Lily Mayfield always thought she knew what it meant when people said that, in the middle of a crisis, time stopped.

It had certainly slowed down during the Battle of Starcourt Mall, when she felt as though she was racing through molasses to kneel by Billy's side as he took his final breaths. One last shared glance with Eddie before his eyes shut had both felt as though it was over all too soon, and as if that moment could have stretched out forever. But nothing had prepared Lily for the feeling of time stopping completely as the weight of Max's absence crashed over her like a tidal wave.

"No," she whimpered, leaning back against the figure behind her, who she then realized was Debbie through the tears blurring her vision. "No no no no no."

"Lily," Sarah spoke up, and when Lily finally looked back up at her friends, she saw that they now all stood in a circle surrounding her, protecting her from the prying eyes of those in the waiting room, though in the chaos ensuing after the earthquake, people were far from focused on the group in the center of the room. "She's alive." Sarah continued, kneeling down next to her. "She's in surgery right now."

"S-she's alive?" Lily stammered, looking around frantically at the others.

"Come on," Steve suggested, jerking his head in the direction of the hallway. "Maybe we should all talk about this in private, yeah?"

"Y-yeah," Lily said, though as Steve began to pull her up, she yelped in pain at the burning feeling once again spreading through her shoulder, the final remnants of adrenaline melting away after their race to get Eddie help.

"Lily?" Debbie asked as she flinched away from Steve, almost as if she'd been burned with a hot iron, and Lily's eyebrows furrowed as she cradled her left arm, suddenly dizzy as the pain coursed through her upper body.

"I-I don't know what's wrong with me." she said, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. "It hurts."

"Hey, we need help over here!" Steve shouted over the crowds, bounding over to where a nurse waited behind a table, and Nick stepped closer to Lily, leaning down to take his original place.

"Here, give me your other hand." Nick said, tentatively studying where Lily still cradled her arm. "Does that one hurt too?"

"Just the one, I think," Lily said, hesitantly holding out her other hand in Nick's direction and allowing the girl to slowly pull Lily to her feet, with Debbie supporting her from where she still sat behind her, and together, the two girls managed to get Lily up as Steve returned with a wheelchair.

"It's a madhouse in here," Steve said as they helped Lily into the chair, the redhead once again cradling her arm to keep it steady as he wheeled her out of the waiting room, followed by Dustin, Debbie, and Nick while the others waited for any other news about their friends. "The gates have to be worse than we thought, worse than what Nancy saw in her vision."

Suddenly it all clicked into Lily's mind that the earthquake rolling through Hawkins and causing their car to crash hadn't just been her friends in trouble in the Upside Down, but rather that Vecna had succeeded in his plan when he'd hurt Max. Despite having somehow survived her encounter with Vecna, according to their friends, Max had still been the fourth and final sacrifice, and Vecna won.

And somewhere in the hospital, amidst all the screaming and chaos of Vecna's plan coming to fruition, the two most important people in her life were fighting for their lives.

Lily had hardly registered when Steve had rolled her into an examination room, lined with too-white walls as they were followed by a nurse with a clipboard held tightly in one arm as she studied the redhead in front of her.

"Alright, Miss Mayfield," she said. "What seems to be the problem?"

"I don't know," Lily said. "I felt fine on the way over here, but the second Steve tried to help me up, my shoulder felt like it was on fire."

"Mind if we get your jacket off so we can take a look?" the nurse asked, and Lily nodded.

"Here," Nick offered, gently helping Lily out of the green jacket from the War Zone, and the redhead could instantly see Dustin's eyes widen as the extra layer of clothing was removed, the thin fabric of her Hellfire Club t-shirt doing very little to conceal the bone popped out of place in her upper arm.

"Shit," Dustin breathed, and Steve quickly looked away, his face now tinged a slight green color.

"Looks like a dislocated shoulder." the nurse said. "In an adrenaline rush, sometimes we don't notice that we're even hurt until it's over, but I'm glad we caught this when we did to avoid any further damage. We'll put it back into place and keep it secure in a sling for a few days, after that you should be good as new." The woman stepped closer to Lily, reaching her hands out gently for her shoulder. "This is going to hurt a bit, alright?"

