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It’s been a few weeks since Eleven closed the gate, still recharging slowly with the help of her friends.
Hopper has been more relaxed with the rules so that she’s never alone, someone is always with her. It’s Mike on a Monday, Dustin on a Tuesday, Will on Wednesday, Max on Thursday and Lucas on Friday. Then the whole party meets up on a Saturday, sometimes at the Byer’s and sometimes at the cabin and sometimes even Steve comes along. They can’t go outside with El, but no one minds, they’d rather be with her than play dig dug (although they wish they could do both)
This routine starts when El is really sick, and even when El is out of the woods (a phrase that confused her to no end because she hadn’t been back in the woods for a long time) they still come help her, she’s still not quite better.
It’s been three weeks and Hopper has agreed to let the party come over for the Saturday. They have to show up in fifteen minute intervals in case someone catches on and they all have to come from a different direction to get to the cabin but everyone thinks it’s worth it, even Max, who’s managed to form a friendship with El. (She’s her Thursday after all)
Mike isn’t quite sure how he feels at first, having started off roughly with Max, but when he sees El smile and laugh with the red head, he knows it can’t be bad.
They’re all on the floor, Eleven in the middle, cuddled close by Mike, Will and Dustin and Max and Lucas are on the outer part of the circle. They’re still equally involved and cuddled though.
Hopper got called away, so he brought in the next best thing, a damn good babysitter. Steve sat on the sofa, he’d fallen asleep after a few rounds of board games, but no one minded, they knew that they were tiring to keep up with.
It was a miserable day outside. The rain was torrential, and the wind was strong enough to blow most of the party away if they attempted to set foot outside. Which is why it was lucky that they were warm and cosy in the cabin of El and Jim Hopper.
It had been a few hours into their gaming marathon, with El still getting the hang of being the banker in monopoly, but no one minded.
“Time for an interval I think” called Max, rushing to grab a snack as Mike brought in his winnings for the third time.
You’re just jealous you got caught by my houses” he smirked
“No! and if anything, I didn’t get caught they were in my way!” The fiery temper of Max always sprung up during games. No one knew how Steve hadn’t woken up from all the territorial fighting.
They’ve played a few different board games (not D&D, no one’s ready just yet) and now they were trying to find something good on the television. El is grabbing them drinks in what she now knows is called an interval.
“An interball? Like football” She’s glad no one laughs at her when she gets stuff wrong.
“No, El” Mike smiles softly, rubbing circles into her hand, and Max can finally see the difference in him since the young girl game back. He’s lighter, happier.
“An interval, it’s like a break? To sort yourself out and get snacks before the fun starts again!” El smiled and nods, it seems like a nice word.
“Nuh uh. Absolutely not. This is trash” exclaims Dustin as something he deems unworthy comes on the channel.
“Ugh my eyes. Can someone change the channel? I’m too lazy” Lucas asks, and before anyone realises what’s going on El has come back in the room from fetching drinks and is acting on instinct. She turns her head to the side as if to change the television and the room turns white.
She stumbles back, falling into the floor with a thud and everyone panics when they hear it, mixed with the sound of the cups of water and juice falling into the wooden floor.
“Shit El!” yells Dustin, as they all run to her side.
She’s got blood running down her nose, a lot of blood. She hadn’t used her powers since the night of the gate closing and she’s not sure what made her do it today, maybe she got too comfortable, felt too safe. The world had to remind her that she was different once more.
Everyone gets down on their knees, as if surrounding her in a protective circle.
“Shit” muttered Lucas
“That’s so much blood” whispers Will, saying what everyone’s thinking.
Mike is rubbing circles into her skin, only a moment ago doing it with a smile on his face which had been replaced by a familiar frown of worry.
“El can you hear me? El please” he tries, but her eyes are flickering in and out and no one is sure if she’s still there. They hear steps behind them and know they’ve woken up Steve.
“Alright shit heads get outta the way. What’d you spill everywhere? Hoppers gonna-” Steve cuts himself off when he sees the small girl on the floor, bleeding.
