Together Again

Chapter 3 - The Flower (part 6)

  Back at the hospital, Mike, El, and Joyce were waiting silently, they kept being rushed out of the room, so the doctors could run more tests. They had no idea where Jonathan, Nancy and Steve left to, but they didn't care. All they cared about was that Hop would be okay.

  El sat quietly listening to the heart rate monitor beep repetitively. That was all she could hear. Beep... beep... beep... beep. It just beeped again and again. It became louder in her head. Beep! Beep! Beep! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! It was overwhelming. She put her head down and covered her ears, grimacing. She was fighting the urge to scream. She couldn't take it anymore. She covered her ears and stood up. She made a bee line for the door and raced out of it. Her breaths were short and quick. She sounded panicked. She got into the hallway. Turning in circles, she tried to figure out what to do next. The hallways she was seeing began to go blurry. She had no idea where she was, it felt like she had never seen this place before. She continued to breathe her short quick breaths. Her heart raced in her chest. Thump, thump, thump. She could feel it leaping into her throat.

  Suddenly hands grabbed her shoulders.  She tried to struggle away from their grip but it was too tight. She gave in and looked up at the face in front of her, but she couldn't make out a face. It was all blurry. She continued to panic. The look of fear was in her eyes.

  "El, breathe." The voice said, she tried to place who that voice belonged to, but she couldn't think straight. She could still hear the beep...beep...beep of the machine. Her head throbbed as her heart thumped in her chest. The hands moved to her face. "Eleven. Look at me." The voice instructed firmly.

  The hands tilted her head up so that she was looking at a face. Finally her vision began to clear, not much, but enough that she could make out the outline of the person. She looked from their chin to their lips. Her eyes made their way up this persons face, cute freckles surrounded the nose. A black mop of curly hair lay on top of the head, she looked at the deep brown eyes. They were staring straight into hers. Once she saw the eyes she knew exactly who it was. Mike. "Breathe, Eleven, breath." He was taking slow deep breaths. That helped her, she slowed her breaths down. "In and out." He kept repeating over and over again. As her breaths slowed down, her vision cleared up. Her heartbeat stopped racing. "That's better." Mike said. He then stepped foreword and wrapped his arms around her. He leaned down and pressed his lips to the top of her head. "Let's go for a walk." He whispered.

  He put his arm around her shoulders and led her outside the building so she could get some fresh air. On their way out the door, a nurse had handed mike a glass of water, for El. They sat against a brick wall outside the doors. Mike handed El the water and told her to drink it. As she sipped the water, he asked her what happened.

  "The- the beeping." She stuttered. "It...it took over... it just like..." she struggled to find the right words to describe to Mike.

  "Shhh" Mike hushed. He understood that it would be hard for her to talk after that.

  Tears started down her face. "Daddy...What if, what if he... doesn't... wake up?"

  Mike turned her towards her and looked into her eyes. "Don't think like that. Nothing is going to happen to him. Don't even think about that." He said sternly. Then he pulled her in close  and gave her a hug as she sobbed into his shoulder. She gripped his back as tight as she could. It felt like she would never let go. Even though Mike told her not to, she couldn't help but think. What if he never woke up? What if the black hole took him? What if she never got to see him again? Who would take care of her?

  They got up and decided to go for a walk around outside before going in. As they rounded the side of the corner there was a man walking outside of a back door. He was wearing a lab coat, but he wasn't a doctor. The hospital only had 3 doctors because Hawkins was very small. He was not one of them. He came out of the Military part of the Lab anyway, so why would he be wearing a lab coat? Mike pushed El against the wall so that he wouldn't see them, carefully they made their way against the wall back to the front door, then went inside.

  El was mostly calmed down by now but Mike was going to take her to the cafe so that she would not have to go into the room again. He thought it was the beeping that set her off.

   As they walked past the reception desk, the receptionist stopped them. "Are you two Mike and El?" She asked. Mike nodded. "I was told to inform you if I saw you that there has been a change in  the chiefs behaviour, he is becoming restless, the lady in there asked that I send you back if I saw you."

  El was already leaving before she could finish her sentence. Was Hop doing better or worse? She was scared to find out. Mike chased after her and caught up just before she entered the room. They went in. Joyce got up and ran over to them.

  "He is moving a little bit. It now looks more like he is dreaming or sleeping than unconscious." Joyce told them. There was a nurse standing on the other side of Hops bed. The three of them went back to their seats, but sat on the edge of them. They were both nervous and excited, they thought this was a good sign.

  Hopper tossed and turned in his bed. He began breathing heavily. In an instant, he sat bolt upright. A single word escaped his mouth. "Flower!"