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JACKIE FELT the cough in her chest first, the rattling of it made her ribs hurt. As it burst through her throat, her mouth grew dry, heaving until her eyes watered. That was when she realized someone was holding her, soothing her and it took her several blinks to realize she was no longer in the same landscape, there were no jagged peaks, no red light, and no Henry chasing her.
"Hey, hey..." Steve's voice brought her back to reality, eased her racing heart. Weakly, Jackie scanned his face, his cap seemed to have loosened, though he had no scratches on his cheeks or anywhere she could see. His fingers grazed over any exposed skin he could find, as if he were searching for injuries, too. "Hey, hey, baby. Fuck, Jackie. I thought- I couldn't- You were just-"
"Steve," she croaked out, attempting to sit upright. From where she laid in his lap, he assisted her, hand on the small of her back and holding her like she were going to collapse at any moment. Fingers knotted together, she took in her surroundings. The others were busy cutting the children free, Nancy hugged Holly, sobbing close by.
"Ew, God. What is that smell?" She grimaced, Steve flushed. "Is that you?"
"Killed some spider eggs. Had them explode. Can you just hug me back?"
Jackie laughed, clutching him. Despite his rancid smell, she was safe, safe with him, safe in his arms. It was easy to fool herself, that nothing could happen with Steve there. But she was back in the real world, he had saved her. She finally had the chance to take a look around.
Each of the kids were strung up, held back by some disgusting looking stretch of flesh, and connecting to each of their mouths, was one of Vecna's gross tentacles.
To her left, Eleven's arm was still outstretched, and in front of her, Vecna was impaled in the chest, a weird fang-like thing poking through it.
"What..." she frowned, Steve's grasp on her tightened. "Steve, where are we? What is going on?"
"We're in the Abyss," he told her, softly. His free hand came up to brush her damp hair from her face, down to stroke her cheek until he was cupping her jaw. "Inside the Mind Flayer."
"I'm sorry," Jackie blanched. "What?"
"Look, sweetheart, all that matters is you're safe," he rushed on. Jackie turned at the sound of his voice cracking, and that was when she noticed the tears gathered at his waterline. "El's in the process of killing him. You're safe. You're safe. You're.. I thought I'd lost you."
She slumped against him, basking in his hands around her, feeling his heart pound against her ear. With Steve shaking as he held her, Jackie started to cry. "So did I," she admitted.
Dustin approached them, relief flickering over his face once he saw she was awake. "Oh, thank God," he whispered. "You okay?"
She hardly lifted her head from Steve's chest as she nodded. "Are you?"
