Archive of Our Own

The first time they met that he could remember, Steve was smack dab in the middle of a shift. He looked at the intake papers and hummed as he opened the curtain. "Miss Buckley?"

The woman looked to be about his age (a glance at her date of birth confirmed she was one year younger, almost to the day) with a dark blonde bob and bright blue eyes, though one was half closed from swelling and had blood streaked under it, a cut through her eyebrow sluggishly bleeding. Her wrist was clutched to her chest and he could already see it swelling, and she looked embarrassed. "Hi."

He couldn't help but soften with sympathy, the kind he offered to every patient he saw. "Hi. I'm Steve, one of the nurses around here." She looked familiar, though he couldn't quite place her. "I'm here to take a look while you wait for a doctor to see you. Why don't you tell me what happened?" He grabbed a pen to fill out a fresh chart, which he'd pass off to the attending or resident when they came in.

"It's embarrassing," she grumbled, but leaned back on her good wrist and tilted her head up to look at the ceiling. "I work part time at the video rental store downtown, and I was arguing with my coworker and…" She trailed off, but it was enough to paint an ugly picture in Steve's head.

"You got punched in the face over a movie argument?" He thought Dustin might punch someone over a movie, but doubted he'd throw a good enough punch to leave a black eye. He tilted his head a little. Actually, he'd seen Andy after the time he and his buddies had jumped Dustin, and he'd looked pretty beat up.

"No. Well, yes." Buckley- a glance at her chart had her first name listed as Robin- shifted. "I punched myself in the face. I was trying to open a VHS case so I could prove him wrong. I didn't realize it was taped shut."

"And your wrist?"

"I punched myself really hard."

Steve tried to bite back a laugh, but it came out choked. "I'm sorry, I'm being so unprofessional." He covered his mouth. "You punched yourself in the face. I'll write that down." He filled out the chart quickly and stood. "Okay, let's check that eye." He pulled out his penlight, checking her pupils. "I want to be sure you didn't give yourself a concussion. They suck."

Robin squinted against the light. "Get a lot of them?"

"More than they recommend." He laughed. "Got into a few fights in school. Just not with myself."

"Rude." Robin squinted. "Hey, uh, where did you go to school? You look familiar."

"Oh, it's a tiny town, you… might've heard of it, actually. Hawkins."

"Wait. Steve Harrington? I sat behind you in history!"

Steve squinted back at her. "Robin Buckley…" He couldn't place her, not quite. "Did we know each other?"

"No, not really. Kinda hated you, actually." Robin swung her legs. "You've clearly changed a lot. I mean, nurse, huh?"

"I've been taking care of people longer than you'd think. Had a pretty good role model." He smiled, thinking of Claudia. She wasn't a nurse, but she did clerical work at the hospital. "Hawkins got pretty crazy for a few years there."

Robin huffed a little laugh. "Yeah, it did. I'm so glad I was able to get out of there after the earthquake. Full ride scholarship from a college around here, wasn't turning that down."

"Earthquake, yeah." Steve shook his head. He didn't like to think about that much. Didn't like to think about death and destruction. He liked saving lives, or at least helping to. "It was really something. Let me clean up some of this blood. I'll probably do your stitches, but I want to have a doctor decide if we need any scans before I get started."

Robin nodded and watched him as he got some sterile wipes. "Steve Harrington, ER triage nurse."

"Not just triage. Wherever they need my hands is where I am." He murmured for her to close her eyes when he got in close and began to wipe away half dried blood. "You got back here quick, this isn't too stuck to your skin." He was careful around the bruising and the cut "You said the video store is just part time?"

"Yeah, I work at the radio station too. Hoping to make that my full time gig, I'm edging my way into production. I'd like to have my own show someday, maybe in the afternoon, play music and take calls, that kind of thing." She winced, but didn't flinch away.

"That's really cool. Makes sense you wouldn't stay in Hawkins for that."

"Yeah, no offense to the good old SQWK, but it's not quite my speed, I don't think." She laughed. "Hawkins wasn't ready for someone like me." The paper under her crinkled as she grasped it. "Ow."

"I know, it's gonna sting a bit." He dabbed the gash clean as more blood oozed from it. "The bleeding is slowed, should stop anytime now." He held clean gauze up against it. "Hold this here for me."

"How's the black eye?"

"Oh, it's gonna be a shiner." Steve smiled. "But I don't think it'll be too awful. It'll sting when you touch it and you might not love laying on that side to sleep, but it'll be fading before you know it."

"Okay." Robin sighed and looked down at her wrist. "You don't think this is broken, do you?"

"In my professional opinion?" He hummed and took her hand gently, guiding it to flex one way and then the other until she hissed in pain. "I think you've got a nasty sprain. I've seen a lot of injured wrists after fist fights." He grinned. "But usually there's someone else."

"Oh, fuck you." Her voice dripped with mirth and she wasn't quite successful at holding back a smile.

"I don't think it's broken. I think you'd have less range of motion if it was. But they'll want an X-ray to confirm."

She nodded as she tugged her hand from his grasp, wrapping her other hand around her wrist. "Will you come back? I'm sure you have other patients, it's really loud out there."

She didn't look pitiful, but she hadn't mentioned any family or roommate, he had no idea if she was alone in the city. "Yeah. I can come back later and check on you. In the meantime… do you want me to call anyone? Maybe someone to pick you up after you're done here?" He tilted his head, smiling. "And I'm not going anywhere quite yet."

"No, no, I'm okay." She hummed. "It's just me. And the train is a pretty straight shot back to my place, I'll be fine."

Steve couldn't imagine being all alone. He'd spent too much of his life alone to want to spend any more time with himself. Jonathan filled the silence of their apartment, and even if he was alone there, evidence of him was draped on every surface. Not to mention Will and Mike living in the city and dropping by frequently and Dustin calling at least once a day.

He loathed the quiet, but he guessed it wasn't so bad for other people. "Let me flag down a doctor and we'll get you figured out."

