tw: mention of homophobic slur

TEENAGE NIGHTMARE
CHAPTER TEN — PART ONE.
THE EXPLANATION.

           It had been a few hours full of rearranging papers and pure concentration between Joyce, Hopper, Charlie, and Franny as they tried to put the pieces to the puzzle together. The drawings were strewn across the entire living room, the couch and coffee table having been shoved off to the sides courtesy of Hopper. Franny flexed her newly bandaged hand, remembering the way it had stung when Joyce tried to clean it before deciding to just wrap it up again. Now, the four of them stood around the room, staring down at the giant picture before them, which still looked a lot like a bunch of scribbles sprawled out on to the school.

          " I don't. . I don't understand. . " Franny trailed off, sitting on the floor with her legs crossed under her, and injured hand laid in her lap while she reached out with the other to trace her fingers along the drawing.

          " Did you, uh, did you see anything else? " Joyce asked, wringing her hands nervously as she looked over to the girl hopefully, " Like, what this could be? Did he say anything else? "

           " No. . " Franny mumbled under her breath, shaking her head lightly. She remembered what she had seen very clearly, even if she was still a bit hazy as to how she got there and why she was there. " No, all he said was that it's a puzzle. "

          " A puzzle of what, though? " Charlie asked, placing his head in his hand as he leaned over; Joyce began biting her thumbnail unnervingly, and Hopper just stared at the drawings analytically. Charlie silently wished that Mike, Dustin, and Lucas were there, they would be helpful in bouncing ideas off each other.

          " Does this mean anything to you? " Hopper asked, seeming to be asking all three of them separately, but Joyce was the only one that answered, shaking her head.

          " No, " She said in exasperation, throwing her hand up slightly as she tried to think of what it could be, " I mean, is it some sort of maze or-or road? This sort of forking and branching, like, like lightning. "

         " You think it's a storm? " Hopper suggested, moving across the floor, briefly looking up at Joyce before gluing his eyes back to the expansive drawing.

        " It's not. " Franny insisted, slowly lifting her gaze to Hopper. Although she couldn't really explain why she was adamant about that, she knew that she should be. Will would've told her if he thought they couldn't figure it out past that, he knew they could get it, but they just needed that last little push. The brunette pondered an idea for a minute, then she suddenly stood, looking between the trio before her. " I'm gonna go back. "

          " Go back where, Franny? " Charlie asked, giving her an incredulous look, " We don't even know where you went, you don't even know where you went! What if you get trapped there, or-or what if something happens to you while you're there?! "

          " It won't. " She insisted, stepping across the drawings to hold her hand out, showing them that the bandages had already begun to turn violet again. She felt a pulse of pain vibrate throughout her palm as she lowered her voice, " He won't let that happen, Will won't. I. . I don't know where it is, but I have to go back, Charlie. If it helps us get Will back, I have to try. "

         " Wait. " Joyce called, interrupting the siblings who both turned to look at her. The woman looked hesitant, but she still said what she wanted to say, " Will told you it was a puzzle, why wouldn't he say what it represented? "

          " He thinks we can figure it out on our own. " Franny answered with the thought that she had already come up with. Joyce nodded solemnly, holding up a hand, her eyes darting between all three people.

          " Which means he knows one of us have seen it. " She supplied the rest of the answer, then, turning to Charlie, she gripped his shoulder, inching down to his height and nodding towards the drawing. " Does this look familiar to you, Charlie? Like you've seen it before? "

           Charlie's eyes scanned over the drawing for the umpteenth time, but he shook his head firmly at Joyce. The woman nodded understandingly, then she looked over at Franny, " What about you? What does it look like to you, Franny? "

           The brunette shook her head, opening her mouth to insist that she didn't have a clue, but she stopped halfway through when her eyes landed on the pictures again. She stared at them for a moment, wishing for something to come to her mind, she wanted to recognize them, but they just looked like a bunch of roots or— 

           " Vines. " She suddenly said, her eyes meeting Joyce's while Hopper's own pair snapped to hers in surprise; the girl felt her hand burn in response, in a way, letting her know she was correct. Franny turned her head, hair falling over her shoulders as she looked to Hopper, " They look like vines. Like. . like a-a plant. "

           " He said it was spreading— " Joyce added, seeming to agree with Franny's assumption, while a look of recognition crossed Hopper's face.