"Just do it," Lily said, gritting her teeth as Dustin held a hand out for her, and she took his hand tightly as the nurse popped her shoulder back into place, an excruciating pain erupting from the site for a brief moment before it began to subside.

"There we go," she said, reaching back for her clipboard to scribble down a few notes. "I'll return with a sling and some ice for your shoulder, and then you'll be alright to go home, okay?"

"I can't go home." Lily said adamantly, shaking her head quickly with a frightened expression. "My sister's in surgery, so is my boyfriend."

"Very well," the woman nodded, eyeing the grime left over on the five teenagers from the Upside Down, as well as the streaks of Eddie's blood that still stained Lily's shirt. "In that case, we have facilities you can all use to get cleaned up."

"Lily, why don't you go ahead and go first?" Debbie offered. "I have your car keys, I'll go home and grab you a change of clothes, and pick up your mom. I don't know if they've gotten a hold of her yet about either you being here or Max's condition."

Lily nodded. "Thanks, Debs."

Lily managed to pull herself out of the chair, rising to her feet as she followed after the nurse to where a small bathroom and shower was located at the end of the hall. The nurse handed Lily a towel, and as soon as she was alone, she turned on the water as hot as it would allow and slowly stripped out of her grimy clothes, careful not to move her shoulder any more than necessary.

Lily's eyes remained trained on the shower floor as she stood underneath the hot water, the water tainted brown and red with grime and dried blood as it raced down the drain. She scrubbed the impurities from her hair and body, desperate to remove any final trace of the Upside Down as frustrated tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.

By the time she finally turned the faucet off and stepped into her towel, she noticed the pile of her clothes left on the floor near the door, a pair of black sweats and a matching hoodie. On top of the clothes sat a tarnished silver chain she knew all too well, and picked it up gingerly to reveal Eddie's guitar pick dangling from the bottom, no doubt from the pile of his belongings they'd given to Nick when he'd gone into surgery. She pulled on the clothes and the necklace, stepping outside to see where the nurse waited with the sling and ice pack, helping Lily into the sling as the redhead thanked her.

"Is there any update?" Lily asked. "On either of them?"

"Still stable, but nothing new to report." the woman said. "But your mother's here, with your friends. The general waiting room's been overflowing with those hurt in the earthquake, so we've moved them to a family area for our surgical patients. I'll take you to them."

Lily nodded, following after the woman down a long hallway in search of the others. When she finally caught sight of the group, Steve, Nick, Robin, and Dustin had already showered and changed, but Debbie and the Sinclairs were nowhere to be found, likely taking their own shifts to clean up. Sitting in a chair at the far end of the room was none other than Susan Mayfield, who quickly rose to her feet as her eyes met those of her oldest daughter's.

"Lily," Susan said, rushing over and throwing her arms around her daughter, careful to avoid the sling holding in Lily's arm. "I'm so glad to see you safe."

"I'm okay, Mom." Lily assured her, her voice muffled against her mother's shoulder.

"He didn't do that to you, did he?" Susan asked, stepping back to inspect her daughter for any further injury. "The Munson boy?"

"What?" Lily asked. "No." she said adamantly. "Eddie never had me, I was never in danger. I'm so sorry for making you worry, I was just trying to help Eddie before somebody hurt him. He's innocent, Mom."

"We'll talk about this later." Susan said, eyeing her with a concerned expression. "For now, I'm just glad you're safe."

Lily nodded, taking a seat in the chair next to her mother's as, one by one, the others began to join the group, clean and now huddling together to await any further news. It was shortly before dawn when Eddie was released from surgery first, after the bat bites had been stitched up and his broken leg placed into a cast. However, until he regained consciousness, the officers stationed outside his room weren't allowing any visitors, until Powell could question him once he'd woken up.

When Max was finally released from surgery a little before noon and placed into a room of her own, Lily couldn't run fast enough to see her, though she froze as soon as she reached the doorway, taking a deep breath and bracing herself before she could force herself inside.

Lucas was already inside the room by the time Lily joined him, tears freely falling down the boy's face as he studied Max's sleeping form in the bed. Lily's face nearly crumpled as she stepped up next to Lucas, finally getting a good look at her sister.

Max lay peacefully in bed as if she were sound asleep, though a sickening feeling in her gut told Lily that couldn't have been further from the truth. Her arms and legs were all wrapped up in casts, and a neck brace kept her head steady as she slept. Her skin was pale, with dark circles under her eyes as she lay deathly still.

