A Deal With God

Chapter 21: She'll Do Whatever She Wants

January 24, 1985

"Hey Hop, sorry to bother you, but we think you should come down to the station," Callahan said over the radio, far too early in the morning.

"What is this about, Phil?" Hopper asked back in a groggy tone, barely awake.

"It's, uh, it's Joyce's niece?" Callahan said, making Hopper drop his head. If it's not one, it's going to be the other, he reminded himself with a sigh. He checked that El was sleeping soundly before hurrying out the door.

When he got to the station, he found Quinn seated at the side of Powell's desk, the Hargrove boy seated opposite her at the side of Callahan's desk. Hopper frowned, not liking where this was going.

"What happened?" He asked, looking at the teenagers. Neither one budged. This was becoming a semi-regular exchange since El closed the gate two months prior.

After dropping El off at the cabin by the lake so that she could rest, Hopper went back to the Byers House with Dr. Owens to check on everyone and found quite the sight. The younger kids were in various spots around the living room and dining room, pretty much passed out at that point. Steve was nodding off in one of the arm chairs, and Quinn was sitting on the couch with some random other guy who was holding a bag of peas against one side of her neck, the dark, black bruise going around clearly visible on the other side.

Hopper didn't need an explanation. It was clear that Steve had absolutely not managed to stay in charge and the group had gone out. Not only had they gone out, they'd gone to the tunnels to set them on fire. (Most surprising of all was later learning that it was Mike's idea.) While that was undoubtedly the reason the demo-dogs cleared the gate, allowing Hopper and El to go down without obstruction, there was still the issue that the kids had gone and put themselves in serious danger. Quinn had gone and put herself in serious danger, barely coming out of there alive if the bruising around her neck was anything to go by.

The idea of punishing the kids for going out against orders and doing something so incredibly reckless quickly fell flat, first, because grounding El hadn't worked (the idea wasn't even worth entertaining in regards to Quinn) and second, because this obnoxious guy butt in immediately.

"Isn't getting strangled punishment enough? Moreover, isn't watching our friend getting strangled a punishment for the rest of us?" He argued. It was a fair point, but it was the way he said it that bothered Hopper.

"Who are you exactly?" Hopper asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, let me introduce myself, I'm Billy Hargrove," he replied to Hopper but kept his eyes fixed on Joyce, taking her hand and then placing his other hand over the top of hers. Hopper rolled his eyes at the Casanova routine.

"Not this one," Hopper stated, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder and pulling him away from Joyce.

"Fair enough," Billy agreed carefully.

"So, we were doing speed checks over on Mullner Drive," Powell started, pulling Hopper out of his thoughts.

"And this Camaro tore past at 97mph in a 45 zone, so we pulled it over... And, well, the driver was Quinn, who does not have a license. Mister Hargrove here says he was teaching her how to drive," Callahan explained, making Hopper's eyebrows lift up. This is not what he was expecting at 4:30 in the morning on a Thursday.

"You're teaching her to drive twice the legal speed limit in the middle of the night? A school night on top of that?" Hopper questioned the boy in front of him, not liking where this was going.

"If she can drive at night in the middle of winter, she can drive through anything," Billy replied in a huff crossing his arms.

"Nobody else was on the road. Isn't the speed limit just a suggestion in that case?" Quinn asked, a genuinely innocent look on her face. The Hargrove boy laughed. Hopper was floored.