Thanks again for reading and commenting. I just love hearing what you have to say. In that spirit, I have taken on board your comments re: Season 2 details. The consensus was a resounding NO. But there are one or two little things that have found their way in here that I don't think take away from the story. If you disagree, feel free to tell me so. I am always open to constructive criticism.

Please enjoy.

The empty soda can shuddered in place for a moment, as unseen forces went to work upon it. Slowly, ever slowly, it began to rise until it was suspended in mid-air, a few inches above the large flat stone it had been sitting on.

"Yeah! Go El!"

Lucas rolled his eyes as Dustin began to holler like a fan at a football game. He, Mike and Will were watching from the sidelines. He was making so much noise, El's concentration was drawn away from what she was doing, and the can clattered back down. Dustin, Will and Mike all groaned in disappointment. She looked apologetically at Lucas, as he sighed in frustration.

"Try again," he said, patiently. "Focus on what you're doing. Just pretend it's just you and me here, like before. Okay?"

"Okay."

As relieved as Lucas had been to finally stop keeping secrets from the rest of the party, he had to admit, their practice sessions had gotten a lot louder, a lot more crowded, and a lot less productive. He appreciated that the guys were trying to be supportive, and he was sure El appreciated that too, but there was no denying that things had been simpler without an audience.

She tried again. Again, the empty can began to levitate, and she put all her focus on it. Nevertheless, all too soon, she let it drop to the ground again, and then dropped to the ground herself, wiping her nose, eyes flashing in anger.

"What's wrong?" she demanded of Lucas furiously. "What's happened to me?"

Lucas bit back an angry retort. Before he'd met El, telekinetic powers had been something for the comic books. Hell, he was still wrapping his head around the fact that someone like El even existed. How the hell could she expect him to have all the answers about what was going on? She was the one with the power, shouldn't she know?

He restrained himself from saying all this for two reasons. One, it would upset her, and make the process even harder. Two, he'd cop an earful from Mike if he gave even the slightest indication he might be losing his patience with her. The last thing they needed was to get into another shouting match over El, though personally, he thought Mike was a little too overprotective of her at times. She wasn't made of porcelain, and more to the point, when her powers were on point she could tear all four of them apart in an instant if she wanted to without breaking a sweat.

Well, all three of them. Aliens would descend on the Hawkins Middle sports field before she'd lay a finger on Mike. Then again, with all the shit they'd seen, who was to say aliens didn't exist? It was no harder to believe than Demogorgan and alternate dimensions, after all. But he digressed.

He patted her shoulder, clumsily. "Don't worry El, you're probably just tired. Let's rest for a minute," he said. "We'll have a snack, then try again, okay?" He opened the cooler, tossed her a bag of chips, and called over his shoulder to the others. "Come on over, guys. We're gonna take a break."

When he'd agreed to let the others attend their practice sessions, he'd made one rule abundantly clear; he was in charge. He had been working with El for long enough to have a pretty clear idea of her current capabilities, and to know how far was too far for her to push herself. Mike hadn't been too impressed to be sidelined, but Lucas had been firm. He was the best person for the job. Dustin would push her too hard, and the other two, (especially Mike) wouldn't push her hard enough. If they were going to get anywhere, she needed to challenge herself. Mike would panic the second she faltered and try and get her to stop, and she would listen to him, because she always did.

Lucas and El had a good system going. She knew he would always act in her best interests; she trusted him. The last thing he needed was for the other three to come crashing in and undo all their work.

Like a magnet, Mike zipped to El's side, and she beamed at him as though he'd been on the other side of town rather than just a few feet away. Immediately, they fell into their private little Mike-and-El world, as though Will, Dustin and Lucas were not there. Lucas caught Dustin's eye, and they exchanged eye rolls, while Will watched the pair a little sadly.

"What's up, Will?" asked Dustin, noticing his friend's concern.

"What if we can't fix her?" said Will. "What if they find her? I don't know if he'd be able to handle it." He gestured over to where El was saying something quietly to Mike, who was listening with rapt attention, with that stupid, goofy look he always got around El.

"That's not going to happen," said Lucas, firmly, though the same thought had occurred to him with increasing frequency since the Troy incident.

"That's right!" agreed Dustin, enthusiastically. "This is El we're talking about, she is badass. You just don't realise because you haven't seen it for yourself, Will. Not for real. You've only ever seen her do little stuff. You didn't get to see the quarry, or the van…" He trailed off, a slow smile spreading across his face, and Lucas knew he was reliving that awesome El moment. Lucas did too, from time to time; it had probably been his personal favourite 'superhero El' moment. It had after all, been the event that had finally convinced him that she was on their side, and that they could be friends. That he wasn't losing a best friend (Mike) but could be potentially gaining a new one. An awesome one.

