"Shit," Hopper said, turning in circles in the center of the children's ward, feeling very much like a lost dog. He took careful notes of his surroundings as he went, memorizing locations faster than an interior designer on a time crunch. "Shit, shit, shit shit shit. Fuck! Shit."
Usually, he tried to watch his language around El. She ate up new words like a sponge, and he certainly didn't want her wandering about at 13 years old with the mouth of a sailor. People noticed those kinds of things. He didn't want Eleven noticed at all.
"Shit," Hopper repeated again. He didn't have to watch his mouth anymore. It didn't matter. Because he had specifically told El sit in the plush chair in the hallway and wait for him. He'd been gone barely 10 minutes, on completely unavoidable business. But none of that mattered.
What mattered was that El was gone.
30 minutes earlier
Hopper rounded the corner quickly but trying not to look like he'd just somersaulted off the set of a Bond movie. It wasn't too difficult, because El was gripping the bottom of his coat like a blind rat. Hopper had never seen a spy movie where the sidekick was a 13 year old with super powers.
Or maybe he was the sidekick. Hopper didn't know anymore.
"Oh sh- Darn it," Hopper muttered, and yanked Eleven back around the corner. "What are they doing here on a Monday at 11 am? Doesn't anyone in this town have anything to do with themselves? Work? School?"
"Who?" El stuck her head out around the corner to peak. Hopper pulled her right back.
"Karen and Nancy Wheeler," Hopper said in a hiss. He had a tight grip on El's wrist and she wriggled to get out of it. Hopper let her go and pointed around the corner as casually as he could. "Sitting in the chairs by the big desk, see?" El's gaze laser focused when she spotted them.
"Nancy," she said. Hopper nodded.
"Yeah, and the woman next to Nancy is Mike's mom."
El's face softened and her eyes grew big. "She's tired," El placed, studying the bags under Karen's eyes and her frizzy hairstyle. "More tired… Than in the pictures."
"The photographs in Mike's house?" El nodded. Hopper put an arm around her shoulder and walked El out of the Wheeler's view. "Yeah, kid. She looks that way because she's worried."
"Worried."
"About Mike, Eleven. What you're doing, trying to- Project yourself into his head. It's hurting him."
Over the weekend, anytime Hopper had alluded towards the possibility that Mike was suffering because El, she had turned sullen and stiff and (at varying volumes) told Hopper that he was a liar. Now after seeing the distress of the two Wheeler women, she nodded.
"Mike's room is past where they're sitting," Hopper said, deliberately vague about which of the three hallways led to Mike. Eleven must have heard that in his tone, because she looked down at the three options, and when she looked back up at Hopper, the muscles around her eye twitched. Just that was nearly enough for Hop to grab her by the waist and carry her out of the building.
"Okay, here's what's going to happen." Hopper pushed down his caution and suspicion by taking control of the situation. "I'm going to invite Karen and Nancy down to the cafeteria for coffee or- hell, even lunch. As soon as we've paid, I'll… fake a police emergency and come back up here. That should buy us 10 or 15 minutes for sure. Until then…" His eyes scanned down the hall they had come from.
"Here!" He guided her over to a padded chair, likely strayed from its waiting room location. "You can wait here."
Eleven looked at the chair and back up at Hopper. He didn't have time to deal with her untranslatable language that consisted entirely of minute expression changes. "Sit down," he told her, and tucked his hands under her armpits to lift her into the chair.
"Stay. There." Hopper said the words slowly. He didn't know how to articulate the importance of the order in terms Eleven would understand. "Don't move, for any reason. I'll be back in 10 minutes top. Until then, please, please, stay in this seat."
"Yes," El agreed. She leaned back into the cushion. Perhaps Hopper was imagining it, but she appeared stiff, as if ready to jump up and run away the instant Hopper turned his back. He wanted to say something. He bit his tongue.
"Okay," he said, bobbing up and down on his heels. A nervous habit he had broken in high school resurfacing. "Okay, then. Wait here and I'll be back soon, okay? I'll be back soon."
El nodded, with a shimmer in her eye that said, go on. Hopper didn't know how to argue with a look. He turned and walked down the hall toward the Wheeler women. Step. Step. Step. He wouldn't look back. He wouldn't. She'd stay. He trusted her.
He shouldn't have.
Eleven had wanted to stay where Hopper had told her to. Really, she had. But this place, this- Hospital, Hopper had called it- There was something enthralling and terrifying about it. It was almost like the school Mike, Dustin, and Lucas had brought her too. Only… More ages of people. More sadness. And… Something else.
The smell in the air. It wasn't exact, but Eleven could place it well enough. A closeness to- her home? A place she had lived? Or, "the lab," as Hopper called it on late night rants. It seemed too informal a term for the place 011 had spent nearly all of her life, happy memories or not.
El pushed herself away from the chair. No more of that. She was El now, not a prisoner or an experiment. She could do as she pleased, go where she pleased, no matter what anyone told her. No matter what anyone told her.
She took off toward the seats that Karen and Nancy had occupied only minutes previous. Hopper must have already forced them into the elevator under the guise of hot coffee. Good. All three of them would be out of her way for a little while, at least.
She reached the chairs and let her fingers glide along the varnished armrest of one. Nancy had been here. And Mike was so close. So, so close.
