~Chapter seven~

Episode seven: the bathtub

Due to the fact Ivy, Leo and Nancy hadn't actually done anything none of their parents were called, Callahan had gotten in touch with Hopper because they couldn't get a hold of Joyce and apparently they were both on their way in.

"Jonathan?" Joyce rushed over to her son noticing his eye that was starting to bruise, "Jesus, what... what happened?"

"Ma'am" Callahan started to talk but was quickly stopped.

"Callahan do us all a favour and put on some more coffee" Ivy snapped motioning to the break room.

"Why is he in handcuffs?" Joyce asked the man.

"Well, your boy assaulted a police officer. That's why." Callahan whined.

"Oh shut the fuck up, your fine aren't you" Ivy glared at him.

"Ivy?" Hopper raised his brows to the girl who just smiled, "is that my... stop using my mug!"

"You got the biggest one, and I like my coffee. Sorry Chief." Her smile grew in size when his eyes rolled.

"Take those off." Joyce pointed to the cuffs on her son.

"I'm afraid I cannot do that." Callahan said calmly.

"Take them off!"

Hopper sighed and looked at his deputy, "you heard her. Take 'em off."

"Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see." Powell came back in the room with Leo who was now also in handcuffs having just searched his car.

Powell asked Florence, the secretary, to call his parents. The three officers left to go outside, when they returned Hopper dropped a box onto the desk infront of them. Joyce didn't waste a second before looking inside, finding the countless supplies that they'd bought at the army store. Ivy looked inside too and then she looked over to Nancy with a half smile on her face before mouthing 'a bear trap, really?' Too which Nancy coughed to hide her laugh.

"What is this?" Joyce asked in confusion.

"Why don't you ask your son and his friends? We found it in that one's car." Hopper said pointing to Leo who just waved to Joyce with an innocent smile on his face.

"What?" Joyce looked over at the boy who spent so much of his time at her home.

"Why'd you go through his car anyway? He didn't do anything." Jonathan snapped.

"Is that really the question you should be asking right now?" Hopper leaned on his desk intimidating the boy. "I wanna see you two in my office." He looked at the two boys.

"You won't believe us. Even if we do tell you." Leo rolled his eyes.

Hopper lowered his voice, "why don't you give me a try?"

The two boys stood and followed Hopper into the office silently so Ivy took the seat next to Nancy, who was bouncing her leg nervously.

"You okay?" She asked quietly.

Nancy nodded, "just a little jumpy, I'm not used to this sort of thing."

"Don't worry about it, we'll be out of here in no time." Ivy nudged the girls shoulder with her own and Nancy smiled.

A few minutes later the front door opened and in walked Marissa, Florence pointed her through to were everyone was and Ivy got up and gave her a big hug.

"Now are you gonna let my son go, or do you want me to rip your tiny little balls through your stomach and out your throat?" She marched straight over to Callahan.

"Mrs White, imma need you to calm down." He said taking a few steps back putting his desk in between them.

"I'll calm down when you let my kids go!"

"We only have your son here?" Callahan looked at her with furrowed brows.

"Yes, and Ivy. Her parents are out of town and she's staying with me, so right now bucko I'm her guardian!" She lied, knowing the Harringtons got back that afternoon. Then slamming her hands down on his desk

"Yes ma'am, your son's just in the Chiefs office. They shouldn't be too long." He said rushing away.

Nancy stared at the woman her mouth open, Ivy had a massive grin on her face and Joyce had a warm smile fixed on the woman.

"In true MJ fashion, as always." Joyce let out a little laugh hugging Marissa.

"MJ?" Ivy asked.

Marissa chuckled, "oh, my maiden names Johnson."

Nancy looked from Marissa to Ivy and then Ivy spoke again, "Riss, this is our friend Nancy, Nancy Wheeler."

Marissa gave the girl a hug and then the boys and Hopper came back out the office.

"Oh hey mom" Leo waved and his Marissa kissed his cheek.

"You best not be charging these kids with anything Jim, or I swear to god..." Marissa made a hand gesture that resembled grabbing something.

"Mhm, good to see you too Marissa. How's Oscar?" He tilted his head.

"Don't try and change the subject, your poker buddies just fine. He'll be furious when he finds out what your doing though." She pointed to Leo and Jonathan.

"They're not being charged, okay?" He said softly.

