Chapter Eleven
vicinity

"Are we close?" Joyce asked, her voice frantic as the car whizzed down the road. The trees flew by the windows, blending into a swirl of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns and becoming indistinguishable from one another.

"Uh- I- We're in the vicinity!" Came Bob's rushed reply as he shakily raised his hand to quickly wipe sweat from his forehead.

"What's that mean?" Joyce pressed, glancing from the road to Bob, "The vicinity?"

"It means we're close! I don't know, it's not precise!"

"Well, make it precise!" Scotty snapped from where he sat between Will and Mike.

"Scotty." Mike whispered harshly, shaking his head.

"We did all that work!"

"I-I told you! The scale ratio is not exactly one-to-one." Bob stammered apologetically, "We need to take-"

"Turn right!" Will suddenly lurched forward, sweat dripping from his skin and soaking through the new sweatshirt. "I saw him.."

Scotty's heart sank at that sentence, unknowingly tightening his grip on the edge of the leather seat until his knuckles turned white.

"Where? Where did you see him, Will?" Mike's voice, while steady, held a panicked undertone.

"Not here. In my now-memories."

"In your what?" Bob craned his neck to see the three boys in the backseat.

"Just turn right!" Will ignored his question, brown eyes wide in fear. Joyce suddenly turned the car right, causing Mike and Scotty to crash into each other.

"Oomph!" Mike let out, his hand falling to Scotty's knee to steady himself. Ashamedly, Scotty let himself revel in the feeling for a moment. Though, that's all it was, and just as soon as it had happened, it was over. Mike quickly pulled his hand away, moving it to his lap.

"Are you guys okay?" Joyce asked, turning around in her seat to face them.

"Superspy!"

"We're okay." Scotty answered her, wiping his sweaty hands on his jeans. "

"Joyce?" Joyce turned her head from the boys to look at Jim, eyes following his gaze. "What's Jim doing here?"

"Guys," Joyce quickly looked at them as she unbuckled her seatbelt, "Stay here. I need you to stay here."

"No! Mom! No. Don't leave! Don't leave! It's dangerous." Will begged, tears pricking at his eyes. "Mom. Mom! It's not safe!"

"That's why I need you to stay here. Stay. Here!" She punctuated his words with a slam of the door.

Scotty popped his knuckles, tilting his head to the side. Mike noticed this, searching Scotty's face for a sign that he was okay. Scotty smiled tightly, trying to keep his worries off of him.

Tension-filled silence settled in the car, a sense of overwhelming fear washed over Scotty.

He hated it. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and his blood ran cold. Scotty could feel everything and nothing all at once.

His lungs constricted and his heart hammered against his ribcage, begging to be freed.

"We need to go." Mike finally said, breaking the silence as he unbuckled his belt. Scotty followed suit, reaching over to help Will unbuckle his seatbelt.

Scotty gulped, tilting his head to the side and popping his knuckles again as he stood at the edge of a drop off. "Holy shit!"

"Do you see anything?" Mike directed his attention to Will, "I mean.. in your now memories?"

Grey, ash-like particles floated around the dark tunnel. Particles that could be from no other place than the Upside Down.

Will paused, furrowing his eyebrows as if he was thinking, before slowly shaking his head. Before anything could be said, men and women in hazmat suits pushed through the three boys and entered the tunnels.

Scotty's jaw hung open, his surroundings felt like some kind of sci-fi movie that he would watch with his family, or a book he'd read by Stephen King.

"Hey!" Scotty jumped at the sudden booming voice, eyes turning to a man in a suit. "This area is restricted. Go back to your car."

"We're sorry, sir!" Scotty smiled fakely, tossing one arm around Mike and the other around Will. The man sighed, gesturing for them to move past him. Scotty obliged, quickly pulling the two boys by his side with him. He craned his neck to see the man pull out a clipboard and scribble something down. When he looked up, Scotty snapped his head forward and increased their pace.

"What an as-"

Scotty's sentence was cut short as Will groaned in pain, clutching his stomach before falling to the ground.

"Will!" Scotty cried, dropping down next to him. "Will? Hey! Stay with me, stay with me."

"Will!" Mike followed suit, dropping to his knees beside Scotty. "Will, you okay?"

Scotty watched in horror as Will's body seized, eyes rolling to the back of his head. Agonizing wails left his lips. Scotty sat back, eyes widening at his inability to do anything.

Scotty wanted it to stop. He begged the gods above to make it stop.. but when it did stop, and Will's body stilled, Scotty couldn't help but regret asking for that.

~~

Scotty paced back and forth, chewing his lip as he did so. Will laid in a hospital bed, wires and IV lines hooked up to him. Hours had gone past, though it felt like days, with countless tests being performed on Will.

The boy in question sat upright in the bed, emotionless eyes focusing on the doctor and his mom.

"Scotty, you're gonna bruise your lips." Mike whispered, pulling him by his wrist to stop his movements. "And you're freaking Will out."

Scotty couldn't help it. His heart leapt at the soft and caring look Mike gave him as he pulled his hand away from Scotty's wrist.

"So.." The doctor mumbled, looking up from his clipboard, "What's your name?"

"Will."

"Your full name?" He clarified.

"William Byers." Will answered, voice shaky.

Scotty noted that he hadn't blinked once. He wished he hadn't noticed that, because just as he had, Will turned his head to look at him.

His blood ran cold, feeling as if Will was looking directly into him. Into his soul.

"And me?" Just as soon as it had happened, Will's attention was no longer on Scotty and back onto the doctor. "Do you know who I am?"

"You're a doctor."

"Have we met before?"

Something that Scotty couldn't quite pinpoint flashed through Will's eyes. He furrowed his eyebrows before answering, "I don't know."

"You don't remember me? Hm.." The man scribbled down notes on his clipboard, "Okay. What about these guys? Do you know them?"

The doctor gestures towards Scotty and Mike. A flicker of recognition lit up Will's face, he nodded after only a moment. "Those are my friends.. Scotty and Mike."

Scotty shared a look with Mike, warmly smiling at Mike. "You're doing great, Will."

"What about me, kid? You remember me? They tell me you helped save me last night, do you remember that? Do you remember anything about last night?"

"I remember they hurt me." Will's voice was broken. Scotty's eye twitched as he popped his knuckles and tilted his head to the side.

He slowed his breathing, trying to put a lid on the anger threatening to bubble over.

They hurt him. Scotty tried not to think too much about what that could mean.

"You mean the doctors?"

"N-No... No, the soldiers." Will corrected.

"The soldiers hurt you?" Scotty's eyes flickered to the doctor, narrowing as he absentmindedly wrote something down.

"They shouldn't have done that." Will's voice became flat, eyes again growing emotionless. "It upset him."

Scotty glanced at Mike, gulping. He tried to hide the fear he felt.

"You say upset him, is this him?" The doctor asked, shuffling through his papers and pulling out the drawn picture of the mindflayer.

Will's eyes flickered to the picture, narrowing at them. A low groan came from him as he stared blankly ahead.

Scotty inhaled sharply, straightening his back and squaring his shoulders in a weak attempt to appear braver than he felt.

"I want to try something," The doctor said, eyes meeting those of each person in the room. "It'll seem weird at first, but I think it'll help us understand what's going on here."

Joyce reached for Bob's hand, blinking away the tears and nodding. "Okay."

"Hey." The doctor turned his head to Scotty, raising one eyebrow in question. "Don't hurt him."

"Will won't be hurt, I assure you."

~~

a/n: if you haven't picked up on it!! cracking his knuckles and tilting his head to the side is Scotty's nervous tic :)