Chapter Text
Will
Will was the last one to leave Mike’s house, so naturally Mike walked him to the front door. He leaned in to hug Will goodbye (something he started doing after Will got taken), taking a little longer than usual, one hand wandering to the middle of Will’s back, lingering, before releasing him. He could feel his ears heating up and turning a little red, so he turned around quickly, waving at Mike, getting out a quick ‘see you in chemistry!’, before hopping on his bike.
Will was glad to have the cold wind in his hair, quickly cooling him down from that hug from Mike. That was odd, right? I mean, he hugs me every time I leave now, after that night. He’s been almost as overbearing as my mom lately. But that didn't feel like a familial hug, he thought quietly, shaking his head. Of course he liked it, but it hurt, too. Gave him too much false hope. He sighed deeply, deciding to pick up the pace.
He hummed quietly to himself as he watched cars zip by him intermittently. He watched each one with slight interest, seeing if he could guess who the car belonged to. He wasn’t very good at this game though, it was too dark.
A few minutes pass before he hears another car coming, Will prepares to focus his eyes on the moving object to guess again. This time, though, he doesn’t feel it whoosh past him. No, this time, he suddenly jerks forward momentarily, before rolling quickly over the entire length of the car, hitting the pavement violently.
Will is blinking in and out of consciousness when he sees someone with wavy hair hovering over him, a hint of agitation in his dark eyes, and a whispered “Oh for fucks sake.”
There’s an annoyingly bright light shining through Will’s eyelids. Without opening his eyes, he whispers out, desperate, “Please…turn these lights off.” When he gets no response, he cracks his eyes open the tiniest bit, and finds himself in an obnoxiously white and sterile room. A hospital room. His breathing speeds up drastically as panic creeps its way inside Will. He can’t figure out why, but he absolutely does not want to be here. He looks around frantically, noticing a tube going into his arm, and then suddenly a searing pain on the back of his head. He carefully reaches behind himself and feels a large patch of his hair is gone, and a little farther in was what felt like metal. Staples?
Next thing he knew, he heard footsteps coming into his room. His eyes snapped up and he saw a tired looking woman carrying coffee, but she drops it when she makes eye contact with Will. She is much louder than he expected from her small frame, shouting “Will! Doctor, doctor! He’s awake!”
Suddenly, she’s at his side, holding his hand. A familiar smell makes its way to Will’s nose. Cigarettes and coffee. “Mom?” he manages to croak out.
“Yes, Will! I’m right here, right here!”
“What am I doing here?”
“The doctor will be right in to explain everything, I promise.”
A few beats later, a man in a long white coat walks in. Will tries to choke back his nonsensical sense of fear at the sight of the doctor, not wanting to worry his mother. He picks up the clipboard at the foot of Will’s bed, glancing over it quickly. He finally makes eye contact with Will, and takes a breath in to speak, “Hello, William, how are you feeling?”
Will averts his eyes from the doctor’s gaze, looking down, and taking quite a few seconds to answer, “Head hurts.” He looks back up for a moment.
The doctor gives him a sympathetic look, before moving on to state, “Well, that’s why you’re here, buddy.” Will cringes at that. “You’ve had a pretty serious accident on your bike.You were struck by a car”, he states matter-of-factly. He turns to Will’s mother giving her a look he didn’t quite understand.
Joyce looks at him tenderly, still holding his hand, “Honey, when you fell, you cracked your skull, and they had to perform surgery...”
Ah. He supposed that made sense when he took all the evidence into account. He slumped down a bit in the bed. He briefly sees his mom point to the doctor, then the door, indicating they are stepping out.
“There’s some people here to see you. I’ve told them not to be too rowdy with you,” she says before stepping out. Once she steps out he hears a bunch of shuffling and shoes squeaking, and a quick and stern reminder about being ‘gentle’.
“Byers!” he hears a shout and a bunch of scuffling as five people try to fit through the door at once. Suddenly, there’s two bodies basically on top of him, attempting to give him a hug while he lies there. He lets out a quick ‘oof’ before they peel away, his head spinning briefly.
He can finally look up to see three boys and two girls crowded around him. They’re all looking at him with a mix of joy and worry on their faces. They are waiting for him to say something.
“...Will? Are you okay? How are you feeling?” says the tall, lanky one with wavy, black hair. The first one that collapsed onto his body just a moment ago. He’s handsome.
