STEVE, ROBIN, DUSTIN, and Max had done Eddie the courtesy of bringing him groceries to tie him over in the boathouse until things blew over.
The car on the way back to the lake was mostly quiet, a few mumblings here and there with the radio playing softly in the background. Steve had accidentally left one of his old tapes inside, more specifically the one labeled "Steven" with a heart drawn next to his name that Kate had made him for his birthday last August. It wasn't like he could hide it, either, because most of the songs were songs that he liked because Kate liked them, that or because she had put them on the tape for him. They were all so perfectly about them being in love with one another that Steve couldn't help himself but to listen to it once every once in a while (and by that, he meant listen to it every single time he was alone). Whenever he had pulled it out of the cassette player in his radio, shoving it into his glovebox before they could notice Kate's handwriting over top of the cassette displaying his name and a heart, Robin, Max, and Dustin thought they wouldn't mention it.
"So, uh... does anyone else... know about this?" Robin asked, almost hesitating to answer. "Like, anyone besides us, is anyone else in on Eddie not being a psychopathic murderer?"
"I didn't tell anyone," Dustin said, shaking his head. "Max, did you...?"
She shook her head, making him trail his sentence off. "No, but I can think of someone we should tell."
Dustin seemed to understand what she meant whenever she spoke just by looking at her face. While Max hadn't said the name, her guarded expression said everything he needed to know. She thought they should bring Kate into it, and she didn't even want to attempt saying the K-word considering how Steve reacted every time her name was said.
When Robin looked at Steve expectantly, almost like she felt bad for him, he chuckled warningly. "We're not bringing Kate into this. Absolutely not. You guys need to leave her alone, okay, she's..."
Steve knew the chances of Kate coming back to Hawkins were extremely low, if they were even that lucky. There wasn't any reason for her to come back, especially not if there was something wrong like there was right now.
"You say that like we bother her in the first place," Dustin replied bitterly, not pleased with his answer. "Also, why are you the one vetoing this shit? Aren't you, like, still obsessed with her or something?"
Robin stifled a laugh when Steve started scolding the kids in the back. "That is not true."
"Dustin, don't you remember?" Max replied sarcastically, smiling as she spoke. "Mom and Dad got divorced months ago and he got the kids."
"All right, shut up, okay? That's enough," Steve said. He hated when they called him Mom and Dad, mostly because he was Mom and Kate was Dad. "Kate and I didn't get divorced—"
"No, she just dumped you."
He glared at both Steve and Max in the back. "Do you guys wanna walk the rest of the way to this place, or...?"
"No," both kids replied from the back quickly. They both did not want to walk multiple miles to the house Eddie was hiding in.
"Then drop it. No one reaches out to her, okay? Nobody. Got it?"
And with that, Robin, Dustin, and Max dropped the idea of letting her know that their interdimensional troubles were far from over.
Steve felt like he owed her that, at least. Sparing her from anything else happening, more specifically to her. He didn't think it was fair to ask her to help them with something like this after what she'd given up over the years. He wasn't blind to her pain, nor had he ever been. He had seen what the nightmares were like, what the episodes were like, but worst of all, he watched her slip away from everyone, including him over time. He figured that's what someone sacrificing their life for you did; not only that but losing their father, too.
The image everyone else had of Kate versus the one he had was completely different: of course she was awesome, and yes, she could've helped them much more than most anyone else could, but he wouldn't let her get involved again. He wouldn't put her through it again, nor would he let anyone try to. Not when she was moving on with her life.
It wasn't like he wasn't happy for her. He was glad that she was still getting to go to school, get her degree like she'd always dreamed of. He hoped that she was top of her class, knocking everyone into submission with her grades. If she was doing good that way, maybe she was making connections, enough to eventually get her an internship or something. He hoped that some rich boy with a future had started dating her, one that was helping take care of all those things for her so she didn't have to go through it alone. His heart ached at the thought of her doing it all by herself like she had been last fall. Steve wished he could have helped her, but the chances of getting Kate to talk to him at all were low, never mind about something like helping her pay for college. He hoped, most of all, though, that she was happy.
