Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

There's a Kind of Hush

"There's a Kind of Hush"

There's a kind of hush

All over the world tonight

- Herman's Hermits

It was a relief when everyone was gone and it was just the three of them. Joyce and Jonathan and Will stayed on the couch for a while, just holding on to one another, trying to believe that it was really over—and that this time it was over for good.

At last Will fell asleep between the two of them, and Jonathan carried him to bed before coming back out to check on Joyce. "You should go to sleep, too, Mom."

"I know, but ..." In her mind's eye she saw the creature leap on Bob, felt the shock and horror of that moment all over again, and she shook her head, hard, to dislodge the image. "I can't."

"Because of Bob?"

"Yeah."

Jonathan sat down next to her, holding her hand. "Mom. I know Bob and I weren't— I mean, I wish— I mean, I'm really sorry for what happened to him. I know you cared about him, and he cared about you, too. You—you have to know that."

"I do. But thank you. I wish you two could have known each other better. You should have seen him tonight, Jonathan. He—he saved Will. He saved us all."

"I know, Mom." He held her hand tighter. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"Where were you?" Joyce was ashamed she hadn't stopped to worry more about him before, but everything had happened so fast and trying to figure out what was happening to Will had taken everything she had.

"We ..." He ducked his head, not looking at her. "We tried to trap the lab."

"You tried to—what exactly did you do?"

"We— Nancy let them know that we knew things, and they came for us, just like she said they would, and they took us to the lab and they showed us things, and ... We tape-recorded it. I mean, Nancy did."

"But why? What were you trying to do?"

"It's about Nancy's friend Barbara. Nancy can't forget what happened to her."

Joyce shut her eyes, feeling nauseous as she remembered the body of that poor girl in the library in the Upside Down. "I understand."

"She used to go have dinner with Barb's parents all the time. They hired this guy to try to find her, this reporter or private investigator or something, and Nancy felt so guilty that she couldn't tell them Barb was dead, she wanted the lab to admit what they did."

"Of course." Joyce sympathized, although that felt like a tall order. "So what did you do with the tape?"

"We took it to Murray. The reporter guy." Jonathan shook his head, thinking back on it. "They really got each other. Like, they thought the same way. And he's going to send out a press release of some kind ... although now that the lab's been destroyed, I don't know what good it will do."

"The lab's gone, but the people are still there." Joyce was sure of it. You didn't build a secret lab of that size and hide it away in the middle of nowhere without someone somewhere funding it and being in charge.

"Maybe."

She shook Jonathan's hand lightly. "So tell me about you and Nancy."

"Mom!"

"Jonathan, I don't know if you've noticed, but it hasn't been a very good couple of days. If anything nice has come out of all of this at all, I want to hear about it."

He bumped her shoulder lightly with his. "You're right."

"So?"

"So ..." Jonathan's ears were turning red. Under other circumstances, Joyce would have been delighted. She tried to be now—her boy's first love was something to celebrate, regardless of anything else that had happened. "So ... I guess she likes me."

"That's it? That's all you've got?" She was teasing him a little, knowing how hard it was for him to talk about how he felt. It hadn't been easy for him to see Nancy as often as he had this past year, given how close Mike and Will were, knowing that she was still with Steve Harrington. He'd never said so, but Joyce wasn't this gentle, sensitive boy's mom for nothing. She knew his heart. "When did Nancy and Steve stop being a thing?"

"I guess not that long ago? Like, Halloween. How long ago was that?"

Joyce honestly couldn't have told him. She thought it had been a lifetime since Halloween, since she had sent Will out so innocently in his Ghostbusters costume, since she had danced with Bob here in this very living room. She blinked back tears, her throat aching. "A long time."

"Yeah, it feels like that."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, lost in their own thoughts about the events of the past few days. At last, Joyce asked, "So you two are together now?"

"Yeah. At least, I— Yeah."

Joyce smiled. "Well, I approve. She saved Will, you know. That last bit with the red-hot poker, that really drove that thing out of him? I couldn't have done it, and you couldn't have, either, not to Will. But Nancy knew what to do, and she was smart and strong enough to do it. Tell her thank you for me, will you?"

"Of course."

"No. Never mind that. I'll tell her myself. Bring her over to dinner sometime next week."

Jonathan looked startled. "Bring Nancy? To dinner? Here?"

"Yes. Things are going to be different around here, Jonathan. I'm going to learn how to cook, and we're going to clean this place up, and ... And it's going to be okay. You, me, Will, all of us. We're going to be okay." Her voice quivered, thinking about what that future could have been like if Bob was still—if he had only— "We're going to be okay," she said again, and completely broke down.

Jonathan held her while she cried, letting her get it all out. Someday, she was going to make it up to him, all the times he had had to be the strong one and comfort her rather than the other way around. But not just now. Now she could only think of the brave, gentle man who had died to save her, to save her boy, and weep for what could have been.