The girl with curly brown hair, who had been bouncing up and down on her heels since she removed herself from his body, speaks next, “Yeah! They have not told us what has happened yet. Just that you are in the hospital.” She places a dainty hand over Will’s. He twitches as if to pull it away, but leaves it be.
Will looks down to clasp his hands together, his thumbs twiddling around each other, “Uhm…” He looks up tentatively.
A boy with an athletic build and a flat top steps forward just a tad, “Yeah, Byers, you look pretty roughed up!” he chuckled. The kid with untamed, sandy and curly hair is gently looking right into his eyes, trying to figure Will out. The girl with fiery red hair and white eyes hasn’t said anything yet, she’s just staring…slightly to the right of Will’s head. A small crease in between her eyebrows compliments the small frown she is currently wearing.
“Alright guys, make room,” the doctor requests as he steps back into the room with his mother.
All five of the kids turn around and start talking all at once at the doctor. His mother looks over at him, confused. She walks closer to Will, gently moving the lanky boy out of her way.
“I thought you would be excited to see them. Are they being too loud or rough? I could ask them to leave, so you don’t have to do it”.
Will can feel heat rising from his neck, and enveloping his face. “Uh, mom?”
His mom takes his hand into hers, looking at Will earnestly, “What is it, Will?”
Will leans in close, his eyes darting around to make sure no one is looking, “Mom, I don’t- uh-” he pauses, possibly several beats too long while he changes course, “I don’t want to ask them to leave, it’s fine.”
She looks him up and down with great concern, squeezing his hand gently before letting go and standing up. She walks briskly over to the doctor, leaning in and whispering while making a quick few glances at Will and the other kids.
The doctor snaps his head up to Will, looking at him with a great deal of concern. He mumbles, barely audibly, “We knew this could be a possibility. Let me try-
Good afternoon William. Glad to see you’re awake and alert. Now, I had a few questions I wanted to ask you, if that’s alright? Let’s start with: do you know where you are right now?”
Will looks around nervously, glancing at his mom one more time for reassurance before answering, “Hospital.”
“Right, good, good. Okay, next: what’s your full name?”
“William Jacob Byers.”
“And what city do you live in, Will?”
“Hawkins.”
“What year is it?”
Will falters for a moment, twiddling his fingers together again. He furrows his eyebrows while watching his motions. He slowly looks up at his mother, suddenly very uneasy. “Uhm… uh, it’s-”
Joyce shoots a panicked look at the doctor as Will fumbles with the standard question.
“Hmm, let’s not dwell. What do you remember before coming here? Or do you remember arriving here at all?”
Will stills his hands, and closes his eyes, gently. “Dark curly hair…some arms around me, tight. Uhm, it smells a little like sweat, and he says my name, quietly.”
The lanky kid in the corner shuffles around for a moment.
“Okay. Hmm. One more, and I’ll stop bugging you, and let you get home: D’you recognize these ragamuffins here?” he gestures broadly at the teenagers in the room.
Will takes his time, and really looks hard at everybody this time. His breathing becomes a little quicker with each person he lays his eyes on. They all look at him with a great deal of warmth, concern, and recognition. It hurts him a little bit. He shouldn’t lie to them, they all seem like decent people.
He quickly looks down in shame, and turns slightly towards his mother, but still says loud enough for everyone to hear, “I don’t know them, mom.”
The air in the elevator is unbearably heavy. Will can feel a set of eyes drilling into the back of his head, but he can’t bring himself to look up at anyone other than his mom. Mercy is granted to him as the elevator door chimes on the lobby floor and he scrambles out of the doors as quickly as a car crash victim can.
He’s walking briskly towards the hospital’s entrance, when he looks up slightly, and is suddenly frozen in place. He could feel his ears heating up and turning a little red, involuntarily spreading across his cheeks, and down his neck. His heart rate picked up. But not because he was out of breath, or scared.
He felt the red head girl bump into him after his abrupt stop. “Sorry,” he mumbles to her, not turning around. Eyes glued forward.
He picks his arm up slowly, pointing, a small bit of blush still visible on his face. He’s pointing at a boy speaking with two cops.
Joyce looks forward, “What is it, Will? Oh! Do you know him?”
Will looks away from the boy, shyly, nodding. Will tries to hide the small smile forming on his face.
“Oh you have to be fucking kidding me!” he hears from behind him.
Joyce whips around to look at the boy close behind Will. “What? Who is that, Mike? Does he know Will?”
Will turn himself slightly to better hear the conversation. He watches the boy with black hair and a sour face stiffen, then cross his hands over his chest.
“S’fucking Troy Walsh”.