40. I'll Be There

[A/N: Hey all! I'm so sorry for taking so long to update... a lot's been going on. I was in a car accident, my hand's been a brace, it's been great -_- lol but I'm back! This chapter is on the shorter side but I wanted to give you guys something while I get back into the groove of writing. Let me know what you think and that you're still digging everything and all that.

ALSO, THE NEW TRAILER... AHHHHH. I am so excited for October XD]

Chapter 40: I'll Be There (by Jackson 5)

"I'll reach out my hand to you, I'll have faith in all you do. Just call my name and I'll be there..."

. . . . . . . .

Mike arrived at the Byers house about thirty minutes later. He'd managed to sneak out without his mom noticing but the timing had needed to be perfect. As she was giving Holly her bath and getting her ready for bed, Mike knew he could leave through the basement door undetected. He'd spent the whole bike ride thinking about how El must be feeling right now. Knowing what had been going on earlier, it now made sense that he hadn't been able to reach anyone at home when he'd called. He still wanted to have a conversation with her about his "feelings" and "crushes" but it was obviously not the right time for that. The topic was likely to be difficult and awkward so it was probably better that he postpone it for now. There were more important things to worry about.

"Hey Will!" Mike greeted his friend happily, rushing over to hug his friend as Joyce ushered him inside.

"Hey Mike," Will smiled from the couch, still tucked under the blanket his mom had wrapped around him. "El's in my mom's room," He nodded behind him.

"Okay," Mike nodded his understanding as he shifted his backpack on his shoulder. "Is everything okay with you? Why are you home already?"

"I don't exactly know," Will looked to his mom who didn't offer any sort of explanation. "But yeah, I'm fine," He shrugged casually.

"Alright," Joyce said, stepping into the conversation and diverting it away from what could possibly get the boys worried. The last thing they needed was the boys to get worked up into a frenzy because of her and Hopper's suspicions about the lab. Hopper had just left a few minutes ago so she expected he'd update her in the morning after his shift at the lab. In the meantime, keeping things running smoothly at home was her priority. At least, as smooth as they could be with a grieving, telekinetic preteen having meltdowns in her house. "Mike, do you wanna see El? I think she'd like to know you're here,"

"Yeah!" He nodded, replying a little too eagerly but no one paid it any mind. He darted a glance back at Will who was still on the couch and before he could say anything, the boy responded.

"It's cool," He smiled softly. "I'll be here,"

Mike nodded his understanding, then looked back at Joyce who gestured for him to head back to the bedrooms. As he approached the hallway, he saw the state of the kitchen and shot a concerned look back at Joyce.

"It's fine," She waved, shaking her head. "El got upset and well…"

Mike pursed his lips, nodding. "Got it,"

Jonathan was leaving the room as Mike approached the door. "Hey Mike," the older teen greeted. "Your sister's in there with her but you can go in,"

"Nancy's here?" Mike's face contorted with confusion and surprise which caught Jonathan off-guard. He hadn't realized that Mike didn't know Nancy was already here but then again, why would he?

"Uh, yeah," He replied, narrowly avoiding his involvement in Nancy's presence. "She's been comforting El but I know she wants to see you,"

"Okay, thanks," Mike replied, hesitating briefly as his hand hung over the doorknob and Jonathan went into the kitchen to straighten up. Mike knocked softly, tentatively pushing the cracked door open slowly until he heard Nancy's voice.

"It's open,"

As soon as El saw Mike, her face brightened and he reflexively grinned before noticing her tear-stained cheeks and the puffiness around her eyes. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed, leaning over a crudely drawn picture with an assortment of crayons at her feet as Nancy sat next to her. She appeared to be a lot calmer than he had anticipated her being but judging by her face and the state of the kitchen, he assumed he had missed the worst of it all.

"Mike," El's voice was light with relief as he entered the room, pulled his backpack off his shoulder and plopping it on the other end of the bed. El scooted back, pushing her drawing and crayons aside, then pulled her knees to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them and watched Mike walk around the edge of the bed.

"Hey El," He said gently. "I heard about Becky… I'm really sorry,"

El pursed her lips, her eyes shimmering with unfallen tears as she tucked her chin in the crook of her crossed arms. The two were quiet and Nancy glanced back and forth at them. Silence wasn't a surprise on El's part but Mike seemed a little more awkward than normal. He could deny it all he wanted but Nancy didn't believe for a second that he didn't like this girl.

Sensing the need for some temporary privacy, Nancy moved to get off the bed. "I'm gonna go out to the living room for a little while," She touched El's shoulder reassuringly. "That okay? If you need anything, just yell,"

El nodded, looking at Nancy and expressing her gratitude solely with her eyes as the teen stepped out.

