AN:

Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter, especially those who followed, favourited, and left a review.

Disclaimer – Neither Stranger Things nor the characters belong to me, which is probably a good thing.

Chapter 2 – A promise from Hopper

Mike awoke early the next morning with bags under his eyes. He had barely slept – in fact, he was surprised he had slept at all. All through the night there were just too many questions running through his mind to sleep, mostly ones revolving around whether El was alive and where she was now. The only thing that finally allowed him to drift off was that he was clinging to the hope that Eleven was alive.

Breakfast was a blur. His mum and Nancy (when had she got back?) kept shooting him looks but Mike was barely aware of them, whereas his dad seemed to be content with just pretending nothing had happened. After breakfast (Mike barely ate anything anyway), Nancy stopped Mike on the way up to his room.

"Mike? Are you okay? Dustin told me what happened last night."

"If you know what happened last night then how could I be okay?" Mike asked of her.

"I'm sorry Mike. I know how it must have felt. Remember you're not the only person who's lost someone."

"She's alive, I can feel it," stated Mike bluntly.

"Are you sure?" Nancy looked doubtful, "Dustin told me she just disappeared and it looked like she destroyed herself and the monster–"

"She's alive," he interrupted.

"Mike, I thought the same thing with Barb," seeing he was about to interrupt again, she pressed on, "I'm not saying not to hold out hope, but don't pin everything on her being alive. It will only hurt you more if you found out the worst."

Mike's eyes filled with tears as he desperately tried not to imagine how he would feel if he found out Eleven was dead. "Mike, I'm here for you if you need me. You don't have to bottle it up."

Mike just nodded stiffly to satisfy her, before closing the door to his room and collapsing to the floor, allowing tears to run down his face once more.

-o0o-

Later that day, Mike was sat in the waiting room at the hospital along with everyone else who was involved in this whole Upside-Down business, plus his mum and dad, and for some reason, Steve. Everyone else except Eleven.

Despite all his melancholy and grief, one thing had managed to break through and create a glimmer of hope in him – he'd received word that Will was alive. Given the events of the last week, Mike wasn't letting himself get his hopes up until he was able to see Will for himself. The world had been so cruel recently that he wouldn't be surprised if this was all a dream and he found out Will was still lost in the Upside-Down. That was why whilst everyone else was relaxed waiting to see Will, or asleep in Lucas and Dustin's case, Mike was just sat there on edge. He'd already lost El, he couldn't bear to lose Will too.

Mike looked up quickly as he saw Jonathan enter the room. The older boy nodded at him and gave him a meaningful look. Mike jumped to his feet immediately, waking Lucas and Dustin by saying, "Will is up! Will is up!"

The three of them ran as quickly as possible into Will's hospital room, and at seeing Will awake and talking to his mum, Mike broke into his first genuine smile since last night.

"Byers!" yelled Lucas in glee, and the three of them ran over to hug their friend.

None of them wasted any time before telling Will about what had happened since he had been missing, and were only stopped by Will going into a coughing fit.

"You okay?" Mike asked him, concerned.

"It got me," he replied, "The Demogorgon."

"We know. It's okay, it's dead. We made a new friend. She stopped it. She saved us. But she's gone now," Mike trailed off, thinking once again about Eleven's sacrifice, causing a lump to form in his throat. Luckily, Dustin snapped him out of it.

"Her name's Eleven."

"Like the number?" asked Will.

"But we call her El for short," Lucas confirmed.

"She's basically a wizard."

"She has superpowers."

"More like a Yoda," said Mike, smiling as he thought about her.

"She flipped a van with her mind!" said Dustin excitedly, then they all began enthusiastically telling Will about Eleven and all the cool things she'd done in the short time she'd been helping them find Will. Mike grew silent after a while though, as his mind was yet again drawn to the moment she disappeared from his life.

Joyce seemed to notice something was wrong and gave him a look filled with worry. She said something quietly to Jonathan, then motioned to Mike to follow her out of the room. Mike followed and she led him down the corridor, stopping just round the corner from the waiting room.

"Are you okay Mike?" she asked. Mike, deciding to be honest, shook his head. "Is it about Eleven?"

Mike nodded this time, and Joyce pulled him in for a hug. Mike froze up, not expecting it, but accepted it nonetheless and tried to take some comfort from it.

"I think she's alive," he told her, "I don't know why but I just know. She has to be."

Mike expected her to try to explain to him that he shouldn't get his hopes up, but instead she just nodded at him and said, "I believe you. That's the exact kind of feeling I had with Will. Everything pointed to him being dead, but I just knew in my heart that my little boy was alive. And I was right! Never give up hope Mike, if you believe she's alive, then I believe she is too; and one day, you'll find her."

Mike gave a small but grateful smile to his friend's mum. She understood! And she was right about Will, surely that meant he could be right about Eleven too! Mike hugged her again and whispered, "Thank you." If only his mum could be more like Joyce.

"Hey, you should talk to Hopper. He was amazing at finding Will and when he puts his mind to something, he doesn't give up! If there's anyone that can help you find Eleven, it's him." Mike nodded again, grateful for her help. "I'll go get him now," she promised him. Just thirty seconds later, she appeared back round the corner with Hopper, smiled at Mike, then left again in the direction of Will's hospital room.

