Stranger Things BillyxOC

Chapter 13

"Eleven." Mike says and Eleven has tears forming in her eyes.

"Mike." El gasps and they embrace.

"Is that...?" Max asks and Lucas nods, still in a little bit of shock.

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-" Mike says and El cuts him off.

"353 days. I heard." El says.

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?" Mike looks a little hurt and Ruby lays her hand on his shoulder.

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper says and Ruby looks at him in surprise. He walks over and looks at Eleven. "The hell is this? Where you been?"

"Where have you been?" El asks back and then they embrace, like a father and daughter.

"You've been hiding her. You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike yells and shoves Hopper angrily but Hopper's too big for it to make much of a difference.

"Hey! Let's talk. Alone." Hopper says and Ruby nods to Mike as he follows Hopper.

They leave the room and go to another room to talk and Ruby turns to El.

Ruby squeals again and throws herself at El. "I've missed you so much."

"I missed you too."

"When this is over, you're coming over to mine and I'm cooking you a big meal. I can't imagine Hopper is a very good cook."

El giggles and nods and Ruby lets her go so she can hug Lucas, Dustin and Kit.

"We missed you." Lucas says as they hug.

"I missed you, too." El replies and they pull back a little.

"We talked about you pretty much every day." Dustin says. After he speaks, El frowns and sticks her thumb in his mouth.

"Teeth." She says and it takes a second for Ruby to understand what she's saying.

"What?" Dustin asks.

"You have teeth." El clarifies and Dustin grins.

"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin asks and he purrs. Ruby frowns in horror and El just looks disturbed.

"Eleven? Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you." Max holds her hand out and El looks at it before she pushes past her and into Joyce's arms.

"Hey. Hey, sweetheart." Joyce says as they hug.

"Don't worry about that." Ruby whispers. "She's probably just being defensive over the boys. You're the only girl their age, other than El, who's ever interacted with them and she's protective of them, especially Mike."

Max nods, feeling a little better and they watch as Joyce takes El to see Will.

They're in there for a little bit before they come out into the kitchen and El spots the 'Close gate' message from Will and she picks it up.

Ruby gasps as it starts to make more sense.

"You opened this gate before, right?" Joyce asks, also seeing the pieces fit together.

"Yes." El says.

"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce asks.

Hopper sighs as they explain their plan to him.

"It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs." Hopper explains.