falling through
Robin sat her bag on the counter, next to Nancys. Max was standing next to her, holding two bottles of water. "This is all we have right now, we cant make it if we give you guys any more", she looked like she felt guilty. Robin took them gladly and put her hand on Maxs shoulder. "Don't worry about it, we'll only be gone a few days, this is plenty" She told her, putting a bottle in each bag. Nancy came into the room, holding some supplies, she began organizing them into the bags.
Steve stood in the doorway of the kitchen, watching. "Are you sure you dont want me to go instead?" He asked Robin. She shook her head, "Steve, its just a supply run, its too hard to take everyone now. Ive done this before, and you need to look after the kids. It'll be fine" She reassured him and zipped up her bag, turning to Nancy.
"Ready?" She asked. Robin gave a thumbs up and they hugged and said their goodbyes. Max hugged both girls extra tight. "Make sure you come back, no offense, but Steve cant take us forever.", The girls laughed at this, but it was true. Steve couldnt do it on his own for long, but they'd return, so its okay. "We'll come back, have we ever not come back?" Nancy reassured the girl and they finished their goodbyes. Then they were off, with hopes that they'd be back by tomorrow or the day after.
Robin was nervous, but she tried not to be. She bit at her lip and fidgeted with her rings- she still wore them, it was one of the only pieces of home she had left. Nancy watched, noticing Robins nervous behavior quickly. She took Robins hand in her own, trying to help calm her. "You know i wont ever let anything happen to you, its okay" She said, calmly, not even emotionally. She was trying to hide her nervousness too. Robin wanted to ask, but What if i cant protect you? What if I lose you? But she didnt. Instead, she just rubbed the other girls knuckles with her thumb as they walked.
They walked on the road for awhile, looking out for anything that would be beneficial or useful. Robin was lost in her own world, thinking, when Nancy pulled her into the woods. She looked around, confused. Nancy shushed her, and pointed at the road. There was a swarm of zombies, they couldve gotten caught up in it. If they heard them, they would all come their way. Some zombies were slow, while others were fast, they had yet to discovered the reason why this difference was a thing. So there was no way they could know if these ones could charge or not.
They waited for at least thirty minutes, leaning into each other, watching anxiously. When it was finally safe to move around again, they were back to walking.
After awhile, Robin spotted a big building, at least three or four floors, she wasn't sure what it was, but it interested her. She wanted to check it out, maybe they'd find something good. She nudged the other girl gently. "Can we check that one out?" she asked, pointing towards the building. Nancy glanced over at it, and agreed. They walked over, cautious for any walkers. Nancy broke the door open, both girls walked in, knives in hand. They looked around, nothing. No zombies in sight, that worried Nancy. Where were they? There must've been plenty of people working here previously. Robin was unfazed, she was just happy there weren't any walkers.
"I'm gonna go upstairs, while you search down here, okay?" Robin clearly felt safe enough to be alone in this building. "Mmh.. okay, keep your blade out, scream if you need me" Nancy said, getting one last glance at Robin before she headed to the stairwell. Nancy headed into one of the offices, it was small, and neatly organized. She hummed, surprised. Has no one else come by this place yet? She looked around, opening the drawer of the desk. Some paper clips, a bunch of useless papers, envelope opener… She put it in the pocket of her bag, it could be useful. She moved onto the other drawers, finding some candy, which mice had gotten into. That was disappointing, but it was just nerds, who likes nerds anyway?
She found a pair of scissors, she kept those too. They only had a few and they were getting old, so a new pair would be nice. Mostly, the drawers were filled with papers and files that meant nothing to Nancy. Next she checked out the bookshelf, also not very interesting. She found a book about latin based languages, Robin would like that. She stuffed it into her bag and looked out the window, they werent even boarded off. They were barely dirty, little bits of dust and dirt. She could see the road from here, and a dirt road leading off to the side from that one. Nancy took a mental note of it for later and went onto the next room.
