Through The Years (Mike Wheeler x reader)

Forty-four

~ Mike's P.O.V. ~

"I get why (y/n) is your healer now. And why El is your mage." I heard Max rip duck tape behind me and I huffed, looking at her.

"What?" Max looked at me, getting ready to rip more of the duck tape.

"Lucas. He told me all about them, mostly (y/n)." Dammit, Lucas.

"Well, he shouldn't have. And just because you know the truth doesn't mean you're in our party. You do know that, right?" Max's smile dropped a little and she looked back down at the tape.

"Yeah, I know." I turned back around to grab more stuff from under the sink. "I mean, why would you want a stupid zoomer in your party anyway?" I felt a little guilty as I grabbed another bottle from under the sink. I knew (y/n) would be scolding me right now if she saw me, but every time I thought about someone new in the party, I automatically felt like it was replacing her.

"I'm just saying," Max continued, "El? She sounds like she was really awesome. And even though Lucas told me you guys don't like to talk about it, (y/n) sounded pretty cool too. More than pretty cool."

"Yeah." I grabbed gloves from under the sink before closing the doors. "(y/n) was the best thing that could've happened to me." I looked at Max, letting my barrier down for a moment. "She used to be an almost mute, you know? All she could say was my name. I was her translator for sign language. It was me and her forever, 'bestest friends in the whole wide world.'" I picked up the stuff I had dug out from under the sink. Max looked at me with sympathy.

"You'll find her, Mike." I nodded.

"I hope I will. I know I will. I won't stop until I do. I'll go back after all of this is over, tear apart the lab if I need to. They took her, I saw them. Can you imagine what that is like?" I left the room before she could answer, before I could start crying.

~ Max's P.O.V. ~

I sat across from Lucas in the Byers' hallway. Our job was to stay quiet in the house so Will wouldn't be able to tell the Shadow Monster we were here. Nancy leaned on a wall near us, staring into nothing, and every few seconds Dustin would pace passed Nancy and the doorway. In the room next to us, Steve was swinging his nail bat.

"If he finds out where we are... will he send those dogs after us?" I asked Lucas quietly, pulling at my jacket sleeve.

"He won't find out." Lucas gave me a pointed look and I squeezed the fabric of my jacket. I know we had this plan, but I couldn't help feeling scared.

"Yeah, but, if he does..." Lucas made eye contact with me.

"Judgement day." The look he gave me did not make me feel better. We both sat there in silence. Dustin kept pacing, Nancy just stood there, and I could only assume Steve was still swinging his bat.

~

Hopper opened the back door, quickly followed by Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike. He grabbed a pen and paper on the way in. Mike didn't look at us as Hopper sat down.

"What happened?" Dustin asked, probably questioning the flickering lights from earlier as well as the way they carried themselves. Hopper sighed.

"I think he's talking, just not with words." Hopper wrote down a series of dots and dashes.

"What is that?" Steve asked as Hopper wrote letters under the dots and dashes.