Nancy's point of view...

Mike and I had just returned home from our meeting. We had to explain a few more things before we left, though. We had to discuss whether we would tell Hopper, and if we did, who would tell him. Jonathan also had to tell us about Eleven's mom. Her name is Terry Ives. Jonathan said that his mom told him about her and Hopper going to see her once. Apparently, she doesn't speak. She's in a wheelchair, too. In fact, she can't do anything for herself. Jonathan told us that she's completely incapable of taking care of someone, especially being she can't take care of herself.

Going back to Hopper, though, Jonathan said he would take care of it. That concerns me a little, but we should trust him. I should trust him. I should always trust him.

"Nancy?"

I snapped out of my thoughts. "Hmm, what?" I responded to whoever was talking to me. "Mom asked you how your day with Steve was," Mike said, walking towards the stairs. Oh, yeah, shit. That's what I had told mom I was doing today. "It was fun," I simply said. My mom nodded. "He came by here looking for you at first, but that was after you had left. Then he said he remembered you two were supposed to meet at the park, instead," my mom explained. I should have known that Steve would come by here, too. He probably searched the whole town for Jonathan and I. Oh my God, Jonathan. Steve is going to give him so much hell tomorrow.

"Oh, yeah," I started saying to my mom. "Well, I'll be in my room..." I said, trailing off. "Okay! Tell Michael that dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes," she called after me. I only nodded as I wandered up the stairs.

I went through the hallway to Mike's door and knocked. I didn't get a response. "Mike?" I asked, knocking again. My eyebrows furrowed as I opened the door. Mike laying on his bed facing the opposite wall. "Mike? Are you asleep?" I asked. I saw him faintly move his head and mumble "no". I walked closer to him. "Are you okay, Mike?" I asked. He slowly nodded. "Go away," he then mumbled again. I sighed and sat on the edge if his bed, ignoring him. "I thought we said there wasn't going to be anymore secrets," I said.

I heard him sigh as he turned around to face me. His nose was red and his eyes were watery. His hair was flopped over his face and his arms were crossed. "Oh, Mike," i exclaimed, opening my arms out for him. He immediately sat up and obliged to my hug. He started to quietly cry into my shoulder, probably hoping I didn't hear, but I did. I started to rub his back. "I know, Mike...I'm sorry," I whispered to him as he continued to cry.  I never truly knew how much this girl meant to Mike. Sure, he's told me how much he likes her, and I know he wouldn't be this adamant with just anyone, but right now, I'm getting an almost perfect visual of how much he cares about her.

And it isn't like I've never dealt with loss with someone I care deeply about, either...

And thinking about that made me start to cry with him.

There we sat for a solid five minutes. All we did was cry, letting all of our built up emotions out. I have to admit that this was the closest I've ever felt to Mike, and for once, I didn't hate it.

"N-Nancy?" Mike finally said. "Yes?" I replied, still hugging him. "What if we can't bring her back?" He asked in a hushed tone. I gripped my little brother's shoulders and pulled him off of me so he could look me in the eyes. "Mike, I promise, we will do everything in our power to try and get Eleven back. On Saturday, we're going to go to the Byers' and Jonathan is going to help us set up that tank. We will pull her out. We will do our best..." I said, growing quieter and quieter as I continued to speak. Mike looked down. "I know," he whispered. I bit my lip, not really knowing what to say now. "Hey, Mike?" I then said, thinking of something. He looked up at me again, not saying anything. "Would you want to be the one to pull Eleven out?" I asked.

You could almost instantly see a fire ignite in his eyes. His mouth curled into a smile, showing his teeth, even. "I could? Do you think the rest of the group would agree? What if-" "Slow down there, bud," I said, chuckling a little. "I wasn't saying you will. I don't know the specifics or the dangers of it all enough to say that you will. All I'm asking is would you want to," I clarified. Mike piped down some, a bit disappointed, I could tell. "Of course I would," he answered. "I would do anything I could to help bring her back." I couldn't help but smile at his words, mentally 'awe'ing in my head.

My little brother's first crush.

"Glad to head it," I said, wiping the hair out of his face.

