Chapter Text
Chapter 5:
Nancy wakes up a bit slower than usual.
Not because she slept well - she absolutely did not - but because for once, she doesn’t force herself out of bed the second her eyes open. Her head still feels heavy from that terrible migraine yesterday. She got it during dinner. Robin kinda forced her to take the morning off, to sleep a little longer. She looked at her alarm. 7.03 am. Oh for fuck’s sake. It’s impossible to sleep in, it seems. She decides to get out of bed and check on Max later, to go chill on the couch before going to work, that would count as rest she decided.
The house is calm in that early-morning way. The kind that only exists when everyone else is still asleep or already gone. Nancy lies there for a moment longer, staring at the ceiling, replaying last night in fragments. Max on the stairs. The way she’d gone pale so fast. How she hadn’t changed out of her clothes.
Nancy exhales sharply and swings her legs out of bed.
She moves through her room quietly, she decides on jeans with her new brown jacket. She pulls her hair into a messy bun to get it out of her face, puts on some mascara and decides she doesn’t want to put on any more. She grabs her bag of the floor next to her door and walks out. When walks towards the stairs, she pauses at Max’s door.
It’s ajar.
Nancy hesitates, hand hovering near the frame. She doesn’t want to wake her. But something tightens in her chest, the same instinct that’s been buzzing at her for weeks now.
She steps inside.
Max’s room smells faintly like detergent and winter air. The curtains are still half-closed. Max herself is curled on the bed, facing the wall, breathing slow and deep. Asleep. Somewhere last night she changed out of her clothes into her pajamas, she was wearing a brown hoodie that was way too big for her. Nancy didn’t recognize it, it certainly wasn’t any from Max self, it was a men’s hoodie. But it wasn’t one from Lucas or Mike, she guessed it was one that used to be from Billy. Her chest tightened. She didn’t know how to feel about it, or how Max had felt that she decided to wear Billy’s hoodie.
She turns to leave.
Then she sees the sheets.
The stain is impossible to miss once she notices it. Dark. Dried. Not fresh, which almost makes it worse. There’s another mark near the edge of her duvet, and then Nancy’s eyes track lower, toward the grey zipper hoodie thrown carelessly on the floor from yesterday.
More stains on the sleeves.
Her stomach drops.
For a moment, she just stands there, frozen, heart pounding hard enough that it feels loud in her ears. Her brain tries to explain it away automatically, a nosebleed, maybe? Anything normal. Anything that doesn’t make her chest ache like this.
But she knows better.
Nancy swallows hard and forces herself to breathe.
Carefully, she steps closer to the bed, lifting the edge of the duvet just enough to confirm what she already knows. The fabric underneath is marked too, just underneath her pillow.
Nancy straightens abruptly, like she’s burned herself on something hot.
She looks back at Max, at the side of her face, slack with sleep, lashes dark against her pale skin. She looks young like this. Even smaller.
“Oh, Max…” Nancy whispers, barely audible.
Her hands shake as she backs away.
She doesn’t wake her. She doesn’t say anything.
Instead, Nancy leaves the room and closes the door quietly behind her.
In the bathroom, she braces herself against the sink, staring at her reflection. Her face looks pale. There’s a sharp, cold clarity settling in.
She opens the cabinet under the sink.
Bandages. Gauze. Antiseptic wipes.
She takes more than she thinks she needs.
Back in her room, Nancy lays everything out neatly on her desk. Her hand hovers over it, she clenches her hand, knuckles whitening.
She doesn’t know what she’s going to say to Max yet..
But she does know that she has to say something, she can’t ignore this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Max wakes up with that familiar, heavy ache in her limbs.
It feels like she slept for two whole days, that her body just forgot to tell her brain. Her head throbs dully. Her mouth feels dry. She blinks at the wall in front of her, trying to remember where she is before the room slowly comes back into focus.
Right. The Wheelers’. Her room.
She shifts slightly and immediately regrets it. A sharp sting flares along her arm, pulling a quiet hiss from her throat before she can stop herself. Her fingers curl instinctively, tugging the sleeve of her hoodie even further over her hand even though it’s already covering everything.
She exhales slowly through her nose.
Okay. Okay.
Max pushes herself upright, the movement careful, controlled. She swings her legs over the side of the bed and sits there for a moment, letting the dizziness pass. She looks around the room, it’s still quiet. She hears no footsteps in the hall. She looks back at her bed. Then she sees it, the stains. It’s way worse than she expected it to be, it’s everywhere. Unmissable.
