Better babysitter // Steve Harrington x Reader //

pool

"Okay, so in this example, we're the acrobat," Mike said as he raised the picture that he drew. He pointed at the stick figures and began to talk. "Will and Barbara, and that monster, they're in this flea. And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding." He lowered the paper down before he started to speak again. We all listened to him carefully. "Mr. Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip of a time and space."

"A gate," Dustin says.

"That we tracked to Hawkins Lab." Lucas jumps in.

"With our compasses." Dustin clarifies. We looked at him confused and Dustin starts explaining. "Okay, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field, and that can change the directions of a compass needle."

I nod before speaking. "And you guys figured out all that, by yourself?" 

Before the kids could answer my question Hopper starts to talk. "Is this gate underground?"

"Yes." The girl whose name we learned was Eleven answers.

"Near a large water tank?" Hopper asks seriously.

Eleven nods while answering softly. "Yes."

"How do you know all that?" Dustin stutters while asking Hopper the question.

"He's seen it," Mike says.

"Is there any way that you could...that you could reach Will? That you could talk to him in this---" Mrs. Byers begins to speak.

"Upside down." Eleven finishes her sentence.

"Down. Yeah." She whispers and Eleven nods in response.

"And our friend Barbara?" Nancy asks while pointing at me and then at herself. "Can you find her too?"

Eleven again doesn't say anything, she just nods her head.

We headed to the kitchen table and we set up the walkie-talkie and Barb's photo. Eleven, Mike, and Joyce were sitting at the table while the rest of us were standing.

Eleven closed her eyes and after some time the lights started to flicker. She opened her eyes now. She looked at Joyce and her eyes started to water. "I'm sorry." She whispers.

Mrs. Byers who was sitting across from her looked at her confused. "What? What's wrong? What happened?" She stutters as she asks.

Eleven's voice breaks as she speaks. "I can't find them." 

***

After Mike explained to us how her powers get weaker as she uses them more we headed to Hawkin's middle school. Apparently, Eleven needs to get in a water full of salt so that her powers can start working again. Mr. Clarke told us that after Dustin asked him a 'scientific' question.

Hopper suggested that we head here since 1. it has a lot of salt and 2. there is a big gym where we can set up the kiddie pool that we borrowed from Joyce.

And so here we are.

Jonathan, Lucas, and Hopper went to the kitchen to grab the salt while I was helping Dustin with setting up the kiddie pool which was more difficult than I thought it was. Nancy and Mike went outside to look for a hose and Joyce and Eleven put together some goggles with duct tape wrapped around it.

"It's upside down," Dustin said stating the obvious.

"Yeah, no shit," I answered.

We managed to turn it to the right side and when I finally thought that we did it, the sides fell down.

"I swear to God, I don't remember this being so difficult." I sigh before I start to fix the sides.

After some difficulty, we finally managed to set up the kiddie pool. I walked over to Dustin to give him a five high. 

"Son of a bitch we did it!" Dustin says as he slaps my hand as hard as he could.

I grab my hand in pain before answering, "Yeah, we did it." 

Soon enough Nancy and Mike return with a hose and we start to fill up the pool with water. After getting the temperature right and putting the salt in, Dustin decided to do a little experiment with an egg.

The first time the egg sank to the bottom but after putting enough salt,  the egg floated. It was finally time for Eleven to try and contact Will and Barb. 

Eleven took her socks and watch off. She put the goggles on and with Joyce's help she stepped into the pool.

We waited quietly as Eleven began to try her attempt at reaching Will and Barb. The lights went off and I jumped a little bit.

"Barbara?" Eleven mumbled. Nancy grabbed my hand as she leaned forward.

Eleven started to breathe heavily as the lights started to flicker. We all looked at each other confused on what was happening.

"What's going on?" Nancy asked as she looked at me. 

I shrugged my shoulders before answering. "I don't know."

"Is Barb okay? Is she okay?" Nancy asked Eleven while leaning closer to her.

"Gone. Gone. Gone." Eleven said. My hand went to my mouth and tears started to fall down my cheeks. Nancy brought me in for a hug and I hugged her as hard as I could. Barb was dead.

Eleven began screaming the word "gone" as Joyce started to comfort her. Eleven calmed down and she tried searching again.

"Castle Byers." She said softly. "Will?"

Joyce gasped at the mention of her son's name. "You tell him...tell him I'm coming. Mom is coming."

"Hurry." We heard Will's voice coming from the walkie-talkie.

"Okay. Listen, you tell him too..." Joyce began to say as her voice started to crack. "to stay where he is. We're coming. We're coming, okay? We're coming, honey."

We heard whimpering coming from the walkie-talkie. Eleven gasped as she took off the goggles. She sat up and Joyce hugged her. "I've got you. It's okay. I got you. I got you. I got you, honey. You did so good," Joyce kissed Eleven's forehead as Eleven started to cry.