Jailbird || Stranger Things

nineteen ➵ basket case

The drive back was quiet. Mostly due to El's soft tears which alleviated once they left the town.

    Teresa didn't know what it was, but she could feel it. As if she could feel as El felt. She felt heartbroken. Perhaps it was because she never wanted to see El cry, and the girl was so close to it. Or perhaps it was just some of the protective Hopper instinct that told her.

    It was enough to tie down her thoughts instead of dwelling on the horrible headache forming behind her eyes. But even still, none of it helped when they arrived at the cabin.

    Throwing caution to the wind, Teresa drove closer to the cabin, so they'd have to walk less.

    "You can't leave without me. We agreed. You promised, El," Teresa said quietly as they walked.

    "I thought you lied."

    "I'm not Hop," Teresa reminded her. "And Hop isn't lying. He said something that he wasn't sure about. And I know that looks like lying, but it wasn't. It was stupid of him to tell you something that he didn't actually know."

    "He lied."

    Teresa didn't know how to make it better. It broke her, deep down.

    No more than her father's face did when they made it back to the cabin, though.

    "Friends don't lie. Isn't that your bullshit saying?" he asked, looking to El, but the girl just walked past him into the wooden shack. "Hey, hey! Hey! Don't walk away from me!"

    "Dad, this is not the time," Teresa tried, but Hopper was way ahead of her, following El to her room.

    "Where'd you go on your little field trip, huh? Where? Did you go see Mike?"

    "He didn't see me," El replied.

    "Yeah, well, that mother and her daughter did and they called the cops. Now, did anyone else see you? Anyone at all? Come on, I need you to think!"

    Hopper was almost desperate, but he was masking it well with anger. Teresa knew that, he'd been just as worried when he called her the first time she was arrested. Even though those allegations didn't stick, he'd called because Diane told him. He'd been angry then too, but eventually he broke and asked if she was all right.

    She didn't see this working out that way.

    "Nobody saw me!" El raised her voice, Teresa closing and locking the door behind the three of them.

    "Why didn't you stop her?" Jim turned to his daughter. "You both put us in danger, you realise that, right?"

    "You promised— I go!" El accused, making Jim turn back to her. "And I never leave! Nothing ever happens!"

    "Yeah! Nothing happens and you stay safe!"

    "You lie!" El was shouting this time, and Teresa already knew where this was going.

    "I don't lie! I protect and I feed and I teach! And all I ask of you is that you follow three simple rules. Three rules! And you know what? You can't even do that!"

    "Dad!" Teresa snapped, El hitting her dresser in anger as Hopper left her room and went into the main room of the cabin. "She's a kid!"

    "You're grounded," he told her, then turned to El and repeated it. "You too. You know what that means? It means no Eggos," he threw the boxes from the fridge onto the floor before he crossed to the couch. "And no TV for a week."

    "Dad, come on—"

    "No," he turned to Teresa. "You know exactly what it means," he pointed at her accusingly before he leaned down to pick up the TV, but El wasn't about to let that happen. "All right, knock it off. Let it go," he struggled against her telekinetic hold on the device. "Okay. Two weeks. Let go!" She didn't. "A month!"