A/N: Thanks for the sweet review jrae1948! This chapter is just for you! Hopper is my favorite character too! I hope I'm not making him too much of a softy in this. I just ship him and Joyce so hard. Those two really really need each other. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this :)

"Joyce." He mumbled sleepily.

She opened her eyes to glance at her bedside clock. Six am.

"I hate to disturb you baby, but we left my truck at the store." He stretched heartily beneath her and she tightened her grip on him, placing a sleepy kiss on the center of his chest. They both knew their busy night of sex and sleep had to end sometime.

"Can't we stay like this?" She whined, lightly scratching his side with her nails.

"I'd love to." He replied, loving the sensation. "I think I have one more round in me. But I've gotta go to work." He teased and she smiled in response, reaching up to kiss him.

"I love you, Joyce."

"Even when you're sober?" She teased and a hurt look flashed across his features.

"I mean it. I don't just say those words lightly. I love you." She placed a kiss on his bearded cheek before nuzzling into his neck.

"I know, I love you, too."

He slid from beneath her and she reached for his hand, holding it until he pulled away from her to step into the old sleep pants he'd worn the night before. "Your uniform's in the dryer. I didn't have time to fold it last night." She mentioned and he winked at her.

"I'll be in the shower."

.

Hop stretched his arms outside her door, his mouth open in a yawn when he nearly ran into the smaller man in the hall.

"J-Jonathan?" He stammered, surprised to see Joyce's eldest home so early. "Jonathan listen, it's not what it looks like." He said, in a panic for some sort of explanation.

The younger man looked from Hop's face to his mother's door. "I've heard things around town. Listen, just don't hurt her, okay?" He said, glancing down at the camera in his hand. "If you hurt her I swear to God-"

Hop threw his hands up in a defensive gesture. "She's been through too much. I'd never put her through anything like that. This has all happened kinda sudden but you know- I care about her. A lot." Jonathan nodded, stepping around Hop and headed to the kitchen.

.

He met her out at the car, squinting at her in the morning sunlight. In the car he took her by the hand, kissing the back of it.

"Thanks. For yesterday. I was a wreck." He commented and she squeezed his hand in the seat between them as she backed out of her driveway.

"Jonathan knows now." He said, breaking the silence that had grown between them since that last statement. She turned to him in surprise. "I ran into him in the hall. I guess he came home for his camera. He took it a bit better than I thought he would."

Her lips drew into a tight line. "Lonnie really did a number on the boys. All of us really."

He threaded his fingers between hers, his thumb lightly tracing the bones beneath her skin. "Lonnie's the past. I'm here now. He's a grade A dick."

She laughed at him and he kissed the back of her hand again. "I wonder what Will will think about us?" She asked.

"He's probably heard the gossip too. We're the talk of the town." No secrets in a small town. With his free hand he dangled a cigarette from his lip, flicking the lighter to life and taking a puff when he lit it.

"You should come to dinner tonight." She remarked, turning into the parking lot of the grocery store.

"I will." He replied as she pulled into the parking spot near his truck.

She leaned across the car and retrieved the cigarette from between his lips, pushing his hat back on his head so she could kiss him goodbye. "See you after work." He mumbled against her lips before taking his cigarette back from her and sat back in his seat momentarily, staring at her face.

"What?" She demanded, a slight blush spreading across her face under his gaze.

"Just feel lucky. That's all." He grinned before stepping from the tiny car and opening his truck door.

.

At work he walked through the office, coffee in hand.

"You look happy today Chief. Get lucky last night?" One of the boys joked and he smiled to himself as he grabbed a doughnut from the box on the counter. If they only knew.

"Yeah, tell your Mom I said thanks for the good time." He fired back, grinning.

He propped his feet on his desk in his office, looking over the files on his desk. Barb's file sat at the corner and he frowned. He was still working out how to close that one. How do you explain that loss in police terms? He still remembered her face and grimaced to himself. He brought Will home. But there'd been no hope for poor Barb. A note lay under the file. From Brenner's crew. Seems he had other work to do today.

.

By eleven that night Hop still hadn't show up. Joyce paced the floor of the kitchen, a cigarette held nervously between her lips. Jonathan sat at the table, fingers laced and his head against them.

"Something must have happened. What if he's hurt?" She fretted, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Or he's wasted somewhere. Probably passed out on his couch at home."

She turned to her son with a fierce look burning in her eyes. "No. Not after-"

"Not after you've slept with him?" She stopped her pacing suddenly turning back to face him.

"Not after everything we went through together to bring Will home. After everything. He's part of this family, Jonathan." At the sound of a truck outside she leapt for the door and flung it open to find Hopper, his fist raised to knock.

"Hop-" He fell into her arms, his face and hands a bloody mess. She guided him to the couch and he fell upon it heavily. She sat down beside him, pulling his bloody hands into her lap.

"What happened?" He shook his head vigorously, pointing upwards at the ceiling, a mannerism she'd learned that he used as a reminder to her that their homes were forever bugged since they brought Will home. Jonathan glared at him on his way to his room.

She pushed him to sit on the side of the bathtub as she fished around in the medicine cabinet for something to patch him up with. She knew not to ask him anymore questions. He'd paid some sort of price to bring Will home, made some kind of deal he couldn't tell her about. Guilt weighed on her heavily as she dabbed at his bloody knuckles with an alcohol soaked washrag. He hissed in pain but mostly stayed silent until he looked up into her eyes.

"I'm sorry I missed dinner. I got tied up at work." She nodded and kissed his forehead. She sat on the toilet lid and looked up into his handsome face, dabbing alcohol at his split lip.

"Someone did a number on you today." She remarked, noticing the swelling in his left eye.

"You should see the other guy." He responded with a half grin, wincing when he moved his lips. When she finished doctoring him up he moved to the kitchen, grabbing a beer from the fridge and sticking the cold can to his eye.

"Why don't you eat somethin-" He shook his head no at the statement.

"I'm not hungry. Just bone-tired."

.

She grabbed him by the hand and lead him into the bedroom, shutting the door behind them. Methodically she began unbuttoning his flannel shirt and sliding it from his shoulders, stopping to kiss the center of his chest. She moved to unbutton his jeans and he stopped her, reaching in his pocket for something. In the safety of her bedroom, he pulled his class ring from his pocket and handed it to her.

"I wanted to give you this back in senior year, but life got in my way." He said with a half smile and she smiled back, standing on her tip toes to kiss his lips. They both laughed when she tried it on and it hung loosely from her finger, way too big for her dainty fingers. He produced a leather cord from his pocket too and took the ring from her, fashioning it into a necklace before sliding it over her head.

"I figured that would happen." She moved her arms around his waist, resting her head against his chest and listening to his heartbeat.

"I want you to move in, Jim. I want you to come home to me every night."