Rogue - Stranger Things

chapter fourteen

CHAPTER SIX: THE SPY

November 3rd, 1984
Hawkins, Indiana

The doors to the medical wing in Hawkins Lab flew open as a team of paramedics rushed Will inside an emergency room, his screams bouncing off the walls, echoing through everyone's ears. 

"God" Joyce let out, crying as she held onto her youngest son,
"Hold on, sweetie! I'm here!"

The group all entered the room, Mike pulled Charlie to a stop at the doorway, watching as the team of doctors placed Will onto a hospital bed, attaching wires to his chest causing the monitors that they were attached to, to go haywire. 

Frantic beeping and Will's screaming were the only two sounds that filled the room.

"Heart rate 220" a doctor spoke as he glanced at the monitor,
"Temperature's 106"

"Will?" A woman, also dressed in white scrubs and presumably another doctor,
"Where does it hurt?"

Will groaned as he squirmed, struggling to form the words through the pain,
"All over!"

The doctors turned him over and over, searching the boy for any signs of burns, but they discovered that there was nothing there. They turned the boy back over and the woman questioned,
"Where does it hurt the most, Will?"

"Everywhere!" Will cried as he lurched in pain again,
"Everywhere!"

"Oh my god" Charlie muttered as she cupped her mouth with her hand, her eyes welling up slightly as she watched Will writhe in pain.

The machines let out multiple beeps as Will flinched around before falling completely still as the woman injected Will with something. The screaming stopped, the monitors beeping slowed and became more steady and everything just... stopped.

Ω

While Will slept, Mike and Charlie took up the two chairs just outside the room. Charlie was gently holding Mike's hand while the boy rested his head on her shoulder - he had been playing with her fingers before he drifted off to sleep. Charlie, however, had been staring blankly at the wall across from them, her mind moving in overdrive.

She couldn't shake the thought that something terrible was happening all over again, and couldn't shake the feeling that there wasn't very much that she could do to possibly help. 

She jumped slightly as a soft damp cloth pressed under her nose. The girl turned to see Joyce and Hopper; the former was sitting beside her and gently cleaning her nose while Hopper sank to the ground across from her.

"How you doing kiddo?" Hopper asked her softly.

"I'm fine" Charlie responded automatically before she reached up to grab Joyce's hand,
"You don't have to do that"

"Let me take care of one of my kids" Joyce told her seriously as she used her free hand to bring Charlie's hand down again,
"How'd this happen?"

Charlie shrugged the shoulder that Mike wasn't resting on,
"I guess I hit the ground pretty hard"

"When it cracked?" 

"Yeah" Charlie nodded,
"When it cracked"

Joyce finished cleaning her nose and tucked a strand of Charlie's hair behind her ear,
"Try and get some sleep, sweetheart"

"Okay"

Joyce and Hopper both stood and walked away from the pair prompting Charlie to lean her head back against the wall behind her and go back to her staring blankly at the wall.