hello everyone! I'm not sure I'll be continuing this story unless I can think of a direction I want to take it in. For now it will just be a one shot. Feel free to comment suggestions as to how I could continue this story (such as the conflict or ending). Enjoy!

"Steve drive faster."

"I'm not going to go over the speed limit just because you want to see your girlfriend."

Mike groaned and leaned back in the back seat of Steve's car. He was tightly packed in between Lucas and Dustin who were bickering about what had happened with the lights when they made it out of the upside down. Dustin said it had something to do with them killing the hive. Lucas, ever the realist, argued that it was probably just something wrong with the car. But Mike knew what it had been. He could just feel it. Feel her.

The ride back to the Byers house was excruciating. He had been a nervous wreck the second Hopper's truck started driving away. Regret took over him completely the second she was gone. How could he let her go back to that place? How could he not go with her? She had been so determined and sure that she would be fine. What if she was overestimating herself? Mike didn't know what he would do if he only got to see her for a half hour at most and then never saw her again. The thought alone made every cell in his body ache with regret and worry.

"Mike, chill." Dustin said while looking down at his leg that bounced up and down repeatedly. Even on a normal day Mike was a restless kid. But with his nerves he was practically vibrating. "It's gonna be fine."

He leaned the back of his head against the seat and closed his eyes. "You don't know that." Mike said. He was afraid to say it too loud in case he jinxed things.

"Yeah, we do." Lucas replied. It was sometimes hard to remember how much he had once hated Eleven. "She was okay after last time, remember?"

"This is different." Mike muttered. "You guys weren't there. You didn't see what it was like. Those things are all over the place. There was only one last time." He didn't feel like there was even a point in mentioning that on top of everything else she was walking back into the place she had been held prisoner and forced to be experimented on for almost her entire life.

He felt Dustin put a hand on his shoulder and forced himself not to shake it off. "She'll be okay." He said. He sounded so sure.

Mike fell silent and listened to the sound of the car. There was nothing he could say that could make them feel the worry he felt. They didn't understand her like he did. They hadn't cried themselves to sleep for a whole month. They hadn't called her every night. It took everything in him to not have a total nervous breakdown.

When they finally pulled back in front of the Byers house everyone went inside while Mike sat down on the steps out front. No one said anything but they left the front door open. Just in case. With no one around to distract him he stared out at the street and felt his whole body start to shake. He was glad no one had offered to sit with him when tears escaped from his eyes and rolled down his freckled cheeks. He couldn't lose her again. He simple couldn't.

Mike remembered how Lucas used to tease him about his crush on Eleven and how defensively he denied it. He also remembered how he called the idea 'gross' when Nancy brought it up. He now regretted not being totally and completely honest from the beginning. Then again it had never occurred to him that she would one day just disappear. It felt like he had all the time in the world. And, in his defense Nancy also lied about Johnathan. He could just tell.

By the time someone came out to check on him he had ran out of silent tears. He didn't turn to see who had come outside until he spotted bright red hair sitting down next to him on the step. Mike remained silent and watched Max carefully out of the corner of his eye. Out of all the people who could have come to check on him he didn't expect it to be Max. He knew the way he'd been treating her was wrong but the only thing he could think of when he saw her with his friends is that it should have been Eleven.

They sat in silent for a few minutes, both staring out at the road ahead of them. There was about three inches of space between them. The wood underneath their feet was shaking from Mike's bouncing legs. Max quietly cleared her throat. "Look, I get it." She said. "Why you hate me and everything."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She shifted a little bit next to him. "You think that they're trying to replace her with me. And you think that if they do that they're going to forget about her and you'll be the only one who remembers."

Her words felt like a punch in the chest. How was she able to see so clearly what her friends were totally oblivious of? Mike pulled his legs closer to his chest and didn't dare look over at her. They knew Eleven was alive and yet she still wasn't with them. It was all wrong. "It's like they don't even miss her anymore." He choked out. His voice was just barely above a whisper but the neighborhood was quiet enough that he was sure she heard him.

