Chapter Text
The first thing Will registered when he reached consciousness was pain .
His head was throbbing ferociously, pounding from the inside as if his brain were trying to fight its way out of his skull. He tried to blink his eyes open, but the fluorescent light above him felt like he was staring directly into a solar eclipse, and he quickly squeezed them shut again. He tried to lift an arm to lay overtop of his closed eyes, but his right arm had an IV stuck in it and his left was wrapped up in a bulky cast.
He moaned pitifully with pain, wishing unconsciousness would overtake him again.
“Oh good, you’re awake.”
Will tried to blink his eyes open again. His vision swam, but through the blurry swirls of color he managed to make out an ID badge dangling by his face: Matthew Stevens, RN.
Oh Christ, I’m in the hospital.
Will tried in vain to push himself up, but whimpered in pain and collapsed back onto the thin pillow beneath his head.
“Don’t try to sit up. You have a head injury.”
“What happened?” Will slurred. “What’s going on?”
“I’m going to get the doctor,” the nurse explained, his voice calm and gentle. “Please don’t try to sit up.”
After a period of time that felt both like ten seconds and like ten years, Will heard a different voice.
“Mr. Byers.”
Will opened his eyes a narrow sliver, just enough to see the new name badge in front of him: Dr. Amy Weil, MD.
“Mr. Byers, it’s good to see you’re awake.”
Will could only groan in response. His head still felt like it was being hit repeatedly with a hammer from the inside.
“Can you tell me your full name?”
“W-William Byers,” Will whimpered out in response.
“And do you know your birthday?”
“M-March 22nd.”
“And can you tell me what happened this evening? What do you remember?”
“I… I remember going home.”
Will swallowed hard, trying to fight past the pain in his head and put the pieces together. He remembered finishing up at work like usual. He remembered shutting down his computer. He remembered saying goodbye to his coworkers. He remembered walking to the bus stop and waiting. And waiting. And waiting… and checking his watch every few seconds as he grew more panicked. He remembered his anxiety growing higher with every minute he didn’t see the bus coming around the corner. He remembered realizing the bus wasn’t coming, and that he was going to be late.
Will remembered thinking about how angry he would be, and the thought made him whimper.
“William, you’ve had a minor head injury. We performed a CT scan and it does not look like you have a concussion, but we would like to keep you overnight for observation due to how long you were unconscious. Mr. Byers, you are very malnourished; we’ve put you on a temporary nasogastric feeding tube, but your lack of nutrition may very well be why you were unconscious for such an extended period of time.”
The doctor was interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Excuse me, William.”
He could hear the doctor, as well as a male voice, talking in hushed whispers over by the door. Will glanced over, and his heart dropped when he saw that the doctor was speaking with a cop.
“He’s just woken up,” Dr. Weil insisted. “We still need to properly evaluate him for head trauma.”
“Please, just a few questions. We’ve got the guy in custody, but we can’t hold him forever.”
Dr. Weil sighed deeply, rubbing her forehead, but nodded in consent.
Will swallowed hard and shifted uncomfortably as the police officer approached. The doctor stepped back, but did not leave the room.
“Mr. Byers… or do you prefer William?”
“Will,” he responded meekly.
“Ok, Will,” he approached the bed cautiously, as if Will were a wild animal and he was afraid of startling him and scaring him off. “I’m Officer Perry, but you can call me Roy. Will, do you think you can tell me what happened this evening?”
Will squeezed his eyes shut, trying to remember. He’d been waiting for the bus, but it never came. He thought about taking a cab, but he had no money, so eventually he decided to walk. He’d walked all the way home, back to the apartment that they shared. Will remembered feeling his heart in his throat as he approached the building, knowing how late he was, knowing exactly what was in store for him.
Why are you late?
Where the hell were you?
Who were you with?
What were you doing?
Don’t walk away from me!
Fucking answer me, Will!
Will shook his head sharply.
“I… I don’t remember,” he answered meekly.
“If he has head trauma, it may take him a while to remember things,” Dr. Weil offered helpfully from where she was still lurking in the corner of the room.
Officer Perry nodded in understanding, though his mouth was squeezed into a very thin line, his hands poised with a pen and notepad as he looked down at Will.
“Mr. By- Will, do you know why the police were called to your apartment tonight?”
“I called the police?”
No, he wouldn’t do that.
He would never do that.
He knows better.
“No, Sir. At 5:37PM dispatch received a call from your neighbor about a disturbance in your unit. Do you know what that was about?”
Will tried to keep his breathing even as he slowly shook his head.
“You don’t know why someone would have sent the police to your apartment?”
Will wound a loose thread of the hospital bedsheets around his finger so tightly it was cutting off his circulation.
“I…I…”
His chest felt tight. He struggled to take in a breath.
“Officer, please,” Dr. Weil interjected. “We are still evaluating him for concussion symptoms. I’m going to have to insist you come back in the morning.”
Officer Perry sighed in annoyance, closing the notebook with a flip of his wrist and sticking the pen back in his shirt pocket. He nodded to both Will and to the doctor before leaving, but Will barely even registered what was happening. He was still trying to just breathe like normal.
Come on, breathe. In and out, and in and out.
His body didn’t seem to be cooperating with his mind. His chest felt like there was a golem sitting on top of it.
Suddenly the nurse appeared at his bedside again, holding a small white pill in one hand and a paper cup of water in the other.
“Take this.”
Will complied, swallowing the pill with the water.
“There, that should help you to sleep. Why don’t you get some rest. Your mother should be here soon.”
“My mother?”
“Yes, she was listed as your emergency contact. We got in touch with her when you were admitted. She said she had to drive here from Hawkins, but she shouldn’t be too much longer.”
Will felt downright nauseous at the idea of his mother coming here and seeing him like… this. Hadn’t she been through enough? After the Demogorgon, and the Mind Flayer… by now, she must be fed up with sitting next to his hospital bed. At what point did her motherly instincts dry up? At what point did she just get sick of this?
The very idea of her coming, and probably with Hopper, possibly even with El, made Will want to get up and run out of here, but that pill he swallowed soon took its effect, and exhaustion took over as Will’s eyelids fluttered closed again.
At least his headache disappeared with his consciousness.