"Do you think she'll be ok?"
"Yeah..."
"when she wakes up we need to give her something to eat... and-and drink"
"We should call Jonathan"
"No! we should call Hopper! or stiles"
"You said Hopper was M.I.A"
"Jesus would you guys keep it down?" Her voice was raspy and much quieter than she had intended, but everyone fell silent as she spoke. Dustin was the first to react, shoving a banana, cookies and a beer towards her "Wwww..." she gleamed instantly going for the cold bottle, but Steve smacked her hand way,
"Really Henderson?" He huffed, snatching it "Eat," he forced the food towards her. Mia only sighed and took them from him before sitting up right on the floor next to the old tracks where Steve must had dumped her, peeling the banana and finishing it in a matter of seconds before finishing off the cookies too.
"Ok... so, why are we just sitting on the tracks? shouldn't we of gone to the Byers?" She asked,
"we were heading there but Steve thought it would be a better idea to go to the store, just opposite the junkyard and grab you some food, and drink... and uh... luckily some new pants- we got you patched up too! yep you have a nice clean bandage wrapped around your leg now, it should compress the bleeding so you shouldn't loose much more" Dustin, as usual, over explained as Steve passed Mia a energy drink, she reluctantly took it as she nodded,
"What did you do with my beer?"
"Threw it." He looked to his side, the beer bottle laid there with the ground beneath it wet, "You cant drink alcohol right now. We need your brain" he chuckle slightly
"Why'd you buy it then?"
"Actually, smart ass" he pointed at Dustin "Stole it"
Mia's eyes widened, "no way!"
Everyone started laughing and talking about Dustin's stupid move as Steve stood and wondered off towards the trees, his flash light frantically searching.
"Hey guys?" "guys!" Steve snapped around when they didn't listen to his first yell, making them all quieten down. Screeching could be heard the the distance, and he threw the bat over his shoulder, walking towards it, the boys followed,
"No, no, no. hey, guys, why are you headed towards the sound?" Max protested, looking down at the older girl, before slowly helping her to her feet and keeping her balanced for a second before letting her stand on her own,
"Guys!" Mia yelled, throwing her arms up,
"Hello? Hello?"
"Shit" Mia groaned, grabbing Max's hand "Towards danger we go" she joked, pulling her, whilst hobbling, trying to catch up to the three boys. When they eventually caught up they were over looking the back end of Hawkins. streetlights illuminating little patches.
"I don't see him" Dustin shook his head just as Lucas pulled out his binoculars, trying to find them.
"It's the lab" He sighed, "the dogs.... They were going back home"
Just as those words left his mouth the group started to trek through the woods- which was way less than ideal for someone with a few chunks of flesh missing from their leg, but she still powered through, though the limping started getting tiering. The cold hitting her face was refreshing, bringing her consciousness back even more. As she caught up to Steve she tripped slightly on a tree root, making her fall onto his side, he only laughed and gently grasped her arm, sliding it though his so she could keep her self steady for the rest of the walk.
As they approached the tree line they could hear voices, familiar voices-- though she didn't let go of Steve and rush ahead, she kept her steady pace as they emerged from the trees, two pairs of eyes falling on the 5. Both the teens stood by the car furrowed their eyebrows as they got blinded by Steve's flashlight,
"Steve?" they both questioned as they eyes flashed to his arm interlocked with Mia's "Mia?"
"Nancy?" He questioned, pulling the hobbling girl further down the hill as Jonathan steamed towards them, his face, surprisingly full of worry,
"Jonathan?" Dustin added as the older boy pryed his girlfriend off of steve,
"Are you ok? why are you limping? did he hurt you?"
