7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Jessica couldn't get her mind off of what Steve had been a part of. He'd allowed Tommy and Carol to paint those awful words in a place where anyone could see them – they were on the main street in town. He'd let them do it even though he'd claimed to actually care about Nancy. He shouldn't have done it to anyone, but definitely not to someone he had feelings for.

What if it had been her? Steve . . . would he have let Tommy and Carol say those things about her if she'd done something he didn't like? He already allowed them to treat her as an outsider just because she wasn't a partier and didn't get stupid-drunk when she did hang out with them at parties.

On the drive home from the police station Jessica's anger pretty much dissipated, but her disappointment remained as strong as ever. Steve Harrington was not this person; she didn't want him to be this person, someone who would break other people's stuff, someone who would lash out just because things weren't going his way.

Why was she still friends with him? They hadn't been Steve and Jessica in so long she barely remembered what it felt like. No, she had just been the girl who hung around three of the cool kids in eleventh grade.

At home, she made herself a sandwich, ate only half of it, and then went upstairs to dress for work.

She told her mom that she wouldn't be home right after work because she was hanging out with friends.

"Steve?"

"No, Mom. Other people. Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers. I'll call if I'm gonna be out past midnight."

When Jessica parked her car in front of the theater she saw that Bill, her boss, was in the middle of washing the paint off of the marquee. He was up on a super-high ladder and his eyes practically lit up when he spotted her getting out of the car.

Great. She knew what she would be doing for most of her shift. Standing on the top rung of a ladder trying to keep her balance while washing off those stupid words. She hated heights; she was terrified of them.

If she fell and killed herself, she was going to haunt Steve Harrington forever.

A few blocks over, Steve was sitting on the trunk of his car outside a Fair Mart convenient store. Tommy had gone in to get him some Aspirin and a soda. Steve's head was killing him where Byers had nailed him right above his left eyebrow. His lip and nose were busted, and there was a slash across his cheek.

"Don't worry," Tommy said once he came back out. "He'll need more than Aspirin when we're done with him."

"If the creep ever gets out," Carol added. "The cops should just lock him up forever. Did you see the look on his face?"

Carol fake punched Tommy and tried to look angry.

"He probably had the same look on his face whenever he killed his brother, right?"

Tommy swatted Steve on the shoulder in a brotherly fashion, but Steve wasn't feeling very familial at the moment. He couldn't get Nancy's face out of his mind. He'd really hurt her; she'd been angry when she'd reached them, which was understandable, but it was the tears that had been in her eyes that Steve couldn't get out of his head. He hadn't enjoyed hurting her. And Jonathan had snapped, in a way that Steve hadn't expected because Byers had always appeared so passive in everything.

And then there was Jessica. She hadn't really exhibited any anger, but he'd disappointed her by going along with Tommy and Carol. Tommy had been the one with the paint can, but Steve hadn't done anything to stop him from doing what he'd done, which made Steve just as much of a jerk as the other two.

Nancy had been right. He had gone to her house the night before, to sneak in and see her, because he'd been worried about how she'd been acting – basically finding reasons not to be around him since they'd slept together. He wanted to know why, wanted to know if he'd done anything to upset her aside from the Barb thing, because he'd already apologized for that. He'd found Byers in Nancy's bed, sitting beside her, his jacket around her, and Nancy had allowed it.

Needless to say, he left feeling jealous and hurt. Tommy and Carol had gone with him to Nancy's house because he hadn't planned on staying long at all, just go in and make sure she was okay, and then leave again. They had been the first ones he'd been with, and so they were the ones he talked to, ranted to, more like, and that was when Tommy thought of the brilliant idea of letting everyone else know what Nancy had done. If Steve hadn't been so upset, he wouldn't have agreed. He probably would've knocked Tommy's teeth in.

As it was, one impulsive decision had hurt the two people he cared most about.

"Oh, I just got an image of him making that face while he and Nancy were screwing."

"And, hey, Jessica was with them. What if he's doing her too? Our little Golden Girl." Tommy said. "What if it's like some weird triangle thing?"

"For once in your life, just shut your mouths," Steve snapped, honestly not knowing who he was angrier for – Jessica or Nancy. He knew he didn't like Tommy calling Jessica their Golden Girl.

