Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Is that Sheriff Taylor?” Hopper asked, having finally located the number he needed.

“No, hold on, I’ll get him for you, who’s calling?”

“I’m Sheriff Hopper, I’m calling from Hawkins, Roane county.”

The phone went silent for a moment as the person on the other end processed that. Then responded.

“I’ll just get him for you, hold on.”

There was another pause, and while he waited Hopper doodled on the pad in front of him, drawing a stick man, which he then hung from some gallows. He heard a click on the line then another voice said.

“Sheriff Hopper, what can I do for you?”

“I believe you had an incident about two weeks ago at a gas station in your area. A kid in a van drove off without paying.”

He heard another pause, and then Taylor responded, sounding mildly confused.

“Yeah, we did, how did you know? There’s not much we can do about it, the owner of the garage didn’t get the plates, just a random description. Have you had a similar incident?”

“No, nothing like that, I just need to know how much the amount was and where to send a cheque,” Hopper rolled his eyes as he realised how that sounded, but it was exactly what he wanted. Steve’s conscience about what he had done wouldn’t be clear until some of it was sorted.

Therefore, the remaining money had been mailed back to the bank Steve had taken it from. And Hopper tracked down the area the gas station had been in to pay that back. The only thing he wanted to do was keep Steve’s name out of the context of the payback, so Hopper offered to write the cheques and send them, and Steve could pay him the money.

Plus, there was another part of the agenda that Hopper needed to cover.

Hopper could almost hear the questions running through the other sheriff’s mind in the pause that followed. It was hardly a normal thing to be discussing, but still, it would make Steve feel better. The only theft he didn’t care about was the van, which Murray had taken and disposed of, by whatever means even Hopper didn’t know. And didn’t want to.

“Okay, I can give you that information, but why?”

“That would take a long time to explain, there was also another incident nearby, an electric fence was damaged, and some apples stolen from an orchard by the side of the road.”

“Yeah,” the voice on the phone drawled in confusion. “Although it was very tidy. They repaired the fence with cable ties and it was still live, in fact it kept running even when there was a temporary power outage in the area. How they got past the fence we are still trying to fathom.”

Hopper was not about to give any explanation.

“I just need any costs for repair, and again where to send the cheque.”

Again, the questions hung in the air, however, Taylor thankfully took the hint and just gave the details. After Hopper checked he had everything he needed he said.

“I’ll get everything sent within the week. Can you close down the cases so they are filed, and can you… lose them?”

Again there was the curious pause. Hopper didn’t think that covering Steve’s tracks was entirely necessary, his kidnappers knew where he would be going, but they didn’t need any unnecessary trouble at their door. Not until Murray had all the documents in place for the kid. Taylor eventually answered.

“Our filing system is haphazard at best, I can’t imagine anyone looking into it,” Taylor said, then added. “I heard from the gas station owner that there was a little kid in the van too, are they in some kind of trouble?”

Hopper took a breath, that was a debatable fact given the situation in Hawkins. That was an issue for another day. And not what Taylor was referring to anyway.

“Not now they’re home,” Hopper said.

Chapter Text

“You’d better not be drooling on me,” Steve advised as he slowly woke up. The little boy lay tucked into his side, as he had done every night for the last two weeks. He refused to sleep in a room of his own, which the group had set up for him; as he had done at the facility, separate from Steve. Now it was a situation that the kid could control he chose to stay with Steve. So the little boy tucked up in Steve’s bed every night, Robin more often than not stayed in the guest room, and sometimes even Dustin stayed over, tucking himself up in what Steve had aimed to be the kid’s room.

The little boy stirred, looking up as Steve started to move on the mattress. Slowly he opened his eyes and looked at Steve, and then he looked around. He had done that every morning, as if he had been expecting a different environment entirely. This morning he relaxed and snuggled back down into the bed, snuffling into the pillow.

Steve got out of the bed and the little boy looked at him.

“I’ll shower and then you can have a bath,” Steve told him. The boy looked unbothered by this information. He had possibly started to accept that Steve was not about to leave him but Steve half expected that he would step out of the shower to find the little boy tucked up in his old bathrobe, sat by the bath, naked and waiting for his turn.

“Right,” Steve said and went off to shower, and he was unsurprised to find the little boy had done exactly as expected. He snuggled by the side of the bath, his pyjamas in a heap on the floor, and he had wrapped up in the bathrobe. Steve didn’t comment, instead he wrapped a towel around his waist, rubbed his hair dry and filled the bath.

“You can wash yourself,” Steve told him, handing him a soaped-up flannel. The little boy pouted and did as he was told; Steve dropped the bath toys into the bath for the little boy to play with. A rubber duck that had been lingering in his bathroom for years, and he had bought a boat as well. The rubber duck did it’s usual thing and flopped over to float in the bath on it’s side, as it insisted on doing; for some reason unable to stay upright. The boat bobbed through the foam slightly more elegantly. The little boy rubbed the flannel over his torso, under Steve’s watchful gaze as he set up the hairdryer.

It took them a little while to get ready and Steve got out clothes for the little boy and himself. He had been shopping to get a few more things so the kid now had a decent array of clothes. Although red was still his favourite colour. So Steve fished out a red sweatshirt and jeans for him today. They both paused as Robin knocked on the door.

“I’m going to make breakfast,” she announced.

“We’ll be right behind you,” Steve said, stuffing the boy into his clothes. The little boy perked up at the mention of food, Robin would no doubt be over-cooking just for the amusement of seeing the look of awe on the little boy’s face. He still hadn’t quite got used to the meals that he was presented with, the boring dull meals at the facility had been lacking somewhat – colour and taste mainly - Steve had told the others, avoiding any reference to the tube feeding incident. Only Hopper and Murray knew that story.

“Ready?” Steve asked, straightening the little boy’s clothes up and then shrugging on his own sweatshirt. As he finished the little boy held up his arms to be picked up.

“Come on Christopher Robin, time to face the day.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The name had been chosen simply because of its link to Winnie-the-Pooh and Steve couldn’t really name the kid ‘Piglet’ without repercussions. So after a short debate which everyone had joined in on, until Joyce had pointed out it was really Steve’s decision, the name had been picked. Murray was working on trying to get a birth certificate, which did have difficulty since they had no information on the boy whatsoever.

Eleven at least had some background. They had nothing for Chris. Still he seemed to have taken to his name, although there were moments he didn’t seem to realise they were referring to him, so Steve was calling him by name as often as possible, to try and instil it into the little boy. Not that it mattered if Steve occasionally forgot and called him ‘Kid’ instead. And he still hadn’t spoken a word.

As they got downstairs Robin smiled at them.

“Hey, Christopher Robin,” she said, greatly amused by sharing a name with him. She put some knives and forks on the table. Steve put Chris down and went to the fridge to find the juice.

“Sit down,” he ordered the little boy, who obediently went to his place at the table, sitting up and waiting expectantly. He watched Robin as she cooked an omelette, with some bacon frying in another pan. It was one of the kid’s favourite foods, any type of egg. Steve kept trying to add healthy food to the diet, realising as he cooked, just how unhealthy he could be. A bit of junk wouldn’t do the kid harm but Steve tried to keep things as nutritious as possible.

Chris stared up at Robin as she brought the plate over to him. Steve had bought some plastic plates and cutlery for the little boy, more his size, so he could manage them better. He picked up his knife and fork and started to tuck into the omelette enthusiastically. Robin then brought over some bacon for him, cut up to make it easier for him. Steve brought Chris some juice and the little boy guzzled away at everything with enthusiasm. He had put on weight and looked like a normal, healthy little boy.

It was enough for Steve at the moment, just trying to give him something of a normal life. Not that Chris would know any different, all he had known was the lab, so it could be argued that living in the lab was his normal. Still, Steve tried to find something a little better. He was also still trying to teach Chris reading and writing. He had commandeered Dustin to help with maths.

Steve took a plate off Robin for himself. “Thanks.”

“Are the kids over today?” she asked.

“I’m meeting them at the store after they’ve been to school,” Steve said. “They’ve only got the morning; there was another quake I think last night.”

“I heard something but I don’t think it was serious,” Robin said.

They both sat down to start eating. Chris eyed their plates with interest. Steve passed over a few strawberries from the bowl on the table.

“Eat your own food, you’ve got plenty without nicking ours,” Steve told him sternly. Chris smiled his bright little smile at him. “Stop that.” Steve warned him, smiling at the little boy. Then Steve glanced at Robin as the phone rang. He got up to answer it.

“Hello?”

Robin saw him tense slightly, his shoulder hunching as his back stiffened.

“Hi mom, yeah I’m fine.” Steve grimaced at Robin. “How are you?”

“I know I haven’t called, it’s been… I know, I know.”

Steve felt himself shrink a little. The situation was hard to explain and he had managed to avoid saying too much. Still there was only so much he could avoid saying.

“No, no, no! I’ll come to you. I’m not at work tomorrow I can drive over. You’re best not coming to Hawkins.” Steve grimaced. If his parents wanted to drive over there was little he could do to stop them. However, some of the news reports had made them wary. And he hadn’t really explained his absence when he had been kidnapped. Hopper had managed to keep it as vague as possible, now Steve was trying to do the same. It was getting harder to do so. They were concerned about him, as best as they managed that between the pair of them.

It was only recently he had started to regard them with a slightly detached perspective. With his own reactions to the kids, and now with Chris to care for, it occurred to him his parents were not natural, well, parents.

He hadn’t really been treated like a little boy when he was younger. He went to games, played with friends and had done kid’s stuff. But he had often preferred going to friends houses than having them over at his home, which his mother kept so trim and tidy. Steve himself also had to be as neat and tidy as the house when he was there.

He had also considered it after seeing the Byers home, and also Dustin’s house. They were also clean and tidy but seemed to feel more ‘lived-in’ than his own home. Although that was now starting to develop that feeling, with Steve and Robin’s haphazard approach to housekeeping and Chris’ growing needs. His mother had previously hired a housekeeper, but she had now left town with many others and Steve didn’t feel the need to clean to his mother’s standard. He only ever did that after a party when his parents had been away. And he always managed to miss something which gave it away.

That was another thing that he had given him the hints that his parents were not natural parents. The relationship had seemed fine on the surface through his childhood, but he hadn’t known any better. As he had gotten older and his mother spent time away with his father, it was clear there had been fractures for years. His mother didn’t trust his father, and Steve couldn’t remember a time he wasn’t travelling for work and business.

When Steve was younger his mother had stayed home mostly, only going occasionally, but as he grew it became more regular. Steve had used to blame himself, thinking his mother simply didn’t want to spend time with him. There might have been that about it, but Steve realised it was more that she wanted to keep tabs on his father.

It might have been better if they had divorced, they might have been happier accepting that they were not compatible. However, they had stuck at it, to the point that Steve often wondered if they actually loved each other. Sometimes it seemed like it, sometimes not. But they certainly needed each other.

His mother had certainly become accustomed to the lifestyle his father offered. And his father liked the respectability of a family. Steve didn’t think they had bothered trying for another child once they had him, although he’d asked his mother for a sibling a few times. Once they had produced him that was the family they needed, or was expected of them, rather than what they wanted.

Steve had developed a different perspective. He had been truthful when he had told Nancy about his dream. Having huge amounts of money didn’t really matter. Although he supposed he could safely say that since his parents had plenty. It hadn’t made them happy though. As long as he had enough to live on, and support Chris, he didn’t really need any more than that, and the principle stood with him depending on what happened next.

“Yes, I’m listening mom,” Steve said, even though his mind had wandered, and he had tuned out a little, as he was wont to do with his parents.

“Yes, I can get there for lunch, I know where it is,” he said now. He glanced at Chris, who was listening intently, a slight frown on his face. “Okay, bye.”

Steve hung up, giving a heavy sigh as he replaced the receiver. He knocked his forehead against the wall.

“That bad?” Robin asked.

“I had better go see them tomorrow. It’s just…”

“I can mind Chris,” Robin said as she took the hint. Clearly Chris understood that. He looked less than impressed, getting up he ran over to Steve and latched onto his legs gripping his trousers tightly.

“No, I’ll take him with me,” Steve said. “I don’t think he’ll cope with being separated for the day, he can’t even do it overnight.”

“He may have to at some point,” Robin pointed out. Steve extracted Chris from his legs and carried him back to the table. The little boy pouted at him.

“Stop that,” Steve ordered him. “I’m not leaving you anywhere. You can come with me tomorrow. Now eat your breakfast, and leave mine alone!” he ordered as his plate started to move across the table. Steve arrested it’s progress and took another forkful of omelette.

“Here!” Robin said bringing the pan over and giving Chris more of the omelette before loading her own plate.

“Well, some point is not today, or tomorrow,” Steve said. “He can come with me to the store, I’ll drop you off for band.”

“It’s weird that people still want to do normal stuff, although there are not many left in the band. Still… ?” she shrugged. “It’s something to do.”

“I think people are trying to be normal, what else is there to do at the moment. It’s a bit…”

“Are you going to tell Hopper you are going just in case? They might think when you are out of town is a good time to grab you again.”

Robin eyed him warily, clearly debating whether or not to offer to go with him. But then again the risk of being kidnapped again was there even if he was in Hawkins, and the last thing Steve wanted was someone else getting grabbed at the same time.

“I’ll let him know, but best just me and Chris go in that case. If they do try something we can be ready for them.”

His relationship with electricity was developing and El had worked with Chris a little but he had been reluctant to trust her. Steve had tried to limit what the little boy did anyway. He had raised with Hopper and El concerns about the nose bleeds, but there seemed to be no ill effects for El so far, other than the fact that she had lost her powers once. She was more careful now she had regained them.

Still the nose bleeds bothered Steve. He didn’t suffer from them whatever he did and Steve was convinced the reaction needed further investigation. Hopper was also moderately curious about it. Steve wanted to know Chris was safe, more than he was worried about himself. The only problem they had was the one person they might had trusted to check Chris was Sam Owens and El had been unable to know what had happened to him, and no one wanted to trust the contact methods they had. The military had attacked that facility and kidnapped Steve, and had been experimenting on Chris.

It sort of ruined any trust there might have been.

He had taken the little boy to a doctor at the crisis centre which was still up and running. Hopper had remained in situ just in case Steve needed back-up but she had been quite happy to just check Chris. Steve had explained Chris was his cousin and he was staying with him but as there were so many up and downs in Hawkins with the Upside-Down snow, the odd demogorgan and weird vegetation to name a few - a quick check up had been easy to cover.

She had listened to his chest, taken his temperature and looked him over. Chris had looked thunderous throughout the whole procedure but Steve had resolutely stayed with him, letting the doctor do the same things to him to reassure Chris this was not like the lab. The doctor had declared Chris perfectly healthy.

“How old is he?” she had asked.

“Just turned 5,” Steve said. Joyce, who had raised two boys, Claudia who had raised one and Karen Wheeler who had three children had given their opinions and reassured Steve it was probably about right. The doctor hadn’t turned a hair at that either. Murray had worked with that to go with a birthday and year that suited. Although he still hadn’t got a birth certificate as of yet.

“Right, I’ll clean up, you can eat the rest of that,” he said to Chris. “You get your stuff together,” he said to Robin.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

He opened the store and let Chris trot in. The little boy was getting used to the environment. As advised by Mike, Steve had set up a little den under the desk where Chris could tuck himself away. Keith had been ready to object to the little boy’s presence but Steve was the most consistent staff member he had and the erratic television reception in Hawkins meant that people were using the video store.

He couldn’t really complain, plus Steve had the feeling that Chris’ angry, sometimes dead-eyed stare, had unnerved Keith and he had avoided coming to check up or complain about anything when he knew Steve was there.

Still, Steve didn’t care, he could earn money, stay with Chris and behave as normally as possible. If things were different he could have put Chris in one of the school classes but at the moment it wasn’t practical, he didn’t want to be separated. Steve hoped that it would work it out in time; he didn’t want to leave Chris if he didn’t feel safe. Plus, Steve had seen the devastation wreaked on the room when he had been kept from Chris for a day. He didn’t want to expose his friends to that rage until Chris felt completely safe with the rest of the group.

“You okay in there?” Steve said, lifting the blanket up to look into the little den.

Chris looked up and lifted the book. Joyce had found a few of Will’s old books and Steve got the feeling that Chris could read more than he let on. He just liked Steve fussing over him, and reading to him.

“Let me open up then I can start reading, okay?”

Chris smiled his bright little smile.

“Right, I also need to load the shelves from the drop offs, would you like to help.”

Chris feigned interest in his books. Steve started work, picking up the videos that had been dropped through the return box and going back to upload onto the system. Chris looked up every time he came back but then Steve lifted another video. After the sixth time Chris scrambled out of his den and Steve handed him four video cases.

“Right, off we go!”

Chapter Text

That afternoon the invasion was more exuberant as usual. The kids crashed into the video store, dumping their bikes outside. Dustin had his walkie-talkie in his hand.

“Sounds like a demodog! In the woods.”

“Where in the woods?” Steve asked. The store was thankfully empty, other than himself and Chris, who had tucked up in his den as he had seen the kids arrive. The noise they made, rather than their actual presence, was the problem. But it was one thing Steve would rather Chris learnt to deal with than he subdued the kids. It was a delicate balance. He didn’t want to tell them to calm down because he liked the kids as they were, and he wanted Chris to see that behaviour. His play was tightly controlled and so silent. He wanted Chris to be around noise, and the kids were noisy, they talked over each other, argued and laughed in equal measure and Steve liked it. He wanted Chris to join in. But he also noted that El, although she had worked on it, was still slightly separate from the others, quieter and more observant than inclined to join. The only time he had seen her laughing and acting as a teenager when he had served her and Max in Scoops Ahoy. She had looked like a happy, normal teenage girl, giggling like the rest of them at whatever he said, although her and Max laughing at him hadn’t stung as some others had. He wasn’t Steve ‘the hair’ Harrington to El, or Max. He had just been Steve.

“Just north of the lake. Hopper’s on it, he took El, but it might be a false alarm.”

“If he needs me he’ll radio I suppose,” Steve said. He hadn’t really been involved in any of the clear ups and issues the last two weeks, he had Chris to think about and he had only just been getting back to normal. Everyone fussed around him, rather unnecessarily, he thought. But he had lost weight during the kidnap and no one wanted him overdoing anything.

And, it was nice to be fussed over, however much he felt it wasn’t needed.

“Is Chris there?” Dustin said leaning on the counter and trying to peer over. Steve shoved him back as the sheet flipped over the den entrance.

“Course he is,” Steve said. “Now I’m closing in half an hour so pick a movie or two and you can watch them at mine. Within reason…” he warned as both Mike and Will started glancing over the horror section. Lucas sidled up to him and Steve knew what request was coming.

“Can you take me to the hospital later?”

“Sure,” Steve said with a smile. He wasn’t going to say no to that. “Do you want to stop and get some flowers?”

“No, I just want to go and…” Lucas shrugged looking at little uncomfortable, he started tracing patterns on the counter with his fingers, and shuffling the videos Steve had been cataloguing about the surface. Steve let him fidget and leant forward towards Lucas.

“Are you all right?” Steve asked him gently. He felt movement by his leg and sensed rather than saw Chris crawl out of his den to stand next to him, gripping the edge of the shelf under the counter to look up and peer over at whomever Steve was talking to.

There was definitely something in Chris that responded when it came to emotions. He certainly reacted with Steve, when he got stressed or felt down. There had been instances with the others. Chris reacted to it, not very overtly but he possibly reacted to Steve’s concern. But Steve suspected that Chris’ emotional feelers were spreading.

“I just sometimes, when I watch her, I think I see a reaction but then when I tell the doctors or the nurse they just dismiss it, and then I think it’s my imagination or wishing what I want to happen.”

“I don’t think,” Steve said, “that you can assume anything. We defeated a parallel universe and things are still happening. It’s hard not to assume, but you might be pulling her back, inch by inch.”

“And her mom’s given up,” Lucas said. Steve could have thought that Lucas hadn’t even heard him speak but his eyes had lifted to acknowledge him. Chris’ hand tightened on Steve’s trousers, which again reiterated to Steve that lack of speech did not mean that the non-speaker was unintelligent.

“She doesn’t ever go, and when I go and check on her she’s always drunk.”

“I guess she’s struggled since… Billy, that and even before then. I check on her, so does Hopper and Joyce takes her food.”

“She doesn’t always eat it, I just wish…”

“What?”

“That I could do more, that I could make it… better.”

Steve reached out and put his hand on Lucas’. The other kids arguing in the background faded away, instead Steve felt an intense rush of emotion; despair, confusion and hurt shot into him. Weirdly, he felt his own emotions flowing out like a web. He could feel his own calm, sympathy and sadness crashing out running against the other emotions so they melded gently. As he took away as much as the negative emotion as he could, he seemed to give something else in its place. He was vaguely aware of the lights flickering around them before they settled.

