Mike sighs softly as he continues to help Eleven clean her face.  Now that they were back home, safe and sound, he was happy that she was back in his life.  And so grateful of her saving him.  

"That's better." He says giving her a smile.  But his smile drops when she looks at herself in the mirror, touching her shaved head with a frown.  "You don't need it." He shakes his head. 

"Still pretty?" She asks. 

"Yeah! Pretty. Really pretty." He says and sighs deeply, "El?"

She turns to look at him, "Yes?"

Stammering nervously, "Um, I'm happy you're home." He says. 

She gives him a small smile, "Me, too."

Suddenly, Mike finds himself getting closer towards her and she was meeting him. He couldn't stop looking at her lips.  He always wondered what it would be like to kiss a girl.  But could he?  Would she let him?  He leans closer towards her.

The door jerks open, causing them to jump apart and look at who bursts inside the bathroom.  Dustin held on to the door with a scared look. 

"Guys!" He shouts and pants, "It's Lucas, I think he's in trouble. Do you remember how he said he was looking for the gate?" He says as he goes back to the room and grabs the radio for Mike. 

"Yeah."

"What if he found it?" Dustin asks and hands him the radio. 

Mike turns up the volume, frowning at how bad the connection was.  He could hear Lucas shouting, but couldn't understand what he was saying. 

"What's he saying?" Mike asks. 

"I don't know, he's way out of range." Dustin shakes his head, just as clueless as he was. 

" ...son of a bitch!" The signal was starting to get a little stronger, but still faint. 

"Lucas, if you can hear us, slow down. We can't understand you." Mike says as he tries to make contact. 

Lucas was pedaling as hard as he could on his bike.  He gasps as he finally hears Mike's voice over the radio, it was faint, but he could hear him. 

"Yes, I copy! Do you? They know about Eleven! Get out of there! They know about Eleven! The bad men are coming! All of them! Do you hear me? The bad men are coming!" Lucas shouts as loud as he could over the radio as he keeps pedaling to meet up with his friends.  

"'Mad hen'." Dustin frowns, "Does that mean anything to you? Like a code name or something?" He asks. 

"The bad men are coming!" Lucas screams over the radio over and over. 

Mike's eyes widen in fear, "'Bad men'.  Bad men!" He says. 

Dustin's eyes grow as wide as his.  Mike places the radio down and rushes towards the stairs with Dustin, " Stay here." He says to Eleven.  Mike and Dustin rush upstairs to the nearest window and scans the neighborhood, they spy a repairman in his van.  Just sitting there, "What's that guy doing?" Mike frowns, but realizes...

"You don't think..." Dustin gasps. 

Mike takes off to find his mom, to make sure she didn't call anyone for help.  He finds her in the kitchen, chattering on the phone. 

"Well, I know she and Steve have been spending some time together, so I thought maybe—"

"Mom!"

Karan waves him away, " Well, is he home? Maybe you could ask him?" She continues to chat with Steve's mother. 

"Mom!" Mike yells louder, trying to gain her attention. 

"I'm sorry, can you just hold on, please?" She says politely over the phone and covers the speaker with her hand to glare at Mike, "Michael, I'm on the phone. I've told you a million times..." She scorns at him, but he cuts her off. 

"Did you schedule any repairs?" He asks quickly.

She frowns at him in confusion, "What?"

Dustin continues to keep watch and looks down the street, seeing more white vans approaching the house.  His eyes widen in terror and he quickly shuts the blinds.

"Is there anyone supposed to come and do repairs on the house?" Mike continues to ask his mom. 

"I don't understand. Is there something wrong--" She stutters in confusion. 

"No, Mom, nothing's wrong in the house." Mike tries to calm her, but he was panicking inside. 

"Mike!" Dustin calls out. 

"One second." Karen apologizes on the phone and continues to listen to Mike, but Dustin comes running. 

"Mike!" Dustin yells. "We need to leave...right now." He pants in terror. 

Mike gasps and rushes to follow, but Karen calls out to him, still confused with what's going on.  

"Michael!"

Mike skids to a halt, "If anyone asks where I am, I've left the country." He says and rushes with Dustin.

