ALEX HENDERSON:
OUR FIGHTER !
☀︎
STEVE HARRINGTON HAD FELT TRAPPED. Not only had he been stuck inside an elevator-- one that if he had been found in, he would be tortured and killed-- but he had also been trapped with the people he put his trust into. From what they all could imagine, it was starting to grow late and the elevator was yet to move. There was no way that anyone on the outside would know where to find them or if they would even think to look for them. It was summer after all and that had meant that they all were often out late into the night, sometimes not returning home until the next day. Now with the festivities of the Fourth of July within Hawkins, it was no surprise that they had not found themselves home. All any of them had talked about all summer was the fair and the plans they had leading up to it.
Being trapped in this elevator was not a part of those plans.
A panic had begun to settle in rather quick with the group and after a few hours stuck with one another, there seemed to be no use in the panic. There was nothing they could do besides sit around and wait. Even Erica Sinclair had settled in to a quiet state, day dreaming of what she could have been doing if it weren't for the nerds that she had ended up with.
There wasn't much silence with the group when Dustin decided it was best to try and reach out to his friends through his radio. Being this late, he had hoped they were back home in bed, waiting by the radio for any word from him. He was missing all day after all, and one of them had to have been wondering what he was up to all day and night. When there was no word back from the radio, he hid his disappointment well after he blamed the lack of signal from how far down below they were.
Steve had taken a corner for himself, wondering how exactly he was going to settle in for the night. Keeping watch had seemed irrelevant given hours of panic, nothing dangerous of the sorts had even occurred.
Robin and Alex had taken the opportunity to grow closer as friends. The more the talked and found how much they enjoyed one another's company, they wondered how they could have gone through high school and not met until this summer. If they had the opportunity to turn back time, they would have met a whole lot sooner. For Alex, she would have gone through the horrors she did just so she could know that Robin Buckley could have also been standing beside her.
However, their conversation was not as private as they had expected when they had begun to talk about Robin's curiosities on how Alex and Steve became to be. From the moment they had met, to the painful party where Steve Harrington had made it official that Nancy Wheeler-- one of Alex's friends, had been his newest girlfriend, to the moment in the tunnels that they had declared their unending love for one another.
Robin Buckley was roped in, hanging on to every detail Alex had to offer. She was not one that was a sucker for romance, but she loved hearing information about Steve Harrington that no one in Hawkins High ever really got to see. It was a way to get to know Steve that wasn't glorified for popularity reasons. And for some reason, she found herself liking the Steve she didn't get to know about until this summer when she had sworn to have a distaste for him since they had shared Click's class together.
Robin rolled her head against the wall until she looked over to her right, looking to Alex. "So what, you and Nancy just decided to swap boyfriends?"
Alex turned over to her in surprise, "Jonathan was not my boyfriend." The two were close, but Alex had never had seen Jonathan as anything but her best friend. Even though he had a fleeting romantic thought about her, he would soon frown, shake his head to help him think more clearly, then realize that the love he had for her was never romantic, but strictly platonic. They would swear to love one another in the least romantic way possible and that's why they worked.
Dustin's ears had perked up when the potential sound of pure entertainment had begun to spark the conversation. "Bullshit," he called across the small area, gaining the attention of the girls. "You two totally did it. Lucas said he saw you two making out behind the arcade."
Alex's mouth hung open in disbelief at such an accusation. "He said that? He's totally lying to you."
"I'm just stating what he told me. Whenever he brought it up, you never denied it."
"Because I thought it was a stupid joke," she laughed, but her eyes had shifted across the room nervously. "I never kissed Jonathan behind the arcade."
"So you've kissed him," Dustin said plainly. "Makes sense."
"It doesn't make sense," she scoffed. "You can just shut up." Growing red in the face, Alex had kept her head down in embarrassment. She had wanted to keep this private (and extremely embarrassing) moment to herself, but even with certain guesses being tossed around the elevator, it grew hard to hide her true emotions. She was a dead giveaway.