Steve had to live with the fact that Kate Hopper would be forever out of reach: maybe it was a divorce.
By the time they made it back to the boathouse at Reefer Rick's, Dustin didn't even knock on the door whenever he pushed the door open, giving Eddie a good scare as he held groceries up for him to view. "Delivery service!"
Steve did a wave from the door, hesitant to step in as far as the other three did—he did not want to get choked out by that broken beer bottle again.
Whenever they'd gotten Eddie situated, munching down on Honeycomb cereal as the rest of the group stood around him, they went over the information they'd learned since they'd been separated from him.
"So we got, uh, some good news and some bad news," Dustin said. "How do you prefer it?"
"Bad news first, always," Eddie replied, taking a sip of chocolate milk.
"All right. Bad news," Dustin started. "We tapped into Hawkins PD dispatch with our Cerebro, and they're definitely looking for you. Also, they're, uh, pretty convinced you killed Chrissy."
"Like, a hundred percent kind of convinced," Max added.
"And the good news?" Eddie asked, seemingly growing worried.
"Your name hasn't gone public yet," Robin answered. "But if we found out about you, it's only a matter of time before others do, and once that gets out, everyone and their shallow-minded mother is gonna be gunning for you."
"Hunt the freak, right?"
"Exactly."
"Shit," Eddie mumbled under his breath, panic seemingly starting to brew within him.
Steve wished that Hopper would've still been around, more specifically as police chief. Hopper would've known something wasn't right about the murder, just like he had known something was wrong with Will's disappearance, with the vines spreading from the lab. Hopper would have at least heard them out, let Eddie tell him what he had to say. More than anything, Hopper would have believed him.
"So, before that happens, we need to find Vecna, kill him, and prove your innocence," Dustin said, trying to calm Eddie before he went into a panic.
Eddie, however, wasn't pleased. "That's all, Dustin? That's all?"
"Yeah, no, that's pretty much it."
"Listen, Eddie, I know everything Dustin is saying sounds totally delusional, but we've actually been through this kinda thing before. I mean, they have a... a few times, and... and I have once. Mine was more human-fleshed-based, and theirs was more smoke-related, but bottom line is, collectively, I really feel we got this."
"Yeah, see, we usually rely on this girl who has superpowers," Steve said, scratching his face. "But, uh, those went bye-bye, so..."
Robin butted in before Steve could freak Eddie out even more. "S–So we're technically in more of the—"
"Kinda..."
"Brainstorming phase," Max said.
Steve snapped his fingers. That was the word he was looking for. "Brainstorming."
"There... There's nothing to worry about," Dustin said calmly, almost smiling.
Steve scoffed awkwardly, somehow plastering a smile on his face. He did not want to freak this guy out like he had the night before.
Eddie looked at them as if they were insane until he and the rest of the group heard faint sirens coming from the main road.
"Shit," Steve whispered.
"Tarp," Robin said quickly, pointing to the boat. "Tarp. Tarp!"
Eddie pulled himself underneath the boat again, laying underneath the tarp, and Dustin, Max, Robin, and Steve all ran to the window, watching as two police cars and an ambulance cruised by.
"We'll be back!" Robin shouted, leading first out the door.
The group of four quickly loaded up into Steve's car, following where the other emergency vehicles had gone. They hadn't even had to go much too far up the road to find the blockade of cars with Nancy Wheeler talking to the new chief of police.
Steve's heart dropped as he stepped out of the car, the other three following.
Steve had a lot of history with Nancy Wheeler. Steve had started going out with her for only a week or so before the first time they'd had to deal with something like this, then stopped for a month before he finally dated her for about a year. Realistically, they weren't a bad couple. If it wasn't for the fact that they both were in love with other people, people that, at the time, they couldn't have, maybe things could have worked out between them. While Steve had Kate, Nancy was still in love with Jonathan Byers, who she was still dating even though he had moved to California. It wasn't like he didn't care about Nancy. It wasn't that way, even if it seemed so. He'd just loved Kate Hopper more.
Nancy sent a small wave, a teary tightlipped smile at him, and Steve stuck his hand up no further than the frame of his car door.
