Steve drove each of the pre-teens except Max home, before heading towards the location where he left his own car to pick it up. The idea was for Ringo to take Steve's car until Billy's was returned to the Hargrove residence, but one glance at his vehicle and Steve was disagreeing. He just couldn't, and wouldn't, risk his car. Girlfriend, or not.

So he followed behind Billy's flashy sports car while Ringo drove, a reasonable distance behind in case she suddenly braked. Max smirked watching the reflected headlights in the rear view mirror.

"He really doesn't trust your driving, does he?" She asked in amusement. Ringo rolled her eyes playfully, but understood there was probably a good reason behind that.

When finally they arrived at her house, a dark figure could be seen spread out across the grass. Max and Ringo chuckled at the sight, Jessica wasn't kidding when she said she'd dump him on the front lawn.

"Hey," Ringo called to get the girl's attention before she left, "if he gives you any shit you call me, okay?"

"Thanks, but I think I can handle him now," Max smiled with appreciation. "I'll let you know if he's ever beating up your boyfriend again."

"Good!" She grinned, watching as Max reached for the door handle. "Oh, wait!"

"Yeah?" Max leaned down slightly to look back in, having already stepped out of the car.

"We do this thing... the kids and, well everyone really. We call it Wheeler Family Fridays but literally everyone comes. We just watch movies in the basement and play games. And as a Wheeler, and the best one at that, I'm officially extending that invitation to you."

Max tried to play it cool, but her cheeks indented with how hard she concealed her grin. Eventually she broke and positively beamed, nodding her head in acceptance before finally closing the door just as Ringo reversed into the parking space.

Steve was parked further down the street, waiting for her to give her a ride home. When she got inside, he waited for a second until her seat belt was fastened before veering off.

"So," he began, "as far as dates go, I would say that went swimmingly."

"Well you know what they say," she nodded, "take him monster-hunting on the first date to see if he's a wuss bag."

"Wuss bag?" Steve echoed, grinning with humour. "That hurt my feelings."

"Okay Mr 'OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD'," she mimicked his high pitched, panicked voice from their escapades in the tunnel.

"At least I value my life," he fired back, "whoever let you drive obviously didn't."

"I could have left you behind, you know?" She warned, holding back her laughter.

"I know," he sighed calmly, pulling to a stop outside of her apartment building and turning to her. He sat there for a minute, watching her unbuckle her belt as slowly as possible.

"I don't want to leave yet," Ringo admitted with a shrug, eyes fixed on the main entrance.

"You'll miss me that much?"

"No," she gave him a weird look, "my mom's going to kill me when I go in."

"Well if you don't get grounded for the rest of your born days," he waggled his eyebrows, leaning over the centre and pressing a delicate kiss to her lips, "I'll see you soon, girlfriend."

"I'll see you soon, boyfriend," Ringo repeated, smiling into the kiss and placing a gentle hand against his cheek. When they broke apart, he kissed the tip of her nose shortly.

Despite the events of the night before and the incoming fury from her mother, she couldn't help but walk a little lighter than she used to - feeling as if she was floating on air.

✵

"Yes she's around 5"5, long blonde hair-" Julia Wheeler's voice was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening, her mouth falling open in shock before stuttering a reply to the confused operator. "Never mind! I found her!"

With that, she clicked the phone back into place and marched into the hallway with a fury in her step. Ringo kept her gaze on her feet, too scared to meet her eye. Julia was dry and sarcastic the majority of the time, but that was her sense of humour taking fold. It wasn't often she was severely angry - and the last time she had reached this level, Ringo had vandalised a car.

"I don't even want to look at you Ringo," her mother began, voice cold. "The dirt on you, the bags underneath your eyes - I actually convinced myself that maybe you weren't out partying, that you had learned your lesson and knew better than to stay out all night. I haven't slept a wink out of fear that I'd get a phone call telling me they found you in a ditch."

"Mom-" Ringo started, before breaking off again, lifting her head to meet her mother's expression. No amount of apologies would be worthy of what her mother deserved right now.

"I just want to know," Julia sighed, rubbing her forehead with her hand. "Were you partying?"

"Mom, no! I swear I wasn't!"

"Well, then were you kidnapped?" She asked, an eyebrow raised.

"God- no! I was helping the kids out with something..."

"Helping with what?"

Ringo didn't answer. After all, she was legally obliged to keep this secret from everyone - family included. But this was no longer a case of fearing her mother's reaction, she knew now that her mom simply had to know, or their relationship would never be the same thereafter.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..." Ringo trailed off, lower lip quivering with oncoming tears.

