IT WAS DECIDED THAT HOPPER WOULD TAKE ELEVEN back to the lab, while Jonathan, Nancy and Joyce would take Will out to Hopper's secluded home― a place Will wasn't familiar with, so he wouldn't be able to recognize it for the shadow monster. Hopper and Eleven were going to wait while they tried to make Will's body too hot and uninhabitable for the shadow monster; when the coast was clear, El was going to try and close the gate.

Back at the Byers household, Rachel and Steve were once again watching over the kids, although this time Mike was with them too. With nothing else to do, Rachel recruited Lucas and Max's help cleaning up the house. Mike was too busy pacing the floors anxiously to process much of anything else, and Dustin was focused on preserving the body of the demo-dog Eleven had tossed through the living room window. Steve ended up being the one to help him with that, since Rachel had very decidedly told her brother, "There is no way in hell I am touching that thing, dead or otherwise. You're lucky I even buried Mews today."

When her wound began throbbing again, Rachel went down the hallway to the bathroom in search of something to better dress it with. Digging out some gauze and medical tape, she set it on the counter before carefully unwrapping the folded-up t-shirt Steve had tied around her shoulder earlier that evening. "Shit," she hissed in pain, gritting her teeth as some of the dried blood caused the t-shirt to want to stick to the wound. Tossing the shirt into the trash can, Rachel dampened some gauze under cool water and gently cleaned the claw marks marring her skin the best she could. Then she wrapped her shoulder again, this time with the gauze and medical tape.

Heading back down the hallway, she entered the living room with raised eyebrows upon seeing everyone gathered and talking quickly. "I mean, these demo-dogs, they have a hive mind," Dustin was saying as Rachel walked over to them. "When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."

"So if we get their attention..."

"Maybe we can draw them away from the lab," Max finished for Lucas, the two of them looking at each other.

"And clear a path to the gate," Mike added.

"Yeah, and then we all die!" Steve pointed out.

Dustin shrugged. "Well, that's one point of view."

"No, that's not a point of view, man. That's a fact."

"He's right, punk," Rachel agreed with Steve, walking between the two of them as she followed Mike into the next room. The others trailed after her.

"This is where the chief dug his hole," Mike told them, gesturing to an area drawn on the many papers Will had made. "This is our way into the tunnel. So..." He jumped up and walked back into the other room, gesturing to another area. "Here, right here― this is like a hub. So you got all the tunnels feeding into here. Maybe if we set this on fire―"

"Oh, yeah? That's a no!" Steve disagreed quickly, but the kids were too busy going along with what Mike was suggesting to pay him any attention.

"The mind flayer would call away his army," Dustin said.

"Guys," Steve said.

"They'd all come to stop us," Lucas added.

"Guys."

Mike looked up at them, nodding. "Then we circle back to the exit. By the time they realize that we're gone―"

"―El would be at the gate," Max finished.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey!" Steve shouted, clapping his hands together multiple times to get their attention. Once they all looked at him, he continued. "This is not happening." He waved off Mike's attempted protest. "No, no, no, no, no! No buts. Rachel and I promised to keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what we plan on doing. We're staying here, on the bench, and we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?"

"This isn't a stupid sports game!" Mike yelled at him.

"That's enough, Mike," Rachel cut in, shooting the younger boy a stern look. "It's a good plan, I'll give you that, but Steve has a point. There's no way in hell we're bringing you kids into those tunnels. Too many things could go wrong. We're staying here, and I don't want to hear any more shit about it. Okay?" When none of them answered, Rachel clenched her jaw and spoke louder. "Okay?"

"Okay," the kids grumbled reluctantly.

Steve nodded his head, glad that they listened. "Good."

The sound of a car's engine roaring down the road caught everyone's attention, and Max hurried over to the window to look outside. "It's my brother," she told them, her eyes wide with fear. "He can't know I'm here. He'll kill me. He'll kill us."

"Uh, who's your brother?" Rachel asked.

"Billy."

Steve exchanged a glance with Rachel, shaking his head with a sigh. "Of course it is," he muttered. "Look, I'll deal with him. Just stay inside." Before anyone could respond, he shoved open the door and went outside to meet Billy. Rachel followed him out, standing on the porch with her arms crossed to try and keep warm. She couldn't hear what Steve and Billy were saying as they stood near the car, but all of a sudden Billy shoved Steve to the ground and kicked him harshly in the gut before storming toward the house. 

"Billy, stop," she told him, attempting to grab his arm, only for him to brush her off and stomp inside. Rachel cast a worried look at Steve over her shoulder, who was still crumpled up on the ground, before following after the ill-tempered blonde.