Now alone, Mike's gaze fell to the bedspread and his backpack. He wasn't sure what to say or do and his mind swam with a million different thoughts at once.

"I uh, brought some stuff," He said, abruptly breaking the silence as he grabbed his backpack and rifled through its contents. "Um, let's see… comic books… there's this puzzle book that has mazes and crosswords and stuff like that in it… I dunno," He tossed the book onto the bed and El watched him with fascination. "Uh… what else…" He said, hyperfocused on his bag. "Jolly Ranchers and some chocolate I had leftover from Christmas but I don't know if it's still good or not… umm… oh, I brought this," He pulled a small Yoda figurine out of the bag and shrugged. "Since I think you like Star Wars now… I dunno, it's dumb," He paused but El shook her head.

"Not dumb," She said softly and he met her gaze, the frenzied nerves within him calming with that eye contact alone.

"I wanted to bring stuff you might like," He shrugged, fidgeting with the pages of one of the comics spread over the mattress. "I know it won't make everything better but I dunno… Sometimes people like to have stuff to take their mind off of the bad things that happen so I just threw this stuff in my bag and…" He trailed off, feeling awkward again. "Uh… yeah,"

A small smile traced El's lips and she reached one hand out to the colorful bag of Jolly Ranchers, unwrapping a red one and blinking in surprise at the sudden burst of flavor.

"Can I uh… Can I sit with you?" Mike asked and El nodded, scooting over so he had room to come up and avoid the pile of stuff he'd unceremoniously strewn over the bedspread. They were quiet for a minute, El savoring the flavorful candy in her mouth and Mike trying desperately to figure out what to say. He remembered how he felt when they thought Will died. There wasn't really anything that could be said to make it not hurt but his mom had assured him that he'd get through it and she was there for him. Maybe that was the best he could offer El.

"Uh, El, I…" He started, his voice soft and honest. "I think I kind of know how you're feeling right now and I just… I just want you to know that I'm here for you… I don't really know what else to say but… um, I'm here if you need anything,"

El glanced over at him, her smile just barely meeting her eyes but causing them to twinkle nonetheless. "Thank you," She said softly.

"I mean, do you need anything?" He continued, transitioning into fix-it mode. He needed some idea of what to do. "Do you wanna talk or anything?"

El pondered this for a moment, her gaze falling as she got lost in her thoughts. Mike took this to mean she didn't have anything to say until she spoke a couple minutes later.

"I'm… scared," She said, her voice barely a whisper. "And sad,"

Listening to her, hearing the pain in her voice and seeing it in her face was heartbreaking for Mike. He wished so badly that he could make things okay for her and protect her from all the bad things she was feeling and experiencing but he couldn't. It made him feel helpless. "I know… I'm sorry,"

"Why?" She asked, looking up at him curiously. "Not your fault,"

"I know," He replied. "I just mean, like, I'm sorry you're feeling this way. It's what you say when something happens and you wish it didn't because you don't want the other person to be hurting,"

"Oh," El said, soaking in this information. It would be some time before she was more familiar with colloquialisms. "I can't find her… my… mom." Her voice wavered as her eyes filled with tears yet again.

"Find her?" Mike asked, scooting closer in an effort to comfort her but not entirely sure what to do with his arms or hands so he settled for proximity. "Like how you found Will?"

El nodded, continuing in slow, punctuated sentences. "I always find her. We talk. Now, I can't," A few tears escaped and slid down her tears, eliciting a pang of sympathy in Mike's chest.

"They don't know where she is?" Mike asked and El shook her head, sniffling. "Well, maybe she's still around somewhere and she's okay. Or she went out of range or something. Or maybe you're just tired and you could try again later and find her. You're probably really tired; crying takes a lot out of you,"

El inhaled deeply, exhaling in a sigh. Maybe he was right. She could barely think straight; it shouldn't surprise her that she couldn't find her mother in the darkness right now. Her powers were all over the place - waxing and waning in strength and intensity with the ebb and flow of her emotions and energy.

Mike sat patiently watching her. He didn't consider himself the most skilled person at comforting someone in this situation so he was flying a little blind in terms of knowing what to do. Relying on his instincts and the things that helped him when he was upset seemed to be the way to go, though. His gaze fell to the drawing El had been working on when he came in and he leaned forward to reach it and pull it over to them. "You drew this?"

El looked at the drawing in his hands and nodded. "Will… gave me paper, and crayons," She explained.

