Hi there! I hope everyone is safe! Here we go with another chapter. I could name it 'the true welcome to Hawkins' but... Steve has a better title for it :D

stisbeautiful457: Thank you very much for your time reading this :)

crazytime000: D'oh... I'm not that cruel, am I? Well... the others? They're here :) I Hope you enjoy it.

Super special thanks to AnnieRavenclaw707, my beta-reader for making this story possible ;)

Chapter 25: The generic key.

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Jonathan dropped the last box in the house. This time the move had been much more manageable. El had used her powers to move the largest furniture. That had helped a lot in getting them out of the truck. They also had many more hands, apart from Dustin and Steve, Max and Lucas had also come as soon as Dustin spread a red code through their radios.

"I still can't believe you're back, it's great! Power to the girls!" Max exclaimed, with a smile so big, it looked like it was going to fall off her face. "You don't know how terrible it is to be surrounded by a bunch of half neurones," She said, rolling her eyes, with an exaggerated gesture of despair that made El laugh.

"Hey! We can hear you!" Lucas asserted, snorting as he began to unpack the boxes that Jonathan and Steven had dropped in the center of the house.

Suddenly, the doorbell began to ring insistently. El ran to the door, her legs were too slow and she couldn't wait for her arm to reach the door, so she unlocked the latch with her mind, and the door opened wide. She couldn't help but smile as soon as she saw that Mike was on the other side, his finger still on the doorbell button.

El smiled enthusiastically but immediately, previously advised by Max, tried to put on her best face as the most offended person in the world. "Where were you? You took way too long!" She stated, crossing her arms. So long to see each other and it turns out he was the last to show up? What kind of boyfriend is that?

Mike was surprised by that sudden reaction. "It's not my fault. I've pedaled as fast as I could. Do you know how far this house is from mine? I've had to cross the whole town! It's even further away than the old cabin!"

El looked him from head to toe, but she couldn't take it any longer and, immediately, started laughing. Mike smiled too, and they both melted into a hug that soon turned into a tender but shy kiss.

Will rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. I don't think I can bear that much kissing all the time. As if my mother's and Hopper's weren't enough. I'm going to throw up." The boy told with a very displeased gesture. "This is going to be like living in the house of sugary strawberry clouds."

"Sorry?" Max replied opening her mouth in surprise, as her hands moved excitedly.

Will nodded angrily. "Yes. It's disgusting, look at them…"

"No. The other thing," Lucas interrupted him. "Your mother and the chief ...?"

Max was still surprised. "Are you all going to live together? Like... In the same house?"

"I guess so," Will replied, with a sigh.

El and Mike joined the group. They couldn't help but smile all the time, it seemed like a dream come true.

Dustin put a hand on Will's shoulder. "I pity you. Definitely, the home of the sugary strawberry clouds."

It was then that Joyce entered the door, wildly. She angrily tossed the keys disdainfully on top of a box at the entrance.

El approached the woman and tried to look over her shoulder. It was evident that he was looking for Hopper.

"Where is he?" She asked. Joyce had told her she was going to get him, why hadn't she come back with him? Was he ok? Had something happened to him? Oh, my God. Her eyes reflected that all of her alarms were on.

Joyce rubbed her exhausted face before answering. "They haven't let me see him!" She exclaimed, fussing with her hands. "They haven't even let me pass the police station door! Could you believe it?"

"We already told you," Dustin replied standing next to El. "Since Hartman is here, the police station has become a fortress."

"Yes. That's why we were on our secret mission." Steve finished.

"Wait. What secret mission?" Lucas approached them. "We still didn't have a plan."

"You had no plan. Steve and I do." Dustin announced proudly. "So while you guys were very busy with the new arcade, we put our plan into action."

"And what exactly did 'your plan' consist of?" Mike scoffed, not quite sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"I piss off Hartman, so he arrests me, and therefore, I could enter the police station," Steve explained, grinning. "Once inside, I could steal Mrs. Hammond's file. It's a perfect plan."

"But if you were locked in the cell, how were you going to steal the file?" Max remarked, how could they be such idiots?

Dustin exhaled in mock exhaustion. "Because Steve has a key to get out of the cell."

"Exactly." Steve pointed out.

Mike looked at both of them. "Seriously? And how did you get it if you can't get into the police station?"

