Chapter Text
It was turning out to be a chaotic morning at the Squawk already and Robin and Steve had barely been there an hour. Robin, like usual, had completed the main part of her broadcast with no real issues and a noticeable discouragement of illegal activities (no sledding on the giant metal bandages, kids!). But just when she’d dropped the needle on to the surface of the record she’d cued up next (Pretty in Pink, by the Psychedelic Furs), the broadcast was severed by a loud, crackling static, and the signals dropped out.
“Whoa, what the hell?” Robin exclaimed, jumping out of her seat. “What’s going on?”
Steve did the same, following Robin out of the booth and over to the wall of monitors.
“You think you finally pissed 'em off?”
Robin flipped some dials, trying to stabilize the signal. Nothing helped. “Can’t be. I was encouraging compliance, dingus.”
Steve grabbed the walkie talkie from its spot on the table. “Henderson, do you copy? Henderson. Are you there?”
“Yes, I copy,” came Dustin’s voice after a few seconds. He sounded… exhausted. “I’m guessing you're not calling to wish me a good morning?”
“We have a problem at the Squawk,” Steve informed him. “The signal’s gone all wonky. I thought that maybe Robin finally pissed the military off.”
“Doubtful,” Dustin replied. “She was encouraging compliance. The remote radio head’s the more likely culprit."
“Told you!” Robin called from the wall of monitors, still fiddling with the assorted levers and buttons. It wasn’t fixing anything.
“The remote what?” Steve asked.
“Just read the manual, Steve,” Dustin sighed. “I can’t be there to help you all the time. You’re a big boy, you can do it. And I’m sorry, but I have to go. Class is about to start.”
With that, the signal went dead.
“Henderson?” Steve said, frowning at the silence. There was no response. He turned to Robin.“What should we do?”
“Like he said. Try reading the manual?” Robin muttered, still fiddling with random buttons and dials on the wall. She tried to keep the frustration out of her voice. “I’ll radio Nancy.”
Steve sighed. “The way it’s written, it may as well be in Greek. And I don’t even know where it is. I’ll check the office, I guess?”
Robin nodded, rolling her eyes. Steve’s whining wasn’t exactly helping, and nothing she was trying was working. Anxiety bubbled uncomfortably in her stomach. What if she couldn’t get the station broadcasting again before the next crawl? She stood up and grabbed the walkie talkie from where Steve had left it on the arm of the couch.
“Nancy, we’ve got a problem here,” she announced. “Do you copy? Over.”
A few seconds passed before the walkie crackled to life. “Yeah, we heard,” floated Nancy’s voice through the receiver.
“We’re on our way to the station right now,” Jonathan added. “What happened?”
“Not sure,” Robin responded. “But before he turned off his walkie, Dustin said it might have something to do with the remote radio head? Problem is, we need the manual to be sure, and we don’t know where it is. Steve went to look.”
“Wait, Dustin turned off his walkie?”
“I mean, they do have school,” Nancy pointed out. “Try not to worry too much. We’ll be there in like, ten minutes. Also, I think I might have an idea of where the manual is. Over.”
Robin saluted, even though she knew Nancy couldn’t see her do it. It was pretty much a reflex, at this point. Like Nancy brought something out in her that she couldn’t–or didn’t–want to control.
A few minutes later, Steve came back out of the office and flopped down on the couch. Robin raised an eyebrow at him.
“No luck,” Steve said petulantly.
“Did you even look?” Robin pressed.
“Yes, on the shelves and in the desk,” Steve insisted. “It wasn’t there.”
“Well, keep looking. It’s gotta be around here somewhere.” She went back into the booth and continued messing around with the controls. It lessened the static, but still didn’t restore the signal, so after a moment she gave up on fixing the broadcast and went to help Steve search for the manual instead.
Once Nancy and Jonathan arrived at the WSQK, it took Nancy all of thirty seconds to find the missing book.
