Eventually they parted and returned to the meal, though it was interlaced with multiple rounds of kissing.
Mike brought the plates and utensils to the kitchen, while El guided the table with her mind back into the cabin. Getting it back in was easier than the other way round as Mike could help make sure it didn't bump into anything.
The two retreated to the couch to talk about this and that. Not just content, but happy in themselves.
Mike arrived home at the usual hour in time for dinner. He had gotten adept at toning down the happiness associated with spending afternoons with El. But today, he was not as sly, at least to a Nancy that was on the lookout for his happiness.
Having no need to care about presentation, Mike had stuffed his sweater into his backpack on the ride home.
As Mike ascended the stairs, with just his t-shirt, a descending Nancy was able to spot some sort of chain around his neck. This would have to be investigated later she thought.
Meanwhile as dinner finished he stuck around the kitchen waiting for Nancy to leave. Once she was gone, he sprung the question of having a sleepover at Will for the weekend. Seeing no reason and noting his improved grades as of late, they happily signed off on it.
Back in the cabin, Hopper was giving a final rundown, emphasizing to behave, but mostly to stay inside. He did end on restoring her television privileges a day early.
El heartily wished him a goodnight, but stayed awake for quite a while longer. She was happier than normal and looking forward to the weekend, keeping hold of the idea that not everything that happened was bad.
To that end she stroke the necklace around her neck, staring into it. The pendant serving its desired purpose of reminding her of the good that existed.
Friday morning preceded without hassle, though the duffel bag had to be precariously appended to his back while riding a bike.
Elsewhere, El saw Hopper leave and gave him another long hug.
Will slept in and was at the lab with Joyce by midday. Driving inm they noticed the pitched tents and convoy of vehicles.
Hopper was waiting for them. He had only explained the minimum to Joyce, though revealing that it could stop Will's problem. Joyce did tell him that Will seemed to stop spacing out in the past week.
The usual barrage of tests were run on Will and it took them into the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the final preparations for the military operation were underway. Owens oversee the radio tests to light up the flames en masse, while the bomb was sent on its way, having to slowly drive a fair distance into the Upside Down.
At around 4, Owens met Will for their usual checkup. This was brief with Will being hooked up to sensors and put under with an anesthetic afterwards.
Joyce watched from the other side of the window with a rotating crew of technicians coming and going, with Hopper occasionally checking in.
Mike arrived at the cabin and slinked into El's arms. Noting the TV was on, she told him how her privileges were restored. At this, he regretted not bringing any tapes for them to watch.
Wanting to go for a walk, the pair went out after Mike dropped his bags.
The day slipped into night, though there were no windows in the room to judge if he remembered correctly.
Will woke up from his slumber. At least he thought so, he could not move and only could see the darkened ceiling. But then his eyes adjusted and he noticed it. First the specks, then the vines on the roof.
Will wasn't able to move his head, much less his body. And he was in full panic. He thought he was scared, but then he heard the sound, followed by the smashing.
On the right side up there was panic. Moments ago they lost contact with the vehicle carrying the weapon. A grainy camera feed showed some kind of black tentacles surrounding the bomb before the signal was lost.
Hopper was in the control room, volunteering for what had to be done.
Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched from afar. Their night together started off with yesterday's anniversary vibe, but turned into an uneasy embrace.
It was Mike who suggested visiting Hopper to find some small consolation. El prepared the TV and cleared her mind. After putting on the blindfold, she blindly, but correctly found Mike's hand and grasped it for support.
What she found was Hopper suiting up and being given instructions. "Ten minutes to get back after manually starting the sequence."
She quickly recounted this to Mike who was able to understand the implication, with El understanding after Mike gave a hurried explanation.
"Stop, help him," she practically screamed, but to no one in particular. At this, Mike dumped the contents of his backpack and began throwing in supplies like flashlights, a first aid kit, a hunting knife, wire, and duct tape. He also put strips of cloth for bandanas in.
While doing this, he recounted a plan to go back home and get Nancy to drive them.
Back at the lab, Owens and the scientists had just prepared and suited Hopper to go in. A team of soldiers would accompany him.
Afterwards, Owens authorized the burn to start.
Higher up, physically, Will began to shake. In the Upside Down, the creature was responding to the mass burn. Tearing apart more of Will's surroundings and that version of the Lab. Wanting to survive it looked at Will and began transferring itself over.
Hopper and team were half-a-mile in when they heard the shrieking and sound of smashing in the not too far distance.
They arrived as the lights of the Wheeler house were dimmed. Mike knowing that almost everyone had retired. He told El to stay as he slunk to Nancy's room.
El ended up waiting by the window that she last saw Mike through a year ago and the danger of what was happening finally replaced the fear and adrenaline to save Hopper.
She wanted to curl, but instead tightly grabbed the pendant.
Mike tapped on the window, which awoke a just laying Nancy.
"Steve?" she asked, having peaked through the curtains, but not really sure of who the crunched up figure was.
She was surprised to find Mike, he began a preamble the second he was in. "We need to go to Hawkins Lab. Something big is happening and they need our help."
To his surprise, Nancy got dressed immediately and told him to go back out and meet her by the garage.
She went down the stairs to find their parent's keys, her efforts to expose the lab still fresh in her mind.
However, nothing prepared her to see Mike deeply hugging Eleven in the garage. A second later everything snapped into place in regards to his behavior this past week. But there would be time for that later.
"Get in and tell me everything, but Mike close the garage door first. And grab a bat."
"Do we have time to get help?" she asked when they were on the road.
"No," both the kids said and began a recap.
