The air in the waiting room of Hawkins Memorial was deathly still, the only sounds that of someone shifting in their seat, or the dull scrape of a shoe against carpet. After Joyce and Hopper had returned with Will, Jonathan and Michelle had disappeared back with their mother to wait in his room, while the chief of police had gone to wait for the arrival of Dustin and their friends, but had assured the teenagers that he would be back soon.

"What do you guys think happened at the school?" Becca spoke up suddenly. "I heard Hopper's radio before he left, something about emergency vehicles heading that way."

"It has to be the lab." Anna said. "Dustin was telling me about it in the car, about these men that were after them just for looking for Will and Eleven. Maybe they found them, maybe-"

Anna's voice cut short as she shut her eyes, not letting herself go any further as she began to worry more about her brother and his friends. For all she knew, they were safe and sound, and she intended to keep it that way. She knew she couldn't afford to think any different. Will had been found safe, and his friends were going to see him as soon as they returned.

A knock on the glass window of the waiting room pulled their attention to where Hopper stood on the other side, gesturing for Anna and Nancy before nodding in their direction. Anna jumped out of her seat with Nancy hot on her heels as the girls left Becca, Landon, and Steve in the waiting room, following after the chief.

"Are they okay?" Anna asked as Hopper began to lead them back down the hallway towards the entrance.

"They're okay," Hopper said, and Anna felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "They went through a lot, the girl... she didn't make it."

"Eleven?" Anna asked, bringing a hand up to cup her mouth as the doors opened at the end of the hall, revealing Dustin walking inside with a nervous Claudia right behind him.

"Anna!" Dustin shouted, and she took off running, closing the gap between them as she hugged her brother tightly into her arms.

"You're okay," she murmured into his hair, though she couldn't quite be sure if she was trying to reassure him or herself. "You're okay. You're okay and they found him, they found Will."

Dustin nodded. "I'm okay," he agreed.

"What happened?" she asked.

"There was an incident at the high school." Claudia explained, pulling Anna into a hug as soon as her eldest daughter had released Dustin from her hold, and behind them the rest of the boys began to file in with their parents close behind. "The boys were riding their bikes by the school when they heard a commotion and went to check it out. Wrong place at the wrong time, the chief says."

"We're just glad you boys are all okay," Anna said, with Claudia nodding in agreement before her eyes wandered down to the bandage adorning her daughter's hand.

"Annie, what happened?" Claudia asked, reaching for her gauze covered hand.

"Oh, this?" Anna asked, waving it off as she began to chuckle. "I was helping Becca make dinner and sliced my hand open while cutting carrots. You know me, I'm just clumsy."

"Well, if you're sure you're alright..." she trailed off nervously. "Why don't you look after Dustin for a bit? I want to talk to the chief for a moment."

As Claudia took off down the hallway after the others, leaving Anna and Dustin alone in the hallway, she finally turned back towards her brother, looking him over once more for any sign of injury. "Hopper told us about Eleven." she said, lowering her voice so as to not be overheard by anyone passing by. "What really happened?"

"After you guys left, Lucas and I went looking for pudding in the cafeteria, to help Eleven get her strength back." Dustin explained as Anna wrapped an arm around his shoulders, leading him back in the direction the others were going as they slowly began to walk. "That's when the guys from the lab showed up. They tried to get Eleven back, but she stopped them all with her powers. But then the Demogorgon came, and it was after us, but Eleven killed it. She sacrificed herself to kill it."

Dustin sniffled as he came to the end of his story, and she hugged him tightly again. "I'm so sorry, Dusty. We never would've left you guys if we'd known what was going to happen."

"Where'd you guys go?" he asked. "After everything with Eleven in the pool, you guys just vanished, and your cars were gone."

"We went back to the Byers' house to try and trap the Demogorgon." she explained. "Lure it away from the Upside Down so it wouldn't be there when Hopper and Mrs. Byers went to look for Will. We thought we killed it, but we were wrong. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Dustin assured her. "I-is there any news on Will?"

