A Promised Remembered

El felt something hot splash against her face, and then another.. It trickled down to the corner of her mouth. Her tongue tasted Mike's tears.

"I lost so much time with you El… so much time..."

She turned in the blanket fort to face him. She looked into his eyes. He looked like he'd been crying a long time. She put her finger on his lips, "shhh. We're together now and that's all that matters. I lost the time with you too, Mike. I am never going to lose you again. Never." And then she couldn't help herself and cried along with him.

He pulled her closer. She was lost in his scent, as she nuzzled in his neck. She fell back to sleep immediately.

About an hour later she awoke and whispered into his ear, "I have to pee"

"Ok." Mike said.

"You have to come with me."

"Uh, I'm not going to watch El."

"Of course not silly, you're going to stand guard."

"Just close the door El, no one will come in if… oh… I see. You still don't like having it closed."

"You remember." She smiled at him.

"You remember everything about our time together... don't you?"

"Every single minute," Mike said, "It's all I've thought about since… you said... goodbye…"

She nodded without saying anything, and got up. He got up with her and stood with his back to the bathroom door that was open about an inch.

"Do you remember you made me a promise?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he looked down, "and I broke that promise to you El…"

"Not yet you haven't."

"I haven't?" Mike looked puzzled and she beamed a smile at him.

"No, you haven't, you are taking me to the Snowball this year."

"I am?"

"You are," she grinned at him. Saw the relief flood into his face.

"I get to keep my promise," he looked down and wiped his eyes El walked over to him and gave him a tight hug.

"You get to keep your promise to me Mike."

"I don't remember crying this much as a kid when I thought Will was dead … and… when I'd lost you… " Mike's voice was shaky. She put her finger to his lips again. "Mike. Look at me."

He looked into her eyes, and she thought her knees would fail her, but she managed to keep standing and said, "We are together now. And we will be forever. That is my promise to you. Do you want to know when I fell in love with you? I was sitting in your La-Z-Boy and you told me to trust you."

Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. "I did Mike. And you made me laugh. I don't remember ever laughing before that day. But you told me to trust you and you made me laugh."

"And then you called me for six-thousand-three-hundred and fifty-two days. You never gave up on me." She couldn't help herself any longer and started bawling like she was twelve again. Mike gathered her in his arms and hugged her until her sobbing lost it's strength.

After a few minutes she said, "are my eyes nice and puffy now?"

"You're eyes are very pretty El."

"Well, your's are too, but they're also puffy." She smiled at him.

Mike shrugged, "I was crying with my… girlfriend, I'm ok telling anybody that." He gave a huge sigh. "It's probably not going to be the last time today. Speaking of, what is the agenda for today."

"One of the things I do for the homeless is help them get re-integrated into society. Get their ID's in order, Social Security Number, all that stuff. I've been preparing for yours for a long time. Dad's gonna pick us up and take us to the county clerk's office. Both of us have to sign some paperwork, between your mom and dad we were able to fast track a lot of this. And then we go to the bank and make sure you can access your bank account. Your mom told me your dad left you with some money to work it if you ever returned. So you're not penniless, but neither of us need anything while we are in Hawkins."

"You've thought of everything."

"It was my job. I take care of all the details so my clients doesn't get overwhelmed." She saw Mike give a huge sigh of relief.

"I wouldn't even know where to begin."

"Exactly, I've got your back, I'll won't leave your side today." She wrapped her arms around his neck and reached up on tip toes to kiss him.

"Ok, let's go."

They left the house and stood outside waiting for her dad. When the Blazer pulled up, Chief Jim Hopper got out.

She ran over to give her dad a hug, he still towered over her. He gave her curly hair a kiss and looked up at Mike, walked over and held his hand out to shake his.

"Sir."

"I owe both of you an apology."

"Dad?"

"For what sir?"

"No adult can understand the feelings you to had for each other back then, especially no parent. You're not supposed to be capable of them at that age."

"But we loved each other dad." She went over to Mike and put her arms around his waist.

"I know, honey, I see that now, maybe a little bit of me did back then too. But seeing you two now, " he shook his head, "You waited for each other for almost twenty years."

"I would have waited forever dad." She looked at Mike but he was looking down, trying to keep his composure.

"Ok, guys, let's go get Mike legal. I brought the briefcase El."

El was busy signing paperwork. She gave a sidelong glance to Mike at various points and one time during the process and noticed that he was over talking to a different clerk. She was getting annoyed that various clerks kept bringing over paperwork for her to sign, and she could see that Mike was also signing paperwork. She was sure she'd done the leg work so that this would have been kept to a minimum, but laws change and lots of paperwork tended to be the end result.

Finally she stood in front of Mike after putting the various folders into her briefcase she held it up to show him. "Everything that proves you exist, is right in front of you."

"Everything that proves I exist I can kiss and she'll smile at me."

That's exactly what she did. Smile. Just looking at him, thinking about him, made her smile. Kissing him, had other effects but it was all good.

Her dad was waiting for them in the waiting room. "We done?"

"One more thing dad, do you have a spare pair of handcuffs with a key."

Her dad held up his hands, "I really don't want to hear this. Not in front of the A-D-U-L-T"

El turned a deep shade of red. "Seriously, dad, that's the first thing you thought of? Besides if we wanted to play cop's daughter captured by the sexy homeless man, we'd need at least two pair, maybe four."

"Ok, ok," her dad put his hands to his ears and said, "I give. I deserved that."

He handed her pair of shiny cuffs, and a keychain with a single small key on it. El immediately put one end on her wrist, and the other on the briefcase. "This is not leaving my sight until they are put in a safety deposit box. Next stop Hawkins Middle and then the bank."

"Why are we going to the school?" Mike asked.

"I made a promise to Mr. Clarke. When I found you, to take you to him."

"Don't you mean 'if you found me'?"

"No, when I found you, " she got up on the tips of her toes and kissed his cheek.

"When."