Alex stirs and flutters her eyelids open. The boat sways beneath her ever so slightly from her movements. Eddie lies next to her, his face still scrunched from stress. She hates seeing him in pain, even while sleeping. She studies his face and looks beyond the stress. He's quite beautiful.

"You smell like patchouli," he says, his voice groggy.

Alex's body lurches in shock. She quickly averts her eyes away from his face as his deep brown eyes open.

"Uh, thanks, guess my perfume is strong," she stammers. "I didn't realize you were awake."

"It's been a bit hard to sleep the last couple days, but it helped with you being here," he says.

"Glad I could be of service."

Eddie peels the blanket off of the two of them, which reveals four legs tangled together. They both sit up and straighten their legs simultaneously. Alex speaks to divert his attention, "Do you feel any better? At least considering?"

He nods, brushing his fringe out of his eyes. "A bit, yeah."

"Don't worry. No one expects you to feel great," she reassures.

"Do you hear that?" He says suddenly. He tumbles out of the boat and locates the jagged bottle from yesterday. He darts to the window and peaks through the glass, moving his body to hide along the wall.

She does hear a commotion outside, but she tries to calm him. "I'm sure it's just-"

The silver door is flung open to reveal Steve, Robin, Max, and Dustin. Steve leads the two younger teens inside with his hands covering their eyes. "Does everybody have their clothes on?"

"You're hilarious, Steve," Alex deadpans at her best friend.

Max shrugs Steve's hand away, while Dustin peaks through his fingers as if he might see something he shouldn't. When nothing is out of the ordinary, Steve drops his hand away from Dustin who holds up some plastic grocery bags with a toothy grin. "Delivery service!"

As soon as Dustin drops the bags, Eddie dives into them to pull out a box of cereal and a Yoohoo. Robin reaches into the bag after him and pulls out a bottle of water and a container of fruit.

"I knew you'd want some fruit and not just Pop-tarts," Robin says, handing them over to Alex.

"Thank you." Alex gratefully accepts the grocery items and joins Eddie in the boat, who is already devouring his breakfast.

The others gather around the boat and get comfortable. Dustin speaks first. "So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news. How do you prefer it?"

"Bad news first, always," Eddie says immediately.

"All right. Bad news. We tapped into the Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy."

"Like, one-hundred-percent kind of convinced," Max adds.

"And the good news?" Eddie asks after getting bombarded with the slew of bad news.

"Your name hasn't gone public yet," Robin says. "But if we found out about you, it's a matter of time before others do too. And once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna' be gunning for you."

"Hunt the freak, right?" Eddie says in disgust.

"Exactly," Robin answers.

"Shit," Eddie mutters. Alex takes a break from her breakfast to give his thigh a reassuring squeeze.

"So, before that happens we find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence," Dustin says as if that plan is in any way simplistic.

"That's all, Dustin? That's all?"

"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."

"Listen, Eddie," Robin says. "I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this before. I mean, they have a few times, and I have once. Mine was more human-flesh-based, theirs was more smoke related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel we got this." She adds a smile at the end.

"I caught him up to speed with everything from the past," Alex points out.

"So, yeah, since we don't have El's powers I guess we're more in the…" Steve trails off.

"Brainstorming phase," Max says.

"There… There's nothing to worry about," Dustin splutters from his spot on the stool.

Eddie looks between Alex and Dustin with a look that says he doesn't believe Dustin's statement. Suddenly, sirens wail from outside. Steve cusses and Robin gestures frantically for Eddie to hide. He obliges, and covers himself with the tarp while everyone else scrambles to the front of the boatshed to peer through the window. Alex stands on her tippy toes to see over Dustin and Robin, but she still is unable to. Steve, being the good friend he is, crouches and allows Alex to hop onto his back. She wraps her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso. He steadies her by holding onto her legs just as the sirens approach. Alex holds her breath as the cop cars enter her vision, but to her surprise and relief they continue racing down the road.

