Chapter 22, The Mall Stakeout
(Ep. 3: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard)

Dustin once again visited Scoops Ahoy.

Instead of spending time with Gwen, Robin, and Daphne to try and crack the code, he dragged Steve during his lunch break out on a stakeout. It actually worked out for them, especially for Daphne since she was offering to work for free just to impress Robin and spend time with her.

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

Gwen was sitting on one of the booths having a slice of pizza. She observed the girls as they laughed at whatever it is they were talking about. Since Daphne didn't have many friends and based on what Robin told her on how she has a hard time socializing, she was proud of how easy it was for them to bond.

To try to make the time go faster, she put on her headphones and listened to her favorite song. She was always reminded of dancing with Steve at the Miss Hawkins Ball, but it was now reminding her of their unresolved tension that occurred due to his avoidance in discussing New York.

Steve was pretty much avoiding her since this morning. He felt like he disappointed her by not having a conversation about it, but he was certain once he started voicing his actual thoughts, she would be even more upset at his response.

Which was why he eagerly agreed to this stakeout with Dustin.

It was much easier to avoid disappointing her if he wasn't with her.

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

He should be focusing, but instead of searching, he became focused on Anna Jacobi and Mark Lewinsky (a couple that reminded him of the 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.

"Just Anna officially confirming that she's with that meathead Mark. He never even came off the bench," Steve suddenly felt a hard whack on the back of his head. He lowered his binoculars to then be met by a threatening looking Dustin.

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

Steve's gaze darkened, appalled he was being accused of the impossible, "I would never have eyes for anyone except for my Gwen. That is a promise I will always keep."

"You better," Dustin warned, but hit him on the back of his head once more. "Then stop looking at them! You're being the worst spy in history. Give me that." He harshly yanked the binoculars from him, forcing Steve to accept defeat unless he wanted to be choked. "I don't even get why you're looking at couples when you're in a relationship."

The reason he agreed to this stakeout was to avoid facing the possibility that his relationship could be at stake once they become long distance. He didn't want to discuss this with Dustin when he could be talking about this with Gwen, but he already knew the attentive teen would notice from a mile away.

As expected, Dustin took his silence as a sign something being wrong. After having lived through their stubbornness, he grew afraid his two favorite people were having trouble and had returned to square one. "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 glared at him as if he had said the most absurd thing, "You're an idiot if you think my sister doesn't love you. Even when you're not around, I can tell you're all she's thinking about. It's annoying."

Now that brought a smile to his face. Despite having confessed their love for each other 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 thought of him when he wasn't around was incredibly relieving.

Dustin shifted his attention back to the mission. He observed every little detail through his spyware, already settling that he would be the only one to care for this and needed to take charge.

Still, he wouldn't do the work without asking more, "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?"

Damn it. He noticed.

Steve nearly considered walking away, but Dustin was like a flea on a dog, "Not that it's any of your business, but we're having trouble talking about something."

He couldn't even say the words, so how would he be able to have this conversation with her?

"And that something is New York," Dustin calmly said, not an ounce of uncertainty.

(Of course he would figure it out).

"You do realize she's leaving at the end of 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 lowered his binoculars, shifting his attention away from the crowd to 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?"

Steve felt like he was being given a sermon. The cold, hard truth was being thrown at him with no warning, but he couldn't complain. He knew he needed this and as much as it hurt his ego, he couldn't disagree. Still, he wouldn't let Dustin know that he was right. He still had his pride, so it was a secret he would take to the grave.

Of course he knew having this long overdue conversation was needed, but how could he admit that he didn't want her to leave? He wanted her to stay, but at what cost? New York was her dream and she worked incredibly hard to get into NYU, so if he were to admit his true feelings, it would only make this move harder for her.

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

Dustin narrowed his eyes, annoyed at his purposeful mistake knowing he could 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 shook 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 Dustin came back, all he had been talking about besides the evil Russian thing was Suzie. The girl he managed to date while staying at that geeky camp.

"Oh, Suzie," Steve began. "Yeah, you mean, 'hotter than Phoebe Cates.' Yeah, that Suzie," he sarcastically said, 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 gave him the side eye, already losing his patience that his friend couldn't get out of his head to notice the solution was right in front of him. All he had to do was talk. Easy as that. He had done harder things before like fighting inter-dimensional creatures, so this should be a piece of cake.

"You just love to complicate your life, don't you?"

"Shut up," Steve returned to his search by looking through the large leaves, but that's when he suddenly caught a whiff of the familiar scent. It was a mixture of roses and delicate perfume, a sign his beloved was near.

"I'm guessing this stakeout hasn't been successful at all," Gwen leaned down to their level, causing Steve and Dustin to jump in surprise.

Steve felt his heart skip a beat.

Gwen took the binoculars from Dustin and looked through them. She scanned through the entire food court up until the second floor, but found nothing out of the ordinary. "Interesting."

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

She handed him the spyware back, "Not a clue."

Million thoughts coursed through Steve's head. She seemed to be in a better mood and a part of him was tempted to pretend nothing happened, but he worried it would only worsen things. All he was aware of was that he wanted to hold her and kiss her, but his overthinking led him to believe she would reject his approaches.

"What's with the long face, Harrington?" Gwen ruffled his hair, offering a small smile. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Steve hastily wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss on her lips, "You just made my day a million times better."

"I figured I should rescue you from velcro head over here," Gwen teased her brother, who merely rolled his eyes at her.

"You two are insufferable," Dustin turned back to the crowd to resume his search. Luck was finally on his side once he noticed a long blond haired man wearing dark sunglasses and carrying a large duffel bag. "We have acquired a target!"

