love ; bill denbrough

26

Cass

The losers were littered around my hospital room, all claiming spots on the floor with eachother. My mom had gone home to get us all pillows and blankets, and maybe a McDonalds. 

"Okay so everyone just wants a coke?" Richie asked, grasping the door handle. He'd agreed to go pick us up some drinks.

"Yup."

"Yes please."

"Yeah."

"I'm gonna go pee." I told them all, sitting up from my spot on the hospital bed.

"I'll g-go with." My eyebrows furrowed at Bill's statement, he seemed to notice. "I s-saw a few drunk-ken men in the waiting ro-om and I don't really want you w-wandering around al-lone."

Bill and I left, my white converse clad feet padding down the hallway, next to his much larger twin shoes. "See what I m-m-mean." Bill pointed. They sure were drunk, slurred speech and half-open eyes. He reached out, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the bathrooms. 

"I'll be out h-here if you need an-nything." He smiled, pressing a quick kiss to my forehead.

As I guessed, I didn't need assistance and after i'd dried my hands with a paper towel, I opened the door and Bill stood awaiting me. We walked hand in hand towards my room, but there was something on my mind. Something I needed to get off of my chest, Pennywise disappearing into the well.

I pulled him into a supply closet, coincidentally THE supply closet. Yeah, you know what i'm talking about. I saw a smile as he looked around, remembering the time we'd become a couple. "I need to tell you something. But I wanted to tell you before I tell the group."

"Go ahead-d." He lay a hand on my arm, calming me. If there was one thing Bill was good at it was comforting me in times when I needed it, and times when I really didn't.

"After Pennywise, after my arm," I so badly described the events of earlier, but he seemed to understand. "I followed him. I followed him down a set of stairs, behind the refrigerator, and there's a well. He went down into the well. I th-"

"You th-think we should go d-d-down the w-well." He finished.

"It's as far as we've gotten before. We could finally find them." I stated, he knew who 'they' were.

"Let's pitch this id-dea to the others." 

We both left the closet, feet clickling swiftly towards the hospital room. When we swung the door open, my mother still wasn't back, giving me god knows how little time to discuss my 'bright' idea.

:::

"And when we're down this well, and we find this 'lair' and we find all the missing kids, what then?" Richie asked, it seemed fully likely that something in this plan wouldn't work out. "Big bad Pennywise isn't just gonna let us leave."

"We'd have to kill him." Bev stated.

"Ha! A killer, outer-space clown thing. We just stabbed a pole through that things head! What are we gonna kill it with? Kindness? Oh, Pennywise, those are some lovely ruffles you're working today." Richie finished with a sassy click.

"He's right, it can't be done." Eddie shook his head, staring at no point in particular on the linoleum floor. A few moments of crushing silence followed the statement.

"We could at least try." Stan stated. "The second he gets hungry, we're lunch anyways. We either die trying or die, period."

"Not dying would be pretty fucking sick." Richie waved his hands in the air. 

"This is happening, with or without you guys. A week from now." I looked over at Billy, he nodded. "We just wanna know who's in."

My hand flew forward, Bill immediately covering it with his own.

"Cass go's, I go." Richie lay his hand on.

"I wanna see Richie get wrecked." Eddie put his hand on.

"I'll carry Eddie's second fanny pack." Stan's hand. 

"I'll carry Eddie." Mike's hand. 

"I'll find that necklace that I dropped down the sink a few months ago." Bev's hand. 

"I'll put it on for you." Ben's hand.

"Hey gang, what's happening?" My mom appeared, we all shot to our regular places in the room.

"Oh god mom, please stop with the slang." I shook my head in embarrassment, though I knew she meant no harm.

"Not my fault that i'm totally tubular, and you're just not." She pulled 2 McDonalds bags from behind her back. 

"You're the best Mrs C!" Eddie cheered, along with the rest of the 'gang'.

"Just keep it down, before you get us caught." My mom smiled, dropping a back packed with games to keep us occupied. "Cass sweets, can I talk to you for a sec?"

I followed her outside of the room and down to a quiet, empty hall. "How's your arm?" 

"It's good. Doesn't even hurt anymore." I smiled.

"That's good. How did you break it?" She asked, seeming to forget the excuse given earlier.

"I told you. I fell off my bike." I shrugged.

"Oh, yeah that's right. Now how did you actually break it?" She said with a face straighter than a plank of wood. "No bullshit excuse."

"I-I. I erm." I stuttered out, I felt like Bill.

"I trust you, and I know you did this looking for Teddy, but he's gone." She let a tear slip. "He's gone and we can't do anything."

"So you just won't try?" I asked. "You're just gonna give up on him?"

"It's not giving up, it's letting go." She sighed. "I can't spend every waking moment thinking of my little boy. I don't wanna get my hopes up, and never see him again. I feel him, everyday I feel his presence."

"I'm still going to look for him. I'm gonna find him." I told her. I sounded so certain that I almost fooled myself. I was not certain, not at all.

"Bring him home." I heard no sadness in her voice at the request, and it sounded more like a command.

A moment of silence passed as I made a silent promise to my mother, and to Teddy. Her words bounced around my head, almost chipping my skull. 'Bring him home.' I would do just that.

"I'm gonna go home tonight and leave you with your friends."

"Yeah, okay." I smiled.

We ran out into the freezing parking lot to haul our supplies for the night into my room.

"Cass," My mom started as I shivered my ass off on the car park. "Promise me you won't fall into anything. You heard about that little boy from Hawkins last year. He went missing for knowing too much, what was his name again." She clicked her fingers as if it would trigger her memory.

"Will Byers, mom. I'm not gonna do anything stupid. I promise."

"I love you." She pressed a quick kiss to my cheek. "Go on inside you're gonna freeze."

"That ships sailed," I showed my goosebumps. "I love you."

And with that she sped off the lot, I ran inside and straight to my room.

"Jesus! You smell cold!" Richie yelled, tossing a blanket at me in the doorway.

"We need to do this sooner. I'm going tomorrow."