♪♪♪

"You're positive that was Dart?"

"Yes. He had the exact same yellow pattern on his butt."

"It's really weird you know that, Dustin." Mia interjected.

He and Lucas had been debating for pretty much the entirety of their walk back through the woods and Mia was so exhausted, and in pain, that she wished for silence. Of course, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon so she just trailed behind the others and listened.

"He was tiny two days ago." Max said.

"Well, he's molted three times already."

"Malted?" Steve questioned.

"Molted."

Mia's brows knitted together, "what's the difference?"

"He shed his skin to make room for growth like hornworms."

Mia shared a look with Steve, glad he looked as clueless as she felt.

"When's he gonna molt again?" Max asked.

"It's gotta be soon. When he does, he'll be fully grown, or close to it. And so will his friends."

"Yeah, and he's gonna eat a lot more than just cats." Steve said.

"Wait, a cat?" Lucas stopped and stood in front of Dustin. "Dart ate a cat?"

"No, what? No."

"What are you talking about?" Steve said. "He ate Mews."

Mia nudged Steve in the side and shook her head, eyes wide–giving him a stop-talking-right-now kind of look which she hoped he understood.

He did not.

"Mews? Who's Mews?" Max asked.

"Dustin and Mia's cat."

Lord help me, Mia thought, looking up to the sky.

"Steve!"

"I knew it! You kept him!" Lucas exclaimed.

"He missed me. He wanted to come home!" Dustin defended.

"Bullshit!"

"I didn't know he was a Demogorgon, okay?"

"Oh, so now you admit it?"

The two boys argued back and forth for the next few minutes, not listening to either of the girls protests. Eventually they dragged Max into their argument as well, talking about something to do with their nerd party and secret rules and other crap that Mia just tuned out of.

She turned to Steve, hoping to get him to stop their bickering, but saw he was looking out towards another part of the woods and not paying attention to any of them.

"Steve, you good?"

"I thought I heard something."

"Something as in an owl? Or as in something else?"

Steve looked at her with an expression on his face that Mia didn't like, and when she heard the screeching too, she knew it definitely wasn't an owl.

"Guys!" Steve yelled. The three kids stopped arguing as the screeching continued.

They ran off, following the noises until they arrived at a lookout. The entire town was surrounded by darkness.

"I don't see him," Dustin said.

"It's the lab," Lucas said, lowering his binoculars. "They we're going home."

The five of them shared a tense look, before hurrying on through the woods towards Hawkins Lab.

The pain in Mia's wrist had subsided for now, but she surmised that it was most likely just bruised–a sprain at the most.

"Hey, is your wrist okay?" Steve asked her as they trailed behind the three kids, noticing how tentatively she was holding her right arm.

"Yeah, I think I just landed on it a bit too hard when we jumped back into that van," she said quietly. "It's probably just bruised, but I'm still trying to be careful."

"Can I have a look?"

Mia nodded, and Steve turned to the kids. "Hey, guys, hold up for a sec."

Dustin, Lucas and Max turned around and walked back towards them.

"Mia, are you okay?" Dustin asked.

"I'm fine. I just hurt my wrist back at the junkyard," she explained. "Steve was just about to play doctor and examine it."

He narrowed his eyes at her and she smirked. He then took hold of her arm gently, the contact sending an unfamiliar tingling sensation through her body, and shone his flashlight on her skin.

This wasn't exactly what she pictured when she wanted her arm examined, but she also didn't have very many options right now.

"I don't see any bruising but you should probably get it checked out when we get back to town." Steve said finally. Mia heard Dustin sigh with relief.

"Thank you, Dr. Harrington." Mia teased.

Steve rolled his eyes and resumed walking. "Alright, okay. Very funny, Henderson. Very funny."

Mia laughed as Steve went on complaining about trying to be helpful and how all she did was make fun of him, but Mia knew he wasn't really upset about it.

Meanwhile, Dustin smiled at his sister–enjoying hearing her infectious laugh that he hadn't heard in a very long time, and wondered whether Mia even realised that Steve was watching her too, also smiling.

♪♪♪

"Steve?!"

"Nancy?"

"Jonathan?"

"Mia!" Everyone looked at her blankly. "Were we not all just saying our names?"

"What are you guys doing here?" Nancy asked, ignoring Mia and instead looking visibly perplexed as she and Jonathan walked towards their group.

"What are you doing here?" Steve replied.

The seven of them met in the middle of the grassed area outside the front gates, and Mia finally had a chance to catch her breath.

"We're looking for Mike and Will."

"They're not in there, are they?" Dustin asked, motioning to the lab.

"We're not sure."

"Why?" Jonathan asked.

The demo-dogs' screeching once again caused all their heads to turn in the direction of the lab.

Immediately they broke out into a multitude of discussions, all speaking over one another and the only person who wasn't paying attention was Nancy–who cut off their conversations by alerting them to the power being back on.

They ran back to the guard house, both Jonathan and Dustin attempting to open the gate. The button wouldn't work, however, and just when Mia was about to tell Dustin off–the gate opened. Nancy and Jonathan got in his car and Nancy instructed the others to wait before they sped off. Mia sat down with her back against the fence, closing her eyes–her exhaustion finally catching up to her.

It wasn't until Mia heard a car horn honking that she realised she'd accidentally dozed off.

Her eyes shot open and she scrambled to stand up, seeing the others moving out of the way of the road as Jonathan's car went past, then Chief Hopper's truck came to an abrupt halt next to them. He yelled at them to get in and sped off far from the dangers of Hawkins lab.

♪♪♪