Chapter Text
Steve dropped Robin off at 10:15 and considered checking in on the Hopper-Byers. They’d still be up, of course, but they didn’t need the stress of an unexpected knock on the door at night. He drove home instead, taking the long way, and cycled through the tapes in his car: Blondie, Journey, Queen, Eddie’s Metallica, the mixtape Nancy made for him senior year, an untitled mixtape from Eddie’s van. He tried silence, then Journey again. It wasn’t what he wanted, but it would do.
The lights were on when he pulled into the driveway, and that was enough to make him back out immediately. He couldn’t talk to his parents, not tonight. He turned around and headed for the hospital instead.
He parked in his usual spot and strode into the lobby just after 11. “Hi, Gertie. I’m here about my ribs. And my lung. It got punctured, you know.”
The receptionist stared at him, unmoved by the familiar charade. “Steve, you can’t just barge in here at all hours to visit your friend.”
“No, it’s definitely my ribs. Oooh, they hurt.” He winced. “Maybe I should see a doctor.” He clutched his side and flipped his hair at her, giving her a pained-but-brave smile.
Gertie rolled her eyes. “If anyone sees you, I will encourage them to throw you out.”
“No need, I’ll throw myself out if I’ve gotten that sloppy. You’re the best, Gertie, I mean that.” He was already halfway down the hall, glancing cautiously through the door before opening it.
It was Thursday night, and the hospital had gotten quieter as summer progressed. He passed the occasional employee but kept his head down and stayed out of their way. He knew the least-trafficked route by heart, and he had learned how to walk as if he belonged here. He got to her room without incident and slipped inside unnoticed.
Max lay on her bed, bruises faded but neck still immobilized, tubes covering most of her face. Someone had brought fresh flowers and propped her skateboard beside her bed, where she could reach out to touch it if she ever woke up.
“Hey kid,” he said. “I know I said I wasn’t coming back til the weekend, but it ended up being a rough night.” He paused and peered at her. “Has El been practicing on your hair again?” He undid an uneven braid and pulled the comb out of his pocket. “I know she hasn’t had hair for long, but she’s awful at it. She should leave it to me.”
“I was wondering who was keeping her hair braided.”
Steve turned so fast that he nearly fell from the bed. The comb clattered to the floor. “I’m supposed to be here,” he blurted out.
The woman in the doorway was nearly as tall as Steve, with ash blond hair pulled into a tight bun. She wore a white pantsuit that looked almost like a lab coat at first glance, until you noticed the gold necklace and high heels. “It’s quite all right. I’m Doctor Carlson. I assisted you and your friends after the fire at the Starcourt Mall, though I assume you don’t remember me.”
“Oh.” He didn’t, but he usually lost a couple of days after a head injury. He glanced towards Max, then her monitors. Her heart was still beating and she was still breathing, and those were the only lines he could make any sense of. “Did they bring you in for Max? Is she doing any better?”
“She’s making some progress, but I came for an entirely different reason.” She stepped in, and took the seat opposite the bed. “I was hoping to speak to you.”
A shiver went through his body, just the slightest whisper that she might be dangerous. He sat up straight and glanced beside the bed with different eyes. Her skateboard was his best option. It would probably splinter with one solid hit, but the woman looked like she’d have trouble withstanding a good blow. He could crack her head open and make a run for it, as long as she didn’t have backup. “What do you want?”
“You’re not in any trouble, Steven, and neither are your friends. I know we haven’t made the best impression on you, but I hope I can change that.”
“Who’s we?” he asked, sliding a hand towards the skateboard.
“The CIA. Tell me, Steven. Where do you see yourself in five years?”
He stared at her, then started laughing. He leaned towards Max, nudging her arm beneath the IVs and tape. “Max, you hearing this shit? Seriously, Doc, you’re hilarious. Unfortunately, it’s been a long day and I just remembered that I have to go wash my hair. Have a great night.” He pushed past her brusquely, intentionally jostling her chair with his leg.
“Are you sure there’s nothing we could discuss?” she asked.
And that got him. He stopped cold and looked towards ICU room 6, just across the hallway. Old Mrs. Stewart was there now, and her kids and grandkids came to visit her dutifully on Tuesdays and Sundays. If they knew who’d been in that bed three weeks ago, they might think twice about visiting.
Steve hadn’t expected it to still hurt this much.
He turned. “Sure. You wanna tell me anything about Eddie?”
She stared at him, expressionless, from her seat. “I could discuss it behind a closed door, if you don’t mind.”
He stepped back inside and resisted the urge to slam the door. It wouldn’t help anything to scare Mrs. Stewart out of her coma. He stood between Max and the woman in a suit, keeping the skateboard just within arm’s reach. “You want to tell me where he is? Is he dead?”