"That's my point," said Will softly. "What if she can't do that stuff anymore? What if something's really wrong?"

There was a brief pause, where they could all hear Mike and El laughing quietly at something behind them.

"So what?" said Lucas. "Even if she can't kick ass anymore, she's still our friend."

"Mike would chop his own arm off before he'd let her disappear again," said Dustin. "And so would I."

"And me," Lucas agreed.

"Me too," said Will. He didn't know Eleven as well as the others did. Of course, he had not been present during that first tumultuous week. Since her return, she'd been hanging out almost exclusively with Mike or Lucas, but he could tell, from the way the others had talked about her, and the way Mike looked at her, that she was important to them. Hence, she was important to him, and he was just as keen as any of them to keep her in the party, where she belonged.

"So we just keep trying," said Lucas decisively, "and if it happens that she can't get her powers back, we take care of her the old-fashioned way. We have her back, just like we do for anyone in the party."

The afternoon wore on.

El's performance for the rest of the day...well to put it politely, one would say it was 'patchy.' To put it accurately however...it was a goddamn disaster.

She tried again and again to lift the can smoothly, and without dropping it. Again and again, it fell back to earth, prompting groans and sighs from the viewing gallery. How Lucas wished they would shut up. They kept putting her off her focus. After every unsuccessful attempt, she'd glance frantically at them as though waiting for a reproof or a scolding. Lucas figured that must have happened in the lab if she made mistakes. Those bastards probably punished her too. Hurt her. Frightened her. Locked her up. The very idea that anybody could do that to another human being made him furious. But to El? One of the kindest, coolest, must trusting people he had ever run across? It was nothing short of criminal.

Dustin, however, was whooping and cheering and having the time of his life. "It's like the X-Men in real life! It's like Professor X and Jean Grey, except El is both of them!" He nudged Will, who was sitting beside him, drawing. "Dude, how are you not watching this right now? We're getting a real-life display of superpowers. Do you not realise how insane that is?"

Will put down the green crayon he'd been using and reached for the blue.

"Of course I do," he said, calmly. "But I just don't think staring at her and yelling like an idiot is going to help her. It might make her nervous."

His words were punctuated by the clatter of the can falling for the umpteenth time, Lucas' sigh, and El's grunt of frustration. Next to them, Mike sighed too.

"This is my fault," he said, sadly.

"What?" Dustin demanded, his head swivelling around comically fast. Will put down the blue crayon and also turned to his friend.

"How could this possibly be your fault Mike?" he asked. Mike had a tendency to do this; blame himself for things that were completely out of his control. For instance, back in third grade, before Dustin had joined the party, there had been an outbreak of flu in Hawkins during winter vacation. Will and Lucas were spending the day at Mike's place (even then, the Wheeler's basement had been their unofficial meeting point.) When Mrs Wheeler called them up for lunch, they passed Nancy in the hallway. She was just getting over the nasty illness, and had been confined to her room most of the day. However, by an unfortunate coincidence, she happened to venture out just as they were coming up the stairs, and let out an almighty sneeze as they squeezed past her. Will had always been small and slight, and the combination of these factors with the cold weather meant he too was struck down with the virus and wound up confined to bed for the next week, feeling very sorry for himself.

His mother and Jonathan had made him toast and warm drinks, gotten him blankets and bought him colouring books and comics to help pass the time. His father had told him to toughen up. Lucas visited as often as his parents would allow him to. (Erica had not long been born so they were nervous about him passing it on to her.)

Mike felt so guilty; he could barely look him in the eye for weeks afterwards, despite being assured, by Jonathan, Lucas, Joyce, and Will himself that he was of no fault whatsoever.

It was a trait that had continued to rear its head as they had gotten older, Dustin had joined the group, and Mike had fallen into the role of the pseudo-leader. And now with El's arrival, Mike seemed to feel more responsibility than ever. Responsible for her safety, her happiness, her education. Responsible for making sure she was getting enough to eat and sleep. Add that to all the mushy feelings he had for El, and his (completely groundless) fears that she didn't like him back, (as if that were even possible, she adored him) and Mike was under a lot of pressure.

Will watched his best friend as he observed El and Lucas discuss something in quiet tones. Mike was somehow managing to look at Eleven with his usual soft fondness, while also looking disgusted with himself at the same time.

"It's my fault," Mike said, "because I'm such a pathetic wastoid that I couldn't deal with Troy on my own. So she had to jump in before she was ready, to save my sorry ass." He scowled. "If I weren't such a loser and could take care of myself, she wouldn't have had to help me, and she wouldn't be suffering now."

