Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“And I become an American citizen and join in on the fun, yes?”

“Who said you had to be American to join in on the fun?” Murray said grabbing alexei’s hand and dragging him into the festival.

“Here is the most glorified holiday in America, you can eat food that’s covered in grease, play carnival games that are rigged so they can steal all your money, and of course all the fun fair rides.” Murray continued on.

“ Fifteen tickets please. ” Murray spoke to the ticket booth.

“ Have fun at the fair! ” The booth operator replied handing the tickets over.

”are you sure these games are rigged? They don’t look rigged” Alexei asked scanning over the booths.

”Yeah, that’s how they get you, Alexei dear.” Murray said handing over the tickets.

”While you’re doing that I’m going to get food for us both then we can meet up with Joyce and Hopper.” Murray continued on.

Alexei looked at the tickets and looked at all the game booths again, he slowly started parting ways with Murray, the first booth that caught his attention was a balloon and darts game.

”Step right up, Sir!” The fun-fair employee said, while Alexei handed him five tickets for exchange of five darts.

Alexei needed no English to understand the objective of the game, he lined himself up with the balloon he was aiming for and let go of the the dart.

pop

All the children around Alexei started to jump up and cheer.

pop

The children jumped and screamed louder than before, one of them even high-fiving Alexei

Pop

The children went silent in anticipation for the next dart.

pop

They got even more loud and rowdy.

”you got this mister!” A little kid saying holding a thumbs up.

pop

“YEA MISTER! YOU DID IT!” A kid presumably the other kids friend yelled.

What could you say? It was like Alexei was a natural, but at the same time it was just darts, the exact game he used to play with his co-workers on his ‘breaks’, in fact the only game they ever had enough time to play.

Alexei gave high-fives around and picked out a woody wood-pecker plushie, he slowly parted ways with the booth and went off to find Murray, which didn’t take long.

”Murray! Look, they’re not rigged!” Alexei said waving his hand in the air.

”YEAH!” Murray said holding up the corn dogs, to Alexei’s surprise wasn’t as big  as the movies and magazines in Murray’s house made them seem.

Alexei stopped mid way in the crowd, his heart was skipping beats, he ran into the crowd hoping Grigori didn’t see him, which is almost unlikely. Murray looked at him confused until he saw the ‘7ft Russian’ Hopper and Joyce had been rambling on about, slowly walking towards where Alexei once was standing.

“We need to get out of here! They know we’re here”  Alexei said popping up behind Murray.

”Holy fucking shit, don’t do that to me.” Murray said handing the corn dog to Alexei, Alexei took it with one foul swoop and deep throated the whole corn dog.

”mmm, tasty! Alright let’s go bald American!” Alexei said grabbing Murray’s arm and dragging him to find Joyce.

“ I really hope that name doesn’t stick.. ” Murray muttered.

“ HOPPER, JOYCE, OVER HERE! ” Murray yelled.

” What are you guys doing? I thought I told you to stay in the car. ” Hopper said slowly walking towards Murray and grabbing his by his shoulders in anger.

” Well, the thing is we saw that 7ft Russian guy, we ran away and we stole some food and a toy to blend in with the crowd. ” Murray lied, Alexei nodding along because he thought he was telling what really happened.

”As long as you two didn’t get spotted that’s fine,but where is the 7ft Russian guy now.” Joyce said looking around frantically, and Hopper let go of Murray giving him a dirty look.

The four of them scanned the crowd until Alexei started running for the trees, the rest turned to see three guys in black running after him.

” Hey commie bastards!”  Hopper said grabbing a metal pole from a booth that was trying to be set up and wacked the first guy, then reaching for his revolver.

”oh you’ve done it know American scum!” The guy said throwing a punch.

” RUN TO THE CAR GUYS! RUN!” Hopper screamed throwing the keys to Joyce.

Joyce and Murray started running after Alexei who was waiting in the car for them.

”RUN RUN, HURRY HURRY!” Alexei screamed at them, surprisingly still holding his plushie.

Joyce slammed the door open and shut and fumbled with the keys trying to get them in the slot.

” GODAMMIT JOYCE HURRY!”  Murray screamed.

” ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!”  She replied hitting the accelerator making everyone in the car fly back.

Joyce started swerving through the woods, obviously through the parts large enough for the car, to get to Hopper in time. 

They finally made it to him, Joyce swerved the car in a way she knocks the guys in black down.

“ Hopper get on, I don’t want to argue right now hop the fuck on and let’s get on. Joyce yelled.

Hopper jumped over the car door and Joyce hit the pedal again.

“Hey translate this Murray.” Hopper yelled handing the walkie over to Murray.

“ They said they’ve found the children on the lower level of star court mall .” Murray said with wide eyes facing Hopper.

“ FUCK, JOYCE HIT THE FUCKING ACCELERATOR !” Hopper screamed.

Meanwhile with the kids.

“ Omg, this is fucking insane.. ” Steve whispered.

“ Shhh !” Dustin replied.

“ They’re so going to find us .” Erica whispered back.

