39. Bright Eyes

[A/N: Woooo! Hope all my U.S. followers had a nice holiday! I started working on a 4th of July one-shot last night - just something short and sweet. Maybe I'll try and finish that today and post it later, too.]

Chapter 39 Bright Eyes (by Art Garfunkel)

"Bright eyes, burning like fire. Bright eyes, how can you close and fail? How can the light that burned so brightly suddenly burn so pale?"

. . . . . . . .

Flashback

It was just past dinner time but El had been staying out with her friends almost every day after school. Becky had just gotten off the phone after being told by Terry's doctor's office that the doctor would need to reschedule her appointment. They hadn't explained why but was it really any of her business? She's feigned politeness, holding back her annoyance at the last minute schedule change. She'd intended to take Terry to the appointment tonight since it was the office's only late night and they were scheduled to be there at 6:30. So much for that…

It was difficult keeping tabs on everything - working, caring for Terry and El (though El had proven herself to be relatively self-sufficient), and managing all of the day-to-day needs of the household. Rose was only working twice a week now since Becky could barely afford to pay her and the strain on Becky was certainly showing. She was always tired, a bit more irritable than she'd prefer, and it still never seemed to be enough.

Becky pulled open the refrigerator door, resigning herself to make dinner since she didn't have to leave in the next fifteen minutes, only to be reminded that they were in need of a mid-week grocery shopping trip. Rose used to do that when she worked more often but with only working two days a week, one on the weekend and one during the week, it looks like that had slipped through the cracks. Several odds and ends but everything she could make would require at least one missing ingredient. Becky opened the freezer door and picked up the box of Eggos from the door, finding only one frozen waffle remaining in the plastic.

"Alright," Becky said to herself, sighing.

Terry was in the living room watching her usual shows and Becky came in to speak to her.

"So it looks like we're goin' out after all. We've gotta hit up the grocery store if any of us are gonna eat tonight," She said to her sister, walking over to pick up the remote when she heard a knock at the front door. Becky quirked her head curiously, one eyebrow lifted as she walked over to the front door. She could see the silhouette of a person through the curtain over the window but nothing more.

"Yes?" She said, cautiously opening the door and positioning herself in the crack. "Can I help you?"

The man outside seemed harmless enough, dressed in some sort of utility uniform. Somewhat heavyset with a thick mustache, he looked at her with friendly but tired eyes. "Evening ma'am, I'm from the electric company and we're running inspections of the properties in the area to check for frayed wires and other hazards,"

"Now's not a good time," Becky replied dismissively. "I was just about to head out,"

"I understand that, ma'am," The man replied respectfully. "And I don't mean to waste your time. It should only take about fifteen minutes,"

"Look, I appreciate the concern but -"

Before Becky could say anything else, a slew of people were behind her, seemingly having come in through the back door. Hadn't it been locked? Had she forgotten to lock it? Her mind raced as panic set in and a half dozen men in suits surrounded her in the foyer.

"What the hell do you all think you're doing?!" She spun around and exclaimed, doing her best to hide how terrified she actually was. She tried to gauge the possibility of calling Hopper. She'd never really had any interaction with the lab but this had to be them. They'd somehow found her, found where El was hiding, and she didn't know what to do.

"Where's the girl?" One of the men in suits asked, his voice authoritative as he narrowed his eyes at her.

Becky darted a glance over at her sister who, unsurprisingly, hadn't moved a muscle despite the intrusion. She could feel the body heat of the uniformed man on the porch; he'd stepped inside and closed the door behind him. She could almost feel his breath on her neck. "I don't know what you're talking about; it's just me and my sister,"

The man with the authoritative voice laughed, "Don't take us for fools, Ms. Ives," He said and the tone of his voice sent a chill down Becky's spine. "We know you've been hiding her - Eleven," He watched Becky's face for the slightest give at the mention of El's name. "Ah, you do know her. Well, I'd expect as much given that she's your niece. Now, we can keep things simple and easy if you just -"

"You bust into my house and expect me to just -" The agent backhanded her hard across the face, immediately stunning her into momentary silence as she clutched her face.

"Go check upstairs, see if she's on the second floor," He directed the other men and four of them went upstairs, leaving himself and the two other agents in the living room.

