IT WAS THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT !

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THE THREE HAD BEEN STUCK AT THE POLICE STATION AFTER THE FIGHT WITH STEVE AND HIS FRIENDS. They had been waiting for the chief, Jim Hopper, and Joyce Byers to arrive to sort all of it out. From what Nancy had heard, it would be quite some time before Jonathan and Alex would be free to go. Their last hope had been that Hopper was a lot kinder than the rest of the officers.

"I hate to admit it, but that was awesome when you punched Tommy in the nose," Nancy whispered, trying her best to hide her smile.

"Wait, you punched Tommy?" Jonathan laughed. His surprised had him pull the ice pack he had rested on his cheek. It wasn't every day these two had managed to do something they only dreamed of doing since meeting Steve and Tommy.

"It was an in the moment type thing," she laughed, her hand aching now that the adrenaline was gone. Taking the ice pack from his hand, she placed it on her hand since he didn't seem to have much use for it any longer.

Frazzled hair and a look of panic had burst through the door, Joyce Byers had demanded to find her son. "Jonathan? Jesus, wh-what happened?" Joyce had rushed to his side as her eyes managed to find the handcuffs on his wrists. Spinning towards Alex, she roughly grabbed her hands to see that she had also been sitting with handcuffs on herself. Two kids she least expected to be found in a police station, let alone in handcuffs. "Why are they wearing handcuffs?" Joyce yelled at the two police officers.

Getting up from his desk, Officer Callahan had held out his hands, hoping to calm her. "They assaulted police officers. That's why."

Pointing towards the two, she kept her eyes locked in on his to be sure he understood her demands. "Take them off."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

Coming to Joyce's side, Hopper had curiously looked at his officer in question. "Henderson assaulted you? How?"

"She, uh, well she elbowed me several times and kicked me... in the shin," he said quietly, growing embarrassed.

"Jesus Christ," Hopper sighed. His hand ran over his face as he tried to understand the logic of the officers that he had left in charge.

"Take them off!" Joyce yelled at him once again. In a moment, she would be assaulting him just as they did if he hadn't listened to her words this time around.

"You heard her, take them off," Hopper spoke, motioning to the two kids that looked back and forth at the interaction.

Officer Powell, a reasonable man that was often very kind to those in Hawkins had shaken his head. It was like him to secretly take sides such as Alex and Hopper, not seeing the trouble in a teenager. However, today had felt different and Hopper had known that if Powell had been one to deny. "Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see."

"Something I need to see?" Hopper repeated back in question. Powell had nodded his head towards the window. Outside had sat Jonathan Byer's car with a trunk of weapons that they had planned to use that evening. The two officers that had arrested the kids had shown Jim Hopper right in that direction.

"Oh, we're screwed," Alex whispered to Jonathan. His fear had not been with the cops, but his mom that had stood in front of them with a look of frustration on her face. When she found out, it could go either way. She could either be happy that more were believing her, or she'd be furious that he had planned an attack on the monster without her knowledge.

A few minutes later Hopper walked in with their box of supplies to bring for the monster hunt. Placing the box before the three, Hopper had scanned the eyes of them, waiting for one to speak up. Instead, Joyce had rummaged through the box, "What is all this?"

"Why don't you ask your son, it was in his car," he stated plainly.

This had angered Jonathan as he sat forward. "Why are you going through my car?"

Hopper firmly placed his hands against the table, leaning in towards Jonathan. "Is that really the question you should be asking right now? I wanna see you in my office." Standing tall, Hopper had went to retreat back to his office for this discussion.

"You won't believe me," Jonathan stated quickly. This had put him to a quick stop as he reapproached the table. "Why don't you give me a try?"

"Joyce will." The words had came flooding out of Alex's mouth before she could consider her choice of words. Nearly everyone in Hawkins had pinned Joyce as crazy. Even if the three knew that she was right about everything, no one else would. However, none of them had known Hopper's involvement with the antics in Hawkins. When the adults had gone silent, finally taking their eyes off of Jonathan, they had looked to her. Her eyes only looked to Joyce. "We believe you. Everything you said. We saw it too."

