dustin said, looking between max and his sister.

meadow nodded. "yeah. but how do we find him?"

"we make some calls? i don't know!" dustin replied. "have you talked to anyone else?"

max shook her head. "no. i can't get a hold of lucas, or nancy, and mike's-"

"in california," both henderson's realized at once, looking between each other, "dammit."

"shit shit shit." dustin added, putting a hand to his hat. "we need to go find steve and robin."

his sister smiled. "now you're using that thinking cap."

as the three made their way to the door, claudia looked up. "where are you going?"

"uh.. seeing a friend." meadow replied.

"you heard the news. it's not safe!" her mother responded, but she didn't make a move to get up from her spot on the couch.

dustin smiled. "good point, we'll be careful."

"thanks. love you. bye." meadow spoke as she closed the door behind her, grabbing her bike from its position on the grass.

max looked over at her. "don't you have a car?"

she tilted her head to the side. "i mean.. kind of? yeah, no, i don't have a car. at least.. i don't have a car that can properly function."

the other girl nodded. "bikes it is."

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

when they arrived at family video, meadow burst through the doors immediately. "hey!! my lunch break isn't happening for another hour or so, what are you-" steve's smile at the sight of his girlfriend dimmed when he noticed the two kids that sprinted in front of her to the register. "what do you two-"

"how many phones do you have?" dustin demanded.

robin leaned over to meadow. "hey, did you see this? someone was murdered?"

she nodded. "yeah, that's kind of why we're here-"

"how many phones do you have?"

"two. why?"

robin looked over to dustin. "technically three, if you count keith's in the back?"

max nodded. "yeah, three works."

"what are you doing?" steve asked, watching as dustin took his backpack off and hopped over the counter. "my tapes, dude!" he complained as he knocked nearly everything off of the counter. "what are you doing, man?"

dustin sat down in front of the computer. "setting up base of operations here."

"base of operations?"

"what are you doing? get off of the computer."

"no, i need it!"

"need it for what?"

"eddie's friends' phone numbers!" dustin explained.

steve then rolled his eyes. "oh, eddie. your new best friend eddie who you think is cooler than me because he plays your nerdy game?"

"yes." dustin sighed before he processed his words, making a face. "i never said that."

robin reorganized the tapes on the counter. "seriously, you guys, maybe on a monday you can play around in here like toddlers, but it's saturday. it's our busiest day."

"look, robin, i empathize, but this cannot wait." dustin replied, continuing his search on the computer.

meadow rolled her eyes as robin and steve continued to argue. "we think we may have solved the murder, okay?" she shouted, making them go silent. "as far as we know, eddie's the only eye witness, and we need to find him so we can figure out if it has something.. something to do with the upside down."

steve's brows furrowed. "wait, what are you talking about?"

"i saw the girl.. the one who died. she got into eddie's trailer, and when he left it he was.. really spooked. he drove away, but i think.. i think he was afraid because something else killed her."

"uh.. but what if he-"

"he didn't kill her, dustin already ruled that out." meadow cut steve off.

he raised a brow. "oh, so you trust eddie now, huh?"

"no, i trust dustin." she argued. "are we really having this conversation again?"

"i'm sorry, i'm sorry! i just.. guy allegedly flirts with you, next thing we know he's a murder suspect and you want to help him-"

"what i want is for you to stop for just one second, okay?" she replied, sighing in relief as he nodded. "okay, we think this is linked to the upside down. so we need to find eddie because he's the only person who knows for sure."

steve nodded again, crossing his hands over his chest. "okay. okay. yeah. yeah. i'm sorry."

meadow looked up at him. "yeah, it's fine."

"no, really, i was just jealous-"

"we know, steve!" dustin replied, trying to focus.

soon, they had a list of potential friends of eddie's. while dustin, robin, and max called them on the three phones, steve and meadow attempted to tend to the customers.

"hey, are you okay?" steve asked as the store cleared out temporarily. "i just.. i know this isn't your favorite thing, right, the upside down stuff."

she shrugged. "i mean it's routine at this point, right?" she laughed, but looked down at her feet as she nodded. "yeah, yeah. i guess i'm just hoping we'll have it all sorted out before i can actually think that it's real."

he frowned. "if it's.. if it bothers you, we can just call the cops, right? let them find eddie."

meadow shook her head. "steve, you know they won't do anything. now that hopper's gone, they're not.. the police don't know anything about any of this. they'd throw us in the looney bin before we could even finish a sentence."

