EVERYONE GATHERED INSIDE THE BYERS' HOUSEHOLD.

Macie was still in shock. That much she knew. What she didn't know was what the hell was going on. What those creatures were... what the drawings taped around the house were...

She just wanted answers.

But she knew now wasn't the time to start a fight.

Jim was talking on the phone with some higher ups. Who, she didn't know. Another thing to add to the list of things she didn't know.

She sat on the dining room table, shotgun behind her while Max was siting on a chair below her between Macie's legs. The blonde was running her fingers through Max's hair, "What were you guys doing out there?"

"Dustin lost his weird pet and I was just trying to help." Max grumbled, "Didn't know it had friends that were gonna try and kill us."

Macie sighed, "Dad's gonna kill me."

Hopper hung up the phone and they all turned to stare at him, "They didn't believe you, did they?" Dustin asked him,

He turned to face them, "We'll see."

"'We'll see'?" Mike repeated, "We can't just sit here while those things are loose!"

"We stay here and we wait for help." Hopper ordered before he walked away.

With heavy sigh, Macie lifted her leg around Max and got off the table, limping after Jim.

"Jim..."

"Not now, Macie." He mumbled, leaning against the wall in the hallway,

Macie faced him and leaned against the wall so he was looking at her face, "I'm not gonna interrogate you. At least, not right now. But after this, I want answers."

He nodded, "You got it."

She gave him a small smile and squeezed his arm before nodding towards a door, "Is Joyce in there?"

"Yeah. Don't know how to face her after leaving Bob back there." Jim said,

"I'll go in there." Macie offered.

"You don't have to." He replied,

"I want to." She trailed her hand down to his own and squeezed it, "I don't mind."

And with that, she entered the room.

Joyce was sitting on the bed, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She was rocking back and forth, staring at the floor.

"I'm not going to tell you how sorry I am." Macie said quietly as she sat next to her, "Because that's not what you need to hear right now. You need to grieve, and there's nothing wrong with that. So if you need to let it all out, then let it out."

Joyce moved her head to stare at her with her big brown eyes before she burst into tears. Macie wrapped her arms around the older woman, stroking her hair. She wondered how long she had been holding in those tears. Probably since Will had his incident.

After a while, Joyce's sobs lightened to sniffling. They heard arguing coming from the kitchen and Macie stood up, "We better go see what all the fuss is about." She hold out her hand for the older woman to take.

Joyce stood, taking Macie's hand and the two women walked out to find out what they were arguing about,

"I thought we were waiting for your military backup!" Dustin exclaimed,

"We are!" Jim yelled,

"What if they come? How are they gonna stop this? You can't just shoot this with guns." Mike questioned,

"We don't know that! We don't know anything!" Jim responded,

"We know it's already killed everybody in that lab." Mike replied,

"And we know the monsters are gonna molt again." Lucas continued,

"And we know that it's only a matter of time before those tunnels reach this town." Dustin finished, 

"They're right." Joyce spoke, her voice shaking, and everyone turned to face the two women, "We have to kill it. I want to kill it."

Jim approached them, "Me, too, Joyce, okay? But how do we do that? We don't exactly know what we're dealing with here."

"No, but he does." Mike responded, catching their attention as he walked towards the boy on the couch, "If anyone knows how to destroy this thing, it's Will. He's connected to it. He'll know its weakness."

"I thought we couldn't trust him anymore." Max spoke, "That he's a spy for the mind flayer now."

"Yeah, but he can't spy if he doesn't know where he is." Mike suggested,