Thank you for reading!

"I Want to Know What Love Is"

In my life, there's been heartache and pain

I don't know if I can face it again

Can't stop now, I've traveled so far

To change this lonely life

- Foreigner

It was raining heavily as they pulled up to the abandoned lab facility, which only added to the overall gloom of the place. Not much had been done to clean up from that disastrous night, and the rain and the deserted feeling made it very hard for Joyce to focus on the task at hand and not think about what had happened here.

Hopper broke the chain on the doors and they opened with a creak and a thud that echoed in the empty halls of the facility. The glass of the doors was broken where those … things … had forced themselves through, and the foyer was empty except for a forgotten couch right at the entrance.

"Hello!" Hopper called, elongating the word in a way that made it clear he was still mad at Joyce for last night and not taking her concerns seriously. The flash of annoyance she felt helped—briefly. "Anybody home? We come in peace."

As Joyce moved further into the room, she could see a few other couches scattered around … and an empty spot on the floor that made her feet stop moving of their own volition. She could see Bob standing there, see him turn to her, see the fear in his face turn to relief and love—and see the door burst open and Bob get thrown across the floor by the impact of that creature on his chest. The screams it and he had made were branded on her brain, replaying themselves in her head at night over and over again. Standing here now, reliving it, seeing in her mind's eye the way his hand had reached for her while there was still life left in him, knowing it was her fault—

"Joyce."

Hopper's voice broke into the nightmare of her thoughts. He was leaning against a doorway, watching her. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she lied.

As always, he could see right through her. "You want to wait in the car?"

No. She needed to know if her hunch was right. "I said I'm fine," she repeated, firmly. He still didn't believe her, but he didn't argue with her, leading the way deeper into the facility.

It was completely empty, all the way through, no sign that anyone but them had been there since whoever was funding the place packed up and moved out. Hopper led her to where the gate had been, now covered over with cement. He put his hand on it, and then knocked on it. The sound was very loud in the stillness, and made his—sarcastic—point for him without any words needed.

Joyce sighed in exasperation.

Hopper patted the concrete again, gave her a long-suffering 'the things I have to put up with' look, and said, "Nobody's home." He turned away. "All the cavities have been filled. I watched them do it, Joyce."

Standing here, with her hand on the concrete, she couldn't help but remember her trip through it, to the other side, the Upside Down, her terror when they found Will in that place with that thing down his throat, the horrible moment in Hopper's cabin when that blackness came up out of her boy.

She looked at Hopper, trying to put the images out of her mind.

"It's over," he said quietly. Confidently.

If only she could believe that.

"It's over," he said again, with relief. He was thinking about El, Joyce imagined, that she was safe now. She should feel that relief, too, that Will was safe—but she didn't.

Sitting down on an abandoned scaffolding, Joyce said, "I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"You're not losing your mind," Hopper told her. And then, unexpectedly, he added, "Not any more than I am." After a moment, he went on, "You know, the other day I almost shot Betsy Payne's dog because it came rushing at me from behind the fence and I—I swear to God I thought it was one of those … things. You know that I'm keeping a close eye on things, right?"

"Yeah."

"Because it's important to me. It is important to me that you feel safe. That you and your family feel safe. I want you to feel … like this can still be your home."

She closed her eyes, wincing, knowing now that he wasn't just mad about last night. He was mad because she had talked to Gary about listing her house and hadn't told him. But of course she hadn't told him! Because if she had, he would either have tried to stop her, or tried to come along, and she wasn't sure if she wanted him to do either of these things—or if she was afraid he wouldn't.

"What?" he asked. "You didn't think I'd find out about that? Gary called me. He said he's fixing up your house to put it on the market. Kids know yet?"

Joyce shook her head.

Hopper came over and sat down on a concrete step in front of her. "After Sara, I had to get away. I had to get the hell out of that place, outrun those, uh, those memories, I guess." He looked up at her, his face illuminated by the flashlight in his hands. "You know why I think I ended up back in this shithole?"

She was touched that he had come so close to saying it. Speaking like this was hard for him, always had been.

"But you have something I never had," Hopper went on. "You have people who know what you've been through. People that care about you. Right here. In Hawkins." There was a shine of unshed tears in his blue eyes, and a steadiness in his look that said more than words could have what he really meant.

Joyce caught her breath, knowing what a step it was for him to make himself this vulnerable in front of her. But it was too intense right now, more than she could handle. Much as she was touched by his words, by his feelings, she didn't want to be rushed into returning them, and she didn't want to promise things she wasn't ready for. She widened her eyes a bit, and replied, "You mean, people like … Scott Clarke."

Hopper wasn't going for it. She could see in his face that her flippant response—and the person she had used as her example—had hurt him.

She shook her head slightly. "It was a joke."

He closed his eyes, and she could see him pushing back his exasperation, and then he chuckled.

Relieved, Joyce smiled back.

But before either of them could say anything more, a squeak came from somewhere else in the previously silent facility. Both of them got to their feet, shining their flashlights into the emptiness.

"What's that?" Joyce whispered.

"Wait here," Hopper said grimly, moving through the plastic that covered the doorway.

Joyce was left behind, standing there alone in this deserted nightmare of a place. For a moment, she had forgotten the magnets, forgotten her fear that the Mind Flayer was coming back for Will, somehow. She was grateful to Hopper for that, and for making it so clear what his feelings were without demanding anything in return. If she could stay in Hawkins … maybe there was a chance for them. It was the first time she had really come to believe that.