Hooper's Contemplation.
This continues from my last Stranger Things fan fiction story and do remember that this is only my theory of what transpired at the conclusion of season 1 and it may not relate in any way to the events of season 2. Hope you will enjoy anyway.
Jim Hooper sat behind his office desk alone at Sawkins police HQ. As he drank his usual morning cup of coffee he was deep in thought. Things had been pretty quite in the community since all that had happened the previous year. The quiet before the storm, he was wondering. He was wondering also about El (as the boys all called her). She had taken most of the Ergos he had left out for her so she was probably okay although still trapped in that dark place just as Will Byers had been.
The first time he saw her with Mike Wheeler and his friends he knew at once that she was very special. Before she had got in that water tank to locate Will and the unfortunate Barbara he realized she was communicating with him, speaking in his head. She said he should not let the others including Joyce Byers know about this. She told him that if he and Joyce happened to be captured when they broke into the facility then he should let Dr Brenner and his associates know of her whereabouts. She let him know that she would be able to handle them and she certainly did. Clever girl! So he let them all think that he had sold her out as was the plan. Because of this he and Will's mother had been able to find him in that other world that much quicker. Had they come any later it may well have been too late.
His thoughts then turned to Dr Martin Brenner. That weasel was still around somewhere, he knew. His body had not been found in the school building unlike those of the people who had worked for him. Hooper just hated that man. All he had done to that child since an early age. Probably thought he was a great man of science, one of those who believed it was all for the good of his country even if there had to be sacrifices along the way. There were times when he was just ashamed to even be an American. El had informed him that Mike and his buddies had been the only ones to ever show her kindness since she had escaped from her 'prison.' Those kids deserved a medal, they set an example that most adults should follow. And A Child Shall Lead! Hooper mused as he remembered this old Bible proverb.
There was so much he wanted to tell Mike but he just couldn't. It would endanger him and his friends and family. He realised those government guys were never far away and they were watching him. They intended to make sure that the experiments on El and all the other children were hushed up so it was better not to rock the boat. The boy did not trust him, he knew, and probably didn't even like him but for now that was how it had to be. You and Lucas and Dustin are the best of all of us, son, so I intend to keep you safe!
Hooper knew that if El did return to this world at some point it would be very difficult to reunite her with her mother. The woman he and Joyce had spoken to was just a shell of the person she once had been thanks to those bastards. Would she even recognise her daughter? If he and Joyce did decide to tie the knot sometime in the future then adopting El was certainly a possibility. She reminded him in many ways of his own little girl. She had been diagnosed with cancer at such a young age and passed away. He had never really gotten over that and bringing Will back from the brink of death had somehow given his life some purpose again. Had his own child been somehow involved in these secret experiments and why hadn't he known about it? If he knew for sure that those assholes were responsible for what happened to her he'd…God knows what he's do! For some five years he's had no interest in having more kids or even adopting them until El came along. She had touched him in a way he couldn't explain.
He was pretty sure too that Will was not telling his mother or anyone else everything, that he was holding something back. Poor kid was lucky to even survive that dreadful place but Hooper had a hunch they would all soon know just how lucky that is. Had they really come in time? He had a sinking feeling that it was not over for any of them by any means and El was going to reappear in all of their lives for better or worse.