Chapter Text
“Thanks for letting me stay over tonight.”
Robin’s voice rings through Vickie's ears from the lack of emotion in it. There was nothing for her head to grab onto. She almost didn't respond.
“Yeah.” That was all she could get out.
Her girlfriend(best friend to anyone who asked) rested on Vickie's desk chair in a tattered band shirt and pajama pants. A patch of water stained the back of her shirt from her hair dripping onto it. All the dirt had been cleaned off the girl in the shower, but dark bruises and deep crimson cuts clung to her body. Hollow blue eyes traced the swirly patterns of Vickie's rug.
She wished she could have helped more.
Just two hours ago, Vickie Dunne had been sitting with the angsty, red-haired girl who was previously in a coma at the Hawkins Memorial Hospital, for which Vickie had been a candy-striper. She was planning on faking a miserable cold for the next few days–there was no way she was returning to normal tomorrow morning. After being discovered by the military and put in their custody, Vickie had no way of reaching the rest of the group to know how they were holding up. She barely knew their names or what was going on.
Next thing she knew, she and the girl were being hurried out by their guards to witness the capture of her friends. Helplessly, she watched as each person was ripped from the van and slammed into the others, ruthlessly being held down. Shouting blurred together over their heads. Particles of God-knows-what whipped through the wind from the fleshy gate. Standing between Hawkins and the dark dimension curling with bleeding vines and muck was the superhero. El. This girl had saved the lives of the entire group, including Robin. Vickie didn't even know she should thank her until it was too late. Until the darkness tore her apart, carrying her memory into the endless vacuum.
From that moment on, it felt like everything was just muted. In one swift movement, the military had dropped their arms to their sides, leaving the group to follow slowly behind them to observe the destroyed gate. On the other side, where minutes ago there had been a whole other dimension, now there was just the cold asphalt roads of Hawkins.
After multiple messages and alarms, Vickie found herself deposited back at the WSQK radio station alongside the rest of the “party” (as Robin and the others called the group). They sat in silence there. Then, Will dropped to the floor, breaking down in tears. It was completely unexpected to Vickie, and she watched in stunned silence as his mother and two of the other boys dropped beside him in a giant hug. She had never seen such sudden attention before.
I’m going to help get you all cleaned up.
Vickie abandoned the group to find a first-aid kit. When she returned, she quickly set to work cleaning everyone’s wounds, and they slowly dispersed from the station to return home and rest. One boy, Mike, had firmly refused any of her help, claiming he needed the last reminder of “everything that happened”.
Vickie’s mother was apparently worried sick about her when she didn’t return home by midnight. They quickly accepted the request for her friend to stay the night, just happy she was safe.
After cleaning themselves up and changing into clean clothing, the girls settled in Vickie’s room. Robin had her own t-shirt already there from the last time she was allowed to stay the night, but had to borrow a pair of pants that were definitely too short for her.
Now, they were sitting in the lighted room, alone at two in the morning. Some house system buzzed through the walls, filling the night.
“Wanna come up?” Vickie offered, scooting over to demonstrate extra space on her bed.
“Sure. We should probably both get some sleep tonight.”
Robin stood from the swivel chair and climbed under Vickie's white bedsheets. Her head stiffly hit the pillow, but her eyes stayed wide open.
“I should probably turn off the lights.” Vickie switched off the overhead light, leaving just the small lamp on her bedside table to illuminate the room. A shy glow was cast over the girls’ faces.
Facing her girlfriend, Vickie flopped down on the open side of the bed. Robin’s eyes still refused to shut, so they found themselves just staring at each other.
“I'm sorry for lying. And getting you into this mess,” Robin chuckled.
Drowsily, Vickie forced herself to respond to this. She noticed Robin's eyes were brimming with tears.
“Don't be. I'm sorry. For not understanding or trying to help you. Hell, I thought you were on drugs.”
Robin started to laugh, but her laughter quickly turned into sobs that shook her whole body.
