SATELLITE [STEVE HARRINGTON]

ginny, ginny, ginny

if u want to cry, i suggest listening to phoebe bridgers while you read, like i did! : )

STEVE COULDN'T GET TO HER FAST ENOUGH. He fell to his knees across from Eddie, grabbing Ginny by her limp shoulders. "Gin, hey, hey..." He shook her gently. "Wake up. It's Steve."

She didn't move.

Steve's heart raced. He held her face, and shook her again. "Ginny. Ginny."

Nancy placed two fingers onto her neck. "Shit. No pulse." Her expression was grave. "We need to— to— um—"

Everyone knew to be scared when Nancy got frazzled.

"Steve— do something!" Robin cried.

He couldn't think straight, unable to tear his eyes from Ginny's limp figure. "I don't— I can't—"

"CPR, start CPR!" Nancy ordered. Her voice knocked him from his terrified trance.

Panicked, Steve placed his hands over his lover's chest, clasping them like how he was taught in lifeguard training. Nancy positioned Ginny's head correctly, nodding frantically at him.

"Thirty compressions, two breaths, repeat— right?" Nancy asked.

Steve nodded. Eddie moved so Nancy could be perpendicular to Ginny's head, as Steve started to pump her chest, grunting with the pain that shot through his arms and muscles.

Nancy counted quietly, quickly in time with his compressions. A thousand thoughts ran through his head, all of her. Please, God, Ginny— wake up. Please wake up.

Thirty compressions later, Steve released her and Nancy leaned down, pushing breath through Ginny's lips and into her chest.

Ginny did not move.

"Again," Nancy ordered, her voice suprisingly strong.

Steve started to manually make her heart beat again, but his hands slid around from how much blood coated her chest, sourced from the wound on her right shoulder. He cursed and repositioned them, tears dropping from his face onto Ginny's neck. "C'mon, Ginny, wake up..." His voice cracked. "Come on!"

"Holy shit... Holy shit." Eddie and Robin watched with wide eyes as Steve frantically pumped her chest in a quick, steady rhythm.

But it was slipping, like tears down his cheeks. He felt her slipping.

He couldn't catch his breath, couldn't see clearly. "Please, Ginny... wake up."

Ginny did not move.

Next to him, Robin whimpered. Steve gritted his teeth. "Wake up! Come on!"

He couldn't lose her. He couldn't face her family, face Lucas and Erica and Max and Dustin. He couldn't face her parents and spit out a lie forced by the government, he couldn't fucking lose her.

They weren't supposed to end like this.

No, they were supposed to get back together and he was supposed to move to Indianapolis when Robin graduated and they were supposed to get an apartment together.

Ginny was supposed to love him for the rest of his life— supposed to kiss him when he did something stupid and kiss him when he did something smart— supposed to be smiling and laughing and living.

He lost track of how many sets of compressions and breaths they did, but one time, Nancy stopped. She sat back on her ankles.

"Why are you— why are you stopping?" he snapped, voice breaking.