"So…", Jim Hopper starts, looking at the two teens in front of him.
They're sat down in the Byers living room. Hopper's sat in one of the chairs while the two teenagers are seated on the long couch next to each other. Joyce is filling in the kids in Will's room about the government wanting them to sign an NDA again. That should be smooth. It's these two he's worried about. This is the Mayfield girl's first rodeo, he doesn't know how she'll react. Then there's Harrington, he turned 18 this year so he's a legal adult now. If the spooks don't like what he says, they can throw him in jail if they feel like it or worse.
"Why do you have peanut butter on your face?" Hopper asks the older teen. Mayfield snickers next to Harrington.
"What?" Steve asks, completely unaware. He runs his hands on the clean side of his face, missing the smudge entirely.
"Other side, dumbass," Max says with a laugh.
"Ugh! Max!," Steve says as his fingers graze the peanut butter on the other side of his face.
"What? I'm not the one who beat your ass in wrestling for your sandwich," Max quips.
"Okay, first off, I didn't lose; it was a draw. Secondly, why didn't you say anything?" Steve asks annoyed.
"Well, at first it was funny. You know, funny haha but we ended up talking with Mike on Will's bed and it wasn't really the time to bring it up so it became funny weird. Don't worry, it looped back around to funny haha again right about now." Max says with a mocking smile.
"I'll show you funny haha," Steve says suddenly leaning into Max trying to get peanut butter on her.
"Eew! Steve!" Max says barely holding a laugh as she tries to shield her face with her arms. It was a losing battle, the peanut butter made contact with her forehead almost midway between her eyebrow and her hair. Does peanut butter cause zits? Is that a thing she should worry about?
"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Hopper yells out to the two teens, unconsciously banging his fist on the living room coffee table to get their attention. Jesus Christ, these kids. If they're not fighting monsters, they're giving him a headache. If Benny's diner is an indication, the government does not mess around. The kids need to take this seriously. Hopper needs them to pay attention, if not for their sake, at least for his sanity. Government conspiracies? Monsters? No. Rounding up teenagers is what's going to kill him.
In hindsight, maybe Hopper shouldn't have lost his temper like that. He was expecting either remorse, at best, or rebellion, at worst, from the two teens. Instead, the Mayfield girl went from loud and petulant to small and curled in on herself like she's trying to make herself as small a target as possible. Meanwhile Harrington went the opposite direction, he's on the edge of his seat trying to make himself as large as possible, leaning out and trying to cover the girl with his arm and torso eyes locked on Hopper. Almost like if Hopper wants to do anything to the girl, which he doesn't, he'll have to go through the beat-up teenager first. Hopper couldn't really blame the kid; he hadn't exactly been gentle with Harrington whenever he busted one of their parties or caught him in whatever dumbass stunt he and his friends were in.
Well, well, well. If it isn't the consequence of my own actions, Hopper thinks as he put the two teenagers on the defensive rather than be open to listening to him. He sighs and puts his hand on his forehead, just above the bridge of the nose, and starts to rub the headache that's about to form from there. If they're still in fight or flight mode thinking they're still looking for tomato-dogs or whatever in the junkyard, he won't get anywhere.
"You know what? I don't wanna know," Hopper says in a resigned tone with both his hands in front of him in a surrender gesture, "Get yourselves cleaned up, we'll talk after."
"Yeah, chief. Sorry, my fault. I shouldn't have done that. We'll get cleaned up," Harrington says in a tone that Hopper has heard before. It's a tone rehearsed from years of making excuses about a party that accidentally happened or a misdemeanor that he didn't mean to commit.
He watched Harrington whisper something to the Mayfield girl. Hopper's not sure what it was but it's enough for Mayfield to roll her eyes at Harrington and crack a smile. They both get off the couch, Harrington guides her and pushes her by the shoulders towards the kitchen.
Aside from his first 4 years stint as the drunken Hawkins chief, Hopper likes to think that he's actually a halfway decent cop. He likes to think that because of his stint working homicide in Chicago after the war he can notice the little things that most people tend to miss. Like how even though the Mayfield girl was curled in on herself, tense and rigid, she was still alert and present; ready for fight or flight and not taking her eyes off Hopper. Or like how Harrington's chest is puffed out like he's trying to take the attention away from the girl and use himself as a human shield for her. Even when Harrington turned his back to whisper to the girl, Hopper was pretty sure that both teens' eyes and undivided attention are still on him. There's nothing he could've done that would've surprised either teenager.
