"I'm still not sure how I feel about this," Sarah said to Diane as she watched the party once more congregate within the Byers' living room. She caught Steve's eyes when he entered and he flashed her a smile, but she quickly looked away. A pang shocked her heart as the memory of what her mother had said to her about Steve resurfaced in her mind. "I don't want to put anyone in danger."

"In order to succeed, you'll need them," Diane informed her, resting a hand on Sarah's shoulder and giving her a comforting smile.

Sarah pressed her mouth shut, deciding not to respond. As much as she hated to, she had to trust that her mom was right.

"Looks like that's everybody," Hopper said, joining Sarah and Diane at Sarah's side. He cast an uneasy glance towards Diane but didn't say a word. He still wasn't happy with her being there, but if Sarah said they needed her, then he'd have to suck it up and deal with the conflicting emotions stirring within him. For his daughter.

Sarah watched Jonathan and Nancy shuffle in last with little Barb sound asleep in Jonathan's arms and slowly made her way to the front of the room. All glances gravitated towards her and she began to bounce on uneasy feet. She hated the feeling of having everyone's eyes on her, especially with the coming conversation they were about to have.

Taking a deep breath, Sarah began. "Sorry to call you all back here again so suddenly. I know you all have lives to get back to soon but there's something I need to ask of you..."

Sarah paused to survey the faces of her friends and family. They had already risked so much for her in the past and now she was standing before them, about to ask them to risk it all again. But she had to, for Steve.

"I need your help," Sarah said with a defeated sigh. "And I hate to ask this of you after all you guys have done for me...but I can't do it alone."

"Whatever it is, we're in," Nancy said determinedly, generating a look of surprise from everyone in the room. Especially Jonathan.

"Nance, what about Barb?" Jonathan asked quietly, although the sudden silence made his voice audible to everyone in the room.

"My parents or Holly can watch her," Nancy retorted.

"Nance, you're very pregnant," Jonathan tried to argue, but once again, Nancy wasn't having it.

Nancy turned to stare Jonathan straight in his eyes and said, "Jonathan, I am not missing out on everything again. If it concerns our friends and family, it concerns us too."

The severity of Nancy's tone and the serious look on her face was enough to shut Jonathan up. He gave a small nod to signify his weary agreement.

"It'll be dangerous," Sarah cautioned the group.

"How dangerous?" Dustin asked, raising his hand like he was in school. "Also, who's that blonde lady standing at the back of the room?"

"Subtle, Dustin," Max muttered under her breath.

Sarah bit her lip. This was the part that she had been dreading: the truth.

"That's my mother," Sarah answered, alighting a series of gasps across the room. Mike, Dustin, Max, Lucas, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve all turned to stare at Diane with a newfound curiosity.

"There will be time for introductions later," Sarah continued, clearing her throat to redirect their attention. "But first...I haven't been entirely honest with you guys. And you guys deserve the truth. All of it."

"All of it?" an incorporeal voice asked in the back of Sarah's mind. James had awoken.

Sarah delved into an explanation about how part of her came from the Diagonal and about the demogorgon that Steve and her had crossed paths with the previous night. She also recounted Malcolm's story, explaining how he created the Upside Down and that they believed that he was going to do so again. This news sent a shiver down the spine of everyone in the room as flashbacks to the hellish landscape of the Upside Down entered their minds.

There was one part she intentionally left out, however. Even though she said she'd tell them everything, she purposely neglected the part about Steve because she didn't want to worry him.

"We don't know when or where he's going to strike, so what I need from you guys is to be my eyes and ears around Hawkins," Sarah explained. "Look for any strange activity and report it back to me."

"How do we even know that he's here?" Lucas asked. "Couldn't he recreate the Upside Down from anywhere?"

"We don't," Sarah answered sullenly. "But my mother has seen things that lead her to believe that Hawkins is important. We're not yet sure why."

"What kind of strange activity?" Jonathan asked next.

"I'm not sure," Sarah answered, becoming depressed by how little she actually knew. What if she was sending them into a danger far greater than she could even imagine?

"Wouldn't that be fun," the incorporeal voice spoke again. Sarah ignored it.

A silence passed around the room as everybody digested the information they had just been told and Sarah once more shifted her weight from foot to foot as she anxiously awaited their responses.

"I'm going to use all of my PTO but it's totally worth it," Dustin finally broke the silence with a smile.

"You'll help?" Sarah asked in surprise, her bright blue eyes beginning to glow.

"Of course, we all will," Dustin scoffed like it was obvious.

"Really?" Sarah's question was met with a wave of nods and a smile grew on her rosy cheeks.

"It's the beginning of the semester so I don't have that much schoolwork yet," Lucas answered. "I'll e-mail my professors to let them know I'll be missing more class. They won't be happy, but hey, I can't become a doctor if the world ends."

"I am my own boss and the boss says yes," Max added confidently.

"Nancy and I both already took two weeks off, so we're set," Jonathan informed Sarah.

"I'm still job-searching so I'm in the clear," Mike responded.

Eleven, Hopper, Joyce, and Will had already confirmed their help the night before, leaving one last person to respond.

"What about you, Steve?" Sarah asked nervously, her fingers subconsciously fidgeting with one another. She found herself desperately hoping that he'd say no.

"Yes, of course!" Steve answered with a smile. "I'm always down to kick monster butt with you, Hopper."

"Thanks guys," Sarah said, trying to force a smile across her face. She really appreciated that they were all so willing to help her, but the fear of losing them struck hard at her heart. Just then, something else also struck her: another truth that she had been dreading to reveal. "There's one more thing..."

"Always leave the best for last," James said. Sarah couldn't see him, but she knew that he was wearing a smug smile wherever he was hiding in her brain.

