Nancy Wheeler sat by the fire, trying to stretch her back. Even though the bed in her cabin was comfortable, occasionally she managed to twist herself into a position during the night that remained out of whack when she awoke, and she had to find a way to work it out, or get help. The fire, while it had healing properties, apparently was not a masseuse or a chiropractor.
"Need some help?" Steve Harrington sat down beside her. He was the one who worked it out the most frequently. Ace Visconti had offered a couple times, but something had made Nancy turn him down every time.
"Yes, please." She smiled at him. He got on his knees behind her and she guided him with her voice to the sore spot. As his fingers started to massage her, she relaxed.
Steve...
She'd been thinking about him a lot lately. She'd fallen for Jonathan Byers before they'd come here. Jonathan was sweet, protected her, and had protected her in her times of need in Hawkins.
Steve had been a different person when she'd broken up with him. But even after, he'd protected her almost as much as Jonathan, joining their fight with the monsters of the Upside Down with no hesitation, not only keeping her safe, but looking out for her brother and his friends. He was an entirely different person from the man he was when she'd broken up with him.
After they'd arrived, Steve hadn't pushed her once. He hadn't tried to rekindle old feelings, or offer himself up as a replacement boyfriend now that Jonathan was nowhere to be found. She also saw how he looked out for her in the trials. If they were in one together, he always did things to make the killer chase him instead of her if they were both discovered together. When she was on the hook, he was the first one to try to sneak over and lift her off of it. But when they were back at the camp, he did nothing more than be her friend. Even when he massaged her, Nancy knew, he was only doing it because she was in pain and needed it.
As the survivors left, and the time grew closer and closer to what she hoped would be their own time to return to Hawkins, probably not long after it was when they'd been pulled into the realm, she wondered about her future. While Steve hadn't pressured her, the feelings she'd first felt for him after he'd taken her virginity stirred in her again. Even when he'd been a jerk, he hadn't been evil.
Having spent more and more time with him, she had found herself more and more attracted to him. She felt guilty because she still harbored her feelings for Jonathan, but it was hard not to find herself growing deeper and deeper in love with Steve the more he'd looked out for her, and had never asked her for a single thing in return.
He's truly changed. She knew it. He'd never been an awful guy, but he'd changed...He'd become her hero.
Her heart fluttered as his fingers loosened the muscle entirely, and she realized how much she enjoyed the feeling of his fingers touching her...How much she'd been starting to crave it. A couple of times recently, at night in her bed, she'd even...Touched herself and thought of him.
Steve asked her quietly, "Is that better?" He smiled a friendly smile. Completely innocent, not a drop of innuendo.
Nancy turned her head to face him." Much better, thank you."
"Glad to help," Steve said, his voice honest. Nancy found her lips were close to his. Suddenly, impulsively, she kissed him. She didn't know how he felt about her, if he felt anything at all, but she knew at that moment that she had to feel Steve Harrington's lips on hers.
Steve just let her for a few moments, seemingly uncertain, until Nancy felt him begin to return the kiss. Their lips parted. "I...Nancy...You love Jonathan...I respect that, he's a good guy. I mean, I've felt some of my feelings stirring, but I've buried them. It's the right thing to do."
"I'm falling in love with you again, Steve. I know you weren't trying for it, but everything you've been doing for me...I love you, Steve. I...I don't know what it means for us after we leave here, but if you're this guy when we return to Hawkins...I don't think I can be without you. I feel guilty, I mean I really do...But...God I need you Steve. I need us, right now. It's not just something that I'll hide from Jonathan. I'll be honest with him. But I need you Steve. I need to feel us again...Right now...Afterwards...After we're back in Hawkins...We'll figure out what's next."
She took his hand in hers. "Could you fall in love with me again? If we get back together and stay together when we return? Do you want me?"
Steve stared into her eyes. "I can...I do. I feel so guilty for saying it, but deep down, I've always been in love with you, and wanted you back. I couldn't say it before. I couldn't hurt your relationship like that. I couldn't lose the friendship we had...But yes, Nancy. I feel the same way."
