Eleven was agitated. She couldn't stop smiling. She never thought she could feel this way in her whole life. Living in that lab for so long, never doing what she wanted, it was impossible to imagine that one day she would feel such happiness. Mike did this to her and she couldn't wait to see him again, even if he was there five minutes before.

No one was going to stop them from having sex again. El didn't care if they knew, she just wanted to do it again every day without concerns. She would fight anyone, Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, Karen, and Aunt Becky ... She would make Mike spend the night with her anyway. She was determined.

Eleven dismantled the love corner she had set up for Mike. Her mother and had Becky would arrive in the morning, but the second had forgotten that El would go one day earlier and decided to come back quickly to make her feel at home. She didn't want her to spend the night alone. El would have soon to teel aunt Becky about her relationship and sex life.

El had little idea of what was private and what was not. Mike always made a face when she wanted to say something uncomfortable, but at that moment she did not care. She just wanted to be with him forever. She was a little sore between her legs, but not enough to break her spirits. Mike was going get tired of so much sex that they would have.

Despite all the good things that had happened that were in her head, Eleven had a bad feeling.

"Ahh, I loved it, Will!" Joyce hugged her son excited.

Hopper had not come back yet and it was almost eleven o'clock so they were awake. While everyone was not in bed and saved, Joyce could not sleep. Will took advantage of it then to give a color to the room. He painted a starry sky, full of constellations, his new passion, and space objects. Joyce was sure that Hopper would kill her, but it was very beautiful, and her son was happy. She decided not to care.

"Why don't you do astrology?" She said as she sat down next to her son, who was watching his painting on the couch. She always thought he tended to Visual Arts but was very excited about his new passion.

"Dunno know." He said thoughtfully, and Joyce knew it was another problem. She'd noticed it before, but she'd been waiting for Will to open up with her before.

"Will," Joyce showed that look 'you always told me everything and can tell this too'. "tell me what' s bothering you. Is it Bethany?" Because she was a mother, and that was enough to understand what was happening to her son.

He took a deep breath. He had not said anything because he knew his mother would not be happy to know he'd told Bethany the truth.

Will nodded and realized she was going to ask more questions, so he decided to tell. He could not escape at that moment, only if they quarreled and he hated doing it with his mother. She had suffered too much on her own.

"I told Beth the truth, mom!"

Several emotions flashed across Joyce's face at that moment. Horror, surprise, despair, worry and then ...

"Will, are you crazy?!"

"Mom, listen to me, please!" He said before she continued. She had to understand why he had done it. No one had ever understood him better than Joyce. "Look, Beth is the only person who makes me feel like a normal person! Because everyone else knows what happened. Or you people know about the Upside Down, or you people who think I'm a zombie boy! When I 'm with her..." His eyes gleamed from thinking and speaking about the love of her life. "it seems like I can have a normal life. Without the aftermath of it all or the fear that everything will come back. It seems like I will not have nightmares reminding myself of those times. It's like it's just the two of us against the world. Just me and her." Then he closed his face, thinking of the worst that could happen. "But I'm afraid that all of that will come back." This will haunt me forever. And if, in fact, it comes back, and she finds out, she'll be angry because I didn't tell the truth! Although I did love that she didn't know the truth, I feel bad for hiding a big part of me from her! I took advantage of it while it lasted, but I couldn't leave with it anymore. She knows there's something that bothers me, and she always asks me. I was afraid to annoy her too much!"

It was hard for Joyce to hear this. Her little boy, who she cared for so much, who she had done everything to keep him safe, was growing up. He had found true love, and however much she wanted him to lead a normal life, she could not deny that it was hard to hear. Will was growing larger and farther away from her. At least there was a nice girl at his side. And she was glad he was being honest.

"But why are you upset?" Joyce knew he was troubled but didn't know if it was for some reason or because it was uncomfortable for telling his big secret without consulting his mother before.

"She didn't believe me." He spat the words. She still could not settle for what had happened. " I tried to talk to her several times, but she still doesn't believe."

"Will ..." Joyce whispered as he began to cry.

"She thought I was making fun of her face and told me to stay away from her! I can prove it's true, but now I don't know if I want to! I don't know if she's the right girl for me and you should think so if she thought I would do something like that!"

Joyce hugged him, letting the boy rest his head on her chest.

"Oh son ..." She sighed, hating to see him suffer for love. It was so trivial, but she did not know if she preferred it for love or the Upside Down. They were both so difficult. "It's hard to believe. One day she will agree to talk to you. And based on the conversation that day, you'll know if she's the right girl or not. Everything will be fine!"