He got one of the resident's attention and stood to the side as Dr. Greene came in with an intern. He took a look at Robin's wrist and told the intern to order her a set of X-rays, then inspected the laceration over her eye. "Give her a couple of stitches, Steve, then we should be able to get her in the imaging room."

Steve nodded, smiling as Mark clapped him on the shoulder. "No allergies on your chart, you good for some lidocaine?"

"Oh, I guess I missed that. I'm allergic to poppy seeds, but that's it."

"Poppy seeds? That's an odd one." He set up a suture kit and filled a syringe.

"Yeah, my dad got me a bagel once and I broke out in hives that didn't go away for days. Pretty sure I clawed through my own skin." She squirmed on the bed, paper crinkling under her. "But lidocaine should be fine, not my first set of stitches."

"Yeah? Get hurt often?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." She leaned back on her good wrist, squinting reflexively as Steve came in close with a syringe.

"Just relax. It'll be a pinch and some burning, then you'll go numb." Steve slid the needle into her skin and pressed down the plunger. "Good job," he murmured when she didn't flinch away. "All done, there we go." He put the used needle into the sharps bin and threaded the suturing needle. "Pressure but not pain, but you're a professional."

"Something like that." Robin closed her eyes. "I don't have to look, do I?"

"Nah, just don't scrunch your forehead and you'll be good. Keep breathing, all that good stuff." He chuckled, able to see the way her eyes rolled under her eyelids. "I know, I know, old cliches." He hummed softly. "When were you last back in Hawkins?"

"I haven't been back. My parents moved to the city before everything shut down in that weird quarantine, so there's nothing for me there anymore. You?"

Steve tried not to think about everything that had happened in Hawkins. "Been a couple of years. I almost stayed, but my kid got out of there. Not much left for me either." Last time he'd gone had been with Dustin to visit Eddie's empty grave and the memorial. "I was a gym teacher for a little bit, youth baseball coach, anything to keep myself occupied."

"Kid?" Robin peeked her eyes open. "Who the hell did you get pregnant?"

"No, no, not like that!" Steve laughed. "I was a babysitter!"

"No," she gasped.

"Yes! I kept an eye on this kid, Dustin Henderson, and I stuck around long enough to see him graduate. But they had a tiny graduating class, there was like, radiation or something? I don't remember the details. It was basically a ghost town last time I was there." Steve tried to wave it all off. "I'm glad you got out of there when you did. It wasn't fun living off rations. The only reason I got my favorite snacks was because I got in good with one of the truck drivers who brought in deliveries."

Robin closed her eyes slowly. "Huh. I'm glad my parents were able to leave. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people were stuck."

"Yeah. Stuck is the right word for it." He pulled the thread tighter through her eyebrow to close the skin. "One more, then you'll be good."

Robin nodded and stayed still, only opening her eyes again when he snipped the thread. She had pretty eyes, she was actually beautiful. He wondered how he'd never noticed her in school. "Sorry for making you talk about it. I just wonder about Hawkins a lot. It's pretty random, running into you here of all places."

That got Steve to smile. "Yeah, well, this is where I am 60 to 80 hours a week, what can I say?" He made sure the stitches were secure. "You'll have to come back to get these out in 10 days."

"Will you be the one to take them out?"

"Probably not, it'll likely be a first year resident. They're the ones who usually do stitches, but you got lucky getting a nurse to do them." He winked. "If you were less interesting, I probably would've passed you off."

"Flatterer." She frowned. "I'm not wasting your time, am I? It was busy out there, I don't want to-"

"Buckley, hey, you're good." Steve smiled. "I'm still doing my job." He grabbed the chart to note that she'd received stitches and lidocaine. "I get paid to be here. I haven't talked to someone from Hawkins in a long time. Aside from like, a few people. The kids I looked after, mostly."

"You know, I think I knew Dustin," Robin mused. "Not well, but I think he lived up the street from me. Little nerd always talking about comics and science with crazy curly hair? Ran around with three other little nerds?"

"Yup, that's Henderson. He's the best." Steve beamed, full of pride for his kid. "He's off in Boston these days. He's almost finished a master's degree, something with computer science or engineering or something."

"Oh, so he's taking over the world?"

"Totally. He'll be a benevolent dictator though." They both laughed and Steve sighed. "Okay, Dr. Greene should be back soon, you'll get that wrist looked at, and I'll try to check back in before you're out of here. If I don't see you… watch out for your own fists, okay?"

Robin snorted and lifted her good hand to swat at his arm. "Rude. If I don't see you today, I'll see you around. Hopefully not in the ER."

"Hopefully not," he agreed. He stepped out to grab the next patient, but his mind lingered on Robin. He wished he'd known her all along. Not that he wanted her to have been involved with the alternate dimension monster bullshit, but it would've been nice to have a friend like her. A friend like Eddie. He wondered if they would've gotten along. Eddie would've liked her, he was pretty sure of it. They didn't seem to be the exact same kind of nerd, but close enough, right?

He sighed and shook the thought away. He tried not to dwell on ghosts.

He took care of a few more patients, ones that suddenly seemed so much less interesting than they might have been before talking to Robin, and then was able to peek into the room, only to find it empty. "Mark, hey, did Robin Buckley get discharged?"

Mark nodded, up at the front desk, finishing some paperwork. "Yeah, had a sprain, just needed her wrist wrapped. She really punched herself in the face?"

Steve wilted a little. "I didn't get a chance to say bye to her." He didn't exactly pout, but it was a close thing. He sighed. "That's what she said. She seemed pretty sincere about it, too, I really think she was telling the truth. Something about an argument over a movie and then she wasn't able to get a VHS open."

Mark shook his head. "If I ever get hurt like that, I'm lying." He looked at Steve curiously. "You know her?"

"No. Yes? Kind of. She's from the same town in Indiana, she remembers me from high school. I don't really remember her, but if I ask around with my friends, I'm sure one of them would remember her. They're all nerds too."