"yeah.. yeah. you're right."

she thought for a moment. "you know, i actually.. i was thinking about that."

"thinking about what?"

"the police. cops."

"i.. i'm not following."

"when hopper.. when he died, right, he got replaced with a new chief. and he's great, i'm sure, but he doesn't know shit about.. any of it. and i was just thinking, you know, this town never has anything interesting happen until now, and the people that are supposed to protect us don't know about it. i guess i was just thinking, if someone who.. who did know about it was one of them, then they could actually do something useful for a change, you know?"

steve scanned her eyes, but shook his head. "i'm still confused, what are you talking about?"

"i was thinking... i was thinking, what if i was a cop, you know?" meadow said. "i mean, it's crazy, and it won't happen, ever, but i like helping people, and i want to do something good, and-"

"no, no, that's not crazy!" steve replied. "no, i think.. i think that would be really cool for you, m. you're like.. the most badass person i know."

a smile spread on her lips as she looked back at her feet. "thanks."

"no, i'm serious!" he continued, grabbing her hands. "if you're genuinely interested in that, then i think you should do it."

meadow smiled. "thank you." she leaned up to kiss his cheek. "i know the system is absolute shit, you know, it's corrupt. but maybe if i'm in it, i can help.. make it.. not that way. from the inside. i don't know, it's not a.. a career goal, or anything, just.. something that i thought might be cool to consider. if nothing else works out." she pulled back to look into his eyes. "oh, and, for the record, no matter how cute you are jealous, you have nothing to worry about."

"huh?"

"whatever your thing is with eddie. it's fine."

he shook his head. "oh, pfft, no, no, i wasn't jealous. of eddie. no."

meadow raised a brow. "right."

"no, seriously, i-" he trailed off, knowing he wasn't convincing her. "i just, i.. i get nervous. when you talk to guys our age. because.. i know that, if i wasn't dating you- not that, that i wish i wasn't dating you, i want to date you, i just mean like.. if.. if i wasn't the one.. you were with, which i am, but if i wasn't, then if i saw someone.. you were with..i would.. want to be that person. you know? and so, when a guy talks to you i just assume that they.. also.. want to be that person, and it makes me nervous because i guess i don't know what keeps you with me all this time when-"

she cut him off by pressing her lips to his, feeling him relax. "what keeps me with you, steve, is that i love you. i don't care what guy.. looks at me, or what guy wishes.. whatever. you're the guy i want to be with. none of the other guys in the world matter to me, not when i'm with the guy that i love."

he smiled, taking in her words. "yeah? that.. that's how i feel about girls, too. it's like.. none of them exist. at all. it's just you." he brought her hands up to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "i guess i just.. i feel bad, because i don't want you to think that i don't trust you. i do, i trust you.. completely. i just.. don't always trust myself to be enough for you." his gaze remained on their hands. "but i guess.. you don't go through that, right. cause you.. you don't get jealous."

meadow's brows raised. "what? you think i don't get jealous?"

"yeah! i mean, you like.. you never once do anything like what i have been doing about eddie! and it makes me feel.. guilty, i guess, because it makes me feel like i'm overprotective, insecure, and like i don't trust you when you trust me and-"

"no, no, no, go back to that." she argued. "you think i don't get jealous? of anybody?" she laughed. "steve, i literally.. before we were together, i was so jealous of nancy, i just didn't know it yet."

"what?"

she nodded. "i was so.. i was so jealous because you would talk about her, and i wished it was me. and jealousy is.. a normal feeling, okay, and it doesn't mean that you don't trust me or that i don't trust you. we just need to get better at trusting ourselves to be enough for each other, if that makes sense."

"yeah. i think i know what you're saying."

"listen to me, steve." meadow pressed her nose to his to get his attention, making him smile. "i'm in this for the long haul, okay? i'm here until you get tired of me."

"never."

"okay, then you're stuck with me!"

"i'm okay with that!"

she laughed, which made him smile wider. "my point is, whenever you start to feel like you aren't enough.. please tell me. and i'll do my best to remind you of all of the reasons that you are more than enough."

steve leaned down to press his forehead to hers. "i love you."

"i love you, too."

the sound of someone clearing their throat made the two move away from each other, and a boy (a customer that had been forced to watch at least the last part of their conversation) with blonde hair awkwardly waved his hand at them. "hi? i just.. wanted to know if you had the gremlins?"

"oh, uh, yeah, sorry, my bad."