Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Stranger Things.

Chapter 4: Home

It had been two days since Billy had awakened and Eleven hadn't stopped planning her escape back to Hawkins. It was a Wednesday afternoon and she was in an imperative hurry to get home and finally set out on her journey. As she made her way down the front steps of her school, of course the jerk of a kid 'Daniel' would be waiting for her. He always seemed to constantly keep tabs on her. Lurking around every corner just waiting for a chance to strike, and today was no different. He approached with dark and heavy eyes, clearly stating that he wasn't going to be pleasant.

"You gonna talk today freak?"

Eleven said nothing, she just held her books closer to her chest and attempted to keep walking.

"Hey! I'm talking to you!" He shouted from behind, firmly grabbing her by the forearm to yank her towards him. "You think you're better than me-- freak?"

"Yes." She stood as tall as she could, to lock eyes with him.

Daniel's eyes went black with anger, clearly shocked that she had decided to hold her ground and even went so far as to provide an honest answer to his question.

"Why you…" He angrily balling his fists.

El looked around to see that there was no one around to help. She had picked the wrong day to cut class and she was now at the mercy of this asshole kid. With No powers to bail her out and no friends to help aid her. With one last final blow to her situation… she decided to conjure up all the attitude she could muster, "Mouth breather."

Those two little words had sealed her fate, as one, two and three hard punches made contact with her previously unmarked face. She laid helplessly at the bottom of the steps, waiting for the fourth and firth blow, possibly more… But they didn't come?

Why didn't they come?

"What the hell is the matter with you? You little prick!" A voice shouted in the nearby distance.

"Jonathon."

"You can't hit girls, you should know that, this is getting reported. You are DONE at this school, you little shit." He roughly threw Dan down the rest of the stairs.

"What the hell do you care anyways?" Dan spat, as he wiped the dirt from his pants.

"She's my family!"

El smiled at his comment, "yeah family!"

"Now scram!"

"Yeah! Scram!" She parroted her adoptive brother's words, her shouting quickly made him refocus his attention back onto her current position.

"Ah El, without your powers, you really are just a tiny little spec on the radar aren't you." He shook his head as he helped her up off the ground, "man, he did a good job, come on let's get you home and put some ice on that."

"Will should be a long in just a minute."

--

Billy laid impatiently in his hospital bed, since he woke three days ago, the time just seemed to drag. What had it been days? Nah, it couldn't be it felt like months in his mind.

No gym, no cigarettes, no girls. — his own personal hell.

As bored as he was, he seemed to be gaining more and more energy as the days rolled on. For the most part all his physical wounds had healed, however the doctors who were looking after his case, had not been entirely satisfied that he had no further trauma to his head. And they were probably right to think so, he'd never tell them but every single time he closed his eyes to sleep he was plagued by nightmares, everything he did to the kids, to Heather. The constant memory of what it felt like to have the mind flayer possess his body, making him completely helpless to control any of actions.

But the worst dreams, were the dreams of Her.

The girl.

The beating he'd given her, the fear in her eyes.

The overwhelming truth that she must have thought he was a monster.

Why didn't that sit well with him? Lots of people thought he was a heartless bastard before, but this time it was different.

He cared? Why?

"I want to get the hell out of here, now." He sat up to make daggers with his nurse.

"The Doc will be here in a minute, then he will let you know if you are being discharge." She assured him with a pat to his arm, "now lay down and eat your pudding."

Billy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, still set on making this woman feel as uncomfortable as possible.

"It won't work sweetheart; you remind me of my pain in the ass son." She patronised with another gentle pat to his arm, causing him to yank it away from her grasp. She returned his gesture, with a simple smile and headed towards the door to leave.

As she was exiting, Billy was startled to see an unsettling face come through the door. Neil Hargrove, otherwise known as "dad." He quickly washed the shock from his face and met his father's stare with a solemn visage, he knew he just had to look at him the wrong way… Just to so much as blink too slowly and he would cop it.

He always did. Every, single, time.