Lucas had slumped across the counter, his forehead resting down on his arm, his free hand had reached to grip onto Steve’s hand. His body heaved as he tried to control himself and Steve sent out as much calmness as he possibly could as the rest of the kids turned to see what was happening. Steve moved back, Chris released him but stayed on his heels as Steve went around the counter and turned Lucas so he could hug him gently, letting Lucas rest his head on his shoulder and he could feel the heavy breaths as Lucas tried to get himself under control. Chris pressed against his legs, but the flow seemed to calm, so Steve wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

Instead of worrying about that he focussed on running his hand up and down Lucas’ back and letting him sob on his shoulder. Steve didn’t see the point in any reassuring platitudes so he kept silent. The run of emotion still flowed but it settled a little as Lucas calmed down.

“Sorry,” he said into Steve’s shoulders.

“Nothing to be sorry about,” Steve said. He moved one hand from Lucas to rest it on Chris’ head as he rested against him. The feeling of warmth and safe reassurance increased, which was probably more Chris feeling safe with him than him giving anything specifically.

“Lucas?” Will asked tentatively, easing forward of the others. Steve gave him a reassuring smile and waved the rest of them away. They split up and moved around the displays, but their eyes kept flicking up to watch the interaction. Chris stepped away from Steve and did the same. He stayed closer than the others but left Steve to it. But he kept him in sight.

It was progress, Steve thought, while he also tried to process what had happened.

“It’s all right,” Steve said, giving up on avoiding reassuring platitudes.

“Not it’s not,” Lucas said, clearly not pleased with said reassuring platitudes.

“No, but we’ll do our best to make it better.” Steve said.

Steve looked around at the others. “Now, have you guys chosen?”

Mike and Will held up the two films. Steve’s eyes narrowed as he looked at their choice, clearly ones that no one else would ever let them watch, but then again it was hardly likely to give them nightmares. They had experienced enough fodder for that and survived.

“OK, just this once,” Steve said, like he did every time they picked something they really shouldn’t be watching. “Dustin, book them out on my account, you guys can pay though, I’m not an ATM.”

“You could raid one though,” Dustin said.

“Only in extreme circumstances, and we can’t be late I have an early start tomorrow.”

“What here?”

“No visiting my mom and dad, my mom called this morning.”

“Should you go on your own?” Dustin asked.

“I’m taking Chris and Hopper knows, and I’ll let him know where I am.”

“What if something… someone?”

“I’ll be ready. Now I need to close up, are you okay?” Steve eased Lucas back and looked him up and down. Lucas brushed away the remaining tears and nodded. Steve glanced over at the videos Dustin had retrieved and watched as he very pointedly put the money they had pooled together in the till.

“Right, Will you can ride with me, Lucas can bring your bike.”

“Sure,” Lucas said, who had ridden with Dustin. Will looked ready to pull a face but decided against it.

“Mom let me bike from the school to here,” Will objected as he got into the back of Steve’s car, while Steve secured Chris in his seat in the front.

“I don’t think you want to argue with her rules, however, take what you can get. I’ll drop you home as well.”

“Aren’t you taking Lucas to the hospital?” Will asked.

“I can drop you on the way,” Steve said, then rose up to yell over the car roof. “Don’t get too far ahead!”

The cycling trio slowed and waited for Steve who would tail them in the car the entire way home. It was, Steve suspected, playing havoc with his gear box, but he guessed the car had survived this far. So he decided it was sturdy enough to cope with slow trips in a low gear as he tailed the kids.

And as usual they made it to Steve’s without incident and a report on the walkie-talkie as Hopper reported the demodog dealt with by El.

The kids piled into the house, set themselves up in his lounge in their usual messy way while Steve went to sort them some sandwiches for lunch. Chris tailed him into the kitchen.

“Good, I doubt I should be letting you watch their video choices so we’ll read for a bit. Let me just make lunch,” Steve said to Chris, who smiled at him and with a grin Steve handed him a slice of cheese, which Chris stuffed into his mouth. He waited until Steve had made the lunch, eating the little titbits that Steve occasionally offered him and then followed him into the lounge, where the kids dived on the food like starving hyenas, spreading mess and crumbs as they watched the films.

Steve sat a little back from them on the sofa, Chris cuddled into his side, while the little boy tried to stuff as much sandwich into his mouth as possible.

“You’ll get hiccups,” Steve warned him. Chris bit off a chunk of sandwich and chewed, struggling to eat such a big bite. Steve raised his eyebrows.

“Take smaller bites, no one is going to steal your sandwich.”

Chris resolutely got through his mouthful and took another, slightly smaller, bite, but crumbs tumbled out of his mouth as he chewed. Steve tucked a napkin into his collar to catch the debris, not that Steve needed to worry, after the kids had spent the afternoon he would have to clean the lounge anyway, a few extra crumbs to clean up hardly mattered.

They were focussed on the screen, watching the film, plates discarded on the table. At least they had started to take the hint to leave Chris to his own devices, rather than try and crowd him, or get him to join in. Steve thought, Chris would settle in his own time, he didn’t want to kids to push it.

He ate his own sandwich, half watching the film, feeling content with the kids lounging around and Chris tucked against him. Once they had finished he gathered up the plates, found some chocolate and gave the kids some. Then he gathered up a book for him and Chris to read. He had taken an array of them from the library, and he had even taken some books from the kids, who had been happy to donate them.

“Right, where were we?” Steve said. Chris found the marked page and pointed, waiting to Steve to start reading.

“Once I’ve read a few chapters, you can do some writing. Do you guys have homework?”

“No!” they all chorused, looking at Steve with expressions that told him that was probably not true.

“We’ll do it at home, that’s where homework is done, it’s in the name,” Dustin said.

Steve shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I will tell your parents.”

“Fine!” Dustin said, rolling his eyes. “The world is probably going to end but we still need to do our homework.”

“Yes, you do,” Steve said. Chris pointed again, prodding the page insistently. “Sorry, where were we?”

Chris listened avidly as Steve read, occasionally he’d get Chris to identify the odd word, which he pointed to without hesitation. He could clearly read quite competently, he wasn’t so cooperative with writing, or maths as Steve tried to teach him, with Dustin’s help. Still, Steve kept slogging away at trying to expand his horizons.

Games were easy to encourage Chris to play, although he watched the kids D&D games he never participated. But he liked playing with Steve, who had tried to find a few new games. It was getting to the point that Steve was going to have to start playing D&D with the kids.

If he could take him to some of the school classes that were still running it would have helped, but Steve didn’t think that would work. He had heard how El had struggled to manage at school in California, and although Chris was younger Steve felt very conscious of not wanting to spook him, especially if he got angry or distressed. He had seen the damage that the little boy had wreaked on his room. There was no way Steve wanted to expose unwitting people to that, or upset Chris and ruin the trust they had built.

Maybe something like art might be better. He’d look at getting some more supplies from somewhere.

He looked up as the kids swapped the videos over and then went back to Chris.

“Do you want to do some writing?”

Chris looked down at the book, again feigning interest in the words to avoid Steve’s question.

“Or some drawing, how about drawing?” Steve said and smiled as Chris looked up with interest.

“Right, drawing it is then.”

“I’ll get some stuff,” Steve said. And given what had happened with Lucas that morning, also decided to phone Hopper.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

“What can you do that El can’t? No offence.” Hopper asked as they stood outside Max’s hospital room. Steve shrugged. Lucas had gone in to sit by Max’s side. There was a new vase of flowers on the side, a little ragged looking, so Steve hoped Max’s mother had also been there at some point today. Chris lingered in the doorway of the room, watching Max and Lucas with a solemn expression on his face. Steve couldn’t honestly hope to know what the kid understood about the situation.

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t,” Steve said, “But when I hugged Lucas I felt something … emotional. And I seemed to send it. I don’t know if Chris was involved or I just picked up his feelings as well, but something happened. I just wondered if it was worth trying it on Max. I don’t think it’s the same as El, you sort of…”

“I find people,” El said, but had frowned at what Steve was saying. “I know what people are doing, and can see them, but I don’t know if I can feel them. Not in the way that Steve is saying. Did you get like a picture in your head? Like… a film… no… more like a play, people performing a play in your head?”

She seemed to struggle with her description but Steve got the point.

“This was just feelings, no pictures. I could just feel Lucas, how sad he felt and I could feel Chris, who felt secure and happy. I knew that. It was a bit of a muddle, but… I just wondered if I should try. With Max. It was like a web.” Steve raised his hand and spread them, as if that could show what he meant. “Like a web of emotion, just sort of stretching out. I’m not making a good job of this.”

“No kid,” Hopper said. “Not entirely. I would say we could try it, but we don’t know what’s going on with Max. El has had more experience in doing this sort of thing, not that I am entirely happy with some of the things she does. She knows her limits and essentially was trained. You’re just starting, and we are not entirely sure what is going on with you.”

“I see your point,” Steve said. “But I don’t want to not try it if I can do something.”

“All right,” Hopper said. “Give it a try. El will be with you. But if you think something is wrong, or you get any sort of bad vibe then pull back. Don’t put yourself at risk! Just see if you can feel something, rather than trying to fix something.”

“OK,” Steve said. Hopper gave him a stern look, which backed up his point. He had, since Steve returned, seemed as protective of Steve as he was the younger kids. He had never been so mollycoddled in his life. It was kind of nice, having people acting like parents, since his own spent most of their time away from him. Steve wondered sometimes if it was his fault, that he had somehow driven them away. But he now had so many other people who cared about him.

“Right,” he muttered to himself, easing past Chris to go into the room. Lucas looked up at him.

“Are you going to try?”

“Yes, or at least… see if it works,” Steve said. “I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing.”

He sat on the other side of Max’s bed. She lay still, as she always did, the machines beeping being the only sign of life. Chris moved closer to him, eyeing him curiously. Steve reached up and ruffled his hair.

“It’ll be fine,” he assured the little boy.

Steve reached out to take Max’s other hand and he glanced over at Lucas.

“Just let go for a minute, I don’t want anything messing with the result. If I get one.”

Reluctantly Lucas released Max’s hand. Steve could see the unspoken question in his eyes. What if there wasn’t anything?

Steve didn’t want to contemplate that. El had trouble reaching her, but as she said, her talent was different. Steve could hopefully find something. He didn’t want to contemplate not being able to. He took Max’s cold hand and it felt so small and fragile in his own. Closing his eyes he debated what the hell he was doing, and how to do it.

Still, he tried, focussing on the hand in his. As he stretched out he did start to pick up shimmers of things around him. Nothing too in depth, but things he already realised his had felt before. Lucas’s sadness, Hopper’s definite concern, El’s curiosity as she watched him and the security and trust coming from Chris, Steve used those as a starting point, he clearly didn’t need to be in direct contact with people and it occurred to him as he felt the rippling strands he had been feeling them for a while.

It wasn’t always directly obvious that he was feeling it. When he was paying attention, people’s moods were pretty clear, some sort of weird psychic power wasn’t necessary, when you could talk and ask. But now Steve realised the strange little web he was in had been picking things up, on and off, for a while.

He opened his eyes a little and glanced at the door.

“Seriously Chief, can you tone it down a bit.”

“What?” Hopper rumbled.

“Like a sort of vibrating, ready to drag me to safety, sensation. Just… I’m fine.”

“Keep an eye on him,” he said to El, who nodded. Hopper disappeared from the doorway and Steve closed his eyes again. The vibration of concern was still there, but as Hopper was further away the impact was lessened. Maybe the walls helped shield him as well, Steve mused, as he tried to concentrate.

El could work at a distance, finding people over long distances. Steve didn’t think he was able to do that, but something flickered around him. Like electricity. Dustin had gone on about things like that, about his ability with electricity. Steve remembered some of it from school, about nerve impulses in the body, that were like electricity, or were a type of electricity.

Steve let his mind wander a bit, while he focussed on Max’s hand in his. He could still sense the people around him, but he thought more about Max. There was, as he imagined her lying on the bed, an odd feeling of a void. Not a darkness as such but a feeling that there was something missing. Steve focussed harder, trying to sense deeper into that missing piece.

Everyone else seemed to fade away as he imagined moving deeper into the space. Then he pushed deeper into the missing, it was the only thing he could use to describe it. But as he felt himself within the space, he felt a ripple of something.

Where Hopper’s vibration felt so strong, what he felt now was faint, only noticeable because he was looking for it. It rippled against him and it was hard to interpret, not exactly lost but certainly not where it was meant to be. The darkness appeared to be cocooning what was there. It didn’t feel menacing. Steve had been in the Upside-Down, he knew menacing when he met it.

As he continued to sense what was there, baring in mind Hopper’s warning to not try and fix anything, or put himself in danger, he just lingered. Then what was there, in the missing, seemed to react to him. Not with any great reaction, it just seemed to know he was there. Steve held himself where he was, just being there. If he was wrong about what he felt he didn’t want to provoke an adverse reaction.

He didn’t want to scare it, or anger it, until he got a better fix of what he was doing. In the end, unaware of how long he had been searching, he opened his eyes and let go of Max’s hand. The moment he did that Lucas took the other hand on the other side.

“Well?” Lucas demanded. Steve looked around, El had moved to the end of the bed, a slight frown on her face. Behind her Hopper lurked, looking mildly thunderous and Chris stood next to him, as Steve looked down at him Chris reached out and gripped his trousers.

“You all right kid?” Hopper asked.

“Yeah, I… there was something… a gap… something missing,” Steve said. “But not missing,” he added as he looked at the expression on Lucas’ face.

“It’s the only way I can describe it, and I’m not going to do it very well I think.”

“Just give it a try,” Hopper said.

“It’s like there is, not a void, but a ‘missing’ sort of, it’s the only word I can use. And I can feel something in it.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, but what does at the moment,” Hopper mused.

“And Max?” Lucas asked, looking as if he was desperate to know, but also didn’t want to know.

“I think it’s her, in the missing bit,” Steve waved his arms, wondering what he was trying to gesture. “But she’s sort of distant, not hiding exactly but… maybe if I try again…”

“Another day,” Hopper told him sternly. “That fifteen minutes was stressful enough.”

“Fifteen minutes?” Steve looked at his watch startled. Hopper was right, the minute or so Steve thought he had taken had been much longer. “It didn’t feel like that. Is that the same for you?”

El frowned. “I’m not sure.” She looked to Hopper for further information.

“To be honest I’ve never thought about it. But, whatever happened, I think that’s enough for tonight. There is no point you putting yourself at risk. Why don’t you take the kid home? I can drop Lucas off when he’s ready to go.”

Steve looked at Chris, who stared back with his steady blue gaze, a slight frown on his face.

“Okay, I’ve got an early start tomorrow.”

“Be careful, try and check in with me, phone the office and Flo can update me.”

“Sure,” Steve said standing up and lifting Chris up. The little boy wrapped his arms around Steve’s neck and clung tightly. Steve turned to look at Lucas.

“Don’t give up, she’s there.”

Chapter Text

Steve drove out of Hawkins after breakfast the next morning. He had put some snacks in the car and they had eaten their usual big breakfast. Steve had radioed everyone before he set off, and promised to find a phone when he arrived. He had a stash of coins in the car, which was the remains of the vomiting phone booth from their escape. When Steve had discussed returning the coins Hopper had given him a stare which Steve took as a ‘don’t be stupid’ look and had left it, put them in his car and used them when he needed them.

They had been a supply for the kids wanting change for the arcade, use of phones and anything that cropped up. Steve got the feeling that every time one of the kids sat in the car, they helped themselves, but he supposed that didn’t matter.

It was nice, as he hit a straight stretch of road, to be able to drive the car at a normal speed. He had spent the last few weeks driving behind the kids on their bikes, so letting the BMW pick up some speed felt good. And it felt slightly nice to be alone for once. Chris, permanently at his side, was a different concept to everyone else’s concern. He didn’t mind the company, and concern, but it did feel oddly overwhelming occasionally.

With several people as well offering to go with him; Hopper had offered, El had offered, even Joyce had, when he had dropped Will off, and so had Jonathan. Even Nancy had rung him last night to offer to accompany him. Steve had refused them all.

On and off over the last few weeks the military had been in and out of Hawkins. They hadn’t exactly set up roadblocks yet, but Steve had a feeling that was on the cards if the situation disintegrated further. They were in and out of the old lab and were watching the roads Hopper suspected.

Steve had driven out of Hawkins on the odd occasion just to test the theory, but never encountered a van of kidnappers so he guessed for the moment he was safe. Not that he had told anyone he had done that. He didn’t need them being any more over-protective than they already were.

Except for the over-protective chief of police who was waiting just past the town boundary and stepped forward as he saw the car. Steve gave Chris a glance and pulled over.

“Stay, Hopper is just being over-protective of us,” Steve said, getting out of the car. Chris eyed Hopper curiously but stayed settled in his car seat and watched the interaction. Steve went to the front of the car.

“Everything all right?” Steve asked.

“Fine,” Hopper said. “Give me a call when you get there. Phone the station and relay a message through Flo if I’m not there. And call on the way home, I’ll judge how long it will take you to drive back and meet you here.”

“Aren’t you being a little overcautious?”

“No,” Hopper said, glowering at Steve and daring him to argue. Steve decided not to.

“Okay,” Steve said.

“And Joyce is cooking dinner for you tonight so head straight to ours on the way home.”

Steve smiled, he doubted he would get away with crying off from that.

“Okay, I’ll be fine, we’ll be fine,” Steve said waving a hand at Chris. Who watched anxiously from the passenger seat. Steve couldn’t even put him in the back of the car, Chris wanted to be next to him. Steve didn’t mind, he just put a seat in the car for him and the kids were relegated to getting into the back. It was only Dustin who felt irritated at being relegated. The other kids didn’t care, especially Will, who was the one Steve transported the most.

Hopper reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, Steve could feel the strength in Hopper’s grip.

“Just be careful.”

“I’m only driving a few miles to the next town, we’ll be fine,” Steve said.

“Make sure you are,” Hopper warned. Steve nodded at him and got back in the car. With a wave at Hopper he set off again. Chris looked out of the window, raising his hand as they passed the officer. Then he looked curiously at Steve.

“Hopper’s worried about us, in fact I think everyone is, but we’ll be fine. We’re going to see my parents. They might be worried about me, more likely they are worried about the house, and… I guess I may have to explain what happened, the whole kidnapping and lab thing.”

Steve gave Chris a sidelong glance. The little boy regarded him with a steady, calm gaze, like he always did.

“My parents are… well, like Joyce is Jonathan’s and Will’s mom, and Hopper is El’s dad, although he adopted her like I have done for you. And Nancy and Mike have the same mom and dad, and that’s how you get your family. We’re going to see my mom and dad. I don’t suppose you know who your mom and dad are. El at least found hers, but we don’t know if you have the same power as her… and I’m not explaining this entirely well.”

Even to his own ears the explanation sounded confusing and didn’t really mean anything to Chris. Since Steve suspected that Chris had lived in the lab since birth he wondered if he had ever known his mother, or if he had, had he known who she was? Could he really, at his age, equate it with what Steve was saying?

“My parents know someone in the next town, I used to have to stay with them when my parents were out of town, when I was little. It was better when I got older, I could stay at Tommy’s.” That was one virtue of being friends with Tommy when he was younger, he could sometimes stay with him, as long as it was only a weekend or an overnight stay Tommy’s mom hadn’t minded. It was only when Steve got older that he could stay by himself.

“They are staying with them instead of coming to Hawkins. That’s probably the best thing, my parents annoy me but I don’t want them in danger. I don’t want you in danger but I doubt I could leave you somewhere without consequences.”

Steve knew that well enough. It was only a few weeks, too soon to try and leave Chris anywhere, with someone else. Not that Steve wanted to, the little boy needed protecting. It was probably not just Steve they would try and retrieve at some point. Chris was just as much at risk as Steve was. But they were, Steve thought, capable of defending each other in extreme circumstances.

Chris looked at him as he talked, listening with his serious expression.

It was often hard to tell what the little boy actually understood. Steve talked and Chris listened but Steve never got an entire picture of what made sense to the little boy and what subjects might need more explanation. He wasn’t stupid, the little boy in his care, he could play games with a strategic edge that Steve couldn’t hope to keep up with. He had learnt to read quite swiftly and could write fairly well when he chose to do so. His understanding of maths seemed advanced, again when he chose to take an interest.

Steve needed to look into learning sign language, as the boy steadfastly didn’t speak. Steve didn’t know if that was by choice or he simply physically couldn’t. He could certainly hear and see well enough, so Steve didn’t quite know the cause of the muteness.

Chris turned to look out of the window as the scenery started to change and they pulled into the town. Steve drove through to head towards the Grainger’s house on the far side. At least he remembered the way, even though he hadn’t been to their house for years. He felt his stomach stir as it used to as he reached their road, knowing at that point that his parents were going to leave him. His parents never seemed to bother about the fact they were leaving him.

In hindsight, Steve decided, they left him here, as it was less embarrassing that letting the entirety of Hawkins know they kept dumping him on other people. Steve had hated it.

The Grainger’s daughter was only slightly older than Steve and hadn’t really minded his presence. And as Steve got older she had been a helpful source of hair care information. It had been their son, much older than Steve, by at least 10 years, who had resented his presence, especially as Steve had been forced to share a room with him, until he had gone off to college. Steve had curled up on the camp bed trying to be as unobtrusive as possible while he had endured kicks and insults from the older boy.

