-Authors note: this chpt will be written in third person because Joy is... Asleep-
Once the ambulance finally arrived, they loaded Joy inside. Steve tried to fight to go in the ambulance with her, but the paramedics wouldn't let him. Steve and the kids followed behind in Jakes car.
They told Hopper what happened through the walkie talkie so him and El were on the way too. When they arrived, Steve ran out of the car as they put Joy in the stretcher. "She's lost a lot of blood" one of the paramedics said.
"What does that mean? Will she be okay?" Steve questioned. "Sir, we need you to back up whilst we bring her into surgery" one of them said. "No, bullshit! I'm staying" he shouted. They argued back and forth as they ran through the hospital hall.
They told Steve he had to wait in the waiting room like everyone else even though he protested. He gave in after a long screaming match with the doctors.
Everyone sat down impatiently waiting for any updates. "What the hell happened? Where is she?" Hopper exclaimed as he barged into the waiting room.
"Are you a parent?" one of the doctors asked. "Yeah i'm her dad" he said. "Okay. Little girl, i need you to wait over there with your friends, okay?" the doctor said to El. "I'm her sister" she mumbled. The doctor sighed as he pulled them out of the room.
"She's lost a lot of blood and she's in surgery now" the doctor said. "What does that mean?! Will she be okay or not?!" Hopper shouted. "We don't know yet, sir. All we can do it wait now" he said.
Hopper groaned as he walked back into the waiting room. "What did they say?" Mike asked. Hopper sat down and put his head in his hands. "Surgery. She's in surgery" El said. "What do we do?" Steve asked. "We wait."
It was a couple of hours before the doctor walked in. Everyone stood up waiting for him to say something. "The surgery went well. But i'm afraid she's lost a lot of blood. We had to put her in an induced coma. It's out of our hands now" he said.
"Can i see her?" Hopper asked. "Yes. But only family." Steve scoffed as he walked back to his seat. Hopper and El made their way into the hospital room as they saw Joy lying in the bed.
She had tubes in her nose and a needle in her arm. "Jesus" Hopper mumbled. He sat in the chair next to the bed and held her hand. Eleven sat at the bottom of her bed just staring at her.
A couple of days had past, and Hopper and El were in and out of the hospital. Joy was stable, but they still wouldn't know when or if she would wake up.
Joyce and Hopper walked into the hospital. Joyce was worried about Joy once Hopper had told her what had happened. They began talking to the doctor.
As they were speaking, Hopper eyes drifted from the doctor to the waiting room. He saw Steve asleep on the chair with flowers in his hands. "Has he been here all day?" he asked. The doctor looked over.
"He's been here all week."
Hopper let out a small sigh. He walked over and gave him a light tap. Steve jolted up. "You can go home kid. I'm here now. I'll give you updates if anything changes" he said. "No it's fine. I have no where else to be so" Steve said.
"Why don't you go into the room?" he asked. "I asked but they keep saying it's only family allowed in" he said. Hopper nodded his head as he looked around the room.
"Well, i'm talking to the doctor to see if there's any updates... I'm pretty sure that the rest of the doctors are on break. So hypothetically, if anyone was to go into Joys room, none of the doctors would know" Hopper said as he put a cigarette in between his teeth.
Steve was confused. "Do you understand me?" Hop asked. "Not really" Steve replied. "Jesus kid, go in there and i'll keep the doctors distracted. Go!" Hopper exclaimed in annoyance. Steve got up quickly as he was a small bit of afraid of Hopper... Only a small bit.
As Hopper walked back to the doctor, Steve walked cautiously to Joys room. Once he got in there, he locked the door quickly. He took a deep exhale as he saw Joy lying in the bed.
He looked around at all the balloons and chocolates surrounding her bed. "Wow, they don't know you at all, do they?" he mumbled looking at the presents.
He put the flowers down on the table next to her. He sat down on the chair next to the bed. "Why didn't you just tell me?" he said. "I would've turned right back."
"I guess that's why you didn't tell me, huh? Selfish bastard" he said with a sad laugh. His laugh faded as he realised he was taking to himself. He grabbed her hand and kissed her fingers. "You have to wake up" he mumbled.
"You have too."
One Month Later:
Tonight was the night. Tonight was the night everyone had been waiting for, for months. The night of the snowball.
"Hopper, where is my dress?" El asked. "Em... Joyce dropped it off and i'm trying to figure out how this goes on" he said looking at the dress. El tried to help him. "What about my makeup?" she asked. "Makeup?! Why would you need makeup?" he exclaimed.
"Joy wears makeup" she said. Hopper groaned. "Your not wearing the same makeup as Joy. No way. You can have a small bit and that's it" he said. She rolled her eyes. "Did you just roll your eyes at me?" he asked. "God, what has Joy done to you" he said. She let out a sad laugh.
"I miss her" she mumbled.
Hopper sighed. "I miss her too kid" he said. Meanwhile, the rest of the kids were also getting ready. Steve told Dustin what he uses in his hair so Dustin thought he'd give it a try.
Once Dustin had gotten ready, Steve picked him up to bring him to the dance. When they got there, Steve saw Dustin looking at himself in the mirror.
