chapter ten ♰ Ground Control to Major Tom

Joyce Byers was this steadfast, slightly hysterical and fiercely maternal woman ━━ the type of mother that should have anyone too daunted to ever be an adversary to her boys. So, it came to no surprise at all to Sydney when the woman came marching furiously into the station and started barking out irascible demands at Callahan and Powell.

  "Why is he wearing handcuffs?" she screeched, pointing at the steel restraints around Jonathan's wrists.

  "Well, your boy assaulted police officer, that's why," drawled Callahan.

  Matt, who had been on the verge of interrogating a very frightened Toby about the grizzly contents of his car, swerved round and pointed vehemently at his bandaged nose. "A deputy, actually."

  Hopper, who had come in alongside Joyce, snorted at Matt's pathetic state. "You let a 16-year-old kid beat you up again, McConnell?"

  "Again?" gasped Sydney, delighted.

  "Listen, I don't care!" cried Joyce. "Take them off my son!"

  "I am afraid I cannot do that," droned Callahan patronisingly.

  "Take them off!"

  Hopper stood protectively behind her, a reinforcement. A burly, staunch armour ━━ not that Joyce needed it. "You heard her. Take 'em off."

  "Chief," interjected Powell soberly, "I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see."

  Their previous argument dissipated into charred ash when Sydney and Toby exchanged a mutually terrified stare. Begrudgingly, Joyce let Matt, Powell and Callahan escort her outside ━━ no doubt to go show her and Hopper everything that they had bought from Hunting & Camping to track down the Thing. Monster. Demogorgon. Whatever.

  In their absence, the hollow, clinical room held a bated breath, and Sydney tugged Toby by the sleeve over to where Jonathan and Nancy were waiting anxiously.

  "They found everything in Toby's car," Sydney told them. "The axe, the bear trap, the gasoline. We're fucked."

  "I mean, we could explain it to them," suggested Nancy weakly.

  "They'll laugh in our faces!" Toby protested.

  Jonathan was torn. "My mom ━━ she's seen stuff. Knows stuff. She'll believe us."

  "And your dad, Sydney?" asked Nancy hopefully. "He'll believe us too, right? If you tell him."

  Sydney wavered. She didn't know. Would he? Did she even want to drag Matt into this unravelling mess she had submerged herself in? When did this even start? With the kids and Eleven ━━ or getting a lift from Jonathan? Could it all have been prevented if she just hadn't helped Nancy break into Steve's backyard? Would she be at home right now, in her room ━━ unscathed by Steve and everything else that had rotten her life into something even messier than it was before? Was this really the kind of ugliness she wanted Matt drowning in, with everything else in his miserable life? A begrudged daughter. A booze problem. A dead almost lover.

  Before Sydney could unfurl and figure it out, Hopper had returned and slammed the cardboard box of horrors down on the desk in front of Jonathan.

  "What is this?" asked Joyce, rummaging abhorrently through the weapons and traps.

  "Why don't you ask your son and his friend?" Hopper glowered between Jonathan and Toby.

  Matt put a hand on Hopper's shoulder. "Hey, I can testify for Toby, alright, he's a good kid."

  "Why were you even going through my car?" sneered Toby.

  "Is that really the question you should be asking right now?" challenged Hopper, intimidatingly close to Toby's face. "I wanna see you in my office ━━" His baleful, twin moon eyes roamed witheringly across the others, "all 4 of you."

  "You won't believe us," hissed Jonathan.

  Hopper tongued the inside of his cheek, smirking around it nonchalantly, and put his hands on the edge of the desk. "Why don't you give me a try?"

  And tried they did. They gathered in Hopper's office. Sydney, Toby, Jonathan and Nancy, all cramped together on the plush, beer-stained sofa ━━ Sydney was pretty sure that when she sat down, a pill dispensed from the chasm between the pillows. On the other side of the room, Hopper, Joyce and Matt regarded them with severity, listening to every word.

  Hopper stared down at Jonathan's enhanced photograph of the Thing ━━ how he felt about it was indistinguishable. It was always hard to tell how Jim Hopper was feeling. Sydney didn't know him extremely well, but she knew enough to know that she'd probably never know him well. He was an imperceptible wall of bad coping mechanisms, callousness and dry apathy 99% of the time.

  "You say blood draws this thing?" he asked wearily.

  Sydney focused on Matt. He looked tormented. His hand kept going between tugging at the greying roots of his overgrown hair and massaging his aching nose. He couldn't even look at Sydney. It was like she was 10 again.