She took him in her arms, held him. "I need to feel you, Steve. Please let me feel you. I feel awful for saying it but I do. It feels like even though we're together as friends here, we've both been alone. I don't want to be alone anymore. Please take me somewhere and make me stop feeling so alone."
Both their hearts were beating fast. It was certainly from guilt over what they were about to do, but it was also from their sudden, urgent need to feel each other like they had before, and the stirring of their long-buried feelings for each other. That need overwhelmed their guilt. Both knew there were many things they'd have to figure out after, but that was to be worked out...After.
Steve took her hand, leading her towards the unoccupied cabin nearby. Steve pressed her against the door after they closed it behind them, and their hands pulled each other's clothes off frantically. They stood for a moment, nude, their eyes meeting in lust. Steve kissed her as they stumbled to the bed, and Nancy let herself fall on her back on the mattress as Steve did such wonderful things to her between her legs with his tongue, before they both gasped in immense pleasure as he slid inside of her.
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Jeff and Jane had each rescued him from the hook, but Ash's heart just wasn't in it at all. He was pissed at himself, pissed at the world. He hadn't tried at all. When he'd been whacked and placed on the hook for the final time, he'd been so full of disappointment and anger that he hadn't cared as the hooks closed on him and ended his time in the trial.
He woke up in the bed in his cabin, still furious. How in the Sam Hell had he managed to do something so goddamn stupid?
"Somebody get the Entity on the phone," He muttered aloud. It took almost a full minute of him laying there with anger washing through him before he realized he wasn't alone.
He turned his head. Nancy Wheeler was laying on her back, naked, legs spread. Between her legs on top of her, also naked, was Steve Harrington.
"That's my side of the damn bed," Ash muttered as Steve and Nancy stared at him. He looked up at the ceiling. "Unless you wanna see a grown man cry, I suggest you get out of here."
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"We gotta fix this. I'm serious. So yeah, I screwed up and said the wrong damn words again. I don't care, it was a mistake. We're done here. Finito. This needs to be fixed, and fixed pronto..."
Ash was babbling, pacing the floor of Amanda's cabin. Jane was sitting next to her on the couch. Unlike Ash, she had a slight smile on her face that was almost peaceful. Even as Ash ranted, Amanda couldn't help but notice that in the time they'd been gone, they'd definitely been making healthy choices. Jane looked like a goddess in her revealing attire and black boots.
Of course, there had been shock upon their return. They'd just suddenly disappeared, but Amanda, knowing what it was like when she left, had quickly surmised they'd been released, and told the others that it was like that. Suddenly some of the friends in the group just disappeared with no fanfare.
They'd missed Ash and Jane terribly, but also felt happy for them. They'd left together, and the Entity had told her later that it had sent them back to Ash's original timeline together, no strings attached, to maintain their relationship in the real world in Ash's timeline.
Even though Ash was speaking in a near-shout, Amanda could not hear Ash's angered babbling well. After she'd mentally reached out to the Entity and filled him in on what Ash had told her, the Entity's grating voice had been laughing in a manner that one could say was hysterical. It had started as soon as she'd finished speaking to it in her head, and hadn't stopped.
"The meat...Did it...AGAIN..." Finally, the Entity had calmed its belly laughing to the occasional chuckle and had spoken to her about what it intended to do.
Amanda listened closely, then shouted Ash's name until he quieted down and listened. "It will release you both back. In fact, this time when it releases you, it will send you back even farther. To the year 2018. To the timeline you came from before you even came to the future..."
"Goddamn RIGHT it will," Ash nodded, vigorously.I" mean don't get me wrong, it's been great to see everyone again, honestly. We've missed you guys, but...It's time to rejoin the real world. Thank you for getting in touch with the Entity for us. Come on Jane, we need to say our goodbyes, officially this time, and..."
"I wasn't finished," Amanda said. Ash stopped speaking and looked at her. "It will send you back to your time, before you were transported into the Earth's future...After you've been here another 100 years. That's what it told me, 100 year more."
Ash looked at her. A vein started pulsing on his forehead. Then he looked at Jane. Amanda said, "I've tried to plead your case, but it said the decision is final. It was generous and fair when it let you go before, and now that you're back, it's going to be cruel, since the mistake was yours, not its own...I'm...I'm so sorry Ash."
