Loss - Lucas Sinclair

The Gate (Part 1)

"Eleven."

"Mike."

Everyone watched as the two embraced each other in their reunion.

"Is that.." Max started to ask, looking between Dustin and Lucas. Dustin nodded his head, answering her question while Lucas's gazed went from Mike and El to the door, hoping to see one other person show up.

"I never gave up on you," Mike said releasing El from their hug. "I called you every night. Every night for-"

"353 days," El finished, making Mike look at her in shock. "I heard."

"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" Mike looked slightly heart broken. "That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let her," Hopper walked to the two, looking at El. "The hell is this? Where have you been?"

"Where have you been?" El snapped back before she and Hopper gave each other a hug.

"You've been hiding her," Mike connected the dots. "You've been hiding her this whole time!"

Mike gave Hopper a shove that quickly backfired as Hopper grabbed him by the shirt. "Hey! Let's talk. Alone."

Everyone watched as Mike and Hopper went into a room, leaving everyone else to reunite with El.

Dustin and Lucas were the next people who gave her a hug.

"We missed you," Lucas said.

"I missed you, too," El said back as they pulled out of the hug.

"We talked about you guys pretty much every day," Dustin said.

"Hey, um," Lucas tried to think of a way to bring up the subject, "do you, uh, where-Nikki?"

The boy watched as El's expression saddened as she shook her head. Lucas felt all the hope he had with seeing her disappear.

"I'm sorry," El said quietly.

"Yeah, me too," Lucas nodded trying to hide his sadness.

El turned to Dustin and looked at him in shook. "Teeth," she poked his teeth.

"What?" Dustin asked.

"You have teeth."

"Oh," Dustin giggled. "You like these pearls?" He purred making El look at him weirdly and Lucas shake his head.

"Eleven?" Max walked up to her with a smile on her face. "Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you."

Max stuck out her hand for El to shake by she completely ignored her and walked to Joyce who brought her into a loving hug.

"She probably just doesn't like strangers," Lucas tried to make a disappointment Max feel better. "She'll warm up to you."

Max gave him a small smile before looking at him seriously. "How are you doing?"

"Could be better," Lucas shrugged, trying to hide his sadness he had after El telling him Nikki didn't survive. Max gave him a short, comforting hug before heading for the kitchen where everyone started to gather up.

"It's not like it was before," Hopper said, looking at the "close gate" sign on the table. "It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

"Demo-dogs," Dustin corrected.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper sighed.

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper snapped.

"It's not. I'm sorry."

El looked up like she wanted to say something but was quickly cut off by the door creaking. Everyone looked at each other wide eyed as they waited for any other noises coming from the living room.

"Hello?" A soft but familiar voice echoed through the house.

Lucas caught El's gazed knowing they were thinking the same thing.

Is it really her?

El quickly pushed off the wall she was leaning on and walked quickly with Lucas and everyone else behind her to the living. When they got in the room, they saw a blonde girl standing in the room, looking at the dead demo-dog.

The girl looked at the group as they stood a few feet away from her. Her blue eyes widen at the sight of El.

"El?" She asked, not believing that her sister was standing in front of her.

"Nikki," El smiled at her sister that she spent so many hours looking for.

The two girls hugged each other tightly as El cried silently and Nikki tried to push down the bad emotions.

"You were gone," El said stepping back but holding on to her sister's arms.

"You weren't breathing," Nikki said letting a few tears escape. "I left because...I thought.."

Nikki couldn't finished the sentence, she knew if she did she wouldn't be able to control her sadness, guilt, and pain.

El seemed to know what she meant. "No, I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere."

Nikki smiled at El as Lucas took a step closer to them. "Nikki?"

She turned to face Lucas and her face lit up. "Hey." She gave Lucas a hug as he happily return it, feeling all the sadness he had a few minutes ago leave him.

"I missed you," he said, not letting her go just yet.

Nikki didn't mind one bit. "I missed you, too."

They let go of each other and Nikki took a look around at everyone. She quickly noticed two people she didn't know and looked at Lucas who seemed to have read her mind.

"Uh, this is Steve," he pointed to Steve who gave her a polite nod, "and this is Max."

"Nice to meet you guys," she gave both of them a kind smile as Max looked like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

Nikki reunited with everyone else quickly mowing that something was still going on here.

"Well," she sighed, looking at the group in front of her, "I'm here and I know that something's going on. I'm ready to help."

Authors note
Yay! Nikki is back!

Love ya!!❤️❤️❤️