"Okay, you're good," Robin says after the group watches the vehicles disappear.

Eddie throws the tarp off of himself and springs to his feet. He dives toward the grocery bags and grabs another Yoohoo. He gets to his feet just as everyone else gathers around him. He tilts his head to the side when he sees Alex being carried on Steve's back, as if it piqued his interest. He looks away quickly and focuses his attention on his Yoohoo as Steve lowers Alex back down to the ground.

"Where do you think they're going?" Eddie asks after a chug.

"They were heading toward the trailer park," Max says, uneasy.

"Maybe they were just going back to try and figure out what happened with Chrissy?" Steve offers.

"No," Alex says. "There's no way they would be speeding like that unless something happened."

"Has there been another victim?" Robin asks.

"Maybe we should go check."

Everyone else is already outside, leaving only Eddie and Alex standing beside the boat. She feels guilty, but she knows what she needs to do. "I think this time I better go with them."

He nods. "I understand. Thanks for staying last night."

She beams up at him, her eyes shining. "Of course. I'll be back as soon as I can, promise."

Despite everything, he gives her a bright smile back that melts her heart. It takes everything in her to turn and leave him there, beside the boat with a Yoohoo in his hand. She gets in the front seat of Steve's car, where everyone else is already buckled in.

"You sure you don't want to sit up here, Robin?"

Robin scoffs. "You just spent the whole night sleeping in a boatshed. You can sit in the front seat."

"Yeah, how was that by the way?" Max asks.

"It was fine. We slept in the boat, which isn't too good on your neck and back, but overall it was fine."

"You both slept in that tiny boat?" Steve asks, his eyebrows raised.

"Well, yeah. Where else were we supposed to sleep?" Alex asks.

Dustin leans forward in the backseat and squeezes Alex's shoulders. "I bet you two were all cuddled up and cozy, weren't you?"

"Oh my god, you're wearing his ring on your necklace!" Steve says suddenly after he glances over at her. In his shocked state, he accidentally hits a pothole which lurches everyone forward.

Robin gasps from the back seat. "Let me see!"

Alex awkwardly swivels her body around in the seat to give Robin a glance, who only gasps again, only louder this time. "You two are totally into each other! Why would you never tell me about this?"

"Because there was nothing to tell you about," Alex says sternly. Just drop the damn conversation, please.

"Sorry, but I don't believe that," Steve says with a glance over at her. "I mean, you show not even an ounce of interest toward any soul for years, then all of a sudden you're laying in Eddie Munson's bed and wearing his ring around your neck and we're supposed to just think this is a new thing?"

Her heart hammers. She doesn't know how Eddie feels about her, and even if he did have some kind of interest, it likely isn't on his mind at the moment. She needs to save her heart from the potential ache of rejection; She has to put an end to this, and quick. "I wasn't exactly Miss Popularity, Steve."

"Yeah, well I heard that there were several people interested in you in California. You said that yourself," Robin says.

"It was just because I was new."

"You weren't in the boys' locker room," Steve says. "They'd call you weird, yeah, but they'd say other things, too. They would go on about you way more than they would about any other girl."

"Things like…" Alex says. She would have never imagined that she would be the talk of the locker room.

Steve glances in the backseat at the younger teens. "Things I'd prefer not to repeat in front of the children. But don't worry–I always shut them down real quick. It was disrespectful for them to talk about you like that."

"Well, it's nice to know that the boys of Hawkins High wanted me to be their freaky sex toy," she says sarcastically. "Why are you just mentioning this now?"

He catches a glance at her defeated form. "Because I knew you'd react like this. Didn't want to see you hurt. I'm sorry."

Murmuring that she's fine, she shakes off the dreadful feeling as soon as it hits. She had done it before, and she could do it again, especially since there were more important things at stake here. She reaches for her backpack on the floor and locates her toothbrush and toothbrush.

