Chapter Seventeen: Getaway Car

February was very cold in Hawkins. In fact, the first three months of the calendar year were really cold, and Max was struggling to deal with that.

"Let's just wait by the window until we see their cars pull up- no way I'm waiting outside," Max said, still cold even inside the arcade. Annie laughed and nodded in understanding. She was much more used to the cold weather and didn't mind it.

They stood inside and waited after their day at the arcade had come to an end. Holly was sick with the flu and Meghan had a list of chores, so the girls decided to do this instead. It was a blast- they were there almost the entire day, jumping around games and trying to beat the other's score (Max won nearly all of them).

"Summer here won't be as hot as California's I bet," Annie said.

Max laughed. "That's what I'm hoping for. You grow used to them, but even natives feel the brutal heat of the sun," she said. "But at least the winter wasn't like this! I don't know if I can get used to it."

Annie laughed and looked back out the window, seeing Steve's car pull up and park across the parking lot from the entrance. "Of course he chose one of the furthest spots," Annie commented, and both girls chuckled. "Do you want to wait in Steve's car?" she then asked, hoping they could extend their hangout even just a bit longer.

The girl smiled. "Sure! Might be a bit warmer in there anyway," she said. Max, closest to the door, led the way out and then started across the parking lot. Turning to face Annie as she walked, Max said, "I really don't..."

Annie looked over the redhead's shoulder and saw a car speeding into the parking lot, the two boys in the front head banging and not paying attention to where they were going.

Which was straight for them.

"Max!" Annie yelled, and stepped forward to pull her back as the car came barreling closer. As she tried to pull her and herself back, her foot got stuck and instead they fell. Her leg was still out in the road.

The car came speeding by and with it, a white hot, blinding pain. At first, Annie couldn't make a noise from pure shock. And then it really settled in and suddenly she was screaming in pain.

Max, who had awkwardly landed on Annie when they fell back, was scrambling to her knees to see what the hell happened, yelling out, "What? Oh my god what the hell just happened?" She looked down at Annie's leg and held in a gasp. It was definitely broken, closer to mangled.

Max immediately went about comforting Annie, who was trying to sit up a bit while letting out little screams of pain between breaths. "Holy shit, okay, Annie it's gonna be okay." Max immediately moved to be under Annie's head so she wasn't awkwardly sitting.

Annie looked and saw her leg and oh my god what the hell was that. Her screams turned to cries as she looked at it. "Oh my god!" she screamed and covered her mouth with her hands. She removed her hands and yelled. "My leg!"

Steve had heard the commotion and looked in his rearview mirror to see what was happening. He saw Max kneeling on the sidewalk with his sister's upper body in her lap and she moved her mouth (yelling?) He then looked over and saw a car that had stopped over to the side with the driver standing outside panicked looking.

It pieced together and Steve was suddenly pulling the keys out of his car and jumping out. "Annie!" he yelled. When he got closer, and saw the state of her leg, he changed directions to the driver. "Hey! Shithead!"

The shithead in question looked at the angry Steve storming towards him. Since he was standing in between his open car and the door, he had nowhere to go. Steve came up right in front of him and grabbed the front of his shirt and was nearly picking up him up off the ground.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? Who taught you how to drive, a blind child?!" he practically spat in the kid's face. "How are you that terrible of a driver- no, of a person? That's my fucking sister you just nearly killed and I'll be damned if you don't fucking pay for it-"

A hand came on Steve's shoulder and he turned around to see who the hell thought touching him right now was a good idea. The last person he expected was Billy Hargrove.

Billy had been pulling into the parking lot when he saw everything unfold in front of him. He parked in the first spot he could and got out of his car and watched Steve run up and start threatening the kid. And while Billy would have truly loved to see Steve fuck a kid up, he knew that his sister needed him more.

And that's what brought him to standing behind Steve. "I got this, Annie needs you more right now," he said in a lowered voice. Steve's mind cleared and he heard his sister's cries of pain. He let go of the kid and went to say something to Billy, but he held up a hand. "Go," was all he said, and that was all Steve really needed.

He moved out of the way and hurried over to Annie. "Th-thank you," the kid said, and Billy turned to him.

"You're gonna think that for long."

Steve hurried over and landed on the sidewalk on the other side of Annie where Max wasn't. The redhead looked up at him at a loss for words, tears in her own eyes. "I-I don't- I-"

He shook his head, his way of saying she was okay. Looking up, he got ready to tell someone to call 911 but was beat to the punch. "Keith is on the phone now," someone told him and Steve gave them a thankful nod.

