Chapter Five

Jim Hopper

Lauren Gray held tightly to her daughters hand as they walked towards the playground that was at the far part of the park. Ronnie's feet moved quickly to try and keep up with her mothers as they moved along the path. The park was filled with children running around, playing with their friends, as their parents sat on benches talking to one another. But as Lauren's dark brown eyes scanned over the park, her heart dropped slightly at the sight of a Hawkins Police cruiser sitting on the other side. She stopped quickly as she looked towards it knowing exactly who was inside. Her heart began to race quickly as she watched him slowly get out of the car, close the door, and walk towards her. Lauren stood there for a moment before bending down and picking up a three year old Ronnie and placed her on her hip.

Of course Ronnie was oblivious to what was happening around her. The shift in her mother's posture and behavior was not noticed by the toddler. She was too focused on the cluster of butterflies that were flying not too far from where they stood. Lauren cleared her throat as he approached her, his tall frame hovering over her, and his eyes holding no emotion.

"Lauren." He spoke, his voice gruff as he placed his hands at his police belt that was at his hips.

"Hopper." She spoke with the same tone, her eyes never breaking from his. "How did you know that we'd be here?"

"You come to the park every Sunday afternoon when Greg is at the bar with Lonnie." Hopper spoke, his eyes shifting towards Ronnie, before returning back to Lauren.

"Well you gotta stop doing this," Lauren looked around the park to notice if anyone was paying attention to them. Thankfully so far they weren't. "You promised that you'd back off."

"Yeah, I promised." Hopper scuffed "I promised till she came along."

Hopper pointed towards Ronnie that was rested on Lauren's hip, her hands now playing with the necklace that was on Lauren's neck. She babbled nonsense still not paying attention to the adults.

"What did you expect me to do, Hopper? Tell you that she's yours?" Lauren rolled her eyes. "You know that I couldn't do that. If Greg found out..."

"That we were sleeping together," Hopper spoke a little louder causing Lauren to shush him and look around again in panic.

"Will you shut the hell up before you let the entire town know!" She whisper yelled towards him, her eyes glaring. "We slept together, Hop, but that was almost four years ago. I had just married Greg and I was scared. But you have Diane now and you two are getting married and I have Greg. We have to move on."

Hopper shook his head. "Just say it...Lauren. Just say it. I need to hear it. I did the god damn math and it doesn't add up to being his."

"And when I do what are you going to do? Fight for custody?"

" I just wanna know. I wanna be able to know the truth." Hopper spoke and ran his hands through his hair. "Because it's driving me insane with the not knowing. I don't want custody, but I wanna know."

That was a lie and even Lauren knew it. Lauren bit her lip and hesitated for a moment before nodding her head. "She's yours Hopper. She's yours."

Ronnie followed behind Joyce as they walked up the front steps of Hawkins Police Department, her eyes looking around at everything around her in wonderment. Mother's pushing their children in strollers as they talked to one another. The sun was shining even though there was a slight chill in the air as the breeze blew. Joyce opened the station doors and walked through, the receptionist at the front desk looking up, and quickly standing.

"We haven't heard anything about Will, Joyce."

"I'm not here for that." Joyce sighed and moved to pull Ronnie beside her. "I need to see Hopper."

"He's in his office." The receptionist pointed towards the hallway that was behind them.

Joyce nodded her head and grabbed Ronnie's hand gently before walking down the hallway towards a door that had "Chief of Police" across the glass. Joyce reached up towards the door and knocked twice before a deep voice spoke from the other side. Ronnie followed behind and was welcome with the smell of cigarette smoke and a heavy scented cologne. The entire room enveloped in it causing her throat to tighten slightly and cough. Hopper looked up from his paperwork to the sound and was welcomed by the sight of Joyce Byer's and the small girl beside her. Joyce moved quickly to take a seat across from Hopper's desk as the girl stayed hovering in the doorway.

