Why Are You Keeping This Curiosity Door Locked?

El couldn’t believe she hadn’t realized she had been in a grave, too panicked about the thought that the lab was going to get her again. So she was dead in here? Well, she had been at least.

Thinking back to the moments after she got herself out of the grave and when she showered at Hopper’s, the smell of death suddenly made a lot more sense. She thought the lab gown had just been covered in dirt, but now that she thought about it, it could very well also have been blood. 

El knew exactly how she had ended up being buried in that grave. Images of a fight in the rainbow room, dead children all around her, and blood smeared on the walls, flitted through her mind. She was certain that Henry had won that fight in this version of the world. 

“How did you get out?” Max asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“My powers,” she answered, and Max nodded at her before panic washed over her features.

“Wait, Lucas said Will was dead here too, but he doesn’t have the same powers as you, so he wouldn’t be able to get out of a grave. What if-” 

El could see that Max was imagining a worst-case scenario, and she had to stop her mind from spiralling.

“No, I saw him in the Void when I was searching for you. He is not dead,” she began, thinking back to where she had seen him, “He was in a dark room with a desk lamp-” 

Her mind halted, the familiarity of the lamp stuck with her now, and the rest of the room came into focus for her. The lamp illuminated the tiled walls and the bed. Every lonely night and horrifying day she had spent there came back to her. Now she was the one panicking.

“Oh no”

“What? What is it?” Max asked, dread seeping into her voice.

“He’s at the lab,” She said, looking into Max’s eyes, “We have to get him out.”

Max nodded absentmindedly, “Well, we can’t just storm the lab ourselves. Where’s Steve?” 

“Not in Hawkins. I told him to hurry.”

“Okay, so while we wait for him, we free the others from whatever fucked up mind-control Vecna has them under.”

“I already tried with Hopper. He didn’t remember me. Henry has changed his life. Taken his memories. He wouldn’t listen to me when I said it was fake.”

“Yeah, it seems to be the same with the others,” Max said, and paused for a few seconds before asking, “Your powers work the same way as Vecna’s, right?”

El nodded, and Max continued, “So maybe you can give them their memories back?”

That could work. It wasn’t the first time she had entered someone's memories. She should be able to pull the real ones forward. 

Before she got the chance to answer, Max laid eyes on something behind El and turned her around.

“It’s worth a try at least,” she said and steered her towards what she had seen. 

Or rather, who. It took El a few seconds to realize who it was, and when they stood in front of him, she had to resist the urge to reach out towards the curls that should have been there. Instead, she took Dustin’s hand in hers, closed her eyes, and gently prodded at his mind, trying to reach the forgotten memories.

But it was like she hit a wall she couldn't get past. She tried to use a bit more force, but all it seemed to do was push her further away. When she opened her eyes, Dustin yanked his hand out of hers.

“Stay away from me,” he said quietly, ice in his voice, before calmly walking away from her and Max.

El turned to Max, who seemed just as confused by the encounter as she was. 

“It did not work.”

“Maybe it did, he sniffled,” Max said, gesturing towards where Dustin was slowly disappearing down the hall, wiping his nose, “so maybe he remembered something.”

“I don’t know, it felt wrong. I couldn’t get to his memories.” El said, discouraged by the setback. If she couldn’t give them their memories back, then how were they supposed to free them?

Max furrowed her brow, seemingly thinking something through, and El hoped she knew what to do. She was losing faith in her own plan. The task seemed to become increasingly more difficult.

“When I escaped from Vecna’s mind, it was by reaching for a connection outside of his mind. I reached for Lucas, I thought about getting back to you guys,” Max said, taking El’s hand in hers, “But since they don’t remember anything from outside this mind prison, they can’t reach for it. 

“So instead of trying to convince them that all of this is fake, we have to remind them of what they have on the other side. Maybe they have to be open to getting their memories back for it to work.”

El knew she had been right to put her trust in Max. Her reasoning made sense, and suddenly freeing the others didn’t seem so impossible. She just hoped they would be able to help remind them of what they had lost - get them to want it back.

“Who first?” she asked Max.

“How about Hopper? You already kind of tried with him, that might make it easier,” she replied, and when El agreed, Max looked down the hall, “Great. I’ll be right back. Meet me outside in a few minutes, then we’ll go find your dad.”

