DECEMBER
"Since the release of the incendiary tape, the once quiet town of Hawkins, Indiana, has spent time in a place it never expected. The national spotlight. Under mounting pressure, several high-ranking members from the U.S. Department of Energy have admitted involvement in the death and cover-up of Hawkins resident Barbara Holland who died due to exposure to an experimental chemical asphyxiant, which had leaked from the grounds of the lab. We sent our own April Kline to Hawkins to speak to residents, residents who told us they thought they lived in a safe town. The kind of town where, they say, nothing ever happens."
The noise of Marty's diner was blurred out by the television propped up above the bar, taking up Tatum's attention as she idly held her hamburger and stared dully toward the screen.
"Tate, everything's about to fall out of your burger."
Tatum blinked in her surroundings, turning to Steve sitting across the booth from her. "What?"
"Your burger," Steve repeated, pointing as she tilted the sandwich back to level. "You've heard that report so many times this week, I'm surprised you haven't tuned it out yet."
"It's still weird to hear it on the telly," she defended, suddenly lacking her appetite as she leaned back against the booth. "I'm glad we finally got to have a funeral for Barb, though. It was hard to watch her parents go so long without any closure. I know it didn't turn out how they wanted, but at least they can keep their house since the government is paying them out the ass."
Steve nodded as he took a sip of his shake, mirroring Tatum's relaxed position. "Have you gone to see your dad yet?"
"Not yet," she replied with a shake of her head. "We're actually going tomorrow morning, though. We would've gone today after school but Elena couldn't get out of chaperoning the Snow Ball."
"I'm Dustin's ride for tonight," Steve mused. "Nancy tried to wrangle me into student chaperoning but there's no way I'd spend another night in that gym. I'm more than happy to drop Dustin off and pick him up, but the idea of wearing a suit and watching cringy middle schoolers all night does not sounds like a good time to me."
"I know I said I'd stay out of all of it, but you two are still talking fairly well?" Tatum asked with a quirked brow. "No issues there?"
Steve gave a tempered nod. "Yeah, it's been good. The last time I saw her was when you somehow managed to get all of us in that pool when it was freezing outside."
"I'm very good at the at the art of persuasion," Tatum replied. "But that's good. Even if you're never able to be proper friends, it's nice that you can still speak to one another like adults, even if we're not actual adults yet."
"Well, you're about to be," offered Steve. "Are we having a wild party in your honor?"
"I imagine it'll be too cold to convince everyone to come out in the dead of January. Although, I'm surprised the snow hasn't started yet."
Steve shrugged. "It'll be here by Christmas at least, if not sooner. It might seem alright now, but it'll get cold quick."
"Joy."
"Has Billy bothered you at all since everything went down?"
She shook her head lightly as she sipped on her coke. "Nothing. He took the hint, I guess."
"He's been weird around school ever since," he said. "I think Max really messed him up. Or at least freaked him out. She seems pretty pleased that he hasn't been mean to her. Then again, she did slam the nail bat between his legs, so I'm guessing he got the picture."
"Give him a couple months to get his ego back," Tatum grumbled lightly. "He'll be back to being a prick in no time," Tatum murmured before stopping short as she spotted the new arrival to the diner. Her expression fell, locking eyes with the familiar doctor as he made his way past them to an empty booth not far off from theirs.
Steve's brows furrowed, eyes flickering between Tatum and the older man he'd never seen before. "Do you know him?"
Dr. Owens retreated to his booth, sliding out of Tatum's eyeline.
"No, not really."
"Oh, it's Hopper."
Tatum turned back over her shoulder, the chief walking into Marty's with a hesitant step.
Although Hopper didn't greet the teenagers, he discretely tapped the face of his watch as he passed their booth and joined Dr. Owens.
"What was that about?" Steve asked, leaning forward on his elbows. "Any super-secret missions planned?"
Tatum grinned wide. "Not quite. But I know a thirteen-year-old girl who's going to be incredibly happy." She fished through her wallet for a few dollars, leaving it on the table. "I hate to cut Babysitter's Club short, but I have to run."
