Shattered ~ Steve Harrington (4)

five: arrested development

    Dustin seemed to understand what she meant whenever she spoke just by looking at her face. While Max hadn't said the name, her guarded expression said everything he needed to know. She thought they should bring Kate into it, and she didn't even want to attempt saying the K-word considering how Steve reacted every time her name was said.

    When Robin looked at Steve expectantly, almost like she felt bad for him, he chuckled warningly. "We're not bringing Kate into this. Absolutely not. You guys need to leave her alone, okay, she's..."

    Steve knew the chances of Kate coming back to Hawkins were extremely low, if they were even that lucky. There wasn't any reason for her to come back, especially not if there was something wrong like there was right now.

    "You say that like we bother her in the first place," Dustin replied bitterly, not pleased with his answer. "Also, why are you the one vetoing this shit? Aren't you, like, still obsessed with her or something?"

    Robin stifled a laugh when Steve started scolding the kids in the back. "That is not true."

    "Dustin, don't you remember?" Max replied sarcastically, smiling as she spoke. "Mom and Dad got divorced months ago and he got the kids."

    "All right, shut up, okay? That's enough," Steve said. He hated when they called him Mom and Dad, mostly because he was Mom and Kate was Dad. "Kate and I didn't get divorced—"

    "No, she just dumped you."

    He glared at both Steve and Max in the back. "Do you guys wanna walk the rest of the way to this place, or...?"

    "No," both kids replied from the back quickly. They both did not want to walk multiple miles to the house Eddie was hiding in.

    "Then drop it. No one reaches out to her, okay? Nobody. Got it?"

    And with that, Robin, Dustin, and Max dropped the idea of letting her know that their interdimensional troubles were far from over.

    Steve felt like he owed her that, at least. Sparing her from anything else happening, more specifically to her. He didn't think it was fair to ask her to help them with something like this after what she'd given up over the years. He wasn't blind to her pain, nor had he ever been. He had seen what the nightmares were like, what the episodes were like, but worst of all, he watched her slip away from everyone, including him over time. He figured that's what someone sacrificing their life for you did; not only that but losing their father, too.

The image everyone else had of Kate versus the one he had was completely different: of course she was awesome, and yes, she could've helped them much more than most anyone else could, but he wouldn't let her get involved again. He wouldn't put her through it again, nor would he let anyone try to. Not when she was moving on with her life.

It wasn't like he wasn't happy for her. He was glad that she was still getting to go to school, get her degree like she'd always dreamed of. He hoped that she was top of her class, knocking everyone into submission with her grades. If she was doing good that way, maybe she was making connections, enough to eventually get her an internship or something. He hoped that some rich boy with a future had started dating her, one that was helping take care of all those things for her so she didn't have to go through it alone. His heart ached at the thought of her doing it all by herself like she had been last fall. Steve wished he could have helped her, but the chances of getting Kate to talk to him at all were low, never mind about something like helping her pay for college. He hoped, most of all, though, that she was happy.

Steve had to live with the fact that Kate Hopper would be forever out of reach: maybe it was a divorce.

By the time they made it back to the boathouse at Reefer Rick's, Dustin didn't even knock on the door whenever he pushed the door open, giving Eddie a good scare as he held groceries up for him to view. "Delivery service!"