Halley's comet | Steve Harrington

ii.xxiv not a happy hopper

"𝑶𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖."

⇜☾✩☽⇝

Nancy stood at Halley's side as they watched Mike engulf Eleven in a hug. The younger girl returned the gesture just as fiercely. A lump of anxiety formed in Halley's throat. Of course she was glad El was alright, and with them, but her presence solidified that what Halley had been experiencing weren't just flashbacks and nightmares. They were something more.

In front of her, Mike broke away, holding El less than arm's length away from him, like he was making sure she wouldn't disappear again. "I never gave up on you," He said, "I called you every night. Every night for—"

"353 days," El whispered, her voice almost cracking. She sounded much older. "I heard."

That was enough to break the magic spell Mike seemed to be under. A confused look painted his face, and it was soon replaced with one of hurt. "Why didn't you tell me where you were then? That you were okay?" He was working himself up, Halley could see the way the side of his mouth twitched as he spoke, as if even Mike couldn't decide if he was angry or not.

Halley took a step forward, going to put a hand on his shoulder and tell him that there was probably a very reasonable explanation and that he needed to let El tell him. But before she could do any of that, another voice sounded from the room.

"Because I wouldn't let her." All eyes turned to Hopper, who had suddenly stepped forward. Halley sucked in a sharp breath. Hopper's cabin. It had been Hopper's cabin she'd seen in her dream. He had mentioned a little property he had to her before—-probably didn't even realize he said it either.

Hopper lowered his gun, looking El over for any signs of injury. Aside from the blood coming from her nose, she was unharmed. "The hell is this?" He said, not unkindly, as he gestured to her outfit. He wrapped an arm over her shoulder and brought her closer for his own hug, "c'mere."

Mike, unaware of the sentimental moment going on between El and Hopper, interjected almost immediately. "You've been hiding her." He sounded almost astonished at the idea. As if he hadn't done the same thing the year prior in his parent's basement. "You've been hiding her the whole time!" he said again, shoving at Hopper.

"Hey!" the older man said, turning around and taking hold of Mike's shirt collar. Mike tried to shove him off but his grip was too tight. "Let's talk." a pause, then: "Alone." Without waiting for the younger boy to respond, he led Mike away to Halley's room, closing the door behind him. She could hear muffled shouts.

She was forced away from her attempt as eavesdropping as El stepped up to her. Looking up at her with those big brown eyes. She smiled. "I... missed you," she said slowly, almost in a formal tone. It sounded like she had practiced the words.

Halley pulled the younger girl into her, resting her chin atop El's overly gelled hair. "I missed you too, kiddo," She muttered, squeezing the younger girl tightly, like she was worried El would disappear again. Halley wondered if El remembered seeing her that night. Or if El had seen her at all.

Before she got the chance to ask, or, more realistically, broadly approach the subject just to chicken out at the last minute, El broke away. She turned to Dustin and Lucas who both ran at her with their arms open wide.

During the reunion, Halley recognized a new presence beside her. She turned to find that Steve had replaced Nancy. She wondered what had happened first: Steve's appearance, or Nancy's absence. Either way, it was clear the separation between the two was purposeful.

"Who's that?" Steve asked, leaning down to whisper in her ear, he was staring at Eleven, as she spoke to Dustin about his teeth.

Halley's voice was low as she answered, trying not to interpret the others. "That's El... Eleven, I guess." Steve glanced over her shoulder at the girl, and then back to Halley, a blank expression on his face. "Dustin didn't tell you?" she paused, looking at the younger boy again as he purred, showing off his new teeth, "Of course he didn't tell you," she said more to herself than him.

Dustin perked up at his name, looking over at them, but Steve waved him back to El and Lucas.

"Eleven is the girl we found in the woods last year when we were looking for Will. She escaped Hawkins Lab. And she has, like, telekinesis."

"Telekinesis?" Steve asked, once again looking over at El. Halley would hand it to him, in this state, El did not look like the type of kid to have super powers.

Regardless, she nodded. "Yeah, and she can like, travel through people's minds or something? I don't know, she was able to find my brother last year. She helped us get him back... before she went missing." She didn't say 'died'. Even though that's what Mike had told her one night. That was his fear of what had happened, after watching a demogorgon explode in front of him.

Halley's fingernails were digging into her palms. The year prior was difficult for her to remember. In a figurative sense. Literally, she was, unfortunately, able to picture every single detail of it. Usually most nights.

Steve's eyes wandered to her hands, there was no way he couldn't notice the anxious tell, but he didn't say anything about it. "She seems to really like you," He said instead.

She looked away, shrugging. "Yeah." She didn't say anything else. Nothing about how in those short few days that Halley had known El, that she had grown to become a sister to the older girl. That, much like she would for Will and his friends, Halley would do anything to protect her.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she watched as El pushed past Max, ignoring an outreached hand.

There was an almost shuddering breath as she found her voice again, "Not as much as she likes Mike."

El embraced Joyce, and Halley turned back to Steve. She smiled, a lopsided, friendly grin that wasn't totally genuine. As happy as she was that El was okay, and that she had come back, she couldn't shake the memory of her dream. With the cabin in the woods, and Eleven.

Steve seemed to notice her unease, because he rested his arm on her shoulder and sighed. "Speaking of Mike," He said, slightly quirking an eyebrow as his head gestured to Halley's room, where the aforementioned boy was still arguing with Hopper. "What's all that about?"

She bit her lip. Mike had confided in her more than once about how much he missed El. Sort of. He wasn't exactly the type of person to wear his heart on his sleeve, but she could tell when something was up with him. While he hadn't, and probably never would have, said something to the others, he had provided her with vague insights into inner feelings.

Dustin and Lucas missed El. There was no doubt about it, and they would say it themselves. However, it was different for Mike. Harder for him.

"Mike and El were close," Halley said simply, sparing a glance at the door. "I didn't know Hopper was involved in this though. Like, the Eleven thing. He helped us out last year but..." She trailed off, not knowing what else to say, she barely understood enough to form a congruent thought let alone explain those thoughts to Steve.

Steve nodded, and Halley was grateful he didn't push anything.