  "We don't know," admitted Jonathan.

  Nancy solemnly nodded. "It's just a theory."

  Joyce stood up abruptly from her chair, distraught. "Jonathan, outside."

  "Mom━━"

  "Outside!"

  As Joyce ushered her eldest son out of the room, Matt finally acknowledged his daughter, only to give her a disheartened look and gently angle his head to the side. "You too, Syd."

  "No way," she protested, grabbing onto both Nancy and Toby's wrists in dissent. "We're not like them. You can't order me around."

  Matt's glare deepened. "You can go back to holding a grudge against me in 5 minutes. For now ━━ outside. I'm not taking no for answer, Sydney."

  Resentfully, Sydney stalked out of the room. She lingered around outside the doorway as Matt exchanged hushed, reserved words with Hopper. Jonathan was looking at her over Joyce's stiffened shoulders ━━ a conflicted expression eclipsing him, and it was as if he was about to say something to her, but then Matt came out off the office and started to frogmarch Sydney away. Whatever Jonathan had to tell Sydney, he never had the chance. He never would.

  (It was an apology. And a question. Both concerned Steve).

  Matt didn't stop ushering Sydney along, even when he heard the sound of a vexatious mother bellyaching in the bullpen of the station to Powell and Callahan. Her kid ━━ his arm dressed in sheer bandages like a chrysalis ━━ was whimpering about a girl with a shaved head and how she broke his arm without even touching him. Sydney, like she had been doing all week, decided to ignore that, massaging her aching head.

  Matt finally ceased when they were outside the station. But he didn't talk right away. His hand dove into the inside pocket of his parka coat, salvaging a cigarette. He put the filter end to his lips, dangling it there as he got out his zippo lighter. Sydney watched tediously as he flicked it open, the flame sizzling the end of the cigarette ━━ a helix of ashes cascading to the ground ━━ and took a profound drag.

  "Much needed," he sighed around a puff of smoke.

  Sydney scrunched up her nose. "Why are we here?"

  "Why are you here, Syd?" Matt didn't miss a beat, pointing the cigarette at her reprovingly. "I tried to keep you out of this shit ━━ painstakingly, I might add." He gestured to the yellowing bruise on his temple from the other night. "Fuck sake, I tried. I really did."

  "Wait," said Sydney, pinching her face up. "You know?"

  "Oh, I fucking know," chuckled Matt dryly. He paused. "Or do I? It's hard to say. Everything. Nothing. It's a bit up in the air ━━ you somehow made it worse."

  Sydney's head shook in disbelief. "I tried to keep you out of it."

  "What?" said Matt, appalled. Despite having only had a few drags, Matt flicked his cigarette to the floor, crushing the singed butt of it under his heel as he stepped closer to her. "Syd ━━ you may refuse to admit it, and never call it me ━━ but I'm your dad, OK? You don't have to protect me from anything. I have to protect you."

  The Mother-rooted urge to say something spiteful, something lacerating, scratched at Sydney's sore throat. But Christine wasn't here. She wouldn't be again. But Matt was. Sydney crushed that impulse. It was like weeding out all the parasites that Chris planted in her mind. It was cathartic.

  "I have to protect you, too," said Sydney sentimentally. She saw his face crumple like parchment in water. Words he wanted to say bled off the paper like cheap, matte ink. "I want to protect you."

  "Fuck." Matt looked like he might cry. "C'mere, kiddo."

  Sydney's head buried gratefully into his chest. With her ear pressed against his heart, she could hear it. Quick, frightened, beating for her. She was his daughter. He loved her. She hugged her arms tepidly round his torso, wrenching. Goddammit ━━ she loved him too. He was her dad.

  "I should've told you," mumbled Sydney, voice muffled by cheap, sweaty polyester. "I should've told you everything."

  "I should've told you. Clearly you're handling it all better than I am, huh?"

  Sydney laughed weakly. "I'm not handling it at all, really."

  "Hey, hey." The hand cradling the back of her head ruffled her hair. "You're braver than you give yourself credit for, OK? Just like your mom."

  Her heart shattered. "Don't."

  "I mean it. You're so much like her." Matt's laugh rattled through his ribs, and made her head shift. It was humourless. It cracked. "It's a relief, really. Could you imagine if you turned out like me?"

  "I wish I was more like you, actually," admitted Sydney. Matt's laugh was real this time ━━ it tremored his body, and hers with it. She squeezed him tighter. Could've hugged him so adamantly that his heart spat out of his throat, so she could hold the atrophying muscle in her hands and tell it how much she meant what she was saying. "I do. You're ━━ She wasn't a saint, you know."

