Chapter Ten

Papa

The next time Ronnie opened her eyes she was welcomed to the dingy textured ceiling of Jonathan Byers room. Her dark eyes blinked a few times before she rolled onto her side and soon her eyes were welcomed to the sight of Jonathan sitting in the small desk chair. His elbows were rested on his knees as he leaned forward, his hands running through his hair in frustration. The sound of Ronnie moving in his bed caused his head to pop up. Jonathan stood up quickly from the bed towards her, a worried look on his face. Ronnie used her arm to slowly push herself up into a seating position, a small groan passing through her chapped lips as she felt her elbow buckle slightly. Her body was sore from using so much of her strength and power.

"Hey," Jonathan moved and reached forward slightly when he saw her falter as she moved to sit up. "Don't move too fast you've been out for a while."

"Out?" Her nose scrunched slightly as she looked up towards him in confusion. "For how long?"

"A few hours." Jonathan moved to kneel in front of her, his hands moving to clasp her hands that rest on her lap. "H-How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Ronnie spoke, and soon yawned. Jonathan chuckled as he watched her eyes close softly with her yawn.

She sat there for a moment before jumping slightly and looking around Jonathan's room quickly, her fatigue was soon forgotten.

"Where is Eleven?" Ronnie moved to stand up from the bed, but her knees buckled. Ronnie reached out to grip Jonathan's forearm as he moved with her. Her eyes closing as she soon felt the room start to spin.

"You gotta slow down." Jonathan sighed and moved her back to sit down on the bed. "You talking about the little girl? With the...uh...shaved head."

Ronnie nodded her head. "Eleven."

Jonathan gripped her arm tightly and moved to help her stand from the bed. "I'll take you to her. Just don't overwork yourself." Ronnie looked up at him and nodded her head. "And...Seven..."

"Yeah?" She whispered, looking up towards him as they walked around his bed and towards the bedroom door.

"I'm sorry...a-about before." Jonathan shook his head and sighed. "When we found Will's body and you were trying to tell me all along that he wasn't gone. And I shouldn't have freaked out when you showed me your...powers."

"It's ok." Ronnie yawned softly again, before continuing to speak. "But y-you believe me now?"

Jonathan quickly nodded his head as they both stepped into the hallway and headed towards the living room where everyone else was already waiting. "I believe you now."

Ronnie looked up towards him and smiled towards him tiredly. The moment they walked through the living room everyone's heads snapped towards them. Eleven sat on the floor at the coffee table with Mike, Dustin, and Lucas sitting with her. Joyce sat on the couch with a petite brunette girl that Ronnie had never seen before. When her eyes landed on Ronnie she shrunk away slightly and gripped onto Jonathan's hand more. Everyone in the living room was sitting in bright hazes of positive, a warming comfort for Ronnie. But when she looked at the girl sitting on the couch it was muggy gray. It wasn't negative, but it wasn't good either, and that alone made her wary. But the moment she looked over towards the accent chair that sat off to the side of the couch her uneasy went away. Jim Hopper sat and looked towards her with an intense gaze, but his warming comfort was the strongest out of everyone else.

"Seven." Joyce stubbed out her cigarette as she stood from the couch and walked towards her, the moment she was close enough she wrapped her arms around her. "Oh, I'm so happy that you're ok. You're ok right. You don't need anything do you?"

"I'm ok." Ronnie sheepishly smiled at Joyce.

Ronnie held onto Joyce for a moment before moving around Joyce, and slowly moving towards Eleven. Eleven moved towards her quickly and shrunk against her side. Ronnie instinctively wrapped her arms around the younger girl, having Eleven's headrest of her shoulder as she sat down the floor. Eleven looked up towards the girl and touched her hand to Seven cheek. Using the connection between them to read exactly how Ronnie was feeling.

"I'm ok. I promise." Ronnie spoke towards her.

"I can feel...weak." Eleven frowned as she removed her hands.

Ronnie frowned and turned away from Eleven and looked back towards everyone else around her.

"How...how was she able..." Mike was the first to speak his eyes moving from one girl to the other.

"We are connected." Ronnie spoke, "Papa taught us to use the electricity around us to find one another, read one another."

Hopper leaned forward slightly. "You said, 'we', are there more like you?" Ronnie nodded her head. "At the labs currently?"

"No. Eleven and I were the only ones there when we left." Ronnie moved to lean against the other accent chair behind her for support as she sat with Eleven. "But there are others that were able to escape...or died."

Ronnie quickly remembered the child that Papa had her test on, the look on the child's face never left her mind.

"Seven...sweetie...Eleven was telling us about the gate and the uh...what did you call it."

"Upside Down." Eleven spoke.

"Right." Joyce nodded her head slightly. "And that's where Will is? Y-You were able to communicate with him before right? Could you do that again?"

"And my friend Barb," the girl beside Joyce spoke forward quickly, her eagerness making Ronnie flinch back slightly.