"And you aren't?"

"What? No, I'm cool."

"You're in pink scrubs."

"So is every other nurse!" Steve scoffed. "So mean to me," he grumbled, only smiling a little when Mark laughed. "Go do your job."

"You first."

Steve made a face, but dropped a chart at the desk. "Fine, someone has to be a good example around here." He went back to work, but he couldn't shake the image of Robin out of his head. He really did hope he'd see her again. Outside of work, of course.

"I think I broke my tailbone." Robin was laid out on her stomach on the exam table, her whole body splayed out. She lifted her head and squinted, lips twitching when she saw Steve. "It's you again."

"And it's you again." Steve chuckled. "Hi Robin. Take a nasty fall?"

"I stepped on a soccer ball and hit the ground." Robin pouted before tilting her head back down to lay on her face. "Now my ass hurts."

"Well, I've got a hospital gown with your name on it." Steve sat on the stool and rolled towards her. He passed over the gown and spun to face away from her. "Just your butt?"

"My back hurts. My neck too, just a little. I think it jolted my whole spine." There was a rustle of fabric as she changed. "I was trying to show off for my coworker's kids, I played soccer in middle school. Guess it's been a long while since then, huh?" She scoffed. "So dumb, I can't believe it."

"Soccer? Thought you were a band geek," he teased. He'd asked around since seeing her last. Nancy had remembered her. He heard the paper crinkle on the table and turned back around. "We'll have to X-ray to see if you cracked your coccyx, maybe even CT to check your neck and spine. Just to make sure your discs didn't take any damage."

Robin hummed, laid out again. "It hurts to sit like a normal person."

"I'm going to ask some questions and take a look. I'm sorry I have to look at your butt." He was trying to make her laugh.

It worked well enough, a derisive snort was close enough to laughter for him. "Yeah, well, I guess I can excuse it this time. As long as you're not weird about it."

"I've never been weird with a patient, I promise." Steve parted the gown in the back and grimaced. "You really did take a fall, huh?" He could see bruising already.

"Mhm. Feet went out from under me. I'm just glad I don't put my arms down and snap my wrist."

"That is good." Steve began to gently feel around the bruising. "There's already some swelling. I think the X-Ray is going to show a fracture, but you might luck out." He smiled. "Sprained wrist last time you were here, right?"

"Mhm." She held out her hand. "All healed up. Doesn't even ache anymore. I came back to get the stitches out, but I didn't see you."

"I might've been on night shift. They swing me around sometimes. Keep me on my toes." He touched her calf where there was some new bruises blooming. "Did you lose control of your bladder or bowels when you fell? Feel any weird tingling in your arms or legs? Have trouble getting back to your feet?"

Robin squirmed again, the paper crinkling under her body. "No. No. And no. I was stunned, had the air knocked out of me, but I got up just fine. It's just my back." When he prodded her leg again, it jerked just a little. "Okay, and my legs too. But not nearly as much."

"Got it." He picked up the chart and scribbled down some notes. "You grew up in Hawkins. You know who else works here?"

She looked over her shoulder. "Someone else works here? Who?"

"Byers."

"…Joyce Byers?"

"No, no, Jonathan Byers. Real quiet, always had his camera. Except for when…" Steve cleared his throat. "Anyway, uh, you know him?"

"Not personally. But I remember him. He a nurse too?"

"Nah, intern up in Pediatrics."

"Pediatrics? I always figured he'd be a photographer. You know, because of the camera. Didn't he work for the newspaper? All those kids were so anal about it. Acted like it was the New York Times."

"They were!" Steve grinned. "His baby brother got… sick. And he hated how they treated him in the hospital. And one time he did minor surgery on his little sister's leg." He smiled sadly at the thought of El. "She got something stuck in it. He did a semester of school for photography before switching majors to premed."

"Sister?" Robin squirmed to look at Steve better. "I thought he just had a little brother. Who had a funeral and came back."

Steve nodded. "Yeah, well, his mom's boyfriend had a daughter he took in when she was in some kind of witness protection. And then everyone thought he died so they took her in. And then she passed away." He shook his head. "Anyway, Jonny's going to be a pediatrician. I was really excited when he matched to this hospital. Thought we'd see each other more, but I'm busy down here and he only comes down sometimes for consultations."

"And you two are friends?"

"Oh, he's one of my best friends. And my roommate."

"Oh my god." Robin tried to sit up and winced. "Ow, ow, okay." She lowered herself back onto her belly and squirmed again as he palpated the base of her spine. "Guess that's a bit of an odd couple situation."

Anxiety shot down Steve's own spine, making him break out in a nervous sweat. "I don't know about couple."

"It's a show, Steve, I'm not calling you queer." There was an odd tone to her voice, one Steve didn't have much time to think about. "I'm making some moves at the station. Next time someone is out, they're going to let me fill in. My manager seems to really like me!"

"For real? I'll have to listen to the radio more. What station?"

"WKQX! 101.1, I'll give the hospital a shout out." Robin yelped when he prodded at her again.

"Yeah, sounds like you'll need a donut cushion for sure." He closed her gown gently. "I'll be out of your hair in just a moment, okay? I'll see if I can't get you in line for an X-ray." He gave her ankle a pat and went to fill out the proper forms.

He meant to get right back to her, he really did, but an ambulance pulled up and all hands were on deck for a gunshot victim. It was easy to lose himself in the rhythm of the ER. It was something he enjoyed about his work, the constant motion, the constant need for him to be top of his game.

And he was on top of it. Helped slow bleeding, monitored stats, was a pair of competent hands that his high school classmates wouldn't believe. And it felt good to take the gloves off as intern Benton came to take the patient up to surgery.

At the same time, Robin was coming back from imaging. "Oh shit, Buckley. How are you feeling?"

"Like I have a broken ass," she grumbled. Susan, supporting her back to the room, was clearly trying not to laugh.

