AN:

Thanks again to everyone who read, followed, favourited and reviewed the first 2 chapters.

Disclaimer – Neither Stranger Things nor the characters belong to me, which is probably a good thing.

Chapter 3 – Messages from Mike

Sunday 20th November 1983

"Are you sure you searched everywhere?" Mike asked worriedly.

"Yes, trust me kid, if she is still alive, she's not in the lab. They seemed just as interested in finding her as I was, obviously for different reasons. They just want her so they can put her back in her cell again and run more tests on her," Chief Hopper summarised.

Mike gritted his teeth hearing that. There was no way he would ever let those psychopaths get their hands on El ever again! Just thinking about what kind of upbringing El must have had at the lab stirred up an anger deep inside of Mike. What made those monsters think they could just snatch children from their parents and just raise them as guinea pigs for research? If he had the ability to, he'd make sure each and every one of those despicable people involved suffered a painful end, especially that creep Brenner. Mike had searched the school calling out for Eleven when she'd disappeared, and he had come across the bodies of the bad men who had been killed by the demogorgon. It was hard to tell since some of the bodies were too badly mangled to make out a face, but he couldn't find the body of the man who called himself Eleven's 'Papa' among them. Mike just prayed that the man did end up dead, and didn't manage to somehow escape. Hopper did say that the lab was now being ran by a man called Dr Sam Owens who apparently seemed better than Brenner, so that meant if Brenner did escape, he had gone elsewhere.

"Then we'll just have to make sure we find her first," said Mike determinedly.

Hopper grunted and slapped him on the shoulder as he stood up. "Right, I'd best get back to work. I'll keep searching for her kid. If she's out there, I'll find her." Mike nodded mutely, leaving the police station and starting his bike rice up to Will's house.

The past week had been hell for Mike. Having to go to school and pretend like nothing had happened, while his heart and mind were in a whole other place was difficult. He wanted to be out there, searching for Eleven all day every day, not wasting his time sitting through lessons in the very place where he lost her. Then again, Mike had no idea where to start. During a lunch break, he had scoured the school grounds, looking for any trace of where she could be, but found nothing; then in the evenings, he had brainstormed with Lucas and Dustin where she could be, but not had any clue where to start looking. The only logical place to start was the lab, but Hopper had apparently already searched there, and there was no way Mike would be stealthy enough to sneak in and search himself without getting caught. Then there was Lucas and Dustin's attitudes about El's disappearance. Whilst they were both clearly quite sad about it, especially when they had to sit through lessons in the classroom where it happened, they both didn't seem to hold out any hope whatsoever that she was alive. Mike had tried to get them to believe him, but they had both just looked at him sadly and sympathetically and tried to explain that she was most likely dead. Mike had no time for that though. He couldn't just sit back and assume she was dead when there was a chance she could be out there still alive; when there was a chance he could see her again. On top of all that, they had the issue of Troy and James, as per usual. For a couple days, they had seemed hesitant to antagonise the three nerds after what had happened last time they had, but when they realised the girl who had attacked them wasn't about to just appear and start breaking arms again, they had resumed their old ways. Whilst Mike was used to dealing with mouth breathers like them, he had struggled to contain his temper when Troy had started bringing up Eleven, calling her the bald freak and mocking the fact she had 'deserted them' and that they 'couldn't get saved by a girl any more'. He had held his intense anger in at first, but then Dustin and Lucas had had to hold him back on two separate occasions since then to stop him from attacking Troy.

Alongside all this anger though, Mike was just sad. Every day, everywhere he went, something would remind him of El and he would be thrown back into melancholy. Who knew someone could have such a huge impact on your life in such a short space of time?

Mike attempted to throw off his mood as he reached his destination, dismounted his bike, and hurried to the front door. At least one good thing had come from this week – Will had been discharged from the hospital and was coming back to school tomorrow.

"Hi Mike, come in. The boys are all in Will's room," said Joyce, with a smile as she opened the door. Mike murmured his thanks and made his way into Will's bedroom, where Lucas and Dustin already sat talking to him.

"And then Mike started flying back up and landed on the cliff behind us, it was so awesome! Then she pushed James over and broke Troy's arm with her mind and then they ran away like babies!" Dustin recounted enthusiastically as Will and Lucas both laughed at the story. Mike let a small smile cross his face too as he remembered that day at the cliff overlooking the quarry. He thought what El did was extremely cool too but his favourite part of that event was the hug him, El and Dustin had shared afterwards, not that he'd admit that to his friends. It was at that point the other three boys noticed Mike standing in the doorway.