"No, what I don't believe is that you wouldn't come home for a whole day. It's now 11am, and you've been gone for twenty-four hours. I called the police, but they wouldn't accept my claim until the full day had passed. I called Karen, who was worried because Nancy had told her she was staying at a friend's but she wasn't so sure now."

To her horror, Julia's eyes started to water - in both sadness and pure anger, a complete wash of emotion. Ringo never saw her mother cry, not even when her father died.

"I can't lose you either, Ringo. Your dad left and I just... I can't sit around wondering if you're okay."

On instinct, the blonde stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her mother securely. They weren't the hugging type, but both mother and daughter gripped onto each other like a life source at that moment. Tears sprang in Ringo's own eyes, and it wasn't long until she was crying too.

They stood for what felt like ages, but was probably only a couple minutes in reality. When finally they broke apart, it felt as if the unspoken subject had finally been broached - that of her father's death. Now that they could start working on getting over it, it was Ringo's time to shine, and tell her mother a story she'd never forget.

✵

Steve took the initiative to talk to Ringo first - giving her a day to recover and talk to her mother before calling her. He imagined she'd have some things to explain - not that he could relate. His parents had left last weekend for a trip to Vancouver. They did ask if he wanted to join, and Steve was ever so thankful he had said no. If he hadn't have been there, god knows if Ringo and the kids would even be alive right now.

"Hello?" Julia's voice met his ear, his expression twisting in surprise.

"Hi! Mrs Wheeler... it's Rin- Steve! Sorry, I meant it's Steve," he stammered nervously, ever so intimidated by the woman and her merciless sense of humour.

"Don't tell me you're going to be one of those couples that basically become one person," she remarked sarcastically, catching Ringo's eye from the dining table, who looked at her quizzically.

"She told you we were dating?" His eyes widened. He didn't think Ringo would get to a place with her mother where she would tell her these things openly, but perhaps their day together had caused a shift in their relationship.

"She told me a lot more than that," Julia smirked knowingly at her daughter, "you couldn't take Billy Hargrove? Really?"

"Mom," Ringo groaned with mild amusement, knowing full well her mother didn't even know Billy, but loved to tease Steve nonetheless.

"You see, the thing about that is that I didn't fight back, because I'm a pacifist and a calm individual that you can trust your daughter to be in the company of," Steve rambled on, eliciting a chuckle from the older woman.

"Oh for god's sake," Julia rolled her eyes playfully, handing the phone over to a waiting Ringo.

"Hey!" The blonde greeted cheerily.

"Hey, you," he smiled brightly. "How did your mom take it?"

Ringo flushed slightly at the question, sensing her mother's gaze fixed on her face as she listened intently to whatever her daughter answered.

"Later," Ringo answered with a promise, turning away from watchful eyes to bite her lip excitedly. "I don't think I'm coming to school for the rest of the week."

"Oh? Why not?"

"Mom said that a near death experience seems like a worthy excuse to stay home for two days," Ringo smiled in appreciation over her shoulder. The dynamic between them had changed somewhat, definitely for the better.

The day before, many tears and arguments were held, but it was an opportunity for them both to get everything off their chest. Julia believed Ringo's drinking and recklessness was a problem - but it was steadily declining since their move to Hawkins. Julia also pointed out Ringo was ignoring her father's death, and if she didn't grow to accept it and forgive both him and herself she'd never move on. While Ringo told her mother essentially everything she was contractually obliged to keep private - from Eleven, to Will's disappearance and the demogorgans. Her mother was an extreme skeptic, and it took several hours to convince her it actually happened and Ringo hadn't taken acid. Eventually, Julia cracked and called Nancy's mother, who backed up the story.

For the first time in a while, Julia and Ringo both saw things changing for the better. They were finally landing on their feet, and closer than ever before.

"Are you grounded?" Steve questioned. "Or are you allowed to come out?"

"Jessica is actually supposed to come over so I can fill her in on everything, she's going crazy in her house waiting on our big secret," Ringo chuckled, tiredly rubbing her eye with her free hand. Staying awake for as long as they did left her absolutely exhausted.

"How about tomorrow? Is Wheeler Friday happening or does Karen need some time to lay into Nancy and Mike?"

"I think it's been pushed back to next week. Pretty sure Mike's too hell bent on seeing Eleven to listen to Karen, and he really wants her to come so it'll probably be next Friday."

"Then I'm taking you out tomorrow night," Steve announced proudly, a growing smirk on his lips. "I looked death in the eye, I'm making the most of the rest of my life."

