Eddie stood up quickly at the sound of distant rustling, grabbing Joan subconsciously by the arm and leading her out from under the skull to a boulder nearby.

"It's probably just the kids and their babysitters." Joan hissed out as she stumbled alongside the metalhead as he knelt down with interlocked fingers in a familiar cheer form to help her on top of the rock. When he didn't answer, Joan rolled her eyes and took the help up to hide, holding out her own hand to help yank him up as much as she could. "Well, now we have the high ground." She joked but sighed sadly when she realized that he wouldn't understand. "Tragic..."

"Do you or your brother - dad - whatever the hell know when to shut up!?" He hissed out dramatically with a hand over her mouth. Joan took no offense only snorting at the way Eddie tripped over his reference of the Dustin. She understood the confusion, she stumbled over it frequently. "You Henderson's will be the death of me I swear."

Way to ruin my mood, Eds...

"In your face, man. In your stupid, cocky little face." Joan went to jump down to the familiar faces and squash them into a hug, but Eddie's eyes drifted down to the rope marks on her wrists and held her back.

"Doesn't make sense." He brought up one of her hands in emphasis to her face and held up a finger to tell her to wait. With a wince she took the reminder and nodded, understand the need for her to hide until they sorted the dirty laundry.

They thought she was crazy.

Which, to their credit, was fair.

"Yeah, yeah. Even with it staring you in the face, you can't admit it. Can't admit you're wrong, you butthead."

"I concur."

Joan snickered to herself as Eddie jumped down and shocked the ground occupants with his own power pose, hands on his hips and a deep breath in.

"You, Dustin Henderson, are a total butthead."

There was something heart wrenching watching Eddie swallow his tongue and hug the freshman version of her dad back tightly, not any different than when she hugged her own little buttheads back at home.

Steve rolled his eyes as he walked away, feet stumbling on a wooden mess with a frown. "The hell is this?" He picked up the board without any grace, flipping it around as he eyed it suspiciously and Joan was a half step away from running over to prevent the destruction of her contraption.

Dustin took a few steps forward and snatched it from Steve's hands without any niceties, sending Steve into a small meltdown about manners that was ignored by everyone. "This... this is a radio. Did you make this Eddie?"

"Errr, no?" Eddie said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head and making the mistake of glancing up at Joan's hiding position. Everyone else followed his gaze up to see a wide eyed Joan standing awkwardly on the boulder. "Shit."

"Jo?!" Dustin responded incredulously, looking back and forth between his sister and the contraption and the tools on the ground beside it. "Since.. since when can you use a soldering gun?!"

With a nervous chuckle, Joan followed Eddie's lead and scratched the back of her head, hating the greasy feeling of her hair on her hands. She stayed on the rock though, not fully trusting the kids or Steve below her to not try and attack her.

Which, again, fair.

"Even more of a reason it's not Joan." Steve replied firmly, eyes narrowing at the girl as he took towards her. She was a threat to the small family he had and if he had to be the one to make the call, so be it. He would do anything to prevent harm on his kids. "...Munson?"

"Look, man. I'm-I'm tired, she's tired. We're thirsty a-and there's a lot of shit we need to talk about." Eddie sighed out after pushing Steve away and standing protectively at the base of the rock with his hands over his chest anxiously. "That is Joan and I-I need your trust that she isn't here to harm us."

"E-exact opposite actually." Joan tried meekly with a weak thumbs up to the crowd below. "I'd prefer not being tied up or knocked unconscious, but uh, yeah. Totally fair if you do-"

"No, no not fair!" Eddie interrupted with disbelief all over him as he glanced up at Joan and threw his hands in the air. "There's no need-!"

"Literally almost killed Steve not even 24 hours ago-"

"Yeah, well, plenty of people have dreamed of doing that the King Steve, myself included-"

"I-okay, hold on-?" Steve tried to interrupt but was ignored by the arguing two.

"But did you act on it ever?!"

"...I might today-!"

"Shut up!"

"No, you!"

"Asshole!"

"Bitch!"

Joan shook her fist angrily down at Eddie in a threat before moving to head down the boulder, fired up and ready to beat the shit out of the guy. "I-I don't care who the hell's down there, I'm coming and I'm going to kick your ass next!"

"Jo, stay the fuck up there-!"

"No, fuck you!" Joan snapped as she pushed her legs over the edge of the rock onto a small ledge. "You don't tell me- ah!" Joan tumbled down and Eddie tried to get over there in time, but failed as he flinched at the loud thump of his friend landing on her ass. "Ow, ow, ow, fuck." She groaned and let Eddie help her up before smacking him on the shoulder.

