di·vide

noun

a wide divergence between two groups, typically producing tension or hostility

Success was under their belts, they had gotten a taste of what it was like to con, to deceive, and to win. Jonathan and Nancy successfully tricked the masterminds behind Hawkin's Lab into admitting that they had a hand in Barbara's death, and the cover up of her death. That tape they had proved it all, and they only had one more thing to make it a reality. Nancy looked out the car window and wondered how they might retaliate from this blow, and wondered if she was putting her family and Jonathan's at risk. Then she remembered that their lives were already always at risk. They had to shut that lab down, burn it the ground so to speak. That was the only way to make this work.

They had already set their course to go see Murray, the slightly-wacky paranormal detective that the Holland's had hired to find their daughter.

Jonathan pulled into a motel not unlike the one him and Emilia had shared in the summer, a smile flashed onto his lips before he wiped it away, shutting the engine off and getting out of the car. They got a double bedroom, obviously, and quickly went to their room in silence. It was clear from the quiet that there was a tension between them, more than awkwardness, something more that neither of them wanted to identify or talk about. It would be shoved under the rug, wouldn't it?

Then Jonathan began to wonder why it should.

Was he even still with Emilia?

It troubled him to not know, and he glanced over at the phone in the room a few times, considering paying for the charges to phone Emilia. Nancy came out of the bathroom, changed into pajamas, and then slid into her single bed, opposite of Jonathan's. He glanced once more at the phone, then got into his own bed. On his back, blanket pulled up to his stomach and his back against the wall, he gestured to the light.

"Nance, uhm, on or off?"

"Hmm," Nancy smiled.

Jonathan didn't understand, "what?"

"Nothing, just..." she thought about the time where they had crashed at her place after she'd nearly been killed in the Upside Down. How everyone had been there for her. "Déjà vu."

Jonathan chuckled, but it faded quickly. "Only without..."

"Emilia," Nancy replied, remembering how Emilia had been there for her when she was too scared to be in a room alone, too scared to shower without knowing someone was within arm's reach of her. Emilia had really helped her get through that night, and it felt wrong to be in the motel now with Jonathan and not Emilia.

Jonathan slid down into his bed a bit, his head on the pillow as he thought about the mistakes that had been made, the words that had been said and not entirely meant. He was conflicted, to say the least, but in such close proximity with Nancy right then, he thought of what his mother said to him. To follow his heart, but he didn't know what his heart wanted. He knew more than anything he wanted Emilia, but he felt that Emilia was different now than she used to be. Everyone grew, Jonathan knew that, but things felt different between them. Was it because her and Steve had kissed, and he was allowing these thoughts to alter inside of his own mind, or were they real?

"Do you think things can be mended?" Nancy asked, knowing it was her duty as a woman to defend Emilia, no one knew the whole story, the rumours could not be trusted. Nancy owed this much to Emilia, especially as she felt a twist in her stomach being alone with Jonathan in a motel; the insinuated behaviour for such a situation was lingering in the air. Nancy wouldn't deny that she had long ago felt something for Jonathan, and now it was creeping back in.

"I do," he admitted, but didn't add that he wasn't sure if he wanted things to be fixed. "Emilia never did anything -I'm sorry, but it was Steve who instigated. All Emilia did was avoid telling me, which hurts. There was never a reason for her to lie to me, and it makes me wonder, you know, if I did something that made her scared to tell me."

"Maybe she was just too scared to lose you," Nancy offered her input.

Jonathan stared at the ceiling, "How did you know you didn't want to be with Steve?"

Nancy was silent for a few moments, it dragged on and felt like hours. At one point, Jonathan thought Nancy had fallen asleep, but when he glanced over he saw that she was still sitting up, eyes open, and lips pursed together in deep thought. The buzz of the neon lighting of the motel sign could be heard, as well as foot steps from other guests, the odd vehicle pulling into the parking lot.

"I still don't really know, you know?" Nancy began. "I guess things never started out perfectly between us, and they sort of stayed on that level. We've had a lot of ups and downs, maybe we're just going through a down phase, but to be with someone who loves you when you don't love them? Besides, it's not like people actually stay with their high school sweetheart anyways."

"But it is possible," Jonathan mumbled.

"It seems pretty unlikely."

Jonathan didn't want to think about it, so he shut off the light and rolled onto his side so that his back was to Nancy.

Emilia pulled into the rugged driveway, then got out of her car and walked through the grove of trees and made it to the house. There were no lights on in the cabin, and that was very unusual, given that it was only eight PM. She'd finished a short shift at the grocery store, and headed straight home to Hopper and El. Not having Jonathan to spend time with, Emilia made it her duty to spend more time with the other people who were important to her. But as she entered the house, she found it -for the first time since she knew of its existence- completely empty.

"No," Emilia mumbled softly. "El?!"

No reply.

"El!" Emilia shouted this time, and rushed straight to the bedroom. She did take enough time to notice the boarded up windows, the glass on the floor, and before she went into the bedroom, the boxes on the floor stopped her. She crouched down, careful to avoid any glass, and lifted the files from Hawkins Lab, the ones about El. Flipping through, Emilia read about the tests done on her, the information about a woman who might have been her mother. The other kids in the program.

All of it made Emilia feel sick to her stomach.

She needed to tell Hopper that El was gone, but there wasn't a phone here.

Knowing Hopper would come here at some point -having no idea that he was unconscious inside the Upside Down that was currently infiltrating the outskirts of Hawkins- Emilia laid down on the couch and waited, wondering what the hell was happening to everyone around her. Everyone around her was so divided.

Wondering how Steve had become the most reliable person in her life.

It was all Upside Down. 

I'm pretty far ahead in the writing at the moment, only 15 chapters left to write! I'm house/doggo sitting for a family friend starting tomorrow, so I'll have a lot more free time without my boyfriend around. Love him to bits, but it's hard to simultaneously watch bits and pieces of ST while pausing it to get the right subtitles, and write at the same time all while hanging out with him too.

Question of the day: How do you think I did handling the first night with Jonathan and Nancy together? I had to tweak it a bit.