Steve smiled lightly. "Broken coccyx, then?"

"Yup." She clicked her tongue. "I'm going to die of coccyx embarrassment. I have to sit on a donut pillow. Forever."

"Not forever. Just a couple months. It'll start to feel better before you know it. The wrist did, didn't it?"

She sat down on the bed and winced, flopping back to take pressure off her tailbone. She squirmed uncomfortably until she was flipped back on her stomach again. "This sucks so bad, Steve."

Susan let out another little laugh before ducking out of the room at Steve's halfhearted glare. "Robin, you'll be alright. I'll go ahead and grab that pillow, then let's get you out of here before we're both stuck until midnight, yeah?" He winked, immediately regretting it.

Robin wasn't even looking at him, but she scoffed. "Wink at me again and I'm going to a different ER next time I get hurt."

"Or try not to have a next time?"

"We both know there's a next time." She sighed. "And if you don't wink, you'll be my go to nurse."

"You'll probably pay better than County," he murmured, resisting the urge to wink again. Her go to nurse, huh? That was neat.

Steve was working triage like usual, doing his best to take care of quick cases and get them out the door. He had an eye on the clock, dinner planned with Dustin, Will, and Jonathan when he and Jonathan got off shift. He was just grabbing some printed off sheets of aftercare for a stitched up wound when he heard a voice that was becoming familiar, though it was a higher register than he was used to.

"You've gotta help, I think it was rabid, but I don't know, but if symptoms start I'm gonna die!"

Steve set the sheets down and hurried to the check in desk. "Robin Buckley! We gotta stop meeting like this." Her distressed gaze turned to him and she thrust her bleeding arm towards him.

"I got bit by a rabid cat!"

"Jer, I've got her from here, yeah? Put Robin up on the board and send a doctor in, I'll start a chart." He flashed the bewildered clerk a smile and led Robin to an exam room. "What makes you think the cat was rabid?"

"I don't know." Robin sniffled as Steve took her arm and inspected the bite and scratches. "It just might've been. And rabies kills!" Her breathing was rapid and her cheeks were flushed, eyes wet and pupils dilated.

"Alright. In through your nose, out through your mouth. I'll grab some saline to rinse this out and then call animal control." He let go of her arm and she whined softly.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry, you just need to breathe. You've gotta tell me where the cat was and why you think it was rabid, but you can't do that if you're panicking." He gave her a kind smile and stepped out. He was almost tempted to roll his eyes and brush off Robin's concern, but she was working herself up into a near breakdown.

And in the off chance the cat was rabid… well, he didn't want to hear she died an awful death.

He grabbed a vial of iodine, told one of the resident doctors to grab him a tetanus shot and prep rabies shots, and returned to Robin.

She was breathing better, but there was a tremor to her hands as she held out her arm again. "Are you up to date on your tetanus shots?"

"I don't know. I think my last one was during high school."

"Okay." He led her over to the sink in the room to start washing her arm. "We'll give you one of those and the rabies shots. Do you remember where the cat was?"

"In an alley behind Blockbuster. I ran here right after. It was big and had fat cheeks and was hissing. A big brown tabby." Robin gestured with her free hand, fighting to keep from pulling her arm away from Steve and the soap. He could feel the tension in her arm. "Am I going to die?"

"Easy, you'll be alright. Even if the cat was rabid, you'll be just fine. I've got a resident on their way to administer shots." Steve kept reassuring her. "How's work? Still at the video store?"

"Yeah, for now." Robin swallowed, shaking hair out of her face. "Mostly evenings and weekends, just to add to my savings, mostly. It's not so bad, I like giving movie recommendations. I like the station better. I'm on the air once a week or so." Her voice was clipped, but she was calming down, even as Steve' thumb pressed a little harder against the bite.

"Yeah? That's really great. Rockin' Robin." He turned his head to smile.

"You've heard me?"

"I told you I'd listen! I listen in the car whenever I actually drive, and sometimes I'm able to turn the radio on around here. Jonathan thinks you've got decent taste, which is a high compliment from a snob like him."

"Jonathan can eat it, I have great taste."

"What can I eat?" Jonathan's voice came from behind them and it was only his time in the ER that kept Steve from flinching in surprise. Robin nearly yanked her arm out of his grasp.

"Hi Jon."

"Don't call me that." Jonathan smiled. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were with a patient."

Robin twisted, but didn't pull her arm away this time. "Don't remember me from Hawkins?"

"You're Robin?" He tilted his head as he looked at her and Steve turned back to the sink. "You do look familiar."

"We had a few classes together." Robin let out a little noise as Steve's thumb pressed a little too hard against the broken skin. "Never expected you to be a doctor."

"Neither did I." Jonathan stepped aside to let another doctor in. "Should I call the restaurant and move our reservation? See if I can get ahold of Will?"

"Yeah, that would be great. I'll come find you when Robin's all set, how about you wait in the lounge?" Steve had to bite back a pet name. Sure, a few of his coworkers knew he was dating Jonathan, but he kept it quiet. And he didn't exactly have a way to pry with Robin, get an idea of how she felt about. Well. People like him.

Much less people like him in healthcare.

Much less people like him and Jonathan in healthcare taking care of children.

He cast one more glance over his shoulder at the door where Jonathan had left. The thought made his chest ache. It wasn't something he thought about often, if only because the pace of the ER left him with little time to dwell on those thoughts. But he liked to think Robin would be happy for the two of them. Wouldn't bat an eye at them, would say Steve's preppy clothes and pretty hair in high school gave him away.

He tried to shake away the thought as he addressed the bite on Robin's arm. She was talking to the doctor and he tuned back in to hear her say something about how the cat had drooled, but it didn't look foamy. Steve sighed. Poor thing was probably a hurt and scared stray, but she had been right to come.

"You shouldn't need any stitches for this," he told her. "We'll bandage them up, give you some antibiotics to avoid infection, and if it's not looking and feeling better in a couple of days, you come back."

