16. 15: Connection (Part One)

Mike Wheeler would be lying if he said he felt absolutely nothing from El during the time she was away.

That's one of the things that kept him going for all those days. Besides just simply wanting her to be alive and refusing to give up hope, he would often be hit with an emotion during his nightly calls that wasn't his own.

It was never obvious at first and he sometimes just shrugged it off, blaming his overwhelming grief for it. And it happened the same way every time. He'd be sitting in her fort, gripping the SuperComm in one hand and telling her all about his day, or whatever he felt he needed to tell her, and then suddenly...he could've sworn he wasn't alone. Something in the air would change and it was always accompanied by this weird sensation on his brain. It was faint but strong, tugging on his mind, always like it was trying to lead him somewhere. One night, out of sheer frustration, when it was more persistent than he had ever felt it, he decided to follow it. Blindly, he stood up, throwing on his jacket and, still clutching his SuperComm, made his way over to the basement door. What made him decide he had to leave, he didn't know, only that something was pulling him outside. But as soon as his hand touched the doorknob, the presence in his mind vanished and he was left with a consuming emptiness and an absolute desperation to be with her, tears threatening to spill down his cheeks.

She could always tell when she had accidentally let him feel her. She'd be sitting in the Void, listening to whatever he had to say that day, when he would murmur something that would make her heart constrict painfully in her chest and in that moment, she would want nothing more than to touch him, to let him know she was right there. His name was the only thing on her mind as she stretched her hand out to him, not knowing what she intended to do, but just wanting to be closer to him.

His face would change and his sentence would falter, trailing off as his eyes darted around the room, frantically searching for the source of the feeling she unknowingly gave him. "El?" he would whisper, raising the SuperComm to his lips.

She could never stay for long after that, no matter how desperately she wanted to. Hopper would be furious if he found out she was somehow alerting Mike to her presence and so, with the image of him looking absolutely miserable burned in her mind, she would yank herself out of the Void and muffle her heart-wrenching sobs in her pillow.

And then.

And then she returned to him. And then she got to be in his arms again and hear him say her name in real life and see his perfect smile spread across his face. But that overwhelming elation lasted less than an hour and before they knew it, they were forced to separate again. It had hurt like heck and after El whispered, "I'm going to come back," in his ear during their final embrace, he reluctantly let her go, holding onto the promise she had given him.

As she drove away in Hopper's car, Mike felt that all too familiar tugging sensation on his mind and it only made things worse, as if someone was coaxing him, begging him to follow her. That feeling would remain there the rest of the night, through the lab, through the tunnels, through the fire, she was thinking of him. But they wouldn't connect the dots and discover just how intertwined their minds were until later that summer, after she came back to him for good...

_

El needed him. Right now. He had to find her. Now.

Numbly, he rises from his seat in the theater and makes his way down the aisle. He has absolutely no idea where he's going, but all he knows is it wasn't even an option to keep sitting there, he had to find her, and he had to find her right now.

All had been going well. School had finally let out for the summer and, much to Mike and El's delight, this meant more time to just simply be with one another. The first few weeks had been blissfully perfect, but Mike was itching to bring El into town for at least a couple hours, just so she could experience the community she'd been excluded from all her life. He begged Hopper relentlessly and El quickly joined his case, pleading her dad to let her out after all this time. By some miracle, they finally got him to grudgingly agree and El couldn't have been happier.

Tonight, Mike had kept it simple. A dinner and a movie seemed like the perfect way to introduce her to the normal life she had been missing out on. For the first time in a long time, they had had a real conversation without being interrupted, talking about anything and everything while they laughed at the other's efforts to eat their steaming plates of spaghetti without spilling any on their nice clothes.

Sitting in the movie theater side by side, leaning comfortably against one another, everything had felt perfect. No responsibilities, no secret government conspiracies, no terrifying monsters from another dimension. It was just them enjoying the other's presence and that's all they really needed. This, this was the normal teenage relationship both of them craved and for a few hours, they could maintain that facade effortlessly.

But Mike and El are not two normal teenagers in a normal relationship.

He's following his instinct, heading down the hallway, rounding corners until he finds himself standing in front of the women's bathroom. He hesitates for a second, but the pulling on his brain has gotten stronger and he tentatively pushes the door open.

"El?" He calls, relieved when he finds the restroom is relatively empty, save for the one small sob he hears coming from the opposite side of the room.

That definitely sounds like her.

He steps through the doorway and his eyes immediately land on the small girl curled up underneath the sinks. Her head is hidden behind her knees and her arms are wrapped protectively around her as her shoulders shake with silent sobs. The sight makes his heart break and he rushes to kneel in front of her. "El?" he repeats, placing a hand on her arm, but immediately regrets his decision when she flinches away and raises her head, afraid he had scared her.

