Apologies for the slow update. Life and stuff.
"There's no way around it, you're just gonna have to do it," Hopper told her over dinner.
"No," Eleven told him flatly.
"You can tell me no all you want, it doesn't change anything."
"Still no."
Hopper exhaled and rolled his eyes. On some level, he celebrated her newfound assertiveness and it was certainly better than when she first came to the cabin and was constantly walking on eggshells around him, but at the moment, he really just wanted to play the "because I said so" paternal trump card and have that be the end of it.
"Look. Do you want to go to school or not?"
She glared at him awhile before grinding out a reluctant, "Yes."
"Well then, you need to do the testing or else the school isn't going to know what to do with you. We've gotten this far, but none of us really know what the hell we're doing and I'm not sending you there only to set you up for failure."
She stabbed at her dinner as though it had offended her and Hopper figured he'd just have to wait for her to get over being pissed off at the situation because nothing he could say was going to make it more palatable to her.
"Mike said he would go with me," she eventually broke the silence.
"Why am I not surprised?"
"Does that mean he can come?" she asked completely ignoring Hopper's sarcasm.
Hanging out with Mike Wheeler watching Eleven take a bunch of assessments was not how he wanted to spend his day, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one. "If you agree to just take the tests and not give me a hard time about it, then yes. Is that fair?"
"No," she said sullenly, still clearly angry about the whole thing. "But its better."
.
.
Evaluations were available to Eleven through the school district, but Hopper wanted to wait as long as possible to bring her out of hiding without leaving them unprepared to start the school year so he arranged her to do the testing with a private facility over the summer. He'd received a large, thick envelope in the mail with an overwhelming amount of paperwork to fill out.
"This is a much bigger pain in the ass than I thought it was going to be," he told Joyce while they sat at her kitchen table over coffee and cigarettes. "They want me to give them all this information on El and I can't give them any honest answers."
"Like what?"
"A lot of it's background stuff on her that I don't actually know and even the things I do know, I can't say. At least that part I can explain away with the story about Terry going catatonic, but there are also questions in there about how she reacts in certain social situations. I can't very well tell them she makes people piss themselves and then breaks their arms."
"In fairness," Joyce interrupted, "that was one kid and he deserved it."
"Of course he deserved it, but I can't tell people about it." He rubbed his forehead trying to will away the stress headache that was building.
"Do you have it with you? I'll help you make stuff up. It'll be like old times, helping you cheat on your homework."
"I don't remember you helping. Distracting maybe."
"Having second thoughts?" Joyce asked knowingly.
"No," he said too quickly and then amended after a moment, "Well yeah, but not really. I feel safer with her being hidden, but it's not what's good for her."
"Trust me. I get it."
"Yeah, I know you do. And on that topic..."
"What?" She asked, instantly suspicious.
"Last time I talked to Doc Owens, he said he wanted Will to have an MRI to make sure everything's ok."
He held up his hands in mock surrender in response to the look on Joyce's face. "Don't shoot the messenger, alright? I said I'd ask and now I've asked."
"Would you do it?"
"Honestly? No, but we both know I don't always make the smartest decisions. You're constantly worrying if that thing is back and when it took him over, it did show up on the MRI. It might give you peace of mind to get a clean scan."
"Tell him I'll think about it."
.
.
Flo was expecting Hopper to have a court date or two in Curley County which made for a clean excuse to be out of pocket for a day. He took the opportunity to take Eleven with Mike in tow to Indianapolis for the day for her school assessment. Until they were safely out of Hawkins, Mike and Eleven were seated on the floorboards in the backseat of the Blazer with their heads below the window level which limited visibility to a narrow angle out the windows. Mike thought he spotted a familiar head walking down the sidewalk and raised up a little to confirm before he whispered to Eleven, "That's Max's stepdad."
Eleven checked to see that Hopper wasn't watching before she poked her head up. A slight jerk of her head and a large tree branch fell, striking Neil in the head and knocking him off his feet. Mike's eyes watered with the effort of suppressing a laugh, but Hopper caught on anyway.
"Did you seriously just do what I think you just did?"
"Tree branches break sometimes. It happens," El responded innocently.
"Did that one break on it's own?" He had figured out that El wouldn't lie, but she would absolutely give an evasive non answer if the question wasn't specific enough.
"No, but he doesn't know that."
"Don't do that kind of shit," he looked at her in the rear view mirror with as reproachful a look as he could muster under the circumstances before adding, "It's bad for the trees."
"Fine. I won't hit him with any more trees."
.
.
The address for the testing facility took them to a 60's era, unremarkable looking, single story office building. Hopper pointed Eleven and Mike to a waiting room that had the sterile feel of a dental office while he checked El in.
"It's going to be fine," Mike told her and squeezed her hand reassuringly. She gave him a weak smile in reply. "Just remember, no one here can hurt you."
"What if I do really bad?"
