9. The Promise

[A/N: AHHHH it's finals season! But hey, I managed to crank out another chapter despite all the exams and papers and projects so that's a plus, right?

As always, your feedback is uber appreciated and helps me to improve as a writer so thank you!

Enjoy!]

Chapter 9: The Promise (by When In Rome)

"If you need a friend, don't look to a stranger. You know in the end, I'll always be there..."

. . . . . . . .

"What do we do?" Will asked, his eyes wide with panic. "What if they come in here?"

Mike looked up to the monitors above his head. "Look, there they are!" He pointed to one of the screens and the boys could see two men walking down the hallway with Hopper. One was wearing what appeared to be a suit and the other had a long white lab coat.

"It looks like they're getting farther away from us," Dustin commented.

"If we're gonna go, we need to go now, guys," Lucas insisted.

"Okay, hold on!" Mike snapped, trying to process. "Just hold on a second!" They needed a plan. They definitely didn't know their way around this building and the last thing they needed was to accidentally run into someone. He studied the monitors one by one, trying to get a sense of the space and how they could best avoid running into anyone who worked at the lab, including Hopper. There were so many cameras throughout the facility that it was like putting a puzzle together. The pieces were out of order but everything they needed was right in front of them.

"Hey look," Dustin observed. "I bet that's how Hopper knew we were outside," He pointed to a monitor that showed a view of the area outside the fence where they'd been earlier when they were trying to figure out their entrypoint.

Will sat patiently on the floor as his friends debated the best course of action to take. His stomach turned with a familiar rumbling but he tried to focus on suppressing it.

"Okay, here!" Mike pointed to one of the monitors. The camera was focused on a seemingly large room. There was a water tank and a dark, pixelated area in the background that looked suspicious. "I think this is the portal,"

"Let me see," Lucas said, squeezing himself in beside Mike to get a better look despite the low video quality. "Eleven said before the portal was next to a big water tank, right?"

"I think so," Mike nodded.

"Alright, let's do it," Lucas said, his brow set in determination.

"Dustin," Mike said. "The hall's still clear, right?"

Dustin peered through the window. "All good here,"

"Okay, let's go now before anyone comes back," Mike said, turning away from the wall of monitors and noticing Will on the floor. He was holding his legs close to his body and staring at the floor. "Will… are you okay?" He asked cautiously.

Will opened his mouth to respond but before he could make a sound he involuntarily lurched forward, retching. Mike and Lucas jumped back out of range as one of the slug-like creatures Will had been puking up lately came sliding out of his mouth. This one, however, was larger and longer than the others had been and Will choked for a second as the slug slid out of his mouth and fell to the floor with a smack.

"Aw hell no!" Lucas exclaimed, stepping forward and squishing a section of the slug's body with his snow boot. The creature squealed, convulsing for a minute before finally becoming still.

"Yeah, that's never gonna not be gross," Dustin said plainly, pursing his lips.

"Okay," Mike said, trying to shake off his sympathy nausea and focus on the mission at hand. "We need to get outta here," He crouched down to Will who was trying to catch his breath. "Are you okay? Can you get up?"

Panting, Will looked up to meet Mike's gaze. "It's about to happen," He said, his voice raspy and breathless.

"What's about to happen?" Dustin inquired and before he could finish the question completely, Will had vanished.

"That," Lucas gestured to where their friend had once sat. "What do we do now?"

"We know where he is, right?" Mike quickly reasoned. "If we can get to the portal, and get into the Upside Down, we'll probably see him when we're there,"

"Okay," Lucas pressed. "But what if he comes back to this spot and we're gone?"

Movement on one of the monitors caught Dustin's eye. "We can't wait," He said, his voice thick with anxiety. "Hopper's coming back,"

The boys turned to the monitor to see the police chief headed back down the hallways that would eventually lead to their location.

"He said he comes back to our dimension in whatever place he walked to in the Upside Down, right?" Mike said quickly. "Maybe he'll walk around in the Upside Down and when he comes back, it won't be this room. It'll be somewhere else,"

"That may or may not be a good thing," Lucas said. "He could randomly appear in front of some guards or something,"

"Guys," Dustin said, anxiously peering through the door's window for the third time. "We've gotta go! Now,"

"Okay, come on!" Mike said and Dustin opened the door, quickly checking the hall before the three boys scrambled out of the room and ran off in search of the portal.

. . . . . . . .

Everything seemed to look the same as the boys darted down wood-paneled hallway after wood-paneled hallway, pausing at the edge of each corridor to check that the coast was clear. They had a vague idea of where they were going but it wasn't until they stumbled upon a hallway with a clear plastic curtain and two hazmat symbols that they thought they were on the right track.

