Two of a Kind

Night In

As Joyce applied her makeup in the bathroom, she took a pause, not comprehending the ring on her finger. It was so beautiful. Hop actually bought this and picked it out just for her, and planned this whole trip so that he could propose. Everything was moving so quickly but in the best way possible. A few months ago she was still just a single mother convinced that her love life days passed her by and were gone for good. And now she's in a hotel room in Miami with a ring on her hand and a new life growing inside of her.

She had to sit down on the ground as she started to feel faint. She took a deep breath in and felt her stomach lurch.

"Shit, come on!" she yelled and pushed herself up onto her knees and threw open the toilet lid. Hopper heard her start to vomit and rushed in to hold her hair and rub her back.

"If you don't like the ring that much I could always exchange it," he joked.

Joyce wiped her mouth with her arm and let out a small chuckle.

"It's morning sickness. I got it with Jonathan but I got it even worse with Will. Kinda forgot about it," she grimaced.

"But it's 6pm," Hopper commented, genuinely confused.

He helped Joyce up off the floor and she rolled her eyes lightheartedly.

"That's not how it works, Hopper. I guess this is just how it's going to be for the next eight months," she sighed.

Hop felt guilty for putting her in this situation. "If you're not feeling good, we could stay in bed and I'll order us room service?"

"Yeah I think that would be best. Plus I need to get this dress dry cleaned now..." she said, frowning in the mirror at the puke stain on her new, tightly-fitted short red dress.

"I'll take care of it, don't worry. I'm sorry Joyce. I didn't mean to do this to you," he looked down, feeling like a jerk.

"Oh stop, I was half of the equation when we were making him, remember?"

"Him? Why do you think it's a boy?" Hop asked, surprised to have heard her say that.

"I don't know, gut feeling I guess?" she said as she washed her hands then pulled her dress off. Hopper helped her get it off over her head.

"Plus, I don't know what it feels like to have a girl, I guess," Joyce thought aloud.

Hop was silent, and started to consider the possibilities. He hadn't had time to think about it, but he realized that if he could choose, he wanted another girl. He felt strange about it, but he was missing that father-daughter bond that was ripped from him years ago. Then again, it scared him to think that Joyce might be carrying a little girl inside of her. Would he be able to handle loving another one as much as he loved Sara? Would he even know how to give that same broken piece of his heart over to another baby girl?

Looking up to Hopper's contemplating face now, she realized what he must be thinking. It wasn't always on the forefront of her mind, but she knew that Hopper had loved his daughter more than life itself, and that he had attempted suicide a few months after her death and the divorce from his ex-wife, Diane. She had a forlorn expression make its way to her face now as she realized how complicated this would be for Hop regardless of whether it was a boy or a girl.

The two went to go lay back on the bed after placing their room service order over the telephone in their room. Joyce took Hoppers hand as he laid on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

"Hey, I— I didn't think about how hard this must be for you, too. I'm really sorry about Sara, Hopper. I would understand if you can't do this," Joyce confessed, feeling her heart ache in her chest for him.