The Archer

Chapter 2

The first thing Stevie heard when she woke up was the sounds of machines around her. They sounded as if she was under water, but she could make out the sounds. The first thing she felt was nothing other than the weight of something around her hand. Nothing hurt and she felt like she was in a dream, aware of herself, but not really fully awake. She tried to move and found that  her body felt like it was made out of rock. It felt heavy and she only managed to get her fingers to twitch lightly. A gasp under water and she could make out her name being called out. 

"Stevie! Can you hear me? I'll be right back, I need to get the doctor." A voice said and it took all of Stevie's strength to hear and focus on what it was saying. She started moving her eyes and with great effort, she opened them just a bit before closing them once more. The light was too bright and it hurt. A few seconds or minutes passed,  and she could hear a door opening and several footsteps entering the room. 

"Miss. Stephanie, can you hear me?"

Stevie hadn't been called Stephanie since the last time she talked with her parents. That had been months ago, their last phone call resulting in a fight between her and her parents, her father calling her a disappointment. After that night she had slept with Robin in her bed and promised her that if she was going to talk on the phone with them, Robin had to be with her. 

Stevie tried to answer, but only managed to let out a small grunt. 

"Good Miss. Stephanie-"

"Stevie. She likes to be called Stevie." She heard Robin's voice clearly and suddenly wanted to cry. Why was she in the hospital? Why did nothing hurt, but in a weird dream like way?

"Alright then Miss. Stevie, do you think you can try to open your eyes for us?"

Stevie tried again. Her eyelids felt like rock, but she slowly managed to crack them open a bit. She tried her hardest to keep them that way and slowly started opening them more. They burned and everything was slightly blurry, but she could finally start making out the white wall in front of her. Then she moved her eyes to her left and saw a few doctors and nurses and then she saw Robin. She was standing right next to the doctor, her hands clutching the sheet that covered Stevie's legs. Even with the newfound blurriness in her vision, she could make out the quivering of her bottom lip and the tears rolling down her cheeks. With all of the strength that she could muster, she moved her hand on top of Robin's. Robin let out a watery laugh and turned her hand so she was clutching Stevie's hand in her own. 

After that, it felt like she was in and out of sleep. The doctor told her that she had suffered numerous injuries, some of which had been severely infected. He knew about the upside down, he was one of the doctors Owens's had sent to care for all of their injuries, and told her that she would need to stay at the hospital for at least a few more days so they could continue to monitor her injuries. They didn't have much information on injuries from the upside down and had to make sure nothing would go wrong with her health. 

Robin was next to her for the whole thing, holding her hand and sensing when things were getting a bit too much for her. She had been unconscious for almost three weeks after all. 

"Three weeks?" She managed to rasp out once it was just her and Robin in the room. 

"Yeah dingus, you scared all of us. I don't think Dustin has properly slept since we got you to the hospital, any of us really. Even Erica has been quiet these past few weeks." She looked sad and distant as she said that. 

"But they're all ok right? Dustin is ok?" Stevie had to know. She had a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't shake off. 

"Yeah, they're all ok. You got the worst of it, like always Stevie." She looked her in the eyes with so much love and fear that she almost cried. "You need to stop doing this hero shit Stevie. I was so scared when Nancy pushed you through the gate. I thought you were dead and then we bring you to the hospital and you're unconscious for three weeks. What would I do with out you? You're my other half Stevie, my soulmate. I don't think I could make it in a world without you." The tears were freely falling down her face again. 

Stevie sniffled and closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm so sorry Robbie." There were tears streaming down north of their cheeks now. She could see how much she had scared Robin and knew she would never be able to take away those horrible days when  she didn't know if Stevie would make it. Her thoughts were all over the place and she felt like she couldn't think properly. Robin squeezed her hand before getting up and carefully getting  into bed with her. 

"You're ok now, that's all that matters."

They held each other for some time. It could've been minutes or hours, they didn't care, all that mattered was that they were both ok. Stevie was drifting into sleep when she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach and an ache on both of her bandaged sides.

Find me.