Chapter Text
Hargrove was strutting like a peacock, he makes her uneasy, Tommy said she was being over dramatic. She turns and sees him then, in all his is so called glory.
“Holy shit.” She whispers, making Tommy also look at her, mouth open.
“What? Never seen anybody look so good?” Hargrove asks her.
“Did you meet one of those rabid dogs yesterday?” Carol asks, dread swelling in her.
“What happened man?” She can tell Tommy is trying to act like everything is fine.
“You should see the other guy.” Hargrove goads. His face makes her want to puke.
“I bet man. Who is the poor bitch?” Tommy asks, concern in the back of his tone.
“Harrington.” Carol slams her locker and turns to face him.
“Steve Harrington?”
“Is there any other Harrington I don’t know about?” He laughs and she can tell Tommy is stuttering in his laugh.
“Is he here today?” She wants to puke at the thought of him hurt.
“I don’t know.” She doesn’t hear anything else Hargrove says, she’s staring at Steve’s locker instead.
She sees both Wheeler and Byers show up, whispering together. Those two love birds don’t even look at her twice while she waits by Steve’s locker. She really did just throw Steve down when she decided Byers was apparently the better toy. She can’t bring herself to approach them though, it doesn’t matter. When she tries to take a single step towards them they vanish in a sea of people.
He doesn’t show, not in the ten minutes she stares at the locker. She opens it, thankful he doesn’t have a different combination than he once had. Nothing screams that he’s there at school. No backpack. No jacket. No movement. She feels sick to her stomach thinking about how Hargrove looked and he implied Steve would look worse.
She doesn’t need to think twice when she grabs Tommy’s keys, he can be mad at her later. She can’t imagine sitting in class waiting until the end of the day. What if he’s slowly bleeding internally? What if he’s dying? What if he’s dead? She doesn’t see anyone as she walks out into the brisk air. The parking lot confirms her fears, the lack of the maroon Beemer makes her move even faster.
When she starts the car the tape starts playing and it makes her nervous somehow. Knowing that tape was Steve’s maybe is what is causing that bubbling nausea. If both Byers and Wheeler at school then there is absolutely nobody at home with Steve. She said it last year and she’ll say it again: Nancy doesn’t know how to take care of Steve.
Her Steve was sensitive, Nancy didn’t know how to take care of an emotional Steve. He cried easily when there was too much going on. He struggled to get his words out. He’d pretend everything was absolutely fine in front of Nancy. Nancy didn’t have the same experience her and Tommy had, she never could. If rumors were right, it’s almost as if she didn’t even try to gain the experience.
She pulls in the drive way and sighs heavily, her best friend was always Steve. It was always Steve and Carol, Tommy and Steve were close, but her and Steve were different. That was the boy who would scale her house during her parents divorce. She was the girl who would sleep in the tree house with Steve when he’s parents were fighting or got too loud.
If Steve didn’t want her here he should have changed the locks. She knocks exactly twice, rings the doorbell once, and shoves her key in the slot. When she opens the door she’s met with a fate worse than she could have ever imagined. The house wrecked almost, his clothes are thrown in the ground, a baseball bat with nails lays near them, pill bottles are scattered on the counter. The foray she remembers being inexplicable even has small blood stains on the ground.
“Steve!” She screams in fear. Adrenaline crashes through her veins as she looks around at the disaster.
“Stevie!” She screams louder, seeing the vacancy on the couch. He isn’t in the den either.
“Steven Otis!” She yells, thundering up the steps when she sees Steve’s door open. His panic look sends the nausea right back to her.
“Oh Stevie.” Her heart breaks, she could cry seeing his hurt face. The bruises littering his entire body made her feel weak, but the fear in his face hurt the most.
“Carol?” He asks, voice soft and weak.
“Oh, baby, what happened?” She meets him by the door, engulfing him in a hug. She didn’t realize how badly she missed being in his arms until he wrapped her up too.
“The kids are okay.” Is what Steve says, she can feel her shoulder grow damp as she has soft tears falling from her own eyes.
“Are you?” She touches his face gently, blood clearly staining it.
“I will be.” She wants to know every single detail, she’s going to skin Hargrove herself.
“Have you gotten a bath?” She asks him as she notices weird shit in his hair.
“I need to yet.”
“I’ll go run your water.” She wants to see the extent of the damage. She wants to know how badly she can hurt Hargrove. He doesn’t protest when she strides by him to his bathroom, she digs under the sink for bubble bath.
“I’m okay.” He says from the door way as she feels the water run over his wrist.
