It was Hopper's snoring that roused Erin from her sleep. So used to being alone in her own bed, she wasn't used to being next to someone, let alone someone who snored. She laid on her side, watching Hopper in the dim light cast from the hallway, and smiled. Her stomach thrilled at how happy she was, what she had shared with Hopper a few hours earlier.

Not wanting to wake him, Erin looked over at the glowing alarm clock that read 2:35 AM. Moving slowly, Erin stood, and looked around for her shirt. Unable to find it in the jumble of articles, Erin sighed and settled for Hopper's, which fell just at the tops of her thighs.

"I could get used to seeing you in my clothes," a gruff voice called to her from the bed. Erin looked over at its origin sheepishly. "Where you headed off to?"

Erin tucked her messy hair behind her ear. "I… I thought it was a bit late. Maybe I need to get home."

Hopper smiled and sat up, holding out a hand. "Come back to bed," he said. He waved her over sleepily. "Come on."

Erin walked over to him, regretful of her decision to try to leave. She took Hopper's offered hand, and he pulled her onto his chest abruptly, but playfully. He held her by her waist.

"Eleven won't be home 'til late morning, and Tabor and Jillian knew exactly what they were doing. They're home, in their beds."

Erin blinked, and looked down at Hopper. "Are you sure you want me to stay?"

Hopper's eyes widened. "Stay?" He chuckled. "Of course I want you to stay. You think I'm done with you, hmm?" He rolled Erin onto her back, and gently dug his fingers into her sides, tickling her. She laughed and squirmed.

He smiled and kissed her, giving her a reprieve from his tickling, which she happily returned. When he pulled back, he looked down at her.

"Erin, this wasn't a mistake for me. I want you here. I want you to feel like you can stay the night… if you want."

Erin touched Hopper's beard, something that she was finding she loved to do. "I don't want to complicate things with Eleven…"

Hopper sighed and thought a moment. "I won't hide my feelings for you from her. Not anyone."

"But…" Erin started, swallowing a moment, allowing herself to think. "Won't it be… confusing for her?"

"Eleven and my relationship isn't what you would call traditional, Erin. There are no hard and fast rules on how to tell your adopted daughter you're dating their psychic powers teacher."

"Is that what we're doing?" Erin asked, her stomach fluttering. This conversation was happening a lot faster than she had anticipated or foreseen.

Hopper sighed, and put his chin on Erin's chest, breathing her in a moment. "I know it's early.,. We can take things as they come. But it's good, what's going on between us. Isn't it?"

Erin smiled and nodded. "I just don't want to scare you away," Erin admitted, her eyes tearing up involuntarily. She blinked them back. "I haven't had a lot of good things in my life, and I just don't want them to slip through my fingers."

Hopper chuckled. "Scare meaway? You're killing me, kid…" Hopper pulled the neckline of his shirt aside on Erin's chest, and placed a deep kiss there, which threatened to derail their conversation.

Erin closed her eyes and let out a contented sigh. "Who're you calling kid?" She looked down at him with mock warning.

He smiled a wicked smile, and unbuttoned the first button from the top. He kissed the exposed flesh. "I'm just a few years shy of being too old for you."

"I guess that means you've only got a few good years left in you," Erin said, challenging him, drawing her knees up to hold him in place. "I better make the best of them while I still can."

"Now you're just asking for it," Hopper said, and dug his fingers into Erin's side again, tickling her mercilessly.

She squealed and laughed in desperation, trying to squirm out of Hopper's grasp, but he held onto her. He relented a moment, and let her catch her breath before starting again.

"No, no," Erin cried, and pawed at Hopper's arms. "No more," she said between laughs.

"You had enough?" Hopper asked, his mouth inches from hers. She nodded, and he brought his mouth down on hers. He kissed her deeply a few moments before he grasped the front tails of his shirt that Erin had donned. In a primal moment, Hopper pulled the two sides apart, parting the few buttons Erin had fastened from the fabric.

Erin exhaled in surprise. This side of Hopper was unexpected, but not unwelcome. He looked down at her with urgency. He held her gaze a moment, waiting for permission, verbal or nonverbal.

