Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

^^^

There was a new game at the arcade.

At least, Steve’s about ninety percent sure that's what Will is trying to get across to him as the kid jabbers across the telephone.

Steve has their cordless phone pressed between his shoulder and his ear as he sits on the couch in the living room, homework out on his lap.

“-and Mad Max had beaten all of our high scores!”

Steve couldn’t be sure he understood…any word of that.

“Sounds like you had fun,” he smiled, regardless, filling out an equation. “Is your mom still driving you around?”

“Yeah,” Will huffed on the other end. “I’ve probably forgotten how to ride a bike at this point.”

His voice had lowered in volume considerably, and Steve could only imagine that Ms. Byers or Jonathan were nearby where Will was talking on the phone.

“They’re just watching out for you,” Steve chuckled and finished up the last question, putting away his textbooks. “Try not to give them such a hard time.”

Will scoffed openly. “Okay, Mr. ‘I-Keep-The-Nail-Bat-In-My-Trunk’.”

Steve sat up a bit and hissed, “hey! Keep your voice down, brat. I don’t need your mom getting Hopper on my ass.”

The giggles it got from Will were worth any eavesdropper,s though, Steve relaxing back into the couch

The past couple of months had been…good.

Normal - or, at least, a new normal.

Will called him a lot in the evenings, especially on days they don’t see each other. Sometimes Steve would put the speaker on just to fill the house a little more. Steve’s parents didn’t quite get it, but seemed supportive either way.

He listened to Will recount the rest of his day in detail before Ms. Byers’s voice was telling Will it was time for bed. The kid whined but said a quick, “goodnight, Steve.”

“Night, kid,” Steve smiled and smiled as Ms. Byers came onto the line. “Busy day, huh?”

“You have no idea,” she chuckled, her voice sending a wave of peace over him. “How are you doing? Will said your parents went out again?”

He hummed, playing with the decorative swan pillow his mom had bought on a whim. “I’m fine. They’re off to Switzerland this time. They said they should be back right before Thanksgiving, which will be nice.”

She makes a disapproving noise, but she says, “well you know you’re welcome to come over anytime - In fact, we’re having movie night tomorrow! You should join us.”

Steve couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face, and he teased, “is Bob going to be there?”

Ms. Byers sputtered, voice coming out high, “I - Steve Harrington - you’re as bad as Jonathan and Will.”

He chuckled, standing up to walk towards the phone’s base. “I’ll definitely be there, Ms. Byers.”

“Please, Steve, call me Joyce.”

“Goodnight, Ms. Byers,” he says sweetly.

Her answering sigh is fond, making him feel warm inside. “Goodnight, Steve.”

He hangs up, a dopey smile on his face as he goes off towards his room.
Yeah, this new normal was pretty good.

—

Running.

Will.

Claws.

The lab.

Will.

“Steve?”

^^^

“Steve?”

Steve jumped as a hand landed on his shoulder, snapping him out of the half-awake stupor he had been in. Barb looked at him from where she stood next to the table he was at.

Steve looked around the library wildly, almost expecting… something .

Anything that justified the beating of his heart and the way his hands were shaking.

All he found was his own textbooks spread out on the library table in front of him. Other kids were milling around the shelves before they all needed to head to class.

Barb’s face only grew more concerned.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly, her eyebrows furrowed together.

Steve took a few deep breaths, trying to force his shoulders to relax. “Yeah I - I’m just tired,” he admitted, rubbing his eyes roughly. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

This only made Barb purse her lips and frown. “You haven’t been sleeping well a lot lately…”

Lately. Months. A year…

“Yeah, well…yeah,” Steve floundered, looking back at the textbook instead of her piercing gaze. “You’re late.”

Barb had been helping him study every day before school. She’d taken one look at his slipping grades at the end of last year and declared herself his new tutor.

He could see her lips purse in his peripheral vision, obviously not appreciating his change in topic. “My mom made breakfast,” she sighed as she dropped a Tupperware dish in front of him. “And I had to stop her from trying to pack you an entire five-course meal.”