"What?" Karen stutters. 

Gathering what they needed, Mike, Dustin, and Eleven all rush out of the back door to grab their bikes.  Mike and Dustin pushed their bikes around the house and quickly got on them.  Mike helps Eleven get on his and all of them look up when they noticed they've been caught.  Eleven sends Dr. Brenner a sad look, but she had to get away from him.  

"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!" Dustin yells and Mike and Dustin take off. 

Dr. Brenner and his men rush back towards the vans to chase after them.

Mike and Dustin rush to get away, pedaling as hard as they could.  

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God." Dustin panics as he carried his headphones connected to the radio.  

"Dustin! Dustin, do you copy?"

Dustin yelps when he hears Lucas' voice over the radio, "Yeah, Lucas, they're on us." He says over his microphone. 

"Where are you?"

"Cornwallis."

"Meet me at Elm and Cherry!"

"Copy. Elm and Cherry!" Dustin yells at Mike. 

"Okay." Mike confirms, then both of them gasp as the vans were behind them.  

"Shit!" Dustin yelps and pedals harder.

"This way, come on!" Mike calls and takes them on a shortcut through the neighbors yard.

They rushed through a bunch of yard, startling people on the way.  They rang their bells to alert them to move.

"Out of the way! Out of the way!" Dustin yells as he rings his bell. 

As they made it to another side of the neighborhood, Mike skids to a halt as Lucas meets up with them. 

"Lucas!" Mike exclaims. 

"Where are they?" Lucas pants out. 

"I don't know."

"I think we lost them."

But they spoke too soon, they both turn fast as they hear tires screeching behind them.  

"Go, go, go, go, go!" Mike yells as he goes back to pedaling away from the vans.  Dustin yells in terror as they all struggle to get away from the bad men. "Go, go, go, go, go! Faster, faster!"

They all gasp as another van was heading towards them.  They were surrounded!

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Dustin yells. 

They couldn't give up, they kept going.  Mike whimpers as he prepares for the Van to run over them. Eleven glares hard at the Van, using her energy to flip the van high in the air, over them and landing hard behind them.  Blocking the other vans from reaching them.

Mike gasps and looks behind them.  All breathed a sigh of relief as they got away.  Eleven looks over and sees her Papa watching them fade away in the distance.  She sighs and holds on to Mike as tight as she could so she wouldn't fall off.  But, she was so tired. 

"Holy... holy shit!" Dustin exclaims as they reached the junkyard.  All stopped and placed their bikes down.  Mike helps Eleven sits down to rest. "Did... did you see what she did to that van?" Dustin continues to stutter in surprise.  He was in complete shock.

"No, Dustin, we missed it." Mike says sarcastically. 

"I mean that was..." Dustin stammers. 

" Awesome." Lucas pants and chuckles, "It was awesome." He moves to kneel next to Eleven, giving her a soft look, " Everything I said about you being a traitor and stuff...I was wrong. I'm sorry." He apologizes. 

Eleven sighs softly, "Friends...friends don't lie. I'm sorry, too." She says. 

"Me, too." Mike says and holds and hand out.  Lucas sighs and stands to shake his hands.  At last, their friendship has healed.  Now, they just need to figure out what to do next. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hopper drives towards the station and parks the damaged truck in front. Everyone gets out, but Jace covers Fi with his jacket and heads towards the other truck.

"Stay down." Jace whispers as he helpers in the back.  He gets inside and shuts the door, lying down with her.  His legs were too long for the back so he had to keep them bent.  He grunts as he lies in that uncomfortable position.  

Joyce, Hopper, and Gloria rush inside the station and Joyce searches for Jonathan.  Finding him at a desk with handcuffs and a icepack on his hands.  

"Hey. Jonathan? Jesus, what... what happened?" She exclaims. 

"Ma'am..." Callahan walks over to them. 

"I'm fine." Jonathan says as she looks over him.  

Gloria kneels to check his wounds, "Are you sure you're ok?" She asks. 

"Why is he wearing handcuffs?" Joyce asks with a furious look.

"Well, your boy assaulted a police officer. That's why." Callahan says. 

"Take them off." Joyce demands. 

