A/N: Hello, everyone! Thanks so much for the feedback on my first chapter. :) I'm currently reading all of your reviews and I should have replied to them all by the time this story is up. Thanks for all of your name suggestions and voting on the sex of the baby! I'm taking note of everything and I'm liking a lot of the ideas you guys are giving me. I'm still accepting entries so if you still want to submit something, I would encourage you to do it!

I was creating an outline for this story and I'm not fully finished just yet (there are details that I haven't been able to flesh out yet), and it's looking like this story might be around 15 chapters long... That might be my longest fanfiction yet! I have summer school starting up soon, so I'm hoping I can try to get this finished before then and just update every week. If there starts to be more space between updates, that's likely why. I'll definitely warn you guys when I can foresee any issues.

Oh, also, I noticed that someone else did this is their fanfic and I guess I should too. Just so everyone knows, there will be spoilers of some of the extra Stranger Things material (like the novels or the comic books). You don't have to be familiar with those things to read and understand this fic, but that's just a warning. lol

Without further ado, here is chapter 2!

Thursday, May 14, 1987

"This is insane. You know that, right?"

Sometimes, Nancy really wished that Steve would just shut up for once. They had just left the convenience store for the third time, but unlike what they had done over the last two days, Steve wouldn't just be dropping Nancy off back at the office. As the light turned green, the dark caramel BMW rumbled back into motion. The expensive machine which was once pristine and irresistible to all the high school girls back in the day was now a little rough with age, but Steve didn't mind that much. He had become more independent in recent years, rooming with Robin in an apartment not too far from their workplace. Of course, that independence meant he was more or less cut off from his family's money which meant that he couldn't just get a shiny new car whenever he wanted, but the old 733i was still perfectly usable and he took care of it as well as he could. It ran smoothly at least, which Nancy was thankful for with her now sensitive stomach. She was holding together quite well, but something about the urgency in Steve's voice made her feel worse.

"Steve, not now," she responded, her annoyance mixed with light nausea. "Please. I am really not in the mood for a lecture."

"I just, I can't believe this," he continued, shifting into the right-most lane in anticipation for a turn. "I can't believe you haven't told him. You took three tests already!"

"And each test only has about a 99% success rate, Steve," Nancy snapped. "Or at least, that's what they claim on the box. A false positive is not impossible."

"Okay, but you've taken three tests and they were all positive. Three tests, Nancy! How likely is it that you're part of the 1%?"

Nancy didn't bother telling him that after three times, the chance of a false positive was actually drastically lower than that. She didn't want to think about it anyway. "Look, it's not like I'm never going to tell him. I just want to be absolutely sure when I do."

"But why are we going to Planned Parenthood?" the confused man asked, giving her a short look before his eyes returned to the road. "I mean... you're not gonna... you know... without telling Byers..."

"Of course not!" Nancy replied, trying to hard to hold back her irritation with the dingus beside her. She tried to remember how he hadn't hesitated at all whenever she called even though he was definitely going out of his way. Steve was being a good friend even if it annoyed her. "Planned Parenthood is not just an abortion clinic. They provide sexual health services of all kinds and–" she was getting off topic. "Whatever. The point is that I would never make a decision either way without talking to Jonathan first. I just want to know about all of our possible options before I break the news to him."

"Or you're stalling."

Nancy's head snapped in Steve's direction. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Steve sighed and pushed his head into the driver's seat head rest, his perfectly coiffed mane eternally flawless regardless of the circumstances. "Nancy... How long have you two been together? A few years now? I'm really not understanding why you're not happy. I mean when you first told me the test was positive, I thought you'd be thrilled, but then you weren't. And then we came out here again and I thought, 'Okay, she's nervous', but now, I'm starting to think that you're just scared to tell him... And I can't for the life of me figure out why."

The car was silent before Steve continued. "Look, I mean... Jonathan loves kids. At least, I think he does. Have you seen him with the brat pack? He's pretty good with them if I do say so myself. He might be their second favourite," first place, of course, Steve would award to himself. "If it makes you feel better, I could totally see Jonathan being happy with a bunch of rugrats just hanging off him. He just seems like..." Steve shrugged and tapped the steering wheel, looking for the right words. "I dunno. Father material? Is that something people say...? Whatever. He strikes me as very family oriented, especially with everything that happened to Will."

