Coffee || A Jopper Story

2

Joyce walked through the B-Wing to Jim's room, as she did every day. She spent every free minute she had with him, talking, sharing stories, and just... being together. She'd come to remember why they'd dated before he'd left for the war. She paused outside his door for a minute, thinking how great it was to see him again but also how sad it was that this was what had brought them back together.

"I can hear you thinking out there," Hopper half-joked. "Seriously, come in."

She laughed and walked in, surprised to see him sitting up with a bright spark in his eyes and a smile on his face. "Hey, Jim."

"Hi, Joyce. Everything alright?"

"Of course! How are you doing today?"

"Actually, great. I think I'm getting better." He grinned.

"Hopefully we can get you out of here soon." She smiled at him, wanting almost nothing more than to see him living life happily and free.

He chuckled. "That'd be great. You'd come with me, right?" She nodded, imagining them leaving the hospital and going to live happily together. She scolded herself for thinking they would be together when they left, because they hadn't been together since high school, which suddenly seemed like forever ago. "It'd be amazing to get out of here."

She looked at him, and from the foot of the bed, she could see his eye bags. "Jim..? What's that about?"

"Hmm?" He looked confused.

"You've got bad eye bags... Have you been sleeping?" She tried to see behind the facade he was putting on, of being alert and energetic. She could tell that he was exhausted.

He nodded, but he couldn't speak or look her in the eyes. She chuckled, he was such a bad liar- or at least around her. "Hopper... you need to sleep more."

"I'm fine, Joy. Don't worry about me." His old nickname for her slipped out, and she smiled before shaking her head.

"It's not good for you to stay awake for so long. You have a better chance of getting better with sleep, you know? It actually allows the body time to rest and recover." He nodded with a sigh. "Plus, I mean- it has to be pretty boring in here. Sleep is something that's actually healthy that passes the time." He nodded, not willing to argue with her. 

"But Jim Hopper, you better not die on me. I swear to god I will revive you and kick your ass if you do." She looked at him, playfully angry but dead serious about him not dying. He nodded, and they were both quiet for a minute or two, thinking. 

"What's the thing that you miss the most?" The question was kind of abrupt, but he didn't mind. She didn't know what made her ask, or why she needed to know, but she just did. 

"Well, I have you, so..." She laughed, a small tint on her cheeks. "Coffee." He paused for a minute. "You're mean and won't let me have coffee." He made a playful sad face, then stuck out his tongue. She giggled.

"Coffee? Of all things- Why do you miss coffee so much?"

"I used to live on the stuff, Joyce."

"Yeah, I remember." She laughed at the memories of him being grumpy in the mornings until he had a cup of coffee. "How about I do you a favor? I'll talk to my boss, and I'll try to get you some coffee, okay?" 

"Yes, thank you thank you thank you!" She laughed at how excited he was, and he chuckled too, but it turned into a strange wheeze at the end. She moved to his side. "Are you alright, Jim?"

He coughed twice. "Yeah, yeah I'm good." She narrowed her eyes. "Seriously, Joyce. I'm okay." She sat down in the chair at his side, pushing her worries to the back of her mind. 

"How about we make a deal? Just in case Ms. Josaec says no, which will probably happen, unfortunately."

He made a playful sad face, pretending to be upset that he most likely wouldn't get coffee while he was in the hospital. "What are you offering?"

"You get better, and I'll make you a cup of coffee, just how you like it. We'll walk out together and have some fun." She smiled at him, and he grinned back. 

"Sounds good. Deal." They shook hands. She sat down on the chair by his bed, not letting go of his hand. He decided not to ask any questions about it. 

"Thinking back to what I said about it being boring in here, what do you do in here all day?"

"It's pretty boring and lonely without you here. But I mostly just sleep and stare at the wall. I can't see the window from here..."

"You can't see the window? What's the point of putting you in a window room if you can't see out of the window?" She scowled to herself. "Do you want me to move you so that you can see out? Or do you want me to bring you anything?"

"Maybe a book," He murmured. "And yeah, sure. I'd love to be able to look outside. See what I'm missing out on, you know?" He chuckled. 

"I'll call someone in to get all the machines moved, and then you'll be able to look outside too." She smiled, then paused. "A book, huh? You used to be anti-books; I couldn't get you to read any books for the life of me."

He laughed, but it soon turned into a cough. It was at first a dry, hoarse cough, but it changed to a provocative cough. He couldn't breathe, feeling the mucus building in his throat. She sat him up, hoping to help him breathe. 

The cough scared her. She'd heard worse before, having worked in the veteran's hospital, but when it was her best friend it was terrifying. The rattling in his lungs sounded terrible. It was about a minute before he regained his breath.

"Oh my god! Hopper are you okay?!"

"I'm- I'm fine." He wiped his mouth and looked at his hand. There were the faintest traces of blood there, and that freaked both of them out. Her eyes went wide, fear and panic filling them. He didn't want to show how scared he was, but he had just coughed up blood. That was an issue. 

"No- you're not fine. You're not fine at all! I-I've gotta test you- we need to know what's going on- I-"

"Joyce, Joyce. Calm down. We'll figure this out, okay?" He covered her trembling hands with his own. "Everything is going to be okay."

"N-nothing is okay! You just coughed up blood. Blood, Jim. Blood."

"I know, I know."

"How are you so calm right now?!" She half-yelled at him. 

"Stop yelling, please. I'm trying to be strong for you." Tears filled his eyes. "I'm scared, okay? I'm terrified. There are so many things this could mean and so many issues this could cause, but I don't want to think about that. So please, just stop- stop yelling, and we can think about it rationally."

She began to cry, but she stopped yelling at him. "I'll test you, we'll figure it out."

"There we go. Good thinking."

"I'll take your blood and we'll get a result back soon."

"I don't like needles. You know that."

"Don't pay attention to the needle. Look at me, okay?" She prepped it. "It's not gonna hurt like a shot; you won't be sore afterward." He nodded, even though he already knew that. He was watching her with the needle, watching as she got ready to poke him with it. The sight of the sharp object made him nervous, and he began to tremble. "Look at me," she whispered, drawing his attention from the point to her eyes. He gazed into them and hardly noticed the poke. 

She took out the needle a moment later. "I'll send this to the lab, okay? We'll know soon." He nodded, holding back tears. "Everything is gonna be okay, Jim. I promise."