AN: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter to you in our catch up, I'm also sorry its very angsty and boy does this poor girl have some trauma. I apologise again for any mistakes, I hope I've caught them all.

Trigger warnings: Physical and emotional child abuse, neglect, alcohol and drug abuse, mentions of life threatening illness, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Preview: Max's week away from home isn't as peaceful as they all hoped, concerns grow for her welfare while suspicions about her home life rise. The Wheeler's seek advice while Nancy learns of Max's pre-Hawkins trauma.

Chapter Five - Californian Nightmare.

"Mom?"

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"Mom please, wake up!"

"Mom!"

"No! Mom! Don't leave me, Mom!"

"Please! I'm sorry! I'll be better, Mom! Mom!"

She shot up in bed, the loud 'mom' tearing from her lips, terror pounding in her chest as her eyes frantically searched the room. She felt disoriented not recognising the room till she felt a pressure on her shoulder and heard a sleep ridden voice speak softly.

"Hey, hey, hey, look at me, it's okay, you're alright."

She could feel the pressure on her shoulder leaving, being replaced with a pressure on her back and the side of her one leg instead as her front pressed against something warm and solid yet soft at the same time.

"You're okay, focus on me, just on me. You know you're safe here, yeah?"

"Na-nancy?" Max asked, her eyes still unfocused but her ears reconsigning the voice speaking to her. "My mom, we-we need to, where's my Mom?" Max continued, voice shaking as she scanned the room, eyes full of confusion, "Mom?!"

Pulling her close Nancy calmly made soft shushing sounds when Max cried for her mom again and again, gently easing the younger girl awake and out of her panic-filled state. After some time Nancy slowly started swaying with Max against her chest, "It's okay sweetheart, your mom's alright, I promise," Nancy assured, "she's okay, we spoke to her on the phone didn't we? She's on holiday back in California with your stepfather and you're staying at my house while they're away, remember?" she explained gently, Max knew all this already but Nancy could tell the younger girl's mind was not fully out of her nightmare induced fear yet.

Max nodded slowly as her mind caught up and she remembered they were in Nancy's bedroom, on the bed.

It was late, or early morning depending on how you viewed time.

Nancy was sitting up leaning with her back against the metal bed rails, Max practically sat in her lap with Nancy's arms wrapped around her protectively. Nancy's one arm around Max's back hand resting gently on the younger girl's leg while her other hand rubbed random patterns into Max's back to sooth her.

"Everything's okay sweetheart, your Mom's okay, and so are you," Nancy soothed, tucking Max's head under her chin as she spoke, "try and calm down for me yeah? I can feel your heart beating a mile a minute, that was another bad one, huh?" Nancy prompted with a frown, feeling Max's back shudder and tremble against her hand. Her breathing still fast and laboured.

Max only nodded again in response, hand slowly reaching up to tangle in Nancy's sleep-shirt, holding on tightly with a small whimper.

Nancy gave her a small squeeze, continuing to sway from side to side gently. "I'm right here little sis, I've got you and I'm not going anywhere, alright? I've got you," she assured, noticing the white knuckled grip Max had on her. "I just wish you'd tell me what these are about sweetheart, I can't help if I don't know what's frightening you," Nancy murmured, speaking the words into Max's hair softly.

It had become almost a norm over the last five nights- if any member of the household walked by they would not be surprised anymore to see Max clinging to Nancy in this way. Over the last few days the two had become even closer, gone was Max's awkwardness with accepting comfort, and asking for it.

Max had nightmares.

Bad ones.

She would wake shaking, in fear most times, sometimes in tears, usually abruptly and loudly. Nancy would wake with her having become attuned to the movements as the younger girl began whimpering, crying out and thrashing about in the bed next to her. The wait for Max to calm was agonising as rarely would the younger girl talk unless still in the clasps of a nightmare. All Nancy could do was hold her and reassure her with comforting words that she was honestly having trouble believing herself.

Max was not okay.

It was painfully obvious and becoming increasingly concerning as the days went by.

The frequency of the nightmares only proved it further as this didn't happen just occasionally.

It was every night- multiple times, which only became more frequent once Max's fever had broken, which coincidentally happened not long after they had managed to track down a telephone number for the hotel Max's mom was staying at finding out she was back in California for a visit.

