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Mike's never seen the Sinclair siblings like this before. Quiet. Skittish. Defeated. He's only been gone a week, but to come back and see Lucas a literal shell of himself, and to see Erica unnaturally worried and stressed - opposite of what a girl her young age should be looking like. It sickens Mike immensely. This is his second time visiting Max in her condition.
"Hey." He snaps his attention to Will, who's leaning in close, whispering. "I'll try talking to Lucas, y'know, since I've kind of been in Max's position before. I could try comforting him."
Mike dumbly nods, and quickly switches his brain on to his standard leadership role. "I'll talk to Erica, then. Dustin told me the basketball team really fucked them up."
Will hums his agreeance and that's how the duo set in motion, walking further into a comatose Max's eerily sterile and off-white hospital room, beelining to their chosen Sinclair.
"Erica," Mike says in a soft voice and she peers up at him from her seat. Beside them Will's already murmuring into Lucas's ear. "Wanna grab some snacks with me?"
Mike hopes she gets the hint that he wants to talk to her alone. Give Will and Lucas some privacy while they have a moment somewhere else. Erica's smart and picks up what Mike's not saying aloud.
"Sure." She follows him down the hall to the waiting room where the vending machines are located. Almost like she's been itching to get away from the vortex of despair known as Max's bedside.
He gets it, honestly. The redhead's a constant reminder of their failure. Reminder of how Mike should've been here. Should've led his party to victory once more.
Mike shucks out a few coins, depositing them, and randomly presses buttons. Erica hasn't said a word to him since they left together. She's just gazing far off, on autopilot just like Lucas, but not as pitifully dazed as her brother.
"How have you been?" Instantly Mike grimaces at that generic question slipping from his lips. He's not with a stranger or dealing with his mom. He's with the girl he helped train to ride her bike with Lucas one summer day in their youth.
"How are you feeling?" He asks with more intention and depth.
Erica stares at him, eyes wide and unblinking, and it occurs to Mike that maybe, just maybe, no one has ever asked her that in a long, long time. Dustin was hung up on what happened between Lucas and Jason, guilt eating away at him for not taking the ranger's warning seriously, that the basketball team was a legit threat. Lucas's premonition was right, Jason was a threat, and Max's headphones (the only failsafe of the fractured Hawkins party's plan) got stepped on and doomed her. Lucas is so busy being by the love of his life's side, consumed by grief, that he's blinded to whatever Erica might be internalizing from all this mayhem.
Mike watches her just stare at him, like she's processing and struggling to find the words to properly express herself. He knows the feeling all too well. He was way too young when he first encountered the Upside Down. He'd seen dead bodies and Lovecraftian horrors up close and personal. He kept his nightmares to himself, trying not to be an added burden. In a lot of ways, Mike reckons, he and Erica are the same. Both are clever, opinionated, and unafraid of speaking their mind. So, it's obvious to Mike that there's something off with her because just like him, people believe she's strong and unbreakable, but people like Mike and Erica breakdown the most behind shut doors when no one's watching.
"How are you feeling?" He emphasizes again, paid for snacks forgotten in the vending machine, and Erica schools her face to neutral.
"Fine." She lies. Mike can tell. He'd do the same thing. Has done the same thing. Play it cool so he wouldn't have to answer truthfully.
"Dustin told me about what happened." Mike bluntly starts, bending down and turning away from her to collect the snacks. "I never liked those stupid jocks. They always thought they were better than everybody. Thought they were untouchable."
When he notices that Erica's not going to talk, he keeps going. Content with her just listening to his spiel.
"Those guys... Jason." He strikes a nerve, catching from the corner of his eye Erica's mouth frowning, fists clenching, and breath quickening slightly. "They didn't deserve Lucas."
Mike returns to facing Erica, leveling her with a solid look of reassurance. "Lucas didn't deserve to have a gun pulled on him, especially by a teammate, and Erica, you didn't deserve to get tackled, especially by someone twice your size."
That gets her, hooks her, and her mask falls to a very vulnerable countenance of being seen/heard/understood. The validation that what the Sinclairs went through was horrible and unfair and just plain wrong and shouldn't be ignored.
Mike only knew about the nitty gritty details because of Lucas for Dustin had been vague. Mike had spent a night with Lucas at the hospital, both depressingly listening to the beeping monitors of the machines keeping Max's body alive, when Lucas spoke about how Mike was right - that normal's just a raging psychopath - that he should've went to play in the Hellfire campaign instead of the championship game. Lucas called himself an idiot for ever thinking he'd be accepted by people like Jason.
Jason, who Lucas got to know for a whole year during the practice season. Jason, who Lucas did drills and drank beers with. Jason, who was ready to shoot Lucas like they weren't teammates that tightly hugged when he scored the winning shot for Hawkins a few days prior.
"I feel scared." Erica finally responds to Mike, midnight eyes glimmering with emotion and unshed tears. Her voice was small, shaky and strained.
Yes, Mike contemplates now, that Erica was merely 10 years old when she got into the thick of it a few months ago. She got involved in this mess of a small town's terrorizing hauntings at an even younger age than the party did. She's only 11 now, still younger than a 12 year old Mike who searched for a vanished Will.
If she's anything like Mike, she must be crumbling from within.
"What else?" He probes more and Erica crosses her arms, not in a guarded way, but a self-soothing way. She's hugging herself, it clicks semi-slow in Mike's mind she probably needs a real hug.
"I-I dunno. I just know I feel scared." Erica deeply breathes, shoulders shaking. "I'm scared for my parents, for Lucas and Max, and my friends and... and... " She can't truly finish her sentence. Too overwhelmed.
Mike drops the snacks on the floor and reaches out to her, pulling the smaller girl into a heartening hug. He'd forgotten to give her one the first time he visited Max, preoccupied with comforting Lucas along with Will and El. Better late than never he supposes as Erica clings to him like a drowning person on a wooden raft, desperate to stop sinking into uncharted waters. Mike's glad he stepped in for Lucas. Erica really needs an overdue big brother type of hug and luckily for her, he's available.
She let's go and cries, wetting the front of his jacket, but Mike doesn't care, and rubs her back in a calming gesture. He gets deja vu to when he uncontrollably sobbed in Hopper’s arms. They stay like that for a while until Erica's sniffles cease and her breathing regulates. Mike takes off his jacket so she could clean her face with it. He buys her a Coke, using the chill of the can to cool off her puffy eyes. Then he picks up the snacks off the floor.
"We should head back." Mike tells her and she fixes him with an unreadable stare only he can decipher. "I won't tell Lucas or anyone about this."
It's up in the air, yet heavily implied that Mike wants Erica to rely on him during these times. Since Lucas isn't at his best right now and Dustin's isn't either. Mike's the last resort for her, if she'll allow him to stick around. He doesn't wish for Erica to be as lonely as he was at her age. She's the youngest among them.
"Thanks." She says in a hushed tone and Mike smiles at her.
"Anytime."
They walk back, Erica holding onto a piece of Mike's shirt, and Mike slows down his pace so as not to unintentionally drag the shorter girl. When they return to Max's room, Will and Lucas are firmly hugging too. Erica makes her way over, joining them as she wraps her own arms around Lucas. Mike waits at the door, a bit hesitant, and a look from both Will and Erica urge him to come on. So, Mike does, and the four embrace, all needing this pick-me-up as the unstable future looms dwells ahead.