A/N: This is the same As Chapter 13 but from El's POV

El Meets Max

There were loud noises. Banging, scraping, running, yelling. Nobody was paying any attention to her. She could run away and no one would know.

She had been walking a long time, her feet hurt. There was a loud noise in sky and then water started falling all around. In a few minutes she was very wet and cold but she wanted to keep walking to get as far as the bad men as she could. Her feet, when she could feel them hurt and she'd almost fallen a few times.

There was a loud noise behind her and a big truck stopped beside her. She kept walking. Suddenly a very tall man was in front of her. She didn't understand what he said, "Shit, let's get you out of the rain.

He moved towards her and she stepped back, ready to turn and run.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you are warm and safe. I'm Chief Hopper." He gently picked her up, he was so warm she wrapped her arms around his neck to get more of his warmth. He put her inside his big truck. It was warm there, he reached for something behind her, and wrapped her in a soft blanket. Then he took off his own jacket, and wrapped it around her legs and feet.

A few seconds later, he was sitting beside her, and fiddling with some controls in front of him. She felt very warm air blowing at her. She'd never been this warm, in a few minutes her teeth stopped chattering enough for her to say, "Thank you,"

"Can you tell me where you are from?"

"Bad place."

"Ah, shit." She could tell he didn't like the bad place, so maybe he wouldn't take her back there. She felt a spark of hope when he said, "Don't worry I won't take you back there. I have a safe place where you can stay. Nobody will know you are there."

She didn't have to go back? He was looking at her, she looked at the coat that covered her legs, looked back at him and nodded. She was very happy she didn't have to back.

A little while later the truck stopped.

"It's a bit of a walk through the woods, but I'll carry you, you can't walk where we are going without shoes. You're dried off now, and the blanket is nice and warm, I'll put my jacket back on, wrap you up in the blanket. Between the trees and the blanket you should still be dry by the time were there. I won't drop you. I promise." She didn't have to walk in the woods anymore. She nodded and handed him back his coat. He picked her up again, just as gently as before. She was nice and warm now, but wrapped her arms around his neck, her head resting on his shoulder.

They seemed to be wandering through the woods, but she didn't mind, she felt warm and safe with the man that carried her. She felt him walk up stairs and then do a funny knock on a door…

"You're late. What's that?" said a girl's voice.

"It's a who. I'll explain later, Max, turn up the heat a bit. Can you help clean her up and get her some of your clothes? I'll cook up something for us."

"Sure thing Chief, Zoomer to the rescue"

"Thanks Max, uh she doesn't talk much, not sure what kind of vocabulary we're dealing with here. Keep it to yes or no questions if you can."

The girl had pretty red hair, and led her to a room. "I'm not a fashion model, but I do have some things you can choose between."

"What's your name?" The girl with red hair said.

She didn't have a name. Not a real one. She gave the girl what she was called in the bad place. "Eleven"

"I get it, hippy parents, could have been worse, at least I don't have to call you Sunflower or some stupid shit like that. I'm Max, short for Maxine buy nobody calls me that. Uh, we can call you 'El', short for Eleven?"

Max didn't laugh or make fun of her, and said she would call her a pretty name. It was much better than what the bad men called her. She nodded and smiled at Max

"Ok, El, take your pick from these clothes. Not really a lot of pretty ones, but I don't really do pretty."

El wasn't sure what Max meant, all the clothes she showed her were pretty and soft. Suddenly there was a loud noise outside of the room, she hugged her knees and looked around for a place to hide or a door she could go through to run away. She wanted to warn Max so she said "Bad men".

"No, El, it's just Chief hopper, moving something around". Max said, "You don't have to worry about him, he's a friend."

El didn't understand what Max said about the tall man.

"What is 'friend'?"

Max girl looked at her and said, "a friend is something who'd do anything for you. Real friends are hard to come by. They don't lie to you, they don't judge you, they stand by you when you are having a bad day, or when you are in trouble. Friends are good."

El looked at all the pretty clothes she'd been given, that must mean… "you are friend?"

Max sat down beside her, and hugged her, "I am your friend. Chief Hopper is your friend. He is more than a friend to me, he's like the dad I always wanted." Max sniffed, "everything is going to be ok, I won't let the bad men find you, Chief Hopper will help me."

El was relieved. She was sad for Max, but happy that they would help her stay away from the bad men, she nodded and said, "thank you Max."

The tall man, Hopper stood in the doorway, "you two getting along ok? Max?"

"Her name is El, and we are her friends." El smiled and nodded. She still didn't really know what a friend was, but Max said friends would help, and she now had two of them. She didn't have any friends in the bad place...at least nobody who would help her.

Hopper looked at Max, then at El and nodded. "Ok, I'm Chief, not a chef, but I think I managed to scrounge up something to eat, you ready?" He looked at both of them. They both nodded and smiled.

Max led her to a table, and they sat down.

"Grilled cheese sandwiches. These may be the best I've ever made. For desert there are Eggos, but only after you've finished these...we clear?" El took a bite of the bread with orange stuff in it...her mouth watered, she'd never had anything that tasted so good.

She wasn't paying a lot of attention when Hopper and Max started talking.

"Are we in any danger here Chief?

"No Max, this place isn't on any map, but we're going to do some extra things to make sure you two are safe. Got that?"

"I can't let Neil or Billy find me. I'll do anything you say. I will stay with El and she can be safe with me" Max looked at El and she nodded.

"Ok then, I call them the 'Don't Be Stupid Rules'. One, always keep the curtains drawn. Two, only open the door if you hear my secret knock"

Hopper did the funny knock on the table.

"And three, don't ever go out alone, especially not in daylight. That's it. 'Cause we're not stupid, right?"

El had been called stupid before. It made her mad. She knew she was smart, she knew she didn't know a lot of words and found it hard to tell people things. But she was not stupid. She wanted to let Max and Hopper know, she said in a very loud voice, "Not stupid"

She could see Max looking around the little room they were in, "you may regret all this."

"Maybe, " Hopper grinned. "Or it could be the best thing to happen to the three of us."

El didn't know about Max and Hopper, but this was the best thing that had happened to her. For as long as she could remember. Ever. She had soft clothes that smelled pretty, she had two friends, food, and a warm place to sleep.

That was all she really needed right now.