Trigger warning at end of chapter.


Chapter 2: Welcome to the Jungle

Hopper had known from the moment he'd set eyes on her, to keep his distance.

Because this girl, she could not stay.

He wasn't delusional. Despite how poorly the men at that lab had obviously treated her, there was no chance of a normal life for this kid. Though it wasn't her fault, but she was still clearly dangerous. It hadn't taken him long to put two and two together and realize she had opened the gate. She had let the monster out, she had powers beyond her ability to control, she was who these so called "bad men" were after, had killed to find.

But most importantly, she was their ticket to Will. If it came down to that, to a choice between the two, he would save Will. He'd promised.

So he ignored the way her shaved head, frightened eyes and pale skin made him remember Sara, wracked with pain he couldn't take away in her final days.

He didn't allow himself to be moved by her bravery as she offered herself up to find Will in the bath, though clearly petrified of what it entailed. Instead he used what he observed to formulate his own plan.

She will protect these kids, he realized, no matter what the cost.

He guarded his heart against the sight of her, trembling and exhausted in Joyce's arms, not able to lift herself from the water of the kiddie pool after giving everything she had for a boy she'd never met.

She's the reason he is gone he repeated to himself like a mantra.

Determinedly stone faced as he handed his flannel to the shaking girl, still damp and cold from her experience in the pool. She shivered more violently when she met his eyes and dropped her gaze down to the floor, as if somehow physically feeling his coldness towards her.

He didn't look back when they left those kids unprotected in the gym because he knew what would, what HAD to happen. She wasn't one of them. There was no time and no room in his plan for another kid. She needed to be a faceless pawn in the game at that moment and so, to him, that's exactly what she was. They were backed into a corner. He knew it, and on some level he thought she had to know it too.

Brenner leaned over the table, his collected demeanor slipping for the first time during their negotiations, a hungry glint peeking out from behind the collected mask as Jim divulged the whereabouts of the kids. Fighting through the whelming disgust, he focused on the impersonal information he had dredged up about her during his search for the Byers kid.

Runaway. Freak. She broke my arm. Weapon. Experiment. Killer.

He laid out specifics for the white-haired man opposite him. Manipulating the manipulator with the one ace they both knew he held. Brenner was desperate to get her back. She was their bargaining chip to Will and time was running out.

In that moment, she wasn't an abused little kid. She wasn't a child who needed someone to stand up for her. She wasn't a little girl who needed to be protected. He didn't know she would die that night (or seemingly so), but he certainly knew that it was a possibility. He also knew that Joyce would never agree to the plan if she knew the heavy cost of her son's safety. Which is exactly why he didn't tell her.

He was perfectly prepared to bear the inevitable, crushing guilt once this all was over and Will was safe. It was selfish, sure, but at least only he would suffer. That was until he'd learned she was still out there.

After waiting in the lobby for news about Will (incapable of walking into another hospital room since Sara's time spent there) he'd stepped into the frigid night air for a light when the car had pulled up. He knew there was no avoiding it, so he didn't even try. He'd known there would be backlash from the events that had transpired that night, but hadn't at all expected the talk to go the direction that it did.

Brenner was dead and the school was a tomb. Too much had happened in the public eye and as soon as the DoD caught wind of the rumors that their investment was heavily involved, they'd launched an immediate and ongoing containment and investigation into the goings-on of the government sponsored facility, led by Doctor Sam Owens.

Brenner and his team had, it seemed, been over-zealous in their research, delving into subjects beyond their funding and covering up a great many aspects of their "research." All in all, it was a major debacle on their end, and it was just so typical that things would unfold this way, that it would take multiple tragedies for the government to stop and reevaluate their actions.

It was so damn typical. He would have found it funny if the collateral hadn't been so catastrophic.

They needed him. Somehow he had gone into an unexplored dimension and not only come out alive, but rescued a missing child from the depths as well. Somehow he knew how the gate had been created in the first place, managed to break into a secure, top-secret facility multiple times, taken control in an uncontrollable situation, and tracked down an escaped test subject when they'd searched for a week with no success.

But perhaps the most valuable asset he offered them was the fact that he was a trusted authority in the Hawkins community. If anyone could slake the panicked curiosity of the small town, it was the police chief they had grown up with.

They were practically begging for his help. And he didn't want to, he wanted nothing more than to walk out and try to forget that the safety of millions of people rested in the hands of these buffoons. The idea of helping to cover up everything that had happened when secrets and deceit were exactly what led to this situation in the first place was sickening to him, but he was a more realistic man than that.

If he didn't step in, someone else would. Someone who didn't have the wellbeing of an obsolete town like Hawkins in mind. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. On top of that, he figured he knew too much to be ignored and it was either cooperate or be silenced.

So he'd agreed, with specific parameters that would have to be met. Number one, that Joyce and her family would be reimbursed for money spent and the personal turmoil experienced while the boy was missing. And then some. She'd completely refused it, of course, proclaiming in that spitfire way of hers that her silence couldn't be bought. Everyone would know what they had done to her boy. And she certainly had tried. The only reason she hadn't succeeding in blowing the tenuous cover Hop had helped build up was the fact that her main opponent was Jim himself, the man she shared all her plans with. She had no idea that her trust was being used against her, or that Jim lied through his teeth weekly, finding new and creative ways to get that money to her one way or another.

His second requirement was that no one else would get hurt. The moment they touched anyone under his jurisdiction was the moment he walked out the door.

Number three, unmitigated access to all classified information pertaining to the previous research of the facility. This had been the hardest term he had to negotiate, but he stuck to his guns, arguing he couldn't do his job unless he knew, fully, what he was dealing with. In the end, they found a compromise.

She grits her teeth and swipes the sharp rock across the back of her forearm again, drawing blood. The pain sends a jolt of adrenaline through her veins, waking her up, bringing back her focus.

At this point, it's the only thing keeping her going.

The pain in her head, the pain in her stomach, the pain in her bones she can't control, but this she can control. The wound gives her a more focused pain, dulls the others.

She has to…keep going.

Her friends are depending on her. And there is still so much to be done.

She's lost track of the days and she can't remember the last time she ate. It's always dim here, and the spores that infect the air make it even harder to see and force her to constantly use her powers keeping them out of breathing range. Much like the hazy atmosphere, her mind has begun to fog. Sometimes, she forgets her purpose here. Like now, she does what she has to do to remember.

She must continue.

He does not know she's here, doesn't even suspect it. She must make the most of that advantage while it lasts.


Trigger warning for self-harm.

Just a head's up, the rest of the story will primarily be Hopper's POV, with a heavy focus on his developing relationship with Eleven. El's perspective will be included in italics.