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Theodore was shocked, to say the least. He hadn't expected to see her ever again.
Mike was the first to reach her. Even from here, Theodore could see the tears coming to Eleven's eyes. When they finally came face to face, they hugged, crying into each other. "I never gave up on you," Mike told her. "I called you every night. Every night for–"
"353 days." Eleven finished. "I heard."
"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"
"Because I wouldn't let her." Right after Mike was Hopper. "The hell is this?" Hopper questioned. "Where have you been?"
"Where have you been?" Eleven countered.
They embraced each other without another word.
"You've been hiding her," Mike concluded. "You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike made a move to hit Hopper, but his arm was grabbed.
"Let's talk. Alone." Hopper said, all but dragging Mike out of the room.
As soon as they were out of the room, Theodore made his way to Eleven. She held out her arms briefly and smiled at him. He took her by the hips and nearly lifted her off the ground with the hug. "I really, really missed you," Theodore told her.
Eleven rested her head on his shoulder. "I really, really missed you, too."
After their hug, Eleven shared the same with Lucas and Dustin. Theodore was right beside her. "We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin informed her.
They broke from the hug and Eleven stared intently at Dustin. She reached for his face and touched his smiling pearls. "Teeth." She commented.
"What?"
"You have teeth." She said, as if Dustin didn't already know.
"You like these pearls?" Dustin implored playfully. And even Theodore was surprised when Dustin purred.
Thankfully, the attention was brought to Max when she called for Eleven. "Hey. I'm Max." she greeted, holding out a hand for Eleven. "I heard a lot about you."
But it was completely ignored as Eleven walked past her, bumping shoulders with the girl. Theodore watched as Eleven instead made her way to Joyce, hugging the woman. They disappeared into one of the rooms and when they came back, Theodore met them in the kitchen. "You opened this gate before, right?" He heard Joyce ask her.
"Yes."
"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce questioned.
Eleven looked at her and nodded.
Everyone gathered around the table and Hopper and Mike entered again. Hopper had begun speaking about what he had seen, but Theodore wasn't listening much. Just focusing on the fact that El was alive.
"I can do it." Was what he heard Eleven say when he decided to start listening again.
"You're not hearing me," Hopper replies.
"I'm hearing you. I can do it." Eleven argues firmly.
"Even if El can, there's still another problem." Mike cuts in. "If the brain dies, the body dies."
"I thought that was the whole point." Max points out.
"It is, but if we're really right about this. I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army..."
"Will's a part of that army." Lucas finishes and Theodore grips the hem of his shirt.
"Closing the gate will kill him," Mike states, and the grip becomes tighter.
Joyce exits the room and everyone is quick to follow after her. She leads them into the room Will is in and, of course, Theodore's eyes drift to him. He looks somewhat peaceful, and he deserves to be. After all he's gone through, he really deserves it.
"He likes it cold," Joyce comments.
"What?" Hopper inquires.
"It's what Will kept saying to me," Joyces states. "He likes it cold." She walked to the window and shut it. "We keep giving it what it wants."
"If this is a virus," Nancy starts, "and Will's the host, then..."
"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan remarks.
"So if he likes it cold."
"We have to burn it out of him." Joyce finishes.
"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike says.
"Yeah, somewhere far away," Dustin adds.
Even after everything had been thoroughly explained, Theodore stuck in the room for just a bit longer. Joyce, Will, and Jonathan would be heading to Hopper's, where they would be burning it out of Will. Hopper and Eleven would go to the lab to close the gate and everyone else would stay here.
But that felt wrong.
Just staying here doing nothing felt wrong. He didn't want to do nothing. He didn't want to stay out of the way. The best person to talk about this with was Joyce. So, he sought to find her and it wasn't hard.
"Can I go with you?" Theodore asked.
Joyce glanced at him. She was alone in the car as Jonathan had gone over to Nancy to help her with the heaters. Will was lying in her lap, still asleep. "I don't know, sweetie–"
"Please?" Theodore interrupted, leaning into the car via the open window. "I want to see Will when it's out of him."
Joyce sighed. "Alright, get in."
He obliged, lifting Will's legs to lie over his own once he sat down.
Jonathan and Nancy entered shortly after that and they were off.