There was more silence. "Nance, what's up? You two aren't having a fight or anything, are you?"

"No," she replied quickly, staring at her knees in front of her. "No. That's not it."

The young woman beside Steve breathed in deeply. She really didn't want to get into it right now, but Steve was her friend and he had already come this far. In the eyes of friendship law, he would definitely be an accomplice in this whole plot at this point. He may as well know the whole story. Nancy trusted this guy with her life, but she couldn't quite open up that can of worms herself just yet, so she left out the details.

"We had plans, Steve," she admitted, propping her thin elbow up on the lip of her window and cradling her face with her hand. "We had all of these plans for the future and I don't know what'll happen to them now."

Steve glanced sympathetically at her from the driver's seat then back at the road. "I'm sure you guys can figure something out. I mean, you were legitimately the smartest girl in our graduating class. If the past few years have taught me anything, it's that you're resourceful and you and Byers are like... a team? Peas in a pod? I dunno. You guys came up with that idea to booby-trap the Byers house years ago and you always did the detective work back when we were dealing with weird shit. You guys just mesh together. I know you can adapt to anything and I'm sure Jonathan can too. He'll change his plans. You know him. Family always comes first."

She paused before responding. "That's the thing. I don't want for him to have to change his plans."

For the first time that day, Steve was stumped. As hard as he tried, there just wasn't anything he could say that would solve that problem. He flicked on his blinker to signal a left as he thought for a moment.

"You should let him decide though, shouldn't you?"

The brunette turned to him again. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you should let him decide what he'll do," he repeated. "Life happens, Nance. Plans always change and you can't stop that. Let him sort out what's most important to him and he'll continue accordingly."

"S-Steve..."

"You know, you say that you don't want for Jonathan to have to change his plans for the future, but you really don't know. Maybe Byers isn't as rigid in his planning as you think."

"Steve..."

"I mean, possible TMI, but if you wanted a guy's perspective, any time you nut in a girl, you gotta expect the chance it might go south. Pill or not."

"STEVE!" Nancy yelled urgently, causing her friend to jump.

"What?!" He could only afford her a glance, but that was all he needed to take in how suddenly pallid and sweaty her face had gotten. Finally, the nausea had won and Steve had spent enough time partying in high school to know when someone was about to blow chunks. Before she said anything, he was already scanning the road for somewhere to stop.

"Pull over."

Saturday, May 16, 1987

"Yeah, mom. I don't know about tonight."

Jonathan glanced back into the living room from where he was on the phone in the hallway. They had just finished their lunch of leftover casserole, but poor Nancy just couldn't keep it down. As he stood talking to Joyce, she was nursing a large bowl of tapioca pudding on the sofa and watching Magnum, P. I. For some reason, it was the only thing she ever seemed to want nowadays and the only thing she could eat consistently without throwing up. They used to keep little lunch packs of it around in the apartment, but it was never a really go-to snack. They would always opt for banana bread (with walnuts, as Jonathan preferred) or brownies or something else that was cheap and delicious to tame their sweet cravings, but Nancy was all about tapioca pudding now. Once, he found her awake at 4am, standing over the kitchen stove in her panties and one of his t-shirts, making an entire batch of instant pudding so that she could scarf it all down herself. Jonathan liked pudding just fine, but the amount she made to eat made him want to gag. Not Nancy, apparently. Banana bread and brownies tended to make her sick now as did many other foods, which meant that they'd been missing the weekend dinners at the Byers-Hopper residence for the past few weeks.

"Oh, again?" asked Joyce, her disappointment apparent in her voice. "Is Nancy alright? She's been sick for weeks now."

"The doctor says it's just a stomach flu," the young man explained. "Should go away soon. He gave her something for it."

"Hm, I don't know," his mother responded. "Jonathan, I think you and Nancy should get a second opinion."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"It just... doesn't sound like a stomach flu to me, Jonathan. You know, sometimes these doctors don't consider all of the possibilities."

