A/N: Welcome back! I have a short one for you today, but I missed writing innocent Mileven stories, so here we are. I hope you all enjoy it, and please remember to leave me a review!

Nighting Ryder: Thank you. Glad you enjoyed seeing Nancy. Let me know if you want to see more appearances by other characters!

Shrike176: I'm glad that you enjoyed the last one. It was definitely fun to write!

Mike and El: Aw! Thanks, I'm glad you liked it so much!

CalvinHobbesGatsby: Thank you, I am so glad to hear that.

Jane Eleanor Wheeler: Thank you. Sweet and funny is the best combination.

UnoPeso22: Thank you. Wholesome Mileven is one of my favorites to write. I enjoy some good drama, but these little wholesome moments have my heart.

Phieillydinyia: Thank you!

Afanofstrangerthingsandstuff: Thank you. I like to cover a wide variety of topics, so I'm definitely glad you enjoyed it!

NoDownSide: To your reviews for chapters 4 and 7, chapter 4 was one of my favorites to write! It was so fun. And in chapter 7, no real reason for the name being Cassie. Just a name that I kind of liked and would be realistic for a baby born in the 90s.

Liya: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it, and I hope we get to see some of this in Mileven too!

Setting: Spring 1985, between the events of seasons 2 and 3.

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

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Mike hit his knees on the cold, hard hallway floor next to Eleven's motionless body. His heart was pounding in his chest as he gently shook her, hoping she would open her eyes and be okay.

"She's barely breathing," he said to Dustin and Lucas who were right next to him. "We've got to go!"

"Leave her!" demanded a voice that sent chills down Mike's spine.

Mike, Dustin, and Lucas stood up, turning to face the thin man with silver hair walking toward them.

"Step away from the child," he demanded.

"No!" Mike exclaimed, the adrenaline coursing through his veins making him sound more confident than he ordinarily would. "You want her? You have to kill us first!"

"That's right!" Dustin agreed, stepping forward next to Mike.

"Yeah, eat shit!" Lucas added

Suddenly, the three boys were grabbed from behind by men much larger and much stronger than they were. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas struggled against the arms that held them, and Mike watched in horror as the bad man crouched down next to Eleven and lifted her face up so it was level with his own.

"Eleven? Eleven, can you hear me?" he asked in a calmer tone that still made Mike's skin crawl. "Eleven?"

"Papa?" came El's soft voice, and Mike struggled even harder against the arms that held him back.

"Yes, yes it's your papa," Brenner said in his most soothing voice.

"Get off of me!" Mike screamed at the guard. He saw El turn her head toward him, but Mike was fixated on the man holding her. "Let her go! Let her go, you bastard!"

Brenner turned El's head back toward himself, and Mike fought with all his might against the guard holding him back as El started to whimper in fear of the man touching her.

"Shh, you're sick. You're sick, and I'm going to make you better," Brenner said softly. "I'm going to take you back home where I can make you well again, where we can make all of this better, so no one else gets hurt."

No. Mike couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let this bad man take her anywhere. He had to get to her, had to save her, had to protect her.

"Bad," El said softly, looking right at Brenner. "Bad."

Mike's heart clenched in his chest as El turned toward him again, reaching her arm out for him.

"Mike," she called.

Mike pulled and kicked and tried as hard as he could to free himself from the arms containing him, but he just couldn't break free.

"Mike," El called again.

He was desperate. El was scared and needed him, but Mike couldn't get to her.

"Mike!" she cried out once more.

Then the lights started to flicker. Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Brenner, El, and the guards all looked around the hallway, an eerie silence falling over them.

"Blood," Mike uttered, the realization striking him that the blood spilled on the floor had attracted a deadly beast from the Upside Down.

Suddenly, Mike was hit with a wave of déjà vu. He had seen this before. This was the part when the demogorgon would burst through the wall, and the guards would let him, Dustin, and Lucas go while they try to shoot the monster. Mike would rush to El, Dustin would pick her up, and they would run away. Then El would defeat the demogorgon and disappear for 353 excruciatingly long days, but she would come back to him. Mike breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the wall, waiting for the demogorgon to break through.

