Hey, everyone! (Last time I do that, I swear)

This is it, folks. The final chapter. I like to think it ends on a... bittersweet note. I've never been a fan of sappy epilogues that take place a few weeks or whatnot into the future. I'm not a fan of tying up all loose ends either. But I still think this is satisfactory :) I've been planning this ending for literal years now.

I hope you enjoy! I've certainly enjoyed writing this, and it's a relief to know that after almost four years I've finally wrapped this thing up xD


El felt electricity within her.

It sparked up in her heart, and idly spread out across her body, coursing through her limbs and crackling at her fingertips. The heat prickled but it didn't hurt. It was fire. Energy. Power. She felt in control. Like nothing could stand in her way.

Her eyes opened.

She blinked rapidly as they adjusted to the white lights above her. The electricity she could've sworn she felt moments ago ebbed away, like a distant memory. All that was left was the feeling of stillness.

Her vision came into focus and she inhaled sharply. Blue walls. Bright lights. A hospital bed. The distinct smell of chemicals. The low drone of generators.

This couldn't be–

No.

The Lab didn't exist anymore. She'd burnt it to ash. That part hadn't been a dream. She knew it.

But then where was she?

Her eyes drifted to a familiar shape in the room and she realized she wasn't alone in here. Hopper was slumped in the chair next to her bed. His hat had fallen over his eyes, and his chest moved up and down as he snored softly.

She blinked a few more times, wondering if she should say something.

"H- mm." Her voice felt groggy, like thick sandpaper was coating it. She cleared her throat. "Hopper?"

He couldn't have been sleeping very deeply because this was enough to wake him up. The older man raised his head, his eyes meeting hers.

"El?" he said.

Then his mind seemed to click as he realized what had happened, and he eagerly leaned forward. "El. Hey there. How are you feeling, kid?"

"I…" El's nose twitched as she became aware of something lying across her face. Her hand flew up to touch the weird plastic tube. "What…? What happened?"

"Take it easy, alright?" Hopper cautioned, as she tried to sit up. "You've been through a lot. Hold on, I'm gonna find a nurse."

A few minutes later, a smiling woman flitted into the room, wheeling a trolley.

"Elenor!" she said brightly. "You gave us all quite a scare there. Is it alright if I check your vitals?"

El's brows furrowed at the strange name. She glanced at Hopper over the nurse's shoulder and saw him nod. So she turned back to the woman and nodded too.

She let the nurse guide her through a series of tasks, such as wrapping a velcro strap around her arm and making her stare into a flashlight.

"Well, everything seems to be fine," the nurse told her, removing the tube from around her ears. "We should get a doctor to see you before you're discharged though, you were asleep for a long time."

El warily registered her words. "I was?"

"Is it alright if I talk to her alone first?" Hopper adjusted the hat on his head. "I think she'd prefer to hear what happened from someone she knows."

"Of course!" the nurse beamed. "I'll be back to check on her later."

As her footsteps echoed and faded away down the corridor, Hopper turned his attention back to El. "In all seriousness, how are you feeling?"

El thought about this for a moment. "Tired," she finally answered.

He chuckled dryly. "It's hard to imagine you've been in a coma for five days."

"...Coma?"

"It's, uh, it's a really deep sleep. One that they can't wake you up from. Not until you're ready to. Which I guess you finally were."

"W–Why was I…" She shifted uncomfortably. "Why was I… in a coma?"

"Well, the 'official' story is that you went through some kind of trauma. Saw something horrific that messed with your brain. The doctors can't figure it out. Which checks out, because I can't either. I don't know what you did in that car. The boys tried to explain it but I…" He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You did something with your powers, I assume. Something for Mike. Whatever it was, it must've been very dangerous because it landed you here."

El didn't think she could explain it to him, even if she had the energy to do so. It was all a terrifying blur which she couldn't remember properly. There was only one thing she knew for sure.