It seemed almost cruel to Nancy that the better the younger girl began to look and feel the worse her sleeping pattern became.

The only time Max had truly rested being the first night she was with them while she had a raging temperature that kept her asleep. Karen was convinced the nightmares were likely what caused Max to become sick in the first place after Max had admitted she'd been having nightmares for close to eleven months now.

The fact this was prior to moving to Hawkins was not lost on Nancy.

Karen's thoughts turned more to the younger girl's lack of restful sleep after what they had learned her thinking being that the lack of sleep was making her immune system weak and causing her to become unwell in the first place. Nancy found herself agreeing with her mother in part- it was after all highly likely, Nancy could already see Max was sleep deprived before knowing about the nightmares.

Nancy couldn't help but wonder if Billy was a big reason for the nightmares in the first place- asshole was too polite a term in her opinion.

Max's stepbrother had shown up yesterday evening at dinner time, ranting, raving and drunk. It had caused quite the scene in the neighbourhood as well as in the house. Ted had called the police to have Billy removed, after the shouting and banging became consistent enough that the situation could not be ignored. The initial hope had been he would give up after the door had been slammed in his face the second time, but he hadn't. Once he started ranting about lessons on respect and responsibility that had Max turning pale and tense and Holly crying in confusion leaving everyone at the table to on edge to eat Ted had reached his wits end. Nancy wasn't sure whether it was her fathers anger at the situation or her mother trying to place a hand on the redheads shoulder in comfort that did it, but one or maybe even both of these actions ended with a glass of orange juice smashed on the kitchen floor by accident and a hyperventilating panic ridden Max trembling in Nancy's arms on the floor under the table for over an hour very nearly losing consciousness from the force of the panic attack.

Getting Max to calm down, let alone sleep that night had not been easy, Max had refused to make eye contact with anyone who wasn't Nancy after calming, she tensed whenever Ted was in the same room as her and flinched away from Karen whenever the Wheeler mother tried to offer comfort. She had been barely able to sleep longer than two hours through the night before waking up screaming, crying or flinching away from even Nancy.

The nightmares last night had been the worst by far, coming much more frequently and leaving Max a shaking mess with any sound above a whisper causing panic.

By 2:30am Karen had thought enough was enough, Max had been crying for her mother while asleep, still asking for her when awake and panicking herself into a frenzy that was close to making her sick so she called the hotel to speak with Susan who in turn asked to speak with Max.

The phone call which Karen had initiated hoping to bring her temporary ward comfort had lasted barely two minutes.

By the time it finished Max was worse than she had been before and cried until she threw up before succumbing to exhaust fuelled sleep in Nancy's arms only to wake frightened again a few hours later, the two of them moving downstairs to watch a video as morning was soon approaching.

Karen found them on the couch at 7am, and knew there would be no school for either of them again.

Nancy refusing to let go of the younger girl, her protectiveness hitting a new high while Max looked far too exhausted and tense to send to school.

Max had been utterly withdrawn all day from conversations with Nancy, Karen and even Ted trying to get the red-head to speak to them about what had happened the night before with Billy, her reaction to what happened at the dinner table, the nightmares or even just the phone call with her mother but Max had not spoken a word other than repeating that she was sorry over and over again.

She had however been stuck to Nancy's side like glue whenever possible.

While she didn't want to speak it was clear to see Max was frightened and wanted comfort. Nancy was more than happy to give the younger girl any comfort she needed, but she would be lying if she said she hadn't become even more concerned as the week went on. Max seemed physically better since the fever had broken, since she had been able to keep food down, she even seemed to be less tense in her posture. Her mind however seemed to be running a mile a minute, almost as though she was second guessing each action and word spoken as though worried about the reaction it caused. Jonathan's comments from the night Mike accidentally hurt Max kept coming back to the forefront of Nancy's mind more frequently as she spent more time with the younger girl.

Breathing deeply Nancy dropped a delicate kiss to Max's hair, bringing the swaying motion to an end as she settled against the pillows with her back pressed against the metal bed frame supporting a slightly calmer Max, still tucked into her arms.

The room was quiet for some time, the only sounds coming from Max's still somewhat raspy breathing and Nancy's occasional soft murmurs.

