Lab Rats

Season 2 Finale: Chapter 8- The Mind Flayer

"Mike." El said as she hugged him. We all watched in astonishment. Where did she go? Why did she look like a punk? Did she know what was going on?

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

"353 days." El said. "I heard."

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

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper said as I stepped forward to hug El.

"I missed you, sister. When did you leave?" I whispered in her ear.

"The hell is this? Where you been?" Hopper stepped forward.

"Where have you been?" El asked as he joined our hug.

"You two have been hiding her." Mike realized. "You've been hiding her this whole time!"

"Hey!" Hopper yelled. "Let's talk. Alone." They ran off into a seperate room. Steve walked over to me as El caught up with Dustin and Lucas.

"Has that been where you've been staying? With Hopper?" He whispered to me.

"Yeah, um. When I first escaped the lab I found an abandoned cabin in the woods to stay at. Then when Hopper found El he took her there and found me. He took both of us in, but we had to hide El because the bad men were still looking for her."

"I'm sorry, I should've been there."

"It's not your fault, you didn't know." Steve pulled me into a hug.

"We missed you." Lucas told El, hugging her and Dustin.

"I missed you, too." She replied.

"We talked about you pretty much every day." Dustin added, breaking from their hug.

"Teeth." El said, putting her finger in Dustin's mouth.

"What?"

"You have teeth."

"Oh. You like these pearls?" Dustin then did a weird purr thing. We all gave him a look.

"Eleven?" Max said, holding out her hand "Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you." El ignored her and walked towards Joyce and hugged her. They walked around until they stood over the dining room table, talking. We all walked over. 

"It's not like it was before. It's grown." Hopper said, talking about the gate. "A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. That place is crawling with those dogs."

"Demo-dogs." Dustin corrected him.

"I'm sorry, what?"

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

"How is this important right now?"

"It's not. I'm sorry."

"I can do it." El said.

"You're not hearing me.

"I'm hearing you. I can do it." 

"Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies." Mike said.

"I thought that was the whole point." Max said.

"It is, but if we're really right bout this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..."

"Will's a part of that army." Lucas realized.

"Closing the gate will kill him." Mike finished. We all walked into Will's room where he was still asleep.