“Shit Ellie” he murmurs, slowly bending down and checking her pulse and her breathing.
Ellie is what Steve calls her, only Steve. He came up with it during their one on one babysitting tutoring time.
“Steve what is vowel?” He heard a small voice ask from behind him, turning around from where he’s making a sandwich (El finds out they have to come before eggos, and she’s not pleased)
“Ooh kid that’s some advanced stuff” he warns, putting his tea towel on his shoulder the way his mom does (he doesn’t really register he’s done it until he gets home)
“Okay so, put it like this Ellie” he puts his two hands up, but before he can continue, she cocks her head to the side.
“El- ie?” She sounds it out, it’s foreign on her tongue.
Steve just gives her a look that she’s beginning to learn means “duh” before elaborating.
“They all call you El or Eleven so I figured that I’d give you an even cooler name, used by the coolest person in town!” he ruffles her hair as he brings her the food, and she listens to him eagerly, knowing that tutoring with Steve is going to become one of her favourite things.
Steve lifts up Elevens limp figure and puts her in the sofa he’d been sleeping on mere moments ago.
“Her pulse is steady, so she didn’t do too much damage, but that’s a lot of blood” he worried, hand on his hip, which he usually did when there was an issue going on.
“She was trying to change the channel; it’s been three weeks it doesn’t normally take this long to recharge! What if there’s a problem?” Mike was speaking fast, anxiety clear in the way that he spoke but Max was shaking her head.
“Dude she closed a door to an upside-down universe! That’s got to take a lot of energy. Hop said she even began to levitate. Besides you saw her a few weeks ago, this is a major improvement” she sat down on the arm of the sofa, hand on El’s ankle.
“A major improvement?! El. Is. Unconscious!” Mike cried out, sounding out the final three word as if Max hadn’t realised what just happened.
“Yeah but I’m saying it’s better than it was” she yelled back, the two powerhouses of the argument at the feet and the head of Eleven.
“Hey, hey! Stop arguing this isn’t the time” Steve jumped in between them.
“All of you grab her a blanket, some water and some eggos alright?” He ordered, watching the kids start to quickly move around like a bunch of hens.
Dustin was left standing “I’m going to send the chief a Morse code message, see if he picks up”
Steve just clapped his hand on the smaller boys back and nodded in agreement. Turning back to El and rearranging her to make sure she was comfy.
It had been a few minutes and El had begun to move, Steve perked up a bit.
“Guys I think she’s waking up” he yelled, Mike immediately came running through in time to see El mumbling his name.
“M-mike” it was barely a whisper, but he heard it, he would always hear her.
“I’m here El I promise” he smoothed his hand over her cheek, her skin so soft.
“S-spinny” she whined, turning her head into the couch, and Will turned off the nearby light as he walked in with a glass of water.
“It’ll go away soon El I promise” murmured Mike, stroking her hair with his hand, the blanket he was supposed to get forgotten on the floor.
“Here, try and drink something okay?” Will said softly, kneeling down slowly so as not to tip the water everywhere.
“You kids seem to have this down. Yell at me if you need anything but I’m going to try and mop the floor and pray Hop doesn’t murder me” Steve sighed, heading for the cleaning supplies.
El whimpered again as she took a few sips of the cold drink, clearly upset she’d caused her fiends distress. She felt like she was always doing that.
“I’m s-sorry guys” she managed to get out from squashed into the sofa.
“El you don’t need to be sorry for anything” Mike soothed
“Yeah, El, we’re your friends! It’s what we do” Will smiled softly.
Dustin came over, having heard their conversation on his way forward. Getting no joy from the Morse code.
“You know the rule El! When a party member requires assistance, it is up to us to provide that assistance”
Lucas and Max walk in now, with not only eggos for El but for everyone.
Max sat down with the boys on the floor, temped to shove Mike but knowing it wasn’t the right time.
“Do you think you could eat a little bit El?” She asked, moving the plate towards her.
El reached her hand forward, seriously shaking and brows furrowed, as if it was taking all her energy.
