"You feel like skipping fourth period?"

Like he'd ever say no to her.

"Sure."

xxx

She explained her plan to him as he drove to Radio Shack. They need hard, real proof of what those people had done. It couldn't be her words against theirs. So they needed to use their words against them. They had to get a confession, an admission of culpability. And they needed it on tape.

The store was empty except for Bob behind the counter when they entered.

"Hey Bob," Jonathan greeted awkwardly.

"Hi Jonathan!" Bob exclaimed, surprised to see him in his store, with a girl in tow. "School let you out early?"

"Uh…yeah."

Bob laughed and waved him off.

"Don't worry, I won't tell your mom," he knew Jonathan wasn't exactly crazy about the fact that he was dating his mother, but he really wanted to connect with Joyce's older boy as well, he supposed playing it cool instead of ratting him out for playing hookie with a girl couldn't hurt his chances.

Jonathan just nodded awkwardly and glanced around the store.

"Hi, I'm Bob," he came around the counter to greet Nancy.

"Nancy," she smiled and gave him a small wave.

"Nice to meet you. So, what brings you two here?"

Bob led the way to the shelf where Nancy quizzed him about the difference in quality between different tape recorders, looking for the one with best ability to clearly pick up sounds that would also fit into her purse. They walked back to the counter when she'd eventually settled on a model.

"Hey I'll throw in some blank tapes for you, I've got way too many lying around here anyways."

"Oh, you don't have to do that!"

"Nonsense, any… friend, of Jonathan is a friend of mine."

"Thanks! Nice to meet you," Nancy answered, deciding to gloss over Bob's little pause before he settled on "friend".

"You too! See you later Jonathan!"

"Bye."

"I like him!" She announced as they walked back to his car.

"Of course you do, he gave you a discount and free tapes. And he isn't spending the night at your house," he smirked. She gave him a light shove with her elbow.

"He's nice, and what, doesn't your mom deserve someone nice?"

"Yeah, yeah. I just wish he didn't try so hard to be friends with me."

She rolled her eyes.

"What?"

"Of course he has to try hard! Becoming your friend ain't exactly an easy feat!" She ribbed him.

"Okay, point taken," he smiled.

xxx

"Let's burn that lab to the ground."

The sheer determination in her eyes and weight behind her words as she said it made him completely sure. They were going to get justice. Even if this journalist guy didn't deliver, they were going to take down Hawkins Lab, because he knew Nancy wouldn't ever give up, and she couldn't be stopped. Her plan was ingenious. And he would do everything in his power to help her see it through.

"So, here, 7:45 tomorrow morning?" He asked as he pulled up to the curb opposite her house.

"You don't have to do this, you know?"

"I know, but I want to. I'm with you."

She nodded seriously.

"So, 7:45?" He asked again.

"Yeah, 7:45. See you then," she smiled quickly at him as she exited the car.

"Bye."

xxx

"So what did you write on the note then? To your mom," she suddenly asked, looking up from the map she had spread out in her lap.

"Oh, uh. Just the truth, that I was helping you out with something important and that it'd take a while."

"Oh."

"Well, she wouldn't exactly buy it if I said I was staying over at a friend's house, would she?"

"Guess not," she laughed.

"Plus I can't lie to her. Not after everything."

She nods in understanding.

xxx

"I think Steve and I broke up, by the way," she blurts out after they've been driving in comfortable silence for awhile to one of Jonathan's mixtapes.

"Sorry."

xxx

"You okay?"

"Yeah. It's weird, I guess I should feel more bad about it."

"I don't think you have to feel a certain way about it. It's your business how you feel."

"Yeah. I wish I hadn't drunk so much at the party but at the same time, a lot of truths got out, I guess… stuff I've ignored. Maybe it's for the best…"

She trailed off, thinking. More of that drunken night had come back to her since. She remembered standing in front of her mirror, thinking she really didn't want to go. But Steve would be so disappointed. She hadn't really been out much since last year. Since that night. But Steve had been so good, so patient, all this time. Pretend to be normal teenagers for a night. She could do that for him, right? But already as Steve pulled up to the curb outside Tina's house she knew it would be tough. She hadn't felt like a normal teenager for over a year. She felt like the weirdest person in the world. She would need help. Hence, alcohol. The more she drank, the more she could feel all the barriers she'd put up to guard her feelings, loosen. She always thought twice about what she said before she said it. But that night in the bathroom there was no barrier between her brain and her mouth.

