HAWKINS, INDIANA — 1985.

     "HEY GUYS, SORRY TO INTERRUPT THE little romantic stroll, but we've got an issue."

Robin grabbed Tess and Steve's attention, the two of them catching up with the others as they kneeled down. There was a sound of static hissing from Dustin's walkie-talkie, Theresa taking it from his backpack as someone began talking.

Listening to the man's voice for a moment, Tess and Robin both recognized that he was speaking Russian.

"It's the code," Theresa said, muttering the Russian words the man was speaking.

Dustin's eyes widened. "Wherever the broadcast is coming from is close."

"And if there's one thing we know about the signal, it's that it can reach the surface," Robin added.

Tess quickly stood up. "Let's go."

They all followed her lead, Steve catching up to Theresa as they heard voices up ahead. The Russians were close.

"Right here," Tess held out an arm to stop Steve, ducking behind a wall and looking back at them with a finger over her lips.

She waited for the men to pass by, letting out a breath.

"Okay, it's clear. Come on."

They rounded the corner, Theresa taking the lead.

"Where the hell are we?" Steve questioned, all of them coming to a halt at what they saw before them.

There were people everywhere, and not just guards. Tess raised her head, spotting one keeping watch from up above. He turned in their direction and Theresa quickly ducked, pushing Steve and Erica back behind a stack of boxes.

"Shit."

"I saw it," Erica whispered. "First floor, northwest."

"Saw what?" Steve replied.

"The comms room!"

Steve blinked. "You saw the comms room?"

"Correct," Erica responded with exasperation.

He turned his head for a moment. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Erica nodded. "The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there."

Dustin sighed. "That could be a hundred different things."

Theresa thought for a moment. She trusted Erica's word, because she knew Erica was smart.

"I think she's right," Tess said at once, turning her head to peek around the boxes. The room Erica had been talking about was in her line of vision.

She inhaled sharply. "Alright. I think we've got a chance of getting in there. We've got to move fast and stay low. Got it?"

They all nodded in agreement. Theresa nodded back.

"Okay."

She took another deep breath, getting onto her feet and sneaking to the other side of the room as quickly and quietly as possible. They went in a single file line, keeping low and hiding behind more cargo. They came closer and closer to the room, Tess stopping again to see what they were doing.

A man opened the door and walked out, leaving it open. Now was their chance. Theresa made a beckoning motion behind her, darting across to the room as fast as she could.

Steve shut the door behind him once he was the last one in, Tess letting out a relieved sigh. But as they turned around, they discovered that they were not alone in the room. A man turned in his chair, quickly standing up as he came face to face with the group.

Theresa's mouth fell open, trying to think of something. The guard began to reach for his gun, so Tess stepped forward to say something.

"Nedelya dlinnaya!"

The man frowned, confused. She faltered, panicking. The only Russian she knew was the code.

"Uh... deystvovatʹ ostorozhno?"

The man shook his head, saying something in response. He reached for his gun again, when Steve suddenly yelled and charged at him. Tess' eyes widened in shock, gasping as Steve began to take on the Russian guard. And, if she was being honest, Theresa really did not like his odds.

The man slammed Steve into the control panel, punching him in the stomach. Steve elbowed him, hard, and grabbed the phone sitting in front of him. With a hard swing, he brought it across the guard's face and swiftly knocked him out.

The other four stood there in shock while Steve caught his breath, panting.

"Dude!" Dustin exclaimed. "You did it! You won a fight!"

Theresa was visibly impressed. She had not been expecting that outcome. He walked back over to her, Tess giving him a high five.

"Nice job."

Dustin began looting through the Russian guard's pockets, grabbing a keycard.

"What are you doing?" Tess inquired.

"Getting us our ticket out of here," he replied, showing them what he was holding.

Erica scoffed. "You want to walk all the way back?"

Dustin sarcastically replied, "Well, we can hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe."

"Have a picnic? We came here for the radio!" Erica snapped.

Theresa rolled her eyes. "Hey, hey. Stop arguing. I can't deal with it right now."

Dustin turned to her. "Oh yeah? How do you think I felt when you and Steve were arguing constantly last year?"

"Shut up," Steve cut in, both he and Tess knowing Dustin had a point.

"Guys!"

Robin stood to the side, in front of a staircase that Theresa had just noticed were there.

"There's something up there," Robin continued.

