✵

, Nancy brought up after a few beats of silence, dropping the emptied gun onto the coffee table of the Byers living room. "We should never have left them."

"Go where?" Ringo asked, tilting her head as she lowered her axe and propped it up against the wall.

"The school, Mike and his friends and that girl are there, and-"

"That girl?" She interrupted, her eyes narrowed dramatically. "Is she, perchance, a little preteen with a shaved head? Doesn't talk much?"

"Yeah," Nancy answered confusedly, ignoring the looks of bewilderment Jonathan and Steve were throwing at the two girls for their casual conversation. "How did you know?"

"Oh my god, that little shit," Ringo ranted, rolling her eyes and stomping towards Nancy with a huff. "He brought her into the basement when he found her and we were supposed to tell Karen the next day but then he's like, 'oh Ringo! It's okay! She left already!' And now I find out he was just trying to exclude me!"

"Guys," Jonathan tried to butt in, ignoring the urge to roll his eyes as the two girls, who were stood there practically gossiping.

"What?" Nancy questioned with an open mouth, "you guys had a girl in the basement and didn't tell me?!"

"To be fair," Ringo grimaced at the incoming insult, "you're a bit... regal."

"Guys," Jonathan tried again, being completely ignored once more.

"Regal?" Nancy hissed in offence. "How regal is this then? Before you came, we helped Eleven into a kiddie pool in the school and witnessed her contact another realm!"

"What?" Ringo half-shouted. "You guys were getting freaky in a kiddie pool and didn't invite me? This is why I didn't invite you down to the basement!"

"Well, you ran away! And it wasn't even your name on the board!" Nancy threw her hands up in frustration.

"Guys!" Steve bellowed on Jonathan's behalf, receiving a look of appreciation as a result. Ringo and Nancy had stood toe to toe, their jaws firmly set and staring each other down. But now, they looked towards Steve in perfect sync, and seemingly snapped out of their childish behaviour.

"We have to go, come on Nancy I'll drive you," Jonathan offered, grabbing his keys and heading outside.

"Thanks," Ringo commented sarcastically, watching them bitterly as they stalked towards the car. "I'll just fucking fly then!"

"Come on, I'll give you a ride," Steve interjected, leading her towards his own car. It felt a little strange that Nancy would be riding with Jonathan and Ringo with Steve, and she couldn't help but cast her mind back to the night of the bonfire. A night where Ringo and Steve couldn't stand each other, and Nancy couldn't bring herself to approach Jonathan.

Ringo snapped up her cassette player before she sat down and squished it, furrowing her brows as she looked it over and wondering when it had slipped from her pocket.

Steve waited for a few seconds so Jonathan could pull out of the property first, before following his lead and keeping close behind the entire drive. The car was painfully silent for a few minutes, the shock of the situation was finally starting to settle in and Ringo had to pinch herself to make sure it wasn't a dream.

"Hey, um," she began, turning her head to see the boy driving, "thanks for coming back."

"It's nothing," he shook his head, looking visibly shaken up. His fingers had gripped so tightly onto the steering wheel that his knuckles were white, and his entire posture was stiff.

"It's not nothing," she refuted. "You came back and risked your life for us, that's not nothing, Steve."

His cheeks, although already swollen from previous hits, seemed to redden even further than they already had. Ringo liked to delude herself into believing her words had that effect on him.

"I just... I couldn't leave you in there," he shrugged, his voice quiet.

"And Nancy too, I'm sure?"

"Yeah," he answered sharply, and she briefly wondered if she had said something wrong. But before she could analyse his tone, he was moving on. "I want to know everything. I want to know what that thing is, where it came from and what you guys were doing. Did you..." Steve looked horrified all of a sudden, "summon a demon?"

"God no, I've seen the Exorcist and I'd sooner go to Hell before I'd let my hair get that frizzed up," she scoffed, but Steve was too tense to laugh. He didn't answer at all, instead waiting patiently for Ringo's explanation.

"Okay, look," she sighed, turning in her seat slightly. "We don't know what it is. Nancy seen it behind your house when she went back to look for Barb and they ended up finding it when they went out again at night. That was the first time I had seen it. Nancy had this theory that it appeared from the smell of blood, so we had this bright idea to draw it out and test that. Which, in hindsight, feels like a little stupid."