  Matt held her more stubbornly in turn. "Don't ━━ you don't have to say that for me. Chris ━━ she was perfect."

  "She wasn't."

  "You're so hateful, Sydney," seethed Christine. Her eyes glassy and her rage was generational. If she was a worse woman, she'd hurtle a vase at Sydney. That's how angry she was. How angry she used to get. "You're so fucking hateful. I gave you everything!"

  "Yeah, well, I learned at your feet!"

  "I loved her," said Sydney passionately. "I miss her in my bones. But she wasn't perfect. And you're definitely not either." Matt snorted, chastely kissing the top of her head and squishing his cheek against it. "But you didn't have to be. Neither of you did. I know that now. I wished you could've been there more ━━ but you weren't. You are now. I'll never completely forgive you ━━"

  "And I don't expect you to," interjected Matt.

  "That's what makes me want to be like you. Mom ━━ she expected so much. Forgiveness was always one of them."

  Matt's heart ached. "You don't have to... compare, Syd."

  "I'm not. I'm not," she insisted. "I'm just ━━ I'm glad you're OK. Let's talk to each other more, yeah? About everything."

  "Even Steve?"

  Sydney laughed, trying not to blubber. "Yeah. Even Steve."

  "That sounds good, kiddo," said Matt sincerely. "Everything."

  That gossamer scrap of cloth time was volatilely cut from stopped weaving again. It was just Father and Daughter. In the parking lot of a police station. Daughter slowly unravelling the stitches Mother had sewn all her injuries up with ━━ the ones seamed with her initials: C.S. around every scar and blemish. Father slicing himself open and handing over his decaying heart to a girl whose own was weeping.

  Things weren't perfect. Things would never be perfect. The cloth was a torn up tapestry of mismatched threads ━━ knotted and butchered. But, it was starting to fabricate something more clear. Honesty and openness was untangling some of the strings. This was what Father & Daughter needed. Vulnerability. It's what Mother lacked.

  There's only so much Mother can sacrifice until there's nothing left to give. Until she was hollowed out, brittle and loveless. There's nothing worse than a loveless Mother who would cut herself up to get Daughter to love her unconditionally. Especially when Mother had so many conditions.

  "OK, bonding moment over ━━"

  Sydney and Matt were pried apart by Hopper barging out of the door, the rest of their party pooling out after him. Toby strode purposefully for his car, holding the cardboard arsenal.

  "Where are we going?" asked Sydney as Joyce, Nancy and Jonathan filed into Hopper's truck.

  "To the Wheeler's," said Hopper. "You two are with Toby."

  Sydney blanched. "The Wheeler's?"

  How did everything lead back to that stupid house?

  "Yeah. Now."

  Sydney got in the passenger seat of Toby's car, him following staunchly after the others, with Matt in the back. He complained the entire way there how demeaning it felt to be booted to the backseat whilst his own daughter called shotgun ━━ Sydney wondered if grumbling about menial bullshit was his way of coping with everything.

  They didn't dare fully enter Maple Street, instead parking the cars clandestinely on the slope of Deerwood, overlooking the Wheeler's house from a safe enough distance. The group gathered round Nancy as she inspected her home fearfully through a pair of binoculars ━━ but Sydney didn't need them to be able to tell that nothing about this situation was good. An onslaught of sleek, black cars were assembled outside, agents making beelines in-and-out of the house with boxes and stony apathy.

  "They're from the lab, right?" Matt asked Hopper, tense.

  Hopper's grim silence was enough.

  Sydney gawked at Matt. "The lab?"

  "I'll explain later," he assured sparingly.

  "Eleven," Sydney muttered, a horrible, gut-wrenching feeling falling over her.

  "What did you just say?" demanded Hopper.

  Sydney blinked up at him, bewildered. "You know?"

  "You do?"

  "I need to go home," muttered Nancy, lowering the binoculars. She looked so pale, her fair skin was almost jaundiced. "My mom ━━ my dad are there."

  "Hey, hey, hey, hey━━"

  Nancy struggled against Hopper's grip on her arm belligerently. "Let go!"

  "Hey! Listen to me. Listen to me," insisted Hopper, crouching down slightly to her height. "The last thing in the world we need is them knowing you're mixed up in all this."

  "Can someone fill me in on who 'them' is?" beseeched Toby.