"My, my mom-," Max said, voice catching, the words loud in the now quiet room. Nancy was about to reassure once more until Max continued, "-she, it's just things got bad last time in California, really bad...and I just, I can't get it out my head, it keeps happening over and over."

Feeling the younger girl shiver in her arms Nancy tugged a blanket over them both for warmth and comfort leaning over slightly to tug the blanket up from the floor where it has fallen throughout the night, her hand resting as a constant pressure on Max's back trailing small circles with her fingertips lightly over the blanket. "What happened back in California?" Nancy prompted as Max fell silent again.

"My Aunt got really sick and Mom, well, she didn't cope well, you know, after- she-she started drinking more and more and got really angry, then she got sick too but a different kind of sick," Max explained, one hand clutching at Nancy's sleep-shirt tightly, while the other hand picked at the blanket absentmindedly.

With the words ringing in Nancy's ears her thoughts went back to Max's house on Monday morning, her memories flashing to the messy living room littered with cigarette butts, takeaway containers and empty alcohol cans that at the time she had assumed were Billy's.

Her own heartbeat started to drum faster as she listened carefully to every word Max spoke.

"In the end we had to leave- we had to leave because she couldn't be there anymore after- after- that night. There was too much temptation, and too much she could get hold of easily- the doctors didn't think she would make it at first, they thought she had taken too much," Max continued, struggling to find a way to explain, "-they got really angry, all of them- I just wanted my Mom back and she wasn't waking up and I didn't know what else to do because no one else was home but I couldn't answer their questions and it created a whole mess with all these different people being called- I didn't mean to do that I just wanted my Mom to wake up, I didn't meant to screw everything up and mess things up for Billy and Neil, I swear-" Max confessed, turning slightly to look into Nancy's eyes.

Nancy's mind couldn't catch up at first, she stared into Max's eyes feeling her heart break for the younger girl, shattering further the more Max revealed.

"I just wanted her to wake up and be okay again, but now she seems different- Billy said its my fault everything is a mess. My fault we had to leave and that Neil is angry all the time- and my Mom, my Mom is so sad- Billy said that she- that she doesn't care about me anymore and-and wanted to get away from having to put up with me... Nancy? I think she hates me," Max whispered out, her voice desperate yet quiet, blue eyes filled with tears and confusion and heartbreak.

After a moment of silence Nancy's eyes widened as she realised Max was blaming herself for things that were completely out of her control. "No Max, no, don't you even think that for one second, you didn't screw up anything okay? I mean it, none of what you just told me is your fault at all and no one, absolutely no one should be blaming you for any of it. What Billy said is bullshit!" Nancy said seriously, angrily. "Okay? He's talking bullshit and he's being an asshole. I'm not letting him get away with it anymore, I swear to god he is not going to know what- hey, no, no it's okay- come here," she soothed, pulling Max back into her chest and holding her close having seen the tears running down the younger girls cheeks. "I'm sorry sweetheart, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Nancy murmured, knowing her outburst likely caused the latest tears. "I can't begin to imagine how terrifying it must have been seeing your Mom like that," She soothed further, the nightmares beginning to make a lot more sense. "But Max, listen, the things Billy has been saying- that's not okay, he cannot be messing with you like this, getting in your head like this- it's got to stop. None of this is your fault, and I'm certain that your Mom does not hate you, we're going to sort this I promise."

Max only shut her eyes tightly in response, head burrowing into Nancy once again trying to shake the memories away of seeing her mother's motionless body on the couch back in California on her thirteenth birthday.

Trying to shake off the angry shouting and disappointment she had been subjected to since that night, which just recently had become worse.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Downstairs Karen paced in the kitchen, Holly in her arms cuddling into her mother close to sleep. Max's shouts before had woken the youngest Wheeler who had run down to her mother and father for comfort. Karen had already been on her way up the stairs when Holly collided into her, stopping her in her tracks. As Max's shouts had calmed and it seemed quieter up the stairs Karen had decided to let her oldest help Max as she calmed her youngest back to sleep.

"I don't like it Ted," Karen announced into the silence.

This wasn't the first time she had said so.

The last few days Karen and Ted had discussed their temporary ward in great detail, and Nancy's concerns, Karen's own concerns growing each day. She couldn't understand how they didn't realise the girl was sick before leaving. While Max's illness was quick to disperse with some rest and medicine there must have been warning signs. Karen was sure she had seen them herself Friday evening when the young redhead had joined them for dinner.

