[A/N] Hey, everyone! Thank you for reading my fanfic so far and supporting my work. Let me know if I should continue this story!

"When is soon?!" – Jane Hopper.

Hawkins, Indiana.

He felt a pair of tiny hands gripping his shoulder and shaking him on the couch. Half conscious and still unaware of what time it was, he said something unintelligible and rolled to the side. The hands kept angrily shaking him.

"Dad", a young feminine voice softly called.

Sara.

Hopper opened his eyes and gasped in shock. The overwhelming astonishment only last for a moment before he recognized that he was on his couch at his house in Hawkins. That place wasn't Indianapolis and the little girl who desperately tried to wake him up sure wasn't Sara. He didn't know exactly how to feel about it.

"Stop, it, kid!", he mumbled "Just a few more minutes, alright?"

An invisible force held Hopper by his arm and it violently pulled him to the side, comically causing him to fall off from the couch to the floor. Once out of the couch, he untangled the blanket from his legs and looked up at Jane. She wore a purple sweatshirt and blue jeans instead of her pajamas.

"Hey, what have we talked about the powers?", he asked in a reprehensible tone as he supported his hand on the coffee table and got up from the floor.

"Late", she said.

Hopper immediately looked at his watch and frowned.

"Oh, shit!", he said, walking past the kid towards his room.

The house by the lake had never looked so tidy before. The usual cans of beer ashtrays had been replaced by flower vases, picture frames that contained the few photos that Hopper and Jane had taken in the short time she had been allowed to interact with the outside world and a little fishbowl on the table next to the TV on which a tiny goldfish called Eggo – The name was chosen by the girl –, peacefully swum around with no certain route.

The chief was never fond of animals, but he figured it would be good for Jane to have a pet so she could learn about responsibilities, even if all it took to keep Eggo alive was feeding it once a day and cleaning the bowl once every two months.

The clothes that would usually be scattered around the place were now folded inside the drawers in Hopper's old bedroom, which now his daughter occupied until the man could afford another bed. The old bookshelf was moved from the cabin and now it stood beside the couch, holding many books Jane would sometimes pick up and try to read, despite being unable to read most of the difficult words she'd eventually find in them.

Hopper opened one of the drawers and picked up his uniform. He was starting to take the white shirt and the pair of jeans he wore, when his eyes met Jane's silent facial expression full of expectancy.

"What's the matter, kid?", he asked.

"Movie", she said "You promised".

What a father I am, he thought as he closed the door to change his pants. He had promised that he'd take her to the movies that weekend when she asked him about the matter, but he would not have remembered it if she didn't.

"Y-yeah", he opened the door and put the police shirt on "Look, I should've been more specific about that. I have to go to work today, but I can take you la…".

Hopper felt a nearly physical sting on his heart when her curious face full of expectancy faded to a disappointed frown. Just like the words 'lie' and 'promise', the words 'later' and 'soon' had a heavy meaning to the girl and he had to be careful when using those. He headed to the bathroom, where he started brushing his teeth.

"Oh, come on, kid. I'm gonna take you tomorrow, okay? I won't have to work at all and if Flo calls me, I'll tell her I'm spending some time with you. I'm sure she'll understand", he spat the toothpaste in the sink and turned the tap off.

El nodded, but she didn't change her expression. Whenever he promised her a perfect scenario in a near future, she'd usually suspect something was off. He didn't always kept his promises and had the awful habit of getting late for almost everything. Still, the girl struggled to believe him.

"Alright, see you tonight, kid", he said, patting her head and walking to the front door.

"Will I have to stay?", she asked without moving from her place.

Hopper was already holding the knob, ready to turn it, when she said that. A heavy guilt fell on his stomach like an ice cold rock. The cop still remembered Owens' warning about taking the girl outside before one year had past, but he knew how much she had been through. Keeping her inside any longer would be painful to her. That's why he'd take her out whenever he had the opportunity to do so, but with some understandable limitations.

He knew how much Jane hated being inside the house during the day. Of course, she loved reading books, watching TV and having the special classes Mr. Clarke gave her almost every evening, but that only worked for a couple hours before it started to get old. Whenever Hopper left the girl in the house and came back at night, he could see the upset look on her face and it wrecked his heart.

He let go of the knob and turned around.