Max was halfway down the hall before El got the chance to nod at her, so she just made her way to the door instead.

-

Max was pretty sure she knew where she could find Lucas, and felt a smile tug at her lips when she didn’t have to search long. He was practicing basketball in the gym, and she only had to wave him over once before he sauntered over to her.

“Twice in one day, Mayfield,” he said, throwing a towel over his shoulder, “Are you stalking me or something?”

The mention of stalking seemed to disrupt his mask of nonchalance, and for a second, Max could convince herself that this was her Lucas.

“Shut up,” she said, fighting the urge to shove him, “Listen, I know you’re afraid that Billy will see us talking,”

Lucas opened his mouth to protest, but Max held up her finger to stop him from interrupting.

“I get it, trust me, but I really need to talk to you.” A plan formed in her mind, “Do you know if the arcade is still open?”

“Shouldn’t you know, you go there every day?”

“Wow, who’s the stalker now?” Max teased, and Lucas chuckled.

Max almost got lost in the interaction, and how the Lucas she knew seemed to shine through. It felt so real, and for a second, she forgot where she was, wanting nothing more than to stay there looking at Lucas’ smile. 

But the sound of a whistle shook her out of it, and reality came crashing back. Lucas gestured out to the court, and Max knew the moment was broken; he had to get back out there, and she had to get back to El.

“Meet me at the arcade after school,” she said, and when he nodded with slight hesitancy, she gave him a reassuring smile and turned to run away again. The eyes she could feel boring into her back made her certain that he would show up. 

-

When it knocked on his office door, Hopper expected it to be Flo with the daily midday report. He did not expect it to be the girl who had been on his mind since she abruptly came into his home earlier that morning and left him with a thousand unanswered questions. It was even more confusing that Max Mayfield was by her side.

But what left him more perplexed was the phrase that entered his mind once he laid eyes on them.

Do you knock? Geez!

Because they had most definitely knocked, so why would that be his reaction? And why did it sound more like the Mayfield girl’s voice than his own in his head? 

He shoved the confusion aside and gestured for them to come in. It wasn’t hard; something inside Hopper screamed at him to never let the girl leave his sight again. It told him to keep her safe - begged him to protect her. He was also hoping for some more clarity on the whole situation. Maybe she would let him know how he could help her.

When they sat down in front of his desk, the girl took one tiny breath before locking eyes with him.

“Hopper, I need you to remember me.”

“I’m sorry, we haven’t met before this morning, kid,” he replied, ignoring the loud 'wrong!' that echoed in his head.

“We have, please remember me,” she said, desperation seeping into her voice, and Hopper’s heart broke for her, wanting nothing more than to understand what she was talking about.

He watched as Max Mayfield gently nudged her and then kept a steady hand on her shoulder. The girl took another breath - a deep one this time.

“I need you to listen. Don’t interrupt, just let me talk,” she said with pleading eyes.

All Hopper could do was nod, and he was determined to keep that promise, not wanting to spook her away again. He was sure his phone call to Flo had been the reason she had left earlier.

“Okay. You don’t know me in this world, because Henry has erased me from it. Things happened differently in the real world. I helped find Will. You left Eggos in the woods for me. You took me in, cared for me, and protected me. Papa used to say he loved me, but he didn’t, not really. You showed me what loving your child looks like.”

El’s voice broke at that last line, as she started quietly crying - Hopper couldn’t remember if she had told him her name, but somehow he knew that was it - and he wanted to wrap her in a hug, tell her everything would be okay, even if he didn’t know what exactly needed to be fixed. Max was comforting her for now, though, gently rubbing circles on her back.

So instead, he looked at her bare wrist. Part of him wanted to say he was searching for a wristband that could tell him which psychiatric ward she had escaped from. But really, he was wondering why she wasn’t wearing Sara’s blue hair tie - El’s now, his mind corrected for some reason.  

He couldn’t make sense of anything.

“You were there when I closed the gate. You taught me words. We played board games together and fell asleep while watching movies. You always wanted me to keep the door open-”

“Three inches,” Hopper finished absentmindedly.

