Chapter 2- Before Dawn

The smile Alexei gave her when she said she'd help was enough to probably melt her cold heart. He was an adorable kid. She wasn't sure why she kept calling him kid. Maybe it was her way of distancing herself from the adorable, curly haired genius sitting on the couch near her.

Kind of hard to believe he was capable of ending the world, or at least Hawkins.

"Okay, great, so where do we start? What do you recommend miss Special Agent?" Jim said sarcastically.

Laurie felt her warming heart turn to ice again but she bit back an angry comment. Now wasn't the time to delve into their past and certainly not in front of Murray or Alexei. She did want to sit down with Jim and talk, but there was the pressing matter of impending doom.

"Oh yes!" Joyce said excitedly, ignoring the obvious contempt in Jim's voice. "You're in the FBI, you can get agents or the military or whomever to come help, right?"

Laurie grimaced. "Um…probably not?" she said, listening to Murray translate in the background.

Joyce's face fell. "Why not? The Russians are trying to kill us!"

"Yeah, but…it's going to take a while to convince my superiors and they're going to want more evidence than Alexei, your, forgive me for saying, paranoid delusions, and some drawings on whopper wrappers," she said honestly and she tried to use a soft voice. "I believe you, but convincing the FBI proper is a different story. We frankly don't have time for that. Sorry."

Joyce looked disappointed and Laurie didn't blame her. She had kids in Hawkins, a life. Russians opening a gate and unleashing some monster, or even if they just blew up the city, wasn't good.

"But don't worry. I'm good with a gun," Laurie joked, winking at Joyce. The older woman managed a weak smile.

"We'll call Owens. He can get the military," Jim said, matter-of-factly.

"Who the fuck is Owens?" Laurie asked, looking at Jim.

"Dr. Owens. Works for the Department of Energy. He was involved in some stuff last year in Hawkins. He gave me a number to call if we needed help."

Laurie threw up her hands as anger began to course through her. The Department of Energy? A conspiracy and cover up in Hawkins? All of it was too much in too short of time. "The fucking Department of Energy can call in the fucking military?" she yelled. "I fucking hate this government! Fucking kill me," she muttered as she stood up from the chair. "Fucking Russians and monsters and now the Department of Energy was doing experiments? I mean," she muttered to herself angrily as she stalked around Murray's sad excuse for a living room. "Six years. I'm so close." Laurie balled up her fists and ground her teeth together. "I'm gonna die in fucking Hawkins!"

"Uh, Laurie?" Jim said from the couch. "Are you okay?"

"AM I OKAY?" she yelled as she rounded on the group. "This is insane, Jim! MONSTERS? ANOTHER DIMENSION? What the fuck!" Alexei, though not understanding what she was saying, looked terrified at her outburst. His eyes went wide and he leaned away from her, though she was nowhere near him. Murray looked somewhat baffled.

"Oh no, she's freaking out," Joyce said, her motherly instinct seeming to come out. She stood up from the other couch, trying to appear calming and kind. "Laurie, it's okay. Go ahead, freak out."

"Wait-what? No, she shouldn't freak out!" Jim yelled. "She needs to calm down!"

"She needs to freak out, Hop! We've had years of this stuff, she's found out all of this insanity today in like an hour! Let her freak out. She'll be fine."

Laurie wanted to scream. She wanted to hit something. All of these years she had carefully crafted a career that was leading to one end point. She did her job, and did it well, she didn't make enemies at the FBI (though there was always some man that thought women shouldn't be Agents, let alone field agents), and she kept her cover. When she hit 20 years she would retire and find some lazy job that didn't require going undercover or spending days researching whatever or investigating. Just lazy days.

But this? This could ruin her plans. Maybe she'd die today. Maybe she'd go to prison for killing Jim. Maybe this Russian would ruin everything.

Laurie spun on her heels to look at Alexei, trying to figure out if she had made the right decision to help him. He looked helpless; looked like a young man that knew nothing and could help no one. And yet…yet he was a Doctor and a scientist and dangerous.

What if he was playing them all? Using his boyish looks to lull them into a false sense of security?

