Royal Pain || Stranger Things

seventeen || the rivers files

"You're pretty quiet tonight."

     Tatum's head lifted from the passenger window of Chief Hopper's station wagon, dully blinking in the dark surroundings as they headed for Hawkins Lab. "Sorry," she quietly said, brushing a wave of hair from her eyes. "Just a lot going on."

     "Are you sure you're up for this?" Hopper asked. "We can do it another night."

     "No, no there will be more people coming in the next few days. We need to do this tonight. Get in and get out."

     "We've still got a little while before we make it to the lab. Tell me what's on your mind. Does it have to do with your powers?"

     Tatum shook her head, letting out a soft sigh as she leaned back against the headrest. "Surprisingly, no. It's actually about boys. Two boys."

     Hopper's brows lifted. "Oh?"

     "Remember Steve's face last night?"

     "Hard to miss."

     "The guy I was started to see was the one who did that to him. He's Max's stepbrother and he walked in on them hiding out at the Byers house and didn't take it too well. Max knocked him out and we drove him home and left him there, but he showed up at my house during dinner tonight all confused. And I couldn't tell him what happened or explain why Steve was babysitting the kids at the house. He couldn't see why he was in the wrong for hitting Steve when it was completely unprecedented."

     "He sounds like an asshole," Hopper mused.

     "He is. I just wouldn't listen when everyone was trying to tell me that," said Tatum with a groan.

     "And what about the second boy?" he asked. "You said there were two. Is it Steve? He seemed pretty gooey when you were knocked out last night."

     Tatum's brows furrowed. "What? No."

     Hopper held up a hand innocently, driving on. "Just an observation."

     "It's about my brother."

     "You have a brother, too?"

     "A stepbrother. He's Elena's son." Tatum fidgeted with the hem of her denim jacket. "He's older."

     "A lot of sibling drama this week, huh?" Hop asked. "What's his name?"

     "Ben. He's twenty-one."

     Hopper took a tentative glance in her direction. "I take it you two aren't close?"

     Tatum laughed rather aggressively. "We used to be. We were great as kids. Like actual siblings, almost."

     "What changed?"

     "He betrayed the crown."

     Hopper's brows lifted. "What?"

     "When Ben was eighteen, he defected to the Soviet Union. He's been living in Russia for over three years and hasn't contacted us in almost two. He just up and left all of us behind.

     "So, literal betrayal."

     "Exactly."

     "So why did he call now? The Cold War is still going on."

     Tatum shook her head lightly. "I don't even know. Maybe he just wanted to speak English to someone. He's been fluent in Russian since he was seventeen and I doubt anyone there lets him use anything but. Elena said it seemed like a normal conversation. Just asking about how everyone was doing and about the move to America. I don't even know how he knew that we moved. We don't have a number to contact him and he never received ours."