"He's still asleep," Anna said. "But Jonathan, Michelle, and Mrs. Byers are all back with him. I guess all we can do now is wait. But he's alright, Dusty. He's home and he's safe."

At her words, Dustin nodded, hugging her again and burying his face into her shoulder. She rested her chin on top of his head, just letting him breathe for the first time since the moment Will had gotten lost in the woods. Now, the men from the lab were gone, the Demogorgon was dead, and Will was home. They could finally be at peace again knowing it was all over.

Anna and Dustin eventually joined the rest of the group sitting in the waiting room, though despite the new additions, the room was just as still and silent as it had been before, with the exception of Steve anxiously bouncing his leg up and down. They both took seats to the left of Lucas, and Dustin leaned his head back against his seat, letting out a deep breath as he finally allowed himself to relax and shut his eyes. Anna's gaze instead fell on the clock as she watched the second hand move, waiting for any news about Will to get them out of the quiet waiting room.

As the minutes passed, Dustin's breathing slowly turned into soft snores, and as Anna continued to watch the clock, she felt herself getting more and more antsy at the quiet room, as if the stillness was beginning to suffocate her. Unable to take another minute of the quiet, Anna quickly rose from her chair, nearly toppling it over as everyone turned to look at the source of the noise.

"Annie?" Claudia asked. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," she stammered, steadying herself and the chair before glancing back down at Dustin's sleeping figure to make sure she hadn't woken him up. "I'm going to take a walk, actually. Just get some air, clear my head. I'll be back."

"Mind if I join you?" Steve asked, still bouncing his leg anxiously at his seat, and Anna nodded, causing the boy to nearly jump out of his chair in his attempt to follow her out of the waiting room and down the hallway.

"It's too quiet in there," Anna said as soon as they left the room, out of earshot of the others. "I was suffocating."

Steve nodded in agreement. "How's your hand?" he asked, gesturing down to where the bandages were still wrapped firmly around her palm.

"It's fine," she said simply, crossing her arms over her chest to shield the bandaged hand from view. "We just needed to lure it to the house to trap it."

"And your head?" he asked, looking down at her as if inspecting for any damage. "That was some hit you took back there."

"I'm fine," she assured him. "Just glad you showed back up when you did."

"Well hey, we can't all be badass Anna Henderson going after a ten foot monster with a hatchet," Steve joked, and Anna let the corners of her mouth turn upwards in a small smile. "How did you guys get involved with this thing, anyways?" Steve asked. "You, Becca, Nancy, and everyone else."

"After Barb went missing, we found the monster in the background of one of the pictures Jonathan took that night." Anna explained. "We tried to track it last night, but it didn't go so well and Nancy almost got hurt." At Anna's words, Steve's face fell, eyes widening in concern, but she continued on. "That was when you saw Jonathan in her room, he and Michelle were just making sure she got back home alright. Tonight we needed to lure it away from its home so Chief Hopper and Mrs. Byers could find Will, and we needed Landon to help us set up the trap, which is how he got involved."

"I just don't understand why Nancy wouldn't tell me about this." he said. "Or Becca. Why wouldn't they tell me what was going on?"

"Would you have believed them if they did?" she asked. "We've been hunting a monster in the woods behind your house because Will got kidnapped and taken to an alternate dimension. What part of that doesn't sound batshit crazy?"

Steve opened his mouth as if to respond, but closed it after a moment, speechless. "Okay yeah, when you put it that way, I guess you have a point." he admitted. "But this is all over now?"

Anna nodded. "Eleven sacrificed herself to kill it. She's a girl the boys found in the woods, she had powers and had some sort of psychic connection to the other dimension. But the monster's dead, along with the scientists from the lab that were after the boys, so yeah, I think it's over."

Steve sighed in relief at her words as they reached a corner of the hallway, and Anna leaned back against the wall, looking back at him. "Good, good. So what happens now?"

Anna shrugged. "We move on, I guess." she said.

"Right," he agreed, a silence settling between the two of them as they got back to walking.

Through the halls, people moved around them, nurses wandering from one patient room to the next and visitors coming and going from various doorways around them, the buzz of the hustle and bustle calming Anna's racing mind after the all-too-quiet waiting room.

