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They stumble out onto the porch of Hopper's cabin as Joyce wraps up the de-possessed Will to take him home.
“I couldn't do it.” Jonathan is trembling. “I couldn't hurt him enough. I was weak. Thank God you were here.”
Nancy grabs his face. “We did it. I couldn't have done it if you weren't there. We saved him. We did it together.”
They encoil each other. The reek of their sweat-drenched bodies mingles.
“Together,” she says.
“Together. Always,” he says.
“Always,” she replies.
It feels like a vow.
***
They agree to keep their relationship a secret. In the wake of the hecatomb at Hawkins Lab, it's impossible to tell what's going to happen. Better to keep some separation in public, for plausible deniability.
Though he doesn't say it out loud, part of Jonathan feels the school doesn't deserve to know. He refuses to let the students of Hawkins High profane the connection he and Nancy have.
***
Mom, Will, and himself. Once they're finally back home and done dealing with the aftermath, each sleeps for about sixteen hours.
***
Jonathan feels very guilty for not being kinder to Bob Newby when he had the chance.
***
Nancy teaches him; he teaches Nancy. They open new worlds to each other. He can talk to her like he's never been able to talk to anyone before. She gives him great ideas. Before the Barb article comes out, they start to read the morning papers together. After it comes out, they keep doing so, and they talk about what they read: American politics, international politics, culture, humor.
They found each other in the dark. But having found each other, they connect in the daylight, becoming new people together.
***
“What the hell is Steve doing hanging out with Dustin and Will and them?” he asks.
Nancy can only shrug.
It's not like it's a bad thing.
***
Turns out sex feels really, really good. For everyone concerned, if you do it right.
***
Will stops sleeping ten hours a night. Mom does not. Sometimes she sleeps half the day away. It's worrying.
***
To get Nancy's Christmas present, he drives all the way to Bloomington, to In Phaze, a combination record/head shop. They sell jewelry. He finds exactly what he's looking for, with a silver chain.
She gets him the latest Replacements album, something no one else would have the knowledge or ability to buy for him. He takes out the necklace.
“Jonathan, it's beautiful! What is this design on the pendant?”
“It's the Eyes of the Buddha. The woman at the store said it protects the wearer against evil.”
She gives a rueful little smile at that, then lifts her hair so he can fasten it on her.
Over Christmas break, they go for a walk in the woods at night. Between the snow and the waxing moonlight, it seems completely different than it did when they hunted the Demogorgon here. He takes Nancy in his arms and says I love you. She says I love you back. He knows he will always carry this moment, to the end of his days.
***
Their first fight—well, not really a fight, more of an argument...
Jonathan is driving Nancy home. She starts going on about happy childhood memories going to Disneyworld—twice!--and how wonderful it was, etc.
He breaks in with “Y'know, not everybody gets to go to Disneyworld.”
Things go downhill from there, until, in the last approach to the Wheelers' house, they're trading “I never asked to go to Disneyworld!” with “I'm just asking you to remember not everybody gets to!”
She gives him a kiss goodnight, but on the side of his head, and the car door kinda slams on her way out.
They don't talk about it the next day. They don't talk it about until several days later, when they're lying on his bed, cuddling.
“About...Disneyworld,” she says. “I know my family has a lot of things most people don't. I can't do anything about that, OK? But it's part of me. But I know it's part of me.”
“I know, and I love all of you. Just keep it in mind, all right?”
“OK.” She kisses him, this time on the lips.
It reminds him of the first serious literary conversation they had, on The Grapes of Wrath, where he realized he was thinking of the Joads as a We and she was thinking of them as a They. It's a big difference. But as long as they love each other, they can get past it.
***
Will is happy. He is happy. Mom is not happy. But because they're happy, she's happy. As happy as she can be.
***
One day in March, in the school library, Jonathan takes a book off the spinner rack, a thin paperback titled The Stranger by Albert Camus. He reads the copy on the back cover and decides to take it home.
It's the beginning of a fever.
Camus makes sense to him—more sense than anything he's ever read. It's as if he finally found a mentor to guide him through the events of the past two years. He reads The Plague and discovers the first metaphor he has to fit their experience of the Upside Down. He drags Nancy to the town library. They have The Rebel. He devours that and begins ordering all he can through Interlibrary Loan. He reads passages to Mom and Will, and whoever will listen. Suddenly everything fits.
He exhausts all the books by and about Camus he can find. He tries to move on Sartre, reads No Exit, but it's not as insightful, too smarmy. Nancy starts to hint strongly that she'd like to talk about something besides philosophy for once, and he sees her point.
But the words stay with him.
“I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.”
Camus is in his heart, giving him strength, and a compass.
***
“Jonathan, look at this.” Nancy hands him a piece of paper in much the same way she once gave him a flyer for Tina's Halloween party. “The Post has two internships open for next summer, and one of the things they're looking for is people with photography skills.”
He reads it over. This would look fantastic on a college application.
“Didn't Mr. Cardulo”--their guidance counselor--”tell you about it?”
He explains to Nancy that the only thing Mr. Cardulo has ever told him about were the opportunities available in the United States Armed Forces.
She is angry on his behalf. He loves her for that.
***
Will's asleep and Mom's working the late shift and there's nothing to prevent him and Nancy from enjoying the couch.
Unless, as it turns out, Mr. Melvald closes the store early. They don't hear the door.