Erin looked up at Hopper, running both hands up his arms, and coming to rest at the nape of his neck. She nodded, and held his gaze through heavily lidded eyes.

Hopper lowered himself slightly, and thrust forward, finding Erin's already-wet center. She moaned as she adjusted yet again to his size. Hopper immediately began thrusting, gentle at first, but picking up in urgency.

Erin gripped Hopper's hair, buried her face in his shoulder. They continued like this for several minutes, until Hopper and Erin both began to sweat.

"Erin…" Hopper said, nearing his climax.

"Don't stop," Erin whispered into his ear. "Don't stop, Jim."

This sent him over the edge, and they both came at once, gripping each other tighter, slowing their pace until they were spent. When they finally reached the bottom, they pulled back from one another and shared a few sweet kisses. A few baby hairs had been plastered to her forehead in the sweat of exertion, and he smoothed them back for her. He kissed her forehead, and pulled away from her, severing their connection.

When they had recovered, Erin sat up and took Jim's shirt the rest of the way off, and tossed it into a chair in the corner.

"Well, thatwill need mending," Erin said, looking down at Hopper, who had one hand behind his head, and one on his stomach.

He smiled. "Sorry," he chuckled.

"It's your shirt," Erin said, "unless you're apologizing because you think I'm going to sew those buttons back on there, in which case, I have some bad news." Erin leaned down, and paused before Hopper's mouth, whispering, "I didn't learn too many domestic skills in psychic spy school." She briefly kissed him, and laid down beside him.

"Oh, I fully expected to be sewing those back on by myself," he said, pulling her close, helping her nestle into the crook of his arm.

"Oh, okay, good," Erin said, and sighed.

"But I meant I'm sorry if that was too much for you," he said.

Erin reached into his mind and saw herself through Hopper's eyes. In his mind he replayed tearing the sides of the shirt away from each other, sending the buttons to the floor.

Erin gave a half smile. "Don't hold back with me," Erin said. "From now on, if there's something I don't want you to do, I will tell you, okay?" She stared Hopper down with a smile in her eyes.

"Okay."

"Be sure you've gotten every room," Brenner said to the men in white suits, their combat boots covered by booties to leave no trace of their presence.

"Yes sir," they all murmured, making their way through the house.

Brenner ran his hand down the small, chrome, mod table in the kitchenette of the Pearson home. He sat quietly at the head of the table, thinking about Four sitting there with Nine and Ten, eating breakfast like a normal family. Then, he imagined him and Four across from each other, Four in a cotton dressing robe, and himself in jeans and a fisherman's sweater. With one leg over the other, Brenner read the morning paper, and Four read a paperback novel, the both of them sipping morning coffee.

It was a pretty picture, but it would never happen. Not while everything stayed the way it was. He had to get her back first. He wanted her to come of her own free will, or to think it was her own free will, but he wasn't so naïve as to think that would happen. But she would come to accept it, and they would grow to be happy. In a way.

"Sir, how many in each bedroom?" One of the soldiers asked, pulling his mask away from his face.

"Two," he said, his jaw flexing. "Four in the master."

He stood, and followed the soldier back to the master bedroom, the room he knew to be Erin's. As two soldiers carefully placed surveillance equipment—microphones and cameras—Brenner filed through the clothes hanging in her closet. Most of the articles were mundane enough, but he paused at a few that led him to question where she would wear them.

Looking back at her bed, made perfectly, Brenner decided maybe no one had shared her bed. He looked in her bathroom, and saw no trace of another person's presence. But he couldn't be too careful. If anyone questioned him, he would reply that it was important to know all variables before a play was made. He only half believed it himself.

With the bugs placed, Brenner followed his soldiers out, pausing one last time before closing the front door, muttering to himself. "See you soon, my darling Four."

Erin scrubbed at the counter top, swaying slightly to the sound of George Harrison singing My Sweet Lord. She sprayed further down the line, and paused to clear the plates left by the last customers at the bar. She turned around and put the plates in the sink for Tabor to clean, and went back to the counter.