Robin was the first to notice how closed off Alex had quickly become, but she knew it wasn't her place to pry. Instead she had laid a head on Alex's arm, hoping it was enough of a shield to take attention of her. Dustin, however, did not feel the same as Robin to keep a secret just as it was— a secret. He was always going to be that annoying little brother and that part of him came through when a sneaky smile had came to his lips. "Holy shit. I just took a guess."
Steve had been silent as he listened to the conversation. His curiosity had begun to take over his disinterest. Sitting up straighter in his seat, Steve felt the need to jump into the conversation to find out more for himself, "Wait, that's true? You and Jonathan..."
Unable to sit through what she had expected to be a lovers quarrel, Robin had immediately got up from her spot. She was willing to take a moment with Erica Sinclair over a potential fight between two people she thought were incapable of a fight. "I'm going to go check on the child," she mumbled rather quickly. Dismissing herself, she had lifted the latch and with one final look at the three, she knew it was best to leave it to them to settle.
Steve kept his eyes on Alex, awaiting an answer he was so desperate to hear, but wise enough to not push so strongly for. Only he wouldn't give up so easily on letting it go and Alex had known that. He may make a comment in the next hour that he would hope would cause her to slip up and admit the truth or give some answer to what could have happened between the two. Alex was not going to wait for that moment. "Jonathan and I are just friends. That actually makes me sick thinking of us together."
"That didn't answer his question," Dustin said with his arms crossed.
"Why don't you mind your own business?" Alex snapped back at him. Turning back over to Steve, Alex decided it was just best to come clean on a secret she swore would stay between her and Jonathan. She just had to hope that it was never brought up to Jonathan. "One time we..." Her voice had trailed off as she hesitated on his eyes. "It was one time... we just..." Licking her lips, she clasped her hands together. "We kissed." However, before Steve could open his mouth, she held her hands out to quickly defend herself and explain exactly what had happened. "It was a while ago and it was super weird. You were dating Nancy and he liked her and I liked you. And- and you had that stupid little party to impress her and me and Barb wanted to go. I ran into Jonathan on my walk home and we went to his house and... It was like kissing my brother."
"Oh, gross," Dustin mumbled as he turned away from the two.
"One time..." Steve whispered to himself, "One time with Jonathan. Okay, that I can deal with." Nodding his head, he had felt it was nothing to get too worked up over. It was the past, and he knew Jonathan was no threat to his relationship. After all, he had dated Nancy Wheeler and Alex did not hold that over him.
The only issue that seemed to stir in the elevator was the child down below, listening for her own entertainment. She had questions of her own that caused her to be too curious. There was nothing that really held Erica from holding back her thoughts or questions. She was always the one that inserted herself into conversation, even if she did not know she was going to bring up something that would bring her more entertainment than she had asked for.
When Dustin had opened the latch to let himself down into the elevator, she had jumped up onto the table to poke her head up. "Is Jonathan the nerd with the mullet at the pool that loves talking to you?"
Instantly, both Alex and Steve had turned over to the girl when Robin had pulled her back down, with Dustin following quickly after, leaving them to look at the closed latch. Behind that closed latch had been the muffled scolding from Robin Buckley as she attempted to teach a child that getting involved in the drama was not the wisest decision.
Clearing his throat, Steve had turned his eyes away first as he focused on Alex. "Dude with the mullet? That could... There's only one person I know that has a mullet that would love talking to you. Tell me you are not seriously talking to that guy."
Alex couldn't bring herself to look to Steve, letting out a small and very uncomfortable laugh. It had been on her and there was no ones fault than her own. "I wanted to talk to you about this..."
"You're kidding," he scoffed. Getting to his feet, Steve had began to pace in disbelief, his fingers running through his hair when he had also let out a small laugh in pure shock. "So, um, wh-what I'm hearing is you've actually talked to this guy. The same guy who beat the hell out of me then had no issue hitting you. I mean, he hurt you, come on."
Alex had no words, feeling ashamed of herself as she watched Steve continue to attempt to process what he was having to discover. However, when she had nothing to say on the matter just yet, Steve stopped as he turned over to her in question. "So what, he likes you again? I-I mean, he must. He did before so I mean, who's to say he ever stopped?"
