Happier With You

Author's Note - Hi all! So this is a very different story to my other Fanfiction The Life You Deserve. So be prepared for lots of angst and drama! I hope you enjoy and please let me know what you think!


Chapter 1 - When Hearts Break

El rushed around her room, routing in her closet for the perfect sweater to wear for her date with Mike to the cinema. She eventually picked a soft white slim fitting one that she knew with a smirk Mike loved.

She brushed her thick locks and then chucked on Mike's navy blue jacket that she had stolen years earlier. El looked around her room making sure it was ready for her dad's inspection later that evening.

He had moaned to her that morning that she needed to get her room cleaned and that it was a state. El had guessed he was kind of right, there had been clothes strewn everywhere, including bits of popcorn and candy from her and Max's sleepover the day before.

El looked at her room with pride now. Her walls were light pink partially covered by a large collage board filled to the brim with photos of her friends, her dad and Joyce and of her and Mike.

There were photos of them kissing, one of him giving her a piggy back ride, a photo of them in the lake together whilst they tried to recreate the Dirty Dancing pose and then little notes here and there where he'd wrote he loved her in his messy scrawl.

Combine that with her soft white furniture and her framed photo of her and Mike at prom next to her double bed and the room was absolutely perfect. It was everything she hadn't known she was allowed to dream of.

But they were 17 now and El felt well and truly safe in Hawkins. So safe that she had started her life with vigour.

She had experienced summers camping and swimming, teenage arguments with her dad, school dances, sleepovers, sneaking over to Mike's, her first time making out, learning to drive, her special first time with Mike and the many times after that.

El was truly happy and it was a feeling she had allowed herself to embrace and not shy away from.

There was suddenly a sharp set of knocking at the front door and El frowned to herself as she went to answer it, knowing it didn't sound anything like Mike's gentle knock.

Not having to be cautious any more, El immediately opened the door with a smile which immediately dropped.

Her eyes widened as she took in the sight in front of her. On the last step of Hopper and Joyce's house was Kali. El would recognise her anywhere despite the years that had passed.

But she wasn't alone.

Stood behind her on the faded grass where four other people, all their ages ranging. Two women and two men.

"Kali…what…what is this?" El gaped out in shock.

"We need your help Jane." Kali said before she nodded her head to the group and they all raised their bare arms up in the air and twisted their wrist slightly.

El's breath caught in her throat as she looked wildly between their wrists, specifically at the tattoos that had been forced there. 003, 005, 009 and 010.


"I-I don't understand…" El said pacing the living room whilst running her shaking hands through her hair.

"It's very simple Jane." Kali said sitting on the arm of the couch whilst the others stood and watched Eleven with interest.

"Brenner is alive and has been finding subjects all over the country. He has murdered Four and Six and…Seven." Kali's voice choking on her last words.

"We need to end this. We need to end him Jane."

El turned to look at them all, a million emotions swirling through her brain. She felt like these people were instantly her family, she wanted to help them desperately. But she also didn't, couldn't leave her life and most importantly the people in it.

"So are you going to help us?" A blonde boy who looked a similar age to El piped up, causing her eyes to meet his blue eyes for a moment.

"This is Hunter or ten. He has the ability to heal. That is Sam or three, he's got super strength. Over there is five or Fifi, she has the ability to control the elements and this is Emma or nine who is a shape shifter." Kali said pointing everyone out.

El looked at the people in front of her, Sam was tall, broad and dark skinned, Fifi had bright red hair and wore an excited smile, whilst Emma looked as dark and dangerous as her jet black hair. Hunter on the other hand gave her a small welcoming smile.

El gulped at these strong people, "w-why do you need me?" she asked vulnerably.

"Well whilst we all have our own powers, we cannot track where this lab is. We cannot track them. Him." Kali explained seriously.

El sighed and hid her face in her hands with frustration. This was absolute madness. Was she just meant to drop her whole life, drop him?

But despite her heart already frantically panicking in her chest, she knew what she needed to do. She knew what she had always needed to do. There was no way around this, she needed to finish this with her fellow survivors.

"It's only a matter of time before they find you Jane. We tracked you down after 3 weeks of searching." Kali said simply, solidifying El's decision.


10 minutes later El was rushing around her room with a duffle bag, hurriedly packing clothes and anything she thought she might need.

She looked up at her collage board and tears sprang down her cheeks as she shakily started to remove the photos and Mike's notes, stuffing them quickly into her bag.

