CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN.
4x07: The Massacre at Hawkins Lab

It wasn't the easiest of journeys, but they eventually made it to the Wheeler residence—or, the Upside Down-Wheeler residence. Auggie was now walking by himself, just forcing himself through the pain, because Nancy had taken the lead and opened the front door to her house.

Slowly, they all filed in. Steve shone his flashlight around the place, and it was like the rest of the Upside Down: fucking weird. Those living vines were everywhere, and the same white particles hung in the air. The particles were so suffocating that Auggie wondered if, thirty years from now, he would be put in the same hospital with the other four harboring some strange lung disease.

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler," Auggie commented.

Nancy inhaled sharply. "Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to."

She started up the stairs, presumably going up to her room. Steve, Robin, and Eddie began following after her, but Auggie looked up at the stairs like they were his greatest downfall.

"Yeah, I'm not making it up those," he said. "You guys go up without me."

Robin frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Of course." Auggie gestured to his ankle. "It's not like I could contribute anything useful anyway."

Steve's face immediately morphed into a frown.

"I'm staying with you," he decided. "You guys go get the guns without us, okay?"

Nancy, Robin, and Eddie shared looks.

"Okay," Nancy sighed, and then she was climbing back up the stairs again.

Steve watched everyone head up to Nancy's room, but Auggie watched Steve, blinking in surprise.

"You didn't have to stay behind," Auggie muttered. "I really am fine, you know?"

Steve walked up to him with the flashlight, rolling his eyes sarcastically. "Oh, I believe you, Smiths. You just can't even walk up a flight of stairs."

Auggie's eyes narrowed, unamused.

"At least my stomach wasn't made a five-course meal," he said, trying to gain the upper hand.

But Steve winked at him—he winked. "Yeah, but I had this awesome nurse patch me up, you know?"

Auggie scoffed incredulously, hiding the fact he felt a particular swelling in his chest.

"Oh, so that's all I am now to you, Harrington?" Auggie raised an eyebrow, only pretending to be offended. "I'm not even a doctor? Wow, I see how it is."

Steve shrugged, playing along with the bit. "I won't praise you too much. You used a torn shirt."

"Better than duct tape," Auggie teased.

"Hey!" Steve protested. "I told you that in confidence!"

Auggie rolled his eyes, albeit fondly, waving a dismissive hand. "Yeah, yeah."

And maybe Steve was planning on responding, or maybe Auggie was planning on saying something more, but neither option would ever happen. Out of nowhere, they heard a different voice join the duo.

It was Sam's voice.

It was indistinct and faint, but it was unmistakably Sam Hughes's voice.

"Um." Auggie's eyebrows furrowed, and he glanced towards the noise before back at Steve. "You hear that too, right?"

Steve pulled the same face, shining his flashlight in the direction they heard her. "Yeah..."

"What's going on?" Auggie asked.

"How would I know?"

"I don't know, you and Nancy are apparently the Upside Down experts!"

"Well I don't know either!"

Sam's warbled voice cut them off again, barely audible. Auggie's head whipped towards it with a desperately confused face—it was coming from the decrepit-looking dining room.

"Sam?" Auggie whispered, limping painfully towards the room.

Sam didn't answer, but only continued speaking her incoherent words. Auggie shared another very confused glance with Steve as he stepped next to Auggie's side, shoulders brushing.

"Sam," Auggie tried again, but still received no answer.

"Hey, Goldie, what the fuck?" Steve asked.

They could hear Sam, but Sam wasn't responding to them.

Steve shone the flashlight around in utter bafflement, searching desperately for Sam. She was warbling on and on about something, and it didn't make any sense, and Auggie felt like he was going to have an aneurysm.

"Goldie!"

"Hey! Yo! Sam!"

"GOLDIE! SAM?!"

"Dude!" Auggie clapped his hands loudly, hoping that would make her listen. "Sam! Can you hear us?!"

Steve whipped around with the flashlight. "SAM!"

"SAM?!"

"SA—HELLO? Hel... Hello?!"

Robin stared at the two from the doorframe, as she, Nancy, and Eddie had heard their yelling and assumed the worst. But they just found Auggie and Steve shouting for Sam into the empty air.

"Maybe Steve does have rabies," she whispered, "and passed it onto Auggie."

"HELLO! HELLO?!"

"Guys, what are you doing?!" Nancy questioned wildly, announcing their presence to the two boys.

