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“Nancy! Are you okay? Are you okay?! ”
Jonathan’s words echoed through her head as they stood in front of the hospital, watching as the liquified remains of Tom and Bruce creeped into the sewer before them. Where they were headed or what would become of them, none of them knew, but the one thing Nancy Wheeler knew for certain in that moment was that they were definitely not okay.
They had almost died multiple times within the last half hour, and she surely would have had El not raced to the construction area of the hospital where she was trapped. Furthermore, she could still see the massive outline of the Mind Flayer hovering above her whenever she dared to blink, all congealed blood and bone molded into a shape that she knew would haunt her nightmares forever.
However, any ounce of concern for herself was momentarily put on pause the moment she came back to her body and heard Jonathan’s rough breathing beside her. Now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off, she could feel an intense ache blooming throughout her body from being tossed against the wall by the monster, so she could only imagine the agonizing pain that Jonathan had to be in.
As she turned her head to try and monitor her boyfriend’s condition, Will seemed to realize just how much she and his brother had just endured at the hands of the Flayed. “Jonathan?” he spoke up in a small, scared voice, quickly darting to his side. “Are you okay?”
Jonathan blinked slowly up at his younger brother, trying to put on a brave face. “Y-Yeah, Will, I… I just need t-to sit down for a minute.”
But the second Will took it upon himself to hoist his older brother’s arm around his shoulders, the eldest Byers’ knees buckled, and half of his weight ended up being shouldered by the 14-year-old. “Jonathan!” Nancy exclaimed, taking in his flickering, half-lidded eyes and the bleeding gash on his forehead. This was bad.
Her body sprung to action, but before she could get to his other side, Mike leapt in front of her and helped Will to carry Jonathan’s weight. “You’re hurt too, Nancy!” he reminded her. “We’ve got him.”
She quickly nodded, not wanting to waste any time. “Let’s get him to the car,” she stammered, surging forward to unlock her mother’s station wagon. She hurriedly climbed into the backseat, forgetting momentarily that she was the only fit driver among them, and gingerly pulled Jonathan from Will and Mike’s arms so that his head rested in her lap. His five-foot-eight frame made it so that his feet hung haphazardly out the door, but her sole focus at that moment was gauging just how badly he was hurt.
“Jonathan, look at me,” she ordered, trying to keep her voice from shaking. “You cannot go to sleep right now, you hear me? I need you to look at me.”
When he didn’t come to right away, she resorted to lightly slapping his cheek a couple of times, and slowly, he managed to squint up at her. “N-Nance?”
“Yes, it’s me,” she whispered tearfully, gently brushing strands of bloodsoaked brown fringe away from the cut on his head. “I’m right here, I’ve got you.”
Wh-What happened?” he rasped, his glassy eyes darting slowly around the car. “S’everyone okay?”
She startled as Will let out a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob. “Yeah, we’re safe now. El made the monster go away,” he reminded his brother, somehow wiggling his way into the car so he could squeeze himself onto the floor beside Jonathan. “The real question is ‘are you okay?’” he asked, his voice shaking with concern for his only sibling.
The older Byers let out a noncommittal grunt, effectively dodging his brother’s question. Instead, he refocused his eyes (as best as he could) back up towards Nancy. “Did that thing hurt you?” he weakly demanded. “Please tell me.”
It was then that the overflowing dam within Nancy Wheeler ceased to hold back the rest of her tears, and so she began to cry, her usual tough exterior breaking down. Her Jonathan, sweet Jonathan, had been beaten within an inch of his life, and he was still worrying about her.
“I’m fine ,” she choked out. “You’re the one we’re all worried about.”
“Well, stop worrying,” he insisted. “I’ll be okay.”
With a watery smile, she leaned down to kiss the top of his head. “I’ll never stop worrying,” she whispered before straightening back up. “But right now, we need to get out of here. Do you think you can sit up?”
Since admitting Jonathan to the hospital that they were escaping from was out of the question, the group decided to retreat to Hopper and El’s cabin, figuring that the police chief would have at least some basic first aid training that could help them. However, upon arriving after what felt like centuries later, they were unfortunately surprised to find the lights off and his cruiser nowhere to be found. Regardless, Mike leapt from the passenger seat and wrenched the back door open so that he could help Will pull Jonathan to his feet. Everyone present in the vehicle had come to the unspoken agreement that they had to stop and rest for the night.
As soon as she’d put the car into park, Nancy stood to her feet with every intention of taking Mike’s place at Jonathan’s side, but for some reason, her body felt frozen in one spot. She could only watch, horrified, as Jonathan winced and hissed in pain, leaning heavily on both boys as he struggled to walk. Her breathing quickened, her heart pounding madly of its own accord, and she could feel the all-too-familiar panic setting in, that all-encompassing fear that the Upside Down always brought her. For a moment, she thought the feeling would consume her, but before she succumbed to its grasp completely, a dainty hand on her shoulder brought her back down to earth.
When Nancy lifted her head, she came face-to-face with El, and before she even knew what she was doing, she wrapped the girl in a fierce embrace. “El… you saved us,” she choked out, trying to hold back a relieved frenzy of tears. “Thank you.”
El nodded slightly into her shoulder before pulling away. “Go. Help Jonathan,” she encouraged the older teen. “We will get you clothes. And food.”
Nancy didn’t need to be told twice. Giving El’s shoulder one last squeeze, she bolted through the front door into the cabin and found Will and Mike carefully lowering Jonathan onto the bed in El’s room. The minute he was laid out on his back, Mike muttered something about grabbing a first aid kit while Will turned to face the eldest Wheeler sibling. “What happened ?”
