"Okay, Russians? As in, they're working for the Russian government?" Lucas said, watching out of the corner of his eye as Robin emptied the first aid kit out.

"What are you not comprehending? Am I not speaking English? We have a full-blown Red Dawn situation," Dustin said.

"So this has nothing to do with the gate?" Max asked.

Robin opened an antiseptic wipe.

"This will hurt," she warned Cammie.

Cammie nodded, squeezing Max's hand tightly as Robin started wiping the excess blood from the cut. It stung like a bitch, worse than any of the seizures her powers had ever given her. It hurt even worse than the seizure the year before when they were burning down the tunnels to try and kill the Demo-dogs.

"It has everything to do with the gate!" Dustin said.

Robin started threading the needle she'd found, looking apologetically at Cammie as she placed it against her neck. Cammie nodded slightly, closing her eyes as Max started stroking through her hair.

"You're okay," Max whispered.

Robin pushed the needle through Cammie's skin and a silent gasp left her lips, tears streaming down her cheeks as she felt every single stab of the needle and the tugging of the stitches through her skin.

There was an audible groan and then a thud. Cammie opened her eyes, seeing Eleven clutching her leg on the floor. Cammie moved to sit up, but Max pinned her down easily and nodded at Robin to continue stitching.

"Cammie, Cammie, listen to me. I know that's your sister, but you will die if we don't get you stitched up, so you have to stay still and let Robin do it. I can't lose you, okay?" Max whispered.

"What's wrong with her?" Erica asked.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? What's wrong?" Mike held Eleven's hand gently as she cried.

"My leg. My leg," Eleven panted.

"Her leg, her leg. Okay," Johnathon mumbled. "Get that off." he motioned to the bandage on Eleven's leg.

Nancy nodded and pulled it off. Everyone around her groaned and Cammie felt a sharp pain in her own leg. She gasped and her leg jerked unconsciously.

Max's entire face paled and she could feel Robin's eyes burning into the side of her head.

"Oh, shit," Max breathed.

"Oh, shit," Steve agreed, hurrying over to their sides.

Max quickly pulled the needle through the stitch Robin had been halfway through, then grabbed the antiseptic wipe and held it against Cammie's neck. Steve turned Cammie onto her side just in time before Eleven let out a scream.

Cammie's entire body started seizing within seconds of the sound leaving Eleven's mind, her eyes rolling back in her head as she shook violently around in Max's lap. Steve kept his hands holding her wrists so she wouldn't hit anyone or hurt herself, timing the seizure on the watch Dustin was holding out for him.

Everyone was watching Cammie or Eleven as they seized and cried over the pain they were simultaneously experiencing.

"What's happening?" Robin cried.

"They're connected. When something happens to one, it happens to the other. They power bank off each other. Whatever is hurting El is hurting Cammie," Mike explained quietly, wrapping his arm around Will's shoulders as he watched his best friend have a seizure.

Cammie's breathing picked up and Max could hear a ragged noise in her throat. She'd witnessed a few seizures after nightmares to know that this was what it sounded like when Cammie was choking, and Max was putting it down to the new cut on her throat.

She shoved her fingers into Cammie's mouth and Cammie gagged, blood dripping out onto the floor.

Cammie's body stopped spasming slowly after a few seconds and Steve nodded, pulling his notebook out and writing it down.

"Three minutes, eight seconds," Steve mumbled.

"That's the longest one she's had in six months," Max mumbled, wiping the tears off Cammie's cheeks with the hand not holding her half-stitched neck together.

"She needs to get that stitched up. We'll handle El," Johnathon said.

They nodded and Steve helped them roll Cammie onto her back in Max's lap.

"Is she conscious?" Robin asked.

"No, so do as much as you can. We've got about three minutes before she wakes up, maximum," Steve said.

Robin nodded and Max pulled the wipe away from Cammie's neck. Robin picked up the needle and resumed stitching Cammie's neck while Steve timed the minutes until Cammie woke up and Max watched her girlfriend's face for any sign of consciousness.

Johnathon ran off quickly, leaving Mike to calm Eleven down. She was crying in agony and every time her leg jerked, Cammie's would, too.

"We need fresh bandages," Robin said, tying off the last stitch as best as she could.

She'd taken a first aid course a year ago, but stitching up slit throats while the patient had a seizure had, surprisingly, not been something they'd covered.

"Catch!" Johnathon shouted.

He threw fresh ones over and Steve caught them, unwrapping the package. Max took them, lifting Cammie's neck up so she could bandage her up. She tied the bandages tight enough to stop any bleeding for a while without causing more pain, finishing just in time for Cammie's eyes to flutter open.

Max smiled down at her tearfully, cupping her cheeks and kissing her forehead.

"Hey, Juliet. I was worried about you," Max whispered.

Cammie rested her head against Max's shoulder as she sat up slowly, wrapping her arms around her in a real hug. Max held on to Cammie as tight as she could without hurting her, tears streaming down her cheeks as Cammie cried silently into her chest.

She pulled away when her leg twitched, staring at it for a few seconds before she seemed to remember why it was twitching. She slowly stood up, Max wrapping her arm around her waist.