"When will she wake up?" Lily asked, her voice coming out as hardly more than a whisper as she turned to face where the doctors stood in the doorway.

"We aren't sure if she will for sure." one of them admitted, causing a gasp to escape from Susan's throat as she nearly collapsed into the chair next to Max's bed. "Could be days, could be months, could be not at all. The damage to her brain was extensive, and was likely made worse by the lack of oxygen after her heart stopped. We can't figure out why it restarted on its own, some sort of miracle, most likely. If she does wake up, it'll be on her own terms."

Lily simply watched her sister, the tears clouding her vision once again as she thought back to the afternoon before, how giggly and full of life Max had been in the Winnebago before she'd been dropped off at the Creel House. They'd known it was a possibility that she wouldn't have escaped from Vecna unharmed, but never would she have imagined the reality of seeing Max so unlike herself.

Lily took a seat in a chair next to her bed as the doctors left the room, moving a stray piece of hair from Max's face as she continued to watch her sister. Max didn't flinch at the contact, remaining still as Lily reached up to wipe a tear that had fallen from her eye.

"You're okay," Lily whispered, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Max's forehead. "You're gonna be okay."

She'd lost track of the hours sitting next to Max, as Susan finally had to leave to go to work and once Lucas had fallen asleep in the loveseat against the wall on the other end of the room. Sarah and Erica were in and out, asking Lily if she needed anything, and Steve had come with updates every couple of hours where he'd waited with Dustin, Robin, Nick, and Wayne for any news on Eddie's condition, though it remained unchanged. After a few hours, Dustin had come down with him to join Lily, though the two sat in silence, the heavy weight of their unspoken words hanging between them as they struggled with what to even begin to say.

"Do you think he's going to be okay?" Dustin asked softly as the first pink rays of the oncoming sunset began to stream against the white hospital walls, his voice cracking as he began to sniffle. "Eddie?"

Lily looked over as Dustin looked up at her, his eyes red and glassy with tears that began to spill over his eyelids, and Lily wrapped the arm not currently trapped in a sling around the boy's shoulders as he started to cry. She lay her head overtop his, holding him closer to her as tears streamed down his face, beginning to soak into his t-shirt.

"He has to be," she murmured, though she wasn't certain if she was trying to reassure Dustin or herself. "It's Eddie."

"I-it wasn't supposed to happen like this." Dustin stammered. "We promised Steve we wouldn't be heroes. All of us."

"I know," she assured him. "But he made up his mind, and there was nothing we could've done to stop him. We did the best we could, and now we just have to hope that he pulls through." her eyes wandered up to where Max lay unconscious in the bed in front of them. "That they both do."

"Are you gonna leave again?" the young boy hiccuped. "Like you did last summer?"

Lily looked down at Dustin, and for the first time since she'd learned the truth about the Upside Down, she hadn't seen the young man who had helped to save the world time after time again, but instead the scared, innocent boy he hadn't been allowed to be since he was twelve. After seeing the way they'd bravely fought off the creatures of the Upside Down and still stayed strong without running away, she'd managed to forget how young her sister and her friends were, how young the boys had been when Will first went missing and they'd been forced to grow up way too soon.

"If we lose them, I mean." Dustin continued, reaching up to wipe his eyes as he continued to sniffle. "Please don't disappear on us again, Lily. If we lose Eddie, or Max, I can't lose you again."

"Hey, shhh," she murmured, tightening her hold on him to pull him closer. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

"You were always so nice to us." Dustin recounted. "Max wouldn't come anywhere close to touching D and D, but you offered to DM for us, so we could all enjoy the game. You made us better players, and told us all about the Hellfire Club that we could join once we got to high school. I used to be so excited to get to be a part of the campaigns you'd tell us stories about, but when we finally got to join, you wanted nothing to do with it. With us."

Lily's vision blurred with tears as Dustin spoke, knowing he was right. Since the day Max had begun hanging out with her new friends, asking Lily for rides to the arcade if she was able to borrow their mom's car for a shift, or the rides they'd hitch to Starcourt to sneak into a late night movie, she'd always been protective of the boys, considering them the younger brothers she'd never had, especially Dustin, who didn't have any older siblings of his own. Knowing the damage she'd caused them by leaving all those months ago made her stomach turn, and she quickly blinked in an attempt to get rid of the tears.

