The TreeHouse

Chapter 2

Hopper woke up early the next morning to Joyce squeezing his hand. Squeezing it so hard it had brought him out of a deep sleep and was now becoming rather painful. Her soft whimpers and slight twitches instantly alerted him to the problem. She was having a nightmare. Which wasn't uncommon, especially on nights when she had an altercation with her father.

Usually, she would calm down within a few minutes and her breathing would return to normal once the nightmare was over, but this time her movements got worse, her grip grew tighter. Hopper sat up then as much as he could and pressed his chest into her back, finally slipping his hand free.

"Joyce." He whispered and kissed her temple, finding it damp with sweat. He tried again to gently direct her away from the darkness and toward his voice, but she only responded with another whimper and scrunched her face, showcasing the fear in her expression.

"Joy, it's okay, wake up." He soothed, running his hand down the length of her arm.

Without warning, Joyce began to kick in her sleep as if she was trying to fight off the demons who were currently haunting her.

"Joyce, honey you gotta wake-" And she did. So suddenly it caught Hopper off guard and he didn't have a chance to move before she plowed her elbow into his nose.

"Fuck!" He yelled out of reflex, making Joyce jump from the bed and into the corner of the tree house. As she caught her bearings, Hopper laid his head back and groaned in pain, not sure if the pounding in his head was from his nose or the headache that was sure to follow.

"Oh god, Hop! I'm sorry! Shit." Joyce panicked, moving slowly back toward the bed. Her instincts not letting her rush to his side. "Fuck, are you okay?"

Hopper had closed his eyes, the brightness of the sky outside making his head pound even more. Fighting the sting of tears that usually accompany someone getting hit in the nose, he brought his hands to his face, wanting to curl in on himself.

"Hop I'm so sorry, let me see." Joyce begged as she crawled back into bed beside him. When he felt her cool palms on his cheeks, he softened and removed his hands away from his face, thankful there was only a little blood. He couldn't be mad at her, it had been an accident, but damn did it hurt.

"Ow." He whined, wanting to wipe the blood from his nose.

Joyce frowned, feeling terrible that she had hurt him and carefully reached up to run her fingers along the bridge of his nose. She sighed in relief when she realized it hadn't been broken.

"I didn't break it, so that's a plus." She informed him. Her voice still full of guilt.

"Well thank fuck for that." He attempted to joke, grabbing a handful of the sheets to lightly dab the blood away from his upper lip.

"Hopper I'm so, so sorry. Please don't be mad at me."

"Joyce, it was an accident. No worries okay? Next time I'll know to prod you with a stick or something." He grinned, hoping to lighten the mood so she wouldn't beat herself up over it. "You wouldn't happen to have any aspirin would you?"

Joyce was on her feet in an instant, going for her overnight bag. After a few seconds of rummaging, she pulled out a small bottle of pills.

"I don't have anything to wash them down with."

Figuring he got most of the blood from his face when the sheet came back clean on the last swipe, he balled it up and tossed it with the others that needed to be washed. "That's fine I'll take them dry."

He didn't miss the wrinkle of Joyce's nose at the mention of taking the pills dry. "That's really gross Hop."

He shrugged his shoulders, before reaching into the pockets of his discarded jeans and pulling out a pack of Camels. Quickly lighting his first smoke of the day, he made sure to put his lighter back in his pocket since Joyce was notorious for stealing them. Taking a quick drag, he watched as she made her way back to his side. The feel of smoke in his lungs starting to make him relax.