Time After Time (a Stranger Things fanfiction)

Stand by Me

"Stand by Me"

When the night has come

And the land is dark

And the moon is the only light we'll see

No I won't be afraid

Oh, I won't be afraid

Just as long as you stand by me

- Ben E. King

They had left Hopper alone after they hosed him down. Alone with a set of clean hospital scrubs to wear instead of the gown, and a bucket to throw up into. And throw up he did, until he was so empty he couldn't imagine there was anything left ... and yet that gross black stuff still kept coming. He tried not to think about what kind of long-term effects there might be of all the gunk he had swallowed.

As he was retching one more time, the door opened. Owens' voice sounded from behind him. "All right, cowboy. Good news. We're giving you the green light." He stopped in front of Hopper. "How you feeling?"

Hopper made the effort to grin at him. "Never better."

"All right," Owens said, taking that for the 'fuck you' that it was. "Well, got a present for you." He gestured to the man who had come in behind him, who stepped forward with a hazmat suit, helmet and all, in his arms.

"The hell is that?"

"There's something you should see." Owens wasn't trying to deflect anymore. Which was a good thing, because Hopper didn't really feel up to decking him, which he would have had to do if Owens had tried to lie to him again.

He put the suit on over the scrubs and followed Owens down the familiar hallways. They came through a set of sliding doors he didn't remember from before, and stepped into a room filled with those floating flakes of decay. The Upside Down was still open, then, somehow.

Owens gestured for him to get on an industrial elevator with an open cage, so he did, feeling it wobble unpleasantly beneath his feet. Once he was on, it was lowered through a hole in the floor, far below, in pitch darkness. Until a light was suddenly switched on and Hopper saw what they had been hiding from him all this time.

It was massive. A long, red, pulsing slash in the world, with those vine things lacing across it.

As they continued to move lower, Owens spoke, his voice echoing in the cavernous space. "All living organisms develop defense mechanisms against attack. They adapt. They find some way to survive."

At the bottom, more people in full suits were moving around. Hopper stepped off the elevator, looking around him. Tunnels snaked away from him in every direction. The lab people were trying to hold it off, he could see that—but he could also see that they were failing. "Oh, my God."

"It's pretty impressive, isn't it? It's been spreading. Growing beneath us like some cancer."

"Why aren't you burning it?"

"There's a complication."

*****

Will was sleeping, still sedated, and Mike had finally fallen asleep in his chair with a blanket over him. Bob drew Joyce aside. "I know you said no questions, but—"

"No, I know, you have to know now. I'm sorry, I never wanted this to be your problem."

"Hey." He put one hand gently under her chin and lifted her face so she could look him in the eye. "Your problems are my problems. That's the way I want it. I want ... you, Joyce, and everything that comes with you. No matter how hard, or scary, or ... unbelievable."