17. 16: Connection (Part Two)

Mike needed her. Right now. She had to go to him. Now.

She bolts up from her bed as soon as the sensation starts. They're getting better at this and she immediately recognizes the feeling that tells her who needs her and where. Why, she has absolutely no clue, but she wastes no time in throwing on her shoes and her jacket, briskly walking out of her room and going to stand in front of Hopper, who is lazily reading the newspaper on their couch.

"I want to go see Mike," she states plainly. To her dismay, he doesn't even glance up from the paper in front of him. "Yeah, what else is new," he mumbles gruffly, turning the page. Her brow furrows and she concentrates all her energy on the newspaper in his hands, yanking it out of his grasp with one motion of her head.

"I need to go see Mike. Take me to him," she commands, her voice completely serious. Hopper stares at her incredulously, before finally rolling his eyes. "Fine," he tells her, "get in the car." She thanks him profusely and rushes outside, throwing open the car door and plopping herself inside.

Her knee bounces up and down as Hopper drives towards his house, a habit she picked up from Mike. The tugging on her thoughts gets stronger the closer they get and she tries to reach out to his mind to let him know they're coming, but she has no idea if it even works like that.

When they finally arrive, she barely hears Hopper telling her something about calling him when she's done as she climbs out of the car and rushes up to the front door.

It's only when her hand's on the knob and she's turning it that she suddenly realizes what she's doing. She's still new to this whole "social norms" thing, but waltzing straight into a house unannounced doesn't seem like a normal thing to do, even though she's been here plenty of times.

But she's already halfway there and he's trying to pull her to him and she has nothing to lose, his parents are fond of her, so she turns the knob and steps into his house.

Thankfully, his mom is nowhere in sight, his sisters are who knows where and his dad is passed out in front of the TV. She sneaks past him easily and dashes up the stairs to her knight in shining armor.

She raps her knuckles lightly on his door when she gets there and her heart freezes when there's no response, but the desperate sensation becomes even stronger. And that's what makes her open his door and enter his room. "Mike?"

Her eyes immediately land on his curled form laying on his bed, facing the wall. For a split second, she thinks maybe he's asleep and is calling out for her in a dream, but then he quietly sniffles and shifts slightly, still not turning around. "Mike?" she tries again. He says nothing.

If she wasn't worried yet, she definitely was now. This wasn't normal for him and before she can even think about it, she reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder. When he shrugs it off, a pang of hurt flashes through her and she's about to say his name once more, when he finally speaks.

"Why are you here?"

He's crying, that much she can tell. His voice sounds coated in tears and the way his body shakes every so often is unfortunately familiar to her. She sits down on the bed behind him, answering firmly, "Because your mind..." She pauses there, not having the words yet to describe...whatever was going on between their minds. "Because you're hurt and I want to help you," she finally says.

He sighs, flopping over on his back and her heart clenches when she sees his face. She's seen him cry before, but every time, the tear tracks running down his cheeks, his bloodshot eyes and his miserable expression makes her realize she would do anything to take away his pain.

"It's just...I shouldn't pull you all the way out here for this!" he exclaims, throwing up his hands and she resists the urge to take them in hers. Instead, she cocks her head and he takes that as a sign to elaborate. "I mean, my problems are nothing compared to yours. You're strong enough to deal with trauma and flashbacks and I can't even handle finals week!"

"Mike," she says sternly, giving him a pointed look. It is not just finals week that he's upset about and she knows it. This entire week has just sucked and she's surprised he even made it this far. He knows that she knows that and when his eyes meet hers, she doesn't miss the longing and desperation that flickers across his face.

"Turn back around." "What?" "Turn back around."

He shoots her a puzzled look but does as she says anyway, rolling back over onto his side to face the wall. She lays down behind him to mimic his position and when she presses her body up against his, he tenses for a fraction of a second, then relaxes back into her. Snaking an arm tightly around his waist to hold him against her, she gently kisses the back of his neck before asking "What happened?" He sighs, running his fingers up and down her wrist, before whispering "My parents got into a fight."

She nods her head against his shoulder as she feels her heart break. He's already been through so much this week and he doesn't deserve to have this on top of everything else.

Finals week wasn't the only thing pushing him under, but it certainly wasn't helping. He had been up late studying and finishing assignments for the past three nights, the stress of his upcoming tests eating away at his mind. Every time she talked to him, he would tell her about some new project his teachers were assigning, the list growing longer and longer each time. Mike was a fantastic student, but the standards he put on himself and the workload teachers were piling on was getting to be too much.

On top of that, the party had been struggling these days. Lucas had been trying to get Will to let him copy his answers on some math worksheet for forever and while Will would politely decline each time, he would turn right around and complain about it to Mike whenever they were alone. Eventually, Max found out about the whole thing and now her and Lucas were barely speaking. "These last weeks of the semester are when we need each other the most and now we almost never hang out together as a group," Mike had told her one night, laying in her blanket fort, trusting that she was listening. And she was. Every time.

