What Are You Hiding? | Henry Creel / Peter Ballard / 001

Part 29 - Resurrected Like Jesus F***ing Christ

And then I am resurrected.

As my eyes fly open, I let out a dramatic gasp for air. I am met by El hovering over me, tears in her eyes as relief floods her face. A fresh nosebleed appears under her nose, confirming that she just used her powers to bring me back to life. "El!" I gasp, quickly taking her in my arms as I pull her down to hug me.

"My fault," she shakes her head, her voice cracking slightly.

"I know, I know. It's okay," I assure her with a squeeze.

She hugs me tightly, inhaling shakily as she tries to calm down. As she releases me, she asks, "What about Henry?"

"Killed him myself."

"Woah, what?" Robin interrupts, making her presence known as she scoots over to be sitting beside me.

"Children! We need to get to your friend!" a woman shouts. I turn to see a group of paramedics arguing with Dustin and Lucas (who were clearly tasked with distracting them).

"Hey look, she's awake!" Dustin exclaims. "Look at that, your job's done for you."

She sends him a sideways glare as she pushes past the two boys.

I quickly turn to El, taking the side of her face in my hand. "Thank you so much. You saved me."

She nods as she sends me a small smile.

"Get Hopper for me, okay?"

She nods again. "I'll get Hopper."

"Thank you."

"Ma'am, can you try to sit up?" one of the paramedics asks me.

"Of course."

I turn back to the group, sending everyone a small nod as the paramedics help me up. "I'll see you soon."

"Don't die again, cool?" Robin gives me a thumbs up, much to the confusion of the paramedics.

I chuckle as I return the thumbs up. "Cool."

......

"And then El brought me back to life or whatever," I finish casually. I just spent the last twenty minutes explaining everything to Hopper, who came in and claimed chief of police privilege to get to speak with me before the rest of the cops (of course, so we could make my story).

"Brought you back to life or whatever," he quotes, scoffing as he leans back in his chair. He lets out a bitter chuckle as he takes his face in his hands. "Man, I love this town."

"So, Hopper, what do you think we can do with our little star-crossed-lovers storyline here?"

He sighs to himself as he sends me a disbelieving look. "Jules, are you okay?  You just killed the boy you were in love with less than an hour ago, and you're now completely dissociating from the event."

"What if I just cope with comedy?" I counter.

He sends me a deadpan look. "Jules..."

I sigh defeatedly as I lower my gaze to the ground, taking a moment to pick up a more serious tone before looking back up at him. "Please can we just finish this conversation? Then afterwards you can sit here and watch as I bawl my eyes out while eating shitty hospital pudding."

"Whatever you say," he replies as he shifts in his chair, clearly about to get down to business. "Do you know what the beautiful thing about government labs is?"

"How easily they can cover something up?"

"No," he chuckles. "It's how if they want to give you an identity, they give you an identity."