"Joyce." He spoke and sighed softly, sitting up in his chair slightly. "I told you that we'd call you if we found anything on Will. We're searching the woods later on tonight again."

"I know. I know." She spoke softly before turning towards Ronnie. "I'm here because we...well Jonathan...Uh..."

Ronnie stepped more into the room and began to walk around looking at the many photos and memorabilia that Hopper had along his office wall. His eyes moved with the girl as she walked along the walls of his office and stopped right beside his door.

"Who is this?" Hopper asked before turning back towards Joyce.

"This is...uh...Seven." Joyce sighed and paused for a moment. "Jonathan found her the other night, I didn't know what else to do other than bring her here."

Hopper gave Joyce a confused and nodded his head. "Alright...Seven...do you know where you live?"

"Not far." Ronnie spoke slowly turning slightly to look towards Hopper. "With Papa."

"Papa?" Hopper grabbed a notebook and began to jot things down. "Who is Papa? Your dad?"

"Bad man." She spoke quickly and began to fiddle with her fingers nervously. "Papa...hurt..."

"I don't know where she came from, Hop. But wherever she came from I have a bad feeling." Joyce reached into her pocket and grabbed a cigarette and quickly lit it. "And I think there is another girl out there...I think...I don't know she keeps worrying about someone named Eleven."

"Eleven?" Hopper spoke with confusion in his tone. "So let me get this straight...Jonathan found her wondering around and brought her to your house. Her name is Seven and she's looking for someone else named Eleven. She ran away from a man or someone named Papa and he's a bad man?"

Joyce nodded her head. "You can understand why I brought her here...I don't know what else to do."

Hopper ran a hand over his face and rested back against his office chair. "The only thing I can think of is getting her prints and comparing them to missing children...maybe. Or swapping for DNA. But that's gonna take a while and we'll have to send it to the lab in Indianapolis."

Hopper looked towards Ronnie, who was now fiddling with a trinket that sat at the edge of his desk, and had the same feeling Joyce had earlier. That she looked like someone that he knew, but wasn't able to think of who that person was.

After stopping at the store for not only groceries, but some more clothes for Ronnie, they headed back towards the Byers home. Ronnie walked towards the living room and sat on the couch and watched as Joyce strung Christmas lights from wall to wall. Across the ceiling and frantically talking to herself as she nailed them against the wall. Ronnie grabbed the picture frames that Joyce had removed from the walls and grabbed the photo she had looked at before. It was the family photo of Joyce with Will and Jonathan. But once again Ronnie's eyes were fixated on the younger boy as he smiled back up towards her.

Joyce didn't notice, her mind and focus on the lights that she strung along the walls, till she stopped to turn towards Ronnie. She watched as the girls finger traced over Will's face and her eyes stayed locked on him.

"That's my other son...Will." Joyce spoke causing Ronnie to look up towards her for a moment. "He's...missing..." Her tone held sadness. Ronnie turned her attention back towards the photo.

"Will's...hiding"

Joyce froze for a moment before walking towards Ronnie and kneeling down in front of her

Joyce pointed towards Will. "Do you know about Will? D-did Jonathan tell you?"

Ronnie looked up towards her and nodded her head, before tapping twice on the photo. "Other side."

"Other side?" Joyce's stomach dropped slightly "W-What does that mean? Other side?"

"Will is hiding on the Other Side." Ronnie spoke with her voice even. "Hiding from the monster."

"Monster? What monster?" Joyce asked

"Bad place." Ronnie crossed her legs and placed the photo to the side, grabbing Joyce's hands. "Will is hiding in bad place."

Joyce felt like she was in a trance as she stared up into Ronnie's eyes. Around them the lights that were strung up along the house began to light one by one. The lights caught Joyce's attention and she looked around in amazement. Her heart rate began to pick up as the room was soon encased in the colorful lights. There was also a high pitched noise that seemed to surround them both. Joyce flinched back from the painful noise, but Ronnie kept her gaze forward, unmoving. Quickly they began to flicker more and more as Ronnie stayed focused on Joyce – a small trail of blood falling from her nose to her upper lip.

