Curse hanging over her head, she didn’t mind at all. Now, in the hospital, it seemed a little more bizarre, but so was everything apparently. Vecna had been rescued by one of her best friends, and it seemed he was no longer the monster.
She wasn’t sure, though, and each day she anticipated a visit to tell her that something had gone horribly wrong, that he had snapped and turned on Eleven, because that would be just their luck. She didn’t have any contact with Eleven while in the hospital, but the rest of her friends visited her, and when she asked about Henry Creel they replied with varying levels of wariness, but with no bad news. The only one free of any misgivings, it seemed, was Will.
“I know exactly what it’s like,” he told her with a shrug. “I was trapped inside my own head, and he made me do a lot of things I wish I hadn’t. Henry went through the same thing, and so did Billy.”
It was heartening to Max in a way, to see Will had come to terms with his possession and moved beyond it. She hoped Billy would, in time, do the same. But she was still unsure about Henry Creel, and what it meant for him. His voice still rang in her mind, and she could see his eyes, feel the vines around her body, pinning her to the column that wasn’t really there.
“You will break.”
She hadn’t broken. Not her spirit, at least. Her body was a different story, but she could gladly say she had faced Vecna and survived regardless. She cherished her life anew, and she resolved that she would never wish for death again. The pure desperation, the raw fear in Billy’s eyes, in her friends’ eyes, as they held her in the wake of her escape, had convinced her that she had been wrong, and she was glad of it.
Max was in the hospital for a week before they finally sent her home. Her vision recovered fully, but she was supposed to avoid straining her eyes. The broken bones would take a while to heal, six weeks at least, and she could already feel her sanity slipping away at the thought of spending all that time in bed, but once again her friends came to the rescue. Lucas, Dustin, and Steve stopped by one day, dropping off a walkie-talkie for her.
“Since Eleven’s in hiding again, this is how we kept in touch the first time around,” Dustin explained. “You can talk to each one of us individually, or all together. Eleven’s channel is number eleven.”
“Funny,” Max said sarcastically, though she couldn’t help a smile at how immensely pleased Dustin looked with himself.
That same night, she had her first real conversation with Eleven in months, and she underestimated how good it would feel to hear her friend’s voice again. They talked first about their respective situations, with her recovery and Eleven’s return from California. The news that Hopper was alive after months of being imprisoned in Russia of all places was startling, though after everything she had been through, she quickly accepted it.
Eleven asked Max how she had been, why she had never called or written any letters, and she reluctantly, almost ashamedly, revealed the guilt she had struggled with and the divide she had felt between her and Billy that made everything seem worse. But she also talked about how things had ultimately become better due to Vecna’s uprising, with her relationship with Billy and with Eleven’s return to Hawkins.
Eleven met her admissions with no judgement, and in return, imparted her own struggles with trying to fit in at school in California. Max could hardly imagine her attending school, much less in California, but she took deep satisfaction in hearing about how she hit some girl in the face with a roller skate. It made her truly laugh for the first time since her hospitalization.
Inevitably, the conversation turned to the elephant in the room. Max finally brought it up when it seemed like Eleven wouldn’t, her curiosity overpowering her unease.
“So,” she said, “how’s Henry?”
Eleven was silent on the other end for a long moment. “…I wasn’t sure if they told you.”
“They did,” Max murmured.
Eleven took a deep breath. “His body is okay, but his mind…isn’t. He doesn’t remember a lot of things…”
When she trailed off, Max asked the most burning question on her mind. “Does he remember…me?”
“I don’t think so, not yet. He only remembers before the Upside Down, in the lab, when the Mind Flayer was gone.”
“Why did you rescue him?” The question came out harsher than Max meant it to. “Didn’t he betray you, hurt you?” Another question hung unspoken. Like he hurt me?
“I didn’t know it then, but it was the Mind Flayer that took over,” Eleven said quietly. “I thought he betrayed me, but I was wrong. He took care of me, and he’s my brother.”
Max stared at the walkie-talkie for a moment. “Really?”
“Not really,” Eleven clarified quickly. “He’s…sort of like Billy is to you. Not my brother, but…”
“I hope he’s better than Billy, though that’s not exactly a high bar.”
A laugh crackled through the speaker. “Billy is nice to you now, right?”
“Yeah…” Max sounded begrudging on the principle that she wasn’t supposed to admit she had any fondness for her stepbrother.
“He’s always been nice to me. Probably nicer than Billy. He doesn’t call me bad words.”
Max snorted. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
“He took care of me in the lab, and he tried to help me escape…even though it didn’t work.”
