[A/N: Hey everyone. Happy New Year! I hope you all had some great holidays.

I was planning on this chapter being longer but I've had a crappy day and despite being bummed, I wanted to get SOMETHING out so here we are. I hope you all like this and I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. Sorry, my mojo's just blah today :/

Peace, y'all.]

Chapter 13: The Flame (by Cheap Trick)

"Wherever you go, I'll be with you. Whatever you want, I'll give it to you. Whenever you need someone to lay your heart and head upon..."

. . . . . . . .

"You okay, Mike?" Lucas asked as Mike emerged from the bathroom but Mike brushed past his friends and out into the waiting area.

"I'm fine," He muttered distantly as they walked over to the payphone in the corner.

"Here, I've got a quarter," Dustin offered, digging a coin from deep in the pocket of his jeans and handing it over.

Mike slipped the coin into the slot, dialing his home number and trying to figure out what he was going to say. He was surprised when Nancy picked up instead of his mom.

"Mike?!" She exclaimed when she realized it was him. "Where the hell have you been? Mom is losing her shit!"

"What?" Mike contorted his face. "Why?"

"Um, hello?" Nancy replied, exasperated. "You and your friends have been gone half the day and you weren't here when she woke up," She explained. "You know you're supposed to tell her when you're leaving the house, especially after everything that happened…" She let her voice trail off. She didn't need to explain what she was alluding to. "She woke up and you weren't here and she's been calling all over Hawkins -"

"She didn't call Dust -" Dustin and Lucas watched Mike with wide eyes, trying to gauge what was happening in the conversation.

"Yes, she called Dustin and Lucas' parents, too," Nancy cut him off. "Where the hell are you?"

"Um," Mike looked to his friends, shaking his head with a wary look and Lucas threw his hands up as Dustin held his head in his hands.

"Shit, shit, shit…" Dustin muttered, shaking his head.

"What's going on?" Lucas whispered anxiously to Mike. "Your mom told our parents she didn't know where we were?!"

Mike batted at him to be quiet as he continued to talk into the receiver, "Uh…" He hesitated.

"What's going on, Mike?" Nancy's tone softened. "Is everything okay?"

At that, Mike pursed his lips and he willed himself to keep it together better. He did his best to force his emotions back down but they were still evident in the shakiness of his voice. "Do you remember El?" He shut his eyes tightly, as if the force and pressure of doing so could keep him from crying again. He so desperately did not want to start crying again. Especially not in a crowded waiting room, in front of his friends, on the phone with his sister.

Nancy paused. "Yeah," She said hesitantly. "What about her?"

"She's in the hospital," Mike's voice was robotic and awkward, but he took a breath and was able to keep himself steady. "Um, we found her today and she's kind of in a coma," His voice rose in pitch, the only indication of his current internal state. "So we've been at the hospital,"

"Holy shit, Mike," Nancy breathed, unsure of what to say.

"I was calling to let mom know where we are," Mike added, finding his steadiness again. "We're in Clarksville,"

"Oh wow," Nancy commented. "Are you guys there by yourselves?"

"No," Mike shook his head automatically. "The Chief's here with us,"

"Oh," Nancy's relief was evident in the way her voice relaxed. "Okay, well, Mom just got back. I'll put her on the line in a sec,"

Mike quirked an eyebrow. "Where'd she go?"

"She was driving around looking for you guys…" Nancy admitted. "I'm telling you, she was freaking out. It's almost four in the afternoon!"

"I know, I know," Mike said guiltily. "I should've called earlier…"

Nancy paused. "I hope El's okay," She offered kindly.

"Thanks," Mike mumbled and a pause fell over the conversation before Nancy handed the phone over to their mom.

"Michael?!" He'd been bracing himself for his mom's angry, worried tone, but it was still jarring coming through the phone.

"Yeah, it's me," He said blankly. "I'm sorry I didn't call earlier,"

"Where the hell have you been?" His mom exclaimed. "Where are you? Do you know how terrifying it is to walk downstairs in the morning and find not only your son is gone but also his friends that you're responsible for? After everything that happened last month with Will and Barb…" She paused for a second and Mike almost began to respond but she kept going. "What were you thinking?"

"Mom!" Mike shouted into the phone before she could continue on her rant. "I'm sorry, it was an emergency,"

"An emergency?" Karen's tone changed immediately. "What kind of emergency? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, okay?" Mike replied curtly. "It's -it's our friend," His voice was brusque, a shield against becoming too emotional. He hadn't gone into too much detail with his mom about El. After Will returned home, he'd explained that she had been a runaway from an abusive father and she'd helped them find Will. She'd been with them at the school the night they fought off the Demogorgon but then she'd disappeared and they hadn't heard from her since. Somehow he hadn't wanted to have to explain El's powers to his mom and Hopper had told everyone that night that they had to keep what they knew about the lab's involvement to a hush.

Mike groaned, exhausted and frustrated by everything going on around him. The situation with El and the uncertainty there, the balancing act with his mom, and his furtive attempts at minimizing and concealing how upset he really was. His eyes finally filled with tears and he growled angrily into the receiver, ducking his head down to try and be less noticeable.