"Do you know what a divorce is?" she asked. Mike didn't think he could speak anymore without his voice failing him so he simply nodded. "My parents are divorced. When my mom met my step dad she said it would be good to get a fresh start so we moved here." Max sighed and moved her hair behind her ears. "It's like the second we left California my dad just didn't exist. There's no pictures of him in the house and no one ever mentions him. I found out a couple of days ago that if my mom answers his calls she would tell him I'm not home."

Mike's eyebrows pulled together. "Why would she do that?"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her shrug. "I don't know. I haven't spoken to her since I found out." They were once again silent in a surprisingly comfortable way. Never in a million years would Mike have thought they had something in common. Had she too developed a bit of an attitude because she was bitter at the people who had forgotten who she cared about? "You know you don't have to worry about me replacing her." Max said after a few minutes. "She's, like, a million times cooler than me. And I see the way you guys talk about her. And look at her. I can tell she's really important to all of you."

If only she knew. "I think they stopped talking about her in the beginning because of me. They didn't want me to have some kind of breakdown so they didn't talk about her all that much. Then they stopped talking about her altogether." Mike pulled his jacket together and close to his chest. The zipper was broken and it had started to get cold since night had fallen hours ago. "I never brought her up because it was too hard." Mike couldn't believe what he was telling her. They were things he had never dared to say out loud. He figured it had something to do with the fact that his emotions were a bit of a mess as he waited for Eleven to get back.

"Did you really call her every day that whole time?" she asked. Mike nodded once again. For a second he had forgotten other people were in the room when Eleven walked in and that they could hear everything he had said to her. His cheeks felt a bit warm that she was bringing it up. "How did you keep calling her for so long if you never got an answer? That sounds like torture."

Mike sighed quietly. "Have you ever met someone and know by the end of the day that you just need them to be in your life? Or feel like you can't breathe when you're not with them? Like suddenly you need them more than you need oxygen."

Max shook her head. "No." she said. "I don't know what it's like."

"It's probably the best and the worst feeling in the world all at once." He said. Mike had spent so much time too afraid to talk about her but suddenly everything was spilling out of his mouth like a waterfall of words. "We found her when we were looking for Will. No one else had any place to keep her, and we didn't want to tell our parents about her, so she lived in my basement." He let out a laugh that lacked any sort of humor. "I thought that it was my job to protect her because she was staying with me. But I was too busy trying to take care of her to realize that she was the one protecting me. Until it was too late."

Max must have picked up on how he was struggling to hold back a fresh wave of tears because she put her hand on his back. He didn't feel like pushing her away. "One of the monsters got in the school one night while we were there." He continued. "She killed it. I knew she wasn't strong enough, and I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't let me. So I closed my eyes. When I opened them she was just… gone. Like she hadn't even been there in the first place."

Mike's voice cracked and he quickly put his hands over his eyes. He felt like every muscle in his body was being tied into knots. The pain of not having her was so much worse when he knew for a fact that she was out there somewhere. So close yet still out of reach. Max rubbed his back gently and didn't say a word as the floodgates once again opened. If a few hours ago he'd been told Max Mayfield would be rubbing his back while he cried he probably would have laughed. But after what she told him he was glad that she had been the one to come out and check on him.

He had no idea how long he sat thee hidden behind his hands. It felt like at least half an hour. Neither of them said very much. Ever ten minutes or so Max would whisper that it was okay for him to just let it all out. Mike was just starting to settle down when he felt her shaking his shoulder. "Mike, look."

His hands dropped in his lap and he looked up. A pair of headlights had just came into view a little more than ten yards away. Mike quickly pushed himself to his feet and ran as fast as he could towards the now approaching car. His heart pounded as he got closer. With the lights shining in his face he couldn't look into the car well enough to see if Eleven was sitting in the passenger's seat. He was just able to make out that it was Hoppers truck.

