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"Fire and Rain"

You've got to help me make a stand

You've just got to see me through another day

- James Taylor

Hopper collected the weapons he had gathered from the Russians and gave a last look at Joyce, hoping he could convince her to stay behind. But she had that stubborn look on her face that said it would be so much wasted effort, so he sighed and didn't bother, letting her walk ahead of him toward the door that led to the warren of hallways behind the food court. As he and Joyce passed Murray, he fell into step behind them.

"Hey. You're not coming," Hopper said over his shoulder, not bothering to wait for Murray to listen.

"The hell I'm not. You think I'm going to sit here and let you bungle this?"

"Bungle—!?" Hopper stopped himself before he could wring Murray's neck. "We don't need you for this."

"Yes, you do."

"Hopper, I really think we ought to think about—"

"We're not even considering this, Joyce."

"You need me, Jim," Murray insisted with exaggerated patience. "It's not going to work unless I come along. You don't know the first thing about how this machine works."

"It's a two-man operation." Hopper bit the words off as he marched down the hallway, Murray and Joyce in tow, ignoring the fact that Murray was right and he didn't actually know how the machine worked. "Two!"

"Yeah, well, change of plans," Joyce told him.

"Change of plans?"

"Yeah, will you explain it to him?" She gestured at Murray, who was happy to oblige.

"We have two options here, Jim. We can turn the machine off, or we can explode it."

"Oh, yeah, says who?"

"Says the man who built it!" Murray shouted, shaking his papers for emphasis.

"Yeah, and we want to explode it!" Joyce added.

"Or else our heroic efforts will be for naught," Murray finished. "This is a three-man operation, Jim, not two."

"Yeah," Joyce echoed. "Three!"

Hopper crashed through a set of doors, wishing he could tie them both up, gag them to shut them up, and leave them up here on the surface where they could be safe while he went down alone into the Russian installation and saved the goddamned day. No need to worry about their safety, no need to have either one of them distracting him, just himself and his fists and some Russians and some guns for backup. It sounded really satisfying—and it was clear it wasn't going to happen.

They made it into the elevator without incident, setting it to take them down who knew how far into the depths of the earth, where the Russians waited with their gate-opening machine.

"All right," Hopper said to Murray, giving up on trying to keep him from joining this little expedition. "Show me what needs to be done."

"Okay." Murray held out the papers, and Hopper could see the intelligence in the man as he took them step by step through everything he had learned from Alexi, pointing to the diagram so they could follow along. "So then I yank those cables like I'm pulling weeds," he finished.

Joyce nodded, understanding. "And that'll set off the alarm—"

"According to Alexi, may his soul rest in peace. Which should give you two an opening to retrieve the keys from the vault."

"And then we just follow the map to the observation room, turn the key—"

"Kaboom, we blow this sucker sky-high."

"Yeah. And then once the rift is closed, we … escape back through the vents."

"Right under their Commie noses." Murray grinned wildly.

"Then we're home free."

Hopper looked at them both skeptically. He appreciated that they were on a roll, but it all sounded entirely too easy.

Joyce rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, God, just because it wasn't your plan doesn't mean it was a bad plan."

"I didn't say it was a bad plan."

"You made a noise."

"I did not make a noise."

"Did, too."

"I didn't make a noise!"

Joyce shook her finger in his face. "You know, I really think that it's disrespectful for you to—"

"What is up with you and noises?" he demanded, shaking his finger back at her.

"Children! Children!" Murray got in between them before things could escalate further. "It is a good plan. A solid B, which is laudable, given the situation and time constraints. Dare I say, if it all goes right …" the elevator came to a sudden halt, and he finished, "they'll never even know we were here."

And on those famous last words, the elevator door rose, revealing the armed Russians standing there. Immediately, their guns were pointed at the elevator's occupants, all of whom raised their hands while Murray shouted something in Russian. He moved off the elevator, shaking Alexi's drawings in the faces of the the Russians, continuing to talk to them. He was good at that, Hopper had to admit. He had the Russians confused … but he was clearly running out of steam, so Hopper took over negotiations, pushing Murray aside and spraying the three Russians with bullets.

In the aftermath, he could hear Joyce making small, panicked noises, and Murray gasping for breath, and he looked at what he had done. "Oh, shit."

"Jim," Murray said, appearing more shocked than Hopper would have expected. "This is crazy."

"Oh, my God," Joyce added.

"Jim, I— This … I had it under control."

"Yeah, sure you did." Three Russians, Hopper thought. Three uniforms. He knelt next to one of them, plucking his hat off his head. After all, the Russian wasn't going to need the hat anymore. Or the uniform.

"What are you doing?" Joyce asked.

For answer, Hopper fit the Russian hat on his head and turned to look up at her. "I'm improvising."