"Michael," Karen's tone was completely different now. "Michael, what's wrong? Please talk to me," Her voice was soft and warm but that somehow made Mike feel worse. He didn't want to fall apart, he didn't want to have this conversation.

"Our friend El," Mike replied brusquely. "We - they found her this morning and sh-she's in the hospital and we don't know what's going on but she's in a coma and now someone named Becky is here -"

Dustin and Lucas watched as Mike rambled and Dustin tried to pat his friend sympathetically on the shoulder but Mike shook him off.

"Mike, slow down," Karen said, her voice firm but gentle. "Where are you?"

Mike inhaled deeply, finding a bit of stability before answering. "Clarksville General Hospital,"

"Okay," Karen said calmly and the steady rhythm of her voice helped Mike to calm down as well. "Who's there with you?"

"The Chief's with us," Mike replied as he exhaled.

"Will and his mom and Jonathan are on their way," Lucas whispered, interjecting.

"And WiIl's on his way with his mom and Jonathan," Mike repeated.

"Okay," Karen said, pausing as she thought. "I can probably get up there in about 30 minutes,"

"No, Mom, don't," Mike insisted. "Please. We're probably going to be leaving in a little while anyway. The Chief said we couldn't stay very long," He frowned. "I can ride back with him or Mrs. Byers,"

"Are you sure?" His mom asked as baby Holly started hollering in the background.

"Yeah," Mike nodded definitively, though she couldn't see. "I'm sure,"

"Okay, well," Karen hesitated. "We can talk more when you get home. I'm here for you, Mike,"

"I know…" Mike replied automatically.

"Guess we do need to call our parents after all," Lucas said after Mike hung up.

"Yeah, sorry guys," Mike replied distantly as he stepped away from the phone. "I forgot she made up this rule about letting her know when I wasn't gonna be home after Will came back. She was really freaked out,"

"Don't worry about it, dude," Dustin waved him off as Lucas retrieved a quarter from the side pocket of his backpack and slipped it into the payphone.

Mike glanced in the direction they'd come. "I'm gonna go back and see El," He said, walking away immediately.

"We'll catch up to you," Lucas called after him as he waited for someone to pick up at his house.

. . . . . . . .

Hopper was back outside with Becky smoking another cigarette when Joyce and the boys arrived at the hospital. The parking lot was starting to become less congested so they found a spot with relative ease and approached the pair outside of the sliding glass doors.

Joyce couldn't say she was surprised to see Becky there. She'd had a feeling that Hopper brought El to Clarksville, the small town in which the Ives' lived, for this particular reason. How good of an idea that would be, however, she wasn't sure.

Hopper raised an eyebrow at the woman as she approached the building, her two sons in tow.

"I guess the boys told you?" Hopper surmised.

"Yeah," Joyce said, her eyes wide and alert. "Can I - Can I talk to you, Hop?" She glanced at Becky and the curly-haired woman took the hint.

Becky rubbed her half-finished cigarette out against the brick wall behind her, returning it to the pack in her purse. "I'm gonna check out the vending machine," She jerked a thumb at the doors before walking away.

"Mom, we're gonna -" Jonathan started but Joyce waved them off.

"Go, go," She said. "I'll be in soon,"

Once they were alone, Hopper grinned at the petite woman standing in front of him. "How's it goin', Joyce?"

"El is here?" She said, cutting to the chase. "And Becky -"

"Look, I know what you're gonna say," Hopper cut her off. "It was a risk but what'd be more of a risk is not having a solid story for this girl. Where's she supposed to go after this? Calling CPS would have this girl on a one-way train back to that god-forsaken lab. I don't have the space for a kid and you've got a full house," He added, catching the look on Joyce's face as she was about to protest. "Besides, this is her real family, Joyce. You said it yourself - this woman, Becky's sister, has been looking for her daughter for 12 years," He paused, studying Joyce's face as her face softened with resignation. "Hell, who knows if she'll even know who the hell El is but they deserve to know she exists, right?"

After a brief pause, Joyce sighed. "You're right," She shrugged her shoulders, then crossed her arms. "But how do you know you can trust her?"

"Joyce, c'mon," Hopper sighed. "She's been takin' care of her sister for god knows how long and the government is the reason she's even in this mess in the first place. I can't see her teaming up with them," He said solemnly. "You should've seen her face when she saw El earlier,"

Joyce pursed her lips. "I just…" She glanced down, then back up at Hopper. "She deserves a good home, you know?" She said emphatically. "She needs to be loved and taken care of,"

"And she will be," Hopper said, trying to reassure her but his patience obviously wearing a little thin. He was exhausted from the day's adventures, too. "But nobody's even talked about where El's going after this yet. She's gonna in the hospital for a while and we can't go putting the cart before the horse, alright?"

"How is she, by the way?" Joyce asked, a welcome change of topic, though the topic itself was not the most enjoyable. "Will said she was in a coma?"

