Chapter Text
When the chaos had died down, they all reconvened at the Squawk. There was no celebration. Hell, no one was even napping despite the exhaustion that had overtaken them.
Their grief was heavier than their exhaustion.
Hopper sat leaning against Joyce in the corner, not even bothering to hide the tears rolling down his face.
No one blamed him of course, he had lost his little girl.
Again.
Murray was explaining the significance of what had just happened to Mr. Clarke and Vikkie, concern etched into both of their faces.
Nancy sat with Holly, her relief and grief at war with each other.
The partysat huddled together on a couch, Lucas holding Max. Dustin leaning into Steve's side for comfort, Robin holding Steve's hand. Mike sat close to Will, who had Jonathan’s arm around him.
Will was taking this hard. Johnathan was too, of course, as was the rest of the party.
But it was different for Will.
He and El understood each other in a way no one else did.
They were connected by something deeper.
She was his sister. She was his twin in everything but blood. His twin by souls.
She was gone.
And it felt like she had taken a piece of Will’s very being with her.
It was Max who heard the door open, echoing Erica's sentiment from earlier when she looked up, “Holy shit!”
Everyone looked up at that.
And there she was.
El.
Alive and breathing.
“Holy shit,” she echoed.
And Will was out of his seat in an instant, wrapping her in a tight hug, “You're here! I- how-?”
“We tricked them,” El was as blunt as ever.
The rest of the party seemed to snap out of their shocked state, jumping up, piling into a group hug, Lucas holding Max up so she could join in.
They pulled away when Hopper approached.
“Kid… I-” he stopped short, unable to form a sentence to express how he felt, instead putting his arms out to her, “Come here.”
El rushed forward into her dad's arms. Hopper cried more, this time tears of joy.
Robin voiced what was on everyone's minds, “How are you here? We saw you- we saw-”
“It was a trick. Kali and I had a plan,” El said simply.
Max seemed to piece it together as Lucas sat her back in her chair, “It was an illusion. And she made you invisible, like the kids in Henry’s mind.”
El nodded, going over and putting her arm around Max, “She was shot. I healed her long enough for her to do one last trick. Like you with Henry.”
Max’s voice wobbled with emotion, “I'm really glad you're here. We have to stop scaring each other like this.”
El chuckled a little, wrapping Max in a proper hug, “Sorry, had to seem real.”
“You are devious, seriously you could be an evil mastermind if you wanted,” Dustin said.
“I do not want that. I just want my friends.”
Everyone split up for a few minutes, going to scrounge up some food.
El took the opportunity to pull Mike to the side, “We need to talk”
“Yeah, ok. I wanted to talk to you too.”
El took a deep breath, “We are not happy.”
“No, no we aren't.”
“Max once told me, you know what you like by trying things on and seeing what feels like you. I do not know what feels like me. I need to find out.”
“Yeah, I think I need to do that as well. And we can't do that when we are together.”
El shakes her head, “Maybe we can as friends.”
“Yeah, friends.”
Mike held out his arms, offering a hug, which El accepted, “I'm really glad you just tricked us, El.”