Auggie and Steve whipped around with a jolt, Steve's flashlight blinding the trio that was standing and judging them. They expected Auggie and Steve to chill out upon seeing them, but there were maniacal expressions on their faces as they eagerly walked up to Nancy, Robin, and Eddie.

"She's here." Steve grinned excitedly. "Sam."

"...What?"

Auggie nodded rapidly, beaming with Steve before facing the three again. "Yeah. That little shit, she's here. She's like... She's in the walls, or something?"

Eddie shook his head wildly, almost glancing at Auggie like he was concerned. "Santos, man, is Harrington's dumb ass brain infecting you?"

"No." Steve shook his head, offended. "Just listen," but he gave them no time to do that. "Goldie—Goldie! GOLDIE!"

Steve whipped back around to search for Sam in the walls, and Auggie limped back to do the same. They continued their earlier dynamic, with Steve wildly shining the flashlight around and Auggie clapping stupidly.

"SAM, YOU ASS!"

"GOLDIE! CAN YOU HEAR US?!"

And, while Nancy, Robin, and Eddie had been convinced that Auggie and Steve had gone crazy, they were suddenly proven wrong. Finally, they heard what the two boys were urging them to listen to.

"...that brings us to the question you were asking about: How and why is there a Gate at Lover's Lake? Well—what do me, El, and Vecna have in common...?"

"SAM!" Nancy yelled, joining Auggie and Steve in their search through the house in attempts to find the blonde.

Eddie idiotically checked behind the drapes. "Zeus?!"

"Goldie?!" Robin searched.

Auggie sighed, but it sounded a little like growled annoyance. "Alright, either this kid can't hear us, or she's being a total douchebag."

"Well she's not a douchebag," Steve defended confidently. "So she definitely can't hear us."

Auggie and Steve looked to each other, just breathing. Just thinking.

"Will found a way."

They both glanced behind, seeing Nancy, who was staring out at nothing in contemplation.

"What?"

"Will," Nancy repeated, meeting their confused stares. "He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights?"

Then Nancy was pivoting on her heel and sprinting over to a lamp that was set atop a vine-covered piece of wooden furniture. Auggie watched, confused, as she desperately tried clicking it on. But apparently Steve got what Nancy was talking about. He walked over to Nancy, attempting to help her by her to try turning on the light-switch.

Sam's voice continued faintly as Nancy tried flipping the switch. But just like the lamp, it refused to turn on.

"It's not working!" Nancy scowled in agitation.

Steve frowned. "Why—what the hell?"

"Guys?"

Auggie stood there, standing at the light fixture above the kitchen island. He was new to all the Upside Down shit, but he was sure that whatever he was looking at wasn't normal.

"Yeah?" Steve asked, turning around with Nancy as they gave up trying to turn on the light-switch.

But then, when Steve happened to shine his flashlight on it, they suddenly saw it.

The chandelier above the island in the kitchen was glowing faintly, in an orange-red tint. The five light bulbs were coming alive, and under further inspection of Steve's flashlight, Auggie noted there were buzzing particles swarming around the entire fixture. But it wasn't the ash-like Upside Down particles—they were side effects of the light, warm and fuzzy and living.

Auggie, Steve, Nancy, Robin, and Eddie slowly crept closer to inspect the lights. They all stood there, standing in confusion. No one did anything until Nancy hesitantly stretched up her arm.

Underneath Nancy's touch, more light particles appeared, glowing a bright and radiant orange. The lightbulbs shone brighter, almost a blinding beauty.

"...to open a tear in time and space, just like the Mothergate..."

Nancy waved her hand through the particles, and the brighter that the lights began to glow, the redder and more illuminated the light particles became.

"Woah," Robin whispered, walking closer to the lights. Everyone else did the same, so that they made a semi-circle around the island table.

"...are these like the Mothergate..."

They all stared, entranced, at the rejuvenated lights above them. Nancy waved her hand, and the particles swished. The lights came alive, just like Nancy claimed happened with Will. Just like she said happened when the Demogorgon appeared. Just like happened when Sam made it so.

"...but a Gate nonetheless..."

Auggie, Steve, Robin, and Eddie shared awed looks. They stuck up their hands as well, wanting to experience what it felt like. The second Auggie's tanned hand came in contact with the flurry of light particles, he felt different. A rushing feeling overtook him, warm and overwhelming. He knew he'd been alive for eighteen years, but suddenly it was like he was truly living now.