Carol had been smiling, joking around, and she seemed confused about Steve's statement. Maybe she really didn't understand why he was upset. Maybe she didn't understand what she was doing was wrong, that her actions had consequences.

"What's your problem?" Tommy asked.

"You're both assholes. That's my problem."

"Are you serious right now?"

"Yeah, I'm serious," Steve answered and stood up from the car. "You shouldn't have done that."

"Done what? Call Nancy out for what she really is? I don't remember you asking me to stop."

Steve walked to the driver side door, opened the door, but turned to face Tommy.

"I should've put that spray paint right down your throat. You know, neither of you ever really cared about her, you never even liked her, because she's not miserable like you two. She actually cares about other people."

"A slut with a heart of gold," Carol quipped.

"I told you to watch your mouth."

"Hey!" Tommy exclaimed, pushing Steve against the car. "I don't know what's gotten into you, man, but you don't talk to her that way."

"Get out of my face." Steve shoved back, thinking he was about to get into his second fight that day.

"Or what? You gonna fight me now too? Because you couldn't take Jonathan Byers, so I wouldn't recommend it."

To be honest, Tommy had never been in a real fight, not that Steve had ever seen. Tommy had never had to fight anyone one-on-one. He'd always had someone fighting with him on his side. Steve was actually pretty certain that if he hadn't been hurt, he could've taken Tommy, but he was, so . . .

In the end, Tommy just wasn't worth the effort, and Steve left. He drove the very short distance to the theater, saw Jessica on a ladder – a bucket of something and a rag on the top rung – scrubbing at the marquee. The word 'starring' and Nancy's first name had already been washed away, but 'The Slut' Wheeler was still there, plain as day. The words made him feel sick to his stomach now.

Some other worker was there keeping the ladder steady.

"Need a hand?" he called up to her.

She glanced down. At first, she appeared to want to ignore him, but then she began to come down. She gripped the sides of the ladder tightly. Steve could see her arms shaking. He knew she hated heights. He didn't know why, but she was terrified of them.

Once on the ground she said, "You look awful."

"Yeah."

"I thought you'd only busted your lip and eyebrow, but your nose and cheek got hit pretty good too."

The blood had hidden most of the damage to the last two, but once he'd cleaned his face as well as he'd been able to without a bathroom he'd been able to see the gashes along with the swelling and bruising from all the blows that had landed.

"Who knew Jonathan Byers could fight?" Steve quipped.

Jessica's face tightened and she told the other guy – the one that had been holding the ladder – that he could go on inside. She'd hold the ladder steady for Steve. So he went in, and Jessica turned back to him.

"Do you even know why we were mad at you? Why Nancy was upset? Why Jonathan was?"

"I never should've let Tommy and Carol do this." He pointed at the leftover words. "They were with me last night when I went to check on Nancy. That's how I found out. Byers was in Nancy's bed and they were hugging. I – What was I supposed to think? So when Tommy brought up –" he gestured again at the words "- I thought 'sure, she hurt me, so why not?' I realize it was stupid and childish, but . . . There it is."

Jessica crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you sorry?"

"Would I be here if I wasn't?"

"Hm. Jonathan hates his dad. When you compared him to him . . . But he loves his mom, and you insulted her. You pretty much insulted Will too."

"If it's any consolation, I ditched Tommy and Carol."

"For good?"

Steve nodded. "They do nothing but cause trouble."

"I've been telling you that." Jessica gestured toward the ladder. "Go ahead and get started. We can still talk."

"About why you've been hanging around with Nancy and Byers?"

"Sure," she answered. "Though I don't know why it matters."

Talk they did. Jessica told him about why she'd taken to hanging around Nancy and Jonathan. She explained the picture of Barb at his house, and the creature Jonathan had gotten a shot of.

"We went to him to see if there was some kind of explanation, but Jonathan couldn't think of one. We went with him to the dark room at the school so he could mess around with it. The . . . thing was still in the frame."

"The creature that Nancy saw in the woods outside my house?"

"Yeah."

"Well, she was just freaked out. Wasn't she?"

"If you say so, but Jonathan's mom says she's seen it too."

