Right Side Up - A Stranger Things Season 4 Fanfic (incomplete)

Chapter 7

And just like that, there she was, doing the one thing she swore to never do again.

The drive to Hawkins was fairly quiet, except the few times El asked if they were there yet, and Will's quiet giggles every time El frowned after getting a negative answer from Joyce.

Joyce glanced in the rear view mirror of the car, to check on the children. As she saw that they were fast asleep, she let out a sigh, and focused her eyes on the road.

She didn't know how she would react when she'd pass by the "Welcome to Hawkins" sign, but she knew that it would feel utterly wrong to come back without Jonathan, or Hopper.
She couldn't blame her eldest though. Him and Nancy Wheeler were in NYU; something that Joyce was very pleased about. She liked that at least one of her boys hadn't lost contact with his friends from Hawkins, even though she knew that him and Nancy were more than friends.

Joyce chuckled with that thought, and she immediately looked in the mirror, afraid she might wake up the kids. As she made sure they were still asleep, she went back into her thoughts.

The events of that dreadful night came to her mind. The night she watched her lifelong best friend die right before her eyes. She remembered the look he gave her just before she blew up the laser.
Then the dream she had last night. How could it possibly feel so real if it was nothing but a fiction of her imagination?

"Mom, where are we, are we there yet?" A sleepy voice said from the back of the car. El had just woken up, and was rubbing her eyes, trying to fully wake herself up from the deep slumber she was in.

"Yes honey, we're almost there. I know it's getting late, but I promise that as soon as we get there, we're all going to rest, okay?"

"Okay." El said, sitting up properly to look outside her window.

The drive from their home in New York, to Hawkins, was 11 hours long, so reasonably, the kids; and Joyce, were very tired.

It had been 5 months since the Byers and El had moved to New York. Joyce didn't agree with the idea of moving to a big city at first, as she was used to the quiet atmosphere of Hawkins, but after Jonathan got his acceptance letter from NYU, she figured that it would be better for her son to be closer to home, instead of having to drive for multiple hours to visit for Christmas, or Will's birthday.

Joyce's heart skipped a beat as she passed the "Welcome to Hawkins" sign, with the word "Hawkins" painted over with grafitti that said "Hell" instead.
They aren't wrong about that, she thought, and quickly drove past it. However, she felt kind of bad to see the sign in that condition. As bad as this place was, it was her hometown, and it held a lot of Joyce's memories, which weren't just unpleasant ones. Both of her boys were born there, she had lots of great memories with Bob, and it was the place whrre she met Hopper all those years ago, in kindergarten.

Joyce quickly realized she had been traveling off in her thoughts, and brought herself back to reality. She looked in the rear view mirror to check on Will and El, who were still fast asleep.

"Guys, wake up, we're here!" She said in a quiet tone, trying to startle them as little as possible.

As soon as Joyce had finished her sentence, the kids' eyes opened immediately. They sat up in their seats and looked out of their windows. They had really missed the small town, more than Joyce could ever imagine.

"Mom,can we go to Mike's house now?" El blurted out, and Will nodded in agreement.

"Sweetheart, it's gotten really late. I'm sure Mike and the others will be very excited to see you two, but we don't want to scare them in the middle of the night! I promise that I'll take you to the Wheelers' first thing tomorrow, okay?" Joyce understood that they missed their friends, and longed to see them, but she was exhausted. Being stuck behind a wheel for 11 hours isn't the most comfortable thing in the world, and all she wanted was a warm bath, and some well-needed sleep.

"Okay!" The two kids said in unison, not taking their eyes off the town. Their noses were stuck to their windows, and their breathing had fogged the glass. They just couldn't get enough of the town they missed so badly.

It finally felt like home. For all of them.

And for some reason, Joyce felt more at home than ever before.