Mike, Lucas, and Dustin exchanged looks and Dustin nodded encouragingly to the zipper that ran down the middle.

Mike exhaled, unzipped the curtain, and one by one the trio stepped through. This hallway had walls made of white concrete blocks and had the same white ceiling and linoleum flooring as the other hallways but there was a more sterile and cold feel to this part of the lab.

"This is kinda creepy," Lucas said, looking around the narrow corridor.

At the end of the hallway was a wood-paneled set of double doors.

"Damnit," Dustin groaned. "It's a dead-end," He gestured to the swipe-access card reader attached to the wall.

"Now what?" Lucas grumbled, frustrated.

Mike tugged on the door handles, just in case, but sighed in exasperation when they didn't budge. He leaned back against the wall, the three of them hidden in the small space between the main hallway and the doorway.

"This should be it, right?" Mike wondered. "Did you guys see any other places on the monitors we could get in?"

"Nope," Dustin shook his head.

Lucas shrugged. "Not really,"

"What the hell do you kids think you're doing?!" Hopper's voice, low and terse, echoed down the hall and the boys froze in place. Without a way to get through the swipe-entry double doors beside them, they were trapped.

"How did he know we were here?" Lucas whispered, flattening his back against the wall.

"Did he follow us?" Mike asked under his breath.

Dustin dramatically gestured for the two to zip it but despite being hidden by the wall at the end of the corridor, it was obvious Hopper knew they were there when they heard his heavy footsteps coming down the hall.

What do we do? Dustin mouthed just as Hopper appeared before them.

"Are you trying to get yourselves killed?!" Hopper said through gritted teeth, his voice low and harsh.

The boys looked at him with distrust, their faces fixed in scowls. Their bodies betrayed their bravado, however, in that the three of them huddled as close to the corner as they could, away from Hopper who noticed their glares and their fear.

"We're not gonna let you give El back to the lab!" Mike said defiantly.

"That's right!" Lucas backed him up.

"We heard you talking to those government guys," Dustin added.

Hopper's eyebrows shot up as he realized what was going on. Shit… He thought to himself as he huffed, stepping away from the boys, their faces morphing from forced bravery to confusion.

It was dangerous enough having the boys in here, let alone get into details regarding his plans to betray the lab, but knowing these kids, it was obvious that the only thing he could do to keep the situation running smoothly was to oblige them. "What all did you boys hear?" Hopper asked, crossing his arms and looking over each of them.

"Enough," Lucas replied snarkily.

"We know you're working with the lab now," Dustin supplied. "And we know you made some deal with them about getting El back,"

"We're not gonna let you take her!" Mike said, his confusion fading as his anger returned.

"Is that right?" Hopper said sarcastically, smirking down at them.

"You're damn right!" Lucas shot back.

Hopper pursed his lips, half amused by their misunderstanding of his intentions and half irritated at having to explain himself to a trio of middle-schoolers. "Alright, here's the deal," He said gruffly, looking around and pausing before walking over to a corner where a small camera was hidden in the crook between the walls and the ceiling. Without so much as a second thought, he slammed the side of his fist into the camera, destroying it. The boys watched in shock as bits and pieces of plastic and glass fell to the floor. "I'm not trying to find El for them but it's better for them to think that I am. That raises less suspicion, understand?" He said, rubbing his hand and ignoring the boys' stunned expressions as they darted glances between Hopper and the remains of the video camera.

Shaking off his bewilderment, Mike ventured, "Why should we believe you?"

"Frankly, I don't care if you do or you don't," Hopper said, crouching down and meeting the boys at eye-level. "But if you want the truth, you're gonna have to do as I say. No more running off like wild cowboys or sneaking into places you have no business sneaking into, got it?"

He was met with nothing but suspicious glares.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Hopper sighed as he crouched lower, resting his elbows against his knees and hanging his head for a moment in thought. "Okay, listen," He began. "I'm gonna go back into the Upside Down and I'm gonna look for her and I'm gonna bring her back. Not for the lab,"

"Then why are you doing it?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah," Dustin chimed in. "If you're not actually bringing El back for the government guys, then what's in it for you?"

Hopper looked at them like they were asking the most stupid question he'd ever heard. "Are you kidding?"

"No," Mike said, crossing his arms. "How are we supposed to trust you?"