A commotion out in the foyer caught Hopper's attention and he walked away to deal with it, leaving Marissa satisfied with her outcome. A little later Hopper told them that apparently the kids were hanging around a girl with super powers and that they needed move fast. Marissa, Joyce and Jonathan took Marissa's car and Ivy, Leo, Nancy and Hopper took Hoppers.

When they arrived near the Wheeler house they parked down quite far away because it was crawling with agents, taking things from the house and loading them into what looked like fbi vehicles. Hopper was looking through a pair of binoculars while Ivy sat on the hood of his car smoking.

"I have to go home." Nancy panicked.

"No, you can't." Hopper told her.

"My mom... my dad are there."

"They're gonna be okay."

Nancy started to walk towards her house but Leo grabbed her arm, "hey, hey, hey, hey" he pulled her back to the car.

"Let go." She tried to shake him off.

"The two of you! Pack it in, Listen to me. Nancy the last thing in the world we need is them knowing, that you're mixed up in all this." Hopper said.

"Mike is over there-" Nancy started to cry.

"They haven't found him. Not yet, at least." Marissa interrupted her swatting her son's arm for pulling the girl and then put an arm around her. She pointed out into the sky where a helicopter was circling the town.

"For Mike?" Nancy gasped.

"Come on, back in the cars! And you" he pointed at Ivy, "off my hood."

"Blah, blah, blah." Ivy jumped down and got back in the passenger seat.

Once everyone was back in the separate cars hopper clicked on the walkie-talkie, he'd given one to Joyce too, so that they could all hear him.

"Look, we need to find them before they do." Hopper spoke holding up his device, "does anyone have any idea where they might have gone?"

"No, I don't." Nancy shook her head.

"Lou's with them, she doesn't normally hang out with Will's other friends but- Hop if anything happens to my daughter." Marissa's voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"I need everyone to think."

"I don't know, I don't talk to my brother a lot. I mean, lately." Nancy frowned.

"Is there any place, that your parents don't know about that he might go?" Joyce's voice came through now.

"I don't know."

"I might." Jonathan's voice came through, "I don't know where they are, but I think I know how to ask them."

Jonathan told them how the kids all talk on their walkie-talkies, hoper tried every channel with no luck. Jonathan suggested that they go to his house and use Will's, it was a lot higher quality than the ones they currently had and it'd already be on the channel that the boys use to communicate. So that's what they did.

Everyone piled out of the cars and ran into the house, Nancy looked at the living room and half gasped, "whoa." The place was a mess, Joyce had hung Christmas lights everywhere and everything was in disarray.

"She's been talking to Will through them." Leo told her.

"What?"

"Joyce. Will's been communicating with her through the lights." He tightened his lips, "I'm sorry if I grabbed you a little hard before, I'm just... uhm- I'm a little..."

"Jumpy?" Nancy finished his sentence and he let out a low laugh.

"Yeah, jumpy. Everything that happened, last night- I'm just really fucking freaked out" Leo said scratching the back of his head.

"Same here" Nancy nodded.

They all gathered around Will's walkie-talkie and decided it was best for Nancy to try first.

"Mike, are you there? Mike? Mike, it's me, Nancy. Mike, are you there? Mike we need you to answer. This is an emergency, Mike" Nancy spoke into it getting more and more frustrated.

"Oh give it here." Ivy took the walkie-talkie off Nancy, "Hey idiots, it's Ivy. Answer us right now before I hunt you all the fuck down! Over"

"Because that's gonna help." Jonathan ran his hand through his hair, Leo moved beside him and rested his hand on the boys back.

"I swear to god Lou, if you can hear me. You better respond, do any of you copy?"

"We copy! It's Mike, we're here. Over." Mikes voice crackled through.

"Ah, thank god. Is Lou with you? Over." Ivy said and Marissa knelt infront of the girl to hear the response.

"Yeah Ives, I'm here. What, I have to say it every time. Urgh, fine. Over." Lou said and Ivy, Marissa and Leo all smiled to one another.

After a little back and forth the kids finally told them where they were, Hopper insisted on going to get them alone but Ivy was already in his car. Leaving everyone else at the Byers' the two drove off.

"I told you, I didn't need company." Hopper frowned to the girl who was lighting a cigarette.

"And I told you, Lou's practically my little sister. She won't feel safe with just you."

"If your gonna smoke in my car, at least give me one."

