18. Sign of Love

A.N. Hello my lovely readers,

Today's the day in less than 3 hours, volume 2 will be aired. And I was supposed to be asleep two hours ago to wake up for the premiere, but I was too eager to get this chapter out for you guys!

I will say, I have not revised this chapter so if there are errors I am so sorry!!! But it'll have to wait till the morning for me to fix it up, but if you see any please let me know. I have to get some sleep before the premiere as I am due to watch it with my best friend from across the seas.

Just an fyi, I will try to be quick in updating the chapters now the release of the next episodes are soon. However, depending on the trajectory of the show will depend how the storyline will go, so I will try to take a few days to ponder what the next steps in the story will be.

But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy!! And let's hope for the best in Volume 2!

Xoxo,Nik<3

☾.˚˖⁺✦ Sign of Love ✦˙⊹˚☽

TW // Horror

Song Guide: Kids In America by Kim Wilde (If you follow me on TikTok this song was inspired by a video I made for this exact moment of the story)

The painful screams were what got Victoria up and running. She hadn't even cared that she spent what felt like days in the past. Victoria ran as fast as her legs could take her. The sight of Steve being strangled by a bat-like creature with more of them sinking their teeth into his skin.

She cried out, "Steve, I'm coming!"

The brunette girl was far away, as it felt like miles she had to run to get to him. The fear of not making it on time spread across her body like a wildfire. She hopped over the slithering vines that had spread out onto every crevice of the ground. Thankfully, she saw the others swim out of the gap her and Steve had been dragged out of. "Oh, Thank God."

She pursued her running seeing Nancy and Robin assist Steve as Eddie helplessly smacked around him with an oar at the new comers of creatures. Running out of breath, she kept going. Victoria's eyes were glued on Steve.

Watching as one of the demobats make its way to Eddie from behind, she yelled after him, "Eddie, watch out!"

The curly haired boy spun around as he smacked it right on time, with a slight hopeful grin at the sight that she was okay. Nancy had been preoccupied with a creature pulling on her hair as Robin tried her best to set her free. Her eyes then fell on the struggling brunette boy as she slid onto her knees towards him.

"Steve, Steve I'm here."

His eyes looked up at her with desperation as she tried to squeeze her fingers between the creature's tail and his neck. "Come on, come on!", she yelled in frustration.

Steve's struggling to breath was the only noise Victoria could focus on, his eyes began to water.

"Fuck this shit."

She went on top of Steve as she used every ounce of strength to pry the bat off him, but there was no budging. Yelling in frustration, she found herself burrying her teeth into the creatures tail until it slithered away from Steve's neck setting him free. The brunette boy gasped for air.

Victoria spat the bat's blood aside as she wiped her mouth finally having the sinking sensation that just a few seconds ago, Steve could have died.

He looked up at her almost as if she had been an angel who fell from heaven to save him. "Hey."

She smiled softly at him thankful that he was okay. "Hi."

The moment didn't last too long as Victoria watched Steve's eyes grow wide looking behind her. He pushed her aside as he took hold of the demobat coming back for its revenge.

Victoria moved out of the away as Steve began to slam it onto the ground multiple times until he finally stepped on it and tore it in half.

Watching Steve take large breaths of air in and out, she stared at the boy completely mesmerized. It was a poor time to think this, but she couldn't help to just be blown away at how attractive the scene before her had been.

Nancy ruined the moment as she ran over to him, "Steve! Steve!"

Eddie had been freaking out to himself as he grumbled, "Jesus Christ."

Victoria furrowed her brows as she watched the other girl touch Steve. It was pathetic to be annoyed by this because it was prominent the brunette boy had suffered some injuries, but jealousy had the best of her.

She was pulled away from looking at the two as she jumped to the sound of an oar being thrown on the ground. "Jesus H. Christ."

Stumbling onto her feet she met up with Eddie as his eyes were frantic, in shock. She rubbed his arm, "Eddie?"

He cupped her face as he then pulled her in for a hug, "I'm so glad you're okay."

Was she okay? Were any of them okay?

"Uh, do you guys think that these bats have, like, rabies?", Robin began to speak as she was crouched looking at one of the dead creatures.

Everyone turned to look at her with a confused face.

Steve was the one to speak. "What?"

