#atb

I ended up getting so aggravated, that I stepped outside of the van, leaning against the front. I was still worried as hell about Dustin, wondering where he was and if anything happened to him. The van going dark didn’t help at all. Being as aggravated as I was, as well as hungry, my vision started going blurry with unshed tears.

Hearing someone let out a breath, I wiped the tears that had fallen before feeling an arm wrap around my shoulders, pulling my front to theirs. “What’s the matter?”

“Just–” Everything. “I’m worried about Dustin and Hop.” Breathing in his scent helped to calm me down. He was always able to do that. “The stupid van going dark didn’t help at all. We’ve lost all communication with everyone. If Dustin’s trying to get a hold of us, he can’t because of this piece of shit van.”

Steve sighed, holding me closer. I wrapped my arms around his back, holding on to his jacket for dear life as I softly cried.

Getting a grip, I pulled back and wiped my cheeks while taking a deep breath. “Come on, Liv. Pull yourself together.”

Feeling hands on my cheeks, I looked up at Steve, seeing those soft hazel eyes that I loved so much. “It’s all going to be okay. I promise.”

Nodding, I whispered, “I trust you.”

“And I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He leaned down and softly kissed me. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead on mine, sighing.

“When the fuck are you gonna kiss me stupid again?” I asked.

He laughed, lifting his head to look at me. “Doing that is how we ended up-”

“Steve! Lift the hood! I see someone coming!” Jonathan said.

“We can’t ever get a small break these days,” I breathed.

Steve just smiled at me before turning back to the van, lifting the hood to reveal the engine, battery and everything else that’s under the hoods of vehicles.

Someone had pulled up in front of the van, asking if we needed help, to which I said that we did. “I think our battery died.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll lift my hood. Do you have any cables?”

I looked over at Steve, brows raised. Gaining my attention, she mentioned that if we didn’t have any, that she did, to which she went and got them. Looking at Steve, I whispered, “Whore yourself out,” before giving him a kiss, reminding him he better come back to me.

I watched them as they clamped the cables where they needed to go for a moment before I hopped into the van with Jonathan. Looking at him, I smiled a little. “You do it yet?”

“Wh-what?” he asked.

“Did you do it yet?” I repeated, emphasizing a little.

Sighing, he got a little more comfortable in his seat - well, my seat. “No. Not yet. Not the right time.”

“Can I tell you something?” Shifting in my seat to look at him better, I rested my hand on the steering wheel. The position reminded me of when Nancy, Barb and I went to Steve’s for that little party he had when Will went missing. “It’s never going to be the right time. Not with the way the world seems to be slowly ending, anyway. You’re just gonna have to take her aside and do it.”

He looked around a little, nodding his head slowly. “She doesn’t deserve to be taken aside, though. She deserves a grand gesture.”

“Have you met Nancy?” I chuckled. “That girl wouldn’t care if you took her to Enzo’s or the place where you fell in love with her, which if I’m not mistaken was the woods when you bitched her out while target practicing?”

He chuckled, remembering that moment as if it were yesterday. His chuckle turned into a laugh, which caused me to laugh along with him.

It was interrupted by Steve and the girl’s voices coming through. “So, like, how long is this gonna take?”

“Oh, uh, not too long,” Steve replied. “We just gotta let this sucker charge for a few minutes, then hopefully… vroom, vroom.”

“Tell me why I’m madly in love with this idiot,” I asked, looking at Jonathan.

He just shrugged, our good moods turning a little sour. 

I watched as Steve turned his head to look at me over the van’s hood before turning back to the girl in front of him, asking, “Bopper while we wait?” I slammed my forehead into my hand, groaning quietly. That boy and his fucking Boppers.

At the sound of the door opening, I moved to sit on the back of the middle console between the seats as Steve said, “Well, this better be quick. Our good samaritan is turning sour. I think she placed me.”

“Wait, what?” I asked at the same time Jonathan asked, “Placed you?”

“Stood up her sister. Multiple occasions.”

Clearing my throat, I looked at him, asking with my facial expression to explain.

“In-in high school. Before we got together.”

“That’s what I thought,” I muttered.

It was quiet for a moment before I leaned my against Steve’s shoulder as he asked, “Did you get a hold of Nance?”