"Actually, I was thinking uh…", he started in his slow and clumsy way to try to fix things with words "Since it's Saturday and you pretty much have the whole day free, why don't you spend the day at your friend Michael's house and I come back at night to pick you up?".

A smile lit up her face and her heart started racing like she was about to go on a little adventure. Hopper didn't get to see Jane grin like that very much, but when she did, it was kind of magical. He couldn't help but let a childish smirk appear on his own face.

"Alright, go brush your teeth real quick before we leave, okay?", he said and the girl ran to the bathroom, where she picked up a little pink toothbrush and opened the tap.

As Hopper watched the excited girl brushing her teeth as fast as she could, he tried to fight back the tears, which proved to be harder than fighting those dogs that crowded the lab back in November.

How long had it been since he had seen his little girl smiling at him like that? How long had it been since he had to tie his daughter's shoes or to tell her to eat her diner before it got cold? How long had it been since he had been a father? The chief sighed, leading his shaky hand to his pocket to get a cigarette, but he detained it. He had promised her he'd quit smoking.

He had to stop promising things.

"Alright, kid, hurry up! I'm gonna be late!", he barely had to say it before she came back from the bathroom and ran up to him, standing still as if silently telling him she was ready to go.

It was Hopper's time to grin. It didn't matter how long it had been since he had a daughter, he still felt like a million bucks when he saw that look on his little girl's face.

"That doesn't sound good…", Mike said with urgency.

"Ah, crap! I knew it was too simple!", Dustin spoke, throwing his hands up in the air in a vague gesture of frustration.

"What doesn't sound good?", Will asked.

"Th… This hissing… It's like it's coming from everywhere…", the dungeon master said in a low voice that demanded silence from the rest of the group "But the forest is clear, there's nothing in sight".

"Goddamn it, Mike, what is it?!", Lucas asked, slamming his hands against the table.

"You don't know", the boy answered with a tricky smirk on his face "You only know it's near".

"Screw it, I'll roll a perception!", Max grabbed the red D20, threw it on the table and smiled when she saw the result "Seventeen, Wheeler".

Surrounded by boxes of junk food – Most of them emptied by Dustin –, the Party played Dungeons and Dragons. It had been a while since they last played the game, mostly because Mike never managed to come up with a decent plot for their adventures while El was gone, but now with things as normal as they could get and with a brand new member added to the Party, it felt like the right time to get the old game out of its box once again. It took them some time to teach Max how to play, but once she learned all the rules she turned out to be an excellent rogue.

The girl was developing her skills at the game in a frighteningly fast rate, turning out to do better than her friends during most fights. For their the sake of their dignity, Lucas, Will and Dustin claimed that she was only lucky to get high numbers in the die rolls, but deep inside they knew that she was way better than them at that game, too.

Mike blinked, a bit surprised by the smart move of his friend and adapted the narrative to the new circumstances.

"MadMax looks up, mistrustful of her surroundings, only to see a lizardfolk that was perched on a branch jumping at her with a knife on each hand!", he continued, placing a little plastic piece shaped like a biped lizard on the board.

"Well, shit", she said, dropping back on the chair and thinking of her next move.

"I'll shoot fire arrows at it!", Lucas promptly said, grabbing the D20.

"Are you kidding me?", Dustin asked "Don't waste fire arrows on it! We don't know how many others can it be!".

"Waste?!", the other boy repeated "Uh, I'm pretty sure that I'm about to save Max's life right now".

"Okay, then you'll run out of fire arrows!", Dustin complained.

"What's so bad about it?", Lucas asked.

"Nothing, just don't come crying for Will to revive you after you die".

"Lightning bolt!", Will yelled, hastily grabbing the die from Lucas' hand and throwing it on the table.

The D20 bounced on the board a few times until it finally stopped and showed the number painted white on one of its sides.

"Holy shit, it's a 20!", Max said.

"Boo ya!", Will celebrated, giving little punches in the air, which was an unusual reaction for him.

The Party laughed and celebrated for a few joyful moments until Mike decided it was time to get back to the narrative.

"Will the Wise raises his staff and points it at the creature while it's falling. His arm follows the huge reptile like it is being drawn to it. The wizard's eyes go bright blue and a wave of blinding light comes out of the orb of the staff. A mighty lighting pierces the air towards the lizardfolk, making the roaring sound of a hundred thunders, and…!", the boy raised his arms, ready to slam his hands against the table.

