a·mends

noun

compensate or make up for a wrongdoing.

Another pair of arms wrapped around Nancy and Emilia, the warm scent of Jonathan making Emilia melt. It reminded her of a time not so long ago, when the same trio had huddled in Nancy's bedroom, terrified of events that happened to them, terrified of what danger lurked just on the other side of the realm between ours and its. She remembered Nancy was too scared to shower on her own, and Emilia had to stay in the washroom until she was cleaned up. She remembered they all slept in the same bed, too scared to not be touching someone else, in case that monster came back.

And so it was in that moment, that bonding experience, that amends began. Breaking apart, Nancy nodded at the both of them, and walked over towards Joyce, for she didn't know where to stand now. Emilia looked up at Jonathan and cast him an expression of gratitude. Not for him, not at him, but for surviving this thing again. She grabbed his hands and smiled; even if they weren't together at the end of all this, things wouldn't be difficult between them, she decided.

"So, this is where you were hiding all this last year?" Jonathan asked after an appropriate amount of time had gone by. In the background, Will, Nancy and Joyce were talking quietly.

Emilia nodded, "Hopper had the property for years, it was where he kept El safe."

"How long did you know?"

"Christmas Break," she admitted. "Hopper was less equipped in raising someone like El than he thought, he sort of cracked under the pressure and brought me in on it. So I was with her a lot, making sure she was as happy as she could be under house arrest."

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked, his eyes saddened. "Why did Steve know?"

She pursed her lips, she wanted to ask why he ran off with Nancy, but she already knew and it would only make things worse to go down the petty route. "I promised Hopper I wouldn't tell anyone, it was for El's safety, it wasn't a matter of keeping it from you, it was keeping it from everyone. You know Hawkin's Lab has -had- ears everywhere."

"But you told Steve..."

"I didn't mean to," Emilia explained, feeling frustrated already. "It was the night my car broke down on my way home from work, and Steve drove me home. I let my guard down, I wasn't thinking, and it came out."

"So you keep your guard up when you're with me?"

"I did because I wanted to tell you so badly. I wanted to tell you why I wasn't around, why I was always absent. Jonathan, I see now that this was the start of... whatever has happened between us now. I drove that wedge in between us, and I understand there are going to be ramifications..." She tried not to think about Nancy being that ramification.

Suddenly Hopper's voice came over the radio, telling them that the gate had indeed been closed. The flooding relief filled the small cabin and each individual within. Emilia took this opportunity to turn away from Jonathan, looking at the others.

"We should get back," Emilia decided. "Make sure the kids are alright."

"And Steve," Nancy added.

The car ride was rich with silence, aside from soft murmurs from Joyce to Will, comforting him at every jostle and movement he made. Jonathan drove steadily, slowly, as though afraid of what would happened when they arrived back at home. Nancy would take Mike and they would go back to their homes, she would probably drop off the other kids as well. Steve would have to leave, and then what? Would Emilia stay over? Would Emilia go home to spend time with Hopper and El, thankful that they were still alive? All these questions ran through Jonathan's mind in that long, quiet drive.

What they found at home was not what they expected; an unconscious Billy on the ground and no kids to speak of.

"What the hell..." Jonathan muttered as he looked down at the kid who spread rumours about sleeping with Emilia. He studied his unconscious face and considered doing some cruel things to him, when another car -Billy's car- pulled back into the driveway. Steve was driving, looking frazzled, and sporting a black eye.

"What happened?" Emilia asked, rushing to the driveway to meet them, the whole hoard of kids trailing behind Steve.

"Asshat showed up, had it out for his sister-" Steve started.

"Step sister!" Max corrected viciously.

"Step sister..." Steve continued. "Anyways, didn't like that she was hanging out with Lucas, things got ugly. Max handled it, though. If there is one thing I can say about these kids, is that they don't need me as their babysitter anymore."

Then he saw Nancy inside the house and mumbled, "Guess no one needs me."

Emilia took his hands, "Hey, don't ever underestimate yourself ever again. Not in front of me."

He cracked a smile, "I'll head home, then. Any of you punks need a lift?"

"I could use some help getting Billy back into his car..." Max admitted.

"No promises that his head won't smack into every obstacle from here to there on the way out," Steve mumbled.

"No objections," Max snickered.

As they got Billy in the car, Steve grabbed his nail-spiked bat and stared at it nervously for a moment. Emilia watched as he reluctantly put it in the trunk, and worried for him as he drove off.

After the house cleared out, the only ones left being Jonathan, Joyce, Will, and the outlier, Emilia. She didn't even have a way of going home, her car was in a café parking lot across town. At the mercy of two tired looking people, she realized that she would have to spend the night there, and decided maybe it was for the best. She clutched her forearm with her opposite hand and looked around anxiously, eyes darting to the couch where she had slept last time she stayed there, waiting on Jonathan to return home but never did.

Joyce crawled into bed with Will, never letting him go, not bothering to say goodnight to anyone. Everyone was exhausted, the energy sapped out of them after the week of action. Jonathan stood in the hallway, looking at Emilia.

"I can take the couch," she said softly.

He looked at the ground, "Okay, my, uhm... my door is open."

As he walked to the bedroom, realizing that just because they still loved each other, it didn't mean that things would go back to the way he wanted them. He crawled into his messy, unslept-in bed fully clothed. The second his head hit the pillow, he just about fell right asleep. That is, until he heard a footstep cause a creak in the floor just outside his open door. He felt Emilia's weight press down on the bed, and she slid under the covers. Jonathan turned around to face her, draping his arm around her and pulling her against his chest, holding her tight and hoping that in the morning he wouldn't have to let go. 

Only four chapters left! I realized that I didn't do an epilogue on Shutter, but I will probably do one on this book because it will be the final book! 

Question of the Day: What do you think of the actor (Dacre Montgomery) defending Billy saying he wasn't a racist?