Chapter Text
“You need to keep your arm elevated!” Vickie adjusted Mike's arm to be resting in the seat belt sling for the umpteenth time.
Everyone was getting restless and hungry, so Robin made a point to find a gas station. They somehow found themselves in a rural area with no surrounding rest stops, so without a map it was proving difficult to find somewhere to stop. So far, Mike was doing okay aside from his habit of ignoring Vickie's instructions. It was getting frustrating reminding him over and over again to stay hydrated and keep his injured arm steady and elevated.
“Can we stop somewhere?” He grumbled.
“That is what I'm trying to do.”
Robin whooped in celebration when they actually reached a real town. A small gas station appeared around the corner, which they swiftly pulled into. The car didn't need gas, but Vickie thought it would be a good idea to fill the tank because the last thing she wanted was to be stranded on their impulsive road trip.
Not only did Vickie not have regular clothing for the day, she had very little money with her. Hidden in the glove box, Vickie found thirty dollars. She cursed herself for spending some of her emergency money on an impulsive dinner with a few of her friends from high school. She did not know where they were going or how much it would cost.
“How are you feeling?” Vickie asked, opening the car door to talk to Mike. Her voice was much softer and more relaxed than it had been in the past few hours, returning to the way she usually spoke to patients. Robin lingered behind the car, waiting quietly to either go inside with Vickie or stay with Mike.
“I'm fine.” He shrugged, “Fine as I can be.”
“Do you want to come in? Stretch your legs a little bit, use the bathroom, get some food?”
After Vickie paid for the gas, she would have twenty-eight dollars. That was the price of most motel rooms she had stayed at in the past, which meant that buying anything at the station was a gamble of whether they would be sleeping or not. But they needed a map and food.
“I'm going to buy a map and pay for the gas, please be responsible and pick out something we can get nutrition from.” Vickie pointed down the aisle of snacks.
“Can I go to the bathroom or do I need special direction for that too,” Mike rolled his eyes.
The question was meant to be sarcastic, but Vickie took far too long to respond, contemplating a reasonable answer. Robin could keep watch of Mike in the gas station to make sure he couldn't hurt himself; the only place Robin couldn't go was the men's restroom.
When she looked up again he was still waiting for an answer with his eyebrows raised.
“Uh, yeah, just don't take too long,” she answered, tentatively turning back to the counter.
Vickie kept her peripheral vision trained on Mike as he dodged to the back of the store where the restrooms were.
“He's going to be okay in there” Robin stepped up next to Vickie and plopped three bottles of juice, a bag of chips and a package of thin-sliced deli meat. “What do you think of this? I tried to find some sort of protein that will last us a while but this meal doesn't look too great and I don't know how much money we can waste. Especially if it's going to go bad–”
“It's fine.” Vickie was already counting out cash and handing it over to the cashier as he added up the prices.
“Have a nice day.” He handed the bag over with a short wave, probably thankful the interaction was over.
With the food collected and another six dollars down the train drain, Vickie and Robin drifted towards the bathrooms to wait for Mike. The longer he took, the more Vickie's insides tangled themselves in knots. She crossed her arms over her chest, reflecting the tightness inside her, and twiddling her fingers.
“Should I ask an employee to check on him?” Vickie asked nervously.
“I don't know what happened but I'm sure he is able to use the bathroom,” Robin replied.
She was meant to explain at the hospital what happened with Mike. Robin still didn't know why they were running away, yet she was following them.
Just as she was about to ask someone to check in, Mike walked out of the bathroom.
They got back in the car, Mike sitting in the backseat and Robin sitting behind the wheel. Because Mike seemed to be doing better, Vickie thought it would be okay for him to sit alone in the back. She suggested that she drive and Robin read the map. After double checking that Mike was okay, Robin crawled into the passenger seat and Vickie slipped into the driver seat.
Robin spread the map out in front of her, first locating where they were, then asking, “where exactly are we going? We should probably figure that out now so we don't accidently drive ten hours in the wrong direction.”
“We need to get to wherever the runaways went,” Vickie responded with their end goal.
“But where is that?” Robin asked Mike.
“I don't know.”
“While we're still at the gas station we can call them and ask,” Vickie suggested. “What's the number, Mike?”
Under their gazes he resembled a scared puppy in a thunderstorm. “I don't know,” he stuttered, “they didn't tell me…I didn't ask.”