When they did get off the couch, he also caught how Harrington subtly made sure that he was always in between Hopper and the girl as they walked off to get themselves cleaned. The way Harrington faked a stretch so that Mayfield can maneuver herself off the couch while still being blocked by Harrington. The way Harrington put his arm over Mayfield's shoulders to guide her towards the kitchen, not missing a beat in putting himself in between the girl and the perceived danger.
Damn. The monsters must have really done a number on these kids, Hopper thinks, so close to the point but not quite making it. He didn't notice, however, Joyce Byers coming out of the hallway with a look of vengeance on her face looking like another consequence of his action. Yeah, yelling at the two kids is going to cost him.
In the kitchen, the two teens are cleaning themselves up in the sink. Max went first while Steve stood guard. He doesn't think anything will happen. It's not like the chief's gonna sneak up behind him and pull a Papa Harrington on them with everybody else just in the other room. It just makes him feel better being on guard. Call it paranoia but between human monsters and interdimensional ones, it pays to be cautious. When it was Steve's turn, Max hands him a paper towel to dry off after. He mutters a thank you as he wipes himself off.
"Sorry about the whole peanut butter thing. I was being an idiot, I thought it'd be funny," Steve says apologetically.
"Eh, that's, okay. It was kinda funny before the chief went all red," Max says with a wave of her hand.
"You know he wouldn't hurt you, right?" Steve asks.
"I know," Max replies in a tone of rehearsed casualness from waving off concerned teachers and adults in California reassuring them that everything's fine.
"No. I mean, he wouldn't hurt you," Steve says again this time his words laced with meaning.
Max looks at Steve and she hears the unspoken not while I'm around at the end of that sentence. For some reason, she believes him. "I know," Max says again, this time with honesty and a warm smile on her face while sending a reassuring nod over to Steve.
"Was it really a draw? I don't see how you call having dirt on your face a draw," Max asks after a beat.
"It's a mark of bravery…" Steve says unconvincingly before following it up with, "Shut up, Mayfield," Steve tries to ruffle Max's hair but Max swats off his arm and sticks her tongue out at him.
"All right, let's get back before the chief turns tomato again," Steve says rolling her eyes at the girl while motioning towards the hallway.
Steve led the way back, still looking to stand in between Max and the chief. He doesn't think —
Was that Jonathan entering the first room on the left? What's he doing here? Other than live here, of course. Stupid question, Steve. Wait, when did he get here? Hold on, if Jonathan's here that means that —
His inner monologue gets cut off as reality caught up with his inner monologue and nearly bumps into Nancy.
"Steve," Nancy says startled.
"Nancy," Steve says mirroring his ex.
"Max," Max says without missing a beat. She does not want a repeat of the awkward hallway meeting the other day. This earned her an eyeroll from Steve and a small chuckle and wave from Nancy.
She seems nice enough and she was a total badass with the shotgun the other day. I wonder what Steve did to screw that up? Max thinks.
"I'm surprised that you're here. Not that you can't be here. It's just… unexpected," Nancy says.
"Yeah, I got kidnapped by middle schoolers. Again. If I had a nickel for every time that happened… I'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice," Steve says running his hand through his hair.
This earned him a small laugh from Nancy, "I heard the chief wants to talk to you but you pissed him off?"
"Me? No, that was mostly Max," Steve says throwing the younger girl under the bus. He suddenly feels a blunt pain just below his knee causing him to yell out more from surprise than real pain. Max had kicked him in the shins in retaliation.
"Yeah, I put peanut butter on my forehead for kicks," Max says sarcastically rolling her eyes at Steve and glaring at him.
"Okay, fine. It was a… team effort," Steve concedes to Max. She must find that answer acceptable because she just nods her head agreeing like, Yeah, that checks out.
"Do I even want to know?" Nancy asks with a scrunched nose.
"Well, anyway, I'll leave you to it. I was told to corral the kids in Will's room while Jonathan does some autumn cleaning," Nancy says, "That's a good look on you by the way."