"I am afraid I cannot do that." Callahan says. 

"Take them off!" Joyce's voice rises. 

"You heard her. Take 'em off." Hopper orders. 

Powell comes up to them, "Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see." He says.  He goes outside to Jonathan's car and opens the trunk.  

Hopper frowns at what he sees.  He takes the box and carries it back inside, placing it on the desk for Joyce and Gloria to see.  Jonathan looks at his mom in guilt as Nancy averts her eyes. 

"What is this?" Joyce exclaims. 

"Why don't you ask your son? We found it in his car." Hopper says. 

"What?" 

"Why are you going through my car?" Jonathan demanded. 

"Is that really the question you should be asking right now? I wanna see you in my office." Hopper states and turns to leave, but Jonathan stops him. 

"You won't believe me."

Hopper turns back and leans in to whisper, "Why don't you give me a try?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After their failure with capturing the girls, Dr. Brenner decides to take forceful action.  Starting with alerting the families of the children who took Eleven away from him.  

After her phone call, Karen goes down to the basement to demand for answers, but when she searches for Mike, she couldn't find him. 

"Mike? Mike?" She frowns, wondering where he went.  Probably to his friends, but she sees a fort made near the door.  She moves closer, seeing that someone has been spending the night lately.  Before she could assume it was Dustin or Lucas, she sees something.  A long strand of blond hair.  

She gasps as she hears the doorbell ringing. 

"Yeah, just a minute, please!" Ted calls out to the visitor and mutters under his breath as he walks towards the door, "Jiminy Christmas." He sighs in annoyance as the doorbell continues to ring, "Hold your horses." He calls out.  

Karen walks up the stairs to meet with Ted.  She watches him open the door and sees people standing around their yard.  Some where in sharp three-piece suits.  A woman stood before him.

"Mr. Wheeler?" She asks. 

"Yes?" 

Karen and Ted both frown when the woman holds up a federal badge.  Before they knew it, federal agents were going through their house, scanning room to room for anything vital.  Mainly, they begin to take stuff from the basement and Mike's room.  Karen tries to comfort Holly, but she was falling apart herself.  She was so confused with what was going on. 

Dr. Brenner searched the basement with his men and found a shirt in the hamper.  'Benny's' it said.  That was the place where Eleven was first spotted.  She's been here. 

Finally, Dr. Brenner's top female agent sat with Ted and Karen at the table, trying her best to explain why they were there and why they need to cooperate.

"I don't understand. You think my son is hiding this girl?" Karen stutters in confusion.

"What happened to her hair?" Ted frowns as he looks at the picture of Eleven. 

"We just need to know if you've seen her in the past week." The woman states.

"No, no." Karen shakes her head. 

"Absolutely not. Our son with a girl?" Ted chuckles in amusement, "I mean, believe me, if he had a girl sleeping in this house, we'd know about it. Wouldn't we?"

Karen sighs, "This girl...what has she done?"

"I'm afraid I can't answer that."

Horror fills Ted's eyes, "Oh, my God, is she Russian?"

Karen couldn't believe how they were keeping her in the dark, "You can't treat us like this."

The woman tries to sooth things over, but Karen was pissed!

"I need you to stay calm."

"You come into my house, and you tell me that my son is hiding some girl, and that he's in danger, but you can't tell us why? And you, what, you expect me to remain, what, calm?" Karen scoffs as tears fill her eyes. 

The woman sighs and looks to see Dr. Brenner approaching.  He moves and sit at the table with them, facing Karen. 

"I understand how upsetting this is. I wish we could tell you more...but I can tell you that your son, Michael, is in real danger. We want to help him. We will help him. I give you my word. But in order for me to do that...you have to trust me. Will you trust me?" He asks.

Karen was hesitant, but she nods.  Even though Dr. Brenner sent chills down her spine, she should trust him.  But something was telling her not to.

"Good. Now...do you have any idea where your son might have gone?"

She listed all of the usual spots they would go to play.  Dr. Brenner sent his men off to find them all.  

While they were searching, several men still continued to go through their house, taking evidence, keeping them under watch, "They expect us to just sit here like prisoners. We should be out there looking for him." Karen protests. 

