Chapter Text
It had been four whole months since Billy had fought the Mind Flayer and won.
The first month of Billy being gone had been filled with many tears, Max had been anything but ok, she had spent most nights crying in Billy and Steve's bed. Steve himself had been right there with her crying with her curled around her trying to give her anything of a semblance of the man they had lost.
Both were heartbroken with the loss of Billy, the loss of a lover a father, and a friend. Though he hadn’t died they still grieved the loss of him in their lives. The house had become hollow without Billy, his morning smokes with coffee were no longer what the two woke up to, but now they woke up to gray mornings with no warm coffee, the fresh smell of reds flirting through the early morning rays.
They mourned the loss of him cashing around max, his snarky comments and loud laughter left them feeling hollow. Steve struggled without the man he had fallen for. There were no longer late-night conversions where they spoke about the world and how billy wanted to take them to California to go to the beach, to stick his toes in the sand and watch Steve try his hand at Surfing and fail.
Max struggled without her brother without her father, the man who always was there to shield her from the world, to hold her hand when things got tough. She had steve but it wasn’t the same as Billy, he didn’t smell the same or feel the same under her small hands when he carried her bed after she cried herself to sleep on the couch. He didn’t make her tears right even though he tried to, he didn’t have the same smell that billy did he always smelled a little of car oil and steve didn’t.
It hurt them, and they were struggling.
At first, the party would come with Max to see Billy.
For the first two weeks, they all came as the whole group in support of both Max and Steve. Dustin was always there trying to encourage Steve to be his brighter self but it hadn’t worked.
Steve was depressed, he was breaking Dustin knew this, there was only so much an eleven-year-old could do.
El was trying her best to support Max with hugs, but she herself was struggling with Max and how to go about supporting her. No matter the amount of hugs El had given her she wasn’t able to make her smile. She tried hugs, and lots of egos but nothing brought the bright laughing smile back onto the freckled face.
The rest of the boys had no clue how to help but still showed up.
But it didn’t last.
In the second month, Max had snapped after doctor Owen’s had told her his condition wasn’t improving, it was declining. She had been informed they had to reconstruct his chest again as they has to remove the bullet lodge in his collar bone as it was beginning to go septic.
She wouldn’t let any of the party near Billy anymore, she refused to have Nancy near her or Billy after the doctor had informed them that bullet she had shot had lodged itself in his collar bone and had shattered it the splinted bone has wedged itself in his muscle infecting it.
The party wasn’t happy about it, saying it was unfair that only she could see him as it wasn’t like they had done anything to hurt him.
Max didn’t speak to them for the rest of the month.
They had done six more surgeries after the first initial one to save his life.
They had to reconstruct the rest of his chest probably as well fixing his collar bone and remove the bullet that had coursed the most damage.
After the first four, Max had been beyond herself not wanting anyone in. She had told Steve through gasped tearful breaths under no circumstance did she want anyone who wasn’t family in with Billy, as his condition was slowly deteriorating.
They had to open his skull two weeks after the fourth surgery his brain swelling from the trauma. Their suspension finally became a reality.
The trauma coursed his brain to swell doing irreversible damage.
No one knew if he’d make it through unscathed.
Max prayed he would.
By the start of the third month, Max had lost it completely.
Max had been at everyone’s throats having only spoken to some a couple of times, but she hadn’t apologized for her behavior in the hospital or for screaming at any of them. She had gotten so bad she would snap at any given moment, getting into fights with random kids all the time.
Steve didn’t care though, he always told her if she needs him to he would come to get her no questions asked.
The whole party had given Max a wide birth after she had punched Lucas in the face after she called him out for being an asshole about how she was overreacting.
The only person Max was willing to talk to was Steve.
But that was a battle for both of them.
“Max, you gotta calm down,” Steve said to her.
They had been arguing about the Max going to school. She had been going on and off. The guidance counselor had been so far up her ass she had been avoiding school like a plague when the woman had been trying to corner her into coming to see her talk about her dad’s condition.
“No she's so fucking annoying, she won't leave it alone she's so in my face, it’s suffocating” she spat at Steve while matching back and forth between the living room and the kitchen.
“Maybe she wants to help,” Steve said his hand hadn’t stopped shaking since the first night Billy had been in hospital. Max had been doing her best to support him, as well as he had for her.
But there was something off about how he sat on his chair at the dinner table his eyes bloodshot as he watched her pace back and forth.
