Weeks went by without much happening. Julie was getting accustomed to working at the coffee shop, having not been too big of a transition from her last job. It was boring most days and she got pretty accustomed to her customers.

Nancy Wheeler was a regular – kind of. Julie noticed that she would come in brooding and leave in a calmer mind frame. She'd brought in Joyce's son Jonathan a few times which always made Julie hesitate. Jonathan was a nice kid but the memories he had, the things he'd think of during the day were so loud and hard for Julie to tone out even from across the room. She'd often take her break after a while if he were there, it made it easier to cope with.

Joyce came in sometimes when she knew the two of them were going to be there. She told the kids that it was because of the coffee, but later had admitted to Julie that she wanted to keep an eye on them. 'They always find their ways into some kinda trouble," she'd said.

Trouble it was. Billy had been back a few times when Nancy was there, almost like he was trailing her. She'd heard her mention to Jonathan that Billy was after someone named Steve. He still made her uncomfortable, even if he wasn't planning anything.

A few regulars were your typical expectation from a small-town. Some were always on the run, grabbing a coffee to go and then taking off again without a conversation. Then there were others who were slow-going, calming, and always asked questions Julie wasn't ready to respond to. She found herself fibbing about some aspects of her life if they asked, concocting some lie that she knew she'd never be able to keep up with.

And then there was Jim. He started coming a few Mondays, but would periodically stop for a brew. More often than not he'd get called off somewhere or say he was headed out. She wondered if he were fibbing half the time too. There were times she'd glance out the window and watch him walk to Melvad's instead of his truck.

Yet there were times he'd take a seat, run his hand down his facial hair, and sip his coffee while Julie cleaned up or served the next customer. He'd always find a way to slip in a conversation, though they were never long, and she always found him looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She felt like he was inspecting her, trying to figure her out.

Hopper found himself exhausted one morning. It'd been a long night. He'd sort of mentioned to Jane about Julie, said that there was someone else that was like her. It started a slew of questions that he wasn't ready to answer and he realized he wasn't ready for them to meet. It had been way too soon for him to say anything.

Once again, Jim lay awake at night concocting all of these possibilities in his head. Maybe Julie was sent by Brenner – some type of manipulation – befriending him, getting close to Jane so she can take her back to Brenner.

It sounded ridiculous, he knew, but he couldn't shake these kinds of thoughts. His mind wouldn't let up, drifting into different possibilities all night. Yet underneath it all he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he knew these weren't the truth. Eventually he tired and drifted off to sleep but the dreams this rest gave him woke him right up once again. It went on like that for hours.

Jane was still angry when she woke up, he could feel the tension in the cabin. He'd refused to answer some questions, admitted that he didn't know the answers to others, and denied her meeting Julie.

"She was at Will's," Jane announced over breakfast. Hop stilled. "Weeks ago."

"Yeah."

"I want to meet her."

"Soon, kid. Okay?"

It felt like a repeat of a year ago when he denied her from seeing Mike, when she'd thrown a royal temper tantrum and used her powers on the furniture in the house. This time, though, she hadn't done all that. Instead she just stormed to her room and locked herself in.

"Jim? Jim…" Julie's voice brought him back to the moment and not the memory from that morning. "Do you want more coffee?" she raised the pot beside him.

"Yeah, thanks,"

Julie eyed him. "You're distracted today."

"Yeah…" he thought about telling her. Glancing over his shoulder he noted no one in the shop at the moment. "Jane's…uh…kinda pissed at me."

Julie stilled. This was the first time he'd talked about her in weeks and he never gave her any personal moments from his home.

"Oh?" was all she said.

Hopper swallowed hard. "She wants to meet you and she's mad that I've hidden you from her this long."

Julie tried to calm her rapid heartbeat, wanting to take it gently so he didn't drop the subject. She brought the coffeepot back behind the counter, wiped things up, didn't make eye contact.

"You have your reasons I'm sure. She probably just doesn't want to hear them."

Hopper grew silent then, focusing on his coffee mug. "Yeah. Reasons…" he grunted.

He was questioning these reasons and it pissed him off that he couldn't figure out what was the right thing to do. He'd pussyfooted around mentioning it to Joyce – she'd know what to do – but that meant that he'd have to out Julie as one of Brenner's fucked up experiments.

Julie narrowed her eyes at that. "What?"

Eyes quickly darted her way when she raised her voice. "Uhhhh…"

Julie could feel her anger rising. She rounded the counter, unable to reign her annoyance back in. This had been going on far too long. She'd been waiting patiently for him to come around, let his little secret out. Jane went to school, for God's sake – right? All Julie had to do was hang around Joyce's house and soon enough Jane would be there.

"Is this still about you not trusting me, Jim?" she came toward his table, could read that his answer was 'yes'. "What else do I have to fucking do to prove it to you that I'm not the enemy here?"

