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, waiting 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. His eyes glanced at the door that stayed slightly ajar, "do you, uh, where-Nikki?"

The boy watched as El's expression saddened with grief 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, feeling a new and worsened wave of grief hit him as he tried to make it make sense. Did she overuse her powers? Did she get hurt before vanishing and he didn't see it? What went wrong?

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

"What?" Dustin asked, dodging her hand that reached for him.

"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. The girl grew excited, seeing one of the superpowered girls. "Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you."

Max stuck out her hand for El to shake but 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. She noted how he snuck longing glances at the door and how, with each glance, his shoulders sunk more and more. "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.

A wave of comfort flooded Lucas's chest, making his heart skip a beat. He held his breath, not wanting to get his hopes up only to be disappointed. He turned to El and caught her gaze. With one look he could tell they were in the same boat.

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

The girl turned to the group, when she heard their footsteps grow closer. Her blue eyes scanned the group quickly and widened when they landed at the sight of her sister.

"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 the two lurched forward, embracing each other tightly. Nikki felt El's shoulders start to shake as the girl cried in relief. 

"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 emotions. And she had come too far to have it end with her hurting the people she cared about.

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

Nikki nodded, letting out a sigh of relief. "Good."

"Nikki?"

She looked passed El to Lucas and a small smile lit up her face. "Hey."

"Hi," Lucas released a shaky breath as she moved to stand in front of him. 

Without another word, Nikki held out her arms, raising her eyebrow in question. Seeing the girl waiting for him to respond, a grin grew on his face as he stepped into her opened arms and wrapped his round her.

"I missed you," he said after a few seconds, not letting her go just yet.

Nikki didn't mind one bit and tighten her hold. "I missed you, too."

When 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 toward 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 knowing that something was still going on here and wanted to get back to work.

"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!!❤️❤️❤️

Edited in 2025.