Ash stood there for a moment, blinking. The forehead vein was pulsing like his mouth opened. A single word came out, one he hardly ever used.
"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"
The noise of his scream was loud enough to startle the black crows that had perched in the neighboring trees outside of the survivor camp. In the survivor camp itself, it had made everyone who had been wandering outside of their cabins freeze, almost terrified.
Steve and Nancy had retired to the woods, red-faced in their embarrassment from being not only discovered in, but ordered out of Ash's cabin. But as soon as they were alone again the lust built back up in them. They stripped off their clothes and were currently in the middle of finishing what they'd started before they'd been so rudely interrupted. Ash's scream froze Steve mid-thrust. He and Nancy locked eyes, then realized, who cared? Wasn't their problem. Steve pressed his lips to Nancy's and resumed his passionate thrusts as Nancy moaned and moved her body with him.
The only one not outside was Ace, who had seen Jane's outfit when she'd walked back into the camp with the other survivors of the trial, and almost hadn't recognized her. She was fuckin' FINE. Holy fuck! That outfit was amazing. He'd quickly taken a mental snapshot, and had added the image to his spank bank before darting inside of his cabin.
When Ash let out his angered scream, Ace had been thinking of the image and fantasizing as he laid in bed with his pants down, hand pumping furiously. In his fantasy, Jane was wearing it all, even the boots. She'd forgotten all about Ash, and was currently straddling him like some wild woman, riding him furiously with the leather briefs pulled to the side to accommodate Ace as he thrust in her. The sudden loud scream of fury had startled him so badly he'd rolled out of the bed and landed in a heap on the floor of his cabin.
"Son...of a...BITCH."
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Damn it, this just wasn't fair. Ash had practically wrung his hands in frustration, watching as Amanda had tried thinking at the Entity a few more times to attempt to make it change its mind, but it didn't. Stuck here. A month of freedom and he'd stuck them right back here again. WHY had he tried? He should have never opened his damn mouth. No matter how much good he did, he would forever be a screw-up.
Worse, he'd dragged Jane back here with him. Now she would be subjected to 50 more years and it was all his fault. She hadn't spoken a word to him since she'd survived the trial with the Wraith, and he knew she was probably as furious at him as he currently was with himself.
She'd probably start packing up her stuff shortly, and move into an empty cabin, not wanting to look at him. She was the best thing that ever happened to him and he'd screwed up in the worst possible way. He felt sick to his stomach. She walked silently beside him as they left Amanda and went back to the cabin they shared themselves. He was finding it hard to even look at her. He didn't want to watch her packing.
Even though he knew it was futile, Ash kept his eyes on the floor and said, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I screwed it up again. It was bad enough when I did it to myself, and now I've managed to do it to the woman I love. I'm so sorry. I dragged myself here from idiocy, and now I've done it again to both of us."
Jane spoke behind him. "The woman you love...So you do love me. I always felt you did, but this is the first time you've ever said it."
Ash nodded sadly. "I do. I love you, Jane. I don't deserve you, and now I've hurt us. It hurts me that I finally summoned up the courage to say it just minutes before you start packing and leave."
There was a brief silence. "Are you kicking me out?"
Ash's eyebrows furrowed and he turned. Jane had spread herself out on the couch. Her thighs parted slightly, and with a smile on her face. While she was smiling, inside, her heart was fluttering. As much Ash meant to her, he was the most closed off man she'd ever met. Hearing him put those three words together, Jane realized, was probably the most daring thing he'd ever done in his life, which was pretty amazing considering he'd fought Deadites.
Ash was looking at her, and Jane for the first time in over two decades saw genuine fear in his eyes. He was truly scared that his mistake had upset the one thing in his life that was as important as himself. "Well, after I brought you back to this horrible place, I figure you're pissed enough about it that there's no way you're going to stay here with me. You wanted me to take you to 2018, and I screwed up and took you to Hell instead."
Jane looked at him. "I don't think it's Hell. It's got plenty I don't like about it, but that doesn't mean I hate it here. I never hated it here, especially not after it brought me you."