“Dad’s in an induced coma, and Mom’s in surgery,” Jonathan answered. “They're not gonna know anything for a couple of hours.”

Apparently, a Demogorgon went after Holly Wheeler and succeeded, but before it could take her, it attacked Ted Wheeler before attacking Karen after she epically went against it with a wine bottle. Badassery points for Karen fucking Wheeler: through the damn roof.

I sighed, imagining my mom in Karen’s position.

“Jesus Christ, man,” Steve said, reaching over and placing his hand on my thigh, rubbing his thumb back and forth. It was quiet again for about a minute before Steve said, “You think we should go see her at the hospital? I mean, if we can get this hunk of junk moving.”

Jonathan hummed, bumping his knee against mine since I was straddling the middle console.

“No, babe. We gotta stick to the plan,” I said, taking a deep breath and releasing it.

“Search Zone G1,” Jonathan added. “Find Hopper, find Eleven, and find Holly.”

“Right,” Steve said. “Just… That seems complicated.”

“What’s complicated about it?” I asked, closing my eyes for a moment.

“Like, it might take a lot of time.”

Lifting my head, I looked at him with a look of confusion on my face. “Okay?”

“You know, the hospitals on the way. We could just swing by, bring Nance some flowers or something, and-and you can visit Max.”

“How well did them flowers go over last time?” I asked, thinking about the day before he and I got together when he tried to bring Nancy flowers and Dustin intercepted.

“Jesus Christ,” Jonathan whispered.

“What?” Steve asked.

Looking at Jonathan, I placed a hand on his shoulder at the look he gave me, telling me it was okay for me to speak on his behalf. What he didn’t know was that I had a few words up my sleeve for the both of them.

“Hmm, I don’t know, Steven,” I said. “Just thought that tonight of all nights you two might just give it a rest.”

“Give what a rest?” they both asked.

“This fucking dick measuring contest y’all have going on. This bullshit competition the two of you have going on for mine and Nancy’s attention.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about?” I exclaimed. “Really?” I looked between the both of them, almost giving myself whiplash. “Ever since Byers got back from Lenora, you two have been trying to show off for me and Nance. Like, you have to one up the other to see who the better boyfriend is, something you two have never done. Which is shitty enough on a normal fucking day, but now Nance’s parents are fighting for their fucking lives, Dustin’s fucking missing, Holly got taken to the Upside Down, and all you two can think about is whipping out your dicks to see which one is bigger, while also think about bringing her flowers! You selfish, chauvinistic meatheads!” I sighed, closing my eyes, letting them know that I was done with my rant.

Steve sighed right before the girl honked her horn a few times. He leaned forward, turning the key to try and start the engine. “You know what, Olivia?”

“Here we go,” I muttered. Whenever Steve called me by my government name, a fight was sure to happen.

“You’re totally right. Me worrying about my, my good friend and your best friend, yeah, that makes me the selfish one here. I guess it’s also selfish to want to show off for you because I love you, and I do it so you’ll fall more in love with me.” He tried to start the van again. “Or maybe, Byers is the problem.”

“Enlighten me.”

“Ever since he got back from California, he’s been acting like a paranoid pothead weirdo.”

“Like you’ve never done weed before.”

“And maybe if he stopped focusing on me and started focusing on Nancy, maybe then the two of them would be happy like us.”

“We’re not very happy right now,” I said at the same time he added, “Because right now, the only one who’s more miserable in that relationship than him… is Nancy.”

The whole time we had our little spat, he tried turning the engine over to which it did once he was done with his little rant.

The three of us sat in silence for a moment before I reached forward and grabbed my bottle, taking the cap off and drinking from it. I saw him looking at me from the corner of his eye, breathing a little heavy before he opened the door to get out but stopped. “You’ve got to be shitting me. Liv.”

“What?” I snapped, looking in his direction. My eyes widened, tears instantly lining my waterline as I pushed Steve. “Get the fuck out!” Once my feet hit the pavement, I ran as fast as I could, wrapping my arms around Dustin’s neck, crying.

“Hey, sis,” he said, wrapping an arm around my back.

“Don’t ever do that again,” I sobbed before pulling back to look him in the eyes. I cupped his cheeks, turning his head side to side to get a good look at him. “Who. The. Fuck–”

“Liv.”

