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"Okay. I want to run through it one more time." Nancy announces, walking towards the back of the RV.
"Phase one." Nancy initiates.
"We meet Erica at the playground. She'll signal Max and Lucas when we're ready." Robin explains.
"Phase two." Nancy moves on.
"Max baits Vecna. He'll go after her, which'll put him in his trance." Steve answers, leaning on the back of Ronnie's seat.
"Phase three?" Nancy asks, looking up at Dustin.
"Me and Eddie draw the bats away." Dustin answers, pointing back at Eddie, and he smiles, pushing Dustin's head forward slightly to mess with him.
"Four."
"We head into Vecna's newly bat-free lair, and... flambé." Robin answers, holding up one of the gas filled bottles.
"Nobody moves on to the next phase until we've all copied. Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what. Got it?" Ronnie speaks up.
"Got it." They all answer, getting up from the seats, grabbing their things, and walk towards Eddie's trailer.
Running inside, Steve's quick to turn on the light, dropping his things to be the first one to step forward.
"Be careful." Dustin worries, and Steve pats his shoulder before climbing up the rope.
They all look up as Steve flips over, landing on the other side, looking up at them and shrugging. Robin and Ronnie shake their heads while Nancy smirks.
"What does he want us to do, applaud?" Robin sarcastically mutters, making them snicker.
Steve pulls the mattress for everyone else's safe landing, Nancy gets a boost from both the girls, sending along their gear after each person. Once Ronnie lands straight onto the mattress on the other side, Steve puts his hand out pulling her up. Their faces inches apart, looking into each other's eyes, but Dustin clears his throat to break their trance. Exiting the trailer, Steve turns around stopping Eddie and Dustin.
"Hey, guys, listen. If things here start to go south, I mean, at all, you abort. Okay? Draw the attention of the bats. Keep 'em busy for a minute or two. We'll take care of Vecna. Don't try to be cute or be a hero or something. Okay? You guys are just-"
"Decoys." Dustin cuts him off. "Don't worry. You can be the hero, Steve."
"Absolutely. I mean, look at us." Eddie agrees, looking over at Dustin. "We are not heroes."
Steve walks back towards Robin, Ronnie and Nancy, when Ronnie calls out for Eddie.
"Take care of him, will you?" She gives him a weak smile, and he nods.
"Give him hell." Eddie returns the favor, referring to Vecna.
Ronnie, Robin, Nancy and Steve carefully make their way in the woods towards the Creel house, making sure not to step on any of the vines, shining their flashlights along their path.
"Uh... I don't mean to freak anyone out, but I swear we've seen this tree before." Robin speaks up, her voice shaky.
"That's impossible." Nancy counters.
"That would suck, right? If Vecna destroyed the world because... 'cause we got lost in the woods?" Robin continues.
"We're not lost, Robin." Ronnie tries to reassure her. "Hey, watch out for the vines! Hive mind."
"Thank you!" Robin shouts behind Ronnie, Nancy staying close to her side to keep an eye on her.
"Eh, don't worry about her. She's just stressed, you know?" Steve says to Ronnie.
She grunts, jumping over a vine to keep up with him.
"Yeah. Yeah... I know. It's just-" Ronnie agrees.
"She's a super klutz?" Steve jokes.
Ronnie chuckles, looking up at Steve beside her. "She did tell me that it took her longer to walk than most babies."
Steve scoffs. "I really shouldn't laugh. When I was a baby I actually crawled backwards."
"Crawled backwards?" Ronnie repeats.
"You know, I'd push with my hands like this. Beep. Beep. Always in reverse, you know." Steve adds, mimicking his hand movements like he was crawling backwards.
Ronnie, raised a brow at him, and he scoffed.
"Come on, it makes sense. You push to move, right?" He tries to reason.
"No, no. It doesn't make sense, but it kinda does for your sake." She teases him.
"Well, it did to my tiny little Harrington brain. That is, until I reversed my baby butt down a flight of stairs and thumped my head really good."
"Wow, that explains so much." Ronnie laughs, and he laughs along with her, smiling at her as she was actually amused.
"Yeah, I think, like, right out of the gate, I'm super confident. But I'm also, like an idiot. Which is just... I mean, it's a brutal combination." He degrades himself.
"You're not an idiot." She comforts him, nudging his arm.
"But, I mean, the good news is, I got a big enough thump on my head, I can change, you know? I can learn. I can crawl forward. Listen, I guess what I'm trying to say is in a really stupid, roundabout way is, um... is thank you."
Ronnie stops in her tracks, turning to Steve with wide eyes.
"Thank me?" She repeats.
"Yeah." He smiles softly.
"For?"
"For giving my head the biggest thump of its life when you left. I needed it." He scoffed, continuing through the woods.
"Changed my life. Now, I'm crawling forward again. Slowly. I just wonder sometimes... you know, if... Nancy didn't give my first thump before we dated, would I have gotten the chance to be with you? Like, if we were meeting together for the first time right now, part of me... I dunno, part of me thinks I wouldn't have been good enough for you." He expressed.
"Steve." She turned to look at him in the eyes.
His beautiful, brown eyes, with his stupid head of perfect voluminous hair, even if they were in a dark dimension, how could he still look so good?
"Remember the dream I told you? Seeing the country with my six lil' nuggets?"
Ronnie smiled at the memory of listening to Steve while he drove, nodding to his question.
"It's all true. Every last word. But I left one part out. It's the most important part..." Steve swallowed, taking a small step towards her.
"You're there. You've always been there." Steve finished.
Ronnie looked down for a second, hiding her smile, holding in every ounce of her will power from the gravitation that Steve had with his words, bringing her eyes back up to him like it was the first time she ever laid eyes on him.
"You guys!" Robin killed the moment, running up to them out of breath. "Looks like we weren't going the wrong way after all."
"Come on." Robin pushed, turning back around to lead them.
"Robin. Robin! Slow down, sheesh." Steve groaned, trailing behind her, Ronnie just a few steps behind.
Once they caught up to Robin and Nancy right outside of the woods, they stopped and stared at the playground, seeing a faint light flicker.
