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bitesize fics
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Published:
2019-03-02
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Delusional

Summary:

Now, this Friday was a little different, though none of the kids had noticed. In fact, no one had noticed. Steve, of course, had noticed because this was happening to him after all. Steve was sick. Like, really sick. He’d managed to hide it from everyone, including the kids, and had opted to let the kids do whatever they wanted. He even ordered some pizza he refused to touch, letting an excited Dustin and Will grab the pizza and pay the man. It had all worked out. The problem was, Steve hadn’t been sure how sick he was.

Notes:

So, the stories I have been working on are taking time. Plus my schedule just got busy, so here is a one-shot to help with life and the waiting.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

            It was Friday night, and as promised, Steve was hosting the six kids for D&D. His house was deemed a “safe place” after Hopper learned Steve’s parents were away on business most of the time. Steve would collaborate with Hopper as to when his parents were gone, and the kids would plan a D&D session. It had become a routine, even if Karen Wheeler wasn’t too fond of the arrangement. Something about her son hanging out with her daughter’s ex that stole her virginity didn’t sit right with the mom. Steve didn’t blame her and had told her as such.

            Now, this Friday was a little different, though none of the kids had noticed. In fact, no one had noticed. Steve, of course, had noticed because this was happening to him after all. Steve was sick. Like, really sick. He’d managed to hide it from everyone, including the kids, and had opted to let the kids do whatever they wanted. He even ordered some pizza he refused to touch, letting an excited Dustin and Will grab the pizza and pay the man. It had all worked out. The problem was, Steve hadn’t been sure how sick he was.

            So when he passed out on the kitchen floor with a rather loud thud, there was obvious panic from the six kids.

            “Steve,” Dustin shook Steve frantically. “Steve! Come on! This isn’t funny!”

            “He’s got a fever,” Max pulled her hand away from her babysitter. “A really bad one.”

            “We need to call someone,” Lucas suggested.

            “Who?” Mike protested. “Hopper’s said we couldn’t bother him because of some meeting. And Mrs. Byer’s has got that interview. And then Jonathan and Nancy are on a date somewhere. Who do we call?”

            “My parents are taking Erica somewhere,” Lucas sighed. “So they’re out.”

            “My mom took a late shift,” Dustin sounded a bit too frantic.

            “I’d rather not involve Neil, and he’s the only one home,” Max whispered.

            Everyone looked towards Mike, and Mike paled. A few minutes later found five of the kids moving Steve to the couch, and El having to use her powers a bit, as Mike talked frantically into the phone. Karen gave Mike a few quick instructions that Mike shouted to the others. By the time Mike had hung up, a wet rag and ice were on Steve’s burning forehead, and a few blankets over his body. Karen was on her way.

            “What about El?” Max gasped, making everyone jolt and pale.

            “Steve is more important,” El stated firmly.

            And that was that. But then Steve let out a deep whine. The kids all turned to their babysitter, to watch as he tried to thrash under the blankets mumbling something under his breath as he whined again.

            “Please. No. Please. Don’t.”

            Their faces crumpled as they realized Steve had fallen into a fever dream.

            “Why didn’t he say anything?” Lucas whispered.

            El frowned as she eyed Steve. “He didn’t want to disappoint us.”

            That was when Karen knocked on the door and Mike rushed to grab it.

            “Oh, Steve,” Karen breathed as she took in Steve’s state.

            Karen leaned down beside Steve and tried to shake him awake gently. After a little bit, though it felt like a tense couple of hours, Steve finally opened his eyes.

            “Mom?” Steve questioned.

            “No, Steve, it’s Karen,” she tried.

            “Mom,” Steve said again, still staring at Karen through hazy eyes. “Don’t tell dad. Please. Don’t tell dad. He’ll get angry again.”

            Karen bulked at this, eyes wide and mouth open in what could only be horror. And Steve’s hand hovered forward, reaching out for Karen’s hand with a shaky grasp. He looked pale, and sick, and like he was dying. But he also looked so terrified.

