Greetings, wanderers!
It's been far too long, you beautiful bunch of fools! For some reason, you're back here again, even after I forgot to update for so long (this time I actually forgot; I thought I updated this in December and January, but I was wrong). It does, however, explain why my chapter pool had become a pool again, and not a desperate race to finish the current chapter, send it to my wonderful beta reader (thank you again!), and then post it.
Sorry to have left you all with that cliffhanger all this time without any new information (though I did manage to update my other two active stories (and finish one of them!), so I wasn't completely off the grid. Normally that would prompt me to post two chapters, but that would defeat the whole purpose of me trying to get ahead of where I'm posting, so you'll have to make due with this one.
Without further ado (and I very much enjoy the ado), here is the next installment of Number Games!
"And you're sure you remember where you're going?" Joyce asks for the fiftieth time in that car ride.
"Yes, mom, it's right up here," Jonathan answers for the fiftieth time.
His words prove true when they come around the side of the building to find Hopper leaning against the side of the Blazer. He looks just as annoyed as always, but when the car comes into view, something softer passes over his face.
"Can this Murray guy really set us up with all the fake papers we need?" Liz questions as Jonathan puts the car in park.
"Trust us, he can do it," Nancy assures her, unbuckling her seatbelt and opening the door. El seems the most thankful that they've arrived, having gotten stuck with the middle seat for the entire ride over.
When she gets out of the car, El glances in Hopper's direction, but quickly looks elsewhere. Her brow furrows, either annoyed or in thought, though Hopper assumes the former when he sees it.
"Hey, Hop," Joyce greets. "I hope you weren't waiting long."
"Just a few minutes," He mutters. "How's she doing?"
"She's doing great, actually," She informs him. "She loved the skates you got for her, and we took her out for a girls day last saturday, which reminds me..."
She reaches into her purse, digging out a ridiculously long piece of paper.
"I marked the things that she got, you can reimburse me whenever," She says, handing over the receipt. Hopper takes it like its radioactive waste, though he does glance down the line.
"I'm guessing that's where she got that jacket she's wearing?" He responds, to which Joyce just sighs.
"It's her new favorite," She explains. "Reminds her of Mike. She basically hasn't taken it off since she got it."
Hopper suppresses a groan at the thought.
"Hey, it could be worse," Joyce points out. "She could have just made him stay over to get his scent on it, and you'd hate that even more."
"I would," He admits. "But that doesn't mean I'm happy about how obsessive she is about Mike, this is what I was trying to avoid."
"Pick your battles, Hop," Joyce advises. "You're not going to win this one, so just let it go. Find something you can actually win."
"Hey, let's get this show on the road already!" Murray shouts from his doorway, Nancy having gone and knocked while they were catching up.
He ushers them all inside, slamming the door shut behind them and locking it up tighter than a bank vault. Once everything is secure, he takes a deep breath, and turns to his guests, particularly his return visitors.
"I believe, when last we spoke, I told you the terms of our next encounter," He starts, which neither Nancy nor Jonathan can remember at the moment. "Let me refresh your memory. I said, if you ever need my help again, don't. Despite that, here we are again."
"These are extenuating circumstances-," Nancy tries to explain, but Murray holds up a hand to forestall her.
"My services are not going to be free a second time," He informs them. "Especially since there's no chance to expose a government conspiracy this time."
"But-"
"Hold on Nance," Liz interrupts, laying a hand on the girl's shoulder. "I'll handle it."
Hopper subconsciously takes a half step backward as Liz walks past him. Murray eyes her suspiciously as she walks toward him, but doesn't say anything.
"I can offer you..." She starts, digging through her pockets with great care. "Three dollars and...sixty-five cents, half a pack of gum, and a tissue."
Murray actually starts to laugh at the offer Liz pulls out of one pocket. The rest of the room tenses when they realize that Liz still has a hand in her other pocket.
