[COMPLETED UNTIL SEASON 5]
Ana Thompson always seems to wind up in the strangest predicaments...
A perpetual victim of Murphy's Law, Ana finds herself arriving in Hawkins, Indiana just prior to the events of November 6th, 1983.
And, just prior to f...
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"CAN I GO with Mike to visit Will? In California." While the question sank a dread deep in the pit of her stomach, both from the prospect of letting her go and the potential for letting her down if she didn't, Ana still found elation in the leaps and bounds El's speech had made in the days since the Byers had moved away. Although, having a reading teacher for a mother could probably account for most of the progress. Either way, it was still impressive nonetheless.
In the ensuing silence, Ana weighed her options carefully while her daughter stared at her, wide-eyed and expectantly, from the other side of the kitchen as she fed Robby his morning bottle, which he took quietly and patiently.
Actually, all his actions were done in silence and with measured patience. The concern she'd felt in the hospital room at his lack of crying after birth had slowly given way to acceptance in the following months. He simply wasn't a fussy baby, a realization that was equally comforting as it was unnerving. He never cried, not for a bottle nor to be changed, not even when he was sleepy or overstimulated by loud noises. However, his deep blue eyes, the same as Hopper's, were always watching, always observing. When he did make a sound, though, it was the usual babbling or cooing of any other baby, but it always seemed directed at something they couldn't see, something they couldn't perceive.
"Let me think about it," Ana eventually answered, buying herself a little reprieve as she shifted with Robby still perched on one hip to wash the now empty bottle in the sink. However, it was not before catching the look of disappointment blooming across El's face before her back turned.
That bid for time had only lasted about a week before the topic of said California trip became a near-constant question in their household. On the one hand, Ana could see that having a newborn stripping her of attention was having an effect on Eleven. She loved her new brother, surely, and cradled him carefully within her arms whenever she got the chance, but sharing their mother's limited time had left the young girl with a feeling of abandonment. Created an uncertainty about where her place in the evolving family now laid—the sense of dejection always seemed to bleed across her countenance like weakened watercolors failing to take hue. She'd withdrawn into herself, at home, at school, with her friends, and no matter how much Ana attempted to balance making it up to her along with the other newfound duties of motherhood, the struggle never managed to fully develop into fruition.
Perhaps the vacation would lift El's spirits and bring the girl back to herself, Ana considered the more time passed.
That wasn't what continued to give her pause, though. On the other hand, accompanied by a niggling, persistent thought in the back of her mind, there was a voice that reminded Ana of how the last time she'd let a loved one go galavanting off with Joyce Byers alone—they hadn't returned.
No, she still hadn't forgiven the Byers matriarch and likely wouldn't, at least, not anytime in the near future. While Ana continued to hold out hope that Hopper would make his gallant return sometime, the days trickled by without a single word, and in the absence of hope, resentment burrowed in its vacancy, laying down thick roots. She dreamed of him still, but they were only mere echoes of memories now, no nighttime walks into the void to visit, not since Robby had been born. She'd unfortunately been right about that being the last time.
Thus, there wasn't a chance in hell she'd let her daughter suffer the same fate at the same hands. It didn't matter that Joyce had effectively saved the world with what she'd done. She'd stripped Ana of the most significant part of her world—semantics and stubborn realism be damned. Yet, she also wasn't willing, wasn't able, to continue down their current path of merely getting by on a day-to-day basis. Their heads were still above water, but everyone knew they were slowly drowning. It was only a matter of time till their strength finally gave out, and they slipped below the surface.
The truth was, Ana Thompson needed help, and she was finally willing to admit it.
