Jailbird || Stranger Things

sixty-eight ➵ operation child endangerment (part two)

With the car on the ground and balancing on its own wheels instead of the doors, Jonathan and Nancy rushed to open the hood.

    "How do we get it open?"

    "Uh, there should be a latch," Jonathan spoke, Reese barely beating him to tell Nancy to check under the wheel.

    While the older teens struggled to pop the hood, Max and Mike were busy watching El, wondering if they should check up on her. She was elbow deep in a trash can, looking for a specific object. Once her hands found a Coca Cola can, she straightened up, putting it onto the flat edge by a column.

    No matter her concentration, however, the can refused to budge.

    "El?"

    Reese suddenly picked up her head, as if hearing Mike speak to her. She watched as Mike and Max checked up on her sister, her eyes narrowing as she noticed the can in front of El. As the girl turned around, their eyes met, El lifting a finger to wipe away the blood from her nose. Self conscious, Reese did the same, to find a small spot of red on her fingertip as she pulled it away.

    The pop of the hood woke her from her minor trance, and Reese tore her eyes away from her sister to grab the ignition cable, just as her head was assaulted by another strike of pain.

    "Oh fuck," she groaned, Jonathan and Nancy rushing to her side, Nancy looking up to find Will turning to the ceiling window above them, his hand on the back of his neck.

    "What's wrong?"

    "My head," Reese whimpered, sinking down against the car onto her knees. "We're so screwed," she looked up at Jonathan with desperate eyes, tears lining her lower lashes, the white of her eyes turning pink as the blood rushed to her head. The view shocked him, unsure what he could do to help. That was mostly Steve's strength. "We gotta get them out of here."

    "Okay," he agreed, helping her up as she clenched her teeth and handed the cable over.

    "Guys?!"

    "Nancy!"

    Mike barely had any time to get Max and El away from the centre of the food court, Reese held back by Jonathan as the glass from the sky light shattered, the mind flayer unceremoniously crashing through. The roar it let out made the hair even on Teresa's neck stand up.

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"It's taking too long."

    Jim had started to pace, Joyce watching as she bottled up her anxiety and tried to remain calm. "It's fine."

    "No, it's not. It is not. She could've died back there. She almost did," he spoke, his anxiety and fear about El's wellbeing as well as Teresa starting to get to him.

    "Well, she's safe now. They're on their way to Murray's. That thing won't find her, not before we kill it," Joyce tried.

    "Hey," he cut her off before she could continue. "This isn't the way this is supposed to work, all right? You're supposed to say, 'Yes, I told you so. That's why we needed to go back to the kids'."

    "Oh, yeah, and then you say something like, 'Yeah, well, it's really hard to listen when you make everything sound like it's the end of the goddamn world'," she argued, lowering her voice to attempt to sound like him.

    He stared back at her, torn between feelings as too many thoughts crossed his mind. Instead, he pushed back from the cart, and let out a sigh, "You know... I think, despite everything, I mean, despite the arguing, I think we make a pretty good team."