Help Me Understand [mileven]

Chapter 4: You're gonna be fine

El was the one who woke up first, admiring the sight next to her. Mike was holding her close in his sleep, both arms wrapped around her tightly. Even when he was asleep he wasn't going to let her go. El looked over at her clock, it read 7:35am. Hopper would be up soon, he leaves for work at 8:30am.

She carefully slide out from under Mike's grasp and made her way to the door. She made sure to close it once she left, she wanted to talk to her dad first before he found her boyfriend in her bed.

El made her way into the kitchen to make herself some cereal, she sat down on the couch and flipped through the TV channels with her mind, she settled for the news channel just for some background noise. She was washing up her bowl when Hopper came though.

"Hey kid, you're up early." Hopper smiled as he walked over to hug her.

"Hey dad..."

"What's up kid?" He looked concerned at her lack of enthusiasm.

"I need to talk to you...about Mike" she looked up at him.

Oh fuck, he thought. "What's he done? Has he hurt you?" Hopper began, his face full of fear.

"No no, nothing like that. I'm fine. It's just that, he's not fine dad". El looked down at the floor and began to pick at her nails.

"What do you mean by that?" He was getting more concerned by the minute. He went to reach for his pack of cigarettes but froze when El said...

"He's depressed". El felt herself begin to tear up again. "He probably won't want me to tell you this but he needs help and I don't know what to do dad and I'm scared that's he's going to hurt himself again or try something worse" she began to cry.

Hopper pulled her in close. "What do you mean again?"  his voice quite serious, throwing El slightly off guard.

El told him everything that Mike told her.

"I don't want you to get mad...but he's in my room. He came over last night in the middle of a storm, he was so sad I couldn't let him just go home and we fell asleep and..." El began to ramble.

"Kid, it's fine. He needed you and you were there for him, that's all that matters." Hopper said, not loving the idea of the Wheeler kid sleeping in her bed, but he knew nothing would've happened if he was feeling like that. "Let me talk to him today and I'll see what I can do. First things first though, we will need to get rid of anything he can potentially use to hurt himself."

El nodded. She felt like her heart was being ripped apart, she wished Mike never felt like this. She wanted only happiness for him and that's what she's going to make sure he gets.
El's thoughts were interrupted by Mike walking out of her room and stopping in his tracks when he sees Hopper.

"Kid it's okay, El explained everything. I'm not mad. I'm glad actually, because now we can get to work on getting you better." Hopper smiled at him and lit his cigarette which he really needed at this point.

Mike stared at him and then at the cigarette, it took him back to a few months ago when he was round Will's and he found a pack of camels in Joyce's cupboard and he stole some. He told himself he would only use them if he had too but he used them all. As he didn't have easy access to them so he never really got addicted. However where this conversation was going
he could really use one right about now.

Mikes shoulders relaxed slightly as he came out of his daze, he didn't know whether to be happy that Hopper knows or mad at El for telling him without asking. He decided to go with happy, he was glad the chief knows anyway. He didn't want to explain it to him.

"We are going to have to tell your parents you do realise" Hopper said, his tone going more strict.

"But-" Mike began but was cut off by Hopper.

"I know you don't want to kid but you're going to have to go to therapy and we will need to make sure there are no things you could use to... around and they have the right to know why." Hopper continued.

"Okay" Mike mumbled, his heart rate quickening at the thought of telling his parents.

"I've got to get to the station but I'll call your parents before I leave and let them know that we are coming over later to talk. You can stay here with El until then, I'll be back around 5."
With that Hopper got up, patted Mike on the shoulder and headed to his room to get ready for work.

Mike, still stood in he middle of the room began to panic about what he was going to say to his parents. His pulse quickened and he began to hyperventilate.

El ran up to him, "Mike what's wrong?" Her voice full of worry.

He couldn't talk, he was having a panic attack. He had only ever one before, one right after El disappeared. He knew all he had to do was to ride it out, but he couldn't communicate that with El. She looked so scared, like she wanted to cry.

On instinct she ran and got Hopper who was in the middle of shaving. "Kid what's going-" his voice cut off due to the sight in front of him.

"Mike? Mike are you okay?"

He didn't answer.

"Okay Mike listen to me, you're gonna be fine just breathe." Hopper said calmly.

Mike tried to regulate his breathing, which began to slowly go back to normal.

"I-I'm sorry" Mike managed to choke out.

"You have nothing to be sorry for kid." Hopper said, looking into his eyes with his arms rested on Mike's shoulders.

"T-Thank you". Mike's voice trembling as he tried to calm himself down.

Mike turned to El whose eyes were full of fear and her face was wet with tears. He began to tear up again, realising he must have completely freaked her out.

Hopper took the next ten minutes to explain to El what just happened and how to deal with panic attacks incase another one comes on.

"I've got to leave now but if you need anything, call the station and I'll be here in a heartbeat okay?" Hopper patted Mike on the back and walked back into the bathroom to finish shaving. Once he had finished he grabbed his hat and left for work not caring that he was 20 minutes late, Flo was used to this anyway.

Mike knew that this was the beginning of his journey to get better, and he couldn't help but smile slightly at the thought.

Once Hopper left, El put on ghostbusters and sat with Mike while playing with his curls. She was more than happy to spend the day with him, even if all he needed was a distraction for a few hours.

She loved him and she couldn't wait to see him get better.