"Why do you carry around a toothbrush and toothpaste everywhere?" Steve asks.

"Because oral hygiene is very important, Steve," she says. Her voice is garbled from the action of brushing her teeth.

She finishes brushing her teeth and rolls down the window as Steve pulls up to a stop sign. Sticking her head out the window, she struggles to spit far enough away from Steve's car. She succeeds, but leaves her head out the window.

"I swear if you just spit on the side of my car-"

Alex puts her finger up. She listens closely, enough to hear the sounds of voices over the slight rustle of the leaves in the breeze. "Go this way."

"What? The entrance to the trailer park is right there," Steve says.

"I hear voices. Let's go see what it is."

"Great, now we're driving around following the voices that Alex hears." Steve jokes but drives where Alex instructs him to. She playfully smacks his arm.

Down the road, they do in fact find the police. "Maybe I should turn around," Steve says.

"No, keep going forward. Keep your eyes peeled for anything that seems suspicious."

"Alex, we can't just drive into an active crime scene and have the police not have a problem with it."

"Wait, look!" Alex says, pointing her finger at the windshield. "It's Nancy!"

Everyone glances around perplexed. Steve parks the car along the edge of the road. They step outside the car while Nancy finishes talking to Powell, who took over as Chief of police after Hopper died.

Once she's finally able to get away, Nancy comes over to the car. Alex releases her from a tight hug. "Are you okay?"

Nancy's brow is furrowed, her face full of concern. "No. I was here with Fred looking into Chrissy's murder. I left him for just a minute, now he's been murdered in the same horrible way."

"Let's find a place to sit down and talk," Steve says.

Alex lets Nancy take the front seat. Steve pulls the car around the short distance into the trailer park. The group finds a seat at the picnic table sheltered by a small wood and metal awning. Steve, Dustin, Robin, Max, and Alex all take turns recapping what they know about Vecna and the killings and them hiding Eddie.

"So you're telling me that this thing that killed Fred and Chrissy, it's from the Upside Down?" Nancy asks once they finish.

"If the shoe fits," Steve says.

"Our working theory is that he attacks with a spell or a curse," Dustin says. "Now, whether or not he's doing the bidding of the Mind Flayer or just loves killing teens, we don't know."

"All we know is this is something different. Something new," says Max.

"Doesn't make sense," Nancy mutters.

"It's only a theory." Dustin shrugs.

"No, Fred and Chrissy don't make sense," Nancy corrects. "I mean, why them?"

"Maybe they were just in the wrong place," Dustin offers. "Were both at the game."

"And near the trailer park," Alex says, glancing around the area. Her eyes settle on Eddie's trailer, now a crime scene. Her heart pangs at Chrissy's death, and what Eddie had to go through when the two of them had a nice time there mere hours before the horror began.

"We're at the trailer park," Steve points out with an unsteady voice. "Uh, should we maybe not be here?"

Everyone else begins peering about the trailer park, too. "There is something about this place," Nancy speaks up. "Fred started acting weird the second we got here."

"Acting weird as in…" Robin inquires.

"Scared, on edge, upset," Nancy lists off.

"Max said Chrissy was upset too," Dustin says.

"Eddie also said when he saw Chrissy after school she was acting weird and upset," Alex adds.

Max nods. "She was crying in the bathroom at school."

"Serial killers stalk their prey before they strike, right?" Robin asks. "So maybe Fred and Chrissy saw this Vecman–"

"Vecna," Dustin corrects.

"I don't know about you, but if I saw some freaky wizard monster, I would mention it to someone," Steve says.

"Maybe they did," Max says. "I saw Chrissy leaving Ms. Kelly's office. If you saw a monster, you… you wouldn't go to the police. They'd never believe you. But you might go to your–"

"Your shrink," Robin finishes.

Everyone starts to rise from their seats, when Nancy stops them. "Wait! One more thing: why did Wayne Munson tell me that Eddie was with that Byers girl that he always talks about all night?"

