13. 13: Protect

It's Saturday morning and Mike can feel his smile growing as they near the cabin. The wind is whipping through his hair as he pedals strong and fast along the dirt path, his friends following close behind. They had the day off from school yesterday and the sleepover the boys held in the Wheeler basement was epic, but he couldn't stop thinking about her (what else is new). He had been looking forward to spending today with her since they planned this last Monday. Several times, his friends caught him staring off into space, a dreamy expression on his face, and it took everything in them to restrain from relentlessly teasing their completely smitten friend.

His excitement grows and bubbles in his chest as they pull up to the cabin and he hops off his bike, making sure to shove it under the porch, just as a precaution, and his friends follow suit. He can't contain his grin at this point and dashes up the steps, taking a breath to compose himself, before he lifts up his hand and knocks twice, once, then three times.

He hears the locks click open almost immediately and when the door opens, his arms open with it, ready to catch her as always. "Mike," he hears El's voice whisper and he barely gets a look at her face, before she runs straight into his arms and wraps him in an embrace. His heart swells and he buries his face in her hair, knowing full well he'll never get tired of this, or of her, for that matter.

However, it takes him a second to realize that she's holding him differently today than she normally does. Her hands are grasping a little tighter at his shirt and she's pressed herself a little farther against him than usual. And...is she shaking?

He slips an arm off her shoulders to motion subtly to his friends behind his back to go into the cabin. He ignores their grumbles as they move past them, quickly saying their greetings to El, before settling themselves inside and shutting the door behind them.

He turns his attention back to the girl clinging to him and he tightens his embrace, finally having a guess as to what happened to her. There are only a couple situations in which he can feel her distress this strongly and he thinks he knows which one this is.

"What was it about?" he whispers. She takes a moment and he waits patiently before she quietly responds. "Mama." "Do you want to talk about this one?" She shakes her head and he nods, gently scratching her back as she exhales. He promised one night that he would always hold her for as long as she needed him to and then some, and right now is no exception.

They stand there in each other's arms until El finally calms down and takes a step back, wiping at her eyes. He watches her intently as she pieces herself back together. She looks darling today, just like she does everyday, and Mike sneaks one moment to admire her standing here with the sun highlighting her features. He feels bad, because she's hurting and now isn't the time for that, but when she catches him staring, she smiles, albeit a little wobbly, for the first time since they got there. "Today's going to help you forget about last night, I promise," he tells her, meaning every word. They've got a great day planned ahead of them and he cannot wait to see her in a lighter mood. Stupid nightmares...

Poking his head into the cabin, he calls, "Alright guys, let's get going!", pretending he didn't just see Dustin and Lucas digging through Hopper's fridge. They all rush to the door excitedly, pulling on their jackets and their shoes before sprinting down the steps and out to their bikes. "Where are we going?" El pipes up as they all scramble onto their modes of transportation. "Nowhere Hopper doesn't want you, don't worry," Will replies and she nods, satisfied as she climbs onto the back of Mike's bike. When her arms go around his waist, he can't help the butterflies that soar through his stomach or blush that creeps onto his cheeks and he has to fight to focus on the path in front of him.

They reach their destination in record time and El gasps as they slide off the back. "Castle Byers!" she exclaims and the rest of the boys grin proudly. "Yeah, and there's food and a D&D campaign waiting for us inside," Dustin tells her. "Are you in?" She nods and Mike blows out a breath in relief. They had set this up last night and he had been sure she'd be down for it, but after seeing where she was at mentally this morning, he wasn't so confident about that. But she enters the fort excitedly and the boys follow her. It's a bit cramped for all of them to be in there at once, but they didn't mind. If anything, it makes them feel safer, since these woods have a reputation of holding mysterious beings that they do not feel like facing now. Or ever.

Mike takes a seat and opens his manual, flipping through his notes to find where they had left off last time, before they had dragged everything out here. Dustin pops open a can of soda and Lucas and Will chatter way about this latest campaign, recounting everything they had done so far. El sits down on a pillow beside Mike, peering over his shoulder at the map he was examining. He'd explained the basics of this game to her the best he could and she understood it to an extent, but she always preferred hanging back and watching him tell a story, a preference that made him grin like an idiot when he thought about it. "Ah, found it!" he says, pinpointing their location. "Okay, this is where we are. The party has found themselves in the Cave of Thorns, shivering from the rain falling outside. Things were going well, until a troll appeared and trapped Dustin in a corner." Dustin swears loudly. "I forgot about that! Uh...okay, I thrust at it with my torch to set it on fire," he declares, rolling the dice.

