Winter fluttered her eyes open from an endless sleep. She noticed the sun beaming into the hospital room and the clock above the whiteboard across from her bed on the wall reading 11:06AM.

The whiteboard had writing on it in big letters:

'Good Morning, Winter.

Today is Monday June 9, 1997.

You've been here for 12 days.

Doctor: Dr. Martin

Nurses: Patricia & Connie'

Winter blinked at the dates on the whiteboard. She couldn't believe she had been admitted for 12 days.

She glimpsed around her room and noticed there were lots of flowers, a couple of big teddy bears and cards on her end table.

She picked up a card that was bought from the store. She opened the card with the pictures of flowers on the front, and read:

'Get Well Soon!

The school is not the same without your positive energy in it!

Your friend,

Will Hopper'

She smiled before putting it back.

She looked at a small card on one of the teddy bears that was holding roses in its arms. The bear was pink with black hearts all over it.

She picked up the card:

'Winter,

You're on my mind every moment of everyday. I hope this makes you smile the moment you wake up. I can't wait to see you.

Love you forever and ever.

- Henry'

She hugged the bear tightly to her, smiling that Henry went to the hospital gift shop and got her the bear. She put the bear in her lap and went onto the next card.

She picked up the most creative card with a drawing of, what she guessed was her, singing into a microphone looking like a rockstar on a piece of paper that was folded up like a card. She smiled as it looked like a child drew it with crayons, but she knew it was probably Richie's drawing skills.

The card read on the inside:

'Feel better soon, Rockstar!

We miss you!

The gang is not the same without you rolling your eyes at our conversations!

Get healthy soon so we can bug you some more :)

Your best friends,

Richie, Billy, Stan, Eddie & Bev xoxoxo!

P.S. Dr. Teddy Bear is from all of us!'

Winter smiled at the card and grabbed the teddy bear that was dressed as a doctor to keep in her bed beside her.

It was the first time that she woke up without any shaking, headache, throwing up, hallucinations, or chills. She felt like her lungs were the size of watermelons but she felt decent otherwise, and there was still some coughing, but it was an improvement from before.

Winter took off the mechanical ventilator from around her mouth. She remembered she had been sleeping with it, and then whenever she was awake, the nurses would hook up the nasal cannula up her nose, which was uncomfortable but at least it helped her breathe without the need to keep the mask on.

She slowly turned her body into a sitting position and placed her feet on the floor. Slowly, she stood up. It was the first time in almost two weeks that she was able to stand on her own. She looked over to her left hand and noticed the IV attached to her hand.

'I guess this is coming with me to the washroom...'she thought as she grabbed onto the pole and slowly walked over to her washroom, which was the first time in twelve days that she went to the washroom by herself.

Even the few steps to the washroom in the room was exhausting and made her out of breath. It was still hard to breathe on her own.

She quickly looked at her face in the mirror and noticed that her skin was extremely pale and her face looked tired and sick. Her face looked smaller too, but it was only logical that she lost weight while only being fed liquids through an IV.

"Jesus..." she said softly and raspy as she put her hand to her cheek.

She noticed her bandaged up palm. She looked at it and remembered the face of Ace Merrill. The flashback of him in the sewers made a jolt of anxiety go through her. She closed her eyes tight and reminded herself that she wasn't in the sewers anymore, that she was safe.

That's when she was reminded of the claw wounds on her stomach. She lifted her hospital gown and saw a bandage that covered almost her whole stomach. She recalled that the wound went from her side just underneath her ribcage down to the other side of her lower stomach, below her belly button. She let her fingers glide to where she remembered the clown clawed her with It's huge bear-like claws that appeared out of It's hand from out of nowhere.

Then her attention went to her forearm where there was a bandage there as well. She remembered Lily holding onto her arm for her life, and then once she slid into the clown's grip, her nails pierced threw her skin all the way down to her wrist.