She nodded, her eyes still wet and red from crying, but fresh tears weren't rolling down her cheeks. "Okay." She wiped her eyes with the hand he wasn't holding. "Okay, I'm going to be fine." She tilted her head back and looked at the ceiling.

Steve motioned for Dr. Li, smiling just a little. "Keep breathing, yeah? We'll get you some shots and get you out of here. I'll make a report to Animal Control and I'm sure they'll be out there to track down our rabid cat."

"Thanks Steve." She looked over at Dr. Li and the size of the needles she held. "Can't believe you, Steve the hair Harrington, are the most stable presence in my life right now."

"The Hair?"

Steve grimaced. "Sandra, you don't want to know." He didn't use nearly as much product as he used to. Not since Farrah Faucett had broken his heart with her hair products being discontinued. "I'll be back, do not tell her about high school, Robin." He paused. "…how much do you remember about me from high school?"

"I remember the uniform from Scoops Ahoy. Got ice cream from you a few times." She kicked her feet and smirked. "You don't have pictures, do you?"

"I burned that uniform." Steve huffed softly. "That summer is not one I remember fondly." The memories came flooding back and he excused himself, stepping out of the room. He leaned against the wall and felt the blood drain from his face. "Fuck." He felt lightheaded, trying to take slow breaths.

He tried so hard not to think about It. Capital I It. And not like that creepy clown book that Will and Mike and Max had been really into.

But the enormity of everything that had happened. All the scars he had that he could never explain away, the dreams that shook him awake, the grief that sat so heavy on his boyfriend's shoulders.

It had all been bad. All the death and the injuries and the way he'd watched the lives of the people around him fall apart.

But the summer of 85? The shorts had been the least of his worries.

"Steve?"

"Just taking a breather." Steve's voice caught and he grimaced as Dr. Ross touched his arm. "Sorry. Gotta make a call to Animal Control about a maybe rabid cat."

"You look like you're about to pass out."

"I'm not going to pass out. Just had some old memories kicked up."

"Happens to your buddy sometimes too." Dr. Ross squeezed his bicep gently. "He's a good doctor, gets caught up in his head sometimes."

"Yeah." Steve nodded. Thinking about Jonathan helped. He smiled weakly. "I'm fine most of the time, but then someone says something or I see something and-" He snapped his fingers. "It's like I'm back there again, in the- in the fire." He shook his head. "It's fine though, I have to go make a call."

"There are people you can talk to about those things." Dr. Ross walked with him.

"Dr. Ross, I appreciate it, I do." Steve ran a hand through his hair. "But I'm not that kind of guy, I don't talk about that stuff. Not without breaking a hell of a lot of NDAs. And I like being a nurse! I like my life! I don't need a suit breaking down the hospital doors and taking me out with an air bubble in my veins or a gun with a silencer to the temple."

"What?" Dr. Ross paused a few steps behind him.

"Exactly. See? Now you get it." He picked up the phone and made the call to Animal Control.

Robin was fully vaccinated by the time he got back to her. She looked up and smiled when she saw Steve and rubbed her arm. "Hi."

"Hi." He smiled and began to wrap her hand in bandages, the bite marks looking painful. "I called, they're sending someone out to check for the cat. They'll let us know if they find it, and if they do, they'll find out if it's rabid. We'll call you, promise."

Robin nodded, leaning back with a long sigh, though she kept her arm in Steve's hold. "Thanks. I'm… exhausted."

"You were pretty freaked out. I mean, you've got a bad phobia of rabies, don't you?"

"I used to read medical books for fun as a kid. I read one about rabies too young, had tons of nightmares about scary wild animals and getting hydrophobia, you know?" Robin let out a self conscious little laugh. "Probably not the most universal experience, huh, Steve?"

"Probably not," he agreed.

Jonathan came back in after a couple minutes of quiet. "Hey, you okay, Steve?"

He glanced over his shoulder as he secured the bandages. "Me? Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Dr. Ross said you were acting weird. Said something about NDAs. What did you tell him?"

"Oh, that." Steve stood up and took off his gloves. "Just had a moment of… reflection, is all. Was thinking about the mall fire." He gave Jonathan a meaningful look.

"He's seen me like that before." Jonathan touched Steve's arm, thumb brushing under the sleeve of his scrubs. "Sometimes I'll have a patient that reminds me a little too much of Will. Or Jane." His voice caught on her name. Steve grasped his arm back, the two of them quiet a moment. "Do you think we'll ever be able to tell people what really happened?" His voice was softer.

"I don't know." Steve sighed, wishing he could just bury his face against Jonathan's hair and pull him in close. "I don't know if I'd want to, even if we could." He shook his head. "Go grab your stuff. As soon as I discharge Robin, we can get out of here." He wanted to suggest skipping dinner and going right home, but he didn't. He'd hate to miss out on seeing Dustin and Will.

Robin eyed him as Jonathan left the room again. "You okay?"

"You're my patient. Think I'm supposed to be asking you that." Steve started getting the paperwork to send her home together. "I'm okay. Just don't like thinking about some stuff."

"I can understand that." She kicked her feet. "Hey, you have a pen? Let me give you my number. Then you can call me when you hear from Animal Control." She held out a hand and Steve passed her a pen. She tore off a corner of one of the papers and scribbled down a phone number. "Maybe we can run into each other outside of this godforsaken ER."

Steve laughed softly, carefully tucking the scrap of paper into his pocket. "I'll call as soon as I know." He smiled, giving her the paperwork and pointing to where she needed to sign, but he knew she was practically an expert at this point. "And meeting outside of these walls… sounds nice. It's easy to forget there's a whole world outside the hospital." It was an attempt at a joke, but didn't quite stick the landing.

Robin laughed anyway. "Yeah? Well, we'll have to see." She got up and squeezed his arm. "Thanks Steve. See you around."

"Hopefully not here."

