Legendary | s. harrington (18+)

chapter twenty

"I could've made it." Evelyn turned her head to face Max now that the car was stationary. Steve's vision was still impaired but improving and he had his arms wrapped around the kids having thought they were going to die. Evelyn was always calm around the kids, the friendly one who was there for them when they needed help. She never shouted, never judged them. She gave them advice. But not this time, and so the tone of her voice naturally demanded everyone to listen and it was impossible not to obey.

"No. You couldn't have. What the hell were you thinking?" Everyone fell silent.

"I wanted to leave you there!"

"We obviously wouldn't have though-" Dustin tried to add in quickly.

"And why's that? Hmm?" Evelyn looked to the kids in the back of the car quickly but visibly cringed from the pain in her head. "Because you all knew we wouldn't let you? So you knew this was wrong." Max's mouth gaped open and she looked around incredulously as if she were being crazy.

"We had to-" Evelyn turned to Mike.

"No. You didn't have to do anything. You should've waited for one of us to wake up. You promise us you won't do this again. We're responsible for you lot. Do you know what that means?" The kids wouldn't raise their eyes to her.

"We didn't have time!" Mike still shouted, "we had too-" Evelyn wafted her hand in the air in dismissal. More calmly and more understandingly she nodded.

"Yes, I know. Eleven and Hopper." But then the terrifying sternness came back. "But next time, you wait. Deal?" She looked around the car despite the pain. The kids were silent, mouths open from Evelyn's unexpectedness and gulping, they nodded. "Good. Out the car." And the sound of clicking locks showed the four doors opening. It was then, having scolded her children for their behaviour, Evelyn finally saw Steve. She leant back against the passenger door with an exhausted moan. She sighed, closing her eyes and felt those black and white dots behind her eyelids make her dizzy. His face was swollen and purple, blood littered all over it. There wasn't a feature that wasn't beaten badly but Evelyn felt sick. She pushed open her door and gagged. When she coughed over the muddy grass below she realised she hadn't questioned where, in fact, they were.

The kids were all out the car. Evelyn looked up through the nighttime and her eyebrows furrowed.  She dragged herself up when she watched Dustin put a snorkelling mask over his face and she put out her hand.

"Hey?" Steve clambered our the car too, forcing himself out having heard Evelyn's panic, he scanned the sea for the children as soon as possible. "Hey! What're you doing?"

"I thought we were all good now?" It was Lucas, wrapping a bandana over his face.

"I-I what is?-I didn't mean-" Mike knocked shoulders with her on the way past.

"Hey, where do you think you're going!?" Steve was demanding from between two doors, needing to lean on them to stand. "Are you deaf, hello?!" He had a can of gasaoline. "We're not going down there right now, I made myself clear!" It was Steve's turn to sound stern but he only sounded infuriated.

"Mom, Dad's shouting again!" Evelyn spun to Lucas, scoffing and angry. They were barely batting an eyelid at them. How hard could it be to control five children?

"Lucas! No - we're not doing this-"

"This ends right now!" Steve stormed to the boot, grabbing hold of one of the scarfs the kids brought with them.

"Steve. I get it. You're upset." Evelyn was looking at him with crossed arms, Dustin was arguably the only one they could get through too. "But the bottomline is a party member requires our assistance and it's is our duty to provide that assistance. Now, you promised Nance you'd keep us safe." Dustin grabbed Steve's rucksack from the boot, his bat already inside it. "So keep us safe." Evelyn shook her head as Dustin made his way past Steve and Steve put his hand on the bag.

"No." Steve looked at the bat with a frown. "We're not doing this. Tell me we're not?" Steve looked at Evelyn exhausted through his swollen eyes. He was regretful and Evelyn groaned. She looked into the boot and grabbed a scarf and a bandana. She shoved it towards Steve but was careful not to touch him, knowing he'd be in pain. She huffed but then she frowned. It tugged both her lips downwards. Somehow, she'd leant close to him in her worry as her eyes washed over his bloodied face. Steve sighed as he now saw the damage on her skin; the dried blood around her nose and around her mouth and the bruise flowering over the arch of her nose and under her right eye.

"Oh, Steve." She whispered it but not really in his direction. Her fingertips ghosted the purple and black ringlets overlapping around his face and her teeth grazed her bottom lip. His eyes watched her split mouth, his head hanging from the weight of his wounds. She pouted and ran a featherlight touch over his lips. Her doe eyes searched for some skin that was not broken or bruised but she was unsuccessful and anyone could have seen the pain in her gaze. "Your face." She whimpered, and some how his hand was resting on her hip. His heavy stare snagged on the brown crusted blood covering the pink of her Cupid's bow while he tried to look back at the children. He sighed again, knowing it had been his fist that put it there. He didn't know why but his mind entered turmoil at the thought. His fingers brushed against hers. He took hold of them and ran his thumb regretfully over her pink knuckles stained with Billy's blood.

"I'm sorry." He muttered in a voice lower than a whisper, his words stained with guilt but Evelyn merely shook her head. She smiled a dismissive and light smile that ached from the bruising on her face. His delicate hold on her fingers as he ran his touch over them was surprisingly unknown to them both. Both exhausted with the fatigue of a fight, they just stood there, breathing in the air and savouring a moment in which they could just stop from the warmth of each other. No demodogs, no death, no crippling panic while the end of the world neared them. Just them, no longer strangers, and the dull ache from their defeat. It lasted less than half a minute though, so neither of them were able to acknowledge the moment they were blessed with. Evelyn sighed and his hand slipped away from its home on her hip. She only noticed then that his bloodied fingers had rested there when the absence of them made her shiver. Her head heavy with a beating, she sadly thought nothing of it and wondered sleepily ahead towards where the kids had gathered. Steve could see clotted blood matting her hair and he sighed.