A/N: Happy Birthday to reader Starla Marie Locke. Chapter is for you :)


Day 47

On Christmas Eve Day, a storm blew into Hawkins. It was even worse than the storm that El just missed on her trip here. The one that Mike had almost died in. This one promised to go on for a day or so.

El did not have a regular shift. She came to the hospital to do Mike's physio . She planned to spend it with Mike so he wouldn't be alone on Christmas Eve. Ordinarily she'd spend it with her dad, Hawkins police station was short staffed and he was going to fill in especially knowing the storm would be bad. He told her to call him if there were anything he could help with.

She made a quick visit during the day, and saw Max their examining to sheets of paper containing graph lines.

"What's going on Max," El said a little bit worried about the graphs Max was looking at.

"I'm comparing Mike's EEG from this morning, with the baseline we took when he was first brought in.

"Everything ok," El was now more than a little worried.

"You're familiar with brainwaves from your training. Take a look at this. What does this graph tell you?" She showed El one of the printouts.

"That's usually a sleeping pattern. That's Mike's?"

"Yes, it looks like he's sleeping at night, the same as he was when he was first brought in. That's good news. But look at this one, what's this telling you."

El wasn't an expert, like Max was but she knew what Max was referring to, "that's brain activity." El's eyes widened, "Mike's."

"Yes, look at the times…."

El squinted...then her eyes got really wide, "that's when I do his physio and read to him afterwards."

"I know, he's responding to your voice...he's in there El. This is really good news."

El put her face in her hands and cried quietly.

"You're staying with him tonight? Max already knew the answer to that.

El nodded, "I don't want him to be alone, not on-" Suddenly the lights went out.

Emergency lights flickered on. Monitors on battery power started beeping as they switched over from generators.

"Generators will last a while, this storm is just starting. I think we are going to be without power for the night. It's going to get busy for me, I have to go. You'll be ok with Mike?"

El nodded, "I'll watch over him. Keep him company."

She had brought a book of her own, she was going to read after reading to Mike, but with the power outage she knew she would just be talking to him instead.

In the middle of her workout with Mike, the hospital generators finally shut down, and the emergency lights had flickered on. El continued, she could do this with her eyes closed by now anyway.

It got dark, not so dark El couldn't see to make her way around the room. The brightness of the snow kept a natural glow coming through the window.

"Ok, Mike. Power is out. If you happened to notice it going dark, or how it got very quiet in your room, that's the reason."

"It's also too dark for me to read to you. Sorry Mike. We'll just have to entertain each other with conversation...although I have to say, I don't think you're holding up your end."

"I was out with The Party, last week, and Max told the story about you fixing Holly's bike," El stopped and compose herself. She had to change the subject.

"She also said, much to Lucas and Dustin's embarrassment I'm sure, that you guys never had girlfriends." El felt sorry for Mike. How was it he never had a girlfriend? Were they blind? Or did they never take the opportunity talk to him and maybe get to know him? She only knew him through stories The Party had told. There were so many it was getting hard to listen to them without her heart aching too much. After last week El was pretty sure they would not be telling her any more stories. They could see she was hurting.

El went to stand by the window to look outside at the snow covered landscape. The wind was really howling out there. It sounded cold. El hated being cold.

"There's definitely going to be snow for Christmas." As she said that she noticed her breath. It was getting cold in the room. El really hated the cold. She went to Mike's bed, and checked to make sure he had enough blankets..

When she got closer to the bed, she noticed that Mike seemed to be vibrating...he was shivering.

El recognized the signs right away, he had no way of keeping his body temperature up. He wasn't getting enough sustenance from the fluids to allow his body to naturally increase its internal temperature.

There was an age old remedy for that. She went around to the left side of his bed, and crawled underneath the covers with him. She wrapped her arms around him, and drew her leg over his middle to get as much of her body in contact with Mike as possible.

She tilted her forehead to touch Mike, her mouth almost touching his ear. She whispered to him. "I've got you Mike, you'll warm up in a few minutes. You'll be able to sleep."

In a few minutes, his shivering subsided and El breathed a sigh of relief. She would would have to sleep with Mike.

El smiled and flushed, thinking about it. This was not really how she'd expected to spend her first night with a guy. No, this would easily be more special than any first night would usually go…

"I've never been this close to a guy before, MIke. My dad doesn't count. If this is too embarrassing for you to hear, wake up and tell me to stop."

She told Mike that she'd never kissed a guy before, never even held hands. Her hair had taken her entire high school life to grow even a little bit. It wasn't all that long now just a few inches past her ears. Her dad told her not to worry, she was pretty, even when she had really short hair. She knew no guy could get past it. They were mostly interested in blondes with long hair, and she had neither.

She told Mike that she once had a crush on a guy near the end of high school. A few girls had let her know that this guy seemed nice on the outside but he was really only interested in another notch on his belt. It seemed like all guys were like that. So she didn't bother looking their way anymore. And no guys looked her way either.

"Max is right, Mike, you aren't going to know any of this when you wake up. I guess that's why it's easy to tell you all the personal bits of my life. Maybe someday if we are ever friends I can retell all this, without the really personal stuff though. That was only for you...sleeping.. It feels good just to say it out loud. You aren't going to know me." The thought made El feel sadder than she'd felt in a long time.

Mike would not know her. Worse though, El was sure Mike would never love her, there was absolutely no reason he should. No amount of longing, or wishing on her part would change that. This was stupid, she thought to herself. I'm just setting myself up for a bad heartbreak.

I should get reassigned. Max would do make the change if El insisted.

But tonight Mike needed her. He physically needed her body warmth, so for Christmas Eve at least, El would stay with him to keep him warm.

Neither one of them wouldn't be alone. Not tonight.

"Merry Christmas, Mike. I love you." She sighed and fell asleep on his shoulder.


When Max showed up Christmas morning to Mike's room, the power had come back on. She saw El draped over MIke, under the blankets keeping him warm. It was cold. It would be a few minutes before room came back up to a reasonable temperature.

El stirred, woke up a little disoriented, and when she saw Max she quickly disentangled herself from Mike and the blankets and stood up, smoothing out her hospital smock. She cleared her throat, "sorry Max, I-"

Max cut her off, "were keeping him warm, and he wasn't alone. It's ok El. I know you are a complete professional. I know you have a personal interest in this."

"About that.. " El said taking a deep breath.

Max cut her off again with a sharp look, "don't you give up on him, El. Don't. I need you to be there for him. Mike needs you to be there for him. Promise me El..."

El looked into Max's eyes, back at Mike then nodded slowly. "I promise."