part two
tw: slight derealization/ depersonalization !!
the trek through the woods was less than ideal for someone with only one fully functional arm, but it was somehow therapeutic. breathing in the autumn night air was so refreshing and the way the cold slightly nipped at her nose and the tips of her ears was comforting in an odd way. and although she knew his confession wasn't real, she still reached for steve's hand and held it tight when he interlaced their fingers. she knew in her head that what he had said before was just because of the moment and all the endorphins rushing through his body at the time, but she wanted to believe. so she let herself just enjoy it for now, while it lasted.
there were voices coming from beyond the trees letting them know they were almost out. but the voices were too familiar to lydia and she rushed ahead from the rest of the group, feeling the warmth of steve's hand leave hers. she emerged and saw her best friend's in front of her and sighed in relief.
"nance, jonathan!" she broke into a run and stumbled down the hill, engulfing them both in a warm hug, ignoring the dull throbbing from her arm.
"l-lydia? what are you doing here? what happened to your arm? what's going o-" the rest of the group appeared causing the questions to cease.
"steve?" the two said in disbelief.
"nancy?" he questioned, making part of lydia burn in jealousy.
"jonathan?" dustin asked.
"what are you doing here?" he asked and the older henderson had to suppress the urge to cling onto him like a child claiming what was hers, because steve did not belong to her. even if they broke up, his heart belonged to nancy. she was just a placeholder.
their conversation was interrupted when a prolonged screech was heard from the lab, drawing everyone's attention to the lights that flickered within the building. it caused shivers to crawl up and down lydia's spine and she feared the number of demogorgans that were inside the building at that moment, and the size of them. dustin had mentioned that they would molt another time before becoming full size and the chances of surviving another fight with one of them would be near impossible, let alone a pack of them.
~
nancy and jonathan had gone beyond the gate while the rest of them stayed back by the security booth waiting impatiently. after the power had returned, they feared something bad might've happened. at least, that was what lydia feared which resulted in her chewing on her nails and cuticles; a habit that she had been trying to stop to no avail.
the older teen leaned on the booth while flipping his flashlight, but he continued to look over at his best friend with worry. even in their current circumstances, he was worried about her. he started to walk over to her but the rev of an engine caught his attention. lydia stood in the middle of the road as she tried to find the source of the sound, but the headlights appeared suddenly causing her to pause like a deer caught in headlights.
"lydia!" steve pulled her into his chest as jonathan's car sped past. a tan chevy pulled up and stopped abruptly and a disheveled police chief gestured at them.
"let's go."
~
back at the byer's house, everyone reconvened. hopper was on the phone trying not to scream at the woman who clearly did not understand the urgency of their situation, jonathan and nancy were by will who was unconscious on the couch, and the kids sat at the table while lydia cleaned her arm by the sink. she winced in pain as she used soap and water to clean it up, max's green track jacket drenched in blood and tossed to the side along with her windbreaker, leaving her in her grey tank top. the gash started underneath her shoulder and traveled down her triceps and barely missed her elbow and continued all the way to the middle of her forearm. it would definitely need stitches in certain areas later on, but that was a problem for later. right now, her main goal was to avoid infection and the possibility of amputating her arm altogether.
the angle at which she had to clean her arm was unfortunate considering she had very limited visibility of the worst part of the wound, due to its placement on the posterior side of her arm. twisting her arm just caused her to hiss in pain and she was about to give up when a hand rested itself on the middle of her back.
"you can ask for help, you know." steve gently removed the towel from her hand and rinsed it before aiding her in cleaning her tricep.
"i know but everyone seemed so busy, i didn't want to bother them." she admitted, rubbing her neck in embarrassment. she had always been quite stubborn and independent, but this was quite possibly one of her top ten most stubborn moments.
"you're such a pain," he whispered, but a smile played on his lips as he said it. the rest of the time that he spent cleaning her arm up was spent in silence, but it was pleasant. no words needed to be said in that moment. once he finished wrapping her arm in gauze he patted her opposite shoulder gently. "you're all good now, superstar."
"thanks, stevie." she leaned against the countertop next to steve and zoned out as the kids talked, focusing on the cold surface on her palms and how good it felt. then warmth engulfed her knuckles and fingers and she looked down to see her best friend's hand on top of hers, their fingers now intertwined. the corners of her lips upturned slightly at the gesture and she relished the sensation of his hand on hers.
but the feeling was gone far too soon because the kids made a b-line for will's room and steve followed. they all returned almost as fast as they had left with a dnd book. dustin opened it up to a page that he had bookmarked and showed everyone the picture.
"the mind flayer."
"what the hell is that?" hopper asked with boredom and curiosity.
"it's a monster from an unknown dimension. it's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home," dustin explained. "okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly developed psionic powers."
"dust, that is just a character in dnd it's not real." his older sister sighed and leaned her forehead on nancy's shoulder.
"well, this is the best metaphor-"
"analogy." lucas interrupted.
"analogy? that's what you're worried about? okay fine, this is the best analogy for understanding whatever the hell this thing is." he was practically yelling at this point. lydia reached out and put her hand on his shoulder to tell him to relax a bit.