Steve actually now wondered if that had been the helpful source of information for his ‘King Steve’ persona.

Either way, things were different now and he hadn’t spent time at the Grainger’s place for years. As soon as his parents deemed he could be left alone he had taken that option. From the age of 15 he had been self-sufficient in a way that perhaps his peers hadn’t been. But he had also been lonely.

He was a lot less lonely now.

Chris looked around curiously as they pulled into the innocuous, well-presented street. Chris turned his head this way and that, assessing the neighbourhood. He then turned to look at Steve with a look of concern, a frown creasing his face. Pointing out of the window he stared at Steve looking increasingly worried.

“It’s fine, we’re just here to visit, and…”

Steve blinked as he reached out to take Chris’ hand and his mind flashed with a concerning memory of the escape, as Steve had driven onto the immaculately presented street that the underground lab that had been hidden in. Hawkins by contrast, in Chris’s mind, looked different. Evidence of the Upside-Down and scars from previous altercations were visible. Plus, many of the houses in town were shuttered and silent. Not bright and clean as it was here.

Just a few miles away it was almost as if that world didn’t exist and instead it took Chris back to the only other home that he knew.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Steve said. “There’s not another lab here. We’re not going back there. It’s nothing to do with that. We’re just here to see my parents and we’ll be having dinner at Mrs Byers house tonight. We are not going back to the lab ever. For now we just have to get through seeing my parents and we’ll be back in Hawkins by dinner time.”

Chris continued to frown for a moment as he looked at Steve, who squeezed the tiny hand he was holding in reassurance.

“I promise, no labs, or needles or nasty scientists, just my mom and dad and…” Steve tailed off as the Grainger’s front door opened and he saw his parents. “Having to answer more than a few questions, but that’s my job.”

Chris looked at him for a long moment then his frown smoothed out, but as he glanced at the people gathering in the doorway of the house he looked concerned again.

“It’s fine, they are just people I know, nothing to worry about. Just… let’s behave ourselves, no blasting people or moving objects. OK, Kiddo?”

Chris didn’t smile but he seemed to relax. Steve smiled at him. “C’mon,” let’s face the music.”

He got out of the car and went to the passenger door to release the seatbelt holding Chris and lift him out of the car. He put him down and Chris stayed as close to him as possible while he looked at the people clustered by the house. Steve locked the car and crouched down in front of Chris, taking his hands.

“It’s fine, that’s my mom and dad,” Steve pointed to the neatly dressed couple stood waiting for him. Everyone else had thankfully gone into the house. “Like I said, Joyce is Jonathan and Will’s mom and she looks after them, like I look after you and my mom and dad looked after me, and we’ll have a little lesson about it when we get home, about family trees and mom’s and dad’s.”

Steve wondered if that would be a hurtful conversation for the little boy who may not even know his parents, and probably didn’t. There was no way Steve could get any information, unless he went back to the lab and tried asking. That was something he had no intention of doing.

“Steve?”

His mom had obviously got tired of waiting and had come down the pathway a little. Steve stood up and putting a hand on Chris’ head guided him up the two steps then along the pathway towards his mom. She looked at tidy as she usually did, with her perfectly styled hair – Steve couldn’t exactly criticize that though – and neat, expensive clothes.

“Hi Mom,” Steve said, suddenly feeling very awkward. He leant forward and kissed her on the cheek, as he usually did, and it felt cool and resilient as it usually did. He caught the scent of her perfume and the soap that she always used. However, Steve felt conscious of Chris leaning against him hands clinging onto the material of his jeans.

“Steve, what’s this?”

She glanced down at Chris. Steve put a hand on Chris’ head to reassure him.

“This is Chris, don’t worry I’ll explain.”

He started to lead Chris towards the house, taking his mom’s arm on his other side. Steve reached his father, who blocked the doorway like a bouncer, the threshold slightly higher than the pathway so his father could stare down at him. Steve got the feeling his father was rather offended by the fact that Steve could now look him straight in the eye when they were on level ground.

“What is this?”

“This is Chris, I’m looking after him,” Steve said. Chris gripped onto him tightly and Steve’s senses picked up his nerves. He tried to stay as calm as possible but his father always set him on edge a little. He watched as his father’s face darkened. Steve took a deep breath; aware the lights that flanked the front door had started to flicker faintly. As he exhaled they stopped, the sunlight too bright for his parents to notice them.

“Looking after him,” his father repeated slowly, looking down at Chris then at Steve.

“Yeah, it’s complicated but he’s in my care. I’m his …” Steve paused as his father, as usual, heard half a sentence, made a conclusion and thought the worse.

“Young Man! If some girl has made you think…”

The raised voice caused Chris to press into Steve’s leg.

“Dad, enough!” Steve said sternly, with such authority that his father stopped, where he would normally bull over anything Steve had to say. “No girl has made me think anything. No one has made me think he’s my son, at least not biologically. But I am his guardian, not legally, but we’re working on that.”

Sensing Chris’ hands tighten even further Steve caused a distraction by reaching down and picking him up, settling him on his hip. Chris reached up and wrapped his arms around Steve’s neck, tucking his head down. Steve ran a reassuring hand up and down the little boy’s back.

“It’s all right,” Steve assured him and then looked at his parents. “Shall we not do this on the street? It’s a complicated situation but it’s not like that, but I am looking after Chris and I am the only one who can.”

“Come in,” his father announced, as if the Grainger’s house was his own. They had often had Steve to stay but never had his parents staying under their roof. Steve took a breath and followed. The hallway had been decorated since he was last here. When he had been there last the walls had been a yellow, a Chinese yellow that seemed bright and welcoming. Now it was peach colour, more subdued and subtle.

“Hello Steve,” Mrs Grainger came forward to hug him. She smiled at Chris who looked around suspiciously.

“Hi, Mrs Grainger. Do you mind if I just use you phone?”

“Do you want to use the lounge one,” she offered. “Clive’s with his daughters out back. You remember Clive from when you used to stay here. Do you want me to take your little one through, we can mind him for a minute?”

“Vividly,” Steve said of Clive, which seemed both vague and tactless at the same time. “And no, he’s a bit shy.”

But he also remembered where the lounge was and headed to the left through the open doorway. He reached to put Chris down again.

“It’s all right,” Steve said soothingly as he extracted himself from Chris and he lifted the receiver and dialled the number for the sheriff’s station. It was answered on the second ring.

“Hi Flo, it’s Steve I just need to let Hopper…” he paused as the phone abruptly changed hands. He rested his free hand on Chris’ head. “Hey, yeah arrived about five minutes ago. Yeah, I suppose so,” Steve said tilting the hand he had on Chris’ head to look at his watch.

“No I didn’t!” Steve said grimacing a little. “Alright, maybe a bit, it’s the first time I haven’t driven with the kids ahead of me on their bikes, so I probably put my foot down a little.”

“Just be careful,” Hopper said. “Don’t attract undue attention. Let me know when you leave and I’ll meet you.”

“I will, it will be fine. If you can’t meet me I’ll see you for dinner anyway.”

Steve caught his mother’s eye as he spoke and he saw her eyebrows rise at that information.

“Yep, I will. I will I’ll call as soon as I we are setting off. Bye.”

Steve hung up the phone while the going was fairly good.

“You’re having dinner with Jim Hopper?” his mother asked. “Since when are you on friendly terms with the Chief of Police?”

“A while, and yes Mrs Byers is cooking,”

His mother cocked an eyebrow at that in such a way that Steve decided not to elaborate any further.

“Come on, Kiddo, let’s see if Mrs Grainger has some juice.”

“I’ve done some drinks out in the garden,” she said, coming back in. “Everything OK?”

“Yeah, I just need to check in to stop everyone worrying,” Steve said. He didn’t look at his parents, who had never called when he had been dumped here. They just dropped him off and then collected him when they came back. Steve led Chris through to the kitchen and out to the Grainger’s garden, which in his childlike mind had always been inferior as it lacked a pool. There was a swing-set and climbing frame, where the two girls were playing, supervised by Clive. There were also some games on the lawn, Steve felt Chris perk up as he saw an oversized jenga game.

“In a minute,” Steve told him. “Have some juice first.”

Steve sat and supervised Chris drinking some juice. His parents sat at the table, watching his every move as he concentrated on the little boy. Then he took him over to start playing with the big wooden blocks. It was the sort of thing Chris loved. Steve took a minute to settle him then left Chris to it, kissing the top of his head affectionately. Chris looked up and smiled his smile at Steve.

“Clive will mind him if he wants to go and play with Sarah and Tiffany,” Mrs Grainger said.

“Like I said, he’s still a bit shy and not really sociable with other kids,” Steve explained, “he’s best left alone.”

Mrs Grainger seemed to accept that and went off to carry on with the buffet lunch she was preparing. Clive watched curiously while also keeping an eye on his two girls, and keeping half an eye on the silent little boy on the lawn, absorbed in the game he was playing.

“So, what’s going on, Steve?” he mother started. “Hopper called us to say you had gone missing and then wouldn’t give us any information.”

“It’s a long story, you know a few… odd…” Steve wondered if that word really covered it but it served a purpose, “things have been happening in town, they sort of started when Will Byers went missing.”

“I know he was presumed dead, didn’t they find a body?”

“And that girl went missing from that party you had, without our permission.”

Trust his father to focus on that part. Not the part that Barb had disappeared, but the fact Steve was partying when they were away. Steve gritted his teeth and bypassed that comment.

“Yeah, well, a few of us were involved in dealing with what was causing it and…”

Steve turned as he heard one of the girls shriek, and he looked to Chris, who was busy playing a game that could only be called floating jenga as the wooden blocks drifted in the air. Steve noticed a trail of blood starting to trickle from his nose. The blocks wavered but remained in place as Chris looked towards the girl.

Getting up Steve gave Chris a pointed look and the blocks dropped with a clatter. Steve reached into the back pocket of his jeans to the packet of tissues that he kept in there now. He pulled one out and went over to Chris, crouching down. The little boy eyed him nervously, tears starting to glimmer in his eyes.

“Okay,” Steve said gently, crouching down in front of Chris, gently dabbing up the blood trail. It had amused the others the last time El had used her powers and as her nose started to bleed Steve had produced a tissue. She had looked at him with mild surprise before taking the tissue with a ‘thank you’.

Now Steve had them on him all the time.

“I’m not angry,” Steve told him. “You know I’m not going to be angry, but we’ve talked about this, you need to be careful. Well, I talk…” Steve paused and shrugged, checking the flow of blood had stopped.

“But maybe we need to get you practicing a little more, I’ll talk to El and see what she thinks you should be doing. There you go.”

He finished cleaning up Chris’ nose and tucked the tissue back in his pocket for now and then picked Chris up, tucking him on his hip again. Chris as usual wrapped his arms around Steve’s neck.

“What’s going on? What have you brought to my mother’s house…”

Steve turned, moving instinctively as Clive advanced on them. For a moment Steve remembered how aggressive Clive had been towards him. And now he was just as mean looking. He had a couple of inches on Steve and a good deal more muscle on him. However, Steve reacted, wanting to keep him away from Chris, who had done nothing more than what came naturally to him.

He had practiced the electricity blasts and did have a good level of his power. Although he had left a nasty bruise on Jonathan’s torso once during one practice session, but Steve figured he needed to make a point now, and could risk a shock in Clive’s direction. As he reached them Steve put his hand out as if he intended to fend Clive off and as he made contact with the man’s chest he felt the power run through him, the flash happened behind his eyes and he powered him back a step.

For a moment, the tableau held as Steve and Clive stared at each other. In the background Steve could see his parents looking at him in shock and, the one thing that brought Steve back to reality, the two little girls, one about the same age as Chris, the other a little older, both looking shocked with tears in their eyes.

He stepped back from Clive and smiled at the little girls.

“It’s all right, just a bit of magic,” he said. Then he looked at Chris, who looked utterly calm.

“Steve, what the hell is going on?” his father demanded as Clive sent the girls in to help their grandmother.

“Sorry for scaring them,” Steve said genuinely. Clive looked at him rubbing his chest where Steve had hit him.

“That was…” Clive said, and then paused, very unsure what it actually was. He glanced at Steve’s parents trying to gauge their reaction to the whole thing. Steve saw the confusion and shock on their faces. He glanced at Chris again.

“I guess that leaves me no choice,” Steve murmured at him. “We go for a full disclosure.”

Chapter Text

First they went in for lunch. The kitchen island was covered with platters of sandwiches, quiche, salad and a plate of devilled eggs, Steve noted. Chris, still carried on his hip, pointed at them, the plate moving towards the edge. Steve tapped his hand against Chris’s leg.

“I think we’ve had enough of that today, thank you. I’m not sure you’ll like them.”

Chris pointed at the eggs again with a stubborn look on his face.

“You can still try them,” Steve reasoned. “But maybe have a bit of salad, and some sandwiches. Right, down you go.”

He put Chris on the floor, the little boy looked up at Steve as he took a plate and put some food on for Chris, a little salad, some ham sandwiches and three of the eggs.

“I’m not sure how he’ll manage at the table,” Mrs Grainger said.

“He’ll be fine, I just stick a cushion on the chair to boost him up.”

She smiled and came back with a cushion a minute or so later. Steve took the plate to the table with Chris on his heels. He lifted the little boy up and set him on the cushion, manoeuvring the chair close to the table. Chris eyed the plate with interest reaching out to pick up one of the eggs to try it. Steve watched with interest, to see what Chris would make of it.

He watched the little boy’s face scrunch slightly at the new taste, however, after a moment the expression smoothed out and Chris ate the rest and reached for a second egg.

“Well, I wasn’t entirely expecting that, eat a sandwich as well,” Steve said, putting a bit of the salad into the sandwich. Chris looked at him mulishly. “Just indulge me.”

He ruffled Chris’ hair and left him to it to go back to get something for himself. His parents and Clive were muttering among themselves.

“My mom’s taken the girls to the dining room, I don’t think I want them involved,” Clive said.

“Probably wise,” Steve said.

“This has to do with your disappearance?” his mom asked.

“Kidnapping, technically,” Steve said. He supposed there was no point hiding anything now. They had seen what Chris could do, and Clive had certainly got a taste of what Steve was capable of. There were some things he would keep out of it.

“By whom?” his father demanded. He never asked, he always demanded.

“Bit difficult to say, could have been the government, could have been the military, or both,” Steve paused as he saw Clive start at that. By the look of him Steve should have guessed that was his career. “They have both been involved at some point. As far as we know they are going in and out of the Hawkins lab again and they have some others across the country, El was in Nevada; I ended up, I think, in Kentucky, but I wasn’t paying attention at the time. I drove through there, so I suppose that’s the best guess. But I don’t know exactly where.”

“Didn’t they have uniforms?” Clive asked.

“All the ones where I was held all just wore black, and were very good at never calling each other by name, other than the doctor running the experiments. Everyone called him Dr Smith – but that could have been made up.”

Steve turned as he felt a tickle on the back of his neck. Chris stared at him expectantly, one sandwich gone from his plate, and all three eggs.

“More eggs?” Steve asked. Chris gave a very confident nod. “I’ll bring you some if you eat a bit more salad.”

Chris glowered at him but consented to pick up a lettuce leaf.

“And the boy?” his mother asked.

“He was there too and I wasn’t going to leave him. So when I escaped I took him with me. It’s a long story.”

Steve turned as Chris knocked his fork against the table. “All right. Let me get the kid more eggs and I’ll explain.”

So he did, as much as he thought was relevant, as they sat down to lunch. The kidnapping, the lab, the experiments – with a few details removed. He left out the demodog but mentioned the vines and certainly did not mention the force-feeding. And then he got to the reasons and the events in Hawkins, he started that from the beginning and ran though to the end.

“I thought it was that Munson boy responsible for those recent killings?” his mother said. “Wasn’t one of the bodies found in his trailer?”

Steve scowled. “That’s not true, well the body was, but Eddie wasn’t responsible.”

“I remember his father, it wouldn’t surprise me if his son…”

“Eddie didn’t do anything!” Steve snapped, cutting across his father. “Except be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he died for it in the end. He doesn’t deserve the reputation he’s now got. We went through the gate to fight and he died there.”

“So you’ve been in this ‘parallel world’?” his father snapped.

“Yes, twice,” Steve said. “And I’ve had some other contact. We call it the Upside-Down, or El did, and we sort of picked it up the same way. I think they wanted someone who had been in contact with it to experiment – whatever theory they were testing – on. I was, thankfully, the first one they could grab.”

“Thankfully?” his mother queried.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have wanted to grab any of the youngsters, or Nance, or Robin, or even Jonathan. Which leaves me.”

“What about the girl from the lab, this Eleven, or Jane, you said her name was?” Clive asked.

“I doubt they would risk taking her, she’s too powerful for them to handle. Might be why they had Chris there, being younger he’s probably not as strong, but it does leave the possibility there are other labs, with others like him.” Steve could hear his voice hardening at that thought. It made him angry just considering it.

“And were they testing on the boy?” Clive asked.

“That I don’t know, he wasn’t in the lab with me at the same time, but I think he went there every day, like I did, sometimes first, sometimes second, but…” Steve paused and considered it. Over the last couple of weeks he had been back he had wondered. They certainly didn’t seem to be doing the same things with Chris as Brenner had to El.

“I’m now thinking they were using him as donor material.”

“For what?” his mother asked.

“For me,” Steve said. “I’ve had contact with the environment they are interested in, but no sort of… psycho-kinetic power, like El has. But it’s not the same, but I wonder if they used that to cause… what happened to me. And I’m fairly certain some of those drips had stuff from the Upside-Down in, like they needed more exposure.”

“But you’re all right?” his mother asked in concern, reaching out for his hand.

“Whatever they’ve done it’s certainly effective,” Clive said touching his chest again.

“Sorry, again,” Steve said with a grimace. “I just reacted to protect Chris.”

He turned and smiled at the little boy, who beamed up at him and looked pointedly at Steve’s plate. With a smile Steve moved the egg from his plate to Chris’.

“You are going to turn into an egg at this rate.” Then he turned back to his audience. “I think that is a result of the tasers they kept using on me.”

“Tasers?” his mother sounded quite alarmed.

“Yeah, I’m not the most co-operative prisoner, they kept tasering me when I did something wrong, or sometimes just because they felt like it. One of the guards was very taser happy.”

“And you didn’t recognise any of them?” Clive asked. “Have you seen them again?”

“No, and I’m keeping an eye open for them now, but I doubt they’ll use the same guards if they’re in Hawkins. I’m guessing that they are happy with me where I am for now; there is no way they wouldn’t know where I’d go when I escaped. They could have probably reacquired me at any time, except everyone is being over-protective. And I can now protect myself.”

Clive took a bite of a sandwich and then asked. “You think they might have let you go on purpose?”

Steve sighed. “It would be nice to think not, and I escaped on my own merit, but… okay… it has occurred to me. They couldn’t predict what I’d do, or if the power would even manifest, but there was certainly something going on that day, they were using me as a babysitter for the kid and one day they didn’t take me though to sit with him. I think he knew something was up, he pulled the room apart in a temper. So, either I was in danger, or he was. Bit more salad I think, you’ve eaten about six of those eggs,” he added as he looked at Chris.

“I can make some enquires at the base, discreetly…” Clive started. Steve looked at him sharply.

“Don’t…”

Clive stopped and looked at him with a frown. “I can trust my CO, he can…”

“I’m sure you can, but at the moment we are not sure who to trust except each other. Some mad colonel tried to kill El, and I’m not sure who the guys who took me are. At the moment we are playing this very close to our chests.”

“I’ve heard rumours, they may deploy us to Hawkins but everyone is being very cagey as to why.”

“Don’t draw any unnecessary attention to yourself,” Steve warned. “Don’t let anyone know that you know anything more than rumours.”

“I can…”

“Trust me, don’t do anything,” Steve said, “I don’t want to put anyone else at risk. I don’t want anyone else I care about anywhere near Hawkins.”

“There has to be something we can do?” his mother looked at his father, who stared back and then looked at Steve.

“No,” Steve said sternly, with the authority he had somehow learnt to use with Chris. It generally worked on him. The kids were a little harder to bring under control but they were used to arguing with him and ignoring him.

“I don’t want you involved.”

“You’re our son; we are involved if you are involved,” his father announced.

“I don’t want you in Hawkins,” Steve said. “It’s not safe there.”

“Should you come with us, if it’s not safe I don’t want you there either,” his mom said. “You can bring…” she glanced at Chris a little warily. “Chris with you.”

Steve shook his head. “We can’t. We’ve fought this stuff before, and we are the only ones who really know what we are doing. Yes, what?” he asked as Chris pulled on his sleeve.

“Not more eggs, surely?”

Chris nodded and lifted a hand holding up four fingers. Steve raised his eyebrows. It certainly convinced him that Chris understood numbers.

“Four? I don’t think you are going to eat four more, how about another one?”

Chris pouted and downgraded to three fingers. Steve smiled at him.

