Tuesday June 10, 1997

After a lot of convincing from Officer Jim Hopper and Henry's dad, the hospital allowed Henry to sleep with Winter in her hospital room, which was something the hospital didn't usually allow. Having Derry's number one officer on Henry's side, it did make the difference.

It was the first night in a long time that Henry slept peacefully without much worry, guilt or fear. Winter was his anecdote to his fears, but the irony was his worst fear was losing her, but with her by his side, he was at peace.

The day before when Winter woke up feeling better, she had a visit from her mom and dad who flown from out-of-state and out-of-country from work right before she was found. Her mom planned to stay home and help her daughter recover once she was allowed back home as her dad continued with his work out-of-state.

This afternoon, Winter and Henry were in her hospital room, playing a game of Crazy Eights on her dinner table, as Henry sat on the end of her bed and the table was hovering between the two of them.

Both Henry and Winter had become more relaxed during the twenty-six hours that they were able to spend together.

Winter's nurse of the day, Tania, was in the room with them as she was about to take blood from Winter's arm to see if the lysis in her red blood cells were still affected by the bacteria caused by her infected wounds.

"Here..." Henry put his hand out on the table, "Squeeze my hand."

Winter took Henry's hand and looked away from the needle that was taking her blood. She looked into Henry's reassuring eyes as he stared back into hers.

"All done!" Nurse Tania said as she took out the needle and took the elastic band off of her tiny arm.

Henry looked over seriously at the nurse, "When do you think she will be able to eat again?" he asked concerned.

Nurse Tania looked at him, "Once the swelling is down in her lungs, she will be able to swallow solid foods." She turned to look at Winter, "We're going to be starting you on a liquid diet soon, Winter. We can try giving you some Boost if you think you'll be able to stomach it?"

Winter looked unsure if she would be able to stomach anything.

Henry squeezed her hand at her silence and she looked at him, "You gotta eat, baby. The nutrition will help you get better faster."

Winter smiled at his concern before turning to Nurse Tania, "Yeah, I can try the Boost later."

Nurse Tania put her hand on Winter's shoulder, "You have a real caring boyfriend."

Henry heard the compliment but kept his eyes on Winter's face as he stroked her hand with his thumb; "She deserves it. She's perfect," he said.

Winter smiled at her, "He's the best boyfriend any girl could ask for."

Henry smiled lovingly at her response.

Nurse Tania smiled as she took the vials of blood and her equipment as she walked out of the room.

When she left, Earl, Ruth and Sally walked into the room with a big teddy bear that had a halo hanging above its head.

"Hi, guys," Winter smiled at the family.

Henry turned to see who entered the room and frowned when him and his dad made eye-contact.

"Hi sweetie!" Ruth said as she embraced Winter in a hug from her bed, "I'm so happy you're okay!"

"Winter, we got you a teddy bear! I picked it out and told mommy that I wanted to get you this bear because it's an angel!" Sally put the teddy in her arms.

Seeing Sally made tears build up behind Winter's eyes because she kind of reminded her of Lily.

"I love it Sally!" Winter looked to her bracelet that Lily gave her, "Sally, I have something for you..."

She thought if she gave the reiki attuned bracelet that Lily gave Winter before she was killed, it would protect Sally from the clown incase It ever tried to take her.

Sally went up to her; "This is a magic bracelet that keeps you safe from scary things..." Winter took off the bracelet and put it around Sally's wrist, "Keep that on you all the time, okay? It really is magical."

Sally looked down to the bracelet, "WOW! A magic bracelet! Mommy, daddy, look!" She lifted her wrist to show her parents, "It's magical!"

"Then you'll have to take extra care of it, Sally," Earl said to Sally.

Winter looked at Henry, who was looking back at her. He looked uncomfortable that his parents showed up. She could tell by his face that he was mad at his dad for not letting him and Robert walk her home that night she had disappeared.

"Winter..." Earl said very softly, "I wanted to say that I'm sorry that I told the boys not to walk you home. I honestly don't remember saying it, but I don't know what came over me and why I would say that, but I want you to know I'm sorry."

Winter weakly smiled at him. Apart of her thinks it was the clown's doings, and she didn't know how that could be, but Earl really wasn't himself when he told them to stay home and let her leave by herself.

"Don't worry about it, Earl..." she reassuringly smiled at him, "I'm here now. I'm safe and that's the important part."

Henry continued to look at her as they spoke to each other. He found comfort by keeping his gaze on her, his angel of peace.

"Now, we need to talk to you, Henry..." Ruth began, "You can't stay here all day with your exams coming up. You've already missed so much school. You need to finish the year. Winter will be okay without you while you're in school."

"I need to make sure she's okay..." Henry said defensively as he squeezed her hand lightly. "I can't leave her here alone."