She wanted to kill the girl for making her son cry like that - if only she knew what Nancy Wheeler was doing to his other son ... - but she understood that everyone had to go through it, suffer for love and it was hard to believe. She had been through it herself. She had said things that hse was sure were true, but no one believed. She knew very well what her son was feeling.

"Promise?" He asked, needing stability. Some certainty that everything would end fine.

"Promise." She replied knowing that she would do whatever it took to have Bethany hear her son at least one more time before she decided to go.

The two stood in that position for a few minutes until the front door opened abruptly and Hopper appeared panting.

"Hop?"

"The Wheeler crashed!" He went to the bathroom in a rush to wash his face, because he was sweating a lot. This gave Joyce time to process the information.

"Jim, what do you mean?" Joyce shouted after him, but Will was still paralyzed by the news.

"I'm not sure what happened," he replied, returning to the living room, "but it doesn't look like anything serious."

"We have to go to the hospital now, then!" Joyce went to get her and Will's jacket, when Hopper stopped her.

"No!" She stared at him, not quite understanding what he meant by that. "I need you to find El at her mother's house. I would, but I have to go to the hospital to question Wheeler. It seems there was someone else involved, and if El discover that all this happened, and no one told her, she'll kill me!"

"Probably she already knows ..." Joyce thought aloud, knowing her daughter very well.

"Yeah. And that's why someone have to pick her up soon."

Joyce nodded, but first she went to her son.

"Do you want to go with me or Hop?" She didn't know if Will wanted to go with her because of the moment they'd had a few minutes earlier. Or even simply stay home.

"I want to see Mike." He answered, and Joyce agreed. In five minutes each one left to one side.

Joyce was as quick as she could, but she was careful because it was exactly on that road that Mike crashed. Weird. What was he doing there?

When El opened the door, after listening to the bell, she appeared with her bags. Joyce didn't know she was so aware of the situation.

"Honey, how you doing?" Eleven was so determined to go, Joyce even thought that something had happened in that house.

"It's Mike, right?"

It wasn't possible that this girl knew everything. Joyce smiled proudly. She was her only daughter and she was very proud, someone to represent the female force when she was not there.

Joyce nodded, and Eleven got the trunk open by herself, setting her luggage there right away.

"Jane!" Aunt Becky shouted going to the door. "She doesn't want to tell me what's going on!" The woman complained worriedly to Joyce.

Eleven was not much to speak and then she learned, she only began to communicate better with those who only knew her a long time before and spent most of her days near her. She loved Auntie Becky, but she didn't know if she was ready to tell Mike about it, or why she chose to spend the weekend there, so they could have sex. And on top of that, she was leaving earlier. They barely had time to enjoy each other's company.

"Boys." Joyce said trying to calm her, but without revealing the truth. She hoped that knowing a part, Becky would not be so worried and so she could relax until Eleven was ready to tell the truth. After all, it was a good reason to change the behavior of such a young girl.

"She didn't tell me anything about it!"

"Don't worry." Joyce put her hand on Becky's arm to comfort her. "She'll tell you, Becky. Just wait your time."

And so, the two women set off down the dark road to Hawkins.

"You have to tell her!" Joyce said after a quiet time. They were in a car without speaking, so she decided to try it because she didn't know when she would have a chance to talk to the girl again, and the future was more uncertain than ever.

"I feel bad." Eleven simply said, avoiding the look of Joyce. She watched the road trees forming shapes in the night, but their details were imperceptible.

Joyce frowned, not quite understanding. Becky had met Eleven older and had to understand that eventually she would show up with a boyfriend. There was no problem in that. Mike was a great kid.

"What do you mean, my dear?" Eleven made a face of who was holding the crying and Joyce rushed to comfort her. "Lately, I've proved that you can talk about anything to me, El! I won't judge you. If it makes you feel better, you can tell me."

She was already sobbing, trying desperately to control her tears. El wanted to be strong anyway. She'd been through so much that this was nothing, but her family, friends, and Mike were the most important people in her life.

"It's my fault."

"Your fault...?" Joyce tried to follow the girl's thought.

"Mike and I had sex." She said it once before she lost her nerve. Before she didn't understand the level of intimacy that sex involved, but now that she had done it, El wasn't comfortable talking about what had happened. "I brought him here for that. I lied to Auntie Becky, to you and Mom and he got hurt! It's my fault!"