"You were wrong, you know," Steve spoke up suddenly, causing Anna's eyebrows to furrow as she looked back in his direction.

"About?" she asked.

"I don't care what Tommy and Carol think." he sighed, brushing his hair out of his eyes, the bruise under his eye from his fight with Jonathan blooming into an even darker purple that it had been earlier that day. "God, I was such an idiot to even be friends with them in the first place."

"What made you change your mind?" she asked.

"After they picked me up, Carol started running her mouth about Nancy, and I lost it on them. I realized then what assholes they were, something I should've learned a lot sooner. It's not like you or Becca have ever been subtle about disliking them, but I never listened." Steve chuckled humorlessly, running another hand through his hair. "I should've stopped Tommy the second he picked up the can of paint, I shouldn't have let it get that far."

"Steve-" Anna interjected, but he shook his head.

"I get it's my fault for the marquee, and everything with Byers. That's why I showed up at his house, to talk." he explained. "I owe everyone an apology, Byers, Nancy, Becca, Landon, you, even. I know I've been a complete ass all the years that we've known each other, and Anna I'm so sorry about that."

Anna's eyebrows furrowed together as he spoke, taking in his words. For the first time since she met him, she wasn't looking at King Steve, the ruler of Hawkins High, but as something else entirely. For once, she was seeing the guy she'd only ever caught glimpses of, the one she'd insisted she knew was in there somewhere under the hardened exterior.

However, before she got a chance to respond, they were cut off by the sound of footsteps loudly slapping against the tile floor, and looked to see Mike, Dustin, and Lucas sprinting for an open doorway near the other end of the hall, with Jonathan, Michelle, and Nancy not far behind.

"Byers!" the sound of the three boys yelling echoed down the hall, causing Anna to look back over at Steve with a relieved smile.

"He must be awake," she said with a relieved grin, gesturing for him to follow after her. "C'mon,"

Anna and Steve followed them down the hall to see where Nancy waited in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest, a proud smile on her lips as she watched the four boys interact, all talking quickly and excitedly over one another to the fourth member of their party, laying in bed.

At the sight of Will Byers, Anna's eyes glassed over with happy tears. While he looked frail, skin pale and dark circles under his eyes, a big smile stayed on his face as he watched the three of them talking, and at the sound of others in the doorway, he looked over, his gaze landing on where Anna stood not far behind Nancy, Jonathan, and Michelle.

"Hi, Anna," Will said, causing her smile to widen further.

"Hi, buddy," she said. "It's good to see you home."

When the nurses finally made their rounds to let them know visiting hours were long past over for the night, Anna led Dustin back to the waiting room where Claudia waited with the others, bidding them goodbye and piling into her car for the night. As Anna took her spot in the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt, a wave of exhaustion came over her, as if the pent up adrenaline that had been steadily building over the week was washing away, and she was finally safe.

"I'm just so glad they found him," Claudia said with a smile as she drove. "And that you and the boys are alright, Dusty."

"Yeah," Dustin said. "Mrs. Byers said they found him in the woods, it's a good thing they found him when they did."

Anna let her eyes fall shut while Dustin and Claudia conversed, the low sounds of a Queen song playing through the stereo speakers as she quietly hummed along. When they finally pulled into the driveway, Claudia killed the engine, and Anna followed them inside, making a beeline straight for her room.

"I'm going to get some sleep," Anna said. "I think after tonight, it might do us all some good. Goodnight,"

"Goodnight, Anna," the two of them chorused as Anna shut the door behind her.

As soon as it was shut, she turned to her closet, peeling off her clothes in search of a clean pair of pajamas. As soon as she was dressed, she reached for the lightswitch, shutting it off and climbing into bed, pulling the covers over her and settling in as the feeling of exhaustion came back. Anna finally shut her eyes, and for the first time since she'd gotten the call at school to pick up Dustin and his friends to drive them home that afternoon, she felt a feeling of peace, allowing the deep sleep to engulf her and to let her worries be carried away.