Note: This chapter picks up fast and heavy right where we left off, so I'd recommend scrolling back and taking a quick read of the end of the last one to plunge into the mood.

"STOP! YOU'RE HURTING HIM!"

El was beginning to panic.

Her head was spinning. Nothing was making any sense at all. Because for some reason Mike was in her cabin. And her father was wrenching Mike's arms behind his back and cuffing him in the middle of the entry way?!

Mike stumbled and winced as the metal clicked around his wrists, his dark hair falling into his eyes. Hopper patted him down with a rough hand, digging his wallet from his back pocket and tossing it on the table so hard that it almost skidded onto the floor. Then, he all but threw Mike onto the chair at the end of the table.

"DAD!"

"Lock the door, kid." Hopper replied with a deadly quiet intensity. He did not take his eyes off of Mike.

"What's going on?!" El demanded for what felt like the hundredth time.

"I said, lock the door!"

El didn't want to listen at all. She wanted to put a stop to all of this. She wanted to break Mike out and ease the terror in eyes. She wanted to intervene for real. In ways that only she could.

But one thing kept stopping her: Her father's expression as he had jumped out of his truck.

She had only seen that look on his face a handful of times, but each time had something very important in common. They were all bad times. Dangerous times. High stakes life or death times.

And for some reason... he was looking that way at Mike.

Mike's dark eyes were wide upon her, terrified, silently begging for her help. So, it was with a heavy pang of regret that she found it within herself to pull her eyes away from his and do as she was told. She walked to the door, flipped the series of locks, and locked them all inside of the cabin.

Only then did her father speak.

He turned to Mike, leaning on the table over him until Mike almost had to look directly up to meet his eye.

"Who do you work for?"

It was a simple question, but it instantly made El's blood turn to ice.

"I'm a grad student?" Mike said with trembling lips, "I teach intro classes."

"In what."

"Physics?"

Her father scoffed, "And who do you work for?"

Mike sent yet another pleading gaze to El, "I-I swear, I just teach at the University of Indiana. It's just a student job. For my Masters. El? Please, I - "

"Hey!" Hopper snapped his fingers in Mike's face, "You're not talking to her. You're talking to me. Now, I'm going to ask you again. Who do you work for?"

Mike looked back up to Hopper, panicked confusion growing thicker on his brow. "I - I don't know what you mean..."

Hopper tossed his hands in the air in an explosive gesture, making Mike lean back to avoid them. "You don't think that's suspicious?!"

"I don't know what you mean!" Mike strained desperately.

"Sure you don't," Hopper sneered with a snide laugh, "You don't find it suspicious that you crashed your car out in front of my house years ago, and now you're calling my police station looking for my daughter the very same week that people are hot on her tail?! And you're a scientist!? Gotta say, Wheeler, that sounds like a load of horseshit to me. So I'm going to ask you again - Who do you work for?"

"I don't know what you want me to say!"

"...Dad?"

Each word her father had spoken was falling upon her like a heavy weight. A question that she desperately wished not to know the answer to now laid hot and blistering upon her tongue. She looked at Mike once again, trying to make sense of it all for herself, but she was failing. She looked back at her dad and choked it out.

"...Who is he?"

"Oh, she doesn't know!?" Hopper barked dramatically at Mike. "I'd've thought you would've told her if this wasn't all some ulterior motive. Color me shocked!"

"What? No! It's not like that!" Mike cried. "El?!"

"I'll tell you who he is, kid! Whatever you do, don't let him leave that chair."

Hopper stormed off to the other side of the small room, making a beeline to the tallest bookshelf.

"El."

Mike spoke her name in the most tense whisper. It was intimate in its urging. Something deep within her, a fear that she didn't want to voice, urged her not to look at him. She was too afraid of what she might find in his eyes. Yet, she couldn't help herself. She looked up to find him leaning toward her, everything within him still begging her for help. "This is all a - "

"You don't talk!" Her dad barked back, pointing his finger firmly at Mike.

Mike's mouth snapped shut. With shortened breaths, he sat back.

Metal scraped and drew El's splintered attention back to her father. He was on his tiptoes, reaching to the very top spot above their tallest shelf, right beside her bedroom door. A thin metal lock box materialized in his hands.