“What was it like?” Max knew she was asking to be horrified, but after Vecna, she wanted to know. “What was he like?”
Eleven answered, haltingly, with gaps and jumps and backtracks, her own memories of him and the lab before the massacre not quite solidified. Max listened quietly to a tale of a test subject with superpowers, taken care of by another test subject turned orderly, and how their bond grew across the many hardships they faced. She was rendered speechless by the things Eleven spoke of, the mistreatments she had not understood then but now looked back upon with rueful resignation, and that was only from Eleven’s perspective. There was likely far more to be found in the mind of Henry Creel, who had lived in the nightmare for far longer.
In Eleven’s memories, his true self was caring, and had likely stood in the way of even worse experiences. By the end of her story, Max was conflicted. She wanted to see him like Will and Billy, as someone who was controlled and manipulated, but the terror and pain of what she had been through held her back.
“I know you’re probably worried like everyone else,” Eleven said when she noticed Max’s continual hesitance, “but you don’t need to be. He’s—“
“I know,” Max interrupted, “but it’s going to take some time, you know?”
“Yeah,” Eleven murmured. “I know.”
They talked when they could in the days after that, but tried to keep it sparing for Eleven’s safety. Max would go several days at a time without speaking to her, and she worried that Henry had turned on her and things had gone south, but nothing happened though she dreaded it. Everything seemed okay, not great, but okay.
She debated on telling Billy. Since Vecna, they had talked more in the following weeks than they had in all the years they were forced to be family. The peril had finally awakened something in both of them, the realization that they did not need to be distanced from each other. With her mom remaining unaware of the true nature of what had happened to them both, all they had was each other, and now they were both terribly aware of that fact. The feelings of fear and guilt that had once driven a wedge between them now pushed them together, and in that togetherness, things began to heal.
Billy had always been frustratingly good at reading her, even when they were at odds with each other, and it was only a matter of time until he noticed her anxiety over the situation with Henry. She didn’t trust him not to lose his mind based on what she had seen before with Vecna, but she figured the longer she waited, the more prone to anger he would be.
Her suspicions were confirmed one night after a conversation with Eleven. She had talked a little bit about Henry—who she called Peter—and his increasing struggles with nightmares as his memories began to return. By the time they said goodbye, she was left feeling even more frustrated at the situation. She knew nightmares well by this point, and she couldn’t help but feel some sympathy. Billy came to check on her not long after (not because he cared that much, but because he didn’t want to listen to any complaining, according to him), and her turmoil was apparently too much to hide.
“So, you gonna tell me what’s wrong or are you gonna sit there looking like you’re PMSing?” Billy raised an eyebrow. “Unless you actually are.”
“I’m not,” Max said, giving him a halfhearted glare. “I’ve just been stuck in bed for weeks, in case you haven’t noticed.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Billy drawled, unconvinced. “But something’s bothering you. Is Sinclair giving you a hard time?”
“No. It’s…it’s Eleven.”
“Did something happen?”
Max shifted uncomfortably, playing with the edge of her blanket with her one good hand. “Not with her, necessarily…”
“Just freaking say it, already!” Billy exclaimed.
Max sighed, ignoring the little, instinctive spike of fear that pricked her when he raised his voice. He wasn’t like that anymore. “If I do, you have to promise not to freak out.”
Billy’s scowl deepened. “Depends on what you say.”
It was too late for her to backtrack, as much as she wanted to. “So…we tried to defeat Vecna, and then he just disappeared.”
“Yeah…”
“What if I told you he didn’t just disappear?”
Billy leaned forward, his gaze sharper than a knife. “What do you mean?”
Max grappled for the right words. “Well, I told you that Eleven came and saved me, but I wasn’t the only one she saved. She…she saved Vecna too.”
“Saved him how?” Billy’s gaze didn’t once waver from hers, his voice dangerously calm.
“She pulled him out of the Upside Down, and he’s been living with her since she came back from California.”
“What?”
Max jumped at his sudden increase in volume. “I didn’t tell you right away because I knew you’d freak out!”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Billy practically shouted. “He nearly killed me and you, he took that Byers kid, and he did kill a bunch of other people. Wheeler saw his memories, didn’t she? He’s a monster!”
“Eleven says he’s not. She says that he, the real him, is like you.”
Billy faltered. “What do you mean, ‘like me’?”
“The Mind Flayer made him…do things, but it was worse because he has superpowers.”
Billy went quiet. She could see the muscles in his jaw working, and his gaze went distant as it so often had since last July. She was glad to see him pause, though, instead of thoughtless rage.
“Do you think he’s lying?” she asked. Only he knew what it was like to truly be possessed by the Mind Flayer in the same fashion.
