Chapter Text
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
'Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
Steve Harrington, dead in car crash at eighteen.
The words didn't make any sense. Nancy read it again. Then again. Then again.
Her chest ached, sharp and sudden, like she'd been hit. Eighteen. Car crash. Dead. The words sat in her head, heavy and unreal.
Steve had been alive yesterday. Smiling despite his injuries, claiming he was fine when Nancy knew damn well that he wasn't. She didn't know what had happened in the Russian base, but she knew it couldn't have been good just from the state of his face. But still, he was alive.
Nancy swallowed hard. Her hands were shaking as she stared at the headline until the ink began to blur. This wasn't right. A car crash was easy. A car crash was plain and simple, it just happened and nobody would question it.
Steve Harrington didn't belong in a sentence that neat.
Her jaw set. Whatever this was, it wasn't the truth, and Nancy Wheeler had never been very good at letting lies sit unchallenged.
The paper crumpled in her fist and she tossed the wretched thing straight into the bin before storming out of her room. She heard a small crash from downstairs and frowned.
"Nancy!" Mike shouted from downstairs, "Nancy! You- You need to see this!"
Oh. Oh god. Nancy was pretty sure she knew why Mike was shouting.
When she got into the living room, the news footage of a wrecked BMW told her she was right. Her heart clenched at the sight. The beamer was Steve's pride and joy. He had said it had been the best gift his parents had ever given him (not that there was much competition). He would be devastated to see it in such a state. Hell, she was devastated. The car was just so... Steve. But the car was a wreck and Steve was 'dead'.
She looked at Mike, his eyes fixed on the screen. He probably hadn't even realised she'd entered the room. Her brow creased and she placed a hand on his shoulder. He practically jumped as she did, clearly startled from whatever thoughts he was having. She could see the tears in his eyes and without a second thought she pulled him closer, wrapping her arms tightly around him. She didn't care that he was so much taller than her now, he was still her little brother and he still needed her.
She felt his hands grip the back of her cardigan and gently ran a hand up and down his back like she'd done when he was younger. He shook with quiet sobs.
"This isn't possible."
Nancy's heart shattered at his whispered words. No matter how much Mike claimed to dislike Steve, she knew that wasn't true. Not anymore.
"I know," Nancy whispered back, not sure what else to say.
But really, what else could she say? He was right, it shouldn't be possible. Nothing about this was right. It screamed of a cover up. But what was being covered up?
A familiar determination burned in her heart. She had to find out. She had to prove that Steve wasn't dead. But Mike's stilted hiccups took her out of her thoughts. Answers could wait, for now, she just had to be there for her little brother.
It only got worse when the rest of the family saw. Her dad, who rarely reacted much to anything, was his usual level of unbothered. Nancy couldn't believe the nerve of that man. It set alight a fire in her that she hadn't felt since Barb died. He'd been just as much of an asshole about that too. She seethed as he didn't even give her so much as a glance. How her mum ever thought he was worthy of being a husband was beyond her.
But her mum did react. It was, well, it was strange. She'd never really seen her shaken like that before. Sure, there'd been signs after Will's disappearance and even more so after Barb's death. But that came more in the form of worry for Nancy's safety than anything else. This was different. Nancy knew her mum had liked Steve. Sure, it had been a bit of a rocky start (the fact she'd found out Nancy and Steve had sex before even meeting him had definitely caused tension) but it had gotten better.
Maybe it was the suddenness of it all that made her shaken up. It certainly had Nancy feeling that way. The wreck was plastered all over the news. It made her feel sick just looking at it. Even if Steve wasn't dead, surely he'd been in the car, right? He had driven off in it. Her jaw tightened at the thought. God, he'd already been so injured. If only that idiot had just gone to the damn hospital like she'd begged him to. When she got him back, because she refused to accept that he would never return, she wouldn't let him be alone again.
The worst reaction to deal with had been Holly's. She absolutely adored Steve. He was amazing with kids and he had been happy to help look after Holly when Nancy was stuck babysitting. Her mum had tried to block Holly's view of the TV, but she'd been too quick. She was too young to really understand what was going on, but she'd recognised Steve's car. She'd asked questions. About why Steve's car looked like that, if he was okay. It broke her already shattered heart into tiny pieces when her mum had to tell her no.