They did not hesitate to race up the stairs, Robin going first. She opened the door, sneaking in while everyone else followed. Through the room they entered there was another set of doors, though they had large glass panes which the group could see through.

Theresa's eyes widened, adjusting to the bright light of whatever she was looking at. It was a massive machine, whirring at light speed and crackling with electricity. A laser, she realized. They were using a giant laser on something.

"What the fuck..."

She swallowed, looking over at Steve and Dustin. "That's– that's the gate."

They nodded in agreement with her. At once, the five of them all headed back down while Robin began to ask questions.

"I don't understand, you all have seen this before?"

Steve tilted his head. "Not exactly–"

"Then what, exactly?"

"All you need to know is it's bad," Dustin interjected.

Theresa took a few deep breaths. Robin stopped walking, throwing a hand up.

"And you guys know about this how?" she questioned.

Tess pursed her lips. "Look, it's a really long story–"

"Um, Steve?" Erica gathered their attention. "Where's your Russian friend?"

All of them looked down at the ground, where the guard had been only minutes ago. Then, without warning, an alarm began to blare.

Steve ran to the door, opening it and looking out.

"Steve, what the hell are you doing!" Tess ran over, pulling him back and slamming the door shut. But it was too late; the soldiers standing outside had already seen them.

"Go go go!" she began to push them all in the opposite direction, sprinting as fast as she could around the corner and up the stairs.

Robin opened the door to the room that occupied the giant laser, all of the men in lab coats and Russian uniforms turning to them.

"Goddammit, keep going!" Theresa ran faster down a set of stairs, coming to a dead end.

The laser was only a few feet away from them, Dustin swearing multiple times as they frantically looked around for somewhere else to run.

Steve grabbed Theresa's hand. "This way!" He ran down another set of stairs, dragging Tess with him as more soldiers began to pursue them.

Tess looked back to make sure Erica, Dustin and Robin were still with them, reaching out for Erica by her backpack and yanking her into the nearest room. Steve slammed the door shut once they were all inside, putting all of his weight against it.

"Tess!" he called for the girl's help, Theresa running over and trying to keep the guards from getting in.

Dustin, Erica and Robin were on an upper level, watching them. "Come on!" Dustin yelled.

"Go, just get out of here!" Steve replied, Dustin immediately shaking his head.

"Come on, now!" he persisted.

Steve was not listening. "No! Just go get some help, okay?"

Theresa looked over at her sister. "Erica!"

The younger Sinclair turned her attention to Tess.

"Stay calm and use your head, okay?"

Erica hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. She grabbed Dustin by the arm, forcing him to go with her and Robin.

"I won't forget you!" Dustin dramatically shouted, the other three yelling at him in unison to go.

Just then, the door gave way. Theresa and Steve were knocked backwards, sliding into the wall behind them. Within moments there was a surge of Russian soldiers all pointing guns at them.

Tess inhaled sharply, raising her hands in surrender beside Steve.

She wasn't sure how they were going to make it out of this one.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

     THERESA WAS THROWN INTO A ROOM with Steve.

As she hit the ground next to them, her hands bound in front of her, the first thing she noticed was Steve's face.

"Holy shit," Tess wiggled around to get on her knees beside him, shaking him. "Steve. Steve, wake up."

Her chest welled with anger, raising her head to the Russians.

"What the fuck did you do, you assholes?"

In response, one of them brought the hilt of his gun to her face. She fell back at the impact, pain shooting up her nose as she felt blood trickle from it.

The man spoke something in Russian, one of the guards picking her up as she resisted with as much strength as she could. She was forced into a chair, back to back with Steve who still seemed to be unconscious.

"Steve!" she called, getting no response. The guards brought a belt around the two of them, trapping them.

Theresa could not see what was going on, taking slow breaths.

"I swear to God, if you touch him again–"

"You will do what?" the Russian man taunted, chuckling. "I think your boyfriend need a doctor."

He walked around to her side, coming face to face with Tess. "Good thing," he continued, squatting down in front of her. "We have the very best."

The soldiers all began laughing as Theresa glared into the face of the general, gritting her teeth.

"Why don't you go fuck yourself, you dirty fucking pig?"

She brought her foot up to his groin with a hard kick, the man giving a groan as he took a few steps back.

Once he somewhat recovered, the general got in her face yet again.