"Medically-induced," Hopper clarified. "She had swelling in her brain," He cast a pointed look at her and Joyce got the message. It obviously had to do with her powers somehow. "So they put her in it to try and let everything settle down. Aside from that, she's basically in the same boat Will was in, just a bit worse,"

"How could she survive in that place?" Joyce wondered aloud, only half-expecting an answer. "Will… He-he almost died down there after a week… A-And she was in there a month?"

Hopper shrugged. "I dunno," He said, flicking his cigarette butt across the parking lot. "But it wouldn't be the first time I came across something that didn't make sense. Not after the past month and a half," He started walking toward the ER entrance and Joyce followed closely behind.

. . . . . . . .

El's room was crowded with all four boys, Jonathan, Joyce, Hopper, and Becky spread out around the perimeter. When Joyce had come in with Hopper, she'd spent a few minutes holding El's hand and running a gentle hand over the girl's short hair as she whispered incoherently to her unconscious form. Becky had been quiet for the most part and the boys chatted here and there. Mike sat quiet and steadfast at El's bedside, having pulled a chair close to the edge, and hadn't let go of her hand since he'd returned to the room.

A knock jolted everyone from the silence.

"Good afternoon, everyone," A doctor in a white coat with a stethoscope hanging from around his neck walked in. He had thin wire-framed glasses and he was starting to go bald but what he lacked in hair, he made up for in a well-kept beard that only had small patches of grey throughout the otherwise dark brown mass. A nurse with dark hair pulled back into a tight bun came in a moment later. "I don't believe I've met all of you but I'm Dr. Kramer. I'm the attending on Jane's case," He shot a smile around the room as he walked up to El's bed, looking over the clipboard in his hand. "Alright, let's see," He gave the clipboard to the nurse and pulled a device shaped like a pen out of his pocket. As he lifted El's eyelids, quickly flashing light from the pen across both eyes, the nurse took notes on the clipboard. "Good response," He murmured as he checked her vitals and the EEG printout, everyone's eyes following him all the while.

"Okay," Dr. Kramer finally stood up straight, returning his stethoscope to his neck after having checked El's heart and lungs against the monitor's readings. "She's stable. I'd like to monitor her overnight to see how her the swelling in her brain goes down. Her readings look good but she isn't out of the woods yet," He said, glancing back and forth between El and all of her visitors periodically. "We're warming her up slowly with a heated IV and heating blankets but she was moderately hypothermic which always comes with risks. From this point forward, we're keeping an eye out for pneumonia and monitoring her brain activity to ensure that the swelling goes down and there is no permanent damage,"

"When will she wake up?" Mike ventured the question, his voice cracking from a combination of disuse and puberty.

"We'll see how she does overnight but if all goes well, we can start to wake her up sometime within the next couple of days," Dr. Kramer answered with a soft smile. "We do have an overnight visitor limit of two people; were any of you intending to stay the night?"

"I am," Hopper said immediately.

"I can, too," Mike offered but Hopper immediately shot him down.

"Nuh uh. You're goin' home,"

"What?" Mike protested. "Why? That-"

"I'd like to stay," Becky spoke up, her voice catching everyone off guard.

"There ya go," Hopper shrugged. "Becky and I will stay with her overnight,"

"That isn't fair!" Mike started to argue but Hopper cut him off.

"The rest of you-" He said, looking pointedly at Mike. "-can come back and visit her tomorrow. I'll come pick you up myself, how's that?"

Mike grumbled his dissent but didn't argue any further. They spent another twenty minutes chatting amongst themselves and visiting with El before Hopper drove Mike, Dustin, and Lucas home. Becky left to check in with the neighbor who was taking care of her sister while she was gone and Joyce stayed behind with Jonathan and Will to visit with El a little longer.

Joyce gently caressed the side of El's face, this girl who had saved her son's life and escaped unimaginable horrors. Her heart ached thinking about everything El had gone through, what she knew of it at least, and she hoped and prayed for the chance that this amazing young girl would get to live a normal, happy life.

. . . . . . . .

Mike was quiet on the drive home. Lucas and Dustin were seated in the back and had fallen asleep ten minutes into the drive, their heads lolled back against the seats. Hopper didn't try to talk to Mike and he was thankful for that. He didn't want to admit it but he knew he couldn't stay overnight with El. Even though they had one more day left of break before school picked up again, his mom would have a conniption if he didn't come home today like he'd promised.

The fact that the doctors didn't anticipate her waking up tonight gave him the slightest hint of relief that she wouldn't wake up tonight and he'd be stuck home missing it. If the doctors were in control of when she woke up, then maybe they could time it so he could be there with her.

It all felt too surreal. Maybe it was the fact that they'd been up since the crack of dawn and he'd barely gotten any sleep the night before but the warmth of the car and the steady lull of the engine were making Mike drowsy. His adrenaline was rapidly wearing off and now he just wanted to be with El. He wanted her to be okay, to wake up and to know for sure that she was safe.

. . . . . . . .

"I'm going crazy, I'm losing sleep. I'm in too far, I'm in way too deep over you. You'll always be the one. You were the first, you'll be the last..."