And just like that, they were off and Mike's mind is thrust into this fantasy world, his thoughts racing as he guides his party through mountains and castles and adventure after adventure. He loves this. Storytelling is his creative avenue and he loves watching this plot unravel. The characters of his friends are depending on him to lead them and lead them he does.

At one point, he subconsciously reaches out to take El's hand and his words are halted when his wrist hits something cold and plastic on her wrist as he tangles his fingers with hers. He glances down at her hand and almost laughs when he sees what's peeking out from under her sleeve. He was wondering where that went.

"Is that...is that my watch?" he asks her quietly, with a grin. "Yes," she says simply, looking up at him. When he doesn't respond, too swept up in the fact that she wanted his watch back on her wrist, her face falls and she lifts her other hand to the clasp keeping it secure. "Oh no, El keep it, it's find!" he frantically reassures her, squeezing her hand. He was more than happy to let her have it, since he knows how much sentimental value has been placed on it. She smiles and says, "It covers up..." before her sentence drifts off and she nuzzles her face in his shoulder. 'She's using my watch to cover up a mark from her childhood that she hates,' he thinks, his head spinning at the significance that holds as he leans his cheek against the top of her head.

It takes a great deal of effort for him to get back into the role of Dungeon Master after that, and he's constantly distracted by her warmth as she rests contently against him. It's a nice contrast from the cool afternoon breeze that's settling in the fort and he's beginning to hope that the rest of the party will get cold and want to go home, leaving him a little bit of snuggle time with El, when they hear a noise come from outside Castle Byers.

As soon as they hear the twig snap, Mike shuts his mouth and the rest of the party freezes. An icy dread coats the air as everyone remains unmoving, not sure what to do.

Then, there's a footstep. It's faint and sounds somewhat distant, but it's there. El's body stiffens and she sits up, rigid as a board. Her face is a mask of panic and he rubs his thumb against her hand, before breathlessly whispering, "Go sit behind Lucas," who's seated at the back of the structure. 'She needs to be as far away from the entrance as possible,' he thinks, his protective instincts kicking in. She swallows and squeezes his hand, before rising to her feet and, as silently and stealthily as she can, she makes her way over to Lucas, who scoots up to make room for her. Mike shifts, so he's directly in front of the door, his back to the entrance. If anyone wants to get to his friends, they would have to go through him first.

There's more than one pair of footsteps, that much is clear now. Whether it's a human or not, they still can't tell, but whatever it is, it can't be good. They're getting closer, they realize when there's a crunch of leaves much louder than the noises they had heard before. Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap...

He glances back at El and sees that his name his on her lips and the fear is evident on her face, on all their faces, really. His hands ball into fists and he knows he shouldn't risk peeking outside, but his eyes flicker to a sliver in the wall to his right anyway. To his relief, he doesn't see anything, but the rock sitting outside gives him an idea.

He leans over to Dustin and whispers, "Tell El to lift something outside with her mind. Maybe it'll scare whatever's out there away." His eyes widen and he motions to El. She silently inches forward, and Dustin repeats what Mike told her (he hopes) in her ear. Her eyebrows set in determination and she nods, sitting up a little straighter. She shuts her eyes and they watch, barely breathing as the footsteps grow louder.

Suddenly, her eyes shoot open and she jerks her head, followed by a loud THUD. They hear a woman scream and a man yell, "What the hell?" before El raises her hand and the people outside fall silent for a second, before there's the sound of rapid, heavy footsteps as the two turn and sprint for their lives, the woman yelling, "This town is haunted!" They listen as their intruders run farther and farther away, until they're left with only the birds chirping innocently.

Life rushes back into the group in an instant, as they all blow out their breaths and excitedly begin discussing what had just happened. "Man, that was AWESOME!" Lucas exclaims, high-fiving El as Will asks, "Mike, what'd you tell her to do?" And Dustin just laughs, giving El a high-five of his own as she passes him, making her way back to her spot beside Mike. He puts an arm around her when she plops down next to him. "I told Dustin to tell her to move something around outside to scare them off, but...what'd you actually do?" he asks, noting the confused look on her face. "Oh. Dustin told me to make them fly," she says and Mike glares at Dustin, who just shrugs his shoulders with a grin. "I compromised," she continues, only stumbling slightly at the unfamiliar word. "I made one of them fall." She uses her fingers to mime swiping the man's feet up and him falling to the ground. "But they didn't leave, so I made a stick fly. Then they ran," she finishes.

