54- Sick
Summary: El ends up getting sick. Lucas and Dustin take care of her.
Requested by: MidnightWalkInMilwaukee, Melvin, and Valeriiia_RG
El shivered, pulling her blanket tighter around her.
She warily looked at the pile of tissues that were surrounding the ground around her.
El didn't know what to do. She'd woken up with a scratchy throat and a stuffed-up nose. And Hopper was already at work, so she couldn't ask him, and she didn't want to call him, she'd already called him so many times when she heard scary noises and didn't know how to work things.
So, here she was. Sitting with a pile of tissues around her which keeps multiplying by the minute, wrapped in 3 blankets, and watching one of her favorite shows.
El leaned her head back, wishing that the Party was visiting her today.
But Mike was on a trip with his family, Will and Johnathan were having some brother time, Max was grounded, and Lucas and Dustin were "sick." She didn't know what that meant, but Max had told her that when she was over a few days ago.
El looked over to the glass of water that she had poured herself and promptly forgot about it when she got settled in the position she was in now.
El took a long, deep breath, then concentrated.
She tipped her chin to her chest and glared at the glass of water, trying to make it float over to her.
Instead, it exploded.
El lurched back surprised on what had happened. That was unusual.
But the thought vanished as fast as it came when El buried back under the pile of blankets.
Her throat was dry and soar, but she couldn't care less, her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.
With a long sigh, El fell into a deep sleep.
"Dude, I'm serious!" Dustin half shouted.
"No way, I got the same thing you did, and I did not use 5 boxes of tissues." Lucas argued.
"Well, I did. And at one point, the pile of tissues was up to my bed!" Dustin used his hands to mark the height of the pile and bed.
"Somethings wrong in your head, man." Lucas shook his head, letting out a sigh of relief when he spotted Hopper's cabin approaching.
"Remember the trip wire." Lucas warned.
"Yeah, yeah." Dustin said, defeated after the argument.
Earlier this week, Dustin and Lucas had both caught the flu that was going around and had been put on bed rest the rest of the week. That meant no school, no AV club, and worst of all, no El.
Everybody had a scheduled day of the week to go visit El, though Saturday and Sunday were free days.
It had been about a week and a half since they saw each other, and after one of them had been "dead" for a year, that was a long time.
Once Lucas and Dustin made it to the door, they knocked the secret knock and waited.
But nothing happened.
"Try it again." Dustin suggested.
Lucas knocked again.
"Do you think I did it wrong?" Lucas turned to Dustin.
"It sounded right to me." Dustin told him. "But even if it wasn't, El would be blowing our heads off right now."
Lucas nodded.
"El?" he finally called out. "It's Lucas and Dustin. Can you please open the door?"
Silence.
Then, there was a quiet click.
The boys looked at each other then opened the door.
They walked cautiously into the house, waiting for something to happen.
But it never came.
Instead, they found El emerged in a heap of tissues and blankets looking exhausted.
"Hi," she croaked out.
"Oh, El." Dustin said. "What happened?"
"I don't know, woke up like this." El told the boys.
"Like what?" Lucas asked, even though he already knew.
"My throat hurts and my nose is stuffy." El stated, then got a sad look in her eyes. "Am I going to be okay?"
"Yeah, you're going to be fine." Lucas assured her. "You're just a bit sick."
"Sick?"
"It's when you feel crappy and have the symptoms you have." Dustin explained. "There's a more scientific version of it but I doubt you want a lesson right now."
El shot him a small smile.
"I bet you came down with what we had." Lucas proposed. "There's a nasty bug floating around."
"Bug?"
"It's what making you feel this way." Dustin told her.
"Oh. How does the bug go away?" El asked.
"Well bed rest, plenty of water, and other things." Dustin replied.
"I'll get you water," Lucas hopped up. "Dustin, start picking up the tissues. El, get comfortable and try to get some rest."
"Wait, why do I have to-" Dustin began.
"Just do it, Dustin." Lucas cut in.
Lucas walked into the kitchen, where he immediately felt the wetness and heard the crunchiness under his feet.
He looked down and found a broken glass and water along the floor.
Lucas decided to ignore it for now and continued on with his task.
He brought the water over to El, who gave him a grateful smile, then headed back to the kitchen to clean up the mess.
By the time the living room and kitchen were cleaned, El was curled up on the couch, eyes closed.
"She sure needs sleep." Dustin commented.
"Totally," Lucas agreed, then asked, "Star Wars marathon?"
Dustin grinned at him. "You know it."
The boys were halfway through the second movie when El finally stirred.
"Good morning, sleeping beauty." Dustin said cheerfully.
"Sleeping beauty?"
"You know what, let's explain that tomorrow." Lucas said. "Need anything, El?"
"Some water would be nice."
Dustin was the one who got it this time, while El reached out for another tissue and blew her nose.
"Let me get you a trash can to put that in," Lucas went into the bathroom to grab the small trash can.
"Thanks."
They continued on with their movie with El blowing her nose or asking for more water ever so often.
That is, until the middle of the 3rd movie.
El suddenly sneezed, and a vase came crashing down to the floor.
"What the crap was that?" Dustin asked.
But they didn't have long to figure it out since El sneezed again, this time a picture frame went falling.
"Can you control it?" Lucas asked, figuring that this was because of her powers.
El shook her head.
"Okay, okay." Dustin started pacing. "Let's figure out how to stop this."
"I don't think we can, dude." Lucas told him. "If she can't control it, how are we supposed to stop it?"
Dustin looked like he wanted to argue, but El went into a coughing fit.
There went another frame.
That was a glass.
Some magnets fell from the fridge.
When it finally stopped, Dustin decided that Lucas was right.
"Okay, fine, we can't stop it, but we can prevent it."
So, the boys got to work.
They first cleaned up the shattered glass. They then took anything off the walls and tables and wrapped all the dishes and breakable items in sweatshirts and blankets. They didn't know if it would work, but it would have to make do.
By the time they were done, El had fallen back asleep.
"Well, we'll definitely have to tell Hopper that when he gets home." Dustin told Lucas.
"Tell me what?" a gruff voice behind them asked.
Both jumped up and screamed, waking El in the process.
"Hey dad!" she called from the couch.
"Hey sweetheart." Hopper smiled at her.
"Sick."
"I see that, try getting some more rest."
And with that El flopped against the pillows once more.
"So," Hopper said, turning to Dustin and Lucas. "What happened?"
The boys explained the situation, though it was really more of them just cutting each other off and Hopper figuring out the rest.
"Are you going to get sick?" he asked.
"We both had it, so we should be good." Dustin told him.
"Alright, I'll take you home then."
The boys nodded and headed towards the door.
"Wait," El was suddenly up off the couch.
She hurried towards them and wrapped them into a hug.
"Thanks, guys."
Dustin and Lucas wrapped their arms around her and said in unison,
"No problem."
AN: Hope you liked it, MidnightWalkInMilwaukee, Melvin, and Valeriiia_RG! Requests are open everyone!