~X~

Emergence

The Hoppers

Eleven was nervous. Very nervous. But not like the nervousness she felt before walking into a facility full of monster dogs and closing the Gate to another dimension. No, this was different. This was the Snow Ball Dance. This was her first real night with Mike in almost a year, and the very thought of him made her whole body feel weird.

Every part of her tingled and her chest felt tight. Was this normal? She didn't know what to make of it, and it further heightened her nervousness. She bit her lip, tasting a little of the lipstick that Chief Jim Hopper had reluctantly gotten for her after consulting with Joyce Byers on the matter. It was supposed to taste like cherries, which was apparently some kind of food that she had never had before. It tasted nice enough.

"Hello? Jane? Elle? Are you listening to me?" asked the Chief, glancing over at her in the passenger seat of his truck, a Chevy K5 Blazer.

They were on their way to Hawkins Middle School for the Snow Ball Dance, the roads dark and quiet in the sleepy town. She had counted one other car driving on the road, and it was going the other direction.

"Sorry," she apologized as she was brought out of her thoughts. She looked back at him then down at her feet.

Returning his gaze to the road ahead, Jim smiled knowingly. "Nervous?"

She nodded then repeated him, "Nervous." If only he knew how much.

"That's normal," he said, somewhat amused, "But don't worry, it'll pass. Just... just focus on being yourself and having fun and you'll be fine. Got it?"

She looked at him, feeling the slightest bit of relief from his words. "This is normal?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, trust me kid. This is very normal. I remember the first time I went to a dance like this," he recalled, shaking his head as the memories came to him, "I asked Stacy Maxwell to go with me and she actually said yes. She was pretty back then, and I was... well, I was alright-looking I guess. God that was a long time ago," his eyes briefly had a wistful look in them.

He didn't want to tell Eleven that he had originally asked Joyce Byers to the dance, but at the time Joyce had unfortunately already been asked by someone else before him. "Anyway, on the way to the dance I was so nervous I felt like throwing up, and I think I even asked my parents if I could just stay home. But thankfully they didn't let me."

Eleven's lips twitched into the slightest of smiles. "Did you throw up?"

He looked at her and gave her his trademark toothless grin, amusement twinkling in his eyes. Shrugging, he said, "Maybe a little."

"Gross."

He laughed, and Eleven couldn't help but join him. "Yeah, I guess it was pretty gross. I asked my parents to stop the car and threw up a little on the side of the road. Thankfully, I hadn't eaten that much for dinner, so only a little bit came out. I was lucky that there were some mints in the car that I used to get the taste of vomit out of my mouth."

"Mints?"

"It's a type of candy. Makes your breath and your mouth taste good for when you ki... uhhh... you know what, nevermind. It's a type of candy, alright?"

She looked at him expectantly but he didn't elaborate any further, and she ended up wondering if she needed a mint herself.

"Do I need a mint?" she asked uncertainly.

"No!" came the quick reply, "Definitely not." He didn't have any on him anyways.

They pulled up to the school then, Jim bringing the truck right to the doors of the gym. No one was outside, the dance well underway as evidenced by the muffled sounds of the music playing from inside.

Eleven started tensing up pretty badly, her breathing quickening as she read the banner taped to the side of the exterior wall.

'SNOW BALL' was drawn in large lettering using blue paint, the 'O' drawn into some kind of symbol that she didn't recognize.

Jim noticed her tense up. "Hey, look at me," he urged her.

She complied, her eyes so wide with innocent nervousness that Jim could scarcely believe she was capable of killing inter-dimensional beasts with only her mind. She looked even more nervous than when they went into Hawkins Lab for the last time, which he found somewhat amusing. Fighting terrifying monsters was apparently easier than going to a dance.

"Relax, Jane. Relax and take some deep breaths," he said as soothingly as he could, giving her a big toothy smile. "There's really nothing serious to get so worked up about. You're here to have fun with your friends, right?"

