After Everything...
Part 1
The Nether. It destroys. It kills. And now it's gone. For good?
El opened her eyes, staring up at a white ceiling with peeling paint. A swaying light fixture hung above her and as she lifted her head it all became clear.
She stared around the living room of the Byers house, rustling the white sheets on the pull out couch she was sleeping in. In the corner of the room, asleep on the armchair was Max, curled up in a small ball. Next to her was a sleeping Lucas, their hands entwined as he lay on the carpet. In the kitchen was Jonathan and Nancy, their heads resting on the kitchen table, also asleep. They two were holding each others hands, their heads mere millimetres apart. From her position she could see Steve leaning against the wall, his head resting against the maze of vines, eyes shut with a few grunts to tell Eleven he too was asleep. She assumed Hopper was somewhere, and Will, Dustin and Lucas were probably in Will's room, the lucky ones who had managed to grab a bed. In a heap in the corner was Billy, unconscious but his chest was rising to suggest he was alive.
Eleven moved slightly, planning on getting up and pouring herself a drink but as she began to move she felt the aching in her muscles. The aftermath from the night before. Not only that, but she realised that her hand was also holding another's.
She looked down as Mike woke, stirring slowly, grumbling a bit but once he saw Eleven staring down at him in surprise his face lit up.
"El, your awake!" He said stumbling to his feet as Eleven attempted to lift herself up but wincing at the pain that shot through her limbs.
"Mike..."
"No! Don't move, I'll get you some water." Mike said as if reading her mind. He jumped up and tiptoed over to the kitchen, getting a glass down from the cupboard. He filled it with cold water from the tap and opened the fridge, grabbing some bread and setting to work making a sandwich.
"Mike?" Eleven croaked, but stopped when she realised her throat was scratchy and sore.
"No. Don't talk, you haven't drank anything since yesterday morning." Mike said carrying the plate and glass over to her quietly. "Here. We didn't have any eggos."
He smiled at her as she wolfed the food down and gulped the water down in seconds.
"Thank you." Eleven said rubbing her neck and smiling at Mike's delighted face.
"You were amazing! You closed the gate and you killed all those demodogs who attacked the house!" Mike said sitting next to her as she raised her hand to her head, feeling the soft curls once more.
"Joyce washed it out for you. The gel was really sticky, and you had blood in your ears." Mike said wrapping a blanket around Eleven's shoulders.
"Mike?" Eleven said reaching for his hand. Mike knew there were no words for what she had just gone through so he didn't say a word as Eleven rested her head on his shoulder, Mike taking the hand she was holding and wrapping it around her shoulders so they were closer.
"It's ok. I understand."
They sat like that for a few minutes before they both fell asleep, Mike dreaming of demogorgons and three musketeer chocolate bars, Eleven dreaming of eggos and the make shift bed she had made in Mike's basement all those months ago.
Hours Later...
Mike and Eleven woke hours later to the sound of Joyce entering the living room. They jerked awake, Mike backing away from Eleven quickly so that the others would not notice they had just fallen asleep in each others arms. But that was the least of their worries.
Max and Lucas also woke but not fast enough and everyone, including Joyce, witnessed them 'cuddling'.
"Well I'm going to make breakfast." Joyce grumbled walking aimlessly over to the stove.
"Mum, we have no food." Jonathan pointed out.
"Well that can't be true-" Joyce said opening the fridge to double check but jumped back in horror as a large, decomposing, demodog fell out, splattering goo all over the front of Joyce's nightgown.
"Why is there a demogorgon in my fridge!" Joyce shrieked, just as Dustin emerged from Will's room, running at full force in a pair of Will's pyjamas, the buttons almost bursting as Will was a rather small person with very small pyjamas.
"Sorry, sorry!" Dustin said scrabbling to stuff the humongous creature back into the fridge.
"Dustin what are you doing?" Joyce shrieked.
"It's a scientific discovering Mrs Byers, it can't go unnoticed!" Dustin exclaimed.
"Dustin, you cannot keep a creature from another dimension in my fridge!" Joyce said sternly.
"But-"
"No but's! Now Steve and Jonathan, go and take this thing outside and bury it in the yard. In fact, go get Hopper. He'll help you bury it far away enough that no one can trace it back to us." Joyce said stepping over the creature.
"Eleven darling! Your awake!" Joyce said trotting over to Eleven and hugging her, rubbing her back lovingly. "Hopper! Eleven's awake!"
Joyce yelled down the hallway and Hopper came stumbling out of Joyce's room, rubbing his eyes and stretching.
"Hi kid. Good sleep?"
"Yes." Eleven mumbled.
"Good, good." Hopper said walking past the demodog as if it wasn't there.
"Hopper?"
"Yeah." Hopper said pouring himself a cup of coffee and leaning on the kitchen counter.
"The demogorgon?" Joyce said nodding down at the demodog lying under her open fridge.
