Robin hopped on the boat, using heads as her stabilizer - much to Steve's chagrin - followed by Eddie who helped Nancy Wheeler onto the small vessel. Somehow, Joan got her hands on the bag, pulling out some bandages with shaky hands and throwing it over to Robin, who caught it with unabashed confusion.
She accepted the silent decision to keep her on land knowing she'd be a liability, especially with what would happen next. If she were to go under, that could mean death for any of them and while she wished she could prevent the life-lasting scars on Uncle Steve's stomach, there was little she could do.
"Who put her in charge!"
"I did." Robin and Joan answered firmly, smirking at each other and ignoring the incredulous look from the smaller boy with a cruel satisfaction. "Ditto." They both gasped after they once again said the same thing, before narrowing their eyes and trying to see if the other person could read their minds.
"Brynnyn Sinclair- damn."
"Boobi-"
Both girls froze, before looking away with wide eyes and the rest of the party shook their heads in their own disbelief. To their embarrassment neither girl had the ability to read minds, but refused to articulate further at the questioning looks sent their way.
"Really?" Steve asked dryly, looking over at Robin whose face was flushed red and then over at Joan who looked anywhere but at Lucas and Max, the former of the two's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the brunette. "You're a child."
"Part of the Henderson curse, I think." Joan responded sarcastically, a lazy smirk across her face as she sent a wink to Dustin playfully. "I promise you. It's only downhill from here."
Steve felt a shiver go down his spine as if he could feel the future pass over him ominously.
"Joan." Eddie interrupted as Dustin threw the compass to Nancy and Steve prepared to push the boat out into motion, but clammed up as soon as all eyes were on him from the sudden change in tone. Instead of what he wanted to say, he resorted back to Tolkien references as a form of communication. "...E-Eomer said, 'How is a man to judge what to do in such times?'."
The timetraveller licked her lips and nodded, the perfect quote curated for such a time as this that almost had her smirking from the cliche of it all. Joan took a deep breath in and sent the words over to him with careful articulation and precision."...A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it." Eddie's face was unreadable and Joan feared she may have hit a nerve, and tried to reach out for him.
"Thats not the correct response." Dustin whined looking over at his sister or... daughter? with furrowed eyebrows. "'Good and evil have not changed since yesteryear, nor are they one thing among Elves and another among Men. It is a man's part to discern them,-"
"Yeah, yeah, you're a nerd, we get it." Steve snapped as he threw the bag into Dustin's arms and shoved the boat forward, quickly getting along with the others and looking back guiltily at Dustin's offended yell.
"You said three!"
"Sorry." Steve meant it too.
"Bedtime at nine, kiddos!"
"Hey, I'm here too!" Joan cried out in offense as her and Dustin sent simultaneous middle fingers to the boat in retribution.
"You're so young that you're not even born yet!" Robin responded back without missing a beat with a friendly wave from afar. "Bedtime applies to you too, missy!"
Joan nodded to herself in confirmation as she watched the boat full of older teens drift farther and farther away from her and the kids. "Yeah, I think I'll let evil-me kill her first. Then Steve. Then Eddie. Finally Nancy." To be fair, Nancy hadn't done anything wrong, she just needed to finish the list.
Lucas and Max both took a step away from Joan, while Dustin only rolled his eyes and turned on the girl, eyes wide and twinkling with questions. Joan braced herself for the onslaught of questions while Lucas and Max tried to busy themselves with the binoculars.
"-water is discovered on the moon and we have an image of a real black hole." Joan finished a quick summary of scientific discoveries that she could remember that would interest the future physicist. "Not a scientific discovery, but you convince mom to leave the Mormon church, but her parents secretly hate you for it, and-"
"The Mormon church?!" Dustin interrupted, bug-eyed that almost bursted into cartoonish hearts at the implication and Joan felt as if she shouldn't have said anything at all. "S-so me and Suzie... we create, uh you...?"
"...and then three little butthead boys." Joan agreed with a half-hearted grin, enjoying the star-struck look on Dustin's face and chuckling. "Have to say warn you, they're more like mom than I am. I'm 98% Henderson and 2% crazy. Stuck with ol' me as your shadow for however many years we're alive at the same time."
"...Hey." Lucas decided to speak up, scratching the back of his neck and looking over almost shyly. He wanted his own future-telling. "Earlier, w-when you and Robin were doing that weird... whatever, were you about to say what I think you were about to say?"