He knew that he hadn't visited him since he'd been in… He'd heard the nurses outside his room just yesterday say how sad it was that only his little sister had the decency to visit him in the months that he'd been admitted.

What the fuck does he want anyway? It's not like he gives a shit.

"Oh, Sleeping Beauty, how nice of you to join us," the want-to-be father hissed.

Billy ignored his comment, refusing to make eye contact with him.

Great, here he goes, on another rampage of destroying what little life I have left.

I'm never going back that fucking place he calls home. never.

I'm done with you, you piece of shit.

"I spoke to your doctor; you're getting out today. Don't you think you're coming back home. Not after all this shit you've pulled, getting Maxine involved with all that crap at the mall- you always have just one job, watch you goddamn sister." He grabbed his son by the chin, yanking him towards him.

Billy had nothing to say, he looked at this father straight in the eyes, pain and sadness filled them.

You hate me. I hate you too.

"You're pathetic." He released his face in disgust.

"All your stuff is in those bags, don't come around my house again, until you've finally become a man."

--

"El it's really okay… it's not that bad, I've got an ice pack here for you, it'll help with the bruising." Will coaxed from outside the bathroom door.

Eleven released a long sigh as she stared at herself in mirror above the sink. She was mortified to see just how bad the blow to her face had been. Her left eye was left 'eggplant' purple and so swollen that it was nearly shut. Her lip was bloody and fat and somehow that little shit had managed to split her eyebrow open.

She decided she didn't have time to dwell on it and splashed some cold water on her face, before exiting the bathroom to see both boys outside waiting for her.

"It's really not that bad…"

"Yeah…" Jonathan added through clenched teeth.

She rolled her eyes instinctively to their obvious lies and then promptly changed the subject to the pressing matter on her mind.

"So… Ready?" she made her way to the packed bag on her bed.

"Yep, this is all the money I can get together, it should be plenty. When you get there, you go to your old place with Hop… The Cabin, it's off the radar and is completely abandoned now. If you run into any problems, you go to the Wheelers--"

"I'm not seeing Mike."

"El. You go to Nancy, this is part of the deal of us helping you, you need to listen to me."

"Once Mom finds out that you've left, she'll send me to come and get you, so there's really no point in me coming with you now. She'll stress that she has to stop working and then she won't be able to pay rent—and well you know—she'll be freaking out."

El Nodded her brown eyes innocently in agreeableness.

"Once you get there, you get to a pay phone and you CALL me. Okay, no excuses. I want a call every day." He patted her shoulder, before pulling her into a hug.

"Come on, let's get to the bus station before mom finds out and kills us."

--

Billy waited outside the hospital entrance, his bags placed at his feet and a cigarette placed firmly between his teeth. It was winter now and the wind was blowing enough that he was struggling to light his smoke, he growled in frustration.

Just as he was about to go back inside to light up in the smokers room, his ride arrived, "hey Hargrove, feeling better?" the jock grinned from ear to ear.

"Get in." Rob opened the car door from inside the driver's side."

"Thanks for the ride, I owe you one." Billy made his way into the car, yes... he could finally light up.

"Oh yeah, if you're offering, maybe you could hook me up with some decent pussy? You've always got all the girls, hey Hargrove." Rob nudged with a suggestive laugh.

"Ha, yeah, no problem." Billy forced a chuckle back.

"How about one of your sister's friends? I love a freshmen, they're so easy." He asked looking over to Billy for a nod of approval.

"Yeah, sure, I'll sort it." He agreed hoping to end the forced conversation.

"So... everyone's been wondering what the hell happen to you at the mall?" He peered over to Billy's direction again.

"Look bro, I don't want to talk about it, can you just drop me off at my car." Billy smashed his bud into the car ashtray.

"Woah, sorry, I was just wondering, everyone's been saying that you attacked kids and shit and then you got like… stabbed or something."

"It's all just bull shit, alright--now stop talking about it." Billy nervously rubbed at his chin, why wouldn't this prick just shut up?

"Well, here you are Hargrove, home sweet home, so why didn't you get your dad to pick you up?"

Fucking Idiot.

