Disclaimer: I don't own Stranger Things or any of the characters in this story.
Chapter 3: Straight from the Heart
Mike paced back and forth in his basement the next morning, butterflies in his stomach. His mind was still reeling from the previous night.
…The gig that was, then wasn't…
…The food fight…
…El's hand in his hair…
Fuck. He should have grabbed her and kissed her, not just stand there like a statue.
But NO! If he did that, he might have scared her off. She'd already been through enough, what with getting splashed in the eyes with milkshake. And anyway, what if she didn't want him to kiss her?
Okay now that's just stupid, Mike, he thought. SHE kissed ME first! She probably would have been okay with him kissing her.
But what if he was bad at kissing? He'd never kissed anyone before.
"Gahhhhhh."
He let out a moan of frustration and sunk down onto the comfy sofa. Seeing an opened bag of Doritos, he grabbed a chip and ate it. It was never too early for Doritos. A little stale, but still edible. Oh, the standards of a teenage boy…
After Mike had finished off the bag of Doritos, his brain started working again. El was the prettiest girl he had ever seen. She had a great sense of style, obviously had an interest in music, played along with his British accent…it was just easy with her, and he wanted to get to know her better.
Taking a deep breath, he decided to just jump in and call her.
He grabbed the phone off the hook – a little too aggressively, as it let out a faint ring noise – and dialed her number.
He was not, however, expecting to hear a familiar gruff voice pick up.
His eyes went wide. "Chief Hopper?"
Jim Hopper was many things. Hawkins Chief of Police. Avid watcher of "Magnum P.I." Maker of triple decker Eggo extravaganzas. Adopted father to El Hopper.
Ready to start receiving phone calls from teenage boys? Hell no.
"Yeah," he responded questioningly back at the pipsqueak on the other line. "Who do I have the displeasure of talking with this morning?"
"Um, Mike Wheeler, sir. Why are you at El's house? Did something happen? Are she and her parents okay?"
Hopper's heart started to beat a little quicker than usual. How did Mike and El meet? He knew she was supposed to go to Benny's last night with Max, but he had hoped they would just go, listen to music, and come home…be a little more inconspicuous. NOT be giving boys their phone numbers. Plus, there was the big question…how much did Mike know about El? Over the last few weeks, he'd only started telling a select few people the story that had been concocted about how and why he suddenly had a 15-year old in his care.
"This is MY house, dumbass. And I AM her parent."
Hopper smiled as he heard Mike sputter into the phone. That's right, kid, he thought. You don't know who you're dealing with.
"Uh…what?"
"Yep, she's my daughter. She didn't tell you that?"
"No, um…"
"Listen, you seem to be a little confused. Why don't you try back when you can say more than just 'uh' and 'what', okay? Have a nice day." With that, Hopper hung up the phone with a satisfied cackle.
He knew who Mike Wheeler was. Admittedly, there could have been a lot worse calling his house. Mike was a good kid – squeaky clean with an even squeakier clean family. But…he was still a teenager, and teenagers were known to be assholes some or most of the time.
…And speaking of teenagers, he heard footsteps coming down the hallway from the bathroom. It was time to get some answers.
El woke up late, having been physically and emotionally tired after the events of last night. But she awoke with a smile on her face, remembering her time with Mike. She couldn't wait to talk to him today.
But…oh no. She still had to have a chat with Hopper about the fact that Mike was going to call. No matter. She needed to shower first. That always helped her calm down.
As El lathered up her hair to the desired consistency, she took a deep breath in and out. Her shampoo was lavender scented. She fell in love with the scent after Hopper brought her a bouquet of lavender after he got home from work one day. She took one sniff and was hooked. That original bouquet was dried now, but she still kept it hanging in her room. Plus, it was purple!
Purple was not a color she got to see a lot of. There were plenty of grays and browns in the confines of the Hawkins lab, but not purple. It was one of her favorites. To El, purple meant freedom.
