This is my take on what happened in the three months between the Battle of Starcourt and the Byers moving away. It's mileven centric but all characters will have their moments and will be involved, so all of your favourite characters are part of the...
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This is 2.6k words so sit tight
"You've got quite a cut there, Jane," chuckled Dr Owens, trying to lighten the mood.
"It's El."
Those were the first words she said since she found out. Her voice sounded hoarse from the screaming, and so utterly broken. Everybody quickly glanced at her, she had a plain look and slight anger in her eyes. She put her hands to her throat, it clearly hurt her to speak.
"Oh, uh, yeah, El, sorry El..could you..just..maybe role the leg of your jeans up slightly so I can clean the wound?"
El looked angry, but she wasn't sure why. She looked at Mike, but, again, she wasn't sure why. Maybe for approval?
"Here sweety let me." Joyce said with a wobbly smile.
Joyce began lifting the leg of her jeans which made El wince and let out a groan of pain which she couldn't keep in. Mike took her hand in his.
"Squeeze my hand."
So she did, she thinks it may have gone purple from squeezing it so bad, which she felt bad about, but Mike didn't care, he just wanted her pain to be over.
Her leg was throbbing, and still bleeding. She could feel the throbbing all through her body, like a heartbeat after doing about 3 marathons, and the amount of blood she had lost made her feel light-headed. It helped slightly when Jonathan came back into the living room with water for everyone, because they were all parched. Everybody, including El, practically inhaled the water and asked for more. So, without hesitation Jonathan and Nancy went to get multiple cups of water, and a few pieces of fruit and some chocolate for people that were hungry, though everybody was hungry, it was more for the people who felt like they could eat without throwing up.
Owens began by cleaning the dried blood from her leg very gently, and El can't lie, it hurt, but it wasn't so bad. What really hurt was when he started to disinfect the bite and where Jonathan cut into it. In fact, it hurt so bad El had let out a few cries, with Mike to the rescue every time comforting her and allowing her to squeeze his hand.
"Yeah. It's going to need stitches."
Everybody jumped at the sound of Dr Owens' voice, due to everything and everyone being so silent.
"I'll have to just bandage it up for now, but before I do that, you might want to take a shower."
Everybody nodded in agreement, other than El, who couldn't stand the thought of being alone behind a curtain where nobody could save her; but there was also another problem: she couldn't stand up.
"I'll help her." Came Max's voice, which also sounded so, so broken. Nobody really had anything to say and so Max came over to help El stand and she walked her over to the bathroom.