Someone else had died.
Debra had already gone home to Florida by the time Kate had gotten home the night before, meaning she could do whatever she wanted when she got back.
Kate hadn't done anything too exciting, anyway—just finished the book she'd been working on for a week or two. She knew she hadn't been too invested in The Handmaid's Tale, not nearly as invested as she would've been if she wasn't so busy, but finishing the book the night before had made it all worth it.
She had thought it was worth it until the phone started ringing the next morning. She groaned loudly, burying her head further into her pillow. Why was it so early (at least, early for someone who went to bed at six in the morning)? She didn't have too much time to ponder it, however, when the ringing finally stopped.
She finally gave in whenever the phone rang again, almost as if it were screaming at her. She groaned again as she pulled herself to the opposite end of her bed that touched the desk, reaching over the railing and pulling the phone to her ear. "Hello, you've reached Kate Hopper and Debra Martin."
"Kate! Hey, this... this is Jonathan."
"What? Why are you... What happened?" Kate asked, her voice panicked. There was no way Jonathan wouldn't call unless something were seriously, seriously wrong. "Where's El? What's wrong?"
"Kate, listen to me. El is fine, b–but she got arrested, and there's nothing we can do to get her out because Mom is in Alaska on some conference, or something—"
"What?" Kate asked, distraught. "Wh–Where's El? I–I wanna talk to her right now. What... Why was she arrested? Why is Joyce in Alaska?"
Jonathan sighed. Maybe he shouldn't have called her. "She apparently attacked some girl... uh, last night at the roller rink. Mike and Will said she was getting bullied by some kids from school and El smacked the shit out of her with a roller skate." Jonathan paused before going on. "Look, it's not—the problem is El is getting sent to juvie, like, overnight. They won't let us see her because we're not a parent or a guardian."
"Are you kidding me?" She took a shaky breath. "I'm—I'll come a day early. Dr. Owens made me a guardian, I count. I'll try to be there—"
"No, that's what I'm calling to tell you. Don't come tomorrow."
"Are you kidding me?" Kate took a shaky breath. "How could I not come after this, Jon? I have to."
"Because this is our problem to fix, all right? I'm not gonna let you fly all the way out here just to deal with bullshit, especially with how expensive it is. You don't deserve that."
"It's my bullshit to deal with," she said, somewhat bitterly. "I have to come, Jon. I have to. She's... She's alone, and she's scared, and I swear to God if something happens to her, I—"
"I know," he said softly. "Just... I called so you knew. Don't do anything crazy yet, okay? Just... Just come tomorrow, and we'll figure everything out when you get here. I'm still trying to get my mom to come home from her conference."
Kate certainly thought that the conference in Alaska was odd, but she wasn't going to ask any questions about it. She didn't think it was her place to question something like that. She sighed—she had to figure out how this was going to work out, and she had to think about it alone. "I... I have to let you go. I'll call you later, okay?"
"Hey, Kate?" Jonathan called before she could hang up the phone. "Please don't stress yourself out about this. I promise, I'm gonna fix this, okay? I promise."
She took a shaky breath. "Talk to you later, Jon."
When Kate hung up the phone, she flopped back onto her bed, tears swelling in her eyes. She should've known El was having trouble at school. What kind of sister was she? She couldn't hear through her sister's lies, the same ones that she probably would've told considering the circumstances? She wished she would've seen through the act, the lies themselves even. Kate thought for a moment that maybe if she wasn't so screwed up that maybe she would've noticed, that she would've been able to help her more, but she couldn't. Kate couldn't even fix her own problems right now, let alone anyone else's.
It made sense that kids made fun of her sister at school, whether she wanted to admit it or not—while she loved her sister, El seemed a bit odd from the outside. Without the context of the trauma and pain she'd collected over the years, El seemed strange. Kate hadn't ever cared—she understood it. Hell, she thought that her younger sister was much better off than herself in terms of how she seemed. At least El could put on a happy face, act like she was happy. Kate couldn't remember the last time she smiled, and that was truly, actually smiled.
