El could barely hold herself up on Max's bike as they made their way to Mike's house, her boyfriend constantly checking on her and making sure she was okay. Her skin was sticky from the sweat, tears and blood, the blood drying around her lips, and her body felt like a deadweight. The last time she'd felt this way was last year, closing the gate. But she wasn't as strong then as she is now. She still had power left in her if need be, and that's what got her through the ride to Mike's.

That's also the only way they were able to get in the locked basement door.

"I'm gonna get a washcloth." Mike said, ushering everyone inside and closing the door behind him as quietly as he could. "I don't know if mom is still up. I'll be right back, okay?" he told his girlfriend, who nodded as she sunk into the couch. Will followed Mike closely as they went up the stairs, sneaking around corners, expecting Karen to be sitting there, waiting for them. Thankfully, she wasn't. While Mike grabbed a washcloth from the hall bathroom, Will got El a cup of orange juice and was already back down with her when Mike came stumbling back down.

"Mom definitely isn't up, because she always leaves the kitchen light on while she's awake." Mike said, sitting down next to El. He began to dab at the blood around El's mouth and nose, and she let him. He continued rambling, "Rosie's probably upstairs too- some guard dog she is, huh? Didn't even bark while me and Will were upstairs. She's probably getting hair all over my bed. There's probably a pile of shit in the corner too." he was all over the place, easily trying to distract El from everything that's happened while spiraling himself.

"Mike." she said, grabbing his wrist. He immediately shut up and looked at her. "Calm down."

"Sorry," he muttered. Will, Lucas and Max sat on the coffee table, quietly watching the two. Mike finished cleaning the blood away after a few minutes, and El had finished her orange juice.

"Are we going to talk about it?" Lucas asked.

"I personally don't want to." Max said, crossing her arms.

"We need to call Hopper." Mike said. "Let him know what's going on."

"I'll go call." Will said. "My mom too." Mike nodded and watched Will walk over to the phone before turning back to his girlfriend.

"Do you want me to get you something to change into?" he asked. She shook her head.

"I want to sleep." she said.

"How can you sleep after-" Lucas started, but Max punched him in the arm and Mike glared at him.

"Billy won't be back soon." El said, staring Lucas down. "I hurt him. We have time to figure out… a plan."

"Besides, if he's close or is about to do something, Will will know." MIke added. El nodded in agreement. Will was dialing another number now, seemingly having no answer. El stood up shakily, and made her way over to the blanket fort. She stumbled once, and caught herself, before crouching and crawling inside, not even caring that her feet poked out a bit under the opening. Mike just watched her, not really knowing what to say.

"Are you gonna go after her or what?"' Max whispered. Mike looked at her for a moment, but then did as she said, crouching a bit and lifting one of the blankets to look at El. She opened her eyes to look at him.

"I'm gonna go check on Rosie." he told her quietly. "And then come back down with you, okay?" she nodded and gave him a small smile. He stood and looked at his friends. "Uh, you guys know where everything is if you're staying over." he said, and went straight up the stairs.

There was still a little bit of food in Rosie's bowl, so he knew his mom fed her, and her water bowl was still pretty full. He went upstairs to grab two of his pillows and noticed his mom's door half open. After he grabbed the pillows, he peeked inside and saw Rosie at the foot of the bed, her head resting on the backs of his mom's legs as she slept on her stomach. He smiled a little and quietly made his way back down the hall. Holly was sound asleep, and Nancy wasn't in her room. She was probably with Jonathan or working late again.

He made his way back downstairs and finally into the basement. There was a light on in the corner, just enough for him to walk through without tripping on anyone, and made himself comfortable in the fort with El, and fell into a restless sleep.

Thursday, July 4, 1985

The group were awake bright and early the next morning, thanks to Rosie barking directly in Mike and El's ears and they screamed loud enough for everyone to be wide awake.

"What the fuck?" Max shrieked, only to see Rosie pop her head out from under the blanket fort, her tongue hanging out of her mouth as her tail wagged. Mike was red in the face as he scrambled out of the fort and after his dog as she ran up the stairs to be let out to use the bathroom. The rest of the group sat up as El crawled out of the fort and sat on her knees, watching him go with a sad expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" Max asked, leaning against the coffee table.

