Fallout || Stranger Things [2]

twenty-six || sonar and second chances

"I hate waiting."

The door leading out to the secluded patio of the D.C. safe house had only just opened, but the sole occupant at the backyard knew they were coming.

Nina knew she could only go so long without being checked on, even in the dead of night.

"Me too," Will said, letting the door shut quietly behind him. He wandered down the patio steps until he reached Nina's tiny frame on the last one and sat beside her. He pulled the sleeves of his hoodie over his hands to fight the nip of night. "I hate not knowing." He blew out a puff of visible air as he tilted his head up to the sky. "But it's been like that for months. Wondering if she really died, y'know. It's like she's always there but just out of reach."

Nina chewed on her bottom lip. "But she did die, Will. She... she bled out. You can't come back from that."

"Coming back from the Upside Down was supposed to be impossible too, right?" he offered, tipping his head back down. "But we're both here."

Nina sighed as her eyes fluttered shut. "We looked. I looked. She wasn't...there." She pressed her face into her hands, muffling a tempered scream.

The bushes lining the backyard rustled, a bright light soon flashing around the corner.

Nina snapped up, shielding her eyes as Will did. "I told you I was fine," she whined.

One of the many guards flanking the property lowered his flashlight, the mildly concerned expression leaving his face as he evaluated the teens. "Lets keep it short. You two should be inside."

Nina grumbled under her breath as the guard retreated, running her hands through her hair with a sigh.

"You really didn't feel anything the other night?" Will finally asked when the bushes settled in the guard's departure.

Nina shook her head as she leaned back on the stairs. "No, I really didn't. Same with El." She looked over to Will, brows drawn in. "But you and Billy did?"

He nodded gently, taking great care with his words the Nina's eyes threatened to spill over. "Both of us. All this time we've been hearing things and-"

The brunette held up a hand to stop him, her gaze set out on the trees pouring out of the backyard. "Ben and Billy told me about the radios and records. I...I've felt things myself, but...it had to be grief, right?"

"I thought so too, but..." Will shook his head, eyes trailing up to the stars, "then it seemed like she..."

"Like she what?" Nina asked, soft urgency in her face as she turned to look at him.

Will chewed on the inside of his lip as a star in the littered sky winked at him. "Like she wanted to be heard," he quietly said.

Nina's lips parted, the lightest of gasps leaving her.

Will turned his head, almost startled at the pain on her face. "I...I'm sorry." He angled himself towards her as a tear slipped down her cheek, Nina beating him to the punch of catching it with a sleeve. "Did I say it wrong? I don't...no one in my life has really died before. I don't know how to describe it."

"No, no," Nina replied, running her knuckles under her eyes as she leaned forward on her thighs. "You described it perfectly. I..." She sniffled as she tried to breathe in deep, her gaze absent on the ground. "But not listening is exactly what I've been doing. I didn't want to hear it. I...couldn't." She pressed her palms to her cheeks to cool herself down but it only brought her memories of the forever-frost in the Upside Down. "The sister I dreamt of at night when the dogs were too close, who I only ever caught glimpses of but lived in my mind every waking moment. She..." Her eyes pinched shut, hands still pressed to her face. "She was everything, and...she was even more in person, but she saved my life and died in front of me on the same day." She turned her head to Will. "Am I just supposed to let that go? What it did to me?"