DUSK TILL DAWN , MILEVEN AU

10.

"hi melanie," mike smiled as he walked into el's hospital room. "any changes?" he asked, setting some new flowers down on the table before brushing some hair away from el's face.

"no," melanie smiled sadly with pity, "but she's stable, still stable,"

mike smiled as he stared at el's unconscious body. "yes. thank you melanie," he told her, "i brought you guys some cookies. it's out at the nurses station."

melanie smiled. "oh, you didn't have to,"

mike just smiled.

he was luckily enough that there were such nice nurses looking after el for all these years. it was only right to treat them nicely.

"okay, i'll leave you alone now. remember to call us if anything happens," she said but the two of them knew nothing was going to happen.

nothing had happened from the past 9 years el laid here.

from her fall, she luckily didn't die but the back of her head hit the ground first and it sadly left her in a coma instead.

but mike never gave up. everyone else might have but he remained here in hawkins just to be by her side.

he didn't care he had to work 10 times harder to pay the hospital bills, he didn't care at all.

people told him to give up on her, to pull the plug but he had hope.

he knew el wouldn't give up but then.. nine years passed.

"hi el," he whispered, holding her hand, "work was so hard today. we took forever trying to find the bug in the code but then turns out it was only a space that ruined it!"

originally, mike was going to go to dartmouth to take computer science but after what happened with el.. he didn't want to leave anymore.

his family told him that she would be well taken care of but he saw how much her family didn't care about her and how the doctors were treating her like she was already dead.

so he stayed in hawkins and went to college here.

it wasn't all too bad, he was now a software developer and was still really successful.

he sighed and then caressed her fingers. "you need another haircut soon, sweetheart," he murmured and looked up to watch her heartbeat on the monitor.

"i miss you," he whispered. "i miss you so much, please wake up," his voice cracked before he kissed her knuckles.

"anyways, after today, the software is up and running," he said, a smile making its way to his face, "i honestly kind of miss it already. i've been on this project for months,"

he looked up from their hands and to her, "i don't know if you can hear this but again, life is not the same without you,"

♬

mike tried to stay awake as he read el a chapter out of their novel of the week.

something he started to do a few months in visiting her and because of how much he visited her, they went through quite a lot of books a month.

the door opened mid sentence and mike placed a bookmark in before he looked up.

"hi hop," he mumbled.

3 years into el's coma, hopper came in saying he was her father.

mike vaguely remember el telling him in sophomore year that she never knew her real father so mike believed it but still needed hopper to take a real test before he let him into the room.