"He was crying." she said, turning to them, and it took everything in Max not to let out a gasp when she saw El's neck. "He saw the bruises." she gestured to her neck.

"I… does it hurt?" Will asked.

"Only when I talk." she replied quietly. Mike wasn't gone for very long, and when he came back he held a glass of water in one hand, and two white pills in the other.

"It's… it's just Tylenol, so it probably won't help much but… it's better than nothing." he said, handing them to her and sitting on the floor in front of her, hunched over quite a bit and watching her as she took the medicine he gave her. She smiled at him gratefully and took it, even though it did hurt to swallow. She tried not to show it, but knew he saw. She put the now empty cup of water to the side and walked on her knees closer to him, pulling him into a hug.

"I'm okay." she whispered to him. He hugged her back, arms wrapping around her waist and burying his face in her stomach. She looked at their friends, and hated the expressions on their faces. Pity. She shook her head at them, and then pressed a kiss to the top of Mike's head. "I'm okay." she said again, patting him on the head. "I'm okay, Bean." she repeated once more, and got a startled laugh out of him as he sat back to look up at her. She kissed the end of his nose and finally sat next to him normally. Usually, she'd scoot as close to him as possible, but she had a plan.

"I need to find dad." she said.

He immediately wanted to argue, but she gave him a look and he shut his mouth quickly, sighing in defeat as she took the blind fold out of her pocket and tied it around her head, wasting no time as Max turned the radio on the correct station.

No one said a word for a few minutes, until finally, she said,

"I found him."

"Where is he?" Max asked

"The woods." El said.

"The woods?" Lucas asked, making a face.

"He's with Mrs. Byers."

"My mom? Why my mom? Where are they?"

"What are they doing?" Max asked.

"Ill...annoy?"

"Mike! Breakfast!" Karen yelled from the top of the stairs. God, why did she have to be up so early? He knew the food wouldn't even be ready yet.

"Not now, mom!" he yelled back.

"Did you let Rosie out?"

"Yeah!"

She didn't say anything else after that, and El was able to continue focusing.

"They're going to Ill-annoy." El said.

"Illinois? Illinois, like the state? The state of Illinois?" Mike asked. She took the blindfold off and looked at him nervously, repeating it one more time.

"Ill-annoy."

Max went to get El a washcloth to clean the blood from her nose and Mike started pacing the basement.

"Something's not right. Hopper has been on board with the school thing all summer and suddenly he's all like, go out and do something and-"

"It's probably because you're getting paler-" Lucas started but Mike flipped him off and continued pacing.

"And now, he's hiking with Mrs. Byer's to Illinois? And for what? Just the hell of it? What the hell happened to his car? And Dustin's MIA, too? I mean, this can't be a coincidence!"

"What does it matter?" Lucas groaned. "The bottom line is, they're not here. It's up to us."

"Up to us to do what exactly?" Mike asked. "El is the only one who can really do any damage and I don't want her killing herself trying to save us."

"Find Billy and stop him." Lucas said anyway, ignoring Mike's comment. Mike felt his cheeks burn. Lucas and those damn Cocoa Puffs he was constantly eating- straight out of the box with his hands. He didn't understand.

"Okay, yeah, that's a really nice sentiment, but even if El could find him again, and that's a pretty big if, then what?" Mike huffed out.

"We burn the shit out of him and make sure he doesn't escape this time."

"Okay, then what?"

Max, Will and El just watched the two argue, deciding to just let them have it out, even though Max really wanted to butt in.

"Then we win." Lucas exclaimed.

"No, see, that's the problem, Lucas. We don't win. We never have, and we never fucking will. Something always happens, someone always dies. It's a horrible, vicious cycle that none of us are ever gonna get out of." Mike threw his hands in the air. "We got the Mind Flayer out of Will last year, and now he's back. We don't have to just stop Billy. We have to stop the Mind Flayer."

"How in the hell do we do that?" Lucas asked, throwing his arm out randomly and getting Cocoa Puffs all over the floor. It took every bit of strength in Mike not to snatch the box from him and throw it in the trash, just to spite him.

"That's the point. I don't know."

Suddenly, someone was banging on the door, loudly.

"Not now, Mom!" Mike yelled.