El had never seen the box once in her life. Yet, she immediately knew what it held…

Her breath began to grow shorter as her father dusted the box off with a heavy hand and brought it to the table. It made a scratching thud on the table as he dropped it down. With thick fingers, he entered a series of numbers into the lock dials and pried the box open. The contents were nothing more than a small collection of manila folders. He flipped through them, reading the chicken scratch letterings that adorned each of the tabs. He plucked a folder out from the middle and slammed it down hard on the table. He backed up, faced her, and gestured to it as an invitation. "Take a look, kid."

She met Mike's gaze once more. Her frantic heart, beating so fast it was making her dizzy, searched his eyes.

Nothing about him seemed like a threat…

And yet…

With trembling hands, El moved to the table and picked up the folder. She slowly folded it open.

Inside was a thin stack of papers.

The first page - a photocopied hospital admission record…

5/25/2016 9:47PM

Name: Holly Wheeler

Age: 13

Gender: Female

Injuries: Blunt force trauma to the head, broken wrist.

Cause of injury: Car accident.

Notes: Ms. Wheeler was in the front passenger seat of a vehicle, without a seatbelt, as brother (Michael) was driving and hydroplaned, causing a collision with an unknown object. Ms. Wheeler's right skull made injurious contact with the passenger side window.

El didn't need to read anything else to understand.

She looked up to Mike with a ragged breath. He stared back at her unsure. Helpless. A deer frozen in headlights… just like he had been that night. In a flash it was like she had gone back in time. She knew it wasn't possible, but she could almost see him there. Through the rain that had poured down as his car careened. Through the blinding high beam lights launching in her direction. Through the foggy windshield. Straight to him. To Mike - frozen in her power as she stopped him from colliding with the tree at the front of their house.

He had seen her.

Mike had seen her.

Mike the physicist… had seen her.

"Mike…?"

"El, I didn't kn - "

"So I'm gonna repeat!"

Hopper's bellow shook her, making her drop the folder to the ground. So much more undigested information was now scattered at her feet. He leaned back into Mike, leaving her no room to speak. "This is pretty damn fishy, don't you think?! You see her out there? Then you show up in her life? And only then, out of nowhere, everything miraculously goes to shit?"

"El -" Mike pleaded, ignoring her father entirely, his dark eyes only on her, "El, I don't know what's going on but - ."

Hopper swooped in, blocking his eye line. "Who do you work for?"

"I told you! I'm a grad student at the University!" Mike cried. A snap of frustration boomed through his words, "Will you just let me talk to her!?"

"Who are you working for?" Hopper pressed again.

"Let him talk!"

Hopper's attention bolted to her. He held up his hand to warn her to stay back. "Just one minute, kid." He said fervently, narrow eyes begging for her compliance, "Trust me." He turned back to Mike and chewed his lip hard for a second, almost as though he was stopping himself from his first instinct. Finally, he took a deep breath and leaned back into his interrogation. "Okay. So you don't want to answer that question? Fine. I'll change the question."

Mike breathed a sigh of relief, "Good. Please, I - "

"Who was at El's house two nights ago?"

The sharp frustration in Mike's gaze dropped away in an instant.

In its place, something else bloomed in his expression.

Something terrified.

Something… guilty.

El's breath caught in her throat.

"Who was it?" Hopper repeated, hard and cold.

"El, I -?"

"Answer me!"

"It was me, okay?!" Mike cried to Hopper, "But -!"

El gasped, "You were spying on me?!"

"No!" Mike cried, cursing under his breath. "El, it's not like that! I promise. I don't - "

"What do you know about the records office?" Her father pressed on.

Mike's eyes bulged in surprise.

El stumbled, breath shallow and pained, backing away from him until she ran into the couch. All the while, the truth written plain as day on his face smashed directly into her chest.

Hopper raised to his full height, triumphant. "You gonna talk now?"

Mike sat silently for a moment, frozen in some kind of shock. His lips moved and sounds came out, but he could not seem to make words. All of the blood had fallen from his face. He looked ashen.

Trapped.

"Listen…" he finally croaked, "I think I can see what you're getting at, but you've got it all wrong. It's not like that. El, I promise." He turned to her again but this time she looked away, "I figured it out on my own."

"Figured out what?" Her dad challenged.

"Who El is," he said quietly, "What- what she can do..."

"And what can she do?"

"That she's telekinetic. She can manipulate energy."

A strangled noise cut from deep in El's gut as the words, such damning words, cut into her like glass.