In a single fluid sequence Liz drops her initial offer, drives her fist into Murray's solar plexus, kicks in the back of his knees, draws her knife, and holds it to the man's throat.
"Here's some free advice," She whispers directly in his ear. "They're the nice ones, they play by the rules. If you don't want to deal with them, then you get me."
"Liz," El says, getting the girl's attention. Liz rolls her eyes, putting her knife away and stepping back.
"This would go so much quicker if you let me read him and gut him," She responds, moving to the back of the group.
"This isn't how people usually conduct business, you know," Murray coughs, slowly getting back up. "I'm not a charity."
"Just think of the tax write off," Hopper tells him, hauling the man to his feet. "Now how long will it take to get all the ID we need for them?"
"Them?" Murray questions. "I thought you only had one government target."
"Forget about me already?" Liz asks from the back of the room, fiddling with her knife. Murray swallows hard, and then nods.
"Assuming you want birth certificates, social security cards, driver's license, maybe even passports, I'll need the day, at least," He answers. "So I'd get comfortable, and get your picture faces ready."
"I've got a birth certificate, social security, and adoption papers for Jane already," Hopper adds. "She just needs the passport."
"Planning on doing a bit of travelling in the future?" Murray inquires, already moving away from the group.
"Better safe than sorry," Liz corrects, following after him with El in tow.
XxX
The sun is just starting to set when the group arrives back in Hawkins. Thankfully, nobody got gutted, and both El and Liz have all the documents they need to prove that they actually exist.
"I'll take her upstairs, don't worry," Liz says as everyone is getting out of the car. El had fallen asleep on the way back, and everyone seems loath to wake her.
Without any apparent effort, Liz hefts the younger girl out of the back seat and walks into the building, careful not to catch El's head on the door.
"Well, that went pretty well," Joyce comments as they watch Liz and El disappear.
"I just hope we don't need to use most of these," Hopper mutters, looking over the forged documents. "The passports especially, they won't pass any kind of actual investigation."
"They'll be fine for now, though," Nancy retorts. "You said that Dr. Owens is working on getting the real deal, but it's going to take months to get everything done without anyone noticing."
"Don't you guys have jobs to get to, or something?" Hopper complains.
"I took the day off since I didn't know how long this would take," Jonathan answers with a raised eyebrow.
"Same here, plus the library isn't that busy during the summer anyway," Nancy informs the surly police chief.
She and the chief hold a staring contest for almost ten seconds before Nancy smirks and turns away, pulling Jonathan with her.
"Don't stay out too late!" She calls over her shoulder. Hopper glares at her, even if she can't see it.
Once the two teens are gone, Hopper looks back at Joyce, only to find her already giving him a look that he knows all too well.
"What? I didn't threaten anyone," He mumbles, reaching into his pocket for his cigarettes, and then trying to find his lighter.
"You know what," Joyce retorts. "You didn't even try to talk with her today. Nothing is ever going to get better if you don't even try."
"She didn't seem eager to talk to me either," Hopper says defensively.
"Yes, the fourteen year old with psychic powers looked unhappy, why even bother?" Joyce mocks. "You're supposed to be a grown man, Hop, not a teenager. If you really want to be her father, then you have to try."
"It's not as easy as it sounds," Hopper responds, trying to shore up his defenses.
"I've raised two boys since they were conceived, Hop, that's not as easy as it sounds," Joyce tells him, tearing his makeshift defense apart. "You've been at this for a year and half; you didn't even have to go through teething, or potty training."
"Trying to civilize a wild child isn't exactly normal parenting procedure, Joyce," Hopper shoots back, puffing on his cigarette. "Trying to get her to work like a girl without psychic powers is like pulling teeth."
"Maybe that's part of your problem, Hop," She retorts, taking the cigarette from his hand. "You want her to be the daughter you never got to have, but she isn't. I know it's hard to hear, but you can't expect El to be like Sara. She's her own person, with her own powers, and that's something you just have to accept."
She takes one long drag before putting the stick back in his stiff hand.