In the Upside Down, the team was nearly at the detonation point. Right side up, a team of doctors were trying to stabilize Will's uncontrollable shaking. Then it stopped, coinciding with the burn ending.
Joyce had forced her way through the army of doctors around Will by this point, who seemed cold and lifeless.
Then his eyes opened and a black gust emanated from him throwing them all to the sides with shattering force. Luckily for Joyce, she was somewhat cushioned by the doctor and nurse behind her.
In the control center below, Owens has been informed of the shaking and assigned one the scientists to check it out. As that doctor was coming down he saw Will hurl a guard into the wall. He quickly pressed the panic button and ran.
With alarms blaring, Will noticed the fluttering of his coat and followed.
Owens was asking what was going on, getting in touch with security.
That doctor running from Will happened to also find the security monitoring station to hide in. Telling the guards stationed there to watch the door, he recounted to Owens what occurred.
Will outside used the force again to obliterate everything in the room. People, monitors, recording equipment. Everything was smashed and all video disabled.
Owens radioed to Hopper and team to arm and start the timer wherever they were and come back. Hopper was going to ask what was happening, but the soldiers were now busily starting the sequence.
Elsewhere, the other guards had no luck in preventing Will from descending.
Outside the Lab, El, Mike, and Nancy were minutes away and arguing how to get in. Mike was suggesting going on foot, while Nancy wanted to at least try the gate. He didn't like the chance it involved of El being noticed.
They then got close enough to notice the blaring sirens. With the gate being the faster option, they agreed to try that first. El grabbed Mike's arm tightly as they came closer, but found it unstationed.
As Hopper and the other soldiers came back through they were surprised to be met by the scientists donning simple face masks. Owens moved to recount to Hopper what was happening.
"We're evacuating to the tunnels once we confirm detonation. Then we're sealing the bulkheads and the doors. We can do it from a console down here," Owens said pointing.
"I'm going back up," said Hopper.
Owens grabbed his arm, " That's a death warrant. We've lost all contact with the rest of the lab."
"I know him. I can get through to him. Where's his mom?"
"We don't know, but listen we're finding a way out through the tunnels and radioing for help."
But Hopper was already making his way past him.
Elsewhere, the trio of kids were making their way in. El with her powers and the Wheelers armed with bats. Level after level they explored was empty, or rather lined with slumped, if not dead, bodies.
Nancy switched her bat for a gun, an action would Mike stared at her for.
"What, I can?" she retorted his expression.
"When have you shot a machine gun?"
"It's the same principle Michael," she said before continuing.
El redirected their course to start descending having remembered her time there. Mike held her hand.
Having confirmed detonation, Owens ordered the doors closed.
"Hopper, we're closing both doors now. Good luck."
The Chief copied, and went out of the control room through a secret entrance.
He slipped through just as "Will" blasted the last door leading up to the corridor.
By this point, Will was shrouded in a black mist.
Once in the lower levels, it was easier for the trio to follow the path of waste and destruction.
Peeking into the occasional room, they encountered a debilitated Joyce. Nancy rushed to check on her when they heard a clang down below.
Eleven instinctively got up, grabbing Mike's hand.
Nancy was about to join when Joyce began murmuring. El and Mike stopped, when they vaguely heard a mumble that sounded like Will.
Will had gotten to the control room, but it could not see the portal. He felt it behind a slab so he began using his powers to crumble it. However, this was slightly more tedious.
Mike and El reached the control room just as they saw Will jumping into the breach he had made in the bulkhead.
"Will?" said Mike quizzically.
Though Will fell several stories it was the black mist that steadied him. It walked right up to the steel slabs, feeling the portal behind it and began tearing it apart.
Peering into the depth El and Mike found their answer.
Red light began emanating from the seams in the wall and El knew what she had to do.
"I'm closing the portal. We need to get closer," she said to Mike.
El expanded the crack in the bulkhead so they could mount the cage-style elevator.
As they descended, El concentrated on closing the gate, occasionally telling Mike to stop the ride.
At around the halfway point, Mike noticed that El was beginning to bleed out of her ears and his concern grew.
Down below, it was too wrapped in warping the metal, that it did not notice the shrinking size of the gate.
By the time they were one or two stories from the ground, El collapsed and Mike hastily, messily caught her in his arms, wiping the blood away from her nose with his sleeve.
"We're almost there. Almost," Mike said, holding her face.
El gave a weak smile and was putting her arm on the railing for support when the elevator fell the rest of the way down.
It below was finally thrown out of its concentration in removing the barrier to notice that the portal was nearly closed. Finding the source, he yanked it down to the ground.
Tumbling, Mike was the first to regain consciousness. Noting the wreck, he quickly got up to see if El was okay. She was still coming out of the fall.
Then he saw Will walking towards them.
Mike was about to shout his name, but was instead greeted first with a jet of force. Mike quickly ducked into the ground. He saw a piece of metal railing that was separated from the elevator. Clutching it, he stood in front of El and jabbed like a spear at Will.
He was able to get a lucky blow on Will's shoulder but was met with a push that threw him into a wall. Through the screaming pain as the railing stabbed him on his side, he saw that Will was now walking towards where he was. Happily, it was away from El. The pain from his wound and the collision began to overtake him and he blacked out.
El heard Mike's scream and that broke through the dizziness of falling down and the weariness. Her eyes came upon to a black mist making its way towards Mike who appeared to be hurt and bleeding.
With anger, she reached out with her mind and threw it as far as she could away from him, not looking to see where it landed.
El staggered over in a sprint over to touch Mike and then turned around and with everything left in her closed the portal.