“Why not?” Robin grew almost defensive, and Vickie didn't want to put more pressure on Mike so she tried to reiterate her question in a gentler tone.
“It just never came up.”
“We can call your house and see if anyone else might.”
At the same time Vickie and Mike yelled, “No!”
Robin looked appalled at their dramatic response. “Okay, okay, I get it. So I guess we can't go to the planned safe haven. What now.”
An idea crept into Vickie's mind that made her want to jump out of the car. They were at the border of Illinois, which meant Vickie's brother lived about two hours away from where they sat. Brian never told Vickie she couldn't visit him, he even prompted her to take a ride down and visit when he first moved. Brian grew more and more distant and stopped reaching out for a while, and Vickie's parents did the same. The last time they tried to reach out, Brian seemed lost. He was planning on dropping out of college, had little friends, and was completely out of his mind. The way he acted was so similar to the way Robin sounded when she was hiding the end-of-the-world stuff from Vickie, it was terrifying. What if he was still like that, or worse?
There was only one way to tell.
“My brother lives up here,” Vickie pointed to the county on the map where Brian lived.
“That works! We have a plan,” Robin cheered.
They located a motel along the road that they could stop at for the night. The day was eventful enough and no one was eager to drive through nightfall, even if it was possible to reach their destination overnight. There were two major possibilities that could wreck their plan that Vickie didn't like considering. With only twenty dollars and a stolen military jacket to their names, it was very possible the motel could turn them away.
The sun sunk beneath the trees much faster than it had in the days prior, leaving them to navigate the isolated road in the dark. Robin was squinting to see the map in front of her, and Vickie's eyes were starting to droop. A few times she almost missed where to turn, whether that be from Robin's delayed instructions or her own error.
Eventually the lighted sign came into view, displaying the name of the small motel. The car squeaked as she turned into the small lot on the roadside, and they filled the night with the sounds of the car door opening and their shoes on the pavement.
“Please don't turn us away,” Vickie pleaded under her breath as she tucked their last bit of money in her pocket.
Robin got the door and Vickie helped undo Mike's arm from the seatbelt sling. He was eager to do it himself and quickly assisted in getting himself out of the car. Vickie could see in his eyes how his vision swung when he stood up.
Quietly, they shuffled inside and met the desk clerk. He helped them with registration, which Vickie filled out, only changing a few details that wouldn't be noticable…
A race of electricity shot down from Vickie's neck to her stomach as she handed over the last of the money they had, but there was nothing she could do except breathe and tell herself it was worth it.
They were led to a room containing no more than two beds and a secluded bathroom. Vickie drifted into the bathroom and mindlessly dropped her nurse's cap and the room key on the sink counter. A mirror above the sink met her, reflecting her weary face and a sliver of the people behind her. They all looked stupid at best. Robin's outfit was barely presentable, and her bright eyes appeared gray and dull. Mike was even worse, his bandage and bloody clothing still visible, though covered by a jacket much too expensive for the status of their group, and his eyes were numb despite his eyebrows being curled in agitation. Finally, Vickie observed herself. She still wore her striped uniform, but the tidy dress was wrinkled from head to toe, and Mike's blood spotted her side and skirt. Her sweater was bundled over her as if it would hide the way she felt, but it was failing miserably. Her worry and insecurity, muddled by exhaustion were etched into every wrinkle on her face.
For the past week, Vickie had not had a moment to let her guard down, and she was scared that she was about to break in front of Mike and Robin. Even worse, she was scared she would break because of them and then they would see what she was really like. Maybe she already had and that was why Mike wouldn't let her help him. Then again, Vickie wasn't the reason Mike broke, so she couldn't be any worse support than he already had, right? She was okay. Everything was okay.
Since she didn't have a toothbrush, Vickie finished by swirling some water around her mouth and spitting it down the drain, then settling on one of the beds.
Robin was already sprawled out on the mattress so Vickie smoothed her foot out of the way before sitting.
“Mike's sleeping,” she mumbled with her face pressed into the pillow.
“Are you?”
“No.” Robin flipped herself over and flopped on her back.
A lamp on the nightstand flickered softly in between the beds, but didn't stir Mike. He was lying on top of the sheets on the other bed, in the same clothes he had been wearing all day. He had not bothered to adjust the bed at all before throwing himself into sleep.
“You know,” Robin sighed, her eyes rolling to the ceiling in thought. “I never thought I'd say this, but I'm kind of wishing I was in Hawkins.”