Steve looked at it with a bit of a twist to his stomach, putting the Tupperware next to him. “Your mom is sweet.”
“She thinks you hung the moon,” she said, but raised an eyebrow at the pushed aside tupperware. “You okay? You never pass up her breakfast casserole.”

Steve looked at the food at felt his stomach twist again. He wanted to tell her that it was nothing personal…he hadn’t been eating much of anything the past couple of days.

That would not go over well.

“Oh…yeah, I’m just not hungry,” he insisted but she was giving him a calculating look, lips pursed together in thought. “I promise, Barb.”

She sighed, worry obvious in the furrow of her brow. “Steve-”

“Barb, please,” he sighed, looking at her desperately. “Nancy will be here soon and I-”

He couldn’t deal with that.

He couldn't deal with Nancy asking any more questions than she already does.

He couldn’t deal with Nancy trying to fix things - trying to fix him .

There was nothing to fix, after all.

Everything was normal - The New Normal.

Barb stared at him for a few moments, eyes searching him for…something.

Whatever she was looking for, she didn’t get a chance to comment on it before Nancy appeared at their side.

“Steve! I proofread your essay this morning!” she smiled, sliding into the seat next to him and setting her papers down. “I made a few notes, but it’s looking really good so far!”

He leaned in to press a kiss to her cheek, glad to have an excuse to look away from Barb’s prying eyes, and insisted, “Barb helped a lot-”

“Bullshit,” Barb scoffed, and, for a second, he was afraid she was going to interrogate him with Nancy there after all. Instead, she continued, “that was all you, Harrington. I just helped you get your ideas together.”

He looked at Barb with a grateful smile.

She didn’t return it.

But that was okay because they started studying, and Nancy was none the wiser.

It was okay because Steve could fall back into the swing of things easily, even with the discomfort still turning his insides.

He could ignore the cold under his skin.

Everything was fine.

^^^

It didn’t last.

The morning moved at a glacial pace.

Steve met Nancy at her locker in between classes. He gave a nod to Jonathan when he passed him in the hallways. He avoided Barb’s worried glances whenever he ran into her.

It wasn’t until right before lunch that the principal knocked on the door of Steve’s chemistry class and told him to collect his things.

That wasn’t normal.

Nancy was in that class, and she looked at Steve with big eyes, reaching out to squeeze his hand as he passed.

He already knew she was going to call him later with way too many questions than he would want to answer.

He could only hope he’ll already be at the Byers’s by the time she calls so he has an excuse not to answer.

Hopper was waiting for him out in the parking lot, arms crossed and a less-than-enthused expression on his face.

“Another one?” Steve asked, frowning at Hopper when the chief gestured to his cruiser. “He just had one not that long ago.”

“Last night at the arcade,” Hopper confirmed as they slid inside. “I’m surprised he didn’t tell you. Joyce said you were on the phone with him for a while last night.”

Steve wasn’t.

He and Will had a sort of…mutual wish to leave the past in the past. It was easier for Steve since he couldn’t quite remember it anyway, but Will…Will was still having these visions.

Will couldn't escape, and as much as Steve reassured him that he wanted to be there for him, Will didn’t seem to want to drag Steve along with him.

So he wasn’t surprised Will didn’t tell him…but it worried him all the same.

They joined the light morning traffic as Hopper started driving towards the lab, Steve playing with the loose strings on the edge of his backpack.

Hopper shuffled a bit. “Got basketball practice today?”

“I quit,” Steve shrugged, trying to play it off.

His leg had healed from being torn up in the Upside Down, but it didn’t move quite the same. He’d stayed on as a team manager last year, but now it just…felt weird. Especially now that he and Tommy aren’t friends.

His falling out with Tommy and Carol had been…anticlimactic, really.

At first, they gave him all the time he needed. He could tell that they genuinely felt bad about what happened (even if they didn’t know the true story), and they even tolerated that he was hanging out with the ‘uncool’ people.

But then Steve didn’t laugh as they started making their snide comments again. Steve didn’t stop hanging out with Nancy (and now Barb Holland and Jonathan Byers were around more, too).

