Friday mornings were always busy at Melvald's. People coming in to do their shopping for the weekend, getting supplies for whatever fun they had planned. Joyce didn't think about it much, because it would just make her sad. She had never been one of those moms who went shopping for fun things for her kids, who planned activities for the weekend. They didn't go on trips out of town or anything like that. They barely even got to have holidays. Joyce was using working those days to make time and a half to cover the cost of the meagre presents she could get for her boys.

No, Joyce Byers just stocked the shelves and stood at the register to be friendly and helpful to everyone in town who came into the general store for whatever they needed. Joyce saw everyone, but most of them barely paid her any attention. But what else was new? She just operated on automatic, scanning items and getting change and telling customers to have a nice day.

"Hi there, did you find everything alright? Oh." Joyce's usual greeting with a new customer fell as fast as her face.

"I didn't know you worked here."

She shrugged. "You didn't ask."

"I was kinda busy breaking up a fight."

Joyce glared. "We were fine."

"When's your break? Lemme get you a cup of coffee."

The question was abrupt and entirely unexpected. "I…uh…I can take fifteen in about half an hour."

"Meet me across the street. I'll be waiting."

And that was how Joyce Byers rung up a flyswatter and two rolls of paper towels for Jim Hopper, Hawkins Chief of Police, and ended up agreeing to have coffee with him.

Hopper really was surprised to see Joyce at the store ringing up customers like that. She'd always had a job when they were kids. Everyone they knew did. Hopper worked as a delivery boy for the pharmacy. Joyce worked as a waitress at the diner where Hopper was sitting and waiting at right now. Weird how so much had stayed the same in Hawkins after so many years.

But shit, he'd wanted more for Joyce. She was smart and driven, and if she wasn't so damn shy and afraid, if she wasn't blinded by the dim and flickering yet inexplicably alluring light of Lonnie Byers, maybe she would've done something more in her life. She'd talked about maybe saving up to go to college. Why hadn't she? Lonnie was probably why, but Hopper didn't really know. He hadn't been here. Maybe if he'd been here, things might've been different. But maybe it was better for everyone that Joyce hadn't been sucked into the swirling vortex of shit that was everything in Jim Hopper's adult life.

"Hey, sorry to keep you waiting. There's a weird rush on Friday mornings for some reason."

It almost made him laugh the way Joyce just barreled in like that. She sat down in the booth across the table from him, looking flustered. She had that deer in a headlights look about her.

"Are you on a break or out on a call or something?" she asked, not even waiting for him to greet her.

Hopper shook his head. "I've got the radio if anyone needs me," he said, tilting his head to the radio clipped to his shoulder.

Joyce nodded in understanding. "So uh…what did you want to talk about?"

That was probably a weird way to start out. But that's why he'd asked her to get coffee with him at her break, right? Joyce assumed that's what this was about.

Hopper didn't answer that question. He waved the waitress over so Joyce could order her coffee, and she just asked for it black.

"You used to like sugar in your coffee," he recalled when the waitress left.

She shrugged. "Easier this way."

It was comforting, in a way, to know that the woman in front of him was the same high school girl he'd left behind all those years ago. Never wanting to cause a fuss about herself—but oh man, watch out if you ever got on her bad side for anything or anyone she cared about. But god, didn't she do anything for herself? Even sugar in her damn coffee? Hopper was pretty sure she didn't do a damn thing for herself or what she wanted, and it was fucking tragic.

The coffee arrived and Joyce murmured thanks to the waitress and took a sip.

"Coffee's better now than when you used to serve it here," Hopper recalled.

"It is, yeah. You know, I haven't been in here in years. I keep expecting to see everything be the same as when we were in high school," she said.

"Lot of things in town are, looks like. Lot of things changed, but a lot's the same," he remarked. "And I guess that's why I wanted to talk. We didn't really start out on the right foot the other day at your place."

"You always hated Lonnie," Joyce said knowingly.