"What look?" Steve asks, confused but his cheeks feel warm from the compliment.
"Babysitter," Nancy says with a smile and a quiet laugh before she walked away towards Will's room.
"That's not…" Steve tries to call out and argue but settles with a sigh and a quiet mumble to himself, "I don't like where that's headed."
Max chuckles at him and gently pushed him towards the living room, "C'mon, two nickels, the chief still wants to talk."
They get back to the couch and Joyce is now sitting next to Hopper.
He probably got in trouble for yelling, Steve thinks silently laughing at the chief.
Good, Max thinks. She likes Joyce.
Joyce gives Hopper a tap on the shoulder with a raised eyebrow after the teens sat down.
"I'm sorry I lost my temper. The last time I got mad, I got a teenage runaway on my hand so I'm trying to get a handle on that believe me. I'm sorry I lost it," Hopper says apologetically.
"That's okay, chief," Steve says.
"Yeah, it's not your fault. Steve can be pretty annoying when he wants to be," Max says throwing him under the bus this time. Any response is liable to make Hopper mad again so Steve sucked it up and just grumbled. Point Max.
Hopper chuckled at the sight of the two, then looked at Joyce as if looking for her approval of his apology. Joyce is also smiling at the two and she gives him the nod that he did all right.
"We just wanted to talk to you two because the government wants to talk and sign NDAs," Hopper continues.
"Oh… Again?" Steve asks not really seeing the problem.
"What's an NDA?" Max asks.
"It's a thing we sign where we say we agree not to talk about what happened. A No Discussion Accordance or something," Steve answers.
"Non-Disclosure Agreement," Joyce corrects Steve before continuing, "But it's a little different for you two. Max, sweetie, this is the first time the government agents are going to talk to you. It can be scary but don't worry, Hop will be with you the entire time. An adult has to be present when questioning a minor."
"Can the adult be Steve?" Max asks, looking at Joyce and Steve hopefully.
"Legally I am but, practically, I don't think I'd be any use for you in there, Max. But I'll sit in with you and the chief if they let me?" Steve says questioningly at Hopper.
"That's the other thing. Steve, honey, you're an adult now so Hopper wouldn't be with you. You'd have to talk to the agents alone," Joyce interrupts.
Oh. That is different, Steve thinks. He definitely doesn't like where this is headed.
"I don't think they'll let you sit in, kid, but we'll ask. From what I remember last time, they'd want to question everyone separately so your accounts don't get wrapped up with somebody else's," Hopper explains.
Max nods understandingly, "So how would it work?"
"Well, if it's like last time, they're going to ask you to tell your version of events from the beginning. They'd then ask questions about what you said happened. Asking for clarifications, pointing out inconsistencies, and things like that until they're satisfied. When it's all said and done, you'll sign a piece of paper with a transcript of the story you recounted, another piece of paper with a transcript of the questions they asked and the answers you provided, and, lastly, another piece of paper stating that you won't talk about what happened under threat of government action," Hopper explains.
"That sounds… long," Max says while she really means boring. "Where do I begin with what happened? Do I talk about when we moved here? Or when Dustin brought Dart to school? Or when Lucas told me about last year? Or —" Max asks before being interrupted.
"We'll definitely leave out that part with Sinclair. Don't want to get him into trouble. Joyce will help you run through things with the other kids. And, yeah, it might be long. You should call your parents and ask if you can stay for dinner or something. I can drive you home after," Hopper offers.
"That's okay, I can drive Max home. The others too, I can wait for them," Steve suddenly offers not sure where that came from.
Max smiles at Steve but then her face falls, "I don't think I'd be able to stay long. At least not today. My parents are still on me from coming home at a weird time the other day."
"Maybe I can talk to them?" Joyce thinks out loud.
"I don't know. They might get suspicious or, worse, drop by unannounced," Hopper says.
"Yeah, I agree. Her dad — stepdad," Steve corrects himself, "was already giving me the stinkeye the other day. And I don't think we'd want Billy Hargrove to drop in again."
"No matter how entertaining the thought of him being tasered by government agents might be," Max adds making Steve chuckle.
Hopper looks at Joyce thinking.
"Okay, then. Maybe Max goes first? If we start early, she'd be home by dinner. Let's just let Owens know," Joyce says.