Mia scoffed "It's just a scratch, don't worry" she pointed down, showing him half the bandage around her leg which was visible from under the sports shorts the kids had found her in the store. As the couple spoke Nancy yelled at her ex,
"What are you doing here?" Everyone turned to look at her,
"What are you doing here?" He shot back,
"We're looking for Mike and Will"
"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked as Jonathan stepped in to stand next to Nancy, Mia rolled her eyes and stood next to Dustin, facing her boyfriend,
"We're not sure" Nancy replied,
"Why?" Jonathan was interrupted when a prolonged screech came from directly behind them, from the lab, It made everyone shoot around and watch as the lights flickered throughout the whole building. The situation sent shivers through Mia, the thought of just how many Demo Dogs where in there, and what the could be doing to the occupants. If Steve wouldn't of heard her scream when she was only being attacked by two, she would of died, there is no way any scientist could fight off a whole pack of them.
#
Once the power came back Nancy and Jonathan headed beyond the gate while the rest of them stayed at the security booth, all of them waiting impatiently. The fear that something bad had happened in there got to Mia as she paced the road, lifting her injured leg as she spun.
Steve leaned on the booth, flipping his flashlight over and over, but his eyes where fixated on the girl in front of him, he looked down at her leg and let out a little frown as even more worry filled him, and the thought of what could of happened to her flooded his mind. He pushed himself off the wall and went to walk up to her but the revs of engines caught his attention. Mia stumbled backwards, fondly enough into Steve's chest as everyone backed out the way of the fast approaching headlights. The second Jonathans car sped past, the tan Chevy she knew all to well stopped abruptly next to them, and her dad gestured at them.
Steve hastily pushed everyone in and got himself situated comfortably in the front seat, Mia leant over the centre console from behind and smacked her dads arm,
"Where the fuck have you been!" She yelled at him, just as he put his foot down,
"Not the time, Mia" he shook his head, glancing in the mirror, his mouth dropped open as he saw the bandage on her thigh "What happened?"
"One of them things tried to eat me alive" She shrugged, the words rolled off her tongue as if it was a normal sentence to say,
"Are you ok?"
"She passed out Chief, she almost bled to death" Dustin piped up for her, earning himself a smack,
"I'm fine now isn't that all that matters?"
The car fell silent at her statement, the rest of the drive was tense.
Back at the byer household, everyone reconvened. hopper was practically screaming down the house phone at some poor woman who really didn't understand the urgency of the situation, Jonathan was kneeled on the ground next to the couch will led on, holding his hand securely, and the rest of the kids were sat around the kitchen table while Nancy and Steve helped Mia clean the dried blood from her thigh. The whole situation was kind of awkward, and it made sense for it to be between the newly broken up couple, but it made no sense for it to be between the girls... unless something happened while her and Jonathan were alone. She'd definitely need stitches on certain parts, and it was clear it was a bite mark-- which would be hard to explain to a doctor, but all of that didn't matter in that moment. Right now, her their only goal was to make sure it didn't get infected, because if it did, the possibility of having to amputate her whole leg came to mind.
"I don't need your guys' help you know?" She sighed, not liking that their main focus was her,
Steve looked up at her, his hands still pressed firmly just above the wound as Nancy wiped it down, making her wince every now and again "We don't mind"
"Nope.." Nancy added, only lightly glancing back at the couch,
Mia's brows furrowed "Go to him if you want" she tested, watching the tiniest blush creep onto her cheeks,
"No- I'll... we'll finish your leg and you can go to him... Mike- he was saying all will wanted was you..." She tried changing the subject,
She shook her head, "Where did you guys go anyway?"
"Does it matter?"
