(Ep. 3: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard)

Dustin once again visited Scoops Ahoy. Only instead of spending time with Robin, Daphne, and Gwen to try and crack the code, he dragged Steve during his lunch break out on a stakeout, leaving the three girls alone as they kept switching places constantly due to Daphne offering to work for free just to impress Robin.

It was safe to say things were going well between the two of them. Without even realizing it, they had become best friends overnight, leaving Gwen behind as their third wheel.

She was sitting on one of the booths having a slice of pizza and observed the girls as they laughed at whatever it is they're talking about. She loved seeing her friends happy considering Daphne hasn't made many friends during her short time back and based on what Robin has told her on how she has a hard time socializing with others, Gwen was proud of how easy it was for her to bond with Daphne.

To try and make the time go faster, she put on her headphones and hummed along to "Call Me" by Blondie, her most recent favorite song. It used to be "Time After Time" since it always reminds her of dancing with Steve at the Miss Hawkins Ball, but things between them aren't the best right now after tensions increased over his avoidance in not wanting to discuss New York. So for now, Blondie it is.

Steve has been pretty much avoiding her since this morning. He feels like he disappointed her by not talking about it, but he's certain once he starts voicing his actual thoughts, she'd become even more upset over his response.

Which is why he eagerly agreed to this stakeout with Dustin. It's much easier to avoid disappointing her if he's not with her.

Now the two of them are hidden behind some bushes around the food court. He's looking through Dustin's nerdy binoculars in search of any suspicious looking person - that according to Dustin - should be wearing sunglasses, camo, an earpiece and be carrying an overly large duffel bag.

He should be focusing, but instead of searching for a blond Russian, he focuses on Anna Jacobi and Mark Lewinsky - the newly formed couple that only reminds him of the increased tension between him and Gwen.

"See anything?" Dustin narrowed his eyes and tried searching with his naked eye, but none of the mall rats fit his profile.

"Can't believe Anna is with that meathead Mark. He never even came off the bench!" Steve felt a hard whack on the back of his head. He lowered the binoculars to then regret it when being faced by a threatening looking Dustin.

"Are you seriously looking at another girl when you're with my sister?"

"Of course not! I'm just pointing out an observation. I don't have eyes for anyone except for my girl," he raised the binoculars again, trying to ignore the teen's now widening smirk.

"You better," he warned, "And stop looking at them! You're being the worst spy in history. Give me that." Reaching over to Steve, he yanked the binoculars from him, causing them to mutter a few insults under their breaths. Steve had to pull himself off since the kid would most definitely choke him if he didn't give in. "I don't even get why you're looking at couples when you're in a relationship."

Steve runs a hand through his hair, sighing in deep concern as he really didn't want to remember that his relationship could be at stake when they become long distance, and it's not like he wanted Dustin to worry about them when all of their problems are probably just in his head.

Only his silence worsened everything as Dustin was now losing track of the mission when worrying his two favorite people were having trouble now. "Why the sigh? Don't tell me you two hate each other again."

"What? No. I still love her very much and I hope she does too."

Dustin scoffed before punching his shoulder, "You're a complete idiot if you think my sister doesn't love you. You can practically see it every time she looks at you. Even when you're not around, I can tell she's thinking about you."

Now that brought a smile to his face. Despite saying 'I love you' back in New Year's, there was still an insecure part of him that worried he was truly going insane and had hallucinated everything. That perhaps she didn't love him and it was all in his head, but hearing that she thinks of him when he's not around is incredibly relieving.

Narrowing his eyes to focus back onto the mission, Dustin observes every little detail through his spyware. Clearly he's the only one in his right mind to care for this so he has to be the one to take charge.

"So now that you're not questioning my sister's feelings for you, which I don't even get why you would, care to tell me why you're avoiding her?" he questions, still gazing at the foodcourt.

Damn it. He noticed.

