There's No Place Like Hawkins//Stranger Things. SH

FORTY

"Thanks, Stevie." She paused for a moment. "How bad exactly is my shoulder?"

"I don't think you want to know."

"Is it that bad? Be honest. Please."

"Yeah, it's unfortunately that bad. It's pretty deep. You're gonna have to be careful."

"I'm always careful."

"Yeah, sure." Steve commented, not really believing her.

Before Cat could say anything else, a commotion started in the kitchen, which caught the teens' attention and they made their way into the area where all the younger kids-minus Will who was still unconscious on the couch- were gathered. Cat, with Steve's help, sat herself on the kitchen counter and Steve stood next to her, holding her hand to comfort her as she was still upset from the evening's events.

"They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asked Hopper, who had finally finished his frustrating phone call.

"We'll see."

"'We'll see'?" Mike reiterated. "We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

"He's right." Catherine spoke up. "Those things are dangerous."

"We stay here, and we wait for help."

"We can't!" Cat yelled, staring directly at the chief. "We didn't get help last year, did we? And we still managed fine on our own! So why should we wait for help now?!"

"We're staying here." The chief repeated before walking away from the room to go check on Joyce, who was sat in Will's room, wrapped up in a blanket.

***

The kids in the kitchen were all sat in silence. Cat lifted her gaze up from the floor as Mike got up from his seat at the table and made his way over to the pile of games that Bob had brought over for Will. He picked up one. "Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkins AV?" He asked, walking back over to them.

"Really?"

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything."

"He was pretty cool." Cat muttered.

"Yeah, he was. He had a fund-raiser for equipment too. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome right." Mike placed the brain-teaser onto the table.

"Yeah."

"We can't let him die in vain."

"I agree. We can't." Cat spoke up, gripping onto Steve's hand.

"What do you want to do, Mike? Kit?" Dustin asked.

"Kill those sons of bitches." Cat mumbled and Steve nodded in agreement.

"The Chief's right on this." Dustin continued. "We can't stop those Demo-dogs on our own."

"Demo-dogs?" Both Max and Catherine asked.

"Demogorgon dogs. Demo-dogs. It's like a compound." Dustin explained. "Really thought you'd understand that one, Kit."

"Well, my brain's been through all kind of messed up shit today, so... Try me again later?" Cat shrugged, picking at the dirt under her nails to distract herself.

"I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe..." Dustin continued, trailing off.

"But there's an army now." Lucas added.

"Precisely."

"It's a big army, guys." Cat told them. "I've seen it. Had a front row seat to their attacks." Steve pulled her into a comforting hug, his arms wrapping around her smaller frame.