Deciding just to roll his eyes at his "friend" he got into his Camaro and sped wildly down the street.

--

Before Eleven had known what had happened, she had arrived at her destination, safe and sound--

Well back to Hawkins.

She had tuned out the long spill Jonathon had given her before she got onto the bus—it was all about how "being out on your own is hard and scary and it's okay to go for help if it feels like it's all too much to handle. You're still a child, blah, blah, blah."

No one had any idea all of the real life experiences she had done on her own, the winter she had spent out in the woods before Hop had found her, all the little things she had to do to survive.

The hunting, the bitter cold.

She'd survived it all on her own for the most part, aside from some donated eggos.

Then there was always her trip of self-discovery, when she had found her fellow family.

Kali.

She giggled to herself about how everyone was always trying to protect her; telling her that: things, places and people weren't safe. When they had failed to protect her from all the things that she actually needed to be saved from.

-So much they don't know, don't want to know.

Papa. The lab. So much.

She was distracted from her thoughts when a young man approached her from the side, "hey, Are you okay?... What happened to your face? Someone do that to you?"

"No, I did it to myself." She sarcastically pushed past him.

This was what she had worried about, her face was going to attract a lot of unwanted attention. She pulled the hood up on her coat and placed her long dark tresses in front of her face, a good attempt at finding her fresh bruises... Feeling a little covered, she then picked up her speed and made her way towards the exit of the building.

"Bike." She whispered to herself, spotting the nearby rack, she thought of "borrowing" it but then realised Hop had never gotten around to teach her how to ride one. She scuffed her grubby sneakers on the wet pavement at the thought, a little sad for a moment but then remembered her mission and set out towards home.

When she reached the woods and the path that would lead to the entrance of the cabin, a shiver ran up her spine. It was so dark and gloomy, her feet soon began to feel wet and cold, due to the fabric of her converse sneakers not providing much protection from the muddy puddles and leaves beneath her feet. When it had felt like she had been walking for hours, she was relieved to see the cabin still intact. It looked even more weathered than before, if that was even possible—but it was standing. She slowly walked up the steps to the porch but was distracted from her actions at the sight of a car park to the left…

"Billy's car." She muttered, frozen in her tracks, "lights."

She proceeded to walk towards the door's entrance, but then stopped dead cold in her tracks as a terrifying thought came to her mind.

How did he know about the cabin?

Only my friends know.

And—

The mind flayer.

El retreated hastily away from the porch as she heard heavy thudding footsteps approach the inside of the door.

"Who's there? I'm going to kick your ass whoever you are, so you better come out and show yourself before you piss me off even more." He threatened, with a lowered baseball bat in hand.

She hesitated for a minute, at the thought that he could potentially be possessed again, but then remembered a very important fact; when he had been taken over by the mind flayer, he hadn't been his normal bully like self. He had been…

Pleasant?

To draw less attention to himself?

This had to be Billy then?

Just as she had decided to be brave and enter the lion's den, he came marching forwards and grabbed her from where she crouched, "who the fuck are you? And what the hell are you doing creeping around out here?" He shouted, shaking her slightly by the shoulders.

His face softened dramatically at the shock of just who he had in his hands, "fuck me, Seriously." He stood still shocked, but El struggled to sense the anger in his tone.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He asked angrily again.

"Um, well, I live here," she muttered with a gentle shrug.

"What? You live in this dump?" he asked crinkling his eyes in confusion.

"What happened to your face? Who did that to you?" He asked distracted from his original questions.

"Can we go inside. I don't like the dark," she purposely ignored his previous question.

He held her at her elbows, holding her still to ensure she didn't run off before he figured out what to do.

I can't have this fucking girl staying with me… can I?

No one know this place is even here, why can't I?

Fuck me.

"Come on then," He growled, "But don't even think for one second that this makes us "friend's" or something. I just want you to do some explaining…" He trailed off, heading back in towards the house, El quickly followed in behind him.

And before Billy knew what was happening, he was locking the door behind them shaking his head at himself in disbelief.

What the fuck.