Ringo opened her mouth to giggle, but it was cut off by a knock on the door. She said a quick goodbye to her boyfriend, with the acceptance of his offer, and rushed to the door.

Jessica was leaning against the door frame, one eyebrow raised and her arms crossed over her chest.

"I want to hear everything," she began, whipping off the sunglasses she had worn purely for dramatic effect. "I want scandal. I want drama. I want to know everything from the weather to what colour of underwear you wore that day."

"Hello to you too, Jessica," Ringo beamed sarcastically, "why don't you please come inside? It's so lovely to see you!"

"Enough small talk," Jessica marched straight past her, a scheming smirk on her lips as she headed towards Ringo's room, after hollering a quick greeting to Julia in the kitchen.

Ringo walked slowly after her, wanting to delay the upcoming conversation as much as possible. In the end it was inevitable, trailing into her bedroom she saw Jessica lounging in her desk chair, pointing at the bed for her friend to take a seat.

"Spill the details, Iago."

"Basically," Ringo sighed, "the government are crooked as hell and they're covering up these inter-dimensional monsters that live in an alternate dimension but keep coming here and stealing kids."

Instead of renouncing her claim, Jessica merely nodded calmly, her finger tips pressing against each other and lips pursed in thought.

"I'd believe that. We can't trust our government. My dad made me read 1984 by Orwell when I was nine and I've been paranoid ever since."

"That's basically it," Ringo lay back on her bed, her legs hanging off the side of it. "Oh, and the things killed Barb, almost killed all of us and enslaved Will."

This time Jessica looked perplexed, settling into the chair further as she prepared for what was sure to be a crazy story.

"Damn, and I thought my week was interesting because I opened a door for a girl and she smiled at me."

✵

"I thought we could do with a debrief," Ringo announced to the group, who were crammed into the same booth as her. Brainshakes was fairly empty considering it was a Friday evening, which made it all the better. Ringo hadn't seen any of them apart from Jessica since the events a few nights ago, save for talking on the phone.

"And I thought we were going on a date," Steve commented with a huff, wedged against the wall with Ringo beside him and Jessica on the other side of her.

"Oh Steve," she cooed childishly, patting his cheek gently with pouted lips, "you're going to have to come to accept that Jessica and Nancy are in this relationship too."

"Normally a guy would be thrilled to hear he's dating three girls," he rested his arm around Ringo's shoulders, nodding his head comically. "Until you realise one's your ex girlfriend and the other is a lesbian."

"If that hair gets any longer I might be into it," Jessica replied teasingly, tossing him a wink.

The group shared a light-hearted laugh as the sipped on their milkshakes, but Ringo's eyes were fixed on Jonathan's hand, which seemed to be slowly inching towards Nancy's on the table.

She stayed staring, her cheeks lifting into a grin until eventually Jonathan noticed her watching eye and snapped his hand back to himself.

"Oh for fuck sakes," she groaned, throwing her hand up in the air and catching everyone by surprise. "Grab her damn hand, Byers!"

"Wait!" Jessica gasped, eyes dramatically wide and darting back and forth between the two accusatorially. "You two are together?"

"N-no!" Nancy stammered, cheeks a fiery red. She didn't know what she and Jonathan were, they had been dancing around the subject more than Ringo danced around living rooms when intoxicated.

It was silent for a moment, Ringo meeting Steve's eye as they silently debated on whether or not to say what they were thinking.

"They had sex!" Steve blurted eventually, an octave too high as he managed to capture the attention of a family sitting a couple of tables away.

Jonathan rolled his eyes and sunk back into the seat, while Nancy sputtered in shock.

"Steve! Will you stop telling people that?!"

"You had sex?!" Jessica whisper-shouted.

"Hey," Ringo defended, hands in the air in defence. "If a bunch of pre-teens can know, Jessica can know. Let's be honest, who doesn't know at this point?"

A few more pointed jokes were made at their expense, but eventually the conversation retreated to that night once more. Jonathan did actually reach for Nancy's hand after a while, but Ringo settled for a quiet smile at the action this time, instead of commenting.

"I can't believe you guys were nearly dying while I was at home watching The A Team," Jessica snorted.

"Jokes aside," Ringo coughed, feeling a little awkward by the serious tone she had adopted. "I'm really happy you all made it. Love you, and all that cheesy crap."

"Awwww," Steve beamed as the group cooed to embarrass her. Leaning in and wrapping both arms around her, he began dragging her over playfully towards him to plant messy kisses on her cheeks.

"Look who's a softball!" He announced, ignoring Ringo's hands as they batted at his arms to get him to stop.