Nancy shows a remarkable degree of savoir faire as she put on her shirt, stuffs her bra into her coat pocket, and bids them good night. Mom seems stunned.
“Uh—I'm sorry you had to see that, Mom.”
That gets a reaction. Mom walks toward him, one finger out like he's about to get scolded.
“No. Don't you be sorry. Don't be sorry for that. You love that girl, you hold her and kiss her and love her for as long you can. Every day. Every day you get.”
He doesn't know what to say.
“I'm tired. Think I'll get to bed. G'night, babyboy.”
***
He's at his locker one afternoon when Eddie Munson comes up and high-fives him.
Jonathan is mystified. He and Eddie are acquainted—they're not close, but Eddie is the only other person at Hawkins High who knows who Black Flag is. Yet this is entirely random.
“Nancy Wheeler? Nancy Wheeler? How did you swing that?”
Is their secret out? He shrugs and smiles.
Eddie proceeds down the hall, points back at Jonathan with two fingers in a 'You're the man!' gesture. “You give us freaks hope, Byers!”
As it turns out, Eddie's reaction is not unusual. Months of rumor have paved the way until, when the news of his and Nancy's love becomes public, it's not news at all. They've both changed so much that it seems entirely natural.
He's still enough of a misanthrope to snark about Hawkins High society, but when they walk down the hall arm-in-arm, trading greetings with people ranging from freaks to band geeks to honor students, he has to admit: he really likes it.
***
Jonathan gets to the interview stage for the Post internship. He's sitting, sweating, in Tom Holloway's office.
“Aren't you Will Byers's brother?”
“Yes, sir.” Will adorned the Post's front page several times when he was missing.
Mr. Holloway looks through his portfolio. “This is strong work.”
“Thank you, sir.”
In the end, Holloway leans over his desk and says “Son, I want you to understand that we work hard at this paper. I have high expectations.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Jonathan, I'd like offer you the position of summer intern here at the Post.”
“Thank you, sir.”
He shakes Holloway's hand and is filled with a sense of victory. He did it. He was judged well enough. It's not until later that he looks back and all he can see is him kissing the The Man's ass. He feels kinda nauseous, seeing how craven he was.
But Nancy gets the other internship. They can work together. And it will certainly look good on his college applications. This might be a path to NYU.
***
Mom throws a last-day-of-school dinner party. Nancy sits next to him. Steve is across the table. It's all of them—all of them trapped in this strange family.
Then—wonder of wonders!-Hopper shows up, with Eleven. There's a huge shout. Everyone is laughing, and happy.
Joyce drafts the younger kids to wash the dishes. Nancy is talking to Eleven. Steve smacks him on the shoulder.
“C'mon, Byers, let's go outside.”
Jonathan hesitates. Is Steve challenging him to a fight? Now, after all these months? But there's nothing threatening about his posture.
Jonathan follows him outside, to the burgundy BMW. Steve pops the trunk to reveal a styrofoam cooler, from which he withdraws a sixer of Miller High Life.
They take the beers out back, next to the shed.
“It was real nice of your mom to put this together. She's a great cook. I love that beef stroganoff.”
“It's good stuff.”
Steve looks up at the moon over the woods. “It's nice to have everybody together. All of us...y'know. That know. That went through what happened. Because we all know what happened. Not that we need to talk about it. It's just—we all know that we all know. Do you know what I mean?”
Jonathan nods. “Yeah. I do.”
Steve twitches like a mosquito is at him.
“Uh—um—we--you--Nancy--um--together--Tina's party--the Lab--the bat...”
Eventually he says “You're a good man, Jonathan Byers.”
The ghost of Albert Camus whispers at Jonathan to reply
“You're a good man, Steve Harrington.”
Steve lifts his can in a toast “To fighting the good fight.”
Jonathan clinks his can against Steve's “To fighting the good fight. And to Bob Newby.”
“And to Bob Newby.”
They both drain their cans. Drink, drink, drain your glass, raise your glass high...
“IS UNDERAGE ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION TAKING PLACE ON THESE PREMISES?” announces a baritone police voice behind them.
Steve and Jonathan freeze.
“Nah, I'm just ribbing you guys.” Hopper claps a broad hand on each of their shoulders. “At ease, men.”
They both exhale loudly.
“You bring enough to share with the class, Harrington?”
Steve gives everybody another round. They crack tubes and look up at the moon.
“I'm gonna ask you two a straight question and I want a straight answer,” says Hopper. “What do you think of Mike Wheeler?”
Steve answers first. “He's harmless. Kind of a whineass sometimes.”
Jonathan takes umbrage at that. “Mike's got guts. He was with us at the Lab, remember. And he hid Eleven, when the black suits were looking for her. He attacked you.”
Steve nods. “He'd never hurt El, if that's what you're worried about. He'd do anything for her.”
Hopper takes it all in. “Thanks. That's what I needed to hear.” He swigs. “I'm gonna let him come out to the cabin occasionally. If he can be careful.”
“He'll be over all the damn time,” says Jonathan.
“Not all the time. I'll see to that,” mutters the chief.
***
A summer filled with days working side by side with Nancy and nights in the back of his car with Nancy and it's going to be amazing. Mom seems to be getting better. Will's smiling. Beyond that, the future yawns with promise. The bad times are over.
This is going to be the best summer ever.
Jonathan can't wait.