~*****~

Steve stared at Juliet as she leaned against the kitchen counter, eyes glued to the floor after the they had been informed of Bob Newby's sacrifice. Hopper was on the phone, speaking lowly. Steve ambled towards Juliet's side and nudged her shoulder, expecting some sort of snort from her to signify she was aware of him, but she just kept staring at the ground. "Didn't believe you, huh?" Dustin hummed as Hopper replaced the phone in its cradle.

"We'll see," Hopper sighed.

"We'll see? We can't just sit here while those things are loose!" Mike exclaims.

"We stay here, and we wait for help!" Hopper reiterated irritably.

Steve sighed lightly, his gaze lowering again to peer at Juliet, who's gaze flickered upwards to the group before over to Steve. "You okay?" He asked as softly as he could.

Juliet hummed in response and tilted her body towards his, notching her head against his shoulder. "Did you know Mr. Newby went out of his way to buy me coffee every time he came into the record shop?" She hummed delicately. "Said he always saw me with a frown and thought a bit of caffeine would brighten my day. Then he'd asked me what kind of vinyl he should get Mrs. Byers for date night. I always recommended Madonna or REO, but he always went for something obscure." Juliet smiled sadly. "The guy was a goof. But he was a good guy. Just feels awful knowing I'll never have to hear his excited little giggle again."

Steve smiled down at her, his arm slipping around her waist and tugging her closer. "Yeah. I know." He murmured, rubbing at her side slowly. Steve didn't like the feeling in his stomach when Juliet hurriedly wiped at her eyes when she made sure no one was watching. All he could think about doing was pulling her closer and murmured softly.

"Did you guys know that Bob was the original founder of Hawkin's AV?" Mike suddenly asked.

"Really?" Dustin asked, perking up. Juliet's brows furrowed as she pulled her head off of Steve's shoulder, peering at the kids curiously.

"He petitioned the school to start it and everything," Mike nodded as he reentered the kitchen. "Then he had a fund-raiser for equipment. Mr. Clarke learned everything from him. Pretty awesome, right?" Lucas and Dustin nodded in response. "We can't let him die in vain."

"Well, what do you want to do, Mike?" Dustin asked. "The Chief's right on this. We can't stop those Demo-Dogs on our own. I mean, when it was just Dart, maybe."

"But there's an army now," Lucas sighed.

"Precisely," Dustin nodded.

"His army," Mike murmured.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"His army!" Mike repeated. "Maybe if we stop him, we can stop his army, too." Mike explained as he trailed into Will's room.

"The shadow monster," Dustin hummed.

"It got Will that day in the field. The doctor said it was like a virus, it infected him." Mike explained.

"And so, this virus, it's connecting him to the tunnels?" Max asked.

"To the tunnels, monsters, the Upside Down, everything!" Mike nods.

"Slow down, slow down--" Steve pleaded.

"So, we're talking like, a hive mind?" Juliet asked. "The shadow monster is inside everything, right? And if the vines are feeling pain, then so does Will."

"And so does Dart," Lucas nodded.

"Wait, what's a hive mind?" Steve asked, peering at Juliet in confusion.

"It's like a collective consciousness, a super organism. It's what controls everything. The smoke is the brain." Juliet explained.

"Like the Mind Flayer," Dustin chirped.

Lucas snapped his fingers, pointing at Dustin in agreement. "The what?" Steve and Max asked.

Juliet rolled her eyes and snatched one of Will's DnD books and flipped it open. "I may not play but listening to my brother talk about it constantly does tend to leave impressions." Juliet retorted. "The Mind Flayer--" Hopper tries to interrupt her, but Juliet holds up her hand and shushes him irritably. "It's a monster from an unknown dimension. So ancient that it doesn't even know where it came from. It enslaves races of other dimensions by taking over their brains using it's psionic powers." Juliet explains as she slams the book on the kitchen table.

"Oh my god, none of this is real! This is a kids' game!" Hopper complained.

"No, it's a manual. And it's not for kids," Dustin argued in defense for his sister. "And unless you know something that we don't, this is the best metaphor--"

"Analogy," Lucas chimed in quickly.

"Analogy? That's what your worried about?" Dustin asked irritably. "Fine. An analogy for understanding whatever the hell this is."

"Okay, so this mind flamer thing--" Nancy starts.

"Flayer, Mind Flayer," Dustin correcters.

"Don't be a shit head, Dustin." Juliet snapped.

Nancy forces the smile off of her face. "Right, right-- what does it want?"

"To conquer us, basically. It believes it's the master race." Dustin explains.

"Like the Germans," Steve commented.

"The Nazi's, not the Germans," Juliet corrected him.