El hurried to her desk and pulled out some paper. She started writing a letter to her dad and Joyce, apologising and explaining that she was doing this to keep everyone safe. To try and end this, once and for all.

She then turned to a blank piece of paper to start writing something for Mike. But her quivering hand just couldn't do it. What on earth could she tell him? What words would be good enough?

Just then she heard the sound of a car pulling up and her heart almost fell out of her body as she recognised the sound of the engine.

El raced into the living room to find the subjects all backing up panicked, concerned as to who had arrived.

She turned to them, her eyes red from crying. "I-It's my b-boyfriend." She said in a broken voice.

El saw guilt in Kali's eyes for a moment before she put her guard up. "You need to tell him to leave Jane. He could be in danger. He could be killed."

Her words were enough to cause El to walk over to the front door and walk numbly down the steps to Mike who was getting out of his car.

"Hey babe!" he called happily locking the car. "You ready to go?"

El froze about 5 feet away from him, her whole body shaking from her sobs.

Mike turned to her and his beautiful smile instantly wiped from his face. "What's wrong?!" he asked her in a panic closing the space between them and moving his hands to her arms.

His hands warm against her cold skin, his touch soothing her slightly because he was her home.

"I-I need to g-go. K-Kali…she's b-back for m-me." El cried, her heart breaking piece by piece.

Mike's eyes were wide and terrified. "I-I don't understand El. What do you mean she's back for you?!"

El gasped as she tried to breathe through the pain rushing around her body like poison. "K-Kali and the others are here for me. They need m-me. B-Brenner is still alive. He is k-killing us. We need to s-stop him."

Mike stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, his grip on her arms tightening.

"Then I'll come with you." He said in a hoarse voice.

El sobbed and shook her head, the tears spilling down to her heaving chest. "N-no. You can't. It's not safe for you."

She saw anger fill Mike's terrified eyes. "No! I don't care if it's not safe. I'm not leaving you ever."

El cried and pulled Mike to her, she wept into the blue sweater he was wearing whilst he wrapped his arms around her like she was the most precious thing in the whole world.

They could have stayed in the embrace forever.

"Jane?" came Kali's cautious voice.

Mike broke the embrace to look behind El in shock as Kali, Sam, Hunter, Fifi and Emma came out of the house. Hunter holding El's duffle bag.

"You know he can't come with us." Kali said calmly, but there was a shake to her voice.

El felt Mike physically shaking but she sighed and nodded slowly to Kali, "I know."

"You can't just come here and think you can take her away from her f-family, from me." Mike screamed at Kali and the others, his voice angry but incredibly broken.

Kali sighed and stepped closer, "we need her. We are her family too. And we need to stop the man who ruined our lives, who murdered our family and will continue to murder our family if we do not stop him."

"Well then let me come!" Mike shouted, his body quivering.

"No. Brenner will know you are a weakness. He will use you against Jane. He will easily have you killed."

At these words El found a small flicker of strength behind her complete and utter pain. She turned to Mike but couldn't meet his eyes.

"I have to go Mike. Alone. Y-you need to s-stay. Y-you need to go on without me." She said wishing she could take back each word and the pain she knew she had just inflicted on him.

Mike looked at her wildly whilst Kali nodded at the others and they all started heading to a dark van.

"Are you kidding me?!" he screamed, El's heart crushed for every ounce of his pain.

"I'm s-so sorry." El cried as she made to move towards the van too, knowing she couldn't even bare to touch him because she would never stop.

"No!" She heard him cry, before he tried to reach out and grasp her hand to pull her back.

El quickly moved her wrist away and continued on towards the van, her body almost ready to collapse from the pain she felt.

She was suddenly almost pulled to the floor whilst Mike sunk to his knees and grabbed onto her legs. "No! Please don't go!" he sobbed into her jeans.

El cried, still staring at the van, knowing she couldn't look at him in that moment because it would be the end of her.

"I h-have to. I…I am s-so s-sorry Mike. I l-love you." She gasped knowing as she closed her eyes what she was going to have to do.

Mike's arms against his own will were pulled from her legs with her magnetic force. "No!" he screamed clearly knowing what she had done.

El carried on walking, almost running to the van. "No! El! Please!" His words making her sob aloud as she got into the van and looked back at Mike.

He was still on the floor being held back from her by her magnetic force. He was crying, his whole body shaking, his face completely broken.

"Good bye Mike." El cried as the last piece of her heart shattered.