Nancy would make whoever did this pay. She'd taken on the government for Barb, and goddamnit she'd do it again for Steve.
Nancy paced back and forth across her room, going over every little detail in her head. She created a timeline. Steve had been with them when the ambulances had arrived and when they found out Hopper hadn't made it. He'd talked to them until parents began to arrive. She was pretty sure he'd spent some time talking Claudia Henderson. Then, after brushing off every plea for him to go to the hospital too, he'd left. Sometime between then and the morning, the crash happened. It was lacklustre and vague, but it was better than nothing.
She'd need to see how long it took to drive from Starcourt to the crash sight, that'd give her a better timeline. Unless he'd taken detours, but that was unlikely given how injured he was, he'd probably just wanted to go straight home.
She also needed to see the crash site. That was important. It was definitely already cleared up by now, but there could be something. Some detail hinting towards what really happened.
With a start of a plan formed, she was ready to get started. She grabbed her jacket off the back of her desk chair and pulled it on before heading for the door. Her hand hesitated above the handle. Did she really want to do this alone? Steve had been alone. She didn't want to risk it.
She turned on her heel and went to her phone, plugging in the number to the Byers' house. She twisted the cord around her fingers as she waited for someone to pick up. After ringing a few times, someone on the other end picked up.
"Byers residence."
Thankfully, it was Jonathan. Though, he sounded exhausted. Not tired exhausted, but hollow exhausted. The kind that sat in your bones and made every word feel heavy.
Nancy breathed, some of the tension in her chest loosening at the sound of his voice.
"Hey," she said softly.
There was a pause on the other end before he spoke again, quieter this time.
"Nancy?"
She couldn't help the small smile that tugged at her lips, but it dropped when she remembered why she'd actually called.
"Yeah, it's me, you see the news?"
Jonathan exhaled shakily, "Yeah."
Nancy expected him to say more. She waited. But he didn't.
Her grip tightened on the receiver, "Jonathan, it doesn't make sense."
Another pause.
"Nancy-"
"No, listen to me," she interrupted before he could attempt to shut her down, she just had to get him to see what she had, "Steve left Starcourt alive. And now suddenly he'd dead in some random car crash a few hours later? There wasn't even another car involved."
"Nancy..." Jonathan sounded tired already, like she was exhausting him.
Her jaw tightened.
"The timing is suspicious and the whole thing feels off. They're barely giving any details and-"
"Maybe because it was just an accident."
The words hit her like ice-cold water.
Nancy blinked. Had he? Had he really just said that?
"What?"
Jonathan sighed softly into the phone, "Car accidents happen, Nance. And he was injured, it's not unthinkable for him to pass out at the wheel."
How dare he. How could he have the gall to claim it was just an accident. After everything. Every lie they'd exposed, every time they'd seen first hand how far the government was willing to go to keep a secret. Like hell it was an accident.
"No," she said immediately, her voice sharper now, "Not like this."
"You don't know that."
"And you do?" she snapped.
He didn't respond.
Nancy gripped the phone tight in her hand. Tight enough that, if she hadn't been so angry, she'd have been worried she'd break it.
"You saw the car," she continued, voice rising, "You know damn well what the government has done to keep a secret. What the Russians have done."
"I know," Jonathan said quickly, she could hear the frustration creeping into his voice, "I know, okay? But not everything is a conspiracy."
Nancy froze.
For a second, all she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears.
'Not everything was a conspiracy'
The words dragged her right back to the Hawkins Post. Back to dismissive looks, condescending smiles, and asshole men acting like she was stepping out of line for simply having a goddamn thought. They'd treated her like she was hysterical for refusing to let something go. She'd felt like a laughing stock. And Jonathan had been no different.
Her throat tightened painfully.
Jonathan's voice softened slightly, "Nancy, I'm just saying maybe this time-"
"You promised."
Jonathan went silent.
Nancy stared at the wall of her bedroom, blinking rapidly. She looked at the Tom Cruise poster she still had hung up. It only hurt more. Steve had dressed as Tom Cruise, said he kinda looked like him to cheer her up. She tore her eyes away.
"You promised you wouldn't do this again," he snapped.
"Nancy, that's not fair-"
"Isn't it?" she interrupted, "Because it sounds pretty familiar to me."
