Chapter 14: The Calm Before The Storm

Disclaimer:I own nothing! So...crazy story...all my documents were being saved to my mom's account on Word for some reason so I had to figure out how to get those out of her account without deleting them which failed because you CANT DO THAT FOR SOME REASON and I was at it for four. Damn. Hours. And then I just deleted word and got this new app so if there are any errors or if this chapter is late that's why. Also, this chapter is pretty much like that small moment of peace and happiness everyone has before they all face the big threat, so enjoy the calm while it lasts XD!

Phieillydinyia: Thank you for your review! I'm glad you enjoyed that "older sh*ts/little sh*it" joke I put in there, lol!

Enjoy!

Shivering in the cold, the group looked at each other.

"Is that a house?" Mike gestured to the house that everyone had noticed already.

"Well what do you think?" Dustin said sarcastically.

"I just wanted some confirmation! My leg is hurting like crazy over here!" Mike winced as he tried to move.

"Should we go to it?" Robin asked. "Maybe it's one of the houses where people are on vacation!"

"How would we get in?" This was Max.

"I might be able to unlock it," El thought for a moment. "But I used a lot of energy. For the rock."

"How will we plug the hole? It's only a matter of time before someone comes up here for whatever creepy shit they've gotta do," Jonathan grumbled. "We can't use the rock, it's too heavy and we're all-no offense-scrawny."

"How did they plug the hole after they came out here?" Nancy wondered. "Maybe they tried as a group?"

"But it's split in half, now," Lucas pointed out.

"We can still use it, just lay the flat side down over the hole," Nancy shrugged.

"We'd better hurry. It's almost dark," Erica pointed toward the sky.

They all gathered around one half of the rock, except for Mike, of course, and grasped the edges, trying to pull it up.

Once they had it, they pushed on the underside, tilting it until it stood up nearly straight, making sure it was in line with the hole, and pushing it over.

The ground shook as it landed with a loud boom!

"Think they heard that?" Steve panted.

"I doubt it, but we'd better move," Hopper suggested, grabbing Mike again and leading them in the direction of the house.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Nancy twisted her hands nervously. "What if it's a trap or people see us?"

"We'll have to take that chance. Mike needs medical attention. I'll see if there's any way we can steal a car or something and drive him to the nearest hospital," Hopper said.

A few others looked reluctant, but started walking behind Hopper and Mike through the woods.

They all kept glancing back behind them, expecting Russians to come storm them at every twig that snapped.

When the reached the edge of the woods and saw the house, their first instinct was to hide. They darted behind a few stray trees in the yard of the house and tried to get a good look inside and see if anyone was there.

"I'll sneak around to the front door and knock," Hopper suggested as he placed Mike behind a tree. "I'll get out of the way before they see me if they're there."

Everyone nodded, anxiously watching him slip around the side of the building. After a couple seconds, Hopper came back to get them.

"No one's there. This is one of the houses were the people are going to be gone until January 6th. There was a sign on their door," he informed them.

"Can we go in? There's no cameras or anything?" Robin asked.

"If there are, we can just shoot them or something," Dustin replied.

"Are you sure-"

Let's go, it's freezing!" Erica cut across Mike's question. She pushed past everyone and marched up to the house. "Are you able to unlock this, El?" She asked the fifteen year old, not unkindly.

"I think so," El nodded firmly. "I'll try."

She walked up to the back door of the house. It was a sliding glass door.

She could tell that she only had enough strength for this trick, and even this was playing with fire, but she focused on the lock. She closed her eyes and imagined it flipping down and the door sliding open, gently, not enough to shatter the glass.

When she opened them, a small amount of blood was trickling out of her nose and she wiped it before it reached her mouth. The door was open.

El felt her strength leave her and she stumbled forward a little. She forced herself to stay standing and beckoned everyone into the house.

They followed cautiously, looking around for any sign of people or cameras. Steve went around and checked that all the doors and windows were locked.

"Alright, guys," Steve began, suddenly taking charge. "Curtains drawn on windows at all times and no going outside unless it's an emergency. Once it gets dark, which will be soon, turn all the lights off so they can't see through the windows. They've got a bunch of candles, both scented and emergency around this place so we'll be fine. While I was checking the windows, I looked at the bedrooms. There's a master and two kid ones, but the kids' beds are big enough to fit two people and each room besides the master has a sleeping bag on the dresser. That's enough for eight people. Then there's another bedroom, most likely the guest bedroom, that's down here to the left. Big enough for two. So how long are we staying here?" He looked to Hopper.

"At most probably a few days. It's around the day after Christmas, so possibly until the 29th or 30th. I'll contact the military and get Mike some help," Hopper replied.

