𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙥𝙤𝙥! 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙩𝙤𝙣

SCENE SEVEN. beamers and bloodied noses

in editing...

when she leaves the bathroom, shes expecting him leaning against the wall. brushing his hair back with his fingers. but it's not steve who stands outside. it's lucas. he stands sift, his arms tight across his chest.

"are you okay?" he asks as she uses her sleeve to wipe her face. hoping her cheeks weren't to puffy or red. she just nods and tries to move around him.

"piper." his voice is harsh almost. forcing her to look at his face. its cold. a stone expression on his face, but there's something in his eyes. worry. she breathes out quickly.

"i'm okay lucas. just a bit nauseous." she tells him, hoping it sounds more truthfully out loud then it does in her head. he slowly nods. then leads them back to the main room where everyone's talking in small groups. she's quick to stabd beside steve, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder as dustin and lucas inform her of the plan quickly. drug the turnbows, move them to a safe house and trap the turnbow house so the demo can be shot with tracker. sounds easy enough. totally. and people spilt into groups. Will and robin headed to the hospital to find the drugs to knock out the turnbows. as the others waited for murry and his van of goodies. and soon enough, the truck could be heard roaring in the near distance.

"okay, so I couldn't get any ethanol. but I was able to scrounge up a gallon of acetone. no be very careful. you smoke a virginia slim too close to this stuff. it'll catch fire, okay? snare wire, various gauges. a creepy, child-sized cpr dummy. its purpose a mystery to me. shot gun shells, per our lovely lady's request. three 20-packs of water balloons. purpose also a mystery. but i did take the liberty of selecting the grenade style. as it felt thematically appropriate. do keep those far away from thesevm 3000 ft if barbed wire. oh, i almost forgot some sparkling new spark plugs for bilbo baggins." murray explained as he went through every item that the team had requested. from shells to the dummy they were planning to use as derek.

"oh oh oh. and for little ms parker. coke cans." murray shouted, and piper's face lit up. he slides the pack of 12 cherry coke across the bottom of the van as she motions to lower them into her arms. steve is quick to rush over as she heads to her car. without her even asking he gets her keys put her back pocket and opens her boot. she lowers them slowly before pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. taking the keys back and poking a hole to get to the cans. and within the next ten minutes piper is sat cross legged a little bit away from the van as she watches steve rip the cabinets out. sipping on her can.

"what are you doing." dustin questioned, brows furrowed as he looks between steve and piper who just shrugs lightly.

"you gonna help or just stand there? actually be my guest, go sit with-." steve started but piper was cut to cut it off.

"steve. i offered to help and you ordered me to sit." she spat back at him, steve only returned with a huff.

"yeha, i'd rather not herniated a disc over a lost cause." dustin commented, and piper could imagine steve's eyeroll. she heard him mumble something but couldn't quite figure out what he said.

"this van once stalled out chugging up pickett road like it was the little engine that couldn't. it's not fast enough to keep up with a demo without serious modifications." he started rambling on and piper started to drown out of their conversation. she was so over their bullshit at the moment. constantly nagging at one another. until the sound of drilling filled the air. and steve shouting. she noticed distin climbed on top of steves car. rhe beamer. drilling a hole into the top. and her mouth dropped out in shock. dustin had ruined steves beautiful baby. she was on her feet immediately, wrapping her arm around steve as he stared at his car in disbelief. silently thanking it was his beamer and not her mother's mustang.

"piper." the voice was sweet, childlike. not him. it sounded like el. she took a step away from Steve, staring out into the open field before closing her eyes. darkness spreading around her. the younger girl appears before her.

"janie." the girl is quick to reach forward. making sure she can touch el, or janie as piper liked to call her, before hugging her. el wouldn't tell anyone that she liked not being called el or eleven sometimes. it made her feel more like them. normal. and piper was one of the only ones who seemed to notice this abd give her the said nickname from her government name, jane.

"are you okay?" piper questions, holding the girl as she practically examines her. looking for any obvious injuries.

"i'm okay, i found hopper. we couldn't find holly. but we captured a military solider. there's a military bases here in the upside down, a value inside. i couldn't get in from inside the man's head. we think it might be him. their hiding something too powerful in there." el starts ranting away. passing on as much information as she can as they both know communication is limited. both could unlinked at any moment. piper is trying to nod along but shes going so quick with so much information.

"hey. hey. calm down too much information." she eventually blunts out.

"sorry." el mumbled, bowing her head slightly. she's still not completely there with the whole 'normal' thing.

"so military bases, strong power inside. might be vecna. but it can't be. apparently he's the one that captured holly. well that the demo captured her for him." piper quickly memorised the thungs she listed before information her of a slice of knowledge she knew. deciding to leave out the part where piper's seen him. el will probably see it in her head at some point soon anyway.

"confusing." el mumbled. she started to say something else but a disorted noise started to ring out. the image of the girl flickering in and out. fading away slightly. piper reaches out. abd el disappears into the air at her fingers. felt like trying to catch smoke. and she blinks. the darkness spilling out as her eyes focused back on the wildflowers in the fields. steve and dustin still arguing at each other. she's quick to use her sleeve to wipe away the blood as the radio lights up.

"anyone there? erica is in. turnbow plan is a go." she heard lucas's voice spiting out the radio. yes. it's baking time.