Elle had contacted Mike three times in the past two weeks, and the time she was able to spend talking with him lengthened as she got better at reaching him. Each time, Mike plagued her with questions about the lab, the scientists, and most recently, the surveillance. Mike had told her that he believed that he could free her for good if they had video footage of her time spent in captivity.

"We can put the bad men away forever if we show the police the videos, Eleven," he had said to her. "Please, I need you to find them for me."

Truth be told, Eleven did not know if there were any videos and where they would be if they existed, but the urgency in Mike's voice and the promise of freedom were enough to prompt her to agree to search. There wasn't a way she could think of doing it that was safe or easy, but there had to be something she could work out.

Today was November 26, Thanksgiving Day. Everyone in the lab was gone with their families, and Eleven had been locked in her room and left behind until Friday. It had been three days since she had last spoken to Mike, and she thought it to be as good a time as any to try and find a way to search for the tapes. The last time they talked he told her that he and the party were going to be back home for the holiday; so close to her yet so far away. Knowing her friends were nearby steeled her resolve, so she tried her hardest to come up with a decent plan. She knew where the security office was, as she passed it every time she was walked out to do her daily tests, and assumed that if they were to have video tapes of anything that they'd be there. The only trouble was figuring out how to leave the room.

She'd attempted many times over the course of her captivity, and had almost succeeded on numerous occasions; all of which landed her in solitary confinement while they tried to come up with a new lock for her bedroom door. Her current locking mechanism was a fingerprint ID. She had considered just blasting the door open, but any time she did something so unruly, alarms went off and she'd be captured for sure...but then again, she never had tried to do it when no one was around. The lab security was lax when the scientists were gone, and she wasn't sure if they'd have any alarms enabled or not. They probably assumed that she wouldn't have the will to escape at this point, but they didn't know her. She would never give up.

As her eyes scanned the room once more, she caught sight of the window close to the ceiling, only opening up about a foot, which she had considered escaping out of several times.

Eleven jumped experimentally atop her bed , trying to see how high she could go alone. It wasn't remarkably far; she wasn't much taller than she had been at 13-she'd only grown two or three inches. There was also a desk and a chair in the room, comforts new to her in the past two years or so. It was a reward for her longest stretch of "good behavior". Eleven huffed and considered her options. Her bed wasn't sturdy enough to support the desk, obviously, but there had to be some way to make it all work. She just had to.

An hour and several unsuccessful attempts later, Eleven was sitting on the floor amidst a pile of splintered wood, close to giving up for the day. The only way out she could see was blasting the door open and making a break for it. Everyone was gone, and she was sure not all of them lived within a mile radius of the lab-she could probably be home free if she was able to make it through quickly before the lab went into lockdown. But Mike said they needed evidence if she was to stay free….it was probably better if she didn't make a break for it. Oh how she hated all of this waiting.


Mike woke up in the middle of the afternoon in a cold sweat. He'd been taking his post-Thanksgiving Dinner nap in his old bedroom, trying his best to keep the thoughts of Eleven at bay; he hated being this close and not being able to do anything. He felt almost as trapped as her.

"Mike? Are you awake?" It was Nancy at his door. He'd heard her ask the same question an hour or so ago, but he'd chosen to ignore her. He hated the Thanksgivings that they spent at his father's house, and he knew she was probably just going to try and get him to come and spend time with their dad. As far as Mike was concerned, spending time with a brick was more entertaining than spending time with Ted Wheeler-and far more productive, too.

"Yeah, just give me a second, okay?"

"Alright-Holly has been asking for you," she said. Mike could hear her footsteps retreating down the hall. They seemed to fall a bit heavier than he remembered-all day he'd been wondering if she was pregnant. She certainly looked more motherly than usual. Holly looked different to Mike, too. He hadn't seen her since Christmas the previous year, and she was looking more like Nancy every day, except for the blonde hair; no one was sure where she'd gotten that.

By the time Mike made it downstairs to the living room, Ted was fast asleep in his La-Z Boy and Nancy, Steve and Holly were sitting at the table playing Monopoly. He chuckled to himself, knowing Nancy would shock them all and win-she always had when they were younger.

"Mike!" Holly said, standing up to give him a hug.

"Hey Holly, who's winning?"

"I am so far," she smirked, sitting back down. Mike took a vacant seat beside Steve, who had his arm around his wife. Though Mike had resented Steve when he and Nancy were in high school, he had to admit that he'd done a great job at making a life for himself and Nancy. She was the happiest he'd ever seen her.

After an hour had passed and Nancy won the game of Monopoly by a landslide-Mike began to feel odd again; getting the feeling he'd come to associate with one of Elle's headaches. He excused himself from the table and retreated to his room once more, trying his best to stay calm and quiet-she said that made it easier for her to talk to him. A few moments after he'd made himself comfortable, he heard her.

"Mike?" He smiled at hearing her voice, sighing happily.

"Hey, Elle, is everything okay?"

"Yes...well, no, but yes."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I've been trying to find the evidence you say you need, and I did it, I think- but I'll be getting in trouble."

Mike sighed once more, though not with the lightness from before." Just hide the tapes, Elle, please. You won't get in trouble if they don't know you did anything."

"But they will know, Mike. I did something dangerous."

"What?" Mike sat bolt upright in his bed, now feeling panicked. "What did you do?"

"I escaped."

"You did WHAT?"

"I've run away-it wasn't very hard, no one was here."

"Well where are you?"

"I'm outside."

"Outside where?"

"Your house. It looks like there's people home-are you?"

Mike's heart was soaring. He jumped out of bed and ran downstairs, ignoring the questioning looks from his family. He flung the door open and there she was, standing in his driveway, two tapes in hand and even more beautiful than he could've ever imagined.

Eleven.


"Shit-are you serious?"