Sighing, Ted lowered his newspaper, "We can't keep her here forever Karen, the girl's parents are returning tomorrow and already said they would be here to pick her up Sunday afternoon."

Neil had called during the day, early morning just before Ted left for work, demanding to speak with the man of the house when Mike had answered the phone, commenting that Max's stepfather sounded scary.

The conversation was short, Ted's face turning stoney as he listened, ending the conversation with an 'I don't think that is necessary or helpful'.

"She's been having nightmares for days Ted, days! That poor girl was in tears after that phone call last night and has barely spoken all day. She's been even more on edge since they called back to arrange picking her up Sunday and I honestly think she assumed you would hit her at the dinner table when that orange juice fell over in all that commotion the other night. Children do not have panic attacks like the one she had without having been through some kinda of trauma to cause them- she is not a happy child Ted, and don't you dare try to tell me otherwise," Karen ranted.

"I know but-"

"Something is not right Ted and I cannot let a child leave my- our care knowing that she may not be safe when she does so. You know this has all the signs you hear about. The things to look out for when children are abused! I'm not letting a thirteen year old girl go home to god kno-"

"-Karen" Ted cut in, speaking loudly over her rant. "I agree with you, but as I was trying to say we cannot just keep her here of our own accord, we need to get official channels involved."

"You agree?" Karen said, confused.

Usually her husband only moaned and complained about extra children being in the house.

Ted nodded, "I don't feel right about sending her home after speaking with her stepfather, but if we go throwing accusations around without proof then we could end making things worse for her if what we think is happening is actually happening. Jim's bringing El over in the morning, all Mike's friends will be here, Max is part of that little group so while they are distracted we can talk to Jim and get some help on how best to handle this."

The room was silent for some time, Ted turning back to his newspaper as Karen frowned looking up at the stairs deep in thought.

"What exactly was said on the phone Ted?" Karen asked, concerned.

Ted lowered the newspaper again, looking over to check that Holly was asleep before responding, "That drunk son of a bitch told me that giving her a few dozen licks of the belt would keep her quiet till he can deal with her."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The conversation with Hopper had gone differently depending on who you asked.

Max was oblivious, or at least seemed to be, she had been busy with the party as the conversation took place all the kids outside enjoying the good weather and oblivious to the turmoil inside the house. Nancy knew something was going on glancing up at the windows to see her mother pacing around the kitchen window but had not been told directly what, she had only been asked to try and get Max talking about her home life if possible, something she was already doing wholeheartedly after the conversation she had with Max about why they left California.

Max had begged her not to tell anyone, and Nancy agreed reluctantly after telling Max she would however be having words with Billy.

She also planned to have words with Max's mother too, but did not mention this to Max.

She didn't want to cause Max any distrust towards her but couldn't ignore the nagging feeling that she needed to look into this for Max's safety. Her reluctant agreement to not tell anyone what Max had confided in her was paramount to Max being safe, she had made that clear and made the younger girl promise to come to her right away if that was ever in doubt or the situation with her mother became too much for her to deal with at home.

Ted was feeling more at ease with a plan in place and official channels being made aware but still not happy with the outcome having hoped that a better solution could have been found.

Karen had been livid.

First at Hopper, then at the situation.

To her it looked as though all they could do was send Max home and wait for what she viewed as the inevitable to happen so there was enough 'evidence'.

Hopper had felt like he was betraying them all, especially Max by not being able to do more, but his hands were tied. There were rules to abide by, red tape to go through and guidelines in place for these situations. Unfortunately those guidelines did little to help a person who was actually being abused and seemed to only aid the abusers.

The biggest problem was corporal discipline was not outlawed in Hawkins.

Reasonable physical discipline of a child was deemed acceptable. The issue became trying to define what was reasonable discipline and what fell into the category of abuse.

Hopper knew that and hated it.

He didn't doubt the Wheeler's' concerns for one moment but for him to act he needed evidence that the concerns were founded, evidence that could not be picked apart.

He needed proof.

He needed something to act on.

Suspicions and drunken phone calls only heard by one person unfortunately would not cut it.

