"Have a nice day." Robin says to two customers as she hands them their ice cream.
"Hi." Dustin says to her once we reach the counter.
"Hi." Robin says to Dustin. "Hey, Dani." She says to me.
"Hey, Robin. This is my brother-"
"I'm Dustin." He says cutting me off
"I'm Robin."
"Pleasure to meet you." Dustin smiles. "Uh, is- is he here?"
"Is who here?" Robin asks.
"Steve." I speak up.
Next thing you know, Steve, busts through the door from the back room, scaring us.
"Henderson." Steve says excitedly.
Dustin laughs and points at Steve.
"Henderson!" Steve yells jumping up and down and makes his way around the counter. "He's back! He's back!" Steve repeats looking at me.
"He's back." I smile at him.
"I'm back!" Dustin says excitedly.
Robin stares at me from her side of the counter with wide eyes. I shrug my shoulders, "They have a bro-mance."
"Ah." Was all she said.
"You got the job!" Dustin yells to Steve excitedly.
"I got the job!" Steve yells and imitates a, celebratory trumpet. "Hey!" Steve then shakes Dustin's hand as I stand in-between them. They begin to do their secret handshake, which includes them imitating lightsabers clashing. Dustin stabs Steve with the imitated lightsaber and Steve proceeds to make gagging sounds and imitating his guts falling out.
"How many children are you friends with?" Robin asks Steve once Dustin and him finished their handshake.
"Why don't we have a secret handshake?" I ask Steve jokingly.
**
Dustin, Steve, and I take a seat at one of the booths. I sit next to Steve on the end and his arm is wrapped around my shoulders as he talks to Dustin.
"No, no. No way." Steve says in regards to Dustin's girlfriend. "Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No."
"Hey!" I say elbowing Steve.
"That doesn't count you, D!" Steve says defensively. "You are way hotter than Phoebe Cates."
"Mmm-hmm." I reply.
"She's brilliant too!" Dustin says with a mouth full of banana split. "And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth."
Steve and I look at Dustin a little dumbfounded.
"Wow." Steve says finding the right words to say. "Yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man. That's ro- That's kinda romantic."
"Wow." I speak up.
"Hm." Dustin responds by taking another bite of his banana split. "So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" He says pointing to the ice cream.
"Yeah. I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though. I gotta keep in shape for my lady." Steve says scooting closer to me. "So, where are the other knuckleheads?"
"They ditched him yesterday." I speak up.
"No." Steve says looking from me back to Dustin.
"My first day back. Can you believe that shit?" Dustin says irate.
"Whoa. Seriously?"
"I swear to God. They're gonna regret it, though, big time, when they don't get to share in my glory." Dustin says taking another bite of his ice cream.
"Glory? What glory?"
Dustin scoots closer to Steve, causing him to drop his arm from my shoulders and move closer to Dustin.
"So, last night, we're trying to get in contact with Suzie..."
"Oh. Mm." Steve says giving him a thumbs up.
"And, uh..." Dustin says as he looks around "I intercepted a secret Russian communication." Dustin whispers.
"What?" Steve whispers to Dustin.
"I intercepted a secret Russian communication." Dustin says, somehow quieter than before.
"Just speak louder."
"He intercepted a secret Russian communication." I say louder for Dustin.
"Danielle." Dustin scolds me and kicks me under the table.
"Ow!"
"Jeez." Steve says. "Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said. Wait, what does that mean?"
"It means, Steve, we could be heroes. True American heroes." Dustin says.
"American heroes." Steve says becoming excited. "What's the catch."
"No catch, I just need your help. And Dani's of course." Dustin points to me.
"Okay, with what?"
Dustin turns and opens his back, pulling out a Romanov's Dictionary. "Translation."
"Yeah, you're going to have to do that first part without me, I've got to get to work." I say standing from the booth.
"So, I'll, see you after your shift?" Steve asks also standing.
"Of course, I'm off at five." I smile up at him.
Steve begins to lean in-
"Please don't swap spit in front of me. I'm trying to eat here." Dustin says from behind Steve.
"Okay, I'll see you later." I chuckle at Steve before I steal a quick kiss.
"Ugh, gross." Dustin says.
I stick my tongue out at Dustin as I walk to the back door of Scoops Ahoy.
"Real mature!" Dustin yells after me.
"Real mature!" I mock him as I head to the Gap.
**
"Hey, Danielle, can you help these two girls with the dressing rooms?" My coworker Melissa asks me.
"Yeah, sure." I say and walk over to the dressing rooms. Once I get there, I see very two familiar girls waiting.
"Hey, guys?" I say to Max and El. "What are you doing here, El?" I ask knowing that she's not supposed to be in public.
"Shopping." She says nonchalant.
"I'm helping her find her style." Max says.
"Hm. You know what? Okay, I'll help too."
"What?" Max and El ask surprised.
"Yeah, I'll help you find your style too. Besides, it's time you get out of Hopper's flannels and wear clothes that you like anyway." I say unlocking a dressing room.
"That's what I said." Max says as she hands El an outfit.
