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Max had tears streaming down her face, she didn’t make any sound though. Her ears echoed with the screams of Billy, echoed all the way to her soul it felt like. She doesn’t feel another body being sat next to her, but she does flinch when she notices to people.
“Hey Max, you know Robin?” She looks at Steve’s face and questions how he isn’t dead. He should be looking at his injuries. He would die next, she nods anyway.
“Hi. I’m from scoops ahoy.” The girl, Robin, Steve called her Robin smiled at her. She didn’t return it. She looked up at Steve’s face instead, injuries reminding her of what Billy did to him. To them as a group. Fresh, hot tears begin to pool again.
“Hey. Hey. Hey. Shhhhhh, did you get checked out?” Steve has her face on his chest and he smells a little like puke and she’s just going to ignore that. She shrugs. She didn’t get checked out, she saw them load her brother up and leave without sirens… she didn’t want to be in the same hospital they’d store Billy’s body at.
“She doesn’t have a scratchy blanket.” Robin says to Steve.
“Max, did you not get a blanket? Here take mine.”
He shrugs it off his shoulders and wraps her in it. She doesn’t respond, she failed Billy and that’s the only thing she can think of.
“I don’t think she did.” Robin looks up at Steve and Max follows her eyes to meet Steve’s. God he looked bad.
“Did you?” She can lie right now, no one would be mad at her.
“No.” She whispers the truth and looks up at Steve.
“I need to be checked again, do you want to come with me?” Steve already had a blanket he wrapped her in, but she’s willing to pretend if he is.
“Is he dead?” She whispers it to Steve, leaning on him heavily as they walk, he wraps an arm around her shoulders despite the fact they look like they hurt.
“I don’t know.” Steve admits to her as they approach and ambulance, EMS crew comes towards them.
“Hello, are you finally going to get checked?” The older woman is holding Steve’s face as he flinches. Max also has a split second realization he wasn’t lying, he hadn’t been checked.
“Don’t touch him.” Max wants to hit her.
“She’s just seeing my wounds.”
“No! She was hurting you!” Max doesn’t need him anymore hurt.
“I’m not. Okay I’m not touching him honey. How about we go sit on the gurney?” She offers as a younger woman is pulling out more supplies, she sinks into Steve.
“I want to go home.”
“Honey, I know you’re scared. Your brother will be with you the whole time. Both of you up.” She pats the gurney and Steve helps Max up despite the fact he’s definitely more injured. Neither teen corrects the EMS woman that they’re not related. She lays on Steve shoulder and he seemed to flinch but when she tried to take it off he placed his hand on her to keep it there.
“What happened tonight?” The other EMS worker asks Steve as she gets an IV placed in his arm.
“Fire. I fell under debris.” Steve lies and she looks very concerned.
“What about you sweetheart?” Her EMS worker is about to put the IV in her arm so she hides into Steve who holds her some.
“Something hit her on the head, she knocked out. But her legs are hurt.”
“I saw how she was limping.” The EMS woman decided.
“You guys are going to need transportation to the hospital.” Steve’s woman has a sad smile.
“Why?” Max just wanted to get home.
“You need a head ct scan. Your brother needs x rays at least.”
“No. Don’t make us.”
“Can we go together, not separate? I won’t go with you separate us.” Steve says in a low tone.
“I mean. I suppose.”
“Perfect. Please make this pain go away.” He tries to laugh some but it just makes his lip bleed more as they got both of them in the ambulance. Max isn’t sure what drugs they’re given because she’s falling asleep on Steve’s chest before she even knows what is happening.
The next morning she feels worse, she thinks she’s been hit by a truck and tears spring instantly from her eyes. The room is somewhat bright and she has no fucking idea where she is.
“Hello!” She yells while looking around frantically. She stops when she sees Steve still asleep in the bed next to her. She finds her call light and hits it. Holy hell does she hurt, everything hurts. She notices the IV poles for both of them and how they have Steve bandaged in some places.
“Good morning, I was starting to get worried.” A woman around forty walks in, presumably the nurse.
“Everything hurts.” She chokes out behind tears.
“I was afraid of that. You’re due for your pain medication, I’ll be right back and your brother is due too. I’ll grab it for him.” As she leaves Max looks tentatively at Steve. She removes her blankets seeing she’s in a hospital gown and her underwear. She don’t remember changing last night, that’s fine. That’s a mental break down later. She stands up wobbly, hoping no alarm goes off like her Nannie’s did. She slowly makes her way to the other bed, each step increasing in pain.
“Hey Max.” Steve’s eyes barely slit open when she touches the bed.
“Steve.” He nods once before stopping.
“I know. I know. You’ll be okay. You aren’t okay right now, but you will be.” Steve is word vomiting she doesn’t understand. She just gets in the cramped hospital bed with him.
“Just want to be with you.” She says as Steve immediately started adjusting his blankets so she could lay with him.
“Don’t you two look cozy.” The nurse smiles this time widely as Steve half ass smiles at her. She pushes their medications before leaving. They enjoy silence for a very brief period, guilt eating away at Max’s conciseness.
“I messed up.” She whispers, Steve’s head is so swollen she doubts he can hear her.
“No you didn’t.” He did hear her, wow.
“We tried to save him. I tried to save him Steve.”
“What did you do?”
“We locked him in a sauna and almost killed him, he broke through the glass. I couldn’t save him.” She feels Steve’s arm going up and down her back in a comforting manner.
“You found out he was possessed though, did you know before?”
“We had an idea.”
“Who went with you kids?”
“What do you mean?”
“Joyce? Hopper? Hell even Nancy or Jonathan?”
“We went alone, we didn’t take anyone.” Steve looks very stressed, very fast.
“Okay, for future reference don’t do that. Have adult back up. And Max you didn’t fail to save him.”
“How do you know? You were in an elevator.”
“Because if you all had been a we need to save Billy at all costs thing… you probably could have died.”
“He choked El.”
“I’m not saying you didn’t try to save him. I think you did Max, but sometimes there is no rescue mission. There’s just a body recovery.” She feels tears as she nods her head, hiding more within the bed. She’s always feel like she failed, no matter what anyone else said.