“ Yea because we keep talking now shut up. ” Robin replied in frustration.

“Everyone come here.” * radio beep *

The Russian guys slowly made their way towards the counter, the first guy placing a finger on his lips and walking forward slowly whilst making a follow gesture.

*beep beep beep beep* the car alarm went off.

“Huh” They all turn the sound.

“What the fuck.” The second guy says looking up too see Eleven and the gang.

“What-“ The third guy asked before the car was lifter off the ground and started  rolling towards them killing them all instantly.

Robin, Erica, Dustin and Steve slowly arose from their positions from behind the counter to see what the fuck was going on.

“ What the fuck, that was so sick !” Dustin roared, running over the the other gang.

“ Lucas?” Erica asked surprised

“what are you doing here ?” Lucas asked.

“ Ask them it’s their fault!” She replied pointing at Robin and Steve.

“ That’s true that was entirely our fault .” Steve said.

“ I don’t understand what happened with that car.” Robin asked with concern.

“El has superpowers.” Dustin replied pointing to eleven.

“ I’m sorry?” Robin asked even more concerned.

“ El has superpowers, she threw it with her mind. Come on catch up.” Steve explained.

“ Wait that’s El?” Erica asked pointing to Eleven.

“ Who’s El?” Robin asked still confused.

“ I’m sorry , who are you ?” Nancy asked pointing at Robin.

“ I’m Robin I work with Steve. ” Robin replied nervously.

“ She cracked the top secret code!” Dustin smiled.

“ Yea , which is how we found out about the Russians in the first place.”  Steve stated.

“ I’m sorry, Russians. What Russians?” Johnathan asked confused.

“ THE RUSSIANS!” Steve raised his voice pointing to the direction of the three dead men.

“ Those were Russians?” Max asked.

“ Some of ‘em .” Erica replied looking back at the men again.

“ What are you talking about?” Lucas asked waiting for an explanation.

“ Didn’t you hear our code red?” Dustin asked with concern visible on his face now.

“ Yea, but I couldn’t understand half of what you were saying!” Mike snapped back.

“ Goddamn low battery!” Dustin sighed.

“ How many times do I got to tell you, the low battery!” Steve growled slapping the back of his hand onto his other.

“ Well everything worked out didn’t it Steve.” Dustin bit back.

“ Worked out? We almost died.” Erica chimed in.

“ Yeah, but we didn’t. Did we?” Dustin bit back again.

“ Pretty damn close.” Steve remarked.

“ Ok, Russians, as in they’re working for the Russian government?” Lucas asked still trying to get a grasp on what was happening.

After bickering back and forth they heard a thud on the floor, they all looked to see it was Eleven.

“ El!”

“EL”

“EL!” Mike Screamed leaning down.

“What’s wrong with her?” Erica asked concerned.

“ Whats wrong, what’s wrong, what’s wrong?” Mike kept repeating.

“ My leg..MY LEG.” Eleven groaned.

“ Her leg?” Johnathan restated rolling up the pant leg on her injured leg.

They unwrapped the cloth on her wound and they all repulsed.

Then the wound start moving and everyone looked around in concern, Mike was screaming El’s name trying to comfort her only to get her loud scream in response.

They kept discussing what to do when Jonathan gave them instructions and he ran off to get supplies,and eventually he ran back with a knife, gloves and some bandages.

“ This is going to hurt like hell ok?” Jonathan said applying the gloves and starting to cut into the wound, he then started digging into it trying to get the moving thing, eleven screaming.

“ I can do it. ” Eleven said weakly sitting up and using all her focus and strength on the wound, she started groaning and yelling in pain causing the window behind them to shatter, she managed to have pulled it out and flung it across the floor.

Squelch

Is the sound it made when it was met with the bottom of some unknowns shoe. That unknowns shoe belonged to hopper. Hopper was joined with Alexei, Murray and Joyce, the kids ran to them and gave them a hug, obviously them referring to Hopper and Joyce.

“ Who the fuck are they?” Erica asked curiously.

“I’ll explain later just come on we gotta get Eleven some medical attention, then you can explain to me what the fuck that thing that came out of elevens leg was.” Hopper said carrying eleven to the middle of star court bridal style, whilst Murray runs off to get something.

“ The mind flayer, built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her, to pave a way to our world.” Mike said starting off the explanation.

“And it almost did, that was tiny piece of it.” Nancy continued off of her brother’s statement.

“.. How big is this thing?” Hopper raised his eyebrows.

“ It’s big.” Jonathan replied the started discussing the size of the thing.

“ 30 feet at least.” Jonathan continued.

“ Yeah. It sorta destroyed your cabin.” Lucas added on.

“ Sorry.” Lucas whispered after his statement.

“ Ok, so, just to be clear.. this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El it’s some kind of gigantic weapon?” Steve stated trying to get a grasp of this story.

“Yes” Nancy replied

“But instead of, like screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon..with melted people?” Steve continued on.

“Yes, exactly!” Nancy stated.

“ Yea ok—, I’m just making sure.” Steve said shrugging his shoulders.

