Butterfly

012- Sober

Dorothea sat on the ground pulling at the grass as she waited for her parents to get back from the hospital. Sarah had to be rushed in again, and had left Dorothea with her grandmother to make things easier. However it worried Dorothea how long it was taking them to get back. Usually if Sarah had an episode she was sent right back home after a couple of hours, but it had been a full day since they had left for the hospital. Her grandmother tried to console Dorothea but there was still a huge fear in the girl's heart that something had gone terribly wrong.

To get away from her grandma's watching eye, Dorothea had walked down to the creek to play with the bullfrogs and make flower crowns. Sarah would have plenty to keep her head warm with the amount of crowns that her sister had made her.

"Dorothea!" The girl's grandma yelled from the house. "Your father is home!"

Dorothea didn't waste a second jumping up from her spot on the ground and sprinting up to the house. For half a second, Dorothea had herself convinced that everything was going to be okay and that the doctors had only wanted to watch Sarah for a more extended period of time because they had found a cure or something. However, Jim Hopper's face was anything but hopeful as Dorothea ran through the back door and into the living room.

"Daddy?" The young girl spoke up, sitting in front of her father.

Hopper reached out for his little girl, pulling her into a tight hug. "Hi, Dorthy. How has grandma been treating you?"

"Great. We had Eggos for breakfast and we put whipped cream and sprinkles on them."

Hopper smiled for just a second at the blonde girl, "That's wonderful. Your grandma really has spoiled you."

"Daddy," Dorothea said, "where's mommy and Sarah?"

Hopper's face fell at his daughter's question. He grabbed her hands, and lowered his voice. "They are still at the hospital. I came to grab a change of clothes for your mom and I, and to grab you."

"I don't understand."

"Sarah isn't able to leave the hospital. She has gotten very sick, that she needs to stay a little longer. We thought maybe you would want to see her and talk to her."

"Yes," Dorothea smiled. After a pause, Dorothea looked back at her dad, "Is Sarah dying, daddy?"

Hopper pulled his daughter back into a hug, "No. No of course not. Your sister just needs a little extra help from the doctors. Why don't you go find a book that you could read to her."

"Oh I know the perfect one!"

Teddy placed the small book back in her floorboard under her bead, and went back to getting ready. Without smoking the last couple of weeks, Teddy had found that memories she had long suppressed were beginning to find their way back to her. But Teddy wasn't going to go back to smoking, not with everything that had happened in the last year. If she wanted to forget about that crazy monster, she'd have to take the one thing away from herself that kept getting it to reappear.

Once she had completed putting on her makeup and packing her bag, Teddy made her way to the kitchen where her father was already placing the plates of Eggos on the table. Teddy knocked on a different bedroom door.

"El, waffles are ready!"

The young brown headed girl stepped out of the bedroom wearing Teddy's old clothes that Hopper and her had found in the attic. They were a little big, but it was all they had to work with at the moment. The three of them ate their Eggos together, scarfing them down before Teddy and Hopper had to leave for school and work respectively.