“Yes!” El beamed, locking eyes with him, “Henry has taken all these memories from you, but I can give them back to you.”

El reached out for his hands.

There was not really any decision to be made. What could Hopper lose? If nothing happened, he could finally relent and take her to Pennhurst as Flo had suggested. 

But the truth was that he hadn’t made that call to Flo because he had been convinced El was crazy when she showed up at his house that morning, talking about fake realities. He had made it because he was scared by how much he wanted to believe her, how right it felt to do so. Hopper had regretted calling Flo the second he heard the front door slam shut.

Which led him to the second option - if something did happen. Well, that would mean they had a war they needed to end, and they couldn’t waste any more time in this supposedly fake world.

“Sure, why not?” Hopper said, holding out his hands for El.

The second they made contact, his head exploded in pain with the memories that flooded his mind.

Sara’s death, finding Will and giving him CPR in the Upside Down, finding El in the woods, screaming at El in desperate attempts to keep her safe, seeing her close the gate, the Russians, escaping a prison, Joyce, reuniting with El, helping her train, her being mad at him for almost killing himself, and making a plan to defeat Vecna.

Once all the memories had settled in his brain again, he hunched over to throw up in a potted plant.

And when the room stopped spinning, he looked over at El, “Hey, kid.”

She was crying and kept muttering apologies.

“What are you sorry for?” he asked, suddenly worried.

“I saw the life you had here. You were happy. Now you’re losing Sara again.”

“It doesn’t matter. None of it was real. You are, and I’m more than happy with you too. Staying here would mean losing you. I don’t want to lose you.”

El looked strangely at the floor as he said that, and it hurt Hopper to think she might not believe him. He went over to finally wrap her in a hug.

Sara’s death still stung most days, but El was not a replacement for her little girl. She was something entirely new, and Hopper loved her just the same as he had Sara.

“I hate to interrupt this moment,” Max said, making them both pull away from the hug, “but we’re not quite out of the woods yet.”

And wasn’t that true. They still had to get out of this place. Although the look in the girls’ eyes told him there was more he didn’t know.

“What?” he asked, and almost wished he hadn’t when they explained how bad the situation actually was.

Apparently, Mike, Lucas, and Dustin had also been taken by Vecna, and they still didn’t know they had been trapped in a fake world. Steve and Will had gone with the girls to retrieve them all, which brought him the worst of the news. Because this world’s lab had, for some reason, kidnapped Will - Hopper couldn’t help the guilt he felt at this version of him accepting Byers’ death so easily - which meant that the real Will was now locked inside that place.

The plan they made was simple. Hopper would go to the Creel House and explain the situation to Steve, while the girls went to get the boys, so they could all rescue Will together and finally get out of this place.

-

Mike wasn’t surprised when he opened the door to see the girl from earlier outside. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had an inkling that today would turn out very strange. He was, however, surprised that he didn’t immediately slam the door in her face.

He had spent so long burying the hope of finding Will so deep in his mind that he sometimes thought every other kind of hope had been buried right alongside it. And one conversation with her, and he could feel that hope trying to escape again. 

Mike wanted to keep that hope out, keep her out. But she confused him, intrigued him. It felt as though he should know her, but he couldn’t place where that feeling came from. She looked so familiar, and something begged him not to shut her out.

So he didn’t close the door. He locked eyes with her and waited for her to explain why she was at his house. Mike didn’t trust himself not to snap at her if he was the first to talk.

“Hi,” she said eventually with a nervous smile.

“Hi?” 

“I think our feet got off wrong,” she looked serious as she said it, and Mike couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped his mouth.

“You mean, we got off on the wrong foot?” he said, pointedly ignoring the weird fondness that rolled over him.

The girl nodded and reached out to shake his hand.

“My name is Eleven,” she said.

“El,” Mike replied for some reason, though he had no idea where it had come from.

“Yes!” the girl - El? - said with a bright smile on her face, and for whatever reason, Mike didn’t want that strangely hopeful smile to disappear. But before he could dwell on it, her smile turned nervous again.

“Can we talk?” she asked, and all Mike could do was nod because maybe part of him had wanted to talk to her ever since he stormed away from her earlier. 

He quickly got his jacket and then shut the door behind him. 

