The Power ➙ Steve Harrington [02]( complete )

16. man with a plan

Eleven looked down at her hand before looking passed her completely and walking into the arms Joyce who cried at seeing her, "Hey. Hey, sweetheart." Eleven and Joyce both cried at seeing each other, Joyce caressing her cheek as she pulled away, "Hey."

She smiled up at Joyce and then began looking around before stopping on Jackie's eyes. Jackie smiled as Eleven sprinted over to her, throwing her arms around the girl to tight, she thought she was going to break a rib. "Hi, El-" She smiled, crying into her hair. She pulled away to look at Eleven, before taking a piece of her greased back hair in between her fingers and twirling it around, "Your hair is pretty."

Eleven laughed in tears in her eyes, twirling a piece of Jackie's hairs in her fingers, "Prettier." Jackie shook her head giving her one last hug.

Eleven pulled away, slowly dropped her smile looking at Joyce, "Can I see him?" The room got quiet, as Joyce nodded, holding her arms wide open for Eleven to walk into, showing where Will was.

-

Once Eleven had seen Will for the first time the group had crowded the kitchen table to talk about the 'play', which is the name Steve gave it, something the group let him pick so he could feel included. "It's not like it was before, it's grown." Hopper started looking around at the group, "A lot. And, I mean, considering we can get in there that place is crawling with those dogs."

"Demo-dogs." Dustin corrected quickly.

Hopper shot him a look, "I'm sorry, what?" Dustin rolled his arm, "I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together and it sounds pretty badass-"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper yelled looking down at the kid how turned around, "It's not. I'm sorry." The group sighed at Dustin's obvious priorities as Eleven looked up, "I can do it."

Hopper shook his head, "You're not hearing me." Eleven nodded, "I'm hearing you. I can do it." Mike shook his head now, everyone was shaking their heads and it was making Jackie's neck hurt, "Even if El can, there's still another problem."

"If the brain dies the body dies." Jackie spoke looking up to Mike who agreed with her, "I thought that was the whole point of this?"

Mike sighed, "It is, but it we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate, and kills the Mind Flayers army..." Realization crossed Lucas's mind, "Will's apart of that army."

"Closing the gate will kill him."

Everyone was silent then, Joyce gripping tightly onto Jackie who looked off into the distance with Steve trying to get her attention. She had already lost her brother once, and she wasn't going to lose him again... She wasn't going to see him die again, go to another funeral of his again, do any of that shit again.

The Byers walked into the back bedroom where Will was sleeping, the window open with the wind blowing in right on Will. "It likes it cold." Joyce mumbled making Jackie crane her neck to hear her mother, "Huh?"

"It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold." She moved forward and slammed the window down, "We keep giving it what it wants." Nancy figuring it out in her head from her health and science classes, "If its a virus, and Will's the host then..."

"We need to make the host uninhabitable." Jonathan finished looking down at Will, Jackie already knowing she wasn't going to like what was coming next. "So if he likes it cold..."

Jackie let out an angry breath, "We need to burn it out of him."

"You have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time."

"Yeah, somewhere far away." Hopper got the idea and made everyone start going into groups:

Hopper and Joyce made Jackie and Steve stay with the kids. Steve being the oldest, and Jackie with her shoulder wouldn't really be any help at holding Will down. Will was loaded up in the car, while everyone else was looking around for items to get him warm, with Steve and Nancy looking out in the pile from the shed.

"You should go with him." Steve started making Nancy stop, "What?" Steve sighed looking over at her, "With Jonathan."

Nancy shook her head, "No, I'm..." She scoffed, "I'm not gonna leave Mike." Steve paused with a shake of his head, "No one's leaving anyone." They two continued to look while also continuing the conversation, "I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend, but..." He paused pulling out a heater from the pile before smiling over at Nancy, "-turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter."

"You are a shitty boyfriend." Jackie called from the back porch of the house with a laugh, Steve pointing the flashlight right in her face, making her face scrunch up in pain. "I didn't need your input Jackie-" He paused pointing to the house, "Now go help save those little shits from dying."

Jackie laughed with a thumbs up, opening up the back door and walking back in. Steve shook his head at the girl with a smile before looking back at Nancy who was already looking up at him, "Steve..."

He shook his head looking down at her, "-It's okay Nance... It's okay-"

He paused looking towards the door where Jackie left it open, seeing her playing firecracker with Dustin, her laugh echoing through the air making him smile.

"I'll be okay." He said looking down at her and she knew that he wasn't mad at her at all, he was in love with Jackie and he was fine with letting Nancy go to Jonathan.

Steve turned around and walked back into the house and onto the porch with the rest of the group, intertwining his hand with Jackie's who smiled up at him. They watched the two cars drive away from the house quickly, with Jackie cracking her opposite knuckle against her hip in anticipation for her brothers safety, both of them.

-

EDITED: November 1, 2020