Suddenly, my mom yelled from down in the kitchen. "Nancy! Telephone for you." "Who is it?" "Steve!" Shit. I looked back at Mike again. I noticed he had a worried expression on his face, probably remembering earlier. "I'll be right back," I said, moving off of his bed. He grabbed my arm, stopping me. "No! Don't answer the phone," he said, looking at me with anger. "I have to..." I said, looking down. "No, you don't. You know that he's just going to be a dick to you," Mike said. I was slightly shocked at his use of language, but that was the last thing I was concerned about at this moment. "Mike, let go. I have to answer-" "No, Nancy! I've never liked him. Even back when you first started going out and he tried to beat up Jonathan and broke his camera-" "Wait, how do you know about any of that?" I asked, interrupting him. "Never mind that. Does it matter?" He asked. I just shook my head and broke away from him, running into my room to answer the phone.

"H-Hello?" I asked. "Where were you today?" He asked, not bothering to return the greeting. "I w-was at the hair salon," I made up. "My mom gave me extra allowance this weekend and I wanted to do something nice for myself." I heard Steve groan on the other line. After that, I didn't even want to say anything. "Why didn't you just tell me that yesterday?" He asked. "I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do at the time," I lied again. God, I hate lying. A sigh was heard on the phone. "Okay, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you," Steve said. He did sound very genuine about it, too. "It's just that you've been doing things around by yourself lately. I guess I'm just not used to the fact that you don't want to be with me all the time," Steve said, chuckling.

I felt kind of bad after that. He never fails too prove that he does care about me a lot. "It's okay, Steve, really," I said quietly. "No, it's not," he said, now sounding more angry. I could tell that he was angry at himself, though, not me. "I need to be less...possessive over you. I really am sorry, Nancy," he said again. I smiled. "Steve, I promise, it's fine. Sometimes it's cute," I said. I heard him laugh from the other line. "It wasn't today," he said quietly. I sighed. We said nothing for a while until I heard my mom call from downstairs again. "Dinner's ready!"

"Steve, dinner's ready. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?" I said, twirling the phone cord around my finger. "Yeah, of course," he said. "Bye, Steve," I whispered. "Goodbye, beautiful," he responded. Then the line went dead. "Kids! Dinner," I heard again. "Coming," I shouted back. I heard Mike shout the same thing at the same time as me, causing me to laugh.

Jonathan's point of view...

The next morning, I got up early to make breakfast for everyone like I usually do. Everything that happened yesterday was crazy. All kinds of crazy. I could barely even think straight after the meeting, which was the worst possible time for not thinking. I had to think about how I was going to explain everything to Hopper. I had to. What else could we do with Eleven if we get her back? Would Hopper take her in? Would our plan even work?

All of these thoughts followed me into this morning. I almost burned the eggs from thinking to hard. I would have, too, if my mom hadn't snapped me back into my senses.

"Jonathan?" She had asked, shaking my shoulder. I jumped a little as my head whipped in her direction. "Wha- yeah? I'm sorry," I mumbled and continued to cook. "Are you feeling okay?" My mom asked, placing her hand gently on my forehead. I nodded, chuckling. "I'm fine, mom. I just got lost in thought, that's all." She said nothing, but instead, simply nodded as a response. "Okay, well, I'm going to go wake up your brother," she said, walking in the other direction if the house. "Okay," I called back, placing the scrambled eggs on two separate plates. At that moment, toast popped out of the toaster and I set the two individual slices on both separate plates.

Soon enough, Will came out of his room with our mom. Will was still in his pajamas. I smiled as I set his plate down on the table, as well as my mom's next to his. I walked out of the kitchen and entered the living room, picking up my backpack to school. My school started slightly earlier that Will's. He had more time. "Hey, mom, I'm going to head into town after school to hang out with some friends," I said. Realistically, I was going to the police station after school. Hoping, of course, him and mom don't already have plans. "Wait, you're leaving already? You still have a bit of time. Did you even eat?" My mom asked. I didn't eat, but that's not important. "Yes," I said, opening the front door.

"Bye, mom! Bye, Will!"

----------

Once I drove into the school parking lot, I almost instantly saw Steve and Nancy talking. The were both leaning up against the school wall. I drove to my usual parking spot in the school lot. When I got out of my car, I started making my way toward Nancy and Steve.

