Broken & Pretty..Steve Harrington

059.

C L O C K W O R K

⇾world's smallest violin by ajr

so if i do not find somebody soon, i'll blow up into smithereens

⸺AFTER the incident in the Harrington and Henderson household, Tiffany had been acting very slow. She had woken up in the morning like nothing happened, but she said she could hear this high pitched ringing sound, much like when the Mind Flayer was in control. Tiffany could also hear these whispers and she was pretty sure that there were three voices, but she wasn't certain. Steve had told Tiffany everything she said and she honestly didn't remember saying anything, but they both agreed that this wasn't a good sign.

Even with her scolding headache, Tiffany was called down to a trailer park this morning for her job. She was told about the case and informed about everything, but there were no witnesses for the crime, so she didn't have to sketch anything. After Hopper was gone, Officer Callahan and Powell offered Tiffany a job as a sketch artist since they knew, from Hopper, that she was skilled and interested in police work. It also helped that Tiffany needed a new job anyway and she already knew most of the people who worked there.

Tiffany had gotten off early since she wasn't needed for this specific case, so as per usual, she stopped by Steve and Robin's work. They weren't actually open yet, but they always let Tiffany in early since she's never actually buying anything, just hanging out.

Tiffany had just gotten to Family Video and her head was still pounding. She knocked on the front door and Steve quickly let her in. As soon as the door was open, Tiffany stepped in and wrapped her arms around Steve's waist. She mumbled into his chest, "My head hurts."

"From yesterday?" Steve asked as he hugged her back. Tiffany nodded her head before looking up at Steve. "I keep hearing whispers and it's really annoying."

"Maybe try to distract yourself. There's some paper and a few pens behind the desk if you wanna draw something." Steve suggested before kissing the tip of her nose. Tiffany smiled and walked over to the desk. Robin was standing behind the desk and as soon as she Tiffany, they did their little handshake. "Hey, T. Steve told me what happened last night."

"Yeah, I was going to tell you if he didn't." Tiffany informed as she grabbed the paper and pen. "I don't know what it means, but hopefully it isn't anything supernatural." Robin hoped. Tiffany tensed at the mention of the word supernatural because she refused to believe that that nightmare could ever come back again. Even if it could.

Tiffany began drawing anything that came to her mind while Robin and Steve were having a conversation about Robin's new crush. Tiffany couldn't really hear them since her focus was on her drawings and everything seemed to fade away. It was shocking that she couldn't hear them since Robin was doing her rambling thing again. "Then Vicky laughed. And it wasn't like a cheap, fake laugh either. It was like...It was a real, genuine laugh."

"Of course. It's my Muppet joke. It's hilarious." Steve pointed out. "My point is that Vicky laughed and everything was just like...it was perfect."

"But?" Steve knew that there had to be more to this rant since Robin never rants unless she's nervous. "But I'm having this problem where it's like, I should stop talking. I have said everything I need to say. But then I guess I get nervous, and the words keep spilling out, and it's like my...my brain is moving faster than my mouth, or...or rather my-my mouth is moving faster than my brain. I'm digging this hole for myself, and I want to stop digging, I'm trying to stop, but I can't. And I'm doing it right now, aren't I?"

"Yeah, you are." Robin sighed and leaned against the wall on the opposite end of the store from where Tiffany was sitting. "Oh, I'm hopeless."

Steve joined her and sighed as well. "We both are."

Robin knew what he was referring to and felt bad that Steve still hadn't worked up the courage to ask Tiffany a certain question. "Still can't do it?"

Steve let out a breath of air which caused the hair in front of his face to fly up slightly. He lowered his voice so Tiffany wouldn't hear him. "It's scary. I mean, I know she'll say yes, but...I don't know. Tiff's just been through so much, I mean, Barb, Will, Jonathan, Cory, Hopper and Billy are all gone and now she's got this weird possession thing. I just don't know if making such a big change is a good idea. Even if it's a good change."

"Obviously I don't know Tiffany as well as you do, but I think this may be something that actually makes things better. Look at her, she's been miserable for months." Steve looked over at Tiffany who was just intently drawing. Tiffany used to smile all the time. When they moved in together, when they got their promise rings, whenever she called Will, whenever she was painting, whenever her brother would come to visit. For a month, just after Billy and Cory died, Tiffany was very happy. She was in denial. She refused to believe that her best friends were gone, she refused to believe that her father figure was dead and she refused to be sad. It wasn't until she had her first nightmare that Tiffany actually started acting normal. Now she's been in this self hatred sort of spiral that she can't escape.

Steve missed the smiles on her face. Of course, there were little moments where she was happy, but he knew that deep town, Tiffany wasn't happy. Really one of the only things keeping her going was being with Steve.

"I know, I should just do it. But it has to be special." Robin nodded her head. "I agree."

"Steve!" They suddenly heard Tiffany call out and he and Robin went over to her. When they were close enough, Tiffany asked, "What's the name of that twelfth grader that Dustin hangs out with?"

"Eddie Munson." Steve grimaced. It was so obvious that Steve was jealous that Dustin had an older friend that wasn't him, but they just sort of let him hate Eddie. Tiffany cursed under her breath which only confused the other two more. "What is it?"

"I probably shouldn't say anything, but it'll be on the news soon enough. But I just got back from a crime scene where this girl named Chrissy Cunningham was killed in Eddie's trailer. It was horrifying, I mean, her eyes were exploded and pushed into her head, her bones were bent the ways that bones were not meant to bend and she looked like a rag doll. But they think that Eddie killed her. So I don't love the fact that Dustin may be friends with a murderer."

"Well, that's..." Steve was about to say something sarcastic, but he trailed off when he noticed Tiffany's drawing. It was last summer all over again. "Tiffany, what are you drawing?"

"It's an old grandfather clock inside of a house. I mean, I know I don't draw anything other than faces anymore, but I didn't think it was that bad." Tiffany said, slightly insecure.

"No, no! Babe, it looks great. Just...why did you draw it?" Steve asked.

"I don't know. I heard a grandfather clock when I was at the crime scene so I figured I would draw what I thought it would look like." Robin and Steve weren't exactly sure where Tiffany would've heard a grandfather clock in the middle of a trailer park, but they knew it couldn't be good. Whenever Tiffany hears something abnormal, it never means something good. Tiffany didn't think anything of it, but to be fair, her mind was slightly clouded by a certain man who's name she absentmindedly wrote at the bottom of her drawing. Henry.

A/N

I go back to comments from recent chapters and some of the people who aren't at this spot yet keep predicting what's going to happen. I won't say which ones are right, but just know, a lot of you are geniuses.