I breathed angrily before turning around and guiding him to the back of the van, where we put his bike before he walked around to the front to sit in the passenger seat while I stood for a moment, trying to get my anger under control.

A hand on my shoulder had me jumping. Sighing, I said, “What, Byers?” He didn’t say anything. Instead, he wrapped me in a hug. We never hugged often, but I guess he felt I needed one. “What was that for?”

“For being a good friend,” he whispered before helping me into the back of the van, where I went towards the front to sit between Steve and Dustin.

Steve started telling Dustin about how we got the van started again after it went bonkers and shut off on us. “And by sheer luck, Jessica was coming back from a party, and Liv let me charm my way into getting us a jump.”

“Which brings us to you looking like you got the shit knocked out of you like Rocky Balboa,” I said, watching as Dustin took the bloody tissues out of his nose. “So, basically, Dustin, out of all the fucking crawls to miss, you decided to choose this one and give me fucking heart attack in the process.”

It seemed like Dustin was dissociating as I stared at him while Steve said, “So, well done, male Henderson. Really, really, like, well done.”

Dustin looked at me and shook his head before he looked out the window. I couldn’t help but feel bad about keeping stuff from him. We’ve always told each other everything. Mom knew about things weeks after I told Dustin, and that was before the whole Upside Down Veca’s Trying To Kill Us adventure we’ve been on the last four years.

“Speechless,” Steve whispered. “That’s new.”

“Steve, shut up,” I said.

“I’m still processing, Steve,” Dustin said, looking at me. “It’s a lot.”

There’s going to be a lot more to process once I’m done with my secrets.

“Dusty–” I started, but said boy interrupted me, whispering, “Holly? Why Holly?”

“Well, maybe Eleven could tell us, but it’s a bit difficult to contact her now that we’ve lost our connection to the Upside Down,” Steve said.

“Okay,” Dustin said, a fresh tissue in his nose. “For the future, when the lights go from really right to really dim it means the generator is surging so you have to turn everything off. Immediately.”

I rested my face in my hands, not believing I was sitting in the middle of another fight. One of which I wasn’t a part of this time.

“Wow,” Steve said. “Great. Thank you for that, Henderson. Thank you. Yeah, and I’ll remember that the next time that happens. Or, maybe, and this is just a suggestion here, you could be where you’re supposed to be, and not have your sister being worried about you shitless.”

“Okay, I was en route to the Squawk,” Dustin said.

“When you fell off your bike. That’s right. Remind me. What did you fall into again? A knuckle sandwich?”

I looked back at Jonathan, about to lose my freaking mind on these two. “Hey,” he said. “Can you keep it down up there? I’m listening for a signal back here, in case you forgot.”

Looking back at Steve, I watched as he gave Jonathan a sarcastic thumbs up. I looked back at the and took what I thought was a calming breath, my anger getting to me before I rested my head back in my hands. Damn hormones.

“Who was it?” Steve asked. “It was Andy and his goons, wasn’t it?”

Dustin had told us that ever since they went back to school after Spring Break in ‘86, Andy took over Jason’s role as resident asshole of Hawkins High. Dustin said that Andy targeted him after he wore his Hellfire shirt to school, in honor of Eddie.

“You just poked the bear one too many times.”

“Your concern for me is overwhelming, Steve,” Dustin said.

I started breathing a little bit heavier, Steve holding my Gatorade bottle up to my face, to which I grabbed it and threw it behind me as he said, “My concern?” before laughing and saying, “I’ve shown nothing but concern for you since forever, and I have been repeatedly ignored, and now look what’s happened. We are totally and royally screwed!”

“Correction,” Dustin said. “We are screwed because you don’t know how to do the most basic thing like prevent a power surge.”

“See, this is right here is your problem.”

“It’s the easiest thing in the world.”

Their voices started overlapping each other as they said their next few lines.

“Henderson, you can’t admit you’re wrong.”

“It’s like turning on a light switch. Our mother could prevent a surge.”

“You can’t admit it.”

“Shockingly enough, I think your mother–”

“Jesus Christ! Just do it for once! Just admit it, Henderson! That you’re wrong! You screwed up!”

“Enough!” I screamed as I held my hands out, touching Steve and Dustin’s bodies where I could, the whole van going silent. “I can’t take this fucking bickering anymore! Just stop! Just shut the hell up!” I took a deep breath before letting out and whispering, “Jesus Christ.”