Becky gingerly touched her lip, glowering at the blood on her fingertips. "You're not gonna find her," She said, seething and shooting daggers with her eyes at the man.

"Oh, Ms. Ives," He tutted. "That's where you're wrong. We will find her, and return her to Dr. Brenner as directed. Whether or not you comply ultimately isn't relevant,"

"Second floor is clear," One of the other men said as the foursome came plodding back down the stairs, their guns drawn but lowered.

"I told you," Becky insisted, still glaring at the man in charge. "Now you and your friends get the hell out of my house before I call the cops,"

The man paused and his silence was unnerving. "Well, Ms. Ives, I'm afraid we can't quite do that," Within a half second, he removed his gun from its holster, flipped it around and whacked her hard in the back of the head with its handle. Becky stumbled for a second, her eyes fluttering as she crumpled to the floor unconscious. Blood seeped from the back of her head as the man stared down at her and two of his underlings went into the living room to collect Terry.

Crouching down, he pressed two fingers to Becky's neck, feeling for her pulse. The uniformed man stepped forward and crouched next to him, setting a toolkit on the floor. He opened it up and retrieved a syringe from the case, handing it to his superior who looked down at Becky with disdain.

"Sleep well, Ms. Ives," He said coldly as he carefully stuck the needle in her neck. As he slowly pushed down the plunger, injecting what seemed to be air into her neck, his face maintained a steadily blank expression. A hardened, unreadable narrowing of the eyes and as he released the plunger, removing the needle from Becky's neck, he seemed equally unfazed.

Over in the living room, the two agents were having difficulty as the catatonic Terry began to thrash about violently.

"HHRRRRRNNGGGGGGGG!" A gutteral growl escaped her throat as the agents struggled to secure her arms. One of them grabbed her by her hair to yank her head back and keep her from lurching forward in her seat.

"Do what you need to do but keep her alive," The head agent ordered. "Dr. Brenner wants to see her first,"

"What else you got in that case because this bitch is freaking crazy!" One of the agents trying to secure her called, narrowly avoiding getting hit in the face by Terry's arm haphazardly flying about.

"Give her a sedative," The head agent instructed the uniformed man who then hurried over to Terry's side, sticking her in the thigh with another needle. Within seconds, her body relaxed and she almost melted into the chair, making it easy for the men to pick her up and carry her out of the house like a ragdoll.

"The two of you can handle her," The head agent said to the men carrying Terry. "Get her to the lab and have an orderly watch her until Dr. Brenner arrives," He then turned to the remaining four men surrounding him. "The rest of you can assist with this one," He said, gesturing to Becky's lifeless body with a kick of his foot to her shoulder.

. . . . . . . .

"Hey Mike, do you copy? Over," Will said into his supercom, trying to keep his voice relatively low. Nancy, Joyce, and El had disappeared into Joyce's room leaving Hopper, Jonathan, and Will out in the main areas. Hopper stewed in the kitchen, while Jonathan sat quietly in the living room. He'd objected at first when Will asked him to bring his supercom in to him but eventually obliged.

"Will? Yeah, I'm here. Over," Mike's voice crackled in the living room and Will turned the volume down so that the girls, particularly El, wouldn't overhear.

"Hey," Will said, unsure has to how to most delicately phrase the current situation. "Um, just so you know… El's aunt died tonight and she's kind of a mess. Over,"

"Wait, what?!" Mike replied. "What do you mean she died? Over,"

"Will," Jonathan scolded. "I don't know if El would appreciate you telling other people about her aunt just yet,"

"Mike's different, Jonathan," Will replied, making sure to keep his hand off the button so Mike couldn't hear. "I think El would want him to know," He then added hesitantly, "They've got this… thing,"

"Hello?" Mike called out impatiently. "Will! Will? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I'm here, sorry," Will replied quickly.

"Is El okay? What happened? I'm on my way now I just gotta figure out what to tell my mom," Mike's mind was going a mile a minute and through the radio, it was all Will could do to keep up. "Wait a minute. How are you calling me on the supercom? Are you home?!"