He squeezes her shoulders to shows his gratitude and she beams at him. He hadn't even realized he'd been staring at her, until Will clears his throat. "Don't you guys think we should get out of here, though? Who knows who those people might tell about this," he says and Mike nods his head. "You're right, let's go," he tells them, standing up, and they all rush to do as much cleaning up as they can, before they exit the fort and hop onto their bikes.

His first instinct is to drop El back off at Hopper's house, but the little voice in the back of his head reminds him they very well could be under surveillance right now and he'd rather not give away the location of the secret cabin. Se he heads towards the police station, figuring they could leave her with him. It's getting pretty late at this point and Hopper probably wants her back for dinner anyways.

No such luck. "He just left, said he was heading to the Wheeler household," his sarcastic secretary informs them. "Seemed pretty ticked at something, if you ask me." "Did he happen to say why?" Dustin asks and Mike exchanges worried glances with all of them. "Hop's always ticked at something," Flo replies, rolling her eyes. "No, I mean, did he say why he was headed to the Wheeler's?" "Well, he was muttering something about 'those dang kids', but that could mean anyone."

By the time she's finished her sentence, the kids have already raced out the door. "Go go go go go!" Dustin is ordering and there's a mad rush to once again mount their bikes and they head straight for Mike's house, pedaling as fast as they can. They know they couldn't get there before the chief, but the sooner they could get there and get El back to him in time for her curfew, the better. And Mike just prays no one told him about the incident in the woods.

Sure enough, Hopper's police car is sitting in the Wheeler driveway when they finally arrive. They dump their bikes outside the basement door and wait impatiently as Mike scrambles to unlock it. The door finally swings open, and they pile into the Wheeler basement, headed straight for the stairs. Mike volunteers to go first, with El close behind, so the chief will see immediately that his daughter's okay.

"El, there you are, thank goodness," Hopper says when they emerge from the basement. He's standing in the kitchen, most likely making idle chatter with Mike's mom while he waited for them to show up. How he knew they would come here, the kids have no idea. "How was the day?" Mike silently breathes a sigh of relief that the first question he asked wasn't "What the heck were you thinking, using your powers around other people?" "Good. We played D&D in Castle Byers," she replies, going to give him a hug.

"You should be proud of her, chief. She saved us this afternoon."

Mike's stomach drops and his eyes grow wide as he turns to stare at Lucas. Dustin and Will have the same look of dismay on their faces and Lucas quickly slaps his hand over his mouth, realizing his mistake.

Hopper's eyebrows raise. "Oh really? How so?" he questions and El takes a moment to glare at Lucas before taking a step back from Hopper. "I was just trying to save my friends," she says defiantly. Mike is expertly avoiding the chief's gaze, which does nothing to divert his suspicion. "Eleven," he says, his gruff voice now turning into a warning. "What. Happened."

"I...they...Mike...um..." El stutters, now training her eyes on the ground and whatever courage she had the moment before was now gone, leaving her looking timid and vulnerable standing next to the chief. Mike finally finds his voice and comes to her rescue. "Hopper, it was my fault. There were some people walking in the woods close to Castle Byers and I was so afraid they were coming for us. I...I told El to use her powers to scare them off. And she did. Please don't be mad at her."

He was expecting Hopper to immediately reprimand El for her actions, despite him begging him not to, but instead, Hopper's expression grows dark and his jaw clenches as he stares at him. "Let me get this straight. You made this girl, who was locked up for twelve years with people who only wanted her for her powers and who constantly ordered her to use them to their benefit, use her powers for YOUR own good? Wheeler, I thought you of all people would know better!"

"She used them for her own good too, not just ours! She has the right to protect herself!" Mike fires back, hardly believing what he was hearing. "She doesn't need anyone to tell her when to protect herself!" Hopper shoots right back. "But me asking her to do that didn't hurt her! Right El?" She hadn't been bothered by it in the moment and she knew he was just trying to protect them. At least, that's what he's been telling himself.

However, that whole perspective changes when he sees the hurt flash through El's eyes when she looks up at him. She bites her lip and Mike feels like crying. He had hurt her. He had hurt her without realizing it. His intention wasn't to use her, but he hadn't considered the possibility that she would take his actions the wrong way.

"El?" he says again, trying to get some sign that there were no hard feelings against him, but everything about her posture and her expression says otherwise. Crap...

"It doesn't matter now," she says quietly. "And besides, Dustin told me to make them fly." She throws Dustin a glare and Mike's mouth drops open, wondering how he hadn't caught how she felt about this in the moment.