“I don’t know.” Billy shook his head. He remembered nothing of Vecna, only a dark voice compelling him, seeping into every corner of his mind as his body moved not of his own will. Pain as he tried to resist, the moments of lucidity and crying in the sauna as the voice tried to take over again, but no memory of anything that was for or against Henry Creel’s claim.
“El doesn’t want me to be afraid of him,” Max continued, “but I…”
“You stay away from him,” Billy decided, his tone leaving no room for argument. “Until we know what’s going on.”
Max snorted, gesturing with her one good arm. “Yeah, like I’m going anywhere.”
“I mean it, idiot,” Billy snapped, crossing his arms.
“Then you stay away, too. Don’t do something stupid.”
“Who else knows?”
“…Everyone.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t know what you’d do, and I was afraid you might get hurt.” And leave me. The words hung unsaid in Max’s mind, but Billy’s disposition shifted to something softer, like she had spoken it out loud.
“Please. I’m not like that trainwreck Harrington.” His response was laced with cockiness, but there was a reassurance behind it.
“Well, you’re close enough.”
Billy scoffed but didn’t fire back, pausing thoughtfully. “Do you know if what Wheeler saw was real?”
“I know what Eleven told me…and it’s a long story.”
Billy sighed, tossing some clothes off of a chair to make room for himself. “Considering I’m babysitting you, I have all the time in the world.”
Max repeated everything Eleven had told her about Henry Creel, from the beginning when the Mind Flayer began hunting him, to the lab, to the present day. Billy listened silently, his face betraying little, and even by the end of the story she couldn’t tell what he felt.
“I thought you were kidding when you said she grew up in a lab,” was the first thing he said when she finished.
“I wish I was,” she muttered. Even talking about what Eleven had described about her experiences left her feeling unsettled.
Billy slowly absorbed the long account. It was almost unbelievable even to someone like him. But he knew what it was like to have control stripped away, to watch helplessly as his body was forced to do horrible things he would never dream of doing, and what Max had told him about Henry Creel sounded like just that.
“Do you trust what Eleven told you?” he asked at last.
“Yes.” All her trust that Henry was a good person regardless of her misgivings hung on Eleven’s judgement, and she did not doubt it. Sometimes, she wished she had the ability to look into the minds of others, so she could set aside her fears for good.
Billy drummed his fingers against his leg. “One wrong move and Wheeler better have that shotgun aimed at his face.”
Max nodded, though Eleven herself was stronger than any shotgun.
“No more secrets, got it?”
“You can’t blame me,” Max shot back. “You were basically a stranger until a few weeks ago.”
Billy glared at her halfheartedly, but he couldn’t deny it. “Anything else you haven’t told me?”
“No, that’s all I’ve been told.” She met his skeptical stare. “I’m serious.”
“Okay, fine.” Billy rubbed at his forehead, trying to piece everything together. “So, he’s staying with Eleven now.”
“Yeah.”
“I think she might be crazier than he is.”
“She’s not crazy,” Max said, rising to her friend’s defense. “She sees things differently because she can read minds.”
“I remember that,” he murmured. It unsettled him that she had seen all his weaknesses and struggles, but it had freed him, so he accepted it. He hadn’t seen her since then, but it seemed she wasn’t the type of bratty kid he usually associated with Max and her friends.
“She trusts him and cares about him, but I’m still scared,” Max went on. “I know it’s stupid, but—“
“It’s not stupid,” Billy interrupted. “I’m not happy about it either, but I guess we’re going to have to live with it for now. They’re supposed to be hiding anyway, right?”
“For now, yeah.”
“Good. That’ll keep them busy.” Billy was not at all inclined to trust the man who had nearly killed his stepsister, but he also could not help feeling a degree of sympathy. To be possessed in such a way was bad enough, but to pile years of countless horrors on top of that made his own problems seem like nothing by comparison. “I wouldn’t waste time worrying, though.”
“Maybe Henry isn’t so bad,” Max decided. “You ended up being okay.”
Billy snorted. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Maxipad.”
Max scowled at the nickname. “I take it back. You suck.”
“Careful. I could leave you to starve in that bed if I felt like it.”
Max made a rude gesture with her good hand for lack of a better response, and Billy just smirked back. With a huff, she resituated herself on the pillow propping her up, her mock exasperation fading into quiet remorse as she asked, “Are you mad at me for not telling you?”
Billy hesitated. “Not anymore. I guess you a decent excuse. Harrington and those other pieces of garbage, however…”
Max could only imagine the verbal beatdown her friends were likely to receive, but she doubted it would amount to any true hard feelings. He would never admit, but it seemed to her that he had grown fond of her mishmash friend group, at least enough that he didn’t call them quite as many names behind their backs.
