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

Part 9

She was biking to the bar, throwing her bike on the floor and speeding up to the apartment place. She found Karen there, already banging on Hoppers doors and shouting his name. When she noticed Joyce, she stopped. 

Joyce tried to catch her breathe, her right hand placed on her stomach, the other hand was placed on the stairs.

''Joyce? Where's Jim, I need to talk to him!'', Karen asked, quite annoyed.

''Let....me..'', she breathed, pushing Karen away from the doors. Karen wanted to protest but she changed her mind when she saw Joyces focused face.

Joyce pushed into doors twice, sighing. Then she grabbed her hairclip and gently put it inside the lock, unlocking the doors. She winked at Karen before pushing the doors wide open, and both of them froze at place.

The whole place looked much more messy, clothes and papers were laying all over floor, making it difficult to move there. Joyce sighed heavily and tried not to shake too much.

''What...happend..'', Karen whispered, placing her hand on Joyces shoulder. 

''They kidnaped him'', Joyce muttered, trying not to cry.

''David?!'', Karen suddenly nearly shouted, taking one step back.

''How do you...-''

''I just wanted to inform Hopper! I saw David in a white van, he seemed so desperate to catch Jim-'', Karen started panicking, but Joyce hugged her. Something told Joyce not to question how Karen knows David, but more importantly..

''What was the vans number, Kar?'', Joyce asked.

''Uh..I don't...- I don't know-''

''KAREN! THIS IS F-CKING IMPORTANT! TRY TO REMEMBER PLEASE!''

She was quiet for second, and then she walked inside Hops apartment, grabbed a piece of paper and wrote there the number.

''This'', Karen whispered softly. Her eyes meeting Joyces. Joyce slowly nodded and grabbed the paper, turning around, but suddenly she stopped. She turned back to face Karen and hesitated, then she sighed.

''Karen? could you stay here and, look over for anything helpful? I am going to contact police'', she said, her voice brave, but her soul wasn't.

Karen just nodded and walked over Joyce, pulling her into tight hug. Joyce was kinda surprised but she didn't want her to stop, and wrapped her own arms around Karen.

''We will find him!'' , she whispered, but it didn't sound convincingly.

''After all, I don't see David as the problem'', Karen muttered after a while, pulling away from Joyce.

''What..?''

''Well, David is just a son of the leader, he is not the leader. He does as his father says no matter if Jim was his half-brother.'', Karen said, moving to the kitchen, studying knocked out cup of coffee.

''What are you talking about?'', Joyce said, walking to her.

'' You don't really know? I thought you two started dating so you should have known'', Karen asked, looking at her raised eyebrow.

''Yeah well I suppose you are right'', Joyce muttered, cursing Jim.

''Basicaly, when Jim was in circus, he lived with this- family that owned it. David was the son, Jim was his step brother. I only know that the father, the 'boss', was an asshole that tricked people, put them into debts and then slowly tortured them.''

''Holly,..'', Joyce whispered, thinking of it.

''And Jim then accidentaly got into debts, too. He told me that no one planned it and that he let some lions run away, they never found them. That boss wanted the money that they lost from the show, and Jim ran off'', Karen said, sitting on a chair. Joyce stand there in silence, thinking of it once again. Then she sighed.

''We need to find them. Whoever is behind his kidnapping.'', she whined and turned around.

When Joyce walked inside the police and had argument with the nice lady about 'annoying the chief', she was only thinking of Jim. She finally snapped out of her thoughts and made her way to the chief's office, knowing that she might have problem because of it but she didn't mind. As she knocked and slammed the doors open, she could hear the angry muffle by the man who sat on the chair. She looked down on his name and rolled her eyes. 

Calvin Powell.

''Hey, Calv'', Joyce tried it, but soon she regreted it.

''Who the heck are you?'', Calvin muttered, looking at her up and down. Joyce coughed and looked away.

''Joyce Maldonado, we were walking on sam-''

''Primary school. You're that quiet weirdo, right?'', Calvin rolled his eyes and watched as Joyce got angry.

''First of all. Don't call me like that. Second of all I need help'', she said, putting the paper on the desk, continuing, ''It's about my boyfriend, he was kidnaped by a russian guy in a white van with this number''

Calvin looked confused for a second, but then grabbed the paper and studied the numbers.

''You don't play a dumb game right now, right, Maldonado?''

''OH C'MON! IT'S ABOUT MY BOYFRIEND!-''

''What's the guys name?''

''Jim Hopper'', Joyce muttered, crossing her arms. Calvin burst into laugh after a while.

''You mean that showman? No wonder someone like him wo-'', but he was interrputed with Joyce slamming her hands on the table.

''THAT'S ENOUGH! YOU HAVE A MISSING HUMAN BEING AND YOU LAUGH TO HIM?!''

''Okay okay- calm down'', he rolled his eyes and handed her a paper, ''Write your phone number here so we can contact you when we get any news''

Joyce listened and wrote her phone number on the paper, then she stand up and without another word she walked out, pretty pissed off. The lady that sat there just looked at her with 'I told you so' look and let Joyce walk from the building.

When she walked back home, she exhaustingly fell on her bed. Everything, every single feelings, and pain, raised inside her, and she let it out by screaming into her pillow. She heard Chester barking but she just rolled her eyes and turned on the other side, pulling her pillow over her ears.

Suddenly, her mind wandered back to Hopper. If he was dead... No, she couldn't think this far. She sniffled and turned around.

After three unsuccesfull tries of falling asleep she got up and dragged her tired body to the living room. She sat on her couch, repeating how the thing happend again. The way David came inside her house, threaned her to get Hopper,...

Suddenly, her eyes landed on something. It was laying neyt to the place where Joyce woke up after being slammed with pan. She raised an eyebrow and walked to there, grabbing it up.

"He will be fine." Was written on the paper. Like hell Joyce would.believe it. She chuckled angrily and threw it away. She wanted him here, with her, not gone.

She yawned and walked back to her bedroom, sitting on her bed.

She fell asleep with him on her mind, not knowing that he fell asleep thinking of her too.