Robin took her time getting up the stairs, for fear that there might be walkers upstairs. There weren't any that she could see yet. This place seemed like it used to be some sort of office building, she found lots of papers full of writing, scattered all over the hallways and rooms. In one of the rooms, she found a small snow globe with a wolf in it. The snow fell lightly around the wolf, and the water was slightly yellowed. She thought it was cute, Steve liked wolves, Robin liked to pick on him for it. But it reminded her of him, so it made her smile a bit. Steve was a pain in the ass, but he was also her best friend. She considered taking it for him, but figured she should look for more useful things first.
Robin found a few composition notebooks, and decided they could be of use for whatever reasons they needed. Communication, keeping track of things, maps, entertainment. She also found some gel pens, and it made her think of Nancy and how she used to study all the time. She'd use gel pens, decorative tape, highlighters, all of that fun stuff. They studied together a few times before the world decided to end for the billionth time. She kind of missed that, the potential her and Nancy could've had. Sure, they were close now, but it was because of trauma. But she supposed it was better than nothing, however, before the apocalypse Robin would never have allowed herself to think of Nancy romantically. She had, a few times, but she never let herself go too far. But now, the world was officially over, and she needed something to hold onto. So she let herself have a bit of a crush, she let herself have those feelings.
Nancy would never know, anyway. One of them would die before the truth came out.. Probably. Steve knew, and Robin was pretty sure a few of the kids knew, but as long as Nance never knew, it was okay.
She continued to look through the rooms, finding a few useful things here and there. Eventually she made her way up to the third floor, the stairs looked unstable this time, it made Robin nervous. She walked up slowly, the stairs were wooden, the building was probably older, they were painted to look like they weren't. But the cracks, creaks and literal rotting wood gave it away.
Nancy was pretty much done downstairs, she had found about half of her bag worth of supplies. She found her way to the stairwell to go find Robin, but as soon as she rounded the corner, she heard a loud crack and what sounded like the floor literally falling in. Which, she learned quickly, was in fact what actually happened. She watched as Robin fell through the ceiling, landing in a pile of debris and broken wood.
Nancy stood there for a moment, in shock. What the actual fuck. How can they get any more unlucky. It took her a moment to snap out of the shock, but when she did she ran up to the other girl. Robin laid under a few pieces of broken wood, her body was limp, and Nancy couldn't see her face. She seen a little bit of Robins dirty blonde hair, and began lifting the wood off of her. "Rob?? Robin can you hear me?" She asked as she pushed it away. She was afraid Robin had been knocked unconscious, she didn't know what she was going to do.
After several moments of digging, it was obvious that Robin was definitely unresponsive. Nancy sighed, her throat hurt, she felt like she might cry at the sight. Robins head was dripping blood, from several spots, Nancy couldn't even tell where. Her nose was bleeding, and her face was covered in dirt. Her arms were all scratched up, and her clothes were all dirty. Nancy took a deep breath, and took two fingers to place on Robins neck. She was shaking, terrified there would be no pulse. She let out a breath of relief when she felt the small pings of a pulse against her fingers. She brushed Robins hair out of her face and laid her head on her chest, she needed to hear her heart, to know she was alive.
Nancy listened for a few moments, bum, bum, bum, bum… She breathed deep breaths, trying not to get worked up. She needed to figure out what to do about the situation, she surely couldn't carry Robin on her own. But she couldn't leave her to go get Steve, but Robin might not wake up-
Robins eyes fluttered open as Nancy was overthinking, the sun light that peered through the window hurt her eyes. She squeezed them shut. She tried to remember what happened, she couldn't. She looked around, she felt the familiar touch of Nancy on her chest. It startled her for a moment, but she quickly calmed down. She touched Nancys curls softly, startling Nancy. Nancy jumped, looking at Robin.
"Oh! Thank god you're awake.. I was so scared." Nancy tried not to let her voice break. She really was scared, she couldnt lose Robin. She hated being vulnerable, so she wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. "We have to get home, soon. I need you to stay calm, okay? You're bleeding a bit, but you have a steady pulse and you're awake. So you're gonna be okay, okay Rob?" Nancy said, standing up and wiping herself off. She held out both hands for Robin, who just dizzily nodded and took both of her hands to stand up. She stood up wobbly, and touched her head, looking at the blood. Her eyes went wide.