El takes the clothes from Max and goes in the dressing room.
"We'll be out here waiting." I reassure El.
Soon enough, El comes out in a matching white outfit that has random blue, yellow, and red stripes all over it. She stands in front of the mirror as max and I hold up belts. I hold the red one up and Max holds up the yellow. El chooses the yellow and wraps it around her waist. Once it's on, she begins to spin in front of the mirror. I think she likes it.
Max leaves to look at sunglasses as El goes to try on another outfit. This time, El comes out in a black romper with different, colorful, patters all over.
"Max, come here!" El yells over to her and Max quickly joins. "What do you think?"
"I love it! Dani, what about you?" Max asks me.
"I love it too! Seems to me, that you've officially found your style." I smile at El. "Ready to check out?"
They nod their heads and I lead them to the check out counter. Max rips the tag off of El's romper and I scan it along with Max's sunglasses. Max goes to hand me some money, but I cut her off.
"Don't worry, guys. It's on me." I smile and grab some money from my bag that's shoved under the counter.
"Thanks!" Max and El say simultaneously as they leave.
"Have fun!" I yell after them
**
My shift ends and I make my way to the back door of Scoops.
"Hey, guys." I greet Dustin and Robin.
"Dani, Robin is helping us translate, and we've got our first sentence." Dustin says to me excitedly from the table.
"Oh, shit. Really? What is it?"
"The week is long." Robin says in a Russian accent.
"Oh... awesome?" I say a little unamused. "I take it Steve is still working?" I ask no one in particular as I sit next to Dustin.
"Don't worry, Dani, your lover boy will be done soon." Robin jokes and turns back to the translating board.
"Does she know anything else?" I lean in and whisper to Dustin.
"No." Dustin whispers back. "Don't worry, she doesn't know about your powers." Dustin says leaning away from me a little.
"Okay, good. Let's keep it that way." I say putting my head down on the table.
My eyes start to feel heavy as I listen to Robin translate the Russian communication. Closing my eyes, I focus on the Russian man's voice. The further I fall asleep, the louder than man's voice gets, and I begin to dream. I appear in, what seems to be, a comms room. A man is there too, his back facing me, wearing headphones. His voice becomes louder as I step closer.
"The silver cat feeds." The Russian man says in English with a Russian accent. "When blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice." I step around the man to look at him, he's talking into a microphone. "If you tread lightly. The week is long." My attention is brought to the door, someone in a lab coat walks inside and proceeds to walk up a staircase that's attached to the comms room. My curiosity gets the best of me and I begin to follow the person in a lab coat.
Before I can take a step up the stairs, a hand roughly grabs my shoulder, and spins me around. I scream as the comms man keeps me in place.
"Josephine?" The man says to me, his face turning worried.
"What?" I ask the man, baffled. "How do you know my name?"
"Danielle, wake up." The man says and begins to shake me. "D, wake up." His voices changes to Steve's.
"Wake up!" Robin's voice yells out from the man as he continues to shake me.
I'm able to break free from his hold.
"Dani?" Dustin says shaking me.
Startled, I leap up, out of the chair.
"Whoa, hey. Hey! D, it's okay." Steve says rushing over to me and gently holds my face. "You're okay, it was just a dream." He says comfortingly, calming me down. "Just a dream." He says and pulls me in for a hug, wrapping his arms around my neck, holding me close. I wrap my arms tightly around him and hide my face in his chest.
"What the hell just happened?" I hear Robin ask out loud.
My thoughts exactly.
**
Steve walks in the backroom after shutting the lights off to Scoops. He hands me a cup of water that he filled from the sink. "Here, D. Drink some water." Steve says.
"Thank you." I smile to him as he takes a seat next to me.
"Okay, so the second sentence we have is "The silver cat feeds". What the hell does that mean?" Robin says standing in front of the board.
"Maybe it's code?" Dustin asks the group.
"Code for what, exactly?" Steve asks.
The silver cat feeds. The Russian man's voice repeats in my head. "When blue meets yellow in the west." I mumble with my head down.
"What?" Steve asks leaning closer to me.
"A trip to China sounds nice." I mumble again, hearing the man's voice from Dustin's recorder. "If you tread lightly." I say, my voice becoming more audible, as I raise my head and pick up the recorder from the table.
"Holy shit." Dustin whispers.
"The week is long." I say in a normal tone as I look from the recorder and up at Robin.
I shut the recorder off and place it back down on the table. Silence engulfs the room as everyone, including, myself are shocked at what had just happened.
"Since when do you speak fucking Russian?" Dustin asks breaking the silence.
**
"I don't remember Russian being an extra curricular." Robin says to me as Steve pulls down the gate to Scoops Ahoy.
"I know..." I begin to say. "I'm not sure how I knew all of that?" I say quizzically.
"Well, whatever the reason, it still doesn't make sense. The week is long. The silver cat feeds... I mean what the hell, right?"
"Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin says as we begin to leave Starcourt.
"How is this great news?" Steve chuckles. "I mean, so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense." He says catching up to me and grabs my hand, holding it.
