Now that Lucas knows the truth, he feels torn. On the one hand, he doesn't get it, but on the other, he feels like an ass for not getting it, especially when Will clearly was very uncomfortable opening up to him and Dustin in the first place. "It was obviously hard for him to talk about it," he tells Dustin not two minutes after they get back into his car to drive back to Hawkins. "I just feel like I didn't do a very good job in the moment of letting him know I was listening."

"I know what you mean," says Dustin. "It's weird shit, though, isn't it? I'm amazed that Mike could even be considering hooking up with him in spite of all that. You'd think he'd be running in the opposite direction."

"Yeah, but Mike has always had kind of a saving-people thing."

"A saving-Will thing," Dustin corrects. "I mean, if Will was going to get overly attached to somebody, no wonder it was Mike. Remember the Mind Flayer?"

"I always just thought he was taking care of Will because Will happened to be the one in crisis. Wouldn't he have done the same for you or me if it had been one of us?"

"But it wasn't one of us. It was Will. Maybe it's because it was Will that Mike started feeling…"

Lucas argues, "Yeah, but he was with Eleven at the time, wasn't he? He couldn't see anybody but her like that the whole time they were together. Just because he wanted to be there for Will didn't mean he wanted to—you know—be there for Will."

He waggles his eyebrows. Dustin barks out a laugh. "Either way, it's good they're trying not to rush into anything. That shit sounds like it was messy for a long time."

"Yeah, and it's good that Will is talking to people about it now. You think he talks to El much?"

"I think he does," says Dustin. "I think he worries about her. It's probably really good for both of them that they're living together."

Feeling vaguely guilty, Lucas finally says, "We should start calling her more."

"Well, technically, we should start calling her at all," snorts Dustin. He sobers and adds, "I feel bad about that. She did save all of us way more times than she should have had to."

"Yeah," Lucas agrees. "The only ones who ever kept in touch with her were Mike and Max, and now Mike's dumped her and Max is in a coma."

"Maybe El and Max will hook up next whenever Max wakes up," jokes Dustin. Lucas is looking at the road and not at Dustin, but Dustin must see some kind of look on Lucas's face because he quickly adds, "Too soon? Sorry. I'm sorry, Lucas."

"It's okay," says Lucas, even though it's not really okay. He's back to not understanding Will, even being angry at Will, for dillydallying with Mike when at least the person he wants is still conscious—still willing, it seems, to be with him.

To push past the awkwardness, Dustin adds, "You know what? I think a visit to Mike is in order the second we get back."

"I think you're right," Lucas agrees. "I'll drive you back home after we see him. I'll need to take my car after we leave anyway so I can stop by the hospital."

They don't call ahead, so Mike isn't expecting them when they pile out of the car into Lucas's driveway and then walk next door to the Wheelers' house. He's home, though, and when they knock on the front door and ask after him, Mr. Wheeler directs them to the basement. "Incoming," Dustin announces as they're descending the stairs that lead them down there, but Mike still looks startled when he looks up and sees them after they reach the bottom.

"Hey," he says, recovering quickly. "How are Will and El?"

"El's good. Will's good," Lucas recaps. "Told us some stuff, though."

Mike's face is pale. "Stuff like…?"

"About his borderline diagnosis," says Dustin, "and about his relationship with you. Man, why didn't you tell us when any of this was going down?"

"I didn't want to betray his trust if he wasn't ready for people to know," says Mike sheepishly.

Dustin continues, "Yeah, but you could have used people to talk to, too. It's not your fault that all of your friends are his friends, too."

"That's not entirely true," Mike murmurs, "or, at least, it wasn't at the time. I had other people I could have talked to. I had Eddie. I just… didn't."

"Why not?" presses Lucas.

Mike shrugs. "If I didn't talk about it, then I didn't have to admit it was really happening—that I'd failed him so badly."

Dustin interjects, "Is that what you think? That you failed Will?"

"All I tried to do was help him. I tried to save him, and instead, I screwed him up."

Dustin doesn't seem to get it, but Lucas thinks that he does. After all, Lucas knows exactly how it feels for the person he loves most—Max—to be unreachable when all he wanted was to help her, for the last half-year (for obvious reasons) as well as before she even went into that coma.

He thinks he knows now how Nancy felt when Barb was killed. It's like the rest of the world moved on and forgot and left Lucas here to grieve all on his own—but he can't even grieve properly because there's still a chance. There's still a chance Max will survive this, but it's a slim one, and in some ways, Lucas thinks it would be kinder to take away that hope—to stop delaying what's probably inevitable.

Dustin offers to accompany Lucas to the hospital before he goes home, probably because he still feels bad about that joke about El and Max he made in the car ride back to Hawkins. For lack of anything more interesting to talk about, Lucas gives her a full update on the Mike-Will situation, figuring that there's slim to no chance she'll actually remember any of it if she ever wakes up. Dustin doesn't say much, just sits next to Lucas at her bedside and occasionally rubs comforting circles into Lucas's back.

This is what friendships are supposed to be like, Lucas can't help thinking: simple, uncomplicated support. He doesn't know how things between Mike and Will got so screwed up, but he hopes that the same thing doesn't happen between either of them and himself.

Mike tries to steer clear of conversation about Will, but when another week passes and he apparently doesn't hear a peep from Will about anything, he can't seem to help himself. "How did he seem when you saw him last weekend or when you last talked to him?" he asks Lucas over their walkies the next Friday night when they're both supposed to be in bed. "Was he okay? Does he hate me?"

"Honestly, Mike, he seemed to be worried that you hate him. It's fine. You're fine."

"Why would he think that?" Mike muses. "I'm not the one who's not—I mean, okay, I haven't been calling him, but only because he said he needed time before we could talk. I'm the one waiting for him to come around, and he's the one who won't."

Lucas argues, "You said yourself that it was really bad for a long time for him, didn't you? Maybe he's just being careful. I'm sure he's going to call you soon, and everything will go back to normal when he does."

Mike doesn't seem convinced by this explanation, but he drops it, anyway. Lucas is grateful. He's trying to be supportive, but he's still pretty sick of hearing about Mike and Will and their nonsense problems that Lucas doesn't think he'll ever understand.

Should Mike be trying harder to make sure Will knows how he feels? Should Lucas have tried harder to keep Max when she broke up with him? Should he not have taken no for an answer? But that doesn't seem right, either: they wouldn't have been the same as they were before if she hadn't had a choice in the matter.

And then an awful thought occurs to him. Did Max walk away because Lucas wasn't trying hard enough to understand her pain about Billy's death? Did she feel all alone? Did Will feel all alone? Did Lucas make Will feel all alone every time he so obviously didn't understand what Will's problem was?

He calls Will the next day to—apologize, basically. It's the first time they've talked since they saw each other in Sullivan last weekend, and Lucas trips over his words. "I just wanted to say I know I haven't had the best reaction to everything you've told me about yourself in the last month or two, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry I don't get it. I'm sorry I haven't been a better friend to you."

Will's voice is quiet through the phone. "It's okay. Thanks, Lucas."

Lucas doesn't think it is okay, but maybe it will be. Maybe it will be.