"I'm so sorry, Dustin." she breathed out, her voice shaky. "And I missed those campaigns more than anything. I missed you more than anything. I wish I'd realized that sooner, before I missed out on everything. I wasted so much time, and now there's a possibility we might never get any more."

Dustin hugged her back tightly as a soft knock sounded at the door, and they both looked up through tear-filled eyes to see Steve leaning against the doorframe. As he saw them, his expression softened into concern, taking a step forward into the room.

"You guys alright?" he asked, his gaze moving sharply to where Max slept, studying her to look for any sort of change in condition.

Lily nodded. "We'll be alright," she said, taking Dustin's hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. "Is there any news?"

"Nah," Steve said sadly, shaking his head. "He's still out, so they still won't let Nick and Wayne see him. They said it could happen at any time, though, so I guess all that's left to do is just to keep waiting."

Lily nodded, her eyes falling back to Max. "That makes two of us." she said with a sigh, and she looked to the other side of the room to see Lucas's eyes open as the boy began to stretch out his sore muscles from falling asleep in the uncomfortable hospital loveseat.

"I should get back," Steve said, looking back at Lily as he gestured in the direction of the hallway. "I don't want to keep Nick waiting in case something happens."

"I'll go with you," Dustin offered, rising up to his feet. "I should be there for Nick and Mr. Munson, at least for a little bit."

"Promise you'll come tell me the second something changes?" Lily asked the boys, and Steve nodded.

"Cross my heart," he assured her as the boys left the room, leaving her and Lucas alone with the faint sounds of beeping coming from Max's heart monitor.

"Hey," Lucas said, stretching out as he rose from the loveseat and dropped down into the seat Dustin had vacated. "How's Eddie?"

"Still no change," she said, studying his eye, which was still swollen shut from the night before during a fight with Jason. "You alright? That looks pretty gnarly."

"I'll be fine," he said with a shrug, and Lily studied the boy carefully.

Of all the people who had been involved with the events of Starcourt, and the Upside Down, Lucas was the one person she hadn't managed to distance herself from in the past seven months. Perhaps it was that Lucas's new social circle collided with her own as a member of the basketball team, once he'd begun to spend more time around Jason and Patrick. But perhaps it was because, like Lily, he'd branched out to get away from the things he'd felt were holding him back, only to have it backfire.

"You and I have had quite the year." she mused, causing him to shake his head with a humorless chuckle.

"God, I wasted so much time thinking Jason was my friend and trying to be just like him. I didn't think it'd turn out like this." he said, Lily's hands instantly clenching into fists at the mention of Jason's name.

In all the time they'd spent preparing to split up into their groups for each part of the plan, Jason finding Max and the Sinclairs at the Creel House had been but a mere blip on their radar. They hadn't anticipated him finding Max under Vecna's trance in the middle of the room, nor that he'd break her Walkman and render Kate Bush ineffective when Lucas tried to stop him from waking her up. How different things might have been if he'd followed any other lead on Eddie's whereabouts that evening.

"For both of us," she added, looking back over at him. "We both ditched the ones we care about this year, trying to chase after that group. They seemed so much larger than life, even when you're considered one of them. You'd do anything to please them, if it meant people looked at you the same way, as if you had the world at your feet. Looking back, I'd do anything to not have taken that first step in the doorway."

"I wouldn't either," he admitted. "Are you okay? I know Jason was your friend, too, before everything."

She shook her head, a stern look crossing her eyes. "He wasn't our friend." she said adamantly. "Either of us. He didn't know us, not really. He just knew who we pretended to be. And besides," she looked back at Max's sleeping figure as a sinking feeling spread through her chest. "Things might've actually worked out, if not for him."

The two sat in silence for a moment, watching Max as a pair of footsteps sounded in the doorway behind them. "I get it, Steve, it's alright." she said, without turning around. "There's no change, thanks for the update."

"Not exactly," a voice spoke up from behind them, and Lily whirled around to see Nick standing in the doorway, a smirk gracing the girl's face as Lily jumped up to her feet. "Eddie's asking for you."