"It's just that rabies are, like, my number one greatest fear. And I think we should get you to a doctor like really soon because once the symptoms set in, it's too late. You're already like dead."

The group of them stood in silence trying to take in what Robin had said. "She's not wrong...", Victoria began but fell silent to the sounds of creatures chittering off into the distance.

Turning their heads, they watched as a new swarm of demobats approached quickly their way. Being pulled by Eddie, they both joined Steve, Nancy, and Robin as they all prepared for the worst.

The odd thing was the swarm settled on the ground in front of them bellowing it's taunting noises towards them. Everyone stood behind Steve as he held his arms out in a way to protect everyone. "Alright. There's not that many."

"Not that many?? ARE WE LOOKING AT THE SAME THING?", Victoria began to panic as Eddie had his arms wrapped around her in a way to protect himself from the bats.

"We can take 'em.", the brunette boy reassured her as he glanced quickly to look at her.

He frowned as he watched the way Eddie had already been holding onto Victoria, he turned back around. The sudden roar of more creatures echoed into the space around them.

They all looked upwards being met by the motherload of demobats heading their way.

"You were saying...", Robin managed to spit out.

Nancy motioned towards the opposite direction, "The woods. Come on!"

She began to run as Steve followed close behind her. Victoria and Eddie went after then Robin trailed behind grumbling her complaints.

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

The five of them crowded underneath skull rock as the sounds of bats flying over them grew louder and louder. Victoria was squished between Eddie and Robin as the two of them held tightly on each of her hands.

Out of the whole group, she knew the two of them were the most terrified. Eddie wasn't good at hiding it, but Robin was more composed. The brunette girl's eyes drifted over to Steve who seemed to be too close to Nancy.

Stop it, right now is not the time to be jealous, she scolded herself.

They all sat and watched until the demobats finally cleared the sky. Robin was the first to step out. "Oh... okay. That was close."

"Yeah, too close.", Eddie replied as he stepped past Victoria out from underneath the large rock.

The brunette girl stayed back still frightened to even want to encounter one of those creatures again. This wasn't what she imagined her life would look like, this close to graduating high school and now fighting monsters.

"Oh, sh...shit."

Steve grasped onto the surface of the rock to sustain himself from falling. Victoria was quick to her feet, so was Nancy.

"Steve?", they both said in unison.

The two girls looked at Steve with concern across their faces. "Jesus.", Nancy said underneath her breath.

"I'm fine. I'm fine."

"Steve...", Victoria's eyes landed on his injuries. There had been chunks of skin missing from his abdomen that was continuously bleeding.

Nancy shook her head, "No, no, no. You're not. You're losing blood."

Steve reached forward to hold onto Victoria's hand as all his weight fell on her to hold. "Hey, hey. I'm here, I'm here."

The curly haired girl motioned for Steve to sit. "Come on, sit. Alright?"

Victoria helped him go onto his knees as he let go of her hand, grasping his side in pain. All she wanted to do was take the pain away from him. Seeing Steve in a vulnerable position was hurting the brunette girl in ways she couldn't explain.

She held onto his wrists moving them away from where he was gripping onto. The wounds were a lot more serious now the closer look she got to them. Both girls glanced at each other unsure what to do.

Robin approached, "Oh..."

She joined the other two girls as she kneeled on the ground. "Okay. So, the good news is I'm sure wooziness is not a common symptom of rabies. But if you start having hallucinations or muscle spasms or if you start feeling aggressive, like you wanna punch me, let me know."

"Robin.", Steve groaned through the pain.

"Yeah?"

"I kinda wanna punch you."

Robin nervously laughed, "Sense of humor's still intact. That's a good sign."

Victoria smiled, a little humor was needed in a moment like this. Steve glanced over to her as he painfully attempted to smile back at her.

She hadn't noticed but they had been holding hands again. The brunette girl loved the way her hand fit perfectly in his.

Nancy had ripped a bit of fabric from her shirt to place over Steve's wounds. "Okay.", she proudly held up the fabric as Steve prepared himself.

"You ready?", she questioned him.

"Yeah. Just do it."

Nancy wrapped his wound as he stifled groans, squeezing Victoria's hand tightly. "It's okay, squeeze as tight as you need to."

Victoria was trying her best not to react to how hard his grip was on her hand right now.

"Sorry.", Nancy whispered to him.