"Seriously?" Gwen lowered her arms from Steve and moved over to her brother. She followed his line of sight, but all she saw were just regular shoppers having the time of their lives.

"Where?" Steve crouched down and looked through the greenery up to where the binoculars were pointing at.

"Ten o'clock. Sam Goody's," Dustin gestured to the second floor, causing the two of them to follow his direction with even more attention.

Steve reached over for the binoculars and looked through them. He tried to see if this kid was actually on to something and to his misfortune, Dustin was right. "Shit. Duffel bag."

Dustin and Steve turned to each other, "Evil Russian."

Gwen didn't have time to see the man since the two of them started running up to the second floor. She stood still for a mere moment, considering if this actually happened and they simply left without a word. "Gee, thanks for the heads up."

With haste, Gwen followed the boys up the escalators and apologized to a few people for bumping into them. It seemed her boyfriend and her brother had forgotten their manners, who kept shoving many out of the way without a care.

"Slow down," Dustin demanded.

Now taking the lead, Steve hurried through the swarm of people. The siblings struggled in keeping up and kept telling him to lessen his speed, but as expected, Steve refused to listen and merely kept going.

"Hold on. Not too fast," Gwen told him.

"We're losin' him."

"Steve, just slow the-"

Steve accidentally bumped into a shopper. The man turned to him with a scowl and glared at him with a look that could kill, "Watch it, dickwad!"

As if a switch had been flipped, Gwen felt a sudden anger gathering inside her. She approached the man and harshly shoved him back, "No, you watch it asshole!"

The man clenched his hands into tight fists and took a step forward to fight back, but Dustin managed to put his foot in front of him to trip him.

"Just keep walking and let it go," Dustin ordered, practically dragging his sister away.

Steve glanced back and finally noticed what happened. He stormed to them faster than a bolt of lightning, quickly deciding to confront the man, but Gwen held him by the arms and took him to the book display case.

"Act casual," she told them.

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

Only it was incredibly hard to pretend to be delighted by the literature when she pressed him against the glass. Steve could feel his heart racing just like it first did before they started dating. Even if they have been together for seven months, it still felt like the first day of when his life began.

Gwen looked up at his face, feeling sudden nervousness like she did back when they first met back in middle school. She started looking into the future, wondering how they were going to work out if they could barely talk about her moving away.

Would it be hard to communicate like right now?

Would anything change between them?

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

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

They continued following the blond, stopping behind a giant pillar as they peeked their heads out and observed him walk so gracefully towards the Jazzercise studio. He walked inside and placed the duffel bag onto a table, unzipping it to reveal a large stereo as the song "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" began playing.

"That's definitely not an evil Russian," Gwen pointed out to then notice the two of them watching the women in their exercise getup with mouths open and eyes increasingly wide. She raised a confused brow at how interested Steve appeared to be that she couldn't help feel an intense fury gather from within.

All the women were obviously beautiful. Their outfits were ten times better than her ridiculous uniform and their curves were smaller and much more firm. Of course he'd be watching them with admiration.

How couldn't he?

Even she was amazed.

"Hey, Steve? Better wipe that drool off your face," Gwen leaned back against the pillar and started walking away. She tried to ignore him calling her name over and over, but when that didn't work, Steve ran up from behind her and carried her back to their spot.

He laid kisses against her cheek, holding her tightly as he ignored her trying to push him off. She tried to keep her frown intact, but damn it, he was just too loving and incredibly charming to resist. "Don't tell me you got jealous."

She scoffed, "I don't get jealous."

Steve gazed at her like she was his God, "You don't ever have to get jealous. I already have the most beautiful girlfriend in the entire world."

Gwen felt her face turn into a blushing pink. She couldn't even be angry at him since he made it incredibly hard to. All she could do was just melt under his embrace as they headed back to the first floor.

"You guys give me a headache," Dustin mumbled as he walked by them back to Scoops Ahoy.

Just when they reached the first floor, they noticed Robin and Daphne glancing around the food court. Their brows were furrowed in deep concentration as they pointed at different locales up to the mall clock.

"What are you guys doing?"

The girls looked down at them with a wide smirk. Their eyes beamed in total ecstasy before Robin said, "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 needed was better equipment that would block out any machines from picking up their messages if they wanted 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 on 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 asked.

"Probably bombs," she sarcastically mumbled as she didn't expect any of them to take her seriously, but her brother surprisingly agreed 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 said in a sarcastic tone. "That's great."

They continued watching when the doors to a room open. It appeared to only hold boxes, but it didn't make sense with all the suspicious looks the workers were exchanging. There definitely had to be something more than just store products.

Steve and Dustin suddenly started to bicker over the binoculars. The youngest pulled back with force while Steve wrestled more for it. The girls just annoyingly watched as the pair argued like a couple of siblings until they became too loud when accidentally bumping the equipment onto the metal.

All of them ducked down and hoped they weren't spotted by those armed men. They waited impatiently and took ragged breaths. Steve held tightly onto Gwen's hand and came up with different ways on how to protect her and the others. If those men started walking up, maybe he could try sneaking up behind them and then attack.

But what if it wouldn't work?

What if it only put them in even more danger?

They could hear a man yell out something in Russian, which only made 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 gestured at everyone to follow her as they crawled toward the exit that would lead them back to the mall. Staying put was not the answer, because if there was one thing she learned was 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 laughed as she tried 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 told her as surprisingly, this was the most normal thing to occur.

At least it wasn't anything about the Upside Down.

It was just some evil Russians.