“ Are we sure this thing is still out there, still alive?” Joyce butted in, it was now her turn to do the questioning.

“ El—, beat the shit out of it but yeah, it’s still alive..” Max replied shrugging her shoulders, she didn’t seem so sure about it either.

“ But if we close the gate again.” Will stated.

“We cut the brain off the body” Max added on.

“And kill it—theoretically.” Lucas butted in.

“ YOO-HOO!” Murray walks out waving papers in the air, he strutted over and placed them onto the table and called everyone to come over.

“ Alexei said this was the hub, now the hub takes us the vault room.” Murray explained.

“Ok, where’s the gate?” Hopper asked placing his hand’s on his hips, almost coming off as intimidating, and impatient.

“ Right here,” Murray pointed to a room. “I don’t know the scale on this map but I think it’s fairly close to the vault room. ”

“ it may be fairly close 50 feet or so.” Murray continued.

“ More like 500.” Erica stated. Everyone looked at her and Hopper gave her a glare, and she glared back.

“ What you’re just going to waltz in there like it’s some commie Disney land?” Erica kept going.

“ I’m sorry who are you ?” Murray asked looking up.

“ Erica Sinclair, who are you?” Erica replied sassily.

“Murray—Bauman.” Murray said glaring at the girl and shrugging his shoulders in sass.

“ Listen, Mr. Bauman. I’m not trying to telling you how to do things, but I’ve been down in that shit hole for 24 hours” Lucas glares at Erica and Erica turns to face Hopper.

“And with all due respect, do what this man tells you, you’re all gonna die.” Erica said then pointing to everyone.

“ I’m sorry why is this four year old speaking to me?” Murray asked, defensively.

“ Umm, I’m ten you bald bastard.” Erica replied hands on hips whilst Murray raised his eyebrows, jaw agape.

“ Erica!” Lucas butted in.

“ What just the facts!” Erica rebutted.

“ She’s right you’re all going to die, but you don’t have to, excuse me may I?” Dustin said stepping out and pointing at the map.

“ Please.” Murray replied with a hint of irritation in his voice.

“ Okay , see this room here? It’s the storage facility. ” Dustin asked circling a room. “ There’s a hatch in here that feeds into the underground ventilation system that will lead you to the base of the weapon.” Dustin continued, drawing a diagonal like from the circle to another room on the map.

“ It’s bit of a maze down there but between me and Erica we can show you the way. ”

“ You can show us the way?” Hopper asked in a tone of ‘oh really can you just.’

“Don’t worry you can do all the fighting and dangerous hero shit, and we’ll just be your…navigators.” Dustin said looking at Hopper then Erica, smiling.

“ No.” Hopper said smugly smirking.

“Pfft.” Alexei laughed.

“ Wait a second why can’t we just get Alexei to lead us?” Joyce asked.

“ Murray ask him!” Joyce continued.

“Alexei can you lead us through the star court lab?” Murray asked holding his shoulders so he’d stop moving around.

“HAHAHA.” Alexei laughed, and everyone looked confused.

“ Ask him what he finds so funny.” Hopper demanded with annoyance.

“What about that is funny to you Alexei?” Murray asked.

“You’re just practically asking me to kill myself, you break me out of my ‘work place’ then you escape with me, you take me to the fair and then you run away again and you expect me to walk back in there as if nothing happened? AS IF THEY DIDN’T ALREADY TELL ALL THE GUARDS IM A TRAITOR ALREADY?” Alexei stated raising his voice with tears in his eyes laughing.

“You classic Americans always thinking you can be the hero, all the time. But maybe you should know, you trying to save me put you and me in way more danger than we both were in before. You’ve fucked up my life and now I’m going to have to pay for it. American fuck.” Alexei spat out.

Murray’s eyes widen and everyone stared curiously awaiting for the translation, which after a few minutes of Murray thinking finally repeated word for word of Alexei’s statement.

“ Holy fuck YOU GUYS GOT A RUSSIAN? WHAT IF HE’S GOT THE GUARDS IN US. WHAT IF HE’S PLAYING A ROLE IS HE GOING TO KILL US?!” Dustin and Mike asked.

“ Listen here you fucking commie you either do this or we force you to.” Hopper said bending down to Alexei with his hands on his thigh.

Alexei awaited for Murray to translate and when he did, Alexei got up and started making a run for it.

“ GET HIM!” Hopper yelled running after him.

“STOP.” Joyce yelled, causing Hopper to stop in his tracks.

“Remember what happened at Murray’s place, he came back. He even said himself that he couldn’t go back in there. It was like asking for a death wish. One way or another he’d come back. Plus him being our map down there won’t work because what Soviet scientist will let three Americans to the gate?” Joyce asked furrowing her brows.

“I still can get over you brought a literal commie to us.” Erica stared off blankly into the depths of the mall where Alexei ran off.

“ Joyce I love you to bits, but he didn’t sound like he was going to fucking come back.” Hopper growled a vein popping through his head.

“Over there!” Mike pointed to a weird light coming out of one of the food stores.