He furrowed his brow as the seconds passed and the wall remained completely in tact. It was taking too long. It should've happened by now. Suddenly, the lights stopped flickering, and Mike looked back at Brenner who turned to face him with a snarl on his lips that made Mike's stomach sink.

"Not this time," Brenner sneered.

"NO!" Mike screamed as Brenner pulled El into his arms and began walking down the hallway away from him.

"Mike!" El continued to cry desperately from Brenner's arms as he walked away carrying her.

"EL! EL!" Mike hollered after her, still struggling against the guard.

He tried and tried to get away, to run after her, to save her. But he couldn't. All Mike could do was watch Brenner walk further and further away until he and El disappeared from sight, while Mike struggled helplessly to chase after her.

Then, Mike couldn't breathe. His chest tightened, his head started spinning, and his breath became short, desperate gasps for air. She was gone. El was gone. He couldn't save her, and now she was back with the bad men. And it was all his fault. The world kept spinning and spinning until Mike saw only darkness.

Mike woke up with a deep gasp for air, covered in sweat. He looked around his room, trying to convince himself that everything was okay, that he was safely at home in his bed, and that it was just a bad dream.

"El," he whispered, panic filling his chest again as he remembered Brenner walking away carrying her.

He reached toward his bedside table until his fingers felt his walkie, and he pulled it to himself. Mike pressed down the button and spoke urgently into it.

"El? El, do you copy? El, are you there? Over."

Several miles away, El Hopper was peacefully sleeping in her bedroom, safely in the secluded cabin that had become her home. She began to stir, and her eyelids fluttered as she was slowly pulled out of her slumber by her favorite sound: Mike's voice.

"El, please, if you're there, say something."

Panic filled her own chest at the urgency in his voice, and she grasped the walkie Mike had given her for Christmas from her nightstand.

"Mike?" she said into it. "Mike, it's me… I'm here."

Back on Maple Street, Mike let out a long sigh of relief and closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against the walkie.

"Thank god," he muttered to himself.

"Mike? A-are you there?" came El's voice again, sounding unsure.

"Yeah," Mike sighed into his walkie. "Yeah, I'm here, El."

"Mike… what is wrong?" El asked, and Mike could almost see her forehead creasing in concern.

"Nothing, I just… I wanted to hear your voice. That's all," Mike replied, hoping she would believe him.

"Mike… friends don't lie," came El's mantra.

Mike sighed and laid back against his pillow. He should have known El would read right through him. He just didn't want to worry her.

"Mike… did it… happen again? The bad dream?" El asked softly when Mike did not respond.

"Yeah… It happened again," Mike said into the walkie.

There was no use trying to keep it from her. He had tried to keep it from her the first time it happened, just days after they were reunited at the Byers' house. But El was relentless, and she could tell something was wrong. Mike had given in and told her about his bad dream.

For Christmas, when Mike had given El her own walkie, he had told her that she could use their own special channel – channel 11, of course – and call him any time she needed to. El had told him the same thing.

Since then, this was the third time Mike had awoken El in the middle of the night by calling out to her through the walkie in a panic. El's heart broke for him each time.

"It was that night… in the school hallway," Mike said quietly. "It was like I was reliving it. But then, the demogorgon didn't come… And he took you, and I couldn't do anything to stop it or to save you. And you were just gone."

Mike felt tears welling in his eyes as he played his dream over and over again in his head.

"But, he didn't take me, Mike," El's soothing voice came through his walkie. "I'm right here, and I'm okay."

"But what if…" Mike stopped, his lip quivering as he held back his tears. He didn't want to speak his fears out loud and scare her.

"What if… Papa comes back for me?" El asked quietly, as if she read his mind.

"Yeah," Mike breathed into the walkie, squeezing his eyes closed as the first of his tears escaped.

The day after they had reunited at the Byers' house, El had filled Mike in on everything, including her trip to find Kali. When El told Mike about the vision of Brenner that Kali had made her see, the realization set in that Brenner still being out there could be a very real possibility. It had not left Mike's mind since.

"I can't lose you again, El, and I know I wouldn't be strong enough to protect you," Mike admitted. "I just… I guess my biggest fear is you being in danger, and me not being able to save you."