"Mike, open the door." Nancy called back, and everyone looked at Mike, and then the door. Mike stormed up the stairs and unlocked the door, opening it.

"Nice of you to finally join us." he drawled, turning on his heel and stomping back down the stairs. Nancy looked at Jonathan, her eyebrows raised.

The two followed him further into the basement, and Nancy didn't hesitate to say something about El's neck.

"Oh my God, El, what the hell happened?"

"It was the same thing, the exact same thing that happened to Will last year." Nancy said. "And, look at this." She picked up a folded piece of paper she took from her hospital trip and showed them, pointing at the temperatures. "Look at the body temperatures."

"He likes it cold." Will said.

"Okay, so this crazy old woman who was eating fertilizer-" Mike started, voice tired.

"Mrs. Driscoll." Nancy corrected him.

"Right, yeah, whatever. Mrs. Driscoll. What time was this… attack?"

"Last night." she replied.

"Yeah, but what time last night?" he huffed.

"Uh, around nine."

"You waited that long to call?" Jonathan exclaimed.

"I was waiting on the doctors to run some tests." she replied, looking away from him.

"You weren't there?" Will asked.

"Well I'm here now, aren't I?" he replied sarcastically.

"Hallelujah." she hissed back.

"Ooh." Lucas muttered and Max smacked him.

"You let her deal with that shit by herself?" Mike asked, balling his fists inside his pockets. El linked her arm with his, hugging him in a way, to try to calm him down.

"I didn't call him, Mike. Not his fault." Nancy said, waving him off.

"Um, so, wha... What time was your… sauna test?" Nancy asked.

"Around nine." they chorused.

"Well, that proves it. That proves my theory." she exclaimed.

"She's flayed, just like Billy." Mike said.

"Flayed?" Jonathan asked.

"The Mind Flayer. He flays people. Takes over their mind. Once they do that, they basically become him." Mike explained.

"If there are two flayed…" Lucas trailed off.

"We have to assume there are more." Will continued.

"Heather." El said. Everyone looked at her. She glanced up at Mike. "Billy was doing something to her. She was scared. She was screaming. Bad screams."

"What's a good scream?" Lucas asked.

"Max said-" Max interrupted her.

"Doesn't matter." Max said quickly, shaking her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm lost. Who is Heather?" Nancy asked.

"She's a lifeguard at the pool."

"Heather Holloway?" Nancy asked. El nodded. Nancy and Jonathan looked at each other.

"Tom." they said together.

The group didn't even waste time changing clothes as they ran out to Nancy's car, and Mike couldn't help but be annoyed that he had to sit in the back, behind his girlfriend instead of with her.

"Seriously?" he grumbled.

"Welcome to my world." Will said as they got in the back.

"Seat belts!" she called while she put her hair up in a clip.

"You are such a horrible driver!" Mike yelled as she backed into their bikes.

Everyone in the car jerked forward- or sideways, in Mike and Will's case- as Nancy slammed on the breaks in the driveway of the Holloway house.

They huddled together at the front door as Nancy rang the doorbell, and when no one answered after a moment or two, El unlocked and opened it with a nod of her head. The inside was a mess.

"Tom?" Nancy called. "Heather?"

"Jesus, it's freezing." Max muttered as they walked further into the house.

"Do you guys smell that?" Nancy asked as they walked towards the kitchen. Everyone sniffed the air, and followed her into the kitchen. "Oh, God. More chemicals." The refrigerator was knocked on it's side, all sorts of cleaning products all over the kitchen, mostly empty.

"You think they're guzzling this shit?" Jonathan asked, picking up a bottle.

"Yeah, either that or they just went on a hell of a cleaning spree."

"But last year, Will didn't eat chemicals, did you?" Max asked.

"No." he shook his head. "This is something new." Mike licked his lips and looked around at everyone.

"Mr. Clarke, fifth grade. Posit. What happens when you mix chemicals together?" he asked.

"You create a new substance." Lucas and Will said together.

"What if they're making something?" Mike suggested.

"In themselves?" Max asked and he looked at her. He shrugged. "I mean, come on, if you drink this shit, it'll kill you."

"Yeah, if you're human." Lucas added.