Joan considered lying or not even answering, but decided to nod slowly anyways. "Brynnyn Sinclair. A grade below me, cheerleader, hellfire club's ranger, and my best friend. She beats me up when I get outta line." She offered the last bit in an attempt to raise the mood, but before she could clarify any more, Dustin interrupted and they were back to their original mission.
And then she calmly took the binoculars away from a start Steve, who only shrugged while the two boys looked mildly traumatized. She took a glance through the herself and zoomed over at Eddie, smiling unconsciously at his face after Robin stole his cigarette and threw it away.
"You know, I am even more uncomfortable watching my future daughter-who-looks-like-my-sister oogle Steve Harrington, a supposed uncle in the future." Dustin stated out with a dramatic edge to it, causing Joan to snort and hand the binoculars back to Max once the shirtless graduate was in the water. "Also, fun fact, if there is indeed a gate down there then guess what it is?" He paused for suspense, a proud grin already on his face before the punchline hit. "Watergate."
"Oooooo, that hurt, Dusty." Joan winced playfully, looking down at him from the corner of her eyes as her own grin started to form. "That was quite a scandalous joke."
That got a groan out of Lucas and Max, and more giggles out of Dustin, before flashing lights grabbed their attention and the four of them threw themselves behind a log at the hollers of down by the shoreline! reached their ears.
"Cops." Max whispered out frantically and Joan swallowed, not sure where this fit in the future. Unfortunately, she hadn't been privy to all knowledge and Joan wasn't sure what to do with that new piece of information.
"Shit, shit, shit." Dustin breathed out in a panic.
"We can't let them find Eddie."
Max took a deep breath and looked over at Joan who at this time was the oldest of the group. With a plan on her face, Joan nodded in approval even if she didn't know what it was because she sure as hell didn't have one. Auntie Max was always smart and she trusted her with her life no matter how old she was.
"Okay, trust me and stay with me." Max grabbed the boys attention and stood up quickly, dodging the attempts to keep her still as she hollered out to the cops and started running away, the other three quick on their feet.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." Joan hissed out in a chant as she ran with the little shits, trying not to panic. Lucas was quick to take the lead and Joan took to grabbing onto Dustin's hand, trying to pull him along with her, him being the least athletic of the three of them. "Come on, Dusty! Pick up them feet!"
Dustin could barely speak as he tried to push himself to near hyperventilation, trying to think about Eddie to give him an extra little burst in hopes he might be able to out run the police. Unfortunately, his foot caught a root and he was sent tumbling down, taking Joan down with him in the process.
Joan tried to help pull Dustin up, but was sent face first into the ground with a knee in her back as one of the officers shoved her arms behind her painfully. Spitting out dirt she turned to face the kids with fear on her face, but relaxed as she saw that the kids were only being grabbed firmly and without violence.
"H-hey, don't treat my dau-sister like that!" Dustin snapped out as he tried to rush over to Joan, a hot flush over his face as he watched the cuffs go around her wrists and she was forced to stand up, stumbling around. "What the hell!"
"Not the first time." Joan smirked over at the kids thankful they couldn't see her clenching hands or hear her quickened heartbeat. "Relax, kiddos. Obey the law, what's the worse that could happen?" She chortled at the dark humor considering the politics to come in the future, leaving everyone confused as they were led to the police card and thankfully away from the boat containing an unfairly accused murder suspect.
"No, no, no, no." Eddie ordered as he watched Robin slowly crawl to the edge of the small boat, eyes wide with panic and fear of being left alone, and for what was underneath them. "She said wait!"
"I heard her." Robin answered wistfully, clutching the bandages in her hand tightly while looking over at Eddie with eyes that looked so sad.
"S-she's in charge!"
"Bullshit." Robin all but spat, poisoning the words from the past so she could breathe new ones into existence. "Joan and I made that shit up."
Everything about Joan bounced through Eddie's head so densely that he could almost feel the pings and thoughts, grabbing his hair in frustration and hating the reminder of the girl he really, really liked, but wasn't even technically born yet!
"A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it."
"You fucking bitch!" Eddie shrieked, hoping she could hear him as he looked down at the deep, dark water and felt like she was down there taunting him from the bottom of the lake. He paced around violently, sending waves around the boat, before pausing and flipping off the imaginary image of Joan Destiny Henderson smirking at him. "Ah, fuckin', shit, shit, shit!"
And then he followed her, swallowing his fear and diving in after the teens.