"Stand up," Hopper instructed sternly. "All of you, my office now." Turning to Officer Powell and Callahan, he had instructed them to remove the cuffs from the two. None had seen that look he had in his eyes. A look that held much worry. Not only had there been more than he had even discovered, but there were more involved with this mess than he had ever asked for-- and these were teenagers.

Hesitantly, they all had stood up, watching as Hopper had grabbed their monster hunting supplies off the table. Taking lead, he marched himself to his office, with the teens and Joyce trailing behind in silence and shaky breaths.

Entering Hopper's office, they had all taken seats around the room as he had leaned against his own desk. His arms were crossed as he watched them all, unsure where to begin. His mind had been jumbled with his own information, that he wasn't sure how to ask what they had known. "First, let's start off with why the hell you two decided to assault police officers?"

"Heat of the moment," Alex said, Jonathan nodding his head in agreement.

"Heat of the moment? That's your excuse? You do realize it's illegal to assault a police officer. You of all people should know that, Alex. You're lucky I told them not to call your mom this time."

"What? You act like I've assaulted a police officer before. It's not my fault Callahan sucks!" She leaned forward in her seat, wanting to fight the matter further until Joyce had reached out, silently hushing her and leaning her back into her seat. The last thing she felt that she needed was to watch her attack Hopper. Or worse, she feared she'd have to explain to Ms. Henderson why her daughter had been getting arrested with her son.

"You've been arrested more than I should allow and Callahan is two seconds away from quitting if he has to bring you in again. And now we find you three with all that crap?"

"Like I said, you won't believe us," Jonathan said. Looking over to Nancy, he gave a small nod. "But we can show you, right?"

Nancy nodded her head quickly, shuffling around in her bag for the picture that they had caught of the monster. Her hands were shaky as she rifled through her belongings and when she had finally gotten a hand on it, it only began to shake more as she extended it out to Hopper. He had been a tough man that would not allow anything to get passed him. The three had bet that he would turn them down just as he had previously turned down Joyce.

His eyes had looked over the picture, and he had been silent. He tried to find any excuse to tell them they had only a vivid imagination. But he had seen what Hawkins Lab held and this seemed as the type of thing to come from there. "This is a picture," he stated. He passed the picture to Joyce next, "Is this the thing you saw climbing out of your walls?"

As soon as she had seen the picture, her hand had clasped over her mouth in surprise. She nodded a few times before she slowly pulled her hand away. "You guys have seen this?"

"I caught it on my camera but I didn't know I did until Nancy found it," Jonathan said quietly. However, Nancy had sat up straighter. "Alex and I saw it. We went out in the woods last night and we found it. It was hunting. We escaped."

"We found this opening," Alex began hesitantly. She briefly shut her eyes as she had thought this over. All day she had managed to keep the memory pushed aside, but there were people here that were actually listening. Something that was hard to find in adults at Hawkins. "It was in a tree. It brought us to some... other world. That's where it lives."

"We think blood draws it in," Jonathan added on. "They said Barb cut her hand at Steve's before she was taken. Alex said she saw it after she cut her hand when she fell, and the deer it was hunting... all bleeding. There's a chance it can smell it, right?"

"It's just a theory," Nancy said quietly.

"Can I speak to my son?" Joyce asked the group, fighting back the tears that she had in her eyes. Before Hopper could respond, she had stood up, pulling Jonathan up out of his chair to have a more private conversation. Nancy had shifted in her seat nervously before asking to go get herself a drink of water. This had left Alex and Hopper alone in his office.

Alex had attempted a smile in his direction, even though she had known he was mixed with emotions from what he had heard. "So you really think I could get Callahan to quit?" she asked hopefully.

"If not, I'm firing him. I told him to stop bringing you in here," Hopper smiled.

"I'm still sorry. I know I told you I'd stop getting in trouble. The kid was just such an ass so I had to punch him. I had my reasons."

"It's all good, kid. Better you fight a kid instead of you stealing cigarettes again. And no, I still can't get you unbanned from that gas station," he laughed, knowing she'd ask him again for the millionth time. "So, why'd you keep this a secret?"

"Wouldn't you?"

He cleared his throat to avoid the question. He was lucky that Joyce had also believed in him when he had found his own answers. "You say there was another world?"