"Yes, we have to leave NOW."

Mike was on the phone with Dustin, frantically shoving all of his belongings back into his suitcase, including the two VHS tapes Elle had brought him. He was sure that as soon as the men from the lab realized that Eleven was gone that they'd come straight to his house, considering what had happened the first time she'd escaped. Nancy and Steve were downstairs with Holly and his dad, trying to convince Ted that he, too, had to get out of there. No one would be safe. As for Eleven, she was sitting on Mike's bed, freshly showered and wearing one of Nancy's old dresses, watching the chaos unfold.

"Okay, let me just get my stuff-did you tell Lucas yet?"

"No, I've been kind of pressed for time here."

"Okay, okay-shit, this is crazy. I'll call Lucas while I pack-be there in fifteen minutes." With that, Dustin hung up and Mike put the phone down, continuing to shove things in his bag.

"Mike?"

He looked up at Elle, eyebrows raised. "Yeah?"

"Are you mad?" Her beautiful face was sporting a nervous frown, and the skin on her wrists was turning red, as she'd been wringing her hands.

"No, Elle, no, I'm not mad. Just surprised. And a little worried-but I'm not mad." He reached out and brushed some of her hair out of her face and rubbed his thumb over her cheek- her hair had reached her shoulders now, and it was so perfectly curly. He loved it-but he couldn't focus much on that right now. He just wanted to get her out of here.

Just then, there was a loud banging on Mike's bedroom door. He jumped, but knew it couldn't be anyone but family.

"Michael Wheeler, you open up this door right now!"

It was his father.

Mike rushed over and unlocked the door, letting Ted in.

"So you mean to tell me that this-this experiment thing-" he shouted, gesturing over at Eleven. "Is your FRIEND and you want me to leave my own damn house to protect it?"

"She's not a thing, dad, she's a person," Mike yelled back, coming face to face with his father now. " And it's not to protect her, it's to protect YOU. The people who did this to her will come back-you met them before, remember? She's not a Russian spy, she's from right here in Indiana and these people tortured her, dad. They'll come back and if you can't help them they'll kill you, do you understand?"

Ted looked taken aback by his son's boldness, stepping backwards a foot. "Michael, I will not be talked to like that in my own home."

"Fine, get killed, dad. I'm telling you, these people will not hesitate to hurt you, me, mom, Nancy, anyone who stands in their way. If they come here and you tell them where we are, they'll come and take Elle back and they will kill us, is that what you want? Do you want to see your whole family destroyed?"

"No, Michael, but I cannot just leave this town-I have a job here-"

"Listen-you can find a million other jobs, but you can't find people who are willing to love you like this family, dad. Go back with Nancy and Steve and figure it out from there-but please, do NOT stay here." Mike hadn't even realized it until now, but he'd been crying as he pleaded with his father. Despite all the emotional pain Ted Wheeler had inflicted upon him as a kid, he still loved his dad, and he couldn't bear the thought of losing him to those awful people.

"Okay, son," Ted sighed. "I'll go, but you have to explain all this shit to me later, okay?"

"I will, dad, I promise." Ted walked briskly out of Mike's room down the hall into his own, hopefully to start packing. Mike shook his head, wiping a stray tear away. Eleven had stayed silent in the corner through it all, but now she was at his side, looking at him curiously.

"Mike?"

He said nothing, only pulling her in for a hug-only the second one he'd given her since their reunion. He hadn't much time for pleasantries, or to even really process what her being back meant other than danger, but he allowed himself that moment to just be close to her, to take it all in. They'd been back in each other's presence only half an hour, but it had felt like hours with all the intense panic he had inside of him.

"MIKE!"

He jumped again at hearing Dustin's voice from downstairs. He hadn't been kidding when he said fifteen minutes.

"MIKE GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE NOW, WE NEED TO GO!"

"Are you ready?" he asked Elle, still holding her tight to him.

"Yes," she said, letting out a breath she didn't know she had been holding in. Mike squeezed her once more before picking up his suitcase and rushing down the stairs with her trailing close behind him. Nancy, Holly and Steve were waiting for them, giving Mike and the boys all rushed hugs before they left with promises to keep eachother updated. Now, it was really time to see what those nerdy boys from Hawkins were made of.

"Someone needs to try and call Will to let him know we're coming-I don't think we should keep her at the house," Lucas said fifteen minutes later as Dustin was merging onto the interstate.

"What, why?" Mike asked. He was sitting in the back with Eleven, who had fallen asleep on his shoulder almost as soon as they'd taken off-obviously exhausted by the day.

"Mike, these guys aren't stupid. One little investigation and they'll know where we live and go to school-but they probably won't expect her to be with the Byers-they'll expect her to be with you."

Mike sighed, not finding any fault with Lucas' logic.

"Plus Hopper will know what to do, he'll keep her safe. The Byers house is practically non-existent to the world, he's covered all the bases."

Mike looked over at the sleeping girl on his shoulder and couldn't help but smile despite all of the stress she'd brought back into their lives. She really had grown up. Her face had lost it's baby roundness, and the rest of her body was also slender and perfect. He had gotten angry when he'd seen all of the red burn marks and cuts on her skin, but even with that she was beautiful-it showed she was strong. He wanted nothing more than to protect her from everything, like he wished he'd been able to do for her all these years. He leaned down and was about to place a kiss on her forehead when something inside of him stopped him. He remembered the first conversation they had two weeks ago; his confession of love and her warning against danger. While inside he was sure she loved him, he didn't want to jump to any conclusions. She'd just gotten back. He needed to be her friend. He needed to wait for her to know what love was and to see if she felt the same way about him as he did about her. So even though every fibre of his being wanted to kiss and hug and caress her, he settled for being her protector and staring out the window, hoping that understanding love didn't take too long.