She nodded, smiling back at him weakly. Closing her eyes for a moment and taking a few long breaths, she tried to relax like he said. When her eyes opened again, she was a little calmer, but still noticeably tense. It was hard not to be.

She kept worrying that maybe Mike wouldn't find her pretty right now. Maybe she did her makeup wrong, or this was an ugly dress. What if he had liked the look Kali and her friends had given her when Mike first saw her again? A more troubling thought crossed her mind then: what if Mike was with another girl? Like that time she went to see him and he was in that gym with that redhead Max. He didn't know she was coming to the dance after all.

Her hands balled into fists at the thought.

"You know," Jim said, pausing for effect, "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. If you want, I can turn us around and we can drive straight back home. We can maybe watch TV and eat some ice cream. I think there might even still be some extra candy from Halloween too."

Eleven shook her head almost immediately. "Snow Ball," she said simply, looking a bit alarmed that he would even suggest doing something else that evening. She had to be here. She had to see Mike.

Jim grinned again. She could be so adorable even when she didn't mean to be. "Okay, well since you're staying, remind me what we talked about if somebody were to ask you who you are," he said.

She looked right at him. "I'm Jane Elle Hopper and I'm thirteen years old."

"And if they say they don't remember me having a daughter named Jane?"

"I was recently... adopted," she responded, finding the right word.

"Good," he said approvingly. He took a deep breath. "Well, we're already late so you should get in there then before it ends," he made a show of looking at his watch.

She was out the door and walking into the building in an instant after that, though not before saying a quick thank you to him as she slid out of the truck.

"Have fun, kiddo," he said to no one in particular as he watched her walk in.

Eleven walked right through the entrance, not bothering to check-in like kids were supposed to with Mr. Clarke, who was thankfully distracted by a kid throwing up in the corner. She briefly wondered if that kid was throwing up because he was so nervous like Jim Hopper said he was when he was their age.

She pushed the heavier-than-it-looked door to the gym and found herself beneath three arches of baby blue and white balloons.

The music was so loud and there were lights and streamers and other decorations everywhere. And people. There were so many people in one place. Children her age, some younger and some older, most of them dancing in the middle of the gym. A few glanced in her direction. Her eyes settled on what looked like little trees with lights, a few of them placed purposefully around the gym. She found it odd that they would have trees indoors, though weird as they were they did look rather nice all lit up.

A new song started playing then.

~Every breath you take...~

Her eyes scanned the crowd, looking for Mike. It took her only a few seconds to find him sitting by himself at an empty table off to the side. Relief flooded her as she saw that he wasn't with another girl, which she was incredibly happy about.

In a heartbeat, he was looking right at her, almost in shock as he shot up to his feet.

When their eyes met Eleven could feel her whole body tingling again. Her heart started pumping faster, her breathing getting shorter.

She smiled at him, slowly and nervously, and she could have sworn her heart skipped a beat when he smiled right back at her. Her legs started moving on their own as she walked over, and he started walking towards her as well, their eyes never leaving each other as if the other one would disappear if they looked anywhere else.

Eleven didn't know what to say as they met, staring into each other's eyes.

Mike looked like was going to say something, stopped and fidgeted a little, then said, "Y-You look beautiful." He meant it, his eyes scanning her face, her hair, and her new dress. She had changed her look again. When he saw her as she stood by the door, framed by the balloon arches, it had taken his breath away.

Gone was the punk makeup and edgy look that she had first returned with, replaced with a more cute and wholesome look. Not that he had minded her punk appearance. Honestly, she could probably wear anything and he would still find her beautiful.

Eleven couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had been called pretty before, but now she was more than that. She was beautiful. Mike said she looked beautiful! She looked down briefly, embarrassed but beyond happy, and then looked back up at Mike, unable to speak. She felt that tingling sensation all over again, accompanied by a growing warmth and all sorts of sensations she hadn't really experienced before, but it all felt good.