Hopper turns to El and puts his hands on his hips. "And did you?" he asks rather forcefully. "I...I made the man fall over, not fly," she responds crossing her arms. They flinch as Hopper throws up his hands. "El, what were you thinking? Who knows who those people might've told about that! You are fully capable of making your own decisions and that was a very, very stupid decision!" "But I kept us safe," she growls, staring him down. "Yeah, by putting yourself in more danger!" he practically yells at her.

Mike hates this. He absolutely hates having to watch this. "Hopper, would you quit throwing all the blame on her? I was the idiot who told her to do that, which by the way El, I'm really sorr-"

She cuts him off mid sentence. "They didn't even see me!" she forcefully tells Hopper. "That is true, chief. We stayed in the fort the whole time," Dustin bravely pipes up from behind Mike, Hopper fires back, saying, "Stay out of this, Henderson, you've done enough! And it doesn't matter if no one saw you, those people felt your powers and that's bad enough! People at the lab are good at connecting the dots and with your reckless actions, you should be lucky they haven't already found you and tried to take you back!"

That one stung. Mike can see it in El's face. The thought of losing El to the bad men is more than he can bear, and he can only imagine what emotions that sparked in her. There's a heavy, electrified silence hanging in the air as El and Hopper stare each other down, El trying desperately to hide her tears.

"I. Was. Protecting. My. Friends!" she yells suddenly and as her anger is unleashed, her powers come to life. The lamp sitting on the table next to Lucas and Will is suddenly, violently blown apart and the lampshade hits Will square in the head while the glass from the light bulb scrapes against Lucas's skin, causing him to cry out.

"Oh, Lucas sweetie, let's get you cleaned up," Mike's mom says and everyone jumps, forgetting she was there. She whisks Lucas off to the bathroom and the others are left standing in a stunned silence. "Eleven. We're going home. Now." Hopper's tone is menacing, dark, threatening and Mike very much wishes he will never hear him use it again. As El passes him on her way to the door, he reaches out to touch her hand, trying to offer the little comfort he can in this situation, but she subtly pulls her hand back and shoves it in her pocket. Her head hangs low as Hopper marches her out of the Wheeler house and Mike is left standing, shocked, in his kitchen with the feeling that his heart was breaking right in two.

The second they get home, she heads straight for her room, telepathically slamming the door and throwing herself onto her bed.

She was beyond angry. She was furious and frustrated beyond belief. How dare Hopper accuse her friends. How dare he not understand that it was only to protect the people she cares about. And how dare Dustin lie to her about what Mike had told her to do. And Mike...how dare he...no, she can't start thinking like that. He hadn't meant to hurt her.

She honestly is dumbfounded at how quickly things got out of hand. All had been fine until Lucas had opened his mouth. And now she has no idea how to fix any of this and that sends an awful, twisting feeling through her stomach. She slams her face into her pillow with a groan, convinced she can't do anything right.

There's a knock on her door a little later and she immediately mumbles, "Not now, Hopper." "El?" She sits up suddenly, her eyes wide. "El, it's...it's Mike." Her heart clenches and she bites her lip. "Can I come in?" She wants to say yes. Her first instinct is to say yes. But she forces herself to hesitate, because Mike coming in means talking it out, which means probably getting angrier than she already is and that would lead to taking the risk of losing her temper and doing something stupid that would most likely hurt him. And she's convinced that she's done that enough today.

So, with regret filling her heart, she says, "No, Mike. Go away. I'm sorry." There's a silence outside her door and her eyes involuntarily well up at what she had just said out loud, hoping she'll never have to say that again. She jumps when he tries the doorknob and can hear his sigh of defeat when he finds it's locked. "Please El, I want to help you fix this. And...and I'm not leaving here until you at least let me talk to you," his voice says, strong and defiant.

She can't. She can't talk to him, at least not right now. And she absolutely hates it, but she makes herself stay silent by burying her face back into her pillow. He'll leave eventually. He has to. Gosh, she just wants this day to be over.

It's about six in the afternoon at this point and she's starting to get hungry, but she doesn't feel like facing Hopper at all for the rest of the day, figuring it would be better to let both of them cool off first. So she stays in her room, attempting to read one of the chapter books her friends had picked up from the library. It successfully gets her mind off things, but she soon grows tired of it as the sun goes down, signaling an end to the day. Switching on her light, she grabs her sketchbook and lazily doodles in it until she glances at the clock and is surprised to see it's already time for her to go to bed. The events of the day have finally stopped nagging at her conscious and she allows herself to drift off to a restless slumber after flicking off her lights, her sketchbook still in her hand.