By the time Tommy and Carol asked him if they were over, Steve didn’t think any of them had it in them to fight for the friendship when he said yes.

It stung, but Steve tried not to let the loss of his old friends hit him too hard. They just couldn’t understand him anymore, and a part of him felt like they never really did.

But Steve felt the stares. He felt the shift in the air as people began to whisper about him and not about ‘King Steve’.

Hopper seemed to read the silence well, and they didn’t speak the rest of the drive to the lab.

Joyce and Will were leaning up against the back of her car when they pulled in. Steve immediately went to lean against Will’s other side while Joyce fell into step with Hopper to walk towards the building.

Steve and Will stayed put for a second.

Joyce and Hopper always tried to give them a few minutes before an appointment to just…be together.

“I’m sorry,” Will finally whispered, and Steve looked at him with a sad smile.

“Hey, none of that,” Steve huffed. “It isn’t your fault.”

Will looked at him with large, remorseful eyes. “I didn’t want them to bother you…they only drag you back here because of me.”

“No, they ‘drag me back here’ because we both went through something awful together ,” Steve tried to explain. “And yeah, your episodes are an extra layer, but I’ve got my own shit too, okay? This isn’t on you.”

Because it’s true. Steve had his own shit.

Like the gaps in his memory.

Like how every time they hook him up to their little brainwave machine, it just kind of slows down to what the doctors explained would mean Steve would be in deep sleep…but he was always perfectly awake.

Like the fact that Steve hadn’t had a single episode while Will was having them more and more frequently.

So yeah, maybe a lot of Steve’s shit also had to do with what Will’s going through, but he refused to let the kid shoulder that burden.

Steve grabbed Will by the bony shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. “We’re okay,” Steve promised, giving the boy a reassuring smile. “Now, let’s get in there and make those doctors earn their keep, huh?”

Will rolled his eyes but went along with him.

Walking into the lab always filled Steve with a wild case of deja vu.

He knew on a conceptual level that he had been in the lab before in the Other Place, but his brain refused to accept it. It was torn between recognizing the building and pushing the familiarity away.

Being separated from Will was always the hardest part of the entire process. They liked to talk with them separately to make sure their answers weren’t swayed by each other’s accounts, but it still hurt every time to see the scientists take Will and Ms. Byers to another room.

Dr. Owens always came to talk to Steve after he talked to Will.

Steve liked to joke with Will that the scientists must think Steve is boring, but he knew it was mostly because they liked to use how much Will is remembering as a gauge for how much Steve isn’t .

“How are you doing, Steve?” Owens asked, smiling as he sat down on the stool next to him.

Steve hummed, glancing over at where Hopper stood in the hallway, keeping an eye on both of their rooms like a guardian. “Could be worse. I had a test in Calculus today that you guys pulled me out of.

“Well, I’m glad we could help you out,” Dr. Owens chuckled, looking down at his clipboard. “Let’s get through this for all our sakes though…Has anything been bothering you recently?”

Lack of sleep. Lack of appetite. Lack of everything .

“Nope.”

“And still no episodes?” Dr. Owens asked, leaning forward just a tad in his seat. When Steve shook his head, the doctor pressed, “What about your nightmares?”

“Still there.”

Because, yeah, those definitely hadn’t gone anywhere.

Steve couldn’t be sure his nightmares were memories, but they sure felt like them.

Running through the forest - Claw marks on his arms and legs - Screaming for Will to run-

They were disjointed and laggy, like a tape that’s been poorly rewound and now can only play fragments.

His brain was retaining a couple of the fragments a lot better than before, but otherwise it was just…feelings.

A pit in his stomach.

Panic. Anger. Protectiveness.

“So a lot of the same, huh?” Owens asked, and Steve shrugged non-committally. “Well, your scans haven’t changed much either, but I think we both know you’re a bit of a special case with those.”

Steve gave Owens an unimpressed look that the doctor simply smiled at. “Let them draw some blood real quick, and then we’ll meet in my office and talk through some things.”

The meeting in Dr. Owens’s office went the same as every other meeting:

Ms. Byers, Hopper, and Steve sat on one side of the desk while Dr. Owens gave them excuses.