"God, I'll drink to that."

It was almost midnight in the ER, and presumably the rest of Chicago. Steve was counting down the seconds until he could clock out and go home, maybe grab some greasy takeout and a beer on the way. Time moved different in the hospital, the clock hands dragging from one minute to the next. And yet, some days he'd blink and hours would have passed without him feeling it.

So naturally, the call came in that a trauma was on the way.

He didn't think much of it, Chicago wasn't New York, but he didn't think it slept much. "Motorcycle hits pedestrian, don't hear that one so much," he mused as he pulled on a pair of gloves.

"I don't know. I think motorcyclists hit just about everything." Dr. Li gave him a wry little grin. "Each other, cars, trucks, trees…"

"If I had a nickle for every patient that came in from a motorcycle accident," Dr. Greene grumbled as they waited for the ambulance, the sound of the siren swelling as it approached. "I sure wouldn't be working at County."

Steve snorted, biting back more laughter. "So you're saying I shouldn't take that cross country trip on a bike?"

"I'm saying you're smarter than that." He grinned and took a step back as the paramedics rolled in a gurney.

"We've got a woman struck by a motorcycle, head lac, broken arm, confusion, BP holding steady-"

"Robin!" Steve sucked in a sharp breath as soon as he recognized her. "Oh shit!"

"You know her?" Dr. Li looked at him over the gurney as they got Robin into a trauma bay.

"Robin Buckley, she's becoming something of a frequent flyer." Steve tried to keep his voice from shaking. He started hooking her up to monitors, Dr. Greene keeping her from sitting up. "We went to school together, but didn't really know each other, she works at the radio station, she's pretty cool."

"What happened?" Robin asked, her blinks slow. "Steve?"

"I'm here." He took her arm, the one that wasn't bent at an unnatural angle, and began to look for a vein to stick her with a needle. "What do you remember?" He could still see pink marks from where the cat had bitten her not so long ago, not even fully scarred.

"I was at a party," she began slowly, wincing as Dr. Li began to move her broken arm, Dr. Greene stemming the flow of blood coming from a wound on the back of her head. Almost nonsensically, Steve wondered if it would stain her hair. "I left around 11:30. I was walking home, waiting at a crosswalk." She squinted up at the light and went quiet as Steve had her wiggle her fingers and toes for him. "I was waiting," she began again. "And I heard an engine. But by the time I turned around-" She gasped and tried to sit up again.

"Do you remember hitting your head?"

"No." Robin tried to sit up for a third time, this time it was Steve's turn to push her back down. "You need to stay still, Rob, we're making sure nothing else is injured. You're in good hands, I promise."

"You're just saying that because I'm in your hands."

"I know my hands better than anyone else's." He grinned a little. It wasn't the first time he'd had a friend on the table in front of him. He'd been doing first aid since his first year as a lifeguard, 1981, and he'd learned to give stitches while Hawkins was in quarantine. He'd had some of the neatest stitches in his class in nursing school.

But the sight of blood on his hands, the blood of someone he cared about, never got easier. When he'd first decided he wanted to be a nurse, gotten his first training on how to care for sick and hurt people, he'd had a lot of flashbacks. It hadn't been easy at first.

Now, he didn't think about the past too much. Not when he was in the heat of the moment. Which was good. The first time he'd looked down at his hands and seen them covered in someone else's blood, he'd thought about Eddie Munson and trying to stem bleeding against impossible odds. He'd thought about Dustin limping up to him while walking his bike and fighting with him while he'd cleaned blood off his face. Thought about Derek Turnbow clinging to him in fear after narrowly escaping from Vecna.

Thought about his own blood staining his hands after being beaten in a cold bunker under the mall. Staring down at his lap as blood dripped from his nose and mouth and face, praying to whatever might listen that Erica and Dustin had made it out, that help was on the way, that he wasn't going to die cold and alone and in so much pain every time he so much as drew in a breath.

But now, he wasn't thinking about that, now he was just running through lists of injuries that could come from an accident like Robin's and ruling them out.

She could feel and move her feet and hands, though her left arm was certainly broken in at least one place. She knew her name and the date, the confusion starting to clear up. The wound on the back of her head wasn't bleeding so hard, Dr. Greene had said it would need some stitches, but a CT would be first.

Robin reached out to Steve with her right hand and clutched his arm, looking stressed. "I'll be okay?"

"You'll be okay, Robin, I promise. They're going to take you up and do a couple X-rays and a CT, then stitches and a cast, and overnight observation. You'll go home in the afternoon tomorrow, most likely."

They wheeled her off and Steve's shoulders slumped. He took off his gloves and rubbed a hand down his face, suddenly so drained he wanted to lay down on the floor right there.

"Steve." Mark put a hand on his shoulder. "Get out of here. Your shift is over, you can go home."

Steve looked off towards the elevator and sighed. "…no, I don't think I can. I think I'm going to wait until she's settled, at least."

"Have you two been friends long?" Sandra asked, coming up next to him. "I remember her coming in for the animal bite, you seemed familiar with her."

"I don't know if I'd say that." Steve let out a laugh that sounded far smaller than he wanted it to. "Honestly? I don't even remember her from high school. We didn't exactly run in the same circles. I just got to know her from here. And even then I don't feel like I know that much about her. Just that she was able to get out of Hawkins before I was."

Mark frowned, staring at him a moment. "You don't talk about yourself much, do you? I swear you've told me more about your roommate than about yourself."

Steve ran a hand through his hair, grimacing. "Yeah, well, Jon's a thousand times more interesting than I am." Steve was pretty sure he was one of the most boring guys alive. He was quintessentially normal.

Except for the queer thing.

And the fighting monsters from another dimension thing.

And every product he'd ever really enjoyed seemed to get discontinued. Man, he missed Peanut Butter Boppers.

And being covered in scars he legally couldn't truthfully explain to most people.

And Jonathan said he was a freak sometimes, but that was usually when he was being sexy mean, not actually mean.