“Hey, no, it's okay.” Vickie propped herself up against and pulled Robin into her arms to try to comfort her. They sat still as if moving would break something.
When Robin’s sobs turned into shallow breathing, before finally deepening into a steady rise-and-fall, Vickie knew she must have been asleep, but she herself could not rest.
Every time she tried to close her eyes, the horrifying image of the slimy, petal-faced dogs bounding towards her filled her vision, shocking her awake. As much as both her brain and body begged to sleep, neither system would shut down. She could still hear their panting and claws clicking the floor around the corner. She could still feel the adrenaline pumping through her as they neared. Feel the fear as they approached and attacked the soldiers.
The scream had ripped through her throat the second she realized Robin was not a drugged lunatic. Luckily, the creature passed her, ripping straight into the men who had shot at it. In horror, she watched as it tore off the man's flesh, shooting drops of blood across the walls. The sticky substance clinging to Vickie's skin as the creature violently tore through the skin of the men. Its muscles pulsing with each movement.
The creature jerked its head, screeching at Vickie. Just then, her eyes shot open once again.
As her eyes adjusted to the dark room, her racing heart simultaneously adjusted back to a normal pace.
What time was it?
A starless sky of ink still peered through the window.
It's not morning, that's for sure.
Carefully, Vickie adjusted herself to lie fully. Before, she had been half slumped against her bedframe, and her neck was starting to cramp from the way it was crooked as she slept.
This was the fifth time that night that Vickie had woken up to the same dream. Over and over. Over and over again. As if someone was just rewinding the tape and playing it again. A small kid, maybe, watching their favorite movie multiple times, and their parents are getting sick of the theme song playing relentlessly, but they let it go on because what else can they do?
She did not feel like trying to sleep again. She was sure that eventually it would take over her body, throwing her into the same cycle until the sun rose, but for now, she didn't want to try.
To pass the time, she settled on just watching the rise and fall of Robin’s chest as she breathed. Just knowing she was alive was good enough.
Vickie had always had a sort of maternal instinct and needed to jump in to help wherever she was needed. Since learning just yesterday that Robin had almost died at least three times to supernatural forces, this instinct had seemed stronger than before, drawing her not just to the friends she knew, but the younger ones as well that she had to protect.Knowing that one of them died when she was right there made her sick to her stomach. Really, the thought of anyone dying made her sick to her stomach. But these children were so small and hurt, all she wanted was for everyone to be okay.
Suddenly, an alarm clock blared through the room, shaking Robin from her sleep.
Dammit, I didn't mean to wake her.
She bolted from the bed to turn off the alarm. Once she shut it off, Robin fell back against the bed, dangling her arm off the side of the bed. The print of the pillowcase was embedded in her red cheeks.
“G'morning,” she mumbled with her face squished into the pillow.
“Just go back to sleep, okay? It's still early. I forgot to turn off my alarm last night, so, uh, sorry.”
“Are you going to work today?” Robin asked.
“No. I'm going to pretend I'm sick because I won't be able to go then.”
“Me too. Actually…” Robin seemed to be considering returning to the radio station. “Nah, Steve is definitely not showing up.”
“Well, with that settled, I'm going to use the bathroom. Be right back.”
Vickie grabbed a change of clothes and started to leave the room before she heard Robin faintly whisper something.
“We can't stay here long, Vic.”
She froze in the doorway. “What?”
“The military isn't just gonna drop this y’know.” Robin was sitting up now, rubbing sleep from her eyes as seriousness filled her voice.
“But they brought us home last night. Said everything was taken care of?”
“For the night. They're for sure gonna take us in, and interrogate us at minimum. At worst, we could be killed or something. Did you see how many guys Nance killed? Or Hopper? They're gonna end up in jail. Oh no, no, we can't let that happen. They're gonna realize the mistake they made letting us go soon enough. Maybe they already have! We have to see if they're okay!”
