Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

Heart & Soul

"Heart & Soul"

I've needed you right from the very start

- T'Pau

The roads leading out of Hawkins were jammed with cars, all of them packed with anything and everything that might fit. The roads leading into Hawkins were empty. Theirs was the only car attempting the journey.

Long before they'd glimpsed anything they recognized, Joyce and Hopper had seen the smoke rising above the trees, and smelled ... horror. Joyce tried not to think about what it smelled like, all the things that must be burning to create that stench.

"They're saying it's an earthquake," the woman who had picked them up from the airplane told them. She was the one they had spoken with on the phone, but she had no more news for them today. The Doc's whereabouts were still unknown, and they were pretty sure El and the boys had reached Hawkins but they didn't know it for a fact. "Twenty-two dead that we know of, but ... a lot of missing. National Guard is here, directing traffic and trying to dig people out of the rubble. Not that they know anything more than the official story."

Hopper badly wanted her to shut up. He was in such a rage against these people, who had come into his quiet town and ruined it, been responsible for so much death and destruction, that he was having a hard time sitting still. He wanted to get out of this car, to run into Hawkins, to lift and carry and shove and throw until everything was back where it was. And he couldn't.

Joyce's hand closed around his as if she knew what he was feeling. Maybe she did. Maybe she felt it, too. He squeezed back, forcing himself to breathe, to look around him and evaluate what was happening rationally, even if none of what had happened here was rational at all.

"Where would they be?" the woman behind the wheel asked.

They exchanged glances. "My house?" Joyce suggested. But that seemed unlikely—she had sold it. They didn't even know if it was still standing. They wouldn't be at Mike's, because she suspected Ted and Karen still had no idea what was actually going on.

"Refugees are going to the high school. Maybe there?" the woman asked.

It was possible. But if Joyce knew their kids, and she was pretty sure she did, they were somewhere they could be private, somewhere they could start to think about setting things right. "Outside the main part of Hawkins," she said to Hop. "Your cabin?"

"Wasn't that pretty much destroyed?"

"Still, if the structure is standing ... I think it's the most likely place. Plus, it's the first place we should go—you're still technically dead, and we want to avoid you being seen until we know more about what's happening."

He hated that, she could see it. He wanted to push in and take back his former authority and fix everything, and it killed him that he couldn't. "Yeah," he said eventually, reluctantly. "You're right."

"I'll need directions," said the woman behind the wheel. Joyce felt badly that neither of them had asked her name, but both of them were pretty done with Hawkins Lab and everything they stood for. They had destroyed everything they came near—they were no better than the Mindflayer, as far as Joyce was concerned.

As the long black car negotiated the dirt roads through the woods, their grip on each other's hands tightened, their hearts pounding. They could practically feel the kids near.

They were out the doors almost before the car had stopped, looking at the joy spreading on Jonathan's face, the relief and surprise on Nancy's, watching Mike and Will burst out of the cabin and stop still.

Hopper froze, counting faces, his heart stopping. "Where—?"

"In her room," Mike said, stepping aside, knowing where Hopper needed to go. "With the door open three inches."

Hopper clapped the kid on the shoulder as he went by. He'd gotten so tall. He hurried through the house, taking a moment outside her door, his heart hammering. Then he pushed the door open, and there she was. His girl. His El. So tall and beautiful, even with her hair cut off again. "Hey, kid."

She broke down, laughing and crying at the same time. "Hi, Dad."

He came toward her, but he waited to reach for her until she threw herself in his arms. His brave girl, who had had to handle so much more than any person should have, at a time when all she should have to worry about was boys and grades and how not to get caught sneaking out. El wept, clinging to him, and he held her. Two miracles, El and Joyce. Two brave and amazing women he'd never thought he would get to hold again, and now here he was, with them, where he belonged. With all his brave family.

"I kept it open," El said at last, through her tears. "I kept the door open three inches."

"I know."

"I never stopped believing."

"I know. I know. It's okay. It's okay." He said it one more time, for good measure, so she would know she wasn't alone, and she would never have to be alone again. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm here."

They sat down on the edge of her bed, studying each other, looking for everything that had changed while they were apart. "You look—"

"Not fat?"

She giggled, and he was happy to hear the sound, so light. Brushing her hand over his head. "And your hair."

"My hair? Look at your hair." He mimicked the gesture. Then he pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "Yeah. I kind of stole your look, kid."

"Yeah."

"Well, what do you think?"

"Bitchin'."

"Hmm." And he held her one more time, fighting back tears of his own, not wanting to ever let her go again.