C H A P T E R   T H I R T Y - T W O 

"JOURNEYS END IN LOVERS MEETING"

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OVER 3550 WORDS !

･ ｡ﾟ ⋆✩⋆  ･ ｡ﾟ

| D E C E M B E R  25th , 1986 |

H a w k i n s , I n d i a n a

( after mike & the party all went through the gate to 'assist' y/n in the upside down,
meanwhile, we pick up right after that in the starcourt mall.. )

HOPPER WATCHED AS THE DEMOGORGONS filed in through the gate, one by one, they just kept coming. They kept lunging at him, as if he were a magnet for them, or a target.

Every time he would see anything more out of the corner of his eyes, his reflexes acted before anything else. Left and right, he was throwing punches and throttling the life out of his DNA sources, his bottled anger now unleashing entirely.

He couldn't believe Mike and the kids went through the gate, and he couldn't do anything about it.

He couldn't believe that El somehow made it back through the gate, but unconscious from god knows what.

Hopper was furious at Mike.
Well, he was furious in general, but it was easier to pin the blame on the boy that caused his daughter so much emotional stress.

He couldn't go through the gate again, because the entrance wasn't big enough for him to pass through without getting stuck on the other side for good.

He turned to check on Joyce and Murray, who were both doing their best in fending off the monsters with whatever weapons they had. But they were not the heightened human that Hopper was, and so they were not doing the best at defending themselves.

He nervously watched with heavy breaths as Jouce and Murray were being knocked around, their strength obviously incomparable to Hopper's.
Joyce tried her hardest to help Hopper with the attacks, but although she was mostly healed, her larger wounds were not fully healed by
Y/N, so she was already at a disadvantage.

Joyce and Hopper put all their strength into fighting, but it was then that their efforts drained to be minuscule, and began to falter.

Joyce begin to become overpowered by another demogorgon, its floral mouth opened wide as salivated to screech. Joyce's leg that was wounded from the scratches faltered in her steps to fight back, the monster able to get her off balance.

Her eyes were wide with returning fear as she stumbled to the ground, her leg throbbing with pain from earlier while the demogorgon made his move. She was petrified, her body seemingly frozen with fear as she didn't know what to do.

He slowly prowled, Joyce scrambling on the floor to slide further away from him before realizing that there was a wall behind her.

The monster widened his mouth, and Joyce flinched as she braced for the impact of his inevitable bite.

But it was then that the monster was tackled to the floor, his body sliding across the pavement of the underground starcourt lab while the figure held it down. Joyce looked with wide eyes to see Hopper holding the monster down, his inhuman strength obviously winning in his favor.

But it wasn't just his strength that was killing the monster. It was already weakened, as if something was draining the life out of it already before Hopper finished it off.

Jim stood up, the monster in his fists as he threw its lifeless body to the ground beside him, his back facing Joyce as she finally allowed her breath to settle.

He turned around, his eyes scanning the rest of the chamber that was once crawling with the  monsters, was now littered with their dead bodies. It seemed to happen all at once, all of them just falling to the ground to die.

The demogorgons all fell lifelessly to the ground below him, as the creatures seemed to be weakened all at once. He didn't understand why, but it helped him catch a break.

There was no more filing through the gate.

It was over, which could only mean one thing.

His daughter did it. Y/N ended it, she put an end to all this.

Hopper smiled proudly to himself, his breath beginning to steady itself as basked in the fact that this meant it was all over.

No more. Never again.

A wave of relief washed over him, questions beginning to fill the air from the rest of the group.

"Is it over?"

"What happened, are they dead?"

"Is this all finally over?"

"Did Y/N end it?"

Voicing questions filled the silence by the older teenagers from the upper deck as well as Murray, all eyes falling on Hopper for answers.

"Jim.." A weak voice spoke from the ground she was thrown to. Hopper immediately turned his gaze to see Joyce, her eyes hopeful. "Is it over?"

Hopper smiled softly, his eyes flickered from the gate in which his daughter still remained, back to where the love of his sat on the floor.

He walked over, kneeling down to offer his hand to help Joyce up to her feet, her balance was wavering. She stood up on her feet, her hands gripping Hopper's arms for balance as she looked up into his eyes.

Hopper smiled with a soft nod, "It's over." He tried to believe it as hard as he could, but his suspicions remained.
But all that didn't matter now, all that mattered, was that for the moment, it was over, and everyone was safe.