"Michael!", Mrs. Wheeler opened the basement door and called from upstairs, unknowingly destroying the climax of the kids' adventure.

"Mom, we're in a crucial moment of our campaign!", the boy said, turning around on his chair to face his mother.

"I know, I know", she said almost comprehensively "But Hopper is here".

Without a word, Mike left his chair and hurried upstairs as if Hopper would leave if he didn't arrive soon enough. Actually, the chief wasn't his main concern at the moment. Sure, he was a badass and helped the Party and Joyce countless times. The man even fought dozens of demodogs by himself. Despite all of that, Michael wasn't excited to meet him at all.

But he knew that when Jim Hopper showed up, so did Jane Hopper.

A foolish smile appeared on his face and it refused to leave when he saw her standing at the front door, next to the imposing figure of the chief.

"Mike!", she said softly as if they had been apart for another year and wrapped him in a warm hug.

"Hey, El", he spoke, hugging her back and searching for her lips.

"Alright", Hopper said, gently unwrapping the kids' hug before they kissed "Hey, buddy. I figured she'd like to spend the day here while I'm working. Hope you don't mind", he tried to open a friendly smile.

"No, not at all!", the boy cheerfully "Actually, the guys are over here, too!".

Jane gasped in excitement when he said that. Being outside was good, being outside with Mike was amazing, but being outside with Mike and all of their friends together, that was indescribable.

"Good. I'll pick her up at eight. And you…", Hopper said, now looking at the girl "You behave here, respect Mrs. Wheeler and remember…".

"…No powers", she completed, looking up at the man.

"Exactly. No powers. See you later", he said, ready to turn around and head for his jeep, when he felt her hugging his chest.

"Goodbye, dad", she said.

Caught by surprise, Hopper found himself instinctively hugging the girl back and kissing her in the head.

"Alright, bye, kid", the cop said, letting go of her.

Feeling his eyes starting to water, the chief patted the girl in the head and went back to the jeep that was parked on the cul-de-sac on which Mike lived. Once in the vehicle, he let out a deep and heavy sigh before turning it on. The light-brown Chevy K5 Blazer growled to life and Hopper drove it away from Maple Street, vanishing from their sight in a corner.

"Can we kiss now?", she asked, looking at Mike.

He chuckled.

"Yeah, I think so", he said.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on the tip of her feet to reach his head and give the boy a quick peck on the lips. They both smiled afterwards and just kept looking at each other for a few seconds.

"Hey, Mike! What are you doing up there?!", Dustin asked, interrupting their little moment.

"I think we should go", Mike said.

Jane simply nodded and slowly untangled their hug. They walked downstairs and El looked around the basement, smelling the familiar scent of wood that hovered in the air inside. The cozy room felt like it hadn't changed anything since the day she left, which made the place feel a lot more like home than most of Hawkins. Her little fort still stood up on its corner like her own cozy little Castle Byers and Mike's toys, even though they were fewer in number, were scattered around, simply laying on the furniture, since that was the only room of the house that Mrs. Wheeler didn't clean twice a week. A lonely lamp on a corner threw a warm and welcoming yellow light over the four kids who sat around the table.

"Hi, El", Dustin greeted her.

"Hi", Will spoke.

"Heya" said Lucas.

"Hello".

Jane's eyes stopped analyzing her surroundings when they met her. Max looked at her, offering the girl the kindest of her smiles, but it was received with only a silent death stare from Jane.

"El?", Mike asked, noticing that Eleven had stopped walking.

"Yes?", she replied, looking away from Max.

"Um… Is everything okay?".

Jane looked once more at Max in a silent promise that she wouldn't forgive the other girl at the first mistake she made and then back at Mike.

"Yes", El said and continued walking.

Mike pulled off an old blanket that covered a chair in a corner and put the chair right next to his seat so the girl could sit down at the table.

"El, you got here just in time!", Lucas said, rubbing his hands together "Will just rolled a 20 on a lightning bolt!".

"And here you were, trying to shoot fire arrows at it", Max said jocularly to the boy.

"I could have gotten a twenty, too!", he defended himself.

The redhead rolled her eyes.

"My hero", she jested.

"Alright, let's get back to the game. We still have a lot to cover today", Mike said, sitting down and preparing to continue the adventure "El, if you don't get something, feel free to ask me".