“I opened the shortest and quickest way to the vault room, I decided I’ll go through with the mission. Come to the blue light, Quickly or else I change my mind.” A voice announced over the PA system.

“ GUYS FOLLOW ME NOW.” Murray ran to the light and everyone followed, they eventually made it too the food store.

“Here’s uniforms for the adults, perhaps the taller children can wear these ones and the smaller children stay in the car at all times.” Alexei said awaiting for Murray’s translation.

After the explanation there were four ‘scientists’ five ‘soldiers’ three ‘mechanics’ two ‘lieutenants’.

“If they speak to you in Russian don’t respond and shhh them, they will not disturb you. Unless they are directly addressing you they will not shh.” Alexei continued explaining.

“Don’t worry about me I went down there just then to retrieve these and no guards seemed to have tackled me yet..yet. But please be careful.” Alexei finished up his explanation.

Chapter Text

“ How’d he get up and down so fast?” Erica asked.

“The man did say he knew a short cut.” Steve giggled.

“ Again, why do we trust this man as if those other three Russians weren’t about to kill us?” Erica asked another question.

“ Well first of all, he doesn’t look so scary, he doesn’t seem to be armed. He’s not wearing all black and he doesn’t look like he could physically fight us off.” Steve stated.

“ But you don’t know that, I mean considering you got your shit rocked by Jonathan, he looks innocent, right?” Mike laughed earning glares from his sister and Will.

“We have to work in a quick time frame otherwise they’ll figure out our plan, I’m almost positive if we don’t shut up now I’ll already be dead.” Alexei stated.

“Murray tell him we’re all ready to go.” Joyce said fixing her hat.

“Operation is a go, Smirnoff.” Murray told Alexei.

As soon as Alexei heard Murray’s message he ushered everyone into the elevator and started spamming the button.

“FUCKING ELEVATOR, WORK!” Alexei shouted smacking the button and the elevator made a gut wrenching drop down.

“AHHHHH!” They all screamed, Will was grabbing onto Mike for dear life. Nancy was holding onto Steve and Jonathon out of a panic and Joyce was hugging onto Hopper for dear life.

“ SHUT UP !” Murray shouted as they started coming to a slow stop.

“I think I’m going to be sick. Was his ‘short cut’ just a fucking broken elevator?” Erica asked holding onto her stomach and bending over.

“Possibly, but we need to stop speaking or else, also Lucas and Erica you need to blend in or they’ll catch onto us.” Murray replied handing them over welders masks since they were both dressed as mechanics.

As Lucas and Erica were trying to figure how to put the masks on, the doors slide open in a matter of seconds and they were treated with two Russian guards.

“Oh look who decided to show up.” The first guard laughed.

“Shut up, you don’t want to end up like the others that died on the first machine do you? You’re lucky he’s here to fix things.” The second guard glared at the first guard.

“But that is an awful amount of people he bought.” The first guard stared into the elevator.

Everyone was holding their breath as the guards were speaking, they were awaiting for what Alexei was going to do. Hopper obviously wanted to attack but he knew it was putting everyone else in danger and currently he didn’t think he was ready for that much chaos.

“Will you two stop bickering about how many people I bought and let me and my team through.” Alexei asked.

“No, you haven’t showed your face in at least 48 hrs, why now are you here?” The first guard asked raising an eyebrow.

“For someone who’s all brut, you have no intelligence whatsoever, I was looking for parts and things to make the machine even stronger.” Alexei stated.

“Omg hurry up, we don’t have enough time.” Erica muttered and Lucas grabbed her shoulder as a signal to shut up.

After a few more words being thrown back and forth between Alexei and the guards, Alexei stepped out and started walking and everyone rushed out to follow him. After a few minutes of walking, he stopped mid way and started explaining what was going to happen.

“The two welders will follow the scientists, you lot need to make it to the main room, Hopper, Joyce and American, you lot need to go to the vault room and the rest of you make sure no-one gets caught. I’m going to sort out shit, good luck America!” Alexei said giving a thumbs up relying on Murray to translate.

As soon as they all gave a thumbs up Alexei started walking off and eventually everyone parted ways.

“Holy shit we’re really doing it! Holy shit..” Steve whispered aloud, he was accompanied with Robin, Nancy, Jonathan, Lucas and Erica, they were all heading to the main room, the tricky part is they barely made it there the first time and surely it was in a certain amount of time until they get recognised. Plus they barely knew any Russian, by them, it meant Robin, only Robin could understand Russian and still she wasn’ fluent in it and couldn’t speak it either, so they were practically fucked.

“ Up ahead! ” Robin said walking up the stairs and through the door, it felt strange, not a single person batted an eye to them enter, not a single person asked them questions or stopped them for a chat.

“Fucking hell, why did we get put on beat up duty!?” Max asked putting her hands on her hips.

“Well we’re dressed as soldiers, Mike and Will  dressed as—lieutenants, and we look so short to be apart of this crew.” Eleven said sitting down on the floor resting her leg.

