After Hopper finished clearing out the shed that they were going to use to trick the Mind Flayer inside of Will, the five older teens, apart from Jonathan since he was with his mom, worked to put tarps all around the sides of it so Will couldn't recognize where he was.

Beverly and Alicia worked on one wall while Nancy and Steve worked on the other. Chris worked on one wall by himself, sneaking glances at Beverly every now and again, working up the courage to try and talk to her.

"Hey. What you did, um, helping the kids...that was...really cool," Nancy spoke up quietly to Steve. Beverly perked her head up a bit, eavesdropping on the conversation since she was able to hear it unbeknownst to them.

"Yeah. Those little shits are real trouble, you know?" Steve replied.

"Believe me, I know."

"But it wasn't just me. Bev helped. A lot, actually. You know, she sliced the head off of a Demodog with her axe," Steve told Nancy excitedly, glancing over at Beverly to make sure he didn't hear her gushing over what she did.

Thankfully, Beverly was smart enough to eavesdrop with her back turned, taping a tarp against the wall. She glanced at Alicia to see if she was hearing the conversation as well, but it seemed like she was too engrossed on getting the tarp to be exactly perfect on the wall. The Crawford continued to listen to the conversation, a small smile on her face.

"Really? I'm surprised she didn't slice your head off," Nancy teased him.

"Yeah, I know," Steve chuckled quietly. "But, we, uh...we kinda make a good team apart from all our arguing," he admitted and Beverly felt that familiar fluttering feeling in her stomach, but she couldn't pinpoint what it was. Or rather, she didn't want to pinpoint it. "And — and Alicia, too, of course. She helped, too."

"Yeah."

The two then had gone silent and before they knew it, everyone had gathered into the shed to help them set the tarps up. They needed to make sure everything was completely covered so Will couldn't recognize anything.

Once they were done, Jonathan brought the passed out Will to the shed and the only ones that stayed were Mike, Jonathan, Joyce, and Hopper. The rest of them stayed inside the house, not wanting to overwhelm the boy at all.

They all anxiously waited, wanting to know if their plan was working or not. Beverly desperately hoped it was, not wanting those dogs to get released on them whatsoever.

The lights started flickering inside the house, making them even more nervous as they looked out the windows toward the shed. "Do you think that's a good thing or...?" Beverly trailed off to no one in particular.

"Probably not," Lucas answered and the girl cursed under her breath. They continued waiting anxiously, not wanting to talk too much just in case the Mind Flayer made Will have super hearing or something.

"What happened?" Dustin asked once the people in the shed came back into the house.

"I think he's talking, just not with words," Hopper said, writing down Morse code on a sheet of paper.

"Morse code," all the younger boys responded, making Steve give them a confused look on how they all knew that.

"H-E-R-E," Hopper read aloud.

"Here," they all said at the same time.

"Will's still in there. He's talking to us," Hopper said.

"That's a good sign, right?" Beverly spoke up, glancing at all of them. "Right?"

"We could use it to our advantage," Alicia pointed out and they all looked at her. "I mean, if he's still in there and he's speaking us, there must be a way to get him out. To bring him back to the normal Will."

"How do we do that?" Chris questioned, looking around to see if anyone knew the answer.

"We could use something familiar to him. Something important that he would recognize. Something that has...meaning," Alicia described slowly, not knowing if what she was saying could actually work or not.

"I know what we can use," Jonathan said before he abruptly got up and left. No one said anything before he came back with a stereo in his hand. "Come on."

Mike, Joyce, and Hopper quickly followed the Byers boy outside back to the shed, not wasting a second. However, before Hopper left, he said, "Keep track of when I tap into the walkie talkie. Write down the code."

The boys quickly nodded, grabbing the pen and more paper so that they could write it down when need be. "Music?" Steve said with a puzzled expression, tilting his head. "How is music gonna help?"

"If a certain song is linked to an important memory, it can help Will get loose. He'll start to remember that memory and it might start to bring his consciousness out," Alicia explained. "This could work," she breathed out with a small smile.

"Nice thinking," Beverly said to her friend, rubbing her shoulders.

"Why is everyone so smart?" Steve muttered under his breath, feeling particularly dumb at the moment.

The music seemed to be working, so the boys continued to write down the Morse code before translating it to actual letters by using a key on paper. After a few minutes, they were able to receive the message, CLOSEGATE.

They all read it aloud, knowing it had to be correct. But, then, all of a sudden, the telephone rang. "Shit! Shit!" Dustin said, running over to the phone and picking it up before he smashed it back down. The telephone rang again, but this time, Nancy tore it off the wall and threw it across the floor.

"Damn," Alicia mumbled under her breath, raising her eyebrows.

"Do you think he heard that?" Max asked.

"It's just a phone. It could be anywhere," Steve pointed out. "Right?" he added, not feeling so sure after thinking about it for a moment.

"But this thing is smart, right? If Will can recognize the sound of his own phone..." Chris trailed off, shaking his head.

"No. There's no way," Beverly said, shaking her head since she didn't want to believe it. But then, a screeching noise was heard in the distance, making all of their eyes widen as they walked over to the window.