"I saved him," El said with conviction.

Hopper nodded slowly but didn't probe any further. "You probably have a few questions yourself, right?"

"Yes," she replied. "Why did she call me Elenor?"

"Ah right. Well, to get you in here, I had to tell a few white lies. If anyone asks, your name is Elenor Hopper. You're my niece who lives in Chicago. It was hard to explain why there's no existing record of you but, uh… don't worry, it's all been taken care of."

El frowned. "But… friends don't lie."

Hopper smirked. "I didn't lie to friends. I lied to paramedics and doctors, so that they could save your life."

"And that's okay?"

"You bet it is."

El glanced around at her surroundings once again. "This is a hospital?"

"Yeah, it is. It's a place where people like you can get better."

She looked back at him. "Have I been here the whole time?"

"You have. In this very bed, actually. My job's been busy, but I've been coming to visit you at least once a day. In fact, they all have."

"Who is 'they'?"

Before Hopper could respond, loud pubescent voices could be heard approaching from down the hall.

"Dustin, get it away from me, I don't want to touch it!"

"Stop being such a big baby, it's not gonna hurt you!"

"I don't know where it's been!"

"Guys, quit yelling, we're in a hospital."

The door sprang open and three boys bustled into her room. Lucas saw her first and stopped walking, causing Dustin to crash into him, and Will into Dustin.

"EL!" he roared with happiness and dove over to hug her. "You're awake!"

The remaining vestiges of tiredness drained away as El was bombarded by her three excited friends. They piled onto her bed in a group hug. She found that she didn't mind in the slightest.

"This is great!" Dustin said, once they'd all pulled away. "There's so much we wanted to ask you!"

"Go easy on her," Hopper admonished him from the back of the room, his arms folded. "She hasn't been awake very long."

Dustin dismissed this warning almost immediately. "Did you go into the void? Did you bring Mike back from the dead?"

"They say he died for a whole two minutes!" Lucas added. "They didn't expect him to make it, but then by some miracle he did."

"We know you did something," Will said. "And that it took a lot out of you. But it worked. And we're so glad you're okay!"

Dustin was moving on before they'd even given time for El to answer the first question. "So, about the portal to the upside down–"

Will and Lucas both simultaneously groaned.

"Not this again…"

"Hey, I'm talking to El, not you," the curly-haired boy retorted. "El, I saw the portal at the Lab. The one we'd been trying to find. I was wondering, do you think it's still there in the rubble somewhere? Or would the fire have destroyed it?"

El stared at him, blankly.

"I don't think she knows," Will suggested.

"He hasn't shut up about it since it happened," Lucas told her. "I'm not even convinced he's telling the truth."

"I know what I saw!" Dustin shoved him indignantly.

"El?"

All the heads in the room snapped round to where the voice was coming from. Nancy and Joyce were standing at the door.

Nancy looked like she was on the verge of tears. "Oh my god. El." She rushed over to sit on the edge of the younger girl's bed. Will had to step back to avoid being trodden on.

"I've been so worried about you," she choked. "They kept saying you were going to wake up, but they had no idea what was wrong with you, so I wasn't sure–"

"I'm…" El didn't want Nancy to worry about her anymore. "I'm okay."

Nancy sniffed and smiled. "Is it alright if I hug you?"

El nodded and they embraced. This hug was a lot gentler than the previous one she'd experienced.

She noticed that Joyce had joined them on El's other side.

"Hey, sweetie," the woman said softly, brushing a hand over El's cheek. "I've missed seeing your eyes open. Is there anything you need? Are you thirsty?"

As happy as she was with this reunion, El realized this was her chance to ask the question that truly mattered to her.

"Mike," she said. "Where is he?"

Her world had been torn upside down too many times in little over a week. She would like at least one thing to have gone right.

"He's right here, in the hospital," Joyce reassured her. "Only a few corridors away from where we are now. And he's alright."