Not answers. Never answers.

Just excuses.

“It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

“The human brain isn’t meant to hold all that in, okay? This all could be your body trying to protect your mind.”

“Same thing with Will’s episodes! Where his mind is forcing him to relive it, yours is forcing you to forget.”

By the time they were walking out into the parking lot, Steve felt like his skin was crawling.

Steve felt like he should’ve been happy as he hugged Will - Dr. Owens had said it was all just because of the anniversary.

Will’s episodes, Steve’s memory, and all the other little things Steve hadn’t admitted to could all just be chalked up to some good old-fashioned PTSD.

That was supposed to be a good thing .

Instead, Steve felt like his skin was crawling off his bones and his head was practically pounding as Hopper’s cruiser left the lab in its dust.

By the time Hopper pulled into the school parking lot, Steve was practically scrambling to get out of the cruiser. He moved for his car immediately, grimacing as he heard Hopper get out as well.

“You good, kid?” Hopper asked, coming up behind him cautiously.

“Yeah,” Steve shrugged as he dug for his keys. “Worried about Will mostly.”

Which wasn’t necessarily a lie; Steve was always worried about Will.

“You know that if you need anything-”

“I can call you, I know,” Steve snapped in frustration, keys slipping from his grip. There was a stagnant pause, Steve staring down at the ground helplessly. “I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I just-”

The chief swooped down and picked his keys up for him before he got the chance to, pressing them into Steve’s hand. “Hey. That stuff he was saying about PTSD? That’s real shit,” Hopped huffed. “You went through something, alright? Both of you…stop beating yourself up over it.”

Steve wanted to snap back that he wasn't. There was nothing to beat himself up over because he didn't remember any of it anyway - He didn't have anything to be worried about because everything was back to normal.

Steve stared at Hopper for a few moments and then nodded stiffly. “I’ve gotta get home…I need to do some homework before I go over to the Byers’s house tonight.”

Hopper nodded back, looking at his watch with a sigh. “I’ve gotta get home too."

The man paused before turning to his cruiser, looking at Steve with a serious look. "Seriously, kid: Just call.”

Steve could only nod.

He thinks they both knew he wasn’t ever going to call.

Chapter Text

^^^

Steve woke up to the sight of the Byers’s living room and almost had a panic attack.

He sat up with a jolt, gasping for air as his heart beat in his chest. He instinctively dragged his eyes around the space in search of Will or the Demogorgon or - Jonathan?

The other boy was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, staring at Steve with wide eyes. For a second, Steve almost asked what Jonathan was doing there before he took in the new wallpaper and the new set-up of the furniture and his body sagged.

He’d spent the night at the Byers. He wasn’t in the Other Place.

He was fine.

They stared at each other for a few moments, caught in a stillness of ‘are you going to say something’ before the toaster made a noise in the kitchen. Jonathan made another aborted move to say something before deciding to attend to the food first.
In the brief moment he had, Steve quickly rubbed his eyes and took a second glance around at the living room just to be sure. Everything was still intact. The walls weren’t rotting. There were no glowy lights.

He was fine.

By the time Jonathan had plated the toast, Steve was already off the couch and walking into the kitchen instead. “Need some help?” Steve asked jovially, gesturing to the pans on the stove.

“Huh? No I - I’ve got it,” Jonathan insisted and then eyed Steve. “Are you…okay?”

Steve didn’t allow his shoulders to rise as he got a glass of water.

“Me? Yeah. I just forgot where I was for a second,” Steve chuckled and then gave his best teasing smile. “And your couch isn’t exactly the best mattress.”

Jonathan rolled his eyes, scrambling the eggs with his spatula. “You’re the one who wanted to stay last night.”

They bantered a bit more while Jonathan cooked. Steve took a second to say goodbye to a still half-asleep Will and to Ms. Byers as she got ready for work before heading to his house to grab his stuff.

The drive to the Wheeler’s house was spent thinking about what he was going to say to Nancy.

