Healing ||mileven||

The hospital and home

General POV

Mike found the regular beeps from the monitors reassuring, proving she was here and alive, so much so that he gave in to his fatigue and fell into a deep sleep.

He walked through the woods to the cabin, El was sitting in the doorway and when she saw him she broke into beautiful smile. Mike reciprocated, and as he got close she stood and held out her arms for him. He took her in his arms and held her so tight, he would never let her go again, ever.

They were in Mr Clarke's science room, the demogorgon was here, here to kill them all. Lucas had the 'monster killer' in the wrist-rocket and fired, the monster flew back, and for a few sweet seconds Mike really believed that was it. El walked through them, it was her, Mike already knew what was going to happen, "No, El...", he flew back, he knew what was going to happen and there wasn't a damn thing he could do. She turned to look at them, Lucas, Dustin, then Mike "goodbye Mike". She destroyed the monster, and Mike's heart broke into a million pieces.

"Mike...Mike...", he was in a black place, there was nothing but blackness yet he could see. "Mike...", he turned to find the source of the voice, "El?"

"Mike. I can hear you cry, it's just a dream, you need to wake up".

"What?"

"Wake up, Mike, wake up..."

"Wake up". Mike's head shot up off El's bed and he found himself looking into her open eyes, he noticed a tiny bit of blood coming from her nose. "You were crying in your sleep" she said with some difficulty, she was still weak and her throat hurt a lot.

"I...I was having a bad dream" he stuttered.

"I know" she answered, looking sad, "but it wasn't all bad, was it" she stated.

He thought back to the start, where they were together, "no, it started pretty well...perfectly in fact", she gave him a shy smile and started to close her eyes to sleep again.

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

El was considered lucky, the bullet had gone straight through the shoulder, missing all the vital structures. But she had suffered a major blood loss, and a bad chest infection had taken hold, probably from when the water had entered her lungs. As a result, she was very weak and had to stay in the hospital for over a month until she was considered strong enough to leave. Every day was pure torture for her, the white tiles, the metal bed and scratchy sheets, white-coated doctors, machines monitoring her with incessant beeps, all a constant reminder of her life at the lab. As a result, she had nightmares every night and was exhausted, cruelly making her recovery slower and ensuring she had to stay even longer.

Joyce made sure she was never left alone, arranging a rota of visitors to keep El company during visiting hours, and Hopper ensured she was always watched, discretely, by trusted deputies or, more usually, himself.

When she was discharged, she went home with Joyce. Hopper had used an old contact to arrange the official papers for El, like a birth certificate, to support the paperwork they'd previously filed so that Joyce could officially be her guardian. El was disappointed not to live with Mike, but she'd agreed when they'd explained that it wouldn't be possible, Mike was there to help her understand but she could see that he was sad too. Joyce would get money from the state as she was officially fostering El, in return she had to ensure that El received a proper education, amongst other things.

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

"This will be your room, sweetie" said Joyce, walking into Will's room. "Will and Jonathan can share this year and then Jonathan will be off to college".