Mike Wheeler was splintering. He knew it, his doctors knew it, and when he looked into the eyes of his friends, he knew that they knew it too. No number of forced jokes or could hide the sadness that Mike could hear in every laugh, feel in every lighthearted nudge.

Mike didn't need cheering up from them, because he wasn't sad. He wasn't real anything. It was like there were two versions of him, mind and body. It had become either mind or body for Mike, that was the issue. Sometimes, rarely, he was both. Mike Wheeler was splintering, and eventually he was going to crack completely. And then he'd never be whole again.

"-Mike, dude, can you even hear me at all?"

The words dragged mind-Mike back to body-Mike, just enough for him to focus his eyes on the burning white hospital room. Dustin was leaning against the wall opposite him, Lucas was standing by the foot of his bed, Will was leaning his body on the side of Mike's pillows, El was- not there. Absent. Mike could have sworn she had just been there. Where did she go.

"Earth to Mike," Dustin was saying from across the room. "Are you awake right now?"

"Yes," Mike forced out. His tongue felt all-consuming, too large and too dry. Body-Mike. "I'm… Yes."

"Mike, you gotta cut this out," Lucas said as an order, not a statement. "What do we have to do? We'll get Nancy, or Joyce, or Hopper, how do we undo this? Before you spill good, and the government comes a-knocking."

"Government," Mike repeated. Dustin threw his hands up. "I'm fine," Mike said, what he always said when someone had too loud of a reaction.

"Mike, you're scaring us," Will tapped his fingers on a pale hand resting on the bed. Whose hand was that? Will was staring at Mike and started to tap on the hand more insistently. Oh. So it was Mike's, then.

Mike looked up at Will, trying to conjure the words that would make him understand.

"She's close," was all he could manage. Not right. Lucas was shaking his head.

"Son of a bitch." Dustin leaned off the wall and came to stand next to Lucas at the foot of the bed. "Stop talking about you-know-who, Mike. Or the government is going to end you."

Mike frowned. "End?"

"Forget it," Lucas said. "Mrs. Wheeler will be back any second, don't get him riled up."

Dustin groaned and began saying something to Lucas, but Will started talking to Mike at the same time and Mike's brain couldn't comprehend both conversations.

"What does it look like?" Will was saying, voice tight. He gripped onto Mike's hand. Mike squirmed. Body-Mike. "What does it feel like?"

Mike didn't know how to answer, but WIll continued before Mike could tell him that.

"Is it… wet? Sort of slimy? Dark? Can you see it? Can you feel it? Is it watching you?"

It struck Mike that Will was talking in a hushed tone, trying to slip the words into Mike's ear without Dustin and Lucas catching onto them. Will squeezed Mike's hand to prompt an answer.

"No…" he started, and the terrorized fire behind Will's eyes instantly died. Mike didn't know if that was good or bad. Mike was about to continue, ask him what he meant with those questions, but something jolted inside of him and he couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't.

Something was squeezing mind-Mike and body-Mike together, all the way. There wasn't any space for both anymore. Mike felt a burning, but he couldn't tell if it was in his chest or in his brain.

"She's on her way," Mike whispered, gripping onto Will's wrist so tightly Will winced, but didn't pull away. "She's going to come, she's going to come, she's coming."

"I believe you," Will promised. Mike nodded, but wouldn't stop repeating, "she's coming, she's coming," over and over again with wild eyes.

Dustin stood up from his chair in the corner. "Mike, dude, you've gotta stop that." Mike didn't show any sign of having heard him, eyes fixed on Will. Dustin looked to Lucas for assistance.

"Mike, you signed government papers saying you had to keep your mouth shut," Lucas told him, not ungently. "So stop… You have to stop talking about her. Eleven," he hissed, glancing towards the door like government agents were going to come through any second. "Okay?"

For a moment, Mike froze. Then, he squeezed down on Will's wrist so hard Will shouted in pain, and Mike screamed.

"She's coming!" he yelled. Mike fought against the empty air, kicking off the blankets and yanking the IV from the back of his hand. Will tried to force him back into the bed, but even weak and sleep deprived, Mike was bigger than Will, was coursing with adrenaline, and had Will's wrist trapped in a death-grip.

"Mike, what are you doing?" Dustin demanded. "Stop that!"

But Mike would not stop. No sooner had his bare feet hit the tile ground then he was running towards the door, pulling Will behind him like a kite.

