looking for the magic. // Jim Hopper x OC

009 ♕ A Very, Very, Very Fine House ༄

A/N: Time begins to speed and Lucy goes through some bigger changes. TW: Brenner, sexual references, heavy drinking, past assault mention, explicit murder and torture-Not Lucy:) *Comments and votes would mean a lot, ty xx

** ** ** ** 

Spring 1967

Lucy got the inkling Connie knew. About the sex. Her damn pursed lips wrinkling, she thought the women's face would crack. Eyes always noticing bits of new jewelry on Lucy's body when she came in for "work."

Brenner liked it when Lucy stood to his right these days. Walks around Hawkins Lab where he briefed her on news.

Need to know stuff. She didn't often ask for more. Only her sister.

Not the people who came after her.

"Come inside, it's starting to rain."

"I like the rain." Lucy still followed him. A little pep in her step today. A visit with Mia. She felt powerful next to him. Heels clicking. So many eyes along the slopes of her frame.

Their steps in perfect tune as if choreographed. Weaving through crowds of scientists and suits. All so official. And did they all watch her closely.

Lust. Intrigue. Fear. Envy. Lucy grew enamored with it all.

She was Dr. Brenner's Subject Zero. His greatest shiny achievement. He'd told her that a couple times and would again.

His little confidante.

They walked through bustling rooms. Passing rows of desks covered in files and machinery. A stack of papers slipped over in front of them and hands sprang down to grab at the mess.

"Watch yourself." Brenner sighed, clearly irritated. Nolan lifted his eyes and caught Lucy there. Not moving to help him.

"Apologies. We're swamped, doctor."

"Try keeping your station clean." Brenner moved around him. Lucy smelled the shame and relished it. Considered pressing her heel into Nolan's skull.

"So, this is where you've been. At a desk. I haven't seen you on the field in months, Nolan."

He blazed silently.

"Lucy." Brenner pointed to the floor next to him. A snap command.

"I'll be seeing you." Lucy stepped over the mess and came to Brenner's right side to go. Nolan watched, heat and squealing rubber in the air.

"You seemed to enjoy that." Brenner had mused, adjusting a cufflink.

"Never liked that one." She shrugged in the hallway.

"I instructed him to be kind and giving toward you. Opposite of Barker. You seem to loathe him just as much. If not, more."

"As you said, he sucks up. Maybe we have some things in common." Lucy peered away. "He was certainly giving."

"This way." Brenner gestured with one hand to the garden at the heart of the building. "You know the drill, Lucy. Behave. Thirty minutes. Perhaps, I'll tell the agents to be late." He tipped her chin. "Just for you."

"Thank you, Martin." Lucy passed him to go out into the sprinkling of rain. Mia stood at the center in uniform, head cocked up toward the sky. "Mia."

She turned, opened her arms so they both rushed. Every time, they tried to avoid the emotions of it. Suppose these things were inevitable. Mia wiped Lucy's tears away as she always did. Paler. Little thinner. But, still charging forth. It was months between meetings.