           " Killing. " He stated, eyes slowly shifting from Franny to Joyce, a deadly sort of tone to his voice as he said, " He said they were killing. "

           " I heard screaming, when I was. . there. " Franny quickly said, not sure if that would help or not to the theory Hopper was gathering in his head; he nodded, as if he had convinced himself he was right, then he jogged across the room, grabbing his jacket and hat, hurriedly putting them on and opening the door. He looked back at them, at the questionable, confused looks on the trio's faces.

            " I know what he's drawing. " And, without further explanation, he shut the door behind him and pulled away in his sheriff's car.

             The three of them sat in odd silence for nearly thirty minutes after Hopper left, taking interval shifts to watch Will, who had long passed out after they figured out the drawings. Franny has started to pick at the ends of her bandage while Charlie was on watch. She could see him sitting down beside Will's bed, the door left open just in case something bad were to happen. Her heart was in her stomach ever since she'd come back, but the sight didn't help to ease her worry.

            " What happened? " Joyce suddenly asked, sitting across from Franny on the couch, whereas the girl sat on the floor; the brunette looked up at her questionably, and the older woman nodded towards her injured hand. " Your hand. You said you saw Will, you talked to him. . how? "

            Franny lowered her eyes again, not exactly sure of the answer herself. She pressed her fingers into her palm, trying to ignite the burning feeling again, but it was just numb. It seemed that it only burned when it wanted her to do something. She lightly shook her head in response.

            " I don't know, " She admitted, raising her eyes to meet Joyce's, forehead crinkled in self concern as she felt a small panic growing within her; Joyce seemed to see this, her eyes softening and a sympathetic look crossing her face as the girl quietly explained, " I think. . I think something happened, at the football field, when I found Will. Something jumped off of him and onto me, I didn't think anything of it, but now. . "

           Joyce was listening to her intently, leaned forward and elbows resting on her knees as her eyes looked over the younger girl's face, which was twisting into an expression of guilt and fear, of which she didn't entirely understand.

           " I think it's inside me. " She confessed in a shakily quiet voice, barely more than a whisper, hoping that it would somehow mask how scared she sounded. " Like. . Like it's in Will, but different. . "

           She felt her vision start to blur as tears welled up in her eyes. She shook her head again and let out a humorless laugh, wiping at her eyes, " I don't why I'm crying, it doesn't hurt, I– "

           She didn't get to finish her choked up sentenced, her voice cracking and throat drying up, when Joyce walked over to her, sitting down beside her and wrapping her arms around her. Franny didn't want to cry, it wasn't her that was practically dying, it wasn't her son passed out in his room, it wasn't her, so why did she have any right to cry in Joyce's arms?

            " I'm sorry, " She whispered in a strained voice as she closed her eyes, tears falling down her face for what felt like the hundredth time this week, leaning into the woman's chest as one of her hands rubbed Franny's arms soothingly, the other placed against her head as she let out a small sob, " I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, "

             " It's not your fault, Franny. " Joyce insisted firmly, resting her chin on the girl's head, much like her father had done just a day ago— it felt like forever since that moment. The older woman blinked back her own unshed tears as she slowly rocked the girl in her arms. " This isn't your fault, it's not your fault, I swear, it's not. "

             Charlie's timer had gone off a few minutes ago, but he couldn't force himself to move from Will's side. The tall boy sat on the stool Joyce had taken from the kitchen, his hands placed in between his legs to give him some slack as he leaned forward. Will somehow managed to look peaceful while he slept, even if the Mind Flayer was sucking the life out of him while he was awake. His eyes were sunken in, dark rings around them, and his face was paler than Charlie had ever seen before. It made him want to puke his guts out and cry all the tears he had out. It ate at him, watching Will go through all this shit, everything that he didn't deserve to go through again. In Charlie's eyes, Will deserved so much more, even if he didn't think it himself.

