This chapter contains what I consider a missing scene. Why was Alexei so okay with going back to Hawkins, where Grigori was looking for him, for what he considered a suicide mission? I try to make sense of it here.

Chapter 8

The Americans conferred and then gathered around the phone. Alexei laid down. He was tired, and nothing they were doing made any sense. Despite all their yelling, he managed to nod off. He was dreaming about walking through the park in Pripyat when someone shook him. He gasped and jumped. Had they found him? No. It was Joyce.

"We've got to go. Vroom vroom. Back to Hawkins. Come on." He was too sleepy to resist and followed her.

It wasn't until he was in the back seat of the car that it connected. "We're going back to Hawkins?" he asked Murray.

"Yes."

"We can't do that. Grigori is looking there."

Murray relayed the message. "Who's Grigori?"

"The one who shot up Hopper's truck. He will kill us if he finds us." He shrugged. "Maybe not you, Murray. But only because he doesn't know to."

"Charming fellow. I'll tell them, but don't get your hopes up." He translated. "Nope, we're going for their kids."

"Kids? What do kids have to do with this?" He groaned. "Just leave me here. I gave you everything you wanted, but I'm not going to die for you."

Murray relayed Hopper's response. "You're not going anywhere, Smirnoff."

Alexei tried to open the door. Bailing out on an unfamiliar road wasn't a good option, but it was better than being delivered back to Grigori. Were they somehow working with the hitman? No, that didn't make sense, but how did anything they were doing make sense? The door was locked.

"If we go back there, we die. Do you not understand that? Maybe you don't care about your life, but I care about mine! I did everything you wanted, just let me go!" He wasn't giving Murray time to translate as panic took hold, but he didn't care.

He half-expected Hopper to pull over and rough him up, but it was Joyce who finally yelled. "We have to go back for my son!"

Alexei stopped and waited for Murray to translate. "Her son is a spy?" he asked. Joyce didn't look old enough. Murray shook his head. "Just a kid," he responded.

Alexei leaned forward and touched Joyce's shoulder. "You don't understand. They're not interested in kids. The key's not going to hurt anyone. Grigori wouldn't – well, I can't say he wouldn't hurt a kid, but he doesn't have any reason to."

Joyce listened to the translation. "No, you don't understand." She sighed. "About two years ago, that portal opened by accident. There was a monster on the other side. It took my son. We barely got him back alive. And I am so afraid that you've given it another chance to finish him off."

Nobody had mentioned a monster to the scientists. Perhaps the spies didn't know. Maybe she was making it up. No. That was why the Americans weren't using the portal. "Oh shit."

She shook her head. "If you can tell us how to get down there, you don't have to come. But we have to close that portal. No matter what."

Alexei let it sink in once Murray had finished his translation. He'd had own sense of unease as the portal opened, but he'd dismissed it because he couldn't afford to disappoint Grigori and Stepanov. He squeezed Joyce's shoulder. "I will help. But we need to work on a better plan."

Hopper swatted his hand away from Joyce. Alexei looked at Murray and shrugged. Murray handed him the papers he'd written on before and urged him to go over it again. The keys, the vault, the code. That part was simple. He hadn't even gotten to the armed guards and the fact that there was only one entrance when Joyce and Hopper were screaming at each other again. He sighed. They were all doomed.

Murray had had enough, though. He yelled something at them, and then silence reigned.

"What was that?" Alexei whispered when Murray had finished.

"I told them they should have sex," Murray answered.

"They have not had sex?" It was obvious that both were interested.

"No." Alexei snorted, and Murray laughed too. Then they were laughing more and more as the other laughed. Joyce gave them an annoyed look, but Alexei couldn't stop. After listening to them fight all day, he was entitled to find some humor in it.

It made sense, though. Why Hopper had hated Joyce's attempts to communicate with him and been so eager to show his physical dominance. He was going to take his horns to any rival males. Which was ridiculous, since human mating typically involved talking first, at least in his experience, and all he and Joyce had managed to do was exchange names and establish that the magnets were broken.

Once they quieted down, Alexei found himself looking out the window and wondering. Under different circumstances, he might have tried to impress Joyce. She was an attractive woman, even after all of the sweaty hiking, and she'd been kind to him. But he had no idea if they had anything in common, or if they might like each other. If she liked big brutes like Hopper, she wasn't going to see anything in him. He shook his head. It was the least of his problems.

He wasn't surprised when Hopper ordered Murray to stay with him in the car. He probably needed to talk to Joyce, and while Alexei couldn't understand them, he also wouldn't be any help finding children he'd never met. Still, he found himself looking back to catch glimpses of the lights. It reminded him of the park with the Ferris wheel in Pripyat. He'd been a grown man by the time the city was founded in 1970 – much too old for childish things – but he'd always enjoyed walking by when he visited his mother, after she took a leadership job at the plant. The children's freedom to play made him feel a little lighter, a bit less constrained by the rules of silence around his work.

Murray suggested they could sit on the back of the car after going over the plans. Alexei appreciated that. He couldn't help smiling as he watched the lights twinkle, though he wished he could get close enough to see the people. He looked over and saw Murray looked amused, watching him watch the fair. "They have things like this in the USSR?" he asked.

"Similar things, yes."

"You have a family there?"

"Parents, and a brother. Never met the right woman."

Murray shrugged. "Maybe you'll find one out there." Alexei laughed. "When they come – the military – we're going to do right by you. Tell them you helped us out."

"I would appreciate that."

They sat for a moment and watched the fair. Alexei closed his eyes and thought. These Americans weren't perfect, but he liked Murray and Joyce. He didn't want anything to hurt them. He grabbed the papers.

"Haven't we gone over this enough? Vault, Planck's constant, keys, turn it off," Murray said.

"And why all this?" Alexei asked. "If I turn the keys, it's like turning off a car. But then the car still works, does it not?"

"Yes," Murray said, clearly not seeing where he was going.

"And do you want the car to still work or do you want it to explode?"

"I want the car to explode," Murray shrugged.

"Good. Then do this. Just make sure you are nowhere near it when it does. It is not pretty. Turns people into dust." He thought of another accident and shuddered. "And then-"

"It's over," Murray finished.

"And I become an American citizen and join in the fun, yes?" It was a silly thing to want, he knew. There were so many other things he needed to be concerned with. But after so long underground, it seemed like a fantasy to walk among so many happy people, under lights of every color.

Murray smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "Who said you had to be an American to join the fun?"