Winter teared up at the memory of Lily. All the sleep, days passed by, and the medications she was on made the memories feel like a dream. Even looking at herself in the mirror, she still felt disorientated and in a dream-state, but it was all because of the medications. This was definitely reality.

She shook the memories off to concentrate on what she wanted to do. It had been so long since she had brushed her teeth, and she was so happy to see her toothbrush and toothpaste on the sink counter.

'Thank you mom and dad!'she was so grateful that they brought those.

After she brushed her teeth and felt the amazing feeling of a clean mouth, she slowly walked with her IV pole back to her bed. She placed the pole to the side and climbed back under the covers. She put the ventilator back around her mouth since the small walk had really taken her breath away.

As she sat up in bed, allowing the ventilator to do its job, her hospital door opened.

A doctor walked in with a small smile on his face to see Winter sitting up in her bed and looking like she was coming back to reality.

"Good morning, Winter," he said cheerfully. "Were you able to get to the washroom on your own?"

She removed the ventilator to talk, "Yeah..." she could hear the raspiness in her voice. It sounded like when she was eight years old and just had her tonsils taken out, "I went to brush my teeth."

'Oh God, I sound horrible."

He smiled at the news, "Well, it looks like your fever is finally gone, and you're looking much better. The blue color has left your lips as well. You had us worried for a few days, but you ended up sleeping the fever away."

"Am I able to go home?" she asked weakly before taking a few more breaths from the machine.

"No, not yet. We won't be sending you home until you're able to eat and the infection and Pneumonia is completely out of your system." He sighed happily, "You've come along way since a few days ago, so that's celebratory. On another bright note, you're not contagious anymore, so you can have visitors if that's okay with you."

'Henry! I need to see Henry!'

Winer nodded, "Yeah, I'd really like to see my boyfriend, parents and my friends."

"Henry will be happy to hear that. He's been camping out in the hallway since you got here. He has only left a few times to shower and grab some food."

Winter's eyes went wide, "He's been here for twelve days?" She took another breath form the machine.

The doctor laughed lightly, "Yep! Everyday, three times a day, he would come up to me and ask if he could see you yet. He'll be really happy to see you."

Winter pursed her lips tightly together to hold back her tears. She wanted to see Henry more than anything.

The doctor first had to put the nasal cannula back into her nose as he did every morning when she was awake and put the ventilator aside so she could be more comfortable during her awake hours. The nasal cannula felt very weird when he put the tubes through her nostrils. At least she wouldn't need the ventilator.

When he finished, he walked over to the door; "I'll go get Henry."

Winter sat up more comfortably in her bed as she waited for Henry to enter her room. It had been over two weeks since she had seen him. She couldn't wait to hold him.

After a minute, Henry walked quickly into the room and looked over at her with very baggy eyes, yet relieved eyes.

"Oh, my God! Winter!" he rushed over to the other side of her, away from the IV tubes and pulled her into a big hug as he sat beside her on the bed. He held her tight, but his grip was loose enough in fears that he could break her fragile body.

Winter began to cry as she looked at his face. He looked like he had gone through an emotional turmoil the past few weeks. His messy brown hair and piercing eyes made all the butterflies in her stomach come back and she could feel all her love she had for him filling up her heart.

"Are you okay?" He began to cry as he cupped both of his hands on her small cheek and wiped away all the tears falling down her cheeks.

She nodded in response as she took in every detail of his face. His sadness made her tear up more.

He kissed her lips and kissed her forehead a few times before pulling her back into a hug and nuzzling his crying face in the crock of her neck.

"I'm sorry, baby..." he cried into her neck, "I'm so sorry."

Winter put her hand that was connected to her IV through his hair and stroked his head as she nuzzled her face to the side of his head, "It's not your fault, Henry," she cried, her voice very raspy from the tears.

"I'm suppose to protect you, and I didn't..." he cried more, "I should have just walked you home. If I walked you home, this wouldn't have happened. If anyone or anything wanted to hurt you, it would have gone threw me first, and I would have died making sure you were safe."

