A/N: Wow! So sorry this has taken so long to upload, I had huge writer's block for the longest time, then the trailer came out and I got to see my boy again! This story is NOT going to follow season 3 I can tell you that right now, possibly have some hints here and there tho! Thank you all for being so patient with me!

A loud knock is what woke Hopper up at 1:30AM only a mere hour after falling asleep. Quietly grabbing his gun, he tiptoed towards the front door, Bryce and Jane opening both of their bedroom doors startled him for a minute.

"What's-" Bryce stopped mid-sentence, seeing Hopper's gun. "Jane, let's go in my room okay?" Bryce reached for the younger girl, nodding to Hopper as he crept towards the door.

"Who is it?" Hopper questioned, praying to god no one had figured out who Jane really was.

"It's Billy." Billy replied, shivering slightly in the cool air.

"Hargrove?" Hopper put his gun to the side as he opened the door to let Billy in.

"You said if I needed anything that I could come to you." Bryce recognized the voice as she and Jane pressed their ears to Bryce's bedroom door.

"Billy?" Bryce stood up, opening the door to walk out into the living room with Jane. Billy was already sat at the kitchen table, jacket off and looking right at home.

"Is everything okay?" Jane questioned, nervous about the gun.

"Yeah Jane, everything's great." Hop smiled at her warmly.

Bryce walked up and sat down next to Billy, grabbing his face to investigate the damage.
"What? Bryce, I didn't get in a fight." Billy waved her away, her touch setting his skin on fire.

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I saw something weird. And I thought I should come to you about it." He looked to Hopper, who was watching him intently.

"What did you see?" Hopper questioned as he pulled a cigarette out of the pack that was lying on the kitchen table.

"I was out by the ruined diner with a girl," He looked to Jane as she sat down across from him at the table, kindly smiling at him. "We were making out and then there was this loud thump on the side of my car and when I looked out the window to see what it was, there was this deformed dog-like thing with a long snout outside."

"Why do you say it was dog-like, it wasn't a dog?" Bryce interrogated, wondering if his dad had knocked his head into a wall and he was making this up.

"No, unless you know of any dogs whose faces open up and have rows beyond rows of teeth."
"What did you just say?" Hopper asked coldly, his face white with fear.

"Its face opened up and it kinda roared at me, I don't know, it happened fast. One minute it was there the next it wasn't." Billy explained.

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit." Hopper stood up, pacing back and forth.

"What? Is that bad?" Billy asked Bryce as he grabbed a cigarette from Hopper's pack.

"It's very bad." Jane piped up, near tears at the realization.

"I don't- Wait, is this about the thing?" Bryce questioned.

"How, how did this happen?" Hopper asked himself, scared to death.

"Could the earthquake have awakened it?" Bryce suggested, not knowing how to fully explain it.

"No, I don't know honestly," Hop shrugged, sitting back down and putting his face in his hands, "I gotta call Joyce, I need to warn her." He stood up and headed to the phone.

"Hopper wait, it's 1:30 in the morning. Shouldn't you wait to make sure it's actually what you think it is before worrying Joyce?" Bryce stood up, taking the phone out of the chief's hand.

"Bryce, you don't understand how bad this is if the gate is opened again." Hooper gripped her shoulders tightly, scared to death of what was to come.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Billy questioned, flicking ashes into the ashtray on the table.

"It's nothing Hargrove, thank you for informing me. You should go home now, it's late. Jane, you need to get back to bed." Hopper nodded at him, ushering Jane back to bed.

"Yeah, I'll probably just sleep in my car, if my dad hears me coming in at this time he'll kick my ass." Billy sighed, pulling his jacket back on.

"What? Billy no, it's freezing out. Just sleep on the couch and leave in the morning." Bryce reasoned, looking to Hopper to make sure it was okay with him.

"Bryce-" Billy started, not wanting to piss the chief of police off.

"No funny business, I mean it, stay on the couch Hargrove." Hopper threatened before heading to his bedroom, hoping this whole night was a bad dream.

Bryce smirked at Billy with satisfaction as she headed to the hall closet to get a pillow and some blankets.

"The bathroom is around the kitchen corner," she said as she pointed down towards the door at the back of the cabin, "There's some pop or juice in the fridge, don't steal Hop's beer." She jokingly remarked as she looked at her former flame.

Billy watched her as she explained everything, still so breathtakingly in love with her.

"Thanks, babe- Bryce, sorry," He apologized as he sat down on the couch to get comfortable, "Old habits die hard I guess." He replied, looking over at her as she sat down next to him.