Steve stares completely perplexed, wondering how he'd be able to get out of this. "Not that it's any of your business, but she and I, we're having trouble talking about... something." He can't even say the words so how will he be able to have a long conversation about her moving away? The funny thing is, Steve had been expecting Dustin to make a bigger fuss about this, but he seems strangely calm about it.

"And that something is New York," he points out.

Fuck my life, Steve thought.

Not knowing how to respond, he simply stares ahead and waves his hand around all nervously.

"You realize she's leaving in August, right? Isn't it time you man up and face it now? Or how will you get through it once she's gone?" Dustin lowers his binoculars, turning his attention away from the crowd to focus on him. "Now that you're out of high school, which means you're technically an adult, don't you think it's time you start acting like it and face your problems instead of running away from them every chance you can?"

Steve turns silent. Not knowing what to say because let's face it, Dustin's right, but Steve's ego is way too high to let the kid know. Sure talking about it head on is the right thing to do, but how can he share an honest conversation when he's not going to be able to say what he actually thinks? He wants her to stay but at what cost? New York is her dream and she's worked her ass off to get into NYU, so making this move harder for her will only worsen things.

"So you just come back from Camp Know... Nothing and think you know all the shit in the world?" he complains all to avoid receiving anymore life lessons from the wise teen.

Dustin narrows his eyes, annoyed at his purposeful mistake knowing he can read his hat with the actual name of his camp, "It's Camp Know Where, asshole. And no, I know this from all the shit I've learned from life."

He shakes his head, turning away as he didn't expect this stakeout to have this teenager teach him lessons about life.

"If you want to have a good relationship, don't you think being honest is the key? Just take a look at Suzie and I. We're always honest with each other and we're happier than ever."

And there it is. A chance to switch the topic to end this frustrating lecture. Ever since he came back, all he's been talking about besides the evil Russian thing is Suzie. The girl he managed to date while staying at that geeky camp.

"Oh, Suzie," Steve begins, "Yeah, you mean, 'hotter than Phoebe Cates.' Yeah, that Suzie." Steve sarcastically says, causing the younger kid to glare at him. "You're out here spitting advice when you managed to score that beautiful girlfriend with my advice. Because that's how this works, Henderson. I give you the advice, you follow through, okay? Not the other way around, all right, pea-brain?"

Dustin gives him the side eye, already losing his patience that his friend can't get out of his head to notice the solution is right in front of him. All he has to do is talk. Easy as that. He's done harder things before like fighting interdimensional creatures so this should be a piece of cake.

"You just love to complicate your life, don't you?" he mumbles and turns back to continue searching for that Russian.

"Shut up," Steve retorts and returns to his search by looking through the large leaves before catching a whiff of the familiar scent. The mixture of roses and delicate perfume, indicating that Gwen is near or possibly standing right behind them.

She takes a few steps forward and leans down in between them. Both Dustin and Steve jump back, bringing a laugh to escape.

"I'm guessing this stakeout hasn't been successful at all," she points out as she takes the binoculars from her brother. Her eyes squint in complete concentration, scanning through every inch of the foodcourt up until the second floor that has nothing but normal looking people that don't resemble any suspicious Russian.

"Do you even know what you're looking for?" an annoyed Dustin asks.

She laughs and hands the spyware back, "Not a clue."

She seems to be in a better mood. Should I say something? Should I pretend like nothing happened?

A million thoughts run through Steve's head. He can't help but want to hold her and kiss her like he does every time he sees her, but what if she's still angry? What if she doesn't want anything from him? Should he-

He's interrupted when Gwen ruffles his hair and smiles at him. "What's with the long face? Aren't you happy to see me?"

He smiles and immediately places his arms around her. "You just made my day a million times better by coming here."

"Of course I did," she presses her lips against his, embracing the pleasure he inflicts as she's been missing him like crazy despite being just a few hours separate.

Dustin looks up at them with a smile, but he still can't shake the worry that Steve's dishonesty would become a problem later on. It took a long time for them to get together so he hopes nothing between them gets ruined because of one simple mistake.