"Right. You okay to drive her, Harrington?" Hopper asks the older teen remembering he gave her a ride to school today. He was going to ask Harrington about that but he couldn't fit it in anywhere.
"Uh, yeah. I can drive Max home and then come back. No worries," Steve says.
"I don't think that's a good idea, kid," Hopper says thoughtfully.
"But it was your idea," Max says a bit defensively. She's not sure why, it's not like she wants to be driven home by Steve or something.
"No, I mean him coming back," Hopper clarifies.
Oh. Am I getting kicked out? Steve wonders.
"Look, Harrington, you're an adult now in the eyes of the law. The things you say will have real consequences. If you could get out early, get out quick and stay out. Don't give the government a chance to drag you back in. Spend as little time as you can with these spooks," Hopper says.
"It's settled then. These two will have the first sessions. Steve will drive Max home and never come back," Joyce sums up.
Steve looks at Joyce with eyes opened wider than usual in surprise.
"Never come back today. You can come back tomorrow. Maybe I can let you watch Will sometime?" Joyce offers with a smile.
Steve nods while silently regretting the babysitter joke he told Nancy the night before they head into the tunnels. He really doesn't like where things are headed. The kids are too old for babysitters. Oh, also, he doesn't want to be one. Can't forget that reason.
"Okay, Harrington. We should go over with what you'll say to the people interviewing you," Hopper says, "Wouldn't want to give them wrong the idea."
"Uh, I hate to ask this but what happens if they get the wrong idea? They're not gonna shoot me or lock me up or anything, right?" Steve asks.
Silence.
"Right?" Steve asks again this time a bit worried.
"No!"
"Of course not!"
Hopper and Joyce unconvincingly yell out at the same time, clearly not prepared to be asked that question.
Steve gulps down the fear building up from within him. He feels Max grab onto his jacket sleeves. Max offers him a reassuring smile. It calms Steve down a bit. He puts his other hand over the one grabbing his sleeve and returns the reassuring smile.
Hopper catches this and he's not sure who's comforting who with that gesture. The girl visibly relaxed after Harrington smiled back at her. He's not sure why the two are close but maybe the Wheeler girl is right. Harrington is a good babysitter. Hell, Joyce wants him to even watch over Will.
"Steve, sweetie, listen to me. We're going to do everything in our power to keep you safe. Hop will run you through it. It'll be like he's in the room with you," Joyce says trying to comfort the teen. Steve's already fought a monster and a bully in this house, she'll be damned if he has to fight government agents here too.
"Why don't I take Max so you and Steve can get started? I can go through her statement with the others in Will's room," Joyce says standing up and motioning for Max to follow.
Max lets go of Steve's sleeves and followed Joyce towards the hallway. As they get to the hall, Max takes a look at Steve, still worried. Steve gives her a smile and a wave, and Max returns both of them before reluctantly walking towards Will's room. As they walk down the hall, he can hear Max ask Joyce in a small voice, "Are they going to shoot Steve?"
Steve doesn't hear Joyce's response. Too far away now. It feels nice someone is worried about him but that question in that tone is gonna haunt him, he just knows it.
"Okay, let's start from the beg—" Hopper starts but gets cut off by weird noises coming from his radio. Normally, Steve wouldn't have noticed but Hopper got strangely quiet when he heard those noises. Hopper excused himself and headed off to the kitchen talking into the radio. Must be El doing that morse code thing.
Hopper came back and sat back down a few minutes later.
"Mike says the kid is sick," Steve asks, "How are they doing?"
"Yeah, it's tough but don't worry the kid is tough too. The timing of this government nonsense doesn't really help though. I'd love to just be at home and take care of… business," Hopper says wistfully.
Wait, if Harrington's leaving first with Mayfield. Maybe he can watch Eleven? Hopper starts to think. Sure, the kid has been acting responsibly since last year, and the kids seem to like him. Hell, he seemed protective over the Mayfield girl earlier. Wheeler says he's great with kids. Even Joyce is willing to let him watch Will. Is that ready? Can he handle looking after El? A sick El at that. Is that even fair to ask him? Hopper's thoughts are going a mile a minute before Steve interrupts him.
