Emma || Steve Harrington/Billy Hargrove

025. Uncertainty

A/N: surprise! Double update just because I love you guys.

Voting for who she ends up with will end after part 26 is posted! So comment, comment, comment (or shoot me a message people have been doing that as well and I'm counting those in the final tally)! 

*Emma's POV*

The next morning was nothing out of the ordinary. I got ready and Steve drove me to school. You could tell that he was worried about me jumping right back into my normal routine, but I didn't really have another choice. Because of the nature of what had happened, I didn't really have a good way to justify not acting like myself to my parents. School made it easier to keep my mind off of things, and Billy was really good about not bringing things up or treating me any differently than he would otherwise. After school, I met up with him out by his car. Max was already there waiting with him.

"Hey, is Steve coming for you or should I drop you off along with Max at Hopper's cabin?" he asked as I approached them.

"He told me to ride with you. You're not staying?" I questioned.

"I don't really think it's my place to," he said, "I wasn't really involved before last night."

"Neither was I," I told him, "but we're both in it now, so you're coming and you're staying." It took a little more convincing on the way there, but he agreed to stay. As we approached the cabin, I started getting nervous. I knew they were going to be talking about the other dimension and about everything that had gone on the previous night. I wasn't ready for that, but I played it cool until we got there. Everyone else was basically already there, and I walked straight on over to Hopper.

"Hey kid, how you feeling?" he asked.

"Uh, good, I think," I answered, "Listen, I know you guys want to discuss what happened, but I really don't think that I saw anything last night that you guys hadn't already seen. I'd really appreciate it if I could just wait out here and get a debrief from someone afterwards."

"Yeah, of course, whatever you need," he smiled. Everyone started making their way inside and I took a seat on the steps leading up to the cabin. I could hear muffled voices, and in a way wished I was in there, but knew that I wouldn't have been able to handle it. The door opened behind me and little Will stepped out.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey, bud," I smiled, "Are you okay?" He shrugged as he sat down.

"I don't know, I guess I still haven't really dealt with everything that happened to me the past two years," he began, "and having to see it happen from the outside and hearing everyone talk about it is really hard. How are you feeling?"

"I'm kind of on the same boat," I sighed, "It's not fun to talk about, but it's also weird not being there helping everyone else. You're really brave and strong, you know. I'm a solid three years older than you and I barely made it a few hours, you made it seven days." He smiled a little and shook his head. I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a side hug.

"Will," Dustin's voice came from behind us, "Hopper and your mom need you for a second." I offered him a small smile before he got up and followed Dustin inside, and then Billy walked out.

"This is all so crazy," he said as he took a seat.

"I know," I chuckled, "That exactly how I felt when El and Steve started telling me about everything. Nothing like this ever happened in California."

"Not at all," he laughed.

"What are they talking about?" I questioned.

"Just ways to take that thing down, I guess," he responded, "They want to wait until the weather starts to change for some reason and just deal with it on a smaller scale right now."

"Are you getting involved?" I asked.

"I haven't been asked to," he said, "I don't know if I will be, but if they want me to, I might."

"Don't do it," I told him, "I don't want anything bad to happen to you, and whatever is down there is dangerous, so just please don't." He opened his mouth to speak, but the door opened and people started filing out of the cabin, interrupting the conversation. It was all the kids. They started playing in the surrounding areas, making me smile a little.

I put my hand out for Billy to take and then pulled him up to go play with the kids. He rolled his eyes at me, but he did end up playing tag with all of us. It was a nice little moment for all of us in the middle of something that was really stressful and scary. Thinking about it, it must've been really hard for them all too, especially with them being younger. They'd had to go through a lot with losing their best friend and thinking he was dead, but then figuring out that he wasn't and he'd just been taken to another dimension, but was still in constant danger of being killed. Or the following year when everything started going wrong and the only way they could fix things was by possibly killing that same friend. It stressed me out just thinking about it, so I did my best to stop and just focus on the game with the kiddos.

After about an hour or two, the older people in the cabin came back out meaning the meeting was over. I talked to Joyce and Hopper for a little bit before Steve came over and offered me a ride home. I accepted since it was getting late and I didn't want Billy to have to take me all the way home.

"We think we figured it all out," he said as we got in the car.

"How long do you think it'll take?" I asked.

"We're hoping to get it done as soon as we can, but we're not even really sure it'll work," he sighed, "I think it will, but it's not certain. Things will be okay though, you don't have to worry about anything anymore." He placed his hand in mine and gave it a light squeeze.

I didn't know how to feel or what I felt with everything going on. I thought for a second that maybe this whole thing would make it easier for me to figure out who I had feelings for, but if anything it just confused me even more. Both Steve and Billy were being so sweet and caring and understanding about everything. They were both treating me like a queen, which was just making things really hard for me. I knew they'd both said they'd still be there as my friends no matter what I chose, but I didn't know if that was true or if it'd actually work out. I also knew that I needed to figure it out fast because it wouldn't be fair to keep stringing both of them along.