Robin’s thoughts spilled out rapidly, carrying her away. She shot out of the bed in a panic.
“Everything's going to be fine.” Vickie grabbed Robin's wrists before she could sprint out of the room and attempted to calm her down. Despite her outward appearance of serenity, her own thoughts were spiraling, and it was becoming difficult to stifle the trembling in her hands.
“I want to believe you, I really do, but that's just not possible. You were there last night, and you saw everything. Jane is dead– dead– because of the government. And she chose to give in on her own accord. Not only is everything a total complete wreck right now, inside and out, but we're still in danger of those people. This is like the earthquakes two years ago, but, like, ten times worse. Our own police were hunting down an innocent man because of Vecna, and now we're the targets. We teamed up with the girl they were hunting down, which makes us targets enough, and we have killed many of their soldiers or whatever they're called. They are going to hurt us one way or another, and…and–” she started to stumble over her words as new tears started to fall. “I can't let myself be the reason you are hurt by them,” she finished.
“Calm down, everything is going to be fine. You haven't hurt me.” Vickie struggled to come up with what to say to ease the situation. “Just, eh, we can call whoever you want to call and then figure it out from there.”
“I just need to make sure they're okay,” Robin pleaded despite Vickie already agreeing to help check on her friends.
“I know, but you should wait until it's a reasonable hour. No one else needs to be up at five a.m.”
“I doubt anyone else is sleeping.”
“Yeah…I still haven't used the bathroom though, so I'll be right back.”
Vickie kissed her, more as an attempt to silence her current worry than anything, before leaving to change and use the bathroom.
The hallways were still dark, as her mom and dad were still sleeping, but the lights were left on in the bathroom.
“Oops,” Vickie mumbled to herself as she closed the door behind her.
The bathroom was small, and almost a perfectly square room if the surface area of the floor tiles was counted. The toilet and sink were crammed in next to eachother, with an abnormally large mirror covering the opposite side of the wall. There was no shower in this bathroom, and often Vickie avoided it, but it was closer to her room, and usually had it to herself because her family similarly disliked it.
Because the mirror over the sink paralleled the mirror against the wall, Vickie could see her reflection in both. As she stripped her pajamas, she glued her eyes to the floor to avoid seeing her reflection.
Once she was dressed she could examine herself in the mirror. She already looked sick and exhausted from the little sleep she got last night. At least her lie would be more believable.
Quickly, Vickie ducked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen where she dialed the hospital.
“Good morning, this is Richard Davis speaking with Hawkins Memorial Hospital, how may I help you?”
“Hi, yes,” Vickie strained her voice in the back of her throat to make herself sound raspy over the phone. “My name is Vickie Dunne, I am a hospital volunteer and would like to call out of my shift at nine because I'm really sick and don't think I can care for anyone in my current state–” she realized she was being too rambly with the information she was giving the receiver of her call.
“Perfect, Miss Dunne, we'll get that taken care of for you. Have a nice day!”
A voice from behind startled Vickie as she hung up the phone.
“I see we're allowed to make calls now?” Robin says, sounding only half-joking, with a hint of anxiety mixed into her otherwise casual tone.
“Yeah, I had to call off my shift. It's still not a great hour to be calling people though…”
Without responding Robin took the telephone from Vickie's hands and frantically dialed a number.
“This is Robin, is everything okay?” She asked after a pause.
In silence she fiddled with the telephone cord while listening to the response.
“Shit. How's everyone else?…where should we meet?...does the government know where…”
“Robin? What's going on?” Vickie could feel her heartbeat growing faster as the call went on.
“No, that's too…no, Nance its dangerous…I know, I know. We absolutely do not need more problems right now…we'll find him. Everything is going to be okay, remember, no more Vecna. We just gotta deal with the army now…”
“Robin! What is going on!” Vickie almost shouted.
“I called Nancy to check in because I'm concerned that her family is the biggest target right now, and Mike is not home!”