"And the light bulbs? The 'mom' thing?"

"Yeah, I don't have a clue what that's about. If I had to guess, some shit went down when we were napping."

"It just doesn't make sense," he shook his head gently, his eyebrows furrowed.

Sensing his stress levels were rising once again now that he had time to think, Ringo decided a distraction was in order.

"Have you got a marker?" She asked, rifling through the cup holders. Steve pointed to the glovebox, where she retrieved the object immediately.

"What are you doing?" He pressed, his head turning from the road to look at her in brief glances. Ringo was in the middle of whipping out the tape wedged in the slot of her cassette player. Squinting, he watched as she began to scribble something next to the writing already on the front label.

"What does it say?" He pried, and by some stroke of coincidence, they had to stopp at a traffic light at that minute. Steve turned over to nick the tape straight from her hands, but Ringo didn't look the least bit startled.

"'Ringo and Steve's Demon Ass Kicking Mix'," he read aloud, uncontrollably smirking at the two words cramped in the open space above the words previously written. He looked back up at her, his smile warm and his eyes bright once more.

"Now it'll be our embarrassing playlist," she chuckled at his expression.

✵

"What the hell?" Steve muttered when Jonathan's car led them into the hectic school parking lot, which was amass with police cars and ambulances. Flashing blue and red lights could have been seen from almost a mile away.

He parked his car a little further back from the commotion, to prevent from getting in the way. Steve had no choice but to follow after Ringo when she practically leaped from the car after seeing Karen and Ted's vehicle was also there.

Nancy had clearly noticed as well, looking to Ringo with frantic eyes as she exited from Jonathan's passenger side. When the blonde caught up with her cousin, together they started to sprint towards the area cordoned off for ambulances, their hands clutched together tightly.

Ringo and Nancy looked desperately around for a familiar face, and when Ringo saw Dustin Henderson talking to a paramedic, she couldn't help but rush forward and wrap her arms around him tightly.

The look on his face was priceless, his eyes widened in amazement as Ringo clutched him to her chest. It took him a second before he wrapped his arms around her in return, beaming brightly against her t-shirt. Nancy rolled her eyes at his expression.

"Dustin, are you okay?" Ringo drew back, huffing and grabbing him by the shoulders when he still held onto her and refused to let go.

"I'm okay, Ringo!" He nodded his head enthusiastically, that stupid grin still present on his face.

"Stop it, you," she whacked his arm impatiently, looking around their surroundings. "Where's Mike?"

Dustin pointed in a direction, and Nancy and Ringo set off again, collectively breathing in relief at the sight of Karen Wheeler, with her arm protectively around Mike as they spoke to a police officer.

"Mom!" Nancy called, shooting towards her and instantly being welcomed into her arms. Karen clutched her daughter tightly, while Ringo crouched slightly to hug her younger cousin.

"We're going to have a long talk, later," she warned into his ear, but her expression fell from relieved to worried when she noticed that he barely heard her words. He seemed to be off in his world, a look on his face as if someone had died. "Mike?"

"Ringo," Karen sounded out, moving to embrace her as well. The blonde was touched by the sentiment, feeling as if she were truly part of their family.

Karen let go of her after a few seconds, eyes welling up in reassurance that they were okay as she stood back and looked between her daughter and niece. But her smile of relief quickly twisted into an expression of frustration as she placed her hands on her hips, going into full 'mom' mode.

"Where have you two been?!"

"Mike!" Lucas was shouting as he came into view, distracting Karen from the oncoming rant she was about to direct at the two girls. The boy came hurtling at full speed towards them, out of breath and panting by the time he spoke. "Did you hear?"

"What?" Mike asked, a newfound energy springing into him.

"They found Will!"

✵

The hospital waiting room almost seemed as if half of Hawkins was there, waiting forever for the news about the young boy that only a few of them had even truly knew well. Of that group, members included Chief Hopper - who's presence made Steve rather uncomfortable, Ted and Karen Wheeler, Nancy, Jonathan, Lucas, Dustin, Mike and Ringo.

The room was silent, each of the attendants feeling nail-bitingly anxious but completely shocked by the turn of events. Hopper, Nancy, Jonathan and the kids already knew about the possibility of Will being alive, but the rest of them had been completely out of the loop. Ringo couldn't wrap her head around the fact she had attended Will's funeral, when there apparently wasn't even a body to bury.