"It's okay.", he mumbled through the pain.

Steve leaned his head back trying to do everything possible to not think about how much pain he was in. Nancy finished wrapping him up. "Too tight?"

"No, that's good.", Steve settled back into his knees as he let a shaky breath of relief out.

Nancy glanced between the two of them and their hands intertwined with one another. "Um, I'm gonna go check out if we're in the clear."

Steve nodded as he thanked her for helping him. The two of them sat in silence for a few seconds. Victoria couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes as her eyes were glued onto her hand in his.

He reached over as he placed his finger underneath her chin lifting it upwards. "You got pretty scratched up too, huh?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Nothing, I can't handle."

Now that he pointed it out, she did have scrapes and red marks all over her body, specifically on her arms. The pain of it all was beginning to seep in, as her shoulder and back felt it had a good bit of small open wounds on them.

His eyes were searching for hers as she finally caved to look into his eyes. "You okay?"

The words had escaped his lips in such a way that made her feel as if she could just melt away into his arms. For the slightest second, she could forget about their horrific reality.

The truth was she wasn't okay. Neither was he and neither was the rest of them. The taunting feeling of Vecna being able to take any of them in any second was eating her alive.

More specifically, the words he had spoken to her earlier was now running through her mind.

Trying to escape from responding, Eddie thankfully had interrupted. "So, uh, this place is like Hawkins, but with monsters and nasty shit?"

Steve attempted to stand as Victoria assisted him, guiding his arm over her shoulders. She knew she was small, but she did hold a lot of strength than the normal person would expect from her.

Nancy had responded, "Pretty much. Wait, watch out for the vines. It's all a hive mind."

Victoria watched as her friend was on top of a large tree branch covered in the black vines Nancy had been speaking about.

"It's all a what?"

Steve motioned to the area around them, "All the creepy crawlies around here, dude. They're like one, or something. Step on a vine, you're stepping on a bat, you're stepping on Vecna."

The vines being connected to Vecna made complete sense to Victoria as she remembered one of the visions she had, one of it grasping onto her ankle. Vecna had full control of them and everything else in this world.

"Seriously, your first instinct was to climb that, E?"

He rolled his eyes at her, "Oh, shut up. You would have done it too!"

She laughed. It was true, she would've.

"Shit.", Eddie groaned attempting his way back down.

"But everything from our world is still here, right? Except people? Obviously?", Robin questioned.

"As far as I understand it, yeah.", Nancy replied.

Victoria pondered in thought finding herself speaking aloud. "What about the people Vecna killed?"

The group fell silent. Everyone knew what she was insinuating, but no one had a response. "Sorry.", she attempted to trail away from her question.

The thought of Chrissy being somewhere in this Upside Down world gave her false hope of her dearest friend being alive, but even then it seemed impossible considering she had saw her corpse face to face.

"Sooo, theoretically, we could go to the police station and steal guns and grenades and whatever we need to blow up those bat things that are guarding the gate.", Robin theorized to the group.

"Yeah, I highly doubt the Hawkins PD has grenades, Robin. But guns, yeah, sure. ", Steve replied.

"Guns are a start!", Victoria pointed out.

"Well, we don't have to go all the way downtown for guns. I have guns in my bedroom.", Nancy spoke.

"You have, what now?"

"You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?", Eddie also questioned.

Robin pointed with a wide grin, "Full of surprises, isn't she!"

"A Russian Makarov and a revolver.", Nancy responded.

"Yeah, you almost shot me with that one.", Steve laughed.

Victoria glanced up at him, "You probably deserved it."

Nancy laughed, "Oh, he did!"

Steve rolled his eyes as he was staring at the way Victoria was giggling. The two of them were startled at the sudden throw of a sleeveless jacket had been casted at Steve. She knew this had come from one person only. "Eddie!"

He hadn't even broke his stare on Steve once to look at the brunette girl. "For your modesty, dude."

Victoria frowned as she waved at herself, "And my modesty, dude?"

She hadn't really noticed earlier, but she was in fact still in her bra with no shirt. Now that she was coming to think of it, it was getting colder the longer they stood out in the woods.

"Nah, you did that to yourself.", he replied.

Victoria was getting ready to step toward him in an argumentative way until the ground beneath all of them voraciously shook. Losing her step, she felt Steve's arm wrap around her waist as he leaned them both against the rock for stability.