"Alright, so what are we thinking for arrangements?" Robin asked.

"El and I can take a bed," Max offered with a look at El, who smiled and nodded. "And I'm sure Erica could fit since she's so small."

"Okay, great, any other takers?" Steve asked.

"I'll take a sleeping bag," Robin said.

"I'll take the other," Will jumped in.

"I'll do a bed," Mike said.

"Me too," Lucas agreed.

"I'll take the master bedroom if that's okay," Nancy said.

"I'll go too," Jonathan offered casually with a glance at his mom, who gave him a knowing smile and a nod.

"Alright, sounds good," Steve nodded in approval at the arrangement in general. "I can snag a couch or something."

Max, who had snuck around Steve after she had made her suggestion, called from upstairs, "No, there's a pull out mattress under the boys' bed! Use that!"

"Oh," Steve said, surprised. "I'll do that then, I suppose. Alright, everyone go into your rooms and get settled!"

"Wait," Hopper stopped everyone from leaving. "I'm going to go look and see if there's any information in this house about any hospitals or anything like that around for Mike. El, do you want to help?"

El nodded eagerly, wanting to spend some time with her father, and helped Mike to the couch. "Sure, give me a minute." She turned to Mike. "Does it hurt?"

"Yeah, only a little. But don't worry, I'll get better. It's like when you had that cut on your leg. It got better and they stitched it up. The same thing is gonna happen to me, but I'll probably get a cast or something. That's like a cool looking thing that goes around your leg or whatever bone is broken and helps it heal," Mike informed her.

"So you'll get better?" El asked , relieved.

"Of course!" Mike conformed. "I might need surgery, though, considering how bad of a break it is."

"Surgery?"

"It's just something else to help me get better faster."

El processed this and nodded. "I'm gonna go help my dad look for stuff to help you. Be right back!"

"Okay."

El kissed his cheek and walked over to Hopper, who was opening cabinets and drawers and flipping through papers.

"Hi, dad," El greeted him with a hug, still in slight disbelief that he was back.

"Hey, El," he squeezed her tightly. "So just look for anything that says, 'medical,' or 'hospital,' and that should be fine."

"Okay," She began to imitate him in his way of looking through papers and drawers for information. "I have a question."

"Go ahead," Hopper smiled at her.

"When you were in the Upside Down, how did you escape the demodogs? Did you see any other monsters?" El asked him.

"No other monsters except this weird darkness that came to me before I got out, but the demodogs never really came near me. At least not until that day with you and Will. The main thing I had to worry about was the atmosphere and food. Luckily, you made me buy Eggos in bulk," he told her. El grinned. "So what's new with you, kid? Where've you been these past few months?"

"My powers have been sort of off and on recently. Like what you saw in the lab. But ever since July I've lived with Mrs. Byers, Will, and Jonathan. I went with them when they moved. I was sad, but I knew it was probably best, " El told him.

"Really?" Hopper blinked.

"Yes," El replied. "It was fun to have brothers. It still is."

"What made your powers leave?" He asked her.

"I think I had worn myself out at the Battle of Starcourt, but before I could recharge, I got the news about you, and I think my emotions sort of overpowered my powers. That's why I'm only starting to recharge now. My emotions have started to settle and I'm stronger."

"The Battle of Starcourt?" Hopper raised an eyebrow.

"That's what we call it," El said happily.

"Pretty good name," he told her. "So Joyce took care of you this whole time?"

"Yep," El nodded. "She was really great! Kind of like...a mom. Is that okay? To have a real mama and someone else who feels like a mom?" She inquired.

"Of course, lots of people have that," Hopper assured her. "I'm sure your real mama would be glad someone's taking care of you."

"You mean two people," she smiled up at him. "Wait, you never got any place to sleep!"

"I'll probably sleep on one of the couches," he shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me as long as you and Mike are in separate rooms."

She giggled. "I have another question."

"Okay, what is it?" Hopper blinked at the look she had on her face, a sly one, with a smirky smile, as if she knew a secret of his.

"Do you think that J-wait, I found something!" El exclaimed excitedly, waving a paper around.

"Hold it still so I can see," Hopper laughed and took the paper from her. It read, *emergency adresses* and then listed a few, one of them being a hospital named Crouse with the phone number after it. "Good job, El!"

With a little more digging, they found a map they could use.

"I'm going to take Mike here and see if they can do anything for him. I'll have them bill the money to the house if I can. The owners will probably call the place and say it's a mistake when they get back or something. Either way, it's free," Hopper shrugged as El laughed at her father's classic behaviour.