“If you want to talk to them, you can have my radio, as long as you don’t tell them I gave it to you. I don’t want them to think I let you yell at them.”
Billy rolled his eyes, but he couldn’t hide his smirk. “Deal.”
Things continued in the same odd limbo for a couple more weeks. Hawkins was still reeling from the “earthquake” and the sudden attention the town was receiving from the media and the military. Those aware of what was truly at stake kept their eyes open, but the four Gates remained strangely inactive. They existed, but much like the original Gate Eleven opened when she first escaped, they didn’t seem to be doing much. An odd calm settled over the town as everyone grappled for some sense of normalcy, both those who knew the truth and those who didn’t.
Max got the casts off her legs, and she had long since vowed to never take her ability to walk for granted again. It was hard for her to exercise said ability when her mom and Billy were constantly watching her every move. She tried hard not to get mad at them, but she was dying to be on a skateboard again despite the doctor’s orders.
The day Eleven was attacked, neither Max nor Billy had no idea until after the fact. Max talked to Lucas in the morning before spending the majority of the day watching Billy work on his car and asking him questions until he got annoyed enough to tell her to get lost in a variety of rude ways. It was well into the evening when they finally learned something was wrong.
Max frowned, not looking up from her magazine when she heard Billy’s heavy steps in the doorway. “It’s been ten minutes. I don’t need anything, so go—”
“Max.”
All annoyance fled from her when Billy spoke, his tone unusually soft and grave. Worry twisted a knot in her stomach as she looked at him, finding him pale and frightened. “What’s wrong?”
Billy took a couple of moments to respond, his voice trembling slightly. “I feel him.”
Her mouth went dry. She knew the answer, but she asked, “Who?”
“Him. The Mind Flayer.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Max tried hard not to panic. During the Vecna incident, she had learned that Billy, much like Will, had the ability to sense the Mind Flayer’s presence. There was no room for doubt; the Mind Flayer was on the move.
“Where is he?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” Billy murmured, hugging himself as he started to pace the length of her room.
Max grabbed her walkie-talkie to call her friends. It took a few long moments for someone to answer, but Lucas finally responded, and she hurriedly explained the situation.
“El was attacked by the government earlier today,” Lucas said when she finished. “Maybe this has something to do with it.”
Max’s dismay only increased. “Is she okay?”
“She’s at Steve’s house right now. The military tried to take her, but they ended up running away.”
“Why?”
Lucas’ answer was low and filled with uncertainty. “Vecna.”
Max suddenly found it very hard to breathe. “Is he turning back into Vecna…?”
“I don’t know. Steve let us talk to El, and she said he hasn’t used his powers since he was rescued until today, and now that he has, he remembers…everything. She still thinks he’s not the monster, but I don’t know what to think.”
“Max.” Billy’s call tore her away from Lucas. He had stopped pacing, standing in the middle of her room, staring at some distant, unseen point. “He’s speaking.”
Max dropped the walkie-talkie, Lucas’ confused calls becoming background noise as she went to Billy’s side. “The Mind Flayer?”
Billy gave a single nod, his gaze remaining fixed beyond her room.
“Is it Henry Creel?” she asked anxiously. “Is he the one…?”
“No. He’s not the monster. The Mind Flayer is speaking to him.”
“What’s he saying?”
Billy was silent for so long that Max started to worry, but he finally spoke. “You have not yet become me.” His voice was strangely low, as though even repeating the Mind Flayer’s words affected him. “I would make you a god, and you would rule these parasites.”
Max took his hand, and though Billy did not look at her, he squeezed hers tightly. “What does Henry say?”
“He refuses.”
Nothing good would come of that, Max was certain. “Resist it. Don’t listen anymore.”
“I can’t.” His voice cracked as he trembled. “I can’t stop hearing him.”
“Billy!” Max shook him with all her might, but he remained entranced. Panic began to take over, and she turned to search for her tape player, hoping music might snap him out of it. Cursing and trembling, she fumbled with the headphones on her bed, hindered by having only one good hand. Before she could finish putting it together, Billy spoke again.”
“Eleven.”
Max whirled around, so relieved she could cry. “She’s there?”
“She’s fighting him.”
“It’ll be okay,” she breathed, returning to his side. “She can win. She always has.”
“Creel’s fighting too, both of them. They’re—“ Billy’s words were cut off when the house began to shake around them. Max let out a frightened cry, thinking they were being attacked, and grabbed Billy’s arm for support. He finally seemed to snap out of his trance, the old training from living in California kicking in as he dragged Max to the doorway, pressing himself against the frame and hunching over her.