The shaking lasted for a few long seconds until it finally came to a pause. The brunette girl had her eyes closed shut clinging onto Steve's arm for security. The sounds of the creatures reappearing caused her to reopen her eyes.

She found Eddie on the floor with his arms wrapped around Robin who had her arms wrapped around Nancy.

"Yeah, so guns seem like a pretty good idea to me.", Eddie spoke in a scared tone.

Robin agreed. "Yeah, me too."

Victoria could feel Steve's heavy breaths crash into her back. Both of their bare skin colliding with one another. He loosened his grip as she stepped away from him as they both looked at each other with a longing stare.

Steve slipped on the cutoff jacket Eddie had threw at him as the brunette girl was trying to hold a laugh. Guess it really was for his modesty.

"So what are we waiting for?", Steve replied.

Grabbing the flashlight, Steve led the way as everyone quickly followed behind.

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽Steve's Pov

Steve's eyes were practically locked on Victoria's every move. The little wince's she had when something cracked beneath her bare feet or the way she'd occasionally look back at him and Eddie making sure they were still there.

He was worried about the girl. There was something that he knew she had seen that she wasn't going to open up and tell him or anyone else about. Steve hated this. The not knowing.

He wanted to protect her. His eyes wandered to Eddie, who was a few steps ahead of him.

"Eddie," he quickened his steps to meet the other boy, "Eddie. Hey, man. Uh... Listen I just, uh, I just wanted to say thanks. For saving my ass back there."

Eddie looked back at Steve with a blank stare confused to what he was being thanked for. "Shit. You saved your own ass, man. I mean, that was a real Ozzy move you pulled back there."

"Ozzy?"

"Ozzy Osborne? Black Sabath?"

"I don't-"

"No? You know? It doesn't matter. It's very metal, what you did. That's all I'm saying."

Steve nodded his head still clueless to what Eddie had been speaking about. "Thanks.."

"Henderson told me you were a badass. Insisted on the matter, in fact."

The brunette boy looked at him confused as he glanced over to Victoria. "Wait, Henderson said that?"

"No, no, no. I mean her brother, Dustin. Kid worships you, dude. Like you have no idea. It's kinda annoying, to be honest."

Steve laughed.

"I don't even know why I care what that little shrimp thinks, but, uh, I guess I got a little jealous, Steve."

He glanced over at Eddie wondering where he was going with this.

"I guess I couldn't accept the fact that Steve Harrington, was actually, a good dude."

Steve frowned as his eyes were now looking at the ground. He hadn't always been a good person, he remembers that. In fact, his life wasn't particularly always nice.

"Rich parents, popular, chicks love him. Not a douche? No way, man. No way. That, like, flies in the face of all the laws in the universe and my and Vic's personal Munson & Henderson Doctrine."

Despite all the things Eddie listed off, none of them made him happy. He did come from a wealthy family, but at the cost of never seeing his parents. Popular? Sure it had its perks until you had to meet everyone's standards. The chicks loving him? None of them mattered, except for one.

"Vic?"

"Yeah, dude..."

Steve could sense that Eddie was panicked almost as if he had spoken too much about something he shouldn't have. He tried to redirect the conversation.

"Still super jealous as hell, by the way. Which is why I would never have jumped in that lake to save your ass. Not under any, uh... normal circumstances."

The two boys froze in place as they heard the crackle of trees rustling against each other. Steve swung the flashlight towards the sound making sure they weren't in any danger. The coast was clear as they proceeded to walk.

"Nope. Outside of D&D, I am no hero. I see danger and I just turn heel and run. Or at least that's what I've learned about myself this week."

Steve hated the talk down Eddie was giving himself. The other boy had proved himself to be more than what he was making himself seem. "Give yourself a break, man."

Eddie paused in his tracks as his face fell to seriousness, "See... The only reason I came in here was 'cause you see that girl right over there, she would not have let you go in all by yourself."

Steve turned to look at Victoria who had been hanging a few steps back from Robin and Nancy trying to warm up her arms, glancing each way making sure they were always safe.

"Now, Victoria is the complete opposite of me. Runs into danger... protects the people she loves."

Loves.

Had that meant Victoria loved him? His eyes watched her trek through the woods, feeling an unexplainable feeling in his gut. It was a good kind.

