A/N: I'm one of those Stranger Things fans who believes El has a pure heart. Consider this my tribute to the character.
The Crash
The snow was blinding. Mike knew he should have started the trip back to Hawkins sooner or just waited for the next day. The snow hadn't started till he was almost home, but it came on quickly and he found himself driving slower and slower. He was almost down to a few miles an hour when it happened…
...Mike was cold….he knew he was slowly freezing to death...he opened his eyes...and then closed them again in pain…he heard the voice of an angel…"stay with me...I'm going to get you out"...he heard the screaming of metal being rended, ripped apart with a deafening vibration... he saw the angel, her eyes...the angel was crying…"I've got you," the angel said…"I've got you."...the angel laid her hand on his cheek...it was so warm...
El Hopper was on her way back to visit her dad for the holidays. She had extended vacation time and had decided to take advantage of it. She would be training at the hospital for the next year or so and would have very little time off during that period.
The storm had passed, and El had decided to leave before the sun came up. It was still dark when she started her drive.
Something was wrong. She could see headlights up ahead on the road and they were at completely wrong angles. Shit. A crash. Two cars. You couldn't even call one of the vehicles a car anymore, it was completely unrecognizable as one. El's training kicked in at that point and she was all business.
She assessed the first car, it looked completely undamaged. El poked her head in the car and could smell the alcohol . The driver was done, being drunk hadn't saved him this time. El was not an accident investigator, she was pretty sure they'd come to the same conclusions. As a paramedic she'd seen this before. Happened every year when the holidays were approaching.
The next car was a total write off. It was hard to even tell that the car was upside down it was such a mess. She didn't hold out much hope for the driver. She steeled herself. This was going to be bad.
She looked in the, the guy...ok El thought feeling flushed, ashamed...let's just call him a rock star...he opened his eyes and looked at her, then squeezed them shut in pain. He was still alive!
There was no way she should could wait for emergency services to arrive in time with the jaws of life. She had her radio and would still call it in, but this guy needed to be out of the wreckage now. She told him to hold on, she would get him out. She looked around out of careful habit.
No one would see.
El ripped the entire car in half with the precision of a surgeon. She held his body in place at the same time so he wouldn't suddenly shift. She was desperate to keep him stable in case he had internal injuries, at first look he seemed to be ok on the outside. El put everything she had into it. It only took a few minutes It was loud, she wouldn't have been surprised if they could hear it all the way in town, it sounded like a slow train wreck.
He was free of the car! El was hurting, the strain had brought tears to her eyes, she rushed over to him, avoided moving him. She wanted to let him know he was safe. He opened his eyes, she looked into his, crying. She took off her jacket and covered him up, she touched his cheek. "I've got you." she said, then in triumph, "I've got you."
El followed the ambulance to the hospital. The guy hadn't regained consciousness when loaded into the ambulance, after she identified herself to the EMS team on site, they told her his vitals were good, he wasn't in any immediate danger. They said if she hadn't gotten there when she did, the guy would likely be dead.
El knew she would have to wait while the driver was fully assessed in emergency. She took the time to register with the hospital, she'd done all the leg work the previous week so it went fairly quickly.
The crash happened outside the jurisdiction of Hawkins, so she had to give her statement to a state trooper and not her dad.
"That's a first," the trooper told her, "usually the drunks in the wrecked car don't have a scratch on them, it's the other way around today. Good way to start of the holidays." He wasn't being sarcastic, like El, he saw this every year.
"How fast was that guy going to hit the guy's car so hard it ripped it in half. I can't believe there's not a scratch on him." He was shaking his head.
"You are that guy's guardian angel...you going to be checking in on him?" The trooper knew that first responders tended to check up regularly on the bad ones until they knew for sure. El nodded.
"Yes, I'll be working and training here for the next year or so."
"Ok," the trooper wrote down something in his notebook, ripped off the sheet and handed it to her. "Hawkins is actually my hometown. I know this guy's sister, I'm the guy who has to go tell the family...at least it's good news. Let me know if his condition changes. Anytime."
El read what he wrote: Steve Harrington with a phone number. "I haven't checked his chart yet, what's his name?"
"Mike Wheeler, local kid who made it pretty big as a musician." El smiled to herself. So he was a rock star.
Near the end of her shift, El went to visit Mike Wheeler. There was a red haired woman checking his pupil response.
"Are you his nurse?" El asked
"I'm his doctor...Mayfield...you are?"
"El Hopper," she held out her hand.
