CXI
When she comes back to herself and removes the blindfold, Max is already there, tissue in hand. She accepts it.
"How was it?" she asks as she goes to turn off the radio whose static they have used.
"I talked… to Henry," Eleven answers, wiping her nose with the white cloth that her friend has provided her.
This seems to wake her up completely: in a flash, she is already sitting next to her, legs crossed and expression attentive.
"Yeah? What happened?"
"I wanted to ask him… if he is on my side," she acknowledges with a sad smile.
"And what did he say?"
Eleven looks down. "You knew it… Didn't you?"
Max doesn't ask her what she means; she is a perceptive girl. That's why they are friends; because she has no major problems or qualms about traveling the distance that Eleven cannot put into words.
"… I suspected it," she admits.
"And you didn't say anything—"
"I wanted to do it," Max confesses. "I was going to, two years ago, that time. But I was afraid that Henry might hear it and… And besides, it wasn't my place to tell you."
"You let me go out with Mike!" Eleven knows that she is being unfair: that she is lashing out at someone who has been nothing but a good friend.
"I wasn't about to forbid you anything!" Max protests, her voice dripping with indignation; Eleven can see she has hurt her. "I'm your friend, not your mother." Her shoulders slump suddenly, her discouragement evident. "And I thought… I thought it would do you good."
She still wants to tell her off. As if her feelings were her fault, and not something she carried inside herself, that she has carried inside herself for who knows how long.
Thick tears slide down her face. Max closes the distance between them. "El…!"
Eleven falls into the arms of her friend, who can only hug her tightly.
"It isn't… It's not going to happen," she sobs. "It is impossible and…"
She liked Mike. Yes, she really did. Even now she considers him attractive, and tender, and lovely.
But Henry…
Oh, Henry…
"I'm sorry," Max mumbles, unable to lie to her for the sake of superficial relief. "I don't know what… I don't know what to say, or how to fix this, El, believe me, and…"
Max remains silent in the face of a sharp and prolonged sound that seems to have no end.
It takes Eleven a while to realize that it is a pitiful squeal escaping her own lips.
Henry goes down to his office, ready to fully endeavor to his usual readings of anatomy and biology. It's barely four in the morning, but he hasn't been able to go back to sleep; he senses that, no matter how hard he tries, it will be impossible.
He doesn't know why it occurred to him that he would be able to focus, since the reason that has deprived him of sleep in the first place is the same one that prevents him from concentrating: he keeps seeing Eleven's sad eyes in his mind.
His first thought when he sees her like this is to fix things. It's the first thing that comes to his mind on an instinctive level: what is broken and how can he fix it? And that's why he can't help but wonder what has caused this.
It must be that boy, he tells himself, rubbing his temples with his fingers.
And although he has behaved because he has the habit of putting Eleven first, for some time now Mike Wheeler's existence has been becoming more and more offensive to him. Oh, but if he only knew what Henry was capable of…
And then he remembers that Angela, after all her horrible actions, is still out there, as happy and stupid as ever, with her entire spine intact, and lets out a bitter laugh.
No, he's not going to do anything to Mike; Eleven wouldn't forgive him.
That's what he thinking about when he feels something against his leg; a quick glance confirms that it is Poe, who must have followed him from the room. Henry doesn't lift him, but straightens his back to leave his lap free.
The cat accepts it with one jump.
Here, in the darkness of his office, the only refuge from the shadows before dawn, Henry allows himself to slide his fingers through the white fur without saying a word.
Poe, far from protesting his silence, closes his eyes and lets out an almost inaudible purr.