Shit shit shit.
How is she gonna cover this, she’s not gonna be able to make some excuse for this. Fuck why wasn’t she more careful. She looked down at the sleeves of her hoodie. It had old cigarette burns on it. But she didn’t see any stains.
Well that was one thing that didn’t go completely wrong.
She stands, swaying just slightly.
Maybe she could tell them she got her period. No, they know she lost it. And that wouldn’t make any sense, why had she bled at the top of her bed. She was so fucked.
Then her eye catches the desk.
She missed a breath.
Laid out neatly on the wood are antiseptic wipes. Gauze. Bandages. Lined up like someone thought about this.
Max freezes.
Her chest tightens sharply, the air suddenly feeling too thin. Her gaze flicks to the door, then back to the desk.
Nancy.
The realization settles in fast.
She knows.
Max’s heart starts pounding, fast and without a pattern. A rush of heat floods her face, followed immediately by a cold dread curling in her stomach. She feels exposed, like every thought she’s had over the last weeks is suddenly written all over the walls.
She hadn’t been careful enough.
She steps closer to the desk, her fingers hover over the supplies without touching them at first, like she’s kinda expecting them to disappear if she does. They don’t.
Nancy didn’t wake her. She didn’t confront her. She didn’t say anything.
That somehow makes it even worse.
Max swallows hard and grabs one of the antiseptic wipes, the gauze and bandage, and walks fast to the bathroom. She locks the door. The crinkle of the packaging sounded way too loud in the room, echoing for too long. She winces as she cleans her arms, jaw clenching as the sting blooms sharp and bright. She forces herself to keep going.
She layers the gauze carefully. Wraps the bandages tighter than necessary.
Her hands shake.
The entire time, her brain keeps replaying the same thought over and over:
She knows. She knows. She knows.
Max finishes quickly, shoving the wrappers deep down in the trash. Covering it with toilet paper, like that’ll erase the evidence. She pulls her sleeve back down and presses her arm against her side, grounding herself in the pressure.
She walks back to her room, really lightly. She doesn’t want Nancy to hear her.
In her room she changes into jeans. She keeps the hoodie on. It feels nice and it feels like it’s weighing her down at the same time. Maybe she is scared to change out of it, she doesn’t know it herself.
Max sighs deep, she doesn’t want to talk.
She doesn’t want questions. Or concern. Or that look, the one Nancy gets when she’s scared but trying not to show it. Max can already hear it in her head.
Why didn’t you tell me?
How long has this been going on?
Are you safe?
Her throat tightens.
She can’t do this right now. She can’t do it ever.
Max grabs her Walkman, and walks really silently down the stairs. She hears the tv.
Good.
She can’t be heard walking down the stairs now.
A loud click sounds. Max is startled.
The toilet!
“Oh, please let it be Nancy let it be Nancy.” She whispers under her breath.
She gets all the way down the stairs and sees Mike, Holly and Karen in the kitchen.
“Oh thank god.” She whispers again.
Her feet walk fast.
“Hey, I’m leaving earlier. I’m meeting with Lucas before school.”
“Oh hey honey. Good morning. Do you want a ride? Nancy could give you one, she’s taken free this morning, or I could give you one?”
“Oh, no, let Nance enjoy her free morning. Could you give me a ride?”
“Yea of course sweetie. Let me put this away and I’ll bring you.” Karen stood up and brought her plate to the kitchen.
Max almost sprinted to the hall. She couldn’t have Nancy see her, not now please. She put her shoes on and her jacket. Her bag has been laying in the hall since yesterday. The door from the living room opened while she was still putting on her jacket.
It was Karen.
Thank god again.
When Max opened the front door she heard the toilet being flushed, just in time.
“I’ll be back in a bit, Nance! I’m bringing Max to school.”
The cold outside hit Max hard, she didn’t feel it.
Then the front door closed.
Nancy stared at it.
She knew Max had been tactic. She’d waited for her to leave and then made some excuse to leave early. She doesn’t have school for another hour.
Nancy walked upstairs, to Max her room. The antiseptic wipes were still there, but the bandages and gauze were gone. All of it. Nancy sat down on Max's bed before her legs gave out.
She actually didn’t know what she needed to do now. She had no idea. She didn’t even know if what she did was smart. Oh fuck what had she done?
Stay calm. First action then think right now.
Nancy stood up from the bed and took off the covers. It was actually a lot of blood. No wait. She should first call Vickie, what if it had been really bad? What if she needed to go to the hospital?