She nodded.

"Okay, so, Will the Wise feels a familiar jolt on his arm as the electricity flows from the orb of his staff towards the lizardfolk. It hits the creature in the chest and throws it back in the air. The shocking wave scatters through its whole body…!".

Jane didn't fully understand what Mike was saying, but she didn't care about the story at all. Her main concern was the girl in a red shirt who sat between Lucas and Will. Whenever she was around, Jane felt an unknown feeling very similar to anger igniting inside her. Max had appeared in their group while she was gone and became friends with Mike and the boys. Wasn't a friend someone special? Why was that girl be special to them?

As Michael kept speaking, Jane tried to draw her attention away from Max. Special or not, she meant a lot for the boys and Jane didn't want to make them sad. Especially Mike. Being near Max was bearable. Being without Mike wasn't.

"Jesus, chief. It's almost lunch time. Are you trying to break a record or something?", Powell asked from his usual spot on the table on the center of the main office of the police department, where he casually read a magazine.

"Give me a god damn break. I had to drop Jane at a friend's place", Jim said, walking past the little gate next to Florence's desk and making his way to the donut box, on which only a couple more of those were left.

"I'll never get why you decided to adopt another kid, chief", Callahan said with his feet supported on the table, next to a pile of books.

"Yeah, I… I didn't mean to adopt her at first, but it all ended up… I dunno, I figured she needed a home", Hopper spoke, grabbing a plain donut from the box.

The story Jim had told his friends and co-workers was that Jane was a girl who went missing at a very young age and presumably ran off to another town to become a street girl and eventually found her way back into Hawkins. Hopper had supposedly found her in the woods not too long after and decided to take care of her and give her a home. It seemed to be a pretty believable story for most people in Hawkins.

"Well, yeah, but it's weird that you'd want another kid at all. You barely talk about the other one", Callahan continued.

Powell was desperately gesturing for his partner to stop his sentence while mouthing 'Don't!' repeatedly, but his efforts were in vain and the damaged had already been done. The chief bit the donut.

"Yeah, you wouldn't like to talk about family if yours was torn apart, you dickhead", Hopper spoke with his mouth stuffed "I'll be in my office".

Flo got up from her desk, ready to put out the cigarette she assumed he'd be smoking – Since he had the habit of smoking at work every day for the past five years –, but for her surprise, the man didn't have it. Leaving aside that little shocking moment, she simply tapped his arm to call his attention.

"Jason Allen called this morning. He said a bear killed his dog during the night. The poor man is comfortless", she announced.

Hopper swallowed.

"A bear?", he asked.

Florence nodded.

"Is he sure that it wasn't another dog? I mean, winter has barely ended", the chief insisted.

"I don't know what it was, but Jason seemed to be pretty sure that it was a bear", Flo said, straightening her glasses.

He went silent for a few seconds. The last bear attack report had been in the winter of 1977, two years before Hopper returned to Hawkins. To make the unlikely news even more concerning, Jason lived away from the northern portion of the town, where bears were a more common sight. Instead, he lived in the middle-west portion of the town, near…

Mirkwood.

"Hey, chief, you okay?", Powell asked, looking up from the magazine.

Hopper looked at the officer only to find out he had been standing there and absorbing that information for several seconds without saying or doing anything. He gave another bite on his donut.

"Yeah, I'm alright", he said "Flo, call Jason. Tell him I'll be on my way".

"Really, chief? What's gotten into you this morning? You'd usually delay it as much as you possibly could", Callahan added before Jim left.

Hopper turned around and gave the man a deep stare Jane herself would envy.

"You're trying really hard to piss me off today, you know?", he said before leaving.

Florence and Powell gave Callahan a reprehensible look.

"You can't just be quiet for five minutes, can you?", Flo asked, coming back to her desk.

"What?", Callahan asked defensively.

Powell rolled his eyes and drove his attention back at his magazine. He didn't consider himself a very intelligent man, but even he knew better than pissing off the chief. Callahan had been working with Hopper ever since the chief showed up and he still had a lot to learn.

Next chapter preview: With the amusement park arriving in town, Jonathan takes this opportunity to ask Nancy out on a date, but something strange happens when she least expects it. Hopper finds something weird in Jason Allen's case, but he just can't point his figer to it.