Prompts: "You could have warned me!" & "I can't imagine this world without you"

(*Requested as a scenario where El goes to the lab without telling Mike)


El had just jumped down from the last bit of fence when a pair of headlights washed over the dark woods surrounding her. She held up a hand to shield her eyes, panic beginning to set in. The lights inched closer and instinctively she crouched down, huddling against the fence wire.

She'd been caught.

She glanced around frantically, heart hammering wildly in her chest. Just as she was deciding which way to run, a familiar voice called out from behind the beams.

"Kid, you have about five seconds to get in this car."

Hopper.

El exhaled slowly, placing a hand to her chest. Even though she knew she wasn't technically out of trouble, she was still relieved. She walked toward the headlights, steeling herself for what she knew would be a furious Hopper. And he had every right to be.

Weeks ago when she tried to casually bring up visiting the lab, he'd balked. In the midst of their heated argument, she managed to get out a decent amount of the speech she'd practiced for weeks in front of the mirror.

"I think I have a right to know what the place that kept me for so long was like," she'd pleaded.

She told him about how she wanted to see the parts beyond the room they'd kept her in - the places where they observed her, the places she'd been barred from. She told him that going to close the gate hadn't been enough; that she wanted to face the nightmares of locked doors and silent screams head on, put them to rest once and for all. Hopper had shaken his head the whole time and El's heart sank, knowing then that it was a losing battle. Still, she tried to explain her plan: to go in at night, enter from the woods so no one would see. Besides, she'd whined, the place was closed down, the bad men gone. It would be fine.

But he'd simply looked at her, his eyes steely, serious, cold. "If you try to go there, so help me god, kid, I'll… do not go back there. Ever. Understand?"

She nodded, so upset by that point that she'd almost believed she'd keep the promise. But after a week of restless nights, of imagining how easy it'd be to slip out the window and through the woods to that shell of a building she wanted - no, needed - to conquer one last time, she decided to act.

Being found by her very protective adoptive father, however, hadn't been part of the plan. And now she sat in the passenger seat of the Blazer, anxiously awaiting a Hopper explosion of unprecedented proportions. So far, however, he was silent - which for some reason made El even more nervous. The air in the car felt suffocating and she rolled down the window, letting the warm summer breeze wash over her face. She closed her eyes, only to have them fly open a moment later when Hopper finally spoke.

"I think you already know how disappointed I am," he said, his tone measured. "And how - how badly this could've turned out, how stupid it was to - "

"No one saw me," El cut in, even though she knew it wouldn't make a difference. "No one was there."

It was quiet again for a while until they turned onto the road toward the cabin.

Hop glanced over at her. "There's a lot I want to say to you right now. But I think there's someone else who might be able to knock some sense into you."

El frowned in confusion, trying to read his expression. She followed his gaze ahead, and when the cabin came into view she gasped.

There, on the porch steps, awash in the glow of the headlights, was Mike.

"How did - "

"I thought you might be with him," Hopper replied. "So I called him on that - that thing you guys - "

"The Supercomm," El filled in, eyes still trained ahead.

Hopper parked the Blazer, shifting to look at her fully. "I couldn't lie to him, kid. He was too worried." He opened his door, motioning for El to do the same. "I think you'd better explain it to him yourself."

El watched him get out of the car before turning back to look at Mike. He was dressed in what looked like his pyjamas. She noticed his bike leaning against the porch railing. He stood up from his spot and was staring right back at El, tense, as though he were debating whether to rush over to her or not. She stayed there for a moment, unsure of the onslaught of emotion that hit her the instant she saw him.

She knew Hopper was angry and disappointed. Upsetting as it was, she could live with that. But Mike… she'd hurt him. Even from her vantage point, she could see that clearly. And hurting the person you love more than anything, the person you promised wouldn't lose you again… well, that was different.

Taking a breath, she willed herself to get out of the car. Hopper had already gone inside, and as El approached Mike she had to hold back from what she would usually do - run and fling herself into his arms.

"Hopper called me," Mike said, his eyes following El as she came up the steps and stood next to him.

"I know."

They turned to face each other. Mike's jaw was set in anger, but the sadness in his dark eyes was unmistakable. Looking at him made El feel like she'd gotten the wind knocked out of her - and knowing she was the one who caused the pain written all over his face made it even worse.

"Mike, I - "

"How could you?" he blurted. "How could you think - you could have warned me, El, you shouldn't have - "

"Mike, I didn't want you to - "

"Didn't want me to what? Stop you? Stop you from doing something so - so dangerous, so incredibly…" he trailed off, his frustration rendering him speechless. He began to pace a little, his hands balled into fists at his sides.

El stayed still, almost afraid of what would happen if she tried to say something. She knew he'd be upset, but she hadn't expected him to get as angry with her as he was. She'd only ever seen him like this once before - when they pulled what they thought was Will's body from the quarry.

But even still she couldn't resist the urge to touch him, to remind him that she was there, alive, unhurt. She stepped forward a little, her fingers brushing his forearm.

"Mike," she said quietly. She watched as he slowed his pacing. They were closer now and El traced down his arm toward his hand, carefully entwining her fingers in his. He didn't pull away. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

He turned to face her. "El, it's…" he began before stopping and shaking his head, like the words he was about to say didn't fit.

El watched as tears slipped down his cheeks and her breath caught in her throat, a knot twisting painfully in her stomach.

"You know," Mike began, wiping at his eyes quickly. "When you came back and I said I never gave up on you, I wasn't lying."

"I know you weren't, Mike, I would never think - "

"No, just - let me finish," he interrupted, sniffling away the quivering in his voice. He caught El's eyes. "I never even let myself think that you were dead." He paused at that, squeezing his eyes shut for a second, as though the very word had punched him in the gut. "Which means I never imagined my life, or Hawkins, or - or the whole world, without you in it. Never, not once," he said, his eyes blazing with intensity.

He pulled El toward him a little, moving their clasped hands up to rest over his heart. She could feel him trembling all over.

"And I still can't, El. That's all I could think about on the ride over here. That even if something happened in - in that place, that I still wouldn't be able to… I can't imagine this world without you."

It seemed like he wanted to say more but he looked spent, like he'd just shared a long-held secret and was afraid of the power the words held. And if that was the case then El felt the same. Because there were no words to describe the ache in her body, the excruciating truth that she'd hurt him in that way. She pictured him pedalling in the dark, frantic, not knowing if she was alive, and it made her nearly dizzy with sadness. She couldn't speak. So instead she curled herself in close to him, pressing her cheek against his, squeezing his hands as tight as she could.

Later, laying next to each other on the couch, she'd whisper everything to him.

About how she'd gone to see the room they used to lock her up in and, in an outburst of emotion, smashed the door apart with her powers. About the testing equipment and sound booths and the now-empty bath where she'd seen the Demogorgon for the first time. About how she cried as she left, feeling truly relieved for the first time in months.

But right then, she just wanted to listen to the rhythm of his breathing. To let him feel her heartbeat through their joined hands. To repeat the only words she could think of that made any sense, that would calm him, that would bring them back to each other.

"I love you more than anything."