FIXATION

THIRTEEN

THIRTEEN: INVADER
november 5th, 1984

"It's a metaphor."

"You mean an analogy."

When Rosalie opens her eyes, the first thing she hears is the familiar bickering of the kids not too far away. She groans lightly, rolling onto her good side and realizes she's laying in a bed with a new flannel on her arms. Instinctively her hand goes down and touches the new bandage on her side. The tug of fresh stitches limits her mobility but she still turns over when she hears a sniff at the edge of the bed. At the sound of the bed creaking Joyce quickly wipes her tear and turns around from where she was sitting on the ground. When she sees Rosalie is awake she sighs with happiness, "how're you feeling sweetie?"

Rosalie squeezes her eyes shut then glances down at her stitched and sore side, "a little sore but better, thanks." It was true, she felt better. And she did feel sore. Her body was sore but more rested, and her head finally stopped throbbing with pain. She adjusts to sit more comfortably then raises her eyes to Joyce, "are you okay, Joyce?"

At the sound of the question, her chin wobbles, resulting in fresh tears streaming down her cheeks once again. "Bob.. he was my boyfriend and before we left the lab he..," she couldn't form the words, but Rosalie knew what she meant. She'd heard her in the car when Jonathan had arrived to their rescue.

She wasn't sure what to say, so instead she scooted to the edge of the bed, sat beside her on the ground, and wrapped her good arm around her, hugging her to her side. Joyce cried for a bit longer, then sighed and wiped her eyes a final time. She grinned at Rosalie and sniffed, "thank you, Rose." She pulled away and looked down at the flannel, "we gave you one of my shirts. It's fresh, you can keep it."

"Thank you, Joyce," Rosalie said, looking down at the uneven buttoning job and knew exactly who the culprit of dressing her and most likely putting her to bed was. She fought off the smile for her best friend then looked back to the kind Joyce. "And thank you for cleaning me up."

"Of course," she said, her voice raw from all the tears. Now, she stood up, offering a hand to Rosalie and together the two walked out of the bedroom and back to the group who were debating on the next steps. "Let's go see what we've missed."

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup!" Dustin's unmistakable voice rung from the kitchen and shook the house.

Chief Hopper yelled back, "we are!"

Then Mike spoke next, quick to point out, "but even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" He follows up with, "this isn't something you can just shoot!"

Frustrated, Hopper fires back at the kids, "you don't know that! You don't know anything!"

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab!" So, they were talking about the demodogs, or more specifically just the one that killed Bob? It was so hard for Rosalie to play catch up on a whole new world and all of its characters. What she did know was that none of them were on the same page, they were trying to figure out how to take down this supernatural enemy.

"We know the monsters are gonna molt again," Lucas pointed out, very optimistic of him.

Dustin adds on, "and we know it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." He was referring to the blue tunnels that were decorated around the entire house. The ones, Rosalie guessed, that the dogs were able to travel with. Her eyes skimmed the tunnels while her and Joyce walked down the long corridor.

Joyce enters the kitchen, along with Rosalie and agrees, "they're right." At the sound of her voice all eyes go to the two. It's silent as everyone looks between Rosalie then quickly back to Joyce. Steve is the first to exhale with relief when he sees Rosalie standing on two feet, the color returned to her face.