Escape ~ S.Harrington

35} Smashing Plates and Forgotten Dates

"It's not like it was before," Hopper sighed, "It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."
"Demo-dogs," Dustin corrected.
"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper said, annoyed.
"I said, uh, Demo-dogs," Dustin replied hesitantly, "Like demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"
"How is this important right now?"
"It's not. I'm sorry."
Jenna patted Dustin on the back. He hung his head down low in embarrassment.
Poor, naïve child.

The group had been trying to come up with a plan to close the gate. So far, they were trying to see if getting Eleven into the lab was a feasible plan for them or not.
"I can do it," Eleven confidently looked at Hopper.
"You're not hearing me," Hopper told her.
"I'm hearing you. I can do it."
"Even if El can," Mike cut in, "There's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies."
"I thought that was the whole point," Alice jumped in.
"It is," Mike continued to elaborate, "But if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army..."
"Will's a part of that army," Lucas caught on.
"Closing the gate will kill him," Mike nodded.

Joyce sat absentmindedly at the end of the table. Her face started to contort as her mind started to run wild with various ideas. She got up and stomped down the hall to Will with everyone else following behind.
"He likes it cold," Joyce gulped.
"What?" Hopper asked.
"It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold," Joyce walked over and closed the open window in the room, "We keep giving it what it wants."
"If this is a virus," Nancy started, "And Will's the host, then..."
"Then we need to make the host uninhabitable," Jonathan remarked.
"So if he likes it cold..." Nancy trailed off.
"Then we need to burn it out of him," Joyce spat out.
"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike nodded.
"Yeah, somewhere far away," Dustin jumped in.
"I know a place," Hopper sucked in a deep breath.
This is gonna get interesting.

~

Jenna, Steve, and Nancy were out back together, looking through the jumbled mess of items thrown out on the lawn for some old heaters to burn the monster out of Will.
"You should go with him," Steve coughed.
"What?" Nancy furrowed her brows at Steve.
"With Jonathan," He elaborated.
Jenna stood off to the side, ready to give them a moment of peace, when she glanced up to see Steve giving her a look telling her to stay. She obliged and stayed to finish searching.

"No, I'm..." Nancy scoffed, "I'm not just gonna leave Mike."
"No one's leaving anyone," Steve planted his hands on his hips, "I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend, but..." He helped her grab one of the heavier heaters, "Turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter. Plus, I have Jenna here, and all she ever does is watch the kids. She keeps me in check, so I think we'll be set."
Jenna looked up to see Nancy looking at her for confirmation and Steve giving her a slight smile.
"Yeah," Jenna nodded at Nance, "We've got this. Go with Jonathan."
Nancy looked back at Steve who was trying to hand her a heater.
"Steve..."
"It's okay, Nance. It's okay."
Jenna and Steve started to help one another with lifting various things up to grab more heaters from underneath. Nancy just stood there, sad that she'd lost Steve, but happy that he was content and that he had Jenna. He'd always have Jenna and because of that, she knew he'd be alright without her.

~

Nancy, Jonathan, Joyce, and Will were all set to leave together to Hopper's cabin while Hopper got ready to take Eleven to Hawkins Lab. Jenna would've gone with Eleven, but her injuries and her babysitting duties kept her at the Byers' instead of on the front lines. After everyone left, Mike stood out on the porch, just looking out at where Eleven had left while everyone started to go back inside.
"Hey, you coming?" Steve asked Jenna, who stood looking at Mike.
"I'll come in in a sec," She shooed him away, "Hey," She put a hand on Mike's shoulder, "She'll be alright."
"I know," He stammered out, "But, I just got her back. I didn't want her to leave so soon. I didn't want her to leave again."
"It's going to be okay," Jenna hugged Mike.
He cried into her shoulder. Jenna patted his back, gently, and tried her best to comfort him. After a few moments, his crying started to stop.
"Let's go back inside, yeah?"
Mike gave her a sad smile and nodded as they pulled back from the hug. When they went back in, they were immediately met with commotion.