Earl wanted to say something, but since Henry was already so mad at him, he let Ruth handle this one.

"Henry, you're going to fail your junior year if you don't go. If your Uncle Jim didn't stand up for you to the school board, they would have already sent someone to force you into school."

"I don't care. I'll do summer school."

Winter could sense the change in his voice as he spoke with his parents. He had never used that tone or attitude before when he communicated with them. It was a different side of Henry.

Winter spoke up as she looked at Henry, "Maybe it's better if you do go to school, Henry..." He looked at her and was listening to her suggestion. "Go to school during the day and get my homework as well, and then you can spend the evening and night with me here and we can help each other with our homework. Besides, I'm behind, too, and I want to make sure we get to spend senior year together."

Henry continued to rub her hand from across the table, "Are you sure?" He looked like he didn't want to, but the idea of not spending senior year together looked like it bugged him.

"Yeah..." she started sweetly, "The sooner we graduate, the sooner we can start our future plans that we talked about." She smiled at him, "Remember the plans we talked about?" She referred to the plans of marriage they were talking about that Sunday in his bed before she was taken away by the clown.

Henry smiled at her lovingly. He wanted to marry her so bad and start a life and family with her. "Yeah, I remember. Okay, I'll go back to school tomorrow."

Ruth mouthed, "Thank you," to Winter from behind Henry's head.

Winter continued to smile at Henry's loving gaze.

The Bower's weren't the only visitors that showed up that day. Later on that afternoon, when Henry went to grab some food for himself from the cafeteria, Winter's friends showed up: Billy, Eddie, Richie, Stan, Bev, and a new kid.

"Winter!" they all exclaimed happily as they walked into the room and ran by her side to give her a big hug.

"Hey, guys!" Winter said happily with her raspy voice. She was happy to see Bev had blended into the group, but who was the other kid? He was chunky with blondish hair.

"Oh!" Bev said as she noticed Winter looking at the new kid, "This is my friend, Ben. I was telling you about him when we met."

'Oh, my God! Ben?! This was the adult in the audience who looked really fit with dark hair? This is Ben?!'

"Nice to meet you, Ben," Winter smiled at him, "Sorry you have to meet me like this."

"It's okay..." Ben smiled, "The guys and Bev told me what happened. We all connected 'cause we all saw each other turn into adults during your performance at Christmas. I saw it, too, whatever that was."

Winter nodded, wondering what that was, too, "Well, it's good to meet you, as you are now, a sophomore," she laughed a bit.

Winter turned her attention to Billy who looked happy to see her but there was still a sadness in his eyes. The loss of Georgie will stay with him forever and she knew it. Winter felt sadness as she looked at him, too, wishing she could have saved Georgie.

"I'm so sorry about Georgie, Bill," Winter said with tears building behind her eyes.

Bill nodded, "I'm g-g-glad you're okay. I wasn't ab-able to go out with the g-guys to look for y-y-you, but I'm really gl-gl-glad they were able to help f-f-find you."

"Are you going to be okay?" Eddie asked concerned. "It's not the same without you, Winter. We miss having you around, and weird shit has been happening since you disappeared."

Richie nudged him, "She's recovering from trauma, so don't bring up ours to her."

Winter wondered what Richie meant by that.

"What do you mean? Are you guys seeing weird things, too?" Winter inquired.

They all went silence and looked at each other, questioning whether it was the right time to tell her or not.

Stan began to speak, "There's a..."

Henry opened the door to the room and stopped in his tracks when he saw the room full of Winter's friends. He never got to know any of them even though he had known them since he was six. He never minded them being around either, but seeing them all huddled in their group at this moment made Henry feel on edge. He felt an anger go through his veins and he didn't know why that was.

They all turned to Henry and looked into his eyes. His eyes looked different. They looked angry and didn't look like his eyes.

Winter smiled at Henry, "My friends came to visit me." She could feel the uncomfortableness in the room, but she didn't feel it as strong as Henry and the others did.

"Hey, Henry..." Richie was the one to speak after some silence, it was followed by a gulp of fear, and he had no idea why he was afraid.

"Hey, guys..." Henry said as friendly as he could with the anger still in his gaze. He walked by them to sit in the chair next to Winter's bed and looked at them as they continued to talk. He remembered how angry he was that they got to walk with Winter from the sewer tunnel to the ambulance while he got trapped behind the group of cops.

"What were you saying, Stan?" Winter asked, breaking the silence and looking at Stan.

Stan looked from Henry's gaze to Winter and shook his head, "Nothing... It was nothing."

As they continued to speak to each other, Winter's friends couldn't help but look over at Henry who was staring at all of them with such a force that it felt like it wasn't him looking at them. He almost looked like he was ready to attack them at any moment.

