Delirium

Chapter three: The Lab

Steve stood at Liv's feet while Dustin fanned her face. "She's- she's okay, right?" He asked as Liv laid, unmoving. Her face had gone oddly pale. Even the freckles that imprinted her skin looked less brown and more... sickly.

"She's done this before," Dustin told him as he continued to fan her face. "Sometimes when she freaks out she laughs so hard she faints."

"This is normal for her?" Lucas asked as he crouched by Liv's other side. "What other times has she done this?"

Dustin stopped fanning her face. "Well-" a look of hesitation passed through his eyes. "Her dad walked out on her and her mom a while ago. She was staying at my house when her mom called to tell her he left. She laughed so hard we thought she was joking, then she fainted. When she woke up she started crying, then kept crying the whole night." He frowned as he looked down at his best friend. "That's how we knew she wasn't joking."

Steve's stomach dropped.

It's like when dads tell their daughters 'good thing you're pretty because you're definitely not smart'.

No one says that to their daughters.

You'd be surprised what dads tell their daughters.

What sort of piece of shit tells their daughters gross things like that then leaves them?

He swallowed back his disgust and moved to Dustin's side. "How long does it take her to wake up?"

Dustin shrugged. "Don't know. It was a while ago. But..." he looked down at his friend. "I have an idea."

"Okay."

Without warning, Dustin pulled his hand up and slapped Liv cold across the face. Steve's eyes widened as Liv sucked in a breath and sat up so quickly she smacked her head against Dustin's.

Dustin groaned and fell to his butt. Liv grunted and rubbed the red spot on her forehead. "Dusty? What the hell?"

Steve crouched by Liv's side and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"

She opened one eye to look at him. "I fainted, didn't I?"

He nodded.

She closed her eye again, then squeezed them so tightly wrinkles pressed into her temples. Her orange eyelashes fluttered against her freckled cheeks as she groaned. "God, I need to stop doing that."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Don't make it a habit." He tried for a light tone. "Come on." He stood and grabbed her hand that was still rubbing her forehead. "Up. Up." He tugged her to her feet and held onto her hand until she steadied. "Good?"

She sighed and looked around. "No."

"Good." He decided as he let go of her. "I think we should follow where the Demogorgons went."

"Go after them?" Liv's voice sounded weak. "Yeah, that sounds like a brilliant idea."

He ignored her as he looked at the kids. "Back up the tracks." He bent over to pick up his bat, then grabbed Liv's bloodied hoe and handed it back to her. She looked at it begrudgingly, her eyes stuck on the black blood at the tip of it. "I like it," he told her to pull her attention away from the blood. "I take back all the bad I said about it."

Liv blinked and looked up at him. Her brown eyes were nothing spectacular, but somehow they lightened as she smiled, turning them into the shade of honey he use to spread over his biskets. "Yeah?"

He nodded, then cleared his throat and looked away from her. He had Nancy, who had beautiful eyes and a cute smile and who he loved. He had Nancy.