Ivy smiled and handed him the lit cigarette taking another out for herself. It didn't take them long to get there, due to Hoppers speeding. But once again there were the same cars that were outside the wheeler house, along with three agents all armed with guns.

"Stay here. Let me handle this." Hopper demanded.

"How about this. No." Ivy reached into her boot where she had stashed her dagger and pulled it out.

"Jesus Christ." Hopper shook his head narrowing his eyes familiarly at the dagger as they both got out the car and snuck around to the agents.

One of them was about to go in the abandoned bus that the kids were hiding out in, Hopper was about to hit him over the head with his own gun but the man fell backwards to the floor. Ivy took out one guy by punching him in the nose and then using the handle of the dagger to hit him over the head, Hopper turned around just in time to knock the third agent out.

The first agent was out cold on the floor and blood was leaking slowly out of his side, Hopper frowned and knelt beside him. Ivy didn't care she jumped over him and climbed on the bus. Lou was standing in front of her, mouth open holding on to the dagger that Ivy had given her. The elder just took the dagger from her and wrapped her arms around her.

"Is he- did I kill him." Lou's voice was a whisper.

"No kid, he's not dead." Ivy turned her head and hopper gave her a thumbs up pulling him away from the entrance.

"Alright, let's go" Hopper jumped on the bus, out of breath, looking at the other four kids who were all just staring. "Let's go!" He shouted.

They all hurried off the bus the boys all telling Lou how awesome that was but the girl was still in a sort of shock.

Eleven however just took her hand, "it's okay." The buzzcut headed girl whispered.

Lou smiled to her and nodded, getting in the front of the car with Ivy and Hopper whilst the others squeezed into the back.

It was dark by the time they all got back to the Byer's and Lou hadn't spoken a word, only hugging into Ivy's side while she stroked her hair. The group that stayed behind must have heard the car pull up because they all came outside. Lou ran to her mother and Marissa picked her up hugging her tightly, Nancy ran over to Mike hugging him and he just patted her back.

"I was so worried about you." Nancy half shouted shaking her brothers shoulders.

"Yeah, uh... me, too." Mike said unconvincingly.

Nancy looked passed Mike to the other kids looking Eleven up and down inquisitively, "is that my dress?"

El just looked around her and then Hopper rushed them all inside, not wanting to risk being seen by anyone.

When everyone was inside and sat down Mike started explaining everything to the older group, Ivy had already heard most of it so she offered to help Lou clean herself up. Her hands still had blood on them.

The two were in the bathroom, Lou sat on the lid of the toilet and Ivy sat on the edge of the bath with a wash cloth. The older girl could tell that she was not okay, that the fact she'd stabbed someone was bothering her.

"Lou, you were protecting yourself and your friends. That's exactly why I gave you the knife in the first place" Ivy used her hand to raise Lou's face to they were eye to eye. "You did the right thing. Those men had guns, and they're very dangerous. You saved your friends okay"

"But I-" her lip quivered as she spoke.

"No but's. Hopper told me that he thinks those men, well the company they work for, they've been experimenting on kids. Kids like you, so you hurting that man, it was the right thing to do, okay?"

Lou nodded, "They were testing on kids?"

"Yeah, Hopper thinks so." He'd told her in the Car on the way to pick them up what he'd found when he broke in to the lab.

"Does that mean... that El, she was an experiment. That's how she got her powers?"

"I think that's something you should ask her. But my guess would be, yeah. The way she acts... could definitely be explained if she was raised in a lab."

Lou started to cry then mumbling something about El, that Ivy couldn't understand. She pulled her in and hugged her trying to calm her, it was working and Ivy could understand her again.

"I- I just... I wanted to help find Will, he's my best friend and now everything's gotten nuts" she sniffled.

"I know you did kid. Hey, I'd do exactly the same thing if it was your brother." She kissed the top of her head.

Leo knocked on the door and then came in giving his sister a hug and smiling to Ivy, he told them that El was going to try use the walkie-talkie to get in contact with Will. Everyone was gathered around the kitchen table with Eleven sitting at the head, eyes closed, walkie in front of her emitting a static sound.

The kitchen light started to flicker and the small girl opened up her eyes again, staring right at Joyce who had hold of her elder sons hand.

"I'm sorry." El spoke quietly.

"Wha- what's wrong? What's happened?" Joyce stuttered.

El's voice broke and her eyes filled with tears, "I can't find them."

Jonathan walked out of the room followed by Leo, Joyce had started to cry and Marissa was comforting her. El left to use the bathroom.