"It... tickles?" Steve analyzed, confused.

"It kinda feels... good," Robin said.

Auggie grinned at Robin in amusement, then shared an exhilarated look with Eddie. Nancy pulled her hand down, not wasting any more time with the warming lights.

"Does anyone know Morse code?" she asked.

They hesitantly all began to put their arms back down as well. Together, Auggie, Steve, and Robin muttered, "No."

"Wait," Eddie stared down at Nancy, "does SOS count?"

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

"So our working theory is that Vecna makes remote contact from his attic." Sam paced as Lucas, Dustin, and Erica sat in the seats around the dining table. Her mind was working too quickly for her to sit. They were right—she was wearing her scheming face, and apparently a side effect of that was the inability to remain still. "We don't know why—I mean, I'm assuming he can do it from anywhere, right? Because El can—or, at least she can do a mild version of remote contact, and—"

Sam suddenly stopped herself when Erica didn't seem to be paying attention. Her head was propped up in her hand, and she was staring off into the distance rather than at Sam. Sam frowned, stopping as she paced.

"Sorry, am I rambling too much?" Sam worried. "Am I even making sense? Totally my fault. I can start over if you want, I'm probably explaining it wrong—"

"No, I understand you perfectly fine," Erica said, but her eyes were still glued on the distance, and she suddenly stood up from her chair. She started walking into the kitchen with a bizarre look. "It's just—you said you followed Vecna through lights, right?"

Sam, Lucas, and Dustin shared confused expressions.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because I think he's here," Erica confessed.

The trio had been staring at Erica in wild disorientation that only increased at her last statement. But then, they shifted their gazes just a few inches, and suddenly Lucas and Dustin were shooting up from their seats as well.

The light fixture above the kitchen island was flickering and blinking radiantly, just as blinding as the lights had shone in the Creel house.

Sam, Dustin, and Lucas walked over to where Erica was, and now all four of them stood frozen, watching the chandelier come alive. They were rapid blinks of different paces that had everyone dazed.

Dustin slowly walked past Sam, Lucas, and Erica with an open mouth. He got closer to the ceiling light, inspecting its glowing flickers.

"S..." Dustin translated quietly. "O..." A series of three blinks. "S..."

The lights continued going off in the same pattern, and Dustin cursed under his breath.

"Hey, uh... remember when I said they wouldn't be stupid enough to go through Watergate?"

Sam and Lucas shared uneasy looks, knowing where this was going.

"Yeah?"

Dustin looked away from the light fixture and instead towards them, just as uneasy.

"I overestimated them."

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

"How the fuck are we gonna talk to them?"

"Ms. Byers did it."

"Yeah, well, Ms. Byers made an alphabet wall with Christmas lights. We can't do that."

"Why don't we just keep letting them use Morse code?"

"I'm pretty sure the only thing they know is SOS."

They all looked back up at the light fixture, still flickering in the same pattern over and over. Blink, blink, blink. Hold, hold, hold. Blink, blink, blink. Everyone began thinking hard, trying to figure out a solution to this entire mess.

"If only they weren't stupid enough to go to the Upside Down," Dustin grumbled under his breath.

Sam sighed, crossing her arms.

"Okay—so—wait—can they hear us? From the Upside Down?" Then she glanced back up at the chandelier. "Guys? Can you hear us? One blink for yes, two for no."

The SOS message stopped.

The light fixture blinked once.

Sam, Lucas, Dustin, and Erica all gasped in awe—they were communicating through dimensions. With lights. The four shared ecstatic looks, and Sam had to contain her excitement so she could speak again.

"O-okay, that's totally normal," Sam said. "So you guys can't speak to us?"

One flicker.

"You can only... use the lights?"

One flicker.

"Do you know anything other than Morse code?"

Two flickers.

Sam sighed dejectedly, sharing another look with Lucas, Dustin, and Erica. Erica shrugged back at her, not knowing what to do either. But Sam also noted that Lucas and Dustin had expressions on their faces—expressions that they'd pointed out Sam wore many times before.

Scheming faces.

"Holly's Lite Brite," Dustin blurted. "What if we filled up all the holes with the pegs"—Sam snorted and Dustin glared—"and use that as like, a chalkboard for them to write on?"

"Holy shit," Sam breathed. "That's genius, Dustin."

"Okay, so who's snatching that stupid thing from Holly?" Erica asked. "I've been with her all day, and she hasn't put it down once."

Dustin and Erica, in unison, looked at Sam.