She tilted her head to the side. “You read the paper. They found his body in the quarry two weeks after the rest of you turned up with those grievous injuries. His poor uncle was offered a union job in Albany not long after, and was all too eager to take it.”
He cocked his head to match hers. “Come on, doc.” It had been three weeks of that weak cover. Three weeks since he woke up and hobbled down the hall to find an empty bed and no answers.
She sighed, and folded her hands in her lap. “What would you prefer for Mr. Munson? That we leave him injured in a town that hates him? Did you know that a nurse tech cut his oxygen hose the first night? He barely survived his injuries but he absolutely wouldn’t have survived this town.”
Steve took a sharper breath than he’d intended. He hadn’t known that. “So he did survive? And he’s safe?”
She studied him for a moment and her gaze softened, almost approaching tenderness. “It’s very important to you, isn’t it? That they stay safe, that you do what you can to keep them safe.”
“Who?” he asked. “You mean my friends? Yeah, it’s pretty important that my friends don’t get murdered by monsters. Monsters of any kind, including the ones with government badges.”
“Most people want to protect their own family, the people closest to them. But by all accounts, you encountered a group of children that you didn’t particularly like one night and risked your life repeatedly to save them.”
He shook his head emphatically. “Hey, no, they’re great kids, even when they’re little shits. I like them plenty!”
“By all accounts, you’d only even met one of them prior to the events at Hawkins Lab and didn’t particularly enjoy being around younger children. You didn’t babysit and you declined all requests that you assist with your school’s JV team. You don’t have any siblings and initially didn’t get along with Nancy Wheeler’s brother. But you defended the same boy with your life repeatedly, after his sister broke your heart and left you for Jonathan Byers. You bullied Jonathan as well as Eddie, and then you nearly bled to death on their behalf. Most people protect their own family. You’ve done something entirely different.” She laid out this litany of faults without emotion until that last phrase: entirely different.
He gritted his teeth. “So what, do I get a gold star or something? A medal?”
“That can be arranged, though I suspect you’d prefer another concussion over a medal ceremony. Instead, I’ll offer a gift I don’t often give: the truth.” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, and her expression hardened, all tenderness forgotten. “Steve, your friends are not safe.”
He physically recoiled, stumbling backwards and instinctually returning to Max’s side. He gripped the edge of the skateboard and pulled it close. His heartbeat quickened, and his limbs burned in anticipation.
“There’s nothing here,” she added softly, still staring at him with that stony intensity. “There are no immediate threats. It’s not coming today, but it’s coming.”
He didn’t relax, keeping his arms and legs ready. “What’s coming?”
She shook her head. “You already know that, and I think you already knew that this wasn’t over. It has their scent, and yours. Just as it had Eddie Munson’s scent, Will Byers’s scent, and poor Chrissy Cunningham’s scent. We can take Eddie from the town that wants his blood, and we can send Will Byers out of state, but there is nothing we can do to shield him from the other world. The place you call the Upside Down is all around us. This is not the only point of entry, simply the nearest. It has seen your friends, and it has seen you. Your friends will never be safe again, no matter where we hide them. It will have them, as it had Chrissy, unless we cut our world off from it for good.”
He let the skateboard fall to the floor. It clattered against the tile and rolled away, forgotten. “Who the fuck are you?”
She ignored his question and stood to face him eye to eye. “In the face of this impossible danger, you have demonstrated a rare skill set. You fought a small battle and you somehow won. You kept your loved ones alive, and for those that have ventured into the other world, that is rare indeed. You are uniquely qualified to help us end the war for good. In return, we will give you the tools you need to save these kids, and kids like them. Don’t they deserve that? Don’t you?” She looked towards Max. “Doesn’t she?”
Steve watched Max in silence for a while, aching as her chest rose and fell in perfect, mechanical time. “You gonna answer my question about Eddie?”
She smiled just a little, a smile full of sympathy and patience. “I’d be happy to. But you need more context first, and I need some assurance that you’ll lend us your assistance. I’m afraid I’m coming to you in a position of weakness, Steve. We need you, and I need what little leverage I have.”
“Ah. Right.” He sighed. “You offer me the news I’ve been desperate to hear only to withhold it. You tell me my friends are in danger and then you tell me to wait, as if there was even a chance I wouldn’t take the job. That’s what this is, right? A job offer?”
She smiled again. “It’s much more than that.”
-
“What the hell does that mean?” Robin raised an eyebrow. “What a fucking weirdo!”
