✓ Adventures In Babysitting / Steve Harrington ¹

𝙫𝙞𝙞. morse code

"Hey, hey, look at me," says Steve.  "This—this is all real, and it sucks.  It really does.  But I'm real too—" he takes her hand in his own and holds them up for her to see, "—see?  Real."

She expects Steve to let go of her hand as he drops them, but he doesn't and Abby doesn't mind.  His hand is warm, and warmth can mean many things; friendship, happiness, and maybe Abby needs more of that warmth in her life.

"How are you doing, Steve?" Abby asks after a few moments of silence pass between them.

Steve blinks.  It's been a long time since anybody's asked him that.  "Like right now, or in general?"

Abby shrugs.  "Whatever you want."

"Well, I'm scared too, okay, so don't go thinking you're all alone in this, because we will get through it." Steve answers.  "But god—everything's just gone to shit lately.  I got dumped by my girlfriend, am now babysitting six kids, and I'm probably not getting into college and dear old dad thinks that I'm just not trying hard enough, but it's not my fault that he's not around enough to see that I am."

Abby gives his hand a squeeze but before she can say anything, Alex appears in the doorway.  "Hey, lovebirds, I hate to break up whatever's going on here, but Hopper's here, and I think they've got something."

Steve lets go of Abby's hand and scrambles up. "Oh, no, no, no, we're not—"

"Yeah," Abby agrees.  "We're not—we're just—"

Alex raises a single eyebrow and nods.  "Uh-huh, right."

"We're not!" Steve exclaims.  

Alex raises her hands in mock surrender.  "Okay, okay, you're not.  I believe you."

Alex leads them into the kitchen where Hopper is scribbling on a scrap of paper.  The rest of the teens that had stayed in the house are gathered behind them, watching curiously.  Joyce and Jonathan hover behind them, partly concealed by the shadows, both looking rather shaken.  Alex crosses her arms as she slides in around the table next to Max.  "Alright, Hop, we're all here.  What's up?"

"I think he's talking," Hopper explains as he draws an arrangement of dots and lines on the scrap of paper.  "Just not with words."

"What's that?" Steve questions from beside Abby.

"More code," the party answers as Hopper writes the translations of the arrangements beneath the dots and lines.

"H-E-R-E," Hopper reads aloud.

"Here," Max echoes.

"Will's still in there," Hopper tells them with a relieved sigh.  "He's talking to us."

✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*

Should I Stay or Should I Go plays faintly from the shed and reaches the ears of the teenagers who occupy the house faintly.  Abby finds herself bobbing her head to the beat of the music despite the circumstance that they find themselves in.  The teens gather around the table as they received signals from Hopper from the shed while Jonathan relays happy memories to Will to ward off the darkness of the Mind Flayer.  

The first letter they receive from Hopper is c (dash-dot-dash-dot).  They relay the letters to Nancy, who spells out the message in orange crayon on the back of a drawing pad.  The next letter, dot-dash-dot-dot, is L.  As more time passes and more happy memories are relayed, the letters come faster and faster.  Abby's heart pounds the more rapid the signals are, she doesn't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  Is Will losing his grip?  Will the Mind Flayer take over before he can finish the message.  They collect o, s, e, g, a, t, and e.