A life less ordinary ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

It'll be ok

El didn't say a word, instead she tried to sit up, wanting to find her bearings, but she couldn't. Her body was weak, she had expended so much energy to finally break through the barrier having been wearing it down for over a year, and was malnourished and physically weak. Max immediately stood and bent over to help her, pulling her slight body upright and adjusting the hospital bed to support her. "Are...are you ok?" Max asked, even though she knew it was a stupid question.

"I...I...don't know..." El replied hesitantly, her voice quiet and croaky from lack of use.

"Oh, I'm Max, I, um, found you...actually I crashed into you, sorry" she confessed, "we called an ambulance, so you're in the hospital now."

"Th...thank you" El replied.

Max smiled nervously, "I'd better call a doctor, they'll need to examine you."

El's demeanour changed immediately much to Max's concern. She went from open and curious to fearful in a matter of seconds, her head shaking no. "It's ok, they're here to help you, to make you better" Max tried to reassure her. "Honestly, I'll go and get one, and I'll be here the whole time." She got up and left the room, and headed to the nurse's station to let them know El was awake. She could see Mike and Nancy heading towards her, "Mike! She's awake."

They all made their way back to El's room but were shocked to find her bed empty, traces of blood left on the bed from the drip tubes that were now hanging limply from their stands, their vital fluids leaking onto the floor. "Oh my god, where did she go?" said Max, "I was only gone for a minute."

"El? ...EL!?" shouted Nancy, "I'll check down the corridor" she said, panic evident on her face.

The doctor looked perplexed, "I'm going to get Chief Hopper, he told us to report immediately if anything happened."

Breathing hard, Mike started looking round the room, finding a small trail of blood on the floor he followed it to the wardrobe in the corner of the room. Beckoning Max over, he pointed to the door, grabbed the handle and slowly pulled it towards him. Max immediately saw the contents had been pushed to one side, making a small space on the floor, except it wasn't a small space, it was instead occupied by El, her arms hugging her knees, tears falling from her eyes in fear. Max saw that she was visibly shaking, Mike obviously did too as he immediately bent down and held her in his arms.

"Hey" Max said softly, crouching next to them both and making eye contact with El, "come on, trust us, please. Mike's here, Lucas and Dustin are right outside, even Will's mom is on her way" she said, remembering all the people from the past that El would remember.

Still shaking, El tentatively took Max's hand to help her stand, Mike held the other. As they led her back into the room Mike looked at Max and nodded his appreciation. As El sat back down on the bed, Max let go of her hand and grabbed a towel from the side. El immediately missed the comfort of her hand and was glad that she hadn't gone far. As Max held the towel on El's arm, bleeding from where she'd pulled out the cannula, Mike said "El, I'm just going to find the doctor and the chief, and whoever else is now probably looking for you. Will you be ok?"

El looked at Max and nodded yes. As Mike left the room she continued to look at Max, examining her appearance. Concentrating on El's arm, Max was surprised when she felt fingers running gently through her hair. Looking at El she could see the fascination in her eyes, making her not mind the unexpected sensation and intrusion into her personal space. "Are you ok?" she asked El.

"Pretty" stated El.

Max couldn't help but blush. Being a bit of a tomboy who hung around with 4 boys most of the time she wasn't used to getting compliments, but wasn't at all immune to their effects. "Um...thanks" she replied awkwardly, receiving a small smile from El in return.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

A few minutes later, Mike returned with Nancy and the doctor in tow, closely followed a few more minutes later by Hopper, Joyce, and the rest of the gang, all eager to see El. The doctor made them wait in the family room, all except Max, who asked if she could stay, and Joyce, in place of an official parent or guardian. Mike had asked too but the doctor needed to examine El and so Nancy said to him that it was probably best that she had girls with her instead. Mike blushed and immediately agreed, "privacy" he said to El who nodded in understanding.

Once the doctor was finished examining El and taking various blood samples and measurements, he called Joyce out of the room in order to speak to her and Hopper.

El felt uneasy, the tests reminded her of the lab and the doctors in their white coats looked too much like the scientists there. Max gave her a reassuring smile, "are you ok?"

El looked down and shook her head slightly in reply.

Max took her hand again, "it'll be ok, El, I bet you'll be able to get out of here later today" she said optimistically. Max thought for a few seconds, "wait, so who will you go home with do you think?"

"Mike" El answered immediately but quietly.

Max laughed slightly, "wow, you answered that fast."

"Promise" El added. Max smiled and nodded, hoping that Mike's mom knew about this arrangement.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

While they waited for the adults to come back, the gang and Nancy filled the room and told El everything that had been happening in their lives recently. It being Hawkins it unfortunately wasn't much, but El didn't care. For the first time in over a year she felt safe, surrounded by good people that she knew and trusted, and she smiled watching Lucas and Dustin bicker about the latest comic they'd read, listening to Mike's enthusiastic D&D tales that made no sense to her at all, and finally Nancy insisting that she'll take El shopping for new clothes at the earliest opportunity. Max was holding back, watching them get reacquainted, when Will joined her.

"You ok?" she asked.

"Yeah...no...I don't know" he answered. "I've never actually met her properly" he started, "I just remember...it's more like something from a dream...an image, her voice...more like a feeling I guess" he tried to explain.

"What kind of feeling?" asked Max.

"Like...it's like a...a comforting feeling...optimistic, like everything will be ok" he said, frowning slightly as his inability to explain it properly.

"I think that's the kind of feeling she needs now" said Max, looking over at El who still had an uneasy look on her face, "I bet if you go over and say hi she'd really like that" she said.

Will looked at Max in surprise, "since when did you get all good with feelings and stuff?"

"Hey!" she replied, smacking him round the back of his head playfully, "go, before I do that for real!"

He laughed and made his way over. Max watched as he shyly introduced himself to El, who smiled at him in recognition. Max would normally have felt left out in such a situation, she was new to the group and realized that she wouldn't know all of their old friends, but for some reason she felt more than content to just watch El, how she interacted with the boys and Nancy, and, later, with the adults that she had met previously. The way she carefully watched and listened to whoever was speaking, how she showed that she hadn't understood something, which happened a lot, the moment she grasped something new, the small smiles she occasionally gave, which became more frequent as she slowly gained in confidence.

Just as she was actually beginning to feel a little excluded, El looked over at her and gave her a genuine smile, letting Max know that she appreciated everything she had done for her.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*