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“Alright, this is stupid. Us ladies, we stick together,” Robin said resolutely, grabbing a walkie-talkie from Dustin’s backpack and shoving the car keys back into Steve’s hands. Then, she walked up to Nancy and stood up next to her, her voice turning more sarcastic, “unless you think we need you to protect us,” there was a pause. Robin chuckled and stuck out her tongue at Steve while he just stared and helplessly shouted at them to be careful.
Nancy looked down as she just witnessed that. She found the situation quite funny but had to admit that Steve didn’t look very amused. She gave him a little shrug and then followed Robin who turned around to salute at everyone staying behind. She didn’t feel entirely comfortable being roped in like this, but she had to admit that Steve’s initial idea of her not coming alone was a good one. After all, she was just interrogated about her friend’s murder about an hour ago. Her heart still ached and she was still in complete denial about it.
Robin walked a few feet in front of her, kicking rocks and swaying from side to side as they slowly approached her car. “I hope your shot in the dark is…something,” she said, waiting for Nancy to unlock the car and climbing in. Nancy sighed internally. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if it was worth it. She didn’t expect to have to present her idea to anybody, she only wanted to check it out and maybe spend a bit of time by herself to sort out her mind. She opened the door and climbed back in herself, adjusting the rearview mirror and taking off her cross-body bag. She gave Robin a little look and Robin immediately adjusted her sitting position, taking her knees off the dashboard, her mouth twitching. Nancy started the car and pulled out of the trailer park. Her mind was still plagued by Fred. It was strange to enter the park with him and leave without him. Instead, it was Robin Buckley next to her, waving to Steve and the others.
“Dingus,” she muttered under her breath and then turned back in her seat. Nancy noticed she called Steve that a lot and wondered what kind of a term of endearment that was, but then convinced herself that it was none of her business with a shake of her head. Nancy was just about to merge onto the main road and quickly checked if Robin even had her seatbelt on. Luckily, she did. From the time she got the pleasure of spending around her so far, she felt like it would be like babysitting a toddler. Robin was fidgety and a bit too loud for her at the moment, even when she was mostly quiet at the moment. Even her presence just felt like a bit too much for her. She was leaning against the car window and Nancy knew that she would find fingerprints on it later and she was humming something under her breath.
Then, abruptly, she turned to Nancy. Nancy looked over to her and gave her a curt, polite smile. “What happened to Fred must have been pretty awful. I’m really sorry,” Robin said, her voice a little calmer now. Nancy gave her a nod and checked the side mirror again. “Yeah,” she replied, her voice trailing off.
“Look, I really don’t want to think about that right now. It’s awful and I need time to process it, but,” she explained, closing her eyes for a second, trying to keep her voice from sounding too annoyed, “guess now is not the time for that,” she finished. She failed. Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. Robin looked over to her with a guilty look.
“Sorry,” she muttered and was quiet for a bit.
“Could we put music on?” she asked, trying to alleviate the tension between them and leaned in over to the car radio.
“No,” Nancy said quickly, reaching out as well and their hands met briefly.
“I just, I just need quiet to think a bit,” she sighed, her voice sounding almost strangled at this point, feeling very on edge. Robin slumped back in her seat, now fidgeting with one of the patches on her jacket, a quiet velcro-like sound coming from her passenger seat side.
“Wanna tell me about your shot in the dark then?” she asked, her voice flat. Nancy kept herself from rolling her eyes as she kept her eyes on the steering wheel. She gave Robin a brief look. Robin raised her eyebrows back at her.
“Alright, well,” Nancy started, trying to sort out the racing thoughts in a way that would make sense if she told Robin. “Well, I spoke to Eddie’s uncle Wayne while I was waiting for Fred. And he was very helpful. He told me the way Chrissy was murdered reminded him of some older murder cases. Specifically those by Victor Creel in the 50s,” she looked back to check if Robin was still listening, because she was uncharacteristically quiet. She was surprised to see that, even though she was still fidgeting with the patches on her jacket, she was listening quite intently. She smiled to herself a little bit and then nodded, focusing back on the road.
“Well, so I want to look if the Hawkins library has anything on those murders. If there was anything peculiar about them in general or if there are any clues we can get,” she said, her voice trailing off slightly. She did feel a little silly for saying all this, especially in front of Robin, whom she didn’t know at all. She didn’t know how her mind worked and she never really had the chance to see that sometimes Nancy didn’t even need a solid thread to be able to figure out a case. Even shots in the dark like this often helped her find out whatever information she needed. And she felt silly for trying to convey this to Robin, who now made a little grimace with a shrug and resumed flicking at her jacket patch. Nancy almost jumped when she took a breath to talk.
“So, you think that Victor Creel is this Vecna guy?” Robin asked, her tone curious. “It’s just a guess, okay?” Nancy tried her best to settle her down. She didn’t want to make any assumptions up to the point where she could actually make sure she was even remotely correct. Robin slumped back down in her seat, looking out of the window again, but her cogs still seemed to be turning.
“I thought he was locked up in Pennhurst Asylum?” she asked, looking back up at Nancy. “Well, Eddie’s uncle thinks he might have escaped, right? It might be a coincidence, but the murders sound a little too similar for there not to be at least some kind of a connection, right?”
Robin seemed quiet for a second after she spoke, but Nancy could see that she was thinking along with her, which felt unusual and, as much as she hated to admit it at the moment, quite nice. Overall, she found it quite comforting that, for once, she was being listened to and that someone wasn’t constantly questioning her guesses and intentions. That was such a breath of fresh air since she always felt like whenever she had an idea, everyone seemed to try to convince her that she was wrong.
