Home ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

Aftermath

Nurse Gray had just finished with her other patients and was walking back to the secure room; she'd picked up a few magazines, juice and some snacks on the way, the worst that would happen was that they'd remain untouched on the side.

"Emily" she heard from behind her. Turning, she saw Dr Roberts heading her way.

"Hey Leo, I'm just on my way to check on the girls" she told him, "thought I'd bring them a few things" she added, flapping the magazines slightly.

Leo smiled, "I'll come with you, I need to check on them both, especially El" he sighed, clearly getting lost in his thoughts.

"I know, Leo, but she's ok physically and that's a start, right? I mean, at least its something" she finished weakly.

"This is a mess, Em, I don't know what we're going to uncover...if I'm being totally honest I'm just not sure I'm going to be able to help her, what if I can't?"

She smiled affectionately at him, "come on Leo, you're one of the best doctors I've ever worked with, right now she's just another patient and you have to get to the bottom of how to treat her, just like any other, ok?" she insisted.

He nodded, slowly at first as if processing what she was saying, but as it made more and more sense and he agreed, he nodded more vigorously, his posture becoming taller, more confident. "You're right, I know you are" he told her, smiling back, "one step at a time, break it down."

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

As they entered the secure room they immediately saw Max sitting with her back to the wall and staring hopelessly across the room. Following her gaze, they both saw El curled up in the opposite corner, clutching her head in her hands and shaking.

Leo briefly turned to Emily and nodded his head in El's direction, she understood and went over to her straight away, trying to comfort her and get her to move to the bed. Meanwhile, he made his way over to Max, "Max, are you ok?" He needed to establish that she wasn't hurt, that something physical hadn't happened.

Max looked up at him with glassy eyes, bloodshot from crying, and nodded to indicate she was ok.

"Ok, can you stand?"

Again, she nodded 'yes'.

He helped her up, she was obviously a little unsteady on her feet so leaned on him slightly for support, but he had a feeling it wasn't just physical support she needed in that moment. "Can you come with me for a few minutes? We'll just be in the next room."

He escorted her out, noting how she looked around to check on El as they left the room. Leading her to the next room he watched as she slumped into a small couch, "what happened?" he asked her wanting to get straight to the point. An hour ago, he had been finishing up his shift and was due a couple of days off but he knew that time was important, that they should start making some sort of progress as quickly as possible.

"I..." Max started, shaking her head as she tried to find the words to explain.

He could see that she was struggling immensely, all the focus had been on El but this young woman before him had clearly been through something traumatic and was desperately trying to hold herself together. "I'm going to get Jim...Chief Hopper" he corrected himself, watching as she just nodded, slumping further into the couch.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

"Jim...Jim" he repeated, nudging the sleeping man's shoulder.

"Wha-what?" Hopper replied, quickly sitting up straight and trying to come to his senses.

"I know it's late, but I think we need to talk to Max at least, find out what happened" Leo told him, "but I don't think she should have to relive it more than once, from what I can tell El's not the only one who's going to need some help."