           It had been so quiet for the past twenty minutes that Charlie nearly forgot how to speak. He had just been watching Will, making sure his chest was still rising and falling, making sure he was still alive. He knew that wasn't something he should have to do; he was still a kid, as much as he liked to insist otherwise, and a kid should never have to keep watch over his best friend to make sure he was still breathing. But, they weren't just kids anymore, were they?

             With all the time in the world to himself, his mind was filled with endless memories on repeat in an attempt to keep any idea of bad outcomes from his head. He knew he'd drive himself insane if he let that happen. Then, he wondered if saying what he was thinking out loud would help, even if Will couldn't hear him.

             Maybe it was better that way, since he would never even dream of saying what he wanted to say out loud, much less in front of Will.

             " I know you're gonna be okay. " Charlie said, his voice still hushed as to not alert Joyce in Franny in the other room; he was almost certain he could hear crying in the living room, but he didn't think it was any of his business. He kept his eyes on Will's face as he continued, " You wanna know how I know that? "

             He wasn't quite sure why he paused. He wasn't really expecting an answer.

             " Because you're Will the Wise. " He reminded the unconscious boy, a ghost of a smile gliding over his lips, " You're crazy smart, and way stronger than you think, even if I have beat you in arm wrestling competitions since we were eight. You're strong where it counts, Will, up in your head. That's why you survived the Upside Down, that's why you're gonna survive this. We all believe in you, Will, I believe in you. "

              Charlie sighed, inhaling slowly and closing his eyes tightly for a moment. He exhaled, then stretched forward to grab Will's limp hand. It was clammy in his, but he wasn't exactly going to complain right then. He squeezed it tightly in an attempt to reassure himself that he was still there, and he wasn't gone yet.

             Yet, Charlie's head echoed.

            " You have to get through this, because. . how else am I supposed to tell you? " He asked, more so to himself; he wasn't sure if he could live with himself if, for some reason, Will didn't come back, not knowing how he felt about him. Charlie closed his eyes again, squeezing the boy's hand again before whispering in a quiet voice, " How do I tell you that. . that I think I love you? How do I tell you that I. . I'm in love with you? How. . "

           Charlie's voice broke off, and he reopened his eyes, turning away and staring out the small window behind Will's desk. He wasn't sure if he had ever really thought about what would happen if he actually did tell Will and the rest of the party. More than likely, he had always reasoned that Will wouldn't feel the same way about him, and he could live with that. At least, he was pretty sure that he could live with a broken heart. What he didn't know, was how the party would react. His friends were open minded, at least, for Hawkins, Indiana, but he didn't know if they were that open minded. If he told them that he liked Will like that, like how Mike liked Eleven, how Lucas liked Max, how Dustin crushed on Nancy, how would they react? He'd scared himself into thinking that they would ridicule him, laugh at him and call him names, or that they would all just look at him like he was disgusting and never speak to him again.

         He was certain that he could not live with that.

       Franny and JP had been pretty open about their feelings when he told them. Franny was unfazed, always having assumed that he felt that way. She was never one to shy away from people that were considered 'different'. She didn't care, she was convinced that what you were on the inside counted more than what people saw you as. JP was a bit tougher to understand. He said that he didn't care, but Charlie had suspected that there was something more to it. He got overly angry when Charlie would come home and tell him that some kid at school had called the party a 'flock of fairies', and Franny once told him that JP had broken some kid's nose at school for calling him slurs and insults. Franny never said it, but Charlie could tell that she had thought the same thing he had. Why get so angry about it if you knew it wasn't true?

            And, while Charlie knew that he definitely enjoyed his time with girls, he would never voice what he actually wanted to ask JP.

