With the classic ambiance of high school and raging parties, it wasn't necessarily odd for Tatum Rivers to wake up and not quite remember what happened the night before. Gaps in time, hazy glimpses of stumbling around. Usually there was at least something left behind to hint to the general path of the night, but this time was different.
The summer sun blared through the thin curtains of Tatum's room, a mixture of brightness and concern stirring her from her sleep.
Still wearing what she had been in the day before, Tatum's eyes peeled open in near protest. Rubbing them with the back of her hand as she yawned, her brows furrowed slightly as she noticed an unconscious Billy next to her.
It wasn't the fact that he was in her bed that was unusual – that had actually become incredibly common whether or not anyone noticed – but instead that he too was fully dressed except shoes that were haphazardly thrown by the closet.
Tatum's brows furrowed deep as she sat up, leaning over to reach for her alarm clock that was flashing 12:00 violently. "What?" she mumbled, flipping her wrist over to reveal the actual time. "Oh, shit." She turned over her shoulder and picked up her pillow before smacking it down on top of Billy's head. "Get up!" she called, running into the bathroom to wiggle into her lifeguard suit.
Billy groaned, only using the weapon to cushion his head instead as he nuzzled back into his sleep.
"Get up! We're late!"
"The alarm hasn't even gone off," he mumbled.
"The alarm's not working!" she called, popping out of the bathroom in her suit on the hunt for clothes to throw over. "I think the power went out last night or something because I never unplugged the clock." She grabbed a small blue tank and a pair of denim shorts, sliding them on over her suit as she prodded at Billy to get out a bed. "Move it! We can't both be late."
Billy slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes as he did his best to scan the room. "Did I not bring in my bag last night?" he asked before a bigger question came to mind. "Since when do we sleep with our clothes on?"
Although it typically would have made her laugh, she only shook her head as she combed her fingers through her hair and tied up the top half with a red scrunchie. "I don't know but we've got to go.
What was the last thing she remembered from the night before?
Without having the time to answer her own question, she looked to Billy who still looked completely out of place. "You have a bag at the pool, right? With an extra suit?"
Billy stretched his arms over his head, going up on his toes before grabbing his boots. "Yeah, it should still be in my locker."
"Perfect. Put your shoes on in the car," she told him, heading out of her bedroom with keys in hand. Grabbing her Birkenstock sandals on her way out of the house, it wasn't long before she was starting the Jeep. As she clipped the seatbelt over her chest, her eyes slowly raised up to the roof above her.
Billy's brows furrowed as he climbed into the passenger's seat and began to wiggle on his shoes. "Why do you have the top on?"
"I was wondering the same thing," she quietly said, forcing herself to look away and instead back out of her spot.
It would have saved her a lot of grief if she had noticed that she wasn't the only one late to work on her street and that a red BMW was idling in the driveway.
"What do we do when we get there?" he asked, lacing up his boots.
"What do you mean?" Tatum raised the radio volume from nearly zero, finding it odd that she would ever have it below a five.
"When we get to the pool." Billy grinned lightly. "Tatum, we're going to work together."
Tatum's eyes widened, it taking everything out of her to not hit the brakes. "Oh, God. I didn't even think about it."
"It's alright." He leaned back in the seat as they tore towards the pool. "Just park around the back. I'll go in first and just say that my dad dropped me off."
Tatum scoffed, sliding her spare pair of sunglasses on top of her head so she wouldn't forget them for her shift. "Like he would ever do you any favors."
"Yeah, well nobody else knows how much of an asshole he is, so they'll believe at least for a day."
Although her heart broke in that moment, the intrigue of the night before concerned her. "When did you come over?"
Billy hummed in thought, letting go of a light sigh. "After you finished babysitting? I don't really remember."
"When did the power go out?"
"I guess while we were sleeping?"
Tatum's eyes narrowed as she wheeled onto another street. "Who was I babysitting?"
"You don't remember who you were babysitting?" he asked with a laugh. "Jesus, Tate."
I wasn't actually babysitting. I lied because I had something else to do, she thought. But what? What did I have to do?
"See you in there," Billy said as they pulled into a parking space around the back of the facility. He leaned in for a last kiss, knowing he wouldn't be able to touch her until the sun was on its way down. "It'll be fine. No one will notice."
"Okay," she said quietly, letting go of one of his curls before he could slip out of the Jeep and shuffle up to the building out of sight.
They'd gotten there with only minutes to spare, so they couldn't create much of a divide with their arrivals.
"Tate, are you coming?"
The voice came in like an out of tune radio message, Tatum's brows furrowing deep as she forcibly wiggled her ears to get a clear signal. "El?"
