STRANGER THINGS:
THE MISSING TWO DAYS
Damn it's been forever but my love of Jopper brought me back. This story has notes of war, radiation poisoning and most likely love scenes later on in future chapters
He should have been more elated, he wasn't, he should have been more at peace with it but he wasn't. Love was like a friend showing up at his front door after years of absence, of not talking. Eleven was different, eleven was a lesson for them both, A Semester of Familial Love by James Hopper: Teaching her genuine hugs, concerns, arguing without blowing the house up, falls, scraps.
Joyce was a better teacher in that sense, she had instinct and despite not knowing her own Mother, El recognised that instinct and responded the way nature only could.
He LOVED her for that alone, he loved her for years as a fantasy but here in the flesh was a reason. The awe and the mystery of motherhood, despite the deadbeat ex-husband and rigid parents, Joyce Kaplinsky- Byers was the perfect mother.
"Were you hurt?" Jim Hopper panted as he looked down at her ashen cheek.
"A few scorches maybe on my neck but I'm good, all those Harryhausen movies finally paid off huh?"" Joyce smirked.
"Yeah well, I had practise" Hop shrugged but saw her face darken, Christ, was he always this blunt?
"It's all over with now, we made it see? We made it?" He took her shoulder and lightly clasped it, there was something stupidly jubilant and worse, casual about it. He didn't know why...Yes he did
He was alive, he was in love and he was terrified.
Terrified to live and terrified to love, in a way a man needs love not just the fervour but the feeling and the need, the insatiable need of belonging.
The shack wasn't a home but it would do, for Eleven didn't know beyond white tile and hospital bed, he had no pride beyond her keeping safe every day.
"Can't we move to a Cor- Cordon? " She would sometimes ask much to Hopper's annoyance - peer pressure even getting to the most sheltered and unknowing of teens.
"Condominium, no I don't have that kinda cash, kid. Beside we wouldn't be more obvious if we painted it red" He made a joke like he always did just as a precaution.
The Jan Hammer theme would play and she'd sit and watch her Sonny Crockett.
Joyce? Joyce was the reality he couldn't face - he was condemned, either via cancer or lung disease in later life but he was condemned.
He hoped her genes were stronger that his should she want children in her forties. The rumours of men twice his age that saw Japan in that Nuclear Sunrise were rife and hard to take.
Generations of the Nagasaki/Hiroshima curse was Man trying to be God for Two.days and ended up being the Devil instead.
And who was James Stephen Hopper anyway?
He was an Alchemist of War, why on earth would she want that?
"What's say we go home, Hop?" She smiled as she went on for a hug like a child embracing an oak tree and yet she managed to playfully sway him from side to side.
"Lasagna's awaiting" He whispered, he pecked her quickly before she had time to balk backwards he smiled and sniggered against her mouth.
Joyce kissed him but not before whacking him on the chest, he laughed into her mouth then kissed her with more sincerity, she relaxed into his arms and he was glad of it.
She pulled back and took his hand to lead him from that arena, her very own gladiator. He lingered there and he made sure she noticed
"Listen, in case I forget, in case all that at the Church and the Security box was impulse. I wanna say thank you? Thank you for coming back for me...It means, it MEANS...well it just means..." He babbled so awkwardly
The Arena had an elevated concrete plinth around it, Little Bird Byers used that to her advantage. She stepped, swiftly turned around and veered into a kiss while both of them grabbed each other for balance...Again.
"Listen to me, Jimmy Hopper - You saved my son from hell itself, of course I was gonna get you back. Gorbachev, himself wouldn't have stopped me!" She cooed and Hop grinned but the tears came for he was loved again after so damn long, he was loved again.
"Joyce I, I really do I...With every fibre of my being I..." He pawed her face but the words wouldn't come, his eyes blazed every syllable but the words wouldn't come.
"HEY LOVE BIRDS!! I FOUND THE HELIPAD, GET OUT OF YOUR LOVE MENAGERIE AND LET'S GET THE FUCK HOME!!" Murray bellowed way above them.
The Couple allowed his ranting to guide them Three floors up towards an ice-laden, dangerously open helipad where 'Katinka' awaited them.
They all squished in the Soviet Helicopter like it was the worst game of Twister any one of them would ever play. Murray stood most of the way as the two said love birds squatted in the gap between the pilots seats.
Hop spent most of the time emulating a safety harness around Joyce's tiny frame. To keep himself in humour deep, deep in his mind was the A. Team Theme
"Love it when a plan comes together" He sighed cynically to himself
Nobody heard him from the sound of the rotor blades above them and he was glad. He kissed Joyce on the cheek and continued to lock his arm around her until they reached their destination: Cape Oliga.
The Duffers sacrificed this likely scene for the refugee centre with Robyn and Dustin. Good writing had hard choices