"Can I come?" She looked at him. "It'll be best if I'm there for him. He'll be calmer. And he can pose as my brother to make us more believable," El begged.

"It's alright with me, why don't you let him know and I'll tell the others we're leaving. Oh, and tell Nancy to come too. I'm sure she'll want to and Mike will want her there too."

"How will we get there?" She frowned.

Hopper stopped. He didn't think of that. He opened the front door of the house and saw a car in the driveway. The owners must have two and had taken only one to the airport when they left. That meant that the keys to that car in the driveway were probably around the house somehwere.

He found a bowl by the door and, sure enough, there were keys in there. Considering this extremely lucky, he pocketed then after telling El and let everyone know what was happening. Some of them were unsure whether Hopper should show himself after being announced dead, but he reminded them that they were in an entirely different state nowhere near Indiana, and that even if he was on the news, they'd probably forgotten his face by now.

El, Mike, Nancy and Hopper drove away, leaving everyone anxious for them. Yes, Mike needed help, but it was extremely dangerous, especially for El.

Everyone was starving, and no one protested when Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Erica raided the pantry, so they were all eating some stranger's food while socialising. Their current topic was pets, and what animal they'd get if they could have one.

"I've already got a dog," Robin said. "But I'd either get another dog or a cat."

"I'd get a dog. Definitely a dog," Dustin said. "My mom has had, like, five cats in my lifetime. Each one worse than the last," He gave a fake shudder of horror and everyone laughed.

"I'd want a gerbil," Lucas confessed. "They're so tiny and cute!"

Max scooted away from him. "Why do I like you?" She huffed.

"Because I'm a man who's not afraid to share his true feelings?"

"Sure, let's go with that," Max scoffed. "Anyways, I'd want a horse or a dog."

"Everyone's talking about dogs, there's, like, no variety," Will laughed. "Hey...wait a minute..."

He looked at Jonathan and some sort of message of understanding passed between them. Jonathan's eyes widened and Will turned around.

"Hey mom! What happened to our dog?!"

Joyce, confused, asked, "Wait, dog? What dog?"

"Yeah, Chester!" Jonathan piped up.

"We had a dog?"

"Uh huh! Come to think of it, I haven't seen him since Will came back!" Jonathan realised. "He was acting all weird before."

"Oh my god," Joyce breathed. "What happened to the dog?!"

"He probably ran away once he realised you were insane," Will said seriously. Dustin snorted.

"Fair point," Jonathan added.

Joyce rolled her eyes. "Yes, well, my insanity saved your life, so pick your poison."

"That is also a fair point," Jonathan acknowledged.

Steve turned to Dustin. "Wait, dude, remember when we put that demogorgon in Will's fridge because you thought it was 'scientific?'"

"Wait, that was you?!" Joyce exclaimed.

Will and Jonathan burst out laughing.

"Oh my god, when mom found that thing, she screamed so freaking loud!" Will choked out between laughs.

"Yeah, we thought someone died!" Jonathan exclaimed.

"I mean, who wouldn't scream?" Robin said reasonably.

"No, when I say screamed, I mean like, screamed!" Will told her.

"Well excuse me from being a little shaken up from taking part in a goddamn exorcism the night before!" Joyce exclaimed.

"It was still hilarious!" Jonathan said with a huge grin on his face.

"Remember that time Erica answered your walkie talkie when the demodogs were coming and you needed my help?" Lucas asked Dustin.

"To be fair, you would not shut up," Erica groaned.

It felt good to all of them that, even through all of the hellish shit they had been through, they could still laugh about the fun moments in between.

They talked a little more, and for the first time in a long time, it wasn't intertwined with sadness or inter-dimensional monsters. They were just happy.

ooOoo

When Hopper came back with Mike , Nancy and El, Mike was in a cast and using crutches to get into the house. They rushed him along in the dark, feeling unsafe outside.

They had gone to the hospital, waited for an excruciatingly long time, gotten an x-ray on his leg, and the doctors put it in a cast. They had told Hopper that he would need surgery and that they should schedule it a week from then. Hopper filled out the necessary forms, (he fudged half the information), and used a fake name as a signature and a fake name for Mike.

Wasn't he supposed to be a cop?

Once they got home safely, they would get Mike surgery at another hospital near Hawkins, but for now, the cast and crutches would have to do.

They walked into the house and into the dining room, where everyone was sitting at a table. Relief spread across their faces when they saw them.

"We were getting worried!" Dustin scolded.

"How did it go?" Nancy asked Mike.

"Good, I need surgery, but we're not gonna do that until we get back," Mike informed them.

