"You're like a little girl!"

They had just finished another campaign in just 10 short hours and Dustin was revelling in the victory with some fun rough-housing. Will had just left, and Mike wasn't the fighting type, so his thoughts wandered to where they always did: Eleven. The girl who had seemingly popped out of nowhere and disappeared without a trace. He glanced over towards El's blanket fort. He didn't know why he did this, knowing every time he even thought about her he'd feel emptiness, but he did every day, without fail. He'd gone out looking for a few weeks now, first the 4 of them, searching for hours at a time, then Joyce said it was "Unhealthy" so Will left. Lucas was second to go, trying to keep the past behind him (And thinking she was gone.) And the search party had dissolved 3 days ago when Dustin had started to move on, diverting his attention to the D&D game. Now for the past 2 days it was just Mike, wandering the woods, searching dangerously close to Hawkins Lab for that girl he'd lost.

"Dustin? Lucas?"

They both unravelled in a second, noticing the seriousness in his voice

"Yeah, Mike?

"I thought I saw Eleven. That night, after It took her."

"Wait, you're saying she's hiding?"

Lucas and Dustin had sat back down by now, intrigued by this new information.

"What I'm saying is the bad men must have scared her off into the woods."

"Or caught her."

Mike and Lucas stared at Dustin.

"She's too powerful to be caught."

Dustin now knew he'd said something wrong.

"Oh, uh.. yeah, totally, soooo we'll go to the chief first thing tomorrow and tell him this... and maybe he can help us find her."

Dustin, playing damage control nodded at them with them nodding back.

"Yeah, OK. She's still out there, right. Let's do it."

Dustin then ran upstairs to tell Will their plan, but he'd already left, they'd have to give the plan to him tomorrow.

Hopper glanced down at his blue bracelet, then to his watch. 6:30. That stupid Christmas party. He had tried blending back into society the last few weeks, but his thoughts seemed to always be on that kid. That girl. He got the call from the lab that she was still alive a few weeks back, spotted near the Wheeler kid's house. He'd gone through her appearance at least 5 times a day. "Girl, 12ish, buzzcut, goes by "Eleven" last seen wearing a pink dress and a checkered flannel. He changed his glance to the TV, staring at the blank screen. He knew she was still out there, he just had to find her. Hop got up and left the couch, but not before bringing along some Tupperware. He'd be laying a trap in the woods tonight.

The party was short, and the time he spent there was even shorter. He made the rounds and picked off some food from the tables into the bowls. Before he knew it, he was flying down an old country road with Christmas songs on. Sara had loved Christmas, but his mind was on the trap right now. He'd have to suppress those feelings for another time. Placing the food into the wooden box was a surprisingly calm thing to do. He poked around the woods for a bit, looking for signs of life. He swore he saw a small shadow of a running figure that night.

"Hop! There's 4 boys here to see you! I'm sending them in!"

Hop thought to himself "Oh no."

"So we were thinking... maybe... we could all look for Eleven later today, with you. Yeah?"

Those boys were something, they'd been searching for her all this time.

"No."

"Wait what? Chief! She could still be alive! I saw her at my house a few weeks back and the bad men chased her away!"

That Mike kid noticed her. He knew she was out there too. Crap. He didn't even think before making them an empty promise.

"You know what? I'll look for her by myself later tonight and if I see her, I'll tell you kids first. Deal?"

"Take us with you. Then it's a deal."

He partially wanted to say yes, but he knew they couldn't, especially Will, his mom was paranoid about him being out. And who was he arguing with a 12-year-old?

"No."

Mike thought about it for a minute. Before he could come up with something, Will spoke up:

"She's out there, sir, and she might freeze to death in this weather."

"Which is why I've said I'd look for her tonight. Now go home, all of you. And get Will back to his mother, I'm surprised I haven't gotten a phone call from her calling where he is."

They remained unmoved.

"Now!"

A defeated Mike rounded up the gang and they all sulked out of his office. Hop felt bad for them. They knew she was alive, so he decided to take a risk. He pulled Mike aside halfway out the door.

"If she's out there, I'll come get you and your friends."

"Thanks, but we're going to look for her tonight too."

Hopper knew he couldn't win this battle. He saw the kid walk away from him.

"Just be safe, and if you do find her, bring her to my trailer by the lake."

Mike's eyes lit up. he cracked a small smile, the chief still had hope too.