"??? ??? ???? ??? ???? ???" "?'?? ????? ???? ?? ???? ?? ???????? ?? ?? ????."
What if the Red Room had a gate? What if Yelena Belova was assigned to a mission through that gate?
What if it went wrong?
Yelena went through the gate found by the Red Ro...
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- CATECHISE -
EVERYTHING WAS SET up and the group were as ready as they'd ever be to interrogate Will. He was tied to a chair in the shed, surrounded by nothing but bright lights, Joyce, Jonathan, Mike and Hopper. They were starting by bringing back memories. Good memories.
Everyone else was inside. Lucas and Max were sat on the floor in the hallway, Nancy leant against the wall near the phone, Dustin was by the window, and Steve and Yelena were in the living room. Yelena was laid face up on the couch watching as Steve swung his bat aimlessly around the room.
"You know, if you swing that fast enough you can probably write your name." Yelena snickered.
"You're funny, Belova." Steve responded, sarcastically, and stopped swinging the bat. He walked over to the sofa and lifted Yelena's legs up so he could sit and then he let them drop back down, onto his lap.
"What... what do you think is going to happen tonight?" Yelena asked, filling the silent air with a question that was pretty hard to answer.
"I, uh, I d-don't know. But it's probably not gonna be easy. Probably gonna see some demodogs an-and gates and shit." Steve answered, honestly.
"I especially hope not the gates. Last time I went through one of those I ended up in an entirely different world. A-and I kind of like this world. I want to stay here." Yelena replied with a sigh.
"Promise me something." Steve said.
"What?" Yelena asked.
"I-if we do see any gates... ever... promise me you won't go through it. B-because if there's a chance that you won't come back out, I don't wanna risk it." He told her. This kind of stunned Yelena.
"I... I didn't r-realise you cared that much." She stuttered.
"Yelena," Steve started, putting his bat on the floor and placing a hand on her ankle on his lap. "I know it sounds s-strange... b-but, you... y-you're my favourite person right now. I don't know, I-I feel c-closer to you than I feel to anyone else." He tried to explain and Yelena propped herself up onto her elbows. "Just promise me you won't go through any gates." He said.
"I promise." She smiled a little, holding out her pinkie. "I-I think you're my favourite person, too, Harrington." She added and Steve grinned, intwining his pinkie with hers.
Yelena felt so comfortable around Steve. This was the first time they'd actually verbally admitted their care and comfort for one another, but it showed with the physical touch. Recently, they were constantly touching, slouching on each other, Steve playing with her hair. It was just something they both needed. Something they both craved. And they'd found something in each other that felt so right. It was just a matter of time before they admitted their feelings. Their deeper feelings.
"But this promise means that you can't go through any gates either." Yelena said, sitting up and swinging her legs off the sofa, but keeping her pinkie interlocked with Steve's. "You can't leave me." She whispered.
"I would never leave you, Yelena." Steve whispered back. His free hand moved painfully slowly up her arm and across her shoulder until it reached the side of her neck. He hesitated a little before sliding his hand onto the side of her jaw. Yelena looked up at Steve through her eyelashes and he couldn't help himself. Steve slowly inched forwards, his face moving closer to hers every second. Yelena didn't stop him. Her cheeks were flushed red and her heart rate was pacing. She could feel Steve's warm breath on her face and their lips were just about to touch but then there was a loud bang at the back of the house.
Steve cursed his luck as him and Yelena jumped apart and it clicked that it was the back door that had slammed open. Hopper came racing through the house with Joyce, Mike and Jonathan hot on his tail. Steve and Yelena jumped up from the couch as everyone congregated in the kitchen to see what had happened and if they had found out from Will how to kill the Mind Flayer yet.
"What happened?" Dustin demanded.
"I think he's talking. Just not with words." Hopper said and began writing dots and lines on a piece of paper.
"What is that?" Steve asked.
"Morse code." Yelena, Dustin, Lucas and Mike all answered and Steve raised his eyebrows. Was that common knowledge?
"H-E-R-E." Hopper spelt out. "Here. Will's still in there. He's talking to us." He said. "Yelena-"
"Already on it." Yelena said, messing with the radio. She knew what he was thinking. She would translate the morse code while he bleeped it in from the shed. Hopper knew she knew morse code since she'd helped teach it to Eleven for when the two of them weren't home.
"On what exactly?" Nancy asked.
"I know morse code. Hopper will bleep it in, I will translate it." Yelena explained to her before turning to Joyce, Mike and Jonathan. "Now, all you guys need to do is talk to Will. Make him recall good memories, anything that will get through to him." She said and they all nodded.
"Perfect, kid." Hopper patted her shoulder and she smiled up at him before he headed out to the shed. Yelena sat down besides the radio at the kitchen table with the pen and paper in front of her, surrounded by the rest of the group. Dustin nervously tapped his fingers on the table as they waited for the first beep.
"Would you stop that?" Lucas hissed.
"I'm not doing anythi-"
"Shut up!" Max interrupted Dustin as the bleeps began coming through.
"Dash, dot, dash, dot." Dustin spoke out what came through the walkie and Yelena just wrote the letters down. The first letter was C. The second letter came in not long after - L. Third letter was O. Fourth was S. Fifth was E. First word: close. The second word came through and it was four letters long. G-A-T-E.
Yelena held up the paper and Steve shuffled closer so he could see as well as all the kids and Nancy gathering behind them. Two words: close gate.
"Close gate." The kids mumbled. Yelena bit her lip and glanced at Steve and did the same. It was barely ten minutes ago that they were talking about hoping no gates would be directly involved in this.
Just then, the phone on the wall began ringing very loudly, scaring the group half to death. Dustin grabbed it and pulled it off the hook to shut it up. But the possibility of Will hearing it was very high.
"Shit! Shit!" Dustin cursed. It rang again and Nancy pulled the whole thing off the wall and threw it across the room.
"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked.
"If he didn't hear it the first time, he definitely heard it the second." Yelena replied.
"But it's just a phone. It could be anywhere...right?" Steve said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself. As if on cue, the shrieking of demodogs could be heard in the distance. Everyone gathered at the front window and the group from the shed hurried in the back door.
"That's not good." Dustin hissed. Yelena bit the inside of her cheek and felt Steve's warm hand slide into her own. She gave his hand a squeeze before everyone began arming themselves with weapons.