They hadn’t talked last night by Steve’s design, and he knew she was going to be reeling to ask him about the lab meeting yesterday and about what Will saw and if they were ever going to turn the lab in or not-

He took in a deep breath as he turned the street corner, seeing Nancy already standing at the edge of her driveway. “Hey, beautiful,” Steve smiled as he rolled u,p and she chuckled as she slid into the passenger seat.

“Have fun with the Byers last night?” she asked conversationally as they began to drive, and he hummed. 

“Yeah, Bob had us watch Mr. Mom,” Steve smiled. “I thought it was funny. Jonathan and Will were snobbish, but I think that’s like their duty as Joyce’s sons to not like Bob’s choice.”

She nodded along, staring out the windshield with her lips pursed. He could practically see the gears turning in her head, so he moved on quickly. “I submitted some of my college applications already.”

Her face brightened and she asked quickly, “really? Where did you apply?”

The topic successfully managed to distract her as they started talking about junior colleges and The Plan. ‘The Plan’ was pretty important to Nancy, and Steve tried to treat it as such in his own mind.

The Plan was as follows: Get into a good college, get married, work for at least five plus years in her career before having kids, and then eventually move closer to her parents when she has the career mobility to do so.

Steve liked to think he was part of The Plan.

Nancy never said it in such a way, but Steve felt like they were really getting to that point in their relationship where being part of each other’s long-term plans didn’t seem too crazy.

Steve didn’t have a plan himself. He had…goals…steps…

Not a plan.

“Steve…about yesterday…”

It was hard to have a plan nowadays when it seemed everybody else wasn’t on the same page as him.

“Will had an episode,” he insisted as they pulled into the school parking lot, pointedly not looking at her. “They just wanted to do a check-in. The doctors at the lab said it was probably just an anniversary thing.”

He didn’t leave her a chance to push, opening the door to swing himself out of the car. When she got out, she didn’t say anything either, but Steve could feel her disappointment like it was his own, deep in his stomach.

He held out a hesitant hand, and her features softened as she grabbed it, letting him pull her in to walk side by side into the school.

***

The thing Steve liked about not being ‘King Steve’ anymore was that he successfully flew under the radar now.

Sure, there were still a couple of people who gave him looks or walked up to talk to him, but for the most part, he was able to just go to class and…exist. Sit there and not worry about anything except getting his school work done.

The new kid was making this new normal…difficult.

When Steve walked into Chemistry after missing the day before, Billy Hargrove was sitting in the chair next to his. Steve didn’t think this would end up being a problem until Hargrove was leaning over halfway through the lesson.

Billy regarded Steve with a sneer, “I heard you used to run this place.”

Steve tensed up, looking at Billy with a raised eyebrow as the teacher continued her lesson. “So?”

“So what happened? You were ‘King Steve’, right?” Billy challenged, pushing closer. “Rumor is you just kind of lost it…is that it? You just got a little too fucked up?”

You just kind of lost it.

“You’re different now, Steve,” Tommy had said, Carol standing behind him with a frown. “And not just the Wheeler, Byers, Holland shit…you aren’t you.”

Like ‘King Steve’ had been something to be proud of. Like Steve should want to be like that.

You just kind of lost it.

Got a little too fucked up.

Steve just started laughing, and it made Billy rear back in surprise, eyes narrowing. The teacher turned back to face them and Hargrove leaned away before he could press, but Steve could feel his eyes on him, a glare that Steve couldn’t care less about.

The bell rang and Steve went to his locker immediately. Nancy was already leaning near it, smiling at him as he approached. “How was class?” she asked as he opened his locker.

He didn’t get to reply as Billy came up behind him, slamming Steve’s locker shut with a heavy hand. “Did I say something funny in there, Harrington?”

Nancy grabbed Steve’s arm immediately, body tensing up for a fight.

Steve doesn’t know what cracked in him as he reeled to look at Billy Hargrove. Maybe the way Hargrove stood there looking just how Steve always imagined he did before last year. Like nothing could touch him. Like he was better.

But Steve was wrong.

Steve got fucked up.

