the olive branch

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

Alina hated hospitals. It was a guarantee, since they were so reminiscent of the lab, and because she'd been stuck in one for what felt like an eternity last year after waking up from the coma that had occurred when the piece of the Mind Flayer had died inside of her. They smelled of antiseptic and had all white walls and sheets and gowns so like the one El was forced into, and they were also where quite a number of people died, from disease and infection and blood loss. So, even though she'd agreed to Will's plan to find Mrs. Driscoll, Alina was finding herself a little apprehensive outside of this particular hospital.

Somewhere between the Holloway household and here, it had gotten dark, which only added to the sense of foreboding. The only lights came from the illuminated sign reading Emergency and the hospital windows. Alina knew she could form another light, one more comforting and warm to her, but she wouldn't dare do it here, in case there were cameras. Despite the fact that the lab was gone, Alina was still terrified of the world finding out she had superpowers. And for good reason. Who knew what they would do with her? With El? With the abominations against nature?

Alina was long past calling herself a monster. But the thought still chilled her anyway, and that, along with the bitter cold of the night outside (cold didn't bother her as much after she'd been possessed, and, although it was mostly a welcome feeling, as she hadn't been able to feel it at all before, sometimes it affected even her), had her frozen to the spot. Her eyes merely fixated on the red sign and her hands stayed curled into fists in her pockets. She didn't want to move, because moving would remind her of everything that was happening once again. With Billy. With Heather. With the fact that she now had to save the world. Again.

Everyone else moved on inside, and Alina shrunk in on herself, listening to the chirping of crickets and the woosh of the sliding door as it allowed the group entry. She took several deep breaths, but her heart was pounding hard and everything was coming flooding in at once. Everything she was trying to bury.

The blood. The screams. The sauna test. The dinner. The chemicals. The fact that there could be another army forming. Despite breath after breath, and her usual mantra circulating around her head, Alina could not quite breathe. Her palms were itchy. She couldn't release energy here. And, over and over, she kept thinking of a new, terrible idea that had just come to her mind.

"Alina?"

Alina turned her head slightly to see Lucas, who'd obviously noticed her absence. She didn't say anything, allowing him to speak again. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"It's—it's foolish." Alina finally forced herself to speak. To answer Lucas, at least.

Lucas came over, putting an arm around her. His touch was instantly familiar, instantly soothing. "What is it?"

"I dunno. I guess everything just hit me at once. All of it. It was like I was going on autopilot before. In the sauna. In Heather's. And I'm just... I was just thinking. I'm... I'm terrified, Lucas. It was supposed to be over two years ago, it wasn't. It was supposed to be over last year, and then it wasn't. I'm just... what if it never ends? What if, even if we defeat this son of a bitch again, something else comes back? Again, and again, and again, until I'm dead or you're dead or we both are. Lying dead in a frosty grave."

"Al..." Lucas swallowed, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's going to be okay. We're going to be okay. Even if we fight the Mind Flayer a thousand times, even if we save the world twenty times over. Even if we become jaded, monster-hunting adults, with scars on our faces to match the one on your leg. You know why? Because we're together. Not even just you and me. The party. Nancy. Jonathan. Steve. Hopper. Your mom. Even Skywalker. And besides, I don't think it'll go on forever. I mean, this isn't something new. It's an old enemy we didn't kill properly last year. But this time, we'll make sure we do."

Alina took a deep breath, and then felt an acute embarrassment run through her for how she'd acted. The others—she could see them through the sliding glass door—were waiting at the entrance for her, and she was just standing here, wasting their time. She could worry after the Mind Flayer was dead.

It wasn't the healthiest mindset, but it propelled her forward anyway. "Of course," she said. "Of course. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," Lucas said, taking her hand. "Now, c'mon, let's kick some flayed butt."

Alina laughed and let him lead her inside. "I hope that's an exaggeration," she told him, as the doors slid open, where they joined the rest of the group. "I'm pretty sure the plan didn't call for kicking flayed asses."

"Well, who knows? Plans change."

And indeed they did. Lucas Sinclair might have been a little too on the nose with what he must've considered a harmless comment, because, soon enough, kicking flayed butt would be exactly what they were doing.

Inside the hospital, the waiting room was empty, save for a receptionist, chatting away on the phone, glasses perched on the end of her nose. She looked busy, distracted, talking on the phone with someone, so they tried to creep past her to make their way into Mrs. Driscoll's room, but it seemed she had eyes everywhere, because just as they moved past the desk, she stopped them.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Excuse me!" the receptionist let the phone fall with a clatter and stood up, one hand on her hip as she faced them. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Oh," said Nancy cheerfully, "um... I was just going to visit my grandma again. And—and this..." she gestured to the group trailing her, "this is my family."

"Extended," Lucas added, because it was obvious that none of them looked alike, with the exception of Will and Jonathan. Alina nodded, and the receptionist looked at them over her glasses, her eyes remaining on Gabe, who, after all, looked like he'd just gotten beat up. She didn't seem amused.

"I don't care who they are," she said. "You know the rules. Two visitors at a time."

"Yeah," said Nancy, "but—"

"Two!" the receptionist thrust out two fingers like they wouldn't know what the number meant, and then picked up the phone again. "Girl, this child has lost her mind. She brought a whole zoo in here."

