Hometown| Mike Wheeler

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-"

"353 days," Eleven finishes for Mike, "I heard."

Mike's face falls, and his face contorts to confusion, his eyes looking back and forth between Eleven and Ten, "Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let them," Hopper steps in, walking up to the girls and pulling them into a hug, "What the hell is this? Where have you been?"

"Where have you been?" El repeats.

I tilt my head, suddenly feeling enraged,"You knew they were still alive?"

"You've been hiding them. You've been hiding them this whole time!" Mike hits Hopper, making the chief turn around.

"Hey!" He exclaims, grabbing Mike's shirt, "The two of you, let's talk. Alone."

He leads us into a different room, trying to explain that he was 'protecting' the girls.

"Protecting her! Protecting her?" Mike fumes.

"Listen. Listen to me," Hop says calmly, closing the door behind him, "The more people that know about them, the more danger they're in. And the more danger you and your family's are in-"

"Oh, what, we should be thanking you then?" Mike cuts him off.

"I'm not asking you to thank me!" Hopper hisses.

"You lied to us! You've been...letting us believe that they died. Do you know how much pain that put us in!" I glower, trying to calm myself down.

Hopper sighs, "I'm asking you to try to understand."

"We don't! We don't understand!" Mike shouts back.

"That's fine. That's fine! Just do not blame them! All right? They're upset enough as it is."

"I don't blame them! I blame you! I blame you!" Mike screeches.

"That's okay, kid. That's okay." Hopper replies.

"No! Nothing about this is okay! Nothing about this is okay!" Mike shoves Hopper, making the chief let out a grunt as he stumbles back a few steps.

"Mike." I warn, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He ignores me, stepping closer to Jim as he starts to punch him in the gut, "You're a stupid, disgusting, lying piece of shit!"

"Okay. All right! Stop it," Hopper grabs Mike's arms as I begin to breathe heavily, my eyes starting to tear up at the scene before me. After Hopper stops Mike from punching him, Mike calms down, letting out his tears as he rests his head against Hopper's chest, "You're okay, kid. You're okay."

I gulp, walking up to the two and joining the short embrace.

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Eleven and Ten had said they could close the gate, and now we were all gathered at the kitchen table, discussing it.

"It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. That place is crawling with those dogs." Hopper explains.

"Demo-dogs." Dustin corrects.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper asks, looking down at the curly-headed boy in annoyance.

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs," He repeats, "Like Demogorgan and dogs. Like, you put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper chastises.

"It's not. I'm sorry." Dustin utters, and I tap his arm.

"We can do it." Ten states, Eleven nodding in agreement.

"You're not hearing me." Hopper shakes his head.

"I'm hearing you. We can do it." T repeats firmly.

"Even if they can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies." Mike affirms.

"I thought that was the whole point." Max says in confusion.

"It is, but if we're really right about this...I mean, if El and T close the gate and kill the mind flayer's army..."

"Will..." I breathe out in realization, raising my eyebrows.

"Wills apart of that army." Lucas disseminates.

"Closing the gate will kill him." Mike concludes.

My eyes switch to Joyce to see her reaction, which was much like I expected. Shock and fear. She then gets up, and we follow along as she goes into Will's room, "He likes it cold."

"What?" Hop inquires.

"It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold," She rushes over to the window that was sending drafts of cold air into the room. She closes it, "We keep giving it what it wants."

"If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..." Nancy starts.

"Then we need to make the hose uninhabitable." Jonathan finishes.

"So if he likes it cold..." Nancy says.

"We need to burn it out of him." Joyce shares, her voice a bit shaky.

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time." Mike declares.

"Yeah, somewhere far away." Dustin adds.

Hopper mentions a place they could bring Will, it was a cabin that he had hid Eleven and Ten in all this time.

Nancy ends up going with Jonathan and Joyce to get the demogorgan out of Will's mind, while Ten and Eleven had to go with Hopper to close the gate.

Ten and I were inside, saying our goodbyes, and I sigh, hugging her, "Don't do anything stupid. I can't lose you again."

Ten chuckles a bit, "We're not stupid."

I smile a bit, the two of us making our way outside, but I stop at the doorway when I overhear El and Mike's conversation, El speaking quietly to Mike, "You like her."

"What?" Mike questions, dumbfounded at El's claim.

"Elizabeth," El smiles sadly, "You like her."

Mike stutters, "I-I...I don't."

"You want to protect her." She states.

"Yeah, of course. We all protect each other." Mike shakes his head, not quite understanding El's reasoning.

El puts her hand on Mike's cheek, "It's okay, Mike. I understand," Mike only stares back at Eleven, "I want you happy. She makes you happy."

"I don't." Mike breathes out doubtfully, turning away from her.

"Friends don't lie, Mike." Eleven says, looking at Mike knowingly.

Mike frowns at the girl, a tear slipping from his eye, "I'm sorry."

She smiles sadly, just as Hopper shouts, "El...Come on, let's go. It's time."

Eleven nods at Mike, and he nods back, before she goes over to the truck where Hop and Ten were waiting.

I step onto the porch, taking Mike's hand in mine as Dustin, Lucas, Max, and Steve all gather behind us, watching the cars drive off into the dark.

A/N: ty for almost 700 reads on this story <3