“Two, and that should be enough.”

Chris pouted and went to hold up two fingers. And he smiled his little smile up at Steve.

“Stop that, it’s cheating.”

Steve ruffled his hair and picked up Chris’ plate and took it over to add two more eggs and he also added some salad.

“And he hasn’t talked?” Clive asked looking at Chris, who only had eyes for Steve and the plate he put in front of him.

“Not a word. I’ve had a squeak, and a few whimpers,” Steve said. “I’m going to teach him sign language, since I don’t think he’s ever going to say anything.”

Chris took one of the eggs and started eating. Steve ruffled his hair again getting a flicker of contentment and happiness as he did so.

“Doesn’t take much does it?” he said to Chris.

“What?” his father asked.

“To make him happy, that’s the other thing I can seem to do, pick up emotions from people. Empathic… I think was the word Nance used,” Steve said. “But I’m wondering if I could always do that. I just never noticed it before.”

His parents exchanged a look and then seemed to mutually agree on something.

“You can’t just do this all by yourself,” his mother said. “You can’t put yourself in danger, you should leave with us. You can’t go back.”

“We have to, the others are still there, and I can’t abandon them,” Steve said. “We’re the ones who know what we’re dealing with. And we’re not the first or the last; we are the only line of defence. And now I’m part of that more than ever.”

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The talk went on for another couple of hours, until Steve thought they had been around the same subjects about thirty times. And he ended up revealing more than he wanted, including the force-feeding incident, which he had tried to keep from most people. It was the worst part of what happened to him, he could cope with needles and tasers but the memory of that tube forced down his throat was now the stuff of Steve’s worst nightmares.

In the end though he knew he had to leave. Clive seemed happy to see the back of him, which didn’t surprise Steve. But his parents clung on, desperate to keep him talking, to keep him there.

He phoned Hopper as promised and then herded Chris to the door. The little boy had happily played in the garden. The two girls seeming to accept his presence and for a little while the three of them had played games together. Steve watched them, making sure Chris didn’t do anything to overt, but he seemed to realise he shouldn’t. It made Steve wonder how often he might have cheated at Ker-Plunk, but it wasn’t worth getting cross over.

Especially as he seemed to interact well with the two girls, although at the time they had been sat quietly with Chris, which probably reminded him of the games sessions they had at the lab.

“Are you sure you should go back?” his mother asked as she followed him down to the car. The Grainger’s had said goodbye at the door but his parents followed him to the BMW. He settled Chris into the passenger seat and left the door open so Chris could see him as he said goodbye to his parents.

“Yes, I need to. Just ring me, or I’ll call you, let me know where you are.”

“We’re going to stay in Indianapolis,” his father said. “We want to be close by. If you need to come to us just get to us. Do you have enough money?”

“I’ll send you a cheque,” his mother told him.

“Just to pay the bills, working at the video store gives me enough to live on for me and Chris. I’m managing.”

His mother hugged him tightly, and Steve got a wash of concern and a flicker of childhood memories coming over him. Of him when he was little, as small a Chris was now. As if that was the way his mother saw him, even now. She kissed him on the cheek and held him again, for a few second longer. There were tears shimmering in her eyes as she let go and passed him over to his father.

Steve had almost raised his hand, for the inevitable handshake that his father used on him since he was about seven years old and ‘too old’ for hugs. He almost stumbled as his father grabbed hold of him and pulled him close into a tight bear hug. By sheer reflex Steve wrapped his arms around his father’s shoulders, getting a sense of how Chris felt when he wrapped his arms around Steve, feeling safe and secure.

Then he felt something else, running from his father into his senses, flooding him with their power.

Something fierce, and protective, and proud.

Steve blinked trying to process that while he clung onto his father, hugging him back just as tightly. He dad didn’t seem to want to let him go, as if keeping hold of Steve now would keep him safe.

“Be careful!” his father whispered in his ear, as if he didn’t dare raise his voice, or was unable to.

“I will,” Steve promised. “I’ll be fine.”

Steve decided he sounded more confident of that than he actually felt. His father held on for a few more seconds. As he pulled back he looked at Steve before cupping his chin and leaning forward kissed Steve on the forehead.

“I mean it, be careful.”

“We will, I promise.”

“Call us when you get home, and check in with us.”

“I will dad. I promise.”

“You’ve got the number for the Grainger’s and also our place in Indianapolis.”

“Yeah, I’ve got all the numbers, I’ll be fine. I need to go.”

“Be careful, dear.” His mom said.

Steve, overwhelmed by what was flooding his way, almost fell off the kerb as he shut the passenger door and he walked round the car to get in. His entire body shimmered with emotion and it took him a second to open the door and slid in. His parents watched anxiously from the steps of the garden, his dad sliding an arm around his wife’s waist and she clung to him since Steve was no longer there to hold onto.

Managing to give a smile at them Steve started the car, taking one last look at his parents, and he waved at them. Chris, watching him anxiously turned to wave at his parents as well. Steve took a deep breath, his eyes blurring as he felt the tears threaten. He got the car in gear and got moving, taking deep breaths to settle his emotions.

It got easier as he focused on driving, taking in each small, slight movement, changing gears, putting his foot on the accelerator, glancing in the mirrors, his parents were still on the steps watching him drive away. Steve exhaled heavily, blinking to clear his vision, the tears running onto his cheeks. Reaching up a hand he wiped them away, and exhaled a deep breath. The one thing he had to focus on was that his parents were not in Hawkins, they were safely away from danger, as best Steve could make it.

“That didn’t go quite as I expected,” he said to Chris who listened, studying Steve intently. Leaning over Chris put his hand on Steve’s upper arm, patting him gently, as Steve did to Chris when he seemed upset. Taking his other hand off the wheel Steve reached to briefly squeeze Chris’ hand.

“I’m fine, it was just a bit strange. It would be easy to believe that perhaps my parents didn’t care about me but I’ve just learnt that maybe it’s the complete opposite.”

Steve exhaled again.

“I know my dad can sometimes be an asshole, and my mom sometimes seems a little self-involved. I’ve been both those things, too. But maybe things like that are never as simple as they seem. But that’s the thing about parents, I think. My dad’s proud of me and my mom still sees me as a kid your age.”

Steve took a turning, looking around as he did so. He couldn’t help that now, checking around to see if anyone was following, or paying an excessive amount of attention to them. There didn’t appear to be anything at the moment. Steve looked at Chris.

“Did you have fun playing games with Sarah and Tiffany?”

Chris gave a solemn little nod.

“Well, that’s good,” Steve said, trying to sound a little more normal, and he brushed another stray tear away.

He took the turning to take them to Hawkins. Steve turned and smiled at Chris.

“Let’s go home.”

Chapter Text

Hopper met him at the town boundary and followed them through town. Steve obeyed the Chief’s earlier direction and went straight to his cabin where Joyce had clearly been keeping an eye out. As Steve got Chris out of the car she appeared on the porch. Hopper went over and kissed her on the cheek and both of them waited for Steve and Chris to reach them.

“How did that go?” Hopper asked. Joyce frowned in concern as she looked at Steve’s face.

“I had to tell them everything, Chris played by floating jenga blocks in the air and I blasted Clive Grainger.”

“Did you hurt him?” Joyce asked.

“No, I kept it as sedate as I could given the circumstances. But he was coming at Chris and…”

Hopper and Joyce both gave him a look that told him no further explanation was required.

“So everything?” Hopper asked.

“Everything that happened in Hawkins, and all of the kidnapping, and about Chris obviously. My dad thought someone had made me believe that he was my son, in the biological way.”

Hopper smirked at the assumption. “But it went ok?”

“They seemed to believe me, they are staying in Indianapolis so they aren’t far away, and I promised to phone them at least once a week. They are sending money to pay for the house, which is useful…”

Hopper gave Steve that long-suffering look which meant that Steve was being idiotic and had missed the point of what he was asking.

“Yeah,” Steve said as he felt his face flush. “My dad hugged me, he hasn’t done that since I was a kid, and my mom still sees me as a kid.”

“All moms do that,” Joyce said, taking Steve’s arm to usher them inside. She knew better than to try and touch Chris. Everyone kept a careful buffer between themselves and the wary little boy. That buffer generally being Steve. And Chris had seemed to take the point that no one here was about to hurt Steve, which seemed to be his primary concern.

It would have been a very straightforward assumption for the little boy given what had happened in the lab. All he had seen had been people abusing Steve, so it came as no surprise that the kid had been wary of everyone else. He seemed to be getting used to it now though, Hopper reflected as Steve herded Chris indoors and Joyce herded Steve, her concern still obvious.

“I wouldn’t have thought it of my mom, but I got a very distinct mental flash from her,” Steve said.

“Mental flash?” Eleven asked, looking up from the book she was reading.

“Sort of what it feels like,” Steve said. “It just sort of flashes into my brain, and I can feel what that person is feeling, like I’m feeling it.”

He sat on the sofa and pulled Chris onto his lap as the little boy followed him.

“Dinner will be ready in about half an hour, I’ll get some drinks,” Joyce said.

“Can I get a paper and pencil?” Steve asked. Joyce frowned but Will got up to find something for him, bringing a pad and pencil back without a word. Steve took them off him. “Thanks.”

Chris looked up at him curiously as he sat back on the sofa and settled Chris against him. Steve opened the pad and turned to a fresh page.

“Now, Moms and Dads, I have my mom and dad,” Steve drew a line between the words he had written, and then a line down. “And then they had me,” Steve put his name below at the end of the line.

“And Mrs Byers is a mom, and there was Mr Byers, who Joyce was married to,” Steve glanced up, looking a little embarrassed about bringing up Lonny Byers, but it was part of the explanation. He could have used one of the other kid’s families, but the Byers were the most well known family that Chris had, so he was better starting there. He glanced at Joyce and mouthed ‘sorry’ at her. She smiled and put down a tray of drinks. Hopper scowled slightly. It could have been the mention of Lonny but it was probably because there were two beers on the tray. He took the one handed to him and Joyce left the other by Steve with Chris’ glass of juice. Chris glanced at her, and the glass of juice, but then he went back to looking at the paper Steve had written on.

“And while they were married they had Jonathan and then Will, who also use the same last name Byers so people know they are family,” Steve said, adding to the family tree. Chris traced his fingers along the lines, looking around. Will listened with interest, sitting on the floor by the sofa to look up at Steve.

Steve added a dotted line from Joyce.

“Now Mrs Byers and Hopper are now a step-family, so Hopper is El’s adopted dad,” he drew another dotted line and added El. “So Hopper is now like a dad to Jonathan and Will, and is also El’s dad and Joyce is now like her mom. But somewhere else, El has another mom and dad, which is also her family. Her same name family.”

Steve realised that was getting a bit complicated, so he drew a family tree for the Wheelers, then Dustin’s family and then Lucas’. Chris listened intently, as he always did when Steve explained something. Again Steve didn’t know how well Chris understood things. However, it appeared that Chris was getting some of it and he reached to commandeer the pencil from Steve, who relinquished it to him. Chris took a moment of fumbling to get the correct hold on the pencil, and then he leant forward over the piece of paper. Steve watched as Chris, clearly getting the point of the explanation, drew a line from Steve’s name and then slowly, and laboriously, started to write in his unsteady, childish hand. Steve watched with his heart bursting as he wrote ‘Christopher Robin’ the writing sliding down the page a little as the pad wobbled on Steve’s lap, his hand trying to steady it as Chris pressed the pencil down on the paper.

“That’s right, but it should be a dotted line like with Hopper and El, because they are not related but they are a family, when people are married they have children in a way which you are too young to know about yet. I adopted you, so you’re my adopted family.”

Steve took the pencil to do that, Chris then took it off him and filled in the dotted line, pressing down hard and looking up at Steve with a petulant look. Hopper raised his eyebrows and shared a look with Joyce, who merely smiled. Steve looked down at Chris who stared back at him with a determined look in his eyes.

“I don’t think it matters too much kid,” Hopper said to Steve, putting his arm around Joyce’s shoulders. She patted him on the chest affectionately, and then slid out from under his arm to go back into the kitchen. Jonathan followed her to help out.

“OK, so I’m Steve Harrington,” Steve said, adding his surname to the paper. “So, if we are family then you are Christopher Robin…” Steve paused and then the kid took the hint taking control of the pencil again and Steve helped him write in his surname next to Chris’ name.

“H..a..r..r..i..n..g..t..o..n,” Steve helped him spell painstakingly. Chris looked up at him for confirmation.

“So, we are a same name family now.”

Christopher Robin Harrington smiled his bright smile up at Steve.

“Now, table… all of you,” Joyce ordered. “Dinner’s ready.”

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Steve didn’t want to clutter up the already cluttered cabin by adding himself and Chris overnight. He drove them home after dinner, followed by Hopper, which Steve tried not to feel irritated by, since he did the same thing with the kids on their bikes. He felt like arguing that he wasn’t a child but his mother’s mind flashes had sort of disputed that argument.

He waved as Hopper drove off again and herded Chris into the house, turning on lights as they went in. Chris trotted into the lounge, holding the paper with the family trees on. He smoothed it out, laying it neatly on the coffee table, sitting down to study it.

“Do you want warm milk?” Steve asked. Chris looked up and nodded, smiling at him. Steve smiled back and went into the kitchen, it seemed quiet without Robin, who was home for the night. Steve rather liked the house when it was crowded with people. Maybe that was why he liked having parties when his parents were away, it gave the illusion of not being alone. Now he had Chris as permanent company, which was nice and reassuring.

As he brought the milk back Chris was still studying the paper, his finger moving across the lines that Steve had drawn. He put Chris’ milk on the table and sat on the sofa, watching Chris as he looked over the paper. Steve reached out and put his hand on the back of Chris’ neck.

Steve received flickers of emotion. This time it was easier. Rather than the complex emotions of adults, such as his parents or Hopper’s overwhelming concern for him and adult worries. All he got was happy contentment as Chris looked over the family trees Steve had drawn and he reached for his milk, safe and content in his world.

The only thing that bothered Steve was the fact that Chris couldn’t ask questions. He needed a way to communicate back, some practical way, rather than the contented flashes Steve got when he was in contact with Chris. Steve drank his milk and looked at the clock, it was a little later than usual, Chris needed to go to bed. The only way that happened was if Steve went too.

So, his bedtime had become a lot earlier that it used to be. He hadn’t managed to persuade Chris to be separate from him for even that time. Steve’s time clock was now fixed around Chris. It amused Robin no end when Steve was heading to bed at eight o’clock because Chris was tired. Steve decided he didn’t care, it certainly made him more reliable for work.

“Come on, time for bed I think.” Chris looked up at him, wiping his mouth clean of milk, where he had gulped it down. Steve took the mugs and put them in the sink with Chris on his tail, carrying the sheet of paper still.

Chris insisted on carrying it up to bed with him and keeping it on the bedside table.

Steve got Chris ready for bed and clambered into bed with him. Chris snuggled down into the bed and Steve picked up the book on the bedside table to read to him. Chris looked up as Steve expectantly as he started to read. It occurred to Steve he could probably get a book on sign language, he could try at the library.

He wasn’t due at work until the afternoon, so he could take Chris in the morning.

“That’s a plan then, we’re going to the library.”

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The library had been one of the buildings that had managed to escape the ‘earthquake’, tucked away slightly away from the centre. Steve herded Chris into the building, the little boy stopped dead as he got into the main part of the building and saw the rows and rows of books. He gave his little squeak and looked up at Steve with a questioning, and slightly accusing, expression as if to say, ‘why haven’t you brought me here before?’

Yes, Steve decided, they needed some support to communicate.

“Thought you might like it, this is the library and we can borrow books from here, but we have to bring them back.”

The little boy pushed out his lower lip, frowning at that.

“But then we can borrow others so you’ll always have different ones,” Steve reasoned. Chris processed that and then took a few tentative steps forward looking like he didn’t know where to start. Steve steered him to the children’s section.

“Go and have a look.”

Chris looked up at him, looking a little unsure, and then he looked around again, at the bright room, with colourful pictures and books laid out on display and the rows and rows of shelves filled with his favourite thing. Chris tentatively went to one of the shelves, pulling out a book and looking at it. He plonked down on the floor and opened it, studying the pictures. Then he put that book to one side and pulled out another, before shuffling along to look further down the shelf.

“I think we could be here a while,” Steve mused, realising he had his own research to do. He looked to the card catalogue nearby, wondering where the hell he could start.

“Hello, Steve, how are you, dear?”

Steve jumped and turned to look at Mrs Thomas, who had worked at the library for as long as Steve could remember, and she never seemed to look any different. She looked, quite frankly, like a librarian. Her glasses were on a chain around her neck, and her skirt and blouse neat and tidy as always, a necklace of pearls around her neck. Steve smiled at her. Chris paused his book exploration and turned to watch. He was surrounded by several books on the floor, some open, some in piles. He put the one he was holding back on the shelf.

“Hi, Mrs Thomas, I think I need to set this one up with a library card,” Steve said indicating to Chris.

Mrs Thomas smiled at him and then at Chris who had stood up and turned his attention to another shelf and started pulling out more books.

“And we will tidy up,” Steve assured her.

“That’s fine I just need his details,” Mrs Thomas said heading over to the main desk. As it was in line of sight of Chris, Steve followed her. He smiled at Chris as he went, the little boy watched and then assured of Steve’s presence went back to looking at the books.

“How many books can I take?” Steve asked.

“I’ll set it up for five,” she told him.

“I need some as well,” Steve added. She smiled at him.

“You still have a card I think, or I can make you one up. What are you looking for?”

“Books on sign language,” Steve said as he watched her get out the cards to set Chris up for one. This was likely to be the first test of how accepting it might be explaining Chris to strangers.

“So, you’re…”

“Cousin,” Steve said casually, “a bit removed. But he’s Christopher Robin Harrington.”

The mention of his name caused Chris to look up, he sifted through the piles he had created carefully putting some back on the shelves. Steve didn’t think he needed to worry about the tidying up, Chris loved books, he was hardly likely to mistreat them.

“OK, I didn’t know your mom and dad had other family.”

“They’re a bit distant, but Chris needed minding for a few weeks so I said I’d help.”

“That’s nice of you, you’re good with that little group I see you with, you’re very kind to them,” Mrs Thomas said, “should I put your address for him?”

Steve, for a moment, was stunned by the praise. Then he pulled himself together.

“Yeah, my address.”

It was Chris’ home now as well. Still he didn’t want to overdo the information he gave Mrs Thomas.

“I’ll make one for you as well, although I think you might have one,” Mrs Thomas rummaged efficiently through the rows of cards behind the desk and pulled out a card. “Here we are, you haven’t been here for a while though, so I’ll make you a new one. I’ll bring them over,” she told him.

“Thanks,” Steve said, turned to go over to Chris, who if he could get ten books would probably want ten, although Steve paused and turned back, guessing if she was happy to do that for them she might be able to help further.

“Do you have any books on sign language? I’d look myself but…” Steve gestured to the card catalogue with a helpless gesture. He’d probably be there for hours, not that Chris would probably mind, since he was still intently studying the shelves, picking out books and making piles, and putting some back. He glanced at Steve and then went back to his absorbed exploration.

“I think so, I’ll look for you once I’ve done this. I know a little bit myself.”

“Do you?” Steve said, that sounded hopeful. Mrs Thomas looked up and smiled at him.

“A little, I’ll show you some once I’ve done the cards and had a look for you.”

“Don’t go to any trouble,” Steve said. “You’ve probably got better things to be doing.”

She gave him a very steady look, over her glasses. “Do I look busy?”

Steve stared around the library. It was always a quiet space but it seemed very still and silent now that Steve paid attention to the air.

“Well…” Steve started.

“Honey, I’ve renewed some of the card catalogue,” Mrs Thomas said in a clear indication she didn’t have much to do. People were using the video shop but not the library it seemed. Steve glanced at Chris, who was still busy with the books.

“It’s very kind of you,” Steve said. Mrs Thomas smiled.

“Let me get your cards sorted, and then I’ll look for any books for you, then we can have a little lesson.”

“Thank you, Mrs Thomas. I’ll just go and control Chris, before he takes every book off the shelf.”

Mrs Thomas looked highly indulgent of the pair of them. “I’ll be a minute.”

Steve smiled at her and then went over to Chris who looked up at him, beaming happily. Crouching down Steve looked at the piles of books.

“Are you building a fort?” Steve asked. “You can only take five books.”

Steve held up his hand and he patiently counted out five. Chris frowned at him.

“But then once you have read those five, you can bring them back and swap them for five more, and then…”

Chris seemed to get the point then. He put aside two books and put three back on the shelf. Steve picked up the two books.

“You want these two first?”

Chris nodded, and then went back to looking through the books. Steve put the two Chris had decided on to one side and put a few more back.

“Not this one,” he asked holding up a picture of a book with a wizard on it. Chris shook his head.

“Okay,” Steve said, putting it back on the shelf. For a few minutes they searched quietly through the shelves, Steve going to look onto the higher shelves to pull some out for Chris. The little boy took some to study and shook his head at others. Steve had no idea of what system the boy was using to pick his books, although he did appear to be more interested in the bright covers, and ones with pictures in.