"You didn't know, baby. I didn't think this would have happened either when I was leaving your house..." she whimpered. She put her hands on his cheeks and lifted his face to look at hers and wiped away his tears, "None of this is your fault. You're still my protector."

Henry tried to hold back his tears, but it was too hard for him. He placed his forehead on hers as the tears fell from his eyes onto the bed, "I still hate myself for it."

"Don't..." Winter said softly, "The doctor told me you haven't left the hospital and you've been in the hallway waiting to see me for twelve days..." She teared up as she looked into his eyes, "That's the person I want to spend the rest of my life with."

He looked up to her eyes as she stared back with their foreheads together. He continued to wipe her eyes with his thumb, "I'll do anything to keep you safe, Winter. I won't ever let this happen again." He inhaled deeply and then said, "What would I do in a world without you? This has been the hardest two weeks of my life..." He hesitated, but went on, "I can't even imagine what you had gone through."

Winter pursed her lips together and looked down at the bed, breaking their gaze at each other before looking back into his eyes, "I don't think anyone would be able to imagine what I went through, Henry. I still can't believe it."

The image of Georgie dying in her arms flashed in her mind, and she recalled the feeling that came over her when she realized that she couldn't save him. She looked down again and put her hand to her face as she struggled to cry from her swollen lungs.

Henry placed his hand at the back of her head and pressed his lips against her forehead to comfort her. He wiped the new tears away from her cheeks and from underneath her eyes once she removed her hand away from her face.

"You don't need to talk about it yet if you don't want to..." Henry kissed her forehead again as he stroked her cheek. "I know whoever did all this to you hurt you, but I need to know..." He hesitated, "Did he hurt you other ways, like other than the cuts and wounds? Did he force you to do anything sexually?"

Winter thought about the dream or hallucination - whatever it was - of Ace having sex with her in the sewers as she was in the hospital room. She knew it wasn't real though. It was the trauma and fear from being stuck in the sewers that created the dream/hallucination in her mind.

Henry continued to speak before she could answer him, "Cause I'm already going to kill him for everything he's done to you, but if he touched you sexually in anyway, I'm going to make sure the piece of shit suffers when I find him."

Winter shook her head as she looked at his stressed expression, "No, nothing like that happened."

Henry's face showed a little bit of relief although the sadness was still present in his expression.

Winter couldn't help but notice how Henry had no idea what type of being she dealt with during the days she was in the sewers. He kept calling It 'him'. How could she explain without sounding crazy that the thing living in the sewers is not a 'him', 'her',or 'they', that it was an 'It'.

"I don't think you should go out looking for..." she struggled to even say it, "For It..."

Henry looked at her confused, "What do you mean by 'It'? Like, an animal?"

Winter pursed her lips together again as she began to tear up, "I'm not ready yet, Henry. I'll tell you about everything soon, but I'm scared you'll think I'm crazy."

Henry shook his head, looking at her reassuringly and lovingly with his sad eyes, "That's impossible. I've seen some weird things, too, since you've been gone. There's nothing you can tell me that I wouldn't believe. And when you're ready, you can tell me. Only when you're ready."

Winter inhaled small breaths, the crying making it harder for her to breathe but the nasal cannula was helping, "I want to tell you everything, Henry."

"And I'll be here to listen when you do..." Henry grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles as he looked into her eyes, "I'm not leaving your side while you're here. Now that you're not contagious anymore, I'm going to sleep in here with you, too, to make sure you're safe. And if you're sleeping and start panicking over a nightmare, I'm going to wake you up and hold you as you cry until you can fall back to sleep in my arms."

Winter kissed his lips softly and looked into his eyes, "I love you so much."

"You have no idea how much I love you, Winter. I can't live in a world without you in it with me. I will do anything to keep you safe and to make you feel safe."

As the day went on, more visitors arrived.