"We've been trying for months, sir. I don't think it's going to happen."

"It has to happen," Dr. Brenner seethed. His gaze was fixed intently on One through the glass window that separated them. "Again!" Dr. Brenner shouted into the microphone before him, simultaneously slamming his hand against the table it sat on.

The microphone screeched from his volume and pierced One's ears. Tears streamed down her face as she pressed her hands against the sides of her head. She had been trying so hard, but it wasn't working. She was unable to replicate the portal she opened for Mr. Sanchez, the portal into a different time. And Papa was mad.

"I told you to find this woman!" Dr. Brenner slapped a picture against the window for One to see. "Now find her, but in 1942!"

"It doesn't work like that..." One tried to explain but she cowered in fear when Dr. Brenner's face became several shades redder.

"I don't care how it works, just do it!"

One took a few steps closer to study the picture better. She memorized every minuscule detail about the woman; the wrinkles around her eyes, the scar above her right eyebrow, every unique curl in her wild, white hair...

"Now!"

One wiped away the tears and stared deep into Dr. Brenner's eyes. She focused on the blackness of his pupils and envisioned them as tiny portals. In the portals she pictured the woman and 1942, and soon enough a portal opened between her and Dr. Brenner.

The portal cut off her view of Dr. Brenner's face, but she knew quickly enough that she had made him even angrier when she heard a familiar voice come from the other side: Mr. Munson.

"Brenner?" Mr. Munson asked in exasperation from the other side. "What do you want?"

One didn't give Dr. Brenner time to respond before she snapped the portal shut in shame and embarrassment. Dr. Brenner's gaze met her once more and she shriveled under its intensity.

"Get her out of my sight," Dr. Brenner said to his comrades, speaking just loud enough that One could pick it up through the microphone.

She tried to run or to hide, anything to escape the rough hands of the guards, but there was nowhere to go and soon her fate was sealed. Dr. Brenner watched coldly from the other side of the glass as her soundless screams disappeared with the guards through the doorway.

One couldn't move from her spot on the floor. She was glued to the carpet in fear. Coming? Who was coming? A friend or an enemy? Whoever it was, One had an inkling about where they were coming from...the Upside Down.

Part of One wanted to open a portal to confront her mystery messenger head on, but the uncertainty of what she would meet kept her from doing so. What if that's exactly what they wanted? What if they wanted to get through? She didn't want to do that to Joyce and her family. Not like she had to Hopper and Eleven.

One continued to ask the wall questions but it had stopped responding. She screamed at it until her lungs were dry and her voice was almost entirely gone, but the stupid lights still didn't blink. They had stopped answering.

One continued to lay on the floor in a daze as an indeterminate amount of time went by. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, One was too tired to care. She didn't get to just lay down very often. She had been running for as long as she had known.

During her time on the floor One decided that her next best course of action was to warn her new friends. She obviously didn't know the specifics of the message she had just received, but she sensed danger was getting closer and the only people who would listen was them.

The clock on the wall said it was only noon, and while One didn't actually know what time school got done she thought it was probably safe to wait to go anywhere until three. For now, she would just continue to lie on the floor.

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Once the ticking hands officially spun to three o'clock on the dot, One found her mobility and pushed herself off the ground and to her feet. There was an indent in the carpet where she had been lying that was so deep she wondered if it'd be permanent.

One had made it as far as the top step of the porch before she realized that she had no idea where she was going. In fact, she didn't even really know where she was. She'd have to travel via portal.

One remembered Joyce telling Jonathan that Will would be at Mike's after school and tried her hardest to envision Mike's house. However, it didn't take her long to realize she hadn't been paying enough attention to the Wheeler household when they dropped Mike off. She was too distracted by the thought of belonging to something. No clear picture, no portal.

She needed a new plan. Joyce and Jonathan still weren't home yet so they couldn't give her a ride...ride...ride! Steve had given them a ride to Mike's house! Steve would know how to get there, and she knew how to get to him. Or at least, to where he worked.