"You're the one who saved him from freezing to death out there." Max shook her hand. "Oh and you are the new physio, you switching careers? You showed a lot of skill out there, be tough to lose someone with your talent out in the field."
"Just a bit of a change of pace." She gestured to the room, "not sure I can take the tragedy out there anymore...I want to be part of the healing process, for the people who can at least make it here."
Max gave her a warm smile. "We really do need people like you here."
"Why hasn't he regained consciousness yet? El said.
"This is one of those cases where there is no real reason. Physically there's nothing wrong with him." Max tapped her head, "up here, he's not ready. The family will be here soon, I'll explain to them that he needs regular visits from people who love him and his friends." She looked at El.
"And has the person who saved him, and the last to talk to him, maybe you could make regular appearances? Actually, he will need physio, I can recommend that you for this case?"
El nodded, maybe more enthusiastically then she should have. "This would help me ease into the role, thank you doctor."
"Please, call me Max, we're colleagues, with a common interest," She turned back to Mike Wheeler sleeping peacefully. "Uh, Mike is a friend. I've known him since I was twelve or thirteen. We are short staffed, so I'll to be his doctor. This guy is special, so…" she looked at El, walked over and hugged her. "Thank you."
El was touched, "it's ok Max, I will treat him like he is my friend also."
El went to check on Mike Wheeler.
She saw two women at his bedside. Mother and sister, El thought. She kept a respectful distance.
They looked up at her, puzzled, "Are you one of Mike's doctors?" The younger woman said.
"No, Dr. Mayfield will be his doctor until he fully recovers. I'm his assigned physio therapist, we do that for...these situations." El didn't want to refer to him as a 'case'. "I was also the first responder at the scene."
The mother was holding back tears and came over to hug El, "you saved Michael's life." Mike Wheeler's sister was not quite as stoic and burst out into tears, she came over and hugged El also. "Thank you."
They left soon after, El took the opportunity to check his chart. She heard some movement in the room and saw two young men enter with Max.
"I found these two wandering the halls looking for Mr. Wheeler's room. They are my friends.," Max looked a little flushed, "I'm also a fan of their music."
"This is Lucas Sinclair, he's the drummer. That's Dustin Henderson, the bass player. Mike is the guitar player and lead singer."
"This is the first responder, and will be MIke's physio therapist."
The guys smiled politely and Lucas shook El's hand. Lucas looked back to Max and smiled.
To El's surprise, Dustin gave her a hug, "thank you for saving our best friend."
"I have rounds, if you stay a bit past visiting hours, I won't tell anyone." Max smiled and left.
"When I do his physio, it will help when I talk to him. Can you tell me about him? I can work details into what I say. May help trigger his recovery."
Dustin looked at Lucas and said at the exact same time, "he's the nicest guy you're ever going to meet." Dustin continued, "with the possible exception of me." Lucas rolled his eyes.
El felt funny inside. Warm for sure, she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She liked the feeling.
"That's great, but some hobby details mainly, I don't know much about music. Maybe I can play some of your music, low of course, to him while I work with him."
Dustin and Lucas looked at each other, Dustin reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a cd. "We think alike."
"Does he like to read? I can read one of his favourite books to him." They looked at each other again. Lucas handed over three books he was carrying .
"Are you sure you aren't his girlfriend, and he's been hiding you from us?" El flushed a deep red.
"I'm sure you guys all have plenty of girls hanging around."
Dustin looked embarrassed, "uh, we aren't your typical musicians."
"What is the name of your band"
"The Party." Dustin and Lucas at the same time again.
Dustin and Lucas had followed the hospital visiting hours rules and left with minutes to spare.
El put the cd in a portable player on the nightstand and started Mike's physio.
"Ok, Mike. We are going to go through your workout. I want you to be able to stand with as little help as possible when you wake up. And you will wake up Mike, I want to say hello to the nicest guy I'm ever going to meet." She flushed again, even though she knew he couldn't see her.
El was very professional, with her training reminding her of what needed to be done. It would have been an outrageous lie to say that she wasn't secretly thrilled to be touching Mike Wheeler. What was that about?
It had been a long day, and El knew it would be a long day tomorrow. She made some tea, and decided to read to Mike for a few minutes.
"Mike, I'm going to read to you. I may get some of the voices wrong, but you know what? You can just wake up and correct me ok?" El smiled at Mike, "ok then, we have a deal."
"When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton."
Two words struck El, immediately: eleventy and party.