His daughter should be returning any minute now, safe, unharmed, and triumphant. Because she's strong, and she saved everyone.

"Really?" Joyce asked with disbelief, and Hopper just felt it in his gut, that it was indeed over. Hopper nodded, reaching his broad hands to softly cup Joyce's face, his eyes glittering with relief and joy.

"It's over, Joyce. We're safe." He breathed with a soft yet confident voice, Joyce's eyes searching Hopper's for any wavering.

It was then that they realized, they never had a proper reunion. They never properly addressed each other after so long—after months of not seeing each other after the note they left off on.

Hopper stared into Joyce's eyes deeply, his thumb softly tracing her cheek. "Hi.."

Joyce smiled with a chuckle, a blush instantly arising in her cheeks underneath his touch.
She looked up at him with just as much admiration in her own eyes. "Hi.."

Hopper smiled with a deep love in his eyes. "Guess I'm pretty late for that date, huh?"

Joyce ducked her head as she chuckled softly, her cheeks still sprinkled with that same blush. "Just a little."

She looked up with a genuine smile, seeing Jim chuckling alongside with her. Their smiles were something they both had missed dearly about each other.

As their eyes met each other's again, there was an unspoken truce between their feelings, ultimately surrendering to their emotions.

The emotions that they felt for each other so strongly. Their eyes glistened as they stared at each other in a state of deep admiration, their eyes flickering from their eyes to each other's lips.

And as Joyce stepped onto the tips of her toes, they both closed their eyes as their lips met in an inevitable kiss. A kiss, that was long overdue.

Hopper's hands cupped either side of her face, as if he couldn't believe she were here and he was kissing the love of his life right then and there. Joyce smiled against his lips, her hands holding onto his shoulders as she balanced herself.

Joyce was a hard woman to figure out. She built walls around her heart ever Will's father created the reason she had to in the first place, and Bob's death.

But the walls were taken down, brick by brick, by Hopper's immense care for her.

Ever since high school, there was an undeniable bond between Hopper and Joyce, and only recently did they figure out what their hearts were telling them.

Although it took years and years after high school to win Joyce's heart again, this was well-worth the wait.

An old, dormant, romance was now rekindled.

As they pulled away, breathless as Hopper's eyes were wide with surprise, earning an excited chuckle from Joyce.
Hopper smiled at the sight of Joyce's glowing smile, silently basking in the tender moment.

"I knew it!" Murray exclaimed, his voice jerking the adults' attention from each other as the older teenagers helped a weary El as they climbed down the ladder to the battleground of dead monsters.
"Seems like my advice really got through to you both, right?"

Hopper rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what he was referring to the day of the Battle of Starcourt. His vulgar advice, more like.

However, the playful moment was interrupted once again by the humming of the dimensional gate, signaling that someone was coming through from the other side.

Hopper stared at the gate's entrance, a chill running down his spine. He didn't have a good feeling about what he was going to see.

In a subconscious effort to prepare for whatever was going to enter, Hopper took a step in front of Joyce—her hand reaching to hold his to provide ease to his nerves.

The gate's hum continued, it's thrall holding everyone's attention as they prepared for whatever was coming next.

But when the entrance revealed the younger teenagers to appear, all scratched up and bruised from the battle of the upside down, their nerves were soon relived when they realized it was the kids.

Hopper's eyes searched the small group of kids, happy to see all their tired faces, but he was looking for one in particular. His own kid.

Joyce's hand fell from Hopper's as she ran as fast as she could to Will, embracing him in another hug that communicated her worry she had for him.
Jonathan joined, all of the teenagers and kids now reunited and intermixed as they spoke of what happened on the other side of the gate.

In all the overwhelming commotion that played out in front of him, Hopper couldn't find Y/N.
"Where's Y/N?" His voice was loud and booming yet worried, his fists clenched at his side.

The kids all seemed to tense as they heard Hopper's question, their eyes all turning to look back at the gate.
They looked fearfully disappointed, embracing each other as if they were saddened by whatever happened on the other side of the gate.

They almost looked mournful.

Hopper's eyes followed the direction in which the kids looked, his empathic abilities picking up on their feelings. They're..mourning.

At this point, Hopper was terrified for his daughter's safety.

And it didn't help ease his suspicions when the gate hummed once again, another thing about to enter.