"Yeah, it's uh, it's a little crazy over here, I think," Will replied, darting a glance at the kitchen, though he couldn't see Hopper. "I don't really know what's going on except apparently El's aunt was in a car accident and her mom is missing. We're all here at my house now,"

There was a brief pause before Mike replied. "O-Okay. I'll be there soon just… just tell El to hold on, okay? Tell her to hold on,"

"Okay, Mike," Will replied. "See you soon. Over and out,"

As Will sat the supercom down at his side, Jonathan shook his head at him from his place on the armchair. "Now what if El doesn't react the way you're expecting? What if Mike coming over makes her more upset?"

Will shook his head, "That's the last thing I'm expecting,"

. . . . . . . .

The blanket on Joyce's bed was soft and El ran her hand up and down the velvety material as she sat cross-legged on top of the mattress. Joyce had brought her in here a few minutes ago to lay down and Nancy had followed but it'd taken a while for El to calm down enough to stop crying. It was a nicely decorated room, albeit a little messy. Jonathan had done his part as the dutiful son and straightened up while Joyce was in the hospital but dirty laundry was beginning to overflow from the basket in the corner and the bed had been haphazardly made earlier that day, creating rumples in the blanket.

"How about some tea, sweetheart?" Joyce offered. "Have you had tea before?"

El shook her head slightly and Joyce rubbed a hand up and down the girl's shoulder. "Okay, I'll make some and you can see if you like it. How's that sound?" El's silence was her answer and Joyce left the room, leaving Nancy and El alone.

Nancy sat on the opposite side of the bed, a million thoughts running through her head as she wondered how to comfort El. She could certainly relate to what El was going through and she thought about what she would find helpful if she were in El's position right this moment. It was easy to reflect on all of the times she wished there was someone who understood the grief she was going through, someone who knew what it was like to lose someone they cared about. Nancy obviously knew that El had been through a lot in her young life but she felt like she could relate to her on some level with this. It was at least worth a try.

"When Barb died, it felt like everything changed," Nancy said quietly, breaking the silence. El didn't move but she listened intently. "It sucked because not only had I lost my best friend but I couldn't really talk to anyone about it, you know? With everything that happened back in November being a secret," Nancy crawled up onto the bed, laying on her stomach as she mirrored the way El ran her hand back and forth across the velvet blanket. "I've felt sick about it ever since she first disappeared... because of the guilt,"

"My fault," El whispered, her voice hoarse from crying as another round of tears welled up in her eyes.

"Why do you think this is your fault, El?" Nancy looked up at her, rolling onto her side and scooting closer to the girl.

El shook her head, her lip trembling as she fought to keep herself steady. She wasn't sure how to say everything running through her mind. Maybe she could have stopped the car if she'd been riding with Becky instead of at her friend's house. Maybe she could have prevented this from happening if she'd done something about Becky's drinking - not that she really knew what she could've done other than forcibly try to keep alcohol away from her aunt. She had this deep instinct to protect the ones she cared about. She'd gone her entire life not truly knowing what it meant to be loved or cared for. She'd thought she had that with Papa but after meeting Mike and the boys, then everyone else, she realized that what Papa had given her wasn't good. To this day, she still wasn't entirely sure what 'love' was but she heard people say it in passing - Will to his mom, Mrs. Wheeler to Mike, and even people on TV said it. She'd figured out there were a lot of different types of love but the one thing that was clear was that she'd never had that. Not until she escaped the lab.

So the people who mattered to her, the people who showed her that level of compassion and loyalty and trust, deserved all of it back from her. She'd sacrificed herself against the Demogorgon to protect her friends - the first people to show her what it meant to really care about another person. They'd taught her about friendship and loyalty, trust and honesty. And now Becky and Terry had taught her about family - a completely new and beautiful thing that made her feel safe and secure and protected… now gone in the blink of an eye. Couldn't she have done something about it? So many opportunities missed and it was her fault. Becky could be alive if she had done something to stop this accident from happening.

Nancy scooted closer to El as the young girl began to cry again, her shoulders shaking with each sob. "Hey…" Nancy soothed. "It's gonna be okay… eventually. I know it really sucks," She pulled El into a hug and she laid her head against Nancy's shoulder. "It's gonna hurt for a while but we're all here for you, okay? You can talk to me anytime, you know that, right?"