"Honey, we have to trust them, okay? This is our government. They're on our side." Ted tries to comfort her.  

"That man gives me the creeps." She shudders as she thinks about him.  Suddenly, she gasps, "Nancy. You don't think she's involved in this, too, do you?" She asks worriedly.

Ted scoffs, "Nancy with Mike?" He chuckles. "No. No."

But, Karen couldn't help but worry for her children.  Even though Ted was suppose to be strongest person in the house, even he had fears for his children, but he couldn't let his wife see his weakness. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After they all rested from escaping the bad men, Lucas begins to explain what he found.  He places three sticks together, to represent the fence and begins to draw a road. 

"This is Randolph Road, right here. The fence starts here, and goes all the way around. And this is the lab right here. The gate's gotta be in there somewhere. It's gotta be." He says as he places a a can that represents the lab. 

"Well, who owns Hawkins Lab?" Dustin asks. 

"The sign says 'Department of Energy'." Lucas says. 

"Department of Energy? What do you think that means?" Dustin asks. 

"It means government. Military." Mike says. 

"Then why does it say 'Energy'?" Dustin frowns. 

"Just trust me, all right? It's military. My dad's told me before." Mike says. 

"Mike's right. There's soldiers out front." Lucas says. 

"Do they make, like, lightbulbs or something?" Dustin asks. 

"No, weapons...to fight the Russians, and commies and stuff." Mike says. 

Lucas' eyes widen, "Weapons." He says as he looks at Eleven in shock.  

Dustin begins gasping in realization, "Oh, Jesus, this is bad."

"Really bad. The place is like a fortress." Lucas states. 

"That's why they want you and your sister. You are their weapons. Aren't you?" Mike says, even though it was a question, he knew it was true.

Eleven looks down in shame, "Don't want to hurt anyone...anymore. Sister says never use if it feels bad...in here." She says as she rubs her chest. "What Papa asks is always bad." She sobs.

"Well, what do we do?" Dustin asks. 

"I don't know, but we can't go home. We're fugitives now." Mike says.

Suddenly, a noise begins from the distance.  It sounded like...a helicopter. 

"Guys? Do you hear that?" Dustin asks as the noise was getting closer. 

Everyone looked up and sees a black helicopter coming their way.  Mike gasps and scrambles to his feet, helping everyone get up and grab their bikes, "Go, go, go, go!"

They move their bikes to hide them under a bus, "Come on, come on!" Dustin grunts as he tries to shove his bike under it, "It's stuck."

Lucas helps Dustin shove it under the bus, Mike and Eleven rush inside, yelling at Dustin and Lucas to hurry.  

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

"Hurry up! Hurry, come on!"

"Come on!"

Finally, they had it hidden.  Lucas and Dustin rush inside and shuts the door.  Everyone goes to the end of the bus and takes cover.  

"Go, go, go, go, go, go!"

Finally, they could hear the helicopter right above them. 

"Get down!" Lucas says, making everyone go down lower.  

Dustin's pants blend with the motor of the helicopter.  They all listen closely and finally hear it receding.  

With a sigh of relief, they relax as they realize they were safe...for now.  But how long can they hide?

"Mental." Dustin sighs. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hopper convinced his deputies to uncuff Jonathan and dropped the charges.  Jonathan and Nancy basically told them everything they knew.  About the creature, the blood theory.  What they were planning.  

Joyce sighs as she looks at the picture Nancy showed her.  She couldn't believe it.  They had proof all this time and they never told her.  She was furious but didn't show it.  

"You say blood draws this thing?" Hopper asks as Joyce hands him the photo. 

"We don't know. It's just a theory." Nancy says. 

Gloria takes the picture, "God." She whispers.  "You kids are damn lucky." She mutters.  "And damn stupid." She throws the picture down. 

Joyce sighs and gets up, pulling Jonathan to follow her into the hallway.  Jonathan gives her a guilty look, "I'm sorry, Mom."

She scoffs at him, "What, you're sorry? You're... you're sorry? That is not good enough, Jonathan." She says furiously. 

"I know."

"That's not even close. That's not even in the... in the ballpark." She states. 