"I'm helping you, you bitch!" Eddie snapped as Joan tried to attack him while keeping herself upright. "What the fuck Jo, stop!"

"I'll show you bitch-!"

"Jesus, a-are they flirting?!" Robin blurted out incredulously causing both teens to freeze with Joan's arm around Eddie's neck in a chokehold and Eddie's hands inches away from yanking her ponytail back. Steve quickly shoved his hands over the two freshman's eyes with a scowl over his face as Robin looked awkwardly in different directions. "I-I mean, it's just I don't-?"

"Flirting?!" Eddie blurted out, pushing Joan away roughly. She stumbled for a bit before he quickly grabbed her arm to stabilize her, letting it go again hastily once she had her footing and sending a glare his way. "N-no, she's like way too young, wouldn't never work."

"That's a double negative, moron." Joan snapped out with a huff, brushing her butt and legs off from dirt and trying to ignore the sting of hurt from the confession.

"Didn't you say that you guys had a thing a while back?" Dustin pointed out as he fought with Steve's hand over his eyes, sending his own glare to Steve when the graduate refused to relent out of pure joy of causing chaos. "Will you quit it-!"

"Mmm, no."

"Joan! Steve is being an ass!"

"...Were you being a butthead?"

"What?!" Dustin looked over at Joan scandalized.

Joan shrugged and tried to hide a smirk as she rubbed her hands together for warmth and looked almost evilly at Dustin. "Dingus gets, what dingus deserves."

"Okay, okay I am so lost and beyond concerned." Max finally interrupted out of frustration, everyone pausing to look over at the red head with ranges of shame on their face. With seriousness laced onto her features, she shoved herself in front of Steve and Dustin, pushing a finger at Joan and a hand on her hip. "Is she going to try to kill us again?"

"Uh, maybe?" Joan let out weakly, hiding behind Eddie when the redhead nodded and brandished a screwdriver as a weapon. "Wait, wait, wait! I think w-we should talk!"

"Jesus Christ, man." Eddie sputtered out at the act of violence, taking his own step back at the seriousness on Max's face. She was a hundred percent willing to stab Joan right now and possibly him, he was torn between keeping Joan behind him or throwing her out as bait before running. "A-are all of you kids extremely violent or just little red?"

"They all have trauma that you wouldn't believe." Steve replied dryly, instinctively taking the screwdriver from Max and throwing it in his pocket. His hands went onto his hips as he looked over at the cheerleader and freak expectantly, a familiar pose that had Joan trying to hold in her chuckles from previous Steve experiences. "Are you about to shit yourself?!"

"N-no, I just... trying not to laugh 'cause, well, you never change." Joan snickered as she remembered when her and her dad pranked Uncle Steve, making him believe that Dustin had accidentally thrown her off the porch by accident.

"Hey, Uncle Steve! Watch what dad and I can do!" Joan shouted from the balcony on the second floor of the man's house. Steve groaned as he stood up from the living room, frowning over from inside the house as Dustin used his legs to make the girl 'fly' dangerously close to the railing edge.

"H-hey, dingus that's too close to- shit!" Steve panicked as he watched the girl get sent down the porch, sprinting down his stairs and swinging the back door open violently. "Jo?!"

The figure laid on the grass and the sun glared into his eyes as he ran over to the small girl, kneeling beside her before frowning as his eyes focused on the figure of the life size strawberry shortcake doll he had gotten her for Christmas.

Matching giggles sounded from above and he looked up to see two Henderson pain-in-the-asses high five each other safe and sound on the balcony. Standing up, he placed his hands on his hips and began lecturing the two as if they both were 9 years old.

With a sigh, Joan got out from behind her shield and looked over at her future family with an awkward smile. She figured it was now or never, might as well rip the band aid off about who she was.

"So, uh, hi. My name is Joan Henderson and, uh, I'm from the future."

The silence was visible as everyone but Eddie stared at her with varying faces of disbelief and shock. Steve was the one to break the silence quite eloquently, rubbing a hand down his face as if it would make it all better before pinching the bridge of his nose like a frustrated parent. He really didn't understand why he couldn't have one normal fucking friend.

"What the fuck man."

A/N: we are nearing the end! I plan on leaving this completed and not waiting for the next season. I have an end in mind.

yaoilovinkitsune: it's more like her trying to figure out if she should change things. It's supposed to be a parallel where she knows what happens to Eddie and doesn't want to let it happen. She doesn't know if she should, so she asks him using her previous campaign where Kaleigh's character died even though she wanted to prevent it.

Once I'm done here I'll start posting the Billy fix 3 thank you so much!!