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𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔 couldn't hear.
Caroline got stuck in her head a lot more often, now, with nothing to distract her. Everything was muffled and quiet, and so goddamn lonely that it left her in tears sometimes.
She spent a lot of time laying in bed, curled underneath the covers. The radio would sit on her nightstand, playing songs she couldn't hear, for hours and hours until the time blended together.
Then Will would come sit next to her, pull her into his arms, and hold her as tears dripped over her nose.
At least with Will, they didn't really have to speak. He knew what she was thinking before even she did.
The bond between them was stronger than ever. That, at least, the Monster hadn't stolen from her.
Her Mom treated her like a porcelain doll, trying to help her do everything. Get dressed, walk around the yard when she needed to get out of the house- she even wanted to help her go to the bathroom once. When Caroline finally snapped and yelled at her- louder than she'd intended, because ha, she couldn't hear- Joyce had backed off and left her alone, tears in her eyes.
Jonathan started taking up extra shifts. He was barely home anymore, and when he was, he rarely looked at her. Like he couldn't handle the reality of it- like if he actually slowed down a minute to actually take her in, it would become real.
Olivia had started sleeping outside her and Will's bedroom door, as if she could protect them from the threat that wasn't even there anymore. She spent most of her time with El, who came over a lot now, with Hopper.
God, El.
When Caroline had woken up and Joyce had told her the news, she didn't believe it. She'd watched her die- there was no way.
And the fact that Hopper had been hiding her the whole time-
Caroline had been so overwhelmed that she'd only been able to cling to El and cry. She was so different now- more confident, a little bit taller- but still the El Caroline had loved so dearly. Having her back... Caroline couldn't explain her joy.
That joy disappeared into anxiety when Lucas came to see her the second she'd been given the all-clear by Joyce.
Caroline had locked him out of the room, her breath catching in her throat, because he couldn't see her like this. Not when she couldn't hear him anymore- not after finding out what he'd gone through in that lab to save her.
Lucas visited her every single day after school, sitting outside her bedroom and begging for her to come out. She watched his shadow outside the door, praying he'd leave, that he'd realize she was too much to handle.
But Lucas, being the saint he was, never gave up on her. For the next two weeks, he left a stick of beef jerky outside her bedroom door, sometimes slipping a small piece of paper underneath for her to read.
