"Everywhere? What do you mean everywhere?" Hopper asked, his hands anxiously fidgeting with the brim of his hat. The party was back out in the lobby of Harrington Real Estate, Steve's office having become too crowded and stuffy. 

Eleven shook her head, trying to find the words to explain what she had seen in the void. "I found her, but not her. I think I contacted other universes."

"So what are you saying, that she's in another universe?" 

"Possibly," Eleven answered sullenly, her face suddenly falling. "Either way, I can't find her."

Hopper began to pace anxiously, heavy breaths exhaling through his nostrils. Despite it being cold outside, he suddenly felt very hot and had to take his coat off. He couldn't lose her again, he couldn't. Hopper's footsteps became the only noise in Harrington Real Estate as everybody descended into their thoughts. 

After a couple minutes of silence passed, Will stepped forward with an idea. "Maybe we can't find her, but maybe we can find someone who knows where she is." 

Everybody glanced at each other in confusion when Dustin's eyes suddenly lit up. "Quinn!" he shouted, the thought escaping through his mouth the second it crossed his mind. "She was the last person to see Sarah, she might know where she is."

"As far as we know, Quinn could have killed her!" Lucas replied, shrugging in apology when he caught Hopper's eyes. "I'm just saying, she could be dangerous."

"No," Eleven said firmly, her voice carrying through the room. "She's alive, I know that much." A beat of silence passed before Eleven spoke again, her features fixed in contemplation. "I'm going back in."

Hopper opened his mouth to voice his opposition to the idea but stopped himself before any words could come out. He had to trust that Eleven was capable of recognizing her own limits. And selfishly, he'd do whatever it took to get Sarah back. "Fuck," he swore under his breath, expelling all his anxiety in a single word. 

☆ ★ ☆

"FUCK!" Sarah shouted, her voice carrying farther than she intended and earning her some judgmental stares from passersby. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Sarah paced back and forth on the steps of the library trying to wrap her mind around her current predicament. Her portals had taken her to different times and different dimensions, but this was the first time they had taken her to a different universe. When she was trying to save Steve, no less. How typical. Like always, instead of her controlling her portals, her portals controlled her. Why did she think that this time would be any different?

Sarah sat back down on the steps, her face buried in her hands. "Any ideas would be fucking grand," Sarah thought, searching her mind for James. He had been strangely silent lately.

A moment passed before James appeared on the step next to her, leaning forward with his arms on his knees. He stared forward, his face expressionless. "Well, you opened the portal searching for Steve and you found him."

His response sent Sarah back to her feet, her hands anxiously running through her hair as the tears building in her eyes started to spill over. "He can't be gone, he can't," she cried.

"Then try again."

"Yeah, and what guarantee do I have that the next portal I open isn't going to fuck me over too?" 

"You don't."

Sarah wiped her slippery cheeks, her palms slick with salty tears, and nodded her head. James was right. It wasn't over yet. It couldn't be, it wouldn't be, until she had Steve back. It didn't matter how many portals she had to open, one of them would eventually lead her back to him. She had to believe it.

"Although, if I'm being completely honest, I never cared for Steve and am silently rooting for you to fail," James said, his mouth set in a grim line until a smile split it in two, warming his previously cold features. Sarah couldn't help but smile in return, no matter how much she didn't want to. She tried to play off the smile with a roll of her eyes but in truth, she was happy that she didn't have to go through this alone. Even if the person at her side was James.

Sarah turned to face the wall of the library, her eyes tracing the bricks for any discrepancies to focus on. This time, instead of focusing on Steve, she would focus on her universe. She needed to get back on familiar ground. 

The portal came easier than she expected it to, although the blank white wall on the other side offered her no confirmation that it led back to her universe. There was only on way to find out. Sarah glanced back at James, who was still sitting on the library steps. "You coming?" she asked. 

"Right behind you," James answered with a wink. 

☆ ★ ☆

"Hold up, I'm right behind you," Mike called out to Eleven as she headed back towards Steve's office. She paused to allow him time to catch up, a bright blush blooming on her cheeks when Mike's hand slipped into hers after the door shut behind them.