Steve’s voice was cold as he hissed, “oh you were hilarious, Hargrove. What do you care what sort of fucked up I am? Testing just how much baggage you can unload on the school population before they toss you to the wolves too?”

Steve gave an amused hum, opening his locker a bit harder than necessary and looking at Billy. “Don’t worry,” Steve sighed, giving the other boy a dry look. “I don’t plan on going all Psycho any time soon, so you don’t have to get your mullet in a twist.”

Billy blinked for a second, looking genuinely mystified.

Then he was swinging a fist and -

And Steve froze.

Genuinely froze for a second as his body warred with a fight or flight he hadn’t felt since - since -

It had to have been only a millisecond of hesitation but Steve should’ve been hit. Billy was close enough that he should’ve hit him.

But instead, Jonathan had practically lunged at the other boy, landing his own punch square across Billy’s jaw in the time it took for Steve to unfreeze. That was as far as it got as two teachers grabbed each of them and started to drag them towards the principal’s office.

Steve watched Jonathan go with a grateful look and the younger boy was simply looking back with a shrug. All of a sudden, someone was grabbing his arm, and he lurched again, heart still beating out of his chest.

He looked down to see - Nancy. Oh god, not Nancy.

And then his stomach twisted at the fact that he had been scared to see Nancy.

She tugged him lightly, and he let her pull him into an empty classroom, closing the blinds of the door swiftly behind her. “Steve - Are you okay?”

He kept his eyes turned to the floor, not wanting to see what her face looked like. It didn’t quite work as she pushed forward to be in his view.

“Steve…” Nancy whispered, lips turned down as she grabbed a hold of his hand. “Please just…talk to me.”

I don’t feel like myself.

Everything has changed - I’ve changed but I can’t - I can’t-”

He looked at her big, doe eyes and leaned in to kiss her softly, pressing their foreheads together. “Let’s go to Tina’s party tonight.”

She furrows her eyebrows at the non sequitur but he pushes on. “I just - I just want to go to Tina’s stupid party,” he whispered, tone edging on desperate. “I want to go to Tina’s stupid party and for us to be stupid teenagers, Nancy.”

He wished his voice wasn’t so strained. He wished he could say it like it wasn’t a Hail Mary.

She looked at him for a long moment, eyes searching, but eventually sighed and put a hand to his cheek. “Then we’ll go be stupid teenagers.”

^^^

Steve and Nancy pulled up to Barb’s house a little bit before the party was due to start. She was dressed up as Velma from Scooby Doo, a fact Steve teased her about as they drove.

“It’s not even that good anymore,” he insisted. “And now it has Scrappy Doo? He’s the worst!”

She huffed, giving him an amused glare, “it’s iconic - especially for a last-minute thing! At least it’s not a gross couple’s costume.”

“Hey! I think we look pretty good!” Steve gasped, making Nancy chuckle.

They pulled up as the party was already in swing, Steve sighing in relief at the familiar sight of teenagers just…being teenagers. No life or death scenarios. No men in lab coats.

Billy Hargrove was prowling the party, but Steve just stuck his nose in his cup and kept his head down as the other boy postured over at the kegstand. He danced with Nancy, arms around her waist as they jumped up and down to the beat. He nodded to Jonathan with a toothy grin as the guy came in halfway through.

Everything was falling away just like he needed it to.

But then Billy …Tommy and Carol in tow.

They were in a couple’s costume too - Sandy and Danny from Grease - and Tommy locked eyes with Steve across the crowd before they ever got to him.

“Guess who just beat your keg record, Harrington?” Billy boasted, slapping a hand on his wet chest with the hand that wasn’t already hung around Tommy’s shoulders. Tommy was still looking at Steve with a strange look, like he wanted to be anywhere else but also like he couldn’t wait for whatever was going to happen.

Steve tried to turn to Nancy - Tried to avoid the inevitable shirtstorm.
He had to stop himself from jumping when a hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him around to look at…Tommy. “That’s it? Nothing to say?”
“You’re different now….you aren’t you.”

“Tommy-”

“What happened to you, Harrington?” Tommy snarled. “You used to - You used to be so big. You used to be cool. You’re fucking pathetic now.”