"She didn't waste one second. Not one second. She just dove right in, knowing you would follow behind her."

Steve looked at Eddie now seeing the boy's face change slightly as he continued. "Now, I don't know what you two got going on, but if I were you. I would lock her in. 'Cause that was as unambiguous a sign of true love as these cynical eyes have ever seen."

A soft smile arose on the brunette boy's face as he looked back into the distance at the girl he knew for a fact he loves. The assurance of his feelings being returned by her had felt of some form of victory, despite their circumstances.

If Eddie Munson, had told him she loved him. It must be true because there was no other person who knew her better than he did.

What he was feeling was something he wished he could have a few more seconds of, but the unfortunate fate awaited them. The ground began to shake once again as both him and Eddie stumbled to the ground. "Goddamn it!"

"Here we go again."

Steve looked up as his eyes were in search of Victoria. She was out of sight. "Shit."

Hearing Robin's screams began to echo back to them he made sense that she was screaming after Nancy and Victoria. Steve picked Eddie back up as they ran after the girls.

Nancy and Victoria had been standing still staring off into the distance. They were staring at the Wheeler's household.

Nancy motioned everyone to follow, "Come on."

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

Nancy opened the door to her home as even this had been covered in the black vines. Everyone stepped around avoiding to make any form of contact with it.

"Might be time to get a maid, Wheeler.", Robin had spoke out loud causing Victoria to laugh bringing a smile to Steve's face.

Anytime he heard her laugh, it was almost impossible not wanting to join in.

"Come on. I don't want to stay here longer than we have to.", Nancy ordered as she walked up the stairs with everyone following her.

All except, Steve, who had caught a familiar voice close to him. "Mini Henderson?"

He turned to flash the flashlight around the room, that voice of Dustin, he knew far too well. Pausing in his tracks, he leaned to have a better listen as the younger boy's voice faintly echoed into the house.

Following the trail of Dustin's voice, he waved his arms around in hopes for something to happen.

"What are you doing?", came Victoria's voice from behind.

He turned to see she had made herself use of one of Nancy's shirts, no longer only walking around in her bra, unfortunately.

He placed his finger up to his mouth to silence her as she raised a questioning brow at him. She listened as she waited for him to reveal something.

Then there it was again, Dustin's voice. The girl perked up as she spoke into the room, "Oh, my god. Dustin? Is that you?"

The two of them spread around the house yelling out for Dustin. Victoria was far too amazed she could even hear her brother's voice. "How is this even possible?"

Steve shrugged his shoulders as they walked around trying to follow the trail of her brother's voice.

"Dustin! Dustin!", Steve began to yell.

"Come on, Rug Rat, can you hear us?", Victoria yelled alongside him.

"Dustin, can you hear us?"

"Hello, earth to, Dustin!!"

The two of them spent a few seconds continuously calling out for the boy until they were met by the other three in their group. Nancy questioned, "What are you guys doing?"

They both walked up to them with a smile as Steve explained. "He's here, Mini Henderson! That little shit, he's here."

Victoria motioned around the room, "He's like... He's like a ghost?"

Steve shook his head pointing at the walls, "He's in the walls or something... Just listen."

The three looked at the two of them almost as if they had actually gone mad. Victoria pleaded, "Just listen."

Steve impatiently began to yell, "Dustin! Dustin! Can you hear me!"

Dustin's voice echoed into the room again as he said, "That brings us to the question you first raised. How and why is there a gate at Lover's Lake?"

The brunette boy looked over at Victoria who was smiling at the sound of her brother's voice. He smiled too, even though, Dustin was a pain in the ass, he still loved that kid too.

Everyone began to spread out yelling out the boy's name, trying to find a way to get his attention.

"Alright, either this kid can't hear us or he's being a total douchebag.", Steve let out in a frustrated tone.

"Okay, I'm sure he would have at least responded to the sound of my voice.", Victoria hoped.

Steve turned to look at Nancy. "Will found a way."

"What?", the other three responded confused.

"Will! He found a way to speak to Joyce through the lights.", Nancy responded as she marched around the house trying to turn on the lamps.

"Light? Can't we use the flashlight?", Victoria pointed out."

Steve shook his head. "Try the switch", he spoke to Nancy.

"It's not working!"