Whilst El was gone they all huddled around again minus Jonathan and Leo who hadn't returned yet. Mike sighed, "whenever she uses her powers, she gets weak."

"The more energy she uses, the more tired she gets." Dustin added.

"Like, she flipped a van earlier." Lucas told them.

Dustin's mouth twitched up at the corners, "it was awesome."

"But she's drained."

"Like a bad battery."

Joyce let out a frustrated breath, "Well... how do we make her better?"

The three boys shrugged, "We don't, we just have to wait and try again." Lou looked to them and they nodded.

"Well, how long?" Nancy spoke up.

"I'm not sure about our time schedule, but I'm guessing we don't have much time." Ivy mentioned.

"I don't know." Mike frowned to his sister.

No one had noticed El come back into the room she stood behind them, "the bath"

"What?" Joyce said as they all turned to the girl.

"I know we're all pretty dirty right now, but i definitely don't think we have time to be getting baths." Marissa half laughed and Lou nudged her mother.

"I can find them. In the bath." El stated.

Eleven explained how they used the water tank to enhance her abilities and when Marissa realised what El meant she said that they could hardly make a sensory deprivation tank in a regular bathtub. Dustin thought of one person who might be able to help them out. The kid's science teacher, so even though it was ten at night on the weekend, Dustin called him.

Dustin spoke to him on the phone and then Ivy gave him a notebook and pencil, so he could right down what they needed to know. Finally ending the call he looked over to Joyce.

"Do you still have that kiddie pool we bobbed for apples in?"

"I think so. Yeah."

"Good. Then we just need salt, lots of it." He pointed the pencil at her.

"How much is lots?" Hopper asked him.

Dustin looked down at the notes he'd made, "1,500 pounds."

"Well, where are we gonna get that much salt?" Nancy looked at him worryingly.

"The school." Leo said as him and Jonathan came back into the room, "the school has tons of it for when it snows, right?" He looked at Ivy.

"Yeah, I use the room they store it in to smoke- I mean study" she smiled to Hopper who was sending her a disapproving look.

They all piled into cars again and headed for the school, Joyce tired to convince Marissa to take Lou home but the two of them refused. They all split off into groups, Nancy going with Mike, to get hose pipes. Leo and Jonathan going with Hopper, to get salt. Joyce and Marissa took El and Lou to an empty classroom, and Ivy stayed with Dustin and Lucas in the gym.

Dustin was rolling in the kiddie pool, "Damn this thing is heavy."

"Oh give it here, it'll take a month to get it to the middle of the room at this rate." Ivy picked it up, it was heavy but not as heavy as the boy was making out.

When she set it down Lucas and Dustin started rolling it out and trying to figure out which way it went, Ivy watched them with her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

"come on."

"It's upside down." Lucas argued as they flipped it for the third time. "No, this way."

"For god sake, how did I get left being the babysitter." Ivy walked over and helped them open it out the right way.

"How does this even work?" Dustin said trying to get it to stay up.

"Try that side." Lucas pointed to the side that was folding in.

Dustin grunted, "son of a bitch!"

"Pull it back. Pull it back." Lucas told him.

"I am!"

"Doofuses! Just let me do it. Move. Move" Ivy rolled her eyes and propped it up perfectly.

"Oh yeah, she's a good one." Lucas said high fiving Dustin.

"Mhm, and I won't hesitate to use the pair of you as bait." She smirked and sat down on the floor.

Soon enough everyone came together and filled the pool, tested its temperature and Hopper, Leo and Jonathan filled it with all the salt. Dustin tested it by seeing if an egg would float, the fist time the egg sank. So in went more salt. Finally the egg floated and the pool was ready. Mike set up the walkie with the white noise coming from it, Lou helped El get ready and gave her a pair of blacked out goggles, speaking to her quietly before she got in.

Everyone sat around the pool in silence as El floated, the lights flickered before going off completely. Leo had a hold of Jonathan's hand and Ivy smiled and noticed that Nancy had seen it too and she also smiled.

Then El spoke, "Barbra?"

Nancy and Ivy broke eye contact to look at El who had started to breath heavily, the lights flickered again.

"What's going on?" Nancy asked.

"I don't know." Mike shrugged.

"Is Barb okay? Is she okay?" Nancy asked El.

El sounded like she was about to cry as she spoke, "Gone. Gone. Gone."