"No, no dont look at that. Its okay, its not as much as it looks like. Come on" Nancy wrapped an arm around Robin and tried to guide her out of the building. Most of Robins weight was on Nancy, and she was still very wobbly. She felt like she might vomit, but she said nothing, she just focused on walking. Robin couldn't find the energy to form any words, she was so out of it. She still didn't know what happened, she was so confused. The sun was too bright and her head was pounding. Her back hurt, too. Everything ached. She leaned more on Nancy and closed her eyes, continuing to blindly walk.
"Its okay Ro, we're almost there." Nancy assured Robin, rubbing her shoulder lightly as she basically dragged Robin. It took them twice as much time to get back as it did to get there, but eventually they got there. Nancy sat Robin down in the grass outside the house, to go get Steve. "Okay, Robbie, i'm going to be right back. We're home now, im going to go get Steve." Nancy said as Robin leaned against the side of the house, looking drowsy. Robin just nodded once more and dropped her head, trying to shade her eyes. Nancy ran up to the door and barged in, everyones heads snapped her way, frightened.
"Wheres Steve?" Nancy questioned. "I'll get him" Dustin said, jumping up, concern plastered on his face. "What happened? is it Robin? Is she okay??" Max asked, trying to get out the door. Nancy stood in front of the door and nudged Max gently away. "Don't worry about it right now, i just need Steve to help me real quick." Nancy said, looking over Maxs shoulder to see Steve. He had the same look of concern that Dustin did, Dustin had picked that exact look up from him. It would've made Nancy laugh if she wasn't so concerned.
"What is it?" Steve said, pushing past the kids to go outside. "Its Robin, i'll explain later, can you please just help me get her inside?"
Steve rushed outside, his heart pounding. The second Dustin came in and told him something was wrong, he was immediately filled with fear. He found Robin, slumped against the side of the house, covered in blood and dirt. He picked her up without a thought and got her inside.
"Okay, guys, someone get me any medical supplies they can, and someone run downstairs-" Steve stopped. "I just- okay, someone get me medical supplies, i'll figure out the rest later" He took Robin upstairs and into the bathroom, sitting her in the bathtub. "Hey, Rob, its just me." He said softly, realizing her head must hurt. "I'm gonna sit behind you, okay?" He said, warning her that he was climbing into the bathtub to sit on the back of it. He examined the top of her head, there were several gashes, and another towards the bottom. Her shoulders were all torn up, and it looked like there might be something stuck inside of a few of her wounds. He began unbraiding her hair to have better access to her head wounds.
Nancy showed up in the doorway, holding all of the medical supplies she could gather. "Here, heres some peroxide and gauze" She handed him the bottle, noticing he was undoing her hair. He took it and muttered a small thanks and poured some of it onto the gauze before pressing it into the gash that was on the very top of her head. "Theres some on her face, too" Nancy noticed, taking some gauze of her own and helping clean up her face.
Robins eyes were filled with tears, and she was wincing with every pat of gauze. "Oh I know honey, its okay, it'll be over soon" Nancy whispered to Robin, holding her hand gently. Robin leaned her head into her shoulder lightly, Steve moved a little forward to continue cleaning her wounds.
"I got the plumbing to work, by the way" Steve said, still keeping his voice at a soft tone, not wanting to hurt Robins head. "I just need someone to turn on the hot water tank downstairs in the basement, we can get her in a warm bath to clean up some of her other wounds and this dirt" He said. Nancy nodded. "I'll send Mike down" She got up and went to find mike. Steve was focused on trying to take care of Robins wounds. "You've always been clumsy" Steve chuckled lightly, trying not to let himself get upset. "I wish you would be more careful, Rob. You could've died." He said, moving Robins shirt to pull out the slivers. "This is gonna hurt, Robbie, im sorry" He pulled them all out, slowly, trying not to hurt her. She sobbed, she leaned against the wall and tried to tolerate the pain. "Im sorry, its almost over, im almost done" He said, rubbing the non wounded part of her back gently.