Hopper had been down this road before and no matter how concrete those suspicions and how damaging the calls may be, without solid proof Max would end up back at home, likely much worse off than she started. At the very least Hopper needed Max to confide in someone, preferably an adult, about what was happening at home. He needed her to admit she was frightened for her safety so that he could enforce the law- as he could then remove her from her home to investigate if what was going on exceeded that of reasonable discipline. Better yet would be for her to be able to show the damage inflicted if she could to prove this, even better still would be catching them while that damage was being inflicted.

The best he was able to do currently was promise to make sure he would be the one to attend any calls regarding the household should they come in again and attempt to do more patrols in the area. To date there had only been two calls, one for loud music his deputies had checked out, finding nothing out of the ordinary they had reported, and the one earlier this week to remove Billy from the Wheeler's property. He also had promised to do some digging and see if there were any similar concerns from the family's time in California and check in with the school as discreetly as possible for any concerns to aid in getting cps involved.

He had asked the Wheeler's to keep a log of anything that happened that caused concern, explaining it as building detailed evidence to support the concerns, something Karen was quick to jump on, having made detailed notes on multiple incidents over the last couple of weeks.

Now as Sunday night came it was clear to see Max was on edge and dangerously close to panicking again.

Her mother and stepfather had been due hours ago with no contact. The more time that went by the more tense Max became, her grip on Nancy only becoming tighter. Every noise from outside the house only caused Max's body to flinch harder and curl in tighter to the older girl trying to hide herself away. Nancy for her part was very patient with her, doing her best to comfort Max, not once complaining about having the younger girl almost in her lap, permanently attached to her side, hands almost clawing at her blouse every time her panic peaked.

If it stopped her honorary little sister from panicking like she did the other night Nancy would happily sacrifice a blouse.

Nancy didn't comment on the behaviour, nor the fact her mother had been watching them while writing away in a notebook. Instead she murmured comforting words when Max flinched and rubbed her back softly to soothe her, trying to give the smaller girl some form of comfort not knowing what else to do.

Max had been so quiet all day, barely speaking unless asked a direct question, walking around on eggshells as though one wrong move would set someone, anyone one off.

Even Mike had picked up on it, asking if Max had wanted to teach him how to skateboard. Trying in his own way to get Max to relax, the two of them had become much closer over the week, which was something Nancy had been glad to see. It hadn't worked unfortunately, Max had agreed and Mike could now use a skateboard semi confidently but Max was still a bundle of short wired nerves.

"Nancy?" Max asked suddenly. So quietly she could barely be heard over the TV's broadcast.

Pulling away just slightly Nancy's reply did not leave her lips when she noticed the redhead was looking up at her, lip quivering with tears in her eyes. Instead she lifted a hand to cup Max's cheek as softly as possible, thumb brushing the lone tear that trickled down, noticing in the corner of her eye her father watching them very closely, TV remote in hand and TV now noticeably quieter.

"I-I," Max began nervously, voice shaking nearly as hard as her body.

She was terrified.

She knew the moment she stepped foot in Neil's house she would be in for it.

She knew the still healing skin on her backside would be beaten raw and painful again and she desperately did not want that to happen. She wasn't sure she would survive much more, it had been a week since she was last struck and she was still in pain and so incredibly on edge.

Nancy didn't dare speak, she wanted to offer words of encouragement so badly but didn't want to stop Max from talking now she had finally started, i nstead she waited for Max to gather her thoughts.

She vaguely registered the sound of a door closing in the distance.

Max closed her eyes, swallowing loudly before trying again, "I-I didn't have a skateboarding ac-acident," she admitted, opening her eyes to look at Nancy again, who smiled at her sadly trying to encourage her to keep going, "I'm s-sorry, for lying- its-its just he said- he said if I told anyone my Mom wouldn't- it would be like when we had to come here, but worse and-and it would be my fault again and-and- and I'm sca-"

"-Maxine, thought I heard your voice through here," Neil's voice boomed, cutting Max off as her eyes widened mouth clamping shut quickly as Nancy's head whipped around at the sound of the voice noticing her mother standing in the doorway behind Neil who had a hand placed heavily on Mike's shoulder.

Shit.

AN: Thank you for reading, please do drop me a review or comment, let me know what you all think.