Reap What You Sow

The Ones Who Never Fail to Give

"Mike!"

Mike turned and smiled at him; he and Bill were currently huddled around the kitchen sink. "Hey Richie."

"What is suddenly so interesting about the sink?" Richie asked, hopping up on the counter. He peered inside and saw a few seeds scattered around. "Seeds? You gonna grow flowers in the sink, or? —"

Neither Bill nor Mike laughed at his stupid joke—tough crowd, he needed to go find Eddie as soon as possible.

"No, I'm just sorting through the vegetable seeds I brought. Which I'm going to grow in a gardening box once I was build one." He paused, smiling brightly at Richie. "You should help me with that, actually!"

"Me?" Richie asked with a laugh. "I'm down I guess, but why not Billiard?"

Bill looked at Mike expectantly, who just laughed nervously. "Uh..."

"Cause you don't trust him with a hammer, got it." Richie said, sliding off the counter.

Bill gasped, and Mike just laughed—but he definitely didn't deny it either. Instead, he rested a hand on Richie's shoulder before he could walk off. "It'll also be nice to spend some time together."

Richie smiled softly in return. "I'd like that. But come on, let's not get too sappy about it." He patted Mike's hand softly and continued on his way, calling over his shoulder as he went. "I'll be here when ya need me, Mikey!"

"Mikey!?"

Richie really couldn't afford to be looking over his shoulder right now, but no one was answering him. Not Bill or Eddie, and definitely not Mike.

He didn't have a chance to look at the wound; he had seen the Them slash at him, but that was about it. He had no idea how bad it was and not one of them was telling him what was going on—the only sound coming from back there at all was Bill, sobbing and shouting. It made Richie's stomach drop.

As for the monster front, they weren't inflicting much damage, but it was enough to keep the beast stumbling. If nothing else, it wasn't exactly fond of all of them coming at it at once—especially its face, it stepped back to cover it each time. "Think you guys can handle it for a few minutes?" he glanced at his bat, which was on the verge of snapping in half anyway.

"We'll be fine, we'll just keep aiming for the eyes until Stan can do what he needs to." Bev said, more fire in her eyes than in her hands. "Go see what's going on."

Richie nodded, wasting no time in running back to the others. Eddie was just sitting there, trembling, completely out of it—he looked like he'd seen a ghost, or worse. "Hey!" Richie said, kneeling and grabbing his shoulders firmly—Eddie flinched like he'd been broken out of a trance. "Eds, what the hell is going on?"

Eddie's face twisted into something agonizing, glancing over at Bill and Mike.

"Shit," Richie cursed when he saw all the blood—it was everywhere. Bill's hands were covered in it, he must've been pressing on the wound at some point, but now he was just holding Mike's face—smearing blood there as well. It took Richie a moment to realize Bill was muttering apologies.

Richie knelt beside them. "Bill? How's he doing?"

Bill screwed his eyes shut and shook his head, hunching over Mike in his lap. Mike wasn't reacting at all. "Is he unconscious?" Richie asked with rising hysteria. There was no way it could be anything else, he had to be fine.

Bill was an absolute mess; Richie wasn't going to be getting any answers from him. And when he looked back at Eddie, he was just standing there with his hands over his mouth, crying.