"I wanted to tell you, I just--"

"What if this thing took you, too? You risked your life... and Nancy's." She says. 

"I thought I could save Will...I still do." Jonathan stammers. 

"This is not yours to fix alone." Joyce stammers, "You act like you're all alone out there in the world, but you're not. You're not alone." She says. 

"I know."

"*** damn it, Jonathan." She sighs.

"I know."

She pulls him into her arms and holds him tight, "Damn it." She sniffles.  She was angry, but so relieved that he was ok. Jonathan couldn't stop the tears coming as she holds him close.  He felt like he hasn't have his mother's love in a long time.  So many emotions rushed through him. 

Suddenly, a furious female voice erupts from the station. 

"I want an apology!"

Hopper comes out of his office, frowning at that voice and hears his deputies trying to calm the person down. 

"An apology for what, exactly?" Callahan asks, Hopper could tell he was making the situation worse. 

"Where is the chief? I want to speak to him right this instant." The woman demanded. 

"Stay here." Hopper says to Joyce and Jonathan.  

Gloria moves to stand with Joyce as Nancy follows.  

"Ma'am, I need you to calm down." Callahan tries to sooth things over, but the woman was has had enough. 

"What is your name, Deputy?" She demands. 

"Well, I'm an officer..." Callahan chuckles, "Okay?" He corrects her, but she wasn't laughing. 

"Name and badge number, both of you!" She says. 

Hopper finally walks up to them, "What the hell is going on here?" He demands as he sees a middle aged woman yelling at his deputies while holding on to a teenage boy with a broken arm in a sling.  He recognized the boy as Troy, the town bully.  He knew 

"Chief..." Powell was about to speak but the woman harshly cuts him off. 

"These men are humiliating my son." She accuses. 

"No, no, no. Okay, that's not true." Callahan protests. 

"Yes." The woman states. 

"There was some kind of fight, Chief--" Powell says, but again, he was cut off. 

"A psychotic child broke his arm!" She exclaims. 

"A little girl, Chief. A little one." Callahan says as he holds a hand up to determine the size of the girl.  

"That tone! Do you hear that tone?"

Callahan exclaims and holds his hands up in surrender, "Honestly, I'm just trying to state a fact."

Hopper rubs his aching head, "I don't have time for this."

"It was a little girl--"

Hopper waves him off, "Will you please take a statement..." He says then mouths silently to them, "And get her out?" He begs.  

" Yes. So what'd this girl look like?" Callahan confirms and begins to take the kid's statement.

"She had no hair and she was bleeding from her nose. Like a freak." Troy exclaims, making Hopper freeze in his tracks.  

Joyce and Gloria both catch what the boy said.  

"What'd you just say?" Hopper asks. 

Troy turns and frowns at the Chief, "I said she's a freak!"

"No, her hair. What'd you say about her hair?"

"Her head's shaved. She doesn't even look like a girl. And..." Troy looks down in embarrassment.

"And what?"

"Tell the man, Troy." Mrs. Walsh urges her son. 

"She can...do things."

"What kind of things?"

"Like...make you fly. And piss yourself." Troy says.

Powell scoffs out a laugh, "What?"

Hopper holds up a hand to shut him up, "Was she alone?" He asks.

Troy shakes his head, "She always hangs out with those losers." 

"'Losers'? What losers?" Hopper asks. 

"Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, and Dustin Henderson." Mrs. Walsh states, remembers what her son told her. 

Hopper looks over to catch Nancy's shocked face.  Oh, my god.  If people knew Eleven was with Mike and the others, then the lab wasn't too far on their tracks.  They needed to find them. 

"Oh, Dr. Stein, thank goodness. Could you please confirm for me about the assault on my child?" Mrs. Walsh says. 

Gloria sighs and buzzes her lips, "If you want my advice..." She says as she walks over to Troy and exams his arm gently.  She places it down and smacks him across the head, "Learn how to be a better person!" 

Troy groans and Mrs. Walsh gasps in shock, "How dare you!" 