El was silent for a long time, and Mike stared at his walkie, holding his breath and hoping she was still there.

"You already saved me, Mike," she said gently. "And you won't lose me."

Mike smiled as she repeated her promise to him that she had made on the Byers' front porch that night. He sniffled and wiped the tears from his cheeks.

"I just wish the bad dreams would stop, you know?" Mike asked.

"I know. I wish yours would stop… I wish mine would stop," El said quietly.

It felt like a blow to the stomach when El mentioned her own nightmares. This was only the third time that Mike had woken El up after having a nightmare, but she had woken him up at least twice a week since getting the walkie for Christmas.

"I'm sorry, El," Mike said, feeling guilty and selfish for complaining about his nightmares that happen much more infrequently than El's. "You have it way worse than me. I shouldn't bother you with this."

"You never bother me," El said firmly. "I want you to tell me when you have bad dreams… It makes me feel… like I am not alone."

"You're not alone, El," Mike assured her. "You'll never be alone."

"Neither will you," El said.

Mike smiled again and laid his walkie on his chest, feeling that his heartrate had returned to normal.

"Do you feel better?" El asked, and Mike chuckled at how in sync their thoughts were.

"Yeah. You always make me feel better," he replied.

"Good," El said, and Mike could hear the smile in her voice through the walkie.

"I should let you get back to sleep now," Mike said, sadness creeping into his voice.

"Are you coming over tomorrow?" El asked slowly, and Mike could tell she was trying not to sound overly excited.

"Of course. I'll be there right after school lets out," Mike replied, and then he sighed. "I wish I could be with you now, though."

It was true. Even though hearing El's voice had put his mind at ease, Mike knew the likelihood of him falling back asleep tonight was low. He would not feel completely at peace again until he was able to see her, hug her, hold her, feel her in his arms, smell her hair, taste the Eggos on her lips.

"I wish you could, too," El said, and then she got an idea.

Back in the cabin, El stood from her bed and crossed her bedroom floor to the window. She pushed her curtains aside and slid her window up, letting the late night breeze roll in.

"Mike, open your window," she said into her walkie.

From his place in his bed, Mike furrowed his brow in confusion at her request, but he did not question it. He stood from his bed to unlock and open his own window and sat back down on the edge of his bed, the breeze making him shiver as it blew inside.

"Okay, my window is open. But why?" he asked.

"Can you see the moon?" El asked.

Mike craned his neck to spot the big white ball in the sky.

"Yeah," he said.

"What does it look like?" El asked, and Mike furrowed his brow in confusion again.

"Uh, round? It's, uh, a full moon, so it's just a big white ball," he explained what he saw.

"It looks… foggy, I think… to me," El said, and Mike smiled. She was looking at the moon, too.

"Yeah, like a thin cloud is passing in front of it or something," Mike agreed.

"Yes," El said. "Can you see all the stars? There are so many of them."

"I can't see as many as you can because of the streetlights by my house," Mike said. "But there's a really bright, shiny one, just to the-"

"To the left of the moon," El finished for him.

"Yeah," Mike smiled.

He leaned back against his pillow, feeling a warming sense of calmness knowing that he and El were looking up at the same night sky.

"It is almost… like… you're here," El said quietly.

Mike smiled as he pulled his blankets back up to his chin and laid on his side, facing the moon out the window.

"Almost," he said into the walkie. "It will have to do for now."

In the cabin, El laid back in her own bed and pulled her blankets tightly around her, laying on her side so she could face the moon out her window.

"El, thanks for talking to me tonight," Mike said, his eyelids beginning to feel heavy, and El could hear the sleepiness creeping into his voice. "I'm really glad I can call you when… when bad things happen."

"You can call me any time," El said softly. "I will always answer."

"I know," Mike said as his eyes finally closed. "Good night, El."

"Night, Mike," El replied softly, her voice being the last thing Mike heard before drifting into a peaceful, uninterrupted sleep.

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A/N: I have one in here where Mike comforts El after a bad dream, and the idea of El comforting Mike came to me during a nap today lol. So, here it is. I hope you liked it. Please remember to leave me a review. Thanks for reading!