While Mike and El quickly wrapped their arms around each other, Matthew slowly looked down at the floor with his eyebrows furrowed and a bit of a frown on his face.

And while Matthew kept his eyes solely on the floor, Nancy simply put a hand on his shoulder without even saying anything to him.

And while Nancy started to lightly pat Matthew on his shoulder, the red-headed girl looked between Lucas and Dustin as she asked them, "Is that...?"

While the two boys wordlessly nodded their heads in response to her question, Mike pulled back from El and told her, "I never gave up on you. I called you every night. Every night for—"

With a shake of her head, El said, "Three-hundred and fifty-three days. I heard."

Mike asked her, "Why didn't you tell me you were there? That you were okay?"

It was then that Hopper told him, "Because I wouldn't let her." After Mike turned his head to look over at Hopper, Hopper started to make his way over towards El and asked her, "The hell is this? Where you been?"

In turn, El asked him, "Where have you been?"

It wasn't long after that that Hopper wrapped his arms around El, shortly before Mike said to him, "You've been hiding her. You've been hiding her this whole time!"

After being shoved at by Mike, Hopper turned to him with a hand held out towards him as he yelled, "Hey! Hey!" After grabbing Mike by the front of his shirt, Hopper said to him, "Let's talk. Alone."

It wasn't long after the two of them had walked into another room and the door was closed behind him that they could hear the faint sound of Mike yelling at Hopper.

And even while hearing the faint voice of his brother yelling at Hopper, Matthew continued to keep his eyes on the floor as he continued to try and process the fact that El was actually alive and wasn't dead, like he'd been thinking she was for about a year now.

It wouldn't be until he felt a pair of arms suddenly wrap around him and could hear the muffled sound of someone crying into his chest that he slowly looked up from the floor and up at El, who had her arms tightly wrapped around him as she cried into his chest.

Rather hesitantly, Matthew slowly wrapped his own arms around her, due to the fact that he still believed that if he were to put his arms around her that she would simply just disappear right in front of him, like she did a year ago and similarly to what she did during the dreams he had of her after her disappearance at the middle school.

However, as soon as his arms were wrapped around her, they only seemed to tighten and he tried to pull her even closer to himself, while resting the bottom of his chin on the top of her head.

While the rest of the people in the room— excluding Mike and his two friends— silently eyed Matthew and wondered just why the tension Matthew originally had in his body was starting to slip away, El pulled back from Matthew and said to him, "Matt is safe."

With a nod of his head and a grin on his face, he said to her, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm safe." Then he started to mess around with the hair on her head as he said, "And so are you, and that's what matters, alright?"

It was only when he started to frown to himself that El's eyebrows furrowed as she said, "Matt?"

With a sigh, he said to her, "Sorry. I'm just, uh, still trying to accept the fact that you actually have hair on your head this time around."

In response to his words, the most El did was laugh to herself, shortly before she found herself being thrown into a hug by none other than Dustin Henderson and Lucas Sinclair.

While she had her arms wrapped around the two boys that were now hugging her, Lucas said to her, "We missed you."

El replied, "I missed you, too."

Then Dustin told her, "We talked about you pretty much every day."

After the three of them had pulled away from each other, Lucas took a quick glance back over at Matthew, who was pulling out an unlit cigarette, before he looked back at El and quietly said to her, "And don't let Matt know that we told you this, but, uh, he was sort of a mess after you disappeared." While El turned to look over at Matthew, who was starting to flick open the top of his lighter, Lucas quietly told her, "Yeah, he, uh, got really, really mad when you disappeared the way you did back at school and he apparently got in a lot more fights at school and spent his time either drinking or smoking away in his room and never even talked to us, unless he was yelling at us about something."

In response to his words, El quietly sighed to herself because of how her disappearance had apparently affected Matthew before she looked away from him, just as he brought the lit cigarette out of his mouth and let out a puff of smoke.

Then she looked over at Dustin and reached a hand out to his mouth before she said to him, "Teeth."

In turn, Dustin said to her, "What?"

El told him, "You have teeth."

With a grin on his face, Dustin said to her, "Oh. You like these pearls?"

