The Babysitters ♡ Steve Harrington

Episode 9

"Eleven." Mike walked forward as Eleven did the same.

"Mike." She gasped as they hugged.

"Is that..?" Max whispered and Lucas nodded.

"I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-" Mike had tears in his eyes.

"Three-hundred and fifty-three days." Eleven nodded. "I heard."

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

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper spoke up and stepped forward. "The hell is this? Where you been?"

"Where have you been?" Eleven retorted.

Hopper didn't answer, he just chose to hug her.

Realization appeared on Mike's face. "You've been hiding her. You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike shoved Hopper.

"Hey! Let's talk. Alone." Hopper moved them into another room.

Dustin and Lucas moved to hug Eleven first.

"We missed you." Lucas began.

"I missed you, too." Eleven responded.

"We talked about you pretty much every day." Dustin added. When they pulled away, Eleven looked at Dustin in confusion.

She put her hand in his mouth. "Teeth."

"What?" Dustin questioned.

"You have teeth." Eleven pointed out.

"Oh, you like these pearls?" Dustin purred and Eleven flinched.

"Eleven?" Max spoke up and held out her hand. "Hey, uh, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you."

Eleven moved right past her and over to Joyce. After greeting the older woman, I was shocked when Eleven walked over to me.

"Athena." She spoke my name.

"Eleven, hi." I smiled.

"El." She corrected with a smile as her eyes slowly traveled to Steve.

"Uh, this is Steve, my boyfriend. Steve, this is Eleven...or El." I introduced.

"Hello." Eleven nodded.

"Hi." Steve waved awkwardly.

Joyce took Eleven to see Will and when they came back, we joined them in the kitchen. Hopper then explained about the gate and how it's different this time.

"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 and I gave him a look. This wasn't the time to question Hopper.

"I'm sorry, what?" Hopper stared at Dustin.

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs." Dustin repeated. "Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass-"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper raised his voice.

"It's not. I'm sorry." Dustin looked away.

"I can do it." Eleven told Hopper.

"You're not hearing me." Hopper went to argue.

"I'm hearing you. I can do it." Eleven finalized.

"You tell him." I patted Eleven's shoulder and she gave me a smile.

Hopper, on the other hand, sent me a very pissed off look.

"Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies." Mike brought the attention back to him.