“Right? She did make the doctors look at my ribs again, though, which was good because one of them needed to be taped again.” He lifted his shirt to show her.
“Ew, no! Wait, what else did she say about Eddie, aside from a vague hint that they moved him out of the hospital?”
He shook his head and dropped his shirt, wincing as he lowered his arms. “All she said was ‘not yet,’ which implies there’s more information, right?”
She grimaced. “Or that she’s stringing you along. If I was going to manipulate you into coming along on some secret government mission, I’d imply that I could bring back the dead.”
“Come on, Robin, it’s the only thing that makes sense. Henderson and I have talked it through extensively. They’ve faked deaths before, in this very town. If he’s alive, he’s probably in some kind of witness protection thing miles away, and our guess is - “ He did a drumroll on the counter to add a little drama. “New York City.”
The reveal was met with more incredulity than he’d expected. “Why?”
“Well, it’s huge, so he can get lost in a crowd. Besides, what does Munson like? Dungeons and dragons, heavy metal, drugs. He could be a, I don’t know, a dungeon book seller, and there’s not much market for that in a small town. He could be some kind of low level metal rock star. He could be a drug dealer. These are all city jobs.”
Robin stared at him. “Eddie literally sold your teammates drugs here in Hawkins.”
Steve waved his hands dismissively. “But he’d be better at it in a city! More people are doing drugs in New York.”
“That means more competition. Besides, I don’t think the government would let him be a drug dealer in witness protection. There’s plenty of other things he likes,” Robin mused. “Guitars.”
“True.”
“Tattoos.”
“Oh, that’s a good one! He could be a tattooer.”
“Bondage.”
“What?”
“What?” Robin replied, eyes wide.
“No, no, you said it, what did you mean?”
Robin cleared her throat loudly. “Moving along! If he's in New York, that’s kind of a best case scenario, even if it is for witness protection. He hated it here. I bet the metal scene in New York is amazing.”
“Robin, what did you mean?“ Suddenly, it clicked. Steve slapped a hand to his forehead and said, “Oh my god, the handcuffs.” The door chimed, and he stood, smiling. “Welcome to Family Video!”
Robin went back to checking and rewinding returns while he rented Legend to a family of 4. When they’d left, Robin asked, “So what about the job? What did you say?”
“I mean, they have to do a background check and a whole bunch of paperwork first, but I said I’d go try it out or whatever.”
“Wait, seriously?” Robin stopped mid motion, tape halfway out of the box. “You’re just going to jump right in?”
Her surprise caught him off guard. “Yeah, did you miss the part about cutting the Upside Down off from our world permanently? As devastated as I’d be to leave Family Video, that’s a pretty persuasive argument.”
She was staring at him like he’d grown tentacles. “There are an awful lot of persuasive arguments against it, Steve. It’s the CIA. What if they’re lying?
It was his turn to stare. “Does it matter? It’s worth the risk, it’s worth any risk!”
“Any risk? Any risk at all? Ok, actually,” she turned over a flier with the week’s coupons on it and wrote Pros on the left side. She drew a line down the middle, dividing the paper vertically in half, and wrote Cons on the right side. “Let’s do a risk analysis. What are the good things that this job offers?”
“Cutting the Upside Down off from the real world,” he replied immediately.
She made a face. “That’s a big concept, and I’m not sure I believe it. If nothing else, it doesn’t seem like the whole truth.” Destroy the Upside Down? she wrote under Pros, and Lying about the Upside Down? under Cons. “But what else do they offer? Real things, not big promises.”
He thought about it. “Information. Research about the creatures and knowledge of what they can do, instead of having to figure it out on our own.”
Information about the Upside Down, she wrote. “And technology. They probably have something better than kiddie pools full of salt water and walkie-talkies.” She added that to the list.
“Eddie,” he said. “She knew something about him, that much is for sure. If I took the job, I’d have a security clearance. I could track him down.”
“Assuming he’s alive,” she murmured. Finding Eddie? she wrote, and then, Money. “I assume they’re paying better than Family Video?”
“Oh.” He hadn’t asked. “I mean, I guess.”
“You guess? You didn’t ask about money? God, it’s so weird talking to rich people.” No more Family Video, she added to the Pros list.
“That goes in the Cons list, dumbass. I don’t think they’ll let me bring an emotional support lesbian.”
Breaking up the duo :( was only the second item on the Cons list. “Where is it, anyway? I assume it’s not in town?”
“Chicago.”
Robin gave him an odd look that lasted a little too long. “I just got a weird letter from the University of Chicago.” Chicago went onto the Pros list.
“What letter? Besides, Chicago’s another con.”