"Yeah, well, he's a dipshit," Hopper growled.

"He's my husband!" she defended, getting a little aggressive.

Hopper put his hand up to stop her. She was getting feisty, and they didn't have time for that right now. Frankly, he didn't have the energy for it right now. As it was, he was starting to get that feeling in his gut that made him want to take a couple pills. "We can talk about that another time. I know you've gotta get back to work," Hopper said, shutting her down.

Joyce sighed, calming herself down. Really, she had no interest in defending Lonnie to anyone. But something about having Hopper sitting in front of her and calling Lonnie names just made her crazy. He was right though, they didn't really need to get into all that now. Joyce took another sip of coffee and asked, "You haven't answered my first question yet. What did you want to talk about?"

He shrugged. He didn't really have anything in particular in mind. But he saw her in the store and Lonnie obviously wasn't there, and Hopper was on duty but he wasn't busy with anything. Now seemed like a fine time to catch up. Bury the hatchet. He told her, "Before I showed up at your house, I hadn't seen you in twenty years. I just…I just wanted to know how you were. Tell me about your life."

She studied his face. He looked so different. He was the same man, but he was different. For all that he didn't know what her life had been, she was equally curious about his. What had happened to him in those years when they hadn't spoken to each other? What had happened to make his sweet blue eyes turn hard and sad? What had happened to make the big, smiling buddy of hers turn into this gruff hulking giant before her? He had a weariness and a heaviness to him that had nothing to do with age or size. Something had happened to him. But he'd asked her first, so she'd give him an answer. "Well, um, Lonnie and I got married about a year after graduation. You've seen our house. You've seen my job. I've been working at Melvald's for about eight years. Me and Lonnie have two kids. Jonathan, he's fifteen, and Will, he's ten."

It shouldn't have surprised him that she had kids. It's what people did, right? Got married and had kids. That's what Hopper had done. Hadn't worked out so good for him. Joyce, though, of course she had kids. He could bet she was a great mom.

"And it hasn't been twenty years," Joyce added.

Hopper frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You haven't seen me in twenty years, but I saw you."

"When?" he asked in surprise.

"At your mom's funeral. Jonathan was barely a year old and I had him with a neighbor so I could pay my respects. I couldn't stay long, but I saw you there. In your uniform," she explained.

Joyce remembered that day like it was yesterday. Mrs. Hopper's funeral had been very well-attended. She was always the winner of every bake sale in town, and she helped out at the elementary school, and everyone just loved her. Joyce had loved her. She was the mother that Joyce wished she'd had. And when she'd died of a heart attack at barely fifty, all of Hawkins had mourned. Joyce cried for two days, it felt like. And when she'd snuck into the back of the funeral chapel, she saw Hopper there in his neat army uniform and his face cleanly shaved and his hair buzzed like they did to kids in those days.

"I was really sorry to hear about that, when it happened," Joyce added. "She was a special lady. I'm glad you could come home for her funeral at least."

He nodded. He didn't like thinking about when his mother died. He'd attended too many funerals for people he loved. "I wasn't deployed anywhere, so they let me go on leave. My aunt took care of most of it. I was only here for the day before I had to head back. I would've said hi if I'd known you were there. If I'd had time to stay a little longer."

A sad smile crossed her face. "No you wouldn't have."

"No," he conceded. "I guess I wouldn't have."

This was all getting to be a little too much for Joyce. Especially for a Friday morning. "Listen, I gotta get back to work," she said, moving out of the booth to leave. "Thanks for the coffee."

"Anytime," Hopper answered, getting out of the booth too. It was habit more than anything else, standing up when a woman leaves the table. He was in a police uniform and not an army uniform now, but they beat those protocol lessons into you. You gotta behave while in uniform.

Joyce looked up at him in slight awe as he stood. He really was kind of a giant, especially next to her. "Well, see you around," she said awkwardly.

She turned and left before he could really answer, but he said after her, "See you around, Joyce." He was pretty sure she heard him.