Home Strangerthingau

Chapter 19

When They Come Together

"Mom!" Will burst through the front door of the Byers' house with his friends hot on his trail.

Joyce looked up from her spot at the table in the dining room. She stood up and walked to the entryway where she met with the party. "What? What's wrong?"

Will looked around half expecting Hopper to walk in the room as well. "Is Hopper home?" He asked with urgency lacing his voice.

"No," She said looking back at the group behind him, who were barely standing still, "no what's going on?"

"We really need to talk to him." Mike spoke from behind Will with the same tone of urgency.

"He left over an hour ago." Joyce shrugged. "He was... doing an errand for me."

"Do you know when he will be back?" Steve asked from the back of the group.

"I don't know. I-"

As if on cue a car is heard pulling up the driveway with its lights illuminating the house.

"Hopper." Joyce whispered feeling the hope start building up in her heart.

The group watched through the window has Hopper got out of his car he quickly made his way inside the house. The moment he step in the door bunch of questions were asked by everyone.

"Was I right?"

"Did you hurt yourself at the lab?"

"Did you bleed at the lab?"

"Steve, that was a stupid way to ask a question. Hopper, did you somehow open a wound while you were at Hawkins Lab and it shed blood?"

"Woah! Woah! Woah!" Hopper said loudly making the questions die down. "One at a time." He said quieter and then looked over at Will. "What were you asking about the lab?"

"When you were looking through things at the lab, did you happen to hurt yourself in a way that it could make you bleed?" Will ask with a little trace of hope in his eye.

"Why are you a-"

"Hopper!" A voice came from behind him that made him jump slightly. He turn and saw Jonathan and Nancy standing in the entryway, both with the same urgent but hopeful looks on their faces as everyone else. "We have something to tell you!"

"Well, so does everyone else!" He said gesturing to everyone else in the room. "Okay, I have a solution. We are going to do this one at a time. How about we go to the living room and figure this out, yeah?"

And that's how they found themselves seated in the living room, all waiting impatiently for there turn to speak.

"Alright," Hopper said sitting down in a chair that faced everybody, "Will, you and your friends can go first."

"We went back to the lab." Will stated making all heads whip to him.

"What?" Joyce yelled in disbelief.

"Why would you go there?" Hopper asked with a shocked look on his face.

"We want to look and see if we could find any clues that you may have missed." Lucas said awkwardly.

"You guys don't think I tried finding things there?" Hopper said looking offended.

"No, we know you did." Steve said not wanting to make the chief of police angry.

"But we still found something." Dustin said.

"What is it?" Jonathan asked intrigued.

"A few drops of blood in what would have been El's room." Max said looking down at her hands.

"Is there, by any chance, that blood being yours?" Robin questioned.

"Because we have this theory." Lucas spoke up once again. "That El was brought back to the lab and, maybe, they hurt her or she tried to use her powers to escape."

Hopper thought about it long and hard. He shook his head. "I don't think I cut myself. At least not bad enough where it drew blood."

The party let out a collective breath they didn't know they were holding and looked back at one another with happiness and hope.

Hopper turned to Jonathan and Nancy. "Did you guys find anything in those files?"

"Actually," Jonathan said looking over at Nancy who gave a small but reassuring nod, "we did."

Nancy looked at Hopper. "We think we know where Brenner went."

"Really?" Hopper asked now getting hopeful himself. "How? Where?"

"In the files," Jonathan started to explain, "there are notes between Brenner and the people that work for him."

"Throughout the notes discussing El," Nancy continued, "they kept on using the repetition of the word home, like 'it's time we bring her home'. And we knew that only meant one place." Nancy gave him a few letters to look over himself.

"But I already checked the lab in Chicago, the place was like a ghost town." Hopper shook his head at the couple.

"We knew you already looked there." Nancy informed.

"Then we read this," Jonathan picked up a letter and started to read aloud. "'When we get her, we will bring her home. To her new home'"

"And in another letter, it talks about how Hawkins isn't her home." Nancy added.

"So, you're thinking..." Hopper trailed of letting them finish his thought.

"There might be a new lab. In Chicago." Jonathan stated confidently.

Hopper sat in silence trying to process the new information he was given. Everyone sat waiting for him to say something.

"Hopper." Joyce's small voice came through the silence making Hopper look over to meet her worried and pleading eyes. "Was it her?"

"What?" Will asked softly completely confused by his mother's question.

"Do you remember that night on the one year, when we sat in her room for a while?" Joyce asked getting a nod back from him. "Well, I heard El that night. I didn't think of it at first because I thought it was my imagination, but then I kept hearing her. And I don't think she's dead. I think she's alive and needs our help."

"Have you heard her voice recently?" Hopper asked.

"No, not since this morning." Joyce shook her head. "Please tell me I'm right."

Everyone looked at Hopper wanting to know everything he had to say. He stood up and grabbed the photo and placed it down on the coffee table for everyone to see.

"You were right, Joyce."

Authors note
I honestly don't what to say. I loved writing this chapter and the dialogue. I loved it and I can't wait to write more!

Love ya!!!