"Well, it's a generic key," Steve replied.

This time it was Dustin who looked at him in surprise. "What kind of a generic key? What is a generic key? You didn't tell me that."

"Well, a generic key is," Steve pulled out a hairpin and showed it to him.

"Are you kidding?" Lucas couldn't get out of his astonishment. "That only works in the movies!"

"Well, it works with my bathroom door," Steve defended himself.

"Sure. But not with the lock of a police holding cell, where criminals are supposed to be put!"

Jonathan cleared his throat to interrupt the conversation, he didn't understand anything. "Who is Mrs. Hammond? And why do you want her file?"

"Mrs. Hammond was our history teacher, but," Mike trailed off. "She was murdered last month. Police declared it was an attempted robbery and closed the case really quickly. But it was very strange. Nothing was stolen, and, you know, there has never been a robbery case that serious in Hawkins. And there wasn't one after that. It was very odd."

Dustin scratched his chin. "Yes, with everything that has happened, we wanted to be sure that it wasn't the evil Russians."

Jonathan sat on the sofa that had just been placed in the middle of a still empty living room. "The Russians aren't here anymore. At least not their base. The US army dismantled it about a month ago." He concluded.

"Wait, what base?" Mike asked in surprise.

"The bad Russians had a hidden base, under the laboratory. There they …" El hesitated a moment, remembering everything they'd been through recently. Mike took her hand, trying to support her, and she nodded. "There they had Hop prisoner. And they also opened a new portal. We rescued him, and we close the portal. The bad Russians are gone."

Everyone was silent, trying to assimilate the new information. Steve raised his hand to intervene. "Are you telling us that all this time the Russians have always been here? In our noses? With another portal open? Great." He ended with sarcasm.

Mike looked at the girl, "When did all this happen?"

"Thirty-eight days ago," El replied. She was never going to change that obsession for counting time only in days.

Lucas did the counting. "That is over a month and a week. Mrs. Hammond's murder occurred after that."

"Oh, my God." Joyce murmured, who had been listening to that conversation silently. Jonathan watched as she put her hands to her mouth and left the room in a hurry. He didn't think twice and got up to follow her into the next room, full of boxes still unpacked. Joyce sat down on one of them.

Jonathan closed the door behind him, the boys were still arguing with each other in the other room.

"Mum. Are you ok?" He asked, clearly worried.

Joyce looked away without answering. After a minute of silence, she rubbed her nose and looked down at her hands. "A murder. At Hawkins."

Jonathan nodded, not knowing what to say. He did not expect something so sinister in such a boring town either.

"And Hop arrested. They haven't let me see him." Joyce spoke, hesitantly. "I didn't even know the cops at the door!"

"Hey. The chief will be fine. He's a strong guy and besides, they won't hurt him, okay? They are just policemen, not sadistic Soviets. This is very different."

"You don't understand, Jonathan." Joyce shocked her head, unnerved. "Hop is imprisoned. In a holding cell, just when he has been released from the Russian prison. That's like if you stab him, wait for the wound to close, tell him that nobody is going to hurt him, and then stab him again in the same spot. The wound grows larger and deeper. He wasn't ok, Jonathan," She admitted. "He wasn't ok."

"Mom please, stop. This isn't the same. They can't keep Hopper locked up for that nonsense. They are going to have to release him soon, and he knows the police station very well. Look, if he has to go through that again, at least, better in a place that is known to him, don't you think?" The boy replied, trying to cheer her up.

"Do you believe that?" Joyce asked hopefully, though knowing it was just a guess. It's as if you are trying to console yourself thinking that within the horrible situation, that was a little less horrible.

Jonathan rubbed her arm. "Of course. Hopper is the strongest man I know. He has been through the upside-down and a Russian jail. After that, this is like a walk in the park for him. Also, he is the big bear as the kids called him. He should be fine."

"The big bear?" She repeated.

"I think it's a better name than Bald eagle. I don't want to know if they nicknamed us too."

Joyce smiled briefly, then her face worried again. She took her son's hand. "I hope you are right. I don't want him to relapse again. He couldn't take it, and neither could I."

Jonathan nodded convinced. "Everything will be fine. We're going to get him back, ok?"

To be continued.

I would like to know if you're still interested in the story or perhaps I'm making this too long? You could tell me with a PM or a review, comments are always welcome. :)