A Quiet Life

Hawkins, IN

May 9, 1986

It was Friday night, and Hawkins Police Chief Jim Hopper was exactly where he wanted to be: at home, happily settled into his favorite recliner. With a cold beer in hand, it was time to relax and appreciate the end of another week. It had been a quiet one, just the way he liked it. That had been his entire reason for leaving the city and taking the position of a small-town Chief.

Thinking back, he couldn't believe how much his life had changed over the past few years. Three years ago, he had been living a mere shadow of an existence, spending his off-duty hours attempting to drown out his past with beer and painkillers and then dragging himself into the station the next morning to start again. All that had changed with the disappearance of a local boy, Will Byers, and the subsequent entanglement in the shady dealings of the local Department of Energy research lab. What had followed was a life-altering journey into a decaying parallel dimension, the rescuing of Will, and the discovery of a young girl who had been raised as an experiment in the lab since birth. After her escape from the clutches of the lab, he had taken her in and kept her hidden and safe for almost two years.

In that time, he had bonded with the girl, seeing in her a second chance with the daughter he had lost years before. In him, she came to know a father's love; something she had never experienced in all her 12 years of captivity. Now out of hiding, they were a family in every sense. With the help of a few well-placed friends, he had an official birth certificate, naming her Jane, the name given by her mother just before she was stolen, and listing Jim Hopper as her father.

Once it had been safe to come out of hiding, Hopper had moved them back to his property by the lake. Thanks to some generous savings, and a sizable fund of government hush-money to keep his silence on all that had happened, he had his old trailer removed from the property and a new house brought in, big enough to give his Jane a proper place to call home at last. During their time in hiding, Hopper had carefully gathered proof of the things that had gone on at the secret lab in Hawkins and had stored it away in the care of a distant trusted friend. He then got word out to those that might still be seeking Jane, hoping to drag her back into captivity, that if anything happened to her, the information would be released and take down a number of people in high places. So far, no one had dared to call his bluff and life had settled nicely into a calm and normal routine.

As he looked around his living room it still felt strange to him, as though he were a guest in someone else's home, being surrounded by furniture and walls bright and clean. For so long he had gotten by with dark and discarded second hand furniture, and it had suited his gloomy outlook just fine. But he had to admit, it felt pretty nice having a home he was proud of and was everything his Jane deserved. Scanning the room his eyes fell on a pair of photos in matching gold frames on the fireplace mantle. The first was of Jane; a school picture from her Freshman year of high school which was currently drawing to a close. Next to that was a second grade photo of Sara, his first daughter, taken just months before cancer robbed her of her bouncy blonde hair. Hopper had been surprised when Jane had suggested adding it next to her own but she had eagerly insisted, knowing how much he loved and missed his first daughter and never feeling any jealousy at sharing her new father's affection.

Jane was a remarkable girl in so many ways. Being raised in a lab, she had never been taught much beyond rudimentary speech. As an experimental weapon, she had only ever been given what was absolutely necessary for her training. However, during her time in hiding, in their cabin out in the woods, she had quickly learned to read and began the long process of catching up on all she had missed from nine years of school. In addition to working her way through stacks of homeschool curriculum workbooks, she had made use of her powers to secretly attend a few classes at Hawkins Middle School. Thanks to a yearbook, class schedule and school floorpan that Hopper had brought home for her, she was able to reach out into the In-Between, find the appropriate teachers and classrooms and secretly observe and learn as a silent member of the class.

All of that preparation had paid off and by last September, when it was safe to come out of hiding, she had been ready to start high school as a Freshman, right where she should be at her age. Now, as that first year was quickly approaching an end, it was nearly impossible to tell that she had missed out on so much early schooling. She was particularly strong in math, having a very logical and analytical mind. To Hopper's surprise, she had also developed quite an artistic knack, filling countless pages with sketches of landscapes and portraits of friends. In English, she was doing well enough, though it was easily the subject that gave her the most difficulties. She could read and write just fine, but the finer points of metaphors and phrasings were still a struggle. It was no surprise to anyone who knew her upbringing, but even there she was making steady progress all the time.

That had been one of their big fears at the start of the year, that her shortened and occasionally awkward phrasings might raise questions about the truth of her past. Those fears had been quickly laid to rest as she acclimated into school. Now, at the end of her first year, most people were just used to it and didn't even take much notice; it's just how Jane talks, they would say. Socially, she had made a few friends outside the core group that had taken her in, when she first escaped. She would hang out with them on occasion at one of their houses, or at a movie, but her best friends would always hold a special place with her. They were likely the only ones who would ever know her full story and understand her past.

Down the hall in her room, Hopper could overhear her having her nightly chat with Mike before bed. Despite having a phone of her own in her room, she still insisted on reaching out to him in the In-Between to talk each night. Hopper had to chuckle at that; at least she wasn't running up the phone bill like most teenage girls. He knew, of course, the real reason was so she could see him face to face while they talked. At least, she could see him. Having had her pull this long-distance chat thing on him a few times as well, Hopper knew that it was a very different experience for the recipient; a clear voice in your head and a warm presence on the skin if she reached out and touched you. After initially trying to discourage her from using her powers, Hopper had decided that it was a losing battle and unfair to her. They were her special gift and who was he to try and suppress that? Instead, he now encouraged her to practice and strengthen, but only at her pace and in her own ways. That was an understanding her captors in the lab had never given her, instead always pushing her to reach further, strain harder, until that fateful day when she lost control of the power and ripped open a hole between dimensions. There were still times she blamed herself for everything that had happened as a result of that terrible day, but Hopper worked hard to help her see that all of the fault lay with the people at the lab who were trying to turn an innocent child into a weapon.

