AN: Blake's outfit is the same as the previous chapter.

♚

"Eleven," Mike whispered, walking to her.

"Mike," El gasped, bringing him in for a hug. The two rocked back and forth, crying in each others embrace.

"Is that?" Max asked the two boys, who nodded as an answer.

Mike pulled back, still holding the girl in his arms, "I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for-" Eleven cut him off, "353 days. We heard."

Mike's eyes widened as he sucked in a breath, "We? Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let them," Hopper told, walking over to the girl. "The hell is this? Where you been?"

El scoffed, "Where have you been?"

The man brought her in for a hug which she gave back but only for a second.

"You've been hiding her," Mike concluded, "You've been hiding her this whole time!" He pushed Hopper prompting the man to turn around and grab onto him, "Hey! Let's talk, alone."

The pair walked away, El watching them as Blake went up to her, "I'm really liking the black."

The girl laughed, grabbing Blake's hand and pulling her into a hug which she immediately returned. Blake held the girl, tearing up but not letting them flow, "Are you okay? Where'd you go?"

"See Mama... and my sister," El said shyly. Blake's heart stung at the word but shook it off, "And? Were they nice?" 

Eleven nodded a little, "You're my real sister."

Blake chuckled, smiling some as she kissed the girl's forehead, "And you're my sister, Ellie."

The girls laughed, hugging again before Blake led her over to Dustin and Lucas, "Your boys have missed you, even though they won't admit it."

"Wow, thanks for selling us out, Blake. Real classy," Dustin said sarcastically, earning a middle finger from her. The girl let them have their moment, going over to Steve who was confused. "What's up with you, Harrington?"

"Who's that?" He questioned, making her look over before saying, "That's my sister, Eleven. She was in the lab until last year and killed the demogorgon for us but with that, she disappeared. My Dad and I found her a month after, she's been living with us ever since."

Steve was shocked to say the least, "And she... has powers?"

Blake snorted, "Yeah, she can help kill this thing." He nodded, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and another around her waist as El went over to hug Joyce. Blake closed her eyes, leaning on the boy whose heart sped up at her actions.

"You opened this gate before, right?" Joyce asked and everyone including Blake, who let Steve lead her, went to the kitchen. "Yes."

"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" El looked over at Blake, the girl silently telling her she didn't have to go with her look. Hopper and Mike walked in, Joyce telling them her thought as soon as they did.

"It's not like it was before. It's grown, a lot. I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

"Demodogs," Dustin corrected and Blake shook her head, "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, uh, demodogs-" The annoyed girl cut him off, "-We don't have time for this, Curly Fry."

"I can do it," El spoke up, looking at the father figure. "You're not hearing me-"

"I'm hearing you. I can do it."

Mike nodded, "Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies."

The red head across the table made a look, "I thought that was the whole point?"

"It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the Mind Flayer's army-" Lucas who understood what he was saying continued, "-Will's apart of that army."

"Closing the gate, will kill him." Blake narrowed her eyes, looking at the floor before speaking, "Then we get it out of him first."

Joyce hopped up from her chair, leading everyone into Jonathan's room where the boy was and looked at the window. "He likes it cold."

"What?" Mrs. Byers shook her head, "It's what Will kept saying to me. He likes it cold." She shut the window, "We keep giving it what it wants."

"If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..."

Jonathan, who was kneeling next to Will spoke, "Then we need to make the host uninhabitable."

"So if he likes it cold-"

"We need to burn it out of him." Mike nodded, "We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time."

"Yeah, somewhere far away."

Blake rose a hand, "I think I might know a place."

♚

Steve, Blake and Nancy were all going through the pile in the backyard to find heaters when the boy spoke aloud, "You should go with him."

Nancy tilted her head, "What?" Blake stayed quiet, listening to the conversation. "With Jonathan."

His ex-girlfriend scoffed, "No, I'm... I'm not going to leave Mike."

"No one's leaving anyone. I may be a pretty shitty boyfriend but turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter."

Blake laughed, "That's my title, Harrington."

She stood up from her position, raising a brow at the pair before walking away with a heater in her hand.

"Steve..."

"It's okay, Nance. It's okay-" Nancy looked at him, "We just fell out of love, right?"

Steve gulped, handing her a heater and nodded, "Yeah, I suppose we did." 

He went to walk away when Nancy called out to him, "Ask her out."

"Ask who out?" He questioned, turning around. Nancy sadly smiled at the boy, "Blake. I can tell you like her... she likes you too."

Steve's eyes widened, not believing he was having this conversation with his ex-love. "Maybe."

With that, he walked to the front of the house where Blake was, standing next to her Dad, and watching El and Mike have their moment. "I'm going with you."

"What? No way-" Blake groaned, "I promised her she would never go back in that lab."

Hopper rolled his eyes, yelling at the kids who were about to kiss, "El... come on, let's go. It's time."

With one last look at Mike, Eleven walked over to Blake, hugging her.

"Don't come." El said and the older girls eyes widened, "What? Of course I'm coming-"

"-Keep Mike safe," El told. Blake huffed, nodding her head and whispering something in El's ear before going over to where everyone was on the porch and watched them drive away.

♚

"I told you, assholes, that this would be a bad idea," Blake rolled her eyes, drinking her coffee as she watched Dustin and Steve try to stuff one of the dogs into the fridge. She could hear the kids outside of the kitchen fighting and sighed, "Shut up with the fucking fighting. My head is going to explode!"

They all walked over to the room, "Listen, dude, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. All right?"

Mike shook his head, "Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench."

Steve started to stammer, "So my point is... Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so uh, there's nothing we can do."

Blake looked over at him sarcastically, "You're lucky you're really pretty, Harrington."

The boy blushed as Dustin spoke, "That's not entirely true. I mean, these demodogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."

"So, if we get their attention-" Max interrupted him, "-Maybe we can draw them from the lab."

"And clear a path to the gate-"

"-Yeah, and then we all die." Blake smirked, "Oh, come on, Harrington. Where's your since of adventure?"

Steve's jaw dropped and the girl just shrugged, listening to the kids talk. "I got it!"

Mike lead them to the kitchen, "This is where the Chief dug his hole. This is our way into the tunnel. So... here, right here. This is like the hub."

He moved back to the hallway and Blake gagged, "Okay, can we stop moving back and forth? I'm going to get whiplash."

"So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we set this on fire-" Steve pointed a finger, "Yeah, that's a no."

"The Mind Flayer would call away his army."

Lucas nodded, "They'd all come to stop us."

"We circle back to the exit." The Party continued to talk over Steve, who looked like he was having a nervous breakdown behind them. Blake just smirked, sipping her coffee as she watched him.

"Hey. Hey! Hey!" He clapped.

"This is not happening." Everyone, including the teenage girl started to protest, "No, no, no, no, no. No buts, I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on doing. We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand?"

Blake, who was now laughing, spoke, "Okay, so now we know Harrington is the nervous Mom and I'm the cool Dad who lets everyone have fun, right?"

The kids nodded, laughing as Steve just looked at Blake in shock and she shrugged as Mike said, "This isn't some stupid sports game."

"I said does everybody understand that? I need a yes," Steve demanded, taking the towel off his shoulder like an angry Mother, further proving Blake's point. Before anyone could answer, a sudden revving of an engine made Blake growl, "Son of a bitch."