  "Mike is over there!" protested Nancy, ignoring him.

  "They haven't found him," remarked Hopper. He pointed at a helicopter hovering over the woodlands, the blades viciously churning in the air as it scoped the overgrown brambles for a couple of kids. "Not yet, at least."

  "That's for Mike?" Nancy cried desperately.

  Realisation dawned on Sydney. "I think I know a way to contact them ━━ the kids." Everyone rounded on her frantically. "We don't have to find them, right? We just have to talk to them ━━ ask them where they are."

  "But how?" asked Joyce, eyes wide.

  Sydney turned to Matt, feeling strangled and so very tired. "Matt, have you got a walkie-talkie?"

  "Uh, yeah, but why ━━"

  He barely plucked it out of its sheath on the belt round his waist when Sydney snatched it from him, extending out the antenna.

  "Genius," marvelled Jonathan, whilst all the others stared at Sydney like she was a maniac and growing a second head. "Will ━━ he's always on that thing! That's how they talk to each other. But, how did you know?"

  "I'm a good babysitter," shrugged Sydney. "Lucas gave me one last year. It's buried under my bed somewhere now, but ━━ he trusts me."

  "Well, it's worth a shot," said Joyce, gesturing for Sydney to try.

  Nodding resolutely, Sydney held down the button on the side and held the mouthpiece up. "Lucas? Lucas ━━ are you there? I d'know if this is the right channel, but Lucas, if it is, it's Sydney. Yeah?"

  Silence. Just crackling static frequencies.

  "Fuck," muttered Sydney, looking defeatedly at her shoes. "Sorry, I thought that'd work."

  Joyce, though palpably disappointed, but a hand on Sydney's shoulder. "Honey, it's fine. We'll find another way ━━"

  "Sydney?" In unison, all of their hands snapped toward the walkie-talkie in Sydney's grasp. Her neck craned up, staring at the others as Lucas's frantic voice pooled through the transmission. "Sydney ━━ it's Lucas. This is Ground Control to Major Tom, I repeat, this is Ground Control to Major Tom. Over."

  Sydney's heart could've melted. One night, Mr and Mrs Sinclair went on a weekend trip to visit Lucas's uncle, Jack, in Michigan, and Sydney crashed downstairs at his house. That's when Lucas first gave her a walkie-talkie ━━ treating it like some kind of holy grail. It was also the night she introduced him to Space Oddity by David Bowie. Lucas had bolted upstairs to his room, to 'test' if the walkie-talkie worked, and he had used the lyrics from the song to experiment.

  Ground Control to Major Tom.

  And Sydney had replied the exact same way she did now━━

  "This is Major Tom to Ground Control," she said hoarsely, feeling like she might sob. "Over."

  Elated, Toby threw an arm around Sydney's shoulder, hugging her closely to his side. "You're amazing."

  "A really good babysitter," praised Joyce. "Will'll love you."

  Will. He was alive. The kids were alive.

  "Sydney, we're so glad to hear you," enthused Lucas.

  "Speak for yourself," scowled Mike in the background. "Over."

  Sydney laughed, meeting Nancy's eyes just as she rolled them at her brother's antics. "I'm glad to hear you're safe, too, Mike."

  Growing impatient, Hopper brandished out his hand and motioned for the walkie-talkie. Sydney obeyed diligently, handing it over without protest. There'd be time for reunions later.

  "Listen, kids, this is the chief," said Hopper bluntly. "We know you're in trouble and we know about the girl."

  "Sydney," said Lucas hesitantly, "why are you with the chief?"

  "Did you get arrested?" Dustin gasped.

  "Sydney didn't get arrested," snapped Hopper restlessly, eyes rolling. "We can protect you, we can help you, but you gotta tell us where you are."

  Silence on the over line again. Hopper met Sydney's disconcerted eyes and his lips pursed. The group waited. Joyce and Nancy were both fretfully biting at their nails whilst the others held bated breaths. Sydney's hitched when Dustin's voice transmitted through the frequencies again.

  "Sydney, do you promise this isn't a Lando Calrissian situation?"

  Hopper's face shrivelled up. "A Lando what?"

  "Star Wars," Sydney and Jonathan said in unison.

  "Ignore him," snapped Lucas irritably. "He's lost it━━"

  Over the static, there was the unmistakable sound of squabbling and brawling, until one of them snatched the walkie-talkie back. "It's Mike. Is Nancy there? Over."

  Impetuously, Nancy ceased it from Hopper. "Mike, it's me."

