Healing ||mileven||

The quarry and the water

Everyone had met at the shore, Hopper and Jonathan had picked up Joyce and Nancy, and the boys and Max made it minutes later. "Where's El?" asked Joyce, looking panicked.

"The bad men...they found us" explained Lucas, breathing hard. "She stayed...told Mike she'd meet us".

Mike looked sick, El wasn't here yet and he had a bad feeling, how could I have left her?

"She'll make it, Mike, she's a survivor" said Nancy, putting her arm around his shoulder. He found it comforting and he gave her a small smile, hugging her in return.

And they waited.

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Hopper's POV

It was starting to get darker, and I could see the lights from the other side of the quarry, van lights, torches, searching the forest, and she was late. We couldn't go up there, it would be too dangerous, plus I'd blocked the road. I had all these kids with me looking to me for comfort when they all knew I could give none, none of us could see a way out of this, we were going to lose her again and there wasn't a damn thing we could do except watch from afar.

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El's POV

I could see Mike, Hopper and the rest of the party waiting on the far side by the shore, the same shore they'd brought the fake Will on to from the water...I couldn't reach them. Vans were blocking the road, the only way down there from the cabin, the woods were teaming with the bad men all carrying guns and worse, it was only a matter of time before they found me.

I once told Hopper that I would die rather than go back to the lab, to the bad men, to Papa. I had meant it then and I still did. I made my decision. I crept through the parked vans to the edge of the high cliff, the same one Mike jumped from and would have died had I not been there to save him. It was so high, so far from the others on the shore. I stood at its edge, could I ever hope to make it? I couldn't fly, I knew that, but if I could steady myself, maybe it would be enough. It would have to be enough.

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Mike's POV

"There!" I heard Jonathan shout. I looked at where he was pointing, the edge of the cliff. I saw her through the binoculars, we all saw her standing at the edge, first looking down, then straight at us, seemingly straight at me. She looked terrified, yet with a look of determination on her face. My god, she wasn't, was she? She was going to jump.

She just stood there looking hard at the water, "what the hell is she doing? Jeez!" the water!

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El's POV

Water was so hard to control, always moving, changing shape, I'd never tried before, but a twisting column of water started to rise from the surface. I felt the blood start to drip, first from my nose, then my ears, it's...so...hard. It's so close now, only a few meters below the cliff now, ready for it to envelop me and lessen the impact.

"Hey!", I heard a shout from further up the road, "there she is!", more shouting, they can see me, I hear them running...keep concentrating...

"Stop! Stop right now!", I hear gunshots echoing, they are firing near me, not to hit me though, keep going. I'm at the edge, I have to jump...so scared...I jump, trying to concentrate on steadying my fall.

I connect with the column of water...what was that, my shoulder, the pain...I've been shot, the water below falls away from me, I'm falling so fast, I'm...I'm...

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One of the guards had shot her, against orders, but he'd also been ordered not to let her escape, dead or alive is how he saw it. Others raced to the edge to see where she went, and they spied Hopper, et al. waiting on the far shore, "let's go!"

"In the trucks!"

"They're over there!"

Little did they know that the road that way had been blocked earlier by the Chief, just in case. It would take over an hour to drive the other way.

...........................

El lost consciousness a few seconds before she hit the water, the column of water had slowed the descent and partially broken her fall, but it had fallen as soon as she was shot and the impact was still bad. She was unconscious in ice cold water, the air had been knocked out of her lungs by the impact.

Everyone on the shore had seen what happened, Mike was already in the water, swimming as fast as he could to where she fell, but it was so cold he felt like he was swimming through treacle, he had to keep going, there was no way on Earth he was going to lose her again, no way. Hopper caught up to him in seconds, "Mike, go back, you'll never make it, I'll get her, I promise!" He swam back, but only to where his feet could touch the bottom and he could stand. Jonathan wasn't far behind Hopper, and together they swam fast. They finally reached the area she fell into, but couldn't see her, they took turns diving under, Hopper was beginning to give up hope until Jonathan surfaced struggling to hold her lifeless body, "I'll take her, let's go". To Mike it was pure torture watching them swim back, they seemed to take hours, not the minutes they really took. When they got close enough everyone could see they were clearly exhausted. Mike, still in the water, grabbed El's hands and helped Hopper pull her to shore, Joyce and Nancy waded in to help Jonathan.

"El?...El?" Mike was kneeling next to her, completely dazed, probably in shock. The rest of the gang, Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Max were just stood in a semi-circle watching, not knowing what to do other than comfort each other. Hopper and Joyce knelt either side of El, "Joyce, 2 breaths for every 30 heart pumps, got it?", she nodded, looking terrified, no-one should have to this on a kid, ever, she looks so small. Nancy knelt down and held her shirt against the bullet wound in El's shoulder to try and stop the bleeding.

"1,2,3,...,29,30", Joyce blew into El's mouth as required, shit, "again, 1,2,3,...,29,30". They kept going, 3 times, 4 times, 5 times...just like with Will, Hopper resorted to thumping El's chest, suddenly everyone heard a slight gurgle sound, and then El was coughing up water. She wasn't really conscious, she was vaguely aware of voices around her, a white light, she was disorientated and tried to move, pushing away the hands on her...and then she felt the pain, the pain that had been numbed by sleep, by cold, but now she couldn't escape it, and she was panicking, starting breathe too quickly.

"El, stop, you have to stop, just breathe, open your eyes and breathe", she heard the voice, like it was coming from a long way away, but she recognised the voice and tried to find its source, She felt two hands touching her face, she opened her eyes, focussed and found Mike leaning over her, cupping her cheeks in his hands, talking to her, "El, you have to keep calm, keep awake, you can't go to sleep, understand?" She nodded weakly through her tears, the pain was unbearable. Looking around she could see Joyce hugging Jonathan and Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max were stood together, arms around each other, Nancy was pressing both sides of her shoulder. Hopper came into view, "El, it's gonna hurt like hell, but we need to get out of here, we have to get you to a hospital, ok?".

"Yes" she whispered. With that Hopper scooped El off the floor, Nancy still compressing her shoulder, and she couldn't help but cry out in pain. Hopper managed to get her to the back of his truck, Mike and Nancy knelt in the foot wells while she lay across the back seat. Joyce jumped into the front with Hopper. "Jonathan, bring the rest of the kids and follow us to the hospital, we should stick together".

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