"You know where to find me when you want to talk," Joyce says, starting toward her car. Considering they only parked a few spaces apart, it's not a long walk.
"Joyce!" Hopper calls just as she opens the door. She turns back to look at him. "Thank you."
Joyce smiles at him, a perfect mom smile, because someone finally learned what she was trying to teach them.
"If you aren't doing anything for the rest of today..." Hopper continues, but trails off awkwardly.
Joyce's smile changes a bit. Always another lesson to teach.
"I have to replace the hinges on the back door, actually. They wake up the whole house if someone goes out at night," Joyce informs him. "You're welcome to help me with it, though."
"I do know my way around a screwdriver," He responds with a half-smirk.
XxX
"El, time to get up!" Steve calls into the apartment, opening the door a bit wider.
When he gets no response he walks inside, looking around for the girl in question. She'd asked specifically to be woken up early today so she can go out with the Party, but now he can't find her.
As it so happens, El is tangled in a mass of sheets and blankets in her room, seemingly dead to the world, even with the door wide open. Steve sighs and tries to gently shake her awake, to no avail.
"Your eggos are burning," Steve tells her with another, more pronounced sigh.
She bolts straight up, her long and tangled hair falling wildly around her head as she blindly makes a grab for nonexistent eggos. When she finally wakes up enough to realize, she glares at Steve.
"Not nice," She grumbles, rubbing her eyes.
"Good morning to you too," Steve responds with a smile.
El just groans and starts extricating herself from the covers. When she stands up, her pajamas as disheveled as her hair, she groans again, putting a hand on her stomach. That catches Steve's attention immediately.
"Something wrong with your-?"
He gets no farther, El's eyes widening as she shoves past him, running to the bathroom. Steve is frozen for those few seconds after the disappears, until he hears her start throwing up.
With the ease of practice, Steve gathers her hair behind her head as she throws up. It doesn't take long for the relatively small girl to empty her stomach, but it's more than enough for Steve to be concerned. He rips off a few squares of toilet paper for El to wipe her mouth, and then lets go of her hair. Taking the cup she uses when she brushes her teeth, he hands her a glass of water to rinse the taste out of her mouth.
"Thank you," El croaks out, handing the glass back.
"You're welcome, now let's get you over to the couch," He says, helping her get to her feet. "Wait here while I find you a bucket."
He leaves her to grimace and hold her stomach, returning swiftly with a small garbage can.
"Thanks," El mumbles, taking it from him.
"I'll get you some more water," He responds, in full-on mother hen mode.
The cabinets are all but bare, only having a few of the essentials while El stays 'on her own'. There's two of everything, counted especially for when Mike comes over; two plates, two bowls, two glasses, two mugs, two sets of cutlery...
And one piece of plastic that falls out when he takes out a glass. He sets the glass down to pick it up, expecting some random little trinket Mike had given her.
Boy is he wrong.
"El?" He calls, his eyes going wider and wider the longer he stares, panic creeping into his voice. "What is this?"
The girl just groans from the couch, so he strides back over to get some answers. He holds the little piece of plastic up where she can see it, though her eyes are mostly closed to fall back asleep.
"Test..." She murmurs, burrowing deeper into the couch cushions.
"I see that," Steve responds. "But it's a pregnancy test!"
El just groans again, as if it's no big deal.
"El!" He shouts, startling her back to awareness. "This test is positive! What the hell happened?!"
"What's with all the shouting this early in the morning?" Liz asks groggily from the doorway. "You guys are way too active for a holiday."
"This is an emergency!" Steve retorts, waving the plastic stick at her.
"Gross, get that away from me," She says, walking around him to sit by El, stroking her hair back from her forehead. "You know she peed on that, right?"
It only takes one more glance for Steve to put the stick down, but that doesn't do anything to help his mood.
"Do you not realize that this is a big deal?!" He demands. "Do you realize what happened? What this means? For all of us?"