"Yeah, yeah, the, uh-- the Nazi's." Steve nodded.

"If the Nazi's were from another dimension, totally. It views other races, like us, as inferior to itself." Dustin explained.

"It wants to spread, take over dimensions," Mike added.

"We are talking about the destruction of our world as we know," Lucas exclaimed.

"That's great. That's great! That's really great! Jesus!" Steve barked in frustration. He stalked away from the table to have a meltdown.

"Okay, so if this thing is like a brain that's controlling everything," Nancy trails off. "Then, if we kill it..."

"We kill everything it controls," Mike nods.

"Like killing a Queen Bee. The drones will fall with it. We win." Juliet mentions.

"Theoretically," Lucas hums.

"Great, so how do you kill this thing?" Hopper asked. "Shoot it with fireballs or something?"

"No. No, no fire-- no fireballs." Dustin chuckled. "Uh, you summon an undead army, uh, because... because Zombies, you know, then don't have brains..." Dustin trailed off as Juliet reared up over him, palm pressed onto the table as he cowered under her glare. "It's just a game. It's a game..."

Juliet stormed off, scrubbing at her hair in frustration. "What the hell are we doing here?" Hopper groaned.

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup?" Dustin retorted.

"We are!" Hopper shot back.

"But even if they come, how are they gonna stop this?" Mike asked. "You can't just shoot this with guns!"

"You don't know that! We don't know anything!" Hopper shouted.

Juliet sighed and peered up at the ceiling for a moment before turning back to the group. "They don't like fire," She mentioned. "We know that much. Look, they killed damn near everyone in that lab. They're going to molt soon, and if we don't kill it now, those tunnels are gonna reach town."

"She's right," Joyce murmurs from the hallway. "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

Hopper approached her with a soft tone that made Juliet's brows raise. "Me too," Hopper hummed. "Me too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No, but he does," Mike hums, peering at Will. "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it, he'll know it's weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore," Max mentioned. "That he's a spy for the Mind Flayer now."

"That's true," Juliet hummed. "But..." She trailed off, scrubbing at her face. "He can't exactly spy if he doesn't know where he is." Juliet explained, her gaze sliding towards Hopper. He charged outside with Juliet at his heels.

~*****~

Steve's lips were quirked up in an amused grin as he listens to Juliet argue with Hopper about whether or not she should stay with the kids instead of lifting the heavy stuff out of the shed. "Hey," Steve's entire body jumped when he heard Nancy speak. He glanced over at her curiously, ignoring the flush on his face after being caught listening to Juliet shout at Hopper to stop being a sexist pig. "What you did, um, helping the kids... that was... really cool."

Steve sighed through his nose and peered up at the wall. "Yeah, those little shits are real trouble, you know?" He commented before he hears Juliet swear loudly again. "Kinda thought saying no was going to get my ass kicked, too." He murmured as he peered over his shoulder. Nancy followed his gaze, smiling fondly at Juliet as she heaved up something heavy from inside the shed without a word.

"Is it weird for me to mention that she's kinda cute when she gets riled up," Nancy mentions. "I just wanna put a little bow in her hair when she does."

Steve chuckled lowly, staring back at the wall, oblivious to Juliet stepping back into the shed to grab something else. "Yeah, her nose does that scrunchy thing. Cutest shit I've ever seen." Steve mentions as he gestures to his nose with his fingers as if to make it smaller.

Nancy and Steve both flinched as Juliet grunted while heaving up the large coil of hose. "Fixin' to look cute as shit if you keep it up," Juliet snapped loudly.

Nancy couldn't help but laugh as Steve hurriedly hammered the large quilt onto the wall, his cheeks flushed in response to getting caught. Once everything was prepared, Juliet remained in the house with the others while Hopper, Joyce, Jonathan, and Mike stayed in the shed to question Will. Juliet paced in the kitchen, chewing on her thumb nail as time continued to crawl onwards. The lights flickered for a moment before Hopper came storming in. "What happened?" Dustin asked.

"I think he's talking, just not with words," Hopper hums as he grasps a paper and pen.

"Wait, what is that?" Steve asked as Hopper etches out a series of dashes and dots.

"Morse code," Everyone retorted loudly.

"H-E-R-E," Hopper spelled out.

"So, Will's still in there," Juliet hummed. "He's talking to us."

Jonathan rushed to Will's room and grabbed his radio, along with the mix tape he'd made for him. They went back into the shed and began feeding us information though the walkie. It wasn't until the phrase Close Gate was spelled out when things went wrong.

Juliet charged at the ringing phone, lifting it and slamming it back into it's cradle, chest heaving in worry. The phone rang again, and Juliet snatched the entire thing off of the wall and throwing it to the ground. "D'you think he heard that?" Max asked shakily.

