A/N: This idea popped into my head a couple days ago. It's a completely different route than the first six of these have been, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. Please leave me a review and tell me what you think.

NoDownSide: I agree. Of course I loved all three seasons, but seasons 1 and 2 have a completely different feel than season 3. And even though season 2 had the least Mileven screen time, the balance between the kids and the supernatural was spot on.

Song-wei: Thank you. I hope all is well. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Shrike176: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. I think casual little moments are some of the cutest interactions.

The Mandalorian Terminator: Thank you. I'm glad that you loved so much of it!

Niko: I'm glad you liked the gift!

OdoMango: I'm glad you are liking it so far! I feel like one-shots allow me to focus on little moments like that, so I definitely enjoy writing them. I hope you like this one.

Ejbeckmann: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. And about the feels… what can I say lol. I think there will be more in this chapter as well, so sorry in advance : )

Stranger Records: I enjoy writing Valentine's Day. It gives me an excuse to be extra fluffy. I'm glad you liked it.

UnoPeso22: Thank you. I'm so happy to hear you think it feels like the characters right out of the show. I wish we could've actually seen a Mileven Valentine's Day as well. Hopefully we get either a Mileven Valentine's Day or a Mileven Christmas in season 4. The fans deserve it. And I agree about Hopper. Obviously, he wasn't overly thrilled about Mike being there all the time, but he is the only boy Hopper would have trusted with El.

Disneyprincess315: I'm glad you liked the fluff! Of course Mike will keep it forever and probably tell the story to their kids someday : )

Setting: July 1995, ten years after the events of season 3.

Disclaimer: I do not own Stranger Things or any of its original characters.

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El looked frantically around the blackness surrounding her. Was this the void? It had been so long since she had been in the void… She looked down at her feet to see they were dry. If this was not the void, where was she? Why was everything so dark?

The crackle of thunder startled El, and she jumped, spinning around in hopes of seeing someone, anyone… But she was alone.

El strained her eyes, trying to see something other than the infinite blackness. That's when she heard the footsteps.

Those footsteps were all too familiar, though she had not heard them in years. They still had the same effect on her; El's body completely froze as a slow chill trickled down her spine. Her wide eyes stared straight ahead unblinking, and her ears perked up, listening to those footsteps that she used to hear on a daily basis. They sounded just like they did in the hallways of the lab.

"Eleven," said the voice that made El's skin crawl.

Before her appeared the tall, slender man with white hair and black, soulless eyes. El could feel her heart pounding in her chest as Brenner came within inches of her. He reached toward her left arm, and El tried instinctively to pull away, but she found that she was unable to move. Brenner gingerly lifted her left arm and inspected her forearm, running his thumb over the 011 tattoo.

"You had such strong power… so promising," Brenner said calmly, more to himself than to El. He shifted his eyes to meet hers. "What a waste."

Brenner released El's arm and let it drop to her side, a sneer on his thin lips.

"Thankfully, you've provided us a replacement," Brenner continued.

Another crackle of thunder, and the blackness around them flashed brightly with lightning. When the blinding light went away, El found herself and Brenner standing in the hallway of the house El lives in with Mike and their four-year-old daughter Cassie.

"Don't you dare hurt them," El spat, glaring all the hatred she has felt for Brenner over her 24 years of life into the man's body.

"I would never hurt her," Brenner said softly. "And he didn't suffer much."

El noticed Brenner's eyes flicker down the hallway toward the master bedroom, and El turned her head to see the door standing ajar. Another crackle of thunder, and the bedroom was illuminated by a flash of lightning. A strangled scream was ripped from El's throat at what she saw.

Mike's lifeless body lay on the floor covered in so much blood that El couldn't even see where it was coming from.

"Mike!" she screamed.

Her vision blurred as tears began streaming down her face, but El started running down the hallway toward their bedroom. The closer she got, the longer the hallway seemed to stretch.

"You'll never get there," Brenner's voice taunted her. "Even if you did, you couldn't save him."

El kept running. The pounding of her heart and the sting in her lungs caused her chest to hurt dreadfully, but El had to get to him.

Suddenly, the hallway stopped stretching, and El was about to reach their bedroom when the door slammed shut in her face.

"No!" she screamed and threw her body against the door, turning the doorknob, desperate to open it. "Let me in! Let me in! I need to help him!"

"There is nothing you can do for him, Eleven," Brenner's voice returned to her ears, causing the hair on her arms and the back of her neck to stand up.

