HIGHWAY TO HELL - S. HARRINGTON

Epilogue

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1989

It had been a little over four years since Hopper had disappeared. It never really got easier, but the days became more livable as time went on. Steve and Rachel lucked out and were able to work at the same school. Rachel didn't picture him as the type of person to be a history teacher, but at that point, nothing surprised her. The school was outside of Hawkins by a few hours, but that was for the best, because Hawkins was where most of everyone's trauma came from. She was a social worker at the high school, and she loved every minute of her job. She loved getting to help students, and she loved getting to just talk to students about whatever they were thinking about. She didn't really have those resources when she was their age.

It took Steve a while to get the courage to ask Rachel to marry him. He couldn't ask her dad, so he asked Jonathan. When Rachel found out about that, she wished that she could've been a fly on the wall for that conversation. He took her to a spot on campus that they really liked and asked the question there. Of course she was crying. They were tears of joy, and the first thing that Rachel did when they got back was call Joyce. She sort of demanded that Joyce put El on the phone, but who could blame her?

It took them a few years to actually have the wedding. Rachel didn't want to have the ceremony without her dad or El there. Having El there was the easy part, but it took them a while to find Hopper. Rachel was about to accept the fact that he was never going to be found until the night that someone knocked on the door of the apartment that she shared with Steve. They were watching a movie, but Steve got up to answer the door. He saw the military uniform and called for Rachel to get to the door.

"Miss, are you Rachel Harrington?" The guy in the uniform asked. All Rachel could think about was the negatives. Steve had to nudge her to get her to answer the question.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, I am. What's going on?"

"We think we found your father. He's at the Roudebush Medical Center, it's in Indianapolis. He's in the hands of some really good doctors and-,"

"Is he alive?"

"Yes."

"When can I see him?"

"As early as tomorrow."

"Great, thanks."

When Rachel closed the door to the apartment, she immediately turned and gave Steve a hug. She was crying a lot, but she knew that things were finally going to be okay again. She had her family back. It took them a few minutes to get their days off figured out, but it was an emergency situation, so the school district was nice enough to give them both the full day off. 

The drive to the hospital was about an hour, so they left first thing in the morning. Her dad was being monitored by tons of doctors and nurses, but she didn't care. He looked like he had lost weight, but everyone was just happy to see him. Rachel had a hard time getting words out at first. She was trying really hard to hold back tears as she said hi to him for the first time in years. 

"Are you gonna explain to me what this ring on your finger is?" He asked. Rachel and Steve laughed and they told him everything.

When Hopper was fully physically recovered, Rachel and Steve rushed off to get married. The ceremony was limited to close friends and family. And just to tease Dustin and Suzie, Rachel went out of her way to make sure that the song Never Ending Story played. It was very clear to the couple that they were never going to live that down.

During their speech, Rachel called out Dustin.

"If it wasn't for him dragging me out to his cellar to look for a creature, I wouldn't be marrying this man today. So thank you, Dustin, for occassionally being a nuissance but always having the best intentions."

Rachel put up quite the fight when Hopper told her that he wanted to move back to Hawkins. Her wedding was coming up, and she couldn't understand why anyone would want to go back there. She only went back to Hawkins if she was with Steve, and they only went to visit the kids and Robin. Steve got her to come to her senses. If Hopper really wanted to move back to Hawkins, which he did, he had every right to. The small town served as his home for years, and it was her home, too. 

Steve and Rachel had three kids together, all in the span of less than six years. Two girls and a boy. Robin Joyce Harrington, born August 17, 1991, their first girl. When Robin found out that Steve and Rachel named their firstborn after her, she freaked out. Christine Jane Harrington, born October 21, 1993. Rachel and Steve really liked the name Christine, but they wanted some part of her name to be from the family. They had done the same thing for baby Robin, so it was only fair. Daniel Jim Harrington, born December 14, 1995. Somehow, Rachel and Steve gave all of their kids middle names that start with the letter J without realizing it. 

Her dad was the last person to find out what Daniel's middle name was, because she knew that he was probably going to get emotional about it. Rachel was always right. They knew that at some point, they were going to have to talk to their kids about what happened all those years ago in Hawkins. And they were okay with that. Kids ask questions, after all.

Rachel would tell you that having kids helped her heal from everything that she went through, and there might be some truth to that. The fact that she had her own family was the one normal thing in her life. Plus, they were some of the smartest kids that she had ever known. And she knew Dustin Henderson.

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Word count: 1,028

Author's Note: I can't believe that it's over. Yes, I know that as of publishing this final chapter, the fourth season hasn't been released. I decided a long time ago that season 3 is where Steve and Rachel's story with the plot of the show ends. Of course I'm going to watch season 4 when it comes out. How could I not, after everything that I have put into writing and editing this fanfiction?

Why am I crying? It's a happy ending.