She's been asleep for a good while, when her stomach decides to start rumbling, complaining that she never ate anything for dinner. She drowsily opens her eyes and glances at the clock to see it reads 11:24. She sighs in exasperation as she hears another growl come insistently from her stomach. Realizing she won't be able to fall back asleep until she eats something, she silently slides out of bed and tiptoes to the door, praying that Hopper isn't still awake. She turns the knob as quietly as she can and is about to step into the darkened cabin, when her eyes glance down at the floor. A gasp escapes her lips and she slaps a hand over her mouth at the sight in front of her.

He never left. Mike was lying fast asleep on the floor right outside her door, with a pillow under his head that she recognizes as one of Hopper's. He wasn't kidding-he really wasn't going to leave until he could help her. It wasn't exactly a promise, but whatever it was, Mike hadn't broken it and she's hit with a wave of admiration and adoration for this boy, something that seems to be happening a lot lately. She leans against her doorframe, soaking in the sight of him sleeping, before running back inside her room and grabbing a blanket from her bed. Not caring if Hopper finds them like this, she lays down next to him, tossing the blanket over them both and scooting as close to him as possible. Hoping this doesn't wake him up, she tentatively slips her fingers through his and holds fast to his hand as she quickly falls back into a deep sleep, so incredibly grateful that he was still here.

What she doesn't know is that Mike refused to move from his spot outside her door, even when Hopper threatened to literally drag him outside. They had had a quiet, heated argument that ended in Hopper finally agreeing to let him stay, when he saw how persistent Mike was...

"Kid, I mean it, just go home. You can't do anything for her now."

"I'm not breaking my word, Hopper. I said I wouldn't leave and I'm not going to now."

"She fell asleep!"

"But she'll wake up in the morning and I want to be here."

"What if I just told her you were going to stay, but I made you leave? Which, by the way, I'm very close to doing."

"No. I'm going to stay here until I can at least talk to her."

"Kid, I literally drag you outside if you don't get outta my house!"

"You think El would forgive you for that?"

Hopper hesitates, dragging a hand down his face.

"Alright, Mike. You're almost fifteen and you're standing up to the chief of police and doing something selfless for a girl. Tell me truthfully, why are you still here?"

Mike scoffs and words begin flying out of his mouth.

"Do I really have to spell it out for you that I love her, Hopper? Can you really not see how deeply I care for this girl? Have you already forgotten how much I suffered when the universe ripped us apart and you, YOU did everything in your power to keep it that way?" He's angry now, but it's mixed with a passion that makes him say things that he didn't even know had once been strings of thoughts in his mind. "Yes, I love your daughter. I loved your daughter before you even called her that. I loved your daughter the minute I found her shivering, half scared to death in the woods. Hopper, El is my world. She was my world before you even knew there was a girl out there named El."

He begins to ramble, but he doesn't care. Someone might as well know the truth. "There are sides of her that you'll never see, because I'm the only person she trusts enough to show those sides to. Can you believe that, this beautiful girl actually trusts ME. What did I do to deserve that? What did I do to deserve seeing her brown eyes turn towards me with so much feeling and emotion, it makes my stomach do somersaults? Gosh, I want to give her the universe, because that's what she deserves. All I want is for El to be happy and safe. She's so unbelievably important to me.

And that, Hopper, is why I'm still here and why I intend to stay here until I can help fix what I started. And trust me, I'll be patient. I've had a lot of experience in waiting for El."

Hopper couldn't think of a single argument against that.

Mike had sat there until his eyes started drooping and he had curled up on the wooden floor, with the pillow the chief had thrown him, determined to keep his word.

What she also doesn't know is he'll wake up halfway through the night to find her asleep beside him, with her hand, the one with his infamous watch wrapped around it, clasping his and his heart will almost burst with love. He'll scoot closer to her, leaving a gentle kiss on the back of her hand, admiring the faint, content smile adorning her lips.

And in the morning, she'll finally sort out her emotions when she's calm enough to talk it out and he'll patiently listen to everything she says. He'll apologize for what he had done and she'll apologize profusely for her actions as well. He'll help her realize any anger left over had now dissolved and that she was ready to make things right again. Hand in hand, he'll stand by her side as she apologizes to everyone she had hurt the previous day and she'll be overwhelmed with the compassion and forgiveness the people she loves will happily offer her.

A/N: Shoutout to PLASMAHOUND, who wanted to see something with Hopper and Mike's relationship; I tried to sprinkle in a little bit of that in here as well.

Also, thank you so much for over a hundred favorites and followers! I love you all!