"Wait—why me?"

Dustin shrugged, but inevitably answered, "You're just like, friendlier. Everyone likes you more."

Sam shook her head. "No."

Erica nodded her head. "Yes."

Sam paused, taken aback at the fact Erica was agreeing with Dustin on this. Did Erica like her too? The thought made Sam feel a little elated inside. Honored. For some reason, she had this urge to be the one person of Lucas's friends that Erica was warmer to.

"What if we don't need to steal Holly's Lite Brite at all?" Lucas finally spoke up, earning confused stares from the other three.

"Do you have a larger box of light we can use, Lucas?" Dustin asked, deadpan.

"No." Lucas sighed, eyes flicking over to Sam once. "Just hear me out, okay? Remember how in seventh grade, Ms. Byers communicated to Will through the lights?"

Erica rolled her eyes. "We already established this, idiot."

Lucas shot her a glare, but he didn't argue further than that. "Okay, well, she wasn't the only person to communicate with Will. El channeled him through the walkie, then we broke into school and used the Heathkit Ham Shack—"

"May it rest in peace," Sam muttered.

"—so El could make a stronger connection," Lucas summarized, making a longer story short. "And, yes, we heard Will talking to Ms. Byers, but she wasn't the only person who communicated with Will."

Dustin's face dropped.

Slowly, his and Lucas's eyes turned onto Sam.

"Holy shit," Dustin whispered.

Sam swallowed, uncomfortable at the intense eye contact.

"Sam," Lucas said quietly, "you talked to Will."

She shook her head, heart beating faster.

"I don't know how I did that, remember?" she panicked. "I fought with you guys on it until last July!"

"Specks, it's probably part of your electricity harnessing, and you never noticed it," Dustin pointed out. "And you have much better control of that now."

"Just last week I accidentally shocked Auggie and had to tell him it was the lightning outside," Sam protested. "The sun was shining that day! We were inside!"

Lucas and Dustin shared looks, frowning a little. Sam recognized their expressions, but she refused to put a name to them. It had to do with a random stubbornness that only appeared in Sam when the subject of her powers came up.

Lucas stepped forward, putting a calming hand on Sam's shoulder. Her mind was a whirlwind of their conversation that happened a year ago in this very house, with Sam in the empty bathtub and Lucas unable to look away from her.

"Sam, you made an interdimensional connection with Will without even meaning to when you were twelve. Imagine all the things you could do now."

"You're all overestimating me," Sam said sadly.

"I don't think we are." Lucas shook his head, still holding his hand on her shoulder. "I think you're capable of anything. I mean, it's you, Sam. I don't believe in you because you have powers. I believe in you because you're you."

Sam shuddered, breathing weakly. She glanced at Lucas's hand on her shoulder, moved her gaze onto him. He was staring down at her with those same, intense eyes he'd been sending her way lately. It made Sam shudder again, because it was so overwhelming.

"What if I let you guys down?" she worried.

"You won't," Lucas instantly dispelled. "If you can't channel them though, we'll just use Holly's Lite Brite. It'll be okay."

Sam anxiously looked behind Lucas, instead towards Dustin and Erica. They just nodded at her, agreeing with Lucas said. No one would be mad at her, no one would blame her. The three of them were all waiting for Sam to make the decision.

They were letting Sam make her own choice.

She had the option to say no.

But she didn't.

Sam broke away from Lucas's hold and walked towards the light fixture one last time.

"Okay, guys," she said to the older teenagers. "Meet us in Nancy's room, alright? We're gonna..." she looked back at Lucas, Dustin, and Erica with an unsure shrug, "try something."

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

Sam was sitting on the floor of Nancy's room, facing the edge of Nancy's bed. Lucas, Dustin, and Erica were all prepping the area—stealing radios throughout the house and placing it before her. She didn't really know what else to do but let them. She was too busy trying to figure out how she was going to communicate with anyone through a few dingy radios.

"It's no Heathkit," Dustin announced his presence, setting Mike's radio down before her, "but it'll do."

Before Sam were four radios—Sam assumed they belonged to Mike, Nancy, Holly, and Karen and Ted. Lucas, Dustin, and Erica were hoping the combined amounts of electricity will both help them connect all the way to the Upside Down, and help Sam do it easier.

"Hopefully," Sam added pessimistically.

"Sam," Lucas said quietly from the right of her. "If you can or can't do it, that's okay. There's no pressure."