Steve glanced through and explained a few to him, which appeared to help Chris’s system. They worked quietly for a few minutes, going through some more books and Steve scanned a few more shelves. Mrs Thomas worked quietly in the background. Steve was vaguely aware of her going to the card catalogue, clearly intending to look for what Steve asked for.

While she did that Chris decided on five books, then looked at Steve expectantly.

“I need to wait for Mrs Thomas, she going to show us some sign language and get some books for me. And if I get a new library card you might be able to take more than five books. Have a read of another one now.”

Chris blinked up at him, and then picked up a book, quite prepared to sit on the floor in the middle of the library and read. Steve decided there wasn’t much point in trying to get him to sit on a chair. Instead he left him to it and started to examine a few other shelves. He didn’t know there were so many books out there. Maybe he ought to pick a few for Chris, which Steve could read to him.

He’d ask Mrs Thomas for some suggestions, and the kids, they were a good source of information. Steve mused on that looking though some of the shelves, seeing if he could find anything now. He was musing on Alice in Wonderland when Mrs Thomas came back. She had the library cards and two books in her arms.

“Are you having fun?” she asked Chris with a smile. Chris looked up at her, and Steve was about to answer on his behalf, intending to explain that he was shy around strangers, when Chris reacted to her.

Clearly a woman who looked after so many books was worthy of attention as Chris favoured her with a big beaming, full on, smile. The one that had initially melted Steve’s hard with his bright eyes and wrinkled nose. It had the same effect on Mrs Thomas, she beamed back at Chris, who held up his five books.

“Are those the ones you have chosen?”

Chris nodded.

Mrs Thomas took them off Chris and put them on the nearby table.

“Well, I’ve found two for Steve as well, and I’m sure he won’t mind you using his other three tickets.”

“I certainly don’t. Pick two more, though” Steve said. “I’ll have this one for our bedtime reading.”

Chris held his hands up for the book which Steve passed to him, he opened it and then scowled at Steve. There were some pictures in there, like little pencil sketches of scenes in the books. But not the colourful pictures that Chris liked.

“It’s one for me to read to you, you can have two more that you like,” Steve said sternly, in the voice that Chris seemed to accept as one he ought to listen to. He pouted a little but then reached up to hand the book to Mrs Thomas, who added it to the growing pile.

“I like that one, so you have two more to pick,” she said. Chris beamed at her again and then went back to looking.

“These two should help you. Is it for the little one, he seems to hear well enough?”

“Yes, but he doesn’t talk and I just thought it might help him a little, so he can ask questions.” He didn’t think he could start explaining much more than that, and he had no reasons for why Chris didn’t speak. He just didn’t. Steve hadn’t really pushed him to vocalise and Chris never seemed to try.

Hopper had said if they were still in contact with Dr Owens they might have been able to get an explanation. But El hadn’t known the doctor’s fate after the attack in Nevada. Steve had been intrigued by her explanation of the facility. Compared with the one where he had been held, and the Hawkins lab, it made him wonder how many there were, and was there an abundance of psycho-kinetic children out there housed in them.

Given that El struggled with words still and had hardly vocalised when she had escaped the lab Steve wondered if Chris had been born in the lab, or brought there as a baby, and no-one had really talked to him until Steve came. He had learnt commands as El had and reacted to things and Steve never pushed for things Chris didn’t like. He never wanted Steve to hold his hand because that was the way the Bitch had led him about, but like an animal. She didn’t look at him, didn’t reassure him.

Steve didn’t want to do anything like that. So he was quite prepared to do anything to protect Chris. And try and help him. Chris watched them for a moment as Mrs Thomas and Steve sat in a pair of nearby chairs. As they were for children Steve had a little trouble curling into one, Mrs Thomas, petit as she was, perched like a serious little bird in another. Steve gave Chris a reassuring smile and then turned to Mrs Thomas.

“Right, let’s start with names,” Mrs Thomas said. “And we’ll go from there.”

Chapter Text

It was two hours later they eventually left the library, with Steve a little wiser than he was before. Even Chris had joined in the lesson in the end, curiosity getting the better of him. As he had come over Mrs Thomas had turned her attention to him as well, explaining patiently the gestures she was using.

“You can also make a few things up if you are just talking between yourselves.”

Chris hadn’t joined in as much as Steve but he made a few gestures and seemed to get the idea of what they were doing and why Steve was doing it. And Steve didn’t leave without arranging to see Mrs Thomas again on Friday. Chris insisted on carrying the pile of books, clearly very pleased with his haul.

“You enjoy that?” Steve asking guiding Chris to the car. Chris gave his big beaming smile and he nodded.

“We’ll come back on Friday and we can swap some of the books and learn some more from Mrs Thomas. Did you like her?”

Again Chris nodded and beamed, holding up his stock of books.

“Yes, Mrs Thomas likes books as much as you do. Maybe when you grow up you can work in the library.”

Chris’ smile brightened even further, as if he rather liked the idea.

“Right, we’ll put the stuff in the car and then pop to the diner for lunch before we go to work. And you can read some of your new books.”

Steve loaded everything into the car and then locked the door to go to the restaurant opposite. As Steve led Chris across the street he noticed someone further down the road, looking like they were about to cross from the opposite side. However, they didn’t move, even though the street was quiet. They glanced at Steve and Chris but in a way that gave Steve the hint he was trying not to look, or not be too obvious about looking.

He could feel a vibe in the end. Steve wasn’t close enough to pick up clear emotions but he sensed he was being watched. He supposed he could be being paranoid, but for weeks he hadn’t sensed anything. Now, he felt something. That tingle on the back of his neck alerted him to it. Chris sometimes got his attention that way but it wasn’t him, he was merrily trotting along at Steve’s side. Steve put a hand on his head to guide him up the kerb but all he got from Chris was his happiness and obsession with books and favourable thoughts about Mrs Thomas. They were clashing with thoughts of The Bitch.

Chris had only had contact with one woman for the first few years of his life and she had hardly been a maternal figure. It made Chris wary of other women although Joyce and El had changed his perception a little.

“Mrs Thomas was nice to us wasn’t she?” Steve said, just to help organise Chris’ thoughts a little.

As they stepped up onto the kerb Chris looked up and nodded.

“We’ll go and see her again on Friday for another lesson and more books.”

Chris beamed and Steve opened the door to the diner and herded Chris in. He glanced back out to the street, the man who had aroused his suspicion had crossed and walked along the far side of the street, again so studiously not looking at Steve, Steve knew he was looking at him. The tingle on his neck happened again as he turned away and smiled at Beth, the waitress as she came over.

“Hello dears,”

“Hi,” Steve said. Chris, clearly impressed with Mrs Thomas and her sign language, gave a little wave. Steve had brough Chris to the diner a few times to get him used to people. Most of the people they had met glanced their way, some said hello and then carried on with their own meals. Chris was quite used to being around people who ignored him, but here it got him used to sounds and sights of normal life. Or as normal as you could get in Hawkins at the moment. And it meant Chris got to experience his second favourite thing in the world. Food.

Or maybe, Steve thought, as Chris beamed at him, his third favourite thing in the world. Steve probably came in at number one on that list, then books, then food, since he looked at the food Steve produced for him with fascination. Giving him new things to try had been quite an experience for Steve.

Steve led Chris to a booth by the window. Now he was a bit more settled Chris liked looking out at the activity that went on, safely shielded by the pane of glass. Steve glanced at the menu and then at Chris.

“Cheeseburger?” he asked.

Chris nodded.

“You can have some salad in it though. Would you like some scrambled eggs on the side?”

Again, Chris nodded. It was an odd combination but Steve was quite happy to feed Chris things he liked. He looked up at the waitress as she came over to take their order.

“Hi, two cheeseburgers one with a side order of scrambled eggs and one with fries and coleslaw.”

He turned to Chris as he pouted.

“The coleslaw is for me not you,” he informed Chris then turned back to Beth. “One coke and one juice.”

She jotted everything down and smiled at them. “Coming right up.”

“Right, we have an hour, so lunch then work.”

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

At Family Video Steve settled Chris in his den with his books. He’d be quite happy for the rest of the afternoon now. Steve had also paused to pick up some colouring books and crayons as well, to try and encourage his writing and drawing. Before started on tidying up and putting out some new releases Steve picked up the phone and called Hopper.

When he got though to him Hopper’s first words were.

“What’s up?”

So Steve didn’t preamble.

“I think we were followed this morning.”

There was a short pause.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure, it was like the guy was looking by trying hard not to look, if that makes sense. And he caused the tingle that seems to happen on the back of my neck.”

“Tingle?”

“That feeling I get when someone is trying to get my attention. I get it with Chris and the kids. But it wasn’t Chris this time, he was walking next to me and quite happy since we had just come from the library.”

“Did you recognise him?” Hopper asked.

“No, he wasn’t one of the ones I saw at the lab,” Steve said. “He didn’t even have much of a military look about him but that could be because he was dressed in jeans. I don’t know, I could be being paranoid.”

“I’d rather you be paranoid than not be,” Hopper said. “I’ll let the other parents know.”

Other parents. Steve smirked at that. He was now considered a parent. Glancing down he looked at Chris in the little den, absorbed in a book and happy and content in his world. He was using one of the notepads Steve had bought him to draw something while he studied the book. Steve decided to investigate that later and went back to the conversation.

“El can mind them at school and I can pick them up if needs be, Robin and I can jostle our shifts so I can be around.”

“If needs be, I can speak to Keith if he’s awkward about that. I know people are using the store but if the kids are in the firing line I want them protected. However, their main target, I suspect, is you and Chris. I don’t think anyone has seen anything unusual in town recently. I’ll check with the guys at the station and put the word out, and we might be best having a meeting later on.”

“OK, my place is biggest,” Steve said, as it was, that was a fact that nobody could deny. “Everyone could meet there.”

There was a pause before Hopper, processing that information said. “Fine, I’ll ring round and alert everyone, can you collect the kids from school?”

Steve looked at his watch, his options were to try and get hold of Robin to cover, or closing the store for half an hour and bringing the kids back, until he could take them to his house.

“Yep, I’ll close up and get them. I can take them to my place but I might not have enough to feed them when I get there. I’ll check what I have in the freezer. I’ve normally got something now.”

“I’ll get people to bring something, so it’s a war council with a pot luck dinner.”

Steve raised his eyebrows. “Sure, sounds about right for Hawkins. I want El to practice a little more with Chris too. They will no doubt be after him as well and unlike El he’s not knowledgeable enough to look after himself as much as he should.”

“Given what you said about what he did to his room, I’m inclined to doubt that but what he will do, I think, is react to protect you.”

“That’s likely,” Steve said. “I’ll keep an eye out when I go for the kids. I’ll warn them, they might have seen something.”

“I’d say try not to alarm them, but I think those kids are beyond that really.”

“Yes, I think so, I’ll check in once I have them with me.”

“I’ll let you know if Joyce wants to come for Will, although I think you are more than capable of protecting him.”

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

Steve put a ‘back in 30 mins’ sign in the window and went to the school. As the kids spilled out they pulled up short at the sight of Steve waiting, perching on the car bonnet with Chris next to him, going through a few of the signs they had learnt today.

Dustin bounded up to him first.

“What are you doing here? We’ve got our bikes.”

“Change of plan, Wayne will come and collect the bikes in his truck, you lot are staying with me.”

“Why? What’s happening?” Mike asked.

“I think I was followed, so we are not taking any chances. So you lot are coming to the video store with me and then home. Your parents are meeting us there for dinner and to discuss what the next steps are.”

“If they are watching won’t it give it away if we are gathering together?”

“If anyone asks were having a pot luck dinner,” Steve said, then turned as he felt a tug on his sleeve and Chris made some gestures.

“Yes, I’ll do some eggs,” Steve assured him. Chris beamed.

“What’s that?” El asked, moving her hands in a vague gesture.

“Sign language, Mrs Thomas at the library gave us a lesson. We went to get some books, and we’re back there Friday.”

“Kidnapping permitting,” Lucas said.

“Right, you lot, in the car. You’ll have to sit in the back for now,” Steve told Chris, who pouted and gestured. Despite the impending argument Steve felt pleased that Chris had taken to the sign language as he asked ‘why?’

“Because I can tuck you in with some of this lot, who are bigger than you, and El who can keep watch is up front, unless you want to sit on her lap.”

Chris scowled and shook his head. Steve hoisted him off the bonnet and carried him round to the side.

“Right, you upfront, the rest of you in, Dustin, wipe your feet and outside passenger side.”

“Why me there?”

“Because you can keep hold of Chris and I can turn round to talk to him.”

There was a good deal of pushing and shoving in the back as they sorted themselves out and Steve handed Chris over, who looked at him in a sulky fashion.

“You need a bigger car,” Mike grumbled. “And why does El get to be up front?”

“Because if we need a weapon, she can get out easily.”

She smirked at him then at Mike.

However, the drive was without incident, except Will asking a rather pertinent question.

“If you are the one they might try and kidnap should we be with you?”

Steve pulled up outside the store and turned to look at him.

“Maybe we’re here to protect him,” El said. Steve scowled at her, but couldn’t really form an argument. She was using her powers for years, and she had done some amazing things with them.

“We’ve done that before,” Dustin argued.

“All right, I’ll bring it up with Hopper, but I can protect myself, and their target may be Chris.”

“Or one of us,” Lucas said.

“I think they are going for those of us who have been in close contact with the Upside-Down.”

“Which is all of us,” Mike pointed out.

“What about Max?” Lucas asked. “They could take her, we need to watch out for them at the hospital.”

“To be honest, I don’t think that’s likely, it would be difficult to remove a patient from the hospital but we’ll raise that with Hopper at the meeting. We could set up a rota of guards if we need to.”

Lucas nodded.

They all clambered out of the car and piled into the video store. Keith behind the counter scowled at them, especially Steve.

“Sorry,” Steve said. “I had to nip out and pick up the kids…”

Steve tailed off, suddenly realised he probably couldn’t explain too much to someone who may not be aware of everything. Although anyone still in town was aware of at least something so Keith couldn’t be entirely ignorant of what had gone on and what was going on.

“I had a call from Chief Hopper,” Keith said, sounding baffled by that. “He said you couldn’t be at the store today and if I had to close then…” he shrugged.

Steve blinked. That was quick work even for Hopper.

“The arcade was quiet anyway,” Keith said. The kids froze and looked at Steve, who groaned inwardly.

“We could go to the arcade,” Dustin suggested.

“No,” Steve said sternly. “Maybe tomorrow?” he suggested, looking at Keith, who shrugged.

“If you want to open it up then at least it will take some money, I’m not paying you for that though.”

“That’s fine. I just need to get Chris’…”

Chris, however, was already on it. He trotted round the counter and beamed a bright smile at Keith before pushing him out of the way to go into his den. Keith watched him, backing up as Steve went round to gather him up.

“He just smiled at me,” Keith said as if the smile was scarier than the dead-eyed stare that Chris used on people. Steve helped Chris pack up the books and crayons and then looked at Keith.

“Yes, I think he’s settling a little,” Steve said of Chris. “And sorry about Hopper, he’s just getting a little over-protective.”

“This about the weird shit going on?”

“You could say that,” Steve said, thought and then added. “We are having a meeting about the weird shit tonight at my place, you could come?”

“Steve?” Mike said. El went still and waited, looking from Steve to Keith. Will, Lucas and Dustin looked up from picking a movie. Steve looked at them.

“What? We need as many allies in this as possible, if people are going to start kidnapping me, or any of you, I want people aware of what is going on.”

“Kidnapping?” Keith said in alarm. “Is this about that time you disappeared, Hopper said you were… in fact he didn’t say anything, other than to tell me nothing and Robin was…” Keith waved his arms.

“Something like that,” Steve said. “But they might come for the kids… and I’m not having that. My place… about six?”

Keith looked at Steve in surprise. “OK.”

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

The kids were absorbed in a movie while Steve concentrated on peeling eggs. Chris watched him avidly. Steve had got a recipe for devilled eggs from one of his mom’s cookbooks. He had made them for Chris before. Anything with eggs and he was happy. He had also made sure to keep a stock of Eggos for El as well. The rest of them pretty much fell like locusts on anything Steve prepared, so he didn’t worry about getting anything specific for them.

He had also made a batch of mac ‘n’ cheese for the group when the rest of them arrived. But he had promised eggs, so there he was taking the shells off a dozen eggs. And he had no plans to allow Chris to eat the lot, although he might try.

“They’re not all for you,” Steve told him. Chris pouted.

“Do you want to read some of your book while I do this?”

Chris beamed and trotted off. After a moment he came back with the book he had been reading earlier. Steve paused the laborious task he had set himself to lift Chris onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar. He opened his book and started to read, his finger moving along the lines of the page, studying the words intently.

Then Steve went back to his task, and they stayed like that for a while, in a very companionable silence. As Steve felt the tickle to the back of his neck he paused fighting one very stubborn bit of shell to look at Chris. Chris, however, was happily still reading his book. Steve frowned, turning to look at the door, but none of the kids had appeared.

“Stay there a sec,” Steve ordered Chris and he walked from the kitchen to the lounge where the kids were, well… lounging… and all of them absorbed in watching a movie. Dustin looked up at him, frowning as Steve frowned, turned and went back towards the kitchen. He got up and followed Steve, who paused to pick up the baseball bat, propped against the staircase. He kept one to hand in the house and another was always in the car.

“Steve?” Dustin asked.

Chris had paused reading, trying to find a way to slide down off the stool. Steve hefted the bat and gave him a stern look.

“Stay where you are.”

Chris glowered and gripped the edge of the breakfast bar and started to slide his bottom off the stool, slithering down between the stool and the breakfast bar. Steve glanced at Dustin.

“Stay with Chris!” he ordered.

Seeing the little boy’s determination to get off the chair Dustin went to help him. Chris slid down, gripping the counter until he could drop to the floor. He landed on his backside, tipping the chair back. Dustin caught it before it could slam into the kitchen counter behind the little boy and pulled it clear of Chris as he got up.

Steve, by that point, was in the backyard, skirting around the pool towards the woods at the back, bat raised and senses on alert. The trace on the back of his neck had faded, but the memory of it lingered. He hadn’t imagined it. However, as he reached the tree line, the air seemed still, the forest too quiet. It had been ever since the earthquake as if the wildlife had sensed the predators in the woods and had fled to avoid them.

He glanced behind at the sound of steps. El had followed him, taking the same route around the empty pool, looking concerned, and had clearly decided to follow him as protection, her body tensed ready for anything that might leap out at them.

As he entered the woods Steve paused, looking around carefully. He saw nothing obvious for a moment. El caught up to him.

“What’s up?” she whispered.

“I got a feeling again,” Steve said quietly, moving further into the woods, just along the tree line. He glanced back, from the position he was in he couldn’t quite see the house, but he paused before moving, looking down at the ground and the leaves and soil stirred on the ground in front of him. He crouched down and stared at the boot prints embedded in the soft soil.

He was hardly an expert but it certainly looked like someone had been there. El moved to look down at the prints then she looked up.

“They probably left when you came out, could we follow them?”

Steve moved into the position where the boot prints had been. He could see through to his back yard and the kitchen window, where they would have seen Steve and Chris together. They may or may not have known the kids were in situ.

“Whoever it was probably left when I came out with the baseball bat,” Steve said.

“Yes,” El said, not wasting too many words on the obvious.

Steve backed up, looking out to the woods, but the feeling had gone, no one was there. Once they knew Steve suspected something they had retreated.

“Come on, back in the house,” Steve said. El turned to walk back, making sure Steve was behind her before she went too far. Chris lingered at the door, with Dustin corralling him as best he could. It was only Steve’s previous stern words about staying away from the pool that kept Chris where he was. He gestured.

“Nothing to worry about,” Steve said to him. Chris frowned and gestured again.

“Yes, there was something, but it’s gone now and it’s not for you to worry about,” Steve told him sternly. Chris looked stubborn. Steve put the bat down by the door and picked him up.

“Was it someone?” Mike asked. They crowded round him in concern.

“I think so.”

Chapter Text

Steve took Hopper to show him the footprints. The Chief crouched down and looked at the boot marks. Jonathan and Nancy moved further into the woods, looking for any other traces but they were clearly coming up short. Robin lingered by Steve, her concern obvious.

“I’ll stay tonight and maybe the rest of the week.”

“Thanks,” Steve said.

Steve glanced at the back of his house. Karen and Joyce were setting up the food, and the kids were lingering around the back yard. Hopper had ordered them to stay there but Steve had picked up Chris and brought him along to the tree line. After the incident earlier he had been increasingly clingy, as had the kids. The movie had been forgotten and ran it’s course with no one watching the ending.

“Definitely someone was here, for a while I think, they came through the trees but I doubt we could follow the trail.”

Jonathan and Nancy came back. Jonathan shook his head.

“I can’t see anything obvious.”

“The road is that way, and your house,” Steve said.

“I checked over that way. It was clear, the only possible place they could be is the lab,” Hopper said.

