Hello! We're back with yet another update! This story has now hit 100 visitors, which I'm blown away by.

This may not seem like a lot to some of you, but to me this is fantastic! I really appreciate all of you!

We dive into the views of Lucas mostly, a little bit of Mike..

Do not worry! Like I said in the last chapter, this is a mileven centric story. Most of it will be written from the point of view of Mike or El, but I do enjoy getting in some Lumax early on.. Most of it is formative stuff right now, so bear with me. The story is going to pick up speed soon!

As always, I appreciate any reviews, concerns, suggestions etc...It gives me the motivation to write!

To the few of you who have reviewed, thank you! I am happy you're enjoying the story so far!

I do have one question,

*****Would you guys prefer that I do shorter but more frequent chapters or long chapters with less frequent updates?*****

Let me know, enjoy the story!

Chapter 4 - The Beginning of the Storm

Last time:

She smiles and nods and they exit the front door and enter their car. Lucas, entering the driver's seat starts the engine and pulls out off their driveway and onto the street. Putting the car into gear, they drive down their road.

Lucas begins to turn into the busy four-way intersection at the end of their street, noting that it's his turn to go. Just as he pulls onto the intersection, he hears only Max screaming at him, "LUCAS WATCH OUT" turning his head, his eyes go wide as another car smashes into her side of the car. This is all he sees before blackness takes over his vision.

Hawkins, Indiana 1982 (Present day)

His head was spinning, he could feel a loud ringing noise pounding through his ears. His vision was blurry, and Lucas still didn't quite know what was happening- until his vision cleared and he looked around. He was overtaken by adrenaline the moment he saw Max sitting upside down- unconscious; her seatbelt holding her from crumpling to the floor- or rather to the roof of the car, which was on the floor.

"Max wake up," Lucas spoke, not quite hearing himself over the ringing in his ears, "Max common wake up!"

It was after his second plea for her to give him a sign of life that he took in how badly she was hurt. Max was covered in blood, her clothes now stained red around her midsection. Lucas saw a large piece of glass protruding out of her stomach. Along with this, her face looked bruised and Lucas would have thought her dead had she not taken a stifled breath and choked.

Lucas unclasped his seatbelt with great effort, collapsing roughly to the floor. He started to crawl over to Max- he could feel shards of glass that were littered across the floor cutting into his knees and arms. Reaching Max, he undid her seatbelt with great care. He hoisted her against his back as gently as possible; being cognisant of the glass sticking out of her stomach.

With Max breathing roughly, however still appearing unconscious, he crawled out of their smashed front window. The second his body touched the air outside of the car, he felt somewhat relieved. He looked around and attempted to stand with Max still held up on his back- only to quickly crumple to the ground in pain. There was a searing pain spreading out across his entire ankle- which up until this moment he had not realized was injured.

"Jesus Christ, are you okay? Do you need help?" An older man who Lucas identified as Benny Hammond, the owner of Benny's Burgers, said from a gathering crowd of stopped vehicles.

Lucas grunted through the pain he felt in his ankle, "Get an ambulance! My girlfriend is dying, she's not responding, someone get us an ambulance now!"

It was not long before an ambulance arrived, someone had called one from their home right at the corner of the intersection. When the ambulance did arrive, there was a large crowd of vehicles gathering. In the short time, it took for the ambulance to arrive, Lucas and Max had been propped up against a nearby tree. The driver of the other vehicle was dragged out of his car by Benny and three other men Lucas did not recognize.

The driver of the vehicle that caused the accident was an elderly man- he did not survive the crash. While all this was ongoing, Lucas was desperately holding onto Max's hand and pleading to any higher power that would listen; not to let her die on him. She was his world, he could not stand to let her go.

Hawkins, Indiana 1982 (Present day)

It was almost seconds after Mike exited the resident's room that he was swarmed by his four interns, each racing to be at the front of the line.

"So who's turn is it to kiss ass today?" Mike asked expectantly, looking at the younger Doctors. It was Thomas who stepped forward with a coffee cup in his hand, along with Mike's clipboard- which had attached to it, the chart of their first patient to check on during morning rounds.