Last night, he had a nightmare. He had been walking home in the dark, when his brain suddenly told him that a Demogorgon was silently stalking him, wanting to brutally devour to him and his family. He saw it in the trees, in the corner of his vision, in the shadows and he had woken up in a panic, convinced a monster was at his door, coming for him and those he loved. So now, sleep deprivation and that fear had been contributing to his emotions.

In addition to that, a couple days ago, they had been cuddling in his basement, when, out of the blue, he asked her why she didn't like it when Hopper smoked. Since her confession over the summer, she had come to realize that admitting what had happened to her in the first twelve years of her life out loud helped relieve some of the pain, even if he was the only one she trusted enough to share those details with. She knew he didn't want to hear it, but she reluctantly admitted to him that there had been more than one instance where a bad man had put a cigarette out on her arm without remorse. Whether they did it to punish her or just for fun, she could never tell. He had stayed strong for her as she sobbed into him that afternoon, but she had a feeling the tears he had swallowed then were coming back in a flood now.

And now his parents' fight must have been the final thing that pushed him over the edge. He absolutely hated it when his parents fought, hated hearing their screams and threats. Whenever it happened, he either called her up just to hear her voice over their angry shouts or just curled up in his room, trying to drown the world out. Which is what happened today. Except, his miserable week made everything a thousand times worse.

Her problems are paling in comparison to his right now. Whether he believes it or not, he deserves to be comforted, he deserves to be held.

She tightens her arm around his waist and slips her other arm underneath his head, down the front of his body, gripping her other wrist tightly to secure him in a hold that makes him feel safe and cared for. He eventually does break down sobbing in her arms and she lets him, humming soothingly in his ear and softly kissing his neck from time to time.

She lays there, spooning him like that for a while, until he finally is ready to flip back around and she listens patiently as he verbally sorts out his emotions, telling her anything and everything he needs to. His tone will become lighter and lighter and it's almost as if she can visibly see the burdens being lifted off of him. Eventually, he'll crack a joke with a smile and the mood shifts into a more relaxed one.

Still not ready to be separated yet, they find themselves sitting side by side against his headboard, his head resting on her shoulder and their hands laced together, resting on their legs between them. They're swapping stories, reminiscing about all the stupid things they had done with their friends and somehow, the conversation drifts into the mysterious bond between their minds. Today marks the sixth time this has happened and Mike, ever the scientist, is going through everything they know.

"Okay, so this started...um...before..." and she squeezes his hand, knowing he's referring to those three-hundred and fifty-three days. It still hurts too much to talk about and it's very rare that it comes up in conversation, at least not explicitly.

She's aware she could somehow touch his mind before they were reunited, but, now that she knows what it feels like to be on the receiving end of it...

"Mike, did I ever...lead you anywhere? I mean, back then." His brow furrows as he thinks, something she absolutely loves. Suddenly, his face lights up with realization and he says, "Yeah, it was like a quieter version of what happens now. I always felt like I should be going somewhere, but it-you would always disappear if I tried to follow it."

"So if you had followed it, it would've led you to me?" "Right." He takes a moment before he asks, "Do you know how you did it?" She shakes her head. "I just really, really wanted you to be with me." "And I felt that way, too," he replies, snuggling into her side. "Almost every night." They fall back into silence and she can practically hear the gears churning in his head. She ponders this as well...she recognized that her powers bridged the gap between them somehow, but why he was randomly able to call to her too was still a mystery.

"Okay, I started being able to do it after that night at the theater," he starts. "And that was the first time I had felt you since you...since you came back. But why was it different from before?" "All I knew was I needed you to come find me," she says, thinking out loud, which wasn't a new occurrence, so why had that time been different? She had been sitting on the tile floor, longing for him one moment and then all of a sudden...

Oh.

The pieces fall into place.

All of a sudden, he had been there.

"Mike!" She bolts up suddenly and he sits up with her, cocking his head to one side. "What?"

"You found me!" she tells him, emphasizing every word. His brow furrows in confusion and she took that as a sign to continue. "You followed it. And it led you to me!" Finally, it clicks for him and he nearly bounces with excitement. "I came to you. I came to you and fulfilled what your mind wanted! I never followed you when you reached out before, but then I found you that night! " She nods her head vigorously with a grin. "And somehow..." "And somehow that gave me the ability to contact you too!"

They stare at each other, awe overtaking their features, happy that they finally figured something out. Falling back against the headboard, they naturally find themselves resting against one another as they take a moment to digest everything. The sheer absurdity of it all makes her chuckle. She's not really sure there's any science behind what happened to them, but she decides to ask anyway. "So, how..."

"I have no idea."