Lucas covered her hand with his, pushing it back down to rests
“Don’t sweat it El, we can bring the eggo to you” he smiled gently.
Lucas and El had started roughly, but as soon as she came back, they were just like old friends. In fact, Lucas felt like he could confide in El about things no one else would understand, often using their Fridays to help each other out.
El smiled, feeling warm and cared for, worries slowly depleting as everyone started to eat and drink, Mike helping her with her eggos and water, as if it was in his second nature to care for her. (She hoped it was, he was definitely hers)
Even Steve came over when he’d finished cleaning, making El giggle with his jokes.
“You shit heads not leave me any food? I’m wounded”
“You’re the adult here Steve!”
“So what? I don’t need sustenance?!”
It turns out Dustin had kept him an eggo, so everything was okay.
They stayed like that for a while, accepting the show on the tv, no one daring to leave their close circle to change it.
It was awhile later, after idle chatter was dying down and the party was deciding what game they could play without El straining too much.
“Certainly not twister that’s for sure” will pointed out
“No Will that sounds perfect! She probably couldn’t even do right hand red at this rate” Max said with her perfect mix of sarcasm and angst.
They settled on trivial pursuit, even though El wasn’t the best at it she enjoyed learning and holding onto the wedges.
As Dustin and Will set it up, Mike watched El intently, he could tell there was still something on her mind.
“What’s the matter El?” He whispered, soothingly moving her upright on the couch so she could settle into his side.
“Burden” she just muttered; eyes cast downward.
“W-what?” Mike couldn’t help his voice rising in volume.
“Me. Burden” Mike knew when El began talking in short sentences she was thinking about the past.
“El you’re in no way a burden!” Mike argued, gently pulling her head up to stare into her eyes and trying not to get distracted by how pretty, pretty pretty-
Everyone had stopped what they were doing to pay attention, with furrowed brows and sad expressions and all El could think was that she’d somehow managed to ruin everything again.
“You’ve ruined it again for me Eleven”
"I'm sorry papa"
“You think you’re a burden while you’re recharging?” Clarified Will, wanting to make sure he understood the issue. Dragging her out of her thoughts just in time.
El just nodded and sniffled, trying not to let her tears show.
“Bullshit” everyone turned to Lucas, who’d spoken defiantly.
“So, you can’t change the tv channel for us, you literally just saved the entire world El. If it were me, I’d have taken a sixth month holiday!” He joked
“Haliday?” El mumbled, rubbing her eyes as her pronunciation was off again.
“Holiday” clarified Lucas with Max jumping in.
“It’s like a really long interval El” she smiled gently.
“Yeah don’t sweat it little Hopper” comforted Steve, sitting down next to her, much to the distaste of Mike, wanting El and the couch to himself for a bit longer.
“Remember when I had my face all f- I mean- janked up? I had to take a little interval because I needed rest” Steve managed to finish gracefully despite almost swearing in the middle, knowing the kids swore a lot anyway didn’t change him trying not to in front of El, not wanting to be a bad influence.
“Yeah! And when Will came back last year, he needed rest! And this year too” pointed out Dustin, not going into details about why Will needed rest. Everyone still tiptoed around the specifics.
“The point is El-” Mike continued, bringing her attention back to him.
“We all need help sometimes, and that’s completely okay” he smiled at her, eyes shining in a way that El knew was only for her.
“Okay” she echoed, looking around at everyone’s smiling faces.
“Let’s play. So, I can a- an- annihilate you all” she grinned.
“Woah where’d you learn that word Ellie? Got yourself a new tutor?” Steve held his heart in mock hurt.
“It’s all Dustin, he’s all talk and no action!” Barked Max, preparing herself for the game.
“Oh yeah? At least I have talk! And I’m not ginger” Dustin whispered the end dramatically loud. Regretting it when his face collided with a cushion.
“You’re dead Henderson”
Sitting there between her friends, and the damn good babysitter Steve (who was becoming more of a friend than a babysitter) and wrapped up in Mike’s loving arms, El had never felt more okay.