wires, steve harrington

nine.

she let out the most genuine laugh he'd ever heard from her, her head falling back on the sofa. "i'm sorry i punched you." she said, though her smile gave off that she was still extremely amused.

meadow thought for a moment, noticing that she hadn't felt this happy with someone else in a while. she considered his words, noticing that she didn't have the strength to respond to his feelings with her own. she also didn't think that she even knew what her feelings were. but something about this, something about steve; it felt right.

the two looked at each other for a moment, and meadow then realized that she had been involuntarily leaning into his body for the latter half of the conversation. her mind seemed to go fuzzy as she forgot about everything that wasn't his eyes, barely even noticing the way he began to lean in.

steve's face was only a few inches from hers when the lights started flickering, sending meadow immediately to her feet. the two teens vividly remembered the last time they'd been at the byers' house: the demogorgon sending the lights into a frenzy. steve followed her to the window, the two looking out at the shed.

"i think he's awake." she said sarcastically, stating the obvious. they watched as the lights finally settled, assuming that will had calmed down.

nancy and dustin had joined them by the window when hopper, joyce, jonathan, and mike walked back into the house. "what happened?" dustin asked as hopper sat at the table, taking out a pen and paper.

"i think he's talking, just not with words." hopper explained, writing out a series of dots and lines.

steve was confused, looking down at what seemed like scribbles. "hey, what is that?" he asked from over meadow and dustin's shoulders.

"morse code." meadow, dustin, max, and lucas all replied in unison.

"h, e, r, e." hopper said as he wrote the letters out.

"here." everyone else in the room repeated, looking at each other.

hopper pressed a finger to his chin in thought. "will's still in there." he concluded. "he's talking to us."

the group decided to continue talking to will, telling him stories and reminding him of all of the memories they'd shared with him. jonathan got his boom box for good measure, playing should i stay or should i go at full blast. while they spoke, will gently tapped on the chair he sat in, and hopper pressed onto his walkie talkie at the same time.

meadow had the pen in her hand now, max, dustin, and lucas listening to the walkie talkie and telling her what to write down. "dash, dot, dash, dot." dustin mumbled to her.

lucas and max quickly leaned over to the morse code chart in front of them. "c." they announced, looking to meadow as she wrote the letter down.

the process continued until 'closegate' read on the page in meadow's hands.

"close gate." the group said, all looking up in shock as the phone began to ring.

"shit, shit!" dustin mumbled, quickly running to the phone and banging it in an attempt to silence the ringing, which would no doubt break will from his previous state. the phone rang again, and meadow, who was behind him, simply grabbed the phone from the wall, throwing it across the room.

"do you think he heard that?" max asked, looking at her.

steve shook his head. "it's just a phone. it could be anywhere. right?" he looked to meadow nervously, not sure if he was just trying to comfort the group.

they all nodded, trying not to immediately think of the worst. it seemed like it was too late, though, because hopper had barged out of the shed, and a distant roaring sound came from the woods.