"Oh, come off it, Mary.  You've been spoiling this kid rotten for years and don't even pay attention to what he's been doing outside of home.  You continue to blame the world when it's him you should be blaming." She scoffs and reaches to pull the switch blade out of Troy's pocket.  "Oh, look at that.  A minor with a weapon.  Might want to look into that boys." Gloria says as she hands over the knife. 

"It's not mine!" Troy shouts and a big argument breaks out between him and his mother.  She grabs him by the ear and drags him out.  

Hopper chuckles and gives her a side hug, "Have I ever told you how much I love you?" He chuckles. 

Gloria laughs and pats his gut, "You won't love me so much at our next physical, but find this girl...alive and well...then I'll write you off as healthy as a horse." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, after the huge fight with Jonathan, Steve sat on his car as he waits for Tommy to bring him some Coca-Cola and some aspirin out of the store.  His face carried heavy bruises and cuts from being punched several times.  

"Hey. You owe me $1.20." Tommy scoffs as he walks out, handing him what he needed.  He sighs as he watches Steve swallow a few pills and presses the cold drink against his swollen face, "Don't worry, he'll need more than aspirin when we're done with him."

"Yeah, if the creep ever gets out."

"The cops should just lock him up forever."

Carol couldn't stop laughing, "Did you see the look on his face?" She asks as she mimic's Jonathan's face as she lightly pounds against Tommy's chest, making him laugh. 

"He probably had that same look whenever he killed his brother, right?" Tommy chuckles and pats Steve's shoulder.

Carol grimaces as a thought comes to her, "Oh, God, I just got an image of him making that face while he and Nancy are screwing." She laughs with Tommy. 

But, Steve, he had enough. 

"Carol, for once in your life, shut your damn mouth!" He says furiously. 

Carol and Tommy were both surprised and offended with Steve's attitude. 

"What?"

"Hey, what's your problem, man?"

Steve turns to glare at them both, "You're both assholes. That's my problem."

"Are you serious right now, man?" Tommy scoffs. 

Steve gets off his car and continues to gives them angry looks, "Yeah, I'm serious. You shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?"

"You know what."

"You mean call her out for what she really is? Oh, that's funny, because I don't remember you asking me to stop."

Steve, now, felt ashamed of himself.  He should have just talked to Nancy than screwing up this relationship he had with her, if it can be still saved. "I should've put that spray paint right down your throat." He snarls. 

"What the hell, Steve?"

"You know, neither of you ever cared about her. You never even liked her, because she's not miserable like you two. She actually cares about other people."

"The slut with a heart of gold." Carol scoffs. 

Steve was about let Carol have it, "I told you to watch your mouth!" He yells at her.  

Tommy shoves him away, "Hey! I don't know what's gotten into you, man, but you don't talk to her that way."

"Get out of my face." Steve shoves back.

Tommy grips his collar and shoves him against the car, holding him against it, "Or what? Or what? You gonna fight me now, too? Huh? You gonna fight me now, too? Because you couldn't take Jonathan Byers...so I wouldn't recommend that." He threatens in Steve's face and shoves him away.  

Steve breaths heavily with anger and storms away, getting into his car.

"Here, let me get the door for you, buddy." Tommy sneers as he slams the door shut. 

Steve starts the car and begins to drive off, hearing Tommy yell and taunt at him.

"That's right. Run away, Stevie boy! Run away! Just like you always do. That Nancy's turning you into a little pussy!" His tires screech as he zooms off, "That's right, Harrington, run away! Run away! Tommy scoffs. 

Steve drove and drove till he was close to the theater.  He sighs as he parks nearby and walks out.  He could see the owner struggling with scrubbing the paint off.  Swallowing his pride, Steve walks up to them. 

"Need a hand?" He asks. 

The employer and owner turn and sees Steve, the owner gives Steve a suspicious look. 

"Did you have something to do with this?" He asks.

Steve stutters and shrugs, "I just...I wanna help."

The owner gets off the latter and moves away, handing the brush to Steve, "All yours."

Steve sighs and takes it, walking up the latter to help scrub the paint off.  He hopes Nancy will see and she'll see that he's sorry for what he did.  Maybe afterwards, he should go apologize to Byers and hope they can just talk it all out.  Find out why he was at Nancy's in the first place.