Yet, as Laurie stared him down, furiously glaring at the Russian man, he continued to look terrified and she felt like she could see through him. Her initial thought of helping may be the correct choice.

And who would she be if she walked away?

I hate you, Laurie thought to herself as she looked at Murray, blaming him for the fact she was here and involved. "Alright, I'm fine," she said tersely. Letting her hands relax, Laurie felt her shoulders drop. "So, you can call the fucking Department of Energy, which is fucking insane, but okay. Make the call and then we go to Hawkins. We'll take Alexei to Starcourt Mall, we'll infiltrate the Russian's underground bunker, shut off the key and the Department of Energy can arrest the Russians. Okay?"

"Sounds like a plan," Jim said, still reeling from her freak out. He stood up and walked over to Laurie. "How about we speak outside first?" he suggested in a quiet voice.

Laurie almost said no, but she nodded instead. The pair headed outside, leaving Joyce with Murray and Alexei. As the heavy bunker door shut behind them, Jim quickly rounded on Laurie.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he said, a little angrier than the sentence would imply.

"I'm fine, Jim."

"That didn't sound fine," he said, pointing back to the house. "That sounded like you don't want to be here."

"Right, and you do? Fuck off." Laurie waved him off and walked around him, absentmindedly walking around the driveway. "It's just not how I envisioned this little visit going."

"Lore, listen, you could just walk away."

It was her turn to round on Jim, her jaw clenched angrily. "I should punch you for that. This is my job, Jim! I can't just walk away and then lie to my boss! I'm not putting my job on the line for you," she said angrily, poking him in the chest. "You aren't worth that."

Jim looked hurt, frowning deeply. "I don't want you to do something you don't believe in. I believe in this."

She rolled her eyes. "I work for the FBI, Jim. That's nothing new." She sighed. "A kid?" she questioned.

He shrugged. "El…she needed a family."

Laurie narrowed her eyes at him, noticing his shirt was floral but actually had fucking flamingos on it? She shook her head. It wasn't that Jim had been a bad dad or husband, but the way he was when she last saw him…it perhaps had clouded her overall view of him. "Are you happy?" she asked after a moment.

He crossed his arms and his body seemed to tense. "Its tough work being the father of a teenage girl," he admitted.

Laurie chuckled. "I remember those days. Diane, Emily, and I were assholes, for sure. Our poor parents." She smiled as she remembered all of the times all three girls snuck out of the house in high school. Emily was always the worst at it, somehow managing to knock over something or shut the window too loudly. The memories faded away and she softened towards Jim. "I'm sure it's not as bad as you think. If you treat her like a prisoner she'll never forgive you. Set boundaries but let her live, Jim. There's nothing wrong with her making mistakes. You can't protect her from everything."

Jim stared at her for a moment before nodding. "I just know teenage boys."

Laurie smirked. "But do you know El?" she questioned.

He nodded. "I think so."

"Then let her live." Laurie tapped Jim lightly on his arm. "You look like shit, by the way. Take a shower."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You stopped dying your hair," he commented.

"Too much upkeep. I'm getting lazy in my old age."

He guffawed loudly. "Yeah, 35 is just so old."

"36, actually, but I'm touched you were close."

Jim chuckled, rubbing his hand over his beard. "You happy, Lore?" he asked after a minute of silence.

She smiled largely. "Nope." She winked and turned on her heel to go back into the house. Happiness, her sometimes partner Agent Floyd Tomlinson always said, was a fleeting emotion meant to placate people into a boring life with a white picket fence and a spouse that barely tolerated you. Nobody was ever really happy and there wasn't anything wrong with that.

When Laurie walked back into the Murray's sad attempt at a living room (finally noticing the dozens of TVs on one of the walls, stacked precariously) she was shocked to see that Alexei had curled up on one of the couches, already asleep. He had taken off his glasses and set them on the table with his pocket protector. Without his glasses, sleeping, he looked older. She looked over at Joyce in confusion. The woman shrugged and then walked over to the far side of the living room where Murray was leaning against a desk.

Laurie and Jim joined the other two, curious what they had planned.

"Now," Joyce said, picking up Murray's phone and shoving it into Jim's chest, "call Owens."