Nancy looked at the door behind them, and slowly made her way into the dining room. A dark wine stain on the table cloth. An empty wine bottle and a blood stain littered the carpet in the next room.

"Blood." Nancy muttered. "Yesterday, Tom had a bandage on his forehead." She picked up the bottle. It had a blood smear on the bottom of it. "He was attacked."

They followed what seemed to be a trail- a rug that seemed to have had something drug over it, crumpled up in the hallway. They followed the trail into the garage, where a bundle of rope lay in the middle of it.

"They must have tied them." Jonathan said. "They must have taken them somewhere."

"Mrs. Driscoll." Nancy said suddenly. "She kept saying… I have to go back."

"What if the flaying, it's taking place somewhere else?" she asked, beginning to pace. "There must be a place where all this started, right? A source." she suggested, looking at them.

"Somewhere he didn't want me to see." El said.

"If we can find the source, then maybe we can stop him. Or at least stop it from spreading or doing whatever the hell he's doing with those chemicals."

"How do we find it?" El asked.

"Mrs. Driscoll." Will said. "If she wants to go back so badly, why don't we let her?"

The sun was starting to set as they reached the hospital, bumping their heads on the ceiling of the car as Nancy sped over a speed bump going into the parking lot. The receptionist was going on and on to someone on the phone as the group tried to speed walk past her, but she didn't let them.

"Hey, woah, woah, woah, woah! Excuse me? Where do you think you're going?" she demanded, and the group stopped, looking at her sheepishly.

"Oh, um… I was just going to visit my grandma again." Nancy said sweetly. And… And this… this is my family." the receptionist eyed Lucas, a hand on her hip.

"Extended." he offered, barely able to keep the smile off his face. Max looked back at El and grinned at her. El grinned back.

"Look, the tall one with the curly hair I believe." she said, pointing at Mike, who made a face. "Cause you two look just alike, but the rest of you? I don't care who any of you are anyways. You know the rules, Miss. Ma'am. Only two visitors at a time."

"Yeah, but-"

"Two!" she huffed and sat back down, picking up the phone. "Girl, this child has lost her mind. She brought a whole zoo in here."

Nancy and Jonathan continued on, and the younger teens went back to the waiting room, knowing it would be a while before the two came back down.

"Do me and Nancy really look that much alike?" Mike asked as they sat in a row of chairs against the wall.

"Yes." the rest of them chorused.

"Only difference is the color of hair." Max said.

"You look like your mom, dude." Lucas said, poking the back of his head, pointedly leaning across Max and El to do so. Mike slapped his hand away. Mike grumbled to himself for a moment, but finally relaxed as he said,

"At least we don't look like that sorry piece of shit." he said.

"Exactly. There's nothing wrong with looking like your mom and sisters." Max said. "When we say that it doesn't mean we say you look like a girl, if that's what you're worried about." she rolled her eyes. He shook his head.

"Trust me, I'd rather look like them than him any day."

"The only thing you got from him was being a tall mother fucker and his last name." Will said. Mike snorted at his choice of words.

"Thank God."

"Your mom is pretty." El said, squeezing his hand, rubbing her thumb over his wrist. "Nancy is pretty. Holly too."

"They are." he agreed quietly.

"You technically just called yourself pretty." Lucas couldn't help himself. Max smacked him.

"They were having a moment."

"Oh what do you care about a moment?" he asked.

"Well, it'd be nice to have a few moments of our own every once in a while." she growled back, turning her body away from him so quickly her ponytail smacked him in the face. Will snickered and Lucas glared at him.

Mike and El talked quietly for a few minutes, and Max ended up grabbing a magazine off one of the tables in the corner and flipped through it, showing El something she thought she might like every so often.

Ten minutes later, Lucas stopped pouting over Max not speaking to him, instead deciding to pout about how hungry he was, digging in his pockets for change, even going as far as asking the receptionist if she had any change, whereas she ignored him.

"Old people, I swear," he grumbled, walking over the vending machine and slamming his head against it a few times.

"Lucas." El said. "Stop." she said, and he looked at her for a moment, and as he looked back at the vending machine, it made a loud noise and quite a few snacks fell into the bottom. He looked back at El in shock as she wiped her nose quickly, looking down at what Max was showing her.

