Chapter 8 Constant Manipulation

"Randy, c'mon, the A.V. club meeting starts in ten minutes," said Mike. It had been over two months since New Years and Mike had finally talked Randy into joining a club. He'd been anxious about accepting Mike's offer of friendship after a year and a half of Mike subconsciously resenting him for living in Will's old house and using Will's old locker.

"I'm coming," said Randy as he stuffed a copy of the book for the spring play in his book bag.

"I can help you practice your lines for the audition if you want," Mike offered earnestly.

"Um, sure, thanks," said Randy. He seemed almost as hesitant to accept nice gestures from Mike as Will had become.

"Did you finally find a replacement for your zombie queer buddy?" asked Troy as he walked up to Mike and Randy.

"Shut up, Troy," Mike hissed. Randy's face went pale. He had confided in Mike that he and his mother had moved to Hawkins because his father had kicked him out. He had never explicitly told Mike why, but Mike had his suspicions.

"Oooohh, did I touch a nerve, Frog Face?" asked Troy. "It was sure easy to touch nerves with the fairy before he left town." Mike felt his face growing redder and redder. Troy started to shove Mike's shoulder with every sentence. "He would just cover his ears and cry when I called him out for the freak he was in those last few months before summer. Don't worry, I'm sure that even though he didn't die like he should have three years ago, I'm sure some queer'll get him in his new town."

Mike dropped his books and charged Troy harder that he ever had before. They crashed to the floor and slid into the lockers on the other side of the narrow hall. Mike began punching Troy as hard as he could before the larger boy got over the initial shock and began hitting Mike back as surrounding students began chanting "'fight! fight! fight!"

It went on for about two minutes before Mike felt someone shove Troy off of him. He looked up to see Troy's fist collide with Lucas' face. Max angrily hit Troy with her skateboard before Principal Jenkins came down the hall and broke up the fight.

Later that night, Mike sat alone in his basement looking over some old drawings Will had done when they were little. Mike had gotten a week's suspension for his troubles. There was a knock at the door. It wasn't Lucas or Dustin, both were grounded. It was Max.

"Oh, hey Max. What are you doing here?" asked Mike.

"Checking on you. I promised El I'd always make sure you're alright, you know," said Max.

"You did?" asked Mike.

"Yep."

"How did you get out of the house?"

"Neil isn't home this week," said Max. "It wasn't that hard." She fidgeted a little. "Troy said something shitty about Will, didn't he?"

"How'd you know?"

"El and Lucas have both told me about the time she made Troy piss himself. It wasn't a huge leap."

"Apparently he was harassing Will a lot after the whole thing with the Mind Flayer," said Mike. "Will didn't say anything. He just kept trying to get us to do something fun together as a group. We just kept blowing him off. *I* just kept blowing him off. No wonder he thought we didn't care. No wonder he doesn't like to do the things he loved so much as a kid. It didn't even occur to me until recently. It's his birthday in less than two weeks and I don't even know what to get him because I have no idea what he likes anymore."

"El said that he's super into Bowie and U2. Oh and New Order and Van Halen too."

"I guess he still likes the stuff he did with Jonathan," said Mike sourly.

"Maybe he still likes all the things he did with the party deep down," said Max. "Sometimes people just-"

"Don't say people just grow apart!" said Mike. "I'm so sick of everyone telling me that. Will and I were different."

"I wasn't going to say that Mike," said Max. "I was going to say that sometimes people just need to come to things on their own terms. Will kept saying that he wanted to do things on his terms for once at Christmas. Things haven't exactly been on his terms for most of his life."

"No," said Mike, as he realized that Will had been right when he said that he hadn't gotten his way very much when it came to the party. "No they haven't."

"Maybe you should tell him about how you beat the shit out of Troy?" Max suggested. "It shows that you really do still care."

"No," said Mike. "If I tell him, it'll just seem like I'm trying to convince him I still care. That only makes him more guarded."

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"Hopper, you shouldn't keep trying to hide this from the kids," said Joyce. "They'll understand and want to help."

"They have more than their fair share of trauma to deal with," said Hopper. "They don't need mine too."

"You sound like Will," said Joyce. "All that bottling things up hasn't ever done him much good either."

"Fine, I won't bottle it up, Joyce," said Hopper. "I just want us all to have our lives back, but I constantly feel like they're always watching and trying to manipulate us."

"So let's get to work," said Joyce as she held up the files.

"Let's get to work," Hopper agreed.

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Julie slammed her bedroom door and threw herself on her bed as she sobbed into her pillow. Her cat jumped to her side and started purring. Her mother opened the door a few seconds later.

"Julie, this is for the best."

"I don't want to do this, please don't make me do this," Julie begged as she sat up to face her mother.

"Honey, you're too young to be a mother. You've got a bright future ahead of you and your baby will be better off with the Olsens."

"I don't trust them," said Julie. "There's something weird about them and not the good kind of weird." She saw the old Tonka truck Will had given her out of the corner of her eye.

"You're just upset," said Mrs. Mason. "This is for the best in the long run. You'll understand that someday."

Julie knew her parents weren't going to change their minds and she had a bad feeling about the whole situation. She decided to play along, but had to contact Will and get to him somehow.

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El stared at the plus sign as Sarah sat next to her. She'd been feeling sick and throwing up a lot. Sarah has patted her on the back to comfort her and sensed something new.

El felt her stomach drop. What was she going to do? How would she tell Mike? How could she protect her baby from Papa and the Upside Down. El glanced at Sara who looked equally frightened.

"WILL!" El screamed. Will had been in the basement with Alice practicing his abilities. El had seen the lights flicker in the house several times.

Will came running up followed by Alice.

"El, are you alright? What's wrong?"