"Yeah, I guess they do." She sadly smiled as she tucked her legs under her and leaned on the back cushions, watching him.

He wanted to reach out to her, hold her, kiss her, do anything he used to be able to do before he left California.

"How are things with your dad?" Bryce broke the silence, wanting to know how bad things had gotten since she had last seen him.

"Don't," Billy shook his head as he avoided her gaze, "Don't do this Bryce."

"Don't do what? Worry about you?"

"Exactly. Go to bed, I don't want to talk to you about this stuff anymore, you're not my girlfriend. You're with Harrington now, remember?" Billy spat out in anger, how dare Steve get to be loved by her when she was Billy's first.

"Okay fine. Let me know if you need anything." She sighed before getting off the couch and going back to bed.

Billy sighed as he looked at her closed door before shutting the lamp off and getting under the thick blanket she had given him, it smelled faintly over her. Closing his eyes, he imagined she was in his empty arms and not in the other room, sleeping alone as well.


Whimpering from the other room woke Bryce up hours later, she lazily stretched before throwing the covers back and quietly hopping out of bed. She had suspected the whimpering was Billy, he was prone to nightmares about his father. Tiptoeing to the couch, she saw that he was sleeping soundly, probably one of the best nights of sleep he had gotten since leaving California.

The whimpering was coming from Jane's room again, she hadn't had a nightmare in months, the talk of the Upside Down being possibly open, more than likely scared her into thinking about everything she had been through at the lab.

"Hey," Bryce crouched down by Jane's bed and whispered to her, shaking her slightly to wake her up, "Hey Jane, it's okay." Bryce shook her a little harder a few more times before the young girl shot up out of bed, gasping for air.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Bryce sat down next to her and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, pulling her into her chest as Jane's body shook with sobs.

"It- It was me. I- I think I opened the gate back up." Jane sobbed loudly

"Jane, you don't know that. It was probably the earthquake." Bryce reasoned with her

"No, I was so scared. Just like last time, it was me. I felt it happening again and I couldn't stop it. I'm so sorry." She cried even harder, terrified of what was to eventually come.

"It's okay. How about we make some Eggo's and go back to bed huh? We can talk to Hop him the morning about this. How does that sound?" Bryce suggested, kissing the top of her head.

"No, I just want to go back to bed. I have a headache." Jane rejected, rubbing her eyes and temple in frustration.

"Okay, I'm gonna go grab you some Motrin for your headache alright?" Bryce replied as she got up from the bed.

"Thanks Bryce."

Bryce closed the door quietly as to not wake Billy up. Heading to the medicine cabinet in the bathroom she grabbed a pill from the bottle and then headed to the kitchen to grab a glass of water for the poor girl.

"Is everything okay?" A rough sleepy voice asked from behind her.

Turning, Bryce saw a shirtless Billy walking towards her, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Yeah, she just had a nightmare." Bryce explained as she walked to Jane's room to give her the medication.

Billy stood in the doorway silently as he watched Bryce hug Jane goodnight before heading towards him and shutting the door.

"I'm sorry she woke you." Bryce apologized, trying not to look at his half naked form.

"It's nothing, I don't sleep much anyways." Billy shrugged honestly.

"Yeah, I remember that, I'm sure you've slept better tonight though? Hopefully at least." She replied awkwardly, not knowing what to say to him.

"Well yeah, I mean the couch isn't the best but it beats sleeping in my car again." He chuckled lightly

"Why didn't you tell me it had gotten so bad?"

"I'm not you're problem anymore."

"Billy, you were never a problem, I love you. Just because we aren't together anymore doesn't mean I stopped caring about you." Bryce reasoned as she instinctively wrapped her arms around his waist.

"You know I still love you too." It was the only appropriate response to her declaration as he looked down at her, he hadn't been this close to her since their last night together, he wanted to smash his lips on to hers so bad, but he resisted.

"What?"

"You said you love me."

"Oh," Bryce looked down at her feet, biting her lip as she sighed in acceptance of what she had said, "Well I guess old habits die hard." She replied as she unwrapped herself from him.

"Yeah, they really do." He exclaimed, sadly understanding why she had chosen to ignore what they had just said to each other. She was with Steve now. Even though they loved each other still, their time had passed. It was a long lost memory that they could only look back on now.

"Uh, look if you want to come and sleep in my room with me, completely platonic of course, you can. I know how uncomfortable that couch is." She smiled at him.

"That sounds nice." Billy nodded as he followed her into her room, closing the door behind him lightly. Not even caring or thinking about what consequences they would wake up to in the morning.