He knew...everything.

"H-how?" The question fell with choking shock from her lips. It was the last thing she ever should've said. She should've denied it - Laughed it away - Invalidated it or something… but hot sticky fear was shooting through her, wrapping like vines around her heart, and within it she could not lie anymore.

Mike turned to answer her, his eyes maddeningly soft. He held her gaze with a sense of care that she desperately wished she could trust, "Do you remember when you blew out lights at your house?" He asked, speaking only to her as though her father wasn't even in the room at all, "And it was the same at the bar the night we... you know?"

Of course she remembered - She remembered everything that came before, during and after - Every breath - Every feeling that had cracked through her body…

"I'd been trying to figure out why it was all happening. I thought there was something fishy going on with the electric company or something. I got kind of obsessed with solving it, which is - " he shook his head, ashamed, "Which is stupid, I know. But I - I didn't think it was you. Of course I didn't. Why would I? But then..." Mike sighed. His gaze cut to her father with palpable hesitation before he focused back on her. His voice grew even lower. He leaned toward her as though he wished he could tell it to her as a secret. "You turned off all of the lights in your house the other night while you were sleeping... with your mind..."

"WHAT?!"

The word bellowed from El's lips. Her eyes popped open in abject terror.

"There's a LOT of holes in that story, Wheeler!" Her father cut in quickly, rounding attention away from her and back on him.

"It's what happened, I promise!" Mike exclaimed. "I'll tell you everything. Just- El, please. Listen to me. I am so so sorry. I didn't mean for it to spin out like this. No one was ever trying to hurt you."

"That's what they all say," Hopper growled, "No one has ever been trying to hurt her. But you people - with your research and your plans - you just don't get it! You - "

"I told you!" Mike cried, desperation thick in his words, "I don't work for them! El, I'm not one of them. I - "

"See, here's where I know you're full of shit!" Hopper cut in, defiance booming in his voice, as he slammed his hand down on the table. "Because how do you know who 'them' is?"

"I - No!" Mike shook his head intensely.

"Yeah," Hopper replied with his trademark cocky sneer. "You thought you'd be able to sneak that one past me with your innocent smart guy act. But we know you weren't working alone."

"What?" A new element of confusion filled Mike's gaze.

"You weren't at the records office," Hopper said simply. "A woman was. So, I'm going to ask you again - who do you work for?"

"That was Joyce Byers," Mike replied with incredulous frustration, all without a second's hesitation.

"..."

El didn't know what to make of anything anymore. The whole room was spinning. What was up was down. ...But that still didn't stop her from noticing how her father's anger simply dropped from his face at the mention of the name 'Joyce Byers'. El had never heard the name once in her life, but it seemed to hold enough power to make his entire machismo act vanish into thin air in the space of a breath.

Her father blinked a couple times, seeming to collect himself, before he stuttered a stilted, "J-Joyce... Byers?"

"Yeah," Mike nodded adamantly, "She said she knows you. Or, knew you, I guess. She's my best friend's mom. I've known her most of my life. She's the one who told me about the lab."

"...and what does... What does Joyce know about the lab...?"

Mike seemed grateful for the question. He scooted in El's direction, trying again to connect only with her. "Joyce, that's Will's mom. She told me that the thing that happened on your porch and at the bar? It also happened at her house. You know, with the lights? Her's was a really long time ago, but still. She said she was always convinced that it had something to do with how close she lived to the lab." He looked back to her dad and continued, "Joyce said she came to you when it happened at her house, but you blew her off and wouldn't help her."

"Okay, now. I - " Hopper said, holding his hands out in front of him with a burst of defensiveness.

"She was convinced that there were some crazy experiments going on there," Mike continued, turning back to El, "I didn't think about it much at first. But after, you know, after you... turned off the lights in your sleep? It all kinda started clicking."

"So… you're saying Joyce Byers was at the records office," her father restated slowly, not allowing El any chance to reply. "Why?"

"She was helping me look into records about the lab."

"And what were you going to do with this information?"

Mike didn't reply right away, but he never took his eyes off of El. "I'm not going to do anything with it." Mike said quietly. "I just wanted to know what was going on, but I didn't have any plans. I stopped digging days ago, anyway."

"Why?" El found her voice could go above a whisper.

Remorse was settling in his expression. "I realized I'd probably scared you at your house. It became really obvious that what I was doing was wrong."