And maybe that was why she felt a wave of annoyance when Robin, while validating her ideas, still seemed to be giving her constructive criticism. Part of her also felt like on a better day, she would even find her personality endearing. But today, under pressure and while grieving, she just had a hard time getting to know her with an open mind.
“That was in the 50s, though,” Robin thought out loud, tapping her chin. “‘59,'' Nancy made a point of correcting her. Robin seemed to ignore her and just went on: “But that would make him… about 70 years old?” she asked, her tone skeptical. “Which pre-dates Eleven and the Upside Down for about 30 years?”
“I know, okay?” Nancy replied, her sarcastic smile back, unable to hold back.
“It doesn’t make sense, I know! That’s why I said it was a shot in the dark,” she clarified. She felt a little pang in her chest, knowing that Robin was right. It truly was strange that these supernatural murders could have taken place before the Upside Down and everything. And maybe she felt just a tiny bit of resentment that she wasn't the one who noticed this detail first or didn’t pay as much attention to it as Robin did.
“I know. I just thought that by ‘shot in the dark’ you were being modest or hiding something super solid up your sleeve that you were gonna wow us with later. But this is really, truly, a shot in the dark. Like, we are snipers with blindfolds on, who've been spun around 50 times,” Robin suddenly went on an entire monologue, unleashing a waterfall of words while gesturing heavily, her eyes wide and her leg leaning against the car door. Nancy gave her a bit of a surprised and annoyed look.
“Robin,” she said, struggling to keep her voice gentle. “I was clear enough. I’m not sure what I’m looking for, okay? It was your choice to come along with me. I could have come alone and you could have come with Steve, you two seem inseparable anyway,” she finished, her tone biting. She immediately knew that she overstepped her boundaries a bit and in her peripheral vision, could see Robin recoil slightly. Nancy kept her eyes on the road, not knowing if she was going to apologise just yet or whether she should wait for a few seconds to see if Robin would come up with some clever comeback, as she always seemed to.
Instead, Robin sat up a bit. Her voice was quite serious, but there was still a hint of panic. “Look, I get you. I’m sorry if I came off mean or condescending, I didn’t mean it that way. I get it, you don't know me well. I don't really have a filter or a strong grasp of social cues. So if I say something that upsets you, just know that I know it's a flaw. Believe me, my mother reminds me daily.” Nancy looked back at her briefly, surprised by how rational she just sounded. And she also felt a strange tug around her cheeks as felt the urge to smile. But she fought it for now and just nodded along with an “Okay”.
“And I hope you know,” Robin continued, “that Steve and I are totally not a thing. Like we’re just friends. Platonic with a capital P,” Robin said, her voice clear.
“What? I didn’t say anything like that,” Nancy replied, shaking her head, feeling a little called out.
“Well, I assumed you were thinking it,” Robin retorted, her eyebrows raising slightly. And then she laughed at how flushed Nancy seemed.
“Just in case it was adding any tension between us,” she added matter-of-factly.
“Absolutely not,” Nancy shook her head.
She felt the denial creeping up on her, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Was she jealous? Was she so jealous that Robin could tell? But she could swear that her jealousy wasn’t towards Steve. That was years ago. They were never meant to be. And Nancy was okay with that. So why was she not okay with the idea of Robin and Steve dating? Hypothetically, if they were? The silence in the car was deafening, even Robin was quiet for now, not really happy with the atmosphere that they managed to create.
Nancy was suddenly hit with the realisation. Why she was jealous. She looked back at Robin. At that little curve of her neck where her short messy bob met her skin, at her freckled face, her hands, constantly restless and fidgety in her lap. She took a little startled gasp. She hoped that Robin did not just notice her looking at her in that way.
Robin then glanced back at Nancy and Nancy just looked back on the road, feeling slightly anxious and tension in her shoulders. She smiled nervously to herself, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.
“Are you okay?” Robin’s voice jolted her out of her anxious thoughts.
She nodded. “Yeah, yeah, of course I am,” Nancy replied.
“Are you still thinking about what I said?” Robin asked, sounding genuinely curious. Nancy was quiet, keeping her eyes on the road, feeling like she had to spend so much effort on actually trying to act normal. Luckily she was saved by pulling up to the library.
———
“We leave them alone for two hours,” Robin said, annoyed as she collapsed the antenna of her walkie-talkie again, glancing over at Nance, who was already climbing back into the car. They just shared their findings at the library with the Party. Nancy’s shot in the dark happened to be a bullseye. Nancy was extremely flattered as Robin called it that, especially since it was actually Robin who decided to have the brilliant idea of checking The Weekly Watcher. She would have never thought of that herself. They climbed back into the car. The tension between them seemed to have dissipated.
Nancy’s jaw almost ached from smiling throughout the afternoon she got to spend with Robin. If Nancy had been told earlier in the day that she would enjoy Robin Buckley’s presence this much, she would have not believed it. Not that she found Robin that unpleasant, but just few hours ago, she found her presence a little too much for comfort. But within those few hours, Robin managed to take her mind off being sad about Fred’s death, improved her mood, made her feel valuable despite deserving some credit as well and just treated her as a friend.
A friend, right? That’s all Nancy wanted now. A friend. Her hands felt clammy again as she felt confused about not necessarily feeling like she was happy with Robin treating her as just a friend.
“So, back to the school we go?” Robin asked, now nearly slumped in her seat as she gave Nancy a look, giving her the space to make her own decision. Nancy nodded and turned on the ignition decidedly. She would deal with these confused thoughts later. Now they had Fred’s and Chrissy’s murders to solve.