The shaking went on for only a few seconds at most, but they seemed to drag by as the house rattled, the lights flickering. Then, it stopped, and everything went still. Only when the neighbor’s dog started barking outside did Max let out the breath she had been holding, looking up at Billy.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Billy blinked hard, the sudden silence in his head just as jarring as the intrusion of the Mind Flayer had been. “I…think so.”
“What happened?”
Billy looked back at her, his eyes beginning to clear. “He’s gone. They beat him.”
Max nodded, trying her hardest to keep her composure. She was trembling so hard it took her a moment to realize that he was too, his hands tight on her shoulders as he tried to still himself. She sniffled a little, and Billy let out what was probably supposed to be an exasperated sigh.
“C’mon, don’t start with that crybaby stuff again.” His attempt at sounding annoyed fell flat when his voice shook too much.
“Shut up,” Max said with equal emotion, clinging to his arm with her good hand.
They held each other, not quite hugging but reluctant to let go, afraid that the stillness would be shattered again. The phone rang, Max’s mom calling from work, borderline hysterical about the earthquake. Max didn’t have to pretend to sound shaken, but assured her they were fine. When her mom hung up to come home, she turned her attention to her other communication channel, which was just as hysterical as her mother if not more.
Voices exploded from the walkie-talkie as several people tried to talk over each at once, scrambling for information on what happened. When Max made herself known, things only got crazier. Lucas was out of his mind with worry at her sudden departure from their conversation, and his franticness was spilling over to the others as well. Only when Steve finally showed up did things take some semblance of order, everyone eager to hear the explanation.
Steve recounted what he had heard and seen with the Mind Flayer’s sudden resurgence and Eleven’s resistance. Both Eleven and Henry were resting after overexerting themselves, and everything had quieted down, hopefully for good.
Billy was not the only one who had sensed the Mind Flayer. Will, even at a good distance, had felt it as well, though it had now vanished. With Henry’s final resistance through the reclamation of his powers and Eleven’s help, the Mind Flayer had lost its hold completely on its first and most powerful host. The Gates would need to be checked, but the hope was that they were closing, never to open again.
Max and Billy were torn away from the conversation when Max’s mom finally returned, frantic and tearful. It took some time, but they eventually assured her that they were unharmed, and so was the house, it seemed. By the time things calmed down, it was approaching midnight, and everyone was tired.
“What are you doing?” Max asked when Billy tossed a pillow onto her floor.
“Use your eyes,” he grunted. “I’m staying with you tonight.”
Max suppressed the urge to make fun of him, realizing that she would prefer that as well. “If I trip over you, don’t complain.”
Neither of them fell asleep right away, their thoughts preoccupied with the shadows that lurked in the corners of the room on the off-chance it was something truly nefarious.
“Billy,” Max said, staring at the ceiling, “do you think the Mind Flayer will come back?”
A deep sigh drifted up from her floor. “He better not, or I’ll take Wheeler’s shotgun and frickin’ blast him myself.”
Max snorted, but she felt the same way, and she thought about it for a moment before asking, “Do you think Henry Creel is crazy, still?”
“No.” Billy’s answer was quiet, but assured. “Eleven was right. He was used, like me. I don’t think he’s worth being afraid of anymore…unless you’re scared of me, too.”
“I’m not.”
“Are you lying?”
“No.” Max hesitated. “I was at first after the mall, though. I thought the Mind Flayer might come back.”
“So was I.”
“I’m not anymore, though.”
“Even after tonight?”
“No.” A smirk played on Max’s face. “Though I did question your sanity after you almost hugged me.” A pillow came flying up out of the dark, clearly thrown from the floor, startling her as it landed on her. “Jerk!”
“That’s what you get,” Billy muttered, though she could hear his amusement. “Quit being so dramatic.”
Max tossed the pillow back towards him, though judging by the lack of reaction, she probably missed. The darkness seemed a little less threatening now, illuminated by the bond they were still acclimating to. She decided silently that when things were safer, she would go see El. She wouldn’t let apprehension over one man keep her from the friend she had deeply missed in the dark months since July.
“Any more questions?” Billy asked, breaking through her thoughts.
“Just one more.”
Billy groaned. “What?”
“If you have a dream or something, you’ll tell me, right?”
“…Yeah, I will.”
Max didn’t know if he would actually do it, but she could hope. “That’s it.”
“Good, now shut up and go to sleep.”
“Love you too,” she grumbled, but it was far more sincere than she would ever admit.