El silently held up her positive test. Will looked stunned. He glanced at Sarah who nodded. Will walked over to and pulled her into a tight embrace as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"It was him," said Sarah. "He made Mike and El... at that party you were at in Hawkins. He had people hand them drinks with something in it."

"Brenner?" asked Will. Sarah nodded. Will remembered Hopper telling him something when they were escaping from Brenner in December. Brenner wanted more test subjects.

The phone started ringing. "Alice, can you answer that?" asked Will. "If it's Mom, she'll have a heart attack if we don't answer."

Alice went down the hall and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, um, I need to talk to Will," said the voice on the other end.

"He's a little busy right now. Can I take a message?" said Alice.

"Please, it's an emergency!" Alice had a vision of the girl on the other end of the line.

"What's your name?"

"Julie."

"Hang on a minute, Julie. I'll get Will."

"Thank you," said Julie. Alice could hear that she was trying not to cry. She set down the phone and walked back to the bathroom when Will and Sarah were comforting El.

"It's for you, Will," said Alice.

"Can you tell them I'll call them back?" asked Will as El continued to sob on his shoulder.

"Normally I would," said Alice. "But you should take this one. It's a girl named Julie."

El glanced at Alice and saw the look on her face. She realized that Papa's people hadn't just manipulated her and Mike that night. "It's-it's okay, Will. Take the call."

Will stood up slowly and headed down the hall to pick up the phone. "Julie?"

"Will? Something happened. New years... When we...Will I'm pregnant... and... and.. my parents are making me give the baby up for adoption... I met the people today... I don't like them...I just have a bad feeling," Julie sobbed as she spoke.

Will leaned against the wall and slid down it. Now one more person had been dragged into everything. He'd tried to keep his friends in Hawkins out of it all, not wanting them to end up like Bob. Now Mike was being dragged back into it and a girl he'd once given a Tonka truck to was dragged into it as well.

He realized that Julie was in danger. Her baby and El's baby were in danger. He couldn't let Brenner get his hands on them.

"Julie, are you calling me from home?"

"No, I got a bunch of change and called you from a pay phone," said Julie. "I haven't told my family that the baby's yours yet."

Will breathed a sigh of relief. "Listen, is there any time in the next couple days that you'll be at home alone?"

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Mike sat alone with his sister Holly. He was watching her while his parents were at an office party and working on a puzzle with her. The phone rang. Mike didn't feel like speaking to anyone, but answered the phone in case it was his mother checking on Holly.

"Hello?"

"Mike?"

"Will?"

"Yeah."

"What is it? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, listen... Can you drive to Pawnee? El needs to see you," said Will. Mike recognized the anxiousness in Will's voice.

"Yeah, I can do that, when?"

"As soon as possible," said Will. "And I need to ask a favor."

"Of course, Will, anything," said Mike who had been so eager to prove to Will that he was still there for him.

"I need you to pick up Julie Mason and bring her with you."

"What?"

"Mike, can you do that for me?" asked Will anxiously.

"Yeah, yeah Will, I can do that," said Mike.

He dropped Holly off at Lucas's house. Max was there as well. His mother had left the keys for the car in case of an emergency with Holly, but Mike decided he would deal with his parents later.

The Mason house looked mostly empty when he pulled up. He knocked on the door and Julie answered. She had a slightly panicked look on her face. She had a bag and a suitcase as well as her cat in a carrier. Mike wordlessly helped her get those things to the station wagon.

"What's going on?" he asked her when they were on the road.

"Will didn't tell you?" she asked. Tears started rolling down her face. Mike shook his head. "You'll know soon enough. I don't feel like talking about it."

"Okay, no problem," said Mike. He felt cold all of the sudden. Will had said that El needed him, then asked him to pick up Julie. He remembered the New Years party. It couldn't be that, could it? Mike had to stop at a gas station and ask for directions when they got to Pawnee and the Byers-Hopper family had moved shortly after the holiday.

He pulled up to a house that was bigger and nicer than the Byers family had previously lived in. He grabbed Julie's suitcase, walked up to the front door with her and rang the doorbell. Will answered and wordlessly motioned for them to come inside.

When Will closed the door, Julie set down her bag and cat carrier and threw her arms around himl. He hugged her back and glanced over at Mike giving a slight jerk of his head to indicate El sitting on the sofa.

Mike went over to El as Will led Julie to his room. Sarah and Alice who were sitting with her got up and left the room.

"Mike!" said El tearfully. She stood up and hugged him. He returned the embrace.

"What happened?" asked Mike.

"It's Papa. He got us. I don't know how, but he got us... all of us," El sobbed.

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"Sorry about bringing my cat," said Julie. "It's just that, no one else in my family likes him."

"It's okay," said Will. "El and Sara both have kittens, one more isn't going to hurt." Charlotte went over to the cat carrier, sniffed and wagged her tail.

"Your mom won't mind me staying here?" asked Julie. Will shook his head. "It's just that...I had a really bad feeling about the people who were going to adopt the baby. Maybe I'm just going crazy." Julie sat on Will's bed and buried her face in her hands. Will sat next to her and awkwardly patted her back.

"You're not going crazy. Your instincts were right about them." Sarah and Alice both had visions of the couple in question. They had indeed been working for Brenner.

"What do you mean?"

"There's something I need to tell you...a few something's actually...about me."

"What about you, Will?"

"When I was missing a few years ago, Hopper didn't find me at a cabin in the woods. He found me somewhere else. And that body that was pulled from the quarry wasn't some other missing kid. It was a fake. Hawkins lab faked my death because they were after me, just like they were after El. They're still after us."

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A/N: Been stuck on this for a while, but I'm just going to skip ahead to the parts I can write in the next chapter. Ah well, stay healthy everyone. Been nice to grocery store workers and cover your mouths when you cough and sneeze, please/