Chapter Thirty-One: Talks And Leads

(The Bathtub, Pt. 2)

***

Rowan looked up, seeing Joyce Byers and, surprisingly, Chief Hopper walk in. The woman stared in shock at seeing her eldest son in handcuffs, while Rowan gave Hopper a little wave, the chief obviously looking at her and her handcuffs and then at her aunt and her bare wrists in bemusement since usually, it was the other way round, before his face settled into his usual gruff expression.

But Rowan was frowning, because before that gruffness came back, behind his bewilderment of her and her aunt swapping positions of who was arrested and who was bailing, there had been a flicker of a look, like he knew or had something about them and was trying to figure it out. It made Rowan feel her own confusion and squirm uncomfortably in her seat, and look at her aunt who also shared her confusion, but her brows were drawn together in suspicion as she looked at Hopper, sidling closer to her niece.

Mrs. Byers, oblivious to all the looks, only seemed to be focused on knowing why her son was in handcuffs.

"Jonathan? Jesus, what... what happened?" the woman asked, looking now at the officer that Jonathan had accidentally assaulted.

"I'm fine," Jonathan mumbled, but his mom obviously wanted answers, as she demanded, "Why is he wearing handcuffs?"

"Well, your boy assaulted a police officer. That's why," the officer who'd arrested Jonathan informed Mrs. Byers. He then looked at Rowan's aunt and added, "And your niece is in handcuffs because a witness said she punched both the Harrington boy and the witness herself as well."

Aunt Aco's eyes widened, then narrowed. "Did they press charges?"

The officer was quiet, and her aunt yelled, "If they didn't, then take those goddamn cuffs off my niece! Same with Joyce's kid!"

The officer hesitated, and as he hesitated, Mrs. Byers demanded, "Take them off."

"I am afraid I can't do either of that," the officer said, which was the wrong thing to say to the two women.

"Take them off!" Mrs. Byers and Aunt Aco yelled, giving the officer looks of fire and brimstone.

"You heard them. Take 'em off," Chief Hopper said, and Rowan and Aunt Aco looked at the chief in surprise; Mrs. Byers, they got in the chief taking her side, but less so that he was taking Aco Graveswood's side. Hopper only gave them the same gruff look when he noticed the Graveswood women looking at him.

"Chief, I get everyone's emotional here, but there's something you need to see," the officer said.

Now Hopper was frowning as he went with the other officers, and Mrs. Byers and Aunt Aco was soon gaping as they came back with a familiar box and dumped it and the the monster-catching gear Rowan, Jonathan and Nancy had bought inside it on the desk. Robin and Chrissy in unison looked at Rowan, Jonathan and Nancy, obviously asking Rowan what the hell the cop was talking about and why the hell she and Nancy and Jonathan had that stuff with their eyes. Rowan only looked away, knowing she couldn't answer their questions.

"What is this?" Joyce asked, frowning.

"Why don't you ask your son? We found it in his car," Chief Hopper revealed.

"What?" Joyce questioned at the same time Jonathan demanded, "Why are you going through my car?"

Rowan saw her aunt roll her eyes and mutter, "Amateur," but she was giving Rowan a look, obviously wanting to know why she, Jonathan and Nancy had gotten all of this.

"Is that really the question you should be asking right now?" Chief Hopper demanded, leaning down in front of Jonathan, staring right at him. "I wanna see you in my office."

Jonathan looked at Rowan and Nancy, then back at Hopper. "You won't believe me."

"Why don't you give me a try?"

Jonathan didn't answer, considering. He looked at Nancy and Rowan. Nancy was biting her lip and Rowan was frowning, but both knew there was no point in hiding the truth from Mrs. Byers, Hopper and Aunt Aco. At seeing the looks on their faces, Jonathan nodded.

Hopper looked at the officer and said, "Take the cuffs off."

"Chief—"

"Take 'em off."

The officer hesitated, but did so, uncuffing them. Rowan sighed in relief at having her hands free, rubbing her wrists. Jonathan and Nancy followed the chief and Mrs. Byers into his office, but Aunt Aco paused, looking at Rowan's friends and saying, "I think you girls should head home. Family business."

Robin frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but Rowan gave her a friend a look.

"My aunt's right. It's family business. Nothing to worry about," she affirmed, smiling. Her smile grew softer, and she said, "Thank you, for coming by. I... I couldn't ask for better friends."

"Of course we were gonna come. You're our friend, Rowan, handcuffs or not," Chrissy assured, smiling.