“But not here,” he didn’t want his mom to overhear their conversation because if what El said earlier meant anything, he got the sense she would talk about ideas that his mom wouldn’t be too eager for him to get into his head again, “let’s go for a walk.”

El didn’t seem to mind. In fact, the way she led the way made Mike think she had also wanted to have the conversation while walking.

They walked in silence that should have been awkward, but somehow wasn’t. That is, until they reached the woods.

“This is where you and the boys found me,“ she said, and Mike almost missed it because her voice was barely audible, “I was wearing a Benny’s Burgers t-shirt, it was raining,”

Mike didn’t reply. He was too busy wondering why that image was so clear in his head when he couldn’t remember it having happened. El didn’t seem to mind his silence, so maybe she was content with him listening.

They made it to the quarry at some point, and she stopped walking and pointed over to the edge.

“I saved you there once. You jumped off to help Dustin.”

Mike’s mind drifted back to that day at the quarry, where he had looked out over the edge and questioned why he somehow thought he knew what it would feel like to jump.

That weird protectiveness and determination he had felt suddenly made more sense. And now that El had mentioned it, that was definitely Dustin he had seen in his mind that day - a scared and softer Dustin, but the image had unmistakably been of him. Mike had wondered how he had survived and then seen El in his mind, so that part also seemed true.

But at the same time, it didn’t make any sense. Why could he so easily see this as having happened when he couldn’t actually remember jumping off a cliff for anyone?

And what did that mean for the other things El had said, mainly about Will? Why had she seemed certain he was alive? He was trying to push that hope back, but it was slowly bubbling up.

Mike was about to ask when El started talking again.

“You were my first friend, you told me that a friend is someone who would do anything for you. You showed me here what that means,” 

For a brief second, she got a faraway look on her face before she seemed to divert from what she was thinking about.

“I helped you find Will,” she suddenly said, and Mike’s heart stuttered. 

“Why does that sound so real when that’s not what happened?” he asked, and that familiar sharpness in his voice was ever present. How could it not be when what El was saying bordered so closely to the hope Mike had spent so long shoving down?

“Because it did. This world,” she said, gesturing around her, “is what’s not real. The one who took Will has taken you now. He has erased your memories and given you new ones. But I can give you the real ones back. Will is alive. He needs our help, but he is alive.”

It sounded crazy. 

“Listen, it’s not that I don’t want to believe you,” - well, that was kind of what it was, because this was definitive proof, it was hope, but hope only ever disappointed and destroyed him - “it’s just that I’ve been lost in the hope that Will was alive before, and all it did was hurt me. I don’t want that to happen again. How can I trust that you’re telling the truth?”

She seemed to think about it for a while before holding out her hands for him to take, and looking him straight in the eyes, “Friends don’t lie.”

It was stupid; three words were all it took. Such a simple phrase shouldn’t have convinced him, but for some reason, he grabbed hold of her hands the second the sentence had left her mouth.

And when he did, pain erupted behind his eyes as he remembered everything.

Lucas and Dustin, looking for Will in the rain, finding El instead, the quarry, running from men and monsters, seeing Will possessed, navigating tunnels filled with demodogs, dancing at the snowball, facing off against a giant flesh-monster, saying goodbye to El and Will, Eddie, going to California, looking for El, returning to Hawkins in shambles, Vecna and their plan to defeat him.

His lunch made its way out on the grass, and he swayed for a second only to be steadied by El’s hands on his shoulders. She drew him into a hug.

“I'm sorry you lost Will because I wasn’t here to help,” she said, and it broke Mike’s heart that she was somehow finding a way to blame herself.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he said into the hug and squeezed her tighter.

They stayed there for a while before reality dawned on them, and she explained what was going on. 

Hopper was with Steve at the Creel house, waiting for them, and Max was getting Lucas.

Which left one uncertainty. Dustin. 

Mike could recognize the real Lucas in the one he had been friends with in this world (he felt a pang of regret at the way he had treated Lucas in here. Grieving or not, it was wrong to have shut him out like that). Hopper hadn’t changed much here either. 

But none of them actually knew Dustin, and he was by far the one who seemed the most different from himself. So, how much effort would it take to get him to remember his real life? And could they afford to spend the time necessary to do so, leaving Will trapped in the lab until Dustin got his memories back?

