Jopper // Light at the End of the Tunnel - A Love Story (Completed)

Before

It had been the summer of 1985. Joyce would never forget those few days in July which she had spent solving a mystery with Jim Hopper, only to at last lose him for good (or so she had thought at the time. So everyone had thought, even his daughter, El).
Joyce had often laughed to herself, a sad laugh, laughing at the sheer and strange irony of the universe... who would have thought that a few magnets falling off a fridge could ever have spirraled into what it did? It was too crazy, and yet, that was what had happened. Of course, stranger things had occurred in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, where she still lived at the time, when all those insane things had happened... still... she could never have imagined THIS.
It had happened though. She had lost him, she thought, and she just had to find a way to deal with it, to somehow live through the pain, the heartache, the grief, the fear.. Being a mother, such things suddenly reminded her of how any parent's worst nightmare could come true in the blink of an eye, and there was nothing you could do about it. Jim himself had had to live through it, when he had lost his daughter, Sara.
After Jim disappeared, Joyce decided to move out of the town of Hawkins. Jim had been right - it was better to just get the hell out of that place, get away from all the awful memories. There were plenty of those, memories, that is. Some of them were good, but sadly, there were many bad ones as well. That day, when Joyce and the kids had packed up all of their stuff, leaving the house in which they had lived for so many years, she finally realized something, something important, something profound, something which she hadn't been able to admit to herself until that day, when she stood in the doorway of their old house, gazing upon an empty living room - there had only been one reason, and one reason alone, why she had stayed in Hawkins for so long, despite everything she and her kids and been through: Jim Hopper.
She had to admit it to herself, she just had to. There was no other reasonable explanation for why she hasn't done this sooner. Why now? Because he wasn't there anymore. Because the man she loved was gone - or so she had thought, at that point in time.
Joyce Byers, her two sons, Jonathan and Will, and her adoptive daughter, El, had moved to Chicago, Illinois. It was a big step, there was no doubt about it, but there were a few different reasons for why she had chosen to move to such a large and populated city compared to the small town in which she used to live. First of all, Joyce had to get away from all the questions and the nosy, gossiping folks around Hawkins. Joyce Byers had lived in small towns so long that she had found out that a small town means everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows everybody's secrets. She had to get away from all of that. Secondly, after Jim's death (As Joyce thought of it at the time), Joyce had gotten quite close to one of Jim's acquaintances, a man called Murray Bauman. Murray had been extremely supportive, and even her three kids had grown rather fond of him. Murray had even helped Joyce find an apartment in Chicago. Murray, too, lived in Chicago, very close to Joyce's new apartment, and in the following weeks after the little family had moved, Joyce and the kids often visited him, while Murray also helped Joyce out with finances and such. Murray had a roommate, a man who not only Joyce, but the kids too, had grown very fond of, even though he didn't speak English very well. His name was Alexei - he was Russian, but with Murray's help, he was well on his way to becoming a true American Citizin, at least, that was his goal. Alexei had been with Murray, Joyce and Hopper when they had saved the town of Hawkins from Soviet Invasion that summer, and although Alexei had originally worked for the Russians, it was as if everyone had already forgotten all about his unfortunate past, and had taken him in, accepted him as a part of the family, so to speak. 
Joyce and the kids had only lived in Chicago for a few weeks before Jonathan went off to college. Jonathan's girlfriend, Nancy Wheeler, was going to the same college, and so the two were going to live at the same campus. Joyce was ecstatic, to say the least, when she learned that her oldest son had got in in to college, and although it was a dream come true for Jonathan as well, he wasn't as excited as his mother had expected him to be.
"What's wrong, honey?" Joyce had asked him that very same afternoon when he had received his acceptance letter.
"It's just..." Jonathan said thoughtfully, anxiously chewing on his bottom lip, "I know I'm going to be with Nancy and all that, and that's amazing and all, don't get me wrong, and it's not me that I'm worried about..."
"Oh, honey..." Joyce said, realizing where this was going.
"I'm just thinking that maybe this isn't such a good idea after all."
"But, Jonathan, this is your dream coming true! You've been dreaming of this day for years!" Joyce cried, tugging her son into a tight embrace.
"I know, mom, but things are different than they were back then. I mean, EVERYTHING is different now, isn't it?" Jonathan said sadly, putting his shoulder on his mother's arm, like he used to do when he was a little shy boy.

"You're right," Joyce said, "everything is different now." 

"Look, mom, I want to go. But you have to promise me you'll stay safe. Okay?" 

"Okay." 

It was a cold, rainy October night when Joyce had gotten a call on her cell phone. 

"Murray? Gosh, it's 2 AM! What's wrong?" Joyce said frantically, as she picked up the phone. 

"It's Jim." Murray said on the other line, his voice shaking. 

"Jim? What about him?" Joyce asked in a tiny voice. 

"He's back."

And just like that, everything had changed. 

Jim Hopper had been kidnapped by the Soviets and held prisoner in a dank, old cellar underground. The American police had freed him and a few other prisoners, but Joyce knew in her heart this wouldn't be the end of the story; Jim might come back, but he would never be the same again - things would never be the same again. 

Joyce waited in Murray's living room with El, Will, Alexei and Jonathan. Suddenly, they heard a car pull up. 

"They're back." Jonathan said, getting up from the sofa. 

The first thing that Joyce noticed when Jim and Murray stepped through the door was that Jim looked tired, so awfully, awfully tired. His beard had grown long and there were purple bags under his bloodshot eyes. 

"Jim." she cried as she ran to him, flinging her arms around his neck, not caring that she might cause a scene. 

"Joyce." he whispered, gently stroking her dark hair. 

"You're alive." she murmured and softly placed a hand on his cheek, while looking into his eyes. 

"Yes." he just said. 

He looked so sad, so broken. 

After everyone had said their hellos to Jim, Murray anounced that the poor man had to rest. 

"Where will he stay?" Joyce asked later on, when everyone else had gone to bed. 

Murray shrugged his shoulders. 

"I don't know. At my place, I guess, until we figure something else out." 

"Oh, Murray. Words can't explain how happy I am that he's back, but did you see his face? He looks so... so..."
"Different?" Murray suggested, as he gave Joyce's hand a squeeze. The two had grown much closer during the last months. 

"Yes. Different." Joyce agreed. 

"He'll get through this. We'll get through this." Murray said, pulling out two cigarettes. 

"Like we always do." Joyce said absently, staring out of the window, into the dark night. 

Murray chuckled. "Like we always do."