"You bastard," El whispered venomously.

She turned to face him, and her stomach sank at what she saw. Brenner was standing in the middle of the hallway holding Cassie on his hip.

"C-Cassie," El croaked out.

She lunged forward, reaching out for her daughter, but Brenner took a step backward and watched as El fell onto her hands and knees.

"Get your hands off my daughter!" El screamed up at the source of her childhood trauma. "Give me my baby and leave me alone!"

"You owe me this, Eleven. All the time I put in to raising you, all the potential you had… gone. But now, well…" Brenner looked almost lovingly at the little girl he was holding, and he brushed Cassie's black hair over her shoulder. "Hopefully this little girl doesn't fail me like her mama did."

Brenner turned from El and walked, carrying Cassie, down the hallway. El tried to stand up to chase after him, but she could not move her legs. She wiped her tearstained cheeks while she sat on the floor, her body shaking in sobs at her helplessness.

"Cassie!" she screamed so loud she thought her vocal cords were sure to be destroyed. "Cassie!"

"El! El!" El started to hear Mike's voice calling her name in the distance. "El… El wake up!"

She felt something grasping her shoulders, and El swatted her hands around herself, trying to break free of whatever invisible hold was on her.

"NO!" El screamed and shoved Mike away from her. "Get away from me!"

"El! El, stop! It's me," Mike said urgently.

El stopped flailing her arms and looked around at her surroundings, her heart pounding as she panted heavily. She was at home, in her bedroom, laying in her bed with her husband sitting next to her.

"It's okay, baby. You're okay," Mike said softly, reaching out to pull El closer to him.

She let him wrap his arms around her, and El raised her fingers up to his face to make sure he was real. She traced her fingers over his cheekbones and down his jaw and placed her other hand in his soft hair.

"M-Mike," she choked out before breaking into sobs.

"Shh, it's okay," Mike whispered into her hair while she clung to his t-shirt and her body shook with sobs. "It's okay, baby. I'm right here… I've got you… You're safe."

As the feeling of Mike's embrace began to calm her down, a feeling of dread pooled in El's stomach. Her eyes shot wide open, and she sat bolt upright, pulling away from her husband.

"C-C-Cassie… Cassie. Where's Cassie?" she demanded.

"El, she's asleep. She's sleeping in her bedroom down the hall," Mike said quickly, grabbing both of El's hands in his.

"Are you sure?" El asked urgently.

"Of course I'm sure," Mike replied.

"No, are you positive? Do you know she's there? Have you checked on her?" El demanded, her voicing rising in hysterics as tears began to stream down her face.

"El. El, baby, calm down," Mike said gently. "I promise you, Cassie is okay. You had a nightmare."

Mike watched as El tried to make herself believe his words. It broke his heart to see the terror on her face, but he waited patiently and began to feel relieved when he saw his wife's face start to soften.

"It was so real," El whispered.

She leaned forward, resting her head on Mike's shoulder as he wrapped his arms tightly around her.

"I know, baby, but it's over now," he soothed her, rubbing her back gently.

"I-it was… P-Papa," El said just above a whisper. She felt Mike stiffen, but he continued holding her and rubbing her back. "He k-killed you."

Mike squeezed her tighter and kissed the top of her head. El sniffed and wiped her eyes before taking a deep breath and continuing.

"And th-then… he t-took Cassie," she squeaked out as more tears spilled out of her eyes. "He t-took her because I f-failed him."

"You didn't fail anyone, baby, and it wasn't real. He's dead," Mike murmured, rocking her gently and stroking her hair.

"I f-failed him because I lost my p-powers," El said. "He s-said Cassie is m-my replacement."

"You didn't fail anyone," Mike repeated. "Cassie and I are both safe, and nothing is ever going to happen to her. I wouldn't let anything happen to her, and I know damn well that you wouldn't either."

"You don't understand, Mike," El said, sitting back and looking up at him. "What if he isn't dead, after all? When I was in Chicago-"

"El, that was eleven years ago," Mike interjected.

"So? He could still be alive, Mike, and what if he is?" El asked, her big hazel eyes filling again with tears. "What if he knew I lost my powers all those years ago and he has been keeping an eye on me? What if he saw Cassie, and he knows she has powers of her own? What if this was his way of telling me he's coming for her?"

"El," Mike said firmly, taking both of her hands and looking her square in the eyes. "El, I promise you, it was just a dream… just a bad dream. You've got to trust me, baby."