What bugged her was how she couldn't say it the next day.

A normal teenager would mope around or spend all her time crying in bed after a breakup, she thought. But she hadn't, she hadn't felt like moping or crying at all. She'd made a plan to get justice and was now deep into executing it with Jonathan and she hadn't looked back. She didn't even miss him, even though she'd gotten so used to having him around, she hadn't thought at all about Steve until now. She supposed that was weird too.

xxx

"So, you making up for lost time?" She asked as she got out of her own head, picking up the empty case for the mixtape Jonathan had shoved in earlier.

"What?"

"Talking Heads mix 1" she read of the handwritten label.

"Oh," he laughed. "Well at least I had already finished Deadeye Dick."

She chuckled slightly, adding: "I've only read Slaughterhouse-Five."

"Yeah, that's the best one."

It was quiet for a second as Houses in Motion stopped and Life During Wartime began.

"It's the first of four, by the way."

"What?"

"Talking Heads mix 1. I've got three more here somewhere."

They both laughed.

"But I think I've got some Blondie too, on one of the punk mixes," he added, remembering the poster in her room.

"Sounds great," she smiled.

xxx

"I want them off."

She abruptly turned away from him. What the hell was that supposed to mean, "only for a month"? How long did he need?! Yeah, she understood he needed to be with his family, of course she got that. But it's not like she asked of him to ignore them and come running to her, just… something. She recalled that month… month and a half really, she'd waited. It had been absolutely horrible. Grieving Barb while she couldn't even tell her parents and everyone else just forgot about her. The pressure of suddenly being aware of the fact that monsters and dark dimensions were very real and not being able talk about that either. Knowing that the government was evil and willing to cover up every atrocious deed, all the while continuing to spy on the whole town. Seeing her little brother spending every day depressed in the basement clutching a walkie-talkie and finding no way to comfort him ("I'm sure she's alright" didn't really cut it when they both knew she had no way of being sure of that at all).

And the nightmares, being chased by the Demogorgon, not finding Jonathan's voice in the dark. Seeing Barb's face every time she closed her eyes. And most of all the crippling loneliness. No Barb at her side. No light in the world. At the same time questioning who she was. That week had brought out something new in her. Or maybe it had always been there but hadn't come out earlier. That part of her that didn't back down or give up. That part of her that could handle a gun. That part of her that slapped a boy if he called her a slut in front of the whole town. That part of her that planned a fiery trap for a monster. But did giving in to that meant letting go of who she used to be? The normal teenager who had a place and a role in the minefield that was Hawkins High, who had a popular boyfriend, a 4.0 GPA and… a dead best friend. She hesitated inbetween, afraid of letting go but at the same time scared of treading on in the same tracks. Being just another suburban girl and then end up like her mother. But it had been easier to fall back on Steve then, and try to restore at least some semblance of her old life. Easier to try to ignore all that happened, burying it deep deep inside.

Way to go Byers, he thought to himself as he turned off the lights. Same old Byers, saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. He seriously doubted his ability to interact with other human beings at all sometimes. Interacting with Nancy had been easy of late, in a way it was effortless, but then this would happen, they broached the topic he had no idea how to approach, and he screwed up as always. Goddamn he sounded pathetic, whining that she only waited a month before going back to Steve. And it's not like he had spent every waking minute of it with Will. They had seen each other in school, where everyone stared at him more than ever since he'd now gone from just "creepy pervert" to "creepy pervert who got a pityfuck from Nancy Wheeler AND who's little brother died and came back to life". But it's not like he'd had any idea of what to do anyway, without the feeling of everyone gawking and whispering. Sometimes when he had laid awake at night, wrestling with what his feelings for her actually were, and contemplating if she felt the same way as he did, he considered approaching her the next day. It's not like he had anything to lose, he'd tell himself at night. And then chicken out the next day.

In the morning they don't talk about it.