"Mike!" exclaimed Dustin, "How was the meeting with Hopper?"

"He searched the lab for El but she's not there. He's not giving up though, and he said he'll tell me if he gets any leads," summarised Mike. Lucas and Dustin both gave him a sympathetic look again, whereas Will was looking at him with some awe.

"Is it true you jumped off the cliff to stop Troy hurting Dustin?" Will asked with wide eyes. Lucas also turned to look at him with interest, as this was the first he had heard about it as well, having only been told that Eleven broke Troy's arm and not the rest of the story.

Mike nodded. "Yeah, I'd do the same for any of you guys, or El," he said sincerely. He cleared his throat, "So are you looking forward to coming back to school, Will?"

Will looked uneasy and asked hesitantly, "What if everyone treats me like a weirdo? I mean there was a funeral and an assembly for me and everything, everyone thought I was dead."

"Don't worry about that, if people treat you differently, just ignore them. You're still the same Will the Wise to us," said Mike, smiling encouragingly.

"Yeah and if Troy says anything, just ask him if he needs his diaper changing," snickered Lucas.

"And at least Jennifer Hayes will be happy to see you back," teased Dustin with a wide grin on his face, causing Will to blush whilst Mike and Lucas burst out laughing. The fact she had cried at Will's funeral had become a common thing to tease Will with every time they visited him, and it never failed to make the small boy blush.

That teasing did seem to manage to alleviate some of Will's fears however, and the party then spent the next couple of hours recounting more stories of what happened whilst Will was in the Upside-Down, eating a lovely dinner that Joyce made, and just enjoying each other's company.

In what felt like no time at all, Mike was leaving Will's house to cycle home with Lucas. They rode in silence for a while before Lucas broke it. "Do you think he'll be alright?"

"I hope so," answered Mike, "It can't have been easy being in the Upside-Down for so long, Hopper said if they saved him even a couple of hours later, it could have been too late."

Lucas grimaced slightly, before seeming to build up his confidence to speak again. "Mike?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry again." At Mike's questioning gaze, he elaborated, "About Eleven. I'm sorry I called her a traitor and a monster, and I'm sorry I turned my back on you and Dustin and went to find Will on my own. I knew Eleven was still our best shot at finding him, but I was just so angry and jealous you were listening to her more than me, so I'm sorry."

Mike offered Lucas a small smile, "It's okay, I'm sorry too." They fell silent again for a few seconds before Lucas spoke once more.

"I was wrong about her. She helped so much to save Will, and she saved us from the demogorgon. She…she was pretty awesome."

Mike felt his gut wrench as he thought again about how amazing she was, and how much he wished she were there with them now. "Yeah. She was."

Soon, they separated and Mike left his bike in the garage then made a beeline straight for the basement, heading straight to El's fort, where he left his supercom.

"Hey El. It's me, Mike again. It's day eight since you disappeared. I had a meeting with Hopper today and he said he searched the lab for you but he couldn't find you anywhere, but he's not giving up, he's gonna keep looking for you, and if he gives up, I'll just take over the search and won't let him stop me. Will's coming back to school tomorrow, we visited him at his house today and we talked about you a lot. When we were cycling home, Lucas apologised again for calling you a traitor and a monster and he said you were pretty awesome too. He really misses you too, we all do. Anyway, if you're out there and you can hear this, please give me a sign. I'm so worried about you El, I just want to know you're okay." Mike waited for around twenty seconds, however received no response. His shoulders slumped in defeat. "I– I'll be back tomorrow. I'll never give up on you." With that, Mike pushed the antenna down, dropped his supercom back into the fort, and wandered upstairs to bed.

-o0o-

Eleven wept silently as she curled up into a ball and shivered in her makeshift home under a fallen tree in the forest outside Hawkins.

It was an absolutely freezing night, and Eleven was only wearing a dress and a cardigan. As well as that, she'd been living off of eating squirrels and rabbits which she caught and cooked herself for the last week, which left her really craving some other types of foods, particularly Eggos. However, neither of these factors were what was making El cry. No, it was the fact she had to stay out here in the first place which was tearing her up. She would love more than anything else right now to be wrapped up in a blanket in her fort in Mike's basement, eating Eggos, and spending time with the boy who'd occupied most of her thoughts in the eight days she'd been out here living in the forest.

When she had exhausted herself in order to kill the demogorgon to save Mike and his friends, she had woken up to find herself in what she could only assume was the Upside-Down. Everything was dark and dreary, there were weird particles floating in the air, and it was difficult to breathe. And there was no sign of Dustin, Lucas or Mike. Luckily, after wandering the school for a while, she had found a gate back into the regular world. She used her powers to enlarge the gate, then climbed through, her thoughts fully focussed on finding Mike again at this point, and making sure he was okay. She started to search the school for him, but there were men all inside who she had to hide from, so she figured Mike must have left by this point, so she began the journey to his house.