Kate didn't have much time to think about it before she heard a knock at the door. She jumped at the noise—Debra was gone, and Kate had next to no friends, especially not ones who knew where she lived. She peaked out of the peephole as a sigh of relief came over her: only her RA.
The third floor of Goddard Hall wasn't so bad. Kate's RA Jenny hadn't been too bad, specifically not on being tight on much of the rules. Kate preferred it that way: it reminded her of her father.
Kate threw a sweatshirt over her head, moving to answer the door for her. When she swung the door open to meet her worried face, Kate's facial expression dropped slightly as she cleared her throat. "Hey, how can I help you? Deb's out."
"Oh, that's all right, I'm actually here to let you know you have some, uh... important looking people here to see you. Flashed some badges downstairs to the main desk and they asked me to come get you."
Kate nodded, trying to stay connected. "Yeah. Yeah, cool, I'll be down. Just... Tell them I'm putting on something other than pajamas, okay? I'll be down in a sec."
Jenny laughed uneasily. "Okay, great! They're waiting for you in the lounge, okay?"
She nodded again, scrunching her nose. "Yeah, yeah, that's cool. I'll be down in a sec. Thanks!"
She closed the door before Jenny could take more than a few steps from the door, and Kate immediately ripped her pajamas off her body, throwing on the closest bra, t-shirt, and pair of jeans she could find. She might've been crazy, but she wasn't stupid. The badges in question were most definitely federal agents of some kind, and if they had anything to do with her sister, she knew she would be of absolutely no help if they got to her.
She didn't even think twice about it as she threw her already-packed California bag on her bed—thank God she'd, for once in her life, packed ahead of time. She had to help some other way, get to her sister somehow by evading the people that were after her now. She couldn't look suspicious, not when they were looking for her.
She looked around the room for something to hide her face. Her sunglasses would work outside, but certainly not inside if she didn't want to draw more suspicion to herself. She quickly settled on one of Debra's Yankees baseball caps—there was no way that would raise any red flags. She threw on her Converse, pulled her dad's jacket over her shoulders before shoving the remaining things she needed into her backpack: a couple of tapes she always took with her, toiletries, her wallet, her prescriptions, and some of the spare cash she had. She took her Walkman in her hand, her keys in the other. Anything else she deemed important enough for a road trip would be in Bartholomew, Kate's car.
Kate used the stairs to get to the lobby of the building. She pulled her hair back into a bun at the bottom of her hat, barely showing the way her hair was covered by both the jacket and the hat. She'd even put her headphones over her ears, making herself hopefully blend in even more.
When she walked out of the stairwell, she headed straight for the exit, not even daring to look around for the agents. She had almost reached the door whenever someone tapped her on the back, making her slightly gasp and turn around quickly to find a man in a suit in front of her—one of the agents.
"Excuse me, ma'am, may I ask you a couple questions?"
Kate knew it was better to play dumb. If they didn't know who she was yet, they wouldn't figure it out unless she told them. She even raised her voice an octave as she spoke, only in hopes that it made her sound ditsier. "Yeah, sure. May I ask what this is about?"
"Would you know where to find someone by the name of Katherine Hopper?"
She hesitated to answer, almost as if she were thinking, but finally caved in and shook her head. She had to play extremely dumb. "N–No sir, I don't. Could she have, like, I don't know, like, already left for spring break or something?"
His face remained blank as he spoke. "I'm afraid I can't answer that, ma'am."
Kate giggled, smiling. "Oh my God, I should've known better than to ask that! Total bummer you can't find this girl. I wish I could help, but I'm, like, super booked up today. I've gotta go buy some baseball tickets for my boyfriend for the Yankees this season because they're his favorite, and I can't, like, mess it up again because apparently the Yankees and the Mets aren't the same thing? I mean, it's all baseball, it, like, doesn't matter—"
The agent cut her off before she could go on. "I completely understand, ma'am. Thank you and have a wonderful day.
She smiled, waving him off before she walked out the door. "You too, sir!"
Whenever she lost the agent, putting her headphones back over her ears as she walked outside, she sighed—that was so close.
Now all she had to do was get to her car.