"YA THINK?!" Her father bellowed. He kicked a chair out of his way, making both El and Mike jump once again. He patted his pocket, found nothing, and then made his way to the ancient phone on the wall. "This all sounds like a load of horseshit," he mumbled to himself as he input a series of numbers into the pad. As it rang he turned to Mike, fixing him with a challenging stare. "Hey, it's Hopper," he said into the phone. "Can you connect me to Joyce Byers? Yeah, I'll wait."

Hopper leaned against the wall, staring Mike down. "We're gonna see if your shitty little alibi holds any weight."

And for the first time Mike did not seem intimidated.

A female voice muffled through the phone after a few rings. Her father stiffened at the woman's voice in the oddest way, and when he spoke his voice held something… uncomfortable. "Hey, Joyce? Hi," he stumbled, "It's Jim. Uh, Jim Hopper?...Long time, Yeah… Actually, yes. I am calling about Mike... Right. So, uh, do you know why he wants this information?" He nodded a couple of times as the woman spoke, humming along in understanding, "...and you were helping him because you wanted to know if what was happening in Indy was the same thing that happened in your house? Okay. I -" The woman's voice rose in intensity on the other end of the phone. Her dad stiffened, his eyes pressing shut in discomfort. El couldn't make out the words, but it was clear that she was… not happy. "Hey now. Okay, look. I'm sorry I did that but… but this doesn't really have to do with that. I - "

The voice cut off abruptly on the other end of the line.

Hopper stared at the phone in his hand for a long moment, his jaw slack in disbelief. Slowly, he hung it up and turned back to Mike. He had to shake his head for a second to regain his focus.

"None of this explains the fact that you're the same guy who saw her out there years ago."

"That's a coincidence!" Mike said with plain clarity, "Believe me. I didn't know myself until I pulled up today."

Hopper snorted. "I find that hard to believe."

"I believe him."

The men both turned to El, and this time her dad didn't butt in to interrupt her.

El had stood within the flurry of all of the yelling. All of the cold truths being admitted into the air. All of the sickening realizations she didn't know how to make sense of. But through it all, one thing was crystal clear.

"He was in shock when I found him out front," she said, eyes focused on her dad, "He was standing by the tree and… he didn't seem to know what to make of it. He told me I'd saved his life. I didn't know what he meant but… I know now. He didn't know, dad."

Hopper huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked from El to Mike and back again. Finally, with a heavy sigh, he spoke.

"You have nothing to do with the lab."

Mike shook his head 'no' in a vigorous manner.

"You're just some overly curious idiot who got his nose too deep..."

Mike shook his head 'yes' in a vigorous manner.

Hopper rounded on him in a burst of energy. Mike leaned back all the way in his chair as the hulking man got straight in his face. "If you're telling the truth then you made one HELL of a mess," Hopper threatened, "And if you're not telling the truth then I will BURY YOU in the backyard myself. So you better tell me now! Are you leaving anything out? Because I WILL find out if you're lying and you will have hell to pay."

"I've told you everything." Mike said emphatically. "I promise."

"We'll see."

Hopper scooped Mike's wallet up from the table, rifled through it, pulled out a driver's license and dropped the rest of the wallet back down. Then, he made his way to the front door. "I need to go ask Mrs. Byers some more questions. Get her side of the story. If even one piece is out of place your ass is grass. And I'm running this while I go," he said, waving the license, before he looked back at her, "El. Don't let him leave. We're not done here."

Every lock snapped open with a heavy click, as though Hopper was taking his anger out on each of the metal fasteners. Finally, the last one unlatched and he flung the door open, barreled out, and disappeared.

The breeze from the light wind outside caught her hair as the door slammed. It slid softly against her cheek.

It was the only sensation within her that made any sense at all.

Because everything else was too much. Flooding through her in an avalanche.

Enough to terrify her.

Enough to make her feel naked and exposed in her own home.

Enough to break her heart.

Quiet fell upon the room as the door slammed shut. And Mike sat heavy within it. The sharp metal of the handcuffs was digging into his wrists with no end in sight, but that pain was the furthest thing from his mind. The truck revved outside of the window, crunching against the gravel until it hit the road and its engine faded away. Leaving everything in complete, thick silence.

It had been one thing to deal with her father, his intense interrogation and accusations. But this? El? This was much worse.

