"...What the hell...?" said Max quietly, though apparently loud enough to get the attention of the small group gathered around the fire.

"Who's there?" an accusatory voice called, and El started to walk towards the group, gesturing for her friends to follow her.

"It's me," El said as she got close enough for the other group to hear her, "It's Jane."

The four people who Eleven knew to be her sister's friends stared at her in shock for a moment before one of them spoke.

"Well I'll be damned," the man El remembered as the spider-hater said, "What the hell are you doing back here, Shirley? I thought you left to go help your hick friends."

"I did," the girl said.

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm gonna go get Kali," a woman said as she walked towards to other side of the room -- El thought she remembered that her name was Mick.

"Need help," Eleven said in response to Axel's question.

A minute later Mick returned with Kali, who took a hesitant step towards her sister, "Jane?"

El nodded and smiled slightly. Kali took another step closer, engulfing her sister in a tight hug. "You came back," she whispered tearfully, to which El just hugged her tightly in return.

When the older of the two finally let go of the younger, she looked at the group standing a little ways away behind Eleven, who had been watching in silence and had seemingly gone unnoticed until now.

"Who did you bring with you?" Kali asked, looking back at El.

"My friends."

Kali nodded, looking back at the party, taking an especially long look at Steve. Having lived on the street for some time before finding a real shelter, she was very familiar with illness and could tell when someone was ill by observing them for only a few minutes.

It became clear to her after only a moment of observing the teenager that he wasn't feeling well -- but none of the children he was apparently tasked with looking after seemed to have noticed this, so she didn't say anything about it.

Instead, she said "You're going to need to share rooms." Which earned her a myriad of exclamations and comments from her own friends.

"Are you serious?"

"We're not running a daycare, Kal!"

"I think they're kinda cute."

"Any friends of miss Jane are welcome here in my book."

"My sister brought her friends here. Of course they're staying with us," Kali spoke again, glancing at the sick teen one more time.

Not long after this, Kali and El went to Kali's room so that El could explain what had happened, having shown Steve and the rest of the party to rooms they could share -- though, of course, there was no way Steve was going to let any of those kids sleep in a different room than him where he might not be able to protect them. Especially not with those people, El's sister's so called friends, around.

"...What the hell is going on?" Max asked, pacing in front of Steve, who was sitting on a mattress on the floor, Dustin and Will sitting on either side of him.

"Yeah," said Lucas, who was standing against the wall, shooting a pointed look at Mike, who was leaning on the doorframe at the entrance of the room, "I'd like to know that, too."

"What were you expecting?" Mike said to Lucas.

"Not this!"

"Yeah, this is pretty weird," Dustin agreed.

"Did you see that guy with the hair?" said Max.

"And I thought your stepbrother's hair was bad..." Steve muttered, making all the kids snicker.

The teenager flopped onto his back, landing on the uncomfortable mattress. He closed his eyes for a second, resting his forearms over them. "How the hell'd we end up here?" he said, more to himself than the kids.

"Well..." Mike said in response, "You drove us here." earning a glare from Steve and more snickers from the other kids.

"You know what I mean, dickhead," Steve said, still glaring at Mike, who was smiling a little.

The teen sat back up, slowly, though his head still swam a little and he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to fend off the pain.

Only Will seemed to notice this, however, the others already having gone back to talking about Kali and her friends. The younger boy put a hesitant hand on Steve's shoulder and asked, "Hey... Are you okay...?"

"What?" Steve said, surprised, "Oh... Yeah, I'm fine." He gave the kid a small, reassuring smile, which seemed to satisfy him. Will nodded slightly and looked away.

"...Are you okay?" the teenager asked, looking at the younger boy, who shrugged a little.

"I don't..." Will started, "I don't know... It feels weird... being on this side of things. I thought it'd be easier, but..."

Steve nodded a little and wrapped an arm around Will's shoulders, "Yeah... I get it. ...We're gonna find them, though. They'll be okay. ...I promise." Will nodded a little and gave Steve a slight smile, momentarily reassured.

Meanwhile in another room, El was explaining to Kali what had happened to her guardians and why she'd come back.

"...You found him?" Kali asked, referring to Doctor Brenner.

"Yes. He took them."

"He's trying to trap you again, Jane. He's luring you back to him."

"...Luring?"

"Trying to bring you back to him by tempting you with something you want."

Eleven nodded slightly in understanding, and Kali continued, "You can't simply walk in and expect to save your friends. He will trap you again. You understand that, don't you?"

"I can't leave them there."

"And we're not going to. But we need to strategise; we need to find more information -- where he is, where he's keeping your friends, specific addresses -- things you won't be able to find by only using your gifts. ...We'll need to find more of his men. People who are still in contact with him."

El looked down at her hands. "Like last time?" she asked.

Kali nodded, "Yes. Like last time."

"...Kill..."

"You don't have to. I've told you before, Jane, it's your choice. If you want to show mercy, it's your decision."

El nodded slightly, still not making eye contact with her sister.

"We will find your policeman. I will get you back to him, I promise, but it's not going be easy."

"...Thank you," Eleven said quietly, and Kali gave her a small smile. "You are my sister," the older of the two said, simply, "We need to take care of each other."