“And who decided that?”
“Hopper took me to the hospital. They gave me some drugs.”
“Police Chief Hopper?” She asks for clarification.
“Yeah, yesterday when he saw how bad it was.”
“Where is he now?”
“What?”
“You shouldn’t be alone! What happened?” She’s pulling his shirt up some.
“Billy Hargrove came looking for his sister, she’s so little Carrie.” Steve lets her help him undress.
“What did he try to do? Murder you?” She asks as he struggles with his jeans some.
“Murder Lucas.”
“Who is Lucas?” She holds her arm out to steady him. She does not need him slipping and cracking the rest of his head open.
“You know Wheeler’s brother?”
“The black haired kid, right?”
“Yeah. I was babysitting him and his friends. Billy came looking for Max.” She pours water over his head and he flinches violently, curling into her sweater with a painful noise.
“I’ve got you.” She reassures him, she watches as copper runs down his neck.
“I have stitches. In my head.” He informs her.
“You have stitches? Oh my god.” She whispers at him, immediately locating them to avoid washing them.
“He saw Max and Lucas, but he decided Lucas was the target.”
“What a goddamn psycho.” She mutters, still trying to separate his hair.
“I couldn’t let him hurt a kid, Carrie. They’re just kids.”
“So are you.”
“It’s not the same.” Her heart aches when he says it.
“So he beat you up? For defending Lucas?”
“Well, I got a few good punches in.”
“You’re a lover, not a fighter.”
“I’ve gotten better.”
“And there’s no reason you should be getting better.”
“He broke a plate over my head. I started losing then. Max was a total badass apparently.”
“A fucking plate!”
“She drugged him.” She sits back on her knees, concern overflowing.
“She drugged him? With what?”
“I was watching baby Wheeler and Baby Byers had a seizure. She drugged him with his seizure medicine.” Steve informs her and she cups his face. He hadn’t changed at all.
“Why’d she drug him?” She knows she won’t like the answer she’s about to get.
“He wouldn’t get off me, even after he knocked me out.” A new found fury bubbles in her chest.
“You were very brave, stupid, but brave.” She tells him, going back to washing him instead of letting him know she was going to commit a homicide later today.
“I just wanted them safe.”
“And I like knowing you’re safe.” He makes a noise in response.
“What?” She questions.
“Just, shocked you’re here. Are you sure you’re real?” He asks, touching her face now.
“What else would I be?”
“Some weird hallucination because my head finally gave way.”
“I don’t think I’ll be your hallucination as you die.”
“Not saying that, but I’d think of you if I was in a coma probably.” She bites her lip, heart breaking more.
“I can promise you, I’m one hundred percent real.”
“Why are you here?” He leans in the water more, clearly trying to relax.
“You weren’t at school.”
“Hospital wrote a note for a week.”
“Well, you weren’t there and I got worried.”
“Really?” He sounds in total disbelief.
“I saw Hargrove and I’ve never had my stomach drop further. I just knew. I knew he hurt you.” She tells him, dipping the wash cloth back in the water to wash his chest off.
“He gloating?”
“He’s like a god forsaken peacock. You remember that white peacock we saw in Columbus?”
“It was so full of itself.”
“That’s Hargrove. He’s that goddamn white peacock. Thinks he’s all that a bag of chips.” She mutters in an annoyed tone.
“No, that peacock was too pretty to be him.” Steve decides, she smiles wickedly.
“I like how you think.”
“He’s an asshole.” She washes off the gunk she’s been washing, seeing how it rinses off.
“How did you get covered in whatever all this is?” She asks as she finishes, getting up to find some towels.
“Um, I don’t know.”
“Sounds like you do.”
“It’s a secret.” She pauses with the towels, unsure if she needs to push this or not.
“Okay, let’s get dry.” She holds a hand out to let him stand, she wraps his shoulders in a towel.
“I can do it, Carrie.” He laughs as she pats the towel to his wet skin.
“You look terrible, I’m so worried.” She admits, holding her hand out once again for him to step over the side.
“I’ll be okay. I bounce back.” She grimaces.
“You shouldn’t have to.” She tells him, going to find him clothes. He follows her like a puppy dog, trying to grab her hand even.
“I’m okay, I promise.” He says to her and rolls her eyes, handing him a pair of boxers.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” She stays turned, holding pajama bottoms and a tee shirt for him. When she turns to hand it she can actually take him in. She sucks a pained noise back when she sees the full extent.
“It looks worse.” He tries to downplay the injuries.