El bit her lip and Nancy pulled back to look at her. "I'm serious. If you need anything, you can always come to me and I'll at least try to help,"

El's lip trembled as tears brimmed in her eyes, adding to the steady stream flowing down her cheeks. "Okay,"

"And don't blame yourself for this," Nancy continued. "You couldn't have known this was gonna happen," She paused, growing quiet. "Believe me, if anyone has a reason to feel guilty over something, it's me. I… I wasn't a good friend to Barb," She said as the two of them separated and El looked up at her with interest. "I left her alone and that's when that… that monster took her…" She found her mind repeating the same things she'd run through over and over for the past few months. How she regretted going up to Steve's room - not because of her relationship with him but because of what she gave up to do it. The way she'd brushed Barb off would haunt her, probably for the rest of her life. "But sometimes awful things just happen and it's not necessarily anyone's fault. Especially when people… have drinking problems… there isn't always anything you can do. You couldn't have known she was gonna get into an accident. If Becky had a drinking problem, I mean… I can't imagine what that's like because I haven't gone through it but… I don't think she'd want you to blame yourself for what happened. It's just... a really terrible thing that happened to someone you loved,"

El looked up at that word. 'Loved'? That's what she was feeling - love? If love was such a good thing, why did her whole body hurt so much?

A gentle knock at the door got both girls' attention. "Can I open the door for a sec?" Jonathan asked from the other side.

"Yeah, go ahead," Nancy answered and Jonathan poked his head inside.

"Hey, uh," He said. "I hope this is okay but Will told Mike what happened and it looks like he's on his way over now,"

"Mike?" El's ears perked up at the mention of his name and she suddenly realized how much she missed him.

"Yeah," Jonathan nodded. "Is that okay? I can get Will to tell him if it's not a good idea,"

"No," El shook her head. "Mike can come,"

Nancy looked from El to Jonathan and shrugged her shoulders, smiling slightly.

"Okay," Jonathan said and ducked back out of the room.

Nancy waited until the door was fully closed before speaking. "How are you feeling, El?"

El sat quietly, inhaling deeply as the tear stains on her face began to dry. She gave a small shrug of her shoulders.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes before El murmured, "Not your fault,"

"Huh?" Nancy asked, thrown off by El's random utterance.

"You weren't there," El said slowly, deliberately. "With Barb. You didn't know,"

Nancy pursed her lips into a tight smile, fighting the wave of emotion that felt like it was crashing down on her. She let the overwhelming and tangled feelings of regret and relief wash over her, then recede back. It was as if a small piece of the weight she'd been carrying on her shoulders for the past few months was lifted for a moment and she could finally breathe.

. . . . . . .

"What are you gonna do, Hop?" Joyce asked as she filled a teapot with water and set it on the stove.

Hopper heaved a heavy sigh, his hands gripping the sides of the sink. "I don't know," He said under his breath, then groaned. "Goddammit,"

Joyce switched the burned on high and stepped away from the stove, leaning against the counter next to Hopper. "Well," She said. "One thing you can cross off your list is El is staying here,"

"Joyce, how can you -"

"Don't you even think about arguing with me on this, Hopper," Joyce scolded, cutting him off with a determined, powerfully motherly look in her eyes. "That girl needs somewhere stable and that's exactly what this is. Now I know things aren't always perfect but I could double up the boys' rooms and give her her own or Jonathan could take the basement. He's been begging me to let him move down there and turn it into his own little studio for years now anyway," She leaned an elbow against the counter to look Hopper in the face. "You don't need to protect me from everything, Hop. I'm a grown woman and I can -"

"Fine," Hopper said evenly. "She stays with you; you win," He sighed. "I know she's in good hands with you, Joyce. I just also know how much you and the boys have going on right now,"

"And we're handling it, Hop," Joyce said reassuringly. "Besides, it's probably better for El to have multiple people around that care about her and that she can talk to - especially with everything going on now. And you know as well as I do that it wouldn't be fair to hole her up in that little trailer in the woods all week long," She gave him a pointed look and he deadpanned, eventually sighing.

"You're right," Hopper groaned as if it pained him to admit. "Alright fine, but that's not the end of it. I still need to figure out exactly what happened tonight,"

As the teapot began to whistle, Joyce walked over and turned the burner off, removing the pot from the stove. She poured the steaming hot water into a mug on the counter that already had a teabag in it.