Nancy started to cry and immediately Ivy moved around to her, her own eyes filling with tears too.

"It's okay. It's okay. It's okay." Joyce repeated as her and Lou both had hold of El's hands.

"Gone!"

"It's okay, we're right here. We're right here, honey. It's okay. I got you." Joyce reassured her.

"Don't be afraid El, you can do this. We're right here with you." Lou gave the girls hand a squeeze in the water.

"Castle Byers." El spoke again causing Joyce to look over at her elder son. "Will?"

Joyce gasped and Jonathan took a step back with his mouth open, Leo put an arm around him as Joyce spoke again, "You tell him... tell him I'm coming. Mom is coming."

Suddenly the walkie's static was interrupted and a voice came through, Will's voice. "Hurry."

"Okay. Listen, you tell him to... to stay where he is. We're coming. We're coming, okay? We're coming, honey." Joyce stuttered through her words.

Eleven shot up and her breathing faltered as Joyce pulled her in, "oh, okay, okay. I've got you. It's okay. I got you. I got you. I got you honey. You did so good." Joyce said kissing the top of her head.

They got El out of the pool and the kids all wrapped her in towels and sat on the bleachers with her, Lou had hold of her hand tightly and Lucas was rubbing her arms trying to warm her up. The adults, Jonathan and Leo were all talking, Hopper was getting ready to leave.

Ivy had both her arms wrapped around Nancy's shoulders as they sat out in the hall, Nancy had barely spoke. Leo and Jonathan came out into the hall and told them that Joyce, Hopper and Marissa had gone off to Hawkins lab to get Will. They sat across from them, all four of them feeling hopeless.

Nancy finally spoke, "we have to go back to the station."

"Huh?" Ivy scrunched up her nose.

"Your mom's and Hopper are just walking in there like bait." She looked at the two boys.

"What d'you mean?" Jonathan asked her.

"That thing is still in there." Leo choked out.

"We can't just sit here and let it get them, too. We can't." Tears we're dropping down Nancy's face.

Ivy stood up and stretched out her arms earning funny looks from them all, "She's right. Now, are you gonna sit here on the floor. Or are you gonna get your asses up and listen to her.

"You guys still wanna try the plan?" Jonathan said.

"I wanna finish what we started." Nancy said in an almost vicious manner. "I wanna kill it."

"Agreed." Leo stood up too.

"Alrighty then." Jonathan stood and then so did Nancy.

"Let's go kill ourselves a monster." Ivy nodded to them all and she took Leo's car keys from his pocket.

"No, your not driving. We'll be dead before we even have the chance to leave the parking lot." Jonathan took the keys from her.

"Suit yourself." Ivy shrugged.

The four of them told the kids what they were doing, and told them to all stay put at the school, until someone came for them. They all agreed and the four teens packed into Leo's car heading to the police station. They went over a plan on the way there about six times.

It was late so there was only one officer at the station, Ivy went in first and walked right passed him getting his attention.

"Hey girl, you shouldn't be in here." He said standing up and following after her as Jonathan and Nancy snuck passed him.

"Really, why not?" She turned around with a grin.

"Nope. Ivy, not again. Last time you snuck in here at night a pair of twin daggers went missing and I almost got fired." The officer told her.

"Whaaaaat, I had no idea. What d'they look like, I'll keep an eye out for them."

"Ivy, out. Before I call the chief."

"Ooo, the big guy. I'm so scared" she waved her hands in the air.

Jonathan and Nancy snuck back out the door with the box of weapons, and for some reason Nancy had a fire extinguisher.

"Why can't you come back tomorrow night, Callahan's on the late shift." He pleaded.

"Hm. You know what, I'll do just that." She said walking around him then spinning back around to face him, still walking backwards. "Don't tell him I was here, I like seeing the look on his face when he sees me. So much hope drains from his eyes." She giggled before saluted and walking back to Leo's car.

When she got in the car Leo drove off straight away, Ivy looked to Jonathan who was up front. "Get everything?"

"Mhm." He tilted the box so she could see.

"Ivy, you stole those knives of yours from a police station?" Nancy looked over too her, mouth agape.

"It's not like they were being used in storage." She shrugged.

"Ives, that wasn't storage. That was the evidence locker." Leo scoffed at the memory when he and Eddie were the designated getaway drivers.

"Tom-ay-to, Tom-ah-to." She smiled and Nancy shook her head a breathy laugh eacaping.