Broken & Pretty..Steve Harrington

023.

THE RETURN OF AN OLD FRIEND

⇾i wanna be your slave by maneskin

i'm a freak that is searching for redemption

⸺IT was Halloween! This was Tiffany's favourite time of the year. She loved decorating her house, going trick or treating with Jonathan and the kids and watching scary movies with her brother. It was the morning and Tiffany was going over to Hopper's house for gun training again. She never went into his house, they always just trained outside. She had gotten up a lot earlier so they could get at least an hour of training in. Hopper had forgotten about it and Tiffany usually just met up with him outside. She had been waiting outside for fifteen minutes and she was getting a little impatient. Tiffany walked up to his house and knocked on the door. She heard voices from the inside.

"You have to stay quiet, okay?" Hopper opened the door just slightly. "Tiffany? What are you doing here?"

"Uh, we were going to do the gun training. Hey, who were you talking to?"

"What?"

"You said to someone that they had to stay quiet."

"What? No I didn't." Tiffany leaned back a little bit and looked in the window. She was someone in a ghost costume. "Then who's that?"

Hopper tried to close the door, but she stopped it with her hand. "Hopper. Who is that? Who are you hiding?"

"It's nobody, just...just go home, Tiffany."

"What? Hopper, what are you trying to hide? You know you can trust me."

"Just go, Tiffany!" Tiffany sighed and took her hand away from the door. He closed the door and she took a deep breath. Tiffany taught herself a new trick with her powers. She made the red aura in her hand and made it swirl around her leg. Tiffany kicked open the door with no effort and she walked in his house. "Holy shit! What was that?!"

"My foot, now what are you hiding?!" Hopper sighed. If she was willing to break down the door, she wasn't going to stop hassling him. The ghost stepped out from behind him and took off the costume. She threw the ghost sheet on the floor and revealed themselves to be Eleven. "Oh my god! Eleven. What are you...uh...why is she here?"

"I found her in the woods and I didn't want her to freeze, so I've been taking care of her."

"Why didn't you tell anyone? Or at least why didn't you tell Mike? The poor kid is heartbroken." Eleven was confused by that word. "Heartbroken?"

"It means sad. And I kept her hidden because the bad men are still after her." Tiffany put her hands on her hips and sighed. "I thought all the bad men were killed."

"They were, but the lab is still active, and it's just to be safe."

"I'm sorry, the lab is still active?! It didn't shut down?!"

"No, it didn't, but it's being run by better people and-"

"It should be shut down! She could get taken back!"

"That's why she's here! Now, you cannot tell anyone about her."

"Okay. I won't. And if you need me to look after her ever, just call me."

"Really?"

"I'm basically a professional babysitter, I don't mind." Hopper smiled, which is something he didn't do a lot. Tiffany opened her arms and Eleven ran into them. "Mike misses you a lot."