steve harrington hadn't lived in hawkins his whole life, he had wanted to leave who he was and what he did behind him, long forgotten- everything was going fine until a few people of his past came knocking and steve was left to face the same devil t...
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Trigger warnings for this chapter - the gate, death, demogorgan, demo-dog, Hawkins lab, the tunnels, the mind flayer..
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Gator was left in the house with Max, Dustin, Mike, Lucas and Ezrae. Nancy, Joyce and Jonathan had gone to burn the virus out of Will as El, McKenzie and Hopper headed off for El to close the gate.
"All right. It should fit now" Dustin said as he emptied out the Byers freezer as Gator stood there holding the dead demogorgan from when it was frown by el through the window- now wrapped in a blanket.
"Is this really necessary?" Gator asked giving Dustin a look of annoyance as he winced at the smell of it.
"Yes, it is, okay? This is a ground-breaking scientific discovery. We can't just bury it like some common mammal, okay? It's not a dog" Dustin explains. "Well, technically it's part Dog, so you're wrong there, Dust" Ezrae chuckles as she watched Gator shove the dead demogorgan into the freezer.
"You're explaining this to Joyce, all right? Christ, help me out?" Gator asks as Dustin gives him a look, "what am I supposed to do?" Dustin asks as Ezrae rolls her eyes, "get the door for him, idiot" Ezrae stated just before they slammed it shut so the demogorgan stayed in the fridge.
Gator put his right hand on top of Dustin's hat and moved him gently before backing away from the fridge and going to was the slime of him.
"Mike, would you just stop already?" Lucas asks as he and Max watch Mike pace around clearly stressed. "You weren't in there, okay, Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs" Mike explains.
"Demo-dogs!" Dustin yells as he walks around the corner towards them as Gator and Ezrae follow him. "The chief will take care of her" Lucas says before Ezrae adds, "and so will Kenzie" while Max mutters a "Like she needs protection".
"Listen, shitbird, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?" Gator says as he wipes his hands wish a tea towel. "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 argues back as Ezrae laughs.
"Right.. so my point is.. right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do" Gator says while they all look at him as he slings the tea towel over his shoulder.
"That's not entirely true. I mean, these Demo-dogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away. By you, saying to Dart that he should go back to where he came from, which he did" Dustin explains making Gator give him a 'shut up' look.
"If we get their attention.." Lucas starts as Max adds on, "maybe we can draw them from the lab" and Mike then adds quietly, "Clear a path to the gate".
"Yeah, and then we all die" Gator says loudly making the kids all look at him. "That's one point of view" Dustin argues as Gator looks at him, ready to just throw the kid out the house or something.
"No, that's not a point of view, Shitbird. That's a fucking fact" Gator tells Dustin as Mike runs past them shouting "I got it!" Before he walks over and points to an area on Will's drawn out vines map.
"This is where the chief dug his hole. This is our way into the tunnel. So.." Mike starts before moving to a new place as everyone follows him, "Here, right here. This is like a hub. So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we set this on fire.." Mike adds on.
"Oh, yeah, Shitbird? That's a no" Gator says firmly but they ignore him. "The mind flayer would call away his army" Dustin says in realization before Lucas adds "they'd all come to stop us".
"Guys. Hey. Hey! Hey! This is not happening" Gator says firmly as he puts his hands on his hips. "But-" the kids start, only to be cut off by Gator again, "No buts. I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on doing. We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand?"
"This isn't a stupid sports game" Mike argues back again making Gator raise his voice, "I said Does everybody understand that?" He says repeating himself before as he pulls the tea towel off his shoulder and holds it in his hand now.
"I need a yes" Gator says as the kids remain quiet. But it doesn't stay too quiet for long when a car engine starts revving outside, making Max run to the window to look outside.
And Gator doesn't need to look because he knows who that is already, because he'd recognize that obnoxious car noise anywhere and there was only one person in this 'quiet' town that ever revved their engine like this guys did,