"Then you get a lot of help once school starts which isn't such a terrible thing. If you get overwhelmed, try to just take a minute and picture yourself somewhere you feel comfortable."
She nodded, but he could tell she would still rather be anywhere else. Well, almost anywhere else. Maybe not the lab itself, but he was reasonably certain she might even take fighting Demodogs over this.
The three of them waited together for her to be called up but when Hopper and Mike made to follow her through the door to the left of the receptionist's desk, she stopped them.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we can't allow parents to be in the room while their children are being tested."
"Well, why in the hell not?" he barked at her.
"Because it might impact a child's results."
"You honestly think I'm going to go through all this trouble to get this set up and then help her cheat?"
Having been on the receiving end of Hopper's intimidation tactics, Mike had a bit of sympathy for the woman but also at least a twinge of schadenfreude. "I didn't say that. It's standard procedure. You don't want to invalidate the results of a test."
"It's ok." Eleven spoke up seeing that Hopper was clearly prepared to die on this particular hill.
"Are you sure?" Hopper asked.
"Yes. It's ok," she reassured him with obvious false bravado.
"Alright kid," Hopper told her reluctantly, "I ... we'll be right here waiting for you."
Mike and Hopper found their seats in the waiting room and settled in. It was an uneasy sort of boredom that reminded Mike of waiting in the hospital for Will to regain consciousness.
"Do you have any idea how long this is supposed to take?" Mike asked.
"All morning at least," Hopper looked displeased, but since grouchy was his default mode, it was hard to tell. "Some of it's untimed, so they said it might go into the afternoon."
Mike regretted not bringing a book; Hopper wasn't exactly the best company for small talk. He settled for staring at a fish tank in need of cleaning.
"Listen, Mike. If you want to go take a walk around the block or something, it's not a big deal." Mike didn't realize until Hopper spoke that he had been nervously tapping his foot against the leg of the chair.
"No, I'm good." Mike sat up abruptly and forced his feet to stay planted on the floor. He had said he would accompany Eleven and even though he hadn't officially promised, he felt that was implied.
"Suit yourself."
Mike surveyed the available magazines and settled for a National Geographic with a cover feature on Afghanistan. The article failed to adequately distract him, so this time Mike broke the silence taking advantage of both the time they needed to kill and the fact that the would both be limited to incomplete sentences in a public place, "So. Have you thought about what I said about us going to her?"
Hopper raised an eyebrow at him and said, "We'll talk about it later."
Mike wasn't happy about being put off, but he took the fact that it wasn't an automatic no to be a positive sign and looked for a new magazine.
The first time the lights flickered, it was so quick that Mike wasn't confident he saw what he thought he saw. He looked up, waiting for it to happen again and when several minutes passed with nothing, he returned to reading. The second time it happened, he looked to Hopper for confirmation. The man was tense, his jaw clenched and he appeared as though remaining seated was an act of sheer will power.
"Do you think that was?" Mike didn't complete the question and he didn't have to. Hopper gave him a small nod in response.
The third time, Hopper was clearly done. He stood up and strode through the door through which El had been led a couple hours prior ignoring the receptionist's repeated protestations. Mike ran behind him and they looked in windowed doors until they found El pale, slightly sweaty and looking like she was going to be ill.
"I found her!" Mike called to Hopper while he was opening the door. "El? Are you ok?"
She looked up at Mike and for a brief moment, it was almost as though she didn't recognize him and then a wave of relief came over her and the effect was visible. Tears welled in her eyes and she shook her head in a silent no.
"Alright, c'mon," Hopper said from behind Mike's shoulder, "You two go get in the car, I'll deal with this." The before all hell breaks loose remained implied. They walked swiftly towards the door, ignoring the building chatter of well meaning professionals trying to convince Hopper to bring Eleven back in.
They regrouped in the familiar safety of the Blazer to wait for Hopper, sitting side by side with El leaning on Mike's shoulder. Mike was reminded of sitting next to a very damp Eleven in the middle school gym.
"Feeling any better?"
"Some."
"Just take your time, ok?"
They watched Hopper walk out of the building and immediately light a cigarette as he approached the vehicle. "How are you doing?" he asked El as he entered the vehicle. She nodded at him without verbalizing a response. "Yeah, ok. Let's get out of here."
They drove in silence for awhile with no particular destination in mind other than "away" before Eleven asked, "Can I still go to school?"
"Of course you can."
"You said," she paused gathering her words, "I need the tests to go to school."
"They can't turn you away," Mike chimed in. "Remember I told you, it's all just about how much help you need."
"I'll figure something out, don't worry," Hopper reassured from the front seat, "Also, if there's anything you want, now is a good time to ask me because I'm feeling guilty for sending you in there alone."
"I said it was ok."
"Doesn't matter, I shouldn't have gone along with it."
The sparkle returned to Eleven's eye. "Something...stupid?"