He looked back down at his sister and grabbed her hand, then pushed some hair out of her face. "I'm right here, it's gonna be okay," he said, trying to keep the fear from his voice. Because in all honesty he was so scared. "I'm so sorry, shit, I'm sorry."

Annie's head was jumbled with emotions and pain of all kinds. Something that broke through was a siren getting louder followed by Steve saying, "Thank god, the ambulance is here, we're gonna go to the hospital."

Her screams were gone and the sobs calmed down to audibly fast deep breaths. Max went ahead and got ready to move out of the way so the paramedics could take Annie. Her face was red and tears welled up in her eyes. But she kept them at bay because this wasn't about her, it was about Annie right now.

The paramedics jumped out and starting asking questions as they got the gurney out to move Annie onto it. Steve tried to answer them as best as he could while still being frazzled himself. Max didn't even try, worried her voice would crack and her tears would fall.

A couple police cars showed up right after, and one of the cops got out and got Billy away from the shaking driver. He complied, stepping away and went over to where the other three were, knowing Max was going to be separated from them any second and that she was a mess.

The paramedics carefully moved Annie to the gurney and got her into the ambulance. Steve was right next to her, holding his baby sister's hand tightly. He looked at Max and quickly said, "She'll want to see you." Then they were in the ambulance and driving off, siren's blasting and lights flashing.

Billy wanted to take Max and leave as soon as possible, but they had to answer some questions about the accident first. Max was quiet and scared, barely answering questions. Billy answered what he could.

"Miss, can you tell me anything more?" the officer asked, and Billy frowned at the rudeness in his voice. Max wasn't making eye contact with him and was shaking just a bit. "Miss?"

"I think we're done," Billy said sternly. "Ask the other witnesses, but we're going home." The officer went to argue but Billy just put a hand on Max's back and led her away.

They got into the car and Billy started driving away. The first few minutes were silent, until he decided to break the silence. "You okay?" he asked. The entire situation was a foreign subject to him; he wasn't used to being so kind or sympathetic. But being an asshole would make everything so much worse so he decided something new wouldn't hurt him.

Max sniffed and once her mouth opened, the dams were broken. "She pulled me out of the way. My stupid self wasn't paying attention and didn't see it so she got me out of the way and we tripped on the curb and I should've just paid attention to where I was going and she wouldn't be in an ambulance with a leg that looks like roadkill," she sobbed.

Billy didn't immediately respond, not expecting the rush of emotions. This uncharted territory freaked him out. He was in too deep to stop now, though, so he cleared his throat. "Max, it's not your fault. The only person who's at fault here is the mother- idiot who was driving that car. I'm sure Annie would be telling you the same thing," he said, trying his best to be more sympathetic than condescending.

It worked, and sort of startled Max but she'd take it right now. They pulled up outside of their house and got out of Billy's car. He went up to her to make sure she was okay and was greeted with a hug.

Even more unexpected.

He didn't know how to respond at first, just standing in confusion until he got common sense back and awkwardly hugged her back. Her tears were soaking his shirt but he didn't exactly care right now.

"Max? Is she okay?" The two looked up and saw Susan standing at the door, Neil right behind her with a certain glint in his eye. He was already assuming it was Billy's fault.

Max finally let go and pulled her sweatshirt sleeves down to wipe her eyes. She and Billy walked up to the front door. "Go on, I'll tell him," Billy told her quietly. The adults moved out of the way as the kids entered the house.

The redhead went off to her room, ignoring the calls from her mom- she needed a moment to sob into her pillow.

Neil was quick to turn to Billy after closing the front door. "What the hell did you do to her?" he asked. Well, more like yelled.

Rather than getting pissed at the accusation, Billy held up his hands. "I didn't do anything to her. I was picking her up at the arcade like I was supposed to, her friend got run over by a car."

"What?!" Susan cried, a hand flying over her mouth.

Billy cringed at how he said that. "Sorry, uh, her friend Annie. Some dumb driver wasn't paying attention and came up on the sidewalk where they were walking. Annie got hurt and is on the way to the hospital," he said.

He thought it was best not to mention how Annie took the hit instead, worried Max might get lectured on not paying attention. She didn't need that.

Susan moved to the kitchen and grabbed a box of recipes she had. "We should visit her in the hospital tomorrow. I'll make her family something, too. I can't imagine her parents are going to do much cooking..."

Neil was no longer interested, going back to sit and watch TV. Billy nodded and said, "Sounds nice. Max will appreciate it." Susan smiled at him, then went back to looking for the perfect thing to make.

The next day, Annie had a surgery to help with her leg and was now in recovery. Miserable, boring, recovery. Her mom and dad had come while Steve had gone home to grab some things Annie would want. The timing was the worst, because without Steve there to help her out, Annie was subjected to listening to her parents scold and berate her for being so dumb.