  "Wow," gawked Dustin.

  "Nancy, we're at the junkyard," said Mike. "Ya hear me? We're at the junkyard ━━ in an abandoned bus. And be quick! The bad men are coming."

  "Bad men?" echoed Matt. "Like ━━ how bad we talkin'? I can't break my nose again."

  "El talked about bad men being after her," explained Sydney, frowning deeply.

  Matt despaired. "The lab. Fucking great."

  "Hurry!" exclaimed Mike.

  Then the line fell dead.

Sydney had been to the junkyard only twice before that day. Once, it was for possibly the worst date of her life ━━ some guy on the basketball team had, for some unhinged reason, figured having a picnic surrounded by the decaying belongings of Hawkins would be romantic. It hadn't been. He spent the entire time talking about how hoped to play varsity next year ━━ and at the end of the night, he expected Sydney to sleep with him. When he didn't, she could only compare his reaction to a temper tantrum as he trudged back to his car kicking his feet and muttering contentiously about what a waste the night was. The second time, Sydney was buying drugs from Eddie Munson's sister, Nadine. Both were notorious persona non gratas at Hawkins High ━━ but Nadine was in Sydney's biology class, and was significantly less erratic than her radical metalhead of a big brother. So, she figured buying pot off Nadine was the lesser of two evils ━━ and it had been good stuff too. Not the overpriced buds Sydney used to buy off jocks that tasted refined and citrusy.

  "I gotta say, Loch Nora..." Nadine had mused that day ━━ she had been wearing fraying, black denim jeans and an oversized, green flannel shirt. She also had a joint tucked behind her ear, and her chestnut hair was kind of greasy. "I didn't take you as the pot-smoking type."

  Sydney had pulled a face. "Don't call me that."

  "What do you want me to call you, then?"

  "Anything but that," Sydney said irritably. "I don't live there anymore."

  Nadine tongued her cheek. "Right. Mom died. Is that what the Mary Jane's for? Pretty little rich girl wants to break bad now Mommy's gone?"

  Sydney didn't know how she didn't deck her then and there. She could've wrenched off a rusted exhaust pipe from one of the decrepit cars and knocked her out with it, stealing the bud and leaving her unconscious body there in the wasteland. She bridled the rage long enough to stick her hand out, motioning for the baggie of the green stuff.

  "I haven't got all day, Munson."

  "Princess is mad," laughed Nadine. She dug into the back pocket of her jeans and tossed Sydney the polybag. "This one's on the house, Sommers. Think of it as a condolence gift."

  Leaving Sydney with the arbitrary desire to throttle her, Nadine Munson had winked and strolled leisurely in the opposite direction out of the junkyard. So fucking complacent, Sydney had watched has the pariah plucked the joint from behind her ear, put it between her lips, and cradled the flame from her zippo lighter as it simmered at the end of the blunt. A puff of smoke had consumed Nadine just as she disappeared into the dense woods.

  Both of those experiences were harrowing enough. Sydney's third being her, and quite possibly the weirdest blunt rotation she could ever be in ━━ Chief Jim Hopper and Matt ━━ going to save a bunch of kids she used to babysit (and their telekinetic friend) from government agents with a vendetta against a 12-year-old girl... Well, that surmounted the others. Joyce, Toby, Nancy and Jonathan went to the Byers house to wait, and the fight between Matt and Sydney on whether she was staying had been ruthless. Eventually, he decided that if he was going to go with Hopper ━━ which was a no brainer, really ━━ and if Sydney wanted to come, Matt's mind would be somewhat more at ease if she was with them.

  Apparently some of the agents had found the kids first, because when Matt finally signalled ━━ with a ridiculous 'caw-caw' ━━ that it was alright for Sydney to leave the car, she stepped out onto the parched grass of the junkyard to find it littered with unconscious bodies of sophisticatedly dressed people. One of the sleek, black cars from outside of the Wheeler's was now desolate and Matt was snatching a handkerchief out of one of their ironed blazers to wipe the blood off of his knuckles.

  "I hate the government," he muttered to Sydney.

  "Where's the kids?" she asked, looking around at all the rot and ruin. "And Hop?"

  "Sydney!"

  Sydney span around, but she never had chance to actually take anything in before two, willowy arms wrapped round her abdomen and almost squeezed her breakfast out of her. Sydney yelped in surprise, softening when she looked down and saw it was Lucas nuzzling into her chest with a relieved sigh.

  She laughed warmly, strewing her arms round his little shoulders and hugging him tight. "Hey, Ground Control."