He turns back to the crowd and resumes his search, when he notices a long haired blond man wearing dark sunglasses and carrying a large duffle bag. "Don't mean to interrupt you two lovebirds, but we have acquired a target!"

"Seriously?" Gwen drops her arms from Steve and moves over to her brother. She tries following his line of sight, but all she sees is just regular shoppers having the time of their lives.

"Where?" Steve asks as he dives down and looks through the greenery up to where the binoculars are staring at.

"Ten o'clock. Sam Goody's," Dustin points over at the second floor, making the two of them follow his direction with even more attention.

Steve reaches over for the binoculars and looks through them. Trying to see if this kid is actually on to something or is mistaken, but that's when he notices the suspicious looking man. "Shit. Duffel bag."

Gwen rolls her eyes as she has chosen to believe this is just another of her brother's antics that they'll laugh about by the end of the week. She stands back with her arms folded and watches as the two stare up at the second floor in complete astonishment.

Dustin and Steve turn to each other and say, "Evil Russian."

"This can't be real," Gwen says, but despite not believing this, she follows the boys as they run up the escalators following their wanted man. She has to apologize to a few people for bumping into them seeing as those two have forgotten their manners.

Once they reach the second floor, Steve takes the lead and hurries through the swarm of people. The Henderson siblings struggle in keeping up as for this, Steve has become incredibly fast for.

"Slow down," Dustin demands.

"We're losin' him."

Struggling to keep up, Gwen tries moving past the crowd as carefully as possible. Knowing bumping into any of the mall rats would infuriate them, she doesn't want to risk exploding to them.

"Steve, just slow the-"

She's interrupted when Steve accidentally bumps into a shopper. The man turns to him with a scowl and looks him up and down, "Watch it, dickwad!"

Without even realizing it, Gwen pushes herself against him and exclaims, "No, you watch it you complete asshole!"

The man looks back at her with widened eyes and tight knuckles. He starts taking a step forward to get ready to fight back. Gwen gets ready to send the first punch when she feels her brother pull her back.

"Just keep walking and let it go," Dustin orders. He doesn't expect the man to listen, but surprisingly, he walks away with a shake of the head.

Steve turns around and notices what happened and immediately runs back to them. Before he could say anything, she tells them, "Act casual."

Dustin is quick to run to the payphone nearby, picking it up as he says a few things while glancing over at the blond. The other two simply pretend to be interested in the display case of some newly released books.

Only it's incredibly hard to pretend to be delighted by the literature pieces when he pressed her against the glass. Steve could feel his heart racing just like it first did before they started dating. Even if they've been together for seven months, it still feels like the first day of when his life began.

She looks up at his face. Feeling sudden nervousness like she did back when they first met back in middle school. Gwen starts looking into the future, wondering how they're going to work out if they can barely talk about her moving. Will it be hard to communicate like right now? Would anything change between them?

She doesn't know what he's thinking, and that's the terrifying part. Even if he's angry or hurt, she just wants to know his actual thoughts on this. Anything is better than receiving avoidance. But he's just too reluctant to open up, and that's the worst part about this.

"Coast is clear," Dustin drags them by the arm, pulling them apart to only wonder what their actual thoughts are on the Big Apple.

They continue following the blond. Stopping behind a giant pillar as they peek their heads out and observe him walk so gracefully towards the Jazzercise studio. He walks inside and places the duffel bag onto a table, unzipping it to reveal a large stereo as the song "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" starts playing.

"That's definitely not an evil Russian," Gwen points out to then notice the two boys watching the women in their exercise getup with mouths open and eyes increasingly wide. She raises a confused brow at how interested Steve appears to be that she can't help feel an intense fury form within her.

All the women are obviously beautiful. Their outfits are ten times better than any of hers and their curves are smaller and much more firm. Of course he'd be watching them in admiration. How can't he? Even she's amazed.

"Hey, Steve? Better wipe that drool off your face," she leans back against the pillar and starts walking away. She tries to ignore him calling her name over and over, but when that doesn't work, Steve runs up from behind her and carries her back to their spot.

