YOUR SONG | steve harrington

068

TWO DAYS LATER
*mention of ed in this chapter*

"Hey, Nance!" Mrs. Wheeler called out as she stepped outside of her home carrying a box full of old things, forcing a smile onto her face. "I found some more of your old stuff in the attic."

Nancy walked over before she gasped and picked up a stuffed bunny. "Mr. Rabbit," she said, remembering how much she and Chris would fight over him.

"It's okay if you wanna save him, you know. For when Chris wakes up," Mrs. Wheeler told her daughter since they had just come back from the hospital a few hours before, receiving the news that Chris probably wasn't going to wake up anytime soon unless there was a miracle.

Nancy frowned softly, not knowing if that would actually happen or not. "Yeah. That's a good idea," she replied, taking Mr. Rabbit out of the box before she moved the box into the car where they had been loading it up with old stuff to bring to the donation center at the high school.

A pizza van then began to pull up. "Did someone order a pizza?" Beverly asked, making everyone look where she had been staring.

"Pizza?" Dustin said in confusion as the horn blared, parking in front of the driveway.

A guy with long, dark hair stepped out of the car first before Mike Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Will Byers, and Jane Hopper, aka Eleven, got out with smiles on their faces. Everyone's mouths dropped, their own grins forming before they rushed towards each other, getting ready to envelop everyone in their arms.

"Mom!" Mike called out before he wrapped his mother in a hug.

"Hey!" Jonathan said to Nancy, immediately going over to her and lifting her up off her feet. Dustin hugged Will and Eleven, a smile on his face for the first time ever since that fateful night.

"You are never going on vacation again, you hear me? In fact, you can forget about college. You are staying right here," Mrs. Wheeler told him as she tried to stop herself from crying.

Mike just smiled and hugged his mom again before he realized that his older brother was nowhere in sight. "Hey, where's Chris?" he questioned, pulling away. Mrs. Wheeler's eyes darkened, glancing away from her son as she figured out how to try to break the news to him about his brother.

Beverly smiled as she went over to Eleven, wrapping her in a hug. "It's so nice to see you. You're even prettier than the last time I saw you," Beverly told her, wanting to keep a positive attitude so she didn't break down. But she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep that attitude before completely falling apart.

"Not with this hair," Eleven shook her head.

"Stop it. You're pretty with and without a lot of hair, okay? You probably make Mike nervous every time he sees you," Beverly said, which made Eleven chuckle softly and embarrassedly.

"Hey, kid," Steve greeted and Eleven waved at him sweetly.

"Where's Lucas?" Will asked Dustin after he had looked around and noticed some of their friends weren't there.

"He's at the hospital," Dustin answered.

"Was he hurt?" Eleven questioned in concern.

"No. No, he's...Oh God. You don't know," Dustin realized, looking over at Beverly and Steve, who both shared a melancholic glance.