SLIPPING THROUGH MY FINGERS
Abba.

WARNING: Emotional Chapter.

Alexei is gone. He's dead. One minute is alive, experiencing what it is like to have fun at the carnival winning prizes at the rigged stall that are literally impossible to beat, and the next he is shot point blank. His last breath, Murray's words, he wished to say thank you to Melissa for being kind to him but she didn't get to. He passed away before she ever got the chance to hear him. Death isn't fair. Life isn't fair on any one.

Murray, listening intently to the Soviet soldiers interference on the radio Hopper stole from an assassin talking in deciphered terms only they could understand, muttered what he is hearing to Melissa. " Food court? You sure that they're referring to the food court at starcourt?" Jim, riding in the backseat of the car, looks between Milly and Murray. " if you need a break, Mils, I can take over the driving. Or you good?"

" I'm sorry, have my translation skills been letting you down? Quite the contrary when it's missy who has been doing most of the talking, if not all, these last twenty four hours. Unlikely you would understand how difficult it can be to simply interpret a foreign language. Oh wait, I forgot. You don't. Be patient with us, Jimbo."

" I'm fine Jim, I don't need to pull over. Mar, we gotta really think about all of this through. Those Russians obviously have them, the kids, and they are real danger. There's no knowing what they'll do to 'em, I don't want to waste more time than we already have."

Milly expressed with a diligent tone, she rams down a foot in the gas pedal. Hopper braced himself, Murray's eyes bug out at the sudden burst of speed, when Milly spun the wheel on its side and made the convertible screech to an empty side road. Yelling, Murray clutched the brick sized radio to his chest.

" MISSY! Woah."

" Sorry, Mar. Sorry, Hop!"

Coming to the conclusion that luck isn't on her side, Melissa had the right to say this summer is the worse one ever. At least she is back with her brothers, they had bolted straight to her to give her the tightest of bone crushing hugs and she gladly welcomed their hugs, but Eleven is the one who needed her the most. Starcourt's food court is trashed beyond repair, the Soviet guards wrecked it searching for the kids, and it rattled Milly to her core realising they could've been in serious danger if they didn't arrive.

Milly, holding eleven in her lap ( She crawled into Melissa's arms soon after she had sat on the marble food court bench ) played with her hair. " The mind flayer, it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El. To stop.. Melissa, to kill.. then. And pave a way into our world. I didn't fully understand why the mind flayer chose to target Milly too. I still don't, but all I do know is he has got this weird obsession with her. He told el that he wanted her more than el." Mike explained to the group, Jim never did grasp the truth and severity of this mind flayer story. He is aware of the shadow monster that attach itself to Melissa but didn't really understand.

" And it almost did, that is the thing. After.. all of what happened last year, with will and Milly being possessed by the mind flayer, Milly was able to somehow miraculously fight it off. And even then the mind flayer has been relentless." Nancy digressed, her respect for Melissa Byers skyrocketed to the stratosphere and she'd seen how bad ass Milly truely was last year after she fought off the piece of the mind flayer that was extracted out of will, looking to Milly. " Melissa you never did tell us how you manage to do it."

Milly, hand being held by both Jim and eleven, tired eyes bored up to Nancy's. Nancy almost let a gasp of surprise out, at the battle torn and sunken in look in her eyes. Will, Jonathan, Jim and Eleven peered at Milly waiting too. " Well, I kinda don't know myself, to be honest Nancy. One minute I remember I'm screaming, on the field seeing these terrifying things in my head. The next I become more conscious, I could see clearer, and I.. I was covered in those shrubs at the lab." She explained, her memory is still all a mess but she does remember one thing. The piece of the mind-flayer.. it never left her. Like it did with will. Which frightened her terribly.

Erica, sitting on the fountains edge with each leg tucked under the other one, head perked up. " Wait a damn minute. You mean to tell me will isn't the only one to have been through all this messed up shit? You too, Milly?" Lucas, a little irritated, glared at Erica. 'Leave it to her to not listen to anything I say.' Erica feels her brother's glare. " Don't give me that look, Butt head. I'm just surprised that the strong woman I know has been through all this shit too."