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?" she demanded," Because right now it sounds like you're doing exactly what you swore you'd stop doing. I was right about the rats, and I know I'm damn right about this too."
Jonathan exhaled hard through his nose, "I'm just trying to be realistic."
"And I'm trying to save my friend!"
Her voice cracked on the last word.
Nancy pressed her hand over her eyes, breathing unevenly now. God, she was sick of it all. Hopper was dead. Steve was supposedly dead. The town felt like it was falling apart and Jonathan was acting like she was crazy for seeing what was right in front of her.
The silence dragged on until Jonathan finally broke it, his voice quieter this time.
"I can't do this right now."
Something in her chest splintered. She had been expecting something closer to anger. But he just sounded defeated. Like he'd already given up.
Nancy lowered her hand slowly.
"Right," she said, her voice cold.
"Nancy-"
"No, it's fine."
"It isn't."
"You're right," she said bitterly, "It isn't."
Another long pause stretched between them, broken only by the muffled sounds of movement in the background at Jonathan's house.
She'd called him because she'd wanted him beside her. Instead, somehow, she'd ended up feeling more alone than before.
"I have to go," she said quietly.
"Nancy, wait-"
She hung up before he could finish, slamming the phone down.
Nancy stood there for a moment with the receiver still clenched tightly in her hand, breathing hard. With a huff of frustration, she headed for the door once more.
If Jonathan wasn't coming, she'd just have to come up with something else, and she had a pretty good idea as to what.
Nancy had been searching for what felt like hours. File after file after file. They hadn't been too difficult to access, everything surrounding the 'mall fire' was in shambles really. But the mall had a lot of employees, what with it having been brand new. The records had job applications, both rejected and accepted, and the actual employee files too. Even in alphabetical order, Nancy hadn't known all of the businesses in the mall nevermind how many started with 'S' and she'd had to go through each and every file as she didn't know how many employees there were at each place either. It was tedious, but eventually she came across Scoops Ahoy.
There were a few names she didn't recognise, managers and such. People who'd never actually been around the shop floor. There were another few employees she had to sift through before she came to the name she was looking for. Robin Buckley.
With Jonathan out of the question after their conversation and Nancy refusing to drag any of the kids into this, Robin Buckley was her best shot. She didn't really know much about her. She had worked with Steve at Scoops Ahoy, she and Steve were friends, they'd been trapped in a Russian Bunker together, and she was in band at Hawkins High.
But Nancy didn't have any other options and Robin had to be at least somewhat capable if she'd been the one to crack the Russian code. She'd be able to do more than Jonathan anyway.
It didn't take long for Nancy to find the listed address and she quickly scribbled it down in a notepad. But as she went to put the files away, her eyes caught on something.
Peeking out from behind Robin's file was Steve Harrington. Written in the same black font as every other name. It was so unassuming. So normal. But Nancy couldn't tear her eyes away from it.
She almost glared at the offending piece of paper. Like it had committed some cardinal sin by simply baring Steve's name. She wasn't sure why it made her fist clench, or her mouth tighten into a thin line.
Nancy forced herself to look away.
It was just a file. Just paper and ink and typed letters. But seeing his name sitting there so casually, tucked between dozens of other employees like nothing had happened, it made something twist painfully in her chest.
Her eyes flicked downward before she could stop herself.
Harrington, Steven
Nancy swallowed thickly. She wasn't sure how long she sat there, staring at the stupid piece of paper. Long enough for the words to become blurry as she stared at them through tears. The feeling of one of them rolling down her face snapped her out of it. It left a stinging sensation behind as she wiped it away.
She abruptly shoved the folder back into place harder than necessary, the cabinet rattling loudly in protest. She winced and looked around. Nobody was in the room, but she wasn't sure if anyone outside had heard.
Nancy quickly cleared her throat and busied herself organising the files she'd already gone through, trying to look like she wasn't moments away from either crying or punching something.
Footsteps echoed somewhere in the building, once again reminding her that other people were around. Nancy exhaled slowly through her nose.
Get it together.
She slipped the notepad into her jacket pocket and shut the drawer firmly. She drew in a deep breath, squaring her shoulders and standing up, her chest burning with a growing certainty that she was right.