They walked the rest of the hallway in silence, entered the office in silence, and situated Eleven to re-enter the void in silence. Mike's confidence in Eleven and Eleven's comfort in Mike's company didn't need to be put into words, because it was already known by both of them. 

"Steve really needs to re-evaluate his wardrobe," Mike said as he handed the pink-and-blue-striped tie to Eleven with a scrunch of his nose, eliciting a smile from Eleven as she secured it over her eyes.

The sound of television static filling her ears, Eleven once more returned to the dark but familiar space of the void. Mike watched anxiously at her side, his hand finding its way into hers again like a magnet. He counted down the seconds by the beating of his heart and after approximately one-hundred-and-twenty-six heart beats, Eleven returned. 

"Did you find her?" Mike asked, his eyes searching hers for answers the second she removed the makeshift blindfold.

Eleven nodded her head, wiping away the streak of blood that dripped from her nose. "She's at the Lab."

☆ ★ ☆

"You've brought us to the Lab," James pointed out after the portal shut behind them. A slew of curse words ran through Sarah's mind for not having recognized the sterilized white wall sooner but it was too late to turn back. As much as she hated the Lab, it was a sign that they were moving in the right direction. 

"We could be in the right universe, just the wrong time," Sarah replied, quickly and quietly moving down the hallway to search for any concrete answers. So far she couldn't hear any other life nearby but she knew that was likely to change. James followed reluctantly behind, his hands shrugged in his pants pockets. 

Sarah made it to the end of the hallway when she heard the click of shoes coming in their direction. She pushed herself against the wall and indicated for James to do the same. 

"You're the only one that can see or hear me, you idiot," James reminded her, his feet planted firmly where he was in the middle of the hallway. Sarah just sighed and shook her head. After ten years of James riding shotgun in her head she often forgot that he wasn't actually there.

The clicking of the shoes eventually faded away and Sarah and James were once more alone. Sarah sighed in relief and pushed forward.

"What exactly is your plan here?" James asked, following along at his own pace.

Sarah paused with an irritated sigh. "I'm not really sure, okay? If you want to actually be helpful at any point, it'd be much appreciated."

Another set of shoes echoed in the distance. 

"Allow me." James continued ahead of Sarah, turning the corner into the adjacent hallway. When she could no longer see him, she saw something else; what he was seeing. She still hated the sensation but she had to admit that it was useful. 

Another sterilized white hallway stretched before him, matching the countless others that made up the maze of the Lab. Steel-reinforced doors lined the the walls, each with their own number engraved into a metal plate to denote the subject behind it, but it was at this point that Sarah realized that the numbers exceeded what she remembered from her time in the Lab. Aside from James (and Eleven for a brief moment), she had never been exposed to the other subjects, but during her search for James before they escaped she did see their rooms. From what she could recall, the highest number she had seen had been 018 but she, or rather James, was staring at a door labeled 106.

Sarah didn't get a chance to contemplate what this could mean because just then, James' eyes flickered towards the source of the clicking shoes and Sarah felt her stomach plummet to another dimension. 

It was her but it wasn't her. Her blonde hair was long, tied back in a ponytail at the base of her head that swept over her shoulder. She was staring down at a clipboard in her hands, the black square-framed glasses she wore perched at the end of her nose. But what drew both James' and Sarah's attention was the white lab coat she wore with Hawkins National Laboratory stitched into the fabric over her heart. 

James' voice echoed in Sarah's mind. "I don't think we're in the right universe."

☆ ★ ☆

"What do you think the other universes are like?" Dustin pondered as he stared out the lobby window while they waited for Eleven to find Quinn. It had started to rain, heavy drops streaking through the dark sky to splatter against the window in a steady pitter-patter rhythm. Golden halos of light adorned the street lamps, basking the buildings and the cars passing beneath them in a warm glow.

"Infinite," Will answered. "Theoretically." 

