Thursday, November 10, 1983. 5:57 a.m.

Mike is up early the next morning, shaking Nancy's bed.

"Five minutes," she groans, rolling over.

And then it hits her where she is, what's happening, and she bolts upright, drab motel comforter pooling around her waist as she sits up.

"Mike, what time is it?" she asks, staring at her younger brother, who's looking at her with wide-eyed earnestness.

"Six. Come on. We've gotta go. We've gotta go help El."

"Mike…"

"No, come on," he insists, much like he had the night before. He throws the covers off her bed and ignores her when she shrieks, and for a second it's like they're both younger again, before she'd stopped wanting him around, before all the crazy shit happening, before everything.

Her little brother has always been sensitive, has always had this conviction he can save the world.

She wonders where he gets it from. Not their parents, surely, her drab dull father who only cares about when a game is on, her mother who just wants her children to be happy. No, Mike has always had something different, some burning need to make sure everything is okay.

And when things go awry, more often than not it's been Nancy who's been there to clean up his mess.

She just wonders if she'll be capable this time.

Mulder is already awake when the knock on the door comes. He opens it expecting to find Mike, ready to go, but instead there's Scully, standing in front of him with a cup of coffee.

"Nancy knocked on my door," she says by way of explanation. "They're ready to go. I told them I'd come get you."

"Perfect," Mulder says, already shrugging on his coat

"Mulder, wait," Scully says. She sits down on the edge of his still-made motel bed. "Did you sleep?"

"In the chair," he says, shrugging. "I'm telling you it's more comfortable than the bed."

Truth is he didn't sleep. He was up all night, poring over notes about Martin Brenner, about Hawkins Laboratory. About Will Byers.

Mike is right. He doesn't think the kid is dead. Something doesn't feel right about this case. And for Will to show up so suddenly, so perfectly, drowned in the reservoir?

No. Will Byers isn't dead. Which may mean Barbara Holland isn't, either.

He shakes his head, looks back up at Scully. She's standing there in a wrinkled t-shirt and jeans, blazer thrown on over both, arms folded across her chest. Her red hair is still wet from what must have been an incredibly early shower.

"Mulder," she says. "We need to focus. Barbara Holland is still missing. Now's not—now isn't the time for you to get caught up in some grand conspiracy."

Her expression is flat. And he knows on some level she's right, but on another level, it's so possible that Barbara Holland is caught up in this conspiracy. That if he can solve this mess he can bring back Will, bring back Barbara…

And maybe, just maybe, Samantha has some connection to all this.

He still hasn't told Scully much about his sister, just bits and pieces here and there, if she asks. And sometimes she asks, but sometimes it just feels like he's talking to hear himself talk.

"Scully, something bigger is going on here than a missing girl."

"I know that, but don't… don't lose sight of the missing girl while you're trying to save the world, okay?" she says.

"That's what I have you for," he says, and shrugs his coat on, taking the coffee from the table.

And she follows him out the door and wonders what he would do without her.

7:48 a.m.

They drop Mike at the middle school, tell him they'll pick him and El and the rest of them up later. They drop Nancy at her house, since she insists it'll be safer if she shows her face to her mother before heading off to the high school. And then, Mulder drives them to Benny's diner, insisting they get a burger.

They're greeted with crime scene tape and door hanging off the hinges.

"What in the…" Scully says, brushing aside a piece of tape and carefully ducking under it. Mulder steps on the tape.

The diner is in disarray. Shambles.

"What happened here?" Mulder asks as they take in overturned tables and blood spatter on the wall.

Scully steps over a shattered plate, surveys the interior of the diner.

"More importantly," she says. "Why did no one tell us about this?"

3:42 p.m.

Mulder meets up with Nancy and the kids at the school, sending Scully off to talk to the sheriff and find out more about the diner. He's sitting on the hood of the car when Nancy walks up with the boys and a girl—El?

She doesn't look like Samantha, and he finds a sudden wave of relief coursing through him at this.

Not that he thought she would.

He hops off the hood of the car, bends down so he's at eye level with the kids. El shrinks back from him, and the boy with curly hair—Dustin—looks at the ground, but Mike and—Lucas, was it?—stare straight at Mulder.

He was so like these boys when he was young, when any adult came to question him about Samantha. Fear hiding under a layer of masculine bravado because no one told him otherwise.

"El helped us find Will," Mike says, looking straight at Mulder. "She can talk to him."

"Mike…" Nancy in the background, her voice gentle.

"No, she really can," Dustin says. "With the radio."

"The radio?"

"We tried it—"

"And it works—with the ham radio—"

"She knows where Will is—"

"I'm going," Nancy announces loudly, and the boys stop talking. "This is… I don't know. I'm going to go try to find Barb," she says stubbornly, looking at Mulder with the same look she gave him last night.

He knows he should go with her, try to find her friend.

Don't lose sight of the missing girl.

But the boys and El are looking at him so earnestly.

He stands, rubs his hands over his hair.

"Let's get your friend a radio."