El stared into his eyes for a long time, and all she saw looking back at her was the love he had for her and the strength he held when she had her moments of weakness. She felt her walls crumbling down, and El let out a sob as she collapsed against Mike's chest and he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed into him. "I'm s-sorry, M-Mike… It was j-just so real, and I was s-so scared."

"I know," Mike soothed her. "You don't have anything to be sorry about. It was just a nightmare."

"W-why?" she mumbled.

"Why what, baby?" Mike asked softly.

El pulled back and looked up at him, her eyes red and puffy from crying and her cheeks stained with her tears.

"I h-haven't had a nightmare in s-so long… why now?" she pleaded for an explanation, and it pained Mike that he couldn't give her one. The last time El had woken up screaming from a nightmare was when she was pregnant with Cassie.

"I don't know," Mike answered softly. He looked at the clock on their nightstand, and his stomach sank when he saw the date above the time which read just a little after two in the morning. "It's July fourth… You lost your powers ten years ago today… Maybe, subconsciously… I don't know…"

El nodded and bit her bottom lip. She knew what he was trying to say. Her dream was about being a failure and not being able to save her family because of the loss of her powers. Of course it couldn't be a coincidence that she had the dream on the ten-year anniversary of losing her powers.

"Will it ever stop?" she asked timidly. "Will I ever not have these nightmares anymore?"

"I don't know," Mike repeated, feeling helpless. "I wish I could tell you the nightmares will stop, but…"

"But I'm going to keep having them for the rest of my life, aren't I?" El finished softly. "Even if they happen years apart."

Mike guided El's head back to his shoulder and hugged her tightly.

"Maybe. There's no way to know," he admitted. "But I know that I'll always be here to get you through every single one of them."

El sniffed and let a small smile cross her lips at her husband's words. She raised her head to say something, but she was interrupted by the sound of a soft, timid voice coming from their open doorway.

"Mommy?"

Mike and El both turned quickly to see their four-year-old daughter standing just outside their doorway, her hazel eyes filled with confusion.

"Cassie, what are you doing up?" Mike asked softly, and Cassie took a couple steps forward into their bedroom.

"Heard Mommy crying," she said softly. "Couldn't go back to sleep."

"Mommy's okay, now, sweetie," Mike said. "Why don't you go back to bed, and I'll come tuck you in again."

"Okay, Daddy," Cassie said and began to turn around before El stopped her.

"Cassie, wait," she called sweetly.

The little girl turned back to face her mother, and El's heart swelled as she looked at her daughter. Cassie's big hazel eyes were a mirror of El's own, and they were the only thing that the little girl inherited from her… other than the powers that were starting to make their appearance from time to time, causing Mike and El to acknowledge that they would have to explore this with their daughter some day in the coming future.

"Come here, baby," El requested, holding her arms out in front of herself for her daughter to crawl into.

Cassie crossed the room and climbed up onto her parents' bed and onto her mother's lap. El wiped her cheeks dry and looked down at the bundle of innocence looking up at her.

"Why you crying, Mommy?" Cassie asked sweetly.

"Mommy just had a bad dream, sweetie," El replied.

Cassie nodded her understanding and looked back and forth between Mike and El.

"I have bad dreams sometimes," she said. "Sleeping between you and Daddy makes me feel better… Would sleeping between me and Daddy make you feel better?"

El's words caught in her throat and she choked back tears at her daughter's innocent suggestion. As tears brimmed her eyes again, all El could do was nod.

"I think that's a great idea, sweetheart," Mike answered for his wife and kissed his daughter on top of her messy black hair.

A smile covered Cassie's thin face, and El beamed at the spitting image of her husband who crawled across her legs to the other side of the bed. Mike planted a kiss to El's temple as the three of them laid down in the bed together.

El snuggled against Mike who held her firmly from behind, and she smiled at the little girl staring up at her.

"Good night, Cassie. I love you," she said softly.

"Love you too, Mommy," Cassie said quietly.

El watched as her daughter's eyes drooped until they closed, and it didn't take long before the little girl's breathing slowed as she fell asleep. Behind her, El could feel the steady rise and fall of her husband's chest with each peaceful breath he took. El certainly hoped the nightmares would come to an end, but if this love is what she would get to wake up to every day, she knew she would be okay.

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A/N: If you guys liked seeing adult Mileven, I can do some more of that in future installments. Just let me know! Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review.