zero || eddie munson (UNEDITED!!!)

7 - FAKE DEAD MEN ACTUALLY DO TELL TALES

"Hey kid," a man sitting next to Joyce on the couch said as Jonathan and Null walked into the Byer's house. "Kids," he corrected himself, "Who might you be? A girlfriend?"

"Unofficially, yes," Null replied, "Though I think Jonathan's interest lie elsewhere."

Jonathan shot Null a glare, before changing the topic. "So uh, what's going on?"

"Your dad's uh, gonna stay here tonight...on the couch," Joyce answered.

"Can we talk?" The man asked Jonathan. "Alone?"

"Say no more," Null said, going outside with Joyce. "So, did you talk to Hopper?"

"I did," she confirmed, taking a seat on the porch with Null. "I told him I'd done some research on the lab, and I asked if he could dig a little deeper with I dunno, police clearance or whatever."

"So...is that it?"

"Well, no actually. Apparently, the one who examined 'Will's' body was someone from 'state,' and he followed that guy into a bar, and found out that that guy was from the lab. So he'd actually done some of his own research," Joyce furthered.

"Well that's good, I guess. Is he going to investigate things anytime soon? Because I could really help him there," Null shuddered, thinking of going back into the lab, of what she would risk. But she'd decided it'd be worth it.

"He's already gone," Joyce informed.

"What?!" Null was immediately concerned. "What do you mean he's already gone?"

"Well he left earlier today. Honestly, I'd doubt even if he knew you could help that he'd let you tag along... how would you help anyway?"

Null bit her lip, and thought carefully. "I grew up there. I was one of their experiments."

"So when you were talking about supernatural, does that mean you can shoot lasers out of your eyes or something like that?" Joyce joked with her.

"Or something like that," Null smiled at her. "Don't tell Jonathan though, okay? I don't want him to think I'm some sort of freak."

"Oh honey," Joyce wrapped her arm around Null, in a half hug sort of way. "Jonathan would never think of you as a freak. He's not the judgmental sort."

Null smiled, appreciating Joyce's motherly words. "Well either way. Let me be the one to tell him, okay?"

"Sure, sweetheart," Joyce agreed. "Now what did you mean about being Jonathan's unofficial girlfriend?"

Null laughed. "Funny story, actually. Steve Harrington and his posse of assholes called me his girlfriend, and we've just kind of stuck with it for some reason. Like an inside joke."

"And who's the girl he likes?"

"That would be Steve Harrington's girlfriend, Nancy Wheeler," Null replied.

Joyce smiled. "Oh, the drama."

"Totally. It's like a Scooby doo episode where everything's connected and then they unmask the killer and it's like no! Not you!"

Joyce laughed. "Well then who would the person under the mask be?"

Null's smile dropped. "Well it's kind of has a double meaning, the whole 'everything's connected thing.' The monster is still behind most of this."

"Yeah," Joyce said absentmindedly. "I guess you're right about that."

~~~~~

Jonathan and Null were silent for a long time as they lay side by side in his bed, something that was becoming a reoccurring theme. They had both tried to fall asleep, but they'd both come to terms with the fact that they would not.