Jailbird || Stranger Things

twelve ➵ I spy (with my little eye)

"She knew about the house?"

    "Didn't bat an eye," Jonathan nodded, shooting a quick smile to the waitress who put down their lunches.

    "And she said 'not again'?" Nancy asked, reaching for cutlery in the can on the table.

    "Yeah. I think she knows," he lowered his voice, eyes going to the people around them. Having this conversation out in the open was at first a tactic to keep it light and perhaps veering off the edge of danger, but now it was beginning to look like a horribly infantile idea.

    "But the Chief—"

    "I know."

    They ate in silence, unable to come to the conclusion that Teresa might have been hiding as much as they had all these months. The idea alone was nothing short of concerning.

    If Jim had disregarded the documents, did that endanger them all, or just him and his daughter? If they were friends with her, did that then endanger them anyway? How did this work? How had Jim gotten away with it?

    "Should we confront her?" Nancy asked finally, the need to do something about the information overwhelming.

    "I don't think so," Jonathan shook his head. "She's helping Will. Mom's taken him to the lab with the Chief. She's not exactly getting in the middle of anything."

    "But if she knows— I mean— If she knows, we could tell Barb's parents. I just—"

    "Nancy, we can't do that," he replied, leaning over the table towards her. "You know we can't. We don't even know if she really knows, or if the Chief made up some kind of a cover story."

    "Maybe we should ask him. Instead of her," she shrugged, watching for any sign of his reaction on his face.

    Jonathan, much like everyone else who had been involved in the aftermath of Will's disappearance, was keen to forget about it. For things to go back to as close to normal as possible, perhaps. Although nothing is ever that easy.

    "What if we're just overreacting," he said once Nancy seemed to be getting impatient. She tipped her head to the side a little, making him elaborate. "What if she's just— Like this? Like she has been all these months; observant. She just pays attention and knows things."

    "She's not actually Sherlock Holmes, you know that, right?" Nancy's lips twitched into a smile.

    "No, but what if she just paid attention to something that told her Will didn't like certain areas of the house? He never touches the wall in the living room, and once we destroyed the fort, he's never been back to the woods behind the house. The same way she knows you don't like Steve's pool, and how she doesn't ask about our Christmas lights, or the mismatched wallpaper behind the sofa," he listed, Nancy listening intently.

    He was right. Teresa had been incredibly observant, and never brought up anything. She didn't ask many questions, because Nancy could tell, Reese worked in a different way. She didn't need words to know what was going on, or what should be.

    The same way Reese had noticed Nancy checking on Jonathan, and yet never asked any questions about it.

    "Do you think she could figure it out without us telling her? Where does that even fall on the— thing?" Nancy refrained from saying the word contract, or agreement, for fear of anyone overhearing them.

    This way they might just seem a little crazy, but that was nothing they hadn't handled before.

    "I don't know. I think only Hopper can answer that."