As Henry was staring at them, he couldn't hear what they were all talking about. There was a new voice in his head that was talking while they were catching up. He didn't know where this voice came from and who's voice it was, but it sounded evil and angry.

"That guy, Bill... The stuttering fuck... He's the ring-leader of the group. He's going to make them do anything he can to stop me. If he tries to stop me, Henry, Winter will die...

"Then that wheezy little shit. That's Eddie. Eddie has a secret that he hasn't told anyone else in his friend group... He has a crush on Winter, Henry... Winter's your girl... Winter looks at him as a little kid, but as he gets older, things could change... She could see him differently... You wouldn't want that now would you, Henry?

"Richie, the four eyes... He looks like a shitter, but he will do anything for his friends, and that means following Bill's orders in destroying me, Henry... Which means destroying us...

"Stan is the same... He's a little pussy that just follows them around... He's not a threat - I'm more of a threat to him - but he's still one more person that will try to kill me, Henry... You and I are connected, so if he tries to kill me, he will try to kill you...

"Bev, the new girl in the group... She's got this confidence and will do anything to make sure Bill is okay... She's the most dangerous out of all of them...

"The new fat kid there is Ben... He knows everything about Derry, and is trying to figure out what I am... I need you to taunt him, Henry... Make him wish he never got into the Loser Club to begin with...

"Then there's the kid who's not in the group yet... Your friend, Mike... He will leave your friendship to join them instead. He thinks he knows everything about me, but all he is is a shit-disturber...

"You need to kill them all, Henry... First make them scared so I can get to them first, but whoever is left at the end before they try to destroy me, you need to take them down... If you don't follow my orders, Winter will die... I've been inside of you since you were a baby, Henry... I've grown with you in your boiling rage... They see me in your eyes when you're angry... And now that I'm awake, I'm awake inside of you, too..."

Henry continued to stare at them as the voice inside of him spoke and his own thoughts turned off.

As Ben was talking to her about all his research he has done on Derry, Winter looked over to the quiet Henry and noticed how he was staring off at them. She wondered if he was zoning out because he was tired. She grabbed his hand, and once she did he snapped out of his mind and the voice stopped.

"You okay?" she asked him concerned.

Henry blinked at the voice that was talking to him and looked at her, "Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine. Just really tired is all..."

She weakly smiled, "Okay," but she didn't know if there was something else that he wasn't telling her.

Henry cupped her hand with both of his and rubbed it to keep her hand warm. He stayed quiet as they continued to talk and the voice in his head didn't come back as he held onto Winter's hand. She really was his angel of peace.

"Winter..." Billy began, "I doh-doh-don't want to make you up-up-upset by asking this to-to-too soon, but..." Billy began to tear up again as he asked, "Wh-wh-when you were in the s-s-sewers... D-d-did you see..." He collected himself so he could speak, "Did you see, G-G-Georgie?"

Winter froze and felt the sadness come over her.

"Help me...The clown ripped my arm off... And then he brought me down here..."

She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find anyway to tell him the truth; "No, Bill... I didn't see him."

She looked down at her lap and felt terrible for lying. She didn't know how to tell him the truth. Her guilt was too much for her to handle to be able to tell him the truth. How could she tell him that she let Georgie die and let the clown take his dead body when she wanted to get him out of there?

"I-It's o-okay..." Bill said sadly.

'Why did you lie? You can give him closure!' Winter thought to herself.

"On the bright side though..." Bev started, "Because of you, Winter, Greta hasn't been bothering me anymore."

Richie spoke up, "Good! She's a Barbie-Wannabe bitch!"

Winter smiled softly, "I'm glad she's leaving you alone."

The group of friends glimpsed over at Henry again who still looked uncomfortable by them being there, but he wasn't looking at them like he was before. He was concentrating on massaging Winter's hand as he glimpsed around the room. They always knew him as a quiet, introverted person, but this was a different side to him. And if looks could talk, he looked like he could have killed them about five minutes ago.

"We should probably get going, guys," Stan said to the group, "Let Winter rest so she can get back to school soon."

"It was nice seeing you, guys," Winter smiled, "And thanks for the teddy bear and card. It all made me smile."

They all smiled at her, "Get better, Winter. Bye!" They all said.

Feeling awkward not to say bye to Henry, Eddie was the only one to turn to him; "Bye, Henry..."

Henry looked at him like he was going to shove a knife down his throat, "Bye.." he said, looking like he forced himself to spit out the word.

The rest of the day was peaceful. Henry and Winter continued to read one of the scary novels they were reading together before she had disappeared. Reading the same book together was one of their favourite things to do. Henry loved that he found someone who read as much as he did. It was fun, too, that they tried to read at the same pace so they could come to the same intense parts of the books at the same time so they could talk about it.

