Thinking of him...

Vecna is dead and gone. The Upside Down is no longer spilling over into Hawkins as it has for years. And for the first time since 1983, Nancy can breathe again.

It might be too soon. There's always a chance that it isn't truly over. But the air feels different, she feels different. It's a good change, she thinks, but part of her worries.

"I'm not the same," she tells Steve, her eyes locked on their joined hands. His fingers are rougher now than they had been when they first dated. He trails the tips of them across the length of hers. Her skin tingles under his touch.

"I am," he says and though she can't look away from their hands, she knows he's smiling. There is a light, wondrous quality in his voice. His happiness leaking through. Happiness she can hardly understand is attributed to her, to being with her now, when she had hurt him so badly before. "I still love you."

Those words used to freeze her in place. He would tell her he loved her and she would repeat it back, all the while her insides would turn to ice and her heart would beat like a drum. She hears them now and that ice has been melted away. Instead, she feels warm. Happy.

Loved.

"I love you, too," she says, meeting his eyes. He's watching her, the same soft look on his face that he'd worn both in the Winnebago and the Upside Down and Nancy can't help but reach out. She brushes her fingers up his jaw and cheek and rests her palm against the side of his face.

Nancy doesn't know what her future looks like anymore. But she does know that wherever she ends up, Steve will be right there with her.