Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE | TO THE HOSPITAL
__________
you kissed his mouth with mouths of flame: you made the hornèd god your own: you stood behind him on his throne: you called him by his secret name.
-the sphinx // oscar wilde
__________
"Sweet Jesus! What happened to him?"
It was lucky that Peggy was working the ER that night when Jackie rushed inside with Steve and all the kids in tow.
"He got beat up," Jackie said.
"I can talk for myself," Steve muttered as he leaned against her — more for comfort than anything else, though.
Quickly, Peggy led Jackie, Steve, and the kids to one of the closed off rooms. In the room, Peggy took over for Jackie and helped Steve sit on the observation bed. From the corner of room, Jackie watched as Peggy gently examined the cuts on Steve's face.
"Steve, honey, can you tell me what happened?"
"Just what Jackie said," Steve shrugged.
"He was protecting us!" Lucas piped up from beside Jackie.
Peggy looked at Lucas and then up at Jackie. Solemnly, Jackie nodded.
"And where's the guy that did this to you?" Peggy asked.
Steve shrugged.
"It was my brother," Max said. "He's not going to bother us anymore... please don't call the police, ma'am."
Very slowly, Peggy nodded. She smiled at Steve in a very motherly fashion, the same way she'd always smile at Jackie when she fell and got all kinds of cuts and bruises as a kid.
"You'll be just fine, Steve," Peggy said. "I'll get the doctor so he can check out your head and these nasty cuts, all right?" She glanced at the kids. "Kids, why don't you come with me? I'll get you all something to eat, yeah?"
"We wanna stay with Steve!" Dustin protested.
In the last twenty-four hours, he'd gotten very attached to Steve. And from the pained smile Steve sent in Dustin's direction, Jackie was sure he was just as attached to the kid. However, there were far too many of them in the tiny observation room.
"Guys," Jackie said. "Go with Peggy. I know you all care about Steve, but the doctor's gonna need room to breathe and do his work."
"But—"
Jackie cut Mike off with a carefully raised eyebrow. "No buts, Wheeler," she said, ruffling his hair. "Bring me back some gummy bears, yeah?"
[ ... ]
Despite the fact that Steve had passed out, he was alert and fully conscious now, so the doctor wasn't worried about his head. Instead, the doctor stitched up the deep breaks in skin where the plate had shattered on his head, on his forehead, and on his cheekbone.
"You're very lucky your nose isn't broken, Steve," the doctor had said. "You'll be fine."
After Steve signed all his discharge papers and told the doctors to bill his parents, they went to find the kids. All four of them were passed out in a heap, leaning on each other for support.
"Look how cute they are," Jackie cooed. Her eyes landed on an unopened pack of gummy bears loosely hanging from Mike's hand. "I almost don't wanna wake them up."
"Well, we gotta," Steve sighed, clapping her on her shoulder. He walked up to Dustin and poked him on the shoulder. "Hey, dickhead, wake up."
Dustin murmured quietly, but he opened his eyes. "Hey! You're alive!"
Dustin's loud voice woke up all the kids around them. They all let out low, various groans but sat up, rubbing their eyes. Mike held out the pack of gummy bears to Jackie.
"Yeah," Steve snorted. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Slowly, the kids got up from the squeaky, uncomfortable chairs. Lucas, Dustin, and Mike— they'd been here in this position a year ago, waiting for Will to wake up. Sighing quietly, the exhaustion finally hitting her, Jackie placed her hands on Lucas's shoulders and marched him towards the exit. This time, it was Steve who drove Billy's car and he grumbled quietly the whole way to the car about teaching Jackie how to drive for real.
It didn't take too long for them to reach where Steve's car had been parked in the woods far earlier that day. He dropped Billy's keys onto the driver's seat and unlocked his own cars with the keys he had in his backpack. The four kids piled and shoved themselves into the backseat of Steve's car.
Steve played Queen's A Night of the Opera album to cut through the silence. You're My Best Friend floated through the air, and Jackie couldn't help but smile as she leaned her head against the window and listened to the lyrics.
[ ... ]
The next day, Jackie woke up still in the clothes she'd been wearing the night before. Steve was sleeping next to her with his arm loose around her waist, still his his dirtied clothes from yesterday as well. She couldn't remember getting back from the Byers's or falling asleep. Yawning, she rubbed her eyes and took in the damage Steve's face had been subjected to. It wasn't so bad in the daylight, she thought, even if the splotches of red on his face last night had turned into bruises this morning. A quaking breath shuddered through her body as she gently pushed his hair away from his forehead.
Her fingers came away feeling a little grimy, which definitely took her out of the moment. God, they both really needed showers. Steve stirred, tightening his arm around Jackie's waist and smushing his head into her chest.
"You're staring," Steve mumbled against her collarbone.
"Mhm," she hummed, trailing her fingertips over his arm.
He lifted his head and rolled on top of her, placing his palms by her head to keep himself from crushing her. "How bad is it?"
"It's pretty gnarly," Jackie admitted. She reached up and gently touched the cut on his lip, wincing as he hissed and drew back. "Not as swollen as it was last night, though... I think the ice helped a little with that but it's still bad."
"Still like me even though I'm not pretty?"
Though he spoke in a lilting voice, Jackie could see the flash of insecurity in his eyes. Man, his parents and Nancy really messed him up. Sighing, she cupped both her hands around his cheeks. She rubbed her thumbs ever so gently over his cheeks, doing her best to not hurt him.
"I'm—" Why was this so much harder to say in such a mundane situation in the light of day and not while sitting on the floor of a foreign bathroom? "I'm in love you, Steve. That didn't change from when I first said it twelve hours ago."
"Good." He grinned and lowered himself so their noses were brushing. "Because I don't plan on letting you go anytime soon, Jack."
____________________
Steve and Jackie are so soft for each other and they are also so soft for their adopted five children. What a big happy family!
