𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗔𝗚𝗘 𝗥𝗢𝗬𝗔𝗟𝗧𝗬 [steve harrington]

chapter 49

always the babysitter
🎶 difficult - gracie abrams

The group sat in Nancy's basement, stressing about what comes next for Max and reading old articles about Victor Creel that Nancy had brought for them. "Ok, be honest, do you guys understand any of this?" Steve asked.

"Nope." Izzie answered, placing the paper down in her lap.

"No." Lucas said.

"It's pretty straight forward." Dustin replied.

"Straight forward? Really?" Steve sassed.

"Well what's confusing to you?" Dustin asked. "So far everyone Vecna has cursed died except for this old Victor Creel dude Nancy found. He's the only known survivor. If anyone knows how to beat this curse, it's him." Blair sat, biting her nails as she listened to them talk.

"Yeah that's assuming that he was cursed, Henderson." Steve remarked. "Which we don't even know. How couldn't Vecna have existed back in the fifties, it doesn't make sense."

"Well how do we know that the Upside down hasn't been around forever?" Izzie asked.

"Well as far as we know Eleven didn't create the Upside Down." Dustin answered. "She opened a gate to it. The Upside Down has probably been around for thousands of years. Millions. I wouldn't be surprised if it predated the dinosaurs."

Steve started to get very confused. "Dinosaurs? What-"

"Okay but if a gate didn't exist in the fifties, how did Vecna get through?" Lucas questioned.

"Right! And how is he getting through now?" Steve added, glad Lucas made him sound smart.

"And why now?" Izzie asked.

"And why then?" Steve continued. "Just pops out kills one family in the fifties and is like pfft, I'm good. Poof he just disappears, just gone? Only to return years later and start killing some random teens? No, I don't buy it." He sighed. "Straight forward my ass. You know what? Honestly, Henderson a little humility every now and then wouldn't hurt you."

"Sorry." Dustin replied as Steve sat down in the chair with a cocky look painted across his face.

Izzie looked over at Max and suddenly all of them were staring holes into the back of her head. All except for Blair who had been staring at her hands. "Any idea what she's writing?" Victorie questioned.

"Did she sleep?" Dustin said.

"I mean, would you?" Lucas asked in return, considering she wasn't sure if she'd be alive tomorrow.

They heard the door slam shut and Robin and Nancy came down the stairs. "Okay, so— we have a plan." Nancy announced.

"Thanks to Nancy's newspaper minions we are now rockstar psychology students at the University of Notre Dame." Robin explained.

"I'm now Ruth." Nancy said.

"And I'm Rose." Robin added.

"Ruth?" Steve sassed.

Dustin read over this transcripts and smiled. "Nice gpa."

"Thanks." Nancy smiled. "So we called Pennhurst asylum, told them we'd like to speak with Victor Creel for a thesis we're co-writing on paranoid schizophrenics-"

"To which they said no." Robin said.

"But we landed a three o'clock with the director." Nancy added.

"Now all we have to do is charm him and convince him to let us talk to Victor." Robin explained.

"And then maybe we can rid Max of this curse." Nancy sighed.

"Yeah, uh, about that." Steve said. "We've been doing our Victor Creel homework and uh, we've got some questions.

"Lots of questions." Victorie noted.

"So do we." Nancy replied. "Hopefully Victor has the answers."

"Wait a second." Izzie said. "Where's ours?"

Nancy asked the older teens to talk to her upstairs after Izzie's question. "Nancy you're out of you're mind if you think we're babysitting again." Steve fussed.

"Okay, first of all, they're not babies anymore." Nancy quipped. "And Max is in real danger she needs people around her."

"I know but why does it always have to be us?" Izzie whined.

"Just for the record I wasn't planning on leaving the kids anyway." Blair spoke.

"Oh my gosh you have a Tom Cruise poster!" Robin said as she came in the room. "Oh my gosh, you have a Tom Cruise poster."

"That's old." Nancy defended. "Can you please not touch anything?"

"We can't do anything here Nance!" Izzie complained. "Maybe we could be helpful with this asylum director dude. Besides, Blair wants to stay!"

"Yeah, I could like, turn on my charm." Steve offered.

"Not the kind of charm we need." Nancy shook her head.

"Ouch." Steve huffed.

"No, I just, I did a little digging last night and it turns out this Dr. Hatch is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a Harvard visiting scholar." Nancy explained. "This is a lifelong student of the world and if we're gonna win him over we're gonna have to convince him that we are too. That like him, we are true academic scholars."

Robin held up a music box with a shocked look on her face. "Holy shit there's a tiny ballerina in here."

"Academic scholar, she's giving you an academic scholar vibe?" Steve quipped.

"No, but-" Nancy answered, holding up an outfit for Robin. "-she will."

"Are we forgetting that I'm actually in College? I wouldn't even have to fake it?" Izzie remarked.

Robin looked at Izzie. "Look, Steve would ruin our attempts at basically seducing the director and we both know that he wouldn't let you go without him. So blame Steve, Izz." Robin explained, finally look at Nancy and her outfit. "Oh please tell me your joking."

"Too late to switch now, Ruth. Have fun." Izzie sassed, stomping back downstairs with the kids where, apparently, she belongs.

"It's Rose!" Robin yelled after her.