“ Facts, I feel like we’re going to get caught, but do you think we could use child alcoholism as an excuse?” Mike laughed.

“You really are something Mike.” Max said adjusting her mechanic tool belt.

“Russian coming ten o’clock. ” Will whispered and they all stood back straights trying to look like they were doing something important.

“Aww, so tiny!” The Russian said smiling then continuing about his day, they looked at each other relieved but concerned, surely they’ve got to know, they’re not all this dumb.

“ Shit, Murray what was the code ?” Hopper asked taking off his hat and bending down to the number pad.

“ Planck’s constant. ” Murray replied.

“ Fucking hell, evil Russians and their big ass number combinations. ” Hopper grunted pressing in random numbers that he was sure was in the Planck’s constant.

“I’ll get on the radio.” Murray said grabbing onto his walkie.

“This is bald eagle I repeat this is bald eagle.” Murray spoke into the walkie.

Unbeknownst to anyone in the group, Dustin had manage to sneak his way out and get a hitchhike to weather top.

“Copy, this is member d of scoop troops reporting from the highest point in Hawkins. ” Dustin said into the radio making everyone stop.

“What the fuck is he doing up there.” Hopper said feeling himself fill with rage, mostly because his first two attempts to the code was a flop.

“If you’re wondering what I’m doing here, I realised when it was too late that we need to be able to transmit over the Russian repeater and only I have a radio that can do that, I’m sorry for aborting mission so quickly but I can communicate with you and guide you.” Dustin continued.

“Well do you know the Planck’s constant?” Murray asked.

“No but I know someone who does.” Dustin said, immediately trying to get ahold of Suzie.

“ Suzie do you copy ?” Dustin asked into the speaker repeatedly, Suzie was sitting on the floor reading a book when she heard the radio go off and she ran to it in excitement.

“ This is Suzie, I copy !” Suzie said hurriedly into the speaker.

“ Suzie! ” Dustin exclaimed.

“ Dusty-bun !” Suzie exclaimed back.

“Where have you been?” She continued.

“I’m so sorry, I’ve been really busy—trying to save the world from Russians and monsters.” Dustin giggled.

“Of course you have.” Suzie giggled as well.

“Suzie can we our frequency to 14.158.” Dustin asked.

“ Copy that shifting frequency, stand by. ” Suzie said quickly changing frequency.

“ Dusty bun do you copy ?” Suzie asked. Everyone who had a walkie stopped for a second, most of them had their jaws agape.

“ Suzie …” Robin and Steve said looking at each other in awe.

“ I copy Suzie poo, it sounds much better now thanks.” Dustin said. Everyone looked at each other confused.

“ Well is he going to get the goddamn number?” Erica asked.

“ Patience Erica.” Lucas said leaning against the wall in the main room, surprisingly everyone in the main room seemed to have been deaf or really focused because they didn’t hear them at all.

“ Ok, listen do you know Planck’s constant?” Dustin asked quickly.

“ Do you know the earth orbits the sun?” Suzie asked sarcastically.

“ Ok so I know it starts with two sixes and a, what is it?” Dustin asked completely disregarding her sarcasm, meanwhile Hopper desperately entered the two numbers awaiting the rest.

“ Ok let me just be clear on this, I haven’t heard from you in a week, and now you want a mathematical equation that you should know, so you can… save the world?” Suzie asked confused.

“ Suzie poo I promise I will make it up to you as soon as possible.” Dustin said trying to quickly get past her questions.

“ You can make it up to me now.” Suzie smiled.

“ What.” Dustin asked confused.

“ I want to hear it.” Suzie stated.

Dustin’s eyes widen and he shook his head, he was was almost speechless.

“ Not right now.” Dustin said panicking.

“ Yes, now dusty-bun!” Suzie demanded.

“ Suzie-poo this is urgent.” Dustin stated panicking even more.

“ Yes, yes, you’re saving the world I heard you the first time, but Ged is also saving earth sea and he’s about to confront the shadow so this is Suzie, signing off.” Suzie said angrily.

“ wait, wait , wait—ok, ok..” Dustin replied still in a panic, he needed the code now or never.

“ Shit .” Dustin muttered to himself.

“ Turn around, look at what you see, in her face the mirror of your dreams.” Dustin sang, everyone giving confused look to each other.

“ Make believe I’m everywhere, given in the light, written on the pages is the answer to a never ending story!” The two harmonised.

“ Reach the stars, fly a fantasy, dream a dream, and you will see will be, rhymes that keep their secrets will, unfold behind the clouds, and there upon the rainbow is— the answer to a never ending story!” They continued, everyone looking confused and fed up. Joyce has placed two arms on the wall in desperation, she felt so fed up.

“ Story !” Suzie continued, she stood there for a few seconds and spoke up again.

“ Planck’s constant is 6.62607004.” , everyone let out a great sigh of relief, they couldn’t believe what had just happened, regardless hopper smashed the last digits into the code and the vault open, revealing a brief case, they informed the ‘best up duty’ and they all ran to the main room, well as great as they could after all it was a thirty minute run.