"You're going to regret that, suka."

He began to leave, the rest of the soldiers following. Tess did not say a word as they slammed the door behind them, leaving her and Steve in the room alone.

She threw her head back, staring up at the ceiling as she began to look around for an escape. There had to have been some way out of there.

"Ugh, God."

"Steve?" Theresa's eyes widened at the sound of his voice, exhaling a laugh. "Oh, thank God. Are you alright?"

He drew in a shallow breath. "My ears are ringing, and I can't really breath, my eyes feels like it's about to pop out of my skull, but– you know, apart from that I'm doing pretty good."

Tess let out a small laugh. "Okay, I can work with that. Yeah, so I think I've got a plan."

"That's relieving to hear," Steve replied. "Shoot."

She turned to her left. "Okay, do you see that table to your right?"

He looked to the opposite side.

"Your other right."

"Oh. Yeah."

She nodded. "Alright. There's a pair of scissors on that table, and I think that if we both move at the same time, we can get over there. I can kick the table and maybe bump those scissors into your lap."

"And then I can cut the binds and get us out of here," Steve finished.

"See? Catching on already." Theresa shifted in her seat. "Okay, so on the count of three, we're gonna hop. You ready?"

Steve nodded. "Yeah, yeah."

"Alright. One, two, three!"

They scooted the chairs over in a single hop, Steve starting to laugh.

"Holy shit, this is gonna work!"

Tess wiggled around. "Let's do it again, on three. One, two, three!"

They moved in sync again, inching closer to the table. Theresa's thighs were burning because she was not used to this much exercise.

"One more time," she said, counting down again.

On three they moved, but this attempt did not go as well. The both of them began falling sideways, unable to even stop it as they came crashing down onto the hard tile.

"Shit," Tess groaned, feeling a sharp pain in her skull. Steve felt the same pain as well, wheezing.

Theresa was so frustrated that she could not anything else but laugh. Steve, who could not see her face, mistook her laughter for crying.

"Hey, hey, don't cry–"

He paused, coming to realize that she was, in fact, giggling uncontrollably. Steve knit his brows, confused.

"Are you– are you laughing?"

Tess nodded, half of her face laying against the cold floor. "Yeah, yeah. I just... things were supposed to go back to normal. We were supposed to have a normal summer and do fun, ordinary couple things. And now– now we're going to die together in a secret Russian military base. Kind of romantic, isn't it?"

Steve exhaled a small laugh. "This was my next date idea."

She laughed again, swallowing. Tess pulled her lips in, thinking for a moment while she tried to calm her hysteria.

"For what it's worth, I'd rather be stuck here with you than anyone else," Theresa muttered.

Steve smiled softly, moving his head. "That's the sweetest thing you've ever said to me."

Tess went quiet once more, her smile fading. It began to sink in that there was a possibility these could have been her last moments.

"Tess?" Steve called her name. "You still there?"

"Yeah," she replied. "I'm still here. I was just... thinking."

"Ah. There's no telling what kind of thoughts you could think with that brain of yours. Sometimes it's hard for me to tell, if I'm being honest."

She smiled again. "You calling me difficult?"

Steve raised a shoulder. "More like... hard to figure out."

Theresa moved her head back until she could feel the back of Steve's, resting against it.

"Well, what do you want to know?"

Steve laid there for a moment, thinking hard. There were a million things he wanted to know, but answering all of them would have taken a lifetime.

"What's something you've always wanted to do but never gotten the chance?"

Tess pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Hmm... take a roadtrip. But– take a roadtrip with someone I love, and not just by myself. I think it'd be more fun that way."

Steve was silent as he took this all in, keeping his head against hers.

"So... would I– would I be considered someone you love?"

Theresa closed her eyes, a smile growing on her face that Steve could not see. She opened her eyes again, and Steve could feel her nod her head.

"Yeah. You are."

notes.
god what if i just started crying rn

i'm so impatient i'm ready to start writing for season 4 and i don't want to rush this season but AHHHH i'm so ready for s4 with them

theresa and steve roadtrip when??? it's going to happen one day, i don't care if i have to fight god himself i'm making that shit happen

when she kicks a russian general in the balls 😍 we love our girlboss coming through once again

i need my brotp jonathan and tess to have some more interactions, i hope i can make that happen before he goes off to california 😔

how do you think theresa and murray will interact?