"Of course I know what happened, who do you think bought the test?" Liz answers easily. "Did you think Wheeler had the spine to buy a pregnancy test without the cashier laughing in his face?"
"You knew?!" The teen exclaims in disbelief.
"Who do think gave her the sex talk?" Liz replies with her signature smirk gracing her lips. "I was just surprised that Wheeler went along with it. I had half a mind to bet on him not lasting long enough to get his pants off."
Steve can only stand there in abject disbelief. Everything had been going so well, and now this just had to happen. The only question now is if he can skip town and get a new identity before Hopper finds out. He could probably make a good used car salesman, and California is supposedly always sunny.
Then he sighs. That wouldn't work, he can't even afford to leave town, let alone make it all the way to California. What he needs to do is call Hopper, and Mike, to come over and talk about this.
And he should probably just call the ambulance now, so it's on standby for when Hopper murders him and Mike.
Being an adult is hard...
XxX
Mike arrives first, and by the anxious look in his eye, he's already guessed what he got called here about.
"Didn't your dad have the talk with you yet?" Steve asks, just shaking his head. "Even if he didn't, shouldn't it just be common sense? If you're gonna do it, even though you guys are way too young, wear a goddamn condom."
Mike doesn't even try to respond, just swallowing hard and looking down at his shoes. Steve just sighs.
"And then you went to Liz?" He continues. "Were you that scared to come to me about this? I get not wanting to tell your parents, or Hopper, but as far as trusted people go, I think I should be at the top of the goddamn list."
Still Mike says nothing, just shifting uncomfortably.
"When," Steve says, not as a question.
"The sleepover..." Mike answers quietly. "On the last day of school.
"So then it's been-"
"Twenty three days, I know," Mike cuts in. "I've been counting."
"And when did you guys know?" The older boy follows up.
"Last week," The younger boy mumbles. "We double checked."
"Does anyone else know, or just the people in this building?"
"Is this an interrogation or something?" Mike snaps.
"I'm trying to help you, cause you're going to explain one way or another," Steve retorts, using supreme force of will not to shout back. "So you can either talk to me, and have an ally when Hopper gets here, or you can explain it all to him, and hope that he doesn't shoot you."
Mike looks ready to start a shouting match, and Steve is almost convinced that the boy is going to, until he sighs, his shoulders slumping in defeat.
"I asked Nancy some questions," He admits, quietly though, his cheeks turning a little pink. "But I didn't tell her everything."
As if called by an unseen force, or rather just lucky timing after parking the car, Nancy enters the building just after he says that. She smiles at Steve as she walks over to them, completely unaware of why this gathering had been called.
"Hey Steve, how are you?" She greets with a smile. Steve manages a weak and unconvincing approximation of a smile, which Nancy sees through immediately. Her smile drops and her face turns serious. "Okay, what happened?"
Steve looks at Mike to answer, a silent challenge to come clean and tell the truth.
"El is, uh... is..." Mike mumbles, looking down at the ground. The rest of his words turn to inaudible nonsense.
"El is what?" Nancy asks, staring between Steve and her brother in confusion.
Mike murmurs the response yet again, which still does nothing to help Nancy understand what's going on.
"Mike, I can't help with whatever this is unless you tell me about it," She persists, reaching out to lay a hand on his shoulder.
"Pregnant!" Mike finally explodes. Nancy and Steve both take a half step backward in surprise. "El is pregnant!"
Before either of them can recover from the shock of that exclamation, Mike has already stormed off to the stairs. They exchange a glance before rushing after him, finally catching up to him as he and El exchange their normal greeting.
"Mike, what the fuck?!" Nancy demands as soon as they're in the same room. "You're not even in high school yet!"
"Nancy, maybe we should-" Steve starts, but gets no further.