“Stuff about their linguistics program. It said there were grants for certain students and I should apply for one of them. I’m… I’ll think about it. But you, Harrington,” she said as she wrote Far from the gang on the Cons list. “You might miss me and the kids, but you’d do well to get out of here. Besides, you’ve already dated all the eligible women in this town, and Emilio Estevez still hasn’t moved here to sweep you off your feet.”
“I don’t have a crush on Emilio Estevez, and if I did, it would be completely reasonable and heterosexual, we’ve discussed this,” he said impatiently. “I don’t want to live in Chicago, I’m not desperate to get out of here like Jonathan and Eddie are. Were. But it’s only a three hour drive. I’d be here on the weekends, and it would be nice for the kids to have access to a bigger city. Will could - “ He froze as realization hit him, then grabbed the pen. Gay bars, he wrote on the Pros list.
“Oh, so you think you’ll meet Emilio Estevez in Chicago?” Robin asked.
“Robin! There’s gay bars in Chicago, and there’s - “ He glanced around and switched to a whisper. “There’s lesbians in gay bars.”
She blushed and fell silent for a full 2 seconds. “We’ll leave it for now. Moving on.” She took the pen back and wrote Working with evil government on the Cons list.
“Oh, that’s conjecture,” he protested.
“Nice word, Henderson. But I’m not wrong: these people are fucked up. They keep huge secrets from everyone and they experimented on kids. They’re bad guys, and working with them sounds awful.”
“Ok, well now that we’re moving on to the big stuff, let’s add safety.”
Possibility of increased safety for everyone, she added to the Pros list, then Certain increased danger to Steve in the Cons list.
“That’s not necessarily true,” he said. “Hawkins is the creepy murder capital of the midwest, and I’d have a little bit of warning instead of getting Vecna’d out of nowhere. I’m already involved and I’m already in danger. This is going to keep happening whether we’re oblivious to it or not. Think about how we worked half the summer above a Russian base without even realizing it.”
“That’s not making the point you want it to,” she retorted. “If Dustin hadn’t intercepted their message and I hadn’t cracked their code, they would have kept on doing their thing under the mall and wouldn’t have ever come near us. They wouldn’t have drugged and tortured us. Hell, they might have even caught on to the giant flesh monster if we hadn’t disrupted them.”
”Ah!” He grabbed the pen and used it to point at her. “But you’re making another point in my favor! What if we hadn’t disrupted them, or if we’d somehow been able to work together instead? Better yet, what if we didn’t have to pick up clues and crack codes in an ice cream parlor, and we could collaborate and share information with people who actually knew what they were doing? What if, when we realized something weird was going on, we could go in with bombs and flamethrowers instead of flashlights and sports equipment?”
“What if the Upside Down was full of sunshine and rainbows? What if the moon was a pumpkin? We’re writing facts, not hypotheticals.” Robin snatched the pen from his hand and wrote “flamethrowers” on the Pros list. She held the list up and stared at it for a moment, expression growing thoughtful.
“You’ll notice that the Pros are longer,” Steve said.
“I think,” Robin said slowly. “That we’ve neglected some key input.”
-
“Oh honey, I don’t know,” said Joyce, making her best concerned mom face.
“Yes,” said El at the same moment, no hesitation. She took a bite of her spaghetti as the rest of the table turned to stare at her. She chewed, swallowed, noticed the attention of her family, and finally elaborated: “You should do it. I did.”
“Well I guess that’s settled.” Steve smiled at Robin, and stuck his fork into a meatball.
“No, it’s not!” Dustin said vehemently, as he had every time they had this discussion. Robin was shaking her head beside him. “El, come on. After everything they did to you? Do you really think he’ll be safe?”
“No,” she said simply. “But they won’t… it won’t be like it was with me. You have to start them young.” She sounded like she was reciting the last part, and a shiver went up Steve’s spine.
“But these are still the people who did all that to you,” Dustin gestured between El and Steve. “They’re monsters, and they’re just as dangerous as anything in the Upside Down. You’d be colluding with the enemy.”
“They might not try to torture you into psychic powers, but they could do something just as bad,” Robin pointed out.
“If they were going to kidnap me, they’d have done it already,” Steve said through a full mouth. As far as he was concerned, all he’d needed was El’s blessing. He was going.
“They’d make you a part of whatever awful conspiracy they’re working on. You might not even know what was really happening. You’d be corrupted without fully understanding it.”
“Yeah, and as long as that conspiracy involves decreasing everyone’s chance of getting eaten by literal monsters, I can live with that.” He took another bite.
“It would be good to know what they know,” said Will softly. “To be able to plan for next time in advance.” Steve caught his eye and nodded. He’d known Will would understand, even if Dustin didn’t.
