The Showman [Jopper fanfic] |•|FINISHED|•|

Part 7

Joyce spent the rest of her day with cooking something delicious for dinner, stressing herself that she will burn it or something worse. She was dancing around her kitchen whole time, noticing how Chester sometimes sat down and watched her, his puppy face seemed to laugh at her sudden actions. She sighed heavily and continued making the dough, glancing at her watches. It was 4:00pm, she still had plenty of time before he would come.

When she finally finished, she sat down on a chair in exhaust, and quickly fell asleep. When she woke up again, her head was spinning, and everything seemed so blur. She wiped her eyes and looked up, trying to get from this trans.She got up nauseously, walking to sink. She drank some cold water to calm down, and looked around. 

6:45pm. Hopper could be near. She hurried to her bedroom and tried to pick up a good looking dress, which took her almost 15 minutes. When she was finally dressed, she wanted to brush her hair, but before she could start, someone knocked on the door. Joyce sighed heavily, releazing that Hopper was already there. 

She made her way to the front doors, opening them slowly. Hopper had a flannel shirt and black jeans, and he had a flower in his hand. Joyce blushed a bit, looking down.

''You- didn't need-''

''Oh cmon! Beautiful woman deserves beautiful gifts, or no?'', he chuckled, following Joyce to the kitchen. There Chester started playing with his jeans, trying to greet him. Hopper just chuckled and picked the puppy up, cuddling him.

''Hi to you too, buddy! Hope you're doing fine'', he said happily, pulling him back on the floor before focusing back on Joyce, who put the flowers into the vase and then started preparing the food. He sat down and made himself comfortable while waited for Joyce to set food on the table.

''It looks great, but not as great as you!'', he complimented her, making her blush.

''You didn't need to say that-'', she looked away, feeling embarassed, which made him laugh.

"And what if I am telling the truth?"

"Sstopp it Hop! It's not funny!", she nearly shouted with high pitched voice, her face was all so red which made him laugh more.

"Cutie", he whispered, however he started blushing too. He never thought he could make a woman blush over his words, or atleast not woman that he liked.

After they finished dinner, Joyce suggested that they could watvh a movie. Hopper agreed quickly, because he didn't want to leave so soon. They sat on the couch and turned on Tv, both discussing what kind of movie they should pick. Hopper wanted horror movie, but Joyce wanted a comedy. So they made a copromise and turned on a detective movie.

In nearly half of the movie, Joyces eyelids tarted to be clingy, and she slowly but surely started sleeping. Hopper noticed it as soon as she fell on him completely, her body resting on his. He blushed a bit and turned off the movie. He looked around and noticed as Chester slept on the floor in front of them, and Hopper carefully got up without hurting him, oicking up Joyce on his arms and took her to her bedroom, gently placing her on her bed.

"Good night Joyce", he smiled at her, giving her a soft kiss on cheek before walking out.

As he walked home, only sweet memories were going through his head. He releazed soon enough that he was wearing a goofy smile on his face, which made him giggle. Joyce had a power around him, she knew how to make him feel happy, even if she didn't know it.

When he unlocked his apartment and walked inside, that time he stopped. Something seemed different. Hopper was suddenly aware od his clothes laying randomly all over his apartment, and when he walked inside his bedroom, he nearly screamed.

There was blood on his bed, and a bloody paper was laying there. Hopper carefully picked it up, trying not to get dirty from the blood.

"I know what's dearest for you, and id you refuse giving us what you stole from us, I'll steal that from you

Dan", Hopper read, and his eyes opened wide when he did. He took one step away, feeling as his heart started beating fastly.

"No no no no no no no no no No No No No No No NO NO NO NO NO NO", he fell down and crawled to his wall, putting his head into his hands. He was pretty sure he had a heart attack, but he didn's care.

If Dan was here, and he knew what or who was his dearest thing, he wouldn't get out. And what's more worse, he just put an innocent woman to a danger. And that's what scared him the most.

So he just cried there silently, not even questioning who's body was on his bed or where was Dan now. He wanted to run from the reality, but he couldn't. He needed to protect Joyce with all of his power.

When Joyce woke up, it was barely 6:00am. She was a bit confused who would knock on her doors at this early morning, yet since she couldn't find Jim next to herself, she hoped it was him.

But it wasn't Hopper. It was pretty different man. He had dark brown, messy hair like Jim, yet the man had darker blue eyes than him.

"Uh....hello-?", She asked slowly, raising her eyebrow.

"Hello! Ma'am Maldonado?", The man asked, salutating and bursting into laugh.

"I am sorry for sudden appearing, miss!", He then said, shaking with her hand. Joyce took one step back. She wasn't sure who that man was, but she didn't like him already.

"Yeah well, you could leave actually", she murmured, her eyes staring at the man with annoyed face.

"Well I-", he started laughing again, "I am pretty sorry but- I really need to talking with you, ma'am!"

"I don't even know you", she said coldly, ready to slam the doors but the man pushed her inside. She was actually shocked for a while and she screamed, but before her voice became really loud, he put a hand on her mouth.

"Hey hey hey calm down! I don't wanna hurt ya, I just wanna wait for my friend", the man said calmly, still smiling.

"Who-?", Joyce said when she pulled his hands from her mouth.

"Oh- Jim Hopper!", The man smiled.

"And who you might be-?"

"Dan Iliak", the man said, sitting on the couch with weird smile.