Hopper watched Joyce prepare El's tea, mixing sugar into the cup as steam billowed from the cup. "You got anything I can drink?"

"See for yourself," Joyce gestured toward the fridge as she stirred the tea and set the spoon down on the counter. "I haven't been to the store in a while so I'm not sure we have much to choose from," She said as he rifled through the fridge's contents. A half-full carton of milk, two loose cans of Bud Light, a bottle of apple juice and another of orange juice, and a single can of A&W root beer were all he had to choose from.

"There's no hiding you've got kids with a selection like that," He joked as he plucked one of the cans of beer from the shelf and closed the fridge. He wasn't due to the lab for a couple of hours so in that time, he needed to determine as much as he could about what happened tonight. Having a plan for where El would stay, at least temporarily, was a start. Hopper wondered how long he'd last before the weight of everything happening tonight finally got to him. He'd seen a lot of things when he was a homicide detective so a dead body wasn't anything new but aside from Benny, he hadn't lost a friend to anything so traumatic or gruesome. Now it seemed every time he closed his eyes, he saw Becky's sad yet sassy smirk - the one she'd shoot him ever since their one-night encounter. Truth be told, he felt guilty. While he hadn't wanted a relationship with her, he had kind of brushed her off and made things unnecessarily awkward. He shouldn't have slept with her in the first place, knowing he wasn't interested in a relationship and knowing that it could make things complicated with El being involved and what not. But he did it anyway. His poor decision-making skills struck again and not only did he screw that up, he didn't handle it well afterwards. Unnecessarily cold and distant was a good way to put it. In an effort to keep from leading her on and letting her think their trist had been anything more than a one-night fling, he'd kept her at arm's length. He'd run through every interaction they'd had since their hook-up, analyzing and scrutinizing his behavior.

"So what's next on your list?" Joyce asked, snapping Hopper out of his thoughts as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"Oh," Hopper said, popping the tab on the beer can. "I'll probably head back up to Clarksville to check in with the coroner up there, see how Becky's… doing. I'll be at the lab the rest of the night so I'll see what I can find out while I'm there,"

"Late night," Joyce said, adding a little bit more sugar to El's tea and stirring it up. "Oh, El, honey," She looked up to see the petite girl wandering down the hall and into the kitchen, followed by Nancy. "I was just about to bring you your tea,"

As Joyce set the stirring spoon down on the counter, El's eyes fell to Hopper and the beer can in front of him on the table. A sudden burning rose up in El's chest and she narrowed her eyes, growing angry and distraught.

Tilting her head and glowering at the can, she sent it flying across the kitchen where it hit the wall with a thwack!

"No!" She yelled, her eyes flashing with anger and a small trickle of blood seeping from her nostril as Hopper and Joyce stood in stunned silence. "No more!" El repeated, though this time her voice shook and her face began to crumple.

"El, it's just -"

"NO MORE!" El screamed loudly, her eyes filling with tears in the perpetual cycle of crying she'd been caught in all night.

"It's okay, El," Joyce said, setting the mug of tea down on the counter and taking quick strides over to her. "You're right; no more, okay?" She looked back at Hopper who just nodded, dumbfounded. She reached for a napkin from the dispenser on the table and gently dabbed at El's face. "Your tea's ready, do you wanna try it?"

El sniffled, then nodded, watching as Joyce retrieved the mug and brought it to her.

"Why don't we take this into the living room and you can watch something on TV with Will, okay? Maybe look at some more drawings?" She suggested and El obliged, allowing the woman to gently guide her into the next room.

. . . . . . . .

The footage was grainy but there was no mistaking what they were seeing. Dr. Brenner, accompanied by Agents Carlson and Kramer, stood together in the surveillance room of the lab watching the betraying video on one of the screens in front of them. The technician seated at the desk adjusted different dials to zoom in on the figures in the film but that wasn't necessary. It was clear who and what they were seeing, even if the footage itself wasn't.

The distorted black and white film, despite its imperfections, showed a side view of the back entrance to the lab. From the camera's view, one could see the side of the brick building and the expanse of grass surrounding it, the trees that obscured the edges of the lot and a glimmer of the wire fence that bordered it. Five figures quickly crossed the grass, heading for the gate - a tall man in a police chief's uniform carrying a limp and lifeless little girl with very short hair. Following him, three young boys quickly jogged to keep up with the older man's pace.