~Every single dayyy...~

Mike blinked and looked around. "Do you want to dance?" he asked nervously. He felt his palms getting a little sweaty and he wiped them on his pants, hoping they would keep dry.

She glanced at the other kids dancing near them. "I... don't know how," she stated bluntly, unsure. She had seen dancing on the television shows she had seen before and Jim Hopper had danced in front of her a few times to music from that record player, but she had never actually done it herself. And this was a different type of dancing than the ones she had seen.

"I don't either," Mike replied with a shrug, "Do you want to figure it out?" he asked smoothly, surprising even himself.

She could only nod.

Mike reached for her hand and she instinctively grabbed onto his. He lead her into the middle of the dance floor, finding a spot with enough space for the two of them.

"I think you're supposed to go like this," he explained as he pulled her hands up to his shoulders and she nodded, both of them glancing at the other couples dancing around them for reference.

"Yeah, like that," he said with a smile as she moved her hands up some more to get a better hold of him. He placed his hands on her hips, and she smiled back at him as they moved closer together.

Neither of them knew who started swaying first, or if they started swaying together simultaneously, but soon enough they were apparently dancing and completely oblivious to everyone around them. The two of them lost in their own world.

"I missed you, El. I missed you so much," Mike said softly, trying to articulate the emptiness he had felt for the past year.

Her smile widened even more than she thought possible, and it was still not a proper reflection of the joy she felt inside. "I missed you too, Mike." She noted that he smelled different today, nicer somehow.

"Well, now we'll see each other all the time, right? Now that you're going to live with Hopper?"

Eleven nodded vigorously. "Yes."

~I feel so cold and I long for your embrace...~

"Good. I don't ever want to lose you again," he repeated the words he had said to her right before she went off to the lab to close the Gate.

That had been a little more than a month ago, but she remembered every moment she had with Mike.

"You won't," she said seriously, "I promised you won't lose me."

They continued to sway, never looking away from each other and not realizing that they had been inching even closer. Eleven's hands were clasped behind Mike's neck at this point and they were staring into each other's eyes, feeling connected. Feeling whole.

~I keep crying, baby, baby, pleeeaaassseee...~

Mike couldn't resist it anymore. He went in for a kiss, his lips meeting her soft ones firmly. She tasted like cherries. It was only a second, but it felt like time stood still for a while. Then it was over. His cheeks were burning, but it had felt good. It had felt right.

She blinked, eyes going wide as saucers, feeling suddenly weak. Mike sensed it and strengthened his grip on her hips to steady her. She breathed in suddenly, realizing that she had been holding her breath, and then she swallowed hard as she looked up into Mike's warm dark eyes with a growing smile.

"Are you... okay?" he asked with a worried tone. Panic filled his eyes. "I'm sorry, was it... was it that bad?" he braced himself to hear the worst, already grimacing.

"No, Mike," she said as firmly as she could muster, staring deep into his eyes, "It was amazing."

~You belong to meeee...~

X=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=X

Eleven watched from the doorway of her room as Hawkins Police Chief Jim Hopper, now her adoptive father, carried the small pine tree into their home. Even though the tree was small, it was big enough that he had a bit of trouble getting it through the door, but once inside he pushed some of the furniture away with his legs and plopped it in the middle of the cabin.

A little bit out of breath, he took a few steps back and wiped some of the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He was in a red and black flannel shirt, jeans, and hiking boots, having taken the morning off from work so he could get the tree and lights done.

"What is that?" she asked, remembering the lit-up trees inside the school gym during the Snow Ball Dance a few days ago. The thought of the dance made her blush and she reached a hand up to her mouth, a finger tracing her lips.

"That," Jim said as he looked at the tree, "Is a Christmas tree."

"A Christmas tree?"

"Yeah. Well, it's not uhh... it's not really a Christmas tree yet actually," he scratched his beard. "We need to put some lights on it first," he clarified, "Trust me, it'll look a lot better with lights."

Eleven looked at the tree then back at Jim. "What is Christmas?"