            Oh, and God forbid what would happen if his father found out. Theoretically, Charlie had decided that it could only go one of two ways. One: he tells his dad, and he's cool with it. Perfect. Ideal. Impossibly unrealistic. Two: his dad goes absolutely berserk and kicks him out of the house, or tries to put him in a mental hospital (the irony would be too great, imagine if he went to the same nuthouse his mom had gone). He wasn't sure if he could ever tell his dad. At least, not while he still lived under his roof.

            Bottom line, Charlie wasn't sure what would happen if— when —Will woke up. The bolder side of him said that he needed to take his opportunity and just blurt it to him then and there before something else bad happened. The logical side told him that he needed to think about it a little bit before springing it on the boy. He decided that he would do it whenever it felt right.

            A knocking at the front door snapped Charlie from his thoughts. His head turned to peer out the bedroom, seeing Franny and Joyce moving from the floor at the sound. Charlie released Will's hand, sparing him one last look before walking out of the bedroom, wiping his sweaty hand across his face to try and get rid of any evidence of tears. When he met Franny's gaze from across the room, he saw that she hadn't bothered to wipe the tear streaks from her face, and he wondered what she had been crying about.

           Joyce glanced back at both of the siblings before turning to the door, opening it and nearly freezing on the spot when it revealed someone she definitely wasn't expecting. Franny leaned forward in her knees, eyebrows knitting together in confusion, and Charlie looked around Joyce's body to see who it was. Standing nearly a foot taller than the Byers woman, a head full of dusty blonde hair and a fair complexion looked back at her. His signature plaid jacket gave him away before his voice did.

             Then, in unison, both Walker kids called out to the man at the door, " Dad? "

X X X

          Joseph Walker was sat on the couch across from the trio of Joyce Byers, Franny, and Charlie. They dismissed the various drawings on the floor, and they made sure that Will's door was closed. Their father wasn't aware of everything that had transpired last year, and they were more than inclined to keep it that way.

          " I haven't seen you guys for days, what are you doing here? " He asked, looking between his children after he briefly apologized to Joyce for showing up unexpectedly.

           " We were. . "

           " Helping Ms. Byers with some renovations. " Charlie tried to say, but Franny shot him a look that told him that was possibly the most ridiculous excuse he could've came up with.

             Joseph didn't even say anything in response to that, easily seeing straight through it, instead insisting, " You kids know you can tell me anything, right? I don't like you guys being gone all the time. "

           " We're sorry, Dad, but this. . this is important. " Franny told him, voice dead serious as he looked his daughter in the eyes; the last time they'd been together, she had sobbed into his shoulder without explaining what happened at the Halloween party. She didn't ever stop to think about their father with everything that had been going on, and she assumed that she would be a bit concerned, too, if she was in his position.

            " I understand that, I do, but. . what exactly is this? " He asked, gesturing around at the drawings scattered on the floor.

             Franny and Charlie shared a look before they both looked to Joyce helplessly. She had her arms crossed lightly over her chest, and she shrugged in response.

            " It's Will, he's. . there's something wrong with him, Dad. " Charlie explained shortly, making the eldest Walker lean forward slightly, eyebrows raised as his eyes flickered between his two children; Charlie was a bit curious as to why he hadn't asked about JP, considering that neither of them had seen him since Halloween night either.

            Then, Joseph Walker said the one thing that neither siblings had expected, " Does it have anything to do with what happened last year? "

            And, with another shared look and solemn nods to each other, Franny and Charlie decided to tell their father everything. The Upside Down, Eleven, the Demogorgon, the Mind Flayer inside Will, the episodes, Franny's hand, every little thing. And, then, as he soaked the information in, Joseph say with his jaw slightly dropped and a look of pure disbelief in his cerulean eyes. And he shocked his kids yet again as he seemed to shake out of it rather quickly.

" Okay. What do you need me to do? "

X X X

note.
I may or may not have spoiled something for the next few chapters in this chap :)

as always, comments, questions, predictions and feedback are greatly appreciated!