wires, steve harrington

forty-five.

she smiled. "that sounds perfect, steve." she thought for a moment. "six kids, though?

he laughed. "we'd be great parents!"

"can you settle for two or three?" meadow replied, laughing with him.

"you don't want to be a big harrington family?" he accused.

she rolled her eyes. "not that big of a harrington family!"

"okay, how many kids do you want?" he asked, looking between her and the road.

meadow chuckled. "we already have six of them!"

"your brother and his friends don't count."

"yes, they do. they're practically our children."

steve laughed, but then became serious again, reaching his free hand out for her to take. "you know, i'm excited to do the whole camping thing, and to have kids and try to be a better dad than what i got stuck with. but, what i'm mainly excited about is getting to do all of that with you."

she smiled, squeezing his hand. "me too." she then looked at the radio, changing the station. "what kind of music is this?"

the camper soon pulled into the war zone (literally), and the group had managed to convince dustin, lucas, and eddie to stay behind. "so much for avoiding angry hicks." robin said as she looked around the store. everyone was a stereotype, and none of them good.

"let's be.. fast." nancy agreed.

"yep."

"definitely." erica agreed, leading the group.

steve put on a jacket, joining meadow and robin in looking at cans of gasoline. "no, don't even think about it." he said, looking down at his girlfriend. "you have my other jacket."

she eyed it. "is that leather?"

"yeah."

"i'm making no promises."

"how many of these do you think we need?" robin asked, interrupting their banter by holding up one of the cans.

steve shrugged. "five or six." he was putting them into the cart when he noticed robin's eyes on vickie, who was also at the store. "what are you gonna do, robin? just stand here and gawk at her?" he teased.

"shut up." she replied, and was taking a step forward as if to go talk to her when a guy showed up behind vickie, wrapping her in his arms and kissing her. she turned to look their direction, and made eye contact with robin for a moment. robin then turned on her heel and left, ignoring steve and meadow calling after her.

"he goes to purdue." meadow mocked, dropping another can into their cart. "poor robin. she doesn't deserve this shit."

she joined nancy in looking at the guns, eyeing the smaller revolvers where nancy preferred shot guns. "hey, meadow." nancy said, catching her attention. "i just wanted to say.. i'm sorry we weren't ever.. we weren't ever closer. i guess i just.. i got preoccupied in my own life a lot of the time. but i never.. i never wanted to stop being your friend. even though we weren't ever super close."

meadow shook her head. "nance, it's okay. i get it. though, for the record, i never wanted to stop being friends with you, either."

"really?" nancy smiled. "i guess we just.. never got around to talking about anything, so i assumed.."

"come on." meadow laughed. "you're a complete badass. how many girls do you know that can shoot guns?"

she chuckled, shaking her head. "not many." she then smiled. "you're pretty badass, too, you know."

"oh, come on."

"no, i'm serious!" nancy laughed. "i remember when you punched steve square in the jaw and almost sent him flying, and then you did the same thing to billy a year later. i can't name many girls i've seen do that."

"to being badass." meadow smiled, holding out the end of the gun in her hand to clink it with nancy's. "how much is this one?" she then asked the man at the counter, gesturing to the gun in nancy's hands.

the man smiled. "$120.99, but i'll throw in twenty rounds of buckshot for ya."

nancy was about to say something, but both girls became distracted as they heard a voice from the other side of them. "hey, can i see this real pretty .357 please?" jason asked. he examined it for a moment before noticing them. "nancy wheeler. meadow henderson." they both internally cursed their luck. "wouldn't expect to find you here."

"yeah, well, it's just.. scary times." nancy said.

"i'm.. i'm sorry about chrissy." meadow added, watching as he leaned away.

"want my advice?" he asked, looking between nancy and the gun in her hands. "shotguns are not good for much of anything past killing small birds. i mean, they got power, sure, but not much range. and that's just gonna force you into close-range combat, then someone can just grab that barrel like this," he demonstrated his point, "and redirect it."

meadow moved closer. "thanks for the advice." she deadpanned, eyeing him cautiously.

jason looked between them. "are you nervous?"

"like i said," nancy shook her head, "scary times."

he looked to meadow. "now, your brother, he, uh.. is he here with you, by chance?"

she kept her face as blank of emotion as possible. "no."

"is yours?" jason then asked nancy, who also shook her head. "i only ask cause they're.. they're in hellfire, aren't they?"

"i don't know what you're talking about." nancy said.

"what about their friends?" jason pressed. "any of them here with you?"

"would you let go?" nancy asked, noting that he was still holding onto the barrel of her gun. "let go."

after checking out their items, the group immediately located the camper, which they'd hidden behind the store. "we gotta go. we gotta go now." meadow said as soon as she opened the door, seeing eddie, dustin, and lucas all still safely inside.

"why, what's going on?" dustin asked.

"your old friends are here." erica said to her brother, who widened his eyes.

"shit!"

steve headed off down the road, leaving the war zone behind them. "they're looking for you guys." nancy said, looking to lucas and dustin.

dustin shook his head. "why are they looking for me?"

"because you're in hellfire." his sister replied.

"what?"

"they think you formed some cult or something, and eddie's just the ring leader. they want all of you charged with third degree murder." she said, watching as they all protested. "okay, that's a problem for when we get back. right now, we need to find out where we're going to build our weapons."

"build?" erica asked.

meadow shrugged. "we got some gasoline."

"so we're building weapons now?" the younger girl pressed.

"yeah. making some little gasoline cocktails, you know." meadow continued, noting that erica's expression was still confused. "bada bada boom?" she tried, raising a brow and imitating an explosion. "oh, whatever."