Love Is A Battlefield (A Stranger Things/Steve Harrington Fanfiction)

Chapter Nineteen: Merry Christmas

Cops, fire trucks, and ambulances filled the middle school parking lot. I sat in the back of one such ambulance with a blanket around my shoulders, and an ice pack against my eye. I watched from across the parking lot as Mike's mother hugged him, and I instantly wondered about my Dad, Joyce, and Will. Did they find him? Did they get out ok, was he alive? Are they still alive?

"Riley?" My head snapped up and I looked up to see none other than Steve 'the Hair' Harrington walking across the parking lot towards me. I furrowed my eyebrows, getting up and walking over to him.

"Where are Jonathan and Nancy?" I asked.

"They went to the hospital, they dropped me off to bring you back in Jonathan's car." He said. I raised my eyebrows. "Your Dad and Joyce are back. They found Will. He's ok."

I put a hand over my mouth, and it was as if at that point, all of the exhaustion, and stress, and emotion of everything that's happend over the past few days came crashing down at me all at once, and I stumbled towards the ground as I began to cry.

"He's ok..." I said quietly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey!" Steve caught me with his arms under mine, holding me up as I sobbed into the blanket. "Riley...Riley, its ok." He wrapped his arms around me, tangling a hand in my ponytail as I continued to weep into his shoulder. It was really strange.

I didn't like Steve Harrington, plain and simple. He annoyed me, but in that moment, it didn't really matter if it was Steve Harrington, or the Demogorgan himself, I just need someone to comfort me, and tell that everything was going to be ok...even if it wasn't.

So I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him hug me, ignoring the fact that I would probably dry heave later thinking of this moment.

"Come on...I'll take you to the hospital."

~~~

Steve and I walked into the waiting room, and Dad stood up upon seeing me. I started crying all over again as he rushed over to me and pulled me against his chest, hugging me tightly.

"She's gone...she died killing the Demogorgan." I whispered.

"Shh, shh..." He pulled away, lightly grabbing my chin and turning my face to look at my injuries. "Are you ok?" 

"What do you mean? Do I not look ok?" I asked, turning around to look at Steve, who was the only other person in the waiting room at the moment. "I thought I looked prettier than ever, I'm ready to accept my prom queen nomination-"

"Shut up." He pulled my into a hug again, combing through my hair just as Steve had. "I saw it, Riles. I saw that place...the place you were trapped in for an entire year, I saw it and...you have no idea how proud I am to call you my daughter." I laughed tearfully, pulling away from him again and wiping my eyes before turning back to Steve.

"Thank you, for the ride." I said. "And the help earlier." He nodded.

"Yeah, it um...it was the least I could do. Look, about everything that's happened...in the alley and what I said to you in class the other day...I'm really sorry." I shook my head.

"Don't worry about it. You came through when it mattered. Consider your slate wiped clean." He smiled.

~~~

More and more people filtered into the waiting room until the thing was full of people just here to see what happened to Will.

The door opened and Jonathan came in, causing everyone to perk up. His eyes searched the room until they came to land on Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, two of which were laying on top of each other completely unconscious.