Left. Right. Forward. Three hallways, three options. One led to Mike Wheeler. The others were a waste of time.
El closed her eyes and tried to reach out to Mike. She had been able to feel the bond growing stronger as she and Hopper had been driving to the hospital but now, at such close range, the specificity of the connection was fading. Mike was near. She just didn't know where.
After taking a quick look around to make sure she wasn't drawing anyone's attention, El began tracing a pattern into the armrest. She needed something to calm her, something to draw her in so that she could focus her abilities. She needed to reach out-
There. El's hand squeezed into a fist, and the sense fell away. But she had felt… Something. And it was coming from straight ahead.
Mike. El stepped forward. She was coming.
The place El wandered into was more densely compact. People were sitting in chairs, some curled up and sleeping as if they'd been there for hours. Each of them looked not unlike Karen and Nancy, their worries, distresses, and pains etched into each line on their foreheads, around their eyes, in the way they held their arms around their stomachs.
It hurt El to be near, yet at the same time, she couldn't tear her eyes away. People, real people right in front of her! And so much more- a new color of tile on the floor, art on the walls, beeping machinery and an electrical hum.
"Ooooh," El stopped mere inches from the object that had caught her eye, so close that her nose was nearly touching it.
"Hello," she whispered. She hadn't yet been acquainted with this type of item.
A metallic box that rose nearly twice as tall as she stood, and inside was treats, some she recognized from her time with Mike, others she had never seen before. Beverages, plastic bags of snack food. Some columns were empty and held only a strange metal coil.
In the lower left corner, El noticed a chocolate pudding cup. In her mind, she saw a flash of that stupid tricolored hat. Dustin…
Her hand came to rest on the layer of glass that separated Eleven from the chocolate dessert. Dustin would want it, he would be sad if he didn't have it. She could take it and give it to Mike, and he would give it to Dustin. Otherwise… Otherwise she was being a bad friend. 011 could harm, she could steal, she could kill… But she couldn't be that.
But how to get it? The glass was thick, and if the keypad on the side was anything like the ones she had seen in captivity, she would need some sort of secret code to get in. She could break the glass, but it would ruin her chances of finding Mike.
How could she get the pudding cup? She tapped insistently on the glass, as if it might break naturally. How? How?
"You want a dollar?" a voice asked from behind her.
El knew who it was, even before she turned. She could feel the pure energy she had clung to on many dark, hopeless nights. She would know that feeling anywhere, in deep peril, in death, trapped in two opposite worlds: close but far. She knew him like a twin, like an alternate, like a reflection. Yet before that day she had never truly seen him.
Will Byers smiled and held out a dollar.
A/N: As always, no I have not re-read this after writing it, so any typos or bad writing is my own fault.
HUGE thank you to all the people who review and even private message me here and on tumblr ( big-dumbass), you guys are truly the reason any chapters get out at all. It's looking like... it's gonna be 10 chapters in total, but it truly could be more or less than that. I never really know.
Beautiful reviewers! Amazing amazing amazing work you are all so kind and wonderful and I truly appreciate ANY message, even if it's just a word or two. Or even a harsh critique is acceptable. But I had so many wonderful reviews left, I wanted to thank each of you individually and take a moment to respond to your comments:
Phieillydinyia: I was so, so, so touched by what you said! I'm glad you've been finding enjoyment in this story! Glad the Hopper and El reads well to you, as it's basically just me typing blind and hoping my brain is making something good. Sorry this chapter isn't as Mileven-y as you'd hoped! Hopefully the next few chapters are better for that. :)
noDownSide: Thank you! I'm glad the emotions are getting across. This was originally only going to be one chapter, and then three, and now it's waaay longer than I originally anticipated, so I'm glad the underlying darkness is still creeping in. Thanks for the amazing review!
Starla Maria Locke: I'm so glad it came across! I always worry about getting across their emotions without pushing too hard or just flat out telling the reader, so I really appreciate the assurance! Thanks for the review!
strangerpotter: Aaaaaaah so glad you've been enjoying! Thanks for joining the party :) Hope it reads well all together because I've been writing this for over 9 months now! Wowza! Thanks for reading + reviewing and I hope you get as much out of the coming chapters as the previous ones! Thanks!
tank03: Your review is so sweet to me. I'm so amazed at how many people have been looking forward to my crazy sporadic updates. I really hope this chapter is worth the wait! Thank you for the review and for giving this story a read
AliKattt: Your review was so fantastic I was so touched and have been reading it over and over again as I've been writing Chapter 7. And whoo... I don't know what you're thinking, but if it's anything NEAR what I'm thinking... I don't want to give anything away so I won't say more but. Hoping my dumb brain can pound out the next couple of chapters fast, for your sake and for mine. I'm hoping you love this chapter as much as (it seems) you loved the last, and I can't wait for you to see how your theories compare to what ends up happening. Thank you for the FANTASTIC review you're doing amazing work motivating me. !
Emma: Emma, your reviews are sooooooooooo great! It's truly wonderful to be sitting around, weeks after the last chapter was published and get such a funny and amazing reminder that readers are still out there waiting! I love your reviews and your ideas and I can only hope that the story pans out in a way that satisfies you. Keep doing what you're doing and stay awesome!
Next chapter coming to a near you soon!