She stood in the middle of the room, eyes still on the door long after her father had gone. She looked… hollow. Eyes glassy, unblinking. Breath shallow, hardly rising and falling within her chest. Hands stiff and unmoving. Pained. Lost.

And so so small.

The home that she stood in was a shabby old place, small and cramped. Old furniture with exploding stuffing. An ancient television and TV. Shades were drawn over every window, blocking the world out and leaving the wood paneled room feeling dark and cramped. Four separate locks adorned the front door.

Nothing about the place felt like a home.

It felt more like a bug out shelter.

And by the look of El's clothes, rumpled pajamas in the late afternoon. Messy hair. Sallow complexion. He felt almost certain that that was what it was.

It didn't take a genius to read between the lines of her cop father's interrogation, and the true reality he was sitting in.

Mike tried to get himself to speak, but no words could be found. There was nothing easy to say to mend the mistakes and miscommunications that were lying stagnant in the air between them. He wanted nothing more than to just go to her. To comfort her. To beg her to believe him that everything was okay; that she was safe. To tell her how relieved he was to find her. How scared he'd been for her. How much he'd missed her, despite only knowing her for just three weeks. To tell her he hadn't just known her for three weeks, but he felt like he'd known her for years.

In fact, he had.

Her face, foggy and hard to place, had haunted his dreams, and his waking life, for three years.

El was the missing piece.

He owed his life to her.

"El…?" he could only find the courage to voice her name.

Her attention snapped to him with cold awareness, and only in that moment was it clear to him the softness he had gotten so used to seeing in her eyes. The warm radiating care that she had showered him with from day one. The vulnerability she had shared with him, with sweet smiles and blushing cheeks.

That was long gone.

Instead, she scanned his face as though she were putting him through a threat assessment.

"Be honest with me." She forced the words out through gritted teeth, "Do you work for them?"

"No," he breathed, "I promise I don't."

She swallowed hard, as though she was afraid of the next words she was about to speak. "Then how do you know about… them?"

Mike scooted forward on his chair, hands still pinned behind his back. "El, I promise you I only learned about all of that stuff in the past week. And I probably have it all wrong, anyway. Everything I found is just Reddit threads and conspiracy websites. Mrs. Byers, Will's mom? She was the one who was convinced it was all related and when I told her about your house and the bar she got me thinking. And then I just… I don't know, I looked up a few things and I got caught up in it."

El paused and took a long steady breath. Eventually her eyes fell shut. Her hands began to wring against each other. Her voice was dangerously tight when she spoke "So, if you don't work for them... then I've been in hiding for two days... because of you."

Her words hit him like an arrow in the chest.

Her eyes popped back open and naked pain burst from her like a surge. "I trusted you!" She yelped, her hurt so palpable he could almost feel it hit him like a wave. Her hands dropped in a slap against her legs as she began to pace, her words coming out increasingly in hiccuped gulps, "Do you realize I had to abandon my home? My job!? Because you were sneaking around? You tripped almost every red flag we have. We thought…we thought that they..." she shuddered, rounding back on him, fixing him in an icy stare. "You promise me this was just you."

Mike's chair scraped on the floor as he instinctively rose to meet her, but she stepped back away from him, her eyes darkening in warning for him to stay back. "El, I am so sorry," he stuttered, halting his feet, but still desperate to be heard, "I promise it wasn't them. It was just me. I was at your house, and I know all about the records office. It was so stupid of me. I realized what I was doing was wrong the second I could tell you heard me on your porch."

Her lips pressed into a hard line. "Yet, you're here." She challenged him coldly, unswayed, "You knew how to find me. And you were driving a car here, when you told me you can't drive?"

Mike shook his head, "It's not like that. I promise. Max had the address," He took another step toward her and she took another step back, "El, I've - we've been worried sick about you for two days. You just… vanished. We almost called the police in Indianapolis to report you missing but Max decided we should try to get a hold of your dad. She gave me this address. And I promise you, this is the first time I've driven in like... three years? That's Will's car outside. I just…" he shrugged helplessly, "I just took it. We thought you were missing and I was getting really scared that something terrible had happened to you and I just, I don't know, I needed to do everything I could to make sure you were okay. So, I just took his car hoping I could find your dad. Please believe me."

The anger in El's gaze faltered just the slightest amount. "You drove here to check if I was okay?"