Cammie pointed at El and Max nodded, helping her walk over to El. They sat down, Max slightly behind Cammie, and Cammie grabbed Eleven's hand.

Eleven's pain was completely shared with Cammie, then. The pain was horrific enough that Cammie would rather have a seizure while getting her neck stitched up again.

Johnathon ran back over holding a knife in his hands, a tentative look on his face. Cammie eyed the knife warily. She was going to feel every single thing Eleven did and she did not particularly like the look of things.

Still, she could hardly voice her objections and she knew this was the best option, so she squeezed Eleven's hand as reassuringly as she could.

"Okay. Alright, El? This is gonna hurt like hell, okay?" Johnathon knelt in front of them.

"Okay," Eleven sobbed.

"Need you to stay real still. Here, you're gonna want to bite down on this, okay?" he passed Eleven a wooden spoon and then handed Cammie one.

They put them in their mouths, Cammie closing her eyes.

"Holy shit. Holy shit," Dustin whispered.

"Do it," Mike nodded.

He was holding Eleven, arms around her waist. Max mirrored his position but with Cammie, kissing behind her ear softly as she squeezed Cammie's body.

"You're gonna be okay. I'm here," Max whispered.

Johnathon put the knife to Eleven's leg and Cammie felt the first twinge of pain. Her leg jerked and when Johnathon sliced open her leg, Cammie dropped the spoon and screamed. It was silent, of course, but her entire body shook with the effort.

Max held onto her body as gently but firmly as she could, more tears leaving her eyes as she saw her girlfriend in pain, again.

Max wondered if they'd ever catch a break. She had seen some of the effects of Cammie's nightmare and the events of tonight, and she'd seen how hurt Cammie got last year. She couldn't even imagine how bad the year before was, or Cammie's traumatic childhood, but she did know that Cammie deserved better than all of this pain. They both deserved better than dealing with this sci-fi bullshit.

"Oh, shit," Dustin gasped.

Johnathon shoved his fingers in the cut and Eleven screeched. Cammie's body started spasming again and she jerked out of Max's hold. She writhed around on the floor as Johnathon tried to find whatever was in Eleven's leg, her entire body feeling like it was on fire.

"Cammie!" Steve said, kneeling beside her and turning her onto her side.

Max quickly grabbed her arms, staring at Dustin's watch as they timed the second seizure of the day.

If Max was honest, it really would be a wonder if Cammie somehow survived tonight. She'd been through so much and they had no medical professionals here to help with the aftermath.

"Jonathan!" Nancy shouted.

"Stop talking! Goddamn it!" he shouted.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Eleven begged.

He pulled away and Cammie's body stopped moving. She forced her eyes open and took a few deep breaths, squeezing Max's hands as she sat up. Cammie looked at Eleven, Eleven meeting her eyes.

"I can help," Cammie mouthed.

Eleven nodded and grabbed her hand. Cammie put her other hand in front of Eleven's leg and Eleven lifted hers. The two of them concentrated on getting that thing out of her, Eleven letting out a sob when they caught the thing in her leg.

Cammie's leg spasmed but she ignored it, focusing on getting this thing out of her sister. Max was rubbing Cammie's arm soothingly, while Steve scribbled down the time of the seizure in his little notebook.

Eleven screamed loudly, making Steve drop his notebook, and Cammie watched as the creature in Eleven's leg wriggled to the surface of the cut.

The window behind them shattered with the force the sisters were using, everyone screaming and ducking for cover. Cammie and Eleven didn't move, continuing to use their powers until they dragged the thing out of Eleven's leg and launched it away from them.

The creature chittered and started slithering away until a boot stomped on it. Eleven collapsed back into Mike's arms and Cammie knelt forward, putting her hands on the floor as she tried not to faint with how exhausted she was.

Max grabbed hold of her a second later, pulling Cammie to rest against her chest.

"I've got you, I've got you, you're okay. You did it, princess," Max whispered, rocking Cammie gently as she cried. "It's almost over," she whispered.

"Cammie!" Hopper shouted.

Cammie looked up and he hurried over, kneeling beside her and Max on the floor. Max carefully turned Cammie to show him the bandages.

"What happened?" Hopper said.

"Russians slit her throat. We'll explain," Dustin said.

Hopper frowned deeply and hugged Cammie around Max, patting Max's shoulder as he caught the haunted look in her eyes. He'd seen the same look in her eyes the year before when they were waiting for Cammie to wake up in hospital and he knew that tonight had really done some damage to both of the girls.

"I'll kill those bastards," he mumbled.

Cammie nodded weakly. Hopper ruffled her hair and walked over to Dustin.

"Let's get you resting with El, sweetheart. We'll need to save your strength," Joyce said, kneeling beside the girls now.

She and Max helped Cammie up, the two of them leading her to where Eleven was lying down on a bench. Max sat down on the bench beside Eleven and Cammie lay her head in Max's lap, grabbing Eleven's hand.

"I'm sorry," Eleven said.

"Don't be," Cammie mouthed.

It wasn't Eleven's fault they were connected.

Eleven just squeezed her hand, closing her eyes. Cammie did the same, relaxing slightly as Max started tracing her fingers over Cammie's face, trying to soothe her to sleep.