Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the long gaps between chapters! Real life had been a bit hectic lately, leaving little time for writing, but I promise I haven't abandoned you all! I will finish this fic! There will be one more chapter after this one, and then the fic will be finished.

Hope you enjoy this chapter!!

-LizzySong

"Oh, shit!"

"Kali, do something!"

"I told you we shouldn't've brought the sick one."

"It's not Steve's fault!"

"Everybody, shut up!"

Kali ignored the outbursts from the group and exchanged a look with her sister, who nodded in agreement with what she knew Kali was thinking.

The door slowly opened and everyone stiffened, Steve instinctively stepped in front of the kids, and Kali gave her band of misfits a look that clearly said to stand down. This earned her some confused looks, but they obeyed none the less.

"What are you doing?" Mike whispered to El, confused.

"Max was right," she responded simply.

Mike turned to look at her, his eyes widened in shock, "But--"

He didn't have time to continue, however, because two guards entered the small room.

No one put up a fight, knowing that this had become part of their plan, and though the guards found it slightly disconcerting that a group of intruders wasn't resisting, they did as they'd been instructed and threw them all into two small interrogation rooms, splitting them up.

The six children were put in one room, and Kali, Steve, and the rest of the gang in another. This was the one point when Steve nearly started a fight, refusing to let himself be separated from the kids, but he stopped himself when El gave him a reassuring nod which Steve knew meant that she would take care of the group. He knew she would, too. So he allowed himself to be thrown in a tiny room with Kali and four other people he hardly knew, away from the kids he'd promised to protect.

"They'll be alright," Kali whispered, "Jane will keep them safe." The boy nodded slightly in response, not looking at her.

"Yeah... I know she will. I just..." He said, trailing off.

"I know."

He felt a hand on his shoulder and finally looked at the girl standing next to him, seeing her looking up at him with a small, sad smile, and suddenly he felt guilty.

Steve remembered everything that Kali had told him the previous night; how she'd found a family only to be ripped from them again, and that seeing El's makeshift family hurt her... and especially the fact that it hurt her to look at him because he reminded her of what she didn't have.

Now she was back in the exact situation she'd escaped from...and she was comforting him. ...It should've been the other way 'round.

"...I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Meanwhile the children were greeted by a welcome sight in another room.

"Will?!" a woman's voice said in surprise. Joyce Byers stood up from one of the two chairs that were positioned at a small interrogation table and quickly made her way to her son, who was still standing with his small group of friends at the doorway.

"Mom?" he hugged her tightly, burying his face in her shoulder. "You're okay..." he whispered, trying not to cry.

Joyce hugged him back just as tightly, if not a little more so, and didn't try to hide her own tears.

"Did they find you? How did you get here? Did they hurt you?" she asked when they finally pulled apart. She was angry. Not at Will, or any of the other children, they knew that, but with the people who had caused so much pain in the lives of her family and so many others.

This time El answered, stepping forward to be closer to Joyce. "Steve helped us. ...And my sister."

The mother hugged El close when she had finished speaking and the girl smiled slightly, feeling safer than she had in days.

"Where are they now?" Joyce asked when the two pulled apart.

"Don't know..." Eleven said quietly, shaking her head a little, "They put them somewhere else..."

Joyce nodded slightly, a worried look crossing her face. They stood in silence for a few moments before El spoke again, "...Where's Hopper?" There was fear in her voice, and Joyce placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I'm not sure, sweetie... They separated us, just like they separated you kids..."

El nodded slightly in understanding and swallowed hard, trying not to show how worried she was and failing miserably.

"Hey..." Joyce said, gently pulling the young teen into a motherly hug, "He'll be alright. You know Hop." She pulled back slightly to give El a small smile which the younger returned.

"...So what do we do now?" Max asked, "We can't try to escape now that we're separated. We can't leave them behind." She was trying to hide her obvious fear and anxiety with logical questions.

"This was your plan," Mike said with an edge to his voice, "You tell us." He still hadn't truly accepted Max into the party, even now that El was back, and with the added stress of being in the lab and being separated from half of their group, he was looking for someone to blame. And as always, Max was right there.

"This wasn't part of my plan. We weren't supposed to get separated."

"But we did. And now we're stuck here. We were supposed to be helping! We weren't supposed to put ourselves and Steve and El's sister in more danger!"

Max was flustered now. Normally she could handle Mike's outbursts directed at her, but right now it felt like he was right. And she didn't know what to say.

"It's not her fault, man," Lucas said, deciding it was time he step into the argument, "She was the only one who came up with any kind of plan." Max gave him a small smile at that and he returned it.

"Nobody asked her to come up with a plan!" Mike yelled and El placed her hand on his shoulder, gently.

"Mike..." she said, "We agreed. Me and Kali. We agreed with Max."

Joyce decided that this was the point when she needed to step in. She understood what the children were feeling. She knew they were all frightened, and that sometimes fear showed itself in anger. But that still didn't warrant Mike's attitude to Max.

