Control // It (2017) // Stanley Uris

Epilogue pt.3

"I-I found him," Mia cried to the nurse at the front desk. Without another word, Mia scrambled around the waiting area of the hospital. Stanley was brought in by the nurses, and immediately Mia found the hospital's payphone. She typed in one of the only numbers she truly had memorized and waited impatiently for someone to answer.

"Hello?" An all-too-familiar voice answered on the other end of the call.

"Billy?" Mia breathed a sigh of relief, her tears finally beginning to dry up. Bill was back in Derry, back in their childhood home. The house phone number was the only number Mia could think to call.

"Mia?" Bill gasped, "how are you?"

"N-not so good..." Mia breathed heavily, "I went to Stanley's house, to find out why he wasn't coming back to Derry." Mia paused for a moment, then continued, "he tried to kill himself, Bill."

"What?" Bill was absolutely shocked, his voice became shaky and hesitant, "is he okay? What happened?"

"I found him in his bathtub. He slit his wrists up to his elbows and wrote..." Mia shuddered, her memory drawing back to the blood-written message on the tile wall, "he wrote the word 'IT' out in his own blood..."

"Holy shit," Mia could practically hear Bill shake his head back and forth, "Is he going to be okay?"

"I don't know. I'm at the hospital now," Mia's eyes scanned the desolate room until they met the gaze of one Patricia Blum. "And his wife just walked in."

"Give me updates, please. We're all here now." Bill hung up the phone.

"Where is he?" Patty stormed into the room, up to the lady at the front desk. "Where is my Stanley?"

"Ma'am," The lady held up her hands in a defensive manner, "ma'am I need you to calm down."

"How am I supposed to calm down?" Patty raised her voice further. "I want to see him now!"

Patty began to create a scene, screaming and huffing and puffing. She was completely off her rocker. Soon enough, two security guards grabbed her by the arms and escorted her out of the building.

Mia sat down in the waiting area and stared blankly out the window. She felt so alone, so scared, so heartbroken. Memories of this feeling began to flood her mind.

"No, Bill, I'm not going to hear him out," Mia huffed, grabbing the last folded sweater from her closet and placing it in her suitcase. "It doesn't matter if he was drunk or not, he still did it!"

"Mia, please, you don't understand," Bill tried to find reason in the Bowers girl.

"What don't I understand?" Mia turned to her foster brother and crossed her arms over her chest. "I understand how he broke my heart, how he fucked some random chick at a party and never fully apologized for it, and I understand that you're trying to stand up for him because he's your best friend. Well, guess what, Bill? I'm supposed to be your sister. How could you possibly be okay with him doing this to me?"

"It's n-not okay, Mia. It's really not, and I don't mean to defend him. What he did was r-really shitty." He stuttered.

"Then what are you trying to do?" Mia rolled her eyes, returning to her suitcase. She zipped it completely shut and grabbed it off of her bed.

"It's been two days and he hasn't stopped crying. He hasn't apologized because you haven't let him."

"I don't think that's really my problem." She pushed her way out of the room and down the stairs. Bill followed behind her, desperately trying to convince her not to go.

"Mia, wait, please." Bill reached for the Bowers girl's shoulder, tapping it lightly. Mia made her way out to Henry's car that was parked outside. Henry sat in the front seat smoking a cigarette.

"If you don't hear him out, you're always going to regret it. Please, Mia, listen to me!" Bill called out as Mia threw her bag in the trunk of her older brother's car. She opened the passenger seat door and climbed in, buckling up her seatbelt.

"Bye, Billy. I'll miss you." She sadly replied, then drove off down the street, leaving Bill Denbrough stood in the middle of the road with his hands in his hair and tears welling his eyes.

In that moment Mia never considered Bill's words, 'if you don't hear him out, you're always going to regret it'. But her actions that day did haunt her. Leaving Derry the way she did truly was the biggest regret of Mia Bowers's life.

After thirty minutes passed by, Mia approached the counter again. The lady smiled up at Mia, her teeth showing through her parted lips. The red lipstick that was smeared so delicately across them had smudged on to her front teeth.

"Hi," Mia quietly spoke, "I was just wondering if you've heard anything?"

The lady smiled again, then turned towards a clipboard she had to her left. She turned the page twice and placed her pointer finger on the paper, her eyes following her finger down the page. She landed on a single name and her eyes lit up.

"Stanley Uris?" The lady double-checked.

"Yes, that's him."

"He's upstairs, he's had a couple of blood transfusions and he's using an IV, but he's stable." She read from the pages.

"Can I see him?" Mia's heart sewed itself back together, and she was finally able to breathe.

"What is your relation to the patient? Immediate family only." She pulled the cap off of a blue pen and held it to the page, ready to write down Mia's information.

"I'm his-" Mia began to say friend, but realized that that wouldn't cut it. "I'm his wife." She lied, hoping that the lady would believe her.

"Who was the woman from before?"

"Oh, her?" Mia shifted her weight uneasily, "that was his crazy sister. Definitely off her meds, that one."

The two women shared a nervous chuckle, then the lady wrote down Mia's name on Stanley's medical record.

Once she'd been directed where to go, Mia searched through hallways of full and empty rooms until she found the right one. Stanley was asleep in the hospital bed, with bandages up his arms and an IV flowing into his veins.

She pulled up one of the guest chairs to his bedside and sat down. His familiar mop of curls had deflated and been cut, and his once-firm jawline had weathered with age. But even with all of the differences, the short hair, the elastic skin, the hospital gown and the bandages, it was still Stanley.

After leaving Stanley and Derry behind her, Mia never found another man that she truly loved. She'd dated several men for months at a time, but there was always something missing. She knew that her unfinished business with her first love was the answer to that question. After all, you can never truly forget your first love.

Mia reached one of her hands up to the side of Stanley's face, where the all-too-familiar scars still marked his cheeks and forehead. Her delicate hands traced the scars as she'd done many times before, and she found herself smiling.

Even after everything the two of them had been through, Mia still had undeniable feelings for Stanley. She knew that he'd moved on, moved on to Fatty Patty, but she didn't really care. They'd been together for the greater part of their teens, and those were the times that they made everlasting bonds and friendships. Even though they hadn't seen each other in a decade, Mia could still describe every characteristic of Stanley Uris.

"Mia Bowers..." Stanley groaned, finally opening his eyes. Mia lifted her head, realizing she'd been sitting at his bedside for a long time. One of her hands was laced with his and the other laid on top. "If that's still your last name..." Stanley raised his eyebrows.

Mia chuckled lightly, a tear running down her cheek, "yes, Stanley. I'm still me."

a/n one more chapter to go sfhajkehajag