"I was thinking of starting from when Dustin tried to get me to catch his pet monster?" Steve asks breaking the silence.
"Oh, yeah, his weird slug-dog? That sounds good," Hopper agrees, "Walk me through that."
And Steve walked him through everything. Hopper asked questions and Steve answered. When Steve couldn't, Hopper taught him how to answer the question. Only answer the question asked, nothing more. Don't offer information they didn't ask for. If you don't know the answer, say you don't. This isn't a school test it's okay to not know the answer. Lastly, if things are going too fast, breathe and handle them one at a time.
They spent some time going over his story. Hopper helped him word and re-word some of it. Especially the part about Billy. With Steve's face, they couldn't really leave him out of the story but they could make sure he's out of the government's radar. For everyone's sake.
Hopper was impressed both by the teen and his story. The kid kept everybody alive from the junkyard to the living room and to the tunnels. Sure, he could use some lessons in self-preservation and fighting but he did good. The thought of him looking after El isn't so crazy anymore.
Hopper sends him back to Will's room while he makes a call to the lab. Steve was happy with their session. He'd even go as far as saying that he was confident he can handle the questioning now. This confidence didn't last long. As soon as he entered Will's room, everyone got real quiet and looked at him like he was a puppy that watched a haunted Japanese videotape that gave him 7 days left to live.
They positioned the chairs they were sitting in earlier around Will's bed. Everyone has a seat but Mike and Dustin opted to be in Will's bed along with Will. You could almost hear the pin drop as he sat down on the bed with the kids. Everyone's still looking at him.
"Are they going to shoot you?" Dustin asks with wide eyes.
"No, they're not!" Mike says annoyed and defensive.
"But they might though!" Lucas argues from his seat next to Max.
"No, he'll be fine. We'll protect him like he protected you guys," Will says next to him with resolve in his eyes.
"Dammit, Max!" Steve grumbles at the girl, knowing she's the one that told them about him being shot.
Max raises her hand in surrender taking no responsibility for getting the others riled up.
"What if this is like Barb all over again?" Nancy says quietly, not looking at Steve while Jonathan holds her hand. That still stings by the way. Especially more so, now that Jonathan's also giving him that cursed puppy look.
"Look, I'll be fine. The chief grilled me in there real good," Steve says almost trying to convince himself. He looks at Joyce for help.
"Steve will be fine. I promise. Now, let's get back to your cover stories," Joyce says hoping to shift the topic entirely. It partially worked; they did start talking about their cover stories but he's still getting that sad look from everybody else. He tries to reassure them with a smile whenever one of them catches his eye but it doesn't really work.
He'll be fine, right?
Hopper knocks on Will's open door and lets everyone know that he made the call and that the lab's people would be here soon. Hopper takes a seat next to Joyce and they all sat around Will's room going over everyone's story.
Whoever said honesty's the best policy is clearly full of shit. It's one of those things people say but don't mean like 'money can't buy you happiness' or 'just one beer, I swear'. The best they can do is lay out the facts*. With an asterisk. And the facts are what happened that night but with some details omitted. They leave out Dart taking a daytrip to school, Lucas telling Max everything and they leave out Nancy and Jonathan's filed trip to Illinois to take down the lab. Which, thank God, they did. If Jonathan and Nancy's look of guilt is any indication, he is just happy the government won't be prodding into his love life or lack thereof.
They considered leaving out Eleven in their story but with the number of cameras in the lab, they wouldn't be able to explain that away and would just raise more questions than answers. They did leave out Hopper housing Eleven for almost a year. They also decided to leave out the location of Hopper's cabin near an oak tree in Denfield where they did Will's faux-exorcism, they need to keep that location a secret especially when that's where Eleven's going to be living for the foreseeable future.
They didn't have to censor anything when it came to the tunnels. Only that when Billy came around, they made sure it was emphasized that not much talking happened and he was knocked out before he knew what was going on.
They kept running through their stories and talking among themselves until they heard a sharp knock echo across the house, it was coming from the front door. There's a sudden pause in the conversation and the collective breath of everyone is held as they all go to the living room to meet the one who knocks. They stop short of opening the door seeing the silhouette of government agents on the outside.
"If that's Billy, you're fighting him this time," Steve quips at Hopper earning him an unamused grunt.