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Chapter 28

The Truth

"I really am so so-"

"I just wanted to-"

Mike and El both stopped and looked at each other, waiting for the other to continue. The two were previously in an awkward silence and both wanted to change that by saying something. But it only made the awkward tension in the room bigger.

"You go." El made the executive decision.

Mike nodded and thought about what he was going to say. "I'm so sorry El." He finally decided that was the best way to start. "I didn't mean anything of what I said. If I'd known, I would have said something different. Hell, even if I didn't, I still would have said something different."

"Mike-"

"No! Let me finish." Mike said with tears forming in his eyes. "It was all my fault. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He let a few tears spill.

"Mike." El walked over to him a cupped his cheek and wiped some tears from his face. "It's not your fault. I know you feel like it is, but it's not. No one knew, no one could have known." El shook her head with her eyes filling up with tears as well. "We were just trying to protect one another. You thought you were protecting me and I thought I was protecting you. But that doesn't matter now. I'm here, I'm alive, and everyone is okay."

"I'm sorry." Mike whispered again.

"Mike, please stop saying that." El whispered still trying to clean the tears of off Mike's face.

"You have no idea how much I blamed myself when I thought you were dead."

"I do know. Because even if I wasn't there, I was."

Mike looked at her in shock. It all made sense now. When he heard her voice in his head, he thought it was a way to mourn. "You tried to talk to me? All this time you were actually talking to me? It wasn't in my head?"

El shook her head. "No."

"An-and you talked to me on the one year?"

"Yeah." El nodded failing to blink back her own tears.

"I'm so sorry." He sighed wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to him. "I'm so sorry."

El froze. She hugged a lot of people today but none of the hugs felt like this one. This one was different, a good different. It made her heart race and made her feel safe. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in the crook of his neck. She let a few of her own tears slip.

"I missed you." She quietly cried, trying to hold him tighter.

"I really missed you too."

The two stayed like that for a while. How long to be exact? They really didn't know, nor did they care. They were back in each other's arms again and that's all that mattered to them.

"She doing okay?" Hopper asked as Nancy came down the stairs. He was standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for someone to come down.

"She's fine." Nancy gave a reassuring smile. "She just needed some time to breathe. She should be down soon. She's just trying to calm down right now." Nancy covered for El and Mike, who were currently having their awkward conversation.

"So, what happened?" Dustin asked taking a seat on the couch.

"She's just feeling a little lost, I guess." Nancy explained. "She's been gone for a while. She feels like she missed a lot. Which, to be honest, she did."

Joyce sighed and shook her head. "I can't imagine what it's like for her."

Everyone sat in silence few a few minutes until Lucas finally decided to start up conversation again. "So, what's next?"

Hopper thought about it for a while before he came with a plan he was pretty sure was stupid but it was the best they got. "We attack Brenner head on."

"What?" Everyone questioned in unison.

"You heard me." He replied looking through the group. "Last time he got El because we didn't do anything to begin with. We ran. This time let's not run. We stay and we fight until he is arrested, because all of those boxes of files are enough evidence to put him behind bars, for good. We won't have to worry about El's safety, she can go back to being a regular teenager again."

"With super awesome powers." Dustin added making Hopper sigh in annoyance.

"The point is," Hopper continued after being so rudely interrupted, "we can't make the same mistakes like last time. We have to make sure she's safe and Brenner is someplace locked up. The only way we can do that is to make sure there are no surprise towards us. Brenner is a smart guy, he probably already knows that El's with us. We have to stop him before he comes back again."

Everyone looked at one another and silently agreed on one thing.

They're in.

Authors note
This chapter is a little bit shorter than others but I really wanted to post it for you guys because it's so cute! It made me depressingly happy writing it!

Thank you guys for 5k on neighbors! Seriously, that's amazing!! I love you guys and thanks for reading!!!

Love ya! ❤️❤️❤️