"Well, as alright as you can be after getting shot," Dustin piped up. "They had to surgically remove the bullet because it was-"

Lucas kicked him, and he fell silent.

El's eyes flickered between the two of them. "Is he also… in the coma?"

Joyce shook her head. "Not exactly."

"Yeah, we've talked to him a couple of times," Will grinned. Then his shoulders slumped. "But… he's usually not awake."

"Is he tired?" El asked.

"He's… recovering," Joyce explained. "It's perfectly normal."

El took a deep breath, her confused expression turning stoic. "I want to see him."

Joyce sighed. "I thought you might. Don't worry, we'll get you there soon."

"Now." El's tone was decisive, her eyes narrowed.

"El.. you've been asleep a long time," Hopper said. "I don't think it's a good idea to be–"

"It's fine." Joyce stood back up. "We'll get her a wheelchair. Does that sound okay, El?"

The young girl nodded.

"Oh come on," Dustin groaned. "A wheelchair? I've been in bed longer than she has before."

Once it was all arranged with the nurse for El to borrow a wheelchair, Dustin and Will helped her into it from the bed. Then Joyce took the handles and wheeled her out of the room, through the blue and white corridors.

El didn't like the memories it brought back.

She was irritated that her brain forced her to rehash this issue so many times, but it was true. She didn't like this type of building. She never would.

It didn't matter if it was a different place, the feeling was still the same. But then El remembered. Lucas and Dustin were here, and Will, and Nancy, and Hopper and Joyce. They were the variables which separated this from being the Lab and she reminded herself of them constantly.

Joyce approached a door labelled Room Thirty-One and pushed El through it.

El was met with the sickening smell of antiseptic, and the beep of the heart monitor, identical to the one she'd woken up to.

Her eyes fell on Mike, and her anxiety lessened somewhat significantly. There was a big difference between someone telling her he was alright, and seeing he was alright for herself. He was asleep, like they said he would be. But at least he was there. With his mop of ebony hair splayed out on the pillow, his facial expression peaceful and undisturbed. He had the same kind of tube covering his face that she'd had earlier. She still had no idea what it was for, but she imagined it was important.

El had been so transfixed by Mike, she hadn't even noticed the woman sitting beside him. But Karen had noticed her. After a few beats, the woman stood up to address her.

"It's you, isn't it?" Karen asked, coming closer but with a certain level of wariness. "You're the girl. You're Eleven."

El was not very familiar with social etiquette. She wasn't sure how to respond. Instead, she just stared in puzzlement, growing nervous.

"Yes, it's her," Joyce said. "She's come to see Mike."

El looked towards Mike, and then back at his mother. And she was suddenly filled with guilt. "I'm sorry," she sniffed.

Karen had only seen her once before – five days ago when Joyce's oldest son had come rushing through the hospital doors with the girl in his arms, blood pooling from her nose and ears. She'd been unconscious then.

It was different seeing her awake.

Karen wasn't sure how she would feel about the strange girl her son had kept hidden in her basement. For better or worse, she had thrown Karen's family a curve-ball. She'd gotten her son caught up in a dangerous governmental occurrence that had landed him in the hospital with a gunshot wound. It would make sense for her to dislike the girl, or at the very least feel anger towards her.

But Karen found that she wasn't angry at all. No, she was proud. She was impressed by the altruism that this little girl – that ALL the kids – had shown. El was also the reason her son was still alive.

And seeing the young girl on the verge of tears brought out her very prominent maternal instincts.

"Oh... no, hey." She lent down to pull El into a firm hug. And after a second, the girl hesitantly put her arms around Karen in return. "It's not your fault. Nothing that happened was your fault."

She eventually pulled back. "Would you like to spend some time with him alone? I could do with some coffee."

El wasn't sure how spending time alone with him would achieve anything, but she wasn't opposed to the idea. So she nodded.