Alex's cheeks heat up. Being referred to as the Byers girl that he always talks about was news to her; news that made her whole body feel fuzzy in a way that she wasn't sure she had felt before.

"Oh, yeah, that," Steve says after a dumbfounded Alex doesn't respond. "Alex and Munson are totally into each other. It's relatively new information to us too."

"Well that's great, but who saw you with him?" Nancy asks out of concern.

Alex pulls herself together enough to answer sarcastically. "Only about half of the high school population, the guy at the burger place, and his uncle. Is that enough to make me a suspect?"

"They can't accuse you of anything just for being around him at school, since a lot of people were. His uncle was sure to mention specifically that he didn't mention it to the police. What about the guy at the burger place? Is he the type to go to the police if it gets out that Eddie is a suspect?"

Alex thinks back to what Eddie said about Alv's restaurant likely being a front for a gambling operation. "No, I think it's fine."

"Good, just making sure." Nancy reaches over and squeezes her hand. "Let's go."

Nancy stands first, with everyone following after her. She walks in her heeled boots, her pace unwavering, toward the car. As the others reach the car, Nancy veers off, making a subtle beeline toward her own car. Her diversion goes unbeknownst to everyone except for Alex and Steve.

"Whoa, whoa, Nance. Nance!" Steve jogs to catch up with her. "Where you going?'

With her hands in her pockets, she turns and nonchalantly speaks. "Oh, there's just something I wanna' check on first."

"Something you wanna' share with the rest of us?" Dustin asks from the car.

"I don't want to waste your time. It's a real shot in the dark," she answers.

"Yeah, okay. Are you out of your mind? Flying solo with this Vecna creep on the loose? No, it's too dangerous. You need… You need someone to…" Steve trails off, before he suddenly turns and tosses his car keys toward Robin, who surprisingly catches them. "Here. I'll stick with Nance. You guys take the car, check out the shrink."

"I don't think you want me driving your car," Robin says, arms outstretched.

"Why?"

"I don't have a license," she says, exasperated.

"Why don't you have a license?"

"I'm poor." She shrugs.

"I can drive," Max offers.

Steve's eyes grow impossibly wide. "No! Never again. Please. Anybody but you." Dustin grins and shrugs, but he doesn't even need to speak for Steve to shoot him down too. "No chance."

Alex strides over to Robin, and tries to take the keys from her hand. "Let's just go ahead and hand the keys over to the person who has a license."

"Oh, please," Robin says. "When was the last time you actually drove?"

Robin is correct in that fact. Jonathan was older, and money was always tight, so the car became his. The siblings shared the vehicle, but oftentimes it was mostly Jonathan who drove Alex around wherever she needed to go. Once she got the job at Scoops Ahoy, it was mostly Steve who picked her up for work. After Jonathan's car broke down, it was always Argyle who drove them around, though there was one night that an extraordinarily high Argyle let Alex drive his van around Lenora.

"Pfft, you don't forget how to drive," Alex says.

"All right. Okay, this is stupid," Robin says. She pulls a walkie from Dustin's backpack and smacks Steve's keys back in his hand. "I'll stick with Nancy. Unless you think we need you to protect us. Alex, you coming?"

Alex smirks. "Somebody's gotta' stay back to protect Steve."

Robin rushes off toward Nancy's car, leaving Nancy behind to provide Steve with a small shrug. Steve warns them to be careful, to which Robin flashes a peace sign.

"Just gonna' stand there and gawk?" Dustin asks.

"Shut up and get in the car," Steve begrudgingly instructs. "Wipe your feet."

Alex and Max hop in the back, while Dustin takes the passenger seat, but not before he wipes his feet on the floor of Steve's car.

"On the outside, not the inside!" Steve cries out as he turns the key in the ignition. "Always the babysitter. Always the goddamn babysitter!"