It was silent for about a minute before Dustin said, “Seems to be some tension between you two.”

“Not now, Dustin.”

“Liv-”

“No, Steve. Not. Now. I really wish you would take my suggestion and shut the fuck up.” Looking between him and Dustin, I added, “The both of you.”

“I don’t wanna talk to Dustin anyway.”

“I don’t wanna talk to Steve, either,” Dustin said.

“Good.”

“Good,” Dustin said, leaning further away from me.

“Good.”

“Alright, that’s it. I literally cannot take this anymore. The two men I love more than anything in this entire world are fighting and not wanting to speak to each other, and for what? Something stupid like pretending, and being upset over me keeping secrets?” I turned to Dustin. “Well, do you wanna know one of the two I’m keeping, Dustin? Hmm? Well, here it is. Steve and I are engaged, and if you want to be standing by our side on our wedding day, you two better make up pronto.”

Looking at Steve, I said, “And you. Don’t think you’re in the clear either. Quit the fucking measuring contest with Byers thinking it’s to impress me. I’m far beyond impressed with you, that’s why I fell in love with you. That’s why I’m still in love with you. You impressed me once in the eighth grade and I fell in love with you before I even knew what it was like to love, before I knew the meaning of the word, the emotion.” Tears lined my eyes as I spoke the words I’ve wanted to speak for years. “I love you, but if you can’t stop this with Dustin, I’ll sacrifice myself to Vecna.”

It went quiet again in the van, Jonathan moving the wheel to search for Hopper’s signal. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but I found myself trying to get more comfortable so that I could lay my head on Steve’s shoulder, his hand immediately going to my thigh. As I was dozing off, Steve decided to talk.

“Hey, man, I’m gonna turn on Irwin. One more loop around the Zone?”

“Yeah, go ahead,” Jonathan replied.

I felt a squeeze on my leg before Steve asked, “You feeling better?”

Nodding, I whispered, “A little. Just wanting some fries or chips or something salty.”

“No, wait,” Jonathan said. “Scratch that.”

I groaned, closing my eyes. “What is it now?”

“I think I got something.”

“Seriously?” Steve asked.

I felt Dustin’s knee hit mine, so I lifted my head to see he was looking back at Jonathan. I looked as well, asking, “Is it Hopper?”

“Yeah, I … I don’t know,” Jonathan answered. “I’m not getting a hit on the decoder, but I can hear something. Yeah, I can definitely hear something.”

“Liv, move,” Dustin said.

I sat up and scooted my way to behind the passenger seat so that Dustin could move to sit where I was, putting on the headphones Jonathan was wearing, the latter saying, “Yo, dude!” after Joyce asked, “Is that him?”

Reaching over, I took the walkie from Jonathan’s lap, pressing the button on the side before saying, “We’re not sure at the moment, Joyce.”

I looked at Dustin as he shook his head and said, “No. It’s not Hop.”

“Damn it,” I muttered.

“What?” Jonathan said. “Then what the hell is it?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t be a million different things. Military broadcast, TV channel, any EMI within our frequency zone. The one thing I do know, though, it’s not Hop’s telemetry tag because if it was, it would show up on the decoder. So… search continues.” He moved back into his seat as I sighed.

Pressing the button on the walkie again, I said, “Hey, Joyce? Uhm, disregard. It was… it was a false alarm.”

“Olivia, is your receiver in any way connected to the flux capacitor?”

I looked around the van, a very confused look on my face. 

“I’m-I’m sorry, Joyce. Do what now?” I asked.

“The flux capacitor. Robin said it was down, but she and Will are working on it, and I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t messing with your connection.” At my silence, she said, “Hello? Hello?”

“Great Scott, Robin,” I whispered. “She sees that movie one time while high as freaking kite off truth serum and suddenly she thinks she’s Doc Brown or Marty fucking McFly.”

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A/N 2:  hi, friends! pls be kind and reblog! it really helps us content creators out <3

Additional Note: i just wanted to say a quick thank you to my readers on this series for being incredibly patient with me these last few months without my posting anything. i've been under a lot of stress; hubby's having some medical issues, we are in the trenches with potty training our 4 year old, etc etc. but, i just wanted to say thank you for sticking around. it means more to me than you truly realize.

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