Mark just eyed him and hummed. "Sure." He reached for Robin's chart. "Go get something to eat if you're going to insist on sticking around here. And clock out, I'm pretty sure you're at your overtime threshold. Don't want anyone breathing down your neck about that."

"No I do not." Steve stretched and went to follow his instructions. Jonathan was going to be annoyed to wake up in an empty bed in the morning, but he had a feeling Robin needed him more right now. Surely he'd understand.

The morning came with no fanfare, just Steve half asleep in an uncomfortable chair next to Robin's bed. Her arm was in a cast, the back of her head was shaved so they could do stitches, and she had some nasty scrapes on her right elbow that had bandages on them.

Steve rubbed his eyes when Robin made a noise next to him, and he almost asked if he should call for a nurse. The irony wasn't lost on him as he stood up and rubbed his eyes again. He looked at her stats, glanced over her chart like he hadn't read it fifteen times through the night. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a motorcycle. What are you doing here?" Robin tried to stretch, but mostly just shifted awkwardly in the bed. She scrunched up her face and leaned back against the pillow behind her. "I gotta call the station, let them know I'm not coming in."

"Not for a little bit, not until that concussion gets a chance to heal. I'd say you should be on bedrest for at least a week. Don't make the mistakes I have. Migraines are not your friend."

"I didn't think so." She lifted her good hand to her eyes and groaned. "Can we dim the lights?"

"Sorry, not really. I'm surprised you slept as much as you did. It's been noisy." He grabbed for his bag and dug out a pair of sunglasses. "I can offer you these?"

"Yes please." She grabbed them and pulled them over her eyes. Or at least she tried. She almost stabbed herself in the eye and then tried to lift her left arm to fix them and groaned in pain. Steve rolled his eyes with a fond little grin and leaned down to help her fix them. "…thank you."

"Anytime. I want to get a look at your pupils." He looked at her a moment. "Not right now, just in a little bit. Does your head hurt? Aside from the area around your stitches?"

"I can't really separate the pain. It's pretty all encompassing."

"Okay." He nodded, squinting a little at the chart. "Do you-"

"Steve? What are you still doing here, man?" Nurse Malik came in and gave him an odd look. "You're off today, aren't you?"

"You're not supposed to be here? Steve!" Robin let out a little groan. "You're such a dingus, I swear."

"I'm not a dingus." Steve handed her chart to Malik and shot Robin an offended little glare. "I was concerned! I wanted to make sure you'd be okay when you woke up. You don't have an emergency contact, do you know how dangerous that is?"

"This better not be some fucked up little love confession."

"It's not, I can promise you that." He put his hands on his hips. "It's a lecture."

"Oh good, exactly what I wanted. You know, I didn't get hit by some asshole on a bike to get lectured. I did it for the attention."

"Robin."

"Steve."

Malik raised an eyebrow and nudged past Steve to check Robin's IV drip. "How long have you two been friends?"

Robin looked at Steve and sighed. "It's starting to feel like forever. But… I don't know. We only see each other when I'm mangled."

Steve's hands were still on his hips and he huffed. "Okay, you've never been mangled. I think you're just living a Three Stooges movie where you're all three stooges."

"Rude. I'll hit you on the head with a two by four." She smiled, one side of her lips quirking higher than the other. "Once I'm out of here, we can meet up like normal people, maybe?"

"I don't know if you're normal, but we can try." Steve was ready to bicker more, but his pager went off. He checked it without even wondering who the hell would be paging him on his day off and winced when he saw it was Jonathan. "I'm in trouble," he sing songed. "I should probably get going before I get my neck wrung." He lifted a hand to his throat, instinctively covering the old scar that hadn't healed quite right. "You're in good hands, Rob."

Robin hummed. "I believe it. Want to meet up next week?"

"Sure. Let me just…" Steve ducked out and went to the reception desk, stealing a post it to scribble his number on. He hurried back and pressed it into Robin's hand. "Call me this time. Let me know when you're home. We'll decide where to meet and I can get you to someone to fix your hair."

She looked at him, eyes wide. "What? What's wrong with my hair?" She lifted her right hand to her head and gasped when she felt where it had been shaved. "Oh shit."

"It doesn't look so bad," Steve tried. "It just needs a little bit of… well." Malik swatted him on the arm and Steve held up his hands. "It's just a little uneven is all! It'll look great when a professional does some trimming."

"Man, get out of here." Malik shook his head and Steve laughed.

"Okay, okay. I'll see you soon Robin!" He hurried out, still in wrinkled scrubs, and made his way up to the train. He needed a nap and to apologize to Jonathan.

Steve slid into the booth in the diner across from Robin, lightly waving off Jonathan. "I'll come find you when we're done, go find some music to be sad to."

"You just don't understand the music I listen to." Jonathan adjusted his scarf, and it took all of Steve's willpower to not drag him down into a kiss. "But I guess I'll see if they have any of the Queen albums you don't have while I'm at it."

"Thank you." Steve flashed him a smile and then shooed him off. Jonathan left after giving Robin a small smile and waving.

Robin's arm was in a sling and she had a beanie pulled over her hair. There were a few minor abrasions on her face and Steve traced them with his eyes as she sipped her milkshake. "Hey. Good to see you in something other than scrubs."

"You look good outside of hospital lighting." He grinned. "I know this isn't the fanciest place, but the food is good. I come here a lot. It's cheap, it's good, Jonathan and I get dinner here at least once a week."

"I'm guessing most of the other doctors and nurses do too, huh?" She glanced out the window at County General. "It's pretty warm in here. Might have to take my hat off."

"Oh! I have a friend who does hair, she's not far from here. She can get you in around one thirty today if you're interested. As a favor to me." Steve smiled. "Amy is cool, said she can work with whatever you show up with."

"Yeah? She do your hair?"

"Only person I trust to do it. I let Jonathan cut it once and it… was pretty bad."