Through the silence, Dustin and Lucas' quiet bickering cut through the tension, to either the amusement or the frustration of the others. Ringo, who had been seated between Ted and Steve - rather awkwardly, furrowed her brows when she thought she heard the mention of her name.

"I'm telling you man, it happened," Dustin was arguing, his hands in the air innocently.

"There is no way a junior would come any where near you, never mind let you touch her boobs!" Lucas fired back.

"Will you listen to me? She didn't let me touch them she squished my face against them!" Dustin giddied excitedly, prompting Ringo to roll her eyes and call him out.

"What are you saying, you little perv?" She threatened, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Nothing!" He replied in a shrill voice.

"So," Ted suddenly leaned forward to see both Ringo and Steve, his eyes full of suspicion but his voice as dry as could be. Steve shuffled under his pointed glare. "Are you two dating?"

"What?!" Ringo sputtered, her eyes widened as she shook her head violently in denial.

"No!" Steve answered, his voice a few octaves higher than even Dustin's had been.

"Well, first you bring him to the house and now you're sitting together and he's giving you rides everywhere," Ted explained his thinking, causing the two teenagers faces to burn red.

"No! It's not like that! Steve is Nancy's-" a fiery gaze from her cousin cut off Ringo's words, leaving her stammering and nervous as everyone in the room had now fixed their attention on the spectacle.

"He's Nancy's what?"

"Um..." she mumbled, eyes darting around the room for help. "Her... I mean my friend. He's my friend. Just a friend. We do a lot of friend stuff together like... hanging out and getting rides... and stuff."

Steve mentally face palmed, pushing back against the seat as if that would hide him. Thankfully, a nurse entered the waiting room, and the focus of everyone's attention was now on her instead.

"He's awake," she smiled warmly, leaving Mike, Lucas, Dustin, Jonathan and Nancy to spring up from their chairs and pile out into the hallway, rushing towards his designated room.

Ringo allowed herself a smile at the sight, feeling nothing but happiness for Will's friends and family, whether there was an explanation for his reappearance or not. She was sure Nancy would relay all to her later.

"He'll never leave Will today," Karen sighed, checking her watch and cringing at the time - 6.30am.

"I'm so tired," Ringo murmured, leaning her head back against the wall and shutting her eyes to emphasise her point.

"I can drive Ringo home if you're planning on staying, Mrs Wheeler," Steve piped up, his voice a little less sure than usual - probably because of their embarrassment from moments ago.

"Is that okay with you, Ringo?" She raised her brows, she herself wondering about the relationship between the two. The last she checked, Steve and Nancy were the ones sneaking behind her back, not Steve and Ringo.

"Yes, that'd be great," she breathed in relief, standing up along with him and following after he went to leave. Even when they were out of sight, Ted still kept his narrowed eyes on the door.

"He better not get her pregnant," he commented, pushing Karen to roll her eyes.

✵

"Thanks Steve, you're a lifesaver," Ringo practically moaned when he pulled into the Wheeler driveway. She was ready to have a bubble bath and scrub the dirty feeling of that monster off of her skin and then climb into bed for a semi-coma.

Steve switched the engine off, and the car was suddenly silent, leaving a palpable tension in its wake, which Ringo decided to break.

"So, last night was crazy huh?"

"Well it's not every day you get to say that you've become your girlfriend's cousin's chauffeur, went to the house of the guy who may or may not have slept with said girlfriend, fought off an otherworldly demon and witnessed a boy seemingly come back from the dead."

Ringo was silent for a few moments as she took it all in, letting out a huff of laughter after.

"Girlfriend?" She questioned after her giggles died down, quoting his words.

"Yeah," he replied, his tone dropping the sarcasm and suddenly turning serious, "I mean... if she'll forgive me."

"Oh," Ringo said dumbly, her face scrunched in thought. "Um... cool."

"Is that.. a problem?" He pressed, looking at her side profile. Ringo turned to look at him, plastering a small smile on her lips to mask her disapproval.

"Why would it be?"

"Okay then," he nodded, looking at her suspiciously. But her words rang true, why would she have a problem?

"Okay then."