Alex feigns offense. "Ouch, Steve. Didn't know hanging out with me was considered babysitting."

"That's not what I meant," he says.

Alex leans forward and smacks his arm playfully, while Dustin laughs at Steve's frustrations. He drives the car out of the trailer park and in the direction in which Max tells him Ms. Kelly's house is in.

"Oh, shit! I forget to ask. Did Jonathan call?" She feels stupid for forgetting, but with everything that's already happened this morning, she forgives herself.

"Oh, yeah," Steve says. "Something about some girl got schmacked at the roller rink, and that Murray dude showed up, and your mom is going to Alaska."

"What!?" Alex all but yells. Dustin rubs his ear from the discomfort of the loud noise.

"Yeah, something about a business trip of some sort. Jonathan seemed chill about it, so I didn't think it was a big deal."

Of course Jonathan seemed chill about it; he was high! "My mom would not just… go to Alaska and not tell me about it in advance. Then you add in Murray randomly showing up, and you expect me to believe that nothing is wrong."

"That one," Max interrupts, pointing to Ms. Kelly's house.

Steve parks the car on the opposite side of the street. Ms. Kelly lives in a nice neighborhood, the kind that has vigilant old ladies who are itching to find something to report. Thankfully the neighborhood seems relatively empty right now, and Alex hopes that the many shrubs and bushes in the nearby yards will be enough to conceal their stakeout vehicle when neighbors inevitably start peeking through their department store curtained windows. Max exits the vehicle and walks up the driveway to Ms. Kelly's doorstep. They watch with anticipation as Max knocks and Ms. Kelly answers. Seconds later, Ms. Kelly invites Max inside and the wooden door closes, hiding them from view.

"Anyway," Steve starts again. "I'm sure it's fine. You can call tonight and talk to him about it."

Dustin looks around the car, glancing between Steve and Alex. "So… we gonna' talk about it?"

"Huh? Sorry, talk about what?" Steve asks, keeping his eyes trained on Ms. Kelly's door as if something drastic could happen at any moment. It's sweet how much he cares for these kids.

"Your temporary insanity earlier today when you basically threw yourself at Nance?"

"Whoa!" Both Steve and Alex say at the same time. It was an unspoken rule in Alex and Steve's friendship that they never discussed Steve's feelings toward Nancy after she began a relationship with Jonathan. After all, Jonathan is her brother; it just wouldn't be right. Did Steve still have feelings for Nancy? Alex had thought about it before, of course she had, but she always pushed the concern aside. Jonathan and Nancy were happy together; they were going to Emerson together, until they… weren't. Jonathan had pulled Alex into his room after dinner one night a couple months back, his face so serious it looked painful. He handed Alex a folded up paper that made her jaw drop. When she finished reading it, he took it back from her and hid it in his nightstand. "Emerson… it's just not me. And I can't leave you or Will or Mom. Don't tell anyone," he had said. She nodded and kept her promise. Steve still having feelings for Nancy made the entire situation infinitely more complicated, and she was the only one aware of it. And Alex hates being in the middle of things.

"That's not what happened," Steve insists.

"Pretty sure that's what happened," Dustin says.

"Are you implying that I still have a thing for Nance?" Steve asks.

"I'm stating. And, as it relates to your steadfast refusal to date Alex, it's pretty much the only logical explanation."

Alex rolls her eyes in the backseat. Two years later and the kids were still trying to set her up with Steve.

"Well let's list a few reasons why that apparently wouldn't work out: I don't have tattoos or long hair, I don't wear chains, I don't listen to metal, my name's not Eddie Munson." Steve lists off each reason on his fingers. "Shall I continue?"

"We've only known about Alex liking Eddie for like, a day," Dustin says.

"I'm right here, guys," Alex says from the back seat. "And I never said I liked Eddie," she adds as an afterthought.

Dustin and Steve just look back at her with the same face Alex would expect from a disappointed mother who knew you were lying. Dustin turns back to Steve. "What about Robin? There's no excuse for that one."