"Well, well, well. Lucas Sinclair, what a surprise," Billy taunted as he stalked toward the kids. "I thought I told you to stay away from him, Max."

"Billy, go away," Max told him, her voice shaking.

"You disobeyed me. And you know what happens when you disobey me. I break things." All of a sudden, Billy turned and hefted Lucas into the air by the collar of his jacket, slamming him into the wall at the far side of the room. The kids shouted for him to stop, Rachel shouting as well as she pushed through them and hurried over to help Lucas. "Since Maxine won't listen to me, maybe you will. You stay away from her. Stay away from her! You hear me?!"

"Get the hell off of him!" Rachel exclaimed, grabbing his arm and trying to yank him away from Lucas. "Get off of him!"

"She said get off me!" Lucas shouted, kneeing Billy in the groin. 

Billy lost his grip on the kid, and Rachel yanked him further away from Lucas, only for the blonde to turn and shove her to the ground. Dustin and Mike yelled at him for shoving Rachel, the two of them hurrying over to help her off the floor. Steve had been entering the house, just about to walk into the kitchen when he saw Billy push Rachel, causing the brunette to slam against the floor harshly. "You are so dead, Sinclair! You're dead!" Billy shouted at the boy in front of him.

"No, you are!" Steve snapped angrily, turning him around and punching him square in the jaw.

Billy's nose busted open, but even with the blood trickling out, he laughed. "Looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh? I've been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody's been telling me so much about."

"Get out," Steve told him through clenched teeth. Billy stared at him for a moment. Then he swung violently, only for Steve to dodge his punch and deliver one of his own. The two of them made their way toward the sink as they fought. Dustin and the boys were cheering Steve on, while Max watched anxiously. Rachel tried to check on her wound, which had been agitated during her fall, and keep track of what was happening at the same time. She flinched when Billy grabbed a plate off the counter and broke it over Steve's head.

"Hey, that's enough!" Rachel exclaimed, trying to get in Billy's way and stop the fight. "Stop it!"

"Rachel, don't!" Dustin shouted at his sister, yanking her out of the way as Billy stormed over and swung at Steve again. If Dustin hadn't moved Rachel, she'd have gotten hit herself.

"No one tells me what to do!" Billy sneered, grabbing Steve by the jacket and headbutting him as hard as he could. Steve, still disoriented from the blow to his head, was unable to do anything other than fall to the ground. Taking advantage of this, Billy got on top of him and started punching him in the face, over and over again.

"I said stop it!" Rachel shouted at the top of her lungs, running over and pushing him off of Steve as hard as she could. Billy hadn't expected her sudden interference, but it pissed him off when she got between him and a nearly-unconscious Steve. "Get the fuck out of this house! Now!"

"You think you can tell me what to do, bitch?!" Billy lunged at her, shoving her against the wall just like he had done with Lucas only minutes prior. "You think I won't kick your ass, too, for getting in my way?!" He reared his fist back, ready to hit her as the boys shouted for him to leave her alone― but before he could swing, Max was suddenly there, injecting him with the sedative Joyce had left behind. Billy instantly lost his strength, releasing Rachel and staggering backward. He reached up and pulled the needle out of his neck, stumbling as he looked at Max. "The hell is this?" He slurred. "You little shit, what did you do?"

Unable to stay upright any longer, Billy fell to the ground, laughing hysterically. Max grit her teeth and grabbed Steve's bat off the table. "From here on out, you leave me and my friends alone. Do you understand?"

"Screw you," he told her flatly.

Max swung the bat right at the ground between his legs, and Billy quickly lifted his head to make sure she hadn't hit anything. "Say you understand!" She shouted at him. "Say it! Say it!"

"I understand."

"What?"

"I understand," he muttered louder, his eyes drifting shut.

"Hey. Spitfire." Rachel's voice was breathless as she knelt on the ground near Steve, trying to get him to wake up while she spoke to Max. "You're bad-ass. We're definitely keeping you around."

↑ ↓ ↑ ↓ ↑ ↓

"HE'S NOT GONNA LIKE THIS." Rachel spoke with a sigh as she looked in Billy's rearview mirror at Steve's unconscious form. He was slumped in the backseat, leaning on Dustin while Max sat on Lucas's lap on the other side of him. Dustin held an ice pack to Steve's temple, which Rachel had gotten after cleaning up the wounds on his face and placing band-aids in certain areas to stop the bleeding.

"We know that," Mike said from the passenger seat, gesturing for her to take the next left. "We don't care."