"Oh, right. You've never actually had Christmas before, have you?" said Jim, remembering that he had found her in the woods right after Christmas a year ago.

Thankfully before New Year's Eve though. She wouldn't have known about what goes on that night and he could only imagine how terrified she would have been of the explosions from all the fireworks. He ran a hand through his thinning hair as he thought of how best to explain the holiday to her.

"Okay," he began, "What is Christmas? Christmas is... a very special day where people celebrate how much they love each other by giving gifts and spending extra time together."

"Gifts?" she repeated with a frown.

"Gifts are-"

She gave him a look as she cut him off. "I know what gifts are." Her mind flashed back to the very rare occasions she would get a gift from papa. A stuffed animal. Some crayons. The thought of him both saddened and angered her, and she forced herself not to think about him.

Her thoughts instead went to Mike and her friends, wondering if they had gifts for her for Christmas. Knowing them, they probably did. Especially Mike. She was sure Mike would give her a gift. But what could she give them? She didn't have anything.

"Okay," he looked at her quizzically, "Then what's with the frown, kiddo?"

"I... I love my friends," she began, putting some thought into her words, "but I have no gifts for them... for this Christmas." She looked at Jim, realizing she didn't have a gift for him either.

"Huh," Jim said, stroking his beard in thought. "Well, I suppose that's a bit of a problem," he sighed, "Though you don't necessarily need to give your friends gifts. I mean, do you even know what you want to give them?"

Eleven shook her head, her frown deepening. This was really troubling her. She had never had to think about giving gifts before. Then again, she had never really had the luxury of thinking about a lot of things. Maybe she could give them each a box of Eggos? She definitely had plenty of Eggos. But no, they probably all already had Eggos. In fact, she knew that Mike definitely had Eggos at his house, having consumed them there for the first time a year ago.

So what else could she give them?

"Alright, well as much as I'd like to take you out shopping, I think it would be best if you laid low for a while. The Snow Ball was one thing, but this? This isn't worth risking your safety over," said Jim as he walked over to her and placed a hand gently on her head, ruffling her hair a bit. "Understand?"

As expected, she gave him a look that told him she fully disagreed with what he was saying.

"I'm not done," he said, raising a hand up to calm her, "How about this for a compromise? You think of what gifts you want to give to your friends and then I go out and get them for you. Then I'll bring them back here and we can wrap them together. What do you think about that?"

Eleven wasn't exactly happy about it, but she understood that he was trying to help. She also knew that she needed to stay at home for a while and, as he had put it, lay low. She nodded reluctantly in acceptance. "Compromise."

"Good. It's a deal then," he said with a satisfied smile. He turned around and walked back to inspect the tree, walking around the entire thing and moving it around every so often to get it into the right position. He started muttering to himself about something that Eleven didn't quite catch, not that she was trying to.

"When is Christmas?" she asked, leaning against the door frame and clasping her hands down together in front of her.

"In a week," he replied, moving the tree some more, "So you should tell me what gifts you want to give by tomorrow or the day after at the latest so I have enough time to get them."

"Okay." She chewed on her bottom lip and hoped she could figure out gifts in time. Maybe she could get them some of those things she saw on the TV.

"Alright, now that that's settled, I'll be right back. Gotta get the lights from my truck." He stepped out of the cabin.

When he returned, he had a few boxes of white Christmas lights with him, and Eleven had migrated to the couch. She was deep in thought as she stared at the bare Christmas tree in the middle of the room, trying to come up with gifts to give her friends. She had decided she would give one each to the boys. Will, Lucas, Dustin, and of course Mike. She would also give one to Joyce and one to her new dad.

Jim set the boxes down on the coffee table that he had moved out of the way for the tree and started opening one up.

The movement and noise drew Eleven's attention, bringing her out of her thoughts for a moment. She watched him opening up the box of lights and it occurred to her that there was one wrinkle with the compromise they had agreed to. Her dad would see whatever gift she decided to get for him. So she would have to get him his gift some other way. But how?