You’re different now.

“Nothing happened,” Steve said but he sounded far away even to his own ears. “Sometimes people just-”

Change - but nothing is different - everything is normal-

He didn’t realize he was being pulled away until he was getting shoved into a bathroom, Nancy splashing water on his face lightly, hands cupping his cheeks. “Steve - Tell me what’s wrong-”

“Nothing’s wrong,” he spat, making her jolt back a bit. “Nothing - I’m fine.”

The delicate ground they had been treading since last November seemed to snap.

“No, you’re not,” she insisted, voice firm and angry. “You’re spiraling. You think I don’t see how you’re not eating? How you’re obviously not sleeping?”

He shook his head, pushing away her hands. “I’m fine, Nancy. Everything is alright-”
“That’s such bullshit-”

Steve laughs manically, pulling at his hair. “What? You wanna want me to call you every time I wake up at 2am? You want me to lay everything out for you every time I go to that stupid lab? Cause I can’t I - that’s not what I need-”

“Then what do you need? What do you want me to do?”

“Nancy, I don’t want you to do anything!” he finally snapped. “I don’t need you to do anything. I just - I just want things to go back to normal!”

It got quiet - the only sound being the music pumping in from the living room like a heartbeat.

Nancy looked at him with large, sad eyes and whispered, “how can you possibly pretend that any of this is normal?”

You’re different now.

He takes in a shaky breath and shakes his head, shoving past her. “I need some air.”

“Steve-”

He backed away harshly as she reached for him. “I just need goddamn space, Nancy.”

The bathroom door slammed behind him as he stormed through the house, refusing the cups people offered him as he made his way outside. There were still too many people here but he couldn’t - He couldn’t just leave.

Steve Harrington didn’t leave parties early.

Steve Harrington didn’t let fights derail him.

Steve Harrington - was standing in front of a pool.

The water was lit up a chilling blue by the lights on the walls, Steve’s reflection a sickly color in the rippling reflection. His feet sat at the edge, one wrong step and he’d plunge right into it.

Just like the start.

He started to step back on instinct, an instinctive feeling of dread filling him, but he hit a chest.

“Plant your feet, Harrington.”

Billy Hargrove’s voice didn’t register as quickly as the feeling of falling did.

The pool’s surface came rushing towards him, but it still felt like forever before he hit the surface.

Steve felt how cold it was first.

Cold and quiet.

Cold like that night.

That was the only memory that ever truly stuck: The pool. Protecting Barb. The cold.

Steve knew it wasn’t possible. He was safe and everything was back to normal. He was in a pool full of water and Will said there weren't any bodies of water in the Other Place. 

There wasn’t water in the Other Place. There wasn't water in the Other Place. There wasn’t-

He thought he could hear Barb scream his name and oh god the monster was after Barb.

Not Barb. She can’t be here. I have to protect her. What if it gets her-

Something solid wrapped around Steve’s middle and the monster was back and it had thrown him right back into the other place just like last time. He had to hope he was strong enough to fight the monster off again, but didn’t he have a weapon then? What if he wasn’t strong enough this time?

What about Will?

Where was Will? He had to survive to keep Will safe. Will needed him.

And then he broke the surface.

^^^

The sound of someone jumping into the pool made Barb full-body shiver.

The idea that anyone was drunk enough to think of hopping into that water reminded her why she used to not come to these parties. Steve had been pretty adamant about this one, though, and as much as Nancy and Barb didn’t think it was a good idea, they had agreed.

A year ago, Barb would’ve assumed Steve Harrington just couldn’t live without a party to get drunk at.

The Barb of today knew he was just grasping at a sense of normalcy…No matter how false it is.

Barb continued talking to the few band girls that had shown, resolute in ignoring whatever drunk idiocy was happening behind her.

But then one of the girls facing the pool said worriedly, “Harrington isn’t coming back up.”

Barb spun around and locked eyes on the body sinking in the pool. Billy Hargrove was standing near the pool’s edge, his face still pulled up in a smirk, but the girl that was next to him had a tilted head and a deep frown.