The clock on the wall read 10:30 and a few people were yawning.

"I don't know about you, but I'm going to bed," Steve announced, standing up and stretching.

Choruses of, "me too," and "same here" and other variations floated around the room as the kids, besides Mike and El, walked up the stairs.

"El," Hopper began. "You can have ten minutes of alone time with Mike in the living room. Only talking. Nothing more. Then it's off to bed for both of you."

El giddily walked alongside Mike to the living room and they sat down on the couch.

"What do those crutches feel like?" She asked eagerly, reaching out and touching them.

"You can try them if you want," Mike held them out to her.

She grabbed them and put them under her arms.

"Now lift one foot off the ground," Mike instructed.

El did so and started walking, giggling at the feeling of using the devices.

"Those are fun!"

"Yeah, for a little while," Mike agreed. "But I'm sure they're not as fun when you have them for a while."

"Can you feel anything when someone taps on the cast?" El asked, rapping it slightly with her knuckles.

"No, only a little vibration," Mike said.

"I missed you," El told him. "I kind of wanted this visit to not be full of evil Russians and monsters. So we could just be us."

Mike took her hand. "Me too," he admitted.

El leaned her head on his chest and he stroked her hair.

"It's pretty peaceful now," El said quietly, looking up at him.

"It sure is," Mike mumbled, tilting his head down slightly and meeting her eyes.

El leaned up slightly, her lips inches from his.

"Three inches," Mike whispered.

"Screw that."

And then she was kissing him. She was kissing him like she had never kissed him before, even during their meet-ups during the summer. It was so much more mature and deep, her lips were so soft and the feeling of her was so good, Mike was instantly immersed in her embrace.

Mike kissed her in a way that made her breathless, careful, yet intense as he caressed her cheek and slid strands of her hair behind her ear and held her protectively in a way only he could.

El ran her fingers down his neck and toyed with his shirt collar, twisting it between her fingers. He shivered and his arm slipped around her waist, pulling her closer to him so that he could feel her rapid heartbeat against his own racing one.

Their kiss seemed more mature than their kisses in the past. They were no longer children. They knew what they wanted, and it wasn't to be young and in love.

It was just to love.

They broke apart, breathless.

"Mike," El breathed.

"Hopper's gonna kill me," Mike murmured as he stroked her hair.

El kissed his neck gently. "He'll have to find you first. But I'm going to hide you where he'll never ever find you."

"Where's that?"

"With me," she whispered.

"Hmm, that's gonna be hard since you live with him," Mike teased as she closed her eyes and lay her head back on his chest.

He rested his chin atop her head.

"I'll find a way," She insisted sleepily.

Mike twisted a strand of her hair around his finger.

"Hey El?" His voice was gentle.

"Yes?" her voice was soft.

"Do you...do you still love me?" Mike blurted.

El almost laughed as she placed three gentle kisses to his skin; one on his temple, one on his cheek, and one on his neck.

"I could never stop loving you," She whispered and, in a tender way, almost as if she were afraid, she slipped her hands under his shirt and touched his bare skin, cool from being outside before this. He sucked in a breath in surprise and pressed a long kiss to the underside of her jaw. He let his lips linger there for a moment, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair.

"I could never stop loving you, either," He told her, trying not to moan at the feeling of El's hands against his skin.

El hummed a melody under her breath as she slowly began to fall asleep in Mike's lap.

"Will you make sure I have good dreams?" she asked him.

"I promise," Mike kissed her and she responded intensely, kissing him in an insistent way that made him blush. She tasted sweet, almost like candy, and El felt him smile against her lips when she ran her fingers through his hair.

"El, time for bed!" Hopper's voice cut across their romantic moment.

"Sure thing, dad!" El called back, separating herself from Mike. "I wonder why he didn't just come here and tell me. He usually doesn't like to yell."

"You are taking about Hopper, right?" Mike asked.

El laughed. "Yes. Here, I'll help you up the stairs."

They stood up and began to escalate to their separate bedrooms.

Meanwhile, Hopper and Joyce were having a conversation of their own.

After El and Mike had set off for the living room, Hopper muttered to her, "I'm worried."

"Why? Is everything okay?" Joyce asked.

He jerked his head toward the entryway of the house, which was a good distance away from the stairs and the living room, so there was no chance of anyone overhearing him.

"You know how Brenner was talking about those different dimensions?" Hopper asked.

"Hard to forget, why?" She replied.

"Well, when he was talking about the second one, the one where we failed and the Mind Flayer won, he said, 'but we in Russia were still alive,' or something like that. I thought that was an odd choice of words since he wasn't a part of that group of people from that dimension, but then I thought-"

"-you thought, what if he was?" She finished his sentence.