Dustin and Will exchanged a look. They both knew perfectly well why El had intervened, and it had very little to do with Mike's alleged 'weakness.' However, Mike in his continued infuriating blindness where El was concerned, didn't seem to have picked up on it.

"Dude," said Dustin as though it were obvious, because it was, "Even if you were built like the Incredible Hulk and could have beat down Troy with one hand tied behind your back, she still would've stepped in. Because it's you."

Mike scoffed. Dustin resisted the temptation to pick up the stick at his feet and throw it at his dumbass of a best friend. Clearly, he was going to have to spell this out for him. Again.

"Mike, come on. She threw Lucas off you, she pushed you away from the Demogorgan, and the last time she saw you with Troy, she was saving you from falling to your death. How did you expect her to react? The only times she's ever used her powers on or even near you is because she thought you were in danger. Why do you think that is?"

"She doesn't do these things because she thinks you're weak, Mike," added Will.

"How do you know?"

Dustin rolled his eyes, and even Will looked a little exasperated as they again began to tread the well traversed depths of Mike's insecurity about El.

"Put it this way," said Dustin. "If you and I were both sinking in quicksand-"

"Where the hell would we find quicksand in Hawkins?" interrupted Mike.

"It's an analogy," Dustin snapped. "Go with it. Anyway, you and me, sinking in quicksand and then El comes along, who do you think she rescues first?"

"Why are we in quicksand anyway? What were we doing?"

"The quicksand's not important! Stop being a dipshit and answer the question. Me or you? Who does El pick?"

"She'd save us both. You know she would. Who the hell cares which order it happens in?"

Will chuckled, as Dustin threw Mike a look that was part frustration, part pure loathing. Either Mike was thicker than any one of them could have imagined or he was being deliberately obtuse. Either way, his brilliant quicksand scenario wasn't having the effect he had hoped for.

He punched Mike on the shoulder, a little harder than usual because he was being a moron. "Think about it, buddy," he said. "And if you really can't figure it out, the next time you guys hang out, instead of just making goo-goo eyes at each other, why don't you try actually talking to her?"

"I always talk to her!"

Surprisingly, Will was firm. "You're deliberately missing the point, Mike," he said. "Sitting here complaining to us isn't going to solve anything. And you know it."

It was rare for Will to step in during a party disagreement, but when he did, it meant one thing. The discussion was closed.

Across the yard, El and Lucas were having problems of their own.

"I can't do it," said El, angrily, glowering at the can. "I used to be strong. Now I am weak."

"You're not weak," said Lucas, patiently. "You used a lot of power on Troy, it was always going to take a while to come back."

"Not this long," she complained. Wordlessly, she turned her eyes on him expectantly, as though waiting for him to suggest some miraculous solution. A little parcel of anger began growing in his chest. A year ago, he was a normal kid, with normal friends and a normal life. Now his friends included a telekinetic girl, a lovesick best friend, and Dustin, and they were all getting on his nerves in their own way. Will was the only one not irritating him right now, mainly because he'd barely said anything.

"So, what can we do?" El persisted in asking. And then suddenly, with a little more heat, "Fix it!"

Her voice was sharp as a whipcrack. Dustin raised his eyebrows, Will flinched, and Mike was on the point of getting up when Dustin reached over and heaved him back down again.

"Let Lucas handle it," he said.

"But-"

"Mike."

The last thing they needed was Mike, with his short temper, and love-addled brain, to intervene. There was copious history on how that would go, none of it good.

"What exactly do you want me to do, El?" asked Lucas, calmly, but with a twinge of irritation in his voice.

"I don't know!"

Lucas resisted the urge to snap at her, closed his eyes, and thought. El had been making steady progress until the incident with Troy. Maybe that was the cause for her problems today, but maybe it wasn't. Something else had changed too; the guys were now here watching. At least one of these two things had to be causing the issue. He needed to isolate which one. Perhaps it was both. But this part wasn't about supernatural powers, this was science. An experiment. He could handle that.

For the next hour, they kept trying, to varying degrees of success. She managed to levitate the can several more times, the longest period being about twenty seconds. The cheering section made so much noise that his mother came out in her apron from the kitchen and wanted to know what they were yelling about. Dustin managed to convince her that they were playing a live-action version of D&D, and then, rolling her eyes, she returned to the house.

Lucas observed El carefully during that hour. Her concentration seemed to break at odd moments, and her eyes tended to flick over to the other guys (specifically, Mike) a lot after a failure. She looked upset and embarrassed, even though the support from the cheering section had never once wavered, and he could tell she was still angry. It seemed to be radiating from her.