“Both you and I know that’s what she wants Steve. She wants me to tell her secrets, she wants me to dob him in and make him something he is not” she growled and Steve just stared at the wall before mumbling out.
It was no secret that after the battle in star court the town of Hawkins had been at odd on whether Billy was a hero or a villain half had been after Billy trying to tear his grieving family apart, by annoying Hopper about Max and how it was wrong she was staying with Steve and shouldn’t be alone with the man in the house how she was being miss treated and neglected.
Hopper had been up to his eyeballs in complaints and he also give them the same reply
Fuck off and mind your business.
They didn’t like it so they went to the guidance counselor.
“I think she looking for an excuse to take you away” he couldn’t stop the tears coming from his eyes as he looked at her.
“I think she was looking for that too and I don’t want to go I’m not leaving you, I’m not leaving Billy I’m not going anywhere, she can fuck right off. “ she whimpered out to Steve, tears filling her already red eyes as she fell into his arms.
For the rest of the third month, Steve and Max hid away in Billy's room, hiding from the guidance counselor and everyone else.
The fourth month came with good news.
Billy's brain had stopped swelling and they were able to put back the piece of skull they had taken out so his brain had room.
It had been a stressful 24 hours that day but they had all made it through relatively in peace.
“So with the recent surgery and scans, we are to believe he should be waking up in the next month as there is heightened brain actively.” the doctor told them as they sat by Billy's bed. They had shaved the side of his head again much to everyone's annoyance and it had grown some nothing like it was though he still had his long curls at the back he just looked rather strange with a shave squire on the side of his head.
“But there a catch isn't there?” Steve asked the exhaustion coming through his voice the man had dark circles lining his eyes
“Well, as much as we’re certain he will wake up there is no telling what he will be like as he has had significant brain trauma.” the doctor said.
The sinking feeling in Max's stomach plummeted.
“So we might not even get our Billy back” she choked out. Her chin trembled as she held back sobs her small hands grabbing Billy's as she tried her best to hold it together.
The man next to her did the same as tears slipped down his cheeks as the doctor walked out.
“I just want him to wake up Steve” she cried out to him her eyes burning with tears she couldn’t afford to cry.
“So do I Max so do” Steve pulled Max close to him she had lost a lot of weight and so had he the struggle to eat was now a never-ending battle for them both.
Billy himself had lost a fair amount of weight, the tube in his nose only doing so much to keep his weight up.
“I just want him back, I just want my dad back” she cried into Steve's side his large arms circling around her trying to give her what comfort he could.
Billy felt floaty the world around him was there but wasn’t truly there for him as floated around in a comforting void.
The world around him was nothing like he was used to. There was no warm morning or sock-patted feet running around on wooden floors.
Though there were many voices in this voice.
Some he loves some he vaguely knew. they were always saying strange things to him, things he never could quite grasp.
But he always was listing for them.
“Hey dad, I had my first day back at school” that was Max. he knew her voice, but she sound broken to him and he couldn’t figure out why his baby girl sounded so sad.
“Hey baby boy, I have no idea what I'm doing but I miss you so much” that was Steve he loved Steve's voice-hearing him tell him about Max’s latest antics.
The world was so cold in his floating void, the concept of time was a thing of the past for him as he drifted in his soft sleep.
He was so tired yet he never really woke enough to see their faces.
Their tones were changing and people went from telling him about their day to begging him to wake up.
“Please, baby boy wake up, wake up for me I don't know what I’m doing and I need you so badly” he could hear the tears in Steve's voice and wished he could hold his man but he couldn’t get enough a grasp to wake up and do it.
“Come on man, wake up I’m lost here, I need advice here” that was the wheeler kid, the hell did he need advice with he thought as he drifted around in the weightless waters he had grown to know.
“Wake up sweetie, they're falling apart without you” he almost mistook that for his mum but it was Joyce. What did she mean they were falling apart?
Who was falling apart?
“Wake up, just wake up already Steve won't stop crying and Max is so mad, she scary now.” that was Steve's kid the curly one that was always at his house “I just want my friends back”
What was his name?
“Hey man, it's been a mess without you, Max punch Lucas in the face the other day it was mental, never seen her like that. Wake up soon” that was Jonathan his friend. He still struggled to believe he had a friend.
Billy was starting to worry, about what was happening to Max and Steve.