Mike studied the image. Her art skills were certainly not anything close to Will's level but he could tell she'd put a lot of herself into the drawing. Two stick figure women stood in front of a small house with a smaller girl figure between them. He recognized Becky's curly hair and could only assume the other woman was Terry, El's mom. There were dark, ominous clouds around the perimeter of the page but directly surrounding the house and people were rays of sunshine and the faces of the people had wide smiles, their stick arms connecting as though holding hands. In that moment, he was struck with the significance of the drawing. She'd felt safe with her family. Those dark clouds around them had to mean something, as well as the invisible bubble of sunshine that separated the dark from the light.

"It's really good, El," Mike said solemnly, carefully passing the drawing to her and she adjusted her legs to sit cross-legged again. She stared down at the drawing in her lap, then without warning shifted her body and leaned her head against Mike's shoulder. For a moment, he was frozen in place. He didn't want to move and disturb her or make her think what she was doing wasn't okay but the thrill of her contact made him antsy.

"Do you wanna keep drawing?" Mike asked and El shook her head against his shoulder.

"No,"

He paused, glancing down at her as she continued to stare at the family she'd drawn. "What do you wanna do?"

"Sit," El breathed, snaking her right arm around his so she could be closer and more comfortable - an action that, unbeknownst to her, made Mike's heart skip a beat.

"O-Okay," He squeaked, recovering quickly. "We can do that," He said, tossing around the idea of putting his arm around her but the message never quite left his brain and reached his arm so he continued to sit stock still. From his vantage point, he could only really see the top of her head unless she looked up and he noticed the way her hair had grown over the past few months. Not to any substantial length but he could tell it was getting longer and he briefly wondered what she would look like with long hair. He'd seen her with the wig but that was obviously not what she would look like with her own hair at that length. He was anything but knowledgeable about hair and things like that but he was pretty sure her real hair wasn't blonde.

They stayed like that for a while until Nancy returned to the room and Mike fought away his blush at having his sister see El so affectionately clinging to him.

"Hey, sorry El but Mike and I have to get home," She said apologetically, their close proximity and Mike's bashful expression not going unnoticed. "Apparently Mike didn't tell Mom he was leaving and now she's having a conniption," She shot a pointed look at her brother who grimaced, reluctantly slinking away from El and off the bed.

"I didn't want her to say I couldn't come over because it was after dark," He weakly explained. "I didn't think she'd notice…"

"Well, have fun explaining that to her when we get home," Nancy retorted. "I told her what happened though and she was more concerned about that but still, Mike, you know how she's been since Will came back,"

"I know…" Mike sighed, then looked at El who was cuddling a pillow now that Mike's arm was no longer nearby. "I'll leave this stuff here with you in case you want any of it, okay?" He gestured to the items from his backpack that were still haphazardly spread out over the bed and El nodded.

"Okay, well," Mike said, kicking his feet. "I'll come and see you tomorrow,"

"Assuming you aren't grounded for sneaking out," Nancy chimed in, earning a glare from Mike as he started to walk around the bed to leave.

"Mike," El called his attention and he stopped in his tracks as she got up on her knees, scooting to the edge of the bed and wrapping her arms around him in a hug. Mike did his best to ignore his sister's smirk as he reciprocated El's hug, another blush creeping up his neck and turning the tips of his ears pink.

. . . . . . . .

Jonathan gave Nancy and Mike a ride back home with Mike's bike squeezed into the trunk of his car. The ride itself was uneventful but as they pulled up to the house and Mike got out to retrieve his bike from the trunk, he noticed Jonathan and Nancy lean across the center console for a brief kiss.

"Gross…"

Pretending he didn't see anything, he settled his bike on the pavement and closed the trunk, walking around the side of the car where Nancy was getting out of the passenger seat.

"See you guys," Jonathan said, leaning forward and Mike waved, keeping his smirk contained until he and Nancy were almost to the front door.

"So are you two dating now?" Mike asked slyly, resting his bike against the house.

"What?" Nancy startled, then narrowed her eyes at her little brother's smirk. "Are you dating Eleven?" She countered and Mike's grin immediately morphed into a blank stare, then an exasperated look of denial.

"What? No!" He replied, a little too adamantly.

"Right," Nancy quirked an eyebrow, unconvinced. "So much for telling each other everything," She laughed to herself.

"So you are dating Jonathan now," Mike said, happily jumping out of the hot seat and putting the spotlight back on her.

"I…" She contemplated not telling him anything at all but after everything that happened tonight, she didn't have the energy. Besides, why should she? "I think so,"

"Hmm," Mike nodded. "Okay,"

Nancy fished her keys out of her purse and stuck the house key in the lock. "Get ready," She warned and Mike braced himself for his mom's anxiety-riddled lecture.

. . . . . . . .

"I'll be there to comfort you, build my world of dreams around you. I'm so glad that I found you..."