Jailbird || Stranger Things

seventy-three ➵ finest hour

Teresa preferred it when there was no time to grieve. No moment of rest to think about what they'd lost. Which is precisely why Samuel Owens had found a half unconscious Teresa being held by a girl in a nautical themed uniform, while a man in similar clothes gave a bloodied boy chest compressions.

    Teresa Hopper had almost driven herself to complete exhaustion trying to keep Billy Hargrove alive.

    An ambulance sped through the crowd gathered to watch the fire become extinguished at Starcourt Mall, while others created a sort of circle to shield the other participants. Reese held an oxygen mask to her face, allowing an EMT to address some of her wounds.

    "Made of what?" Owens asked as he made some notes.

    "You heard me right," she assured him. "It's been brewing for days, we just weren't able to piece it together. We think it was the thing from Will last year."

    "My God," he sighed, closing his notebook. "How are you feeling?"

    "Fine," she replied before putting the mask back on, letting both people know she was not, in fact, fine. At second thought, she took it off, instead choosing to ask him a question. "Did you know?"

    "Know what?"

    "What I could do."

    An awkward moment passed as the EMT excused herself. Though fully cleared and with Owens, she felt the need to leave the situation.

    "I had a hunch."

    "I didn't even know it would work," she told him, looking up at him as he gave her a gentle smile. "I thought I just—saw things."

    "It's something you would have to train," he admitted. "It's a muscle. It's not like with El, but it's useful when your instincts take over."

    Teresa's eyes left Owens, instead choosing to stare down at her bloodstained shoes. The image of Billy bleeding out and unconscious beside her feet flashed in front of her eyes, body shivering at the knowledge that she lost him.

    "Anything else you need to tell me?" Owens asked, watching Teresa lift her leg to the step on the back of the ambulance. She reached to move the bandage, eyes scrunching up in pain as she poked at the sensitive skin.

    "It's like the skin of the creatures," she told him, voice muffled through the mask. Owens pulled out a torch, shining it at her skin and recoiling at the sight of a black slimy layer of skin. "It got worse than last time."

    Owens let out a sigh at the sight. Nothing to do with the Gate and the Upside Down was anything he was traditionally equipped for. But now he was forced to pay attention to what his predecessors completely ruined. He was the one who had to face the consequences of their actions.

    How was that fair?

    "Pain level?"

    "It's a six," she looked up at him, having managed to get her breath back. She held the oxygen mask in her lap, leaning an elbow on her leg. "It was at an eight in the elevator, a nine in there," she pushed her chin towards the mall, the aggressive movement surprising Owens a little. "That thing killed my someone very important to me, Doc," she turned back to him. "I hope you know you can't hold any of us back any more."

    Her tone made the doctor scan her face. Jim had warned him about the protective nature of his daughter, and Sam Owens had noticed it in Jim also. This wasn't exactly new information, but to see it happen in front of him was different.

    "Hopper—"

    "It didn't just kill someone, it hurt people just as important to me. That girl is traumatised. She's already lost more than I ever have, Doc. Max's pain is on their hands," she continued, having had to usher Max to an ambulance with Robin and El before she could get checked out. Robin had stayed with the girls since.