Come Together - Steve Harrington [1]

23: bitchin'

Eleven moved back slightly, a weirded-out look taking over her face.

"Eleven?"

Max moved in front of the boys so that she could face the girl herself. When she did, she gave her a friendly smile.

"Hey, um, I'm Max," she said, sticking her hand out. "I've heard a lot about you,"

Eleven looked at Max for a few more seconds before continuing to walk, bumping her shoulder with hers as she went. She made a beeline for Jen before wrapping her arms around the taller girl.

"El. I've missed you, girl," Jen smiled, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl. "How've you been?"

"Good," El replied, her voice muffled.

The two pulled away and Jennifer ruffled her hair with a smile. "I like the new look," she told her.

"Bitchin'," El said, nodding her head.

"Oh, yeah," Jen agreed. "Bitchin' as hell,"

El sent one more smile up to the girl before she moved along to Joyce. The two hugged for a minute before Eleven asked if she could see Will. Joyce agreed and they left the room together.

*

"It's not like it was before. It's grown,"

The group was now surrounding the table, discussing a new topic.

El's capability of closing the gate.

Eleven had opened the same gate a year prior, which led Joyce to believe that she would be able to use her abilities to close it this time around.

"A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there," Hopper continued. "The place is crawling with those dogs,"

"Demo-dogs," Dustin corrected.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, uh, Demo-dogs," Dustin stammered, turning to look at Hopper nervously. "Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass-,"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper snapped.

"It's not. I'm sorry," Dustin muttered, shaking his head.

"I can do it," Eleven suddenly spoke up, looking to Hopper.

Everyone's attention was directed towards Hopper at this, waiting for a reaction.

"You're not hearing me," he told her.

"I'm hearing you," she argued. "I can do it,"

"Even if El can, there's still another problem," Mike spoke up. "If the brain dies, the body dies,"

"I thought that was the whole point?" Jen asked, confused.

"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..." he started.

"Will's apart of that army," Lucas said in realization.

"Closing the gate will kill him," Matt added, his eyes wide.

Jen glanced over at Jonathan at this, trying to read his expression. She couldn't imagine how he must've been feeling. She knew that if it was Matt in that situation, she wouldn't have been half as calm.