Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Mike ran through the woods for a very long time, he didn't know how many hours and he didn't care. He needed to go back to her, to Jane. He didn't want to be far away from her, or even apart from her. She was his friend, his first friend. He didn't want to lose her like that.
He stopped for a moment to take a breath, leaning against a tree. He began to think about Will. He was dead? He never thought that he would see him dead. He knew - no, he saw him! Not in this world, but the other. He was alright, but hiding! He still had to be alive...right?
He sighed and straightened up, running for another plethora of minutes.
...
He finally saw the power lines, making him smile a little and look to see Jane's house. He hoped she was there, climbing over the fence and running to it.
Inside the home, the family watched the news, a man explaining what had happened to Will Byers. Terry, Becky, Carl, and Kali were sad at that news. "Ya think we talk to Jane now?" Becky asked Terry. It was almost two hours since she came home.
She shook her head and answered, "Give her some time. Maybe she'll come to us when she's ready." Becky nodded and focused back on the TV. She didn't even want to go to her night shift, not after seeing what she's seen and having her daughters distraught over what happened to their friends.
...
In the basement, Jane laid down on the couch and looked through some drawings Will made for her. They were D&D-themed and had knights, dragons, mages, etc. Though she felt happy, she kept a sad face, still trying to process the fact that he died.
Suddenly, she heard a knock on the door, startling her and making her drop the drawings. She stood up and slowly approached the window first, being cautious. She saw that an exhausted Mike was there, locking his eyes with hers for a few seconds before she looked away with a scoff. She should have known he would come back.
She walked away back to her couch before hearing the knock again. "Go away," she said to him loud enough to hear through the door.
...
Outside, he frowned. He had to get in there, so he tilted his head down and looked at the door.
...
When she sat on the couch, she heard the door unlock itself and open. The freckled boy entered in, making her stand up again. "I said go away!" she shouted at him.
He shook his head and wiped the small amount of blood from his nose. "No," he replied as he shut the door and went under the fort, picking up her walkie-talkie and turning it on, messing with the settings and closing his eyes.
The tomboy huffed and stormed to him. "You shouldn't be here, not after what you did to me and my friends." He didn't reply, but he frowned. "I thought we were friends, but friends tell each other the truth. They don't LIE to each other!" He still didn't respond, but kept his frown. "You made me think Will was okay, that he was still out there, ALIVE. But he wasn't, he..." She let out a heavy sigh and shouted, "He's dead!" He let out a sigh as well for a reply, making her feel more annoyed. "Maybe you thought you were helping, but you weren't. You hurt me...and my friends...do you understand? What you did SUCKS!" He kept frowning. Despite her hurtful words, he had to let her know and using this device would help him.
The fact that Mike was replying began to annoy Jane, so she grabbed her super-com and tried to pull it away from him. However, he managed to hold onto it tight and yanked it away from her, her becoming more mad than before. She then roughly pushed him a little, the boy still having his eyes closed and having the walkie-talkie in his hands. "Go! I don't need you here, you-"
All of a sudden, the walkie-talkie stopped giving out static and had someone sing through it, "'So come on and let me know...should I stay or should I go?'" Jane looked very shocked and Mike opened his eyes, looking at her and having his nose bleed again. She knew that voice...
It was Will's.
As he continued singing through the walkie-talkie, the freckled boy offered it to the curly-haired girl, who took it in an instant and brought it to her ear to make sure it was him. She turned very emotional, knowing that it was HIS voice. So, he wasn't dead, after all...
She pressed a button on her walkie-talkie and asked, "Will? Are you there?! Do you copy?! Over!" She tried listening for an answer, but all she got was static. Mike began to worry for her. She tried again. "Will?!" No answer again, but it was undeniable. She looked at the telekinetic boy for confirmation. "Was that really...is it...?"
He nodded, giving her a reassuring smile. "Will," he answered. Without a second thought, she hugged him, startling him a little. Will was alive...she didn't know what she saw back at the quarry, but that couldn't have been Will. She wouldn't hear his voice from the super-com, otherwise.
Slowly and carefully, Mike returned the hug, feeling warm and comforted, at long last.
In the morning, Jane was up in her room, laying in bed and wearing a gray shirt and black sweatpants. Terry, dressed in her waitress uniform, knocked on the door. "Jane?" she asked. "Can I come in?"
"S-sure..." she replied in a sad voice.
Her mother opened the door and walked to her, sitting next to her and patting your head. "Are you alright, sweetie?"