While El simply blinked at Dustin after hearing him let out a purring noise and Lucas simply shook his head at Dustin, the red-headed girl started to walk over towards them as she said, "Eleven?"

El turned her attention away from Dustin and Lucas and over towards the red-headed girl that was walking towards her.

It wasn't until the red-headed girl was standing in between Lucas and Dustin that she said to El, "Hey. Um, I'm Max. I've heard a lot about you."

While ignoring Max's held out hand, El walked right past her and over towards Joyce before she started to cry into the older woman's arms.

And while Joyce and El talked to each other, Max looked over at Matthew, who only shrugged to himself with a mere raise of his eyebrows.

With a scoff, Max looked away from Matthew and looked over at Joyce and El, just in time to see them walk into another room.

With a sigh, Hopper said, "It's not like it was before. It's grown. A lot. And, I mean, that's considering we can get in there. The place is crawling with those dogs."

It was then that Dustin said to him, "Demo-dogs."

While Matthew turned to look over at Dustin with a blank look on his face, Hopper turned to Dustin and said with a sigh, "I'm sorry, what?"

Dustin told him, "I said, uh, Demo-dogs. Like Demogorgon and dogs. Like, you put them together, it sounds pretty badass—"

While staring at Dustin, Hopper asked him, "How is this important right now?"

As he turned to look away from Hopper, Dustin said, "It's not. I'm sorry."

While Matthew only rolled his eyes at Dustin, El looked over at Hopper and told him, "I can do it."

Hopper said to her, "You're not hearing me."

With a nod of her head, El replied, "I'm hearing you. I can do it."

While Matthew glanced over at El with furrowed eyebrows, Mike said, "Even if El can, there's still another problem. If the brain dies, the body dies."

Max said to Mike, "I thought that was the whole point."

Mike replied, "It is, but if we're really right about this... I mean, if El closes the gate and kills the mind flayer's army..."

It was then that Lucas said, "Will's a part of that army."

Mike told them, "Closing the gate will kill him."

While Matthew only raised his eyebrows with a sigh, Joyce silently stared ahead of herself with furrowed eyebrows before she slowly walked out of the kitchen and over towards the room that Will was laying down in.

While the others slowly walked after Joyce, Joyce stopped in the room Will was in and said, "He likes it cold."

In turn, Hopper said to her, "What?"

After looking back over at Will, Joyce said, "It's what Will kept saying to me." After nodding her head to herself and starting to walk over towards the open window, she said, "He likes it cold."

After sliding the window shut, she turned to the others and told them, "We keep giving it what it wants."

With her eyebrows furrowed, Nancy said, "If this is a virus, and Will's the host, then..."

While staring down at his brother, Jonathan said, "Then we need to make the host uninhabitable."

In turn, Nancy said, "So if he likes it cold..."

While staring down at her youngest son, Joyce said, "We need to burn it out of him."

With a nod of his head, Mike told them, "We have to do it somewhere he doesn't know this time."

Then Dustin said to them, "Yeah, somewhere far away."

While Matthew was sitting on the floor and up against a wall with his eyes closed and a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth, Lucas continued to attempt to sweep up the glass from when the Demo-dog was thrown through the window and had landed onto the living room floor before he looked up at Mike, who was pacing around the room, and then eventually asked him, "Mike, would you just stop already?"

As he stopped his pacing, Mike replied, "You weren't in there, okay, Lucas? That lab is swarming with hundreds of those dogs."

From the kitchen, Dustin yelled, "Demo-dogs!"

After pulling the cigarette out of his mouth, Matthew yelled, "Nobody cares about what the fucking name for it is! They're fucking dogs, Henderson, alright?!"

When Dustin didn't respond, Matthew let out a sigh before he brought the cigarette back up to his mouth, while Lucas said, "The chief will take care of her."

With a raise of her eyebrows, Max said, "Like she needs protection."

While he walked out of the kitchen with Dustin close behind him, Steve said to Mike, "Listen, dude, a coach calls a play in a game, bottom line, you execute it. Alright?"