She got out of the shower and was starting to dry off when she heard Hopper laugh. Probably watching "Magnum P.I." again. He couldn't get enough of that show. Sometimes, she and Max would watch it with him. Hopper thought himself a perfect replica of Tom Selleck, and would often say so. Max would then quickly add that just because he had a mustache, that did not mean he looked like Tom Selleck. Maybe that's why Hopper picked up a couple of those loud, button-down shirts from the store…
Her stomach growled, reminding her that she needed to eat breakfast. She threw on some clothes and quickly padded down the hallway. "Good morning, Hop."
Hopper turned around, an overly sweet smile on his face. "Morning, sunshine," he greeted enthusiastically. "How's my girl this morning?"
El frowned in confusion. He was never this chipper in the morning. Until he had about 5 coffees in him, Hopper was pretty monosyllabic.
"Fine…why are you so happy?"
Hopper carried two plates of Eggos to the breakfast table and gestured for El to sit down. "I can't be happy? I've got a good job, a tasty breakfast, and a beautiful daughter…I'm a lucky guy."
"Okay. Cool," El said, still mildly confused.
"Yep, cool," agreed Hopper. "So tell me, how was Benny's last night? Was the music good? Food good? Give any boys your phone number?"
So that's what this was about, thought El. She put her fork on her plate and looked down, her face heating up. "How did you find out about that?"
"Mike called when you were in the shower. He seemed pretty shocked it was me on the other end of the phone – got all tongue-tied. I told him to call back when he sounded a little more sure of himself."
El gasped. "You WHAT?! What else did you say to him? You weren't mean to him were you?"
"Hey, don't you think I should be the one asking questions? You give a boy your phone number and he calls here…I mean, what else happened? Did you tell him where you live or about your powers? Have any cozy chats about the lab? You have to be careful about what you say, for Christ's sake!"
"I'm not stupid," El said, defensively. "I didn't tell him anything. Mike is nice. He helped me."
Hopper snorted. "Helped how? He stick his tongue in your mouth or something?"
El's eyes began welling up at the tone of Hopper's voice. She wordlessly got up from her seat and walked into her room, slamming the door behind her.
"Shit," Hopper muttered, laying his head in his hands. He needed a cigarette. Digging around in his pockets, he found one, walked onto the porch, and lit it. He took a few deep drags to clear his head, then started to try and process the conversation they'd just had.
He hadn't meant to be cruel. God knows HE was the one sticking his tongue in plenty of ladies' mouths when he was a teenager. That was rude to say. In his heart of hearts, he knew that El would never jump in so quickly…or even Mike for that matter. It didn't excuse any of his behavior, but Hopper was worried sick. In the back of his mind, he was always worried that someone from the lab was going to find out where El was. Sure, they'd covered their tracks wonderfully. El was now allowed out a little more, and her appearance had changed a lot. But that didn't mean the risk was completely gone.
Adding to Hopper's worry was that El was growing up fast. She had started getting interested in clothes, she was so smart – adding to her vocabulary every day, and had started noticing boys. Up until this point, they'd only been the unattainable kind in movies or TV shows. But the boys in the real world, these were the ones who could hurt her. He wanted to stop her from getting hurt for as long as possible, but he knew that wasn't realistic. Getting hurt was part of life, and part of growing up. Still though, if Mike and El were going to be hanging out more, there were going to have to be some ground rules.
Stubbing out his cigarette butt on the porch railing, Hopper went back inside to try and coax El out of her room. They needed to talk.
He approached her door with some trepidation. You did not want to piss off a telekinetic teenager.
"Hey El," Hopper said softly, "Honey, can you open the door please?"
"Go away," she replied as she thumbed through one of the magazines Max brought over.
"El, please. I want to talk to you."
"Well, I don't want to talk to you." El could think of lots of things she'd rather be doing right now. Talking with Hopper was not one of them.
"That's fine. I'll talk, you listen." Hopper slid down the wall until he was sitting next to her closed door. "Sweetheart, I'm sorry about what I said to you earlier. It was cruel. Even if you HAD kissed Mike, it's not any of my business to throw it back in your face. I just worry about you, and I want you to be safe."