"Mom, I don't know if we should push her," Jonathan whispered from beside his mother, but everyone was able to hear.

"I can do it." Eleven spoke. "I-I can try."

Ronnie looked down at her. "You'll need a tank. We don't have Papa."

"W-what do you mean?"

Ronnie looked towards Hopper as he spoke. "She needs a tank...i-it makes it so we can concentrate and focus on whatever Papa would want us to."

"That's sensory deprivation tank," Dustin spoke quickly, causing Ronnie to nod her head. "I know who we can ask to do that. It can't be that hard."

Ronnie nervously bit down on her lip as everyone excitedly began to talk, Dustin moved towards the kitchen with Joyce and the rest of the kids as she stayed sitting on the floor. Even Eleven stood up and followed with Mike into the kitchen. Hopper stayed where he was sat and kept his eyes on Ronnie. Ever since finding out the truth, about her possibly being his daughter, he couldn't get her out of his mind. He sat there analyzing her face, and with each passing second, he saw more and more of the woman he loved.

"Veronica?" Hopper spoke, his voice deep and clear. Immediately Ronnie's head snapped towards him. Her dark eyes widened as she looked at him. It felt like a large ball of dread, worry, and panic filled Ronnie's stomach the moment she heard her name. Her actual name. It had been a long time since it was uttered aloud. Her heart rate picked up and she could feel the panic flooding her veins.

"H-How...how do you..." She shuddered, her small frame now physically shaking.

Hopper moved out of the chair and moved onto the floor in front of her. She sat there frozen as he looked into her eyes. Hopper now felt regret for making the girl panic.

"I knew your mom." He whispered, his eyes moving towards the kitchen to make sure everyone was still there. "Do you remember me? I-I know you were little...but..."

Ronnie shook her head. "Momma...Papa hurt Momma...I-I was never able to see her again."

Tears welled up in Ronnie's eyes as she kept her gaze locked with Hoppers.

"You mean Dr. Brenner...that Papa?" Hopper asked, causing Ronnie to shake her head quickly, tears now streaming down her cheeks slowly. "You mean...y-your dad?"

Ronnie nodded her head before letting out a shaky breath.

Hopper was left more confused than he was before, after the investigation for Ronnie was temporarily closed the Gray's moved away from Hawkins. After the move, he never saw Lauren again, not that he tried to find her. His heart was too broken over Ronnie's disappearance and mourning in secret. Jim played the dotting husband and expecting father and everything from before fading into a nightmare. His heart broke a little more to the fact that she didn't remember him at all.

Ronnie sat on the bleacher, a warm blanket wrapped around her, as she watched the rest of the group worked to assemble the deprivation pool for Eleven. She watched as Dustin and Lucas rolled out a small rubber pool that was quickly filled with water. Soon after that Mike and, who Ronnie earlier learned his sister, Nancy rolled in with the salt that was kept in storage for the school. She sat there tiredly watching as they worked together and feeling shame for not being able to help. Ronnie knew that her body was weak and she needed more rest than the few hours she had gotten. But that didn't mean she wasn't willing to push herself to help Jonathan and Joyce find Will.

"I'm sorry...about earlier." Hooper's voice drew her attention from everyone else towards her. "I-I shouldn't have dropped it all like that."

Ronnie shrugged and pulled the blanket around her frame a little tighter. "It's ok."

"No...it's not." He sighed and moved to sit down beside her and rested his elbows on his knees. "But I needed to make sure that it was you."

Ronnie hesitated. "My name is Veronica. I...I had everyone called me Seven because I didn't want anyone else to know my name. My name was special, and the last thing Papa couldn't take from me."

"I understand." He nodded his head. "Do you remember your mom?"

Ronnie nodded her head. "Only a little. Papa would show me pictures of her all the time to see if I still remembered. He knew that...she was my weakness. And Papa didn't want any of us to have weaknesses."

"This Papa guy did a real number on you didn't he?" Hopper questioned, causing Ronnie to look towards him with a confused look. He quickly realized she was confused. "Uh...hurt you. He hurt you?"

Ronnie bit her lower lip and nodded her head. "Papa was a bad man."

Hopper reached over and grasped her hand tightly, the welcome sense of comfort moving through her body. Her eyes quickly moved from the floor in front of her towards Hopper.

"You're warm." She whispered.

"Warm?"

Ronnie smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah. I-I'm able to know if someone is safe...good. And with Jonathan and Joyce, it's always comforting and nice. But with you...it's a little more than that."

Hopper smirked, one of his dimples showing. A sense of pride filling his chest.

"When was the last time you felt that?" Hopper asked

"The last time I was with my Momma."

AN: Thank you for the read, reviews, faves and follows. They really mean a lot! This story is going to get to being a Steve/OC soon! I wanted to make it more realistic since Veronica wouldn't jump to being with Steve since she's been in the lab for so long.