promise → mileven

one → hospital

hawkins, indiana. 1984, june 16th, wednesday, 5:33pm. hawkins general hospital

it had been three weeks since eleven was back from the upside down. six months since she had dissappeared. she was currently laying in a bed in a shared room in hawkins hospital, iv attatched to her arm and mike wheeler laying his head down near her legs.
no-one knew how she got back from the upside down.
one day, she had showed up at the wheeler residence's back door- well, showed up was an understatement. she somehow had gathered the energy to go from wherever the portal to the alternate dimension to the door that led to the basement. then, when mike opened the door, she fainted with a loud thud. she'd been in a coma ever since- nobody really knew what had caused it.

"it's psychological" the doctor had said "she doesnt have any injuries or illnesses that could be keeping her in a coma. she simply just doesn't want to wake up"
all they could do is wait it out and pay for physical therapy so her muscles wouldn't atrophy.

in the meantime, joyce byers and officer hop were busy creating a new home for el. joyce wanted to addopt the girl, so she was busy renovating the house, trying to get loans to renovate the house, and trying to find a steady job to pay those loans.
the boys all visited once a week, with the exception of mike. he came by every day for a few hours, but god forbid the others found out. there would be teasing aplenty.
today was one of those days where he visited alone. he'd usually tell her how his day went - he was embarrassed to seem like he talked to himself but the nurse told him that if she heard anything, it could possibly even wake her up. sometimes, he'd watch the nurse preform physical therapy on her, and on some days, he'd just hold her hand and tell her what he always wanted to say to her.
today was one of those days when he would talk about his day. he made sure to not let go of her hand, to savour the moment because he knew that when she woke up, he wouldn't have the balls to do it.

he had dozed off for a little, one arm under his head, the other not letting go of her, when he felt her move. his eyes opened instantly as he stared at their entertwined fingers.
"el?" he called out, searching for a response. at that moment, he swore she said his name. he saw her open her mouth a little, and whisper a breathless 'mike'. he waited for there to be more, but fifteen, twenty minutes became an hour, two hours and suddenly his mom was at the door, a frown on her face.
"mike! how many time did i tell you you have  to be home before dinner?"she scolded, arms crossed. "c'mon, let's go home. i know you're worried about her and i am too, but you need to see your family too" her expression softened into a small smile.
later, when they were in the car, he decided he'd tell her what had happened.
"mom, i think el moved. i-i mean i felt her fingers move and i think she said my name"
"is that so?" she smiled, keeping her eyes on the road. mike knew this meant she wasnt taking him seriously and dropped the subject.

he didn't sleep a wink that night. at 8 am, while the rest of his family was still sleeping in and enjoying their summer break, mike was heading out to visit el again- he definitely couldn't miss her waking up, and secretly, he wanted to be the first person she saw when she woke up. he put four eggos in the toaster, and when they popped out, he put two in a ziplock bag for eleven, and put syrup in between two and ate them as a sandwich as he biked down toward the hospital.
he had this feeling, the same exact feeling he had when he encountered eleven in hsi dream in some weird dark space, and she showed up at his back door later. he felt like something big was about to happen.
half an hour later, he was by her side, reading a science book mr todd had told him about. he wasn't particularly big on reading, but ever since el was back he found himself reading more and more. he definitely wasn't bored by her side- but sometimes he needed something to occupy himself with while he waited for her to be ready, to wake up.

he had just gotten back from the hospital cafeteria- that darn place was eating away all his allowance and pocket money, and the food wasn't even that good, but he didn't want to leave the building in case eleven woke up.
he was munching on the rest of the soggy, sad fries, when it happened- first, she tipped her head to one side, scrunching her nose up, then turning it to the other side. she began violently shaking her head side to side, yelling "mike, help me! mike!"
he stood up frantically, fries falling from his legs and spilling on the floor. he couldn't care less, as now he was grasping her hands in his, desperately trying to wake her up from this nightmare.
"el! el! i'm here! wake up! i'm here!" he cried amidst his tears. and suddenly he was looking into her beautiful hazel eyes and her expression softened and she smiled, and choked out a soft 'mike'
once they were done hugging each other - which was more of a 'i never ever want to be seperated from you again' type of hug - mike looked into el's eyes with worry.
"stay here el. i'll be right back. i'll just call the nurse so they can give you a checkup." he assured her, but she didn't seem so confident.
"mike, don't go" she whispered, to which he answered with a soft 'promise'.
fifteen minuets later, once the worried boy was assured that his friend was all right, they were sitting in the room once more, now waiting for joyce to arrive. she was notified first, as she was now her legal guardian.

"i'm so glad you're awake, eleven. i have a great big surprise for you." joyce stared into eleven's eyes tearily, as she told her about the changes that were to come. eleven was sitting up in her bed, mike on one side, joyce, will and jonathan on the other. hop was standing by the door, a little distanced. he didn't quite understand why the officer was there- after all, he wasn't part of the family; he also hadn't lied that he was eleven' boyfriend, like mike had done; but later on he'd understand what was going on between the two adults.
"you're going to be my daughter from now on! your last name will be byers and you can also change your first name if you want to. if you don't, that's also fine. you'll live with me in two weeks but until then, you'll stay at the wheelers." she told her, not letting go of her hand.
mike, however, was sitting wide eyed and blushing. eleven was gonna be at his house for a whole two weeks, and he won't have to hide her and make her sleep in the basement. he was so happy. he finally had the love of his life back, and nothing could seperate them.

i hope you guys liked this story so far! im really enjoying writing this and i have a bunch of ideas for more! also, fun fact: the cover is all made by me- yes, even the photo! last year at a football game the sunset was super pretty and i took a photo of it and to this day it's one of my favorite photos. anyways, i hope you guys enjoyed this and i'll be coming out with chapter 2 soon!