Because the body in the pool wasn’t coming back up.

And that body was-

“Steve!”

Her scream didn’t fall on deaf ears as she saw Jonathan run outside immediately, his eyes zeroing in on the pool in seconds.

They both started running at the same time, but Jonathan beat Barb to the edge with a dive straight into the water. She could see Steve floating limply in the pool, body unmoving with a terrifying stillness.

When Jonathan latched an arm around Steve’s chest and began to pull him up to the surface, however, Steve began to thrash.

It was as if he was fighting, his movements all aimed at getting Jonathan away from him.

Barb knew it couldn’t have helped in Jonathan’s rescue attempt, but they broke the surface of the water regardless. She grabbed Steve’s arms the minute they were in reach and yanked him onto the concrete, turning him on his side so he could spit out the water.

Her hands shook as she took off her sweater, laying it over his shoulders so he wasn’t being hit as much by the chilly air.

The music was still blaring loudly but now no one was talking. Everyone was just staring as Steve curled into himself and Barb wanted to scream at them to look away but she could only focus on Steve.

“What’s the issue, Harrington? Forgot how to swim?” Billy sneered as he started forward, but he was quickly pushed aside by Nancy as she made her appearance from the crowd.

It took Nancy only half a second to launch into action, rushing to Steve’s side and grabbing a hold of his shoulders. “Can you move on your own?”

Steve didn’t react for a second, just staring at her with a far off look, before he shook his head minutely. Barb immediately came to his right side, Jonathan taking the other, and they helped him stand.

Nancy turned to the crowd between them and the door and stuck her chin up with a huff of air. “Well? Get back to your stupid party.”

Barb wasn’t sure when Nancy Wheeler’s words had morphed into law, but people immediately started moving back to their little clusters. Billy Hargrove looked like he was going to start forward, but they were already moving through the backyard.

“I need to see Will,” Steve whispered desperately as Nancy helped him into the back of Jonathan’s car. “I - I need to know he’s okay.”

Barb looked towards Steve’s car with the intent of offering to drive it, but Nancy was already pushing past with Steve’s keys in hand. “You go with them,” she said plainly, voice hard.

Barb and Jonathan exchanged a look, but got into his car anyway.

Barb didn’t bother arguing that Nancy didn’t have a permit yet.

Jonathan looked back at Steve in the backseat as he drove the few blocks to the Wheeler’s and insisted, “I’ll drop you off at Nancy’s place and then head down to Loch Nora to look for Will.”

Steve shook his head, shivering despite Jonathan’s heat being up all the way. “I need to see him.”

“Steve - I don’t know where he is I’ll have to find him-”

“There.”

Sure enough, as they approached the Wheeler’s house, Will was walking out of the carport with Mike. Steve was moving before the car was fully stopped, Jonathan cursing loudly as he braked.

Steve all but collapsed in the Wheeler’s driveway, pulling Will into a crushing hug as he shook. Barb could just barely hear him whispering into Will’s hair, “you’re okay, you’re okay, you’re okay…”

Nancy got out of Steve’s car behind them and went up to the house to fend off her parents, both of them peeking out the carport door at the display.

Steve didn’t seem to be calming down as he held Will, but he was at least looking less…lost.

Eventually, Jonathan scooped Steve up by the arms until he was standing again and insisted, voice like gravel, “come on, you can stay at our place again, Steve.”

He looked at Steve’s BMW but Barb was already insisting, “we’ll bring it to the school tomorrow.”

He nodded, relief obvious in his face as he wrangled Steve back into his car with Will.

Nancy was stock still as she watched Jonathan’s car go with narrowed eyes. Barb walked up to her side and nudged her with her elbow, but Nancy simply hummed.

Barb squeezed her hand slightly. “What are you thinking?”

Nancy looked at her with a furrowed brow and tightened her grip. “He needs closure, Barb,” she insisted. “He just wants things to go back to normal…but they can’t while that lab is still standing.”

Barb hums, looking at Nancy knowingly. “What are we going to do about it?”

Nancy smiles slightly, looking at Barb with a smirk. “I’ve got an idea.”