Number Four

Abject Chaos

-And this is why I should always do the talking. Just a few minutes in to the hastily thrown together story Dustin, Lucas and Max had given the police, Bonnie was wishing the couch would open up and swallow her whole.

She was tired; her powers were exhausted and there was definitely a persistent ache brewing behind her eyes. This was the last place she wanted to be.

The voices were rising all around her.

"Lying to the cops is a crime, son."

"I'm not lying!"

"The fire is consuming us!"

Shut up, gobby kid.

"Threaten them with a little jail time. Maybe that'll loosen their lips."

"You wanna send our kids to jail?" Lucas' mother spoke just at the same time Bonnie did.

"Whoa, how is that appropriate?" Bonnie leapt up off the chair. "Let's not overreact, okay? They're kids."

Then all at once, the volume rose, voices overlapping into a cacophony.

"No, I sort of agree-!" Officer Callahan said into the hubbub.

"Oh, you do, do you?" Bonnie rounded on him. "In what world is that the correct response? You've been making comments like that this whole time- how is that helping? How are you a cop?"

"SHUT UP!" Officer Powell interrupted. "We're gonna try a more civilized approach. One at a time. You first." He pointed at Max.

"Wait, why me-!"

"Follow me."

"Are you sure?" Bonnie frowned. "Can you do that? Don't you need a parent or something? I want it noted I'm not okay with this."

"Noted."

The whole thing from then on was just abject chaos.

"Why don't you guys go hang in the kitchen?" Bonnie told Dustin and Lucas, kind of hoping they might take Erica too. "I'll handle this."

She then bounced between them all, the parents, the police and the kids, trying to keep a lid atop the boiling tensions- although after a point she stopped trying so hard as she just did not have the energy or care for this.

"-I'm getting a drink." Bonnie excused herself, taking the opportunity to go stem the blood welling in her eyelid with a tissue as she stepped into the kitchen, just in time to overhear Lucas and Dustin talking.

"-You don't think they went through?"

"Through Watergate? Without us? Without a plan? Without weapons? They wouldn't be that stupid."

"Yes, they would." Bonnie grumbled as she pulled open the fridge. "None of you have self-preservation in your vocabulary. Do you have any Coke? I need the blood sugar. I'm flagging big time out there. My god, your parents are hard work." She pulled out a red can, looked at it and wrinkled her nose. "New Coke."

She drifted back out again, returning the sour lemons look Callahan shot her with a hard stare- rat man- before diving back in to quell the panic rising in Dustin's mother's voice and lend an shoulder to a distraught Karen Wheeler.

In the end, she wound up sat around the table with the kids, the cold can now pressed to her heavily bloodshot eye in effort to stop the pulsing. "Light's on the blink, it's near tapping out Morse code over there." She groaned quietly, screwing her eyelids shut.

Dustin ignored her. "-So our working theory is that Vecna makes remote contact from his attic. We don't know why, we assume he can do it from anywhere- Are you even listening to me?" He caught Erica not paying attention.

Erica was staring at the light. "Yeah, I'm listening. It's just..." She rose from her seat. "You said you followed Vecna through lights, right?"

Bonnie peeled an eye open.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because I think he's here."

Bonnie sat bolt upright at that, putting down the can and leaping to her feet. The boys followed suit, all stepping transfixed towards the light.

Bonnie protectively put out her hand to stop Dustin as he stepped closer still. "No, wait." Dustin said. "What did you say it was? Tapping out Morse Code. S... O... S. Hey, uh... Remember when I said they wouldn't be stupid enough to go through Watergate?"

Bonnie slowly lowered her hand.

"It seems I overestimated them."

"I told you." Bonnie looked exasperated. "No self-preservation."

A/N: So I apologise if you've had multiple notifications come up for this chapter- for some reason this one has been a real issue for me, I kept publishing it, then changing my mind. I think it's good now! XD

So, my questions of the chapter: Do you think Four/Bonnie has ever heard the song Dream a little dream of me? What do you think she thinks of it? Do you think she knows it's connection to Henry and the Creels?