"I WAS safe with Mike," El replied. Shit. So much for not talking to Hopper.
"I know you were. Much as I hate to admit it, Mike's a decent kid. But you growing up…that's not all that worries me. Every day, I worry that one of those assholes from the lab is going to find you – that they're going to take you away and I'll lose you. And I can't lose you, El," Hopper explained, his voice beginning to tremble.
There was silence for a long time on the other side of the door. Hopper thought maybe she had gone back to ignoring him. However, he was pleasantly surprised to hear the doorknob turn and for the door to swing open.
He didn't waste time, quickly scrambling to his feet and walking inside. El was seated on her bed, ankles crossed and arms folded across her chest.
Hopper gestured to the foot of the bed. "Can I sit down?"
El shrugged. "I guess."
Damn teenagers, he thought. So infuriating and so loveable at the same time.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Hopper thought it was going to be him that broke the silence. Surprisingly though, it was El who spoke first.
"You won't lose me, Dad."
Hopper grinned hugely, despite the worry he still felt. For the most part, El continued to call him Hopper or Hop. But every so often – and it seemed to be becoming more frequent now – she would call him Dad. It made his insides turn to mush.
"Thank you, sweetheart. But you just don't know. We've done all we can to protect ourselves, but what if it's not enough? What if the bad men find you?"
"Then I'll crush their brains," replied El matter-of-factly.
Hopper started to laugh until he saw how serious her face was. "What?"
"I have powers. I'm stronger than them."
"Yeah, you probably are. But you can't go draining your energy like that. I see what happens to you when you use your powers too frequently."
It was true. El would turn practically comatose and would need to spend hours resting and refueling.
"That's why," Hopper continued, "I think it would be better for everyone if the bad men just didn't find you at all. That's why we've played it safe for so long."
"But I'm tired of playing it safe," confessed El. "Last night was fun. I want to keep having fun."
Hopper patted her leg. "I know you do, kid. And I do want you to have a social life. So that's why I think…it might be okay to continue that."
El's eyes widened infinitesimally. "What does that mean?"
"It means…that you can invite Mike over here."
"REALLY?! What about Lucas, Dustin, and Will?"
Christ, there were more of them, thought Hopper. "Now hang on. We've got to set a few guidelines first. We will start with Mike, and ONLY Mike. I'm going to pick him up and bring him here. I'm going to observe. Maybe if I'm generous, I'll feed him something. There will be no funny business on my watch. We are going to sit and talk. And only then will I determine whether or not you can continue to see him."
"Can we go in my room?"
"Why would he need to go in your room?"
"So that we can listen to music. I like music. He likes music. He plays guitar."
"Okay, we'll listen to music. We can start with my favorite song – You Don't Mess Around with Jim."
El rolled her eyes. "Nooooo. Not that song."
Hopper looked offended. "What's wrong with it?"
"You do that weird dance when you play it. It's creepy," El explained with a shudder.
"I do not dance creepy. ANYWAY, we're getting off subject," he huffed. "Do we have a deal?" With that, Hopper stuck out his hand for El to shake.
The thought of seeing Mike again was too much to resist, even with Hopper's stupid restrictions in place. El smiled and grasped his hand. "Deal."
"Okay, good. Now, I'm starving so I'm going to finish breakfast. But I believe you have a phone call to make."
El frowned in confusion. "A phone call?"
"Jesus, who have we been talking about this whole time? Call Mike, and tell his ass to be ready to go later."
She didn't have to be told twice. With a squeal, she jumped off the bed and ran out to where the phone was.
Hopper let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. He really hoped he wouldn't regret this.
Hola, readers! What did you think of our overprotective/snarky Hopper? He's so much fun to write. Anyway, the drama will start to ramp up a bit in the coming chapters. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.
I'm going to try and crank out another update before I leave on vacation next weekend. So keep your eyes peeled.
Of course, this chapter's title inspiration is courtesy of Bryan Adams! Please leave me a review!