Hopper sat silent, irritated by her outburst but mostly amused. He was starting to trust her if he were honest – he was just getting in his own way.

"How'd you get out this last time?" Hopper spoke it in a slow, gruff voice, never losing her gaze.

Julie's face reddened as the embarrassment crept up her spine. She wasn't prepared to tell him that story, not entirely. Hop watched her, bringing his coffee mug to his lips. She wasn't going to tell him and he knew that.

"Jim…" she felt deflated.

He shrugged, standing at full height which made Julie feel even smaller. One slow movement he removed his wallet and grabbed a few bucks. Two fingers held the bills and he stepped forward to slide the tip into her work apron.

Julie felt him close off once again as he shifted the wallet back in his pocket, removed a cigarette from the pack, slipped it between his lips. He took a few steps toward the door and it felt like each footfall made Julie tenser.

"Jim," Julie called out. He stopped, barely turned his gaze to his left. "I, uh…I tricked him. Got him alone and knocked him out." Jim stayed silent she realized and she felt like her utterance wasn't enough for him, but she couldn't disclose everything yet. "We were outside and I just took off on foot." Still silence. "I'll tell you more, I promise. Just…not yet."

Hop processed this, surprised she even admitted anything. He found himself saying, "As I said, Jules, I have my reasons," even though he didn't believe it in full.

He left.

Julie sighed loudly, staring up at the ceiling for a moment before forcing herself to go back to work.

•••

The bell rang about a half hour before her shift ended and if this wasn't a bad day she didn't know what was. The situation with Jim just completely threw her off. She wanted to be understanding, she really did, but it was so damn hard. It wasn't that she was trying to start shit with him that morning, but she just couldn't help the frustration that came about with him not trusting her. Couldn't he feel that she wanted to keep Jane safe?

When she glanced over at the patrons she was surprised to see a group of kids.

"Do you have a bike rack?" one of them asked.

"No," she was still processing the fact that kids were coming in. "You can just leave it by the coat rack over there, actually, so they don't get stolen. Don't worry about it."

"Thank you," a few of them chimed in and Julie realized who they were.

"Wait, you guys are friends with Joyce's son, uh…" she hummed, trying to remember his name. And then a few of the friends parted in the doorway and the boy met eyes with her. Her grip tightened on the counter in front of her, a flash of his memories invading her senses. "Will," she recalled.

"Right. Hey, Ms. Preston. How are you?" the one with the curly hair came forward.

It took Julie a second to build that wall up, block out those memories of a monster inside of him, keep her cool in front of all of these kids.

"I'm doing alright. Remind me of your names again?" she asked in hopes to get her mind focused on something else. They went around the room and Julie noticed that Jane wasn't with them this time around. Curious. "I don't peg you as coffee drinkers, so what'll it be?"

"Well, uh…" Lucas stepped forward. "Cappuccino?"

Julie nodded, smiling. "Can do."

She made four of them and watched them settle in at a booth. They were whispering and glancing toward her then awkwardly smiling when she caught their glances.

Hadn't Jim said he'd told Jane about her?

As she approached the table with the drinks she overheard a whisper of, "Jane said it's her" and "how will we know?"

So they were here to snoop on her? Interesting.

"Here you guys are," she placed a drink before each of them. "It's on the house."

"Whoa, thank you ma'am!" Will exclaimed which made Julie wave him off with a smile.

Back behind the counter and cleaning up she overheard a few more comments of, "she doesn't look…weird…yanno? Like El did." Another piped in with, "I wonder what her powers are then."

"Ms. Preston?" Dustin called to her. "When did you move in?"

"Almost two months ago now."

Dustin nodded, eyes squinty as he seemed to consider this. "And where did you move from?"

"Mississippi."

He was playing detective and it made Julie laugh at their antics. In all honesty she got a more open vibe from them and she wondered how much easier it would be to talk about her powers with them than anyone else. Maybe meeting Jane wouldn't be as intimidating as she'd expected.

He couldn't think of any other questions she could tell so he went back to talking to his group. What did she appear like to them, she wondered. Did they see her as a freak or an interesting new addition to the town?

As much as her mood was sour most of the day, she was glad she got to end it on a better note.

The boys stayed until close and she let them chatter with her and each other as she closed up.

"Yeah, well my parents say I'm making my house a mess and no one's gonna want to spend time there pretty soon," Dustin laughed at the conversation he and the boys were having. "Where is your place, Ms. Preston?" he asked as she was locking the door.

"A little blue house on Habershan."

"I know where that is! Cool!"

"Well, be careful on your way home, guys," Julie said as she made her way to her car.

"Will do, Ms. Preston," Mike called back to her.

As Julie drove, she realized that if the boys were snooping on her it could only mean one thing: Jane would be seeking her out too. It was only a matter of time.