The rest of the night was spent by the arrival of nurses and doctors checking on Winter as Henry and her stayed in bed and watched movies on the little TV her parents had brought during their visit, knowing that Winter would have been bored doing nothing in her hospital room. As they watched Liar Liar, Henry and her giggled at the funny parts and would find moments to kiss each other. It was nearly like how it was before she disappeared. When Henry was around her, he forgot about the voice in his head when her friends came over to see her.

It was late in the night, and Henry and Winter were asleep in her bed. The sounds of the heart monitor didn't bother Henry as he slept. It took time for Winter to get use to it, but she eventually did.

Henry wasn't dreaming, but he could hear his name being repeated.

"Henry..." said the voice. "Henry..."

Henry woke up and looked around the room, wondering where the voice came from. He looked at Winter and she was fast-asleep beside him. He thought maybe it was a dream and turned his attention to Winter as she slept and rubbed her cheek with the back of his fingers as he admired her angelic face.

"Henry... Over here..." the voice said again.

Henry jumped a little bit and looked out the window where the voice came from.

He noticed the face in the moon. His eyes went wide and he rubbed them to make sure he was actually seeing what he was seeing. It was a clown's face in the moon. It wasn't just a clown, but it was theclown that he's seen in his dreams and on the street that one night.

"Come to the window, Henry," the clown directed.

Henry blinked confused. He quietly got off the bed to make sure not to wake Winter and went over to the window.

"She can't hear me, Henry. Only you can. You don't need to speak out-loud, I can hear your thoughts. I told you, Henry... We're connected."

'What do you mean?'Henry thought towards the moon.

"I was talking to you while Winter's friends came to visit. I am your anger, Henry. I've been in your anger since you were a baby."

'How is that possible? Who are you?'

"My name is Pennywise the Dancing Clown!"

'What do you want from me?'

"I need you to kill her friends, Henry... They aren't there to protect her like you are. They want to destroy me, but they don't know it yet... I need you to help me bring out all their fears, so I can get them before they can get me. They will plan to kill me, but I need your help to stop them, Henry. Scare them so I can get them, and the ones I don't get... I need you to kill them before they come after me."

Henry stared at the clown shining in the moon. His heart was racing with anxiety over his orders, 'I don't... I don't think I could kill...'

"We have a deal, Henry... I'm the one who brought Winter back to you. I led her out of the sewers that day... back to you... She's still sick, and without my powers, she would have been dead before the medications they've given her kicked in... I'm saving her, Henry."

Henry stared at the clown wide-eyed, listening to him as his heart pounded. He kept looking over at Winter who was still sleeping peacefully. He turned back to the clown.

"You choose, Henry; Are those seven kids lives more important than Winters, or is Winter's life more important than those seven?"

'She's more important... I'd do anything to keep her safe...'

"Then give me your word that you will kill those kids for me!" It stared at him with evil eyes.

Henry's breath was caught in his throat. The idea of killing seemed impossible to him.

"Henry, her life is in your hands... I can take all the progress she has done with her health away very easily..." Pennywise's hand rose up in the moon, and It snapped Its fingers.

Winter woke up suddenly, unable to breathe. Her heart monitor machine started going off fast as her heart rate sped up.

Henry began panicking, "NO! STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" he yelled to the clown.

"Give me your word, Henry..." he snapped his fingers again.

The machine to her side that showed her temperature skyrocketed up to 107F. She began crying and throwing up in a container at the side of her bed.

Henry ran over to her side; "I give you my word!" he cried. "Just please, make it stop!"

Her heart rate dropped down to normal, her temperature went back down to 98.6F, she stopped throwing up and chocking. She was trying to breathe as the episode winded her as tears fell from her eyes.

Winter looked over at Henry with tears falling down her cheeks from panic; "What happened?"

Henry was crying as he looked at her face. He was in shock, but couldn't tell her what happened, "It's okay, baby," He hugged her tightly, "Everything's going to be okay..."

A group of nurses walked in the room in a hurry, hearing the heart monitor that had risen just seconds ago.

"Is everything okay?" they asked as they saw the vomit in her bucket and read her heart rate and fever recorder.

"It must have been the Boost we gave her... Maybe her stomach wasn't ready for it," the doctor said as a nurse grabbed the throw up bucket. "As for the machine, maybe a glitch? Are you guys okay?" He noticed them crying.

"Yeah, I just felt really sick for a moment, and I guess it scared Henry," Winter said wheezingly.

Henry looked at the doctor and nodded still in shock.

The doctor and nurses left the room and Winter turned to Henry, "I just felt really sick all of a sudden and I couldn't breathe."

Henry still had tears falling from his eyes as he rubbed the side of her face, "Everything's going to be okay, baby."

As he said it, he knew that'everything's going to be okay'meant killing her friends.

Henry didn't sleep for the rest of the night.