"Demodog." Dustin added, Hopper giving him a look that said 'shut up'.
"And?" Hopper said raising an eyebrow.
"You, Steve and Jonathan are going to take this thing out of my kitchen and bury it in the garden so I can get to work on cleaning this house!" Joyce said angrily, pointing to the door as Steve and Jonathan wrapped the creature in a blanket and dragged it outside. Hopper followed unhappily.
"Now, everyone. We're going to start cleaning while Nancy goes and get's food for breakfast." Joyce said walking over to the table. "Here's a list of groceries we need."
"I'm going to drive home first if that's ok. Get some clean clothes, wash." Nancy said taking the long shopping list and her coat, leaving the house.
"Nanc!" Mike called before she opened the door. "Pack me a bag with clothes and pyjamas?"
"Sure." Nancy said opening the door and closing it behind her.
"Ok, everyone start taking down the drawings." Joyce said handing them five bin bags and they all split up, taking one room each. Will started on his room, Max on the bathroom, Lucas cleared Jonathan's room and Dustin cleared out the master bedroom. Joyce herself started cleaning the kitchen while Mike cleared the lounge.
"I'll help." Eleven said starting to get up but Mike ran over, pushing her back down.
"No El, your too tired. You sleep and we'll clean." Mike said comfortingly but it only made Eleven fell worse. She was completely useless, confined to a bed while everyone around her worked on cleaning the house, a job she could usually do with little effort and a bloody nose.
So as Mike was searching around for the dust pan he had just gotten out from the cupboard Eleven took it upon her self to pull a little joke. She simply levitated the dust pan behind him so when he turned he saw it floating centimetres from his face and Eleven giggling, her nose bleeding profusely.
"El." Mike said sternly but couldn't help smiling at her, finally having a moment of happiness amongst all the heartbreak.
An hour later and the house was more or less organised, and Nancy had returned with a bag packed of Mike's clothes.
"Thanks!" Mike said grabbing the bag from her hands and racing to the bathroom to have a wash and change before breakfast.
"And here Eleven." Nancy said holding out a simple blue dress with a white ribbon around the waist. "It's my old dress. I thought you might want some fresh clothes."
Eleven took the clothes and with Nancy's help she limped down the hallway and into Will's room to change.
Minutes Later...
Everyone was now seated around the kitchen table, Mike shaking his hair with a towel to dry it after his shower. Joyce and Hopper were setting out plates of sandwich's and various snacks, everyone piling their plates high with food when Nancy turned up, leading Eleven into a seat.
Eleven now had on her dress and a pair of trainers, her hair tied back in a lose ponytail. She looked so happy if a little tired. It had been a hard few days for her, and after her visit to see Kali she hadn't felt like herself. She hadn't felt pretty, or loved, or even stable. But now she felt like herself. In that blue dress with her nice, clean hair it made her feel like she had all those months ago at Mike's house, in her wig and pink dress. She felt normal, well as normal as normal gets.
"El." Mike said making everyone's head turn from Eleven to Mike. "You look really nice."
He ducked his head with shame, forgetting his sister was in the room with him.
"Well maybe you'd like to take a picture kid because she ain't staying here." Hopper said, rolling up his sleeve and sitting down on the only free seat, beside Jonathan and Mike.
"What?" Mike asked, forgetting the reasons in which Hopper had hid Eleven for all that time.
"She isn't safe, and until Doctor Owens gets back to me on how safe Eleven is in Hawkins she's staying hidden, back at the cabin. And if it never gets any better then we may just have to move." Hopper said taking a bite out of his bacon and mayo sandwich.
"What?" Mike said standing up loudly, shocked at what Hopper was suggesting.
"Sit down kid. It's not forever, just for the foreseeable future." Hopper said chewing on his sandwich, hardly caring about Mike's outburst as he has dealt with Eleven who's tantrums can last for several hours.
"Well I'm going to visit." Mike said hacking through his food with his knife.
"No, you aren't." Hopper said with a chuckle.
"Yeah I will. I'll take the back road, down near lovers lake and cut across the woods. It's practically deserted so no one will see me." Mike explained, Hopper very angrily sighing.
"Fine, once a week and only for a short period of time. And you can start tutoring El." Hopper said making tutoring Eleven sound like a punishment for visiting so regularly.
"Deal!" Mike said happily making Hopper roll his eyes with annoyance. Eleven reached her hand under the table, taking Mike's hand. He looked up at her quickly, not expecting her to do that, but smiled at her warmly, squeezing her hand in his.
"Can we visit?" Dustin asked hopefully.
"No." Hopper said and that was the end of that conversation.
Hours Later...
The day had flown by with cleaning, laughter, and plans for Eleven's time at the cabin. She was dreading the return to solitude, but thankful Mike was now allowed to visit occasionally. He had given his word to Hopper that every Saturday he would tutor her for four hours and then two hours on Sunday, after his mum and dad dragged him to church and back.
