That Girl Is Crazy (re-write)

08: Closing The Gate

After Hopper an El left to the Lab and Joyce left to Hopper's secret secondary location with Nancy, Jonathan, and Will, the rest of us were left under the care of Steve.

"Do you think Ellie is gonna save us Bee?" Nicky asked in a whisper as he laid in Jonathan's bed trying to stay awake.

"Yeah Sweetheart, Ellie is gonna close the gate and this will all be over." I promised gently tucking him in.

"And Will's gonna be okay?"

"Will's gonna be just fine. Try to get some rest okay? I'll be right in the living room if you need me." I whispered kissing his forehead before getting up and leaving the room when he didn't protest.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked when I saw Steve and Dustin trying to shove the dead demodog in the fridge.

"This is a ground breaking scientific discovery Trice. We can't just bury it in the yard!" Dustin explained and I rolled my eyes, ignoring the new nickname.

"Whatever, but you're gonna be the one who explains this to my mom." I muttered stepping over the discarded food and condiments to get a glass of water.

"Your mom? What's your mom got to do with this?" Steve asked confused, like the two of us didn't already talk about this.

"Joyce? It's her house. Keep up Steve." Dustin muttered before grabbing a picture from the counter and handing it to Steve. I was an old picture where Will an I couldn't have been older than 3. We were sitting next to Jonathan on a beach towel, all three of us where covered in melted ice cream as we smiled at the camera.

"Holy shit! I remember this story, man. Everyone was talking about it back then, people thought Joyce had gone insane when your dad said you died days before Joyce reported you miss-"

"Steve, read the room man." Dustin commented and Steve looked at me with wide eyes.

"Right, sorry. Welcome home?" He muttered.

"Uh, thanks." I said going to the living room to help Lucas and Max. Walking past Mike who was nervously pacing back an forth.

"Mike, would you just stop already?" Lucas asked as I started to take Will's vine drawings off the wall and put them in a pile to be thrown away.

"You weren't in there, okay Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs." Mike immediately spoke, turning to face Lucas and I glance at him before going back to what I was doing. He was scared, we all were. But we had to trust the process, trust El, trust Joyce, trust Hopper. It's the only way this would work.

"Demo-Dogs!" Dustin yelled from the kitchen

"The chief will take care of her." Lucas reminded Mike as he ignored Dustin's comment.

"Like she needs protection." Max muttered under her breath but I'm sure we all still heard it.

"Listen dude, a couch calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it, all right?" Steve asked and we all turned to look at him.

"Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench." Mike pointed out as I leaned against the wall with my arms crossed over my chest.

"Right. So my point is..." Steve stammered awkwardly as we all gave him expectant looks, waiting for him to finish his thought.

"Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so...uh, there's nothing we can do." He muttered slinging the dish towel in his hand, onto his shoulder.

"That's not entirely true. I mean, these demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called." Dustin countered, which was actually a good point, theoretically we could distract them long enough for Will's team to get the mind flayer out of him and El could close the gate.