Eleven leaned against the glass, holding her face across her forehead and eyes with her hand, crying loudly, unable to hold herself.

"El, it's not your fault! These things happen!" Joyce took a hand from the wheel to caress her daughter. "All right, we run that risk too, so it's not your fault. You could have stayed all the time just talking there that would take that risk anyway!" Joyce sighed thinking about the place the girl had chosen. Very away from them. "I mean, your mother and your aunt were at the clinic, but I understand that at home it's a lot of pressure, mostly because of Hop. You still have two older brothers... There are a lot of people all over you. As long as your moment with Mike was good, you don't have to be like this. Everything will work out and you won't do it again. Let's find a way so you can have more privacy with Mike without lying!"

Eleven loved Joyce too much. Her first example of a mother who had welcomed her with open arms without even knowing who she was. And now she did everything for her. She didn't know how to thank her, but she would think of something. First, they had to solve Mike's problem.

El wanted to hug the woman, but she thought it best not to do that while she was driving.

"Okay," she said with a smile as she wiped his face.

Joyce smiled back and continued the course hoping they would arrive soon. She herself wanted to know what had happened to Mike. She prayed it was nothing serious.

Mike was sitting in a hospital observation room listening to his mother as she was disappointed with him for being so irresponsible, and thankfully something worse hadn't happened. Who goes out of town and drives on the road in the middle of the night to cool their head?! It was the version Mike had given for being out of Hawkins. No one could really know what he was doing there.

He had only twisted his right wrist and hurt his knees. He was very tall, so his legs didn't fit very well in the car. To make sure he wasn't going to have a concussion, after all he had just suffered a car accident, he was sent to the observation even if he was very well. He had done all the necessary tests that had come to normal. You couldn't say the same about the raccoon.

"Excuse me." Hopper said entering with Will in the room. Mrs. Wheeler was there with Holly. Ted was in the waiting room with the boys. "Wheeler, is everything okay?"

He nodded.

"I just wringed my hand."

"What a scare you gave us, Mike!" Will said rather breathless but relieved to see his friend as well. "El's coming."

It was Mike's turn to relax. Talking to his girlfriend was going to make him very happy, though she was not going to be overjoyed that he had run over a defenseless raccoon.

"Can you tell me what happened to you?" Hopper said taking out a pad of notes ready to write and Karen was surprised.

"What is it?"

"He has to give a statement. Was there no other person involved? Who did you run over?"

"A raccoon." Mike swallowed with the look Hopper gave him.

"A raccoon ?! Did you run over a raccoon?!" Mike nodded. "Did anyone else get involved ?!"

"No..."

"I can't believe they sent me here because of a raccoon! What were you doing there, boy?!"

"I already told them! I needed to think! Be alone!"

"But on the road..."

Hopper paused for a moment and it all started to make sense in his head.

"But we were going to have sex on Friday ..."

"Can you excuse us for a minute?"

"Why?" Mrs. Wheeler asked worriedly as Holly and Will were already leaving.

"I need to get the deposition and…"

"But he's a minor! He can't give the testimony alone!"

"Easy, Mrs. Wheeler! I just want to talk to him from man to man. I won't do anything out of the law!"

Karen did not like it but nodded and left.

It was kind of weird for Mike to be alone with Hopper being two hours early inside his daughter. He decided not to think about it.

"You may have deceived others, but not me. I know you were with El!" Mike swallowed hard and thought he was going to have a heart attack. He really didn't think he was going to have to go through that already. At least wait until morning.

"I'm sorry, sir." He ducked his head, unable to face Hopper. They had done something very wrong, but very right at the same time. How could he say that he had an accident and all the lies were worth it?

Hopper snorted and put his hand in his pensive mouth. Was it possible? He did not want to know, but he did.

"You ... you ...?"

And the guilty face that Mike did, several things went through the head of Hopper at that time. How about strangling the boy? Break his neck? Shoot? What would be the best way? He wanted him to suffer, but he knew it was not right. One day his daughter was going to have sex, even because he wanted grandchildren, but he couldn't deny that it was difficult. He'd done everything, had taken care of her so well ... At least, if it had to be, he was glad it was Wheeler. He was a very good boy.

"You'll kill me?" He just wanted it to be quick. And couldn't he see El one last time at least?

"El'll do it herself when she finds out that you almost killed a raccoon!"

"I know ..." Mike had to admit. He was afraid of Eleven. It was better not to upset her.