She shook her head. "I...I don't feel like I can go to school today, Mama. Will..."
Terry frowned sympathetically and gently grabbed one of her hands, squeezing it. "Oh, it's alright, sweetie. I understand. You can skip school today." The tomboy nodded. "I'll be going to work, then check in with Barbara's parents. Your aunt and uncle will be dropping off Kali, so why don't you go with them? You can get a book and they can go to wherever you want to go, like the video store. I won't mind you checking out any movies, even R-rated ones."
Jane frowned a little. "I...uh...I just wanna stay home. Is that alright?"
The woman sighed, worrying more about her. "Are you going to be okay staying here by yourself?"
She nodded again. "I will, Mama."
She nodded. "Okay, sweetheart. If you do need anything, you can call me at work or you can talk to your aunt or uncle when they come back, alright?" The girl nodded again, Terry smiling and kissing her forehead. She got up and began leaving the room.
"Bye, Mama."
"Bye, sweetie." Terry then closed the door, hoping that thing she saw yesterday wouldn't come out for her daughter. She would be absolutely terrified, just like Joyce was about Will.
Meanwhile, Jane removed the sheets she had on herself and got out her walkie-talkie, raising the antennae and pressing the communication button. "Lucas, do you copy?" she asked into it, listening for an answer. For several seconds, there was nothing. "Lucas, come on. I know you're there. This is serious!" She listened for an answer, but there was still nothing. She sighed and stood up. "I'm not stopping until you answer. Lucas...Lucas." She then repeated his name several times, "Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, Lu-"
"I'm not in the mood, Jane!" he finally answered. "Just leave me alone. Over and out."
She shook her head. "No, not out! This is urgent! It's about Will! Over."
"What about him? You mean his funeral, over?"
She shook her head again. "No, screw his funeral!"
"What?!"
She sighed again. "Listen, I need you to come here stat. And bring Dustin with you. Over and out." She then brought down the antennae and walked to her basement. While she was doing that, she hoped that her friends would believe her. Mike would do that again, right? Try to communicate with Will? This could get her and the boys closer to finding Will.
In Hawkins High School, Kali met up with Steve just outside of the gym. The girl wore a white long-sleeved shirt with purple stripes on it, dark purple skinny jeans, and casual sneakers. "So, wait a second," her boyfriend said. "You came back to my house?"
"I was looking for Barbara," she answered.
He shrugged. "That's alright and all, but why didn't you just talk to me?"
She shrugged, shaking her head. "I-I don't know."
"Like, you seriously saw some guy with a mask hanging out in my backyard?"
She shook her head again. "I don't think I saw a mask on him."
He scoffed. "So, what then? He had no face?" She shrugged again, making him sigh.
"I just have a horrible feeling about this situation."
He looked a bit distressed and leaned against the wall. "This is really bad..." he muttered under his breath.
Kali looked a bit puzzled. "What is?"
He looked at her. "The cops, they'll want to talk to all of us now. I mean, me, you, Tommy, Carol-" Was he serious?
She raised a brow and crossed her arms. "So?"
"My parents will murder me!"
The dark-haired girl became absolutely baffled at what he was saying. "You're kidding me." He gave her a puzzled look. "My best friend is missing and you're worried about your parents?"
Steve deeply sighed and put his hand on her shoulder. "Kal, just...whatever they ask you, don't mention the beers. All of us will get in trouble and Barbara's got nothing to do with it."
She was completely appalled by this, scoffing at him and slapping his hand from her shoulder. "This is unbelievable," she muttered under her breath before turning her back to him and walking away from him, looking very upset.
A very confused Steve stopped leaning on the wall and shouted, "Wait, Kal! Where are you going?!" She didn't answer because she didn't want to. "Kali!" She didn't stop when he shouted her name. She just couldn't believe him. Her best friend, her very best friend, was missing and his first worry was his parents' reactions. So he wasn't going to be of much help to find Barb then. She'll just have to find out on her own.
As Becky and Carl were almost back to the Ives home, the woman couldn't stop thinking about the intruder she and her husband heard yesterday. What if they were back? What if the intruder wasn't Will and instead someone dangerous? She felt nervous about having Jane be by herself there, smoking her cigarette and blowing the smoke out of the window.
Carl noticed her nervous look and said, "We'll be there in a minute."
She nodded. "I know, Carl, but..." She sighed. "What if that intruder comes back?"
"Does the girl know how to fend for herself?"
She smiled, remembering times when Jane watched action movies when she was younger and mimicking some fighting moves. "I'm sure she does." Still, they'd have to see when they get there.
