Two of a Kind

Punch

"Hey, Joyce, how are you?" Officer Charleston asked.

"I'm good, Chuck. It's nice to see you. I like your new tie," Joyce responded.

"Heh, thanks. Stacy got it for me when she was in Jamaica," he commented about his pink tie with palm trees and birds patterned across it.

Joyce and Hopper had arrived at Hop's work party to celebrate the two new police officers who had joined the force last week. Chuck was an old friend of Hop's that went to high school with the two of them. The party was at the station and all the officers had brought their wives or girlfriends with them. Hops coworkers knew that Hop and Joyce were together now, but didn't know about their pregnancy yet.

Hop made his way over to some other coworkers to say hello, and Joyce went over to the snack table to make herself a plate and ran into a couple of the cops' wives.

"Hi Lynn, how's Landon doing?" she asked of Officer Jackson's wife.

"Oh hey, hon. Nice to see you here. He's good. Will and Jonathan?" she replied

"They're great! Jonathan was just accepted into his first choice for college and Will is having a blast with his friends," she remarked.

"Oh, I'm just so glad Will is home and okay," Lynn Jackson replied.

"Joyce!" Paula Green called. "Have you had the punch?" she winked. "Here, I got you a cup!" She enthusiastically handed a red solo cup full of punch mixed with a large amount of vodka over to Joyce.

"Oh, I'm okay. Thank you, though" Joyce replied uncomfortably. She wished Hop had told the guys at the station by now, but it just hadn't come up in conversation yet. She caught herself feeling embarrassed to bring it up herself— afraid of the comments that would be made due to her age at becoming pregnant for the third time.

"No really," another wife persisted. "It's Cathy's best yet!" she winked. Joyce made a nervous laugh and took the cup, taking a small sip to appease the pushy housewives. Just then, Hop came up to the table and wrapped his arm around Joyce's waist.

"Whatcha havin' there?" he asked her.

Joyce blushed. "Oh.. uh, it's nothing, just—"

"Just Cathy's best punch yet," Paula giggled, emphasizing the word punch as to imply it was something else.

Hop furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion and took the cup from Joyce's hand. He took a long swig and coughed. "Uh, Joyce? You drank this?" Hop asked with concern lacing his tongue.

"No, not really... just a sip," she responded sheepishly.

"Oh come on, Jim! You can let loose but Joyce can't?" asked Lynn in an annoying, exuberant tone.

"Yeah, it's not like she's pregnant or anything," Helen added. "She's skinnier than ever! Joyce, you have to tell me your exercise routine!"

It was true. Since getting pregnant, Joyce had actually lost weight from all the morning sickness and not being able to keep anything down. She looked up to Hopper with a strained expression, trying to see if she should tell them or if he would.

Hop let out a small sigh. "Actually, Helen, she is pregnant. We hadn't told anyone yet but we are expecting," he confessed.

The mouths of the women gathered around the snack table all dropped open in unison. Joyce was annoyed. Was it really that shocking that she could be pregnant right now?

Cathy was the first to speak. "Oh my! Congratulations you two!" She jumped up and down in excitement and took Joyce's hands. "Oh, Joyce, you should've just said something! I'm sorry." Cathy's excitement attracted her husband, Paul over as well as a couple of Hop's other coworkers.

"What's all this excitement about?" Paul asked, pulling Cathy toward him in attempts to calm her down.

"Joyce is pregnant!" Sheri blurted. Now both Hop and Joyce were annoyed. They hadn't wanted this party to turn in to a baby shower, nor did they have interest in telling anyone about it yet.

"Woah, seriously Chief? Is it yours?" Officer Jackson prodded.

Hop punched him in the shoulder. "Yes, jackass. The baby is mine."

"Nice," another officer said to Hop. "You guys must've been at it like rabbits," he winked. Hop rolled his eyes.

"Well why didn't you say anything? How far along are you?" Officer Jackson continued.

"About three months," Joyce answered.

Now it was Jackson's turn to punch Hop. "That's plenty of time for you to have told us, man. What the fuck?"

"Alright everybody just calm down," Hop boomed. "We were going to announce it when we were ready but Cathy had to go shove vodka down my fiancés throat so that didn't leave us much of a choice, now did it?"

Cathy gasped dramatically. "I most certainly did not! I just made the punch. Lynn and Helen were the ones making her drink it!"

"Okay enough, everyone," Joyce interjected. "No one made me do anything. It's fine. I took the smallest sip." That seemed to ease the crowd up a bit. What followed were the repetitive, mind-numbing questions every pregnant woman has to answer until her breath gives out. Is it a boy or a girl? Do you have any names picked out yet? How do the boys feel about it? Was it planned?

Hop and Joyce only stayed another half-hour after that as to not be rude, but they were both exhausted from all the questions and how no one seemed to be able to talk about anything else. They drove home as the sun was setting and the trees were casting shadows on the road.

"That certainly didn't go as expected," Joyce commented.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, honey. They can be pretty intense. I didn't mean for that to be how everyone found out," Hop apologized.

"It's okay, Hop. It's not your fault. I'd much rather go home and relax with you anyways." The two got home and Hop took Joyce's shoes off for her and sat on the ground to massage her feet.

"Oh, Hopper, you don't have to do that. I've barely got a bump. My feet are fine," she laughed.

"I would do this even if you weren't pregnant. You had better get used to being treated like a queen, because that's what you signed up for when you agreed to marry me," he smirked.

Joyce smiled and looked down at him, and then at her ring. She really was starting to love being treated so well. It was unfamiliar, but honestly very welcome.