In turn, Mike said to him, "Okay, first of all, this isn't some stupid sports game. And second, we're not even in the game. We're on the bench."

With a tilt of his head, Steve said, "Ri— Y— So my point is..." After seeing the way that three of the four middle-schoolers and Matthew were now looking at him, Steve said, "Right, yeah, we're on the bench, so, uh, there's nothing we can do."

Dustin replied, "That's not entirely true. I mean, these Demo-dogs, they have a hive mind. When they ran away from the bus, they were called away."

With a hand on his hip, Lucas said, "So if we get their attention..."

As she turned to look over at Lucas, Max said, "Maybe we can draw them away from the lab."

Then Mike said, "Clear a path to the gate."

With his arms crossed over his chest, Steve replied, "Yeah, and then we all die."

While Matthew nodded to himself with a mere tilt of his head, Dustin said to Steve, "Well, that's one point of view."

Steve told him, "No, that's not a point of view, man. That's a fact."

It was then that Mike quickly ran past them and yelled, "I got it!" While Matthew and the others quickly walked after Mike, Mike told them, "This is where the chief dug his hole. This is our way into the tunnel. So..."

While Mike started to walk away from them once more, he said, "Here, right here. This is like a hub." While walking towards the other side of the drawing that was taped to the floor, Mike said, "So you got all the tunnels feeding in here. Maybe if we set this on fire..."

As he turned to look over at Mike, Steve said, "Oh, yeah? That's a no."

While staring down at the drawing, Dustin said, "The mind flayer would call away his army.""

With his eyes wide as ever, Lucas said, "They'd all come to stop us."

Mike said, "Then we circle back to the exit. By the time they realize we're gone—"

With a nod of her head, Max said, "El would be at the gate."

It was then that Steve yelled with a clap of his hands, "Hey. Hey! Hey! This is not happening."

While Matthew slowly turned his head to look over at Steve with a raised eyebrow, Mike said, "But—"

Steve replied, "No, no, no, no, no. No buts. I promised I'd keep you shitheads safe, and that's exactly what I plan on doing. We're staying here. On the bench. And we're waiting for the starting team to do their job. Does everybody understand that?"

With a shake of his head, Mike said to him, "This isn't a stupid sports game."

While pointing a finger at Mike, Steve said, "I said, does everybody understand that? I need a yes."

With a wave of his hand and a shake of his head, Matthew replied, "How about a no?"

With a sigh, Steve started to say to him, "Goddammit, Wheeler—"

He only stopped talking when the sound of an engine revving was heard from somewhere nearby the house.

While the others turned their heads over in the direction of the noise, Max hurriedly made her way over towards the window with Lucas close behind her before she told him, "It's my brother. H-He can't know I'm here. He'll kill me." Then she turned to Lucas and said to him, "He'll kill us."

It wasn't long after she said that that Billy's car came to an abrupt halt in front of the house that they— minus Steve Harrington, for obvious reasons— were inside of.

With his eyes narrowed and a tight grip on the crowbar he was holding onto, Matthew watched as Billy Hargrove stepped out of his car before slowly looking over at the red-headed girl that was sitting in the front passenger seat with her arms crossed over her chest and her body practically pressed against her door.

It didn't take long for him to realize that the red-headed girl was none other than Valerie Mayfield, Max's older sister and one of Billy's stepsisters.

While Matthew slowly tilted his head and started to wonder why Billy was dragging Valerie along with him, Billy put a hand on the roof of his car as he took the cigarette out of his mouth and went to say something to Steve.

Then Matthew brought his attention over to Steve, who had his hands on his hips as he said something in return to Billy's words.

While Steve started to walk over towards where Billy was currently taking off his leather jacket, Matthew slowly looked back over at Valerie, who still had her arms crossed over her chest and was refusing to look anywhere in Billy's direction.

Then he looked back at Billy, who'd already taken his cigarette out of his mouth for the second time and started to nod his head to himself as he said something else to Steve.

With a sigh, Matthew repeatedly looked between Billy, Steve and Valerie before his grip on the crowbar only tightened some more when Billy looked right at the window that he and the four middle-schoolers were looking out of, shortly before Steve turned his head to look over at them as well.