She sure looks scared. Her tear-soaked eyes stare back at him in confusion, her expression showing that she's absolutely terrified. His stomach drops and he watches as the haze of confusion slowly lifts from her face, only to be replaced with her features crumpling. She limply holds out her hands to him, asking for comfort as the sobs come back in a flood. He's more than happy to oblige and crawls under the sinks with her, taking her in his arms and holding her as tightly as possible. She wraps her arms around his waist and presses her face into the crook of his neck, her body shaking and trembling. He rests his cheek against her hair and gently runs his hand up and down her arm as he holds her, murmuring every comforting thing he can think of, hoping her pain will be gone soon, because he absolutely hates seeing her like this.

After a little while, she pulls back enough to wipe at her eyes, leaving one hand clenched around his shirt. "M-Mike," she whispers hoarsely. "I don't want to stay. I'm sorry." Her head falls back against his chest and he wipes away one of her tears with his thumb as he replies, "Okay, that's totally fine, El. We can leave."

He lets her go long enough to climb out from under the sinks, offering her a hand when he gets out so she can do the same. She grips his hand tightly as they quickly make their way out of the theater, onto the street, and out into the night. Her other hand clutches his arm as soon as they're outside and he squeezes her hand gently.

"So," he starts when they're a little ways away. "What happened in there?" She looks down at the ground and sniffles quietly before she whispers, "Flashback." He nods sympathetically and drops a kiss on the side of her head. Usually, he would then ask her if she wanted to talk about it, wanting to help in anyway he could, but over time, he could sense the answer to that question before he even asked it. Not that that's a good thing-he'd really rather she didn't have any pain she needed to relieve by talking about it in the first place. But whether he likes it or not, her past is still haunting her and while he always wishes he could do more, he knows that all she really needs is for him to be strong for her and listen to whatever she wants to tell him.

They walk in silence as El pieces together her thoughts. When she's finally ready to speak, she clings to his arm tighter than she had been, drawing him even closer to her and he holds his breath in anticipation.

"I had to use the bathroom and when I walked in, a-a lady came out from one of the stalls. Sh-she looked like one of the bad men." Mike squeezes her hand as she struggles to continue. Taking her time, she bites her lip and they walk for a little ways more, before she says,

"She had to be with me ev-every time I went to the bathroom. Every. Time." She adds on with a whisper.

Mike feels that all-too familiar cloud of rage stirring inside him like a storm looming over the horizon at her words.

No wonder El had no concept of privacy. No wonder she thought it was okay to take off her clothes in front of people. Did they let her do anything alone? She was a scared little girl for heaven's sakes, how hard was it to let her do something as private as relieving herself alone?

He's having trouble breathing and he's only vaguely aware how tightly he's gripping her hand. He wishes he could change her past or at least erase all her bad memories but he can't and they still cause her pain and it's been over a year and they just won't freaking leave her alone.

Beside him, El pauses and turns to face him. "And she..." She abruptly cuts herself off when her eyes meet his and it's clear that whatever she finds on his face, she doesn't like it.

His breath catches in his throat as she raises her hands to cradle his face. "Mike, calm down. Please," she quietly pleads him. He curses himself for letting his fury slip into his eyes. This isn't what she needs right now. What she needs is for him to be there for her and listen to whatever she needs to tell him. He'll deal with his fury later. With this in mind, he takes a breath to steady himself and holds her gaze as he feels his anger slowly start to disappear.

"I'm sorry, El," he eventually says. "What were you going to tell me?" Her face changes and she bites her lip, dropping her hands. Her eyes turn downward and after a beat, she opens her mouth to say something, quickly closing it soon after. He waits patiently as she tries again, inhaling and raising her gaze, but once again, her words fail her and her mouth snaps shut.

By now, they're standing at the edge of the woods that holds her home and, sensing that this is going to be a struggle, he takes her by the hand and leads her to a grassy area nearby. He motions for her to sit down underneath a tree and plops down across from her, cradling both her hands in his.

"What is it, El?" he quietly says, urging her to say something. She sighs, her brow creasing and she gives it another shot, but isn't able to get past "That lady..." before she trails off, bowing her head.

It happens over and over again. Her mouth opens, she tries to form the words she desperately wants to say, something stops her, she closes her mouth, looking more and more defeated each time. He rubs his thumb against the back of her hand comfortingly, willing to be as patient as he needs to be for her.

Her level of frustration rises with every sentence that gets stuck in her throat and when her hands begin to shake, tears welling up at the bottom of her eyes, that's when he starts to get worried. "El?"

"Mike, you can't do anything stupid!" she says suddenly, forcefully. "Promise me, promise me you won't get mad and do something stupid!" She's begging, her voice breaking. Her grip on his hands is crushing and he wants to say yes, he wants to make that promise so badly, whatever it takes to get her to open up, but...he can't. He would break it, he would break that promise. He's never been good at controlling his emotions and based off how he reacted earlier, his word would be broken in a heartbeat.

"El, I...I can't promise you that. I can't make a promise I know I'll break. I'm sorry, but I don't want to let you down."