Ash felt a flutter of hope stir in him, but forced himself not to get too excited. Jane's smile grew. "And after returning to it spurred you to actually tell me you love me...I hate it even less. I've always known you loved me, and I've known telling a woman you love them is a monumental statement for you, so I never pushed, and I just savored the feeling of knowing that you did. Hearing it leave your lips though...It's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard you say. And now I feel I can express it as well. Ash...I love you too."
Ash was standing there. His mouth was opening and closing, but words wouldn't form in his head.
"As for this place...Do I enjoy getting chased and murdered? Of course not. But there's a lot of stuff I did, and still do, love about this place. And I'll admit it...When the Entity told me it was my time to leave, I was actually kind of sad. I would have given anything I had to leave it when I first arrived here, but over time, much like it did for Jake and Amanda...It became home. First my home, then our home."
Ash was still staring at her, but at least his mouth had stopped opening and closing like he was a fish out of water.
"Yes, we'll be chased and murdered again for quite a long time before the Entity lets us go. But the future we were released to was a bit boring. I mean it was nice to lose all this weight, and carry a gun around like a woman Rambo, but because we were unable to find the place we needed, we were in purgatory. We could have made the bunker a home, but it wouldn't have lasted. And we wouldn't have the friends we have made here."
Hesitantly, Ash said, "So...You're not so mad at me that you'd like to rip my balls off and wear them on a necklace?"
Jane chuckled. "No... Don't get me wrong. If you'd said the right words, it would have been wonderful to return to 2018 and meet your friends and do some ass-kicking of the Deadites you have told me about. But honestly, when I saw Jeff at that generator...When I realized we were back here, I was actually kind of happy that you'd said the words you did. Do YOU honestly hate it here?"
Ash considered. "Well, hate is a strong word. I don't like being killed either, and I don't like being powerless in the trials when I know if I had my chainsaw and boomstick, and if the Entity let me, I could really kick some ass. But having you here, having this cabin for us, having the time between trials to hang out with all these people who have become our family...I agree, it's a part of this place I'd have missed eventually. The only reason I didn't miss it when we were back is because I was too busy trying to find a fight and impress you."
Jane laughed again. "You kept us going in that bunker, your navigational skills in the desert were exceptional, and I saw you know how to carry a gun. You never got to fight, but I know you'd have kicked major ass. We were alone in a strange new world, and you protected me. Ash...You DID impress me."
She bent her legs, giving Ash space to sit on the couch with her. He did so. "Plus, there's another good thing that came of this. We had some time to improve our health, and I'm very pleased to have made myself the sexy chick I've always wanted to be. But even better...Since we came back this way, we'll stay this way. We get to enjoy our sexy new looks, never aging...For another 50 years."
Ash looked at his much-improved figure, and then stared at Jane's. Yeah, she had a point.
"So we get to be our best selves for a century, and no matter how much you miss them during that time, you know, for sure, that the next time we leave, we're going back to the BEST time in the real world. And every time you worry about them missing you, you can ease that sadness by knowing that when we return this next time, it will almost be like you never left, and pretty much all the time they spent missing you will be wiped away. I mean, before we came back here, age would have caught up with us. But now, we get to add another 50 years to our relationship that we wouldn't have had, with brief, daily interruptions of the part of this place that we hate."
She sat up, slipped the boots off, then reclined against the arm of the couch again. The red nail polish on her toes had chipped away in places without the Entity's magic to keep it unblemished. She raised a foot, then placed it in Ash's lap, teasing him.
"And did I mention we get to enjoy an extra 100 years of fucking each other's sexy bodies? Hmmmmm...Maybe this isn't Hell after all. Maybe it's Heaven. The trials are just a...Sales tax. She smiled as she felt him stirring under her toes. "But even that isn't the best part."
Ash, who had been letting her words sink in, agreeing with every one of them, suddenly turned. What could be better than that?
Jane slipped the leather briefs down over her smooth, toned legs.
"Here...You don't have to pull out."
Ash tore off the button of his pants as he hurried out of them, before practically jumping out of her.
And at the end...He didn't pull out.
