40. Chapter 40

Chapter Forty

Steve had given Jessica ten minutes to herself, starting from the second she'd walked out the door. He wouldn't have given her that much if he hadn't been able to see her on the porch, if he hadn't been able to check on her through the living room window.

The truth was that he needed a breather himself. Mike had gone outside to help Hopper clear out the shed, which Steve felt he should probably be doing himself, but he really did need a minute. It seemed to be a great time, considering they weren't actively being chased by monsters at the moment.

They were still out there, though, and Will was apparently possessed by the biggest and worst one.

Steve was feeling kind of useless if he was being honest with himself. He could swing a bat at a monster and help Jessica take care of the kids, but this – all of it put together – was bigger than him, than all of them, and he really had no clue what they were going to do.

All he knew was that he was going to go outside with Jessica. He wanted to check on her, but he also just wanted a few minutes alone with her. He needed it after all the information he'd just received. He needed her and he knew she wouldn't turn him away. Even last year when she was going through her own stuff and when he was still being a jerk, she'd still been there for him.

She was seated on the front steps when he stepped outside. She turned her head slightly just to see who had come out and then made room for him to sit beside her, so he did.

"You okay?" she asked as he settled in.

"Um . . . a little overwhelmed, I guess."

"Yeah."

He wrapped an arm around her and she settled against him. If they ignored the sounds coming from inside and the sounds of Hopper and Mike coming from the backyard, they could just pretend it was a nice, cool night in early November.

"So, I was wrong," Jessica said. "This time is so much worse than last time. I mean, maybe if it was just the demodogs, but –"

"Will," Steve said. "Yeah."

"Yeah."

Steve had to admit that even though he and Jessica had been together for almost a year now, he still only knew Dustin well enough to call him a friend. He spent time with the others when Jessica held movie nights or if they had to drop them off at the arcade or something like that, but he knew Will was Jessica's favorite out of Dustin's friends. He was quiet and didn't cause trouble – or not any that was his fault, because this . . . none of it was Will's fault.

The front door opened and Dustin stepped out. When he spoke, his voice was a lot softer than it normally was.

"Hey, uh . . . we need help getting stuff together to make the shed unrecognizable."

Steve heard Jessica let out a small sound of discontent, but she still said, "Okay. Go ahead and get started. We'll be there in a minute."

Once Dustin was back inside Jessica groaned again before standing up and holding her hands out for him to grab onto.

"Come on. We have to go be adults again."

Inside the house Dustin and Lucas were tearing cardboard boxes apart and Max and Mike were getting packaging paper together – Mike must've just come back in from helping Hopper. Nancy and Jonathan were helping Joyce collect old sheets that could be used on the walls of the shed. Will was still on the couch and Hopper was still out back.

"The shed's as clean as it's gonna get," Mike said. "We need to start taking this stuff out there."

"Yeah. Okay."

Jessica was glad to see that Dustin and Lucas were working together well, but there was tension between Mike and Max. Jessica didn't understand why. Mike could be a bit prickly, though, so maybe it was just because Max was new to the group.

When Mike said something about Max not being a party member just because Lucas had told her everything, Jessica knew it was about more than her being new. It was about Lucas including her in the secret. They had too much going on at the moment, but if Mike didn't chill out, she would definitely have to talk to Mike about how it wasn't okay to treat Max badly just because he didn't want to include her in Party business. She was part of this now. He needed to get used to it.

They all started taking the stuff out to the shed. Jessica didn't understand why they needed so much until she realized they were meant to cover every inch of the inside of the shed. There couldn't be anything left for Will to recognize. He couldn't let the Mind Flayer know where they were if he didn't recognize it himself.

Everything from the shed had been piled into a big mess in the middle of the backyard. Hopper and Mike had done a good job.

"You guys get started," Joyce said. "I have an industrial-strength stapler that should help keep everything up."

There was a whole roll of duct tape that Nancy had brought out with her that they used to start the remodeling of the shed. Not everyone could fit in the shed at once, so it ended up being Jessica, Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan who went in first. When Joyce finally came back with the stapler they went to work on hanging the sheets up.

For the most part, Jessica and Steve were working together while Nancy and Jonathan were working together, but when Jonathan and Steve went out to get more material Nancy and Jessica were left alone together.