"Of course it's me. Are you coming to Dustin's? He and his mom are about to get here."
"Dustin's back from camp," she said to herself. "Uh, no, sorry. I just got to work and I can't bail out for the day. Give him a hug for me, though! Let him know I'll see him soon."
"Have you figured anything else about your brother?"
Tatum's brows furrowed, glimpses of the early day before filtering behind her eyes. Going to the phone company, light chatter while waiting for an important phone number, a phone call to Ben. She spoke to Ben. "I...uh, no. Nothing yet." Both she and Hopper had agreed not to mention much about their thoughts on the underground system running below the mall, lest she tell her friends before they know more. "Have fun with Dustin." She pinched the bridge of her nose, a soft headache forming as she killed the engine of the Jeep and headed for the lifeguard shack.
Although there weren't any patrons ready to swim yet, all of the other lifeguards noted her arrival.
"Hey hey!" Freddy greeted from behind the front desk, already lacking a shirt and ready to show off. "Our fearless leader has arrived."
Adam scoffed from behind the cashier stand. "And as the manager, I just don't mean anything?"
"When's the last time you went on stand?" Zoe asked with a grin, tying her hair up. "Or have a save for that matter?"
Tatum shook her head lightly, stopping by the line of lockers only they used to shed her civilian clothes. "Who's going up first?"
While Zoe, Heather and Freddy volunteered, they didn't have much time before Tatum shooed them out on stand so they could open on time.
"You good, Tate?" Adam asked over his shoulder as she dropped down into the chair next to him.
Tatum flipped the cap of her zippo open, lighting a cigarette she'd balanced between her lips. "Of course. Why?"
His brows lifted as she burned the cigarette nearly halfway from just one inhale. "Uh, stress smoking before one p.m. is a little bit of a tell."
"I'm not..." Looking down to the cigarette itself before tapping it off in an ash tray on the desk, her own brows lifted before realizing she needed to play it off instead of denying it. "Just some family stuff."
And although Adam had a difficult time believing her, mostly from the fact that everyone on staff was well aware that she and Billy were sneaking around, he left it alone.
After a more than a full round of rotations as well as a full pool of patrons trying to beat the heat, Billy up on stand next.
"Ladies, she's coming down."
"Here we go," Tatum mumbled, able to hear the desperate mothers gearing up for Billy's pertinent arrival. "It's kind of mean, you know."
Billy's brow lifted as he secured his sunglasses and whistle, glancing back to the front desk where Adam and Tate were sat. "Oh, come on," he mused with a grin. "They all hate their husbands. Why not make their days a little better?" He took Tatum's cigarette from her, walking out with it as he took a deep inhale. He was well aware of his effect on middle aged women.
"And...showtime."
Both Adam and Tatum perked as a whistle was blown less than a minute after Billy was on the pool deck, followed by another.
"Hey, lard-ass!"
"I really wish he wouldn't call James that," Tatum grumbled, the echo of his voice making its way into the lifeguard shack.
"No running on my watch! I gotta warn you again, and you're banned for life. You wanna be banned for life, lard-ass? Didn't think so."
Tatum pinched the bridge of her nose as another whistle resumed the rustle of the crowd. "I hate him."
"Hey, you trained him."
"Please do not take him as a reflection of my lifeguard training skills," she replied.
"Afternoon, ladies."
"Afternoon, Billy."
"Dig the new suit, Mrs. Wheeler."
"Jesus," Tatum said under her breath, rising from her chair. "He didn't take his pack again, did he?"
"Or a buoy," Adam added.
Heather swung open the lifeguard shack door, the brunette also lacking a guard tube. "Poor James."
Tatum grabbed the pack in Billy's locker as well as a spare guard tube by the exit. "Tube next time please, Heather," she said on her way out, sliding her own sunglasses down.
"Here she comes,"one of the mom's mumbled, unaware that Tatum could hear them as clear as day.
"Ugh, I hate it when she does that. The tube blocks the view."
Tatum shook her head on the way to Billy's tower, earning an amused look from him. She tossed the pack up, resting a hand on her hip as she waited for him to put it on. "You're making me look bad, Billy."
"Trust me," he replied, leaning over the rail to grab the upheld guard tube and set it over his lap. "No one could ever make you look bad."
"Make the mums thirsty enough?"
"Just enough, I think," Billy said, glancing over his shoulder to shoot a grin in the general direction of the sunbathing mothers. "Go back to the shack so I can watch you leave."
Tatum held back a grin, shaking her head. "You should watch the water instead."
"You know I won't, not while you're out here."
Rolling her eyes as she left, able to feel Billy's gaze on her back, she was soon distracted by the arrival of someone definitely not prepared to swim.