-

Lucas placed his bike up against the wall of the arcade, taking a second to catch his breath. Maybe it hadn’t been necessary to bike as fast as he could here after school, but Max was so insistent on them talking, and his instincts told him it was important. Something in the back of his mind felt certain he would get some answers to all the wrongness he had felt the last seven years.

But when he entered, he couldn’t see her, so maybe he had been too eager and gotten there way before her.

That’s what he thought until he locked eyes with Keith, who just pointed at the staff breakroom.

Max looked at him the second he opened the door and walked inside. She was sitting on one of the chairs, her leg bouncing up and down. He got the feeling that she was nervous.

“Heeey,” he said, hoping to ease the tension, “how did you get Keith to lend you the privacy of the break room?”

“Oh, I threatened him,” she shrugged her shoulders with a self-satisfied smile, and Lucas’s heart skipped a beat. It felt like an expression he had seen a million times before on her - familiar - but the fact was that he had only ever kept up with her from a distance, so he wouldn’t know if this was an expression she made often.

It was weird. He was sure he felt relief wash over him, seeing her there, open eyes, smiling, and all intact - almost like he had spent months or even years not being sure she was alright.

“Soooo, what did you want to talk about?” he asked her, and she looked like she was grasping for a way to start the conversation.

Right before she did, she grinned to herself, gearing up to say something. All Lucas could think about was how cute she looked. 

“Do you accept the risk?” she asked, with a light in her eyes.

The deja vu made a haunting return to him. He felt like he had heard that line verbatim, this exact room, between him and Max. Only he felt like it was reversed. He chuckled to himself.

“What’s so funny?” Max asked.

He debated with himself, trying to figure out if it would be stupid to tell her. Would she think he was crazy? He felt crazy. Or could it be that she was experiencing the same thing as him? Feeling like everything was wrong? Maybe she had more answers than he had.

“I just had the most insane case of deja vu. I get that a lot.”

Max seemed taken aback by that. There was a glint of hope in her eyes.

“Well, depending on your answer to my first question, I’ll let you know why that is.”

Wait, did she seriously have the answers he had been looking for? He couldn’t pass up on that opportunity.

“Then I solemnly accept the risk,” he said, holding a hand to his heart.

“Dork,” she replied quietly, with a fond smile, before taking a deep breath, turning more serious.

“This world isn’t real,” she paused, maybe waiting for him to laugh, but Lucas was too busy freaking out about how that didn’t actually freak him out, so she continued.

“In the real world, Will also disappeared, but you found him with El’s help. The one who took him is still a threat to the world. He, um, he cursed me, almost killed me, actually, and now he has taken your memories and trapped you inside this place. He plans to end the world or merge it with another dimension. Dustin would be better at explaining it, I think, but he’s also trapped in here, so he can’t.

“Anyways, we have to escape so we can stop the asshole from killing everyone.”

“Okay,” Lucas said when Max paused to take a breath. He was unsure she had heard him when she barreled on again.

“You have to believe me. You never gave up on me. I won’t give up on-”

She seemed to catch on to his response mid-sentence, “Wait, you actually believe me? You don’t think all of this sounds crazy?”

“Honestly, Mayfield, I thought I was going crazy, feeling like everything was wrong. This actually makes sense.”

“Oh. I thought it would be harder to convince you. I was ready to bring out all our sappy moments like dancing at the snowball.”

Lucas had stayed home from the snowball. Well, he had in this place. Seemed like he had actually gone in the real world. It felt weird but right to so easily accept that the life he thought he had was fake. 

“Do say more,” he teased, but a part of him actually wanted to know more. It felt wrong not to remember his actual life. Lucas hoped he could get his memories back.

“I don’t have to. El can return your memories to you,” she said, getting up and holding out her hand for him to take. 

“The girl you talked to earlier?” he asked, thinking about how familiar that girl had looked, and taking the hand Max offered.

“Yes, she's getting Mike now, and then we’re supposed to meet Hopper and Steve at the Creel House.”

So, Mike was trapped too. He wondered if they had never stopped being friends in the real world. He felt like he already knew the answer. 