The clam water that he floated in was starting to stir and rock, the ripples clipping against his skin.
“Come on kid, your gotta wake up we're falling apart without you here” that was Hopper why was hopper here in the floating world around him?
Billy could feel warmth spreading through him but nothing like what he was used to, it was different than before. He was no longer bathing in the warmth of the California sun on hot sand, warming him from the outside in.
No, it was scorching him burning him inside to outside and scorching anything that it touched. It burned everything around him his calm waters, were now a burning inferno of terror, the water splashing into lit gasoline as he struggled in it drowning in the heat around him.
“Come on kid, I need you to help me out here, your daughter has gone rampant I’m not even meant to be here right now, she’d lose it if she finds out but you gotta wake up she breaking and Steve struggling to keep it together, we need you back Billy”
Billy was struggling to keep his head above the burning gasoline that littered the top of the water boiling him from the tips of his toes to the end of his hair.
And he stayed there not listing to the want to let go let the cool water below him drag him under and fill his lungs with icy water.
He kept treading the cold water trying to keep it together stay closer to stay where he was where it was safe.
Till he heard her
He heard his baby girl speak to him, her voice burning with sorrow.
“I know you probably can't hear me” she hiccuped as she spoke her voice wobbling “ but please wake up daddy, wake up and come home” she sobbed her voice a mass of harrow
He could feel the splash of her tears on his hands, tearing the world he had grown comfortable with into shreds, the clam waters rocking back and for waves crashing together with each splash of her tear.
“I can’t do this anymore, I need you I need you to wake please dad” she cried her wail rocking the world-shattering the calm illusion that once was.
Billy stood in the mid of the rippling water the sound of waves crashing echoing through the black abyss that surrounded him.
“You gotta wake up Billy”
Billy spun around the water beneath his feet slothed, his eyes meet her, a white dress and blond hair sat neatly under her straw hat.
“It’s ok to wake up baby,” she said to him her eyes a soft blue like the ocean she loved so much.
“Mum” he screamed he couldn’t help but reach out to her as he stumbled through the sinking water beneath him. They want to stay with her deep in his chest. The want to stay with the only woman he had ever cared for him no matter what he was like till she was curly taken away.
“It’s ok baby, it's ok,” she said her voice soft as he remembered, her smile as warm as he dreamed of.
“She needs you, baby, you gotta wake up,” she said to him her soft hand stroked his cheek before she pressed her lips to his forehead as he knelt at her feet his eyes welling with tears as she walked away from him disappearing into the black abyss that sounded him.
“It’s ok.”
Billy opened his eyes the crust of wheel-fought sleep stung his eyes, he couldn’t help but rub them as he looked around the blurriness of his sight giving way to the room he was in.
White walls and floor the smell of bleach lingering in his knows as he felt fresh air bumped through his nostrils but the tube that sat snug over his ears.
“Max” he crooked looking around for the redhead but not seeing the young girl where he thought she was.
Where he had felt her crying against his hand only moments ago?
Struggling he sat up the burning of stretched skin across his chest coursed a groan to tear through his chest and funnel out his mouth as he swung his legs over the side of the bed tearing every single tube and wire off him. Pain engulfed every nerve he had.
The erratic beeping squeal of the monsters he pulled off him annoyed him but he didn’t care nor did he care for the bewildered women standing at the door.
“Where’s Max” he whispered at her, his voice croaking as he stood up his legs wobbling from laying down for so long but he stood leaning against the bed for support. The pain he felt as he stood there bore down to his bones, he could feel the back of sweat on his skin as he waited for her answer.
“You need to get back into bed” she screeched at him rushing forward into his space.
Billy blinked sluggishly as he kept trying to ask for Max, his chest burned and his legs shook the pain was boarding overwhelming at this rate.
“Please, get Max” he slurred to her as he slid down in her grip the grasp he had on the bed weakening as he tried to keep himself up.
“I call your daughter but we gotta get you back to bed love. she said to him softly pulling him back into the bed and
Billy blinked at her, why wasn’t Max here he swore she had been here he felt the tears drop onto his hand smelt the vanilla soap they used, and sure as fuck heard her voice he knows he did he heard her voice just before he saw his mum.
“Yeah, ok, what is the time?” he breathed his steps were slow and they hurt but he made it back round to the bed lying up against the pillow the woman pushed under his head.
“It's three in the morning and the date is the eleventh of October,” she said to him before disappearing out the door.