"We have to go to her!" he insisted. "We have to find her!"

Lucas grabbed Mike by the shoulder and pulled him away from the door, all three of them sprawling to the floor. Dustin was hitting the call button like his life depended on it.

"She's coming!" Mike screamed, and beat at Lucas with his free hand. Lucas wrapped his arms around Mike and held on as tightly as he could.

"Mike, stop it!" Will ordered. His voice faltered and he yanked his arm as hard as he could. Still Mike would not release him.

The door burst open, smashing into the wall and bouncing back. The nurse in the doorway caught it and slammed it closed behind her.

"What's going on in here?" she demanded, calmly but hurriedly filling syringe and dumping a bottle onto the guest chair.

"Don't- know-" Lucas choked out from the floor. "He won't stop!"

"It's all under control now," the nurse said, even though it was very much not. Mike was fighting, hard, and shouting at them through clenched teeth. "Hold him still as you can for just a moment longer, okay?"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Dustin shouted, flapping his hands. "Wait, don't drug him, don't stick that in him-"

She didn't respond, except to kneel down beside Will and plunge the syringe into Mike's arm. Dustin yelped as if she had stuck him instead and slumped against the wall.

"No… No…" Mike protested, but he was already weakening. Lucas released him and Mike tried to push himself up but fell back again. "Will," he said, and gave Will's arm a weak squeeze.

"I'm sorry," said Will. Mike didn't appear to understand the words at all, eyes already glazed over.

"She's coming," he said again. "You have to be here when she comes. You have to…" He let go of Will's hand and his eyes fluttered closed.

The room stilled. The party and one stranger together in silence. Then, Karen came barrelling through the door, out of breath, took one look at her son and screamed. The nurse hurried to hush her. Lucas and Dustin pulled Mike up, angling his limp arms around their shoulders and rolled him onto the bed, legs hanging off until Will pushed them up. Karen hurried over to his bedside, lacing her fingers through Mike's limp ones.

Nancy came running through the door, pressing her hand to her mouth with a horrified gasp when she saw Mike slumped over in his bed.

"Nancy," Dustin said, and started to reach out towards her. Nancy took a step backwards, nearly stepping out of the room. She hid her face in her hands and composed herself in an instant.

"What are you three still doing here?" she asked almost playfully, as if her brother wasn't unconscious in a hospital bed mere feet away, as if her eyes weren't red rimmed with over spilling emotions. "It's a Sunday night, you have school in the morning. Come on," she said, and waved them out of the room. The boys took one last look at Mike before Nancy swung the door closed.

"I don't know what's going on here," she said, tone changing dark the instant the door was closed. "If any of you know any more than me, tell me now."

They didn't say anything. Dustin tapped his fingers against his arm and Will stared at the floor. Nancy's gaze swept over them, scanning for any hint of suspicious activity.

"Okay," she said. "I'll drive you home. Let's go."

They followed her to the elevator in silence.

Every night after dark, Hopper's trailer would creak and shift, settling into its concrete base. And every night since Hopper had brought Eleven back to his home nearly 2 weeks ago, she had stayed awake all night, unable to sleep through the slightest noise. She was used to windowless prisons, not trailers where the door didn't close all the way and you could hear the wind whistling across the lake even when the windows were closed.

On that Sunday night particularly, El was unable to sleep. She sat by the window, the blinds pulled up once more and her gaze stuck on the half-frozen lake.

Behind her, Hopper had set out preparations for Monday morning. A fresh outfit from a distant thrift store. Car keys. The huge hat Hopper had pulled out from a box deeply forgotten at the bottom of the coat closet. And child's shampoo he had picked up early Sunday morning, with a huge "NO TEARS" label. Hopper had set it atop the pile with a nod to El, an understanding that if she wanted to leave the trailer, the mud caked to her skin had to go.

For now though, the items were forgotten. El was leaning against the window pane, her chin resting on her elbow. She breathed hot on the glass and rubbed to get a better view of the ice.

"Coming," she whispered, a silent promise to Mike Wheeler. She wondered if he could feel her speaking to him. "Ten-oh-oh. I'm coming. Tomorrow.

"Tomorrow," she repeated. The lake was frozen. Eleven touched her hand to her cheek.

Tomorrow.

A/N: Big thanks to everyone who reviewed Chapter 4! It's a major drive to keep me going. Thanks specifically to speedermeen, Alikatt, phieillydinyia, Pondlake, and Guest!

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