Lucas wanted to ask why they were meeting at the ghost house, but Max made him forget the question entirely as she spoke again.

“We have to go save Will.”

“What?” he asked, feeling confused. Why did the real version of Will need help? Hadn’t Max said they found him after he disappeared?

“Well, when we entered this place to get you out, we entered the bodies of this place’s version of us. Turns out the lab kidnapped Will here, so he needs us to get him out.”

That was all he needed to hear to be at the door in seconds.

“Let’s go then!” he yelled, and she followed right after him.

They got halfway there when Max spotted El and Mike coming from the woods. She ran to them, and Lucas was there only seconds after her. 

Mike briefly looked at him with guilt in his eyes. It was weird to see him like that. He was normally so filled with rage that Lucas could almost imagine the thunderous cloud above his head. But now he was quiet, deep in thought.

The girl, El, looked at him with curious eyes and reached out to take his hands. Lucas let her. 

The second she made contact with her, Lucas got a splitting headache. He remembered everything all at once.

His friendship with Mike, Will, and Dustin, arguing with Mike during Will’s disappearance, while Dustin tried to keep them together, finding Will, meeting Max, being surrounded by demodogs at the junkyard, Steve keeping Billy from beating him up, throwing fireworks at a flesh-monster, trying to help Max as she pushed him away, holding her in his arms as she died and then came back, Vecna.

It took everything in him not to throw up, and when the nausea left him, he felt Mike’s steady hand on his back. Lucas threw his arms around him, and Mike hugged him back. A hug worth as much as the apologies it was trying to communicate.

El pulled him into a hug next, wrapping her arms tightly around him. Lucas had a feeling she had seen how his life had turned out in Vecna's mind prison.

Finally, Max stepped into his embrace. He kissed her forehead and held onto her like she could slip away from him any minute.

“So what now?” He asked, as he let go of Max and interlocked their fingers, “We go get Dustin?”

Lucas gathered that Dustin was now the only one unaccounted for. It made sense that he was next on the list.

But the silence that met him told that the others had a different plan. Lucas didn’t know if they had discussed it or just come to the same conclusion independently. Mike was the one who voiced it.

“Listen, I don’t like the idea of Will being at the lab a second longer. Right now, he’s the one in the most danger.” 

His voice was heavy, and Lucas knew he hated doing the whole priority thing when more than one friend needed him, but it was necessary. 

And it wasn’t like Lucas couldn’t understand. Hell, Dustin would probably argue the same. It was logical after all. That didn’t mean it was easier to make the decision, though.

Lucas was just anxious to get to Dustin because something seemed so off about this version of his friend. He wanted the real one back, sharp-edged grief and all. 

It helped that it seemed to be a difficult choice for all of them.

-

Steve was the first one to arrive at the Creel House. He would have been angry at the others for not sticking to the plan if it didn’t mean that they were sure to show up any minute with the rest in tow, so they could finally get out of this weird place.

He just hoped that if Vecna had gotten to them too, they wouldn’t be fooled by whatever perfect life he had given them.

As the minutes ticked by, his nerves took over. What if they needed his help? He was supposed to protect them in here. What if they were currently stuck in some situation that they couldn’t get out of by themselves? 

Steve was about to go back to his car when Hopper arrived, shotgun strapped to his back. 

“Harrington,” he greeted, “the girls said you would be here.”

“Yeah, unlike them, I know how to stick to a plan,” Steve replied with a smug smile.

“It’s a good thing they didn’t. We have a situation.”

He knew it. Steve knew that something had gone wrong while he wasn’t there to help.

“When you guys entered Henry’s mind, you just popped up into the bodies of this world’s version of you,” Hopper said, and Steve nodded even though he felt a little lost.

If this were all just one whole new world, then maybe Steve had been wrong to think Vecna had gotten a hold of him too. Maybe in this world, Steve had ended up with Nancy by chance. 

Steve urged Hopper to keep going. He wanted him to rip the band-aid off and tell him what impossible situation they had ended up in now.

“Well, this version of Will was kidnapped by the lab, so the real Will is stuck there.”

And there it was.

“Of course he is,” Steve sighed, bitterly, “things are never easy for us.”

“You can say that again,” Hopper chuckled, “The girls are getting the boys and meeting us here so we can get Will out together."