"Just Auggie, Steve, Robin, Nancy, and Eddie's lives on the line," Sam quipped. "No biggie."

Lucas sighed, frowning at her. "I told you. We'll just communicate with them through Holly's Lite Brite, okay?"

Sam exhaled heavily too, because Lucas seemed to have a defense for every single little anxiety she harbored. It was getting a little frustrating.

"Okay," she grumbled.

"Okay!" Dustin cheered from the left of her. Erica was to the left of him. "Erica, can you turn on that lamp, please?"

Erica reached over to Nancy's bedside table and pulled the string to turn on Nancy's lamp. It illuminated the room, becoming their only sources of light.

"Hey, guys," Dustin said loudly, for the Upside Down group to hear, "if you're in here, make the lamp flicker three times."

And suddenly, that was exactly what happened. It flickered three times.

Dustin cheered again, but Sam felt an anxious pit fall in her stomach. This meant Sam's time was up. She'd have to try and use her powers next, and although Lucas said it wouldn't matter to them if she failed, it would matter to her.

"Alright, awesome!" Dustin assured, clapping Sam on the back excitedly as he continued speaking to the older teens. "We're about to try a theory with Specks, okay? It doesn't really have to do with the lights. Just hang with us for a sec." Then, much quieter to Sam, "You okay to go?"

Sam couldn't bring her voice to work. She just swallowed and nodded small.

"Hey, Sam?" Erica leaned past Dustin and onto Nancy's bed.

"Yeah?" Sam croaked nervously.

Erica nodded at Sam, but this movement was confident and encouraging. "You got this."

Sam smiled back at her. Suddenly she didn't feel so afraid anymore.

Lucas began switching all four radios on for Sam. Immediately, the sound of different stations overlapped each other and overwhelmed their ears. Sam winced, and in a line, Erica, Dustin, Sam, and Lucas all flipped a radio onto an empty station. Blank static replaced the radio hosts; combined, the static stations sounded like an ocean at the beach.

For a moment, she thought of a younger version of Billy Hargrove talking about a wave of seven feet.

Sam shook her head, ridding herself of the bad memories before she grew too unstable to perform the next task.

Then she closed her eyes.

Eleven's eyes closed shut so she could... Honestly, Sam had no clue what Eleven was trying to do. Mike said she was finding Will, but like Sam said, that was scientifically impossible. There wasn't a logical explanation for how Eleven could possibly do that.

Then again, there wasn't really an explanation for why she had telekinetic powers, so Sam shouldn't really be speaking.

Sam focused on the rushing feeling that started in her chest. She let it expand, filling out so that her entire body was buzzing—maybe with electricity, or maybe something stronger. The humming of the radios became barely audible in her ears.

As Eleven focused, the Heathkit continued to hum on whatever channel Mike put it to. Sam, Lucas, Mike, and Dustin stared expectantly, all silently wondering how this was going to go.

There was a moment where Sam didn't listen to the empty static. She only honed in on Lucas's quiet voice in her mind—What are you afraid is going to happen if you let it in?—and for a moment, she felt like she was floating. Then that feeling rushed straight down, and she tuned back into the sound of the radios before her. She was no longer on empty channels.

Then the radio started switching channels on its own. With wide eyes, Sam began hearing clips of random conversations happing in range of the Heathkit. Eleven wasn't touching a single dial—only using her mind.

"She's doing it," Mike said proudly. "She's finding him!"

Dustin shook his head in awe. "This is crazy."

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Calm down. She just closed her eyes."

Sam surfed through the channels of the radios, all four of them falling in sync as if they were one big radio. She began listening to that gut feeling in the pit of her stomach, letting it combine with her connection to electricity. The power grew, and it grew, and it grew, until—

The lightbulb of Nancy's lamp exploded, and all the light in the room went out.

Sam pointed at Eleven incredulously, said to Lucas, "You can't hear her surfing through the channels? I can't believe this—"

The lightbulb above them randomly burned out with a loud explosion, scaring the arguing party.

In unison, their four heads looked up at the darkness.

"Holy..." Dustin muttered.

"Should we stop her—" Erica worried.

"No," Lucas interrupted quickly. "This means she's doing the right thing. Just... Let's give her quiet."

Sam's eyes moved back and forth underneath her eyelids. Red blood began pouring from out her nose as the radios searched through all the channels. The power grew, and it grew, and it grew, until she collectively brought all four radios onto a unified channel. It was completely empty, totally silent.

