Once More, With Strangeness

Chapter 11

 Becca gripped Eddie's hand the entire walk back to the gate. She feared if she let go he would disappear on her. It didn't help that those damn bats were flying along with them. Spike admitting that he wasn't sure if the monsters would let Eddie go had brought back all the anxiety and fear that had dissipated at Eddie's touch. She didn't care what anyone said to her. She'd already made her decision. Becca was not leaving him this time. If he couldn't make his way through the gate, she would stay behind with him. The others could go through and figure out a way to make it work, but she wasn't spending one more day without his touch, his eyes, his beautiful face.

"I have to ask, where did you find this guy?" Eddie asked, tilting his head in the direction of Spike.

Becca groaned, "I didn't. He found me. He approached me in the woods by Reefer Rick's the other night and told me he knew where a gate was. Dustin and I have been looking for one for months. He said he knew how to get you out. I know he's a disgusting and incredibly annoying monster, but I had to take the chance."

"What were you doing by Rick's house?" Eddie inquired. "Were you slaying?" He paused. "Wait...what were you doing in Hawkins? Have you been here this whole time?"

"Yeah, of course," she said. "I wasn't leaving knowing you were still here. I uh...I've been staying at Rick's place."

"Why would you stay in that dump?"

"I wanted to feel close to you," Becca admitted, resting her chin against his arm, her other arm looping through his. "I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. That was where we met. It was where we shared a bed. It was where we..."

Eddie smirked, his eyebrows raising suggestively, "Yeah...I've definitely missed that. That's first on my agenda if this plan of yours works out."

Becca felt heat pool in her center at just the mention of sex with Eddie. Jesus, she'd missed him in every single way but there was definitely nothing quite like being intimate with him. Those calloused fingers running over her skin, that tongue sending her into frenzies of pleasure, and when he bit her...she shivered slightly at the thought and he chuckled, pressing his lips against her ear.

"Thinking about it too, I see," he teased, his words only getting her more worked up.

Shit, she was going to have to get this together. They had to focus. They were surrounded by all of their friends. Nothing would be happening any time soon, regardless of the outcome of this little excursion.

"The gate is right up ahead," Joyce called from the front of the group. "I can see it."

"So, we're sending Eddie through first this time, right?" Dustin asked as they approached the pulsing membrane that looked more like a diseased bodily organ than a gate to another dimension. "No monsters chasing us down. No reason for any of us to go through first just because of something as trivial as age."

"Dustin, you do know that even if I can't go through, you're still going through there," Eddie stated. "You are not staying behind. None of you are. I won't let any of you get stuck in this place."

"One, you are not my parent, so legally you have no grounds on which to order me around," Dustin stated. "And two, you're getting through that damn gate if I have to fight every bat and demodog in this place to get you there."

"I love you kid but nobody is being a hero for me," he said, laying his hand on top of his head. "Not today, okay?"

"Moment of truth, slayer and her merry band of monster hunters," Spike said, waving his arm toward the gate. "Let's see if these beasties are ready for a new master."

Becca turned to Eddie, her stomach coiling into a tight knot. She knew she talked a big game, acted confident, but she had no idea what they were going to do if they couldn't get him through the gate. All she knew was she would be staying behind and would have to hope that the other could find a way. She didn't know if she believed in a higher power or not but she threw up a prayer anyway, just in case.