Hopper smashed the door in and the scientists freaked out trying the escape or get help, but were met with bullets from Hoppers gun instead.

“Great job!” Alexei said grabbing for the brief case and opening it until he got tackled to the floor, by none other than Grigori.

“You fucking traitor!” Grigori said reaching a knife out his pocket and tried to stab Alexei.

“Ah, says you.” Alexei said giggling,everyone was screaming in horror trying to intervene but Hopper informed if any of them stepped in they would all be killed.

“Yea, says me.” Grigori says lifting the knife down into Alexei’s shoulder, Alexei let out a shriek of pain, everyone was screaming and some were crying.

“ We have to do something!” Joyce said.

“Grab the fucking briefcase!” Max said, and Joyce reached for it whilst Alexei and Grigori were fighting on the floor.

“You fucking bitch.” Alexei said pulling the knife out and throwing it across the floor, they started rolling, sometimes Grigori would be on top but sometimes Alexei was strong enough to pin him to the ground not for long though.

“See you in hell Grigori.” Alexei said, even though he was under Grigori he had the upper hand, he sacked Grigori and pulled him as much as he could up the stairs and to where the machine was and slammed the door and locked it. Alexei ran to the brief case and grabbed one of the keys and urged Joyce to turn it when he did.

“ 3”

“3”

“ 2”

“2”

“1”

“1”

They both twisted the key and the machine started to fumble, it started to shake uncontrollably and then beams of electricity started to seep from the sides of it and it started spinning twice as fast as before, everyone stared in disbelief.

Bang

The door was kicked again and in walked Dustin and Billy.

“You took forever. ” Max said and everyone laughed, remembering what Dustin had done on the radio

“We were being chased by the mind flayer, using the fireworks you guys bought, although it’s dead now, mostly because you closed the brain off, this mall is fucked. ” Dustin laughed.

“ Billy—, Billy was your ride?” Max looked surprised.

“ I decided from now on I change my ways, and I thought the least I could do is drive this little hero to his radio tower.” Billy said scruffing up Dustin’s hair.

Thump

“Fuck…” Alexei groaned as he fell on his knees at the key panel, the machine had just exploded before his eyes and at this point blood was seeping through his coat.

“ DO YOU GUYS BRING EXTRA BANDAGES?” Lucas screamed, because the sound of the machine screeching and exploding was still loud as ever.

“HERE!” Max yelled tossing two first aid kits she stole in case of any accidents happening and mostly in case her girlfriends leg got worse.

“Alyosha, do you hear me. You’ll be ok we’ll fix you up and take you to the hospital..” Murray said bending down and laying Alexei down on his back whilst rubbing his thumb over his hand.

Everyone looked at the scene unfolding in front of them.

“Is he going to be ok?” Robin said crying, she’d been through so much in the past 48 hours, they all have, they all can successfully say they’ve been to hell and back twice.

“We gotta get to the elevator so we can get Eleven’s and Alexei’s wounds healed.” Joyce said helping Alexei up and letting him use her as a brace,and Murray did the same on the other side, whilst Hopper carried Eleven bridal style.

“Come on kids, and adults after this how bought a nice swim in my pool?” Steve suggested.

Everyone looked at each other and found themselves all agreeing to that idea.

“ Hey, Sinclair.” Billy said looking in his rear-view mirror, making Lucas shrivel up in his seat, and Max sending Billy daggers.

“ I’m sorry for treating you like I did, I’m sorry for being racist to you and making you feel less of yourself, lately Max has been showing me how to improve myself and I’m thankful for her. So you can do what ever you want, you and your friends are welcome over when-ever, but make sure your parents say yes first.” Billy said turning into the hospital, Max stared at her brother with wide eyes but still with awe, she felt very happy and inspired by how he’s desperately trying to change himself, after his near death experience. They all got out of the car and piled into the waiting room, but they were all already starting to go through the door.

“ Two at a time!” The receptionist yelled, but to be quiet frank she really didn’t give two shits, but she still needed to warn them or she would’ve been fired.

“ Hey El, how are you feeling now they’ve treated it.” Max asked rubbing her hand and moving the hair out of her face.

“ Be—tter.” El gasped as she got the most gut wrenching cramp in her leg.

Whilst the younger crew were visiting Eleven the rest were visiting Alexei, who had passed out three times from blood loss, he was currently high on meds and could barely tell where he was.

“Did we… did we win?” Alexei asked lifting up his injured arm, Joyce quickly but gently lowered his arm back down to stop further damage.

“Of course we won, Alyosha.” Murray replied.

“You shouldn’t be talking to me, I failed you.” Alexei muttered.

“Why? Why must we not talk to you.” Murray asked.

“Because I’m weak, I can no longer serve you, I have to be killed or discarded.” Alexei muttered closing his eyes, passing out for the forth time.

“What’d he say?” Steve asked one hand on his hip and the other running through his hair, he only did this if he was stressed.

Murray repeated what Alexei had said and everyone gasped.

“Why would he say such thing?” Joyce asked confusion all over her face.