Only a couple feet away from reaching it the cars headlights suddenly shut off. Mike stopped and squinted in through the front windshield. Relief flooded through his body when he spotted her sitting inside. But as Hopper got out of the truck he could see that she didn't look good. Her skin was pale and he could see the veins in her face even from where he stood. Dried blood was coming out from both her ears and her nose. Her eyes were closed and her head was rested against the window.

He could hear Hopper walking over to him but his eyes were fixed on her. "What happened to her?" he choked out. He'd never seen her look so weak before. It was a scary sight.

"She did it." Hopper replied simply. He felt his hand land on his shoulder before he added "She needs some help walking."

Mike didn't need to be told twice. He hurried over to the passenger's side door and knocked on the window. She needed to pick her head up before he could open it. Her eyes opened slowly and for a moment her face remained blank. When she saw him standing outside her lips twitched upwards and she managed to pick her head up just enough to rest it on the back of the seat. Mike opened the door and reached across her to unbuckle her seat belt for her. She didn't need to move any more than necessary. "Can you stand up by yourself?" he asked

"Yes." Her voice sounded just about as weak as she looked. She gripped the door as she turned in her seat to face him. Every movement she made took about three times as long as it should have but he could see her determination to get out by herself. When her feet touched the ground she kept her back pressed against the car and looked up at him. He took the silent signal and wrapped his arm around her waist. She leaned heavily against his side and took baby steps away from the van. "I told you I would be fine." She mumbled as Hopper closed the door behind them.

Mike laughed and held onto her tighter. "Yeah, you did."

Max had gone inside to tell everyone that they'd come back and the whole group was waiting on the front porch by the time they made it. They all moved out of the way when they took one look at her. Mike helped her over to the couch inside the Byers living room. He held onto her waist and she kept her arms locked around his neck as she leaned backwards. Mike could feel everyone watching them carefully but he didn't care. Eleven sunk into the couch once she was laying down and he could see her struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Are you cold?" he asked her. "I can get you a blanket or something."

Before he could move her hand tightly clamped onto his wrist. "No." she told him. "Stay. Please."

Mike sat down on the floor leaning against the couch. She slowly but surely turned on her side to face him despite how much as he told her to stay still. Everyone behind them just watched. Just as she started to get settled Hopper came over with a blanket and a glass of water. He set the cup on an end table only a few feet away and covered her up. Mike tore his eyes away from her to look up at him. "What happened in there?" he asked

Hopper shook his head and quietly cleared his throat. "I, uh, I don't know." He admitted. "It was different from the upside down. Worse. Angier. I can't imagine what it was like for Will. For all of that to be in his head."

"I saw it." Eleven mumbled. When Mike looked back over at her he instantly recognized fear in her brown eyes. Only worse than he'd ever seen. Worse than when they found her and worse than when the lab found her. "The mind flayer."

No one knew what to say. So no one said anything.

It was nearing 2 AM when Steve volunteered to start driving the kids home. Even though I was a Saturday night and no one had school the next day they figured it wouldn't be a good idea if everyone's parents woke up to empty beds. The last thing they needed was for another family to think their kid was missing. They all stood in the doorway when Steve looked over at him still sitting on the floor. "You coming, Mike?"

"No." he answered simply

"I'll get my mom to cover for you." Dustin offered. "We can call your place in the morning and say you're with me."

Mike nodded and thanked him before they all left. Hopper volunteered to clean the place up a bit so the Byers wouldn't have to come home to a mess. While he wandered around the house sprucing things up Mike sat with his chin resting on the couch and his hand wrapped around Eleven's. Words could never describe how amazing it felt to be looking at her in front of him again. He remembered the day that she tried to contact Will in the schools AV room. When they got back home she had collapsed on the couch very similarly to how she was now.

The gel she had put in her hair was starting to lose its strength and curly strands were starting to escape. He smoothed one down and smiled at her. "I like this look." He told her. "It's pretty badass."

