"Kali," Steve said as he was unceremoniously pulled through the warehouse, "What the hell is going on? What did you find?"
Kali didn't respond to his questions as she continued to pull him, stopping once they reached the spot where El and Will were still sitting in the middle of the vast, main room of the building.
"Jane," the young woman said, kneeling next to her sister and handing her the page she had brought with her, "If you look for this building do you think you can find where it is?"
"...I don't know..." El said as she stared down at the piece of paper with a photo of a large, sterile building printed on it, "I've never looked for a place before... Just people..."
"You can do it," Will said, giving the girl a small, encouraging smile. She looked at him for a moment before nodding slightly.
"...I'll try..." she said softly, looking back to her sister, who nodded.
El took a couple minutes to try and prepare herself for what she might find when she went into the in-between place, tying the bandana, which she'd used the previous day to find Jonah, over her eyes.
While she was searching for the new lab, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin came down the stairs and walked over to the small group gathered around El.
"What's going o--" Mike started but was quickly shushed by Kali.
"She's looking for the lab," Will whispered to Mike.
"Already?"
Will nodded and Mike sighed, going to sit next to Eleven.
"Where's Max?" Lucas asked, looking at Steve.
"In the kitchen. Gambling."
"...What?"
"She's playing cards with Funshine and Dottie."
"O...kay..."
Steve took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second, "Yeah, I know. --Look, I'm picking my battles here."
Lucas looked at the older teen for a minute, taking in his pale complexion and overall dishevelment and decided to drop the argument. "...So she's in the kitchen?" he asked.
Steve nodded slightly. "Well, if you can call it that. It's back there," he said, gesturing to the door El had pointed out to him earlier. Lucas nodded to the teenager and made his way to the so-called kitchen.
Dustin had been watching Steve closely since he'd entered the room and was growing increasingly concerned. The older teen didn't seem to be trying to hide that he wasn't feeling well anymore, and this was particularly worrisome. If Steve was admitting that he was sick, even if he still denied just how bad it was, then the teenager might be even worse than Dustin had originally thought.
"...What?" Steve asked, looking at Dustin. The younger boy's eyes widened a little, like a deer caught in headlights.
"H--huh?" the boy stuttered, "Oh-- Nothing. I-- I wasn't..."
Steve sighed tiredly. "Dustin," he said, earning an even more concerned lock from the boy. Now he was calling him by his name instead of something like 'shithead'? That wasn't a reassuring sign, "I'll be fine."
"But yesterday you were so..."
"Yesterday I told you, it's just a cold."
"But--"
"--Dustin, I'm fine." This was a lie, they both knew it, and it didn't convince Dustin even slightly. The younger of the two was about to speak again, but was distracted when El pulled the cloth down from her eyes.
"I... I think I found it..." she said softly. Her nose was bleeding sluggishly and she looked more drained than she had the past couple days, making Mike suspect that she'd been over-using her powers.
"Are you sure?" Kali asked, and El looked at her sister.
"Yes. Joyce and Hopper are there. ...And... He's there."
Kali nodded once, "Then we need to prepare. We'll leave soon."
Eleven nodded slightly and wiped the blood away from her nose with the back of her hand, but didn't give any other indication that she was going to stand up. She tiredly leaned into Mike, who gently wrapped his arms around her and looked up at Kali. "She needs to rest first," he said, and Kali sighed, even though she knew the boy was was right.
"Alright," she said, "But we leave in an hour."
"We'll be ready," Mike said, and Kali nodded once in confirmation before leaving the room.
Steve moved to sit with El and Mike, gesturing for Will and Dustin to join him, which they did. They sat in silence for a few moments before Steve spoke.
"Hey, you okay, kid?" he asked as he looked at El, "You don't look so good. --We don't have to go with them. We can wait here. You don't have to keep exhausting yourself like this."
The girl stared at him for a second, then shared a look with Mike, Dustin and Will and all four of them knew that they were thinking the same thing: We could say that same to you. But none of them said it. Instead, El said, "I can do it... Almost done."
Steve sighed, "Okay."
In theory he knew that she was right, they were almost done. They almost had Joyce and Hopper back; but knowing the way these things tended to go for this group, he also knew that it could go on much longer than they anticipated.
He stood up after another couple seconds, getting raised eyebrows from all the kids and a "Where are you going?" from Mike.
"To get Max and Lucas. --You four stay here."
The children watched their temporary guardian leave the room with concern.
"Worse..." El said quietly.
"Yeah," said Mike.
"He actually admitted he was sick," Dustin said, looking worried.
"What should we do?" asked Will.
"He's not gonna stay here; not if El goes with her sister." Mike said.
"We can't let him put himself in danger when he's like this, though!" said Dustin, a slightly irritated edge to his voice that was brought on by worry.
"Maybe we can at least get him to take some Medicine," Will said.
"Yeah. And we'll have to keep him from doing anything that could get him killed when we're there," said Dustin, earning a skeptical look from Mike.
"That's gonna be hard. This is the guy that insisted on being in charge when we went through the tunnels of the upside down even though he had a really bad concussion, remember?"
"I can keep him safe," El said.
The boys nodded in agreement; if anyone could keep their protective, stubborn guardian out of trouble, it was her; although it did make Mike a little nervous when he thought about how exhausted she already was.
Steve returned a minute later with Lucas and Max, who was holding a wad of bills in one hand, and Lucas' hand with the other. She had a satisfied smile on her lips and the four kids looked up at her with surprise.
"How much money did you win?" Will asked.
"Like fifty bucks," Max said, "Arcade is on me this weekend."
This got several cheers from the boys, except for Dustin, preoccupied with observing Steve, who was looking more tired by the minute.
"Yeah, we're all very proud of your illegal gambling," the oldest of the group said to Max, a slight tone of sarcasm clear in his voice, "Now stay here. I'll be right back."
"Where are you going now?" Mike asked.
"I gotta talk to Kali and make it clear that none of you are gonna be put in the middle of this shit."
"But we're coming with you," said Max in a tone that made it clear that she wasn't asking, which made Steve sigh, feeling defeated.
"Yeah," he said, "You're coming."