Sam opened her eyes, breathing in and out, panting heavily.

It remained totally silent. Until:

"She's taking her damn time, isn't she?" Auggie's impatient voice sounded through the four speakers of the radios.

"Holy shit!" Erica exclaimed as Dustin grabbed her arm and shook it, whooping in his spot. Lucas cheered in excitement, wrapping his arms around Sam in a proud hug. Sam laughed incredulously—she'd really done it!

She'd done it.

"What the fuck?!" Eddie's voice came through the radio as well.

"Did they... hear that?" Robin questioned quietly, sounding a little astounded.

"Yeah," Sam huffed in disbelief, beaming. "We did."

"Holy shit!" Steve shouted, echoing Erica's previous exclamation.

They heard Nancy sputter through the speaker. "Wh—h—I— what? How'd you even...?"

"Sam channeled the Upside Down through your radios," Lucas hailed proudly. She was still being hugged by him, and he happily shook her one more time before dropping his arms down. She laughed, doing a horrible job at containing her excitement.

"Jesus Christ, Goldie, can you stop being able to do everything for five seconds?" Steve breathed. "It makes us older folks feel very bad about ourselves!"

"You should feel bad about yourselves!" Sam reprimanded, as if she was a disappointed mother. "Do you know how reckless this was? Going to the Upside Down? Without any forms of safety? Without me? You guys could've—you could still..."

"Hey, Sam," Robin started, sounding a little guilty. "We're sorry. We should've listened to you before. You're right, we were stupid."

"Damn right, I'm right," she grumbled to herself.

Sam's head began to pound the longer she channeled the Upside Down. Blood continued pooling down her nostril, but she didn't touch it. She didn't stop connecting herself to the radio, despite growing drained, because she needed to make sure the older teens were safe.

"May I ask what the hell you idiots are doing in the Upside Down?" Dustin questioned, making sure to leave the judgmental infliction in his voice.

"We didn't do it for fun," Steve snapped. "A vine yanked me through, so the other four followed after to try and save me."

"Then we got attacked by these fucking bat things," Auggie winced, sounding as if he was in pain.

"Now we're stuck here," Robin finished.

Sam shared a confused look with Lucas, but only did that—she had to hold back her audible judgment considering the group of five could hear her now.

And still, her head pounded.

"You can't get back through Watergate?" Dustin asked.

They heard sounds of confusion come through the speakers.

"What the hell's Watergate?" Steve wondered.

"Maybe 'cause it's in water and it's a Gate?" Robin muttered.

"Oh."

"That's cute," Eddie said.

"Oh," Nancy deadpanned.

"That's stupid," Auggie blurted.

"Dude," Lucas chided.

Sam would've done it if she wasn't holding either side of her temple in pain—the longer she channeled the four radios to the other dimension, the more drained and pained she felt. The blood from her nose began coming out of the other nostril too, dripping down onto Nancy's carpet.

She'd apologize for that later.

"No, we can't go through 'Watergate,'" Nancy finally told them. "The bats that attacked us, they're guarding it."

"So Watergate's guarded?" Dustin summarized.

A chorus of confirmations were heard from the other side.

Sam's entire face screwed up in pain, and she nodded to herself before opening her eyes and facing the radios. Static flickered once, but she quickly tuned the radios back in.

"We think we have a theory that can help with that," Sam told them, but the talking and the usage of her powers combined was too much. She resorted back to staying quiet so that she could keep the radios connected.

"Genius child," she heard Robin mutter.

For Sam, Dustin explained, "We think Watergate isn't the only Gate. That there's a Gate at every murder site."

For a few beats, the other group went quiet from the other side. Sam worried she'd disconnected the radios, but she hadn't. The older teens were just desperately confused.

"Uh... what?" Steve questioned.

"Does anybody understand what he's talking about?" Nancy asked.

"No," Robin answered.

"No idea," Eddie said.

"English please, Curly," Auggie said.

Dustin let out an agitated growl under his breath. "Okay, seriously?! How many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?"

"You?" Erica echoed, face screwing up. "You mean Sam?"

Sam, in question, looked like she was about to throw up.

"Jesus Christ," Steve muttered to Dustin. "You've gotta get your ego in check."

"It's his tone, right?" Eddie agreed.

"Definitely the tone!"