At this point, Hopper was getting frustrated. Every moment they debated in this little corner of the hallway was another minute of wasted time and another minute that one of his supervisors or one of the researchers could decide to come back. He'd already run into an agent who'd come in to pick up his briefcase to work over the holiday weekend and a researcher who'd just finished spending the entire night setting up test samples of the foliage they'd found in the Upside Down. For all he knew, they could run into another stray lab employee at any point and then what? There was only so much damage control he could do and it wasn't like the lab fully trusted him. He was indebted to them and they were confident in their ability to make him disappear should he double-cross them. Hopper was just more confident in his own ability to do so without getting caught. That confidence, however, minimized with every minute he spent arguing with these kids about his intentions.

Finally fed up, Hopper growled, "Because I'm the one who went down into the - the Upside Down, along with Joyce, and saved your friend, who-" He stopped, finally realizing there were only three boys standing in front of him instead of four. "Wait a minute, where's Will?"

"He-" Lucas began but Dustin elbowed him.

"Don't tell him!"

"Where the hell is Will?!" Hopper demanded and the boys jumped at his sudden, aggressive tone.

"H-He's in the Upside Down," Mike confessed.

Hopper stood up, reeling. "Are you f-" He caught himself. "Are you kidding me? Again?"

Dustin shook his head. "It's been happening ever since he came back,"

"He just goes in and out sometimes," Lucas added. "Sometimes it's a few seconds, sometimes longer,"

"But he always comes back," Mike said. "He just can't control how or when it happens,"

"Great," Hopper muttered, shaking his head. "Alright, here's what's gonna happen - because we don't have a lot of time. You three are going to stay with me and do everything I tell you to do," He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, retrieving a small card from one of the slots and swiping it through the card machine on the wall. A small green light lit up on the card reader and the double doors made a click sound. Hopper reached past the boys and yanked one of the doors open.

"Where are you taking us?" Mike inquired, following his actions with a wary intrigue.

"The Upside Down," Hopper said brusquely, then gestured for them to go through the door. "Now, come on,"

The boys hesitated and Hopper growled in frustration. "Let's go!"

"What if it's a trap?" Dustin said to Lucas and Mike.

"God dammit!" Hopper said, his patience having finally run its course. "You wanna know why I made that deal with the lab? Because it was the only way I could save your friend,"

Mike's brow furrowed as he began to put the pieces together. "Hold on, hold on!" His eyes widened in shock and then flashed with anger as realization dawned on him. "You're the reason the bad men knew we were at the school!" Lucas and Dustin's jaws dropped. "You told those government guys where we were! It's your fault El's in that place in the first place!" He was almost screaming at this point. Hot, angry tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as his face held a deep scowl.

Hopper huffed in resignation, then put a fist to his mouth as he prepared to speak. "You're right," he admitted. "And I've felt like shit about it ever since but ya know what? That was the only way I was gonna get Will out of the Upside Down alive. Hell, that was the only way any of us were getting out of there alive because believe me, they were ready to kill me, Joyce, Will," Hopper counted each person off on his fingers. "- and they still would've found Eleven because they've got this whole damn town bugged. The only reason you three weren't killed on sight was because that was part of the deal, too, so when any of you are ready to make a decision like that about who lives and who might die, you let me know. Until then, shut up and follow me because we're going to find Eleven and bring her home," He finished and by that point, the boys' indignant and furious scowls had morphed into uncomfortable shock and regret. "Now, come on," He gestured through the door once again, more vehemently this time, and the boys quickly scurried past him and down another hallway, though this one was dimly lit with only the emergency lights activated.

Hopper flipped a switch on the side of the wall, illuminating the hallway. The white concrete walls and white floors and ceilings continued down this way, making everything feel cold and hospital-like. Several doors were open as the four made their way down hall after hall, the boys warily following behind as Hopper led the way.

One of the rooms they passed had a small bed and something atop the blanket caught Mike's eye. He paused in the doorway of the darkened room, the light from the hall casting sparse light into the room but enough that he could make out a crudely drawn picture on the wall and a video camera in the high corner of the ceiling. A plush tiger sat on the bed along with a thin blanket and single pillow. The sight of the room made Mike's stomach flip.

This was her room. He thought, and he could imagine guards grabbing her, hurting her, forcing her to use her powers to do who knows what. He never really learned what exactly the government wanted her for but did it matter? He spent a week with her and knew they put her through something awful. Seeing where she lived… where she must have grown up… made him want to throw up and hit something at the same time.

"Mike, come on," Dustin called, a few feet ahead. Lucas was a few paces ahead of him and looked back but Hopper hadn't noticed the delay yet.

Mike glanced back at El's room once more before jogging to catch up.

Never again. Another promise.

. . . . . . . .

"But when you're in doubt, and when you're in danger, take a look all around and I'll be there..."