"No! We're having this conversation now!" Nancy interrupts, not even turning to look at Steve as she holds up a silencing finger. "Mike, if you don't start talking in the next five seconds-"
"Hey, why don't you bring it down a few notches, m'kay?" Liz interjects from the kitchen, taking a bag of popcorn out of the microwave. "Already heard the whole spiel from Captain Fluff Head, and we're about to get it from Chief McGrump, so if you could spare us an extra one that would be great."
"I don't think that's the best-" Steve starts again.
"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Nancy demands, turning her full wrathful attention to Liz. "In case you hadn't noticed, he's my brother! I guess you never had to care about anyone else before, but I do! So don't you tell me what I should and shouldn't do when I find out that he got his girlfriend pregnant!"
The sound of a box hitting the floor shocks Nancy out of her tirade. She whips around to see Hopper standing in the doorway, his face frozen in shock, and a poorly wrapped gift on the floor by his feet. Nancy's anger drains away when she realizes that she just gave away the secret of the day.
And that she probably just signed her brother's death certificate.
Hopper's shock is quick to thaw, unbridled rage taking over every aspect of his face. Steve and Nancy both try to get between him and the kids, but he just shoves straight past them. It's not until he's about five feet away from the couch that he freezes in place. Even then, he's not totally frozen, visibly struggling against El's psychic restraints.
He opens his mouth to start yelling, but it closes just as quickly, and he can't seem to get it open again. El rises from the couch, a bead of blood running down from her nose, and she doesn't look happy in the slightest. Her left hand is tightly clasped in Mike's right, pulling him along with her. Her right hand is much more significant as she stands there, and it takes a few seconds for Hopper to realize that he should be much more afraid right now.
SMACK
Of all the things he expected her to do, slapping him in the face wasn't at the top of Hopper's list. The psychic force holding him in place disappears just after, but something else stops him from moving
"Friends don't lie," El says, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "But we're not friends, are we?"
It's like all the air is sucked out of the room, at least to Hopper. Of all gut punches he's ever gotten in his life, that one tops them all. No single phrase has ever caused him so much eviscerating pain as that one...
Then she starts laughing.
And then Mike starts laughing.
Within moments El, Mike, and Liz are all laughing their asses off, much to the confusion of the other half of the room. Liz even spills half of her popcorn, she laughs so hard, before she can put it on the counter. Mike finally has enough presence of mind to hand El a tissue for her nose, but it takes her a while to actually use it.
"You should have seen your face, Hop!" Liz cackles, holding the counter for support. "It was priceless!"
She manages to make it to the couch with Mike and El, pulling them both into a short group hug. Nobody else in the room has moved, still trying to piece together any semblance of what just happened. The first one to find their voice, incidentally, is the one who couldn't get a word in edgewise before.
"What the hell is going on here?" He asks in utter confusion, though it was probably meant to be a whole lot more forceful.
"Just a little something called revenge," Liz replies with her signature smirk, keeping an arm around her two protege. "And it all went according to plan, for the most part at least. We didn't plan on Nancy giving it away before Hop got in the door, but he still reacted exactly like we planned."
"Do you have any idea what you just put me through?" Hopper demands, finally finding his voice again. "Any idea what that felt like from my end?"
"Yes," El answers, her mirth evaporating, leaving only the cold, serious Eleven that she was raised to be. "I do."
Hopper's voice disappears as quickly as El's bright attitude.
"That was the whole point," Liz tells him, similarly serious. "I could have just shown you those memories for her, it wouldn't have been difficult, but I didn't. You know why?" She pauses, raising an eyebrow, daring him to speak again. "I knew you couldn't take it. If you felt the way she felt, you would have put the shiny little barrel of that gun in your mouth and pulled the trigger."
Hopper remains silent, whether by choice or not.
"Instead, we put together this little act, to show you a shred of what she felt," Liz continues. "So now I want you to imagine, take every emotion you just felt, and multiply it by ten. Then you're at least in the same ballpark."
Those words hang heavy in the air, slowly creeping back into the room.
"On a happier note, now you guys can make up," Liz informs him, before turning on her heel and going back to the popcorn she left on the counter.