"Hey!" Mike called. Lucas looked at him. "Grab me some M&Ms, would ya?"

It wasn't long after that that everything went to absolute shit, once again. It wasn't Billy this time, but two of the other flayed- Tom and Bruce from the Hawkins Post, because of course it is. They were going after Nancy and Jonathan a few floors above them, and no one had any idea until the lights started flickering, and Will felt it. They wasted no time running up the stairs to see what was going on, completely ignoring the receptionist, and by the time the group arrived, it was no longer Tom and Bruce, but a disgusting, bloody, fleshy monster, one unlike they'd ever seen before, and it was inches away from tearing Nancy's face off.

"NANCY!" Mike screamed for his sister as El pushed all her strength forward, lifting the monster, flinging it side to side, up and down, before throwing it out the window, falling back against the wall, hardly able to hold herself up again. They saw as it practically melted into the sewer drain outside the hospital, and Lucas nearly puked right then and there.

Afterwards, they stopped to get everyone a change of clothes and then left to the cabin in hopes to come up with a plan. There, El decided she wanted to look for Billy, and Mike definitely wasn't happy.

"It can't be good for her to be in there for this long." he said, pacing in front of her bedroom door.

"Mike, you need to relax." Max huffed.

"What if she gets brain damage or something?" he exclaimed.

"Oh, shit. Is that, like, a real thing?" Lucas asked, mouth full of cereal.

"No, it's not. He made it up. Mike doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Oh, and you do?" Mike asked, glaring at her.

"No, I…" the two continued arguing until Max decided to ask Nancy, Jonathan and Will.

Okay, can you guys settle an argument for us? Who do you think should decide

El's limits? Mike or Eleven?"

"The way that you frame that is such bullshit!"

"It's not bullshit, Mike. This is your whole problem."

"Why is it that I am the one that has a problem?" he asked, crossing his arms. "I'm sorry that I genuinely care for her wellbeing?"

"The fact is, she's not yours." she completely ignored him. "She's her own person, fully capable of making her own decisions."

"She's risking her life for no reason!"

"For no reason? Mike, the flayed are out there doing God knows what." Nancy made a face at him.

"Killing, flaying…" Lucas said.

"Transforming into monsters." Will added.

"And El's not stupid. She knows her abilities better than any of us."

"Nobody said she's stupid-" Mike said, but Max of course interrupted him.

"Exactly, thank you." Max nodded in agreement.

"And she is her own person."

"Exactly."

"With her own free will."

"Exactly. El has saved the world twice, and Mike still doesn't trust her."

"Oh fuck you." Mike hissed, the malice in his voice shocking every single one of them. Max nearly took a step back from him. "Fuck you Max. This does not have a damn thing to do with trust. I trust El with my life- I mean hell, she saved my life on multiple occasions. She saved all of us. And you know what? All that I'm trying to do is save her. Lucas, do you not remember what happened the first time she saved our asses? At the school?" Mike turned to Lucas, who stared at Mike, mouth dropped open, cereal nearly falling out. "I'm sure Dustin would agree with me. It's like she faded into fucking nothing. Just… she killed the Demogorgon, and disappeared into a million tiny pieces right along with it. I don't want that to happen again. I don't know what I would do if I lost her again. I'm not trying to be the bad guy here. I'm really, honest to God not." he barely let out a breath between sentences, and certainly didn't give anyone the chance to interrupt him with how fast he was speaking. "I'm just trying to demonstrate how careless Max is with Eleven's powers. In fact, how careless all of you are. You're treating her like some kind of machine when she's not a machine, and I don't want her to die looking for the flayed when they've obviously vanished off the face of the Earth. So can we please just come up with a new plan because I love her and I can't lose her again."

I love her and I can't lose her again.

Well, it certainly made sense to Max, now. A lot made sense to her. Love.

Everyone stared at Mike, eyes wide and mouths open in shock. Lucas sat back, a look of almost… satisfaction on his face as he munched on his cereal. A door creaked, and everyone turned to look as El came out, new outfit and all, blood slowly dripping out of her nose.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking at Mike weird, noticing how hard he was breathing.

"Nothing. Nothing." Mike said immediately, turning away from her.

"Just a family discussion." Lucas said, smug.

"Oh. I found him."

"Found... who?"