  Lucas flung himself back, stomping one foot firm on the earth and bring his hand sharply up to his temple into a salute. "Major Tom."

  "Is that everyone?" ratified Hopper. He was holding a revolver and was surrounded by the rest of the kids ━━ a timid Eleven, with Mike and Dustin stood either side of her protectively. "Yeah? Good. Let's go."

  Hopper and Matt kept their guns up diligently on the war back to the car, necks craning around fervently in sign for any more agents lurking in the brambles or amidst the scrap. Lucas was nestled under one of Sydney's arms, and as they traipsed along, Dustin came and poked her ribs, wiggling himself beneath the other. The blunt rotation got gradually weirder ━━ from two alcoholic, daughterless fathers (well, Matt wasn't daughterless anymore, he supposed) and one sour girl, to their little party being annexed by a traumatised little girl with superpowers and the 3 boys who had begrudgingly took her under their wings.

  "We've got so much to tell you, Sydney," enthused Dustin, flashing her a gummy, excited grin.

  "Yeah?" mused Sydney. "I can't wait to hear it."

  "El flipped a van with her mind," Lucas gushed. "It was awesome. She saved us."

  Sydney looked over her shoulder to Eleven where she was trudging along with Mike. The sylphlike girl was exhausted. She wore a frilly dress of preening pink and a denim jacket too big for her, and blood smeared on the hemline of its sleeve. The residue of it still stained one of her nostrils and she gave Sydney a soft, tired smile.

  "She did, huh? Our very own superhero," praised Sydney.

  Mike put an encouraging hand on El's shoulder, startling her a bit until she relaxed, blinking in a childlike manner at him. "You hear that, El? You're our superhero."

  As Sydney ushered the kids into the back of the car ━━ the boys clamouring spitefully over who had the most space ━━ Matt lingered behind her with a charmed smile, laughing to himself as he kicked the dirt of his shoes.

  "What?" demanded Sydney.

  Matt shook his head, snickering. "Nothing, it's just ━━ I never thought I'd be a grandad to my 16-year-old daughter's 4 kids at the age of 33, ya know."

  Scowling in chagrin, Sydney fought the urge to smile at what he said as well. The kids trusted her, and that felt good. Even Mike had looked glad to see her when he hopped off the oxidising school bus they had been hiding on. She just roughly shoved Matt's shoulder and climbed into the already cramped back of Joyce's car. El was practically half on her lap, and mumbled a sheepish apology as she accidentally got a strand of Sydney's hair caught in her mouth, spluttering on it.

  The entire way back to the Byers' bungalow, all the kids wanted to talk to Sydney about was the Demogorgon. They kept asking her questions about it ━━ how it looked and how scared she was. She hadn't missed the way Mike and Dustin deflated in disappointment when she had to confess that she hadn't tagged along for the monster-hunting last night. She also didn't neglect the look Matt shot at her via the murky rearview mirror ━━ sceptical and communicating, We'll discuss where you were later.

  By the time they got there, night had fallen. The moon was like a tambourine in the black, inky sky, reflecting a milky glow down onto Sydney's face when she cranked open her door and beckoned all of the kids out in a messy throng of bellyaching preteens who probably all desperately needed a nap. Eleven definitely did ━━ because when she got out of the car, she stumbled weakly until she slumped into Sydney's side. Sydney caught her promptly, swaddling an arm around the little girl and letting her lean all of her weight onto Sydney.

  "Mike's... sister?" asked El hoarsely, nodding her head.

  Sydney turned. Nancy had come running out of the house and now had Mike in a clumsy, graceless hug.

  "Yeah," said Sydney, "Mike's sister."

  Nancy's hands fell from her brother's shoulders as she turned to El and squinted. "Is that my dress?"

  "C'mon, let's get inside," encouraged Matt, beckoning. "We need to figure out what the fuck is going on round here..."

  The inside of the Byers' living room was...interesting. A bunch of effervescently coloured lightbulbs were hung about, tangled and switched off. Smeared on the peeling wallpaper was the alphabet, with a bulb hanging over each letter. Sydney gawked around at the state of the place ━━ there was even a crater in the drywall, now boarded up with planks of splintery wood. She wondered if this haphazard, Christmas-light extravaganza was how Joyce had communicated with Will. Sydney also made a mental note that if Joyce had a neurotic idea that everybody else thought was demented and unthinkable ━━ she was most likely hitting the nail on the head.

  Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy sat across from the kids on the sofa as the boys plonked themselves down cross-legged on the stained carpet. Meanwhile, Hopper took the armchair and Matt paced relentlessly behind him, stroking apprehensively at his overbristling beard. Sydney was perched on the arm of another recliner, Toby sat in the actual chair, with her legs draped over his lap and one of his hands curled around her bare ankle, absentmindedly playing the delicate anklet she had scintillating there. El's head was resting on Sydney's knee and her doe eyes kept drooping shut from lethargy ━━ Sydney had dangled her arm down, offering out a hand, and El's fingers were now limply laced with hers. The girl had whispered a soft thank you.

  "Is this really the time for arts & crafts?" asked Toby, narrowing his eyes as Mike scribbling on a scrap of paper with a red marker.

  "Hang on," snapped Mike. A moment later, he was shoving the lid down on the marker and exhibiting his sketch to everyone. There was a line, and a miniature man balancing on it like a trapezise artist ━━ there was also a small speck on the parallel line, with an arrow coming off it going below. "Ok, so, in this example, we're the acrobat. Will and Barbara, and that monster Sydney told us about ━━ they're this flea. And this is the Upside Down, where Will is hiding." He used the pen to gesture to the great, yawning space below the line. "Mr Clarke said the only way to get there is through a rip in time and space."

  "A gate," clarified Dustin.

  "That we tracked to Hawkins Lab," Lucas chimed.

  "Fuck sake," muttered Matt, knuckles delicately grazing over his bandaged nose.

  Dustin nodded. "With our compasses." When everyone looked at them like they were talking a different language, Dustin sighed in exasperation. "OK, so the gate has a really strong electromagnetic field and that change the directions of a compass needle."

  "Is this gate underground?" Hopper questioned grimly.

  Eleven looked at him. "Yes."

  "Near a large water tank?"

  "Oh, no," said Matt, wagging his finger. "Oh, no, no. That's what that was? A gate ━━ to another dimension? Are you shitting me?"

  El sounded a bit more hesitant this time, eyebrows pinching at Matt. "Uh... yes."

  "Is there any way you could ━━ that you could reach Will?" stammered Joyce, voice guttural and frantic. "That you could talk to him in this ━━"

  "The Upside Down," interjected El.

  "Down," Joyce whispered. "Yeah."

  El kneaded on Sydney's hands as she gave a resolute nod.

  "And my friend, Barbara?" said Nancy keenly. "Can you find her too?"

  This time, El didn't nod. She just stared determinedly at all the expecting stares around the room.

  It had been almost entirely against her will, but as the boys gathered all the equipment El needed to 'reach' Will and Barbara, Toby urged Sydney outside with him. It was chilly out that night ━━ the flimsy cotton of Sydney's jersey under her dungarees doing practically nothing to keep her warm. As soon as Toby closed the door behind him and looked back at Sydney to see her shivering on the porch, hugging her arms, he started to haphazardly yank the sleeves off the jacket she had found scrunched up in the back of his car, and extended it out to her.

  "Here, you're cold," he implored.

  Sydney stared it at wearily. "I... I'm fine."

  "Fuck's sake, Syd, just ━━"

  He tentatively grabbed one of her wrists, and even his caring touch had her recoiling as memories of his hostility today came trickling back in perfidy. Toby hesitated, eyes fleeting down to hers for some kind of reassurance that it was OK for him to continue. Sydney's nod was numb. He didn't waste any more time gently slotting her arm into the first sleeve, and coaxing the next in with a natural smile. Once it was one, Toby readjusted the lapels so it was siting just right on her shoulders, but didn't let go when its place was fixed. He held onto the coarse fabric, keeping their bodies inadvertently close. Sydney unconsciously glanced down at his lips ━━ slightly parted and tangible. He looked at hers, consciously ━━ pursed into a thin line and rendering him a goner.

  "Better?" he mumbled.

  Sydney gulped. "Yeah."

  "Listen, I..." Toby's hands clenched and unclenched around the heavy material of the parka, stressed. "I'm sorry ━━ for everything. For treating you like shit, and not letting you help Steve earlier, and for ━━ well, for treating you like shit. I was a jealous dick and I never want to see you like at me like that again."

  "I didn't look at you like anything," murmured Sydney, morosely glaring at where their feet were almost touching ━━ her battered Chuck Taylors and his scuffed up Adidas APS.

  "No, but you did, Sydney," said Toby forlornly, giving a tug to the lapels of the jacket. "And it gutted me. You looked at me like ━━ like I killed your dog, or something."

