Always Be There For You ~ Dustin Henderson x Reader

Chapter 17: The Gate

Eleven stood in the living room of the Byers household. Her hair was much longer than before and it was slicked back with gel, she was wearing ripped jeans, a leather jacket, and some punk makeup. Mike stepped in front of the rest of the group and stared at El in awe.

    "Eleven."

    "Mike," El responded. They wrapped each other in a big hug, finally reuniting after being apart for almost a year.

    "Is that..." Max questioned. I nodded at her and then turned back to watch the scene unfold.

    "I called you every night for..." Mike began. Tears began to flow from the eyes of almost everyone in the room, including me.

    "353 days," El finished, "I heard."

    "Why didn't you tell me that you heard? That you were okay?" Mike asked.

    "Because I wouldn't let her," Hopper stepped next to Mike, "The hell is this? Where have you been?"

    "Where have you been?" El retorted.

    "You've been hiding her," Mike said what we were all thinking, "You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike began to grow enraged, Hopper grabbed him by the shoulders.

    "Let's talk. Alone," He took Mike to a separate room, leaving El with the rest of us. I ran over to El and wrapped her in a giant bear hug, Lucas and Dustin piling on with me.

    "We missed you!" I shouted.

    "I missed you too," El replied.

    "We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin added. As Dustin spoke, El shoved her thumb into his mouth and touched his teeth.

    "Teeth," She muttered.

    "Oh, you like these pearls?" Dustin made a purring noise that made me blush like no tomorrow. How was he able to be so cute all the time?

    "Eleven?" Max caught our attention, "Um, I'm Max." El looked at Max for a moment, before giving her the cold shoulder and walking straight over to Ms. Byers. Dustin grabbed my hand and squeezed lightly.

    "She's back..." I whispered.

    "Yeah, she's back," Dustin quietly replied. Hopper and Mike came out of the room they were in and we all began to discuss our options. El insisted that she would be able to close the gate, but there was a problem.

    "If the brain dies the body dies," Dustin noted.

    "I thought that was the whole point?" Hopper questioned.

    "It is, but if we're really right about this. I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army..." Dustin trailed off.

    "Will is a part of that army," I finished.

    "Closing the gate will kill him," Mike added. Ms. Byers, Nancy, Jonathan, and Hopper went into Will's room. After a few moments, they came out with a plan. Ms. Byers, Nancy, and Jonathan were going to get the Mind Flayer out of Will by overheating him, while Hopper and El went to the lab.

    "What are we supposed to do?" I asked Hopper.

    "Stay put, don't get in any danger," He answered sharply. I let out a huff of annoyance and plopped down on the couch. Steve came back inside and was ordered by Dustin to help him put the Demodog corpse into Ms. Byers's fridge. Mike was pacing around the living room, worried out of his mind about El.

    "Mike, would you just stop already?" Lucas spat, annoyed at Mike's constant pacing.

    "You weren't in there, okay, Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs!" Mike shouted.