Steve turned to look around as so did the others, but his attention was brought to the chandelier in the middle of the room. It was glowing with sparkles all around it. "Guys? You seeing this?"

Victoria approached the chandelier cocking her head to the side. Everyone gathered around, as Nancy was the first to stick her hand in the glowing atmosphere of it.

Where Nancy's fingers touched had lit up even brighter.

"How—", Victoria began as she did the same.

Everyone stuck their hands up to feel around the illuminance. It had an odd feeling, almost as if a feather was being softly spread across a person's hand. "It... tickles."

"It kinda feels good.", Robin replied.

Nancy looked around the group, "Does anyone know Morse code?"

Eddie sighed, "No."

Victoria glanced past Nancy to look at Eddie, "That's a lie! I've definitely seen you use morse code with Dustin."

Eddie pondered in thought until he asked. "Wait, does SOS count? Is that... Is that good?"

Everyone glanced at the boy waiting for the realization to hit him.

Victoria slapped her hand across the back of Eddie's head, "Yes, you dipshit. Now do it!"

"Ow!"

"Oh, cry me a river, on with it!"

He rubbed the back of his head as he placed his hand into the laminated sparkles beginning to cast the morse code.

Another voice began to speak, recognizing it had been the annoying voice of Erica, Lucas' younger sister.

Her faint voice echoed, "You said you followed Vecna through lights, right?"

Steve cheered, "We got 'em!"

"It's working.", Robin said with a smile.

Dustin's voice came next, "S.O.S. Hey, um remember when I said they wouldn't be stupid enough to go through the Watergate? I overestimated them."

☾.˚˖⁺✦˙⊹˚☽

The five of them were now awaiting for Dustin's plan to take place. He had stolen Nancy's sister's Lite-Brite to try to communicate with them.

"Come on, Come on.", Steve spoke waiting for something to happen.

Dustin's voice filled the room, "Okay, you guys seeing this?"

The device illuminated in the sparkle essence just like the chandelier did. Nancy waved her hand through it as she spelt out, Hi.

"It worked!", Dustin replied.

Nancy spelt out 'stuck' next to signal to Dustin.

Lucas' voice spoke about, "They're stuck in the Upside Down!"

Dustin's voice filled the room again, "Uh, can you not get back through the Watergate?"

"What the hell's a Watergate?", Steve questioned.

" 'Cause it's in the water and it's a gate.", Robin replied.

"Oh."

"That's cute."

"Right."

"Um, no. It's...", Nancy began to spell out another word to them.

Guarded.

"Maybe, it's cleared off by now?", Victoria questioned.

"No way, you saw those things? Didn't exactly look like they were leaving anytime soon.", Eddie replied.

"We think we have a theory that can help with that,", Dustin's voice echoed, "We think Watergate isn't the only gate. That there's a gate at every murder site."

Nancy shook her head, "Does anybody understand what he's talking about?"

"No."

"No idea."

Nancy drew a question mark.

"Okay. Seriously? How many times do I have to be right on the money before you guys just trust me?", Dustin's frustrated voice faintly followed.

"Jesus Christ."

"This kid's gotta get his ego in check.", Steve grumbled.

"It's his tone, right?"

"I know!"

Victoria waved her hands for the boys to quiet down. Steve looked at her as she was in thought. Mumbling to herself, "Murder sites... watergate... vecna... Murder sites... watergate... vecna.... OH MY GOD! I GOT IT!"

Everyone turned to look at her now as Eddie laughed, "Leave it for the other Henderson to figure out what her brother meant."

She rolled her eyes at him as she proceeded to explain, "Okay, so each place Vecna has claimed his victims, there will be a gate opened up! Which is why there's a gate in Lover's Lake, the Watergate!"

Nancy turned to look at Eddie, "How far is your trailer from here?"

"Seven miles."

"Shit."

"Nancy, uh, I know your house here is, like, weirdly, creepily frozen in time and shit, but haven't you always had bikes?"

"Yes!"

Nancy walked off with extra speed as the rest followed. "Bikes are always kept right outside of the house. Right here!"

Victoria eyes the bikes, "There's only four..."

Steve grabbed hold of the bigger bikes. "Guess you'll just have to ride with me, how about it, Vixie?"

A grin spread across her face as she nodded her head in agreement.