"Hey, guys," I said with a light smile. "Hey, man," Steve said, giving me a nod. Nancy just smiled. Our greetings mainly go without saying. "What were you two talking about?" I asked, curious. Steve shrugged, pulling Nancy a little closer to him. God, I hated when he did little things like that. No one needs to know that, though. No one will. "Eh, nothing important, really," Steve answered. "Oh, crap," Nancy suddenly whispered under her breath. "I need to go to my locker," she said in a rushed tone, soon running out of Steve's grasp and into the school. I honestly have no clue why she had to go to her locker so early.

I was about to go ahead and go to my locker, too, while I was at it, but Steve stopped me. "He, Jonathan, can I ask you something real quick," he asked. I nodded, but said nothing. These kind of questions always worry me. "I know some crazy shit happened a few months back, and I know things have definitely changed since then- but um-" he stopped himself, looking down at his feet.

"You wouldn't lie to me, would you?" Steve asked, looking back up at me again. "'Course not," I responded, only getting more worried with each second that passed. "Good, good," he said, slowly nodding. He flicked his fingers on the wall behind him as he looked at me, making sure we kept eye contact. "You don't have a thing for my girlfriend, do you?" He asked. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit. I should have know. "What? No! 'Course not, dude," I said, chuckling a bit nervously. Steve bit his lip. "God, I know, of course you don't," Steve said. I narrowed my eyes in confusion, bit understanding. "I'm sorry, Jonathan. Forget this ever happened," he began to say, picking up hid backpack from the ground and slinging it over his shoulder. "Sorry..." he mumbled again, walking away from me and making his way into the building, leaving me outside. Alone.

Okay then. I scratched the top of my head as I, myself decided to walk into the school. I guess I have a lot of questions to ask myself today. The day has already been confusion enough, and it's only Monday. Perfect.

----------

Hopper's eyes seemed to pierce into my soul almost.

After school, I went to the police station to check and see if Hopper was there. Sure enough, he was. I had to tell him everything and I knew that. We were going to need some adult help, whether the kids wanted it or not. Even though we - or - the kids could figure out so much, we need help with all of the physics stuff. I trust Hopper. Though things are slightly awkward with him because of him and my mom, he truly is an amazing guy. He's like the dad I never had.

But anyways, I had to tell Hopper, and I did. I told him everything from the water, to the side way, to the intercoms, all the way to our plan. After a while, the only thing he did was chuckle for a brief moment before his face became stern again. "You know, your mother has been figuring some of you kids were up to this stuff," he said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. I just looked at him, awaiting an explanation. "She knows about the dimension you all have figured out," he clarified.

I stood, unable to process what he just told me. "So, you're saying that this whole time, my mom knew that I knew about all of this?" I asked him. Hopper put the cigarette in his mouth, letting it relax in between his lips. "Not all of it," he admitted. "but I have to say that what you all have figured out is very impressive. I'm no scientist, Jonathan, so I wouldn't know, but your plan might work. Not only do I like it, but I support it. Fully," he said. My eyes widened in disbelief. "S-Seriously?" I asked. He nodded, letting puffs of smoke travel out of his mouth.

Hopper took his cigarette out of his mouth and set it down in his desk behind him. He walked towards me and gripped my shoulders. "Jonathan, I want this girl back. I want her back as much as the rest of you. I didn't know the girl, but I do know she was purely great. She doesn't deserve to live her life in tragedy. She needs a normal life. She needs a childhood. She needs school and friends and a family who will love her unconditionally," Hopper said.

I nodded as he spoke, agreeing with every last detail. "That all's exactly why I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you bring her back this Saturday. I promise, no one else will know, and we'll figure out specific parenting arrangements after we get her back. Until we can settle things properly along those lines," he stopped for a minute, dropping his arms off of my shoulders. He took a deep breath and soon released it. "I'll take her in. For now, though, we only are worried about bringing her back."

A smiled widely. "Thank you," I said in a quiet tone, almost unable to speak I was so happy. Before I could even recognize what I was doing, I hugged Hopper. I hugged Hopper and he hugged me back. "You're welcome, son," he responded. As we let go of the hug, our eye contact was soon restored.

"We are going to have to tell your mom, though."