Before the Halloween party, that would've been fine. Now it was a little awkward. Sure, Nancy had apologized, but she couldn't remember what she'd needed to apologize for, so . . . they were sort of at a standstill.

Given that they had much bigger things to worry about at the moment, Jessica figured they needed to put Nancy's drunken words behind them, at least for now. They didn't matter at the moment.

"So . . . I guess you're getting what you wanted," Jessica said. "You're gonna take down the lab."

"And you're keeping everyone safe, like you wanted."

They were both being defensive, but at least they were talking.

"How long are they gonna stay safe with you blowing the lid on the whole thing?"

"It's not what you're thinking."

"Then what is it?"

"Look, we couldn't talk about alternate dimensions or the government experimenting on kids with powers."

"You said Dr. Owens incriminated himself and the lab, though."

The defensiveness had pretty much disappeared from Jessica's voice because she was genuinely curious now. How was Nancy planning to take the lab down without the truth being told? It didn't make any sense.

"Murray said we couldn't tell the truth because no one would believe it. We had to water it down. A chemical spill, something familiar, easy to swallow. It'll still take the lab out, and it still protects us because no one will know the actual truth."

"So . . . a chemical spill is what killed Barb?"

"That's what we're going with." Nancy sighed. "What happens now?"

"Now we do what we can to beat this thing. We can figure out everything else later. But, Nancy, I'm never gonna be able to forget what you said to me at that party. Even if you were drunk."

"I –"

"And while we're at it, I'm probably never gonna forget that you were willing to put all of us in danger just to get what you wanted. I mean, if it hadn't been for Murray telling you it wouldn't work, you probably would've tried to tell someone the truth. I'm always going to think that that was selfish. And you're probably always going to think it was selfish of me not to want that."

"Jess –"

"No, I'm not done." Jessica had gotten sick earlier and was only running on fumes of adrenaline at the moment, but she had to get this out. "I mean, I don't know, maybe I'm just closer to my family than you are to yours. I just – I'll never understand why you would've put them at risk on purpose. Why you would put everyone at risk. I mean . . . I'm glad everything worked out okay, but . . . what if it hadn't?"

She didn't expect an answer and she didn't get one. She didn't want one anyway.

"We need to focus on this stuff now, but I just wanted you to know how I feel. I can still be your friend knowing we don't agree on this. The question is can you still be mine?"

Jessica wanted Nancy to really think about it because she didn't want them to have this same kind of problem in the future.

After a few seconds of silence Jessica sighed and went to the shed door.

"I'm gonna go see what's taking them so long. I'll be right back."

It didn't take Jessica long to find Steve and Jonathan as they were standing right outside the shed. They weren't talking, but both assumed sheepish expressions when they caught sight of her.

"What're you standing out here for?"

"Uh, we were going to come in," Jonathan said, voice soft and careful, gentle as it usually was. "You and Nancy were talking, though, so . . ."

"Ah."

She noticed all the cardboard and packaging paper on the ground around the two guys, and she wondered how long they had been there. It didn't matter, really. She was just curious.

It hit her then that Jonathan had been part of the same scheme that Nancy had been in, but she wasn't even half as upset with him as she was with Nancy. Then again, Jonathan hadn't hurt her feelings at the Halloween party and he'd only gone along with Nancy's plan because she had gone to him with it. Jonathan had never once brought up trying to take down the lab. He'd just been happy that Will had come back last year.

"Look, Nancy and I can finish up here if you need a break," Jonathan offered. "That, what you said, couldn't have been easy."

"Actually, it wasn't hard at all. After the day I've had, I have no filter and it needed to be said. It would've been hanging over our heads otherwise. But I would appreciate you guys finishing up in there. Thank you."

Steve watched as Jonathan picked up some of the cardboard and went into the shed with Nancy. He hadn't heard much of what Jessica had said to Nancy, but he knew Jessica probably wouldn't have said anything at all if she hadn't been stressed out. Well, okay, she definitely would've said something, but probably not right then. She would've waited for a time when everything wasn't already so crazy. But, like she'd said, she had no filter at the moment.

Jessica leaned against the shed and Steve did the same, coming to rest beside her. He tapped her arm lightly and she looked up at him. Steve did not like the far away look she had in her eyes. It was the same look she used to get whenever she thought about the Upside Down.