"After..." Sarah began when she found the words getting stuck in her throat. Eleven sets of imploring eyes rested on her while they waited for her to continue.

"Out with it already," James whined. "They're going to love this!"

"After..." Sarah repeated herself, still struggling to come up with the correct words. "...all of this is over, I'm sticking around Hawkins, for good."

A set of cheers ricocheted around the room as everyone celebrated the news. Sarah caught a large smile on Hopper's face and a smaller one on Diane's. She found herself wondering what her mother's smile meant but she gave up on guessing when her eyes glanced to the left and caught Steve's infectious smile glowing in the corner. Her own smile then joined the room, although it didn't last long.

"That's not what you were going to tell them..." James reminded her, a disappointed tone cutting through his words.

Sarah sighed in defeat. No matter how hard she tried, the full truth just wouldn't come. Why was it so hard for her to tell her friends and family about James and her new ability?

"Perhaps because telling them means it'll be harder to use it without them knowing," James pointed out. "Face it, One, you want to keep me and my abilities all to yourself."

"What I want," Sarah snapped. "is you out of my head."

Sarah didn't have a chance to see if James had followed through on her command because a new voice then interrupted her thoughts.

"You look like you could use a drink," Steve said with a smile.

Sarah glanced up to meet his eyes and tried to return the smile but she was still stuck in a leftover trance. She hadn't even noticed him approach her. "Oh, um, yeah. A drink would be nice," Sarah responded with a small laugh before following up in a slightly more serious tone with, "Or maybe a whole bottle."

"Did somebody say alcohol?" Dustin shouted from across the room, interrupting Sarah and Steve's conversation.

Steve just rolled his eyes and chuckled before announcing to the room, "I know a place."

☆ ★ ☆

"'The Silver Cat'," Sarah read from the sign posted outside the bar as Steve's car rolled into the parking lot. "Interesting name."

"Did Robin ever tell you why she called it that?" Dustin asked from the back seat, where he was squished between Lucas and Max.

"Came to her in a dream or something," Steve answered as he put his precious 1995 BMW M3 into park. "Something about Chinese food, shoes, and clocks. I don't know. Sounds like a bunch of gibberish to me."

As Steve, Sarah, Dustin, Lucas, and Max exited the car, they were met by Mike, Eleven, and Will, who had rode together in Mike's car. Jonathan and Nancy had taken a fussy Barb back to Hopper's cabin, and Hopper and Joyce both had to go to work, so they declined to join. Diane had returned to the Diagonal to check in with Adam, but she had promised Sarah that she would be back soon.

"Buckley!" Steve announced as he pushed open the front door. The bar was fairly quiet given that it was the middle of a weekday, with only Bruce Lowe posted on his usual stool at the end of the bar. "I've brought you customers!"

Robin rounded the corner from the back room and was slightly surprised to see such a large group standing at her front door. "Indeed you have, Harrington," she said in surprise. "Sit wherever, I'll be with you in a minute."

The group of eight found an empty table off to the side near the bar and collapsed into the chairs. After Robin was done getting Bruce a new pint, she swung by the table to take orders.

"So this must be the famous Sarah Hopper," Robin said once her eyes landed on Sarah. "Steve has told me a lot about you."

"Not that much..." Steve murmured as a red tint colored his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I know you..." Sarah replied, trying to study the brown-haired, blue-eyed woman standing before her in high-waisted jeans and a Hard Rock Café t-shirt.

"The name's Robin Buckley," Robin said, sticking out her hand for Sarah to shake after tucking her notepad into her back pocket. "I used to work with Steve at Scoops Ahoy. I'm the girl he always ditched at work because he was so helplessly in love with you."

Steve's cheeks once more flushed red.

"Oh yeah...Sorry about that," Sarah sheepishly apologized as the memories came back to her.

"Don't worry about it," Robin replied. "Steve makes up for it by covering for me at the bar when my girlfriend and I want to go on dates. Speaking of..." Robin's voice trailed off as her eyes ventured to Steve. "There's this new immersive exhibit about The Beatles at the museum in Columbus..."

"No, Robin," Steve immediately cut her off. "I told you that I'm busy."

"Crushing my dreams, Harrington," Robin said with a glare before turning back to the bar to retrieve the group's orders.

"You know what we haven't done in a long time?" Will spoke up once the table had quieted down. Everybody groaned in anticipation of his coming answer. "Played D&D! We should do that sometime soon since the party is all back together!"

The group was saved from answering when Robin returned with a tray of drinks and began distributing them around the table.

"Dustin, what in the hell are you drinking?" Lucas asked when he noticed the bright pink frozen drink placed in front of Dustin.

"Strawberry daiquiri," Dustin answered after sipping through the straw.

"Dude..." Mike chuckled with raised brows. "That's such a girly drink."

"If you guys want to continue to live in a world where feminine and masculine stereotypes are assigned to inanimate and quite frankly, delicious items, then you can continue to miss out," Dustin retorted after taking another sip.

Lucas's smile quickly turned into a frown upon hearing Dustin's response. "Let me try it," Lucas demanded, reaching his arm across the table for Dustin's drink.

Dustin swiped the glass from Lucas's grasp before he could touch it. "Absolutely not, if you want one then you need to order your own."

"I'm not ordering that!"

"Then you're not trying it!"

"Buckley!" Steve shouted, instantly shutting up Dustin and Lucas. "Round of strawberry daiquiris for the idiots, please and thank you!"

"Coming right up!" Robin called back.

Shortly after, the entire party was sucking down fruity frozen drinks and laughing about old times. It felt like nothing had changed and for a blissful moment, they all forgot about the impending danger.

But the impending danger hadn't forgotten about them; it watched from a window outside the bar, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★