"You barely ate," Steve whined, motioning to her plate as she rose from the booth.
"I know you've been eyeing it the entire time," she countered. "Finish it for me. I have a favor to take care of."
"Same time next week?"
"As always, Harrington," Tatum replied, exchanging a short handshake after wiggling back into her fresh leather jacket shipped over from England not a week before. "Don't forget movie night with the boys is on Tuesday this week!"
As Tatum got an earnest 'I would never' from Steve on her way out of the diner, she was quick to hop on her Kawasaki that donned a backpack filled with emergency equipment. She and Hopper had been plotting for weeks, but they'd been waiting to tell Eleven just in case something went wrong.
She raced through the city center, although it wasn't much of a center at all, and made her way out to the cabin as she was so used to doing.
The light of Hawkins had gotten so much brighter since the gate was sealed, offering a weight off of everyone's chest, even if they hadn't noticed the heaviness in the first place.
Tatum hid her bike just as she was used to doing and approached the cabin, stepping over the tripwires that had been reset so many times since the party was made aware of Eleven's location.
Although the trusted ones knew that the psychic thirteen-year-old was still in Hawkins, albeit just outside city limits, she was mostly detained to the cabin for safety precautions. The national lab had been clearing out and only just closed its doors for good, but that didn't mean that the coast was clear quite yet.
Unlocking the door without a second thought and without touching a thing, Tatum strolled into the cabin with a bag slung over her shoulders and an almost annoying smile on her face.
El's brows furrowed, peering over the back of the couch as a rerun of Magnum P.I. played on the television. She broke out into a grin. "What are you doing here?"
"It's a surprise," Tatum said, joining her on the sofa and unzipping her backpack. "A surprise that involves you closing your eyes."
Eleven leaned in, trying to peer into her backpack only to be lightly pushed back. "Oh, come on! You can't even tell me?"
"No, and you need to close your eyes, or we'll never get this done," Tatum countered, waiting to fish through her backpack for her makeup bag until El closed her eyes. She set a can of hairspray behind her before arming herself with a small eyeshadow capsule and a brush.
El winced back harshly as the brush touched her eyelid, immediately swatting it away. "What is that?" she snapped, eyes bursting open.
"El!"
"Is that makeup?"
"It is, and you've ruined my surprise." She poked El in the forehead with the end of the brush. "Close your eyes."
Eleven scrunched her nose, still lacking needed information but complying anyway. "What is it for?"
Tatum used a soft pink shadow around El's eyes, the teen sitting perfectly still as it was applied.
Amazingly, she didn't even flinch as the brush moved farther down to her cheeks with a pink blush.
"Open your eyes and look up," Tatum told her, popping open a tube of mascara.
"I don't like the look of that."
"You trust me, don't you?"
"You're really pulling that card right now?"
"Shush it and look up," she said, bringing the wand ever closer. She brushed on a little bit of mascara onto her top lashes, constantly warning El to stop blinking. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?"
El groaned inwardly. "I did not like that."
"Nobody likes it, El," replied Tatum. "But it makes your eyes look nice, so you do it anyway." Setting the mascara wand aside, she ran a hand through El's hair. "Not enough to put it up...Do you have any barrettes?"
Eleven popped up from the sofa, running back to her room only to bring out a mason jar half filled with various hair barrettes of all shapes and colors.
"How about blue?" she asked, plucking free a nearly teal colored barrette. "I think this will look nice." Without pause, she went to work on her hair, parting it to the side and securing the smaller section back with the barrette.
"Are you going to tell me what this is for?" El asked, eyes moving about to follow Tatum as she used hair gel she'd brought from home to mess about with her curls.
Tatum pulled the front piece of El's hair down, lip pinched between her teeth as she carefully crafted a curl that hung down her forehead. "No."
El groaned, going cross eyed to look at the new curl.
"You'll really want to close your eyes for this one," Tatum warned, grabbing the hairspray from behind her.