"Exactly! And so it got me thinking that maybe our Brenner is dead, maybe that Brenner in that lab is-"

"-is from the other dimension! And he's already succeeded in harnessing the Upside Down in the other dimension, but the Upside Down went rogue-"

"-and now he wants to retry his plan with this dimension!" Hopper finished breathlessly. "Exactly."

"That's brilliant!" Joyce exclaimed.

"Hold on, how did you know all that?" Hopper inquired.

"I didn't," she shrugged. "I just pieced it together in my head as you went along."

"That's...wow. That's impressive," he admitted.

She sighed. "I try."

"You try to what, impress me?" He raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

"Hmm...maybe," she said with a sly smile. "Why, what's it to you?"

"No reason, you're just kind of cute when you do that."

"Do what?"

"That little thing you always do when you're thinking hard, where you bite your lip a little and your brow furrows and you have that concentrated look that saved me many a geometry homework assignments back in high school."

She blushed. "Well I must say, you look good in leather."

She tugged on the black leather coat he was still wearing. Everyone else had taken theirs off, but Hopper had kept his on.

"You like it?" He asked. "Good, 'cause it's your turn to wear it now." He took it off in a slight movement and slid it around her shoulders. She slipped her arms through the sleeves and closed her eyes, breathing in deeply and smiling. The jacket was huge on her and reached her knees, making her look even smaller than she already was.

She looked absolutely adorable.

"I think I might've missed you a little," She whispered, wrapping her arms around herself and looking down at the floor.

"Guess what?" Hopper asked softly. He cupped her chin and tilted her head up so that she met his eyes. "I missed you, too."

"You did?" She looped her arms around his waist.

"Mmhmm," He mumbled, surprised. "Every day."

"That's good," she replied quietly.

He nodded, distracted by her big brown eyes. They glanced at each other a couple times and then looked away, silence stretching miles between them.

"Oh for God's sake!" She exclaimed. She grabbed him by his shirt collar and yanked him down to meet her lips.

She let out a small squeak of surprise at what she had just done, and it was the most adorable sound Hopper had ever heard. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, drinking in every inch of her, the way she slowly traced a finger down his jawline, pausing at his chin and then continuing down his neck and eventually stopping at the zipper of the coat he had worn under his leather jacket. The way she kept one hand firmly gripped on his collar, as if she would never let him go, the way she shivered in his arms when he ran his fingers through her hair.

Once he remembered where he was, Hopper forced himself to pull away. Breathlessly, she looked at him, eyes wide, and he was tempted to kiss her all over again.

"I-w-wow," She stammered. Hopper pulled her closer to him and she rested her head against him, eyes closed.

They stood there in the silence, feeling each other's warm embrace in the entryway.

Wait...but silence wasn't right...

When he listened carefully, Hopper heard hushed voices coming from the living room.

"El, time for bed!" He called out.

"Sure thing, dad!" He heard her reply.

He watched her once she reached the stairs, planning on making sure she went into her room and Mike went into his. When El saw him holding Joyce, who was still in his jacket, her eyes widened and he gave her a winning smile as she gaped wordlessly as she went up the stairs with Mike, helping him up, and went into her room.

"Just so you know," he murmured to her once he was sure El was out of earshot. "I've been wanting to do that for about two years now."

"Me too," she confessed. He blinked in surprise. "Ever since you told me Will was alive that day. Not because of the news, but because you believed me. You saw something wasn't right, but you didn't just ignore it when they found his body. You still investigated further, and I just...melted a little bit." Her voice was a little slower than usual from both mental and physical exhaustion.

"You should go to sleep, Joyce," he told her.

"Okay," she replied sleepily. Before she could move, Hopper picked her up and carried her to the guest bedroom, lying her down on the bed and pulling the covers up to her chest.

"'Night, Joyce," he kissed her again, gently. When he pulled away, she had her hand on top of his.

"Well I can't leave now, can I?" He asked as if he were reasoning with someone. He climbed in next to her and she nestled into his arms. He waited to go to sleep until he heard the sound of her even breathing, assuring himself that she was peacefully asleep before drifting off.

A/N: so this chapter didn't go as planned! XD! Originally Jopper wasn't gonna happen yet and it was supposed to just be a slightly romantic talk between them, but my universe and/or will to live is 111000000000000+infinity% Jopper, (I have friends who can confirm it XD), so I made them get together cause I couldn't wait another second! and I actually had to make the Mileven scene longer to even it out. There was also supposed to be Lumax and Jancy in this chapter but oh well they'll be next chapter...