When Steve came back, he promptly kicked them out and told Annie to ignore every word they spoke.

In the lobby, Max was rushing up the nurse's station to find Annie's room. Last night, after her mom came to check in on her, she got a call from Lucas saying he knew about what happened. Steve told Nancy who told Joyce and Mike. Joyce informed Johnathan and Will- who was heartbroken and wanted to see her- while Mike told Lucas and Dustin. Then Lucas decided to check in on Max.

She wouldn't be surprised if some of the others came to see her today, too.

"Hi," Max breathed out when she got to the desk. The nurse looked up at her and smiled. "I'm looking for Annie Harrington?"

The nurse nodded and check her log thing. "Room 417. Elevators are down the hall, go up to the fourth floor and turn right." Max nodded and quickly went off to get an elevator.

"Max, slow down sweetie!" Right. Her mom and Billy came, too. Neil didn't, saying something about not knowing her and they'd be good enough, the three of them. Max knew it's because he didn't care enough, and she was perfectly fine with that.

When they got to Annie's room, Max practically ran in. "Annie!" she called with a huge smile on her face.

Annie turned and saw the redhead running over and smiled just as big. "Max!" The girl in question nearly took her out with the force of her hug. But Annie accepted it with very open arms.

Steve was leaning against the wall across from the door and smiled at Susan and Billy standing there. She looked over and smiled at the boy. "You must be her brother, I'm Max's mom, Susan," she greeted, moving the dish of food to one hand to shake Steve's with the other.

He smiled. "Steve," he said, giving her a name to work with.

They let go and she handed him the dish. "Here, I made you a lasagna. It's the least I could do, I can't imagine your family will be making much food..." She trailed off and looked around. "Well I thought your parents would be here?" she asked.

Steve took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to answer that. "They're at home," he settled with. "They were here for a while and I told them I could stay here instead for a bit."

Max, who had overheard, pulled away from the hug and looked at Annie in question, wanting the actual answer. Annie looked away and chewed on her bottom lip. "They weren't exactly happy to find out I was in the hospital," she said quietly.

This made Max frown. She knew there wasn't a very good relationship there, but she at least hoped they'd care enough to be there. "I'm sorry," she said, looking down at her hands.

Annie smacked Max's arm. "Don't you dare, Maxine Mayfield- oh yeah I'm full-naming you right now. I better not hear you blaming yourself in any way. That is all I want from you. If I hear blaming yourself or apologize for something that wasn't your fault I will smack you. That's a promise."

By the end of her rant, she and Max were laughing. "Okay, I promise not to," Max relented through laughs.

Susan smiled at the girls, then looked back at Steve. "If you need anything, let us know. We're happy to help especially with how close the girls are," she offered. Steve smiled and thanked her.

Max and Annie looked extremely happy, but Susan needed to get back home and finish some stuff up. Seeing the conflict on her face, Billy stepped towards her. "I can take you back home and come back to be here until Max is ready to go?" he offered.

Susan smiled up at him and nodded. "7:30 at the latest, we've still got dinner to eat," she said. Then, she looked at Max. "Max sweetie, Billy's going to take me home and then he'll be back to stay until 7:30 or whenever you want to leave."

Smiling, Max nodded and got right back to talking with Annie. Throughout the day, some of the others came to see Annie, too. While most of the parents dropped the kids off and waited in the lobby, Mrs. Byers came up with the boys to see Annie as well.

It was going well until Chief Hopper came in. "Chief," Annie said, somewhat shocked.

He smiled and gave some head nods while looking around the people in the room. "I was hoping to see your parents here?" he said, looking to Annie then Steve. The former looked kinda depressed at this mention while Steve just looked pissed.

It was Annie who answered first, deciding not to tell a dumb lie and protect her parents' image. "Yeah, Steve kicked them out after they yelled at me for half an hour for being in the hospital," she said, finishing with a thin smile.

The room fell silent, Steve being the only one who wasn't awkward. Instead, he was kind of impressed his sister exposing their parents like that.

"Well," the Chief breathed out. "Do you wanna press charges on the kid?" It was silent as Annie thought, then she nodded. "All right, Steve can I talk to you outside?"

They went out, talked about the details, while the others moved on from all that and kept talking.

By the end of visiting hours, a nurse came in and kicked all the kids out. Only Steve remained after that. When they were all gone with promises to bring her the homework she'd need and other things, Steve turned to his baby sister.

"I think Max might like you, too," he said.

Annie blushed and picked at her cuticles. "Don't get my hopes up."

A/n: so sorry for the late post, but here it is! This chapter was actually the idea that started the whole book, if you can believe that :)