Dustin scowled. "I can hear you guys, you know that? I swear, I will—"

"Okay," Sam interrupted, forcing herself to push through the pain, because they weren't going to get anywhere with Dustin's superiority. "Okay, wait, I have an idea." She wrinkled her nose, trying to work through the excruciating headache. "Eddie, how far is your trailer from Nancy's house?"

"Uh—seven miles."

"Oh, fuck no, I'm not walking that," Auggie protested miserably.

Sam sighed, rubbing her temple as her brain pounded against her skull. "Just hear me out, guys. There should be a Gate there too, since it's where Chrissy died. There's bikes in the garage, and we can use them to get there quicker."

"Well, we found out a thing," Robin said.

"'A thing'?" Dustin repeated, confused. "What 'thing' did you find out?"

"The Upside Down's stuck in the past," Steve confessed. "It's stuck on the day Will went missing."

Sam was so taken aback that the radios began to flicker with static again, forcing her to refocus and reconnect the radios. But still, she, Lucas, Dustin, and Erica were sharing looks of bafflement.

"November 6, 1983," Sam whispered.

"Precisely," Robin said.

"Okay, that's... scarily creepy," Dustin faltered, "but—okay—well— still. That shouldn't matter. Right, Nancy?"

The other side went quiet for a few seconds.

"Right," Nancy confirmed. "We've always had bikes."

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

"Are you okay?" Lucas asked, breaking the comfortable quiet the two of them were in. They were alone in Nancy's room, because Erica was returning the radios, and Dustin was trying to retrieve Max.

"Me?" Sam raised her eyebrow stupidly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

Lucas gave her a pointed look.

"Just like, a little headache," Sam said, technically telling the truth. "But that's what happens with El, so we shouldn't be surprised."

Lucas shrugged. "Still. I feel bad for making you do that."

"You didn't make me," Sam huffed. "You actually helped me. I really didn't think I could do that, but..."

She shrugged, trailing off.

"But," Lucas repeated, copying her shrug.

Sam sniffled, looking to the ground to see the amount of blood she'd let drip onto Nancy's carpet. Again, she would apologize for that later.

She gestured to her nose and the blood that had fallen underneath it. "I should probably go clean this off."

"Oh, wait," Lucas muttered, reaching into the pocket of his jeans. From the article of clothing, he pulled out a few sheets of paper towels.

Sam eyed him warily. "You just... store paper towels in your pocket?"

Lucas sighed fondly. "No, dude. I just figured your nose would end up bleeding, so I took some from the kitchen."

Sam was going to go insane if Lucas continued acting like this any longer. She exhaled shakily. "Oh," she said dumbly. "Thanks."

God, she was annoyed by herself.

Lucas shook his head, like it wasn't a big deal. "Here—"

He scooted closer to Sam, watching her bleeding nose. Gently, he tried dabbing off the blood. His eyes were focused so intently on Sam's nose that she felt a little light-headed, and it wasn't attributed to the drained headache.

While Lucas was looking at Sam's nose, her gaze was intently on him.

"Déjà vu," she said lowly.

"Hm?" Lucas hummed, paying so much attention to getting off the blood that he barely heard her.

Sam still felt a little stupid, more dazed by the feeling of Lucas carefully wiping the blood from under her nose. She didn't know what to do with her hands, she felt so awkward, so she just fidgeted with them in the lap.

"I'm getting déjà vu," she said quietly, basically a whisper. "I feel like you're always wiping away my blood."

She thought of when she cut her cheek. She thought of when there was blood staining her hands. She thought of Lucas.

Lucas huffed, a barely-audible and amused thing. "Well," he retracted his hand from underneath Sam's nose when he was finally done, "better me than you, I guess?"

Sam's heart squeezed.

"I guess," she murmured.

Then she eyed the paper towels in Lucas's lap, and she decided to break the growing tension with a playful smile on her lips.

Sam reached forward and grabbed the bloody paper towels from Lucas. She balled them up further, directing her attention to a spot behind him. He turned his head and watched as she threw the paper ball, as if it were a basketball, and made it into Nancy's trash can at the corner of the room.

Lucas glanced back at Sam, an amused smile playing on his lips. "And the crowd goes wild," he whisper-shouted, cupping his mouth with his hands. "Ahhh!"

Sam giggled, bowing mockingly for her imaginary fanbase. "Thank you, thank you."

Lucas laughed with her, eyes crinkling with joy.

"That topped my buzzer beater shot by a mile," he teased, and his contagious smile transferred to Sam.