If she ever had a reason to think about that place, it was definitely now, but Steve didn't need her disappearing into herself. He needed her with him.

"Hey, come here," he said, pulling her to him.

He began rubbing her back, her arms, pretty much anywhere he could reach in hopes of keeping her there with him, out of her own head.

"Why can't this be over?" she asked, voice muffled against him. "I just want it to be over."

"Yeah, I know. Me too."

When he and Jonathan had gone inside to get more materials they had found out that Hopper had tried to reach his contacts with the military and he had definitely reached somebody, but he wasn't sure anyone would be coming to help them at all.

"I should – I should call my mom, right?" Jessica asked. "At least let her know I'm at the Byers' house and that Dustin is with me. Dustin should've been home already."

"What would you tell her?"

"Uh, maybe that we came over to check on Will and since he's not doing too great Dustin wanted to spend the night? I'm staying to help Joyce . . . I mean, she can't call you to come find me this time."

"Right." Steve sighed, letting her pull away. "You should definitely call your mom."

She nodded, leaned up to kiss him quickly on the lips, and then he followed as she walked to the house and inside of it.

Jessica had to get the kids under control before she could call her mom, but she eventually got them to be quiet. Max and Lucas went into the hallway and sat down to talk. Mike and Dustin went outside, arms full of things they could use for the shed. Joyce and Hopper were going through the cleaning supplies, trying to find something with a strong enough smell to wake Will up once the shed was done. They needed something with ammonia in it.

Her mom picked up almost instantly when Jessica called. She'd probably been waiting by the phone for a while now. Dustin really should have been home by then, should've been in bed by then.

"Where are you? I came home from looking for Mews and neither of you were here. I didn't find Mews, by the way."

"I'm sorry," Jessica said. "We're at the Byers' house. Will isn't doing well. He was even in the hospital yesterday and today. He just got back a few hours ago."

"What's wrong with him?"

"The doctors think it's a virus, so . . . he's not contagious or anything. Anyway, Dustin wants to stay the night. Mike and Lucas are here, too, and I thought I could stay and help Joyce with Will."

"You'll come home tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Sorry for the last-minute notice. We weren't sure until just now."

"It's okay. I'm just glad you called. Tell Joyce I hope Will feels better soon."

"I will."

It wasn't long after Jessica got off the phone with her mom that Joyce and Hopper took a still unconscious Will out to the shed. Nancy and Dustin came back inside, but Mike and Jonathan stayed out in the shed. Jessica didn't know exactly what they were planning on doing to get Will back enough to talk to them and tell them how to defeat the Mind Flayer. She just hoped that whatever they did would work.

It was only about thirty minutes later that Hopper came rushing through the back door. Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike followed him in.

"Paper and a pen," Hopper said. "I need paper and a pen."

He ended up finding a notepad in one of the drawers near the refrigerator. A pen was pushed through the spiral at the top. He ended up drawing a bunch of dots and dashes.

Jessica couldn't read it, but she knew it was Morse code. She also knew Hopper and the boys would have no problem coming up with what was on the paper.

"What's this? I mean, where's it coming from?"

"Will is tapping it out with his fingers. He's still in there, and he's trying to talk," Hopper said.

Jessica couldn't explain how relieved she felt about that, but it was almost as if a very physical weight had been lifted from her chest. This was the first bit of good news she'd heard in a while.

She reached for Steve and Dustin as everyone started huddling around the table with Hopper. He spelled out the word 'here'. That just proved Will really was in there.

"Okay, but how do we get him out? Like . . . bring him to the front, I mean?" Jessica asked.

"We've been talking to him," Jonathan said.

"Now we know he can talk back," Joyce said. "Maybe . . . maybe he can't literally speak, but he can still tell us what we need to know."

Jonathan went to his room then, came back with his boombox and a mixtape.

"You guys have an extra walkie?" Hopper asked.

"Sure," Mike said. "Why?"

"If I go back out there and send you what he's tapping out, can you translate?"

"Will has a decoder on the desk in his room," Joyce said. "Will you boys be able to follow along?"

"Yeah," Mike said and went to grab the decoder from Will's room.

