I don't even know what happened. I must be utterly obsessed. This started out as a story about Eleven getting a kitten, and very quickly turned into yet ANOTHER Jopper story. Please review, I've written the whole story but I don't have a beta so I want to go over the other chapters a few times before posting them. I'm not going to beat around the bush, I at least want a couple of reviews before I continue! I know it's blackmail, sorry. In my defence, I'm posting TWO chapters today. :-)

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Thursday Evening

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"Guess what!" He arrived home from work to the excited voice of his adopted daughter. She was in the kitchen and had the phone clutched tightly against her ear, her eyes bright with happiness. Whoever was on the other line said something and El nodded enthusiastically before realising that they couldn't see her. "He said YES!"

"Who are you talking to?" He asked gruffly and slipped past her to put the jug on. El covered the mouthpiece for a moment before telling him it was Joyce. He wasn't surprised, if it weren't one of the boys she was on the phone to – it was Joyce Byers. He didn't have a problem with it, of course. He was more than happy that she had a woman to look up to, one she could trust. He couldn't think of any other woman he would rather she had attached herself to, he just hoped Joyce didn't mind the constant phone-calls.

"She wants to talk to you," El told him, handing him the phone, literally bouncing in excitement.

"Hey Joyce,"

"Hey Hop,"

"How are you doing?" He began spooning instant coffee into a mug and before he could stretch the phone cord to the fridge El had handed him the bottle of milk. She had been sucking up to him for days. He had explained she would be having a quiet birthday party at the Byers house, thanks to Joyce, Will and Jonathan agreeing to host it for her. When he had asked her what she wanted for her birthday, he hadn't expected her to answer with 'A CAT'. She had been insistent ever since, telling him over and over how she had read books and she knew how to care for one… and that she would love it forever and ever.

"Oh, alright. I hear our El is getting a cat." He paused at her words 'our El,' he wasn't going to lie to himself and say he hadn't pictured Joyce as a mother to her. She was already pretty much a surrogate mother to the teenage girl now dancing around the lounge. He rolled his eyes at his stupidity, they hadn't so much as kissed since they were eighteen years old, and here he was imagining her as a mother to his daughter.

"Yes," he sighed, resigned to the fact. He hadn't ever been big on cats, but it made sense to get El a cat, much easier to care for than a dog – and much easier to hide.

"Do you want help to pick one out? I hear you are going to the shelter."

"Actually, that would be great." This time his sigh was one of relief. He had agonised over whether to get a kitten, an adult cat, a small cat, a fluffy cat… he just didn't know and all El told him was that she would love any cat that he picked for her.

"I'm free this Saturday, maybe you could drop El here, Jonathan can babysit." He heard Will in the background singing out that he was not in fact – a baby anymore. Joyce chuckled and he could picture her ruffling her sons hair.

"It's a date." Not a date, NOT A DATE HOPPER. Obviously, his words had given her pause too, and he needed to rectify this fast. "Er, you know what I mean." He finished awkwardly.

"Sure," she laughed lightly into the phone and he couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. There was something about hearing her laugh that just made him feel so… full, so… happy.

"See you in the morning then, take care Joyce."

"You too Hop." She told him quietly, seriously. Things may be better now, but he knew they were a long way from healing. It had been a rough couple of years to say the least.

TBC.