The entire group backed away from the gate, Hopper taking a few steps closer to the gate to brace himself for whatever he was about to see, while also providing protection to the group behind him.

The gate hummed louder this time, as if it were working overtime to allow another entry. But it was here that Hopper felt another violent shutter run through his body.

He definitely wasn't going to like what he saw.

And again, he felt Joyce's hand slip into his from behind, his fingers subconsciously intertwining with hers in an attempt to soothe his nerves as best they could.

The gate's humming reverberated throughout Hopper, and he could feel that a strong power source was coming through the gate.

It was a power pheromone that could only belong, and be recognized as, his daughter.

All eyes were set on the gate's entrance, the glowing reddened hue of vines opened up a bit to reveal a figure stepping through.

Mike stumbled across to the other side of gate, entering the Starcourt mall just in time before the upside down gate sealed shut behind him.

His feet landed on the ground below him unsteadily, the terrain changing from the squishy dead earth of the upside down to the now steady ground of the mall's abandoned underground Russian facility.

Mike's breaths were fast as he still held Y/N in his arms, his eyes looking up to meet the eyes of everyone else in the area.
His eyes drifted from his friends who had just reentered, to the eyes of the Babysitter's Club who all stared with wides expressions of fear at who laid in Mike's arms.

But it was when Mike met the eyes of the adults, from Murray and Joyce's questioning looks of worry, to Hopper's eyes, did he realize what it must've looked like.

It looked like Y/N was laying limp in his arms, motionless and exhaustedly drained.

She looked lifeless.

Hopper's eyes were wide with horror once he realized who laid in Mike's arms.
All the color washed from his face, his eyes dilated and his hand leaving Joyce's as he felt like his knees were going to give out at any
second.

He watched as Mike kneeled down, and gently set Y/N to the floor beneath him, holding her in his arms as he brushed the hair out of her face.

"No.." Hopper whispered under his breath, his heart beating at inhuman speeds ; his legs suddenly carrying him straight for his daughter.

In an instant, the roles were reversed as Hopper dropped to his knees to gather his daughter to hold in his own arms, leaving Mike to sit on the other side of her.

"Y/N.." He breathed worriedly, reaching to stroke his daughter's cut hair out of her dirtied face to reveal many cuts and bruises from battle. "No.."

His eyes then looked down at her abdomen to where her true wound laid, her bullet wound still slowly secreting the dark crimson liquid, but at a slower pace now.

Hopper shook his head, her eyes threatened to spill with tears while they remained shut as he found his breathing stutter. "Please no.."

His hand hover shakily over her wound, as if he were going to harm her even more by the lightest of touches.

He couldn't bare to accept the mere possibility  that his daughter may be dead, or the fact that she simply hurt. He couldn't accept that, and he wouldn't.

"Y/N.." He trembled, silent sobs reverberating through his chest as he held her closer to him.

The room went silent, a thick tension filled with empathetic mourning and sorrow. Was she really..?

Hopper leaned down to met Y/N's forehead with his, pressing his temple against hers as he did. But of course, he had forgotten about his empathic abilities in the first place.

His empathic senses picked up on Y/N's mind as he pressed his forehead against hers, her consciousness sending a pulse back. She's alive.

Hopper pulled away, looking down with hopeful eyes, his empathic abilities now sending a wave to his daughter's mind.
His power weaved its way through Y/N's mind, his empathic ability encouraged her to awake from her almost unconscious state.

She groaned, roughly turning in her dad's arms as she drifted back to a more mild state of consciousness.
Her eyes fluttered open, dilating as the light hit them to reveal her father's figure looking down at her with a relieved smile.

"Come on," She mumbled, her voice weak. "Don't go getting all soft on me now, dad.."

Hopper chuckled, rolling his eyes. "Of course not, I would never."

Y/N smiled weakly, "It's not like I'm dying, I'm okay.." She chuckled at the end, leading into a fit of unwarranted coughs.

She knew she wasn't okay. She knew her healing powers weren't at 100%

She knew she was healing better while she was in the upside down.

And her father could tell too. He could sense her fear through his empathic abilities, and he knew she was scared. His little girl was scared she was going to die.

His smile quickly faded upon seeing Y/N's contradicting facial expressions, her words saying one thing, but her face telling him another.

She was dying, and she needed to get taken care of.