Juliet's head whipped towards the livingroom as a loud roar rumbled in the distance. "My money's on yeah," Juliet murmured as she trailed into the living room, grasping onto the rebar she'd brought from the junkyard.

"That's not good..." Dustin murmured.

"Hey. Hey! Get away from the windows!" Hopper shouted as he surged back inside the house. He thrust a rifle into Juliet's hands. "You know how to use that, right?"

Juliet nodded and pulled back the bolt to check if it was loaded before snapping it back in place. "Where are they?" Joyce asked.

A loud thud echoed from the front of the house, causing the group to swerve their gazes to the source. "What are they doing?" Nancy asked.

Another loud crash came from the front of the house, followed by wild shrieking from the Demo-Dog before it stops abruptly. Juliet aims the rifle at the window as a shadow slinks near. There's only a moment of silence before the Demo-Dog is flung through the window, causing everyone to bark out in surprise. "Holy shit--" Juliet and Dustitn murmur.

Hopper approaches it slowly, nudging it with his foot. When it doesn't move, a collective sigh of relief rumbles through the group. The door creaks behind them, causing them to whirl around again, peering at the door as the lock unbolts itself and the chain slips free, allowing the door to slowly slide open. A familiar face steps into view. Juliet lowers her gun in disbelief. "Eleven?" Mike murmured as he approached her slowly.

"Mike--" Eleven gasps, slinging herself into his arms for a tight hug.

"Is that--" Max asked softly. Dustin and Lucas nod in confirmation.

"I never gave up on you," Mike stammered as he pulled away. "I called you every night. Every night for--"

"Three hundred and fifty-three days," Eleven nodded. "I heard."

"Why didn't you tell me you were there?" Mike asked, brows furrowing. "That you were okay?"

"Because I wouldn't let her." Hopper suddenly stated. Juliet whipped her head at him in confusion. "The hell is this?" Hopper asks as he gestures to Eleven's attire. Juliet tilted her head. She didn't think grunge was a good look on Eleven. She was too sweet for that. "Where you been?"

"Where have you been?" Eleven shot back. Hopper just smiles before hugging her tightly.

There's a moment of silence before Mike speaks. "You've been hiding her," Mike mutters. "You've been hiding her this whole time!" Mike shouted, slamming at Hopper's back.

"Hey!" Hopper warned, his large fist grasping onto Mike's shirt tightly. "Let's talk. Alone."

Juliet peered at the two as they walked towards Will's room. She gave a particularly loud grunt as she feels arms wrap around her waist in a tight hug. "Hey, watch it, kid," Juliet chuckled as she patted at Eleven's back, completely blindsided by her affection. "Yeah, yeah-- missed you, too, El." Juliet hummed as she scrubbed at her greased-up hair. She gave a grimace. "I don't know who you've been hanging out with, but the Greaser look is definitely not for you.

"What is?" Eleven asked in a muffled tone as she remained buried in Juliet's warm arms.

Juliet grimaced and pulled her back. "Anything, but grunge. You're too sweet for this kinda look." Eleven smiled bashfully and nodded.

Steve peered at the older girl, enraptured by her warm gaze on Eleven. It wasn't that mother hen he'd been seeing this whole time. It's been pure affection and warmth. Something his own parents never gave him enough of. And now here was this stunning girl making him feel all sorts of ways just by showing her soft side to children because she generally cares for their well-being. Nancy peered at him curiously and couldn't help the smile worming its way onto her face.

Lucas and Dustin barreled past Juliet and squeezed Eleven into a tight hug. "We missed you," Lucas murmured.

"We talked about you at least every day," Dustin mentioned.

Eleven peered at Dustin curiously, her thumb pushing into his mouth. "Teeth," She hummed.

"What?" Dustin asked, brows furrowed in confusion.

"You have teeth," Eleven repeated.

"Oh, you like these pearls?" Dustin asked. Juliet snorted loudly as he made a purring noise that caused Eleven to recoil in shock.

"Eleven?" Max asked, approaching her hesitantly. "Hey, um, I'm Max." Max held out her hand. "I've heard a lot about you."

Eleven just blankly stared at her before brushing past her and diving into Joyce's arms. "Don't take it too hard," Juliet mentioned as she nudged at Max's shoulder when she'd noticed that downcast look. "She's skittish."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Max murmured as Joyce and Eleven went to go see Will.

She swatted at Juliet's hand as she ruffled her red hair. "You opened this gate before, right?" Joyce asked Eleven and her returned.

"Yes," Eleven nods.

"Do you think if we got you back there, that you could close it?" Joyce asked.

Eleven nods again.