Mike had established early on during their time together with the ground rules of being his interns, but he didn't expect having to set a rule for who could bring him coffee in the morning. He learned early on, it would be necessary after being brought four coffees every morning in the first week of their internship. He developed a system where he would allow one of them to bring him coffee each morning along with his first patient chart. Mike had four interns this year: Thomas Howers, Rachel Burne, Lily Waters, and Charlie Rossman.

Each of his interns were bright individuals with great potential, but he disliked how overly excited they were and how they all tried too hard to be liked. It was now three months into their training, and he made some, but not a whole lot of progress on teaching them to relax and act like Doctors- not children trying to win a beauty pageant.

Just as they were heading to their first patient of the morning, Mike's pager went off, Report to Trauma Center, Incoming accident. Sighing Mike looked out at his interns, "Well that changes things, trauma center, let's go."

Quickly running down the hall, into the trauma center, and out to the arrival bay the five Doctors waited; now dressed in their protective trauma clothing.

Mike and his team stood at the arrival bay for what felt like hours, but in a matter of minutes they heard the ambulance's loud siren- and not long after, the flash of the bright red lights came into view. The ambulance backed into the bay, before coming to a halt. Mike, anxious to see what he would be dealing with, was shocked when the ambulance doors opened wide and he came face to face with his best friend, Lucas.

"Lucas? What the hell are you doing here?" Mike began, only to be stopped when the paramedics rolled Max out of the ambulance. Mike took the sight before him with wide eyes, "Holy shit what happened?" Mike spoke loudly, looking pointedly at the paramedics.

"We got a mean one here Doc." The paramedics started as Mike's interns grabbed the stretcher and began rolling it inside the trauma center.

"Female, 28 years old, severe vehicular accident. The other car came into contact with her side. Critical condition, a large piece of glass protruding out of the torso. Multiple fractured ribs; likely compound fractures. Unconscious, but breathing with difficulty." The paramedic finished.

"Mike you gotta save her, you gotta...you..just gotta.." Lucas began, tears beginning to form.

"I'm going to do everything I can, we are not going to let her go without a fight. Doctor Rossman, tend to Mr. Sinclair, give him the absolute best treatment." Mike ordered, looking at Charlie, leaving no room for debate.

Mike leads Max into the awaiting trauma table room to be evaluated. Upon reaching the room, he rolled her up beside the trauma table before looking out at his remaining three interns. "Alright, lift her on one, two, three, lift."

With Max now on the table, Mike began to quickly evaluate the situation. "Alright looks like the glass punctured her spleen and ruptured it, I'm not removing that here we need to get it out in the operating room. Someone get her a ventilator to help with that breathing." Mike directed.

"Doctor Howers, get me an OR now, we need to get that spleen under control. She's bleeding internally...Wait," Mike stopped, "fuck, fragments of the ribs just punctured her lung, we need that OR now.. Someone get me a chest tube for a thoracostomy.."

Mike stopped as Doctor Owens entered the room, "Doctor Wheeler, what do we have here?"

"Not good Chief, that glass ruptured her spleen, and fragments of her ribs have punctured her lung. We're moving her to the OR now for you." Mike reported back to the Chief of Surgery.

"No, Doctor Wheeler, you're moving her to the OR for you, this one is yours," Owens replied.

Mike stood there, contemplated for a moment..but realized he would never forgive himself if his friend was to die in an operating room, the constant thought in his mind he might have been able to save her..But he also knew he would never forgive himself if he was to let her die in his operating room..Failure was not an option, it never is..

Within minutes, Max was being once again transported to an OR and Mike was rushing to the scrub station. He stopped for just a second to breathe, this was Max..his friend...and the girlfriend of his best friend...Shaking his head, he finished sanitizing his hands before walking into the operating room. He looked up at the gallery to see a crowd of faces watching his every move.

This was not Mike's first solo surgery, but it was definitely the most complicated he's taken on yet. Walking further into the room, to the awaiting nurse who would dry his hands before assisting with his gloves.

