𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

002. Family Dinner.

VALERIE AND her mother go their separate ways when they arrive to the hospital, Val waving at her mom with a big smile, "have a good day, mom." She told her before going down the hall the opposite direction. "You too, Val." Iris replied. Iris Smith works as a counselor here at the hospital, working with multiple people, especially those who recently lost loved ones and needed counselling the most.

She was the reason why she and her husband tried so much to get their daughter to talk things out, air out her feelings and all, with everything that happened, with her classmate, Barb, and everyone else who's died over the past few years. It wasn't until last summer when Val finally spoke up, talked about Chrissy, Patrick, Jason, Eddie, and everyone else.

That was when Iris and Leon did their best to be there for their daughter, especially when Hawkins got on lockdown, and she couldn't leave for college quite yet. They put their all and attention to her, making sure she was okay and seeing a therapist every month. And now, she was working and seeming happy as ever.

"Good morning, Doris!" Val waved at the woman on her way to the elevators. "Good morning, Val!" The woman replied, smiling ear-to-ear. In the elevator, Val headed down to get into her uniform and put her purse away. She headed up to meet with her supervisor before finding her co-worker, Vickie, rather easily. "Morning Vick." She greeted the girl who looked up. "Good morning to you too, Val." She said before she sighed, leaning against the counter.

"Day just began and I'm already looking forward to 4:00." She said as she crossed her arms and Val snorts, glancing away. "Uh, do you know if there's coffee in the lounge?" She asked as she looked at Vickie. The redheaded nodded, so Valerie made her way over to the lounge to grab a small cup of the coffee.

The morning was slow as always, she delivered breakfast to the patients, asked them if they needed anything else, then carried on with cleaning out some of the rooms whenever a patient was discharged. And once lunch rolled around, she and Vickie took turns of who gets their fifteen minutes first.

Valerie doesn't even have lunch most of the time, she just goes to Max's room, eating a protein bar on the way there. And then she sits with Max, playing her tape because if Lucas was able to, he'd do that for her all day. "Man, is everyday life so boring without you, Maxine." She began, throwing her head back before sitting up and crossing her arms.

"I feel like you'd be lighting up the mood at the crawls. Well, you, Robin and Steve. Everyone else is just so serious, it's kind of boring." She said as she crossed her arms then she sighed, glancing around the room. "Oh, I should throw our the garbage." She got up, took out the plastic bag and began looking around. "I'll change your blankets while I'm here." She said, setting down the garbage bag. She pulled Max's blankets off, tossed them onto the floor and grabbed a fresh set that were always in the closet, bringing them over to the Mayfield.

Once she had it set up, she looked all around and sighed. "Hospital life is so bleak." She whispered before she walked away, picking up both the garbage and sheets, just as the tape stopped. "Later, Maxine." She said and then she paused for a moment, as if she expected Max to sit up and tell her not to call her Maxine. She sighed before leaving the room.

It was later on that day when she was cleaning out one of the rooms, Mr. Pentergast who had passed away was finally taken out of the room. They waited all day for someone to come grab him so they can take him down to the morgue, so she can finally clean it up. She was tossing out the flowers that were definitely dead, when the door opened, "okay. So, I have good news and I have bad news." Robin began so Valerie looked up at her girlfriend.

"What are you doing here?" She asked with a big smile, standing up and dumping out the water. "A good friend of ours once said, "bad news first, always." At the mention of Eddie, Valerie glanced up at her girlfriend, her smile fading away a bit. "So, I have to cancel our date tonight." The Buckley said as Valerie walked away, setting down the vase gently.

"Okay..." She said quietly and Robin rushed over, "but you have to understand. It's for a good reason." She told her girlfriend who just walked away. "Yeah? What's the good reason?" Valerie is walking away when Robin spoke, "there's a crawl tonight." So she quickly stopped and spun around. "What?" She says. There was one not long ago, it didn't make sense why there was one already. "And the good news is I made reservations. 8:00 p.m. tomorrow night at Enzo's." The blonde told her.

The brunette furrows her brows, "Enzo's? How exactly are we gonna be able to afford that? You know I'm saving up for college--" "You mean how am I going to afford it?" Robin gestured her arms out, "because you, my dear, are going to be paying for nothing." She adds, gesturing to her girlfriend. "Double how then?" Val squints her eyes at the taller, walking over. "I stole some money off the dead guy they just wheeled out of here." Robin pointed.

"Okay, that's not funny. His name was Mr. Pentergast, and he was very nice." The shorter walked over, pointing at her girlfriend. "And very rich." Robin nodded and Val frowns. "Rob." She said warningly. "Look, dinner's on me, okay?" The Buckley grabs her shoulders, "but, uh, maybe for dessert," she raised her hands, touching the white flaps of Val's candy striper hat, "I could... I could see you in this hat, and, like, only this hat." She's stepping closer to Val.

The freckled girl's face turns red, "you're such a freak." She whispered and Robin giggles, pushing her towards the wall, where Val's back hit the wall, and they began kissing. The couple giggle during their kiss, "I love you." Val murmured against her lips, then pulled away, "I love you." Robin whispered before touching her chin gently. "You look so cute right now." She said as her hands slide up Valerie's arms.

"Can you come to our date in this outfit?" She asked quietly, her hand sliding down the side of the candy striper dress and Val raised her brows. "You like the uniform that bad?" She teased and Robin leans in, their noses touching. "Totally." She said with a grin before kissing her. Just then, a soda can clattering to the ground caught their attention, looking over to the door. "Shit." Valerie whispered, rushing over with Robin right behind her. Just up ahead, the two can spot very clearly it was Will. "Shit." Robin whispered and Val turns to look at her girlfriend.

"Um... I--I can go talk to him, he's probably visiting Max with Lucas, right?" She said and the Buckley turns to look at her. "No, no, don't worry about it. Okay? I'm--I'm sure he didn't see anything." She assured Val but the Smith can tell she was equally as scared as she was. "Um... I'll see you tonight at the crawl?" Robin now asked and Valerie quickly nodded, smiling.

"Yeah, of course." She whispered before watching her girlfriend head down the hall, sure enough ready to head back to the Squawk. Valerie went back to work. And when she was done at 4:30, her mom was already waiting in the lobby. "How was your day?" The woman asked and she smiled softly at Iris. "It was okay." She said, heading out the door with her and towards the staff parking lot.

"Um, I have plans with Steve and Robin at 6:00. So I won't be home for dinner. Is that okay?" She asked and Iris sighs. "Your dad called around lunch, to discuss something. Family dinner tonight... do you think it's too late for you to cancel?" Iris asked her and Valerie thinks about it, her brows furrowed.

Hopper was the one who goes into the Upside Down, Joyce covers comms, Nancy tracks on the map to keep track of where the convoy and the van were going, Lucas and Mike were on watch tower duty, while Dustin and Steve were in the Squawk van to track Hopper. It's not like they really needed her anyway, only as a just in case they found Vecna, come up with a game plan and work together.

"Is it important?" She looked over at her mom and Iris nodded. "Very important... your dad and I are worried for Steph. And it's important you're there too." She said and Val nodded. "Yeah, I can cancel my plans." She whispered before looking back towards the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

authors note
um... wait so just let me cook alright... i kind of wrote it this way so it'd make sense why valerie doesn't go with steve when dustin doesn't show up and all that??? yk??? because i feel like she'd offer and be like OH I COULD BE DUSTIN FOR TONIGHT'S CRAWL 😁 and also i wanted to write about this family stuff, hence why i casted them in the first place lolz.

+ i was busy at work today so i forgot to update earlier but here's a new chapter!!