"Yes. I've been… El, I've been really worried about you."

"I - " El tore her eyes away and huffed out a heavy breath, before she gasped and looked back up with fresh fear, "Does Max know?"

"No." Mike shook his head adamantly. "I haven't told anyone. Everyone just thought I was studying the power plant in Indianapolis."

"You can't tell anyone about this," she stuttered, her lips shaking, tears starting to fill her eyes. "Please."

"I won't. I promise. I understand."

"No!" she barked, emoting cutting from her fresh, "You don't understand! You have no idea how dangerous - how much danger I'm - " Her breath was coming in heavy heaves. She was beginning to shake, words were starting and dying on her lips.

She was panicking.

"El, It's okay. Listen to me -"

"You're not supposed to know!" She bellowed, agony filling her eyes, before she rounded back on him, "You can't tell ANYONE! Do you understand?"

"Yes. I'm so sorry. El, I understand," Mike moved closer, yet she backed away once more. "I haven't told anyone and I won't tell anyone. Okay? I'll pretend like I never knew any of this at all. No matter what..." helpless tears were beginning to glisten in his own eyes now, "I fucked this whole thing up, and I am so sorry. I never meant to scare you. Please, you can trust me."

"I thought I could!" she spat, unmoved, "But you spied on me!" Her words knocked his retort right out of his mouth. "What were you even planning to do with the information if you figured it out?"

Mike took the question to heart, and when he spoke his answer felt so small, so naive, "I - I just wanted to help you." He found himself saying quietly.

"Help me with what?" she demanded.

"Help you... control it, I guess?" he replied humbly, no longer able to look her in the eye. "I don't want you to hurt yourself, or anyone else. Look, I don't know exactly what's going on with you but, you know, this is what I study. And I thought maybe if we did some tests and - "

El's sharp gasp cut him off. "You wanted to experiment on me!?"

"What?! No!"

"Do you think I'm some monster who needs to be fixed!?" She cried, her breath coming faster and faster until Mike found himself stepping back from her.

"El, no! It's not like that at all!" He pleaded, "Can we talk about this?"

"Talk about which part?" she growled, "The fact that you spied on me? Or the fact that you were planning to experiment on me?"

"El, it's not like that! I - "

"I was falling for you!" - She screamed. A tear finally broke free, cascading down her cheek - "I thought you were different! But you're just like all the rest of those - !"

And like a tripwire, she snapped.

The light above Mike pulsed bright in a quick sick burst.

Mike ducked on instinct, goosebumps erupting on his flesh. "El," he whispered, backing away, "El, I'll - I'll do anything to fix this. Just tell me what you need me to do."

She stood in heavy silence for a long moment, pulling herself under control. She held his gaze, and in her eyes he could see an avalanche of pain and fear that he could hardly even begin to comprehend. "No one finds out." She said in a cold whisper. "Do you understand?"

"I won't tell anyone." he replied, with serious conviction. "You have my word. I promise, El. I will keep your secret safe."

"Good."

And then, she twitched. Just like she had three nights prior while she was lying asleep in his arms.

And the handcuffs that encircled Mike's hands? They simply fell open, clattering to the floor.

Mike gasped, his eyes bulging as the silver metal as it collided with his shoes.

He looked up in awe, but found her staring not at him, but at the door.

"You need to leave."

"El." He begged.

"I'm doing you a favor," she said plainly, jutting her finger toward the door, "Take it. When my dad gets back you'll be right back in cuffs, so just take the chance now and leave."

She held him firm within a deadly cold stare. Her eyes were stained with tears, belying the emotion beneath her demand, yet it was abundantly clear. She would not be swayed.

He still had so much he needed to say! So many apologies. So many explanations. And beyond it all… so much thanks. For, within this terrible surprise for her... was a miraculous one for him.

But pushing her was not right.

Feeling himself shrinking, Mike relented. With a final look at her tear stained face, he followed her command. His legs carried him out through the door. In numb shock, they led him down the long driveway in the darkening twilight. Into Will's car. Turning on the ignition. Pulling a u-turn in the exact spot where she had saved his life, and changed his life, all those years ago.

And somehow, he managed to drive home. He didn't panic about the driving. He didn't even think about driving. He had bigger things on his mind. Broader truths. Heavier regret than he could even begin to comprehend.

Mike had been right about a lot of things.

But along with his validation came with a horribly bitter taste.