46- Ted Wheeler Finds the Truth

Summary: Ted Wheeler has always been oblivious. So oblivious that he never noticed about the Upside-Down. So how did he find out about it?

Requested by: Boris Yeltsin

The day had started out ordinary.

That meant something was going to go wrong.

At least in Mike and Nancy's experience.

Their mom was out of town, so their dad was in charge.

Meaning, Nancy was in charge.

The Wheeler family sat down for a breakfast of bacon and eggs.

As always, they ate in silence.

Until Holly asked, "Can I go play?"

Ted absently nodded, reading his paper.

Holly ran off to her room, leaving the two oldest Wheeler siblings with their father.

Mike and Nancy were about to ask to be excused themselves when their father opened his mouth to speak.

"So," he said, chewing on his eggs. "How's that Max kid doing?"

Mike and Nancy were surprised, their dad had never asked about their lives much less someone else's.

"Good." Mike answered hesitatingly.

Max was in fact good. She'd left Vecna's lair in a 2-week coma and a broken leg. The broken leg had healed well, she just couldn't over exercise herself.

"And Eddie?" Ted continued.

Nancy and Mike stared at each other incredulously. This was new.

"He's fine as well." Nancy replied, which was true. Eddie was fine, just sporting matching scars with Steve.

"So Vecna didn't get to them like he'd planned?" Ted asked, still absently eating his eggs and reading his paper.

Mike spewed his milk back into his cup, just like he'd done when they were hiding El.

Nancy stared at her dad; one eyebrow raised.

"How do you know about that?" she asked.

"Hmm? About what?" Ted had yet to look up from his paper.

"The Upside Down!" Mike cried out, rolling his eyes from how oblivious his father was.

Ted finally finished his paper, looking at his children.

"Oh, yeah. That's what it's called." he muttered to himself, getting up to clear his plate.

Mike and Nancy stared at each other for a moment, then got up to call the others.

They needed to find out who spilled.

"It was obviously Dustin."

Dustin looked offended and was about to protest when Erica went on.

"I mean, come on! He's the worst liar of us all, you heard the lake lie!" Erica gestured to Max and her brother. "He could barely keep Steve's surprise birthday party a secret. Or Lucas's or Mike's. Will's was iffy. Oh, and Max's was the worst of all! You almost ruined the whole thing! And let's not forget El's birthday..."

"Alright, alright." Steve cut in. "If we keep listing how many times Dustin almost ruined surprises, we're going to be here all night."

Dustin glared at Steve, hurt that he didn't stick up for him.

"What?" Steve said, noticing the glare. "It's true!"

There were quiet murmurs and a couple of nods.

Dustin threw his arms up, collapsing back in the recliner.

"Well?" Nancy said, expecting a confession.

"Okay, despite what you may think, this one wasn't me." Dustin using his hands to gesture more than he usually did.

Max rolled her eyes but noticed something.

"Robin."

Everyone turned and there was Robin in the corner, biting her nail, trying to act casual.

"What?"

Max stared at her for a moment.

Everyone just waited to see what happened.

Robin nervously looked at the floor before she cried out, "Okay! It was me!"

Dustin looked at her in shock. "You were just going to let me take the blame on this one?"

Robin just shrugged at the outburst.

"It really it true, you blab a lot." Robin told him.

"So do you!" Dustin pointed out. "Okay next time, let's not all assume it was me, add Robin to the mix!"

There was mix of nods and eye rolls scattered throughout the room.

"Okay, so what'd you spill? The whole enchilada? Or... What?" Steve asked his best friend.

"Just spring break." Robin admitted. "I was waiting for Nancy and Mike when he just plainly asked what his kids were up to. And what they did spring break and stuff. I swear I lied, at first, but somehow he like, knew it was a lie, and he just stared at me and... it just spilled out."

The whole Party just stared at her until Eddie spoke up.

"You had that amount of time to tell everything that happened during spring break?" he asked.

"Well, just what I know." Robin defended.

"That's still a lot!" Max argued.

"Well, Nancy does take a long time to get ready." Mike said innocently, smirking when Nancy sent him a death glare.

"Okay, okay," Steve cut in, waving his arms around. "Let's stop arguing and figure out what we should do now."

El knew what they should do. "We need to talk to Hop."

Hopper ran his hands down his face.

He was getting tired of the cleanup job.

Whenever someone spilled the tiniest bit, he was the person to go to.

And he hated it.

He had to talk to Robin, then Mike and Nancy, then Joyce to see what he should do about it.

Then, he had to talk to Ted.

Which was almost an impossible task.

Hopper rang the doorbell of the Wheelers when the kids reassured him that it would only be him in the house.

When Ted answered he grunted and jerked his head, signaling that Hopper could go in.

"Whatcha need, Chief?" Ted asked, picking up his newspaper.

"I just needed to talk to you about the Upside Down." Hopper told him.

Ted didn't look up from his newspaper, just gave a little head nod.

"I need to know that you won't tell anybody about it." Hopper said sternly.

"Hmmm." Ted hummed.

"It's important that you don't, that information is very dangerous." Hopper kept going.

Ted said nothing, still reading his newspaper.

"Ted." Hopper practically shouted.

"What? What are we talking about?" Ted asked, looking at Hopper with a look that told him Ted really didn't know what was going on.

Hopper sighed, then gave a slight chuckle. "Nothing Ted, nothing. Enjoy your paper."

Ted made an unidentified noise and Hopper was on his way.

He couldn't believe that he thought there would be a problem.

Well, what can you say, that was Ted Wheeler for you.

AN: I hope you liked it, Boris Yeltsin! Happy New Year! Requests are open!