"Okay. Sure, what the hell. This is all I've got going on today, anyway." Robin smiled, tilting her head a little. "Thanks, Steve."

He nodded, ever gracious. "How's your head feeling? Still sensitive to light?"

Robin made a noise like an incorrect buzzer on a game show. "Nope, this is not a check up, this is two people hanging out like normal friends. No questions about my concussion."

"At least tell me you're feeling better!"

"…I am, thank you."

"Good, good. That's it, won't ask you anymore questions about your physical health." He tried not to think of any questions, but about fifty popped into his head. "Where'd you end up going to college? All you've told me about that is that you left early to start after…" He made a wavy hand gesture.

"Oh! Well, I originally wanted to go to school for language, I'm fluent in French, Spanish, English obviously, I know enough Italian to get by, I can speak Russian but not read it very well, read Chinese but not speak it very well, a little bit of Cantonese, and I'm currently learning German."

"Woah."

"But I switched majors and ended up graduating with a degree in Broadcast Engineering. It's really been great at the station, I got a lot of hands on experience in school. I went to Columbia."

"The Ivy League school?"

"Nah, I'm smart, but I'm not quite Ivy League smart." Steve wasn't so sure about that. "Columbia College here in Chicago." She paused when the waitress came by and they both ordered burgers, Steve asking for a Coke. "I ended up loving the city. There's an awesome art scene, some really cool clubs, I even got to keep playing in the pit when the theater school did musicals."

"Clubs? You go out to the club?" Steve couldn't help his smile, teasing.

"Well, I prefer coffee shops." She stuck out her tongue. "But… yeah." She eyed him, almost like she was seeing him for the first time, and took a deep breath. "There are some great drag bars in Boystown. A lot of the clubs down there cater to men, but sometimes there are women's nights and I've met some really cool girls that way."

Steve felt his smile grow until it ached. "Buckley, I knew there was something I liked about you."

Her smile matched his and she let out a laugh. "So you and Byers aren't just roommates?"

"Haven't been in a while. I've probably been to all those bars, sometimes with him in tow."

"Jonathan Byers going to clubs should be more surprising than me." Robin grinned. They'd both leaned in closer across the table so they could talk in softer voices. Just in case anyone was listening. "I mean, have you seen him? He looks like he stays in and reads Vonnegut."

"Well." Steve bit back a laugh. Jonathan did in fact do that. Often. "Sometimes he buys me drink and dances with me. It feels good to be around people when we don't have to hide. Of course, it isn't too often, but it's fun when we do."

"Yeah. I get that." Robin sipped her milkshake again. "I guess I can't be all that surprised about you. You were always… particular about your appearance."

"I just like who I like. And who I really love is Jonathan. We balance each other out."

"Well, I'm happy for you two. A doctor and a nurse, who would've thought." Robin sighed. "I'm almost jealous, but I don't think there are any girls from Hawkins I'd want to date. I had a thing for Tammy Thompson, actually hated you so much because she was so focused on you in history, but-"

"Tammy Thompson?" His eyes widened. "Holy shit. She sang at the championship game the year after I graduated. She sounded like-"

"A muppet, I know!" Robin laughed. "I didn't have the best taste, I know, I've grown up since then!" She grinned. "The hell were you doing at that game?"

"Uh, it was the only interesting thing happening that night. And my friend was in that game. Lucas Sinclair. Scored the winning basket." Steve couldn't help his grin. He remembered all the awful shit that had happened after that night. Saw it on the back of his eyelids when he tried to sleep. But that had been a good night.

"No shit? One of the kids you babysat?"

"Yeah, exactly. He's out in California now, with his girlfriend. He's an EMT, actually, she's in law school. Been awhile since I saw them, but I'm hoping to convince them to come visit in the summer." Steve was so proud of them. It made his heart feel full to think about them, and now he had someone to gush about them to.

"Wow, that's really great." She sighed. "I wish I'd been smart enough to getout of the Midwest, these winters are brutal." Despite that, she pulled off her hat, revealing her poorly shaved hair, a clip holding back what was left. "You really think Amy can do something with this?"

"If anyone can, it's her." He sat back in the booth. "I don't mind the Midwest winters so much. Especially since I don't have to do any of the shoveling." He grinned. "I mean, Jon and I have a car, a truck, actually, but it mostly sits in the parking garage unless we take a road trip to Boston or New York."

"Friends out there too?"

"Yeah. Nancy Wheeler and Dustin Henderson in Boston, Jon's mom and stepdad are in Montauk, and Erica Sinclair is gunning for schools in New York City to transfer to from Indiana, so I'm sure we'll be visiting her there before long."

Robin smiled. "That's cool, having friends in so many different places. What about your family?"

"They are my family." Steve shifted in his seat. "I uh, don't talk to my parents anymore. My dad always had high expectations for me. Mostly that I'd be working for his brokerage firm someday. Anything short of that wasn't good enough. Nursing… certainly not. My mother just went with whatever he had to say. They don't even know I'm…" He gestured to himself. "You know. With Byers. And if they did…" He shook his head. "Anyway, the kids are my family. Jonathan's my family. Hell, Jonathan's stoner buddy Argyle is more of a part of my family than my parents have been in a long time."

Robin nodded, her expression sympathetic. "Well fuck them!" she declared, none too gently. "Despite everything I thought of you in school, you are funny and nice and kind of badass. Almost cool. Way less cool than everyone thought back then, but high school is basically a lifetime ago now." She grinned and reached to squeeze his hand over the table. "Fuck, dude, I almost wish I'd been your friend back then."

Steve thought about everything that had happened and everything that had brought them there. About how much safer and more secure he might've felt if he'd had someone like Robin in his corner when everything had been happening. "I almost wish that too." Of course, the kind of danger that could've put her in… Steve tilted his head and looked at Robin. "I think I'm just glad you're getting to know this version of me."

"You know what? I think I'm happy about that too."