"Hey!" Steve said putting up the mirror. "You look great, okay? You look... Great. Now your going to go in there, look like a million bucks. And you're gonna slay em dead " he said.
"Like a lion" Dustin said as he rolled his tongue. Steve gave him an awkward smile. "Yeah... Don't do that."
"Oh, okay" Dustin said. "You can call me if anything goes wrong on the pay phone, alright?" Steve said. He put out his hand and Dustin shook it. "Good luck" he said.
Dustin fixed his suit one last time before he made his way inside. "Holy shit, what happened to your hair?!" all his friends exclaimed. "What do you mean 'What happened'?" Dustin asked.
"Your hair!" Max said with a laugh. "Is there a bird nesting in there?" Lucas questioned as he touched his hair. "No! There's no bird nesting in here, asshole?! I worked hard!" Dustin snapped.
Suddenly, they all stopped as a slow song began playing. Lucas took a deep breath in. "Max. Hey... It's nice, right? Do you want to maybe... Just me and you?" he asked. "Are you asking me to dance, stalker?" Max questioned.
"No!... Unless you want to" Lucas said. "So smooth" Max said dragging him to the dance floor. Dustin face dropped. "Hey zombie boy! Do you you want to dance?" a girl asked.
"Umm... I don't... Um... I mean, sure" Will said with a stammer. Dustin shook of his disappointment of not dancing with Max as he looked around the dance floor. "Wish me luck Mike. I'm going in" he said going up to a pretty girl.
"Stacy?" he said. The girl ignored him. "Stacy?" he said louder. The girl stopped taking as she looked him up and down. "What?" she asked. "Shall we?" Dustin said putting out his hand.
"No thanks" she said as all her friends laughed and walked away. Dustin took a deep breath as he began waking up to another girl. She walked away before he could even ask.
Dustin looked around at everyone dancing realising he had no one else to ask. He ran outside and grabbed the pay phone. "Steve? Steve? Can you... Can you come get me?" he asked.
As all the commotion with Dustin began happening, Mike sat down at an empty table as he waited for El.
He stood up quickly as he saw El walk through the door. She was wearing one of Joyce's old dresses. She had pink lipgloss, light pink eyeshadow on and her hair was done nicely.
Her face lit up as she saw Mike. She began walking towards him. "You look beautiful" he said. El blushed as she looked down. "Do you want to dance?" he asked.
"I don't know how" she said. "I don't either. Do you want to figure it out?" he asked. She nodded as she smiled. They made their way onto the dance floor as they tried their best to dance.
As everyone was dancing, Steve barged into the dance looking around for Dustin. His anxious expression faded away as he saw him dancing with Nancy. He took a deep breath out.
"Steve?" a voice called out from behind him.
He looked behind him. His face lit up. Joy stepped out from behind the table. "Your out of hospital" he said with a soft smile. "Yeah, i was let out today" she said.
"Good... How do you feel?" he asked. "I feel good. I feel rested." "You should be... After a month of sleep" he said sarcastically. "Hah. Funny" i replied as i rolled my eyes.
"I was going to go see you but i had to get El ready for the dance. She wanted her makeup done and apparently she missed having me around so."
"Yeah... She's not the only one." I smirked. "Are you going soft on me, Harrington?" i asked. "Now you've gone and ruined it" he said putting his hands on his hips.
"You free tonight?" i asked. "I mean, i was here to get Dustin but it seems like he's having fun" he said pointing to the dance floor. I laughed.
"We'll come on then. I'm hungry and i could go for some popcorn" i said as we walked out of the hall. "Do you want to go see a movie?" he asked.
"Sure. Wait... Which one? I'm not watching any of your shitty zombie movies" i said. "'Indiana Jones'?" he suggested. I groaned as i got into his car.
"God please no." "Fine! What about... 'Runaway'?" he suggested. "Okay, i'm picking the movie" i snapped. Steve rolled his eyes. "I'm so glad your back out of that coma. Not at all disappointed."
"Ohh! What about 'Splash'?!" i exclaimed in excitement as i ignored him. "What's that?" he asked. "You'll love it. Now, drive!" i said. He sighed as he started the car.
I looked through all the disks in his car. A smirk came over my face as i found the perfect one. "It's been a long long time" began playing. "Again? Seriously? This is all i played while you were in that stupid coma" he moaned.
"Well to bad i couldn't hear it" i said. I smiled. "Thanks for the flowers by the way" i said looking out the window. "What?" he said with an awkward laugh.
"I didn't get you any flowers?! What!?" he said. "My dad told me... You have gone soft" i said with a smirk. "Fine! I wanted to do a nice thing for a friend. Kill me!" he snapped.
I let out a loud laugh and continued to make fun of him as we drove to the movie house. "Oh yea, did you hear?" i questioned. "Hear what?"
"About the new mall opening up in town" i said. "A mall?" he questioned. "We should get jobs because you know, you'll obviously be bored since your probably not going to get into college."
"Your so funny, Hopper. Seriously. Laughing my ass off right now" he snapped. I had a month of bullying to catch up on.
And i have never been happier to do it.