she's like the wind ✔ mileven

twenty-three ❅

el doesn't remember much.

she doesn't remember much of that day.

when the teenager wakes up, she's in utter pain and she can only hear faded beeping. she catches how she's in a hospital room and she's furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, looking around and she's confused as to why she's alone in her room.

well.she's not really alone, since there's a nurse in her room.

"h-hello?" she calls out, almost scared at how hoarse her voice is. her throat feels raw and the nurse jumps at the sudden noise.

"oh, hi! elaine, you're awake." she's cheerful. it makes elaine wince. she has a headache. she's probably been asleep for a while.

"what happened? where i am? where's my dad?" el asks and even asking, hurts her throat.

"here i was going to ask you if you knew who you were." the nurse laughs. "we had a small issue and we had an emergency surgery." she's confused.

"my legs don't feel open. my chest does. and i can barely hear you. what's happening to me?" her heart is racing and she's panicking. her heart monitor starts going off and her nurse is quick to leap into action.

"i'm going to bring your doctor, okay?"

"i want my dad."

"i'll bring your dad too."

there's silence and she's trying to sit up. only to feel familiar hands helping her up and she knows it's her dad.

"oh my god, el." he whispers and her eyes are instantly watering. she feels lost and confused. he can see that.

"dad. dad, what happened?" she panics and he's kissing the top of her head. he's holding her gently and he's only trying his best not to hurt her. he looks over at the doctor, "doc, is she going to be okay? can you explain it to her? i fucking suck with words."

the doctor sits on one of the extra chairs and he's explaining everything to her. to both of them. hopper doesn't remember most of the words he said due to the worry in his chest.

"you had a small stroke. you got dizzy on the field and passed out. you had a stroke due to the fact that your brain didn't have enough blood. which brings us to the explanation of your condition. you have a heart condition. that's why you kept passing out and blanking out. as to your limbs, the friedreich ataxia, there's no surgery for that. but there's therapy and we're going to enforce that. we're going to try more medicine and we're going to fix that."

---

"the surgery went well. we had a small complication. your surgery was a complex one and i'm going to explain because its obvious that elaine isn't up to date.

"i can't hear you out of this ear." el says, iddly.

"that's the complication, that's one of the things. small strokes usually do that. it's temporary. don't worry too much about it. now, we need to talk what you have on your chest. a pacemaker."

she's not hearing anything else.

"i'm sorry- this means."

"this means that you're not going to die, elaine. at least anytime soon."

"oh my god." she says.

"oh my god."