"Who's Farrah Fawcett?"
"Steve's alter-ego." Tatum grinned, lingering a hand over El's eyes for extra coverage before spraying a healthy amount of product around her head. "She's an actress with fab hair." She capped the hairspray, looking over El. "One more thing."
"What else could there be?"
"You would be surprised. I'm not even going to try eyeliner on you, love." Tatum retrieved a soft pink lip gloss, holding it up. "This will be the final, final touch, alright? Don't let me forget."
Eleven's brows furrowed deep. "I'm confused."
Tatum checked her watch. "That's because Hop's running a little late. But he's getting something rather important, so we'll allow him that." She pointed to the small TV set, packing her things back into her bag. "Is this that cop show? Oo, he's quite handsome."
"Hop loves this show," she replied. "I think he thinks he's Magnum."
"Hop is quite the detective, to be honest. I imagine if he lived in a city, he'd likely already be a detective."
"I don't think he'll leave Hawkins." El leaned back on the arm of the sofa, minding her hair as she stretched her legs out over Tatum's lap. "That's not a bad thing."
With her head leaned back, she rolled her head to the side. "But you don't think it's necessarily a good thing, do you?"
"You've experienced life, Tate. You've gotten to live. The most I've seen outside of Hawkins was Mama's house and then a glimpse of the city. It was so different. So bright. So many people."
"You still have plenty of time to live. Maybe you won't be in Hawkins forever, but you can still enjoy your time. Soon enough you'll get to go to school and be out in public like a normal kid." Tatum squeezed El's legs. "Just a normal, boring kid who can move things with her mind."
"That makes two of us."
Hopper's special knock sounded as the girls broke into laughter, both sending a cursory glance in the door's direction and all of the lock undoing in a flash.
"What are you two giggling about?" Hopper asked as he ducked into the cabin, shutting the door behind him with a shopping bag swinging on his arm.
"Being abnormal." Tatum tapped El's legs, letting the teen know to put her feet on the ground. "Any news for us, Hop?"
Hopper smiled as he looked to El, admittedly preferring her current look to what she turned up in after her short stint in the city. "Well," he finally said, "El, there are two things I want to tell you. First." He held up an opened envelope. "This is a birth certificate saying that you, Jane Hopper, are my daughter. Which means soon, we can get you into school. Next fall, I'm thinking. You'll be in high school."
El couldn't hold back a grin, it stretching so wide it nearly hurt. "Really?"
"Really," Hopper agreed. "And until then, although we need to keep a low profile, I think tonight is the perfect night to let you loose." Setting down the bag he'd brought in, he removed a blue dress freckled with pink dots and a matching belt. Although the sleeves weren't long enough to cover her number tattoo on her wrist, they came to her elbow with a light puff at the shoulder. "How about going to the Snow Ball? Your first dance."
El walked to Hopper with dreamy eyes, carefully taking the dress from him. She held it up to herself, amazed at how perfect it was. She'd never had something so nice. "Did you pick this out?"
Hopper laughed. "God, no. Tatum helped. We picked it up a few days ago. We waited to tell you in case something happened, but Owens said that it should be fine for you to be out tonight, as long as it's just tonight. For now, at least."
"Go put it on then," Tatum directed with a grin, pointing to her room. "It'll be starting soon."
Eleven scurried off to her room, looking like a genuine teenage girl excited for her first dance and not just a kid raised in a lab.
"You did a great job. I'm really loving the curl in front, actually," Hopper mused with a smile. "Thank you for doing this for her."
"I'm more than happy to, Hop. Anything she needs, always."
"Hey, so, before she comes out, I was thinking." Hopper looked to his wrist, Sarah's blue ponytail that donned a small charm still there as always. "I want to give this to her, tonight. Do you think that's too much?"
Tatum grinned. "I don't think it's too much at all. It's a great idea. It'll mean a lot to her."
Hopper nodded, several unvoiced thoughts running through his head. "Okay, good. I just don't want to overwhelm her with all of this. The dance, the birth certificate, and the bracelet."