Jane let out a laugh at something Mike must have just said or done; a sound that still warmed Hopper's heart. When she had first escaped the lab, she didn't even understand what laughter or a joke was. Hell, she barely even knew how to smile. The thought still made his blood boil and he had to take comfort in the fact that the people responsible for her terrible upbringing were dead, victims of the beast that came through the hole they caused. Some of them had even been killed by Jane herself. That thought always brought a satisfied smile back to his face. Most fathers would have more than a few misgivings knowing that at the tender age of 12, their little girl had killed half a dozen highly trained soldiers using only her mind. Not Hopper; he understood she had done it not to prevent being recaptured, but entirely in the defense of her friends, particularly Mike.

Mike Wheeler; Hopper was torn over just what to think of him. His initial gut reaction was entirely fatherly and he badly wanted to hate the boy who insisted on dating his little girl. Try as he might, he just couldn't do it, though. Mike had been the one to rescue her and bring her in out of the rain the night she made her escape from the lab. He had kept her hidden from the agents of the lab seeking to take her back. He had stood his ground, facing down armed soldiers when they finally found her, ready to die to protect her. After she had dragged the beast back to another dimension in an effort to kill it once and for all, Mike had kept a stoic vigil, refusing to believe that she was really gone. Even once Hopper had found Jane in the woods and gotten her safely to the cabin and into hiding, he had insisted that she not make contact with Mike. Night after night, she would go into the In-Between and sadly listen to his desperate pleas into the void, hoping beyond hope that she could hear him, and that she was somewhere safe. Many of those nights, Hopper had tuned his own radio to the off-band station Mike was using and listened in. Cynic though he was, even Hopper could hear to the determination in the boy's voice, refusing to give up on her. Some of those nights he even got a little choked up listening to Mike's desperation and questioned whether the boy should be brought into their nucleus of trust. In the end, though, he thought the risk was just too high.

After the assault on the lab and the closing of the gate, Hopper had been forced to relent on the silence and hiding from her closest friends; there was certainly no way to convince them she was somehow gone again. Even though it wasn't safe to bring Mike over to the cabin, he at least let them communicate. He had to admit that Mike had proven instrumental in getting her ready for school. There was plenty she could learn from books, but it was in her talks with Mike that she learned all she would need about how to actually fit in and navigate life in the outside world. He had spent hours tirelessly answering her every question, with total patience when a new concept took a while before she fully understood. It had been his suggestion to incorporate chunky bracelets and a wide-banded watch into her outfits to cover the "011" tattooed on her left wrist; in all his planning, Hopper had completely forgotten about that obvious give-away that there was more to her past than anyone was letting on. When the time came for school, Mike had volunteered without hesitation, to take a lower math class than necessary and even Home Economics, so that he and Jane had identical schedules for her first semester. That way, he could spend the whole day by her side, helping to navigate this world that was entirely new to her, steer her away from potentially embarrassing situations and defuse things if someone started asking too many questions. Thankfully, as the daughter of the Chief of Police, nobody was very eager to cause her any trouble.

In some ways, Mike knew her even better than Hopper ever could. Being the same age, they just naturally connected more and there are some things a girl just couldn't talk as easily about with her dad. Mike knew that under the strong, brave face she wore everyday, there was still a scared girl who lived with the fear of being dragged back to the lab. Hopper knew Mike would do anything, give up anything, to keep that from happening. Mike knew the experiences that could still trigger a panic attack and threaten to shut her down, and he was good at spotting them coming and help her to hold on and get through them. He knew all about her fear of any water deeper than the kitchen sink. He knew the mere thought of ice cream made her physically sick; and other than Hopper, Mike was the only one who knew why it utterly repulsed her.

Hopper knew that Mike was more than a friend; he truly, deeply loved his little girl. And even worse, she loved him too.

"How's a father supposed to deal with that?" he wondered.

He finished off his beer and decided it was probably about time for bed. Walking down the hall to her bedroom, he cracked the door a little and gave three short knocks, paused, and then gave three more. Even when she was deep in concentration, her mind out in the In-Between, she knew to listen for the knocks. It was their signal that it was time to come back to reality. After giving her a minute to wrap things up and say goodbye, he opened her door the rest of the way. As he stepped in, she pulled off her blindfold and grabbed a tissue to cleanup the blood under her nose. With all her practice and extended trips into the In-Between, she rarely got nosebleeds from her powers anymore. But when talking with Mike, they still happened; just further proof of the strength of their bond.

"Time for bed," he said as she tossed the tissue in the garbage and switched her radio off, silencing the static.

"It's not even a school night," she threw back, feigning a defiance they both knew was only for show.

"You know the rule, bedtime is bedtime. Besides, you're going to see him tomorrow afternoon."

At that, she brightened. She and Mike were going to hike to a meadow on the other side of the lake for an afternoon picnic tomorrow.

Hopper sat down on the edge of her bed and pulled her into a hug. "Goodnight Jane," he said, planting a kiss on her forehead.

"Goodnight Daddy," she returned, planting a kiss on his cheek.