Royal Pain || Stranger Things

thirty || dr. alexei

Over the course of the day, every segment of the detached party had tried to contact Tatum – the missing piece for all of it to make sense – and had failed miserably.

Early before work, Steve had gone across the street to her house to bring her in on their Russian mall conspiracy, only to find the front door unlocked and the living room properly trashed as if some kind of attack or disruption had happened.

In reality, it had been Billy, or what was wearing Billy, that had woken from his induced sleep only to throw a fit that she was no longer in front of him. His only hope without Tatum was to take Eleven.

Will, Mike and Lucas, now united with their angry girlfriends, had also tried to stop by the house not long after Steve, only for no one to answer the door. And upon going to the pool to catch her on break, they were told that she had yet to show up to work.

Nancy and Jonathan, post-fired from The Hawkins Post, wanted to tell her about the rabid rats and the woman that had nearly died the night before. Nancy knew that something was wrong and she knew that Tatum would believe her. But the front door was locked and Adam was less than thrilled to let yet another person know that his head guard hadn't bothered to come to work that day.

Even Hopper and Joyce had turned up at her house just to check, only to storm off swearing and head to City Hall to talk to Mayor Kline.

Growing up, one of her father's rules had always been to let at least one person know where you are, even if you're just running down to the shops. If that one person knows where you are and you go missing, then at least there is a chance at being found.

No one had been told where Tatum was going, and she was confident with that decision.

At least for now.

Leaning against the wall just shy of the locked elevator, arms folded over her chest as she held back from the desire to crack open the elevator for herself and go exploring. Her eyes softly closed, listening in for anything that could tell her something interesting.

More importantly, if the poorly named Key made any noise that stood out among the ramblings of the base itself, she could figure out which floor it was on.

She reckoned with the distant noise of the mall overhead that she was about four stories underground, while the machine would be down at the very bottom.

The elevator's arrival pulled her back into reality.

Tatum's eyes opened as the elevator doors slid apart, silently greeted by a man with a mop of brown curls in wide frame glasses and a lab coat.

"You must be Tatum." Remaining in the elevator, Alexei motioned a hand toward himself. "Please join me."

Without taking her hands out of her pockets, she stepped inside. "You must be important if they didn't want me to meet you."

"This base is my project," Alexei replied, pressing the second to last button on the panel as the doors slid shut. "How do you know so much about it? How do you know who I am?"

"You don't think I'll actually tell you, do you?" Tate rebuffed with a quirked brow.

"Where did you learn such good Russian?"

"My brother taught me when I was young." Tatum leaned back against the interior railing, sighing to herself as she watched the numbers on the panel increase despite dropping deeper into the earth.

"Benjamin." Alexei smiled softly, catching the concern on her face. "Do not worry. He won't get in trouble. He does not know you are here, and he won't."