The bell above the door jingled, and in strode three men in Hawkins Police uniform. Erin smiled wildly, but stifled it when she made eye contact with Hopper. When he was on the job, things were different. They had kept a reasonable distance between each other while he worked, but today it appeared that Benny's was finally the choice lunch destination.

Erin put the rag down on the counter, and grabbed her pad and pen. She tucked her hair behind her ear, and walked over to the booth occupied by the three men.

"Officer Powell, Officer Callahan," Erin said sweetly, and breathily continued. "Chief Hopper." She cleared her throat and kept her face impassive. "What can I get you all to drink?"

The three of them ordered coffee, and Erin turned around to set a pot brewing, and to let them come up with their orders. Erin's breath caught in her chest, and she looked over at the booth. Hopper caught her gaze out of the corner of his eye, and looked back to Powell and Callahan, who continued their conversation unaware of anything passing between the proprietor of Benny's and their chief.

Erin's eyes cheated off to the side, towards the hall that led to the bathrooms, the break room, and a supply closet, and without waiting, Erin walked off and disappeared into that hallway, deciding on the supply closet.

When she clicked the dangling light switch, she had barely closed the door, when it opened again. Hopper strode in, taking off his hat (god, she loved him in that hat), and scooped Erin up into his arms immediately. They kissed passionately. Erin put her arms around Hopper's neck, allowing him to hoist her up off the ground. Her legs wrapped around his midsection, and he pressed her against the wall for support.

"Good afternoon, chief," Erin said, after the two parted for a breather.

"Ma'am," he said, ducking down for another kiss, this one lighter and sweeter.

"When can I see you?" Erin asked as Hopper let her down.

"This weekend," Hopper said, keeping his arms around Erin's waist. She could sense his sincerity, and it soothed her.

"Have you told her yet?" she asked.

Hopper sighed and shook his head. "Tonight."

"Good," Erin said with a smile. She knew he would tell Eleven. What Hopper said he would do, he would do.

"Now, my coworkers on the other hand… I won't tell them until after I tell her."

Erin nodded in mock seriousness. "Fair enough."

The two stood there, looking at each other lovingly. Erin sighed. "I have to go take some orders now, Jim. There are some very handsome men in uniforms out there, and I'd hate to keep them waiting—" Erin was cut off by Hopper gripping her sides like he was about to tickle her. She slid away from him and gripped the doorknob, leaving before him.

She made it to the counter just in time to pour three cups of coffee, and made her way over just as Hopper had sat down. When each officer had his mug, Erin pulled out her pad and stood ready to take their order.

"Have we all decided?" Erin asked.

Each of them ordered, and Erin smiled. "I'll put those orders in, and they'll be out soon."

Erin left to put the orders in, and with every step away from Hopper's booth she took, Erin felt as if she were taking one more step into a pool of ice water. She clutched at her chest, unable to continue, but still the cold progressed.

She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping the feeling would pass, but when it didn't, she opened her eyes to a dark diner. No one sat at any of the booths, and it looked like a storm was coming outside. None of the lights were on in the diner. Specks of dust flitted around the diner.

"No, no, no," Erin said, her stomach filling with dread. She knew exactly where she was. The Upside Down. But the gates were all closed. How could she be seeing this?

Her feet moved of their own volition, and she walked out to the parking lot to look at the storm brewing in the sky above—pink and blue lightning lit up the cloudy sky, and she saw the spindly legs of the shadow monster, which was walking closer and closer. It was still at least a mile away, but he was there all the same.

Erin put her hands on the sides of her temples, and squeezed her eyes shut again. "Not there, not there…" she repeated. When she opened her eyes again, she still saw the Upside Down, and as tears rolled down her cheeks, she lost consciousness and fell to the pavement.

On the other side, in the side apart from the Upside Down, Hopper rushed to his feet, and ran out into the parking lot to kneel beside Erin. He hadn't seen her until she was already out the door. Until it was too late, and she was already falling. It happened in slow motion.

He called her name as her head met the pavement.