Unexpectedly Enough

Thirteen

Steve couldn't think straight as he sat in the waiting room of the hospital. The doctors had made him leave the room so they could attend to Billy, and Steve wasn't taking it well. Joyce offered him a drink or something to eat, but he refused and just stared at the wall in front of him, his leg bouncing up and down.

He found his mind wondering back to the first time Billy had shown up on his doorstep after he had been abused by Neil. He remembered how pissed he was, and how he swore he could kill Neil without even turning the smallest shade of red. In a weird way, Steve was happy that night had happened, he and Billy might have never gotten together if it hadn't. But he wished with his entire heart that Billy had never ever had to have been abused.

"Steve...", Joyce says, sitting down next to him; "he's gonna be ok." She grabs his hand and rubs it comfortingly.

"I know", Steve says, sniffling. He rubs a hand over his face, biting his lip in an attempt to keep himself from crying. But the tears fall anyways.

"It's just...so fucked up."

His voice cracks and when he turns to look at Joyce his eyes are puffy and his whole face red and tear stained. Joyce didn't know what to tell him, because she had never really been in a situation like this, yeah she had almost lost Hopper and Will in less than three years; but Steve has almost lost Billy, found him again, and watched him get abused for months.

So Joyce just held him and let him cry, and Steve found himself feeling a little better because he was never really allowed to just cry. He always had to be tough and strong for the kids, make them feel like everything was ok. He didn't dare cry in front of his parents because they didn't know half the shit he had been through the last few years, besides they were barely ever home anyways. Steve has gotten used to Billy staying with him the last couple weeks, they were basically living together; and Steve loved it. He couldn't imagine himself waking up and not seeing Billy's blue eyes staring up at him in the early morning sun.

The boys' love was so unlikely yet completely right at the same time. Nobody would've expected for the sailor to fall so hard for the bad boy with the blue camaro, or the bad boy to fall so hard for the babysitter in the sailor uniform. But they did, and it blew Steve's mind that such a perfect and beautiful human being even wanted to look at him, let alone love him.

"It just hurts like hell, Joyce", Steve whimpered. She gave him a sad look, laced with pain and Steve knows she's felt the same thing.
"I know, but it'll get better, I promise. Billy will be ok, and back home with you before you know it. Neil is out of the picture, Billy's safe now", She tells him.

Eventually, Steve falls asleep when there are no more tears in his body to cry out. He found himself dreaming of Billy. It was the night the carnival, and they were smoking up against the wall as Steve watched the lights from the rides dance across Billy's face. He remembered when Billy had caught him staring and asked "What're staring at, pretty boy?" as it replayed in his dream. Then everything faded to black smoke as Billy blew out his cigarette and he disappeared. It was pitch black, and only Steve stood in the eerie silence. A loud scream came from behind him and Steve wished he could wake up when he saw what he did. It was Billy, but not the Billy he knew and loved; it was flayed Billy.

The mindflayer holding him up with his many arms, black blood seeping from Billy's body as Steve had seen so many times before. His blonde hair ratty and bloodied, a loud scream continuing to echo from his lips into the pitch black; and then suddenly it stopped and Billy was gone again. But only for a second, and then he was back; still flayed.

He was with an army of people, who marched closer and closer to Steve before Billy was suddenly towering over him, sweat soaking his body, black veins popping out of his skin, scattered across his arms and up his neck; stretching across his face. Billy inched closer and closer to Steve's face until their noses were almost touching; and then with tears streaming down his face from his dilated-pupil eyes he muttered one sentence.

"Let us in."

Steve thrashed in his sleep, feeling that he was unable to wake up when Billy spoke again, but this time it wasn't Billy's voice that left his lips; it was someone else's.
"Steve?"
The voice faded out from a mixture of the two until it was just one, and Steve recognized that it belonged to Hopper.

"Steve? Steve wake up", Hopper said again.

Steve jolted awake, his eyes wide as he frantically looked around before his eyes landed on Hopper's face.

"Steve are you alright?", Hopper asked.

It took Steve a moment to recompose himself before he said; "yeah...yeah just a bad dream."
Hopper nodded in understanding, probably having been there many times, especially since taking El in.
"The doctor's said you can go in and see him now, if you want."

Steve nodded, rising to his feet and following Hopper down the long white hallway to Billy's room. It felt like an eternity, but not enough time to prepare Steve for the way Billy looked laying there in that bed with tubes sticking out of him in every direction.

He looks so small, Steve thought, and helpless. He didn't like it, not at all. He was used to the Billy that always walked around without a care in the world, the strong Billy who comforted Steve and told him how pretty he was and how much he loved him. The Billy who sometimes woke up early just to surprise Steve with breakfast in bed even though he wasn't the best cook, but he tried to be for Steve. The Billy who even though he tried to say he wasn't a sap, totally was and tried in every way he could to show Steve how much he cared by surprising Steve with things the same way Steve would surprise him.

But this Billy wasn't that Billy. Yes, it was still Billy, but he was so pale and motionless in that hospital bed. His eyes closed. Cuts and bruises marking his face, some stitches along his brow, and an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth. Steve was so in shock that he didn't even notice he was crying again, or that he was now alone with Billy. So he just sat down and held Billy's hand as gently as he could and hoped with every bit of his heart that he would be ok like Joyce said he would be.

Steve must've sat there for hours just staring at Billy, partly scared he might never open his eyes and get to see the pretty blue he loved so much again, and the other half of him so afraid to even hold Billy's hand too tight that he might shatter like glass. But that didn't stop him from holding it nonetheless.

It must've been around six o'clock when Hopper re-entered the room, holding something in his hand as he quietly made his way over to Steve.
"How's he doing?", Hopper asks.

Steve shrugs, "good I guess. I haven't heard anything and he hasn't woken up."

Hopper stays silent as he looks at Billy, not being able to help the wave of worry that suddenly washes over again as he remembers the last time he was in a situation like this with his daughter Sarah so many years ago. But he quickly pulled his mind from that and returned his gaze to Steve.

"I've got something for you, sort of", He speaks.

Steve looks up at him as Hopper holds the envelope he's holding out towards him;
"What's this?", he asks confused.

"I just thought it would help a little, make things a lot easier this way."

Steve takes it and slowly opens it up, revealing a piece of paper inside. Steve pulls it out, it's a birth certificate. He looks at Hopper confused, before turning the paper over. Written across the top of the page are two words that make Steve's heart skip a beat in joy;

William Hopper.