"Mom."

Will's voice replaced the high pitched noise and sounded through the entire house in a soft echo - almost like it was coming from underwater. Joyce's eyes began to water almost instantly as Will's voice began to echo through the home.

"Will...honey! W-where are you?"

"Mom!" Will screamed again causing Joyce to quickly look around the home in a panic.

All the lights at once began to brighten and a loud piercing sound came back before each and every light began to explode around them. Ronnie slumped back against the couch and closed her eyes, her chest rising quickly with each breath she took, hard and labored from the energy she exuded. Her nerves once again feeling like they were on fire and set in ice at the same time. A tingling sensation at her fingertips.

"Will?" Joyce cried and cupped her hand over her mouth before turning back towards Ronnie. "H-How...how did you do that?"

Ronnie mumbled and whimpered not being able to find the strength to even speak. Joyce moved towards her quickly and caressed her face, gently rubbing her thumb along her cheek bones, causing Ronnie's eyes to flutter open.

"Seven...sweetie..." Joyce whispered softly, the girl hummed softly before closing her eyes once again.

Joyce moved to lay her across the couch, placing a pillow beneath her head, before moving towards the bathroom to grab a warm cloth. Joyce sat down on the edge and gently began to wipe the blood from her nose and upper lip. Joyce didn't know what to feel within that moment. If she should be afraid of the girl in front of her or not. But she knew that no matter what this girl would be able to help her find her boy.

Hopper closed his trailer door tightly behind him as he returned from a long day at work. After Joyce had left with Ronnie he couldn't get the girls face out of his mind. The haunted look in her dark brown eyes as she stared down towards him. It sent a shiver up his spine how eerily familiar she looked to him. Once he got the finger prints from the girl he had Callahan take them, along with her DNA, straight to the County Department. Hopper stripped out of his works clothes and slipped on a pair of sweatpants before walking out to his back patio and lit a cigarette. The calm silence of the woods surrounding him as he looked out over the water.

He stood there for a long moment before the cold Indiana air became too much and he headed inside. Once he walked inside he grabbed the remote for his television and turned it on, a random channel now playing in the background, as he went over paperwork from the Will Byers case. He couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't simply just a kid missing. That there was something else that was behind all this. After an hour he stood from the couch and walked towards his kitchen, grabbing a beer from the fridge, and closing the door tightly. He grabbed a bottle opener to pop the cap off and stood there as he took a long drink. On Hopper's fridge was a random collection of photos that he collected over the years. One of his little girl Sara that had passed away a few years back. One of him on the day he was sworn in as sheriff for Hawkins. But there was another of him sitting on a park bench with Lauren Gray. His arm was wrapped around her shoulder as she smiled towards the camera. It was the next weekend after he'd run into her at the park with Ronnie. It soon became a tradition that one Sunday a month he'd meet them there in order to spend time with Ronnie. Neither Greg or Diane were suspicious of it – especially since the tradition didn't last very long.

Hopper understood why she never told her husband that he wasn't really the father of the small girl. Her husband Greg came from a powerful family in Hawkins and till the day she died, Lauren was already afraid of him. Hopper tried to help her, being a police officer, but she always told him that Greg knew people above Hopper. That she'd make not only his life hell – but everyone around them. Lauren could never do that with a clean conscious, especially when Hopper married Diane and then a few years later had Sara.

The day that Ronnie went missing he thought that his world was ended the only thing that could compare to that pain is Sara's death. In a short period of time, to Hopper's knowledge, he lost both of his daughters. Hopper grabbed the photo from the fridge and sadly smiled down towards it, Ronnie in Lauren's lap as she smiled up towards Hopper. His eyes on her. And that's when it slowly started to come to his realization. Seven looked almost exactly like Lauren. A gasp passed through Hopper's lips as the beer bottle in his hand slipped from his grip and smashed to the linoleum flooring beneath his feet. Could it be? He thought to himself.