"Yeah." Alex looked down to her fingers as she nervously played with them. Hopper had believed them but there was still a part of her that wasn't able to tell the full truth of what had happened to her in that alternate world. "It was... It was as bad as you'd think. It smelled awful, looked awful. And that thing..."

"Did it see you?"

She looked up, prepared to give an honest answer. But seeing his face, and the hopefulness that nothing worse could come from it, she ended up frowning and shrugging. "It did, but Nance and I ran so, we got away before anything else could happen. Wouldn't be here to give Callahan hell if it got me."

"You're extremely lucky, Henderson. Just don't pull shit like that again. I'd rather have you in here for a fight instead of your mom in here filing a missing persons report." Just the thought alone to Hopper hurt to think about. Even though he wasn't ever going to admit it to her, Alex Henderson was one of his favorite kids in Hawkins and after many 'visits' to the police station, he grew to love listening to her stories and how she managed to get herself in trouble again.

Both had ended up smiling at one another. With each and every visit to the police station, she felt her bond with Hopper grow stronger and a trip like this was sure to bring them closer together. However, the moment was torn as a voice of a woman had been heard through the closed door.

"Stay with Joyce," he instructed, rushing out of his office to see what the commotion was about. However, Alex's curiosity was always one to get her into trouble. Making her way passed Joyce, she had followed after Hopper to see what had been happening.

Missing the beginning of the conversation, she poked her head around the corner to come face to face with Hopper. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I like listening," she stated awkwardly. Before he could send her back to his office, a question that Officer Powell had for the mother and the boy that had came in had caught their attention. "So what'd this girl look like?"

"She had no hair and she was bleeding from her nose like a freak!" the boy had said. Hopper had spun around, not even bothering to stop Alex from peeking around to see what had been happening. Standing there with a broken arm had been Troy-- one of the bullies of the four boys she had cared for most. What had stuck out most was his description of the girl that he had dealt with.

"What'd you say?" Hopper said, walking back over to the boy and his mom. "What'd you say about her hair?"

"Her head's shaved. She doesn't even look like a girl," he said more calmly. "She can do things, like make you fly. And piss yourself," he said the last part super quietly but Officer Powell heard and tried to hold back a laugh.

"Was she alone?" Hopper asked, holding his hand up to Powell for silence.

"She always hangs out with those losers," Troy spat.

"What losers?" Hopper asked. Behind him, Alex had her eyebrows furrowed together in anger as she stepped out from behind the corner. "Hey," she stated sharply, sending a glare right towards Troy.

"Not now, kid," Hopper said sternly. All he had wanted was answers on this young girl, unaware that Alex Henderson could give him much more than Troy could ever.

"That's one of the losers sister," the boy said, nodding in the direction of Alex. "Tell your brother he's an asshole!" His last comment had received a smack on the back of the head from his mouther.

"I'd watch it, kid," she warned, holding up a finger in his direction. Putting an end to this, Hopper had instructed Powell to get a statement from the boy as he turned back to Alex with a look of disappointment. Turing her back around he needed to hear more from her. "What aren't you tellin' me?"

As they stepped into his office, he shut the door directly behind him. Alex shoved her hands into her pockets as she gave him a shrug as a response. "Her names Eleven," she said quietly.

"Eleven? That's not a name."

"She has it tattooed on her wrist. She told us that was her name and she can do things like Troy said. But she can do more than that... she can see into this... I don't know, this void. That other world and that monster? She knows about it."

"You've met her before?"

"Yeah. She's actually a really nice girl. She's just scared. Mike, Dustin and Lucas... they're her friends now." She had went to continue on, but Hopper put a stop to her words. "Does anyone else know about her besides you and them?"

"I doubt it."

Taking a step back, Hopped ran his hand over his hair as he breathed out a heavy sigh. "She's the kid from Hawkins Lab."

"You know?"

Looking back to Alex, he nodded. "I got in and found her room. We need to find her now. If they find her..." His voice trailed off as he gave a small shake of his head. "Where would the boys be with her?"

"I don't know. I'd say Mike's. That's where she's been sleeping... Are the kids going to be okay?"

"Let's go," he stated, avoiding her question. There was no answer he could give to comfort her in the slightest. From his experience, Hawkins Lab was a force to be reckoned with. All of them had now been involved and suddenly all the answers he had thought he had only furthered his questions.