Stay or Go

Chapter 37

"Eleven." Mike says stepping forward as though in a trance, I move away from the girl and she moves closer to the boy. Both just staring at each other. "Mike." She says gently before letting him pull her into a hug. They both start crying, happy that they have each other again and I glance at Steve. He seems to have the same idea as we lock eyes for a moment. "Is that El?" Max whispers and the two other boys nod their heads.

Mike and Eleven hold onto each other for a little while longer before he pulls away and says "I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-" Eleven cuts him off, blood dripping from her nose gently "353 days." I raise my eyebrows, surprised she counted that although I guess where ever she was, she didn't have much to do.

"I heard." She repeats her earlier sentence and Mike's stance changes when she says that. "Why didn't you tell me you were there?" He asks his voice betraying his hurt "that you were ok?" Instead of Eleven answering however, Hopper explains "because I wouldn't let her." We all snap our heads round to him in confusion. He comes over to Eleven, looking like a serious father. "The hell is this?" He asks "where you been?"

Eleven seems just as angry at him as he is with her as she demands "where have you been?" but Hopper just brings her in for another hug. Mike looks up at the older man with sudden realisation "you've been hiding her." He says more as a statement than a question "you've been hiding her this whole time." He then hits Hopper in the back. The chief of police turns around with a frown "hey!" He says grabbing Mike but the collar of his shirt.

"Let's talk." He says "alone." The warning in his voice making it perfectly clear he didn't want to be challenged. Those two leave and Eleven looks slightly uncomfortable so I go over to her and offer her my hand. She takes it and I say "I have someone I would like you to meet." She looks up at me with her big brown eyes "who?" El asks and I take her over to Max.

Dustin and Lucas step away slightly giving us some room. "Max." I say as Eleven still clutches onto my hand tightly "this is Eleven. El this is Max." I look down at the little superhero girl and she nods in acknowledgment. Everyone else still stays silent so I sigh heavily and say "Eleven and I are going to have a catch up." and march us for the kitchen.

When in there I look inside the fridge and find a singular carton of milk, not thinking of anything else I grab two glasses and pour us both some before heading back to the table. Eleven takes hers and thanks me gently "so where have you been?" I ask the younger girl. She grips the glass tightly in both hands "New. York." She says slowly and my eyes widen to the size of tennis balls.

"What the hell were you doing there?" I ask drinking my own glass of milk, she does the same before replying "I found another like me." I slowly realise what she means and asks for clarification "another child from the lab?" She nods her head. Before I can ask her anything else Dustin and Lucas appear in the doorway "can we say hey to her now?" My brother asks me and I nod, standing up and waving my arm "knock yourselves out."

They rush over to her and I head back into the living room, giving them some privacy. "Mike said she was their mage." Max says as I sit down next to her "but I never thought she was actually-" I chuckle and cross one leg over the other "magical?" I finish for her "no, you don't really believe it until you see it for the first time."

"Can I see him?" Eleven asks Joyce once they rejoin us in the living room, she hesitates but takes the younger girl to go and see Will anyway. Jonathan moves over next to me "I didn't think you two were that close." He motions where Eleven diapered to, I shrug and lean on him for a moment "trauma can bond people Byers, it doesn't have to be from the same thing but knowing you have both suffered makes you feel more connected somehow." Of course I have never really spoken to him about what happened to while I was away and I don't know whether he could handle hearing about it. He has always been sensitive when it came to my pain, as though to hurt me was to hurt him as well.

Joyce and Eleven reemerge in the kitchen and we all go over to them, Mike and Hopper still off somewhere talking. "Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce asks the girl. "Yes." She says simply. And just like that hope is restored to us. For now.

-

"It's not like it was before." Hopper says as we start to make a plan to get El back inside the lab so she can close the gate "it's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs." My brother turns behind him and corrects "demo-dogs." Hopper looks at him with utter confusion "I'm sorry, what?" He asks as though he misheard. My brother isn't deterred however and repeats "I said, uh, demo-dogs. Like demogorgans and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"

Hopper just shakes his head "how is this important?" He interrupts and Dustin looks away "it's not, I'm sorry." I give my brother a comforting smile which he returns meekly. "I can do it." Eleven says leaning over the table and Hopper shakes his head again, slower this time "you're not hearing me." He says. Eleven just stares at him intensely and pulls a face "I'm hearing you." She tells him "I can do it."

"Even if El can, there's still another problem." Mike says "if the brain dies, the body dies." Max looks over confused "I thought that was the whole point." She says and I suddenly realise when Mike is saying. I gasp and start speaking before he has a chance to "it is, but if we're really right about this, I mean if Eleven closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army. Will will die too." Mike nods solemnly "closing the gate will kill him." He confirms.

We all stand in silence, trying to figure out a way to save Will and kill the mind flayer although that is proving more difficult than I first thought. Without saying anything Joyce moves across the room and we all follow her, she heads down the hall and towards Will's room. "He likes the cold." She says to no one in particular as she stares at the open window. "What?" Hopper asks voice all of our confusion. "It's what Will kept saying to me." Joyce explains, walking further into her son's room "he likes it cold" She goes over and closes the window.

"We keep giving it what it wants." She says and Nancy, who hasn't said anything in hours thinks out loud "if this is a virus, and Will's the host then...." Jonathan finishes her thoughts for her "then we need to make the host uninhabitable." I scratch the back of my neck, heading over to where Jonathan is kneeling by his brother. "So if he likes it cold we need to burn it out of him." I say. "We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time." Mike says and Dustin nods his head quickly "somewhere far away."