  Sydney cracked a smile. "You'd never. You love animals too much."

  "I love you too much." Toby grimaced, frantically trying to bandage over that large laceration as Sydney went to open her mouth. "You're my best friend, alright? That's why I was so jealous, 'cause ━━ Return of the Jedi, Syd. And driving in his car. And he looks at you like ━━"

  "He doesn't look at me at all."

  Abject, as if he slaughtered him to admit it, Toby shook his head. "He does. You just don't see it. Like, earlier, in the alley ━━ when you were shouting at him and he called you... that... That's how you looked at me when I was snapping at you at the station. Realising that ━━ made me realise that I never want you to look at me like that again." When Sydney stood idle, too bewildered to speak, Toby sighed wretchedly. "I had thought that I was so mad over the Steve thing because I didn't want to be hurt when you inevitably get up and leave me for him. But, now, I think it's 'cause I don't want him to hurt you. I saw your face when he told you to leave ━━ it hurt you, Syd. And don't deny it," he interjected miserably when her mouth opened to retort. "I saw. I know you better than anyone, and ━━ and I know that look. If you have feelings for him ━━"

  "I don't," Sydney said hotly. "He's arrogant and mean and incorrigible."

  Toby snorted. "Incorrigible, huh?"

  "It means ━━"

  "I know what it means, Syd."

  Sydney faltered, a bit enthralled by his onyx eyes in the moonlight and the little smirk on his face. "You do."

  "I do love you," said Toby, feverish. "It makes me sick how much. Like I'm ill."

  "I don't want to make you ill."

  "You don't," Toby remarked. "That's all me. You're ━━ you're beautifully contagious, Sydney."

  All of this ━━ so many fractured truths and seeping confessions. It was all so poignant and palpable, but Toby figured that love didn't count unless he physically got a butcher knife, severed out his heart and handed it to Sydney ━━ her hand an abattoir to crush it into a pulp of bloody, rejected meat, damasking her flesh. To him, if he kept these anguished words reserved, it was just the frivolous talk of a boy to his best friend. He wasn't lovesick. He'd blame it on being protective. Which, he guessed he was ━━ ever since a few days ago, he caught Steve stalling his car next to Sydney and inviting her to a stupid party, he wanted to cut off the idiot's hand and shove it down his throat.

  "You're more like... a cure," said Sydney. "You saved me. When Mom died, you were all I had. I mean, apart from Matt. I realise now, I had him too, but you ━━ It was obvious with you. I never had to second guess that you were there. You know, Mom adored you."

  Toby smiled empathetically. "I adored her. And her daughter."

  Sydney leaned forward, burying her face in his chest. He was shivering ━━ cold, but he didn't ask for his jacket back. It was hers now, as far as Toby thought.

  "I need you more than anybody, Toby," she mumbled fondly against the threadbare jumper that barely kept him warm.

  Love, adore, and need ━━ such juxtaposing feelings.

  "Hey, lovebirds, let's go!"

  One by one, their group were flinging out of the door and pooling into the separate cars on the driveway. It was Lucas who had lingered around to interrupt Toby and Sydney.

  Toby turned, snaking an arm over Sydney's shoulders and watching with a mortified expression as Matt granted himself permission to get in the front seat of Toby's car. "Where the fuck are we going now ━━ and why's Matt in my car?"

  "We're breaking into school," said Jonathan, barging out of the door, with a deflated paddling pool tucked under his arm.

  Sydney stared incredulously after his retreating head. "What? Why?"

  Dustin was the last to leave, slamming the door behind himself and giving her a big, toothless smile. "We're building a sensory deprivation tank!"

  "Fantastic," said Sydney breathlessly, stealing a glance to an equally appalled Toby. "Shall we?"

  Toby's heart ached as she handed out a hand for him.

  "Let's break into school, I guess."

from dani

i lowkey hate this lmao it's too
plotty?? should've just made syd
an oblivious stranger ffs.
ok plz tell me if these consecutive
updates r getting too much... im like
addicted to this book. its my drug.
but if ur all overwhelmed by the
amount of chapters, TELL ME !! i
can just prewrite loads and then
publish them more spaced up <3
also this chapter introduced my
fav girl nadine munson, aka robin's
future gf & eddie's little sister.
she MAYYY get her own spin off <3
im also considering an EDDIE
spin off ?? im down bad for
joseph quinn, but only if ya'll
would want to read it. bc i crave
attention & love 💖💖💖