"Have you tried the cortado yet?" Joyce asked Karen. "Hospital coffee tends to be very disappointing, but that one isn't half bad here."

"I haven't," Karen said, her smile reaching her eyes for the first time in a while. "Would you care to accompany me?"

Joyce wheeled El to the side of Mike's bed, where Karen had been sitting beforehand, before crouching down to address El at eye-level. "You sure you'll be alright here by yourself while I'm gone?"

"Yes," said El.

"Alright, sweetie." Joyce stood back up. "We'll come back soon to check on you."

El nodded, and watched Karen and Joyce exit the room, shutting the door behind them.

She was subsequently left with nothing but the noises of the heart monitor and the buzzing lights. She didn't particularly mind them. Sitting in complete silence might've been a bit too much.

She looked down at him. What was she supposed to do now? It was nice, being here with him, but she still didn't know what her purpose was. It almost seemed pointless; he was completely oblivious to her presence – too lost inside his own world as he slept.

Hesitantly, she reached over to hold onto his hand, intertwining his fingers with her own.

It gave her a strange rush. She decided she liked holding his hand. She liked everything about him.

She wondered if that was okay, to have such strong feelings for him. Even if she hadn't grown up in such an unusual and isolating environment, she was still a twelve-year-old girl. What did she know about love? Hell, she didn't even know the word. She wouldn't know it for quite some time.

But El didn't need a word. Words were overrated anyway.

She sat there, hand in his, reminiscing on their happy moments together. They had been few and far between. But they had been impactful. Through everything, from hiding in basements, to being fugitives, they had done it together.

A lot of it hadn't been pretty. But maybe it had all been worth it, to get them both to where they were now. Safe. Away from any evils that wanted to pull them back into the darkness.

El thought of the way Mike had kissed her back at the school. It hadn't made much sense to her, but she'd liked the way it felt. And she was overcome with the urge to do it again.

Swallowing nervously, El leaned towards Mike and gently pressed her lips against his, being careful not to dislodge the plastic tube.

They were warm. She hadn't been expecting that.

As she pulled back, El felt his hand squeeze tighter around her own and she froze, eyes wide.

Mike wasn't quite 'with it' yet. Opening his eyes felt like too much of a task. Morphine, he decided, made him feel like he was lying under several blankets. It felt heavy.

The hand he was holding onto was grounding him to reality. He wasn't quite ready to let go, regardless of who it was.

"Mike?"

Her voice sounded timid, uncertain. He didn't think he could bring himself to ignore her.

He made an effort to pull his eyes out of the dark and into the brightness of lights. Everything looked blurry, or at the very least distorted. Nothing in the room made much sense to him.

Glancing to the left, he caught sight of her face and focused on it.

El. Only El looked right.

A small crease was visible between her eyebrows. It looked like it had been there a while.

As happy as she was that he'd woken up, El found herself feeling a little miffed at his tepid reaction to seeing her. But then she remembered she had done the same thing to Hopper upon waking up not long ago. Maybe she should just give him a moment.

"El…" She watched his eyes slowly grow brighter. "El! You're here."

"I'm here," she repeated, offering him a small smile.

Mike's gaze flickered downwards. He noticed the wheelchair she was sitting in and his face flashed with concern.

"Are you okay?"

El looked down too. "Yeah, it's... just because I'm tired," she said. Then after a pause, "W–What about you?"

In response, he grimaced.

"Does it hurt?" she asked.

He nodded.

"What can I do?" El was already preparing herself to stand up, eyes darting around in search of someone who actually knew how to help him.

She stopped when she felt his hand gently grab her wrist, his eyes pleading.

"Stay."

El didn't move for a few beats. Then she slowly settled back into the position she was in previously, her hand holding his again.

They watched each other for a while. Maybe it should've made them feel awkward but it didn't.