She grinned up at him. Her eyes were only half open and she looked exhausted. She needed to sleep but he could tell she wouldn't let herself. "Bitchin." She said weakly.

Hopper wandered back into the living room somewhere around 3. Mike could see his eyes wander down to their intertwined hands but he didn't say anything. "I'll come back tomorrow to finish up. Joyce and the boys will probably want to get some sleep when they get back." He raised an eyebrow at Mike. "I'm assuming you're coming with us?"

Mike nodded eagerly. The two of them picked Eleven up off the couch and practically carried her out to the truck. She could barely pick her feet up off the ground. Mike got into the back of the truck and she took the passenger's seat once more. They drove about ten feet before her head dropped down onto her shoulder. Minutes later soft snoring filled the car.

He propped his elbows on the arm rest in the middle of the two seats and leaned forward so that he could see her. "I didn't think her hair would be curly." He said quietly.

"Yeah." Hopper agreed. "She was pretty excited when it started growing out. Said it looked like Dustin's." They drove about a block in silence until Hopper took one hand off the wheel to rest on Mike's shoulder to grab his attention. "Hey, kid, I'm sorry I never said anything to you. I thought I was doing what was best for her."

Some of his anger had passed over the last few hours. But he still got a bitter taste in his mouth when he thought about how she had been so close to him the whole time. "I saw you, like, once a week and you never thought it was a good idea?"

"Well she was always asking me to check up on you." Hopper told him. "I kept telling her that she could see you one day when it was safe. Every time I thought it would be okay something would happen with Will. I got scared." He glanced over at him quickly. "She left once before to go find you. Said she saw you with some girl."

"Yeah, I know." Mike said. "I felt her there. But whatever she thinks she saw isn't true."

Hopper put one of his hands up. "Okay, I'm just checking." He said. "She was all upset about it. I left for work and next thing I know she's got a makeover and telling me she went to see her mother."

Mike raised an eyebrow at him. "She has a mother?"

"Yeah." Hopper shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Terry Ives. The lab got to her and… did something. She's in the catatonic state and doesn't even know what's going on around her." He glanced over at the now passed out Eleven. "Her name is Jane."

Mike looked over at Eleven- no, Jane- sleeping next to him. He had missed almost a years' worth of moments with her. She grew her hair out, she found her mother, knew what her name was. He'd missed all of it. How much more had he missed? He tried to tell himself that it didn't matter and that he would be there for twice as many moments as he missed.

Hopper pulled the truck to a stop somewhere in the woods. Mike didn't ask any questions as he got out on the driver's side and helped Eleven out of the car. They both supported her on the walk that was much longer than he expected it to be. The cabin that Hopper had mentioned to Joyce and Johnathan eventually came into view. The place where she'd been all that time. When he walked inside he instantly spotted broken glass scattered across the floor along with just general mess. He shot Hopper a questioning glance to which he simply replied with "She had a bit of an episode a couple of days ago."

Her eyes shut once more almost immediately after her head hit the pillow. The room was small but surprisingly homey. He lingered inside for a few moments before following Hopper back out into the kitchen area just in time to see him grab a beer from the fridge. "You hungry?" he asked

Mike shrugged his shoulders and sat in one of the chairs at the table. He wondered which one she usually sat in. "I guess."

His eyes widened slightly at the sight of a familiar yellow box being pulled out of the freezer. Hopper popped four frozen waffles into the toaster before coming over and sitting across from him. "So you're responsible for her Eggo obsession, huh?" he asked

He couldn't help but smile. How had she not gotten sick of them yet? He hadn't been able to touch one since she was gone. "I used to sneak them for her before I left for school." He said. "It was the only thing she ever wanted."

"It still is." Hopper said. For probably the first time since Mike had met him Hopper smiled. He took a sip from the bottle in front of him. Mike wished he was old enough to drink. He felt like he needed one. But he didn't dare mention it to the chief of police. "She tried to get me to let her go out on Halloween. Said no one would see her if she dressed up as a ghost."