"Hop, I think she'll love it," she told him, stopping him from rambling on farther. "She's your kid. And now she legally is, too. It'll mean more than you know."
"Are you sure you're just a teenager?" he asked. "Because you sound a lot wiser than the rest of the high school punks in this town."
Cracking a smile, Tatum shook her head. "I've aged dramatically in the past few months, that's all."
El's bedroom door open slow, the brunette hesitantly stepping out in the dress picked out for her, smoothing down the skirt as she timidly looked to Hopper and Tatum. "What do you think?" she asked, trying to contain a meek smile.
"You look amazing, kid," Hopper said, leaned against the back of the arm chair.
"Beautiful, El." Tatum triumphantly dusted her hands together in jest. "Well, my work here is done but my homework is not. You look fab, El. You're going to have a great time." Making sure everything was packed up, she swung her bag over her shoulders, swinging her keys around her finger. "Elena and I are going to Chicago tomorrow, but if you need me," she tapped her temple before pointing to El, "you know how to reach me."
"Give your dad a shot, yeah?" Hopper suggested genuinely as Tatum reached the front door.
Tatum glanced over her shoulder, halfway onto the porch. "We'll see." She blew a kiss to El. "Have a good time. Don't forget the lip gloss!"
Hopper and Eleven rang goodbyes as the senior slipped out into the night, the door closing itself behind her.
The ride back to the Rivers residence, currently lacking Elena, was quick but cold, the oncoming hefty winter setting in. She would need a heavier jacket before too long or else she'd freeze on the way to school.
As soon as she swung open the front door, the phone was already mid ring.
Tatum's brows furrowed, shedding her backpack and kicking the front door closed as she rushed to the phone to catch it before it stopped. "Hello?"
"Tate, it's Nance. I'd tried calling once before but I'm glad I tried again. Were you out?"
"I was at the cabin after Babysitter's Club," she replied, wiggling out of her boots as she pinned the phone between her ear and shoulder. "El's going to be there tonight. Hopper had me do her hair and makeup."
"Seriously?" Nancy excitedly questioned. "Mike's going to be so happy."
"Don't tell him! Let him find out. It'll be cute."
"Not a word," she promised. "But that's actually why I'm calling. I wanted to do a very last-minute check if you wanted to chaperone. Jonathan and I are both working it tonight and it would go so much quicker if you were here. And it counts as community service hours for graduation."
Tatum laughed softly, absently checking her watch. "As much as I appreciate you looking out for my community service hours, I'm going to have to stick with a no for tonight. I'm going to try and get to bed early since Elena and I are driving to Chicago tomorrow morning."
Nancy let out a softly disappointed sigh. "I guess that's a good reason to turn it down, even though they don't let middle schoolers stay out so late that you wouldn't get any sleep. And you can't drive anyway, so you could just sleep on the way."
"A plus with the guilt trip, Nance," she said with a grin. "You're cute, but it's not working. Just because you said that, I'm going to go to bed right now."
"Hey, before you do that, I wanted to let you know that you should call me tomorrow from the hotel if you can. I know my mom will hate the bill, but if you need to talk about your dad, I'll be home most of the day."
Tatum smiled. "You're sweet. I might take you up on that. I feel alright about it now, but being stuck in a car for hours being anxious about it probably won't help the situation."
"Everything will be fine. I can sense it."
"Just make sure you can sense when those small children are about to make out so you can break it up. That's what chaperones do, right? Kill the fun of the dance?"
Nancy gagged. "I really don't need to see middle schoolers making out."
"Oh, you will. Have fun with that."
"Love you, Tate."
"Love you, too, Nance."
As if clockwork, as soon as Tatum hung up the phone, a knock sounded at the door.
Tatum bit her lip lightly, shaking her head as she turned over her shoulder and swung the front door open.
Billy offered a knowing smile, leaning in the door frame in his typical all denim attire. "Hi."
Sighing to herself, Tatum grabbed the collar of his jacket and pulled him inside.