+ Come Back - Lumax +

Three - visitors

      The door to the quiet hospital room creaked open as Lucas jolted his head up, sitting right beside the hospital bed as always. Jonathan stepped inside, followed by Mike, El, and Will.

      "Hi, Lucas." Jonathan greeted. "I have something for you." He came forwards, reaching into his bag and handing Lucas a mixtape. "It's a bunch of songs that Max listened to. I asked around and made sure she liked them, don't worry." He smiled gently, glancing down at the redhead. "Just in case you miss her too much."

      Lucas stared at it, his eyes filled with tears as he got up. He'd never been given something like this before. The closest thing to something for if he missed her was the letter. He stepped away from the bed and hugged Jonathan tightly. "Thank you." He whispered. "And I'm sure she'll love it too, once she wakes up." He stepped back and returned the older Byers' smile.

      He turned and sat with Mike, El, and Will in the corner they always ate lunch in, glancing down at the bagel they'd brought him. "Thanks, guys." He glanced between the three of them, raising it to his face and taking a bite. It was so much better than the food he'd been eating out of the hospital vending machines, and he had to hold himself back from devouring it in one bite. He had done that once when his parents had driven Erica afterwards and they'd brought him a grilled cheese, and his mother had started yelling at him for it.

      Mike grinned. "No problem. I remembered you loved bagels from when we all used to pile into my house and eat lunch before a campaign." He laughed, ripping a piece of El's sandwich off and eating it with a little grin. She scoffed and used her powers to throw the hat he was wearing across the room, folding her arms with a smirk as he watched it fly away as if the wind had picked it up. "El, I was kidding!"

      "I'm not sure taking a piece of her food counts as 'kidding', but whatever you say, Micheal Wheeler." Will snickered as Lucas teasingly called Mike by his full name. The black-haired teen scoffed, much like his girlfriend had, and got up to go get his hat. Lucas took another bite of his bagel, glancing across the room at Max. "By the way, El, you almost hit your best friend, who is in a coma, with your boyfriend's hat."

      El laughed, following his gaze. "Well, I think, if she knew, she'd say that being hit with a hat is much better than everything else we've gone through." She glanced back at him. "Speaking of dating, did the two of you end up getting back together, before..." She trailed off as he tried to think of an answer.

      He shook his head. "We... we never got to. I mean, maybe we would've, 'cause we had a movie date planned for the Friday after, and I swear to god, I'm taking her to a movie as soon as she's out of this place." He smiled, glancing up at the picture on the wall, before eating another bite of bagel. "I still can't believe that the Friday when we were supposed to be enjoying a movie, she was in the hospital and I was reading to her even though she's in a coma."

      "I mean, one of the guys from your basketball team is also in the hospital." Will added. "Chance, the dude Mike mentioned that he hated, I think?" Mike hit him in the arm when he got back.

      "I never said I hated him, I just said he was an insufferable piece of-"

       "Mike, my eleven-year-old sister is here!" Lucas gasped dramatically, earning himself a glare from Erica and a light chuckle from Jonathan. "You know, the eleven-year-old sister who regularly calls me a loser and swears every two seconds, but she's eleven years old anyways."

      Erica cleared her throat. "For your information, Lucas, I called you a bench-riding loser once." She clarified from beside Max.

      He smirked at her. "Yeah, and you've called me a loser every day since then, just not a bench-riding one." He shot back, leaving her to flip him off and turn back to what looked like a heated discussion with Jonathan. He gasped dramatically, once again. "Oh, I'm sure mom will love to hear that you stuck the middle finger up at me! 'Oh, mom, Erica's been such a bad kid, you should totally take away all her dnd things!' " He made his voice all high-pitched to imitate how he used to speak.

      "Yeah? 'Oh, mom, Lucas yells at me in the hospital when I walk in because he's having mushy talks with his girlfriend, even though she's in a coma! You should totally take away all his basketball things!' I'll tell her that, nerd!" She fired back at him, glaring across the hospital room as he just ate his bagel.

      He nearly choked on his bite, trying not to laugh until he swallowed. "You think I care if my basketball is taken away? You do realize I only played that because I wanted my friends and I to be popular, right? In my opinion, basketball can go in the garbage with all the other kinds of sports mom and dad tried to make me play!" He snorted. She just scoffed and turned back around.

      Erica huffed and went back to talking to Jonathan as Lucas turned back to his friends. Mike, clearly having not learned from last time, leaned in front of El right as she was lifting her food to eat and took a bite, grinning as she glared at him. Will snorted. "Mike, I'm not sure that was the best idea." He commented, as El leaned back, opened the door with her mind, and threw both Mike's hat and his sunglasses outside the room.

      "Stop taking food from me." She grumbled, finally eating some for herself as Mike slowly left the room to go get his stuff.

      As soon as he got back and sat down to put his hat back on, Jonathan got up. "Come on, guys, we gotta go before my mom goes insane." He came and pulled each young teen up, before nodding slightly to Lucas. "Bye. I, uh, hope she gets better soon."

      El nodded from beside him. "You better call us when she wakes up." Will added, turning to leave as he took off Mike's sunglasses and put them on himself. The little group walked out as Lucas went and sat back in his seat, grabbing onto Max's hand again as he stared at her for a moment.

      Erica snorted. "God, what was Mike's problem with understanding not to eat El's food?" She laughed, and he chuckled softly, glancing back at her. "Maybe she should've just given him a nice punch to the face. I bet that'd make him stop."

      Lucas shook his head fondly. "She loves him too much to punch him. The worst she's ever done to anyone in the group was throw me off him when we first met her. I mean, it hurt, but I doubt she'd ever do anything else." He commented, turning back to Max and picking up his book. "Now, where'd I leave off? Page... oh, Jesus, I need a bookmark." He groaned.

      Before he could find the page, the door opened again and a doctor stepped inside, glancing down and picking up the letter from the ground. "Hey, whose is this?" She asked curiously.

      Lucas got up and grabbed it, maintaining eye contact. "It's mine." He muttered. "She gave it to me a while ago." He gestured to Max behind him. The woman nodded as he turned around to sit in his seat again.

      As he sat down, the doctor came towards Max, glanced at her, then at some files. She was silent for a moment, and in that moment, Lucas held his breath. Please be doing better today, please be doing better today... He prayed, watching the doctor through worried eyes as she looked back at Max, before turning to leave and nearly going without a word, before she paused at the door, and then turned her eyes to him.

      "If that letter is about what I think it is, you should read it soon." She warned softly, glancing at the envelope in his hands. "She might not have as much time as you think."

      And then she walked out silently, leaving Lucas with the knowing, shattering feeling of terror as he gazed back at the girl who might die soon.