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In the darkness of the night, Ash and Jane joined the others by the fire. Zarina, who was closest to them, noticed Jane was glowing, and it wasn't from the light of the flames, she thought with a naughty smile.
Amanda was watching Ash warily when he came to the fire, but his rage from earlier seemed to have dissipated, to her overwhelming relief. She hadn't enjoyed being in the middle of the argument between Ash and the Entity, and after he'd stormed out of the cabin with Jane, she'd been fearful that he was also mad at her, even though she had truly tried everything to convince the Entity to change its mind.
The survivors had been almost incredulous as Ash told the story of his and Jane's aborted return to the real world. David King had fallen off the log howling with laughter when Ash admitted he'd managed to once again say the trio of words that had accidentally brought him there in the first place. Ash shot him a dirty look, but admitted to himself that it was pretty goddamn funny and ended up laughing himself, along with Jane.
Then Jane spoke about how after much pleading through Amanda, the Entity had declined to return them immediately, and they were here for another long tour of duty. But all the survivors noticed the way Jane and Ash looked at each other and squeezed their hands tightly. It was the same kind of reaction as the one Amanda and Jake had when they spoke about how they were here for a very long time as well.
As their eyes covertly darted between the couples of Jane and Ash, and Jake and Amanda, they wondered if someday they too would ever feel as strongly as the couples, and actually like being here and calling this place a home. To the person, all of them mostly doubted it.
"Amanda, what's it like?" Amanda's eyes roved the faces until Feng waved her hand. "When the Entity talks to you. What's it like?"
"Well it doesn't sound human," Amanda said with a trace of a smile. Kind of like someone stirring crushed glass and gravel in a bowl, if that makes sense. But when it talks, it's just a voice in my head, it's not like I feel possessed or anything."
"Fingernails on a chalkboard," Ash said. He glanced at Amanda and then the rest of the group. "That's what it reminded me of. It talked to me before it sent me back to the real world. I remember having that sensation. It wasn't awful, and I wasn't terrified of it. It was actually kind of a groovy feeling to finally hear the warden of this place speak."
"But aren't you still kind of mad?" Claudette was looking at him. "I mean, to be out, and then back here over a mistake?"
Ash chuckled. "I was at the beginning. I think I caught the Wraith off guard when we returned during the trial with him. I don't think he's ever been cursed at that much in his entire existence here. He almost looked offended, like, 'Hey buddy, don't be pissed at me, I'm just doin' my job."
A wave of laughter washed over the survivors. "But then, Jane pointed out some things." Ash shot Amanda a glance. Probably the same things you realized when you first came back here, things that made it an easy transition."
He glanced at the group, looking into the attentive eyes staring at him. "I'm in my 50s now. If we'd stayed in the real world, I probably have another 20 years or so left before all the boozing and other crap I've done through all my life caught up with me. But you know, we did a lot of walking, we ate some good food, we lost a lot of weight, so we returned as new and improved versions of ourselves."
He sighed. "But more than that, we never age here, we never change appearance from the way we were when we first came here, or in some cases, after we return again." He looked at Jane and the two shared a smile. "I may be exaggerating a bit, but We'd both keep aging, and while we'd have time to be happy, it's not as much time as I would have wanted with this little lady."
He stared back at the others. "Yeah, it sucks getting my ass kicked sometimes, and getting hurt and sacrificed, but when that's not happenin', We've got the people, and we've got each other, and things are frozen in time. We'll look and feel this way for quite a long time before we leave here again. Jane was the one who made me realize it, because she's a lot smarter than I am."
Jane giggled at that. Ash continued, "So yeah, parts of it suck, but the parts that don't suck overshadow the parts that do. I mean we're going to get years and years of extra time to be a couple, and enjoy our relationship that we wouldn't have gotten if we stayed gone. I guess what I'm saying is, maybe my mistake will end up not being a mistake after all."
Jane was silent for a moment. "No, you fucked up, and I'll lord it over you for a long time. I'm glad you fucked up...But you still fucked up. And don't think I won't be lording it over you."
Ash stared at her. She responded by sticking her tongue out at him. The group of survivors roared with laughter, but none of them laughed harder than Ash himself.