"It's not nonsense." Dustin says as he and Robin walk ahead of Steve and I. "It's too specific. It's obviously a code."
"What do you mean, a code?"
"Like a super secret spy code."
"That's a total stretch."
"I don't know, is it?" Robin asks Steve.
"You're buying into this?" Steve asks Robin shockingly.
"Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What'd you think they were going to say, fire the warhead at noon? Plus, I'd still like to know how Dani knows Russian. I mean, if you know how to speak Russian, why didn't you say anything?" Robin asks.
"I didn't know that I knew how to speak Russian." I let out a little defensive. "It just came to me, I guess?"
"Well... your translation is correct, I know that for sure, so... Why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the meaning of their message?"
"Exactly." Dustin says.
"And why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?"
"Exactly."
"So I guess that confirms your suspicion."
"Evil Russians." Dustin confirms.
"I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil Russians."
Steve suddenly stops walking when we begin to walk past a small carousel and an Indiana Flyer.
"Steve?" I ask him but I'm ignored as he lets go of my hand and begins to dig in his pockets. "Steve, what are you doing?"
"Do you have a quarter?" He asks me hurriedly.
"Uh... I might. Let me look in my bag." I say as I unzip my purse and thumb through all of the gum wrappers and receipts looking for loose change.
"Hey, guys. What are you doing?" Robin calls out to us.
"Stevie wants to take a ride." I say jokingly as I keep digging through my purse.
"Do you have a quarter?" Steve asks Dustin and Robin as they walk up to us.
"Sure you're tall enough for that ride, Stevie?"
"Quarter!" Steve yells and Robin tosses him a quarter. He bends down and places it in the coin slot of Indiana Flyer. The horse ride begins to go and plays its god-awful music.
"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin says as Dustin and I chuckle a little.
"Shh!" Steve silences Robin. "Would you guys just shut up and listen?" He gestures to the fake horse.
"Holy shit." Dustin says. "The music." He points out and takes off his backpack. "The music!" He says and squats down, reaching into the bag, pulling out the recorder. He hits play and the Russian man's voice comes through, along with the same song from Indiana Flyer.
"I don't understand." Robin says.
"It's the exact same song on the recording." I clarify for her.
"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia."
"Indiana Flyer? I don't... I don't think so." Steve says shaking his head. "This code, it... didn't come from Russia. It came from here."
Shit.
**
Dustin, Steve, and I said goodbye to Robin as we walk to our cars, on the opposite side of the lot from Robin.
"So, are you going to tell us now, how you know Russian?" Dustin asks once we reach my jeep, that's parked next to Steve's.
"As I've said millions of times before, I don't know."
"Do you think you learned it when you were in the lab?" Steve asks.
"Possibly." I nod my head. "I-It's just, when I fell asleep in Scoops, I had a strange dream. There was a man..."
"A man?" Steve asks.
"Mhmm. He was in a comms room and at first... he was speaking Russian. Like from the recording. Actually, it was exactly like the recording. Next thing I know, it was like I understood him." I say unlocking my jeep and throwing my bag inside before making my way back in front of it. "He started to speak English."
"English?" Dustin asks confused.
"Yeah, and he was speaking into a microphone. And then... there was another person that came in, and they started to walk up these stairs, and then the-the man... grabs me by my shoulders and begins to shake me... then I wake up." I explain to them in a rush.
"That's... A- strange dream." Steve says.
"So, Dani, what you're saying is that, when you were asleep, you came in contact, one on one contact, with the Russian man from the recording and you understood everything that he was saying?"
"Yes. Exactly."
"Holy shit!" Dustin says with realization written all over his face.
"What?" Steve and I ask.
"Remember when Will went missing and we put El in the pool?"
"Yeah." I say.
"No." Steve says.
"That's because you weren't there, hunny." I say to Steve.
"Uh... Anyway. She was able to reach Will through her mind. Maybe, that's what you did. Your subconscious fell in a deep enough state, which caused you to find the man from the recording. And... And maybe, you were taught Russian in the lab? That's how you knew what he was saying. You know how to speak Russian. Holy shit!" Dustin says excitedly. "Do you think you could find him again? What if the Russians are in Hawkins? What if-"
"Whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Dust. Let's just do one thing at a time, okay?" I say. "Let's figure out what the code means and then, maybe, just maybe, if I know how, I could potentially find the Russian man again. Okay?"
"Okay." Dustin nods his head and gets in my jeep.
"Are you okay?" Steve asks once we're alone.
"Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine." I say.
"Come here." Steve says and pulls me in for a hug. "I love you." He mumbles in my hair.
Did he...
"Danielle..." Steve mumbles in my hair.
He did...
"Yeah?"
"Did you uh... hear what I said?" He asks, his body going still but never leaving mine.
"Yeah..." I whisper back.
"And?"
I pull away from Steve and look into his eyes. My right hand moves up to the side of his face and I cradle it.
"I love you too, Steve." I smile and lean in for a kiss, which he happily returns.