"okay, so this mind flamer thing-" nancy started but was interrupted by dustin.
"flayer. mind flayer." nancy merely sighed in response.
"what does it want?"
"to conquer us basically, it believes it's the master race."
"like the germans?" steve interjected causing lydia to choke on her spit.
"you mean the nazis?" she asked after recovering. he looked at her in a mild panic.
"yeah, yeah, the nazis." the rest of the conversation passed in a blur to lydia. there was something about summoning an undead army and then hopper said that his military backup was coming but he didn't sound very sure and mike came to the conclusion that they would use will to find out how to kill the mind flayer.
which is how lydia ended up scouring the entirety of the byer's house for as much spare newspaper as she could. she looked out the window to the backyard and saw steve and nancy in the shed talking and it took everything in her not to cry at that moment. she didn't want to come between them, but the feelings she had for him were undeniable. and if she had to watch them get back together, she wasn't sure if she would be able to take it.
"hey, what happened to your arm?" jonathan asked, surprising her. she jumped a little and tore her gaze away from the window, allowing herself to be distracted by the conversation.
"oh um, demogorgan scratched it pretty bad in the junkyard. it's all good now but i should probably get some stitches when this is all over." she joked lightly but the pain in her heart did not go unnoticed by her friend.
"um, o-okay, what happened to you? why do you look so sad?" lydia attempted a smile but the second jonathan pulled her into a much-needed hug she started crying.
"lawrie cheated on me with steph, dustin's baby demogorgan ate my cat, steve kissed me but said it didn't mean anything, i passed out in the junkyard after almost getting my arm ripped off, and steve confessed his love for me. but i know he has feelings for nancy still and i don't know what i'll do with myself if they get back together because i realized, i love him." the past week had been extremely emotionally and mentally tolling for lydia and she missed hanging out with jonathan so much that being with him in the moment just flooded her with every emotion she had felt in the last few days.
"oh, wow, i'm-i'm so sorry. i'm sorry i wasn't here for you when all of this happened, i wish i was. but it's almost over. it's gonna be over soon. and then we'll figure everything out, okay?" he held her face gently with his hands and helped wipe some of the tears that fell. she nodded weakly and he gave her one last hug before they went out to the shed to help the others. they spent the next hour making the shed look completely unrecognizable to will. there were many staples and rolls of duct tape involved in the process but when they finished there was no way he would know where he was. hopefully.
hopper, joyce, jonathan, and mike were the only ones allowed in the shed with will so the others waited in the house idly. at the kitchen table, dustin was forcing lydia to drink orange juice to help with the blood loss she experienced earlier but she was so out of it. she seemed so disconnected from her place at the table. it felt like she was playing a video game from someone else's point of view or she was watching a movie through another person's eyes. almost as if her surroundings were no longer her own.
even as the lights flickered and everyone ran to the windows to try and catch a glimpse of what was happening in the small shed, lydia stayed in her seat. she tried to do the things that her mom had taught her when she felt like this. deep breaths. touch something that is in front of her so she knows it's real. hold herself so she knows that she is real. but it wasn't working this time. with shaky legs she stood up and went to the bathroom and sat on the cold floor, refusing to look in the mirror out of fear that she might not recognize who she was looking at. the commotion that was coming from the kitchen felt miles away and all that could be heard was the echo of screeching demogorgans that resonated in her head.
"it's all in my head. they're not here." she whispered as she pressed her forehead against the cold tiles of the byer's bathroom. there were bigger things happening right now. will, was happening right now. so why did this have to be happening at this very moment? why did her brain have to be her worst enemy when everyone needed to be helping out?
not now. please, not now.
~
everyone sat at the table as they tried to collectively crack the morse code that hopper was relaying to them, but only one person noticed the absence of a certain henderson. there were more than enough helpers at the table, so steve slipped away for a moment and began to search the house for lydia. he checked the living room, the bedrooms, and when he went to open the bathroom door he heard whimpers. pressing his ear to the door, he could hear faint sobs.
"i am here. i am here. please don't do this. not now. please." she begged. he knocked on the door lightly and opened it slowly. the heels of her palms were pressed into her eyes as she sat against the wall and tried to stop the tears that disobeyed her commands and rolled down her cheeks.
"hey, liddybug. what's going on? why are you here?" his voice was low and soft, the way he knew to talk to her when she got too overwhelmed.
"you need to go help the others. you can't be here with me." she held her arm up to keep him away and to hide her face, but he gently pushed it down.
"they'll be fine without me. just tell me what's going on right now." taking a seat next to her, he placed his hand on her knee to let her know he was there.
"tell me that this is real. tell me that this is real life." she lifted her head and looked at him and all he could see was fear and pain. it shattered him.
"this is real. i'm real," he took one of her hands and guided it to sit on his chest. "that's my heartbeat. seems pretty real to me." he then guided her hand to her chest.
"and that's your heartbeat. because you're real too," he moved her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ears so he could see her properly. "and as crazy as it might seem, a girl as beautiful as you is real. you're right here with me."
A/N: i have work tomorrow but this chapter wasn't going to let me rest until i wrote it so HERE. i'll fix it later, i'm going to bed -_- zzz.