"I noticed something was off when most of the cameras' footage had been dumped on the night of January first," The young technician explained. "Looks like whoever tampered with the videos forgot about this one,"

"This only confirms our suspicions, sir," Agent Kramer said to Dr. Brenner. "He's known where the girl is for quite some time,"

"Well, that certainly makes the search for her much easier," Dr. Brenner breathed.

"Should we go pick them up now?" Agent Carlson asked but Dr. Brenner put up a hand, shaking his head.

"Not yet," He replied. "Leave them in ignorance for the time being. Having this knowledge keeps us at an advantage," He stepped toward the open door leading to the hallway. "If Chief Hopper knows that we're aware of his involvement, he may move her again and make it more difficult to track her. Have your team determine her precise location and monitor her movements. We can't afford any screw-ups this time around so be discreet. When the time is right, we'll bring her back where she belongs,"

. . . . . . . .

Flashback

What the hell was he thinking? The one time something could have actually turned out alright, he managed to screw it up - just like everything else. He'd been a fool to think otherwise. To think that everything he touched wouldn't fall to pieces in his hands.

The sky was clear as he made his way to his car. Joyce was still asleep in the house and he'd done everything in his power to keep from waking her when he stealthily slid out from under the covers. He'd promised himself he wouldn't do this with Joyce. She was different - she deserved better. Truthfully, she deserved better than him but he'd hoped she wouldn't realize that.

It'd been a few weeks since he came back to Hawkins and for some reason, women seemed to flock to the depressed guy in the corner of a bar with a beer in his hand and a permanent cloud over his heart. Maybe it was the idea of being able to 'rescue' him. Being able to pull him out of this 'funk' and revive his sense of liveliness. He couldn't speak to what went through a woman's head when they approached him but he could only speculate it had to do with some innate desire to 'fix' him. Unfortunately, the joke was always on them since there was no fixing something as broken as him. The pills his doctor gave him only numbed the pain and the booze helped him forget but every time he finally woke up with a beautiful woman in bed beside him, it all came back. He didn't deserve this, he didn't deserve anything. He'd try to deter the women when they approached, but it didn't take much pushing before he found himself in this situation. His self-loathing had become a regular part of what it meant to have a hangover and he'd crawl out of bed in the middle of the night - either retreating to his car and heading home or sitting out on the deck of his trailer, watching the moon's light bounce off the lake water.

Somehow he was able to forget himself in that momentary intimacy with whoever had taken on the challenge of 'cheering him up' or 'fixing him'. He wasn't the failed husband who couldn't support his wife during the lowest point of their lives, he wasn't the once-detective who'd been so devastated by his grief that his captain had had no choice but to gracefully let him go, he wasn't the father who had sped up his daughter's death by insisting on an experimental treatment that only made her worse. He was just a guy with a beautiful woman coming onto him and for a few moments, he could pretend. But when it was all over, he remembered and it all came flooding back, knocking the wind out of him and throwing him on his ass. And then he'd hate himself even more for trying to forget, trying to pretend. He deserved the pain and he hated himself for trying to wiggle his way around it.

But it'd been different with Joyce. Much different. They'd dated for a bit in high school and while things had ended on relatively decent terms, he hated the fact she'd gotten together with Lonnie after him. He knew he wasn't right for her but she hadn't wanted to listen. Years later, they're commiserating about life and he finds himself confessing the personal details of his former life over his third shot of whiskey. Dead daughter. Divorced wife.

She didn't deserve this. Lonnie had done enough to make her life hell lately and here he comes along and drags her down into the little cesspool he'd created for himself to drown in. The only consolation was that the kids weren't home. Maybe that would've made things better. Maybe he and Joyce wouldn't have hooked up knowing her kids were sleeping in the next room. Maybe they still would have and he would've hated himself more. He couldn't be sure.

How did he get to this point? Sitting in his new, yet old, police chief's SUV and staring at Joyce Byers' rancher in the middle of the night, his internal demons eating away at him like buzzards.

. . . . . . . .

"There's a high wind in the trees, a cold sound in the air. And nobody ever knows when you go and where do you start? Oh, into the dark..."