Mike grinned at the thought. "Me and my friends were the only ones who dressed up at school." He admitted. At the time he thought it had been the end of the world. But it was nothing compared to not even being able to leave the house on Halloween. "It was pretty embarrassing."

"Yeah, sounds like it." Hopper agreed. "Sometimes I forget that you guys are such big nerds."

He shot him a half hearted glare just as the waffles popped out of the toaster. Hopper got up and grabbed two plates and utensils before bringing them back over to the table. He slid a plate in front of Mike and sat back down across from him. They cut up their waffles in silence. It wasn't until he was five bites in that Hopper spoke up again. "So what's this Snow Ball she hasn't been able to shut up about?"

Mike stared down at his plate for a moment before he lost it. He dropped his fork onto the table and hid his face behind his hands. December had probably been the worst month without her. With every day that passed he became more and more worried that he would be forced to break his promise to her. The night of the dance he had locked himself in his room and didn't answer when his family knocked on his door.

Try as he might to collect himself the tears seemed endless. Hoppers chair scraped against the floor as he moved to sit next to him. He sat next to him and didn't say a word. He just let him get it out like Max had. Mike wondered when his emotions would start to get under control.

When he finally managed to calm down enough he wiped off his cheeks and looked over at Hopper. "Sorry." He mumbled

"It's fine." Hopper said. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

As he stood up and moved his chair to the other side of the table they both picked their head up at the sound of a weak voice coming from the other room. "Mike?" he practically jumped up out of his seat and hurried into the bedroom. When he stood in the doorway he spotted her propped up on her elbows and her eyebrows knit together on her forehead. "What's wrong?" She asked as he walked over to her.

"Nothing." He told her. Mike sat down next to her on the bed and took her hand. "I just missed you."

Eleven smiled softly and leaned back until she was laying down again. "I missed you too, Mike." She said. It was a miracle that she was still awake.

"Hey, so, um," He shifted a bit and looked down at his hand holding onto hers. "Hopper said that you came to the school a couple of days ago. That you saw me talking to Max." Mike looked up just in time to see her expression fall and her eyes look away from him. With her dark clothes and black eye shadow her now angry face looked a little bit scary. "I don't want you to think anything. She's just my friend."

"But I'm your friend also." She said quietly.

Mike couldn't help but be a bit impressed at her use of the word 'also'. Hopper must have been teaching her over the past year. "No, El, you're different." He told her. "You're more than just my friend."

She slowly opened her eyes again and looked at him. Her face had softened slightly. "Am I your girlfriend?"

He could feel his face flushing a deep shade of red. With only one lamp on in the room there were heavy shadowed across both their faces but he doubted it was enough to hide his pink cheeks. "Um, yeah. If you want to be." Mike watched her lips twitch upwards. Her anger about bringing up Max seemed to have faded. "Did Hopper tell you what that meant?"

"No." she said. "All I do is watch TV. All day. Nothing else here." Her smile grew ever so slightly. "I learned things."

Mike couldn't help but smile back at her. "What else did you learn?"

"To talk better." She told him. Slowly she turned on her side to face him. "Cleaning. Rules. Compromise. Consequences." Her nose crinkled up slightly. "Don't like those."

"Yeah, they suck." Mike agreed.

She tugged on his hand lightly. "Come here."

He looked over out the door to make sure Hopper was nowhere in sight. Sure enough he couldn't any sign of him. Mike turned back around and lay down next to her on his side facing her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and moved as close to her as he could while still keeping a bit of space between them just in case Hopper were to walk in. Eleven draped her arm across his shoulder and closed her eyes once more.

"You said you needed me." She mumbled.

Her voice was hardly even a whisper and he only heard her well enough to know she spoke. "Hm?"

"On Halloween you said you needed me." She said just loud enough for him to make out. "So I came to look for you."

Mike held her tighter against him and rested his cheek on the top of her head. She really had heard.