Wrapping her arms around herself, Alex could feel her heart beating fast but tried to keep herself calm in the moment. Her eyes had stayed focused on the floor in front of her as she built the courage to explain herself in a way that she did not plan on discussing this with Steve about so suddenly. "He came up to me at the pool and just asked to talk. I promise you I did not talk to him all summer until the other day."
"Were you ever planning on telling me or just waited until a ten year old says something?"
"This is part of what I wanted to talk to you about before we got into this mess, okay? Look, I know I completely screwed up here and I should've told you sooner, but honestly, I didn't know if what he was saying was all crap or-or how you would take it and we've never fought."
Steve instinctively ran his fingers through his hair as he shook his head. "We're not fighting."
"You're pissed at me," she said quietly.
"I'm pissed at him," he exclaimed loudly. "He's a complete asshole who is using you and you're too damn nice to see that! Come on, Henderson, you gotta see that."
Alex looked up to him with a frown. "I like to be nice to people."
Steve motioned his hand out to her in response, "This isn't okay, though. He screwed you over once, and he'll do it again just because he has a little crush on you."
"He does not have a crush on me anymore," she fought back. "He's dating Heather Holloway. They were on a date last night."
Steve dropped his hand down to his side as he began to realize something. She had told him before that she had accidentally caught herself up in ruining a date last night— one that could only had been Billy and Heathers. Brows furrowing together, he place his hands on his hips. "You and Robin saw him last night, right? What'd he say to you?"
"He just..." Alex paused as she recalled the awkward conversation with a deep frown. "He asked for us to stay for dinner with Heather since it was raining then when we said no, he got all weird and told me to leave." Standing up slowly, Alex had reflected on the night she grew worried about Will Byers. Through the worry, she had pushed aside the suspicions she had of how Billy Hargrove had acted.
Steve could only scoff though as he had seen this as Billy only being upset that Alex had denied him once more. Alex didn't pay much attention to his words as she remembered the cold tingle that ran down her spine when Billy's eyes focused on hers that night. Through this, Dustin had decided he wanted to put a stop to what he saw as a meaningless fight.
The latch slowly lifted up, Dustin's eyes just peeking through, anticipating the worst, "Um, guys? Can we stop fighting? This is all bullshit..."
Pulling out of her thoughts, both Alex and Steve had looked to the latch door. "Not the word to use," they snapped at him in unison. Even in the middle of a fight, both knew better than to ever use the one word that Nancy had used against Steve in a drunken rage.
When the latch door had shut behind Dustin, Steve placed a hand to his forehead in disbelief. "I honestly can't believe this is happening right now."
Alex shushed him quietly, which had him turn over to her in offense that she was the one that had been upset. Looking over to him, she realized how rude she had came across and corrected herself. "I'm sorry, I'm just thinking about Billy."
"Oh, wow," he scoffed, turning away from her.
"Not like that," she said in disgust. Grabbing his arm, she pulled him around, now grabbing ahold of each of his arms as she looked down in wonder. "Somethings wrong with Billy." Her words were quiet, hushed in a whisper as she spoke. The month Dustin had been away all he had done was worry for his sister, to add to the worry tonight while trapped and that more than just Russians infiltrating Hawkins had been occurring was not in her plans.
"I've been trying to explain that to you," he agreed.
"No, not like that. I told you that he's back..." Turning her eyes up to Steve, a deep frown had settled on her lips. "What if..."
"No," Steve interrupted as he pulled his arms out of her hands. Taking a step back, he pointed over to her as he licked his lips. "No, that's not even a possibility. Billy has never... he never went through what you did. We... we would know."
"I felt it last night when I was in front of Heather's house. I don't know how to explain it but I can feel him. I-It's like he's still a part of me. I know El closed the gate and he's supposed to be gone, but he's not. Will feels him so something is wrong. Billy was acting different that night and it made me feel... uncomfortable. And I just... I brushed it off because he told me to leave and I wanted to find Will. He wanted me to come in and join them then completely changed how he was acting and told me to go. What if he knows and tried to protect me from the Mind Flayer, right? I know I sound certifiable but-but this is my life, you know? I have to believe even the craziest shit is going to happen."
