"Just be safe, stick together, and if anything, anything happens, come right back here. One hour!"

"Ok Mrs. Byers."

Joyce had become the very definition of a Helicopter Parent ever since Will went missing, so the boys weren't surprised when she said no to searching near Castle Byers for Eleven. It took a lot of convincing from Will to get her to agree to 1 hour of searching, and Joyce still thought it wasn't good for them to be searching for a girl who most likely died, but she knew she couldn't hold onto Will forever. She watched them as they went into the woods, only going back inside when she could no longer see them.

"The search party is BACK!"

Mike was ecstatic that they were all looking for Eleven again and happier that he had gotten the chief's approval.

"I know! It's just like First Blood when the cops are chasing Rambo, but we're the cops!"

Dustin always knew how to make the party smile. They walked towards Castle Byers as the snow crunched under their feet, laughing and talking just like old times. Once they got there they split up into 2 pairs, Dustin and Will as one and Lucas and Mike as the other. Will led the way and Dustin followed him, looking all around for Eleven. Mike and Lucas were planning to go the other way when they both heard a rustling of leaves.

"HEY!"

Mike yelled as loud as he could. The rustling stopped. All was quiet...

"You guys alright?"

The supercomm had crackled to life with the voice of Dustin. Before either of them could respond a figure lept from the leaves and tore through the woods away from them. Mike silently bolted with all the energy he had in him towards the figure, while Lucas stayed back. He ran for what felt like forever almost catching up until he faceplanted himself into a tree. He knew noone would believe him if he told them it was Eleven, but he had a hunch that's who it was. He also knew he had 0 energy to keep running after it...her, but promised himself he'd follow the tracks alone later tonight.

"Mike went off after it, he'll probably be back soon."

Lucas wanted to believe it, but Eleven in the woods by herself? Dustin and Will stated they were going back because it'd been 1/2 an hour and they didn't want to freak Joyce out. Mike came back to Lucas a few minutes later, throwing a sentence together:

"It was probably a rabbit or something, let's just go back to Will's with the others."

And with that they both walked away, but silently in the shadows stood the figure, watching them.

She watched them for a few moments then ran as fast as she could away from them, before slowing down to a quick walk. She felt sad, happy, and angry. Sad because she knew she couldn't reveal herself to them, happy because this was the first time she'd seen them in a month, and angry at herself for forcing Mike into a tree. There was no way she could outrun him, but she never wanted to hurt him. She needed some more food from that box. She'd go there tonight.

It was time to go check his little trap he had laid out. He got out of his car and checked the box. Just the Tupperware. Someone had taken just the Eggos and he thought he knew who. He now knew she was near, but still hiding in the woods. He placed new Eggos in and was about to leave when he heard a noise behind him. It was Eleven. They stared at each other for a few seconds, then Hopper crouched down with his arms extended...praying that she would come to him. She took a few steps and fell into his arms, hugging onto him tight. Hop almost cried, feeling that same warmth he did when Sara would come and hug him. He let out a small sentence:

"It's OK. You're safe now. It's OK."