Back at the home, the boys were in the basement, Mike channeling Will through the walkie-talkie. Whimpering could be heard from it. The boys looked weirded out by the fact Mike was still there, in Jane's basement. After she left him in the dust, after THEY left him in the dust, he still managed to get back to her? And she let him stay even though he practically stabbed them in the back by lying? They were both concerned about this...and her.
He lost the signal, thus losing the whimpering. Jane turned to them. "We keep losing the signal, but you did hear that, right?" she asked.
Lucas nodded, skeptical. "Yeah, a baby," he answered.
Jane gave him a perplexed glare. "What?"
"Jane, you obviously tapped into a baby monitor. It's probably the Blackburns'."
She scoffed. "Did that REALLY sound like a baby to you?" He sighed and looked away from her, frowning. "It was Will! I know it!"
"Jane-"
"I swear to you, he was speaking words last night! Actual words! He was singing that song he likes, even Mike heard him."
Now Lucas scoffed. "Well, I guess if the weirdo heard it..." he replied sarcastically, making her pout at him.
"You sure you're on the right channel?" Dustin asked her.
She shook her head, but for a different reason. "I don't think it's a channel...I think he's channeling him, somehow."
The curly-haired boy's eyes widened. "Like Professor X." She nodded, smiling at him.
Meanwhile, the black-haired boy glanced at the two of them in utter disbelief. "Do either of you guys really believe this crap?!"
Dustin shrugged. "I mean, remember when Will fell off his bike and broke his finger? He sounded a lot like that."
He shook his head and gave them a stern look. "Did you guys not see what I saw last night?! Will's body was pulled out of the water! He's dead!" The two of them looked away, upset. They did see that and it made Jane take it hard, but that voice, it was undeniable to her.
Mike also frowned and shook his head at him. "No," he replied to him.
His expression was appalled, moving his arms out. "No? Why no?"
"Hiding."
Lucas dropped his arms to his sides. "Where? Where is he hiding?" He didn't reply, still not knowing how to explain it to him.
"M-maybe it's his ghost haunting us," Dustin suggested.
"No, it's not his ghost," Jane replied.
Lucas then looked at her. "How would you know?"
Annoyed, she shrugged. "I just do!"
"Then what the hell was that in the water?!"
"I don't know, but it wasn't him! Will is alive, he's out there somewhere! We just need to know where he is!" The boys looked at her worriedly, especially Lucas, since he was thinking that she was giving Mike too much of a benefit of a doubt.
Mike still tried to reach Will, but with no luck. The tomboy sighed and asked him, "Can you turn it off?" He gave her a bit of a confused look, but did so. She sighed and looked at the rest of the boys. "This is no use. We need him to use a stronger radio."
The kids, except the freckled boy, began to think, then Dustin came up with something, smiling. "Mr. Clarke's Heathkit ham shack." Jane smiled back at him and nodded.
"Yeah, good idea."
Lucas sighed. "The Heathkit's at school, guys," he stated to them. "There's no way we can get the weirdo there without anyone noticing." He then looked at Mike. "I mean, who can trust a kid with a buzz-cut and dark clothes?" The rest of his friends then looked at him, Mike looking at them all nervously. He had a good point. The way Mike looked wasn't all that...well, normal. He might be seen as someone suspicious and things would go south if someone finds him like that.
It was time to give him a makeover.
...
Jane got out some boxes with clothes and costumes in it and she and her friends began digging through each one to find something Mike can wear. The boy himself sat on the couch, watching them look through the boxes. The tomboy looked for a wig, the dark-haired boy looked for a shirt and some pants, and the curly-haired boy looked for socks and shoes.
Suddenly, a faint sound of a door opening and closing caught their attention before Becky's voice called out, "Jane?" She tensed up a little, muttering something under her breath before running upstairs.
Just as she turned, she saw Becky there, startling her a little before sighing in relief. The woman smiled and hugged her. "Oh, thank goodness you're alright," she said to her.
She looked a bit confused. "What?" she asked.
Becky released the hug and added, "We thought the intruder might come back here and hurt you, so-"
"Intruder?" Jane raised her eyebrows, making Becky gasp in realization.
Becky widened her eyes before shutting them and placing a hand on her temple. "Aw, shit, I forgot to tell ya." She opened them and continued, "Yesterday, while you were gone to school, your uncle and I heard an intruder goin' upstairs and into your room. I didn't think it was you because I saw ya leave for school." The girl's eyes widened, only knowing one possibility of an intruder: Mike. Did he really leave the basement while her aunt and uncle were still there?! Why?!