“You have to understand that in his country, once you’re weak you’re no longer needed, you’re useless essentially, better to be killed or banished into the shadows, you’re better off going out like that  than whatever else they have planned for your poor soul.” Murray said placing the back of his hand against Alexei’s face and rubbing it.

Beep beep—beeeep

Chapter Text

Beep beep—beeeep

Everyone stared at the monitor and saw the line run flat, Joyce ran out of the room and called for a nurse, she immediately knew what had happened and called a code blue, she ran in and immediately started doing chest compressions.

“ What’s happening?” Lucas said running in from next door being followed by all the kids that were visiting Eleven.

“ This man is losing blood, where the hell is his blood drip?” The nurse asked.

“Well, ma’am you explained that you were going to get one and you’d be back in 10, and uh this happened.” Billy stated.

“ Oh, shit I’m so sorry, SOMEONE GET THE DRIP AND CHECK VITALS!” The nurse yelled whilst continued doing chest compressions, in a matter of seconds a drip was ran into the room and was immediately hooked up to Alexei, the nurses continued doing chest compressions for another 3 minutes when Alexei’s eyes finally shot open and he coughed up blood.

“Herr…grr…” Alexei muttered, he obviously wasn’t strong enough to form proper sentences yet then he ended up passing out again, maybe due to the amount of drugs the nurses gave him.

“ How did he get stabbed anyway?” The nurse asked, everyone looked at each other and the atmosphere felt hot.

“ He —uh.” Erica said but shut her mouth again as she was for once, at a lost for words, to be quite honest none of them felt fully conscious for the past week, everything was just happening to fast, so fast it was to hard to process.

“ He was helping in star court mall, his ex co-worker stabbed him in the shoulder.” Lucas said.

“ You’re telling me, he worked in star court and someone got knife-happy and stabbed him in the shoulder?” The nurse raised an eyebrow.

“ Is he in jail officer?” The nurse asked turning to hopper.

“ Is who in jail?” Hopper asked, he was still trying to process what happened.

“ The guy who stabbed obviously?” The nurse stated crossing her arms.

“ Also what’s with the funky costumes, it’s not even close to halloween.” The nurse asked raising an eyebrow.

“ It’s a long story sweetheart.” Murray said.

“ Try me.” The nurse stiffed up.

“ Fiona, hurry up and check the god damn vitals!” The other nurse said walking past the door, managing to hear a bit of the conversation from the hallway.

“ Hold on.” Fiona replied getting everything set up and setting up the needle patches and scans.

“ Continue.” Fiona stared up at Murray whilst she was putting a needle patch into Alexei’s arm.

Murray and the group spent some time explaining whilst Fiona worked her magic on vitals, a few times she had to stop what she was doing because she was so focused on wither story that she almost messed up the placement of several other patches.

“ Nice fictional story, why didn’t you just say you went to a Russian secret lab themed party, would’ve been easier.” The nurse laughed.

“ We’re telling the truth you prickly bitch.” Erica replied holding her hands on her hips.

“We’ll if it was true, you would’ve known that we don’t help the communists in our hospital, because once one’s here and the Russian government finds out they’ll destroy our hospital to get to this guy and try to kill him.” The nurse replied to Erica bending down to her level.

Everyone looked at each other and realised she was right, just because they destroyed most of the people in the base doesn’t mean they haven’t contacted Russia about this, plus there was still survivors and you bet they remembered everything.

“Мать.” Alexei mumbled reaching his hand up a little bit as if he was grabbing something.

“ Omg he’s awake!” Joyce smiled.

“Мать..” Alexei choked,tears in his eyes.

“ What does that mean?” The nurse asked.

“ Mother. He’s calling his mother.” Murray said.

“Awww I wish I could get him his mother like he’s so adorable, also why is there like 16 people in this room, two visitor at a time!” The nurse put her hands on her hips.

They all ignored her but kept paying attention to Alexei, finally he slowly opened his eyes and he started freaking out.

“Where am I, where is my mother?” Alexei asked aloud then it looked like he was thinking about something and got sad.

“Right, they took my mother away—am I back in the base? Did I just dream all of them up?” Alexei muttered he was about to get up and get dressed but the nurse pushed him back down lightly.

“Who are you.” He asked raising an eyebrow.

“That’s the nurse, we took you to the hospital, you may not remember because you kinda passed out in the back of the car.” Murray replied.

“Американ!” Alexei smiled waving at them, and they all gave a small wave back .

“ He looks so young.” Billy stated.

“ He’s like 29.” Hopper replied.

“ Holy shit he is so young.” Billy replied to him.

“ Anyway visiting hours are over get out it’s like 12 am.” The nurse said ushering them out.

The rest of them walked to Eleven’s room and said their goodbyes.

“ I’ll come back tomorrow with flowers!” Max said giving eleven a kiss on her hand.

“ I thought you said you weren’t into sappy shit.” Dustin giggled.

“ Eat shit.” Max replied rolling her eyes and then laughing.