“Would they be likely to go back there?” Robin asked.

“Hard to say,” Hopper said. “I’ll drive over later. However, given the fact that we know they have two other labs, the one you were taken to and the one El ended up at in Nevada, they could have another one close by.”

“Or they plan to kidnap them and take them somewhere else,” Robin said.

“Thanks,” Steve said. “That’s reassuring.”

“Not gonna happen kid,” Hopper said straightening up, wincing as he flexed his knees. He looked around, staring off into the woods.

“I’m not entirely happy with you staying here. Even with Robin with you. The aspect is rather exposed at the back. We may need to find you some alternative accommodation.”

Steve winced at that. “I’m not sure how Chris would take that. I’ve only just got him used to here.”

“I’m sure he’ll cope, as long as he has you he seems pretty happy,” Hopper observed.

Steve looked at the little boy in his arms. Chris wrapped his arms around Steve’s neck and clung on. Running his hand up and down the boy’s back.

“Everything will be fine I promise,” Steve reassured him.

“Let’s head back,” Hopper said, shooing them back through the tree line, herding the group in front of him, wondering if he should spend a few nights at the Harrington house, just to be on the safe side. He decided to bring that up with Joyce and Steve later. As they wandered back Wayne came around the side of the house.

“I heard voices back here,” he said.

He had clearly heard the kids in the back yard, Steve presumed, and come this way. Probably wanting to avoid the other adults, who were still wary of him, thanks to Eddie’s unwarranted reputation. Despite everything that was happening clearing Eddie’s name was a struggle and too many people were happy to believe Eddie’s culpability in what was going on.

“I’ve dropped the kid’s bikes off at their houses,” he added to Steve and Hopper rather than the kids.

“Are my gears all right?” Dustin asked.

“Perfectly,” Wayne said to him. Hopper started to corral the kids back into the house. Steve waited for everyone to go in and then glanced back at the backyard. He couldn’t sense anything now but it was clear that something was about to happen. It had been weeks since he had returned to Hawkins, and nothing had happened. He wondered what had changed to make them appear now.

Chris tugged on his tee-shirt to get his attention and he gestured.

“Yes, I know, eggs, sorry, let’s get you some food, you can have more than eggs though, you like my mac ‘n’ cheese, and there’s sausage rolls.”

‘Eggs’ Chris signed again.

“All right, eggs it is,” Steve conceded.

“Does that kid eat anything else?” Wayne asked. Steve grinned.

“With a great deal of persuasion,” Steve said putting Chris down on the floor as they entered the kitchen, he closed and locked the back door although he was hardly likely to be kidnapped with the house full of people.

Chris followed the kids back into the lounge. They had set up a D&D board and were sat around setting it up like the layout of Hawkins. The Sinclair’s were sat on the sofa holding drinks and watching the kids. Erica sat at the far end of the coffee table.

“What’s that meant to be?” she asked.

“That’s main street, this is the town, that’s the Creel house,” Mike started pointing out landmarks, and setting figures in place. Lucas sat next to him, trying not to catch his parent’s eye. Steve was just glad that the Sinclair parents were unaware that Erica had been in the Russian base under the mall. They knew she had been involved in the Creel House Operation with Lucas. All the parents were shocked by how involved their children had been and what they had done.

Steve noticed them both tense a little at the sight of Wayne Munson. Joyce however broke the sliver of tension by coming into the room.

“I think everything is ready,” she said.

Chris gestured again.

“Yes, eggs I know,” Steve said to him. “Come on, you can have two to start, and other people are allowed to eat eggs to, you can’t eat them all you’ll be sick.”

‘Won’t,’ Chris gestured.

“I’m not testing the theory,” Steve said. “Come on.”

Chris trotted next to Steve as he took him into the kitchen and found a plate for him and started to put stuff onto it. He put three eggs onto the plate and some salad. Then a couple of sausage rolls.

“This looks good,” Claudia said as she admired Steve’s mac ‘n’ cheese.

“Thanks,” Steve said, and then turned and handed Chris his plate. “Eat all that and you can have more eggs.”

Chris examined the plate and then went to his place at the table in the kitchen. Steve helped him sit up and then the kids, having helped themselves piled around the table. Steve looked up at the sound of the doorbell and he went to answer it.

“Mrs Hargrove, hi!”

“Wayne told me there was… a meeting. And it’s Mayfield.”

Steve assessed her, and he could feel energy vibrating off her. She was sober and holding a bowl of pasta salad. Steve smiled.

“Sorry, Mrs Mayfield, or Ms or…”

“I’d say as long as it’s not Hargrove, but that sort of demeans Billy, which I don’t want to do but my daughter…”

“Come in,” Steve said opening the door wider and gesturing with his free hand. “Kitchen is straight through, everyone is starting to help themselves. I’ll fine a serving spoon for that, I have millions of them.”

She smiled and walked through, met by Joyce, who could deal with her from then. As Steve turned back to the door and saw Keith lurking, holding a cluster of bags.

“I don’t cook, so I brought chips.”

“Fine, I’ll find some bowls. Come in, we are eating first and everyone is here.”

Steve turned and realised his house was packed with people. His mom and dad were always talking about how they needed the space for ‘entertaining’ and Steve couldn’t remember a single person ever visiting to see his parents. And he had so much stuff to use for parties, which had sat in cupboards for years until he started to use them now. As he followed Keith into the kitchen he went to the cupboard that held a cluster of bowls that he had only started to use when the kids came and needed popcorn and chips.

He put them on the counter and opened one of the packets Keith had bought. Steve poured them in and added them to the growing spread on his breakfast bar.

“Cool, chips!” Dustin announced and gathered a handful onto his plate. Steve wandered through the kitchen to his lounge checking everyone there had something to eat, and then he went to look at his dining room. It was an austere, cold room. It didn’t even get much sun, but it was perhaps large enough to hold a war council.

“I think we can fit into the lounge, kid,” Hopper said. “The kids can take the floor and we have set the layout on the coffee table.”

“Sure.”

“Steve, eat something,” Joyce ordered.

“OK,” he said going into the kitchen and helping himself. The kids had left a space for him next to Chris who slid off his chair and took his plate to Steve. It was empty but for a couple of salad leaves.

“Let me guess, eggs.”

Chris beamed and held up the plate.

“You can have something else as well. There’s pasta, or sandwiches, or chicken?”

Chris nodded, and as Steve took the plate he signed at him.

“Pasta?” Steve asked.

Chris nodded again, beaming at Steve.

“At least you are willing to expand your repertoire a little,” Steve said before helping himself and settling down to eat.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Hopper took the floor in the lounge after everyone had eaten and Steve had moved a few chairs from the dining room to accommodate everyone in the room.

Wayne and Keith lurked at the back, clearly uncomfortable with the rest of them, but for varying reasons. Steve settled Chris on a chair at the back and stayed with him and with the newcomers.

“Well, thanks for coming, we do have some issues to deal with, the main one being we have concerns for the safety of the kids. However, Steve and Chris, we think are the main targets. Steve had already had one instance of being followed and then someone was at the back of the house today. I’ve checked the evidence, as best I can, and I think that is exactly what is going on. What we need to find out is where they are based, and how it will relate to what is going on in Hawkins.”

“But, what is going on,” Max’s mother asked. “I know I haven’t been as involved as others but… what…”

“How did her daughter get hurt, Lucas…” Mrs Sinclair said.

“He didn’t have anything to do with it,” Mike said.

“I was supposed to protect her then Jason and Andy got in the way,” Lucas said.

“Those assholes.”

“Erica!” her father admonished. Erica glared at him.

“And Jason vanished,” Keith said. “He was lost in the earthquake.”

“It wasn’t an earthquake,” Hopper said.

“It was something to do with that Munson boy,” Ted Wheeler said, only to be shouted down from a chorus of objections from the kids. They were ferocious in their defence of Eddie. Which was fair enough, Steve thought, given the fact that they knew more than most what was happening. The Byers and Hopper had been on the front line as well.

Steve abruptly stood up. “Enough, everyone!” as he raised his hands he felt a ripple surge out. Not the powerful blasts that he knew he was capable of. He wanted to calm the situation before it got out of hand. They needed to get to the point and quickly.

Everyone turned to look at him, settled and waited patiently. Steve settled his own energy and looked at Hopper. The Chief shrugged.

“You know more about this situation than I do,” he conceded. So Steve started.

He filled in about some of the kids actions, went through his kidnap and the subsequent suspicions he had. Hopper interjected occasionally, as did the kids to fill in further gaps. Steve kept his spread of emotions out to make sure that there were minimal interruptions from the adults, not the kids. He worked through it carefully, Chris watching him intently.

“And these men have come back for you… maybe it’s just the boy they want back,” Ted reasoned. Steve scowled.

“If that’s the case they are not taking him,” Steve said, shutting that idea down. Chris nodded, Steve smiled down at him.

“So Chris has similar power to Jane then,” Keith asked, looking at her. “Or El. What’s her name?”

“Eleven, El or Jane,” Hopper said. “Jane is her birth name and Brenner numbered the kids he held at the lab, so she was Eleven.”

“What happened to the rest of them?” Wayne asked.

“Henry Creel happened to them, Vecna as we call him now,” Nancy said.

“And he controls this parallel universe?” Wayne asked. “And that’s where Eddie died?”

“Yes, we couldn’t…” Steve started and stopped. He didn’t want to put the kids through the events again, so he evaded that. “But for some reason they have changed tactic, the military, or government, whoever kidnapped me are trying to create something. Using someone with psycho-kinetic power and combining it with the Upside-Down.”

“The fact that they were interested in your wounds seems to indicate that anyone in contact with the Upside-Down might be a target, the fact that Steve had spotted them does not necessarily mean he is the only one being watched,” Hopper said.

“So, our kids could be in danger?” Mr Sinclair asked.

“We’re not ruling it out, but they had a successful result with Steve, so we are assuming he is the primary target.”

“Successful result?” Wayne asked.

“Don’t ask him to demonstrate,” Jonathan advised, rubbing his chest. “It hurts.”

“Sorry about that, I’m not entirely certain I know my own strength at the moment. I can use electricity, like a pulse from my hand, strong enough to knock someone out if I need to, or I can….”

Steve paused and looked up at the lights above his head. They obligingly flickered on, and then he turned the television on and went through a few channels.

“I can feel emotions too, like when I am in close contact with people, like mental flashes.”

“And that’s different from what El and Chris can do?” Keith asked.

El lifted a glass off the table, letting it float in front of her and then she put it down. Steve reached for a tissue and handed it to her as her nose started to bleed. Chris looked at Steve.

“No you don’t need to do anything.”

Chris gestured.

“I know you can, but El has had more practice, and you are a lot smaller than she is, I don’t want you getting tired out.”

The little boy gestured again.

“Just indulge me,” Steve said.

“You have picked up sign language very quickly, you only had your first lesson this morning,” Dustin said.

“Well, it was…” Steve paused and tailed off and looked at Chris, who looked back. Hopper raised his eyebrows and waited.

“Maybe I can sense more from him, and the signing is just helping. We did a lot of basics today but we have been communicating as best we can for weeks. I do sort of have this power to read emotions from people, as well as electrocuting them.”

“You can’t do that,” Keith said. Steve reached out and as he touched Keith’s shoulder he felt the jolt of power. Keith jumped in his chair, almost falling off. He took a moment to steady himself, holding onto the sides of the chair, staring up at Steve with wide eyes.

“Jesus!”

“Don’t annoy him,” Jonathan warned.

“I said I was sorry about that,” Steve said. “But never insult the hair.”

Jonathan grinned.

“I was thinking I can stay here overnight, and keep an eye on Steve and Chris and someone keeps an eye on them in rotation. Again as we can’t be certain they won’t target the other kids so we keep them protected,” Hopper said.

“And as they took me we need to include Robin, Jonathan and Nancy in this,” Steve added.

“So it’s down to us to keep our children safe, as we always try and do,” Karen said, finally recovering from her shock over what her children had been doing.

“Plus we can also look after ourselves,” Mike said.

“El certainly can,” Steve said. “I can as well, but that might get messy. Especially as Will had a good point earlier.”

“I did?” Will asked, looking up in surprise.

“Yes, I don’t think I should be ferrying the kids about, unless El is with them. They might try and take me and I don’t want anyone caught in the crossfire.”

Steve realised it actually hurt to say that, to admit he shouldn’t have the kids with him. He would do anything to keep them safe, but it hurt him to think that perhaps they were safer without him. He had always moaned about being the babysitter having to stay with the kids and but he had always felt protective of them, and wouldn’t want anything to happen to any of them.

“But if they see us acting differently, won’t it alert them to the fact we know?” Keith asked.

“I kind of gave that away earlier, running out with my baseball bat, they know I knew they were there. Maybe the one on Main Street earlier also knew. Maybe they are trying to bait me.”

Hopper pondered that.

“Can’t rule that out. Anyway, what we need to do is work out a way to keep you lot covered so they can’t take you easily. I can’t honestly say that we can make it impossible, but the town is half empty and strangers are obvious.”

“I did as you asked,” Wayne suddenly interjected. “I drove by the old Hawkin’s Lab, it’s all silent, no lights, no guards and no cars. I pulled up and waited for a while, but nothing seems to be going on there.”

Hopper nodded. “Okay, but again, we know there are at least two other bases, or there were. We go with the working theory that Steve is who they are after, we stay vigilante with the rest of us. I would rather Steve doesn’t stay here alone with Chris, and we need somewhere they can go if things get worrying here.”

“There is always my trailer,” Wayne said. “I can leave Steve a key and I know the plant has shut down, but I’m used to working nights, so I can keep guard overnight. Eddie’s room is… ” he paused and winced before carrying on. “It’s yours to use if you need it.”

“Thank you,” Steve said.

“You still have your rifle?” Hopper asked.

“Paperwork is up to date,” Wayne said with a curt nod.

“That sounds like it might be a good idea, you have any worries, or concerns, go to Wayne,” Hopper told Steve.

“I’m there too,” Mrs Mayfield announced. “I may not be good for much but I can cook for them if they need anything. Is Maxine in any danger?”

“We think not,” Hopper said. “But I have warned the hospital staff, and security there to keep an eye on her. The only thing we can do now is be aware of the dangers and protect the relevant people accordingly.”

“One question?” Steve asked. Hopper looked at him and waited. “Do we bait them?”

Hopper glowered at Steve, getting the point of what Steve was saying.

“Absolutely not, Harrington.”

Chapter Text

Steve tucked Chris into the bed. He looked up with sleepy, contented eyes.

The conference had gone on for a while as they wrangled though the issues. Chris had dozed against Steve as it got late. But they worked out, with a lot of back and forth, a system to keep everyone safe, particularly the kids, which Steve wanted to ensure, and also him, because everyone seemed to want that.

There would be radio check ins, Hopper intended to patrol the town, and get the other sheriffs doing the same, for any strangers. The other adults planned to do the same, and the kids were not to be left unattended at any time.

Most of them made objection to that. They had dealt with the Upside-Down and monsters and were capable. What was violently argued was that they certainly didn’t need to lose Steve as their babysitter. El was with them, Steve could certainly look after himself and the kids. Plus they again argued that they could look after themselves.

It soothed Steve to know so many people were on his side.

“Do you want me to read some of the story?”

Chris blinked sleepily but nodded, trying to keep his eyes open. Steve smiled and clambered into bed with Chris and picked up the book. Chris hadn’t seemed interested in the book, which didn’t have bright pictures, as he liked. But as Steve read it to him he listened avidly, sometimes sitting up to look at the words.

It was, Steve suspected, a reaction to the things he had missed. Steve had been trying to encourage him out, to look at the things in the books that interested him. Simple things like trees and butterflies. The sight of a bee had caused an intense reaction he had stared at it as it foraged in the flowers and Chris had tried to reach out to catch it. Steve had been quick to stop him.

“No, you don’t want to interrupt them. The bee is busy doing lots of things.”

Steve then had to explain bees, and what he knew. Fortunately, Will had added facts to Steve’s rambling explanation. But it was how the kid had been introduced to the world, via books. So it might be why the boy was so attached to them and the pictures. Because it was how Steve had introduced Chris to the wonders around him.

He read for half an hour until it was clear that Chris couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. Steve put the book to one side and tucked the bedding around Chris. He snuffled into the pillow and Steve turned out the light and settled down next to him.

However, Steve’s mind was too active for sleep. He lay in the darkness contemplating the issue. It wasn’t going to go away that easily. The military or the government, whichever one that took him the last time were clearly not ready to give up on him just yet. They had, perhaps, been watching him for some time. His powers were just developing, so he might not have noticed them earlier.

Or maybe now, with the Upside-Down bleeding into the real world maybe they wanted what they had created to use against it, or try and take more power from it. Maybe they wanted Chris back.

Steve’s jaw tensed at that thought. The experiments worked on him so maybe they would want to try again with someone else. But then again, if they could use just anyone why take him in the first place?

There was possibly only one way to answer those questions, and that was to ask the people in question.

But how did Steve do that?

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The other thing negotiated yesterday evening was the kid’s access to the arcade. Keith said he would open up, Jonathan would bring the kids after school and Steve would meet them there later and, as usual, take them home with him, with Jonathan in tow.

Mid-morning as Steve was tidying the store, and dealing with the returns, with Chris tucked away in his den. The phone rang as he wrestled with one pile of tapes, none of which had been re-wound; with a growl Steve leant over the counter to answer it.

“Family video, Ste….”

“Steve?” Keith snapped at him.

“Hi...”

“I’m at the arcade and there’s something weird.”

“What type of weird?”

“Your sort of weird, there are tree roots and it’s snowing.”

“Right, I’ll come over now. Just lock the door and wait outside.”

“I’m outside, I’m using the pay phone rather than stay in there.”

“Good,” Steve said. “Just wait for me. And call Hopper, he’ll want to know as well.”

Steve hung up and peered over the counter to look down at Chris, who glanced up, halfway through reading the book he was currently enamoured with. They would change them over at the end of the week when they went to the library for their sign language lesson.

“Come on. We need to lock up and go out.”

Chris frowned, but he closed his book and scrabbled up. He put his book in the little rucksack that Mike had donated to them. Steve quickly tided the counter and put the returns trolley out of the way. Chris looked up at Steve as he guided them out of the video store, putting the closed sign in place. It was unlikely anyone was that desperate for a video that he couldn’t close for an hour or so.

Steve loaded Chris into the passenger seat buckling him in. Chris tucked his bag against his chest and made a few gestures.

“Nothing to worry about, everyone is fine. We’re just going to the arcade and if it’s not too bad Dustin will show you how to play video games later.”

Chris gestured again.

“Video games are like…” Steve paused and thought about it. “Like the Dungeons and Dragons that they play, but on a television and you make the little characters do things and you win points, and… I’m better off showing you, but Dustin will be happy to show you how to play.”

Chris pointed at Steve, a determined look on his face.

“I don’t know how to play, Dustin tried to show me but… okay, okay…” Steve conceded as Chris folded his arms around his bag and pouted, glowering at Steve.

“I can play as well; I’m just not very good.”

Chris looked less cross.

“We don’t have to do all the same things; and you’ll probably thrash me at video games like you do every other game.”

Chris gave his little, bright smile. Steve smiled back at him. Then he turned the corner to park by the arcade, seeing Keith lingering outside. Chris looked out of the window curiously and when Steve pulled up he waved at Keith, who Chris had decided was suddenly very acceptable in his world. Keith waved back, probably automatically and out of fear of Chris.

Keith really, Steve thought to himself, didn’t know what to do with kids, although he hung around them as often as Steve.

“Should Chris be here?” Keith asked as Steve got out of the car.

“He can’t be anywhere else, he doesn’t like to be separated,” Steve said. He reached to hoist Chris out of the passenger seat and set him on the pavement. Chris turned and put his bag on the seat.

“You don’t want to bring that with you?”

Chris looked up at Steve and shook his head.

That didn’t bode well.

Ten minutes later they stood in the arcade.

“It’s known as a bleed,” Steve said to Keith as they looked at the corner at the far end of the room. The tendrils had wrapped themselves around of the machines. Steve had brought his walkie-talkie out of the car.

“Not a code red, we have a bleed in the arcade, over.”

There was a crackle and then Hopper came on the line. “Big or small? Over.”

Steve bit his lip and debated that. “It’s covered one of the machines and a few tentacles have come out but not too bad.”

“Has it got Dig Dug?!” Dustin’s voice came across the radio. “Over!” he added after a pause. Steve frowned, he looked at the walkie-talkie in confusion. He looked to Keith for an explanation. Keith rolled his eyes.

“Dig Dug is fine, that’s over there.”

“That’s fine Dustin, it’s the one in the corner that’s gone.”

“That doesn’t matter, OVER!!”

Steve rolled his eyes as Dustin exaggerated the over. Steve always forgot to add it. Then Steve and Keith jumped as Hopper’s stern tone came across the radio.

“Off this frequency Henderson. You’re meant to be at school, so act like it.”

“Can we still go to the arcade?” Mike asked. “Is the bleed clean? Over.”