Chief Hopper was waiting by the front desk, nodding in greeting as she got out of the heat and entered the shack.
"Hi, Chief," she greeted coolly.
"Got a second?" Hop asked, well aware of Heather and Adam's confused stares on him. "About that speeding ticket."
"I guess I couldn't run forever," she sighed, grabbing her clothes from her locker and slipping them on before following him out of the building to the parking lot. "What's up?"
"I didn't hear from you yesterday. I got worried."
Tatum's brows furrowed, leaning against the brick building as Hop loomed on the sidewalk. "What? About going to the phone company?"
"No, about meeting with Ben."
"What?"
Hopper's expression shifted. "What do you mean what? You called me after you got home from work telling me that you and Ben were going to meet up that night. How did it go?"
It was Tatum's pure confusion that made the concern grow astronomically.
"What happened? Did you see him?"
"I don't..." Her eyes narrowed as she looked off, the sensory of a tight hug covering her, the pinching of her cheeks.
'You're so big. You're so beautiful. Look at you.'
"Tatum?"
"Hang on," she replied, eyes shutting as the image grew more vivid.
Billy showing up out of the blue, seeing Ben and assuming the worse.
"Tate, what's going on? How could you forget something as big as that?"
"I don't know," she said as her eyes opened. "But it's there, like a memory I can't grab. I remember hugging him. We went to the house and talked. And then Billy showed up and saw him. I made Billy come inside because I didn't want anyone to see Ben."
"And then what?"
"I think the power went out."
Hopper nodded lightly. "Yeah, okay. The power did go out late last night. But only for a second."
"But why did the power go out?"
"Why aren't you asking what happened after the power came back on?"
Tatum shook her head. "Because that's where it stops, Hop. I remember waking up the next morning in bed, still wearing what I had on the night before."
Hopper's eyes narrowed. "Have you asked Billy about it?"
"I don't think he remembers it either." Tatum ran a hand through her hair, resetting her sunglasses before rubbing the back of her neck in thought. "It just stops. Like when the power went out, I went out, too."
"What are you doing?"
"Huh?"
"Your hand. It's like you're scratching."
Tatum hesitantly pulled her hand away from her neck, holding it out like the culprit. "I'm not sure."
"Let me see," he said, waving her toward him. Waiting until she pulled her hair away, her peered down to where her fingers had been running. He squinted, poking at a certain spot. "There's a hole."
"I have a hole in my neck?" Tatum stressed.
"A really small one," Hopper replied, drawing away. "I feel like Billy might have one, too."
She shook her head. "I don't understand."
"Tatum, Jesus. It seems simple enough. You let someone who's working a secret Soviet mission come into your house and be seen by more than just yourself. He was worried it might happen or something might go wrong, and he brought something that would change that."
"Hop, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying Ben drugged both of you with something that damages memory and then dipped out," he replied. "You can shake it better than Billy because of your advantage. You see more than everyone else so it wouldn't wipe all of it. And you didn't remember until I said something, so it had to be triggered."
"He...he wouldn't do that."
"You also thought he would stay faithful to Britain too, didn't you?" Hopper asked. "That's why I said I should have been there. He's not someone you can trust. You shouldn't have been alone with him."
"Just having Billy show up shouldn't have been enough to make him feel threatened," Tatum assured, still missing key pieces of the night. "Billy had heard of Ben, so he knew who he was. Granted, he didn't know the whole situation, but they were both calm before the lights went out."
"Think about it, T," Hop offered. "He's already not supposed to be anywhere but inside that base. He sneaks out to meet with his little sister, who found him because he wasn't being careful enough, and he was worried that someone would snitch. He doesn't know Billy. It's some random guy walking to the house where he was supposed to be safe to talk with you. He probably panicked."
"Wouldn't he call?"
"Would you call if you drugged someone? I think he's hoping that whatever he gave you stayed and instead took the whole memory of meeting up with him."
She shook her head, an image of her levitating a mug across the counter to him playing behind her eyes. "He knows."
"He knows? Are you trying to get yourself abducted by the Russian government?"
"Clearly I didn't!" she defended. "If he knocked me out, then he had a perfect chance to take me to their base." Her eyes slowly widened.
"Tatum?"
"The power outage."
"Use more words, T," Hopper requested.
"The power outage, Hop," she repeated. "It wasn't a fluke. Right before Billy showed up, he told me about the gate. About a machine they built to open the gate."
Hopper's expression fell. "They have that?"
"The machine caused the power outage. I'm sure of it."
He grabbed the teen's shoulder. "Tatum, did they open the gate?"
"I...I don't know."