Lucas grabbed a walkie-talkie for Hopper and then got the one from his bag for the group that was staying inside. In the end, only Mike, Jonathan, Joyce, and Hopper went outside. Everyone else stood around the kitchen or sat at the end of the table waiting for the codes to come over the walkie from Hopper.

It took a while for the codes to start coming in, but once they started it didn't take long for Hopper to send them the whole message.

"Close gate."

Was that how they were supposed to kill this Mind Flayer thing? How were they supposed to even get to the gate, let alone close it? The thing was at the lab, which was where the demodogs were last time they'd checked, and there were too many of them for their group to take on by themselves. Even if they did by some miracle make it to the gate, the only thing Jessica knew could hurt it was fire, but that wouldn't close the gate.

The ringing of the phone startled Jessica out of her thoughts, but Dustin was already slamming the phone back down to hang it up by the time she'd started towards it.

The ringing started again almost immediately and Nancy ripped the whole thing off the wall and threw it across the room. It reminded Jessica of Nancy doing pretty much the same thing the year before.

"That was probably the military trying to get in touch with Hopper," Jessica said, because who else would be calling at nearly eleven at night?

She guessed it could've been one of Mike's or Lucas's parents. She had no clue what they had told their parents in regards to where they were, or if they had even let their parents know anything. She knew Mike's mom knew Mike had been with Will the night before, so she hoped Mrs. Wheeler would just assume Mike had decided to stay the night again.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked.

"It's just a phone," Steve said. "It could be anywhere, right?"

A few minutes later they heard the screeching of the demodogs. It wasn't close, but the fact that they hadn't heard it until just then was worrying.

"That's not good," Dustin said.

"Does that mean they're coming?"

Jonathan, Joyce, and Mike came in then, Will in Jonathan's arms. Hopper came in a few seconds behind them carrying a couple of rifles. He kept one while Nancy took the other. She seemed to actually know how to use it, so Jessica assumed she'd been practicing with guns ever since the first time she'd use one the year before.

Steve had his bat and Jessica had her crowbar. Everyone else was trying to find a weapon of their own even though the younger ones were staying in the back.

There was more screeching, closer now and Jessica wondered exactly how much time they had before they were pretty much going to have to fight to their deaths.

The screeching turned into a growling and something thudded against the outside of the house. They hadn't thought to board up the windows, so they were pretty much screwed if one of the demodogs decided to crash through.

"What are they doing?" Nancy asked. "Why aren't they attacking?"

Jessica didn't really care. She was just glad they weren't being ambushed at the moment.

Even more screeching and growling came from outside, but some groaning and whimpering noises were being made as well. What was happening? Were the demodogs hurting each other?

One of the front windows was suddenly busted through as one of the demodogs came through. Everyone screamed and turned their weapons in that direction, but the demodog didn't move. It was actually just lying there, limp, lifeless.

"Is it dead?" Max asked.

The thing's mouth was hanging open, all the rows of teeth nicely on display, but it still didn't move. It remained still even as Hopper moved forward, used his foot to nudge at it.

It was definitely dead.

The door creaked and they all jumped, turning to the sound. Hopper took the lead again as the deadbolt turned on its own, unlocking itself.

Next to go was the chain lock.

Jessica's body was shaking she was so tense, position ready to swing at whatever came in that door. Everyone else appeared ready too.

Jessica found she was not ready, however, when a familiar girl stepped through the front door.

Converse shoes, rolled up jeans, black top, longer hair slicked back, smudged eye make-up. She had blood trickling out of her nose.

Eleven . . . El . . . She looked different than the last time Jessica had seen her, but it was definitely El. She should've known what with the door unlocking itself.

Mike stepped forward as everyone lowered their weapons. He had the most lovestruck look on his face as he took in the girl that had just arrived. It made sense. He'd been missing her since she'd disappeared the year before, since they thought she'd died the year before.

Jessica was sure there had to be a story there, what with a whole year to account for, but it really didn't matter that much at the moment. All Jessica could really think was that they might actually survive this since El was there with them.

They stood a chance now, and Jessica couldn't have been more relieved.

Probably my favorite part of this chapter is the sort-of-confrontation between Jessica and Nancy. Or . . . is it even a confrontation if Nancy didn't really get to say much? lol