A few minutes later, Nancy came back and told Steve the tank had been turned on. "Are you.. uhm, okay help her? Cause, you know i love her, and i'd do anything for her, but uh, i really don't think Robin wants me to see her naked. I think she'd prefer you" Steve said, awkwardly. "Yeah, dont worry about it. I'll come and get you when were done, okay? Would you mind getting her something else to wear?" Nancy asked, before Steve left. Steve agreed and left the bathroom, closing the door lightly.
"Alright, Rob, im gonna take your shirt off, okay? Can you lift your arms?" Nancy asked, tugging at the other girls shirt. Robin hummed and managed to take her own shirt off, still feeling dizzy but less out of it. She wiggled her pants off with the help of Nance, her boxers too, tucking herself into a little ball so Nancy didnt see anything. She took her bra off, too, covering herself as soon as it was off.
Nancy didn't seem phased or uncomfortable, she just turned the water on and stuffed a cloth in the drain. She took another cloth and ran it under the faucet, then rubbed some soap into it. She held it out for Robin, "Do you think you can wash yourself?" She asked, softly. Robin took the cloth with a small hum and scrubbed her body, wincing when she runs over the scrapes, gashes and cuts. she couldn't get her own back, she huffed as she tried, but her shoulders hurt too bad. Nancy took the cloth from her and began scrubbing the girls back. Robins cheeks burned red, more embarrassed than anything. She felt so stupid, and she was still so confused.
There was a light knock on the door, then it was pushed open, the redheaded younger teen stood there, holding an outfit for Robin, and a plastic cup. "Hey.. Um, I got her some clothes, and i figured you might need a cup to do her hair" She sat the clothes down, and handed the cup to Nancy. Nancy smiled, "Thanks, Max." She sat the cup on the edge of the tub. Max glanced at Robin and whispered, "Is she okay?". Nancy nodded, "She will be, now out, she'll be able to have visiters soon" She shooed Max out of the bathroom and turned back to Robin.
"I'm going to wash your hair now, Rob" Nancy warned her before pouring a warm cup of water over her hair, Robin tilted her head back and let Nancy wash it. Nancy's delicate fingers combed through her hair, softly massaging the parts of her scalp that weren't wounded. Robin hadn't had her hair washed in so long, it felt so nice. Once she was done washing and rinsing her hair, Nancy got a towel. "Okay, this might be hard. Can you try to stand?" She asked.
Robin felt so embarrassed, but Nancy didn't look as she struggled to stand. She just held her arm out for the girl and held the towel up. Once Robin was out, she sat on the toilet, wrapped in the towel. It was a baby blue towel, with some small tears, but it was so comforting.
Robin felt dizzy again, her vision blurring. She blinked slowly. "Mmn- Nanc-" She mumbled, almost stumbling over. Nancy put an arm around her damp shoulder. "Okay, its okay. We need to get you bandaged up and then we'll get you dressed, okay? Were gonna get your boxers on, though. Can you do that?" Nancy held them out. Robin took them and Nancy looked away, allowing Robin to have privacy to get her underwear on.
Once Robin was finished, Nancy turned back around and took out plenty of bandages. "Alright Rob, almost done", Nancy bandaged her to the best of their ability. Then they managed to get her dressed, after Robin wrestled with her shirt and accidentally put both legs in one pant hole, they eventually got it. Steve came back in to help them to the bedroom, where Nancy softly combed out Robins hair. They agreed to leave it down because of the wounds for now. Once Robin was comfortable and tucked in, Nancy and Steve sat outside the door.
"Okay, so. Every thirty minutes we'll wake her to check on her… Nance, What the hell happened?" Steve finally asked, looking at her with wide, concerned eyes. "She fell through the floor, literally… Somehow." She said, shaking her head.
"Only Robin Buckley could fall through the ceiling during an apocalypse."