Cheat The Devil- Steve Harrington x Fem OC ON HOLD UNIT END OF SEPTEMBER 2024

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Eleven was moving with the Byers to California, while Layla was staying behind in Hawkins. Layla planned to live back in the trailer she used since the cabin was destroyed. Everyone was at the cabin packing up the last of the stuff, Layla was in her room grabbing her stuff when Joyce came in. 

"I found this in your dad's stuff. It has your name so I figured you would like it" Joyce said handing Layla a letter

"Thank you" Layla said opening the letter. 

'Layla, 

I know I haven't always been the father you needed, or deserved. But I am so proud of you, you grew up so fast and turned out to be a wonderful person despite me. You have helped me and Eleven so much this past years, and helped everyone else wrapped up in this mess. 

If you are reading this then that means I must be gone, and for that I am sorry. I wish I could be with you and help you grow even more but I can't. So I'm leaving everything to you, to keep growing and to have the best chance you can at whatever you want to do. I know it's not much, but it's enough to start. I know about the trailer and all your stuff there, so keep it, and the Cabin. You don't have to hid your guns anymore. 

Since I am gone, don't ignore the feeling, don't burry them like we Hoppers do. It won't help any, the hurting means there is something to loose, something to fight for. So keep fighting, don't get yourself killed in the process I don't wanna see you dead with me anytime soon, but keep fighting because you are strong and can do anything, you can make it though this and so much worse. 

I love you, Dad'

Layla finished the letter both crying and laughing, causing Joyce to come in concerned 

"You okay sweetie?" Joyce asked

"Yeah, just, he left me everything" Layla said still crying and laughing 

"It's time ti say goodbye" Joyce said walking out

Layla wiped her tears and stood up walking outside to say goodbye to the Byers and her sister. 

Layla first said goodbye to Joyce hugging her saying "He always did have a soft spot for you, you know?" 

"Oh I know. We actually finally made a plan for a date" Joyce said smiling 

"Finally" Layla laughed with tears in her eyes

Layla then walked over to Jonathan hugging him swell then saying "You better keep an eye on them for me. I'm not gonna be around to check on El or Will's homework anymore" 

Jonathan laughed "I will. You better keep an eye on the rest of them though, you got your work cut out for ya" 

Layla looked behind her at the kids "Yeah, I do" 

Layla walked over to Will, giving him a big hug saying "Call me anytime for anything okay? Especially if you have some new ideas for a DnD campaign, you know I love to hear about your ideas" 

"I will, promise" Will said before pulling away from the hug 

Layla started walking towards Eleven who ran into her giving her a big hug which Layla returned "Hey, this isn't goodbye forever, this is... see you later goodbye. Because I will see you soon, You'll come back and visit me... and Mike too I guess, and I'll come visit you too. You'll love California, it's super sunny and warm and it's pretty out there too, not the same as here, but pretty" Eleven didn't respond but just cried into the hug until she had to leave to the car with Joyce. 

Everyone watched as the Byers and Eleven drove down the road, leaving Hawkins. Almost everyone was crying and comforting each other as the cars got further out of view. 

Time Skip

A few months later

Layla had been working on fixing up the cabin her dad left her as best she could, she fixed up the holes in the ceiling and walls, but had yet to fix the windows that only had some clear plastic tarps over them to keep most of the wind out. She had been living in the trailer up until this point, so she got Steve's helped to move the trailer onto the same property as the cabin so she could easily fix things up as she got the time. 

Robin, Steve and Layla had all gotten new jobs at the video store downtown since the mall 'burned down' as they had to tell everyone. Max's step father left after Billy's death causing her and her mom to move into the trailer park. The kids were all now freshman in high school and were no longer kids needing babysitters and supervision, Lucas joined the basketball team and the hellfire club with Dustin and Mike. The kids always begged Layla to come and watch one of hellfire's DnD campaigns which she reluctantly went to one of them and made friends with the rest of the hellfire club for the kids sake. 

All was going about as well as it could in Hawkins since the Mind Flayer and the Russians, everything was still moving forward and they all had to keep up. Everyone except Layla and Max were able to get back to their new normal, but for the two girls, it was a different story. They both lost someone close to them and had trouble moving on, but they had all the time in the world to figure life out, right?