Steve couldn't help but let his shoulders slack as he looked to her. He wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it was all too much to make any sense. "Maybe you feeling him is like some PTSD shit. How do we know he's really back?"
"Because I know him," she fought back sternly. "Please just trust me on this. I need to know I'm not crazy on all this." Feeling a panic settle in over her, she had taken a seat, resting her head against the wall. "I could have saved him and now I'm stuck here. I don't even care if he's an asshole, this is beyond that."
"We'll get out of here and go look for him," he offered up as he took a seat beside her. "I might want to kick his ass but if this is happening, guess I gotta be a bigger man."
Alex tried to nod her head along with what he had to say, but her own thoughts had gotten the best of her because this was much more than Billy Hargrove. This was her life and Will's. They had gone through it before and it was a guarantee that it would not be the end for them any time soon. "I need you to know that if all this is really happening..." Holding her breath for a moment, she had stayed in the moment. "I could die and you need to be ready for that. You have to be there for Dustin and don't let Robin just go, okay, she's your friend too now. And don't let Erica have a shit babysitter, okay? She needs someone good. And Hopper, god, just stay far away from him because he will find a way to blame you."
"Stop talking like this," he whispered.
Unable to hold it all in, Alex had rested her head against his arm, wrapping her arms around his. If this could be her last summer and an unknown amount of days left with Steve Harrington, she wanted to be prepared. And if by chance she did survive whatever was to come, there was no guarantee should would be able to bounce back to who she once was. "And I'm really sorry for fighting about Billy. I know what it means to you and how he hurt you, but I can be stupid and let my judgement be clouded when people are nice to me. I let it happen with the Mind Flayer and look where that got me. I should have told you everything that night but I didn't want to hurt you because of my stupid mistakes."
"Alex, please," he said gently.
"I just love you," her voice cracked as a bubble formed in her throat. "I'm sorry for pulling you into all this. You don't deserve it." Feeling tears slip from her eyes, Alex had shut them, letting her heart ache alone within her. "I'm sorry, Steve."
"And we'll get out of this shithole," he had decided. "You know, Henderson, I'm going to be honest with you, I'd rather take on another monster than be friends with Billy Hargrove." Though he had been more than serious, he could feel the tension lift from her as she turned up to look at him. The corners of her lips had turned up in amusement that he could take something so dark and twisted and manage to make a joke of it all. Because it was very much like Steve Harrington to make the best of the worst situation. "So, you know, whatever. We're doing this— together."
"So that's a big no on the whole Billy thing?" Her usual teasing had returned as she sat up straighter, wiping her face clear from any tears stains. "He's into moms, you know, and the kids call you their mom..."
"Yeah, that- that's not funny," he responded. "But, yeah, yeah, me and him... that's not happening. But I can't tell you what to do even if I think you're batshit crazy, but I can say, if he touches you in any way he's a dead man. Even if you think I can't take him on, I sort of know this kid, Erica, and, uh, yeah, she would kick his ass for us."
"I'm afraid of what she would do to the Mind Flayer," Alex added in curiously. She could see it all now— Erica Sinclair standing before the Mind Flayer with her hands on her hips, tearing him down with her vicious, vicious words. Words that could make a monster from an alternate dimension crumble down to an insecure ball of nothing. Erica was a woman of words, and she was not afraid to use them.
Steve could see it all the very same and now he could see how well Erica Sinclair could fit into this group. Though she was younger and much smaller, she was a fighter and nothing slowed her down. But when he had turned over to Alex, he could see that despite her light hearted smile, in her eyes she was exhausted. Not from a late night, but from the battles she had fought herself. It was enough for all those in the elevator and she had somehow managed to do it alone. Alex Henderson, too, was a fighter, one you wouldn't expect when looking at her, but she was one of the toughest there was in Hawkins, Indiana.