Nancy walked down the stairs again, to the phone. Mike passed her on the stairs, completely in his own world. Holly was sitting on the couch watching the tv.
Good, they probably won’t hear her.
She dialed the hospital number, counting the rings as her stomach twisted over and over again.
“Hawkins Memorial Hospital. How can I help you?”
“Hi.. I need to speak to Vickie, please. It’s kind of urgent.”
“Just a moment, please,” the voice said, transferring her. The soft click of hold music made her even more stressed.
“Hi, this is Vickie Dunne speaking?”
“Vickie, It’s Nancy.”
“Hi, Nancy. Is everything okay?”
“I don’t know. I found.. things this morning. Max.. she-” Her voice broke, she swallowed hard forcing herself to continue. “There were stains everywhere in her bed. It was blood Vickie. It was on the sleeves of her hoodie too.”
There was silence on the other end.
“Okay, okay, Nancy. First breathe,” Vickie said gently. “Tell me exactly what you found, okay? Is Max still home?”
“No she left, I think it was because of me.”
Vickie waited.
Nancy let out a sharp breath. She talked about everything she’d seen, trying not to sound too hysterical but failing in small bursts. The dark stains on the duvet, the hoodie sleeves, how she left bandages and gauze on the desk. That she hadn’t woken Max up and that she almost ran out of the door.
“She saw them,” Nancy said quietly. “The bandages. The wipes. They were gone when I went back upstairs. She used them and left.”
“Okay,” Vickie said finally. “That tells me a few things. First of all, she wasn’t in immediate danger this morning. She cleaned and dressed the wounds herself. Max is smart enough to let somebody know if something was really wrong.”
Nancy closed her eyes. Her free hand curled into the fabric of her sleeve. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I shouldn’t have left the supplies out like that. I shouldn’t have gone into her room. I shouldn’t –”
“Nancy,” Vickie interrupted softly but firmly. “Stop it. You did good. You didn’t confront her. You didn’t panic. You gave her what she needed right now without forcing her to talk.”
Nancy swallowed. Her throat burned.
“She didn’t even look at me,” Nancy whispered. “She waited until I had left for just a second.”
“Because she’s scared,” Vickie said. “And because she doesn’t want to disappoint you.”
Nancy opened her eyes again.
“What do I do now?” she asked.
“For now,” Vickie said calmly, “you don’t push. You absolutely don’t interrogate her when she comes home. You act normal. Make sure she eats something. Make sure she rests. But keep an eye on her.”
“And if it gets even worse?” Nancy asked quietly.
“If you see fresh wounds, or if she faints, seems confused, then you need to tell her she has to talk to you or to me, then you call me.”
Nancy nodded, even though Vickie couldn’t see it. “Okay.”
“You did the right thing by calling,” Vickie added. “You’re not overreacting, I promise.”
That almost broke her.
“Thank you,” Nancy whispered.
After she hung up, Nancy lingered by the phone, staring at the wall.
She slowly exhales and picks the phone back up.
This time, she doesn’t hesitate for as long.
Steve answers on the second ring. “Harrington.”
“Steve. It’s Nancy.”
Something in her voice must alert him right away. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t explain,” she says hastily. “This isn’t something Max wants passed along, I’m sure. But something did happen last night. And this morning.”
There’s a moment of silence. Steve doesn’t press her.
“Okay,” he says instead. “Is she safe?”
“I think so,” Nancy says. “But she’s not right. If she comes to you today, if she seems weird, or leaves class without a reason, or even just seems even quieter than usual… I just need you to keep an eye on her.”
“I will,” Steve says right away. “What do you want me to do if something happens?”
Nancy tightens her grip on the counter. “Just call me, please.”
“Got it,” Steve says.
“Thank you,” she says quietly.
“Of course,” Steve says. “I’ll keep an extra eye on her, thank you for calling.”
She hangs up before she can answer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hallway is empty when she finally pushes the emergency exit open. Cold air hits her hard, but she steps out anyway. Her Walkman’s volume is cranked just enough to block everything else out.
She keeps walking. Fast. Just away. Away from Steve, from the looks she’ll get, from Nancy, from everyone.
She hates that she left. She hates that she always leaves. But she can’t stop. Not when all eyes are on her. Not when the memory of last night is too much with everything else. The basketball team had been abolished today. She felt bad. She knew Steve had felt even worse. But it was her fault. It was because of Billy and Jason. Both her fucking fault. Her fault they had-... That they weren’t here anymore.
