Behind Closed Doors

December 21st, 1984

Trigger Warning: Abuse victim mindset

Billy woke up feeling numb and weak. He could barely move, he could hear a rhythmic beeping noise, and everything smelled sterile. Faintly, he heard some voices nearby, and he realized he was laying down in a bed. Everything from the night before started to come back after a minute of confusion. He remembered he made it to Steve's backyard, he'd been wandering for hours with a limp, he'd held in vomit until he got a mile away from the house from being hit-.

His eyes snapped open.

He fought Neil.

Once his eyes adjusted, he realized he was in a hospital room, and he started to panic. Max could have gotten taken away, Billy could be taken away. What the fuck did Steve do? A nurse rushed over to him when he tried to sit up and pushed him back down.

"Mr. Hargrove, please calm down." She soothed. "You're in a hospital, you're safe."

'The fuck I am' he thought. "Where's Max? Where's my sister?"

"I'm here." Max's voice said.

Billy calmed down for a moment, and looked to his left. There was Max, looking small and afraid. Billy stopped struggling and the nurse let him go as Max approached the bed and sat down. They didn't speak while the nurse left to get the doctor, just looked at each other for a while (probably only a few minutes).

The doctor, a middle aged man with brown hair, gave him the rundown of his injuries. Apparently he lucked out by not having internal bleeding, but he had plenty of bruises, a sprained ankle, possibly a concussion, and had to get glass removed from his scalp. The doc said to go easy on his ankle for five weeks and to come back in a week to get his scalp stitches removed. He was prescribed some pain meds, then the doctor left.

Once Billy and Max were alone, he turned to her and asked, "Are you okay?"

Max looked shocked that he even asked that. "I'm okay. Lucas helped me hide."

"Did you go to the diner first?"

"Yeah. We were there until they closed. Then Lucas took me to this fort that his friend Will built and we hid there for a few hours."

Before Billy could ask for more details, the door to the room opened and a police officer walked in. He was middle-aged with a mustache and a gruff, irritated expression. Billy could make out that the badge on his chest said he was the police chief. Fuck, the police got involved.

"Glad you're awake." The chief said. "My name is Chief Hopper, I'm with the Hawkins police department."

Billy never trusted cops. One whiff of someone acting queer and they would go ape-shit on whoever it was. A few of his lays got arrested for false charges just because they were gay. Not to mention the cops didn't give a shit that Billy would come to school with bruises, so he didn't give Chief Hopper a response.

The Chief sighed. "I know you're worried about Child Protective Services getting involved, your sister told me as much. But she also told me how you tried to protect her and Lucas Sinclair from your father. That's admirable. Unfortunately, before anyone can be put in cuffs, I'll need your side of the story." He sat down in a chair near the door. "Your father did call the police after you ran to report you as a runaway. But after Will Byers called and explained what he knew, I knew there was more than your dad was letting on. So... can you please explain to me what happened?"

Chief Hopper seemed legitimately concerned for Billy's wellbeing, which kind of freaked him out. Neil was usually able to sell a story convincingly and keep the cops off his tail, but Hopper seemed to have a pretty good bullshit detector. Though it could have also been because Billy didn't have 'insignificant' injuries this time. He'd been in the hospital before for a broken arm or fractured jaw from surfing or Neil related injuries, never anything this bad. Billy looked over to Max, and she just nodded at him.