Nancy exchanged a look with Jonathan, and then turned to the party. Alina already knew what she was going to say before she said it. "You guys stay here. Jonathan and I will go get Mrs. Driscoll."

The party immediately burst into protests, causing the receptionist to glare at them, probably for interrupting her extremely important phone call. Their voices softened a little, but they were all still mutinous. None of them wanted to just wait while the two of them interacted with a woman who was literally flayed.

"Keep your voices down!" Jonathan ordered. "Guys, it's not that big of a deal. We'll only be a couple minutes."

When the party once again tried to burst into protests, Nancy held her finger up. "End of discussion," she said. "Come on, Jonathan."

And that left the party in the waiting room. But as Alina watched her brother leave, she couldn't help the sinking feeling that went through her. It was like she knew something was going to go wrong, because of course it would. When had anything gone right?

Still, there was nothing she could do for now, and, since her stomach was growling, Alina picked her way over to the vending machines. Mike and Lucas seemed to have had the same idea (of course they did), and made their way over as well. She let them follow her, and then, once they'd reached the machine lit up with candy bars, crossed her arms, digging change out of her pocket.

"Well, I'm assuming you two are broke," she said, sifting through quarters and nickels. "So what do you guys want?"

"Kit Kat," said Lucas immediately, and then paled under Alina's glare. "Um, please?"

"I'm not spending my money on that shit, no matter how much I like you, Sinclair," said Alina. "Kit Kats are gross."

"No they're not! Kit Kats are chocolatey excellence."

"I bet you're the type that bites into it without breaking it apart, too."

"Guys!" Mike interrupted. Alina and Lucas ceased their friendly banter to look at him. "I have money, all right?" And, at Alina and Lucas's doubting faces, raised his voice. "I do! The three fifty I brought to the mall."

"Oh, yeah, to buy a present for El. Tell me Mike, what did you expect to get her for that price? A keychain from the dollar store?"

"Shut up, Al."

Alina laughed and stepped back, allowing Mike to feed his coins into the slot and type in the buttons for the enormous Kit Kat. Unfortunately, as the Kit Kat began to fall, it got stuck, leaving them without candy and with money wasted.

"Oh, come on, you piece of shit!" Mike whined, slamming his hand against the broken vending machine. When the candy didn't budge, he turned to Alina. "Hey, Al, couldn't you just... burn through it, or something? Like, with your powers?"

"No, dumbass, how would that even work?" Alina slammed her hand against the machine, too, shaking it slightly, which was probably something she shouldn't have been doing, as shaking vending machines could end up with them falling on top of them. And the Kit Kat was still refusing to budge. "See? This is why Kit Kats are the worst—"

There was an explosion of brightly colored candy rattling the vending machine, and half of the candy bars fell to the bottom. The trio jumped back, surprised, and turned to face El, who was standing by a table full of magazines with Max. Blood was dripping from her nose, and it was evident that she'd just used her powers on this. As Alina watched, she wiped her nose and turned back to her magazine, her cheeks slightly pink.

Alina and Lucas immediately began grabbing as much candy as they could hold, filling up their arms with it, but Mike resumed looking at El. "Thanks," he called nonchalantly, making Alina roll her eyes. It seemed like the two of them were making up.

Then he joined the others in collecting candy bars. Gabe, who was sitting beside Will in one of the chairs, stared at them weirdly, digging in his pockets and taking out Skittles and gummy worms. "You know you guys could've asked me for candy, right?" he called, ripping open the gummies and offering the bag to Will. "You didn't have to waste your money!"

"We get more this way!" Lucas called back. Well, that was true. His hands were nearly full by now.

Will suppressed a grin as he took a handful from Gabe's bag. "I forgot you carried candy around with you."

"Candy is a necessity," said Gabe, chewing some gummy worms of his own. "And besides, I live with my grandparents. It would be weird if I wasn't carrying candy."

That made Will laugh.

Once Alina's hands were full, she peeled the wrapper off a Snickers bar, taking an enormous bite. Immediately, she closed her eyes in contentment, because, for some reason, this was the best thing she'd tasted. Perhaps it was because the last thing she'd eaten had been the Cocoa Puffs this morning, which felt like eons ago.

As she chewed, standing up to perhaps go sit next to Gabe or talk to Max, she stopped, because she'd just heard Lucas mutter, "Dude, I think that was it."

"That was what?" Mike asked.

Lucas lowered his voice even further. "The olive branch."

"The what?"

"Oh, my God. You're hopeless." Lucas shook his head in dismay and put a hand on Mike's shoulder. "Okay, I'll distract Max, and Al maybe. Get you an opening. And then talk to her. All right?"

Mike seemed oblivious still, and Alina suppressed a laugh. Lucas gathered more candy and stood up, jumping at the sight of his girlfriend standing right behind him, who'd evidently heard their entire conversation. Alina crossed her candy-filled arms and grinned at him. "Consider me distracted, Sinclair. Go ahead, Mike."

Because whatever Alina Fairgrieves-Byers said about Mike Wheeler, he was still her friend, and she really did care about him.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

a/n: this chapter was pretty tame 🙈 i wanted to lead in with some wholesome sinclairgrieves moments before the shit hits the fan lmfaoo you guys really are gonna hate me!! good luck!

'till next time >:)