Julie was daydreaming at work, thinking back to the events from a few nights before. Dustin was picked up a little earlier than expected by his mother and the house went back to being quiet and empty so she decided to put in as many hours as she could at work, busied herself so she didn't have to be home with the silence.
She hadn't really heard from Jim since that night, not that she'd reached out to him or anything either, but…What was happening between them?
"So you're still too old for me?" Dustin approached the desk, drawing her from her thoughts.
She sighed with a shake of the head. "Dustin!"
"Kidding – I'm kidding!" he laughed. "You meet any ladies my age in here, you hook me up…" he made this growling noise.
"Freak," Lucas pulled him away. "You'll tell El where we are?" he asked Julie.
She straightened. "Jane's coming?"
"Yeah. Mike's here," Dustin rolled his eyes.
Within the half hour, Julie spotted Jane accompanied by the tallest person in the room – Jim.
Julie wanted to duck away but they made eye contact. She hated her stupid, ugly uniform…Jim always looked so good in his uniform; hers was just embarrassing.
The kids waved Jane over and she was off, making Jim double take after her.
"Hey," he approached the desk in a huff, glancing around at the place.
"Hey."
He set his gaze on her, narrowed his eyes. "What time are you open 'till?"
"9:00." At this, Jim huffed, ran a hand down his face. "What's wrong?"
"I'm on shift tonight until ten…" he groaned. "Jane's gonna be so pissed."
"She wants to stay?" Julie asked to which Jim nodded. "I can take her home."
Jim's eyes widened. "Oh, no, Jules, don't worry about it. I don't want you goin' outta your way."
"It's no problem," she insisted. He still looked hesitant. "Okay. How about I bring her home with me? You come get her, then you're the one inconvenienced," she joked.
Jim pursed his lips. "Fine," he leaned against the counter, glanced at Jane standing there with the boys. "So how screwed am I?"
Julie laughed. "Oh, totally fucked." Jim's eyes widened as his head snapped in her direction. She held her hands up in feigned innocence. "You asked."
Jim chuckled, biting his lip and distracting Julie for a moment. "Just…keep an eye on her, yeah?"
"Always do," she smiled, coming out from around the counter.
Jim eyed her as she came closer, noting her legs in those black shorts. He inwardly groaned. She didn't seem to notice.
"I owe you one," he mentioned, forcing himself to stop staring at her legs and actually make eye contact. She looked up at him with a soft smirk and a shake of her head. "What?" He drew out the 'a'.
"You owe me nothing, Chief, and you know it."
All the things he'd done to keep her safe, she owed him a hundred favors at least.
"I mean, if you're sure you wanna miss out?"
Julie raised an eyebrow, "'Miss out' on what?"
That cocky smirk was back on his face and Julie wanted so bad to see what he would do if she pushed him against that counter and kissed him until it was gone.
"Well ya see, I did this favor for Mr. McGorkin down the street at that little coffee shop and he owes me a few free mugs. Figured if you were interested…" he pursed his lips and shrugged. "But apparently not."
"So you repay favors with favors?" she nodded slowly. "I see your game, Jim."
He laughed. "You got me. Cheap as they come."
They both glanced over at the kids playing their arcade games.
"I'd like that," Julie accidentally spoke aloud and glanced over quickly upon realizing her utterance.
Jim blinked slow, not looking at her right away and she figured he was put out. His gaze did return to her and she held her breath waiting for his response.
"You free tomorrow?"
She breathed, nodded. "Yeah."
"I'll pick ya up." He decided. "Ten?"
"Sounds good." Her heart was racing. "And I'll make sure Mike does one of those above-the-shoulder hugs when he says bye to Jane tonight." She nudged him in the side.
His eyes grew wide. "They hug now?"
Julie pursed her lips so she didn't laugh at Jim's reaction. She'd noticed them hugging before Jane was picked up last time they were at the arcade together.
"Well…"
"Oh, Jesus!" Jim's voice raised and his eyes snapped in the direction of the kids again as he started to call Jane over.
Julie grasped at the sleeve of his uniform, pulling his arm down and trying to stand in the way of his view, though futile with their height difference.
"Jim, calm down. They're young. It'll be fine."
"Yeah, they're young now but this is when all those…hormones start and, and…" his ears were reddening as he stumbled over his words.
Julie couldn't help but get a laugh out of the whole situation. This fatherly version of Jim was so interesting to her because of how unnatural it felt. She could sense his fear and knew that it stemmed from his previous experiences.
"Jim, Mike's not how you were at that age, if I'm reading you right." That sentence stopped Jim in his tracks. She felt his anger flare up and then halt once he realized she wasn't insulting him, just stating facts.
He laughed, shook his head. "Sometimes I forget what you can do." He pulled out his sunglasses. "Just…keep their hands off each other if you can."
Julie rolled her eyes. "They're not grabby like you're picturing – completely innocent from what I've seen."
"Well I haven't seen, because I've got work to do." She could tell he was trying to get a rise out of her and that damn smirk was back.
"Are you insinuating that I'm not working currently?"
"What, flirting with the Chief of Police is work, sweetheart?" he winked at her which made her whole face heat up. He laughed boisterously. "I'll pick her up after work tonight."
She wanted to tell him to be safe or some witty retort but nothing came to her as she watched him walk out.
So maybe her thoughts about Joyce and Jim were wrong.
•••
Mike did, in fact, hug Jane before he left and Julie figured she'd tell Jim it was over-the-shoulders if he asked, though it was not. As the arcade emptied out and Julie shut off some games to clean the joysticks and buttons, she felt Jane watching her.