Laurie was still confused by the whole Department of Energy thing, but she figured she could unpack that later, presumably when she meets this Dr. Owens.

Jim quickly dialed the number as Murray hovered close by, Joyce by his side. Laurie stood away from them, watching the comical scene in front of them.

"Two minutes, Jim. It's a secure line but anything long than that and they can trace you," Murray said, the paranoia coming back out.

"Yeah, I want them to trace me," Jim replied.

"What?" Murray said. Even Laurie was surprised. This was going to upset Murray, big time.

Laurie watched, the scene growing more comical by the second as Jim stumbled through the conversation, not prepared to give an identification name. He got off the phone, casually heading into the living room to sit on the free couch, lighting up a cigarette. Murray had fallen into a chair, giving up on everything.

But Joyce was not happy. She snapped at Jim.

"How are you so calm?"

"I'm not calm!" he said through a cigarette.

This is the best day of my life, Laurie thought, enjoying the whole scenario. She kept quiet as Joyce now took the phone and called back the number that Jim had just called. Joyce started off calmly, but the person on the other end had clearly insulted her in some way because she suddenly went off, yelling at the person on the other end of the phone.

Laurie stood, arms crossed, watching Joyce scream into the phone. She grimaced, pulling her neck muscles taut deciding then and there she would never get on the woman's bad side. Curious, Laurie turned around to see that Alexei was still deep asleep. She figured the Russian probably had learned to get sleep whenever he could, even when things, or people, were being loud around him. It was a talent that Laurie had never really learned.

She turned back to Joyce as she finished yelling at the poor soul on the other end of the phone. She slammed the phone back onto the receiver and set the phone down on the table. Poor Murray looked absolutely distraught at what had just transpired, sitting bewildered in a chair, hands up in the air.

Clearing her throat, Laurie leaned closer to Murray. "I guess I'm not going to need to delete your address from the FBI database, huh?" she whispered.

Murray pushed himself up from the chair, grunted in her face, and then turned away, walking away from the group. Laurie was left, smiling awkwardly. They were a delightful little group.

"How long have you known his address?" Jim asked, momentarily ignoring his annoyance at Joyce.

"It took a few months, but we've known for almost as long as he's lived here," she admitted.

Jim seemed almost impressed, apparently believing that Murray was some master at staying hidden. He just wasn't a priority for the FBI. They weren't worried about him. "Wow. I-"

"Hopper!" Joyce yelled, pushing between Jim and Laurie. "We're leaving!" she ordered them, heading straight for Alexei.

"Aww, let the kid sleep a little longer, Joyce!" Laurie heard herself saying. Her heart seized in her chest. What was wrong with her?

Joyce stopped, standing over Alexei's sleeping body, looking over at Laurie. Jim turned slowly, looking at her in confusion.

"I'm sure you're all tired," she added awkwardly, trying to hide from this growing concern for the Russian. "We really have to leave now?" she asked.

Joyce nodded angrily. "Yeah. We've got to get to our kids."

"Well, then. Maybe…you could just let him sleep until we're actually leaving?" Laurie suggested softly.

"Why are you so concerned?" Jim questioned. Laurie could hear the accusation in his voice.

"Because…Jim, he's the genius. So let him sleep so he can be on his A game. Ya know?" She hoped she was convincing. She certainly didn't want him to sleep because he looked so cute sleeping.

That definitely wasn't it.

Joyce and Jim exchanged a look before Jim shrugged. Joyce threw her hands up in the air, but moved away from the sleeping Russian. Laurie took a seat in the chair next to the couch, staring decidedly at the smattering of notes on the table and not at the sleeping Russian. One page grabbed her attention. She pulled it closer on the table and stared down at the few words of Russian on the page.

It looked to be the final page of notes and Alexei, presumably had ended it by writing "Destroy the machine and then I can live the American dream."

Laurie smiled sadly before looking over at the sleeping Russian. She had helped three Russians defect before and she hadn't liked them. She had barely trusted them, but the FBI had wanted to take the risk. Alexei, however, was one that Laurie might actually trust. He might actually benefit American society.

Yeah, she was definitely going to help him.

And it definitely had nothing to do with him being cute.