City & Sunglasses // A Steve Harrington Fanfic

Part IX

"Who's that?" I asked Steve.

"I don't really know. But I think that's the girl with powers, El," he answered, unsure. He tilted his head and stared at the interaction.

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for..." Mike stuttered.

"353 days. I heard," the girl whispered.

"Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let her," Hopper spoke up.

Mike stepped back and allowed Hopper to talk with the girl. I just stood there with Steve, and I noticed that Nancy was looking at us, but when I caught sight of her, she looked down. Odd.

"What the hell is this? Where have you been?" Hopper asked, looking Eleven up and down at her with her outfit.

"Where have you been?" Eleven shot back. Without hesitating, Hopper pulled El into a hug and kissed the top of her head. She hugged him back, and then Mike stepped forward.

"You've been hiding her. You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike shouted, hitting Hopper on the chest.

"Hey!" Hopper snapped, grabbing onto Mike's shirt collar. "Let's talk. Alone."

Hopper dragged Mike away leaving Eleven with us. We could hear Mike yelling, and then it stopped. The girl stepped towards us and pulled Lucas and Dustin into a hug.

"We missed you,"

"I missed you too," Eleven whispered back.

"We talk about you pretty much every day," Dustin smirked.

El let go and examined them very closely before she reached and felt Dustin's teeth. He hesitated but then gave a confusing look.

"Teeth,"

"What?" Dustin asked.

"You have teeth," she repeated.

"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin asked before purring.

The girl jumped back slightly at the sound, and then Max stepped forward.

"Eleven?" Max asked, walking towards the group. "Hey, Um. I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you,"

Max stuck her hand out, but the girl just brushed past her. She walked straight into Joyce's arms, and they had a sweet reunion. Seemed like everyone knew about the girl except me. Max probably heard about her, but I knew nothing. They came back, and the girl stared at the 'CLOSE GATE' sheet.

"You opened this gate before right?" Joyce asked.

"Yes,"

Everyone filed into the kitchen and listened to Joyce. Steve slipped his hand into mine and held the bat with his other hand.

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

Eleven didn't say anything but looked straight ahead. Hopper returned with Mike and everyone huddled around the table again, while Hopper stood to the side. I didn't know what was going on, and I wanted to, because I was part of this thing now and I needed to know what was going on.

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

"Demo-dogs," Dustin corrected.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper asked.

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogoron and dogs. You put them together it sounds pretty badass..." Dustin explained before he was cut off by Hopper.