What's Left of Us

Picking Up The Pieces

A/N: Leave a comment if you like it. I'm writing this because I like to write and I enjoyed ST a lot but it would be nice to know if anyone has criticisms or thoughts. Don't hold back. Thanks guys!

 El

Rays of sunshine crept through the blinds of the hospital windows. She woke up, and everything that she had hoped was a just a bad dream from the night before came crashing down on here as the reality of the situation set in. She sat in a chair, wearing one of Jonathans jackets that was in Nancy's car as a blanket, with Nancy herself asleep in the chair next to her. As she looked up at the boy laying on the hospital bed she carefully examined every feature of his body. Her best friend was laying there and there was nothing she could do to help him.

Earlier that night they had arrived at Hawkins Memorial Hospital and rushed to the front desk to figure out what room Mike was being treated in. The woman at the front desk said some stuff to Nancy that didn't make a whole lot of sense to El, but after a few seconds they were running down the hallway, trying to find room number 011. They were about 30 minutes later than the helicopter after clearing through the security that was around the mall, to be frank El had never seen so many men with guns, not even at the lab.

The Lab, she thought to herself. Being in the hospital had made her uneasy, maybe even a little paranoid. All she could remember where the bad men who treated her the way they did. She felt protective of Mike, who was laying on the bed in a gown, with a fresh set of bandages on his wound and hooked up to a bunch of machines. The men in white lab coats had told Nancy that they anticipated a full recovery, but they weren't sure because he had lost a lot of blood and was severely dehydrated.

El had originally planned on staying up until Mike woke back up, but after a few hours of sitting there holding his hand she ended up drifting into sleep. She didn't want to think about the dreams she had the night before, a constant replay of watching Mike mutter the words.

Those three words. I love you. She wanted so desperately to wake up so she could tell him how much she loved him, how much his bravery meant to her, but so far he remained asleep. She heard Nancy stirring next to her.

"Hey El, has he woken up yet?" Nancy asked optimistically.

"No", El muttered back. She wasn't feeling super talkative, not that she wasn't fond of Nancy, but she was more tired from sleeping in a chair, and being worried about Mike. It dawned on her that she hadn't seen or heard from Hopper, which was unusual considering it had been a full night since the fight.

Probably with Joyce — she thought. Her mind drifted to her friends, who she wondered how they were going about their day since everything had happened. She assumed they would all be at the hospital in time, but she was anxious to have that many people crowding Mike when she thought about it.

"Alright, well I'm going to run down to the cafeteria and grab us some breakfast, does that sound okay El? Can you stay here for a bit?" Nancy spoke from behind her.

"Yes" she responded. Truthfully, she welcomed some alone time with Mike, as she sat there holding his hand in hers. Staring at his face, taking in all his features that she had grown to love so much.

There it was again, love. As she sat there in the warm morning light, she couldn't help but start to cry. Everything caught up with her, dumping Mike, treating him like a second rate person the entire past week, making fun of him for caring. It wasn't like her, the way she had been acting. None of it was Max's fault per say, but she had definitely been cynical of Mike. She wished in that moment she hadn't taken him for granted. He had taken her in, given her a home, and been her protector for as long as she had known him. She thought of the snowball and their first real kiss together. She had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed Mike start to stir a bit in his bed.