            “Please, mom,” Steve begged. “Please. He’ll hurt me again because I’m sick. Please don’t tell him.”

            “I won’t, Steve,” Karen ran her hand through Steve’s sweaty hair. “Your dad won’t find out. You’ll be fine. Let’s just take care of you now. I need you to tell me what’s wrong.”

            The kids watched as Steve told Karen what hurt and how long he had been sick. Karen made Steve take some medicine before turning to Mike and the others.

            “Call Hopper.”

            The tone used was one that could not be protested. All six of them ran to the phone.

-------------------------

            Hopper had moved Steve up to the boy’s bedroom the moment he got there. And now, as the six sat around Steve’s bed, Karen and Hopper were talking in hushed voices downstairs. Steve had gone still again, trapped in a deeper sleep due to the medicine Karen had gotten him to take.

            “So Steve is abused?” Max finally asked the question on most of their minds.

            “Abused?” El questioned.

            “It means that someone hurts you, or uses you,” Mike explained, a rage shaking his body. “Like Doctor Brenner did to you. Except, there are different kinds. Steve’s dad used him as a punching bag.”

            “Bad man,” El growled under her breath

            “Very bad man,” Dustin agreed with a nod.

            A gasp and another whimper fell from Steve’s lips as he began to toss in his bed. The kids froze, unsure if to approach or not. Steve’s whines quickly became comprehendible words.

            “No. Please. Not the kids. Not them. Kill me. Please. Kill me. Kill me.”

            Then he screamed.

            “Please!”

            Steve sat up and seemed to stare at the wall. And yet, it was like his gaze was staring at something else entirely. Steve proceeded to throw up after that, which prompted the kids to scream and call for the two adults. Especially after Steve passed out again.

            “Come on, kid,” Hopper pulled Steve out of his own vomit and towards the bathroom. “We’ve got to get you cleaned up.”

            Karen got the kids to help her clean up everything while Hopper got Steve into a bath. Much to the kids’ relief, Karen did not ask about El and treated her as if she had always been in their friend group. As the kids re-prepped the bed for Steve, Hopper was dealing with Steve’s delusions.

            “I killed them. I killed them. I killed them.”

            Over and over, Steve repeated himself. It broke Hopper to realize what nightmare Steve was living through.

            “No, Steve,” Hopper stated, holding the boy after he got him cleaned. “No. The kids are alright. They’re fine. Just worried about you. Come on, let’s get you out so that you can see them.”

            But Steve kept crying and wouldn’t let go. Hopper didn’t need to be a genius to realize Steve wasn’t just going to let this go. So he yanked the boy out of the bath, got him decent, and then made the six kids curl around Steve and talk to him.

            “I just got ahold of Joyce,” Karen sighed. “She’s on her way now.”

            Hopper nodded, but neither moved as they watched the kids soothe Steve back into sleep. But both were tense at what this next bout of sleep would bring. And the fever still hadn’t broken either, making both adults worried.

--------------------------------

            Nancy and Jonathan ended up coming over with Joyce, and the five of them were huddled downstairs in the kitchen as the kids stayed with Steve.

            “Were there any signs that Steve might have been abused by his father,” Hopper was asking Nancy.

            “No,” Nancy denied instantly. “No. He never-”

            The pause was not at all comforting.

            “When Barb disappeared,” Nancy breathed out. “I thought he just didn’t care.”

            “Nance?” Jonathan probed.

            “I told him I had to go to the police about Barb and he panicked,” Nancy confessed. “And he said his dad would kill him. I didn’t really see him the next day at school either, now I think about it. He showed and tried to play it cool, but I brought up his dad and he changed the subject.”

            There was a thud from upstairs that had all five of them rushing upstairs. But there wasn’t a problem. Steve was still asleep, most of the kids were still sitting around him, and Dustin and Will were holding a new blanket from Steve’s closet. The thud appeared to be from a box that had come from a box that fell from the closet that had clearly come from on top of the blanket the two had grabbed.