"That's not good," Dustin voiced.

"Shit," Beverly whispered, going over to her axe that was propped up against the wall. Steve had already been holding his bat, so he just watched as Beverly didn't hesitate to take the axe this time.

"What do we do?" Alicia worriedly queried, not wanting to go through the same shit again.

"We stay inside," Nancy sternly answered.

The younger kids marched up to the windows and looked outside of them, trying to see if they could spot any of the Demogorgons before the dogs found them first.

"Hey. Hey, get away from the windows!" Hopper shouted after he had gotten inside, and they all ran away from the windows. "Do you know how to use this?" Hopper asked Jonathan, who had returned from putting Will somewhere, holding up one of the guns.

"What?" he replied.

"Can you use this?" Hopper asked urgently.

"Um..."

"How about you?" Hopper quickly asked Chris.

"Uh, I don't—"

"I can," Nancy interjected, stepping forward. Hopper tossed the gun to her and she easily caught it up, turning the safety off and pointing it towards the window.

Beverly stood next to Steve and held up her axe while he held up his nail bat. The others that weren't armed with anything stood behind them, waiting for something to potentially happen.

"Where are they?" Max asked before more growling was heard to their rights, making them all turn that way.

"What are they doing?" Nancy breathed out as she continued to hold her gun up. Beverly held her breath, gripping tightly onto her axe since the suspense was killing her.

The Demodogs then snarled near the windows, making them all turn that way again. Then, all of a sudden, their screeching stopped and one of them jumped through the window.

They all screamed, stepping backwards to get away from it. However, it continued to lay on the ground, not moving at all. "Holy shit," Dustin panted as Hopper made his way closer to it.

"Is it dead?" Max asked.

Hopper used his foot to touch the Demodog. When it had no reaction, they all knew that it had somehow died. But then, the floorboards creaked outside the door, causing them all to whip their bodies around that way.

They held up their weapons once more, watching as the lock had somehow unlocked and the door began to open. Beverly's heart was beating in her chest, expecting to see some type of supernatural creature barge inside.

But she was wrong. It was no supernatural creature.

It was a young girl with slicked back brown hair and heavy eyeshadow.

"Eleven," Mike said as he stepped up to the girl, tears already in his eyes. Eleven? This is Eleven? I thought she died, Beverly thought in confusion, lowering her axe.

"Mike," she whispered, gasping as they both hugged each other.

"Is that...?" Max trailed off, and Lucas nodded with a shocked smile on his face. Dustin had also nodded, but his mouth was parted and his eyes were wide.

"I never gave up on you," Mike told her once he had pulled out of the hug. "I called you every night. Every night for—"

"353 days," Eleven cut him off with a light grin. "I heard."

"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" Mike asked. "That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let her," Hopper spoke up and Mike turned around, giving the cop a confused look. "The hell is this? Where you been?" he asked the girl, making Beverly give Alicia and Steve a confused glance.

"Where have you been?" Eleven countered before he pulled her into a hug.

"You've been hiding her," Mike realized. "You've been hiding her this whole time!" he yelled, shoving Hopper.

"Hey!" Hopper said, turning around and grabbing Mike. "Let's talk. Alone." The two left the room, leaving everyone with shocked and confused expressions. Chris quickly followed the two of them, waiting outside the door they had shut just in case something happened.

Eleven had looked around at everyone before Lucas and Dustin stepped up, making her smile warmly at them. They then enveloped her in a hug. "We missed you," Lucas told her and Beverly smiled even though she really didn't know the girl. But she could tell that she meant a lot to the younger group.

"I missed you, too," Eleven responded.

"We talked about you pretty much every day," Dustin said before they all pulled apart.

Eleven gave Dustin a confused look before she pinched his cheek. "Teeth," she spoke.

"What?"

"You have teeth," she clarified.

Dustin laughed. "Oh. You like these pearls?" he asked her before he purred, scaring Eleven for a second; Beverly and Alicia snorted before they covered their mouths. Lucas just shook his head at his friend.

"Eleven?" Max spoke up, walking over to her. "Hey. Um, I'm Max." The redhead held out her hand toward her. "I've heard a lot about you."

Eleven ignored her hand and pushed passed Max, going over to Joyce who hugged her. "Hey. Hey, sweetheart," Joyce greeted as she began to cry, as did Eleven a bit.

"Can I see him?" Eleven asked and Joyce nodded slowly, taking the girl to where they had put Will.

"So that's Eleven?" Alicia asked her brother.

"Yep. Badass, right?" Lucas said and Alicia shrugged and nodded, playfully shoving his arm.

"So she's been alive this whole time?" Steve concluded and the two boys nodded. "Damn."

authors note
not steve saying that he and bev
make a good team just like hopper
said that to joyce down in the russian
facility 🤭🤭 arguing but still making
a good team >>>>>>
also i am going away friday night
and i think im gonna be gone saturday and
sunday so i prob won't be able to update those
two dates. i should be able to update friday if im
not busy but i just wanted to let you all know
since i usually update pretty frequently