Keith looked even more confused. Steve looked at the bleed.

“Yes, it looks clean,” he said. “Only one corner and the snow has stopped. Over.”

Chris tugged on his shirt and as Steve looked down he made some gestures.

“Yes, these are games. Give us a minute and Keith will turn one on and show you.”

Chris looked at Keith and gestured.

“Yes, he promises,” Steve said.

“Yeah,” Keith said. “What does he like?”

“Something simple, with logic. He thrashes me at everything we play but I’ve got no skill, so… but even Dustin struggles with those games it’s like he knows…”

Steve looked down at Chris, who looked back with wide eyes. He made a gesture and Steve smiled.

“I’m just thinking,” Steve said, “nothing for you to worry about.”

Chris frowned.

“Isn’t he too young to be worrying?”

“He should be. Which one might suit him, something I can play with him, which is easy. Easy for me, not him.”

“Hang on,” Keith looked around and then said. “Shouldn’t someone deal with that?”

“Ignore it,” Steve said. “It’s a mind trick as much as it is physically there. Pretend like it doesn’t exist. I know that’s hard, but just carry on.”

Keith looked uncertain.

“Go with it, unlock stuff and do what you would normally do but just ignore that corner, I’ll…” Steve paused and then said. “Hopper, I’m gonna try something.”

“What?”

“Like what? Over.” Dustin asked.

“Henderson, seriously, off the line!” Hopper said.

There was a fizz and a click on the walkie-talkie. Steve didn’t know if Dustin was still listening or not but he said. “Just see how they react.”

“To what? Over,” Mike asked.

“Are you kidding me?!” Hopper said. “If you are going to eavesdrop at least be quiet about it!”

Steve waited, but the line remained silent. Then he said.

“To me. How they react to me, over.”

“Be careful,” Hopper added after a pause. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Keith was watching Steve carefully, as if trying to make up his mind about something.

“React to you how?”

“I think they used some things from the Upside-Down on me, like in IV drips and stuff.” Steve gestured to his inner forearm, and then lifted his shirt and showed Keith the scarring on his side. “And I’ve been bitten by creatures. I haven’t got demobat rabies as far as I can tell but…”

“Eeech,” Keith grimaced and peered at the scars. “How did I not notice this going on? Especially with what went on at the mall and…”

“That’s the thing I think, people don’t want to see things sometimes.”

“And Eddie didn’t…?”

“No,” Steve said sternly. “And don’t bring that up with the kids, especially Dustin.”

“I know. I liked Eddie,” Keith said. He looked down as he felt a tug on his trousers. Chris looked up at him and pointed at one of the machines.

“That’s Dig Dug. I can put that one on, but don’t do to well at it.”

“Why not?” Steve asked.

“Max took over the leader board, she’s got about ten high scores on it,” Keith said.

“Not that one,” Steve said to Chris. “Keith can put it on but we’ll play something else, we don’t want to knock of Max’s scores. I’m not in danger of that, but you might be.”

Chris gestured.

“Yes, the girl who’s sleeping.”

He gestured again.

“It’s to do with the bad things going on. Something bad happened and she’s not well. But we’ll fix it.”

Chris gave a very affirmative nod. Then he pointed at another machine.

“Yep, I’ll put that one on, I’ll hold off on Dig Dug until the rest of them get here, and you’re going to…”

Steve moved around Keith and went towards the corner where the bleed was. Tendrils had snaked around the machine, wrapping around it, almost protectively Steve would have thought, if he didn’t know how unfriendly the Upside-Down was. They looked to be cradling it gently but the air around it gave the feeling that they could tighten on the object and crush it at any moment. Steve stepped warily towards it and watched as the tendrils moved, the ends, trailing on the floor started to lift, stretching towards Steve. They looked to flex, loosening their grip, to try and reach out to him.

By instinct, Steve felt himself tense and power up, his body suddenly thrumming with that feeling he had become used to. His defences rose as he was used to now, as he had practiced. It occurred to him now, other than his escape he hadn’t used his power in anger. He had tested it, made lights flicker, turned the television channels over, and powered the machines at Family Video. Silly, inconsequential things. He had been wary of using his power, everyone had been wary of him overdoing it. But how was he going to know what he was capable of if he didn’t try and find out.

But now he watched, as he felt his aura start to tingle, as he felt the aura of the Upside-Down, the roots reacted to him. The kids had theories on his power. That the electricity didn’t just come from his body, from nerve impulses, and his own power, but from the air around him, as the tasers had powered him originally. He felt a sudden intensifying hum as Keith started to turn the machines on.

He had powered up Dig Dug and had turned on the one next to it. Keith had guessed it didn’t really matter what Chris played. Steve would easily lose the game if he needed to make Chris feel better. Keith turned and looked as he realised Steve stood stock still, staring at the corner, which appeared to retreat from him. Then Steve, definitely back to sounding like ‘King Steve,’ said,

“Turn on another,” he ordered.

Keith looked to Chris, who stared back at him and then looked at Steve, stepping forward to follow his guardian. Between the choice of stopping Chris and doing as Steve asked, Keith went with following Steve’s orders. He turned on another machine.

Steve then seemed to sense that Chris was close behind him as he held out his hand, indicating for Chris to stay where he was.

As he did so he sensed Keith turn on another machine. The thrum in the air increased. He felt the air around him shift up a notch and the tendrils shrank back from him.

“It’s like they are afraid of you,” Keith said, pausing to watch in fascination.

“I don’t think it’s that,” Steve said. Moving forward he leant down and reaching out he grabbed a root and his arm pulsed with power. It felt as if his arm expanded, every muscle flexing at the same time. The nearby vines retreated as the one he shocked withered and turned into dust. He felt it crumble under his hand, the root suddenly desiccating, until his fingers clenched on the dust falling through his grip. His hand clenched around nothing as the dust started to float in the air, drifting towards him, as if drawn to his power.

“Okay, wasn’t quite expecting that,” Steve mused to himself. The other vines retreated, as he felt his power flex again, the same thing happening through his body that seemed to expand from his arm.

“It’s like they think you’re dominant to them,” Keith said. He had turned on five of the machines, their screens flashing with colour and they gave a chorus of whines and beeps in the background. The flow of power, however, Steve could feel, the static in the air drawn towards him. Steve guessed if he sent a flare of power out he could probably disable the arcade games, which he had no intention of doing. He took a deep breath and settled himself down, so his power just rippled in the background, there but dormant.

The vines had retreated further, the bleed shrinking back. It was partly him, Steve suspected, plus the fact that Keith had diligently ignored it while he opened up the arcade. Steve turned away from it, Keith kept his eyes away, looking at Steve instead. Chris gestured and pointed at one of the games.

“That’s a simple one,” Keith said. “I’ll get you some change, and a chair.”

Steve frowned, but got the point as he put the chair in front of the game, wedging the chair back against the lower part of the console. Chris eagerly scrambled up onto the chair and looked at the machine, pressing a button experimentally.

“Let me put some coins in,” Keith said, inserted what he needed into the slot. The screen beeped and Keith showed Chris which buttons he needed to press. Steve went over to look and Chris turned to smile up at him.

“Right, let’s have a go.”

It didn’t take long for Steve to utterly despair of his skill. Chris pressed the buttons swiftly, under Steve’s best direction.

“I don’t think this is our forte,” Steve said to Chris as they lost the game again. Chris pouted up at him and pressed the start button again. “We need more change,” Steve observed, turning to get some more. Out of the corner of his eye he noted the bleed had receded, the strands around the machine looking thinner and less robust than before. It would probably last a couple of days at most.

The kids at least offered a distraction as they pulled up in the Byers station wagon, Jonathan at the wheel and Nancy in the passenger seat. The kids clambered out and burst through the door just as Hopper also pulled up with El in the passenger seat. Clearly he had been following them.

“Is that the bleed?” Dustin asked staring at the corner.

“Yes, leave it alone, and show Chris how to play this, I’m hopeless.”

Chris looked up at him and gestured.

“Yes, I am, and you thrash me at everything anyway,” Steve pointed out. “And you’re five!”

Chris smiled at him and pointed at the bleed before gesturing again.

“Thank you.”

“What did he say?” Hopper asked as he came in behind the kids, a little more sedately. He frowned as he stared at the bleed.

“It’s shrunk a bit, and Chris said I scare the bad things.”

“That’s true,” Hopper said.

“I took hold of one of the roots and ‘flexed’ at it,” Steve said. “Then it just sort of withered.”

“Flexed?” Jonathan asked.

“The best description I have for it,” Steve confessed. “It’s like the air around me sort of expands or I sort of expand into it. And it felt stronger once Keith had turned a few machines on.”

“So if there is electricity flowing you can pick it up. And distribute it?” Hopper asked.

“I think so.”

“Here try this one,” Dustin said to Chris in the background. Chris looked at Steve. Jonathan and Will started to play another of the games. Mike and Lucas did the same, El watched them curiously, all of them studiously ignoring the bleed.

“Go ahead and have a go, Dustin can show you better than I can.”

Chris looked at him for a moment.

“Go on, the kids will show you what to do, it’s fine.”

Dustin moved the chair to another game. “C’mon Kiddo, let me show you. Steve just needs to talk to Hopper, he’ll still be there.”

Chris gave Steve one last glance, and he smiled at him and went to see what Dustin was doing. The other kids went and got on with whatever they wanted to do.

Keith eyed them in awe and also Hopper, Jonathan and Steve, who could manage to act as if the dark corner, the machine covered in vines, was of no consequence at all. He felt very aware of it out of the corner of his eye as he tried to follow the conversation between Hopper and Steve.

“Seriously, don’t do that,” Steve said.

Keith snapped to attention. “Do what?”

“That anxious vibe thing,” Steve said. “I can feel it all over the place.”

“Kid, I don’t need to be empathic to sense it,” Hopper told him.

“How can I not?” Keith asked.

Steve shrugged. “Take’s a bit of practice.” Then he turned as he sensed the tingle on the back of his neck. Chris was looking at him intently and gestured when he realised he had Steve’s attention.

‘Play’

Steve shrugged. “I need to play video games. Do you want me to lock up?”

Keith handed him the keys. “I take it the video store is fine.”

“Returns need to be finished, but yeah, no bleeds.”

“I’ll go there. I can pick the arcade keys up tomorrow.”

“Sure, no problem.”

Keith made a fast getaway. Steve and Hopper looked at each other.

“He’ll get used to it,” Hopper said.

Chapter Text

Friday morning Steve took Chris back to the library. He had three books he wanted to return tucked away in his backpack, and Steve had finished Alice in Wonderland so he added that to the stock to exchange. He had started The Wizard of Oz now and Dustin had suggested The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, which was one Steve vaguely remembered. He’d ask Mrs Thomas.

“Hello dears,” she said brightly as she saw them come through the door.

“Hi, Mrs Thomas,” Steve said. Then he looked down at Chris. “Now, you give Mrs Thomas the books you brought back, and she’ll give you the tickets, and you can then take out more.”

He helped Chris take his backpack off and he rummaged in the bag for the books. Chris held them up to Mrs Thomas. She took them off him and smiled down at Chris.

“I’ll book these back in, and you can go and choose four more.”

“Three more,” Steve told him. “Have you got The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?”

“Yes, of course, I’ll find it for you. You go and have a look, see which ones you want next. And we’ll do some more sign language. I have another book for you.”

“Well, we only have four tickets so…”

“No dear, you have your four, this book is one of mine I bought, you can have it.”

“Well I can always return it.”

“No need, it will be useful for your little cousin,” she announced. “Won’t it be better when you can tell Steve things?”

Chris looked at her and nodded.

“You go and look for some books first,” she advised.

Chris gave his beaming smile and trotted off to do exactly that. Steve smiled at her.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nice to have a little project,” she said. “Off you go, I’ll catch up with you in a minute.”

Steve smiled and went off to help Chris, who was already pulling books off the shelves to look through them.

And it was quite a pleasant morning. Mrs Taylor showed them some more signs, found some more books and gave Chris an extra ticket. Steve loaded him up with everything, tucking it into his backpack.

“Can you manage that?” Steve asked.

Chris looked up and nodded, smiling brightly again.

“Okay let’s go then.”

He checked his watch; they could have lunch at the diner as they had time before Steve had to be at the store for his afternoon shift. It saved going home, and Chris now seemed to like being out. He was getting used to other people around him. The more exposure he got the better.

Steve opened the library door to guide Chris down the steps, aware that they had been watched the last time they were here. However, this time he didn’t need a tingle on the back of his neck to know they were being watched. Someone lingered at the bottom of the steps, leaning casually against the railings.

As Steve came out of the door they looked up so Steve met a very familiar face and a very familiar set of eyes.

Blue-Eyes.

Instinctively Steve pushed Chris behind him. He felt Chris’s hands tighten on the fabric of his jeans.

Blue-Eyes smiled at him. Steve glowered back.

“You’re looking well Steve, and your little friend.”

“What do you want? I know you’ve been watching me.” Steve didn’t preamble that fact. It was pointless to do otherwise.

“Yes, clearly since you came out with your baseball bat at the ready the other day. Quite a team of people you have here now.”

“We do,” Steve said resting a comforting hand on Chris’ head. For the first time, in a long time, he sensed anger and fear from Chris. Steve tried to project calm at him.

“And Chris is fine,” Steve said, emphasizing the little boy’s name. Steve moved down two of the steps but stayed poised on the last one, so he was looking down at Blue-Eyes. The solider seemed unperturbed by Steve’s stance and he stayed where he was leaning against the railings.

“What do you want?” Steve asked, again without bothering to waste words. He could guess what they might want. Having escaped the lab, he had certainly proved whatever they were doing had value, and he had taken Chris with him, who must have been part of the project. Given the fact that he was developing powers he had surmised that Chris had been used to boost that inside him. He could ask now to clarify that. But for a moment he waited for Blue-Eyes to answer.

“I would have thought that was obvious.” Blue-Eyes said.

“You’re not taking Chris,” Steve warned him. Blue-Eyes raised his eyebrows.

“It’s not that obvious then,” the solider commented. “You’re the one we are interested in, you’ve clearly developed some skill in handling the talents that we have given you.”

Steve spread his emotional web, he wasn’t quite sure how he did it but he reached out and picked up Blue-Eyes. He felt a flicker of amusement, but beneath that a seriousness that meant Blue-Eyes was on a mission and had some information to impart.

“I’m getting there, and I don’t think you can take all the credit,” Steve said wondering if he could blast Blue-Eyes and leave it at that. However, he clearly gave his intentions away and Blue-Eyes eased himself off the railings and stepped back from Steve, putting some distance between him and the object of his fascination. Steve stayed where he was and looked around. The street was quiet, and Steve wondered if he could just retreat and get Mrs Thomas to call Hopper. As he hesitated Blue-Eyes said.

“I think it’s been quite successful, and we know the formula that seems to work now. So, we could start with a new test subject – but that would be something of an inconvenience without knowing the full results from the initial one,” Blue-Eyes shrugged casually. “And we may not get exactly the same result but it’s worth a shot. If you don’t co-operate.”

Steve tensed at that, his brows knitting into a frown, realising that Blue-Eyes was working up to something.

“Oh, and we have one to hand now, a little mouthy compared to you, and I don’t think we’ll want to take his mother with us, so she’s disposable.”

“What?”

“We picked up your curly haired friend an hour or so ago, with his mom. So it’s simple, you come with us, or we use him. I suppose we can return Mrs Henderson back here, we’ll have what we need in that brat.”

“You do anything to Dustin and….” Steve tailed off. Blue-Eyes raised his eyebrows and waited, smirking slightly as he looked at Steve. Then he inclined his head.

“Coffee?” Blue-Eyes asked, but he didn’t wait for an answer, instead he turned and walked towards the diner. He didn’t look back to see if Steve was following, and Steve got the impression it was some sort of test. Would he follow and find out what was going on or would he retreat and get some back-up.

In the end Steve guided Chris down the steps and followed in Blue-Eyes wake. A retreat might put Dustin at risk at this point. Steve didn’t want that happening, and if they had Dustin then Steve had to act to keep him safe. He was probably the only one with the power to do so.

Blue-Eyes had settled in a booth by the window. Steve followed him, easing Chris into the seat opposite the soldier and Steve settled next to the little boy, staring at the man opposite him. They said nothing until the waitress had brought coffee for them and juice for Chris.

Chris made some gestures.

“We’re just going to talk,” Steve assured him. Chris made more gestures. Blue-Eyes watched the interaction with interest.

“Dustin will be fine, I’ll make sure of it.”

Chris seemed to accept that and settled for glaring steadily at Blue-Eyes, after a moment Steve did the same. He sipped his coffee.

“So you want to take me back to, wherever it was.”

“Not that exact place. That facility is now shutdown. Given the fact you escaped that facility it was considered compromised, so suddenly there was a gas leak and the house unfortunately burnt down. The basement was sterilised you’ll be pleased to hear. I took your advice of using a flame thrower.”

Steve wrapped his hands around the coffee, feeling the warmth of the liquid through the mug. For some reason that information didn’t make him feel any better. His stomach churned with dread at the prospect of going back, but more so with the idea they would experiment on Dustin.

“So that place was just hidden on a street? Like the people around there were completely oblivious to your presence?”

Blue-Eyes shrugged. “Essentially, yes. A few of the employee’s families lived close by but they had no idea what work some of their family members were doing.”

“Shit, so people with kids were letting that Dr Smith abuse Chris, and they were all right with that.”

“They are paid to be all right with a lot of things. I’m paid to be alright with a good many things.”

“Like kidnapping people to make sure others are co-operative?”

Blue-Eyes ran the tips of his fingers around the top of his mug. “There is that.”

“And what if I just stun you and get Hopper here before you can recover?”

“I thought that might be a risk. If I don’t come back, or check in, within the hour they will take your little friend.” Blue-Eyes shrugged.

“I can’t just disappear, I have…” He paused and looked at Chris. “… other things to consider.”

Blue-Eyes considered that.

“I can give you time this afternoon if you need to make arrangements for… Chris… was it? As it turns out you don’t need to bring him, it seems that psychically-charged telekinetic kids are rather ten a penny. You, however, are created differently, and it’s you we want. You’re our creation, and we want to know how useful you can be.”

Blue-Eyes said that with flat finality.

Steve felt his stomach go cold and his heart fluttered in his chest. Chris’s anger flowed from him into Steve, who had stopped trying to project calm and he felt a cold anger settle on him. It wasn’t rage, although there was an edge of that to it. This was something different, something calculating. Steve wanted answers, and he could get them, but what was he prepared to sacrifice.

Himself certainly. But he couldn’t risk Dustin, or Chris, and what the hell was meant by telekinetic kids being ten a penny?

“Drink your juice,” Steve said to Chris then he turned to Blue-Eyes, who waited patiently.

“Fine,” Steve said flatly, causing Blue-Eyes to raise his eyebrows, as if he wasn’t expecting it to be that easy. “But you don’t harm Dustin, or his mom, you return them to Hawkins.”

“As soon as we have you,” Blue-Eyes said.

Steve started to calculate. He couldn’t tell anyone what he planned to do, certainly not Hopper or Joyce. This would have to be done alone. They wouldn’t let him put himself at risk. But if they made a plan to try and retrieve Dustin and his mom that could easily go wrong and Dustin could get hurt. Steve didn’t want him going through that.

“What’s the point of it though?” Steve asked. “Why infect me with whatever you put in me?”

“It has application, you have shown an ability to defend yourself. This alternate dimension is a risk but could also hold reward. It is fair to consider the fact that we caused some of the reaction in you with the tasers, that was something that we didn’t anticipate.”

“So it’s just to create more weapons. Human weapons.”

“I’m a solider, weapons are kind of a necessity,” Blue-Eyes said.

Steve frowned and glowered into his coffee. There had to be more to it than that. But there might not be. On the flip side, that other Major, or Colonel, or whoever he was had tried to kill El in the belief it would stop what was happening. Steve didn’t believe that would work.

“What about the place in Nevada, that Brenner took El to, when she regained her powers. Someone tried to stop that.”

Blue-Eyes gave a patronising smile. “You have to guess which of us has gone rogue and which of us are following orders. The government is not a perfect machine and the branches that work with it, do not always work together.”

Steve frowned. He didn’t think he was bright enough to unknot that kind of conundrum. So he went back to the one in hand, the one he could do something about.”

“Meet me at the town’s west boundary, by the plant works at 4pm, just before dusk. Bring Dustin and his mom and I’ll go with you.”

“Just like that?” Blue-Eyes said, he sipped his coffee and tried to contain he surprise. The one thing he didn’t know was how much he was projecting it for Steve to pick up. Steve had no intention of telling him that. Steve kept to the practicalities.

“I’m not putting Dustin, or anyone else at risk. You know I wouldn’t do that. I can’t say the same about you once you have me. You may be at risk.”

“We’ll bear that in mind,” Blue-Eyes said. “I would advise you not to tell anyone else, I don’t want your misguided cavalry trying to save you. I won’t relinquish your friend if I get the slightest sniff of that, and I can just kill him, you’ll still be in the world and we’ll get you another way. This is just the most civilised.”