Jonathan looked confused as if his mother could see him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Joyce hesitated. "Where is Nancy anyway?"

He looked behind him to check even though he already knew there was only one place she could be. Sure enough, there was his girlfriend, half-way through her bowl and fixated on an exciting chase scene.

"She's in the living room... Why?"

"Is she eating that pudding again?" Joyce asked.

Jonathan froze. How did she know that? "Uh..."

On the other line, Mrs. Byers inhaled deeply. "Jonathan, be honest with me now... Have you two been..." she glanced into the next room over to make sure that Will and El were in fact outside with the rest of the kids and not playing with the Atari. Regardless, she still spoke in hushed tones when she returned to her eldest son. "... Using protection?"

Jonathan let out a surprised, "Mom!", and winced. Nancy looked over from the couch and he gave her a reassuring nod before her attention returned to the TV. He shifted around from one foot to the other uncomfortably before continuing softly.

"Yes, we do use... that."

Joyce shrugged. "Well, I don't know. Maybe it is a stomach flu, but it sounds like... well, pregnancy."

Jonathan stared incredulously at nothing in particular. "What? No way."

On the other end, his mom put her hands up in front of her as if he could see what she was doing. "I'm not an expert, but I've been pregnant twice and I've got a feeling. Call it women's intuition."

He chuckled a little. "Oh come on, mom."

"All this tapioca pudding she's been eating..." Joyce smiled, a few memories dislodging themselves and seeming to materialize in front of her. "You know, you made me eat like an animal!"

"Oh really?" her son grinned.

"Yes! I have never eaten so many canned peaches in my life," Jonathan was laughing now, so she continued. "I never wanted real peaches. It was always the canned ones... And it wasn't even just any kind either! I only wanted the Del Monte ones they used to sell at Kohl's back when it was just a grocery store."

"So is that why I love your peach cobbler so much?" Jonathan asked playfully.

In the living room, Nancy had just finished her bowl of tapioca pudding and was trying to scrape any remnant of it into her mouth with her spoon. She just couldn't get enough of it. Nancy had already demolished every snack pack of the stuff in their home, but thankfully, the instant stuff was cheaper and made bigger helpings anyway. Just as Magnum, P. I. was ending, Jonathan got off the phone with his mom and joined Nancy on the couch.

"Hey," he said, taking a seat beside her and draping an arm over her shoulders.

"Hey," she replied, placing the empty bowl on the coffee table and then leaning into Jonathan's body. "Was everything okay?"

Her boyfriend nodded. "Yeah, mom's fine. She wants us to come over as soon as you're feeling up to it."

"Aw," Nancy sighed. "I feel bad that we haven't gone in so long."

"Don't," he smiled and laid a kiss on her forehead. "Don't worry about it. Mom understands."

Nancy smiled into his chest. Even in the early days, Joyce had always been supportive of their relationship. The two of them were never exactly good at hiding the fact that Jonathan often sneaked his girlfriend into his bedroom at all hours of the night where they would talk until morning, make out, or otherwise pleasure each other in the way that new lovers do. Joyce was aware and she was pretty cool about it. She would give her son knowing looks some mornings when he would run off to his car as if Nancy hadn't climbed out of the back of their old single-story dwelling and wasn't already waiting in the passenger seat for him. The day after, a box of condoms mysteriously appeared on the desk of Jonathan's bedroom and they knew the jig was up. When he came out of his room to go to the kitchen, Will wore an expression of little brother's disgust and Joyce straight up asked if Nancy wanted to join them for dinner. After that day, they just used the front door and all was well because Joyce loved that they had found each other. Since they moved out, she would half-teasingly drop hints like 'don't you think hydrangeas would be perfect for a bouquet?' and 'oh, such-and-such is so lucky to have grandchildren!' into conversations with her son. There was no question that Joyce had been missing the two of them these past few weeks, but she wasn't the only one. The second that the family moved back in to Hawkins, Will and El made a point to visit the apartment as often as they could. Mike would often accompany them and sometimes the other kids would be there too, but it was such a small space that they usually preferred to see Jonathan and Nancy whenever they visited the much larger Wheeler residence. Hopper liked seeing them when they were at the Byers-Hopper house as he found the Wheeler residence too froufrou for his comfort. Nancy noticed he was settling into blended family life just fine, but what surprised her most was the attachment El had developed to both the Byers brothers. When the three of them were together, it was easy to forget that they were not blood siblings. At the thought of the now teenaged Eleven, Nancy looked up at her boyfriend with a worried look.

