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

Chapter 13

After their kiss, they hadn't really spoken to eachother a lot. Although it was Joyce that made the first move, she felt uncomfortable being in his presence, as if she had done the right thing at the wrong time.

Meanwhile, Hopper wanted to be as close to Joyce as possible, and was eager to talk to her about what happened between them, but he decided to let things go for now, seeing as Joyce wasn't really thrilled to talk about anything.
As the days went on, Hopper slowly started to shut down, and keep to himself, which stirred up guilt in Joyce. She felt as if she was responsible for his behavior, and that if she had talked to him sooner, they would've came to terms with eachother.

Thanksgiving Day was finally here. El and Will got picked up early in the morning by Mike's mother, and were taken to Hawkins to spend the weekend with their friends, and Joyce had to work overtime at her new job.
She was still a sales girl, but she had been hired to a bigger store, and made more money, which also meant more hours of work than in Melvald's.

Joyce was anxious over the idea of leaving Hopper home alone, since she didn't want him to feel like he's being held captive. On the other hand, taking him to work with her would earn her a lot of questions and weird looks from her coworkers, as well as a lot of awkward tension between the two.

Hopper was sitting alone at the kitchen table, over a mug of hot coffee. His eyes had lost the shine they had when he had first gotten out of the prison, and they were now dull, dusty and empty.

As Joyce rushed towards the door, her head peeked from the hallway to the kitchen, and her brows furrowed as she didn't recognize the man sitting in that chair. It was as if the man she had saved from that hell hole had been replaced with an empty shell. And she felt responsible for it.

"Hop?" her soft voice echoed to his ears, and he didn't bother to move his head to look at her.

She cautiously moved closer to him, and placed her hand on his shoulder, instantly feeling his muscles relax.

"I'm leaving now. Are you sure you'll be okay all alone?"

"Yes, thank you." he said in a cold tone, that brought chills down Joyce's spine.

She took a deep breath, and softly pulled her hand away. "Alright then, see you in the evening."

"Bye."

She felt the familiar knot forming in her throat as she made her way to her car, and slammed the driver's door shut. She quickly pulled out of the driveway, and made her way to work.

What had she done to upset him? Was it because they hadn't spoken about what happened? No, it was surely more than that.
Maybe it wasn't her fault after all. It could be the sudden change of environment, or the fact that he was introduced to normality out of nowhere.

Before she knew it, she had reached her work. She parked the car in her usual spot, turned off the engine, and sat in silence.
Owens had warned her about everything. Before she and Murray went off to the prison, Owens had explained to her that he might not be the same. She knew beforehand of course, no one gets out of jail the same person they were when they got in. But everything happened so.. suddenly.

Joyce closed her eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath, before stepping out of her car and into the store to begin her shift.

_______________________________________

Hopper was at the exact spot Joyce had left him when she went to work. In the kitchen, staring blankly at the wall, with a mug of coffee that had now gotten cold. His head was empty but filled with thoughts at the same time.

"Snap out of it Jim! You're better than this!" a small voice echoed in his head, but it quickly got muffled by his thoughts.

Why did he suddenly shut down? In all honesty, he didn't quite understand either.
Everyone was expecting him to instantly go back to his normal behavior, and he almost did, he became too comfortable too fast, and he ruined everything just like that.

Suddenly, the frantic ringing of the phone snapped him out of his thoughts.

He didn't know if he should pick it up or not. No one knew he was alive, and if he answered, they might recognise his voice, and that wouldn't end well.

But then again, no one knew him here, and as far as the kids had told him, not a lot of people know the Byers' new house number, so he decided to risk it, and answer the call.

"Hello?", he tried to change his voice, as to not get recognised.

"Joyce? Joyce is that you?" Murray said in a very panicked tone.

"It's Hopper, what's wrong Murray?"

"Y-You need to come over, right now. It's an emergency. I think El is in danger."