"It isn't any of your faults'," the woman said gently, "The people who run this place... It's their fault. Not any of you. We'll find the others and we'll find a way out. I promise. But right now we all need to calm down."

The children were slightly taken aback by the mother's calm demeanor, usually knowing her to be high strung and anxious. But when placed as the sole caretaker of these six children -- one of whom was her own son -- she understood that she needed to be calm for them. Especially Will and Eleven.

Mike sighed and walked over to the small interrogation table, sitting down in one of the uncomfortable metal chairs. El followed and sat next to him, taking his hand in her own reassuringly.

Max and Lucas found their own corner of the room to sit in, Max resting her head on his shoulder, Lucas wrapping his arms protectively around her.

Only Will and Dustin stayed by the door with Mrs. Byers, who put a protective arm around Will's shoulders, pulling him into another hug for a moment. Then she looked at both boys with a slightly accusatory look, realizing that Dustin hadn't said a word since entering the room, which was extremely uncharacteristic for him, "There's something your not telling me."

Will and Dustin exchanged a look and then turned their gaze back to Joyce, "It's Steve..." Will said.

"He's really sick," said Dustin when Will trailed off, and Joyce frowned in concern.

In another room similar to the one Joyce and the children were in, Steve, Kali, and the rest of her gang had also broken off into smaller groups around the room.

Kali and Steve were sitting at the small interrogation table in the room, just like El and Mike. Mick, Dottie, and Funshine were standing in a corner of the small room, talking quietly. And Axel was sitting in a corner of his own, messing around with his switchblade.

"...Hey, you okay?" Steve asked gently, looking at Kali. She hadn't said a word since she'd reassured him that El would protect the other kids.

"I'm fine," Kali said in a soft, almost cold tone and Steve knew that she was lying; but he also knew that she couldn't be honest in front of her crew -- that would show weakness, and that was one thing Kali would never do. So he dropped it.

Kali continued to stare at him, though; taking in how unnaturally pale he was, the slight sheen of sweat on his forehead, and the shallow, wheezing breaths he was taking which seemed to catch in his chest every once in a while as he tried not to cough. He'd gotten worse, even since just last night, and she couldn't help but feel somewhat responsible.

She hesitated, then took his hand in her own. He gave a her a surprised, questioning look, but before either of them could say a word, the heavy door was thrown open and a man, who was clearly struggling against someone, was thrown in.

Kali and Steve stood up from the table they'd been sitting at, the others in the room looking over but not completely stopping what they were doing.

"Chief Hopper?" Steve said as he quickly made his way to the help the man who seemed to be struggling to stand.

"Harrington?" Hopper said as the younger man helped him over to the table, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Is this Jane's policeman?" Kali asked and Steve nodded.

Steve got Hopper into a chair and the older man groaned slightly, looking up at Steve, "Harrington, what are you doing here?" he asked again, more of an edge to his voice than before.

"We were looking for you and Mrs. Byers," Steve said hesitantly.

"...We?" Hopper asked accusingly, "Did you bring my daughter to this place?" He stood up, making Steve feel small. Jim had a few inches on the boy, but to Steve that had little effect compared to the anger being directed at him.

"I wouldn't've found you without the kids' help."

"Then you shouldn't have found me! If you wanted to help them, you should have taken care of them. You shouldn't have brought them here."

"It's not his fault," Kali interjected, "Jane is perfectly capable of taking care of herself and her friends."

"And you must be the sister," Hopper turned to face her, "Who tried to turn El into a street punk."

"I did not try to turn her into anything. I simply encouraged her to use her gifts instead of forcing her to hide them."

"I'm not going to argue with a teenager about parenting -- I've learned more and lost more as a parent than you've learned in your entire life."

"--The kids are fine, Chief," Steve cut in before the rest of Kali's friends decided to get involved -- he could see them starting to become more on edge and he didn't want to have to try and break up a full blown fist fight. "I pro--" he was cut off by a short string of sharp coughs before trying the last word again, "...promise."

Hopper knit his eyebrows together as the boy struggled to get out his reassurances about the kids' safety, and when the teenager finished talking, the police chief reached out his hand and gently placed it on Steve's forehead for a moment before pulling away. "Jesus, kid!"

"I'm fine," Steve said.

"Kid, you're burning up."

"I'm fine," the teenager repeated, more defensively than before.

"You're not," Kali said before Hopper could get another word in, "But we don't have time for that right now; we need to get to him."

Jim gave Steve a look that made it clear that the younger man wasn't going to get off the hook that easily, then turned his attention to Kali.

"You need to get to who?" he asked, "Brenner?" She nodded in response before the policeman continued, "He's not here."

"What?!" Kali and Steve both said in unison.

"He's gone."

"Shit!" said Steve.

"...It's a trap," said Kali.

"What?"

"Don't you see? This is a trap! He set us up!" she was starting to panic, which was uncharacteristic for her, but understandable under the circumstances, and Hopper put a hand on her shoulder to try and steady her.

"Hey, it's okay. We're gonna get you out of here. --You and all of your weird friends back there," he said, nodding his head in the direction of Kali's friends, "I promise."