That filled Steve with relief. Because that meant they hadn’t been stupid enough to try to rescue their friend alone without backup. But also because it meant it wouldn’t be long before he would see Dustin again, and his heart could finally calm down and stop twisting and turning in anxiety.

While they waited for the rest to arrive, Steve learned that Hopper’s deceased daughter was alive in here, and that Vecna had erased any memories he had of the real world, and El had given them back.

He wondered what Vecna had changed about Dustin’s life, especially since Nancy hadn’t known him.

He was gearing himself up to brave the topic - too afraid to find out if Dustin was even in Hawkins, even though he knew he must be since Hopper had mentioned that the girls were on their way with the boys - when he spotted Max's red hair in his peripheral vision.

“Hey, Mayfield, what was that about meeting up here if we got separated?” he started teasing, but faltered when he looked at the approaching party.

One person was glaringly missing. Well, two, but he already knew Will wouldn’t be there, so the real question was why Dustin wasn’t.

Steve felt himself panic. Maybe Dustin really wasn’t in Hawkins. Had Hopper just conveniently forgotten to mention that they didn’t know where he was and would have to search for him once they had rescued Will?

“Where’s Dustin?” He asked, dreading the answer.

They all averted their gaze until Lucas spoke up.

“We’re getting him after Will is out of the lab,” he said, sounding like the decision was grating on him at least.

“Why not now?” Steve asked them, and felt anger rise in him.

“Because Will needs our help more,” Max said, and Steve couldn’t help but hear how much it seemed to weigh her down too.

But he was too wound up to really care. Dustin had talked about how scared he was that his friends would abandon or leave him behind. And if Steve had been less understanding, this might just cement that as more than a fear - as a fact. But the truth was that Steve knew how much these kids cared about each other, and he could see on their faces how hard it was to decide that Will needed them more right now. 

That didn’t mean he was going to follow the same plan as them. He wasn’t spending a second longer not knowing if Dustin was okay.

“Then you go rescue Will, and I’ll get Dustin by myself,” he said, turning to leave for his car.

“Steve,” El’s soft voice filtered through his ears, and he stopped in his tracks, “He’s different here, I think it’s going to take more than one of us to get him to remember, and we need you with us.”

“But-” he started before Max interrupted him.

“We don’t have time for arguing, Steve! We’re already hoping Vecna is too busy playing pretend in this fucked up sandbox of his to do whatever weird ritual he had planned with the kids,” she said, sharply, before her voice softened, “Dustin would tell you the same.”

He hated how right she was. Dustin would berate him for making the heart choice instead of the smart choice. And despite Dustin’s insistence for the last several months that Steve was stupid, he could see the logic in their reasoning. 

Steve felt two heavy hands on his shoulders and looked up to see Hopper fixing him with a determined glare.

“I promise you, we’re not leaving this place without the kid, but we need to get Will out of the lab first.”

Steve just nodded at the man, not trusting his voice to stay clear if he tried to explain how much it hurt to think of that promise breaking.

Before he knew it, they were all outside the lab. Steve with a baseball bat in his hands - sans the nails because it was all Hopper could get on such short notice - Hopper with his shotgun, and the kids with knives and strict instructions to try and stay out of sight in the search so they wouldn’t have to use them. 

They were in the middle of figuring out how to get inside when a commotion caught their attention. 

Will stumbled out of the main building, looking out of breath with a lamp clutched tightly in his hands. They wasted no time running towards him. El threw the gate open and shoved every obstacle, human or not, aside. 

Lucas and Mike got to Will first, wrapping him in a tight hug, softly crying at the sight of their friend alive and well. On the walk to the lab, they had explained that they had thought Will was dead in here. They had both grieved him alone. It was no wonder the sight of the boy made them both emotional, Steve thought.

Will pulled back first, looking at all of them with pinched eyebrows.

“We have a problem.”

“What?” Mike and Lucas asked in unison.

“Dustin,” Will answered, and Steve zeroed in on that response immediately, fixing Will with a stare.

“What? What about Dustin?” he asked, feeling his heart beat exponentially faster.

Before Will could answer, the door he had just stumbled out of mere minutes before was thrown open again.