" Oh, the mind flayer, Chief. It sort of broke.. your cabin. I'm sorry." Lucas mentioned, face twisting in a wince at how Jim's jaw tensed up. Hopper grunted, not really caring about what the cabin endured in his absence, it softened at Milly squeezing his hand. " By the way, Milly. I gotta mention this before I forget. Amanda she went around to your mom's place, to help her out with baby Sarah. Sarah is back with your mom. I don't know where they are right now but the last I heard is when Mandy and I spoke on the radio a couple hours ago."

Relief rushed on Milly's face, settling her heart ache from guilt gnawing at it for leaving Sarah. Steve, bloodied and bruised being tortured by Russian commies in starcourts basement, had a face full of concern looking around at all of the kids. " Wait. So, this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El.. it wants Melissa too? Is that what I am hearing? It's some kind of gigantic.. some kind of gigantic weapon? I'm so out of the loop here. But instead of, like, screws and metal, it made its weapon with melted people?" Steve's brain began to hurt and he rubbed his head.

" Yes, Exactly."

" I.. Yeah, I'm just making sure. Totally got that part down where Melissa is somehow like connected to this crazy, freaky, spider thingy."

Melissa nods, it gave Steve the confirmation he searched for. He muttered 'Oh poop. I see.' Milly sensed eleven shift in her spot on her lap, and she feels El encase an arm over her waist, huddling up to feel closer to Milly. Resting her head on her chest, like a baby would. Melissa's hand found her hair pulling her forward. Mike pursed his lips, finding it weird to this day how eleven called Melissa 'Momma' when Milly is a whole decade older than her, shaking his head.

Murray, in the midst of the kids discussing and planning how to kill the mind Flayer ( Waving his arms sporadically to get their attention and it made him look like a deranged idiot ), came out of the malls management centre as he found blueprints.

" Yoo-hoo! Yoo-Hoo!" He yells, Max weirdly staring at him wondering who he is, striding over and in a rush he roughly threw them down. " Okay, this is what Alexei called The Hub. The hub takes us to the vault room."

Murray explained acknowledging Milly, or His Missy, as she stood at Murray's side. Her face fell hearing Alexei's name, Murray and Hopper could see his death had made an huge impact on her. Jim put a hand on her shoulder. Will and Jonathan, in unison, tilted their head. Milly is matching with the crazy dude. They're both in denim and a white tank top. If that was intentional, or not, it is pretty funny to them.

" Okay but where is the gate?" Hopper asked, rubbing a thumb across Milly's hip. " I'm only able to understand all of this crap 'cause of you and Mils having the brains out of the three of us." Melissa lightly taps on Jim's chest, though his compliment caused her to grin. Robin, she was introduced to Milly by Steve, from a spot on the fountain she sat on glances at Steve and a smile crept on her features. She understood, now, why Steve had feelings for Milly from the stories she was told. Steve felt robins gaze and he flips her the bird. She snickered.

" .. I don't know the scale of this but I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe fifty feet or so."

" More like five hundred." Erica corrected, her florescent yellow shirt acting as a bright source of light in the gloomy food court atmosphere, taking a moment to give Milly a warm smile as her purple beads in her braids swayed. Milly, leaning back in hoppers chest resting her head, felt a laugh wanting to escape out of her at how Murray stared at Erica dumbstruck. " What? You're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"

" I'm sorry, who are you?"

" Erica Sinclair. Who are you?"

" Murray... Bauman."

Murray answers, slowly. Melissa had never seen her glasses wearing friend so lost for words. Milly, knowing Erica, turned her head back to her after looking at an empty food court table and chair set.

" Look, Mr Bumman, I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shit hole for twenty four hours. with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die."

Melissa couldn't hold her laugh in and she let it out, uncontrollably. Hopper grumbled about how they would have to deal with little Sarah's attitude at Erica's age. Murray huffed, insulted Milly would think it was hilarious he is being insulted by a Child at his expense, glaring at her. " That was not funny. And I'm sorry, why is this four year old speaking to me?" Murray exclaimed out of resignation to the situation at hand.

" I'm TEN, you bald bastard!"

" Erica!"

" Just the facts!"

" She's right." Dustin spoke up, he is standing behind Erica and the whole time he was silent he'd been watching Melissa. ( He realised a fact about the whole mind flayer possession, of Milly and will. He had a theory.) he muttered a phrase under his breath. " You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me. May I?" He confiscated the hand-drawn plans Alexei made and Murray sarcastically smiled saying please. Dustin sat down at one of the tables, in front of Murray, Hopper and Milly while Erica joined.

" Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility. There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between me and Erica, we can show you the way."

" Dusty, sweetie, much as I admire how smart you are, and a little concerned about what has happened in the last twenty four hours of the day, I'm more worried that you know your way 'round the malls ventilation system. Isn't that, well, dangerous?" Milly adjurors, talking slow. Dustin waved it off, his cute Buck teeth poked out as he gave her the biggest smile he could, in a way touched by her worry. " Right, sorry, not important, don't know what I was thinkin' there." Milly mumbles, Jim brushed his lips on her head.

" You can show us the way?"

" Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit, and we'll just be you and Melissa's.. Navigators. Well, more or less it will be Milly who is doing all the fighting and you chief being her loyal side-kick cause let's face the facts. She has the bad ass powers outta the two of you combined."

" No. nope. No way."

" Wait. Steve, you didn't tell me Melissa.. has powers?"

" There are things I might have left out, Rob."

Raiding the miniature refrigerator to one of the many food out-lets, Orange Julius, Melissa opened a room temperature bottle of water. It is interrupted by Jonathan and Nancy coming over to her, Hopper is planning how to handle the commutation process with the party. Milly jumped on the counter. " You look like you've been through hell and back, Mel-Mel. Ow! Wh- What was that for, Nance? I'm just joking. You know I say it jokingly." Jonathan winced, Milly manage to smile at their banter. " We missed you, y'know, Milly. lot of shit has happened."

" I know, Johnny." Melissa sighed, etching her finger on the expiration date of her bottle of water. So much shit. " I feel like I am the worst mom alive. My little girl needed me and I was.. half way across the country in a completely... different state. All while she was sick and she.. needed me. She needed her mommy. It.." Milly disposes her water, her need to drink the water leaving her body, and she brought her knees up to her chest. " It wasn't fair on Sarah that I wasn't there. She needed her parents, and we.. didn't know she was sick. What does that make us?"

Nancy rested an assuring hand on Milly. She is the greatest mother to little Sarah, Hell— she's one of the, if not the only, best Mom's in Hawkins to her child. Right after Joyce. " you aren't a bad Mom, 'Lisa. You'd never, never, ever be a bad mom. Nor is Chief hopper a bad dad. You have made these decisions that are saving you, and your family. You shouldn't feel bad, Melissa." Nancy stammered, turning and looking to Johnathan for confirmation giving a nudge. He fiercely nodded his head.

Milly dropped down from her spot. Jonathan, enveloping Milly in a hug, smiled in Melissa's hair at Nancy joining in the group hug. Melissa winced, at a flutter in her abdomen. it went unnoticed by Jonathan, who pulled back from the group hug, and Nancy tugged on his sleeve.

" We will give you and the chief some space to talk. Let's go, Johnathan." Nancy said, quietly, watching the chief of police stalking his way to Melissa. " See you soon, 'Lisa."

Jim, moving out of the way to allow will access to his sister, kept the space open for Melissa to open her arms for her brother. Will, towering in height to Milly, practically knocked Milly off her feet at the force he had hugged her. " Willy wonka, when did you get tall? I swear I'm gone for one whole day and you are a foot taller than me. What's mom been feeding you?" She states pretending to be shocked at his growth spurt.

" You are never going to let the name die, are you, Milly?"

Will groaned, his bowl hair cut is moving as his face expresses how found Milly's nickname for him annoying but ultimately he failed to keep that annoyance. He couldn't try to be mad even he wanted to.

" I miss you too. Mom has been going crazy, trying to care for Sarah, Katherine and Mandy came around to the house. Amanda she took Sarah, to help out, and they were at mikes house with us.."

" Listen." Milly breathed in deeply. " I've been thinking." She held her brother by his hands, he scanned her eyes in confusion. " If anything is to happen, while we are down there closing the gate, will. I need you.. I need for you to be Sarah's brave uncle and take care of her. Yeah? Because she is going to need you." Milly could feel her tears returning to her eyes, nodding, as will stepped back in disbelief shaking his head. She is talking like she's going to die." You need to be far away from all of this. You need to be strong, be brave for me. For her."

" You are saying it like you are gonna die while down there, Milly! No. You're going to live and you are going to come back home."