It struck her then. She was trying to get a gift for her dad. The thought was strange to her.

She had been reluctant to call him papa, the very word itself triggering so much conflicting emotions and terrible memories that she wouldn't mind never using that word ever again. She remembered how hurt her adoptive father was when she had compared him to papa, saying that he was "just like papa" during their big argument that ended with her powers going wild and all the windows blowing up.

Perhaps remembering that moment and also understanding everything attached to that word, he had told her it would probably be best if she just called him dad. Although if she didn't want to call him that, he mentioned to her that she was also free to call him Hopper too, or even just Jim if she wanted.

She wasn't quite sure yet what she was comfortable using to call him, so most of the time she didn't really say anything. And for the most part he didn't pressure her to call him anything either, which was nice. They were both still trying to figure this whole thing out.

This whole thing being their now official father-daughter relationship.

She recalled her stunned silence when he sat her down and explained to her what had happened. How that wounded doctor, Dr. Owens, they had encountered in the stairwell of the lab had somehow pulled off the impossible and helped Jim adopt Eleven officially. How from now on she would have a father, a proper caring father, and that they would be family. Forever.

Jim promised that he would do everything in his power to take care of her and protect her, especially from the bad men. He promised that he would do his best to be a good dad. He was on the verge of tears when he had looked her squarely in the eyes and confessed that it would not be easy for either of them, him most of all. He had a lot of baggage from everything that happened with his daughter Sarah, and everything that happened afterwards. But he had said that for Eleven, for Jane, he was willing to try to be a father again.

She had cried in her adoptive father's arms after hearing all of it. Tears of joy, of disbelief, and of hope. Not only did she have friends, but now she actually had family. She was Eleven, and she would always be Eleven, but now she was also Jane Elle Hopper too.

When she asked about her mother, Terry Ives, her new dad had explained that the same doctor who helped them was now having her treated at another facility since the Hawkins Lab was closed. He was optimistic that they could bring her back to normal, but warned that it would take time and that they would need to be patient.

Her aunt, Becky Ives, was apparently still living at the house on 515 Larrabee Road and regularly checking in on her sister at the facility she was being treated at. Jim had given her a call and informed her of his adoption of Jane and sparingly gave details of the situation surrounding the danger that the young girl was in.

That meant Becky couldn't visit them in Hawkins, and vice versa, at least for a while. But when it was safe enough, which apparently would be about another year according to Dr. Owens, things could be more normal and they could visit each other.

Becky had been relieved to hear that the young girl was okay and that the Police Chief was going to take care of her. Although she was disappointed she wouldn't be able to see her niece until next year, she understood why it was necessary.

Everything was finally looking up.

"Hey, are you going to sit there all day or are you going to come help me out with these lights?" Jim said as he stopped unraveling the bundle of lights in his hands to look at her.

Eleven sighed then crossed her legs on the couch, propping her elbows on her knees and resting her hands on her chin, watching him with a barely restrained grin.

"Ha, ha, very funny," he said as he gently threw the bundle of lights at her. "Come on, it's a Hopper family tradition to decorate and light the tree together."

She leaned back on impulse, her reflexes quick enough for her to catch the bundle of lights before they hit her face. "Family tradition?"

Jim nodded slowly. "That's right. Family tradition," he stopped to think for a moment.

"Traditions are activities that are passed down from parents to children, from one generation to the next. So I used to do this with my parents, and when I became a parent I did this with... with Sarah," he paused for a moment, blinking and swallowing hard. He always had a difficult time talking about Sarah.

It took him a few seconds to compose himself enough to continue, "So uhh... You know, now that you're officially a Hopper and all, we're going to start off our first Christmas together properly. Let's get into the Christmas spirit, alright? So get off your lazy bum and let's get to lighting this tree!" he said with genuine enthusiasm, grabbing another box of lights to open.

Amused at his excitement over putting lights on a tree, Eleven got to her feet. "Okay dad."