"So, is El doing alright?" she asked.

Jonathan turned his head away from the TV to meet her gaze. "Yeah, sounds like it. Mom says she hasn't had any episodes recently."

"That's good," she replied but her inquisitive mind wouldn't let it go. "Do they have any idea what could have caused that?"

The dark haired man shrugged beside her and breathed in deeply. Truthfully, he had been worried about his almost step-sister ever since he moved out and she had her episode not too long after. "Hopper spoke to Dr. Owens about it, but there really aren't too many people we can ask about El's powers. Owens said he'd look into it on our behalf, but that's about the best we've got right now."

Nancy sat up slightly to look Jonathan in his eyes. As soon as she did, he could see the gears turning in her gaze. "There aren't many people associated with Hawkins Labs who are left around, and of those people, there aren't many we can trust, but didn't El say there were others out there like her?"

"Well, yeah."

"I bet if we could find them, they might have answers."

"I mean, sure, but how would we do that?" he asked. "It's not like they've got a section in the phone book."

Nancy bit her lip pensively. She had no idea how many like El were out there, but chances were they kept a low profile. Even with the one young woman who El had connected with, she had to be lead to her through what remained of the fragments of her mother's mind. She could maybe use her astral projection powers to find the others, but it seemed cruel to put her through that given that something strange was happening with those same abilities. That could be a last resort. There had to be something an average person like Nancy could do.

Unsatisfied, she snuggled back against Jonathan's chest. "Yeah. You're right."

And that was the end of that conversation, but as he squeezed her shoulder, the young man knew his girlfriend well enough to know that her mind was still racing through all the possibilities. He tried to turn his attention to the TV then, but something was tugging at his thoughts. Looking over Nancy's body, Jonathan's mind drifted back to the conversation with his mom. There was no way his girlfriend could be pregnant... right?

Sunday, May 3, 1987

The first thing he became aware of was the night sky. A sight like this was not typical in the bustling city of Indianapolis. It was a big blue tapestry which stretched upward to an unfathomable eternity dotted by billions of shining lights that you would never know were actually fiery giants up close. His consciousness still cloudy, he could still remember the taste of her rouged lips as the two of them clumsily shoved themselves into the back of the taxi. He couldn't quite remember her name – he couldn't even remember if it was what she'd whispered into his ear under the boom of the loud club music around them – but the way she moaned underneath him when his fingers entangled themselves in her blonde locks and wrapped her legs around his midsection were unforgettable. He tossed crumpled wads of cash at the uncomfortable driver before he and his new lady friend made their way into the dingy little hotel room on the outskirts of the city. As they exited the cab, she said something to him. He must not have heard her through the haze of alcohol. It didn't matter soon because she just started feverishly kissing him again in the elevator until they almost missed their floor. She was sucking on his earlobes as he drunkenly tried to find the hole for the key and the two of them stumbled in when the door finally opened. They backed away from the closing door and toward the bed to get straight to business. His hands began clawing at her clothes, trying to get her out of them as soon as he could. As the man kissed his way down the woman's neck and cleavage, he noticed a beautiful aqua-coloured stone hanging between her breasts. The way the light danced about it, it almost looked as if it were made of a delicate droplet of water. Just then, the woman placed her hands around his head and pulled his lips back up to hers, her legs spreading to welcome him in. He pulled back then to get a good look at her and an ear-to-ear grin spread across his face. It was at that moment that he heard a clicking noise.

"Alright now," a strange male voice said making the man's blood run cold. "You've had enough."