While the four middle-schoolers quickly threw themselves on the couch and stopped looking out the window, Dustin yelled, "Shit! Did he see us?"

Then Dustin looked over at Matthew, who was now staring at him with a blank look on his face.

With a finger pointed in Matthew's face, Dustin said to him, "Not a word out of you, Matt. You hear me?" When Matthew only raised an eyebrow at him, Dustin slightly shrunk into the couch before he asked Matthew, "Can you please not say a word about it?"

Matthew only snorted to himself before he followed the four middle-schoolers over to the middle of the room and was standing behind them with his crowbar resting on one of his shoulders.

It wasn't long after that that Billy slammed the front door against the wall and stopped walking as soon as he saw the four middle-schoolers and Matthew Wheeler standing in the living room of the house.

While staring at them, Billy said, "Well, well, well." After slamming the front door shut, he quickly made his way over towards them as he said, "Lucas Sinclair. What a surprise."

While Matthew only rolled his eyes at Billy, Billy looked over at Max and said to her, "I thought I told you to stay away from him, Max."

In turn, Max said to him, "Billy, go away."

While Matthew slightly raised his head with a sigh, Billy said to her, "You disobeyed me. And you know what happens when you disobey me."

While staring up at Billy, Max said to him, "Billy..."

Then Billy told her, "I break things."

Then he quickly grabbed Lucas by the front of his shirt and threw him up against a shelf, which got Matthew to let out a sigh as he looked between the crowbar that he was holding and Billy.

While Matthew started to wonder if saving Lucas from Billy was worth getting arrested for, Lucas started to say to him, "Get off of me, you—"

While keeping a tight grip on Lucas, Billy told him, "Since Maxine won't listen to me, maybe you will. You stay away from her. Stay away from her! You hear me?"

It was then that Lucas threw a kick in between Billy's legs as he yelled, "I said get off me!"

While Matthew raised his eyebrows to himself at the way that Lucas had stood up to Billy, Billy straightened his back as he said to Lucas, "You are so dead, Sinclair! You're dead."

It was then that Steve pulled Billy away from Lucas and said, "No. You are."

As soon as Steve threw a punch into Billy's face, Matthew couldn't help but start to chuckle to himself at the mere sight of watching Steve punch Billy in the face.

But the chuckling had soon enough stopped when Billy started to laugh to himself before he said to Steve, "Looks like you got some fire in you after all, huh? I've been waiting to meet this King Steve everybody's been telling me so much about." As he gestured towards Matthew, he said, "I mean, I did meet that little shit over there, who ended up pulling out a knife on me. And from what I can see, he's probably got just a little more fight in him than you do. Maybe some more. Who knows?"

As he turned to look over at Matthew, Billy said, "Maybe I should give it a shot and see just how strong Matthew Wheeler really is after a couple rounds, huh?" While Matthew only tilted his head at Billy, Billy gestured over towards Mike as he said, "Or maybe I should rough his brother up a little bit, see just how much that would get him to tick, huh?"

Steve took a quick glance over at Matthew, who now had a scowl on his face and his eyes narrowed with an even tighter grip on the crowbar, before he looked back at Billy and said to him, "Get out."

Billy only took a couple of steps away from Steve before he went to throw a punch at Steve, only for Steve to quickly dodge the punch and then throw another punch into Billy's face.

It was then that Dustin yelled, "Yes! Kick his ass, Steve!" While Steve threw another punch into Billy's face, Dustin yelled, "Murder the son of a bitch!"

While Matthew watched the both of them with narrowed eyes, Billy grabbed a nearby plate and hit Steve over the head with it, which got Steve to turn away from Billy with a groan and grab at the front of his head.

Then Billy quickly walked out of the kitchen and over towards where Steve was standing and swung his fist, which got Dustin to quickly duck his head when it came too close to his own face.

While Billy went back to quickly walking after Steve, Matthew slowly walked behind Billy with his crowbar held high over his head, only to stop when he felt a hand grab at his arm.

With furrowed eyebrows, Matthew turned to Max, who told him, "You can't kill him."