Rachel didn't exactly like it, either. With Steve out of commission and Billy unconscious at the Byers', none of the kids had wanted to stick around and wait for him to wake up. They decided to follow up with their original plan to set the tunnels on fire, and told Rachel they would leave with or without her. She couldn't leave Steve and let them go without her, so they ended up carrying him out to the car too. Max had tried to drive, but Rachel snatched the keys from her so quickly, the redhead thought she had dropped them somewhere at first. 

Steve's eyes started to flutter open then, as he slowly came to. The first thing he saw was the blurry gasoline can on Max's lap, and he frowned in confusion as he looked around. "Rachel?" He asked weakly.

"Rachel's okay," Dustin assured him. "She's up front." He quickly grabbed Steve's hand before he could touch his battered nose. "No, don't touch it." Steve turned his head, squinting up at Dustin, who smiled at him. "Hey, buddy. Shh. It's okay, you put up a good fight. He beat your ass, but you put up a good fight, buddy. You're okay."

"Okay, you're gonna keep straight for half a mile, then make a left on Mount Sinai," Mike told Rachel. He had taken Lucas's map when he beat him in a race to get to the front seat.

"What's going on?" Steve asked groggily, finally noticing that they were all in a car and Rachel was driving while Mike told her where to go. Realizing the only reason Mike would be giving her directions, and where they were headed, he started to freak out. "Oh, my God. Rachel, no. Oh, my God! Stop the car!"

"I told you that he'd freak out!" Mike snapped at Rachel and Dustin. Rachel reached over and punched the younger kid in his arm for giving her attitude. He winced, rubbing his arm as he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Rachel, stop the car!" Steve shouted. "Stop the car!"

"Hey," Dustin chastised him. "The others wanted to leave you behind, but Rachel told them no. And I promised that you'd be cool." Momentarily distracted by all the shouting, Rachel nearly missed the left turn on Mount Sinai. She caught it at the last second, whirling around the corner and ignoring the way everyone screamed.

When they reached their destination, the kids instantly set to work putting on goggles and tying bandannas around their faces. Steve stumbled out of the car groggily, and he would have fallen if Rachel hadn't grabbed his arm and pulled him back up straight. "I know you're probably pissed at me right now, but if I hadn't drove, Max was going to," she told him as she checked on his swollen nose and busted lip. "I couldn't let them come alone, and I couldn't leave you at the house in the state you were in."

"Where's Billy?" Steve asked her. "I don't remember... You pulled him off of me, didn't you? And he grabbed you?" His expression darkened as the image of Billy slamming Rachel against the wall flashed through his mind. "I'm gonna knock him out."

"Max already beat you to it," Rachel told him with an amused smirk. "She sedated him."

"Hey brat!" Turning, Rachel caught both pairs of goggles and the two bandannas Dustin tossed to her. "Those are for you guys."

"Uh-uh," Steve said instantly, seeing that the kids were gathering everything they needed to enter the tunnels. "This isn't happening." They all ignored him as they got ready. Mike walked right past with the gas can in his hand, and Steve glared at him. "Hey! Where do you think you're going? What, are you deaf? Hello?!" He looked over to Rachel for her help, only to see her reaching up to put her goggles on. "Rachel! You're supposed to back me up!" He exclaimed, taking the goggles out of her hand. "We are not going down there right now. I made myself clear!" Turning toward the kids who kept blatantly ignoring him, he shouted, "Hey, there is no chance we are going into that hole, alright?! This ends now!"

"Steve!" Dustin shouted, yanking Rachel's goggles out of Steve's hand just as he started to throw them. He handed them back to his sister as he spoke to the angry guy. "You're upset, I get it. But the bottom line is, a party member requires assistance, and it is our duty to provide that assistance. Now, I know you and Rachel promised Nance and Jonathan that you would keep us safe. So keep us safe." He held up Steve's bat, but Steve only stared at him without taking it.

"Look, this is happening whether or not you want it to, Steve," Rachel spoke up, nodding toward Lucas, Max and Mike as she tied her bandanna to her face. "I promised my brother that no matter what happens tonight, we'll face it together. And I promised Jonathan I'd look out for the other kids, too. So I'm not letting them go into that hole without me." She held up the extra goggles and bandanna. "Are you in, or not?"

"Alright, fine." With a groan, Steve took the goggles and bandanna from Rachel. He put them on before taking his bat from Dustin. "I'm in."

"Great!" Dustin said happily, walking past him and heading over to the others. "Let's go."

"I feel like he is way too upbeat and energetic about this," Steve grumbled to Rachel as they followed after her little brother. "Doesn't he realize we're probably going to die?"

Rachel shrugged, shaking the can of hairspray in her hand and making sure Steve's lighter still worked. "At least he's making the most of it."

To that, Steve didn't know what to say.