The last thing he remembered was a loud popping sound, a searing pain in his back left side, and then a moment of bewilderment at the woman before him, who wore not a look of shock or fear, but instead a solemn expression. After that, he blacked out.

Suddenly, the world seemed to come back into view as the man's consciousness returned. There she was – the woman from the club, fully clothed and walking just beside him as someone else dragged his body across a field. He tried to move even despite the horrible pain in his side, but to his horror, he found he was bound and gagged. The helpless man looked at the woman directly in her eyes and tried to scream to for help or perhaps for mercy, but she wouldn't even return his gaze. His heart pumping fast, the man panted and sobbed against his restraints.

"Shut the fuck up, begotten scum," growled the male captor who was pulling him along, turning swiftly to hit the man in the head with something hard and metallic. Now bleeding from both his forehead and his midsection, the man just panted weakly, afraid of being abused again if he made too much noise.

"He wouldn't make so much noise if you would let me kill him," the woman said to the other man, sharply and in a hushed tone.

"What? And miss out on having a little more fun with him?" the male kidnapper's smirk was almost audible.

The victim could see the woman shake her head under the moonlight and when they stopped, she knelt down to his level, acknowledging him for the first time after their brief tryst. Her eyes reflected a kind of sympathy.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "It's not your fault. It'll be over soon."

The male kidnapper laughed darkly. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did I interrupt something back at the hotel? Were you actually starting to fall this guy before?"

"Fuck you, Cass," the female kidnapper snapped back.

"Enough," said a second male voice, this one deep and far more commanding than the first. Given any other situation, this man might have sounded warm and almost fatherly, but right now, it was all the victim could do not to wet himself at the sound. The other two captors immediately stood at attention to this new male presence. "We are to dispose of him quickly. Those are our orders."

The first man twitched slightly almost as if to quickly stuff his disappointment back down his throat before it had a chance to come out. The woman felt triumphant, but didn't dare break her collected demeanour. "Yes, Brother," they said in imperfect unison.

The more awe-inspiring of the two men turned then to their captive. He had been busy at work while his kidnappers conversed and he had finally succeeded in steadying his heart rate enough for his battered brain to focus. The man closed his eyes, fixating on the ambient sound of the wind, and brought himself back to that familiar state. In his mind's eye, he stood in a forked hallway, the walls seemingly made of an impossible solid abyss, which terminated in three heavy ornate doors. The man stepped closer, the shallow black water splashing beneath his feet, and touched the metal handle on the middle door. Taking a breath in, he turned it to enter the room which would contain the mind of his most authoritative captor, but as soon as he put pressure on the handle to move, the man's hand was struck with what appeared to be a small bolt of green lightning. Confused, he tried again only for the same thing to happen. The door refused to be opened. The man stepped back and frantically tried the other two doors to no avail. He tried turning despite the mounting pain of the mysterious electricity, but still failed. This had never happened before. Why couldn't he read them?

The victim's eyes flew open to see his kidnappers again in the outside world, a familiar greenish light glowing faintly on their chests just underneath their clothing. He blinked in confusion, heart pounding faster, blood dripping down one nostril. The poorly tempered one glared at his captive in the darkness. "Pathetic."

"I'm afraid it's no use," the woman murmured.

"Go now, Siblings," the leader commanded softly, taking his attention away from the panicked victim. "The pyre is ready."

"Should I shoot him first, Brother?" asked the woman quickly as he began to walk away. Her partner shot his glare at her this time.

The second man turned again to face them. "Burn him. We must finish quickly. We've attracted enough attention at it is."

And with that, he seemed to disappear into the emptiness of the night just as swiftly as he had appeared. The sadistic one grabbed their whimpering captive with the same glee as a child grabbing what they know to be a brand new gaming system on Christmas Day.

"Well, looks like we don't get to play today, friend," he said through grinning teeth while the more merciful one let her shoulders drop. "But hey, it'll be a good show."

A/N: Well, I guess y'all just got a little taste of the violence that might be present in future chapters. lol Just so you know, it'll probably get worse than that at times, so please use your discretion.

Please keep the feedback coming! It helps inspire me to write. :D