The practice session ended when El blew up the can. They were in hour five of the day, on attempt number nine billion. The telltale sound of metal on stone rang out once again, and El, eyes blazing, glared at it.

Then, the can was gone. One moment it was there, the next, it had disintegrated. Mike, Will, Dustin and Lucas all gaped at the scorch mark on the rock where it had stood. El sank down into the grass, her head in her hands.

Mike was the first to shake himself into action. He approached El cautiously as she began to sob quietly. "El? Are you okay?"

Wordlessly, she reached for him, and pulled him into what must have been a bone-crunchingly tight hug. He hugged her back, whispering, "it's okay, it's okay," over and over. The others quickly averted their eyes to try and give them some privacy.

"Uh, I guess we're done for the day," said Lucas to nobody in particular. "I'll just-" He began gathering up the empty chip packets and non-exploded soda cans from their snack. Dustin and Will sprang up to help him.

By the time they had finished cleaning up the yard and had taken the cooler inside, Mike had consoled El enough that her tears had subsided, and she was on her feet. She was holding tightly to his hand and leaning heavily against him. Sweat was glistening on her brow. She looked beat.

"I'm sorry, Lucas," she said softly, as he emerged from the back door. "For yelling."

She glanced at Mike, who smiled at her approvingly, and Lucas wondered if he'd told her to say that. The thought made him feel a little hollow. Maybe she didn't actually think of him as a friend after all. Maybe to her he was just someone she had to tolerate in order to spend time with her precious Mike, and who was helping her with her powers.

But, as ever, El surprised him. She dropped Mike's hand, stepped forward, and put her arms around Lucas in a tentative hug. It was nice, but weird. He wasn't really a hugger, as such, and neither was she, at least with people other than Mike. It felt as though he were hugging a distant relative he only saw at Christmas. A second cousin from Sweden, perhaps.

Still, he appreciated the gesture, as well as the soft smile she gave him as they separated. It was enough to convince him that the apology had come from her, and not Mike. That was good enough for him.

"That's okay, El," he said. "Don't worry about it."

But she shook her head. "You're helping me," she said. "You are being a good friend. I was a mouthbreather."

Lucas caught Mike's eye over the top of her head and they both hid a smile. He resolved to teach El some other words when he had a moment. There was a whole world of insults out there beyond 'mouthbreather' and he didn't want her to miss out on it.

"We're all mouthbreathers sometimes," he said. "I forgive you."

The others ended up staying for dinner. His mom had made extra meatloaf and potatoes when she'd noticed they had come over, and they were too polite to refuse her.

It went smoothly enough until Erica, little twerp that she was, put down her glass of milk, smirked evilly at her brother and asked, "Who's the girl, Lucas? Is she your girlfriend?"

"NO!" shouted Lucas and Mike, in unison. Dustin laughed so hard he began to cough, and Mrs Sinclair ran to get him a glass of water. Will grabbed his milk and began to down it, in an attempt to not have to say anything.

El simply looked confused.

Amused at the uproar she'd created, Erica zoned in on Mike, who had gone slightly pale. Teasing her brother's nerdy friends was almost as good as teasing him.

"Don't tell me she's your girlfriend, Mike?" she said, in disbelief. "I mean, really? You?"

Mike spluttered. Dustin snorted. Will looked away awkwardly. Lucas silently resolved to kidnap one of his sister's Barbie dolls and give her a buzzcut the moment he could get his hands on his dad's electric razor.

"Girlfriend?" El repeated, and Erica turned her attention on her instead.

"You don't know what that is?" Genuinely confused now, Erica squinted at the unfamiliar girl. She'd thought every girl in the world knew what a girlfriend was. Didn't she watch TV? Movies? Didn't she read?

"Mom!" Lucas protested, as Erica opened her mouth to tell the weird girl exactly what a girlfriend was, and hopefully, make Mike squirm a little more.

"Erica!" The warning tone in her mother's voice usually wasn't enough to make her back down, but tomorrow Erica had planned to go to the mall with a friend who lived across the street. If she made her mom mad, she might not be able to go.

"Sorry," she said, insincerely, but it was enough to placate her mom. Lucas continued to glare at her. The weird girl still looked confused. Mike looked like he wanted to die.

Erica was satisfied.

As soon as dessert of his mom's famous brownies had been eaten, Lucas' friends made a hasty exit. He took particular note of the interesting greenish/yellowish hue of Mike's face as he opened the door for El so they could walk home.

Of course, being El, she didn't see anything wrong with taking his hand, beaming up at him and asking, "Girlfriend?"

The door closed behind them. Lucas cringed.

Good luck, Mike.

I wasn't planning on Erica making an appearance, but here she is. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. More when I can.