“Where was it?” Robin asked, impressed.
“In a random box with some records over there,” Nancy replied, smiling brightly at her. “No idea why, though. Maybe Mr. Jimmy Lee needed it even less than we did.” She put the book on the table and flipped it open, scanning for the right section.
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Robin chirped.
“Wait, wait, there it is,” Steve blurted out, pressing against Nancy as he pointed to the page.
Robin couldn’t be sure, but it definitely seemed like Nancy had to forcibly stop herself from recoiling at the unexpected contact. She shifted slightly closer to the table, body tensing up. Jonathan must’ve picked up on her sudden movement as well, because he didn’t look happy about it, either.
“So where exactly are we gonna find this remote… thingamajig?” she asked, hoping to distract the boys.
Nancy considered for a moment, then glanced up at the window that faced the hill behind the station. She blinked back at the group.
“The radio tower?” Jonathan deadpanned. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
“Nope. Sorry. Come on, let’s go.” She marched towards the door, leaving the others to trail behind.
Up on the hill, they all looked skyward at the enormous metal tower.
“I don’t see it,” Robin said.
Nancy squinted, bringing a hand up to shade her eyes from the sun. “It’s up there somewhere. It’s gotta be.”
“So… I guess somebody’s gotta climb to the tippy top of this bad boy and finagle it till it works again?” Robin asked, imitating the action with her hands and adding squeaks as a sound effect.
“Without a harness or anything, it seems kind of dangerous,” Nancy murmured.
“AKA, a job for good old Steve Harrington,” Steve proclaimed, stepping forward confidently.
“Hey, no third person, please,” Robin chastised.
“Uh, I actually think this might be a better job for Jonathan Byers,” Jonathan said, stepping forward to level with Steve and shrugging his jacket off. Robin shot a disbelieving glance at Nancy and rolled her eyes dramatically. Nancy just sighed in response, and Robin watched her shoulders almost imperceptibly deflate.
“I’m, like, one quarter monkey, dude,” Steve argued, also removing his jacket. “I got this, Byers. Don’t sweat it.” He tossed the jacket to Robin, who caught it with a grimace.
“Voltage!” she reminded Steve as he approached the structure. “Unless you wanna fry?”
“Yeah, I know,” Steve grumbled, yanking the control room door open. “I’m not an idiot.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” Robin muttered under her breath, letting the jacket drop unceremoniously to the ground. Next to her, Nancy snorted.
The hum of the electricity died away as Steve wound down the generator, silence filling the air around the tower. As soon as it was completely powered down, Jonathan sprang up onto one of the ladders.
“Whoa! Dude, what are you doing?” Steve cried, hurrying back outside.
“I got this, dude,” Jonathan parroted, only a few rungs up and clearly already feeling the strain. “Don’t sweat it.”
“Son of a…” Steve trailed off, promptly turning tail and rushing to the other ladder. He began climbing, forgoing the first two rungs entirely, evidently trying to save time and catch up to Jonathan.
Robin and Nancy stared skeptically from below. Nancy turned around with a groan, and Robin could tell that she was already entirely fed up with the charade.
“What is it about your presence that brings out their inner Neanderthal?” she mused, sending another meaningful look towards the older girl.
Nancy sighed again and looked at her, an expression that Robin couldn’t read passing behind her eyes. She frowned, silently wishing there was something she could do to help. It bothered her, seeing Nancy feel this way. Not to mention seeing her friends act so immaturely over her.
Wait, what if…
She felt a grin growing wide on her face. She knew exactly what to do to lift Nancy’s spirits– and she knew that it would annoy Steve, too. Two demogorgons, one stone.
Nancy had just opened her mouth to say something else when a large truck pulled into the parking lot, interrupting the moment.
“Murray,” she muttered instead.
“Grocery delivery’s a day early,” Robin remarked. “I thought it was tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” Nancy replied, scowling a bit. “I did too.”