"That's where you're wrong again, Henderson."

Dustin starts to retort back, but Alex takes it upon herself to exit the vehicle. "I'm gonna' grab some fresh air."

Alex is already pacing down the sidewalk in the opposite direction when she hears Steve griping at Dustin for upsetting her through the open window. She takes a stroll down the street, hoping to clear her head. She gets about thirty paces away when she sees an old woman staring at her from the house across the street. The woman knows that she is out of place, Alex can tell. The face staring at her disappears, and Alex takes it as her cue to hightail it out of there. She reaches the now silent car and leans her body against it. C'mon, Max. Where are you?

She instinctively places her hand against the skin of her chest and her fingers find Eddie's ring. The pad of her thumb brushes across the ridges in the design of the ring. It's almost… comforting.

At that moment, Max sprints toward the car, pulling Alex from her thoughts. "Come on, lover girl!"

Alex ignores her remark at the intensity in Max's voice. She's back in the vehicle before Steve even starts the ignition.

"What'd she say?" Dustin asks.

"Nothing, just drive."

"Nothing?"

"Steve, drive!" Max says urgently. "To the high school," she adds.

A few minutes down the road, Dustin's other walkie comes to life. "Dustin. It's Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin!"

Dustin pulls the piece of technology up to his mouth. "Lucas? Where the hell have you been?"

"Just listen. Are you guys looking for Eddie?" Lucas' voice is garbled from the walkie, but it still comes through urgent.

"Yeah, we found him, no thanks to you."

"You found him?"

"He's at a boathouse on Coal Mill Road. Don't worry. He's safe."

"You guys know he killed Chrissy, right?"

At that, Alex reaches into the front seat and yanks the walkie from Dustin's hand. "That's bullshit, Lucas. Eddie tried to help her."

"Alex is that you?" Lucas asks, then changes subject. "Then why do all the cops say he did it?"

Then it's Max's turn to yank the walkie from Alex's hand. "Lucas, you're so behind it's ridiculous, okay? Just meet us at the school. We'll explain later."

"I… I can't. I think some real bad shit's about to go down." The seriousness in Lucas' tone can't be mistaken through the walkie.

"What are you talking about? What bad shit?"

Static comes through on the other end. Alex tunes out for the rest of the car ride, and only tunes back in once it's time to break into the school. She had heard Max explain the plan in the car, but not super well. Her mind was elsewhere: worried about Eddie, worried about her mom, worried about… everyone. Was anyone safe at this point? Her hand was wrapped around Eddie's ring the whole time, a new habit already formed.

Max turns the key in the doorknob to Ms. Kelly's room, glancing over her shoulder to look for any custodians that might be wandering the halls this evening. Alex holds her flashlight steady as the door swings open. They enter the room filled with filing cabinets and motivational posters. Max beelines for the filing cabinets.

"It's like a mini-Watergate or something." Dustin grins. "Hawkinsgate."

"Didn't those guys get caught?" Steve asks.

"Holy shit," Max says from the filing cabinet. She pulls not one, but two files from it. "Fred was seeing Ms. Kelly too."

Dustin, Steve, and Alex look between each other while Max moves to start looking through the files at Ms. Kelly's desk. They follow after her, reading through the files in the beams of their flashlights. The longer Max reads, the more the concerned look on her face grows. Alex reads headaches, nosebleeds, nightmares, past trauma and doesn't need to read anymore. She looks over to Max, a deep concern booming in her chest.

Author's Note: Thank you again to everyone who reads this story, with a special thank you to those that take the time to review, favorite, and follow. Every time I get a review, favorite, or follow I am filled with joy and motivation to continue writing this. I also love writing for these characters.

I know some of you are a bit concerned about backstory. Don't worry! I didn't want to dump eighteen years of backstory into one chapter, but I'm going to be sure to include bits of backstory in each chapter.