"So there's a universe where I'm married to a total babe and I'm crazy rich, living in a mansion the size of a small country?" Dustin asked, his eyes widening.

"Right, just like there's a universe where you're a total loser who eats microwavable dinners alone every night and watches soaps on their ten-inch television," Max added, immediately stopping the growing smile on Dustin's face. "Wait, that's this one."

"I wish we were in a universe where you were actually nice," Dustin mumbled to himself.

"I wish we were in a universe where none of this crazy shit ever happened and we all just lived happily ever after," Lucas sighed. The others nodded their heads in response, a glum look spread across their faces.

A somber silence settled upon the space as each and every one of them tried to picture what this universe might look like. The first thing that came to Dustin's mind wasn't models or mansions, but rather the people before him bunched together around a table at The Silver Cat sipping strawberry daiquiris and laughing at distant memories. Will pictured his family, not just the ones he started with but also the ones that he'd accumulated along the way; Hopper, Eleven, Sarah, Nancy, Barb, baby Bob...all together under the same roof. Lucas and Max's visions were simple but similar: they saw each other, together. And that's all they needed. 

The images that came to mind surprised them, but perhaps what surprised them most of all was that it was entirely possible that they could already be in a universe where their "happily-ever-after's" existed. They just had to get through one last hurdle. 

"I found her," Eleven said, her voice shaking them back to their present reality. "Let's go."

☆ ★ ☆

"All right, we found our answer, let's go," James said, quickly rounding the corner back into Sarah's vision, meaning that she lost sight of her alternate self. "One of you is already One too many, I don't want to deal with your evil twin."

"If we run into your alternate self does that make them your good twin?" Sarah asked, her eyebrow arched high. 

"Less pretentiousness, more portal," James snapped, his words highlighted by the clicking of the alternate Sarah's shoes.

Sarah nodded her head and turned to face the wall, once more envisioning her universe, but nothing came. Her anger built, blurring the edges of her vision with a red tinge. She would not let her portals control her, she would not let her...Portal.

A portal opened before them and they both pushed through without even looking to see what was on the other side. They immediately regretted it. 

"Hello," Alternate Sarah said, a smile on her face and the clipboard held tightly to her chest.

"It wasn't your portal," James said.

"I can see that," Sarah seethed.

"How interesting," Alternate Sarah continued, unaware of the conversation going on between Sarah and her invisible companion. She studied Sarah as she slowly circled her like a vulture with roadkill. "The Doctor will want to see this."

"Why?" Sarah sputtered, the word escaping from between her teeth. She knew that she needed to get out of there, to save Steve, but this was something she needed to know. James gave her a sideways glance but remained quiet.

"I'm sorry?" Alternate Sarah responded, pausing her circling to adjust her glasses.

"Why in the fuck would you ever work for that piece of shit after what he did to you?" 

"The Doctor and I are good friends," Alternate Sarah answered innocently, her eyes blinking in confusion. 

Sarah's face twisted in disgust. "You sicken me." 

The echoing click-click of yet another set of shoes announced the incoming of an additional person and the smile on Alternate Sarah's face gave Sarah an inkling of who it was. 

"Portal, portal, portal..." James urged her, his eyes flickering between Sarah and the end of the hallway.

"I'm working on it," Sarah replied. Her eyes fell to the ground beneath her feet but like before, nothing appeared no matter how much she willed it. She screamed internally, her heart rate increasing with every footfall. They were running out of time.

"Any time now..."

"You're not helping!"

"Ah, Doctor, there you are," Alternate Sarah greeted the newcomer, her voice lifting Sarah's eyes upwards to find the aforementioned Doctor now amongst them. Her eyes first settled on his polished black shoes, then his pin-straight dress pants, the hem of his pristine white lab coat, the navy blue tie peeking out from between his jacket, and finally to his face where...

"I don't think this is my good twin," James said, his voice wavering.

"Well, who do we have here?" Alternate James asked, a pearly smile stretched too thin across his face and a malevolent glint in his eye.

★ ☆ ★ ☆ ★