"I mean..." Becky let out a sigh. "Me and him thought that maybe...your friend Will might've been here." Her eyes widened more at that. She might have never thought of that as another possibility. Maybe it was him...but...the possibility of the "intruder" being Mike was bigger. The woman shrugged. "But we really don't know. Could be someone else, especially since he was found in the quarry yesterday." The girl nodded, frowning.
Becky sighed and gave her another hug, patting her head. "Sweetie, it's alright. I know you're mourning over your friend. I'm here for you, and so is your uncle."
She nodded. "Okay, Auntie."
Suddenly, the both of them heard Dustin's voice from downstairs, Becky releasing the hug once again. "Are the boys here?" she asked her.
She nodded at her again. "Uh, yeah...I, uh, called them over to..." She trailed off, trying to think of a lie.
Becky thought that she might have called them over concerning about Will, so she asked, "Will?" She nodded once more. She sighed. "You kids have to be pretty torn about it. I'll give you guys some space, then you guys can talk to me if ya like."
Jane smiled at her. "Thanks, Auntie." She smiled back at her and ruffled her hair a little. The girl then walked back downstairs. The woman hoped she would continue to be alright.
...
"I never thought I'd be picking out clothes for another guy," Dustin stated as he looked at the pair of pants and hovered them over Mike's. The boy was standing up for them as they hovered some of the clothing they picked over him.
"It's like playing dress-up or something," Lucas added.
"Dress-up?" Mike asked.
"You know, the thing girls do with clothes."
He raised an eyebrow. "Jane?"
Both the boys chuckled. "Nah, not Jane," Dustin answered. "Don't think Jane was ever girly, to be honest."
Lucas shook his head in agreement. "Yeah, she's no girly girl, that's for sure." Mike wondered what they meant by that, girly girl...
Speak of the devil, the tomboy arrived downstairs and saw the boys, asking, "Any luck?"
They shook their heads. "Not yet," Lucas answered. She then went through the box again and saw a long blonde wig with side-swept bangs. She thought it might fit him if she just cut it short.
"Can either of you guys find a pair of scissors?" she asked her friends.
...
Soon, they picked out the clothes they wanted for him and he was in the bathroom, changing into his disguise. The kids waited, Jane pacing around. "Your aunt's not gonna come down here, right?" Dustin asked her.
She nodded. "Yeah, we'll just need to leave out the door here," she answered.
The door then opened, all of them looking at the new Michael. He wore the wig she had, but it was cut short enough to cover his shaved head. He wore a gray and blue collared shirt with black, yellow, and white stripes on it, blue jeans with a black belt, and black and white sneakers. Jane's eyes widened, blushing at the sight of this new version of him. The boys looked pleasantly surprised of their efforts.
"Wow," the curly-haired boy said.
"Yeah, you look-" Lucas added before Jane cut him off.
"Cute," she murmured under her breath. While Lucas looked at her weird and Dustin grinned a little, Mike looked puzzled. He heard that word before, but he never knew what it meant.
"Cute?" he asked.
She suddenly realized what she said and said, "Cool. Th-that's what I meant. You look, uh, cool. Yeah, really cool." He nodded, smiling at her before going back to the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror. The kids followed.
He nodded his head as he said, "Cool." He then mouthed, "Cute." He did liked the way he look, but began to wonder what that word meant. Jane still felt embarrassed that she even she said that. Dustin and Lucas looked at each other, snickering among themselves about what she did there.
Back in the labs, a man willing to go into the hole and investigate what was on the other side was getting ready to go in, getting hooked up by the new contraption put in place. In another room, Dr. Brenner and Dr. Wheeler observed him, still wearing those hazmat suits they had.
The man turned to them and asked, "You boys hear me alright in there?"
Dr. Wheeler pressed a button and replied, "Loud and clear, Shepard."
"Good luck in there," Dr. Brenner added before his comrade let go of the button. They both then saw Shepard slowly approach the mysterious hole and enter into it, breaking through the goo and disappearing inside. Both men looked intently, wondering if this will really work or not.
Done! What do you guys think? Any mistakes or typos?
Never understood how El got back to Mike's house in this episode, especially since he left her at the dust. So I did make him actually go back by himself in this AU since the boys left him in the dust as well.
Keep supporting this fanfic and I'll see you in the next chapter! (P.S.: For any of those that care, I'm feeling better now, thankfully.)