"You better not mess this up kid, I need El perfectly able to go to school as soon as Doctor Owens gives the word." Hopper said pointing a finger at Mike as he was climbing into his van. Eleven was already in the passenger seat getting ready for the journey home.
"Yes Hopper. You can count on me!" Mike said raising a hand to his forehead in salute and Hopper slammed his door.
"Wait!" Eleven said jumping out of the car as Hopper had just started the engine, about to drive off. She ran down the drive and up to Mike. He stared at her for a second before she kissed his cheek and ran back to the car. Mike stood there staring back at her with a big smile as Hopper scowled at him through the car window.
"Ohhhh! Mike's in loOOOVVE!" Dustin and Lucas chanted from the front porch once Hopper and Eleven were out of sight.
"Shut up." Mike said pushing past them playfully and into the house, still in a daze. It was only Tuesday and Mike could hardly wait for Saturday to come, he was forbidden to come to the cabin even a day early. But that wouldn't stop him from talking to Eleven over the phone. Especially when Hopper went back to work on Thursday.
They all decided to play a game of D&D, to take their minds off the absence of Eleven.
Saturday Morning...
Mike woke early that morning, the sun streaming in through his curtains, his window cracked open so his room smelt of the fresh winter air. It was late November and December was almost upon them, but most notably the Snowball. Mike had been thinking it over since Tuesday night when Eleven left, wondering how he would ask her and most importantly, how he would convince Hopper that one night would not mean eternal doom.
Mike had not seen Eleven since Tuesday, a few phone calls were all that reminded him she was not a figment of his imagination, a vivid hallucination he had dreamed up when he was so desperate to see Eleven. But no, she was real and she was in the woods just outside Hawkins, in a small wooden cabin safe and sound.
"Bye mum!" Mike called out as he sprinted don the stairs, making a great thudding sound with every step.
He was just pulling his jacket on and grabbing his bag, about to open the door and cycle over to the Hopper residence when Karen called him from the kitchen.
"Michael!" She called making Mike slow down and trudge into the kitchen, trying to hold back his excitement. Karen did not know about Eleven's return or anything Mike had been doing the week before and she wanted information before her son ran from the home with a packed bag and his bike. "Where are you going?"
"Dustin's."
"Dustin's busy today. Dentist appointment." Karen said folding her arms and staring at her son with beady eyes.
"How do you know?" Mike said rather rudely.
"Me and your friends mothers have been keeping up to date with each others schedules. Were you kids are we will know. After last weeks stunt I wouldn't put anything past you four."
"You and Joyce share calendars?" Mike said with raised eyebrows.
"No, not Joyce. She's rather strange and we have little in common. No, me and Mrs Sinclair meet for coffee after yoga on Thursday's and I meet with Dustin's mother on Sunday's after church. All three of us go to the same book club and I have Lucas and Dustin's schedules memorised for the next week."
"Well..." Mike said looking down shamefully at his toes before bolting out of the house before Karen to tell him not to.
"Michael!" She yelled stepping onto the front step and calling down the drive to Mike who was already pedalling away as fast as he could, the books in his bag banging against his back with every step.
He cycled as fast as he could down to Hopper's cabin, knocking loudly on the door, kicking his feet on the welcome mat they had recently acquired. It had started raining half way on his way to the woods and he was thoroughly drenched from head to toe, his hair sticking to his forehead and his clothes sticking to his back.
"Mike?" Hopper said as Mike entered the cabin. Eleven and Hopper were at the two seater table eating toast and beans for their breakfast.
"Hi Hops." Mike said pulling his coat off and setting his bag on the sofa.
"Don't call me that." Hopper said getting up and setting his knife and fork down. "I'm heading off to work. Work then chores ok? No eggos before dinner."
"Fine." Eleven grumbled, taking the plates over to the sink to clean later.
After Hopper had closed the front door Mike and Eleven clamoured over to the windows, watching as he walked away to his car which was parked on the edge of the forest. After he was out of sight the two exchanged smiles.
"I missed you Mike." Eleven said softly.
"I missed you too El, I really did think about you every day." Mike said. A few seconds passed of Eleven looking down guiltily at her hands.
"I'm sorry Mike. I should have said something." Eleven said the tears falling down her cheeks. Mike wrapped his arms around her thin arms and pulled her close, wiping her tears away with his sleeve.
"You shouldn't be sorry. You did the right thing. And I looked for you every day after school, for months. I walked through the woods, wondering if maybe you had came back. But you never answered, because you wanted to keep me safe. You wanted to keep us all safe." Mike said comfortingly.
"I saw you Mike. I was in the woods." Eleven said through sobs.
"Don't worry about that anymore. We're both out of the woods now." Mike said although he wasn't referring those woods.