"Well..." as she was about to tear Nancy a new one, Steve harshly squeezed her thigh making her look up at him, shooting a death glare as he just shook his head in a way of saying 'not now'. She sighed "I suppose not"
Nancy smiled briefly "I'm done... could you wrap it up again-- i-i need to use the bathroom" She looked up at Steve, who nodded and stood in between Mia's legs, his hand shaking as he started trying the fresh bandage tightly,
"I can do that myself" she stopped his hands,
"I've already started now"
"I can do it, Harrington"
"I'm almost done!" He rolled his eyes, as she looked behind him catching Jonathan's lingering stare— months ago he would of thrown himself towards them, pulling Steve from between her legs, but he was just stood there, watching, no sigh of movement. While he was tying the bandage tighter Steve tried ignoring the kids sprinting from the table behind them and coming back seconds later with a D&D book from Will's room. Mia was itching to get to the table to know what they were doing, she could just about hear them. "Jesus sit still will you" He groaned, pushing her up the counter by her hips for the second time, "There I'm done, your so impatient" He chuckled
"Yeah well, I could of done that myself" She shot a side smile and pushed him out of the way and stood next to her dad,
"--Monster for an unknown dimension" Dustin said, his finger pointed firmly on the page about the mind flayer in the book "It's so ancient that it doesn't even know its true home. Okay, it enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using its highly-developed psionic powers"
Hopper sighed "Oh, my god, none of this is real. This is a kids' game"
"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids." Dustin fought "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor--"
"Analogy"
Jonathan came from the couch and slotted himself beside Mia, his hand absentmindedly grabbing hers and running his thumb over her knuckles. She was burning to let him go, she didn't know what he had been doing for two days alone with Nancy wheeler, but all she could imagine where bad-- she didn't want to know what happened, incase it ruined everything, but she was dying to know-- but in the moment she didn't want to cause an argument, so let him do his thing.
"Analogy? That's what you're worried about? Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever this hell this is" Dustin moved his finger to a drawing, presumably made by Will, of a huge, looming monster.
"Okay, so this mind flamer thing--" Nancy started, but was cut off,
"Flayer. Mind Flayer"
She sighed "What does it want?"
"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race"
"Like the Germans?" Steve stammered
Mia smirked "you mean the Nazis?"
He looked at her, mild panic and embarrassment flushed over him "Yeah, yeah, Yeah, the Nazis" Mia shook her head and quickly got bored of the conversation and zoned herself out, leaning her head against Jonathans shoulder. They mentioned something about summoning some sort of undead army and then hopper mentioned that his military back up was coming but then again he didn't sound too sure and mike had come to the bazar conclusion that they would need to use Will to find out how to kill the mind flayer.
And that was how, only minutes later, Mia ended up scouring the whole of the byer's house for as much spare newspapers and tarp she could.
"Can i talk to you?" Hopper asked from the doorway behind her,
she sighed "About what? We could maybe start with how you disappeared on Stiles and I for... god... months! you never came home, never came to check if we were even alive?"
"Yeah well that's a really long story" He inhaled deeply
"So... there's nothing for us to talk about then..." she grabbed another scrap from the floor "Oh! unless you wanted to talk about how mom's back?"
His face paled "Your mom... she's in Hawkins?"
"Yep... as Manic as ever, she's managed to convince Stiles that she's a better person again. And-- well she just really shouldn't be here. right?"
He nodded "Where is she now?"
"Last I saw her she was in our trailer-- which uh... we are very close to loosing. But you know, that's a conversation for another day... I haven't been home in about 4? 5? days?"
"Where have you been staying?"
"Uh... here a few nights... then in a car... then at Dustin's"
"Jesus" he shook his head "why didn't you try to call me?"
"I did, you never answered... I stopped by the station a few times... You... it was like you vanished"
He walked up to her without a word and just wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest, his police jacket wrapping her shoulders "I promise... once we sort-- what ever this is out, I'll tell you everything, ok?"
"You promise?"
"I promise"
"Ok... fine" She shrugged, pushing herself off of his body and picking up the scraps she had dropped as she sniffled "I'm going to help..." she nodded before she pushed past her dad and made her way to the shed to help the others. They spent just over an hour making the shed unrecognizable, apparently the parasite inside of him, knew exactly where it was every time, Like Will was it's spy. so there where loads of staples, rolls of duck tape, tarp and old newspapers involved but once they finished there was no way Will would know where he is, no way the mind flayer could track them down.
Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, Mike and Mia where the only ones allowed in the shed with Will, making the rest of the group wait in the house for any sign of life. Jonathan had carried his unconscious brother to the shed and strapped him to a chair right in the middle, Mike made sure all the, blindingly bright lights where pointing down at the young boy, hopefully helping to disguise the location. Mia didn't quite know why she was in there, so she kept herself situated at the very corner of the room and watched as her dad approached Will with a bottle of bleach, wafting a cotton ball covered in it under his nose-- making him jolt himself awake. As Will woke himself up, Jonathan made his way to Mia's corner and stood himself right next to her, his shoulder brushing hers as he watched his little brother,
"What? What? What is this? What? What is this? Why am I tied up?" Will squirmed around as Joyce kneeled in front of him,
"Will, we just wanna talk to you. We're not going to hurt you." She spoke softly,
"Where am I?"