" Will, Will!" Melissa, calming him down from his outburst, tears in her eyes stared at will for a brief time to gather her thoughts conflicted on whether she should tell him she's pregnant. She tightened her hands on his elbows. " Will, as much as I know dying isn't a thing I wanna do, I wouldn't mind dying protecting the ones I love." It pained her to think she will die before she could hold her unborn baby. To see Sarah grow up, Eleven being a good older sister and protect her sister from danger. Her daughter's first steps. Every important milestone.

" You're not going to die. You're.. not. You're not dying, No. that's stupid, it's ridiculous, to think that. Why would you want to die and... leave me? Leave Jonathan? Mom? El? Sarah?" Will, keeping a death grip of a hug on Melissa, muttered absurdly to her death wish refusing to let her go. " Don't ever leave.. me. Milly. No. Don't leave me." He said, repeating himself.

Milly muttered. " I promise, will. I promise."

Marching down a dimly lit staff only hallway of the mall, in stride with Murray, Milly's thought training is cut short by hopper filing a mag of bullets in a machine gun. Murray bumped his hip to Melissa's, silently asking if she was okay to which she nodded.

" It's a two-man job. Two man! I get it, you have the powers here, Mils. I don't want to discourage you here but there is nothing I want more than for you to be safe."

Melissa rolled her eyes, there is a time and an hour of the day for Hopper's speech about him wanting to keep her safe. It wasn't the time for it now.

" Missy will give us the super power leverage, Jim. We have two options here. We can turn off the machine, or we can explode it. Well, she can explode it with her oh so mind numbingly Chic powers full of awesomeness."

" Oh yeah, says who?"

" Says Alexei! you know the one man who made this death Ray machine to open the gate and it makes sense for him to know the in and out of his own creation, Hop."

" Missy is right, there, Jim. If we don't do this our heroic effort will be for Naught! This is a three man, well one woman and two men, operation. We need all the man power we can get! Milly will provide that extra strength we'll need!"

Jim, grunting, musters out. " Great. On top of all this crap, I have Curly and Moe gangin' up on me." Shoving past the exit door but held it open for Milly. Melissa heard him, she grins.

" I can hear you, Hop."

In an escalator travelling to the bottom of the mall, descending at high speed making Melissa queasy at the jolting and her stomach aching a ton from how it was moving, leaned herself on a pile of boxes. " So then I yank those cables like I am pulling weeds. Missy will then come in, hands blazing with her super powers, and it will be really cool and straight out of a movie." Murray, showing Alexei's diagram to Hopper, said. Milly stared at Murray as if he'd grown a second head, shaking hers. " What? I've seen the damage you can cause, Missy. Your powers are remarkable, powerful. Oh, did I mention to you that they're awesome cause they are."

" Then that'll set off the alarm.."

" According to Alexei, May his soul rest in peace. Which will give you two an opening to retrieve the keys from the vault."

" And then we head straight to the observation room, like Dustin said and is written on the plan drawn by Alexei, turn the key.."

" And Kaboom, we blow this sucker sky high."

" Then once the rift is closed we escape back, to the kids and everyone else, through those vents Dustin mentioned. Simple as that, we're home free, Hop. Back to our girls."

The elevator shaft doors opened, alarm bells to indicate the arrival of the elevator sounding in the long dark underground tunnel, and Soviet troops draw their guns on the trio. Murray had the smart idea to show the yellow papers and a soldier yelled orders in a heavy accent as they put their hands up.

" Documents, Important.. Eh, Important documents. We have here, look! Look! For the lieutenant-comrade! He called us the last minute. Pardon for our appearance! We do not come here to harm you. See! See!"

" Lieutenant...? Which Lieutenant?"

One of the soldiers mumbled, in clear Russian for Milly to hear. She rolled her neck, as the Russians were distracted by Murray's panicked decision to go on to make a fake last name, and pushed him to one side.

" Enough of this. Hello boys, bye boys."

Milly replied, waving her hand and fingers, producing a large white energetic field. She out thrusts her hands, letting out an intense wave of dark smoke emerging her gift with the mind Flayer Remanences inside her blood. The men didn't have time to scream as it appears they disappeared leaving behind the uniforms they wore. Milly swayed her hips and lifted the green outfit using a finger.

" Shall we, Boys?"

Jim, picking his jaw off the floor along with an awestruck Murray stuttering incoherently after what he just witnessed, nodded fast.