"Yeah, but Joyce Byers isn't –"

"Be careful how you finish that sentence. I'll let go of the ladder. Besides, you're supposed to be turning over a new leaf. Don't ruin it already."

She grinned to show him she'd basically forgiven him already, but he still had some making up to do. It was only fair. Plus, she wanted to know how serious he was about becoming a nice guy – or at least a non-jerk. But he'd had a point. Joyce Byers alone was not a great witness – she'd had too many anxiety episodes where she'd shut everything and everyone out, where she'd basically shut herself down. It wasn't hard for people to not take her seriously.

"I've seen it too," she admitted. "That's why I've been hanging out with Nancy and Jonathan. I . . . it's not as lonely when I'm with people who understand."

That wasn't technically a lie. It was true of her new friendships with everyone. She was a part of something huge in both of her new groups. The kids were harboring a girl that people were searching for – the people were probably working for the government and could seriously hurt them were they ever found out – and then there were Nancy and Jonathan and the creature.

She still thought they were crazy for having gone after it the night before. They were even crazier for what they were planning to do that night.

If they didn't kill the monster, it would probably kill them, but they had to try for Will.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't see it until last night. And after what happened this morning . . ."

"Right."

"We think maybe this is the thing that got Will and Barb. Jonathan and Nancy went hunting for it . . . I went with them."

"What?" Steve said, louder than necessary – loud enough that people across the street looked their way. In his excitement he made the ladder move within her hands, causing her to grip it more firmly and yell at him to be careful. Then . . .

"I know. It was stupid, but . . . aside from Joyce, we didn't think the adults would believe us. They wouldn't do anything . . . so we did."

Once all the paint was off and Steve was down from the ladder, it was almost five o'clock. Jessica had a break coming up at six, and Steve promised to bring her a chocolate milkshake from the diner they'd eaten at the other night.

"Shouldn't you be buying Nancy a milkshake?" Not that she wasn't pleased about him wanting to spend time with her, but . . . Nancy was his girlfriend. Or had been, at least.

"She probably doesn't want to see me at the moment."

"True enough." Jessica shrugged. "See you at six then."

Jessica spent the next hour behind the counter of the concession stand. She stayed fairly busy since it was a Saturday and people that held steady nine-to-five jobs were just getting off work and were able to see a movie if they wanted. Most were teenage couples, however, and Jessica was in constant motion of putting popcorn in bags or buckets, and filling cups with soda. She probably could have done it with her eyes closed, it had become that much of a routine to her.

She was glad she'd talked to Steve even though she hadn't been able to tell him everything, especially not about Eleven because that information could actually be dangerous for him to know. But at least he knew some of why she'd been acting the way she had been. No, she hadn't been doing anything too weird by normal standards, but by her standards . . . yes, she'd been weird.

Steve brought her a milkshake like he'd said he would, and they shared it since she had only a fifteen-minute break.

"So . . . I think I should warn you that they took Jonathan in earlier," she said. "He pushed one of the cops."

"I saw him get taken in. We went back to the alley and you guys had already gone, but when we came out to the main street we saw Jonathan in the back of the cop car."

Jessica felt a short bout of anger go through her at them staying hidden, but she got back to the point.

"Nancy and I were taken in too. We followed the cops back to the station."

Steve's brown eyes widened. He was truly concerned. "You didn't get in trouble, did you?"

"No. Neither of us did, but they held Jonathan for 'assaulting a police officer.' He didn't even leave a bruise on him. It's stupid."

She couldn't tell him about the weapons because he'd definitely ask about that, but she could tell him what she really wanted him to know.

"They made me and Nancy fill out an official statement about what happened. And I . . . had to tell the truth as I saw it. They didn't ask about the spray paint stuff, so I didn't mention it. I did put down that Jonathan hit you first, but that it was provoked . . . by you . . . and Tommy and Carol. Nicole was there, but she wasn't really involved, exactly."

"Jess!"

"I couldn't lie to the cops, Steve, because then I would get in trouble if they found out. I love you, but I'm not doing that! If you cared about me, you wouldn't want me to do that."

Steve made a worried – very worried – expression and said, "I know, I know that. You're right. I know you're right. I was just thinking about having to talk to the cops twice in one week and how my dad is gonna kill me."

