A Deal With God

Chapter 19: The Phone Call

Quinn emerged from the bathroom just as El and Joyce were standing over the kitchen table, eyes set on Will's decoded message, the instruction to 'close gate'.

"You opened this gate before, right?" Joyce asked the younger girl.

"Yes," El replied simply as the others trickled into the kitchen.

"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce questioned.

"It's not like it was before," Hopper joined the discussion. "It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

"They may look like dogs but they are not," Max muttered under her breath. Hearing her, Dr. Owens nodded his head in agreement, still a bit in shock from the evening's series of events.

"I can do it," Eleven pronounced.

"You're not hearing me," Hopper replied.

"I'm hearing you. I can do it," the girl insisted.

"Even if El can, there's still another problem," Mike interjected. "If the brain dies, the body dies."

"I thought that was the whole point," Max reminded him.

"It is but, if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army...," Mike hesitated to continue.

"Will's a part of that army. Closing the gate could kill him," Quinn stated, never one to sugarcoat a situation. She simply shrugged at the sight of Hopper's reprimanding look.

"He likes it cold," Joyce thought out loud, before making her way to Jonathon's bedroom where they had brought Will to lay earlier.

"What?" Hopper asked confused as he followed after her.

"That's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold," Joyce said going over to close the window. "We keep giving it what it wants."

"If this is a virus, and Will is the host, then..." Nancy started connecting the dots.

"We need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathon finished for her.

"So if he likes it cold..." Nancy thought out loud.

"We need to burn it out of him," Joyce said with renewed determination.

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike added, not wanting to risk a repeat of what happened earlier. Hopper knew just the place.

"Joyce and Jonathon will take Will to the cabin in the woods. The doc and I will take El to the Lab," Hopper stated to everyone in the kitchen. Dr. Owens looked up in surprise at the sound of his name but did not object. It didn't feel like there was an option to stay back.

"What about me?" Quinn asked, her hands on her hips as she looked up at Hopper. Oh good. If I don't have one upset with me, I'm going to have the other, Hopper thought to himself as he tried to come up with the gentlest answer possible.

"You're staying here with the others," he answered carefully, watching the way her lips tightened with every word. He watched as her eyes shifted back and forth rapidly all while maintaining his gaze. She was thinking... She still had her hair wrapped up in a towel on top of her head, but somehow that didn't make her any less intimidating. Were it anyone else, Hopper would have been unable to take them seriously.

"But I can help you get through the demo-dogs at the Lab," Quinn spoke after a beat.

"The what?" Hopper asked, feigning confusion in hopes of diverting the discussion.