“You promise Hopper took you to the doctor?” She touches his rib and he slams his eyes shut in response.
“Notes downstairs and some drugs.”
“Have you eaten today?”
“No. I even slept in my jeans.” She tuts as he finishes getting dressed.
“I’ll make you something to eat.”
“Can’t we just lay down?” Steve looks to his bed.
“No, you need to eat Stevie. Let’s get something to eat, at least something small.” She decides and he holds her hand again, leaning on her. It feels like old times as she helps him down the steps, he always was like glue to them.
“Grilled cheese?” He asks pathetically.
“Of course I’ll make you a grilled cheese.” She deposits him on the stool and goes to get the blanket from the couch. She wraps him in it and stares with concern.
“I promise it’s okay.”
“I know you think that.” She pats his cheek gently before going to get her supplies.
“Can I have an ice pack?” Shes pulling one out immediately, bringing it to him, not even trying to toss it. The silence is comfortable despite her worrying, she pours him a glass of grape juice and he smiles when she hands it to him with a bendy straw. She cuts the sandwich up into little triangles like he likes and she hands him it with his medicine he had commented he needed.
“Eat at least half.” She could plead if she wanted, but thankfully Steve just nods a little. She digs for the cookies she knew he always kept in an attempt to get him to eat a little more.
“Thank you.” He says with sincerity as she sits next to him as he eats.
“Anytime. Don’t think about it.” He tries to smiles, but fails.
“I’m surprised you came.” He admits to her and she can’t meet his eyes now.
“Stevie, l’ll always come.”
“You didn’t last year.”
“You didn’t answer.” She admits it, like it’s a deep dark secret, “you weren’t even home when I showed up.” Steve seems to be processing the information.
“I went to Jonathan’s.”
“You went to the Byers’ house?”
“I meant what I said. I don’t want to be a miserable asshole anymore.”
“I know you did.”
“You guys came?”
“Every day for a couple days, then we saw you with Wheeler and the glare we got… we knew it was over.”
“It was never over.” He tells her.
“I didn’t want to hurt you more. Then Hargrove showed up and Tommy decided he needed to be an asshole.”
“Yeah, he’s hanging off Hargrove’s dick.”
“You should have seen his face when Hargrove said he hurt you, Stevie. I thought Tommy was going to deck him.”
“He’s worse than an asshole.”
“Even Tommy can’t really stand him. I think he’s more like a shiny new toy, you know? You really hurt tom’s feelings, but he’s too much of a pussy to fix it.” She ignores the fact she hadn’t tried to see Steve either since Thanksgiving.
“His shiny new toy is a psychopath. I’m serious, be careful about Hargrove.” Steve tone implies it’s more than just a warning, it’s genuine fear for her safety.
“I will be.” Steve finishes his food and looks at her.
“Are you staying for the day?” There’s hope in his eyes.
“I couldn’t leave you if I tried.”
“How’d you get here anyway?” He asks when she offers her arm to him. He leans against her as they begin their way up the stairs.
“I stole Tom’s car.”
“Carol!”
“What? It’s not like he’s using it during the day.” She rolls her eyes.
“You took his car!”
“Yeah, and I’d do it again in a heart beat. Plus, he knows where to find me.”
“Do you need to call him?” He asks as they reach the top of the stairs.
“If Tommy really doesn’t know where to find me, that idiot doesn’t need to be driving a car.” She throws her hair over shoulder.
“You’re insane.” She rolls her eyes again, helping him lay in bed before finding more comfortable clothes for herself.
“I’ve done crazier things.”
“Still.” He has eyes part way closed when she turns around.
“I’m not worried, so you shouldn’t be either.” She climbs in next to him. A feeling of comfort and familiarity washes over her.
“When he comes searching for you, you get to answer the door.”
“Of course, I’ll even say hello in my happiest voice.”
“I’ve seen a lot of crazy things, but that? Top ten, easy.” She laughs a little at the statement.
“It’ll knock down a few pegs after I slaughter Hargrove.” He snorts a little in the form of a laugh.
“I’d like to see that.”
“Full display. It’s an art piece, one of those public ones. Mess with my boy and I’ll skin you alive.” She declares.
“Can’t wait to see.” He can’t keep his eyes open.
“Hey, I’m not leaving.”
“Promise?”
“I pinkie promise.” They lock pinkies and it seems to be good enough to him. The warmth and closeness slowly pulls her into sleep, but not before she kisses the side of his head, hoping he never forgets being her best friend.