“ Me and Will, will make tons of eggo waffles when you come out of the hospital, then we can also go swimming after.” Mike smiled.

“ And maybe we can teach you how to play dnd!” Will said with a wider smile than Mike.

“ When you get home I’d like to get to know you more, possibly even learn about your powers, but you saved me, Steve, Dustin and Erica back there, I owe you one!” Robin said wiping snot off her nose.

“You were so totally sick back there, you did well kiddo.” Steve said.

“ Let’s go.” Billy said grabbing his keys outta his pocket then wrapping his arm around Steve’s waist and they walked out first together.

“ Thank you go looking after my sister, Harrington.” Billy said rubbing the side of Steve’s waist, causing Steve to get butterflies.

“ You’re welcome, I mean after all no-one could’ve done it better than the babysitter himself.” Steve joked causing Billy to let out a small chuckle making Steve’s heart jump a beat.

“ I—uh, have been meaning to tell you, but max asked me to tell you, if you could drive her and the gang to my house for the pool party on the 5th, also she said something about you picking up Eleven on the way.” Steve said.

“ As long as I get to come. I would love to swim since the heat has been rising so rapidly.” Billy said, they bickered back and forth leaning on the bonnet of Billy’s car, his arm still around Harrington’s waist, awaiting for the rest of them.

When Billy saw the door slightly open he took his hand off of Steve’s waist and hoped in the car whilst Steve got into the passengers side.

“ Hurry the fuck up.” Billy shouted out of the window.

They all rushed to the two different cars, all the kids went into Billy’s car while the rest piled into ‘TodFther’s’ car.

Billy drive all the kids to mike’s house as they said they wanted to have a sleep over, max pleaded Billy to let her go to, which didn’t take much begging at all.

As max left the car, she thanked Billy and flashed him a smile, and for the first time in ever he flashed a smile back.

“ So what you say about getting high in the McDonald’s parking lot?” Billy asked.

“ I’d love that!” Steve said.

It was a short 5 minute drive, as they pulled in the parking lot Harrington realised there was barely anyone there, which was unusual but maybe people found out about the Russians and stayed inside for extra precautions.

As he was in the middle of his thoughts he was broken out of it as Billy passed him a blunt.

“ Here, to take your mind off what happened tonight.” Billy said.

“ Thanks.” Steve replied taking the blunt and lighting it up and taking a long hit, then he puffed the smoke out.

“ Fuck—“ Steve mumbled, he forgot when he gets high his sex drive goes through the roof.

“ What’s wrong pretty boy.” Billy asked looking over.

“ Ugh.” Steve moaned rolling his eyes back trying to get friction on the Russian scientist pants, for some reason they felt tighter than usual . Billy sat there for a few moments observing Steve do this for another three to four seconds then he placed a hand on Steve’s thigh.

“ Do you need help with that?” Billy asked raising his eyebrow.

“ Please?” Steve asked looking at Billy through his eyelashes.

“ Hop in the back doll.” Billy said, getting up outta the car and hopping in the back, whilst Steve climbed through the gap between two chairs.

Billy started palming Steve through his pants, he kept going at a steady pace, Billy would never know how long Steve has been waiting to do this with him.

Billy unzipped Steve’s pants and pulled out his dick and did the same e for himself, he placed Steve on his lap so they were facing each other and he started roughly kissing him whilst pumping their dicks together.

“ Fuck faster Billy. ” Steve said breaking the kiss.

“ Alright pretty boy.” Billy said pumping faster.

Billy used his empty hand to tilt Steve’s head back so he could land hickeys onto his neck.

“ Mmm—I’m close.” Steve moaned.

“ Cum for me.” Billy growled whilst sucking another hickey onto Steve’s neck, and with that Steve came all over Billy’s dick and his hand, causing Billy to also climax.

Billy was glad to know that he could take Steve’s mind off the whole ideal for a little while, even if it was only for 30 minutes, he still liked to know that he can do certain things to stop Steve stressing. Billy sat there for a few taking in the rather ‘romantic’ moment.

“You wanna get something to eat, princess?” Billy asked licking the cum off of his hand and wiping it on a tissue near by.

“ Mhmm, I’m so hungry.” Steve said getting up and tucking himself back in his pants and zipping up, and Billy did the same.

As they got in the store and ordered what they wanted and sat down a familiar looking car pulled into the parking lot, it was Mike’s mum and Mike and his friends.

Billy watched as they got out of the car and ran into the store.

“ Oh, hey Billy! ” Max said waving and Billy waved back.

“ Did you and Steve smoke blunts in the car?” Dustin asked.

“ Yea why?” Steve replied.

“You look high as balls right now.” Dustin replied, gaining laughter from everyone, including some nearby tables.

“ Thanks ‘Dusty-bun’” Steve said rolling his eyes, Dustin flustered up out of embarrassment whilst his friends were laughing.

“ Alright kids, come on let’s order food, I still don’t understand why you guys couldn’t have waited for at least, breakfast.” Karen said walking the kids up to the counter, Steve and Billy looked at each other and let out a sigh of relief.