            “Sorry,” Dustin whispered a bit too loudly.

            Joyce smiled that kind smile that said she was stressed but hiding it well. “Let’s just put it back.”

            The box clearly hadn’t been touched in a while, a ring of dust coming off it instantly.

            “Can I have it?”

            The group turned to see Steve reaching for the box. Joyce wasn’t sure what made her do it, but she placed the box in Steve’s lap as Hopper helped him sit up. But even with Hopper’s support, Steve was still too weak to stay sitting up, let alone open the box. Something they were all familiar with. With Hopper holding up Steve, Joyce flipped open the box. Inside the box, to everyone’s surprise, was a stuffed bear.

            “Dad told me to get rid of him,” Steve was explaining, still clearly out of it. “But my grandma gave me this box before she left, and I hid him in there. I take him out to look at him sometimes.”

            Look at, not cuddle with. And that was probably what prompted El to take the bear out of the box and press it to Steve’s chest. In his disoriented state, Steve curled around both the bear and Eleven and fell asleep almost instantly as he cuddled both. El didn’t seem to mind.

            “Wonder what his name is?” Dustin asked.

            And even though it was an odd question, it certainly lightened the mood just a little bit. And El cuddling closer to Steve and falling asleep herself was cute too. The kids had already expressed that none of them were willing to leave Steve and that they didn’t care if they got sick, so they were quick to cuddle next to Steve too.

            “I’m going to get Holly,” Karen told the group. “I think it best we all keep an eye on him.”

            The other adults nodded in agreement. It had also been agreed that taking Steve to the hospital was out of the question unless the situation got worse. They didn’t want Steve’s father to know that Steve was sick. And if Steve was on his father’s insurance, there was no way his father wouldn’t find out.

            The third debate had been whether or not they should attempt to get ahold of Steve’s mother. Karen shot that down when she pointed out that Steve had begged his mother not to tell his father. Basically hinting that his mother would have told her husband.

            The situation was not any better.

---------------------------------------

            The next day, the fever hadn’t quite broken, but it wasn’t as bad. And there weren’t any delusions. At that point, they were just treating symptoms and trying not to get thrown up. The day was such a blur, not even the group taking care of Steve remembered much of it. It was around four in the morning when the fever finally broke, and Steve started to get better.

            “I named him Freddie,” Steve’s hoarse, but definitely better voice reached the mostly asleep group.

            “This is Kip,” Holly giggled back. “Their friends now.”

            The group woke up, scattered about the room after having woken up all over the bedroom. Steve was sitting up, looking a bit sweaty, but more flushed than pale. A sign he was a bit better. Steve and Holly were both holding their stuffed animals, Steve’s bear and Holly’s elephant, and they were chatting about their animals.

            “You alright?” Hopper asked, putting the back of his hand to Steve’s forehead.

            “No,” Steve admitted, “But probably not as bad as I was. Holly told me you guys have been taking care of me. Thank you.”

            “Steve, the next time you get sick, you can tell us,” Joyce began to brush the hair out of Steve’s face. “We’re here for you, sweetie.”

            “Steve,” Hopper’s voice got grave. “We need to talk.”

            The conversation that followed took nearly three hours, and only Hopper, Joyce, and Karen were allowed in the room with Steve as the conversation happened. They had debated using El’s powers, but El instantly opposed the idea.

            “Too personal,” El stated. “Steve needs to figure this out without us. We can be there for him after.”

            Over the matter of a few days, the kids and the three adults kept checking up on Steve. And when he came back to school, Nancy and Jonathan took turns sticking to him like glue. It was the warmest Steve felt in a long time.

Notes:

So, yeah, there was that short thing. I hope you all enjoyed it. I'll try to post one-shots when I can, but you know how life is. And things just got busy again. So, life.