He winces when her face crumples but it hurts even more when she rips her hands out of his with an agonizing sob, curling up into the same ball he found her in in the bathroom.

His first instinct is to move to comfort her and to apologize a million times over, but seeing her sitting here in the moonlight makes him take a moment to examine her. And not just to admire her, but really examine her. And he's shocked at what he finds.

It suddenly becomes strikingly clear that this girl is being weighed down by a secret that won't set her free. The way her shoulders hunch, the way her arms wrap around her like she's trying to hold herself together, the way she retreats so easily back into herself. She's shackled to it, the shadow of her past hovering over her, making her a slave.

He hates it.

El needs to tell someone and she needs to tell someone fast.

"But here's what I can promise, El. I promise that I will listen to everything you want to tell me and I won't interrupt you and I'll try to help you the best I can and I won't judge you-you know that El-I'll never ever judge you." He puts a hand on her arm to finalize his statement, wanting her to know he means every single word he just said.

When she finally raises her head and he sees tears rolling down her cheeks for the second time that night, his chest constricts painfully, but he holds her gaze tenderly. Her lips are trembling, but she manages to whisper one question.

"Why?"

He's taken aback, but he doesn't hesitate for a second, answering instantly,

"Because I love you."

He watches as her features slowly soften and her posture relaxes ever so slightly. Never looking away from his eyes, she uncurls her body, nodding her head, her subtle way of telling him she trusts him. She reaches for his hands and he grasps them tightly as she scoots closer to him so their knees are touching and she takes a few deep breaths to stabilize herself.

"Mike.

That lady?

The bad lady?"

She inhales. She exhales. She holds on tight to his hands.

"She's the one who hit me the most."

His world stops. Something changes in the air around them. The sudden, overwhelming fury is so blinding and disorienting that he loses his breath for a couple seconds. For a moment, he's suspended in his emotions, each of them battling for the spotlight, each of them growing stronger than the other. Until everything becomes rushing back in an instant and he stumbles to his feet, not able to focus on El anymore.

He whirls around to the west, where that horrible lab is standing defiantly, throwing its very existence into his face.

He hates them. Every last one of them. It was sickening enough the things they forced her to do and the attention they deprived her of, but they had dared to hit her. They had dared laid a finger on an innocent, wonderful girl and he's more than furious.

"Those bastards," he mutters under his breath, venom dripping from his words.

He feels like punching every bad man who had ever hurt her in the face until they beg for mercy.

"Those BASTARDS!" he screams, hot, thick tears streaming from his eyes.

"Mike!"

El's hand lands on his shoulder and she spins him around to face her.

He'll realize later that she hadn't broken down sobbing after she told him. She hadn't thrown herself at him, clinging onto him for dear life. Standing there in the moonlight in front of him, she had looked...strong. She had looked empowered. Sure, a few tears were making their way down her cheeks, but she looked so...free. Because she told someone. Because she told him. He, on the other hand, is a complete wreck.

"I'm here," she tells him firmly and he understands everything that's packed in those two words.

She made it out. She's been out for about two years. She's here, she's not there. Those people who caused her pain have now been replaced. The person who they caused pain to had changed. No longer can they hurt her, no longer can they add more scars to her massive collection. Now, she's surrounded by people who love her, who want nothing but the best for her. The bad men are gone. She's started a new life, one he's fortunate enough to be apart of, but no matter how hard both of them try, she just can't shake the terrors they inflicted upon her in that place.

He pulls her into a fierce hug, gathering her tightly in his arms. She reciprocates, wrapping her arms around his waist and he knows she can feel him shaking.

"No one is ever going to hurt you ever again. No one will ever dare lay a finger on you, El," he swears to her, placing his hand on the back of her head, pressing her closer to him.

"You can't promise that," she mumbles, holding on tight to him. "I won't let them," he replies, his voice low and passionate. "I won't let anyone harm you. You didn't deserve any of that and...gosh, I wish I could fix what happened to you."

"I know you do, Mike."

And they leave it at that. They soak in the feeling of being in the other's arms for a while and when he calms down enough for him to breathe properly, they start making their way back to the cabin. Their fingers interlocked tightly together, he knows he's going to have to take some time to process this, but he's so glad she told him. A part of him can't believe she lived with that for more than fourteen years and it makes his heart tear in two all over again. On the other hand, she seems lighter, happier now. Her smile is less forced when he looks over at her and in this moment, the two of them feel so...comfortable. Another wall has been torn down, leaving them feeling enormously content and loved.

He's reluctant to let her go when they step onto her porch and with a loving kiss on the cheek, she assures him she'll be alright tonight. For the millionth time, he makes sure she knows she can wake him up for anything at any time of the night and that earns him a quick peck on the lips.

As she walks through her front door, she turns around suddenly and asks a question that he'll ponder during the entire bike ride home.

"How did you know I was in the bathroom?"