"Yeah, we would have bailed you out, or visited you in prison. Maybe break you out along with Eddie."

Chrissy shot Robin a look, but Rowan laughed. God, she loved her friends.

"I'll call you later to let you know everything is okay," she told them as she followed her aunt to the chief's office, casting a look back at seeing Robin and Chrissy walk out of the station, blowing out a sigh of relief.

They're safe. They and Eddie are both far away from this. That's all that matters, Rowan told herself as she walked into the office, sitting beside Jonathan and Nancy while her aunt joined Mrs. Byers on the other side and Hopper leaned on his desk where their monster-hunting gear was next to him, and finally revealed the truth about the monster, about their plan to catch it, about their suspicion it was behind both Will and Barb's disappearances.

Jonathan handed the photo of the monster to his mom in the process, letting her and Aunt Aco see it before it was handed over to Hopper. Rowan fiddled with her shirt hem, casting a look at Nancy. They had struggled in talking of unknowingly crawling into the monster's world, of barely escaping it with their lives. The look her aunt had gave her, full of anger and fear, stuck with Rowan, and she winced at having her aunt worry so much. 

When Jonathan finally finished speaking, it's quiet in the office except for the far-off noises from the rest of the station, until Hopper spoke.

"You say blood draws this thing?" he asked.

The teens looked at each other, and Jonathan admitted, "We don't know."

"It's just a theory," Nancy added on.

"But a plausible one, given how it got Barb and that deer after they started bleeding," Rowan interjected.

The adults grew silent, before Mrs. Byers stood up and took Jonathan outside, obviously to talk to him about keeping this from her. Rowan watched as her aunt stood too and took her arm, doing the same and taking her to another corridor, far from anyone.

Once they're alone, her aunt whirled on her, eyes flaring, more furious than Rowan has ever seen her, even more furious than when Alistair snuck out, and the girl braced herself for the tirade to come.

"How could you keep this from me?" she hissed, and Rowan almost wilted, because under the anger, she can see the worry, the panic, her aunt is feeling.

"I didn't want to worry you," she whispered, holding herself, and her aunt barked out a laugh.

"Well, you failed, kid! I was worried sick when I couldn't find you back home and saw your gun and some of my weapons gone, and then got the call from the police! I thought you'd been taken too," Aunt Aco yelled. "And when you and Nancy talked about facing that thing... God, Rowan, if you hadn't had those knuckles, you would have been killed!"

"Or my lightning," Rowan mumbled, making Aunt Aco's eyes widen, and because she can't stop talking, Rowan admitted, "And I... I couldn't jump. Out of there. I couldn't teleport either me or Nancy out of that place. If it hadn't been for that portal... i-it would have got us. It would have killed us."

Rowan's body shook, tears stinging her eyes as that panic, that fear, came back, of how she and Nancy had been so close to death, how her power hadn't worked when she needed them, how helpless she felt.

"I couldn't jump," she whispered, voice cracking.

Her aunt stared at her, then pulled her into a hug as Rowan softly sobbed, holding her aunt tightly.

"Oh God, kid," she heard her aunt mutter. "Kid."

Rowan just sobbed, hugging her aunt with everything she had.

Her aunt pulled back, and Rowan saw her aunt was just as teary-eyed as she was. Aunt Aco gripped her by the shoulders and said, "From now on, you tell me what the hell is going on, okay? You tell me."

Rowan bit her lip, thinking of El, but nodded. "I will, Aunt Aco. Promise."

Her aunt's lip wobbled, then she cracked a grin. "You're gonna be the death of me, kid. You and your brother both."

Rowan gave a tiny grin. "At least we're entertaining deaths."

Her aunt gave a hoarse laugh, pulling her into a hug before letting go.

"Come on. Let's go and find your brother, and have a proper discussion about all of this—and how to safely get Will and that other kid back," her aunt said, giving her a reprimanding look. Rowan's eyes widened, and she grimaced, realising that maybe they couldn't keep El a secret any longer, that Alistair would eventually end up talking about her and how he and the other boys knew about her.

Maybe let her know now and lessen the blow.

"So, uh, about telling each other everything now..."

But before Rowan could say another word, a loud shout rang throughout the station.

"I want an apology!"

As one, Rowan and Aunt Aco's heads turned toward it, saw the Byers' heads turn as the chief stuck his head out of the office, as a now-familiar voice said, "An apology for what, exactly?"

"Where is the chief? I want to speak to him. Right this instant!" the other voice demanded.