"Hey kid, how you holding up?" asked Hopper. Mike just shrugged, not wanting to have another conversation about how he was feeling. Fortunately, Hopper accepted that answer. "Joyce said you needed my help."

Mike took a deep breath. "I need you to help me find Eleven." Hopper raised his eyebrows and waited for him to elaborate. "I know she's alive, just trust me on this one. I just don't know where she is. I'm afraid she might be alone and lost, without anywhere to live or anything to eat. What if she's in the Upside-Down? And she was really exhausted from using her powers last night, she might need medical attention! And what if –"

"Woah kid, slow down! I can't make any promises because we can't be sure she's alive, but I will try and look for her, is that okay kid?" Mike nodded. "Good. Just promise me you won't go looking for her yourself. Even if she killed the monster, who's to say there aren't more of them out there? We all need to be careful."

Mike wanted to argue but he knew it would get him nowhere, so he just nodded and stayed silent.

"Can you tell me anything about her, anything that might tell you where she might hide if she were scared?"

"I don't know, we found her in the woods when we were looking for Will and then she kind of just stayed in my house for most of the time. She really likes Eggos, if that helps," said Mike, clutching at straws, "Do you have any ideas?"

Hopper looked to be conflicted over whether to say something or not, but he eventually seemed to make his decision. "I think I need to start searching near the lab. That's where Eleven was raised by Doctor Brenner. Even though she was raised in a horrible way and trained to become a weapon, she might still return there since it's where she's familiar with."

Mike tried to hide his surprise at the new knowledge about Eleven's childhood. "Can you tell me if you find something, like any leads or anything?" Mike asked desperately. Hopper looked reluctant, so Mike pressed on. "If you do then I swear I won't go looking for her myself."

The police chief sighed. "Fine. I'll keep you updated, just leave the searching to me."

"Promise?"

"That's a promise, kid. I'll find her, trust me." Hopper said sincerely. Mike smiled gratefully as the police chief clapped him on the shoulder, then walked away.

When Mike got home from the hospital, he made his way down to the basement and gazed longingly at Eleven's den. He already missed her and it had only been a day. He allowed himself to replay all the memories of Eleven's stay here in his head: when she'd almost stripped in front of everyone, when he had given her the nickname 'El', when she had used the radio to find Will.

That's it! The radio! If Eleven could use it to find Will, maybe she would be able to hear it if he used it to send her a message. Brimming with excitement, he hurried over to it, pulled the antenna up, and began to speak.

"Hey El, it's– it's me, Mike. I– I miss you already. Are you okay? I'm sure you're alive, I just know you have to be, don't worry, Chief Hopper is looking for you now and I will too once the bad people stop watching my house. We're going to find you. We told Will about you today – he's back by the way! He's not very well at the minute, but he'll get better. Hopefully we'll find you or you'll find us soon and you can meet Will, I promise you'd like him. If you can hear this, you can send me a sign if you like, so I know. I'll be waiting for you back home, and then we can have fun and play Dungeons and Dragons and go to the Snow Ball! Just– just leave me a sign – so I know you're okay. Anything." Mike waited for around forty seconds but nothing seemed to be happening. He sighed, feeling gloomy all of a sudden. "I'll call you again tomorrow El. And the day after that, and the day after that. I won't give up on you. Come home to me El."

-o0o-

The next day, Mike was not thrilled to discover he had to go into school. He had figured that due to the events of Saturday night, the school would need to be shut for a while, due to the needs of cleaning up, but also the fact that there were several dead bodies inside, some of them killed by Eleven, some of them killed by the Demogorgon.

However, clearly this whole thing was being covered up. They also must have done a spectacular job removing any and all evidence of what had transpired there just two days ago in order for it to be considered fine for students to go back already.

Regardless, Mike simply wasn't in the mood to go back to school so soon. How was he supposed to concentrate on learning when his every thought was centred around Eleven? He had tried to explain this to his mother, but she had just waved him away and refused to listen, saying he had missed enough school recently but now Will's back, he hasn't got an excuse.

As usual, Mike met with his friends to cycle in (barring Will since he was still in hospital) however unlike usual, their ride was almost silent, with all three of the boys seemingly lost in their own thoughts. Mike noticed his friends' faces darken as they reached the school too. It seemed they weren't so keen on returning to the place they'd fought a Demogorgon and watched El sacrifice herself two days ago either.

A few minutes later, the boys found themselves approaching Mr Clarke's classroom, the place where Eleven had made her final stand against the Demogorgon to save them all. Dustin and Lucas shuffled in, their eyes trained to the ground, whilst Mike paused in the doorway, eyes sweeping the classroom. It was clear that whoever had done the clean-up of the school had done a remarkably good job with just one day to do it, there was no evidence that anything out of the ordinary had transpired in this classroom at all, especially not in the last 48 hours.

Being in the classroom again though, Mike couldn't help but replay the events of Saturday night over again in his head, and feel what he felt again. The panic when he thought they were all going to die, the concern when Eleven got up to face the Demogorgon herself, the helplessness when he was pushed to the back of the classroom, the despair as he watched Eleven sacrifice herself, and the feeling of his heart breaking when he realised she'd disappeared, and he'd shouted out for her until his throat got sore.

He snapped back to reality though as he noticed a lot of his classmates staring at him in confusion or amusement, or concern and understanding from Lucas and Dustin, so he went and sat down, trying his best not to break down in tears in front of his whole class.

This was going to be a long day.