The tension remains thick in the air despite her lighter tone, El looking expectantly at Hopper, and Hopper attempting to look anywhere else.
"Mike, maybe we should leave them alone for a few minutes," Nancy suggests, trying to break the silence before something explodes.
"No," El says shortly, keeping a firm grasp on Mike's hand.
Nancy shrinks back, not willing to risk El's wrath at this point. Hopper finally takes a deep breath, steeling his resolve and looking his daughter in the eye. He almost breaks when he sees the pain still reflected in them, but now isn't the time for him to back away.
"El, what I did isn't something I can ask you to forgive me for," He starts shakily. "You trusted me, and I betrayed that before it even started."
All of his instincts tell him to look away, but El's gaze never wavers, so neither does his. They're locked together until this is done.
"I could try to explain why I did it, but that would just be an excuse," He continues. "I never wanted to hurt you, but I did, and I can't undo it. I'm sorry."
El doesn't react at all for several long moments, and by the end of them Hopper would swear the whole room can hear his heartbeat. El finally nods, not saying a word, but sending a wave of relief through Hopper's body.
"Don't get too comfortable yet Chief, we've got one more thing on the list for today," Liz interjects, walking back with her popcorn. She just motions for Hopper to follow her as she leaves the room, not giving another word of explanation.
Hopper looks around at the other occupants of the room, but they all seem just as curious and confused as he is, even the two in cahoots with Liz.
"Let's go!" Liz shouts from the hallway, spurring Hopper into motion.
He catches up with her when she reaches her own apartment, entering when she silently holds the door open for him.
"Sit down," She orders, setting her bowl of popcorn down on her coffee table.
Rather than risk getting injured again, Hopper does as asked, though he doesn't seem particularly happy about it.
"Why am I here?" He finally asks as Liz gets a glass of water.
"Because I need to drive a point through that thick skull of yours," She answers, coming back and setting the glass down in front of him. "Since words haven't been doing the trick, I'm just going to show you."
"Woah, hold on a second here," Hopper interjects, putting his hands between them. "I don't want you going into my head again."
"I'm hurt chief, it sounds like you don't trust me," Liz comments sarcastically, sitting down in a chair. "This isn't up to you anymore, it's going to happen, so you can choose to do this the easy way or the hard way."
"What's this even about?" He questions, trying to stall.
"The fact that you still can't seem to trust Mike and El alone together," She tells him, as if it should be obvious. "You honestly believed that there was even the possibility that they had sex and El was pregnant? You thought there was a chance that Mike - king of the nerds, can barely talk to a girl - Wheeler managed to do the deed with El without having a fucking heart attack? He almost passed out when El asked him to help with this plan."
"No, we are not going through-" Hopper starts, but Liz cuts him off with a glare.
"Like I told you, this is happening, whether you're a willing participant or not," She says, in a tone that brooks no argument. "So it's up to you, are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?"
The smirk on Liz's face is just daring Hopper to choose the hard way, which the man seems to realize.
"Fine," Hopper grumbles, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Good, now you should try to relax," Liz advises. "If you're tense, this might hurt."
She gives him the full three seconds it takes for her to stand up and walk in front of him to relax, and then places her hands on his temples.
At first, everything is just dark, but not the suffocating kind. This darkness is warm, comforting even, like being under a blanket.
When the world turns to color, the first thing he sees is El, smiling and laughing like any other kid her age. There's almost no trace of the pain she's been through, just what she feels right then. She's happy.
The scene continuously shifts, still focused on El, but the location and time keeps changing. The apartment they'd just been in, the cabin, the woods outside during the winter, Mike's basement playing D&D, the Byers' living room, and even Hopper's trailer. It's like being there, seeing and experiencing everything, but without actually moving.
Everything shifts again, and now Mike becomes the focus of the scenes. If anything, the warm feeling just gets stronger, though it's hard to tell. Many of the scenes are the same, just from a different perspective. However, these ones continue longer, and they start to show Mike on his own, in school or at home. These ones feel different, less like an experience and more like a movie, something you can see but can't interact with.