She didn't want to alarm anyone by appearing out of nowhere so she envisioned the cement hallway behind Scoops Ahoy and waited for the whirring circle to grow to full size before stepping through it. Once she was back in the familiar hallway, she pushed through the door and found herself in the back room of the ice cream shop. She also found that she wasn't alone.

"Um...hi," Robin said mid-lick of an ice cream cone with her Converses kicked up on a table. "Can I help you...?"

"Steve," One replied with a straight face.

Without breaking eye contact Robin yelled, "Hey dingus!"

"What do you want, Robin? I'm trying to work out here!" Steve whined as his head popped through the door.

"If that's what you wanna call it..." Robin mumbled before she continued away at her ice cream cone.

Steve was about to respond when his eyes glanced over and found One. He pushed the rest of his body through the door at lightning speed and furiously began patting and smoothing his hair over. "Um Robin, you want to..."

Steve didn't have to finish his sentence for Robin to understand what he wanted. After a dramatic lick of ice cream, she rolled her eyes and jumped to her feet. "Fine, but you owe me for cutting my break short!"

Once she had exited the room and slammed the door behind her, Steve returned his attention to One. "For what do I owe the pleasure?" A cheesy smile spread across his face but One didn't take note of it.

"I need you to take me to Mike's," One answered. Once she realized how demanding she sounded, she added, "Please."

"I thought you could make portals, isn't it easier and faster for you to get there yourself?" Steve asked. His smile dropped and his cheeks flushed bright red when he realized how crass that sounded. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

One just shook her head to signal her forgiveness. "Can you take me?"

"Well, I mean, I'm supposed to be working until sev—hey Robin!" Steve changed course halfway through his sentence when he realized that getting to hang out with a cute girl was way more important to him than working.

"What!" Robin's annoyed voice yelled back from the other side.

"Cover for me!" Steve didn't even give Robin the chance to respond as he grabbed his coat and keys from a locker and began to make his way out of the back room. "Follow me."

"I'm going to kill you, Harrington!" Robin shouted after them as Steve grabbed One's hand and rushed them past the long line of customers.

One's face turned red when she looked down to see her hand intertwined in his. She hadn't had this much physical contact with another person in a long time. She wasn't sure if she liked it or not, but she didn't have time to make that decision because Steve still had a death-like grip on her hand and was weaving them through the crowded mall at 120 miles per hour.

They finally slowed down when they made it to the front entrance of Starcourt and One took the opportunity to yank her hand from his.

"Sorry," Steve apologized with a sheepish shrug. They walked quietly but quickly to his car.

"So what's the urgency?" Steve asked after they had begun their drive. He was always terrible with silence. "Why do you need to get to Mike's so bad?"

Like with before, One felt hesitant to tell him anything but she did feel like she owed him for appearing at his work without notice and demanding a ride. "Something is coming," she replied.

Steve's eyes broke from the road before him to look at her with a mix of fear and confusion. "What is it?"

"I don't know," One answered.

"Good? Bad?" Steve asked anxiously. The slight tremor in her voice was making him nervous.

"I don't know," One repeated as she stared down at her lap. She really wished she had more answers. Stupid lights.

"Hey, well, we've taken down big bad monsters in the past. We can handle whatever this is," Steve said. He placed a hand on hers and looked into her eyes in an attempt to comfort her. He didn't want to admit that it was also to comfort him.

The touch of Steve's skin against hers evoked a strange feeling again, a feeling she couldn't understand. Her first response with things she didn't understand was usually to distance herself from them, but in this moment she didn't pull away. Not right away, at least.

"We're here," Steve announced, pulling up into the Wheeler's driveway. One looked at him in confusion when he turned the ignition off and reached to open his door. "What? I'm a part of the party too, you know," Steve responded when he caught her strange stare.

One's glance lingered for a moment before she accepted it and moved on. She had more pressing matters to attend to. Something was coming.

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