"Oh, no way—the Lucas Sinclair's Buzzer Beater? Not a chance," Sam disagreed factually. "As a first-hand witness, I can confirm that was top-tier."

"I never thanked you for that, by the way."

"For what?"

"For going," Lucas said. "For supporting me."

Sam grinned at him, softer now.

"Consider me your number one fan," she muttered.

Lucas opened his mouth to respond.

And then—

"Alright." Dustin slammed Nancy's door open, rushing in with Max and Erica behind him. Sam and Lucas startled, standing up and jumping a part. They hadn't interrupted a big moment, but for some reason, it felt like they did. "We have to get out of here quick before the cops realize we're making a run for it."

"I'm still so confused," Max stated, and Sam sent her an apologetic smile.

"We'll explain on the way," Dustin said.

"On the way to where?"

"Eddie's trailer."

"Why are we going to Eddie's trailer?"

"We will explain on the way," Dustin said in agitation.

"Now we just need to find out how to escape this place without the cops catching us," Erica said.

But Sam had already slid up Nancy's window, grinning.

"I've got an idea."

And then she was climbing out of it.

"Wait," Lucas tried, "Sam, be—!"

Without really thinking about, Sam jumped off the roof and landed into the lawn outside the Wheeler house. She ignored the constant pounding headache as she brushed herself off and sent her friends a thumbs up.

"—careful," Lucas deadpanned, exhaling and clutching his chest. Sam had given him a heart attack.

"Okay, that works," Max mumbled. She was the next person to climb out of the window and onto the roof. Then she turned around and assisted Erica in climbing off; together, they jumped to the ground like Sam had just done.

Sam was already over at the garage and sliding the door open so they could have access to the bikes. Back out of Nancy's window, Lucas was making sure Dustin got down safely before he finally jumped down last.

Everyone grabbed their own bikes, while Erica had to grab Mike's, because she hadn't been traveling with her own bike as of late. Sam's head continued beating painfully, and she blinked hard to try and ignore how much it agitated her.

Before anyone could notice she paused, or that her face had wrenched up in pain, she muttered, "Come on, let's hurry."

She sprinted down the driveway with her bike rolling at her side. She heard everyone behind her following, and with a glance back, she could've sworn she saw that Erica was holding a knife.

Suddenly, they heard Officer Callahan shouting angrily from Nancy's bedroom window. He was yelling for the kids to stop.

"Sorry, Officer!" Sam exclaimed, but she didn't stop running towards the street.

Erica ran up to the cop car blocking all the cars in the Wheelers' long driveway. She crouched down to a tire and stabbed it with her knife. "I guess it's just a minor misdemeanor!"

The tire deflated, and the kids kept running towards the street. Sam reached it first, quickly throwing one leg over the seat of her bike.

At the sound of the commotion, all the family members and cops ran out of the house quickly. When they saw the kids were trying to make an escape, they began shouting angrily and chasing after them. Sam and Lucas were the only ones who bothered to apologize—Sam to her sister and Lucas to his mother, both squeakily, before they made it to the end of the street and turned the corner.

They made a sort-of V formation as they rode—Sam at the front, Lucas and Dustin behind on either side, and Erica and Max a little behind them. The group of five pedaled with complete urgency, refusing to stop even when their legs began to cramp. Sam didn't falter, despite her pounding headache. They couldn't waste any time, not when their friends were trapped in the Upside Down. Not with dangerous monsters and creatures dwelling in the dimension, including Vecna.

The lights at the front of their bikes lit the way through the dark night as they biked impossibly faster. Sam felt this sensation dragging her down to the ground—a connection, a gut feeling that told her on the other side, her friends in the Upside Down were on their way too.

She ignored her brain thumping against her skull and continued pedaling.

╰━━━ ◦ ✸ ◦ ✸ ◦ ━━━╯

Published: January 28, 2024
Re-published: October 30, 2025

BAILEY YAPS...

I think often of the Hughclair bathtub scene circa Season 3. By the way, Sam told him there about how scared she is to be so important now, and how much pressure she feels. Then here Lucas encourages her so much that she has the confidence to use her powers like that. Aw

She also said "I just don't want this to change me" which is so Peeta Mellark coded

Anyway

I do like how someone commented on this chapter saying they realized that in Season 1 when El knocked Lucas unconscious, Sam zapped him awake with electricity. Like yes y'all please notice all the clues I've been planting since day one... there are multiple...

Now they're onto Eddie's

Where nothing bad will happen