She didn’t want to think about it, instead she thinks about Nancy. About the desk. About the way everything had been lined up perfectly.
And yeah. Nancy knew. She had to know. And Steve probably also knew. And that’s why Max can’t go back. She can’t deal with the questions, the worry, she’s not ready to be seen.
Lucas. He’ll notice soon enough. Maybe he already has. She herself pushed him away. She hates herself so fucking much for it. He was the one who had never given up on her when she was in the coma. He saved her. She damn well knew that. But that’s the reason he can’t see her like this. She doesn’t want him to know he had saved an even more broken version of her. She had been so depressed when she got stuck in his mind. Then she decided she didn’t want to die in somebody’s mind. But when she got out she didn’t know if it had been the right decision. It would’ve been the easy one. She didn’t remember that living had been this hard before.
She doesn’t even know where she’s walking. Her legs just keep moving. Streets blur past her, the cold stinging her cheeks. Music is everything. It’s the only thing that’s steady, the one thing that keeps her safe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Lil side note, I know her music didn’t exist back then BUTTT Max is an Adrienne Lenker listener okay? Please imagine that, okay thanks :3 )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She thinks back at school. Lunch time. She left her tray untouched. She had left everyone and hadn’t talked to anyone. She hadn’t even talked to anyone in class today.
She thinks about the hallway. Will. He saw. She caught his eyes too late, realized he noticed something, and blurted out some dumb excuse about a fence. A stupid fence. Like he would’ve believed that. But he didn’t argue. Just nodded. But she knows he knows.
She swallows again. She had swallowed so much already. She can’t swallow out the tightness in her throat.
She keeps walking. The streets are empty. Her jacket weighs heavy. She’s happy she went to grab it. It’s already freezing. Her fingers are feeling more numb than ever. She tries not to think, but her thoughts are all over the place.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The cafeteria buzzed with the usual chaos, trays scraping, voices, laughter, the smell of fries and mystery meat. Lucas shoved a spoonful of macaroni into his mouth but didn’t taste it.
“Where the hell is Max?” he finally muttered.
Mike looked up, frowning. “Huh?”
“Max. She’s not here.” Lucas gestured vaguely to the empty seat besides him where she always sat.
Dustin froze mid-bite. “What do you mean she’s not here? She was in class this morning, right?”
“Yeah she was, at least she was last class. I didn’t sit with her tho, but she was in class.” Will nodded.
“Did she leave the classroom?” Mike asked, looking at Will.
“Yeah, I saw her at the lo-..” Will froze.
“What is it?” Lucas looked even more worried now.
“I saw her at the lockers.” Will said, coming to his senses again. “I put my books away. But Max did not only put her books away, she was putting her jacket on. And,.. No it’s nothing.” Will stopped talking there. He had seen her bandages and he didn’t believe her excuse at all. He knew better, but he didn’t know if it was his place
to share it. It probably wasn’t.
Lucas’s jaw tightened. “Okay… great. So she’s missing and she had her jacket on, I know she’s cold fast but this isn’t for inside.”
Dustin pushed his tray aside, eyes wide. “We gotta tell Steve. Like… right now. He needs to know.”
Lucas nodded, already standing. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”
Steve’s office was empty except for him, hunched over some paperwork. He looked up as the four of them burst in, almost tripping over the doorframe.
“Max. She’s gone,” Lucas blurted. “She left school.”
Steve froze mid-sip of coffee. “What do you mean, gone?”
“She… she didn’t come to lunch. She just… left,” Mike said.
“Left?” Steve’s voice went sharp. “Where?”
“We don’t know. Will said he saw her put on her jacket and, uh..”
“We both went to our lockers after class, I didn’t think much of it. But she put on her jacket and didn’t walk with me to lunch. I kinda thought she went to the bathroom or something, but she didn’t need her jacket for that..” Will continued, taking it over from Mike.
Steve’s jaw clenched as Will finished talking. He set his coffee down slowly.
“She put her jacket on,” Steve repeated.
Will nodded. “Yeah. And she had her Walkman with her too.”
Lucas’s hands curled into fists at his sides. “She wouldn’t just leave. Not without saying something or letting it known in some way.”
Mike shifted, uneasy. “Unless she really didn’t want anyone to stop her.”
A heavy silence fell.
It was broken by the school bell.
