FAMILIAR ↳ STEVE HARRINGTON

twenty-six.

"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."

"Demo-dogs." Dustin cut Hopper off, the man sighing as he spoke.

"I'm sorry what?"

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. Like you put them together it sounds pretty badass--"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper raised his voice, looking at Dustin with a glare that could kill.

"It's not I'm sorry." Dustin apologized, turning away from Hopper.

"I can do it." Eleven said, looking to the chief.

"You're not hearing me." He sighed out.

"I'm hearing you. I can do it." She reassured, her face convincing almost everyone in the room. If anybody was gonna be able to do it, it was her.

"Even if El can, theres still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies." Mike said, stepping forwards so everyone would listen to him.

"I thought that was the whole point." Max said.

"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayers army..."

"Will's a part of that army." Lucas revealed, the boy shaking his head.

"Closing the gate will kill him." Mike said.

"So we have to get it out of him first." Christine said, everyone looking at Joyce as she listened to them all talk. She stood from the table, everyone following her as she walked down the hallway. They approached Will, Joyce looking at the open window and then speaking.

"He likes it cold."

"What?" Hopper asked, looking at Will on the bed.

"It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold." She walked to the window, pulling it closed and turning back around. " We keep giving it what it wants."

"If this is a virus and Will's the host, then..." Nancy started, Jonathan finishing her sentence.

"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable."

"So if he likes it cold..." Nancy started again, this time Joyce giving the answer.

"We have to burn it out of him."

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time." Mike said, looking at the adults in the room.

"Yeah somewhere far away." Dustin confirmed, Hopper seeming to think of a place. He wrapped Will in the blanket, picking him up and carrying him outside with Joyce and Jonathan as he shouted directions. Christine stood on the porch as Mike said his goodbyes to Eleven, Nancy getting in the car with Jonathan at the last second and making Christine look over at Steve. The look on his face was indescribable, acceptance perhaps, with a multitude of sadness and pain. Christine did what she could to comfort him, the girl snaking her hand down his arm and holding his hand. He accepted it, his eyes not leaving the car as it drove away, his fingers squeezing hers almost as if to say that he was okay. He turned to look down at her as the cars disappeared out of sight, a pained smile crossing his pink lips.  He let go of her hand, beckoning all the kids inside and closing the front door. Dustin immediately started clearing out the fridge once he got inside, Christine shaking her head and asking him what the hell he was doing.