After a fair amount of time spent walking, she had arrived at the Wheeler's house, only to find it crawling with bad men. Full of worry for Mike, she crept up to one of the windows and felt relief flood through her as she saw Mike looking relatively unharmed as a man and woman talked to him. She couldn't catch most of what was being said, but she heard the last bit of what Mike said, as his raised voice was able to be heard from outside the window. "I've told you everything. I don't know where she is, and even if I did, I would never tell you. I would never tell you." Eleven felt a warm feeling surge through her heart as she heard Mike's passionate defence of her. With a start, she noticed Mike was now looking directly at her, his deep brown eyes widened in shock as he took in the sight of her. She felt fear start to rush through her as the man noticed where Mike was staring and quick as a flash, she bolted away from Mike's house, and she didn't stop running until she was deep in the woods, where she hid under a log and tried to remain deathly silent as the bad men hunted all over for her. It was then that she made the decision that pained her so much. She was going to have to stay away from Mike Wheeler.

Eleven knew what these bad men were capable of, and if they thought Mike was hiding her in his basement again, they would be quick to act and wouldn't take any prisoners. She remembered what happened to Benny, the nice man who had given her a burger and fries the day she escaped the lab. She didn't want to endanger Mike or his family, the thought of anybody harming Mike made her furious, and she didn't even want to entertain the thought of him dying like Benny did. She knew she wouldn't be able to handle it. So, she would stay away, far away from Mike, his friends, and his family, at least for a few months so that everything could blow over. Hopefully in a couple months' time, the bad men will start to believe she died, and would stop actively searching for her. Until then, she would hide.

Nothing had prepared Eleven for how difficult this hiding would be though. Having spent a lot of her childhood in a cell on her own, she had thought that the actual aspect of being alone would be her least pressing concern, but on the contrary, she was extremely lonely. She missed Lucas, she missed Dustin, but most of all, she missed Mike. Every day without him, she had spent at least half of it thinking about him, wondering if he was okay, missing him. She couldn't explain why he had become such a hugely important part of her life, but he just had. Aside from Benny, he was the first person who she could remember showing her any sort of kindness, and he had gone above and beyond everyone else in doing that. He had been the one to listen to her when the others thought she was crazy and defend her when Lucas was (rightfully) calling her a traitor. Plus, even when she had admitted to opening the gate and being the monster, Mike had insisted that she wasn't a monster and had taken her into his arms, with Dustin wrapping his around both of them. She had never in her life felt happier and safer than she did then, with Mike's arms around her. Then there was what happened in the school before the bad men turned up. Mike was talking about going with her to the Snow Ball which she didn't really understand, but then he had lent forward and pressed his lips against hers. At first she was afraid, not knowing what he was doing, but then when their lips touched, it felt like her stomach was filled with butterflies and like there was an electric current flowing through her body, starting from her lips. She didn't know what made Mike do that, but she found herself daydreaming about it happening again. Not that it could any time soon though, what with her hiding out in the woods.

However, what had caused her to cry tonight was the same thing which had caused her to cry every night she had been alone. Mike was sending messages to her. On the first day after she had killed the demogorgon, she got a strange feeling that Mike was trying to talk to her. She wasn't sure how she got this feeling, whether it was her powers or something else, but it was almost as if she could feel his desperation in wanting to contact her, so she had taken off her cardigan and used it as a blindfold to find Mike in the void. She had found him, and as she had suspected, he was attempting to contact her. He sat there in her fort, holding his supercom up to his mouth, speaking to her. She listened as he talked about Will (she was glad to hear he had been rescued), then she fought a battle within herself in order to keep quiet as he asked her to give him a sign she could hear him and was okay. It felt like her heart was breaking into little pieces as she watched his hopeful expression morph into one of resignation and sadness when he didn't hear a reply. Despite this, she still managed to feel her heart warm immensely and she heard him promise to call her every night from now on and that he wouldn't give up on her. The tears really started flowing after he said to 'come home to him' and she had wept long into the night at how unfair and cruel the world is, and how much she wished she could come home to him.

True to his word, Mike had called her every night since then, giving her an update on his life, telling her he missed her, and begging her to leave him a sign that she was alive, and that she was okay. Each time, Eleven forced herself to remain silent and just internally promised herself that one day, when everything was safer, she would return to him.