Vickie did not respond, she wasn't sure how. She was so scared of leaving her parents and her life, but she ran without a second thought after seeing what happened with Mike, who she didn't even know. Maybe she wasn't as attached to it as she thought.
“I used to want to run away.”
When Vickie still didn't respond, Robin snapped up to a sitting position.
“You still never told me what happened. Why are we here anyway?”
That got Vickie to look Robin in the eye. Her eyes were understanding but curious. Vickie needed to tell her what was going on, but she didn't want to wake Mike, so to be extra sure he wouldn't wake up, she turned the lamp all the way off.
“He…I looked through his stuff,” she admitted, figuring it was best to start at the beginning of the story. “I found a draft of a letter. It wasn't for me, it was to Max. He said some stuff about El and how he isn't sure there is anything more he wants to live for. I think he blames himself. I was supposed to take care of him but he makes it so hard.” She didn't notice her lip start to quiver. “I failed. I think he got in a fight or something with one of the soldiers. I found her on the verge of death when I was looking for Mike. Then I…he was in an alley with a knife and I think he…”
“Oh.”
Tears fell freely from Vickie, and she worried she was being too loud as she hiccuped and gasped for air. Robin wrapped an arm around her shoulders and Vickie collapsed into her shoulder. The crying slowly turned into a twisted kind of laughter from her throat, which she despised herself for but the situation was too ridiculous not to laugh at. Vickie broke the law multiple times for a depressed kid she only knew because otherwise the world would have ended at the hands of a mind-controlling supervision. It was pure insanity.
“Are you feeling any better?” Robin asked.
Vickie lifted her head from her shoulder and replied with a broken laugh, “No!”
She needed to pull herself together. Snot and tears were mixing on her cheeks that she was choking on because of her hysterical sobbing and laughter combined.
When they finally settled down, Vickie suggested they get some sleep because the following day would be big.
“You're nervous, aren't you?” Robin asked, picking up on the way Vickie picked at her nails as she said it.
She nodded slightly in reply. It should have been the least of her concerns, but something about visiting her brother unannounced after years of silence was nerve wrecking.
“You got this,” Robin tried to sound encouraging as she threw her socks across the room. They landed somewhere beneath the bed with a soft “thud”.
“I'm still dressed in this stupid outfit,” Vickie complained. “Falling asleep in this will be a nightmare of its own.”
“I'm yet to see you in just that hat.”
She smothered a laugh. “You're crazy.”
The only solution Vickie could think of to get her hands on different clothing was to ask other guests if they had anything she could borrow. She crept down the hallway, knocking on doors and receiving no responses. On her fourth attempt, someone finally answered.
“May I help you?” A groggy woman a few years older than them answered.
“I lost all of my clothing, I think someone stole it, I was hoping someone might have something I could borrow?” She stammered out a story.
Relieved that Vickie wasn't some creep, the woman sighed and said she would retrieve something for her to wear. A minute later she returned to the door holding a striped sweater and a flowy pair of pink and orange pants. It wasn't her personal style but it would work for the time being.
“Thank you so much,” she felt like she couldn't express enough gratitude to the stranger who so generously helped her.
“My pleasure,” the woman closed the door.
With her new clothing in hand, Vickie returned to her room and changed. The waistband of the pants was too tight and pressed into her stomach, but that was fine because they weren’t her usual size and soon she would be able to fit.
By the time she got back, Robin seemed to be sleeping so Vickie curled beside her and tried to fall asleep herself.
All she could concentrate on was the constant tossing and turning from the other bed throughout the night.
The following morning, they were pleased to find that the motel offered a free breakfast. They each took a small cup of cereal and coffee back to the room to eat before they started driving again.
While they ate, Vickie swirled her spoon around in the cup, never bringing it to her mouth. She was lost in thought again about her family and the last time she saw Brian.
Finished with breakfast already, Robin tossed her cup in the basket and said, “you okay. You haven’t eaten anything in days.”
That was an exaggeration. Vickie ate. Her accusation still shocked Vickie that she might have noticed. There was no reason for her to be caught up on that sentence though, since it was an exaggeration.
“I eat.”
“Okay, I get it, lunch yesterday was nasty. But we didn't have dinner either. You gotta eat before we start out.”
It wasn’t that much…but it also wouldn’t be long until they reached safety with her brother and she would return to her regular habits.