The tears she had been struggling to hold back couldn’t be contained any longer as she recounted their fight with the Flayed. How Jonathan had been choked, thrown into the wall, and brutalized with a metal chair until he could barely stand. Will’s eyes grew wide with horror, flicking between her and his battered brother, who looked like he was trying to hide how much pain he was actually in. “Jonathan, I… God, I’m so sorry,” he murmured. “We should have come sooner, but that damn nurse--”
“Will, it’s okay. Come here,” Jonathan’s quiet voice spoke up, barely louder than a whisper.
Once he was close enough, he weakly reached out and grabbed his brother’s hand, squeezing gently in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. “Will, listen to me. Everything’s going to be alright,” he promised. “We’ve beaten this thing before, and we can do it again. But you can’t be worrying about me, okay? I’ll be fine.”
The younger Byers did not look even slightly convinced, but as Mike returned with the first aid kit in hand, he grabbed Will’s shoulder and began tugging him towards the door. “He will be fine, Will, I promise. Nancy will take care of him,” he insisted. “But right now, we need to talk to El and think of a plan.”
Will looked torn, but Nancy nodded her head weakly. “You two go, I’ll let you know if I need any help,” she assured him.
She and Will held each other’s gaze for a few more tense seconds before he turned back to Jonathan. “Okay, get some rest then… I love you.”
“I love you too, bud.”
Mike finally managed to pull Will out of the room and slammed the door behind them after the brothers’ exchange, and just like that, Nancy found herself alone with the sound of Jonathan’s labored breathing. She took a deep breath inward to steel herself, but it was still not enough as she drank in the full sight of her poor boyfriend. Thankfully, he’d somehow managed to remain awake on the drive over, but he now looked like he desperately wanted to pass out, so she decided to try and keep him talking as she began tending to the wound on his forehead, just in case he’d sustained a concussion during their fight with the Flayed.
“So… according to Mike, I guess El tried to find Hopper in the void,” she told him as she dabbed some alcohol on his head to clean the cut. “She thinks he’s with your mom somewhere in Illinois.”
“Hmm… that’s weird,” he responded almost robotically, as if on autopilot. Nancy pressed her lips together nervously, not at all comforted by how exhausted he sounded. He’d barely even reacted to the sting of the isopropyl coming in contact with his wounds, much less the fact that his mother and the Chief were traveling together across state lines. Without thinking, she lightly nudged his side in an attempt to keep him alert, but she immediately regretted that decision when he let out a sharp gasp of pain, his hand clamping over his ribcage.
Her hands flew to her mouth, the washcloth she’d been using falling forgotten to the ground. “Oh my God! I’m so sorry, Jonathan,” she exclaimed, tears welling up in her eyes. “I just-- I need you to stay awake,” she stammered. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
He took in a few shaky breaths before he could answer. “I know,” he rasped, gently moving his hand from his chest to rest on her knee. “It’s okay, Nance.”
Nancy, however, could only shake her head, her lip trembling with overwhelming emotion. “No, it’s not okay. Nothing about this is fucking okay!” she cried. “We almost died, Jonathan! I endangered both of our lives tonight in the middle of some stupid fight, and I almost lost you without ever getting the chance to say I was sorry!”
There was a tense pause as Nancy tried to catch her breath and compose herself, but before she could continue, Jonathan’s quiet voice filled the silence. “I’m sorry too,” he whispered, his gaze never falling from hers. “I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did.”
“And I shouldn’t have said such terrible things to you either,” she added, cupping her hand around his face. “If tonight had gone differently, and that fight was one of the last times I’d ever talked with you… I honestly don’t know how I’d live with myself,” she choked out, unsuccessfully trying to keep her emotions at bay, but the idea of Jonathan losing his life in the aftermath of that conversation was just too much for her to handle.
“Nancy, I’m right here. Please don’t cry,” he pleaded softly, taking her hand in his own. “Hey, come here,” he suggested, lightly pulling her down towards him.
Sniffling back the tears, she shook her head resistantly. “I don’t want to hurt you,” she insisted, although she wanted nothing more than to lie close to him, feel his warmth and listen to the comforting sound of his breathing.
“I can take it,” he assured her, coaxing her down the rest of the way so she was curled gently into his side with only her head resting against him.
She could hear the reassuring sound of his heartbeat thumping beneath her ear, and she immediately felt some of the pent-up tension and stress leave her body as she exhaled. For a while, all she heard was the sound of their combined breathing, and she lightly rested a hand on his abdomen so she could feel the gentle rise and fall of his chest. She couldn’t picture a world where she didn’t have this, so even these most mundane functions of his body working to keep him alive were a gratifying reminder that he was still here with her. Bleeding and bruised and probably just as shaken up as she was, but alive nevertheless.
She turned her head slowly so she could press a tender kiss to his chest, right above the place where his heart continued pumping its steady rhythm like a lullaby just for her. “I love you, Jonathan,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
With his lips pressed against the top of her head, she could feel him smiling into her hair. “I love you too, Nancy,” he replied, pulling her as close as he could comfortably manage. “Don’t worry… I’m not going anywhere.”
They laid together in companionable silence for a while before Nancy began to grow restless. “Your head looks okay now, but we should really wrap up your chest. For all we know, you could have cracked ribs right now,” she insisted.
He let out a deep sigh, wincing as he did so. “What if I just want to lay here with you a bit longer?” he pouted, donning what he hoped was a convincing pair of puppy-dog eyes.
As much as she wanted to patch him up, Nancy couldn’t help but smirk at his seemingly innocent tactics. “Five more minutes… and not a second longer,” she declared, gingerly laying her head back down on his shoulder. “And you’re lucky I love you, or I wouldn’t find that look so damn convincing!”
And although it hurt to laugh, he couldn’t help but do so in celebration of his brief victory. “I am pretty lucky, aren’t I?”
“Damn straight, Byers,” she agreed. “Now shut up and get some rest.”