At that, the chief in question looked at them and said, "Stay here," before heading to the source of the voices.

Aunt Aco scoffed.

"That's not happening. Come on, kid."

Together, aunt and niece walked down the corridor to the main area of the station, the Byers behind them, catching the tail end of a conversation.

"... number, both of you!"

"What the hell is going on here?" the chief demanded as Rowan, Aunt Aco, Jonathan and Mrs. Byers watched.

"Chief—"

"These men are humiliating my son!" the voice's owner, a prissy woman in a stuffy-looking dress shrilled, clutching a boy wearing a cast. Rowan's eyes narrowed, recognising the boy as the one who bullied her brother and his friends. Alistair had said he'd stopped, after Rowan had threatened the boy, but apparently he hadn't.

"No, no, no. Okay, that's not true," the officer who Jonathan accidentally assaulted defended, eyes begging the chief to take the shrieking woman away, which Rowan got. The woman looked and sounded like a suburban headache.

"There was some kind of fight, Chief—" the other officer tried to explain, but the harpy of a woman cut in with a shrill, "A psychotic child broke his arm!"

"A little girl, Chief. A little girl," the first officer said, and Rowan snorted.

"Good on you, mystery girl," she muttered, as the woman yelled, "That tone! Do you hear that tone?!"

"Do you hear yourself?" Rowan muttered, her aunt looking at her, an agreeing smile on her face.

"Honestly, I'm just trying to state a fact," the first officer defended, as the chief sighed, obviously exasperated by all of this.

"I don't have time for this. Will you please take a statement?" Hopper asked, and the first officer instantly said, "Yes."

"A little girl, Chief, a little girl," the other officer muttered.

As the officer got ready to take the boy's statement, Hopper turned, obviously to head back to them. At seeing they were all standing there, he got another exasperated look on his face, but froze when the boy started describing his supposed attacker.

"She had no hair and was bleeding from her nose, like a freak."

Aunt Aco's eyebrows narrowed and Rowan froze, as the chief turned and asked, "What'd you just say?"

"I said she's a freak!" the boy yelled.

"No, her hair. What'd you say about her hair?" the chief clarified.

"Her head's shaved. She doesn't even look like a girl. And..."

"And what?" Hopper insisted, as Rowan furrowed her brows. Why was Chief Hopper insisting on this?

Did... did he know about El? How did he know about El?

"Tell the man, Troy," the woman said, in a tone that thankfully didn't sound like nails on a chalkboard.

"She can... do things."

"What kind of things?"

"Like... make you fly. And piss yourself."

"What?" the other officer said incredulously, but everyone ignored him and the second officer as Hopper questioned, "Was she alone?"

The boy, Troy, shook his head and sneered, "She always hangs out with those losers."

Rowan's hands balled into fists.

"'Losers'? What losers?" Hopper asked.

When Troy inevitably said it was Alistair, Mike, Dustin and Lucas, Rowan felt everything in her freeze as she looked at her aunt, saw her frown and twisted mouth.

But before her aunt could say anything, Hopper marched forward, saying gruffly, "Come on."

He stormed to the door, and sharing looks, the Graveswoods and Byers followed after him, Nancy coming out and walking beside them.

Heading to find her brother, his friends and El.

***

*Kronk meme* Oh it's all coming together.

Yeah, the adults are now on the same page as the Mystery Trio! And Aco knows (somewhat) of what her niece has been doing! But not before she could tell her about El...

And Robin and Chrissy have left the picture. Don't worry, they'll be back later on! But like I said, I missed writing my girls and glad I had them back just before it all goes to hell (while making sure they don't get involved until later)

And yeah, Rowan doesn't realise yet how painfully ironic that thought of keeping Robin, Chrissy and Eddie out of the Upside Down stuff is... 😭

The scene with Rowan and Aco was as heart-warming as it was heart-hurting since they had an argument borne from Aco's worry and hurt over being kept in the dark and not feeling like she was protecting her sister's kids enough, especially since she now knows what almost happened to Rowan (and Nancy) in the Upside Down.

(Also, it was never really clear if Nancy told Hopper and Joyce about her being briefly in the Upside Down. In here, she did, along with Rowan, though only her aunt knows—for the moment—Rowan used her powers against the Demogorgon)

But now, thanks to Troy, they know that the Party is involved (and Aco's gonna get another heart attack...) And some reunions will be happening soon...

Next chapter will be soon!

Please read, comment and vote!

GhostWriterGirl out!