"You okay, sweetie?"
Jane nodded, looking nervously at the empty arcade. "Late."
"I didn't wanna interrupt your fun by telling you earlier. Jim's working so I'm bringing you back to my house. He'll pick you up." Julie finished cleaning the game beside Jane. "I know it's late, but if you're hungry I have some leftover banana bread I made."
The nervousness instantly left the girl and she nodded quickly.
Jane had things she wanted to talk about, it was obvious. The drive home felt long with her silence and Julie didn't want to pry into her mind to dig, she knew it would come out eventually.
It was quicker than she expected. By the time they sat down to the banana bread, Jane was staring up at her with an inquisitive look.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked Jane.
A moment's pause and then, "You said…Papa took your family. That's…terrible."
Julie hadn't expected that. The statement felt like a punch to the gut. Chills ran through her. She hadn't thought about them much.
"Yes."
"What happened?"
She wasn't sure if Jim wanted Jane to know all the details so she left them out last time they spoke, just said they were 'taken', but it was her story to tell and he couldn't keep Jane sheltered – especially after all she'd been through.
"I got out of the facility a few times and Brenner got mad. They knew who my family was. Brenner had a man run my parents off the road with his car and my sister was crashed into by the Bad Men."
"They're…dead?" she offered quietly to which Julie nodded, tears coming to her eyes as she held back a shaky breath. "Not taken. Not hurting."
Julie felt comforted by that sentiment. Jane was right. Brenner could have done much worse to them – torture, injections, experiments – but he chose to end their lives. Maybe he took mercy on her. Maybe it was because he knew their deaths would haunt her for the rest of her life. Maybe he knew she would relive that car accident every so often. Brenner was calculated. He knew exactly what he was doing.
•••
Jane was asleep by the time Jim knocked on the door. It was 11:18 when he stepped inside looking exhausted and apologetic.
"Rough night?"
"Always somethin'," he grumbled. "How long has she been out?"
"About an hour," Julie watched as he stepped into the living room. "Jim, what happened?"
He stopped, sighed, knew she was going to notice – Julie always did.
"It's fine," he spoke in monotone, sighing again as she came closer to inspect his hand.
His sleeve was unbuttoned but not rolled up and the blood was staining the cuff. She dragged him into the kitchen for better lighting and simply blinked at him.
"No hospital?"
"No."
"Jim."
"It's. Fine." He tried to turn back to the living room to wake Jane up.
"Jim Hopper, sit down," she spoke in a hushed but aggravated tone. There was that fury again and Jim inhaled sharply; slightly annoyed, slightly something else entirely.
He did as he was told.
Leave it to him to be bossed around by yet another petite woman.
She grabbed a bottle of rum, a glass, a towel, and rubbing alcohol and placed it on the kitchen table. Her eyes didn't leave his as she poured the rum. He felt like he was going to get scolded and if he weren't in so much pain he'd probably enjoy it more.
"It's not a big deal," he mumbled, taking a sip of the rum.
She pulled her chair close to his, sat down, turned his hand over, spread his fingers, and gave him a look as he seethed in pain.
"Really?"
Julie rolled up his sleeve to see a deep scratch down the sensitive skin on his forearm. His hand was gouged up and still bleeding despite the bloodstained handkerchief he'd applied pressure with. Shards of glass were in the wound still. Julie stood to get a pair of tweezers and returned before Jim could even try to leave.
Hopper glanced down at the cuts, irritated at himself for not noticing the smaller pieces of glass still there. He'd yanked the large piece out but it was dark and he hadn't noticed the rest. When he'd gotten in his car the blood was slowing. Now that he knew there was more glass, it made sense why she saw the bloodstains. Son of a bitch.
"Didn't mean to be late," he tried to change the subject.
"Jim, what happened?"
He sighed, rubbed his temples, looked at the ceiling as she started pulling at his flesh. "Jesus," he glared at her, paused, but then continued. "Robbery. Asshole slammed the door on me. I wasn't gonna wait for backup. Busted the window on his side door and let myself in. Guy took off. Didn't realize I was bleeding until I arrested him."
Julie got two pieces of glass out before Jim pulled away.
"You wanna leave them in there, that's fine, but they could get more imbedded and infected and that'll be on you, Jim."
She had a point.
She continued to pull at the skin for another five minutes and Jim slammed the rum down, now two glasses deep. He was tired and his eyes focused on her small hand holding his palm down, spreading the skin. It'd been the most skin-to-skin contact he'd had in a while. He felt warm. From the rum or the pain or her, he didn't know, but a part of him welcomed it. The kid sleeping in the other room, Julie fixing him up and letting him slam booze, it wasn't the worst way to spend a Thursday night.
"This is gonna hurt," her voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked at her mouth, eyes half-lidded from exhaustion. It'd been a long day. Julie dabbed the rubbing alcohol on the wound and Jim almost went through the roof. "Big baby," she whispered, egging him on.
"Yeah?" he almost smirked through all of this. "Maybe if my nurse was gentle."
"Did you want a massage or did you want the glass out?"
Both sounded pretty good in his mind.
Pretty soon he was cleaned up, wrapped as good as an at-home treatment could be done, and standing in the doorway of the living room watching Jane sleep.
"Thank you," he grumbled, always having a hard time saying that.
"You're welcome, Jim."
"They don't give me rum at the hospital."
"Better not make this a habit," she warned, recalling a previous conversation.
He gave her another smirk before picking Jane up and carrying her to the door. Julie helped them to the car and waved as Jim backed out.