"I know. I thought about that the whole time I was filling that thing out. I left as much out as possible. The two officers seemed to have the same IQ as my shoe size, so as long as Chief Hopper doesn't make a big deal out of it, you should be fine. Jonathan has a few bruises and that's it. He won't press charges. Your dad probably won't even know what's going on."

That seemed to help Steve relax a little, but he also seemed a little ashamed.

"Steve?"

"Why would you even do that?"

"I don't know. Because even though you've been acting like a jerk, especially this week and towards Jonathan, you're still my best friend, and I still love you. I was kind of waiting for you to see how bad Tommy and Carol were for you. And now you have."

She let him think about that for a minute and then spoke again.

"I can't come over tonight. Something came up."

"Something always seems to come up lately," he said. "Is it because of earlier?"

"No. But if nothing had come up, I wouldn't have hung out with you because of that, so good on you for catching that."

"Right."

"Anyway, you should go home, put some ice on your face. You cleaned it pretty good, but . . . everything's swollen."

"Think my pretty face will be okay?"

"It'll survive," she said and laughed. "I'll hang out with you tomorrow. Just don't go back to Tommy and Carol."

Jessica was scheduled to get off at eight, but at around seven-forty-five Chief Hopper showed up outside the movie theater. If he was coming because of the words that had been there earlier, he was a little late.

Then she noticed that Dustin was with him, along with Mike, Lucas, and Eleven. What the hell? Why were the kids with the Chief of Police, and how much did he know about the girl in the backseat of his car?

"Are you able to leave here?" he asked her.

"Uh . . . I get off at 8:00," she answered.

She was still behind the concession counter, and Hopper had jumped in front of the four people that were waiting to order.

"Can you meet us at the Byers' place once you get off?"

"I was going there after work anyway. Is everything okay? Why is my brother in your car? Is he in trouble?"

"He's fine, and he's not in trouble," Hopper said, hands up in a placating gesture. "We need to talk about everything that's been going on. Dustin says you know about all this."

"Uh . . ." They really couldn't say anything other than that in public. "I'll meet you there, and we can talk. Like you said."

Hopper left and then Bill asked if everything was okay. That day had been the strangest since the one where one of the machines had gone on the fritz for no reason.

"I don't know. I hope so."

When Jessica got to the Byers' house, everyone was already there inside, and Mike was explaining to Joyce, Hopper, Nancy, and Jonathan the acrobat and the flea theory that Mr. Clarke had told them. Then he explained about the gateway.

"Is this gate underground?" Hopper asked.

"Yes," El answered.

"Near a large water tank?"

"Yes."

"How d'you know that?" Dustin asked.

"He's seen it."

"Wait," Jessica interrupted. "I've been at work for the past six hours. What'd I miss?"

Because she'd obviously missed something. Last she'd checked, they hadn't wanted any adults knowing about any of this, and definitely no authority figures who could just turn El into child services.

Dustin began to explain about how these bullies had been picking on him and Mike, and about how El had saved them. It sounded serious, a knife had been involved, and whoever this kid was had basically told Mike that unless he jumped off the cliff they were standing on then he was going to cut Dustin's remaining teeth out.

"What?" she exclaimed. "Who is this kid?"

She knew there were bigger things at the moment, but Dustin was her brother and he'd been threatened with a knife. Whoever this kid was might be a psychopath in the making.

"It's okay. Mike jumped, but El kept him from hitting the ground."

Now it was Nancy's turn to be shocked and worried. Mike had actually jumped to keep Dustin from being hurt – though the bully might have just been all talk even if he'd had a knife – and he would've died if El hadn't have been there.

Then there was something about how El had been the one to create the rift in the universe. She hadn't done it on purpose, but she'd somehow caused it, which had allowed the creature to get to their world.

Lucas added his part, which was that he'd followed his compass north and had ended up at Hawkins Lab, which had military-like security. Science people drove white vans in and out of the fence that surrounded the place; guys in military garb drove Humvees.

The white van people had chased the three boys and El on bikes. El had caused an accident by flipping one of the vans and then the kids were able to get away.

"Okay . . . but where do you fit in?" Jessica asked Hopper.