LATER IN THE OBSERVATION ROOM

Rushing into the observation tower room, to a countdown alarm trilling through the darkness of hellish red, orange, lights as if entering the deep bowls of hell itself Milly and hopper are granted access to the room of scientists whose faces fell at the sight of the devastating event.

" Everyone out! Everyone out!"

Jim screamed, opening fire on the roof sending everyone out of the space crying out in fear. Usually Melissa is against it, but there wasn't any time for her exemplifications of what is right and wrong to do. Melissa drags her feet to the glass window.

The gate is opening centimetres wide every second that is wasted looking at it. This had to be ended before it was too late. Jim, two keys in a briefcase to turn off the pulverising man-made death Ray machine, caught Milly's eyes as he showed her the case. " You ready to end all of this?"

She shuddered a breath, each step she took is a heavy reminder of what is about to happen, readying herself mentally as she is given a key and with Jim she made her way to the override switch. Everything around her is muffled, Murray's voice rang clear out from the radio he is using to communicate with Jim. Her voice is mute, nothing wanted to come out as she had the key inserted before her in the console used, her heart beating thunderously in her ears. It'll be all over. It'll be over, the mind-flayer will be gone for good, And she can go home with Jim. Go home to her daughters that wait for her.

She found herself reacting instantly to the sight of Grigori himself, the Russian assassin incapacitating her taking her by the neck and threw her to the glitching switchboard and the force leave her knocked out. That pissed off an irritated hopper and he began to fight him off.

Ten minutes go by. Melissa regained control of her body, arising off the floor, to see Hopper is nowhere in sight.

Panic stricken Milly limped her way to the window of the observation deck. Grigori is menacingly looming above Hopper, She gasped; terrified. She promised herself to not show fear anymore, but mixed in with the screams of Dustin voice crackling desperately seeking out for the gate to be closed and Her heart beating out of her chest, Melissa had to make a choice. This is life or death.

Ripping an entire piece of fabric from her uniform, Milly's hand tremor in adrenaline, to make an extension chord string to attached on the two keys.

Removing the belt, which kept the uniform in place, she scrambled to fixate on getting them in place. Time is ticking and it wasn't going to stop for nothing.

They say there is a time in your life when you have to make a decision, a choice, that can defy the trajectory of your life course.

Straining to reach her hand for the key, giving up on forging a sturdy tourniquet, Milly gazed out helplessly at Hopper fear swimming in her eyes at the maniacal sheer terror and the beauty of the lightning strikes exiting the Key.

In the storm of grievance, through the cloud of smoke, there is only one that can stop the hurricane from happening. And that is to face it head on. Hopper, in a realisation he couldn't escape death, drew his head up to Milly on the deck. He is going to die. He had to die in order to save her. It was too late for him. Death is at the least merciful. Peaceful. He didn't want to leave her and through tears he nods his head. Signalling to Melissa it was time for the gate to close. He mouthed his last words 'I love you.'

Those were the words to make her switch the keys in her directions, eyes closing in Dismay, and with a flick of her wrists she turned both of them. A millisecond later an implosion and blindly bright white light and smoke filled the air as the machine self-destructed. It rocked the observation tower deck, Milly shielded her face. Her free arms covering her stomach, she strained a gasp at the force of the shockwave.

Milly re-opened her eyes, Her chest becoming full of formidable grief, and she broke down in a deep sadness. Her wails became heavy with a weighted sheet of pain as she held onto her the console. Her ears rang, the smoke left behind had began receding, and her pain grew more in intensity staggering up clamping a hand on the part of her stomach her abdomen is. " Hopper. No, No." she cried hoping he could hear her.

" You gotta be alive." She sobbed.

" You were.. you were meant to be here to meet your child. Our second, Miracle, Child. No."

She collapsed allowing the grief to overcome her body.

" I'm pregnant, Hop. I'm... pregnant. Please."

" Come back to me, Baby."

JASMINE SPEAKS;

That was emotional to write.

Oh my gosh, that hurt my heart to write.

Everything in me was.. crying out to me to stop writing it. Cause I did not want to write Jim's 'Death'.

Here we go tho with the last episode, onto the fourth season. I hate writing these emotional scenes because I always cry so much.

How did I do with the final scene for Jim and Milly?

Her scenes with her brothers? Eleven?