He presses kisses against her cheek, holding her tightly as he ignores her trying to push him off. She tries to keep her frown intact, but damn it, he's just too loving and incredibly charming to resist. "Don't tell me, did my little idiot get jealous?"

"Little idiot?" she scoffs and playfully hits his shoulder, causing him to pretend to wince back in pain.

"That's right, cause you're a complete idiot if you believe I'd ever have eyes for anyone other than you," he smiles as she rolls her eyes and tries acting as if his words didn't make her heart melt.

"You guys give me a headache," Dustin mumbles as he walks by them back to Scoops Ahoy. They laugh and follow behind him, slightly disappointed running around was of complete waste.

Just as when they reach the first floor, they see Robin and Daphne glancing around the foodcourt. Their brows furrow in deep concentration as they point at different locales up to the mall clock.

"What are you guys doing?"

The girls look down at them with a wide smirk. Their eyes beam in total ecstasy before Robin says, "We cracked the code."

__________________

Gwen was completely stunned. To learn that the transmission Dustin's Cerebro picked up had actually come from Starcourt Mall was frightening and unbelievable.

It didn't make sense for this insipid mall to be the carrier for Russians when Hawkins Lab would be of much greater use, but she had to admit, those Russians were smart to settle their location in the least expected place. What they need is better equipment that would block out any machines from picking up their messages if they want to remain inconspicuous.

Once the rest of the group was caught up, all five huddled on the roof of the mall under the pouring rain. Their raincoats were of no help since everyone was dripping wet regardless of how much they tried to cover themselves.

"Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes," Robin informed the group.

Dustin's trusty binoculars actually came in hand this time as he was able to focus more clearly onto the now suspicious mall workers. They seemed completely harmless just carrying boxes in and out, which confused Gwen even more on how this code just had to be related to the mall.

"Do you see anything?" Daphne loudly asked through the thunder.

"They're with that whistling guy, ten o'clock!"

Gwen squinted her eyes for a better look, but she had to continuously blink to prevent any water from drowning her eyes. Out of all days, today just had to rain incredibly hard.

"What do you think is in there?" Steve asks.

"Probably bombs," she sarcastically mumbles as she doesn't expect any of them to take her seriously, but her brother surprisingly agrees when adding that there might be guns inside those boxes.

"Whatever it is, they're armed to the teeth."

Yeah, that's definitely not a good sign.

"Great," Steve says in a sarcastic tone. "That's great."

They continue watching when the doors to a room open. It appears to only hold boxes, but what's up with all the suspicious looks the workers are exchanging? There definitely has to be something more than just store products.

Steve and Dustin start to bicker over the binoculars. The youngest pulls back with force while Steve wrestles more for it. The girls just annoyingly watch as the pair argue like a couple of siblings until they became too loud when accidentally bumping the equipment onto the metal.

All of them duck down as they hope they weren't spotted by those armed men. They wait impatiently and take ragged breaths. Steve holds tightly to Gwen's hand and comes up with different ways on how to protect her and the others. If those men start walking up, maybe he can try sneaking up behind them and then attack. But what if it doesn't work? What if it puts them in even more danger?

They hear a man yell out something in Russian. Only making them worry even more that he might have informed the others to attack or something.

Note to self. Learn Russian immediately, Gwen thought.

"Let's get out of here," she motions everyone to follow her as they crawl towards the exit that would lead them back to the mall. Staying put is not the answer because if there's one thing she's learned is not to wait like sitting ducks.

Everyone took a breath of relief once they made it safely back inside. They left trails of water from how soaking wet they were, but wouldn't bother cleaning up.

"Well, I think we found your Russians," Robin announced.

Daphne nervously laughs as she tries shaking off the water from her raincoat, "What did I get myself into?"

"Believe me, this isn't the strangest thing that's happened in Hawkins," Gwen tells her as surprisingly, this has become the most normal thing to occur. At least it's not about the Upside Down or those demo dogs and the mind flayer.

It's just some evil Russians.