"I found them in that old junkyard out past the railroad tracks. They were hiding in a bus." Hopper looked at Nancy. "We contacted them using the walkie-talkies, and Mike told me where they were. I've been figuring things out slowly over the past couple of days. I broke into the lab, began making connections."

Apparently, the lab had begun experimenting on women in the seventies, and there had been other experiments dating back to the fifties, but not in Hawkins. The lab people were curious about the effect of certain drugs when they were administered to humans. They basically kept the women coked up on whatever they were giving them – and this was all legal because the women had signed up for it, were getting paid a few hundred dollars while receiving free drugs.

One of the women had been pregnant when the experimenting had begun. She supposedly hadn't known. Whether she had or not, she'd been told she'd miscarried even though she remembered vividly having the baby, and the doctor – a Dr. Brenner – taking the baby from her. Supposedly, the doctors were certain that all the drugs would have given the baby certain telekinetic powers.

Like El's powers. But if she was number 011 then the others that had come before her had to have gone through the same treatment. Maybe the doctors went after pregnant women specifically or something.

"What made you break into the lab?"

"State officials began taking over the case. The person who supposedly found Will's body was a guy from the state. The medical examiner was from the state. Those guys don't usually get involved unless it's something heavy that they might need to cover up. The body they pulled out of the quarry wasn't Will. It wasn't even a real body. It was a rubber life-like doll, basically. It was stuffed with the crap you put in teddy bears."

All this because Will had disappeared into a place that he shouldn't have been able to get to in the first place. Scientists were always messing with things they shouldn't be messing with. They always questioned if they could do things, not whether or not they should do them.

"Do you think you could find Will in this Upside Down?" Joyce asked El.

"And my friend Barb?" Nancy asked.

"Whenever she uses her power, she gets weak," Mike said.

"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets."

"Like, she flipped the van earlier."

"But she's drained. Like a bad battery."

"Well, h-how do we make her better?" Joyce asked.

"We don't. We just have to wait and try again."

"Well, how long?" Nancy asked.

"I dunno."

El did try, though, for a long while, but she couldn't find them. She seemed like she couldn't make the connection like she normally could. She was too tired. She began to cry when she couldn't do what they wanted. Jessica hoped it was because she was scared that they would hurt her for not being able to do what they needed her to do.

"You probably just need food and a nap," Jessica said. "We can try again later."

El nodded and stood up. "Bathroom."

Joyce told her where to go, and everyone waited for her to come back. When she did she seemed afraid and reluctant to speak, but she did.

"The bath. I can find them in the bath."

She looked like she would rather do anything else, but she also seemed to be determined to help.

"Why the bath?" Jessica asked.

"Water," El answered. "I – when . . . there was water. It was dark, quiet."

"Sensory deprivation tank," Dustin said.

This led to a twenty-minute conversation over the phone between Dustin and Mr. Clarke, and they were in need of a swimming pool and fifteen-hundred pounds of salt.

"We have the salt for the roads," Hopper said. "For when it snows."

"It's not supposed to snow next week, is it?"

"Worst case, no school."

Everyone ended up at the middle school, Hopper letting them in with his master key. He and Jonathan were in charge of getting the salt together. The salt was kept in one of the bigger storage rooms outside the school. Jessica didn't know why.

Jessica was with Lucas and Dustin. They were in charge of setting the pool up; Nancy and Mike had gone to get two large hoses so they could fill up the pool. It was one of those flimsy kid ones. Joyce had bought one the year before so kids could bob for apples.

Joyce was with El, helping prepare the girl for whatever she was going to do.

Anyway, setting up the pool was harder than it should have been. Maybe because they were in the gym – they needed the faucets from one of the locker rooms because the temperature had to be controlled. Not too hot and not too cold, because El had to be in it and she couldn't focus on what she was doing if she wasn't comfortable.

"How does this even work?" Dustin asked.

Mostly Jessica just stood there, amused, as the two boys struggled to keep the sides up. She knew that the pool wouldn't be steady until water started filling it.

When the pool was finally set up, filled and salted, everyone just stood back for a minute. No one but El really knew what to expect now. Sure, Mike had seen her communicate with Will via walkie-talkie, but no one had seen her do this. Just in case, Mike had brought the walkie-talkie with him and had set it up near the pool.

"What's the salt for?" Jessica asked.

