What I Wouldn't Do For You

Part 2 - Finding The Board

Ummm...wh-what!?"

It took Mike a while to piece together what was just said to him, and even then he wasn't really sure how to respond, he just said the first thing that was one his mind.

"Listen son, whatever you're doing can wait, we need you right now."

He gestures over to Dustin who is fumbling around with a Skeletor toy, seemingly uninterested in the conversation, despite it's apparent importance.

"And him too."

Mike can feel his breathes becoming shorter and shorter every time he makes an attempt to open his mouth and speak, he has a question to ask the older man, one that he wanted an answer to without the stress of having to ask it himself...he knows that he can't bear to lose another loved one...no, not again.

He attempts to speak to again, but instead swallows his words, and before he can make another fruitless attempt, Dustin who hasn't stopped examining the Skeletor toy, cuts him off.

"He wants to know if his Dad is okay."

Hopper sharply looks back at Mike, which startles him, then he turns back to facing the road. He takes a deep breath, but not before rolling all of the windows up in the car, and pulling over to the side of the road.

"Your Dad's alive." Mike finally lets go of that breath he's been unconsciously holding in, relieved by the good news...however, his nervousness comes back when he realizes something bad is still on its way, or happening right now as they speak.

"What's wrong with my Dad!" Says Mike frantically to Hopper, who is still staring at Mike, almost as if he was trying to decipher something that can only be seen on Mike's face. He looks over at Dustin again, then back to Mike to give him a calm retort.

"Calm down...I'm going to tell you the rest, I was just thinking...what were you two doing over by the school?

Mike relaxes his gaze, leans his back to the seat, and looks aimlessly out of the foggy window, not wanting to make eye contact with Hopper's bulldog-ish glare, and gives him a surprisingly dreary response...followed by another Dustin interruption, one that neither Mike nor Hopper wanted to hear.

"School Stuff"

"Yea! Mike was looking for his girlfriend, you know the one with super powers who saved our lives!" Mike scowls at Dustin and punches him in the arm.

"Ow! What the hell?!"

"Uh can you not!"

"Not what? He's authority Mike, In case you weren't paying attention. You can't lie to the authorities.

"What?!"

"Yea, it goes against my moral compass."

"Oh, then what about when we were being chased by the authorities, and we had to lie to save our lives."

"First off Wheeler...that was differen't....a-and not to mention, we wouldn't of got a chance to see El do her cool E.T. shit!" Mike looks at him with a flabbergasted expression on his face.

"Are you for real right now? You can't compare El to E.T.?!

"Group of children...check. Who likes to ride bikes...check.Unpopular...check. Find a short being with otherworldly powers, specifically telekinesis, that a small boy takes a liking to, experimented on by evil scientist, escapes an secret government organization with a combination of super powers and a bike, but mainly superpowers?...hold on give me a second...oh wait, never mind that's a check too.

"Say one more thing and I'll hit you again Dustin!"

Mike's now in a weird place mentally, a weird limbo situated on a plane of emotion between furious anger and overwhelming embarrassment...apparently he didn't like being the Elliot in that scenario.

"Ok I get it! I'm done!....so does that make her Jean Grey or-"Before Dustin can finish his sentence Mike lunges at his friend, and if he couldn't kill him right then and there, the least he could do was sow his mouth shut.

At this point Hopper is furious as the two boys sage-like ability to get distracted by less important things. He gets ready to pull them apart, but decides to to keeps driving to Mike's house, but not before muttering something under his breath.

"It's better if I just show you."

A myriad of cop cars are surrounding Mike's home as their car arrives. This worries Mike to the point where he runs out of the car before Hopper has a chance to park, he opens the unlocked door to his home to find his crying mom staring at the couch, along with Nancy, and Johnathan who are just staring, but not with looks of grief...contemplation if anything. They are so focused on what they are doing they don't even address Mike right away.

To Mike's he see's an unbelievable pale man resembling his father, with stark-white hair, and jet black eyes(the entire eye, as well as the scleras) laying down on the couch with his eyes facing the seeing, he cracks his neck, and proceeds to slowly turn his head towards Mike. Mike stares him in the eye and asks a question.

"Is that-"

"Your father, yes." replies Hopper, now accompanying him with Dustin by his side. Mike takes a deep breath and stands up. He begins to walk towards the basement stairs, but before he opens the door he looks back at everyone in the house.

Nancy asks hims,"where are you going Mike?" He looks at her for a second and just exhales softly saying nothing. He walks halfway down the stairs before abruptly stopping to look at El's cot, he winces a little and walks back up to where everyone is.

"What's up Mike?"

Mike says nothing and keeps walking to the pale body looking dead in the face. He grabs the TV remote while being followed by the many eyes in the room. He then casually sits on the the arm of the couch, turning the TV on and changing the channel, but not staying on a set channel for very long.

"El's coming back."

Nancy hugs Johnathan and jumps up and down excited for the return of her little sister. She is quickly brought to earth when she sees that Mike isn't smiling...at all.

"M-Mike?" He doesn't say anything for a while, he doesn't even face her, or any of them, he just turns the TV off, and watches as it fades to pitch-black.

"She isn't alone."

[D