Steve straightened up. “Okay. Listen to me. Max not coming to lunch isn’t a big deal okay? But if she’s left school it is most definitely a big deal.”
Steve exhaled through his nose. He already knew this was bad, Nancy’s call that morning had made sure of that. He felt sick to his stomach, it had been his job to
keep an eye on Max. And now they lost her.
“What’s her next class?”
“Biology, I have it with her.” Dustin said.
“Okay, go to the class. See if Max is there. If she’s not, come back immediately,” Steve said.
Steve leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers against the desk. His stomach twisted. He couldn’t think straight anymore.
Dustin came back fast, slamming the door open. “She’s not in Biology,” he said, voice high from running. “I checked all the rows, her stuff’s not there. The teacher says he hasn´t seen her.”
Steve rubbed his face with his hand. “Okay…okay. That’s not good.” He stood, pacing. “I’m going to the front office. You guys go to class. I don’t want you to get in trouble okay?”
“But-..” Lucas tried.
“I’m sorry, I’ll let you know if we find her, but I can’t let you four stay out of class.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The office was quiet, the fluorescent lights humming. The two secretaries looked up as they approached.
“Uh, hi,” Steve said, trying to keep his voice calm. “Has anyone signed out Max, uh Maxine Mayfield this morning?”
The older secretary shook her head. “No, Mr. Harrington. Nobody signed her out.” She glanced at the younger one. “I mean, we’d know, right?”
“Yeah we would know. Why do you ask?” The younger one asked.
“I think she’s missing, she vanished at lunch.”
“That’s bad. Max is the student with the medical issues right?”
“Yes, I have a bad feeling about this.”
“I’m going to call her over the intercom. If she doesn’t come we should call the police. I don’t like the idea of a student with medical issues who might be missing.”
“Yeah. Okay. Please call first and say that it’s important to come. Then we need to call her mo-.. uhm, we need to call mrs. Wheeler.”
The older secretary nodded.
The intercom crackled softly, then the secretary’s voice filled the halls.
“Maxine Mayfield, please come to the front office. Maxine Mayfield.”
Steve stood with his arms crossed, eyes fixed on the doorway like she might just walk through it any second, headphones around her neck, annoyed at being pulled out of class.
The seconds that passed stretched.
The secretaries exchanged a look.
They waited more and more.
Steve’s jaw tightened. He glanced at the clock. Thirty seconds. Then a minute.
“She should be here by now,” the younger secretary said.
“She’s not in the building or something happened. Either way..” the older one replied. She reached for the phone again. “I’m calling the police.”
Steve nodded immediately. “Ask for Hopper then. She knows him.”
The secretary didn’t question it.
While she spoke in a low voice, Steve stepped aside and picked up the other phone. His fingers shook as he dialed Karen Wheeler’s number.
Karen answered quickly. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Wheeler, it’s Steve Harrington,” he said. “I- I need you to listen, okay?”
There was a pause. “What’s wrong?”
“Max didn’t come to lunch. She did not sign out. And as far as we know she’s not in the school.”
“Oh my god,” Karen breathed.
“We’re calling the police right now,” Steve continued. “I just wanted to ask, if she comes home, or if you see her, please call the school immediately.”
“Yes. Yes, of course,” Karen said, panic already creeping into her voice. “She isn’t home. I would’ve known.”
“Okay,” Steve said. “Okay. Thank you.”
He hung up and immediately dialed again.
“Nancy?” She answered on the second ring. “Steve?”
“Hey, yeah. Sorry. I know. Are you… are you at work right now?”
“Yeah. Why?” Her voice sharpened. “What’s going on?”
Steve swallowed. “Max is missing.”
“What?” Nancy said. “Missing how?
“She was at school this morning,” Steve explained, words tumbling out faster now. “She went to class. Then lunch came and she never showed. She didn’t sign out. We checked. We’re calling the police right now.”
“Oh my god,” Nancy whispered.
“They’re already on their way,” Steve added. “I called your mom already, but I thought you would want to know this too.”
There was a short, shaky breath on the other end. “Has anyone heard from her? At all?”
“No.”
“Steve,” Nancy said slowly, something unplacable settling into her voice. “You need to make sure Hopper understands this isn’t just a kid ditching school.”
“I will.”
“She hasn’t been okay lately,” Nancy continued. “She’s been hiding it, but, you tell him she could be a danger to herself.”
Steve closed his eyes. “Okay.”
“Please,” Nancy said. “They need to find her fast.”
“I know,” he said quietly.