This was not only the most complicated of his surgeries, it was also his most important patient yet.

Hawkins, Indiana 1982 (Present day)

Lucas was by all accounts, a mess. After arriving at the hospital, he was assessed in the trauma room by one of Mike's interns. Sitting there, he felt useless. Max was dying only a couple of hundred meters away- and he was sitting here being coddled over for minor injuries.

He always hated hospitals, but today was especially excruciating; it was not excruciating physically, but emotionally. The woman he considered to be the love of his life was in surgery with his best friend, and there was nothing he could do. Not quite believing the situation that was unfolding before him, he was dazed out in thought during his assessment simply nodding whenever asked a question.

He heard the young Doctor said something to him, "...call anyone?" Lucas only catching the last part of whatever it was he was being told.

"Sorry, what did you say?" He spoke to the doctor, now fully alert of his surroundings.

"I said, you suffered minor injuries. You have an ankle sprained pretty badly, must have got caught between the pedal- but it'll heal. Would you like us to call anyone?" Doctor Rossman repeated.

Lucas stopped to process the information he was just given; he had to process it in pieces to fully understand.. He was not injured badly….It's a sprained ankle...Something about the pedal of his car….Who would he like to call..

The Doctor looked patiently at Lucas, "I'm sorry, things aren't quite processing right now..Uh.. Is there a phone I can use?" Lucas replied slowly, looking somewhat confused.

"Yeah, you can use the phone with the nurse at the desk there." Doctor Rossman replied, pointing at a desk at the end of the hall.

"I'll go grab you a wheelchair, for now, it'll make moving around much easier..That sprain is pretty bad." Rossman said before walking towards a closed double door which he soon opened.

While Doctor Rossman was getting the chair, Lucas had a moment to think to himself. Who should he call? He knew Dustin and Will would want to be here, and he wanted them here too. What about Max's parents? Her mother maybe? She definitely wouldn't care if her stepfather showed up- probably hoping he wouldn't in all honesty.

What about his own parents? Was it really necessary to freak them out over nothing? Lucas was fine and the most they would come here for is to support him emotionally while Max was in surgery.. No, he would call them but tell them coming isn't necessary and that he's okay.

With a flimsy plan of who to call now formulated in his brain, it aligned perfectly with time as Doctor Rossman returned with a wheelchair. After being assisted up from the bed and into the wheelchair, he was brought down the long hall towards the desk. As he was pushed down the hall, he took in the sight of various people with varying injuries and ailments. One man had a cast around both his legs, another somehow managed to get a knife lodged into his upper arm.

"Hey Dorothy, Mr. Sinclair here is going to need the phone to call his family." Doctor Rossman said to the desk nurse.

"Alright dear, you can use that available phone at the end of the desk." The nurse replied, barely taking her eyes off her papers.

Rolling to the end of the desk, Lucas shakily picked up the phone- deciding to call Will first. Just as Lucas was beginning to dial the number, he was stopped by a hand on the phone. Looking up, he was surprised to see none other than Chief Jim Hopper, who was coincidentally the stepfather of Will- after the Chief and Mrs. Byers got married last winter.

"I'm gonna need that phone for a minute, Kid." Hopper gruffly ordered.

"Chief? What the hell, I need to call Will and Dustin...Max and I were in a car accident…She's in surgery with Mike.." Lucas stated, looking up at the Chief of Police.

"I know kid, I heard about the accident over the police radio. Don't worry I already called Will and your parents, they're on the way." Hopper replied before beginning to dial a number into the phone.

Lucas was surprised by this news, and now dreading it- his parents were probably freaking out. Sighing, he leaned back into his wheelchair and overheard Hopper calling someone..

"El, it's Hopper..Max has been in an accident.." Hopper spoke into the phone, starting a flurry of confusion and questions in Lucas's mind..Who was El..and how did she know Max?

So? Did you enjoy this chapter?! Let me know, review, suggest, give me criticism and feedback! It helps me not only be a better writer, but it also gives me the motivation TO write...So yes, Jim and Joyce are married in this fic, I just love them both so much!

Anyway...cya next time, as always...REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!