Chapter Text
Robin felt like she was dying.
Unfortunately, this was not an uncommon experience for her. When the Russians captured her and Steve, she thought she was going to die. When they were fighting the big flesh monster, Robin thought she was going to die. And then Robin had thought she was going to die pretty much the entire time they were figuring out how to defeat Vecna.
But they'd all made it out, mostly unscathed. Everything was going pretty well considering they had just fought some freaky supernatural man and lived to tell the tale.
At least, Robin thought everything was fine. Until she had started feeling sick a few days ago and it had only gotten worse since then.
She'd gone home early from work on Monday when she'd started feeling bad and then called out sick Tuesday because she knew she would not be able to make it through a shift. On Wednesday she couldn't even dredge up the energy to pick up the phone and call out again.
Thursday morning, Robin was determined to do what she could to get better but after puking up her guts after trying to actually eat something, she had resigned herself to laying on the bathroom floor.
The cold tile actually felt nice on her skin. She'd been feeling like she was on the surface of the sun for days. Robin knew that she should probably be concerned about her health but she couldn't really bring herself to care.
She didn't know how long she'd been laying on the floor but suddenly she heard knocking on the door.
Robin did not want to get up and was content to stay where she was, but the knocking continued and a voice began calling her name.
Oh great. It was Steve.
Not that Robin didn't like Steve. Of course she liked him, he was her best friend, they were trauma bonded for life.
She just didn't want him to see her like this. She knew he would be mad that she didn't tell him just how sick she was. Robin didn't think it was that serious but she knew Steve would. Even though they were the same age he would mother hen her the same way he did all his little gremlins.
She was hoping that Steve would assume she was asleep and go away but then she heard the door opening. Robin had forgotten she'd given him a key a long time ago. For emergencies. Or just for fun.
Robin knew she should get up and act like she was okay and would rather be alone right now thank you please go home but her body was not listening to her.
She didn't even notice Steve was in the room with her until he was kneeling next to her and shaking her shoulders.
"Robin? Robin what happened?"
"'M just a little sick," she said, trying to give him a reassuring smile. It didn't work.
"This is more than just a little sick," Steve said, in a way that indicated he was on the verge of panicking.
He pressed a hand to her forehead. “Rob, you're burning up!”
“It’s just a little warm,” Robin lied. She decided it was a good time for a nap then and closed her eyes. When she tried to roll over to press her forehead against the tile floor a stabbing pain shot through her abdomen.
She made a sound of pain and curled onto her side.
“What happened? What hurts?” Steve asked frantically.
Robin only groaned in response and wrapped her arms protectively around her stomach.
“Wha- is that blood?” Steve exclaimed.
Robin didn’t know what he was talking about but then he was pulling her arms away from her stomach. She whined in protest and weakly tried to resist.
“Buckley, I'm trying to help you!”
Steve batted her arms away and pushed up the bottom of her shirt.
“Hey at least buy me dinner first,” she grumbled absently.
“Robin,” Steve gasped.
She pried her eyes open and moved her head to look at him. “Relax, I was just jok- oh.”
Steve was staring with wide eyes at the gash marring her stomach. It started on her left side, just a little above the bottom of her ribs, and stopped just at her belly button. It looked pretty deep but it was hardly even bleeding. The skin around it was an angry red.
In the delirium of her illness Robin had forgotten all about the injury. She’d gotten it during the final battle at the Creel house during all the chaos. Adrenaline kept the pain at bay until they were at the hospital with the rest of the Party. Robin didn’t think it was very bad at the time, and her dark clothes hid the blood, so no one noticed. She was just worried about getting the kids taken care of and making sure that Steve didn’t have rabies or bleed out from the bat bites.
Later, when she was alone, Robin cleaned the wound thoroughly, almost biting her tongue off in the process. She rebandaged it every day and it stopped bleeding after a day and a half and the pain stopped being excruciating after a week so Robin figured that she was probably okay.
“This looks like it’s infected or something,” Steve said. He reached out a finger to touch the irritated skin and Robin hissed in pain and pushed his hand away.
“You need to see a doctor, like yesterday. C’mon we need to get to the hospital.”
“Wait hold on!” Robin burst out. She had been afraid of hospitals her entire life. Something about the smell and the lights and the noise just gave her the creeps. She hadn’t stepped foot in one since she was little under after the fight with Vecna. Robin was only okay then because she was too focused on her friends to focus on where she was.
“I know it looks bad but I’m sure it’ll heal up on its own. I heal fast y’know and I don’t usually get sick I’ve been handling it fine it stopped hurting a while ago-”
“Hang on, you’ve been hurt and you didn’t tell me?” Steve tore his hands through his hair in frustration. “Okay we’re definitely gonna talk about this later but right now we have to go.”
He grabbed her arms to help her up but she resisted.
“No Steve you know I don’t like hospitals please please please don’t make me go. Please I swear I’m fine I’ll be okay please don’t.” Robin was starting to panic and she tried to squirm away from him .
“I know I know. Robin- Robs please.”
She stilled at the anguish in her best friend's voice. She looked into his eyes and saw the fear there. Fear for her.
“I know you’re scared. I get it. But you know that I would never make you do something unless it was really important. You know that right?”
His voice was quiet and more serious than she’d ever heard it.
Robin nodded after a moment.
Steve let out a breath and squeezed her arms. “So that’s why we have to go to the hospital, because your health is important. It’s really important.”
“Okay,” she breathed, her hands shaking.
“So will you come with me or do I have to drag you to my car?” Steve asked with a smile.
Robin huffed out a laugh. “I can walk you jerk.”
Steve pulled her up from the floor and the second she was on her feet the pain hit her full force. It was like a lightning bolt tearing through her body.
Her knees buckled but Steve didn’t let her fall.
He was speaking but Robin couldn’t make any of it out over the ringing in her ears.
They moved slowly through the house and to the car, Steve keeping her steady the whole way.
Once she was settled in the car, the pain started to subside and a sleepiness hit her.
Robin started to drift off but a shaking of her shoulder woke her up.
“No sleeping alright. I need you to stay awake,” Steve said as he pulled out of the driveway.
“I don’t have a head injury,” she grumbled.
“Maybe you do. It’s not like you would tell me if you did,” he said flatly.
Neither of them said anything for the rest of the drive.