It all changes again, this time showing both perspectives, one after the other, for each scene. It starts in the woods, rain pouring down around them, the only light coming from three flashlights. Then it's the basement again, and everything is warm. Neither of them know what to think, but they don't feel like they're in any danger around each other.
The scenes flash through, almost too fast to process. There's a pink dress and a wig, and a big recliner. Then everything is tinged by panic, white vans chasing after them. It all shifts again, and they're upset, but not really with each other.
There's a kiss, and the warm feeling spikes again, but it doesn't last long. Soon the darkness comes back, swallowing everything. It's suffocating, like drowning but without a drop of water in sight.
Then it comes back. It's in the Byers' house again, and they see each other. It's like coming back from the dead, nothing has ever felt so incredible. It quickly gets tinged by anxiety, the uncertainty of separation once again.
It's the Snowball, and their eyes lock together. If ever something could be called perfect, it's this.
More and more scenes flash by, of a supercom, a tiny eggo necklace, hiding under old bus seats, and even of a fight. Anger surges like a fire, exploding out of them, only to be quickly drowned in the sea of despair. When they reunite, it's like something has changed, something they can't explain, but wouldn't want to even if they could.
For as much dark that surges through these visions, the light always comes back to them, so long as they're together. There's something between them that they can't even begin to understand, but it doesn't scare them.
Hopper jerks back in his seat, a rush of nausea bursting through him, and a searing pain exploding through his head.
"Oh jesus!" Hopper exclaims, pressing his hands against the sides of his head.
"I told you to relax," Liz responds, going back to her chair with her popcorn. "Drink the water, it helps."
"You have any aspirin?" He questions through gritted teeth, picking up the glass.
"Can't advise taking pain killers for it, might cause bleeding," She informs him. "It should be gone in an hour or two."
Hopper just groans and down the water in a few big gulps. It eases some of the immediate pain, but it still isn't pleasant.
"What was that?" He finally asks, rubbing his temples.
"Memories," Liz answers plainly. "From Mike and El. Everything you just saw and felt is everything the two of them have since the day they met."
Of all answers Hopper had expected, that hadn't been one of them. For several minutes he can't find any words, trying to process what had just happened.
"Now you know, first hand, how they feel about each other," Liz says. "You can stop with the bullshit overprotective dad thing, it's not doing you any favors. Just let them be who they are."
Hopper nods slowly, not fully present anymore.
"And one more thing," Liz continues, getting up again. "They don't know that I was going to show you all of that, so if you ever bring this up, to anyone, ever, I will cut your tongue out of your throat."
Again, Hopper nods, memories not his own flashing behind his eyes. Liz's glare softens when she sees his expression, wistfully thinking back to the first times she played through other people's memories on her own. It takes a little while to figure out which ones actually mean something, but once you do, they're the ones worth holding on to.
At least Hopper doesn't have to sort through them, he knows they all mean something very very important.
So, I hope you enjoyed that nice little confrontation there. I'm sure many of you wish that I'd drawn it out longer, but I wanted to get the revenge plot done with. Over the next few chapters we'll get to see Hopper and El start to reconcile their little family.
On the subject of Liz, yes, she does care, at least a little bit. She's not going to let anyone know that, but she goes a bit beyond self interest.
If you haven't read Somewhere New yet, I totally recommend it (in my totally unbiased opinion as the author of that story). It's finished now, so you won't have to hope, pray, and wish upon a star just to get an update. On the opposite side of things, if you have a prompt you wish to see (eventually) in my one-shot collection, definitely PM me about it!
I'll try not to disappear for five months again, but I really can't promise anything!
The list stands at:
Complete- Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, Spring Break, mystery surprise Parts 1, 2, & 3, summer break(start)
In Progress- 4th of July (posting), end of summer (writing)
To Do- something for the start of school
Until next time!