"I am so goddamn proud of you," Hopper breathed with teary eyes, a soft smile forming on Y/N's face. "It'll be alright, you're gonna be okay.."

Mike saw Hopper's worried facial expression, his concern peaking. He finally got Y/N back, she couldn't leave him again. His heart wouldn't be able to take it.

"What? What's wrong, is she going to be okay?"

"It's gonna be okay," Hopper repeated again to his daughter, hoping to soothe his daughter's fears.

It reminded him of the days he tried soothing Y/N when she feared there was a monster outside or under the bed, just trying to talk her into contentment to help her get over her fears.

"It's all going to be okay, you're going to be okay." He repeated, as if trying to convince himself as well as his daughter.

She didn't deserve to be scared like this. She shouldn't have to fear for her life at 16.

Y/N seemed to take his soothing words to heart for a moment, before she found her vision beginning to darken.
She was drifting in and out of consciousness, she was dangerously weak.

"Hopper! Is she gonna be okay?!" Mike blurted again, his own fears taking over.

He couldn't bare to think of the worst. He loves this girl so much, it hurt him to even think about the worst outcome.

But he was quickly silenced when he saw Hopper lift his head up from his gaze with his daughter, to send a fearfully cold look right at Mike.
Hopper's eyes seemed to glow before they faded away again, his face obviously angry.

He then looked over at Joyce, his expression back to neutrally worried. "We need to get her out of here. Now."

Hopper scooped his daughter in his arms, her legs dangling off on one arm as her head cradled in the other. Like when he used to cradle her as a child.

Now here she was, on the brink of life and death.

"Where should we go?" Steve asked, obviously confused as to why the sixteen year old girl with a bullet wound was still kicking.

"Duh, you dingus! We're going to a hospital!" Robin snapped back, everyone was definitely under the stress of the entire situation.

"Where's the nearest hospital?" Max pitched in.

"How the hell are we gonna get there fast enough?!" Lucas panicked, hands at the top of his head.

"We're not going to a hospital." Hopper interrupted the chaotic questions from the group, his voice loud and firm.

Joyce looked at him with concerned eyes, "Hop, we have to-.."

"No, we can't." He repeated, now leading the way up and out of the underground lab base, his daughter still breathing in his arms.

"Why not? She needs to be seen by a doctor!" Mike concurred, only to be shut down by Hopper's anger yet again.

"We can't go to a goddamn hospital, okay?! We can't, and we won't!" Hopper repeated, high strung and tense. "She's different, they can't do anything for her."

Hopper's cryptic answer left the entire group in question, not exactly understanding what he meant. Most understood she had powers,  but not everyone understood what she is.

The only place Hopper could think of that was even remotely safe for Y/N's recovery, was his actual home—the cabin.

~

The group parked their cars in front of the cabin, the headlights dimming to stop the engines. Hopper looked up at the cabin with a sort of nostalgia setting in, a sense of homesickness overwhelmed him.

The cabin wasn't covered with a thick array of hazardous vines. There wasn't any demogorgons in the forest to fend off. There wasn't any threats.

He didn't have to be in constant fear for his life.

He was finally back.

And as Hopper carried Y/N in his arms back up the stairs of the cabin to open the front door, he leaned down to whisper to his daughter's ear.

"We're home, kid.." He smiled weakly to himself, hoping she could still hear him. "We made it."

⋆

Author's Note :

WOW OKOK YALL HERES THAT UPDATE AHAHSHSHNAN

WAIT SO JOPPER KISSED??!!! YESHSHAHDJDH

SO HOW TF IS Y/N GONNA RECOVER HOW LONG WILL SHE BE OUT??

QWHEN IS EVERYONE GONNA FIND OUT WHAT SHE AND HOPPER ARE??

YALL THE HOPPER AND Y/N FATHER DAUGHTER MOMENTS WERE SO SWEETTTT AHHH

also.. hopper is LIVID with Mike ahhhahaha

(if you know where i got the chapter title reference from, you got good taste in shows!)

if you have any questions about what has happened in this chapter , just ask, & I'll answer!

N E X T C H A P T E R :
there do be some drama
coming up soon 😏

it's not proofread :3

.

what do you think about all this ??

any theories ? any predictions?

thanks for reading.. stay tuned !!

PUBLISHED
September 28, 2020
at 10:56 PM

3536 words

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