Hopper thought it had already gone on too long and grabbed Wills Mind Flayer drawing, shoving it in front of him "You recognise this? Do you recognize this?" Will shook his head,
"Hey, we wanna help you. but to do that, we have to understand how to kill it."
"Why am I tied up? Why am I tied up?" his voice got louder and he repeated the same thing over and over, he started jumping up in the seat, and leaning forward, Hopper had to hold him back. As he got angrier the lights started flashing, "Let me go! Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" his voice started to fade away and it got replaced by a distorted, mans voice, practically screaming at the adults in front of him. Quickly he tired himself out, and the lights stopped flashing, his head was hung low as Joyce started talking,
"Do you know what March 22nd is?" She asked, only getting a blank stare in return "It's your birthday. Your birthday. When you turned eight, I gave you that huge box of crayons. Do you remember that? It was 120 colours. And all your friends, they got you Star Wars toys, but all you wanted to do was draw with all your new colours. And you drew this big spaceship, but it wasn't from a movie. It was your spaceship. A rainbow ship is what you called it. And you must have used every colour in the box. I took that with me to Melvald's and i put it up and i told everyone who came in, 'my son drew this' and you were so embarrassed. But i was so proud. I was so, so proud" Her pled didn't work, he still sat there with a blank stare,
"Do you remember the day dad left?" Jonathan piped up and walked slowly towards him so he could kneel in front of him "We stayed it all night building Castle Byers... Just the way you drew it. And it took so long because you were so bad at hammering. You'd miss the nail every time. And then it started raining, but we stayed out there anyway. We were both sick for like a week after that. But we just had to finish it, didn't we? We just had to"
Mia cleared her throat and sighed "Do you remember that one time I had to like... almost preform surgery on you to get that tiny troll doll out of your ear?" She chuckled slightly, thinking back "You came running up to me, crying your eyes out... You didn't want Jonathan or your mom to find out what you did so you had me take you to my trailer, so they didn't come home and see me trying to get it out with a pair of tweezers. But i got it, in the end... and when i did you didn't let go of me, you just kept hugging me and thanking me, over and over... Then once we'd cleared up a story we could tell, i took you home, and I don't think you ever played with your trolls again" Will still didn't say a word, so mike took his turn,
"Do you remember the first day we met? It was... It was the first day of kindergarten. I knew nobody. I had no friends and... I just felt so alone and so scared, but... I saw you on the swings and you were alone, too. You were just swinging by yourself. And i just walked up to you and... i asked, i asked if you wanted to be my friend. And you said yes. you said yes. It was the best thing I've ever done" Mike sniffled, tears streaming down his face as Mia walked up to him, pulling the young boy into a hug, holding him tightly to her side.
"Will, baby... if you're in there, just please... please talk to us. Please, honey, please, can you do that for me? Please. I love you so much" Joyce pleaded, tears streaming down her face too, Will still hadn't said a word as he just shook, his eyes shifting from everyone in the room,
"Let me go" he murmured, causing a storm of sighs to fill the shed. there was no sign of him in there. They watched him for a few seconds before Hopper jumped from his place on the wall and led the other four back into the house with him, leaving Will tied to the chair,
"Dad?" Mia sniffled, wiping the small tears she'd let escape away. He didn't reply as he stormed his way in, finding a piece of paper and pen, having everyone gather around him at the table,
"What happened?" Dustin asked, forcing himself through the small crowd,
"I think he's talking, Just not with words" Hopper sighed, throwing a couple dots and dashes on the page, instantly he started figuring it out,
"Hey what it that?" Steve asked, getting a choir of 'Morse code' throw at him by the kids and Mia.
"H E R E" Hopper spelt out, "Will's still in there. He's talking to us"