"Helps her float."

It was true. They tested it with an egg, which would usually fall to the bottom of a container filled with water, and it stayed on the surface.

Joyce had made some goggles wrapped in duct tape for El. Something about keeping all her senses focused inward, so the goggles would keep it dark for her.

El took off Mike's watch and gave it back to him before stepping into the pool. Almost as soon as she was laid out in the water the lights in the gym went off. Everybody jumped. They were all kneeling around the pool, watching El, keeping an eye on her. She'd been afraid of doing this, but she was doing it anyway.

El said Barbara's name, and then began breathing heavily. The lights flickered on and then turned back off.

"What's going on?" Nancy asked. "The lights . . ."

"I don't know. Best guess is that El is doing it."

"Is Barb okay?" Nancy asked El. "Is she okay?"

"Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone." El just kept repeating that word, and Nancy put a hand over her mouth when she realized that meant that Barb was probably dead.

El began to convulse slightly, so Joyce grabbed her arm.

"It's okay. It's okay. We're right here with you. We're right here with you. You're safe."

The words eventually worked, and El began to relax. Then she started talking about Castle Byers, Will's little fort in the woods. He'd made the thing himself. Was that where he was on the other side? If that was the case, they'd been right there the night before. She and Nancy had been right there.

El made contact with Will, and his voice came through the radio Mike had set up.

"Where is this place?" Hopper asked.

"Uh, it's in the woods behind our house," Joyce answered.

"He used to go there to hide," Jonathan added.

El continued and then her voice began coming through the radio too.

"Can you tell him I'm coming? He needs to stay where he is. Mommy's coming."

After a few minutes of that, El was back with them. Whimpers had begun to come from her and the radio voice, and she'd startled awake or back into consciousness or whatever.

Joyce hugged her close as El began to cry. It hit Jessica then that El had probably never been comforted by a mother.

They had accomplished what they had set out to, though. They'd found out Will was alive, and they'd found out Barb wasn't.

Joyce and Hopper left Jonathan, Jessica, and Nancy in charge of the younger ones, and then they took off for the lab. Now that they knew that Will wasn't on this side, they knew they needed to find a way to the Upside Down. The only certain gateway was at Hawkins Lab.

"We have to go back to the station," Nancy said.

"What for?"

"They took our weapons."

"All of them?"

"Yeah. Hopper saw them at the station because one of the other officers confiscated them. That's really what started all this," Jonathan said. "When Hopper saw them, he gave me a chance to explain and so I told him everything. He still wouldn't give the stuff back."

"Wow. Did he know what we were planning on doing with those weapons?"

She would totally understand not giving their weapons back if he thought they were going to go after that creature. The thing was that they were still planning on going after this thing, so they needed those weapons back.

"You guys go ahead," Jessica said. "I'll meet you at the house. I'm gonna make sure the others are okay on their own."

So that was what she did.

The others were still in the gym, seated on the bleachers. El was wrapped in a blanket, head against Mike's shoulder. Lucas was on the other side of Mike, and Dustin was seated on the row behind them.

"Hey," she said to get their attention. "I'm gonna meet Nancy and Jonathan at his house. We're gonna kill this thing. Finding Will is important, but it won't keep anyone else from being hurt or taken. This thing has gotta go."

"What?" Dustin exclaimed. "Are you crazy?"

"Just as crazy as you guys planning on finding the gate and going into it. Anyway, you guys can't go home, so I just need to know that you'll be okay here. By yourselves."

It was true. The government people had figured out who had been helping El – or at least that the boys were. They couldn't go home because their homes were being watched. According to Hopper, some of the phones had even been bugged, so if they called home the government would know.

Dustin stood up, walked down the two rows of bleachers to reach the ground, and grabbed her in a tight but brief hug. She knew then that no matter how cool Dustin tried to be, he was really worried.

"I'll be okay. If . . . if it gets too heavy in there, I'll get us out of there. Okay?"

"Don't die," El said from her spot next to Mike.

"Not planning to."

"Don't die," Dustin repeated.

More seriously now, "Not planning to. I'll come back. Promise"

She knew, though, that nobody went into battle planning to die, and that she probably shouldn't have promised Dustin anything, but she had every intention of staying alive.