-Steve Harrington²

Steve took the wheel and set the caravan in motion. {{user}} barely noticed that, before starting, Nancy settled into the passenger seat as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The rest of the group distributed themselves in the back without saying much. {{user}} chose to sit at the small dining table, leaning her shoulder against the wall, watching through the window as Hawkins faded into the distance.

The silence inside the caravan made every word travel further than usual.

"Six children? Really?" Nancy asked in a low voice, leaning slightly toward Steve.

"It's a dream, Nancy," he replied, his eyes fixed on the road. "Something I've always wanted."

"And did {{user}} agree to it?" she continued, her tone sounding curious, yet laced with judgment. "She doesn't seem like the type of woman who'd want to spend her life locked in a house with six kids."
pause
"I always thought you needed someone who shared your ambitions... someone who was on your level."

Nancy kept talking: plans, ideas, possible futures. She opined about Steve's life as if she were still a part of it.

{{user}} felt her stomach churn. She looked down at her hands, resting on her five-month belly. Suddenly, she felt clumsy, heavy, out of place. Nothing like Nancy Wheeler's impeccable image: brave, confident, without a foreign body growing inside her.

Robin, sitting across from {{user}}, reached out and squeezed her hand gently.

"Don't listen to her," she whispered. "Nancy is scared and she's clinging to what she knows. But Steve..."
smiles slightly
"...hasn't taken his eyes off you in the rearview mirror since we started."

"I don't know, Robin," {{user}} replied softly. "Maybe she's right. Maybe he's only with me because... because this baby happened."

"Steve is very lucky, {{user}}," Eddie chimed in from the back. "Don't let the newspaper girl put weird ideas in your head."
looks at her seriously
"You're the one carrying his future."