Here's the epilogue! Sorry it's so short, but I wanted to finish this up quickly so i can get stared on S3! I'll post on this story again when it's up!

and once more, thank you so much for the love and support this all got! i appreciate it soooo much!

She woke up to find Steve Harrington, of all people, hovering over her. He had a hand on her arm and an unsure expression on his face, and Ross immediately felt a blush rise to her own.

They were in the waiting room at the hospital, sitting around in chairs to hear back about the news from Will, who was alive and back in their world.

Why Steve was there, Ross wasn't entirely sure.

"Hey, uh, time to wake up," he told her in a quiet voice as his fingers pressed into her arm gently before moving away.

Last she'd checked, she'd been sitting next to Mrs. Wheeler, and Steve hadn't even been with them. Not that she was complaining, though. It was Steve Harrington, who still managed to be good looking even though it looked like he'd just gotten his ass kicked six different ways.

Why did he look like he'd just gotten his ass kicked six different ways?

"What happened to your face?" she asked without thinking, the heat in her face only growing warmer. She was so stupid. Why did she ask that?

He looked around awkwardly, and she caught his gaze flicker to Nancy (seriously, when did she get here?) before settling back in her. He looked a bit embarrassed as his scratched the back of his head. He never got to answer, though, because a second later Mike had appeared at her side.

"Will's up, come on!" He grabbed her by the arm and all but dragged her out of her chair and through the door that was just on her left. She stumbled a bit, still trying to push away the drowsiness as what Mike said sunk in.

Dustin and Lucas were directly behind them, thundering through the halls towards Will's room, after a swift point in it's direction by one of the nurse's who knew where they were headed.

They practically burst into his room like a stampede, throwing the door open. Joyce sat on the edge of the hospital bed, turning to then with a smile.

And then there was Will.

Smiling at them like they'd just promised him all of the X-Men comics in the world.

The stop that they made upon entering was shattered as Lucas yelled out, "Byers!"

They all ambushed the bed as Joyce quickly moved out of the way, piling on top of one another to give Will a hug.

"Be careful," Joyce said with a laugh, unable to keep the smile off her face. "Be careful with him!"

Mike and Ross latched onto him first, and they weren't even given enough time for Will to hug them back before Dustin was pulling them out of the way with a loud, "Move!"

"Guys, guys," Jonathan laughed from the doorway (Ross wasn't sure when he'd arrived either). "Go easy on him."

Dustin and Lucas stepped back after giving Will a quick hug, and they immediately launched into story time.

"You won't believe what happened when you were gone, man!" Lucas exclaimed, and Ross couldn't help but laugh.

She couldn't stop smiling, even if she tried. It felt like she was smiling properly for the first time in forever.

"It was mental!" Dustin added with excitement.

"You had a funeral."

"Jennifer Hayes was crying!"

"And Troy peedhimself!"

"What?!" Will asked.

"In front of the whole school!"

"Yeah!"

"Don't worry," Ross cut in, "I missed that part, too."

Will started to laugh, but it was cut off by a sudden harsh coughing fit. That was all it took to wipe the smile from their faces. It hit her how sick he really looked. He was insanely pale, so white that his veins were kind of visible and the purple bags under his eyes were stark in contrast. He looked like he'd lost more weight than was healthy. He looked so fragile.

After a moment, when his coughing subsided, Mike reached out to tap his arm.

"You okay?"

"It got me," he told them soberly. "The Demogorgon."

Ross squeezed her eyes shut for a second, trying to rid the images from her head. That thing and Eleven. The classroom.

"We know," Mike said quietly. "It's okay. It's dead. We made a new friend. She stopped it. She saved us. But...she's gone, now."

"Her name is Eleven," Dustin picked up.

"Like the number?"

"We called her El for short," Lucas explained.

As the boys continued to talk, Ross moved around the bed and sat on the other side of Will, grabbing his hand in hers as she laid down beside him. She was still really tired.

"She was basically a wizard," Dustin said.

"She had super powers."

"She was more like Yoda."

"She flopped a van with her mind, and these agents were trying to shoot us—"

"Yeah, it flipped over us—"

Ross closed her eyes, fully intending to fall asleep right there and let the boys explain the story. She was still trying to forget some of it, anyway. For not she was perfectly content, laying next to Will and listening to the boys blabber on about everything he'd missed out on.

Because, finally, they were all together again.

All but one.