~*****~

Hopper was less than enthusiastic when Joyce told him Eleven could close the gate. "It's not like it was before," Hopper sighs. "It's grown. A lot. I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

"Demo-Dogs," Dustin corrects him.

Juliet palms her face as Hopper snaps his gaze onto Dustin. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, uh, Demo-Dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. You put them together, it sounds pretty badass--"

"How is this important right now?" Hopper snapped impatiently.

"It's not, I'm sorry," Dustin murmured.

Juliet grasped Steve's sleeve and tugged a bit to have him lean towards. "Dude needs to get laid, big time," She whispered softly. Steve had to brace his palms against the table as the sensation of Juliet's lips pressed against his ear nearly buckled his knees from underneath. He cleared his throat and tried to appear as casual as he could while Juliet assumed he was trying not to laugh.

"I can do it," Eleven stated firmly.

"You're not hearing me," Hopper reiterated.

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

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

"I thought that was the whole point," Max retorted.

"Well, yeah," Juliet hummed. "If you kill the brain, the body dies. But we have the issue of Will being one of the bodies connected to that brain."

"So, what can we do?" Steve asked.

Juliet rubbed at her neck thoughtfully before taking a look around. "When you noticed the changes in Will, what was the biggest thing?" Juliet asked Joyce.

"He... He likes it cold," Joyce answered, brows furrowed. She turned on her heel and made a beeline to his room, the group following after quickly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Hopper asked.

"It's what Will kept saying to me," Joyce stated. "He likes it cold." She rushes forward and shuts the window forcefully. "We keep giving it what it wants."

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

"You make the host uninhabitable," Juliet nods. "So, if he likes it cold, you gotta warm him up."

"We need to burn it out of him," Joyce states, voice quivering.

"We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time," Mike mentioned.

"Yeah, somewhere far away," Dustin nodded.

Juliet peered up at Hopper. "You kept Eleven at that old cabin of yours, right?" She asked curiously.

Hopper stared at her silently for a moment. "How the hell do you know that?!" Hopper asked incredulously.

Juliet sighed irritably. "It doesn't matter, it's hidden and I'm pretty sure Will doesn't know where it's at." Juliet explained irritably. Hopper stared at her before surging out of the room. Hopper returned with a blanket and bundled up Will, all the while barking out directions to Jonathan. Juliet started packing the car with blankets and quilts while Steve and Nancy went to look for heaters.

"You should go with him," Steve mentioned to Nancy.

"What?" Nancy asked, brows furrowed.

"With Jonathan," Steve hummed.

"No, I'm-- I'm not gonna leave Mike," Nancy stated.

"No one's leavin' anyone. I may be a shitty boyfriend, but.... turns out I'm actually a pretty damn good babysitter." Steve hummed as he held up a large heater.

"Steve..." Nancy trailed off.

"It's okay, Nance. It's okay," Steve reassured her.

Nancy glanced down at the heater before she hears Juliet let out a bark of annoyance at something, followed by a loud metallic clang. Steve shook his head, but the smile remained on his face. "I know you're obsessed with her." Nancy mentioned softly. Steve whipped his head up quickly, wondering what the hell she was going on about. "I mean, it used to bother me how often you'd stare at her, but I just chalked it up to the fact she was the only girl who didn't think you were pretty."

Steve's face flushed. "I was not--"

"Maybe not romantically, but you look at her differently now." Nancy hums softly. "I see it. You look at her like she hung the moon. I've never seen you look at someone like that. Not even me." Nancy shrugged. "It's cool."

Steve glanced down at the heater in his hands and tapped at it nervously. "I don't wanna scare her off, you know? She's... she's definitely not like other girls."

"By that... you mean she'll totally kick your ass if you try and kiss her out of nowhere." Nancy chuckled.

Steve snorted out a laugh. "No kidding. She kicked me in the balls when I tried to scare her at the gas station." Nancy let out a loud laugh before trailing off with the heater in her hands.

"Don't be afraid to talk to her about it. She's more understanding than you think." Nancy reiterated over her shoulder.

Steve just smiled after her before following with his heater. He approached the car with it and gazed at Juliet as she kicked the pile of blankets into the hatch before slamming it shut before they could spring out. Steve helped her and peered at her. "So, how do you know where this cabin is?" Steve asked out of pure curiosity.

Juliet smiled, causing Steve's heart to shudder in his chest. Yeah, he was in deep. "I go hiking a lot. And I've seen Hopper exit that cabin a lot. Figured he was just fixing it up for like, a summer get away or some shit." Juliet explained with a shrug. "I only saw it once and never went by again in fear that he might walk outside naked. Then I'd never be able to live in Hawkins again."

Steve let out a loud laugh.