Mike was too busy thinking about how there were so many things he admired about her. Her integrity. Her bravery. Her kindness. Her determination. She was the epitome of a good person. And then there were other small details he adored, like her smile, and her beautiful brown eyes which lit up with curiosity whenever she discovered something new in the world around her.

He hadn't been awake long enough to think very coherently, but all of that was just second nature to him now. And he hadn't had very many moments to truly just appreciate her. So no, this wasn't awkward. This was a breath of fresh air.

The silence between was nice. He wished it could've continued. It hurt him to speak, and El wasn't a big talker herself, so keeping up a decent conversation was difficult. But there were things that needed talking about.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She blinked. "For what?"

Mike forcefully pushed his anxiety down. "When I was in your– uh, that room, th–they made me tell them where you were. When you were hiding at Dustin's. I'm… I'm so sorry I put you in danger like that."

El smiled sadly and shook her head. "They didn't catch me."

"It doesn't change the f–fact that I–"

"It's not your fault," she parroted Karen's words from earlier. "I don't… blame you. I blame them." She looked away. "I blame them, and I blame… me."

I blame me for everything. I'm the reason you're here. I'm the reason you're hurt.

"El. Please don't do that." His voice compelled her to look back at him, to meet his eyes again. "If I'm not allowed to blame myself, then you're not either. Okay?"

El let her tense shoulders sag. Maybe he was right. Maybe it was time to start being as forgiving to herself as she was to others. She wasn't sure if she could, but anything that made Mike happy was worth a try.

"Okay."

The silence resumed. El felt her gaze drift over to the bedside table. A single plastic cup of water occupied it. She concentrated on it. Nobody was in the room except Mike. Nobody would see her if she… if she…

Nothing happened. She knew it wouldn't. But it still made her feel awful.

"Mike…"

"Yeah?"

"There's something else." Their eyes met again.

"Something bad?"

"I…."

"You can tell me," he insisted.

"It's my powers." Her voice caught in her throat, and she realized she wasn't sure if she could continue without crying. She realized that this revelation hurt more than she thought it would. Her powers were gone. Not even an iota remained. They were never going to replenish themselves. She didn't just need 'rest'. This was it.

El had always viewed herself and her powers to be inextricably linked. One couldn't exist without the other. But here she was, existing without it.

Mike didn't ask her to continue. He just watched two teardrops fall down her cheeks simultaneously. His own eyes watered in response.

"I don't–" She let out an involuntary sob. "I don't think they're ever coming back."

Mike was pretty sure he knew when she'd lost them. Though he couldn't recall the specific events of what had happened to them both in the void, he knew El had pulled off some sort of miracle. And it made sense that it had come with a great cost.

"Oh, El," he said, voice cracking. He held onto her hand tighter and pulled it towards him so he could grasp it with both of his. "You.. You deserved so much more than you got."

More tears trailed down her face as she listened to him.

"But you don't need your powers anymore. You don't have to rely on them to protect us all. Nothing will ever hurt you again. I'll– We'll make sure of it." He sighed. "I–I know this doesn't change anything. I know how much they meant to you. I'm just trying to tell you that… that…"

"Mike," she interrupted gently. Her brown eyes bore into his. "I understand."

He smiled warmly, comforted by her familiar phrase.

El knew she wasn't alright. She might not be for a long time. But something about the presence of the boy in front of her reassured her that one day she would be.

She swiped her free hand across both sides of her face to rid herself of the tear stains and took a few deep breaths before speaking again.

"I'm… I'm glad you're home."

Mike laughed and immediately winced. "I'm glad you're home too, El."

One concern was still festering inside his head. Perhaps it was silly. But he still needed to know. Just to be sure.

"You're gonna stay, right? You won't leave?"

El didn't know if he meant this room specifically, or in general. It didn't matter. The answer was still the same.

"No."

He brought her hand up to brush her cold fingers against his warm cheek.

"Do you promise?"

El didn't think the word could speak more volumes than it did in this one answer.

"Promise."