“We don’t know…” Joyce started, but didn’t even finish the thought.
“Yeah, we do,” said Steve. “I think everyone here knows, and you know it’s coming soon.”
El nodded solemnly. “The Mind Flayer.”
The table went silent again.
“If it’s messed up,” Jonathan offered quietly. “You could tell us. You could tell Nancy. We’d get the word out, like we did before.”
“I guess.” He didn’t like the idea of taking on the entire CIA, but if Nancy really got determined, his money was on her. He looked toward the one member of the dinner party who hadn't spoken at all. “Chief?”
Hopper hadn’t touched his food since Steve started talking, and was carefully watching the center of the table. “I don’t want to say it, kid.”
“But?” Steve pressed.
Hopper sighed and looked up. His hair was growing back, but his eyes hadn’t become any less gaunt in the month since he returned. “I think you’ve gotta.”
“Hop!” Joyce protested. “He doesn’t have to do anything, he’s just a kid.”
“I’m nineteen, and I want to do it,” Steve leaned forward. “Ms. Byers - sorry, Mrs. Hopper - they’re not kidnapping me or locking me up. This won’t be like it was with El and the chief. It’s a job, not a prison term. Besides, if something happens to Will again, don’t you want someone who will tell you the truth?”
“You think they’re going to tell you the truth this time?” Dustin asked. “Since they did such a great job telling you the truth about Hawkins lab?”
“They told me the truth,” El said. “They came to me because I had something they needed, and this time they gave me the truth. Negotiation.”
Dustin looked at El, then Steve. “You’re both willing to take your chances that they’re negotiating in good faith? Willing to make yet another deal with the devil?”
The table fell silent for a moment, save the sound of El slurping a noodle a little too loudly.
“I would,” Will spoke up. “I don’t want to do this alone anymore. I want to know what they know, and I want to be able to use everything we have when the big fight comes.”
“Again, you’re making a lot of assumptions here,” said Robin. “Would you have that level of access? Would you actually be working on what they say you’re working on? Would they really be cutting off the Upside Down or making it worse?”
“Does that matter, as long as we know something?” asked Will. “Ash started falling from the sky again last night. My skin crawls all the time now. They can’t make it worse than it already is.”
His mother grabbed his hand but didn’t say anything.
Steve nodded. “Something is coming, whether I put my ass on the line or not.”
“You are not an acceptable risk, Steve,” said Dustin, his voice shaking a little.
Steve started to look him in the eyes, but immediately had to look away. “I already am, Henderson. I end up in the hospital a little longer each time around, and if we don’t have something helping our odds next time, I’m not - “
Robin nudged his arm. “Don’t,” she whispered, and he didn’t.
The table went quiet again, and Steve studied the walls. He liked Joyce and Hopper’s new place. It was homey like the Wheelers’, but cozier, a little more chaotic. There were still boxes stacked in the corners, but they’d already hung photographs and paintings on all of the walls, including one of Will’s admittedly awesome wizards. Steve imagined it in the Upside-Down, dusty and torn, lifeless.
“If anyone’s going to do it,” Jonathan said reluctantly. “Steve’s a good pick.”
Steve clutched his chest dramatically to distract from the smile involuntarily spreading across his face. “I’m flattered, Byers.”
El looked at him thoughtfully. “I trust Steve.”
Steve had never really gotten the hang of talking to El. She’d only been around that one summer, and it was hard to forget that she could kill him with her mind. But she was a good kid, and he felt like he knew her through the eyes of the others. “Even if they’re doing something bad, like Henderson said?”
She nodded. “You’re not like them. You just want everyone to be safe. I didn’t even know, not at first. That grownups should want you to be safe. Maybe you can be a good influence.”
Steve remembered Dr. Carlson’s words - it has seen your friends, and it has seen you - and said nothing.
“Well,” Joyce finally said. “Murray’s going to be thrilled.”
“Oh my God,” Hopper rubbed his eyes. “He’ll be insufferable. We cannot tell him.”
“We have to tell him.” Jonathan grinned. “I’m coming with you when you do, and I’m bringing my camera.”
El leaned towards Steve and spoke quietly. “When I was a child, I didn’t know any better and I didn’t have a choice. But they came to me last year with a choice and I did it. I’d do it again. I’d do all of it again.” She met his eyes with a seriousness that no 15 year old should ever have to possess. “I’d do anything to fight it.”
He barely knew this girl, but he would have gladly bitten through a hundred demobats to keep her from ever having to make that choice again. “Well, maybe now you won’t have to,” he said, and wondered if it would be too late to call Dr. Carlson when he got home.