“This is your idea of civilised?”

“I’ve seen what goes on in your town,” Blue-Eyes said. “And your friend Eddie has a most undeserved reputation. From the gossip I picked up it was quite a lynch mob that went after him. Almost as if someone was influencing the town.”

“Vecna you mean?” Steve said.

“Is that what you call it? You lot named the creatures and seem to have very good intel on the whole thing.”

“Of course, you could have asked.”

Blue-Eyes smiled. “We did try asking, but you made it quite clear that you had no interest in taking the conversation any further. I think they found you quite intimidating.”

Steve smirked. “I’d love for my father to hear you say that.”

Blue-Eyes smirked but Steve’s mood faded as he remembered the hug his father gave him and the feelings that he got from him. His attention came back to Blue-Eyes as he rapped his knuckles against the table.

“I’ll give you the afternoon, and meet you at 4pm. If you are not there, we take your little friend. We’ll let his mom come home. I think he’ll be as useful a candidate as you were.”

He stood up, and threw several bills on the counter to pay for the drinks.

“See you soon.”

Steve stayed where he was as Blue-Eyes walked away, his objective achieved. As long as he had a hostage he knew Steve would come to him. Steve had been so protective of Chris at the lab and they had been watching Steve long enough now to know how protective he was of the kids. They were facts that could hardly be denied.

For a moment Steve stayed nestled in the booth, watching as Blue-Eyes walked away. He wondered if he could follow him and see where he went but Steve didn’t think that would work. If he told anyone what was going on they would stop him from acting, they would try to save Dustin but they would take Steve out of the equation and not put him at risk. Hopper would go to the meeting at 4 o’clock to try and retrieve Dustin.

Chris pressed tightly against his side, grounding Steve in the reality he was now stuck with. He had to get Dustin out of the situation, he had to keep him safe. And make arrangements for Chris, he needed to keep him safe as well. Steve had to make plans. He looked down at Chris who looked up at him with wide eyes.

“We have to get Dustin back.” Steve told him. Chris nodded and releasing his grip on Steve gestured.

‘How?’

“I’ll think of something. And I need to make sure someone looks after you.”

Chris’ face darkened but Steve didn’t seem to notice as he got up and held out his hands to help Chris out of the booth. Chris frowned in confusion and pointed at the menu on the table in it’s little plastic holder.

“Not today, kid,” Steve said. “We’ll have lunch at home.”

He got Chris out of the diner and put him in the car and drove home, his mind and stomach churning. Steve didn’t know how the others would react to the news that Dustin had been taken. Steve knew he was spending the day with his mom and Blue-Eyes had obviously taken advantage of that, the same way he had taken advantage of Steve being alone when they had first taken him.

When Steve let Chris into the house he had something of a plan. He went into the kitchen to the phone. Chris watched him carefully.

“It’ll be fine. Robin and Joyce will look after you, and everything will be fine.”

Chris scowled. He trotted out of the kitchen taking his backpack with him. Steve picked up the phone and dialled, fingers drumming impatiently on the wall until it was picked up.

“Keith, it’s Steve, I can’t open the store today…”

“What? Are you sick? Can Robin cover for you?” Keith asked.

“No nothing like that,” Steve said, cutting off the questions. But Steve did think it was a good idea to put Robin in the video store, and then she wouldn’t be asking questions, or getting in the way of his plan. For this he needed someone who would follow his instructions, and who wouldn’t be over-protective of him.

“But you could get Robin to cover, I have something I need to do, and I need your help with it. If I get Robin to open up can you come over to my house and I’ll explain.”

“Sure,” Keith said. “Does this involve the weirdness?”

“Sort of, please can you just come over, for about 3 o’clock? And don’t tell anyone else.” Steve looked at his watch, he had two hours before then, and three before he could rescue Dustin.

“Sure, is it safe?” Keith asked.

“Yes, it will be perfectly safe,” Steve said, crossing his fingers as he spoke. It would be safe for Keith, but not for Steve. He wasn’t about to make that distinction. As he hung up he looked around, he’d need to explain himself, but after the fact. He could leave notes for people, he didn’t want anyone thinking he was abandoning them. His aim was to save Dustin, and for Steve find out what they had done to him to cause the powers he now had.

He managed to finalize the arrangements with Keith and got Robin to cover at the store, with a lie that Chris didn’t seem to well. Robin agreed instantly and then promised to come over later to check on him.

That would work, he thought, he could leave Robin a note for instructions to look after Chris. Robin would be able to care for him, with Joyce’s help. Steve swallowed heavily, a lump forming in his throat at the thought of leaving Chris. He turned and looked for the little boy, who was nowhere in the kitchen. Heading out Steve went and looked in the lounge, but Chris wasn’t there either.

With a frown Steve went upstairs, following his instincts as he went to find Chris.

He was in Steve’s bedroom, his backpack open and the books carefully laid on the end of the bed. Chris had one of his red tee-shirts in his hands carefully placing it into his backpack and he put in two of his colouring books.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked, the activity looked distinctly like packing. Chris turned to look up at him and he picked up the Winnie-the-Pooh book that Steve had bought for him. Steve noted, he was putting in things that belonged to him. The books they had picked up this morning Chris had put to one side.

“What are you doing?”

Chris looked up at him and put the Winnie-the-Pooh book into the bag.

“You can’t come with me,” Steve said. “I want you to stay here, with Robin and Joyce and Hopper, they will look after you.”

‘Stay with Steve,’ Chris gestured.

Steve crouched down, and he took Chris’ elbows turning him to face Steve. Chris’ serious face stared at him, his eyes dark, looking oddly mature in his sweet babyish face.

“It’s not safe for you and I don’t want you in danger. I need you to stay here.”

‘You stay here,’ Chris signed.

“I can’t do that. They have Dustin and I don’t want him hurt either.”

‘Steve get hurt?’ Chris asked with a frown.

“They don’t want to hurt me,” Steve said steadily. “I am the person they want, they won’t hurt me, but if you come with me they might hurt you, and I don’t want them to hurt you or Dustin or anyone else I care about.”

‘Care about Chris?’ Chris signed.

Steve blinked and pulled the little boy closer, wrapping his arms around Chris’ small but sturdy form.

“Of course I care about you. That’s why I want you to stay here with Robin, and Joyce, and Hopper, they will look after you while I’m gone.”

He pulled back and looked at Chris who signed.

‘Look after Steve.’

Steve smiled. “I know, it’s nice being looked after, and I’ll feel better knowing you are looked after here.”

‘Chris look after Steve,’ Chris signed with a determined look in his eyes. The bed nearby started to rattle, and the curtains stirred. Steve looked at Chris as he bit his lip. Chris had never been away from him since they had escaped the facility and Chris had torn a room there apart in anger because he had been separated from Steve.

There was the worry that Chris could get upset and then react badly. El had some control of herself but that was clearly not the same with Chris. He was young and so dauntingly attached to Steve. Plus there was the fact that no one else could talk to him.

“I know you want to and I want to look after you, but I have to protect everyone from these people and I don’t want you going back. I don’t want you with them. If you are here I know you are safe.”

Chris looked sulky and he made more gestures. ‘Safe with Steve.’

Steve smiled. “I know you feel safe with me. But it may not be safe when I go with them.”

‘Always safe with Steve.’

“I’m not sure about that, but I’ll always keep you safe. Whatever happens I’ll make sure of that.”

Chris beamed at him and then turned back to continue putting things into his backpack. Steve stood up.

He knew he could trust the others to look after Chris, but the fact was that Chris was dangerous, and when upset he could inadvertently hurt someone. If he stayed with Steve then Steve knew he could look after Chris but he didn’t know how safe Chris would be. Plus he would also be a bargaining chip to use against him.

He should have maybe bargained for that. And again the thought rattled around his head. How were kids like Chris apparently ten a penny?

That comment was enough to make Steve want to find out what the hell was going on.

Chapter Text

“Thanks for this,” Steve said as he drove himself, Chris in the passenger seat and Keith in the back, towards the meeting place.

“I don’t even know what this is yet,” Keith said hunched up behind Chris, not that he complained about the arrangement. He just clambered into the backseat and waited for Steve to tell him what was going on. Chris watched Steve carefully. The little boy had brought his packed backpack with him, resolutely putting his on his shoulders and staring at Steve as if daring him to comment.

Steve hadn’t. They had continued the argument throughout the afternoon but Chris resolutely insisted on going with him but Steve still wanted to leave him with the Henderson’s on their way back to Hawkins.

He didn’t know how they had managed to grab Dustin and his mom, but they hadn’t really worried too much about the other kids if an adult was with them. Steve had been their concern.

Dustin was now his.

Steve was the only one who could rectify the situation. He drove steadily towards his destination, glancing at his watch as he drove. It was five minutes to four. His destination was not far away, but he didn’t doubt Blue-Eyes would be already there waiting for him.

He wasn’t wrong.

As they came down the road Steve saw the truck. His hands tightened on the steering wheel and he took a deep breath, eyes on his target.

Keith tensed as Steve brought the car to a steady halt. The truck blocked the road so he couldn’t go any further, he had two options now, either spin round and turn back or do what he intended to do.

The third option of fighting came to mind, but he didn’t think that was viable, plus he probably needed back up for that and he had none. The others would have sidelined him.

But there was the other thing in his mind, the things that niggled him about his powers, what they had intended to do with him. It didn’t seem the same as what El had described from her time in the lab. She viewed them as the enemy. Steve did the same to some extent. They had kept Chris captive, probably since he was born. Certainly, Steve was certain that until he had taken Chris out of the lab it had been all he had known.

Was it really fair to take him back there, if that was what happened at the conclusion of this. He would be with Steve, but it would make him a hostage to ensure Steve’s behaviour. He didn’t want to put Chris through that again. But it bothered Steve how Chris would survive. He hadn’t spent a night away from Steve since they had escaped, in fact he had rarely been out of line of sight of Steve.

Would the others be able to handle him?

That was Steve’s biggest question. El could probably contain him somewhat but Chris wouldn’t, couldn’t, really understand how dangerous his actions could be if he threw a tantrum. Steve had worked with him a little on his powers but he had been more focused on giving the boy a normal life, getting him used to other people and teaching him.

“What’s going on?” Keith asked.

Steve stopped the car and sat for a moment, debating how to handle this situation. He slowly undid his seatbelt and pulled the key out of the ignition. He turned and held out the keys to Keith. He stared at them like Steve was handing him a hand grenade.

“When this is done I am going to need you to drive everyone back to Hawkins.”

“Me!” Keith squeaked. “Drive your car!”

It was almost as if Steve was handing over his first-born child. In a way he was if he left Chris with him. He was trusting Keith with a lot, but he needed someone who wouldn’t hold him back from doing what he was about to do.

“Yes, you can drive my car. Just make sure you get it back in one piece, and give the keys to Hopper.”

Keith nodded in a serious fashion and took the keys almost reverently. Staring at them in his palm. Then he looked up as the people around the truck moved. Steve opened the door. Chris fumbled to release his seatbelt, and the door catch on his side sprung open. Steve gave him a wary look but got out of the car. So did Keith, who also eased Chris’s door open and let the little boy scramble out.

Steve stepped around to the front of the car, signalling to Chris to stay back. Keith got the hint anyway and stayed by the front wing. Chris went after Steve, but stayed a step behind him.

Blue-Eyes moved forward.

“Where are Dustin and his mom?” Steve demanded. That was his first point. Once he was assured they were safe and well things could proceed. Blue-Eyes turned and nodded at two armed guards at the back of the truck. After a few moments Mrs Henderson was helped down, then a struggling, outraged Dustin almost fell out of the back.

Steve’s eyes narrowed as he saw their hands were tied, and someone had gagged Dustin.

“Steve!” he gave a muffled yelp, the rest of whatever he said was garbled behind the tape across his mouth.

“Are you all right?” Steve asked Claudia.

She looked a little wild around the eyes and her hair was mussed but looking her up and down Steve guessed she was physically unharmed.

“We’re fine, they stopped us when we went out this morning, I just thought it was a routine check like they have been doing sometimes.”

“This lot are different,” Steve said.

There was a distraction as Dustin kicked the man holding his upper arm.

“Don’t you dare?!” Steve roared as the man raised his arm.

The tone of voice stilled everyone. Blue-Eyes raised his eyebrows and flicked his head at the solider who let Dustin go and stepped back.

“Uncuff them,” Blue-Eyes ordered.

Two men stepped forward and unfastened the cuffs. The man releasing Dustin yanked the tape off his mouth.

“Ow!” Dustin yelped, but he dismissed the soldiers and ran to Steve.

“Steve, you can’t go with them!”

Steve let him cling. But as he pulled Dustin close he said.

“I have to.”

“You don’t!”

“I do, or they would have taken you.”

“But…”

Steve felt swamped by Dustin’s emotions as they flooded across to him. He held him close. He was angry, worried and upset in equal measures. And clearly the thought of losing Steve was amplifying everything. It almost brought Steve down to his knees.

“I have to, and I need you to look after Chris, I can’t let him come with me.”

Dustin pulled back, he looked at the little boy whose hands had reached out to cling to Steve’s jeans. Tears had flooded Dustin’s eyes.

“What are they going to do to you?” he glowered at Blue-Eyes.

“Nothing,” Steve said. “They need me alive, and I can’t risk them doing anything to you, so Keith is going to drive you back to town. You’ll have to tell Hopper what I’ve done, but it’s not your fault.”

“Steve what are they going to do?” Claudia asked.

“I’m their experiment,” Steve said. “So I presume more of that.”

She glowered at the group of men. They lurked by the truck, clearly waiting for orders. All of them were armed, watching the interaction in front of them with interest. Most of their eyes were on Steve, but none of them had been at the previous lab. Steve was glad of that, he didn’t fancy seeing Brown-Hair again at the very least. Blue-Eyes waited patiently, clearly in no hurry.

Dustin stepped back as Steve crouched down in front of Chris. The little boy was eyeing the scene with his intense stare, but he focused on Steve as he went down to the boy’s level.

“I need you to go with Mrs Henderson, and Dustin and Keith.”

Chris shook his head and signed ‘stay with Steve. Steve stay.’

“I can’t I promised I would go with them, to protect you, and Dustin and everyone else. So you need to stay here, where I know you will be safe. You’ll be safe with Robin, and Mrs Byers and Hopper. They will look after you.”

Chris shook his head, eyes wide as he stared at Steve. Steve’s felt a well of emotion, tears starting to brim in his eyes at the thought of abandoning Chris. He was doing it with the best of intentions but it was still a wrench. Chris depended on him. Steve could trust the others to look after him, no one would leave him alone. They would care for him, for Steve’s sake, if nothing else.

“Chris,” Steve said, he lent forward, resting his forehead against Chris’.

He felt the little boy’s hand grip his top tightly.

For a moment Steve teetered on the edge. He felt like gathering Chris up and taking him with him. Steve didn’t want to leave him; he worried about how Chris would cope. Steve wondered how he was going to cope, he had got used to Chris’ quiet, dependant presence in his life.

But he couldn’t do that. He didn’t want Chris to go back to the sterile life he had been stuck in. Lonely and silent. At least now he could talk of a fashion, and there were things he enjoyed that Steve had introduced him to. But would they be there if he took Chris with him? He would have Steve, which was what the little boy wanted.

There was, however, the flip side.

Steve was no fool. If he took Chris with him he would be in the same helpless situation as him, as a pawn. Chris had his powers and could, no doubt, defend himself. But it would be used against Steve. They had tried to play them off against each other last time and if Steve wanted to keep ahead of them he didn’t need anyone they could use against him.

His final play was he would co-operate with everything as long as his friends, his family, were safe. He could keep these people out of Hawkins.

Steve pulled back as he felt Chris pull away. It was hard even now to know how much the little boy understood. He was so silent and oddly calm. He looked into the little boy’s eyes. Chris was only five and only just starting to understand the world he was in and Steve didn’t want to take him away from that.

But something seemed to shift in that moment. Chris’ deep blue eyes met Steve’s and in that second Steve realised Chris understood everything that Steve was feeling. He wasn’t just feeling Chris’ emotions, he was letting his own flow over Chris.

There was more underneath that innocent, youthful surface that Steve could ever really hope to delve into. Chris was familiar with Steve’s powers and seemed to be able to meld them with his own. But Steve, in the short space of time he had known Chris, couldn’t really hope to know everything about the boy’s power and what he understood about what was going on around him.

“You need to go with Mrs Henderson now. Keith will take you back to Hawkins and you’ll be safe.”

Chris pouted and Steve tensed slightly, ready for the tantrum, but he shrugged off his backpack and held it out to Steve. Steve took it off him and tucked it over one shoulder. Chris seemed satisfied with that. Reaching out Steve took Chris in his arms. He felt Chris’s hands grip onto his jacket, holding him tightly and the little boy’s sturdy form pressed against his chest.

Steve didn’t want to do this, he really didn’t. He didn’t want to leave Chris. He didn’t want to abandon his friends in Hawkins. He didn’t want to leave his home.

But inevitably he had to. They had clearly been watching him ever since he had returned. It had been obvious to any of them he would go home. They didn’t need to chase him, they didn’t need to do anything but wait for the right moment and the opportunity to reacquire him.

And he didn’t want that for Chris.

So he had to leave him here, for the little boy’s safety. For Steve’s own safety. If they had Chris they had a hold over him.

“Go with Dustin now,” Steve murmured into Chris’ hair. “Mrs Henderson will look after you and the others will keep you safe. I’m sorry, I can’t take you with me. I want you where I know you’ll be safe.”

He pulled back. Chris looked up at him with glassy eyes and he signed at Steve.

“I know. I’ll be fine but I want you to be here, and safe, understand. I don’t want you with people I can’t trust, you know you can trust Dustin and Robin and Joyce.”

Chris signed again.

“And the book lady,” Steve said. “Come on, let’s get you in the car.”

“Steve?” Dustin said. He looked at Steve with the same glassy eyed look as Chris.

“I need to get you out of here. You have to go now,” Steve said urgently. He didn’t want the soldiers getting restless and Blue-Eyes deciding to take them all. He guided Chris to the car, leading him to the passenger side, where Chris also needed to go. Decisively Steve picked Chris up and put him on the passenger seat and buckled him in carefully. Chris signed something.

“I know.” Steve said. Slowly he straightened up, turning to look at Dustin. He reached out a hand and he felt Chris’ tiny hand take hold, while Steve looked at Dustin. Steve opened the back door with his free hand.

“Get in Dustin and go!”

“You can’t go with them.”

“I have to. This way I protect you, Chris as everyone else. They were always going to come back for us Dustin. I need to go, that way I protect everyone else.”

“We’ll… “ Dustin started, then stopped. “We can rescue you, if we get…”

“Dustin, no.”

“Jane can find you.”

“She probably will,” Steve said. “Now get in the car and go. All of you.”

He didn’t want thing dragging on, he didn’t want Blue-Eyes changing his mind.

“Keith, get them out of here, now. Get in the car all of you, and go. Dustin, go!”

Steve gave him a light touch to the shoulder and Dustin got into the car, Claudia got in and Steve looked at Keith over the top of the car.

“Get them out of here, now,” Steve said, he could feel flickers of impatience coming from the soldiers. Keith didn’t hesitate, he seemed to sense, or feel, Steve’s urgency. Steve felt himself projecting what he wanted to happen onto Keith and he wanted Keith to get everyone out of here.

Keith got in the car and started the engine. Steve shut the door on Dustin, who then leant forward, pressing his face against the glass, and also glancing at Keith to make objections. Claudia hung onto him, keeping him in the car. Steve crouched down by Chris, still holding his hand.

“You listen to what Keith says and he’ll get you home safely.”

Chris pulled his hand free and made a series of rapid gestures, which for someone who had only started to learn sign language looked highly sophisticated to Dustin, who paused his rant to watch. Steve however merely nodded at whatever was said and he leant over to kiss Chris on the forehead.

“Be good,” was all Steve said before he stood up, backed up and shut the door firmly on Chris. He then signalled to Keith to get on with it. Which was exactly what Keith did. He didn’t understand the situation, but he understood what Steve was doing and why he wanted Keith to do what he had asked of him.

He slowly backed the BMW up and turned with great care, so for a moment with the car side on Steve could see both Chris and Dustin staring at him with wide eyes. He felt awful, as if he had betrayed them both, and tears prickled in his eyes but Steve knew he had done the right thing. Or at least the best thing he could think of with the threat that Blue-Eyes had made.

Plus, Steve couldn’t avoid the intrigue he felt at his powers, and what they had intended to use them for. Then he winced as Keith tried to change gears, griding them with a sickening crunch and Steve almost laughed as Dustin turned to harangue him about it.

Chris put one hand on the window, looking at Steve steadily before Keith finally got the car under control and turned away, so all Steve could see were the tail lights as Keith, very carefully, drove them back to Hawkins.

Steve took a breath, turned and stared at Blue-Eyes steadily, hitching the backpack Chris had given him higher onto his shoulder and calmly asked.

“So, what’s next?”