Jopper OS

Countdown

"I-Hopper-I-"

"Hey, hey, Joyce. Calm down."

Hopper took her little face in both hands to get her to stop moving, he wasn't even sure she was aware that her whole body was shaking right now and the gun was still in her hands which seemed to be glued to it.

Joyce opened her eyes to look at Hopper's, her breathing was getting faster and faster as he tried to wipe her wet cheeks with his thumbs.

"Jim, I just killed a man..."

Reality hit her in the face and she felt her heart sink in her chest, she had just taken a man's life, she, Joyce Byers had just committed one, if not the most horrible, crime.

"A man who wanted to kill us, remember that..."

Hopper stopped his movements for a moment, looking at her with a worried expression.

"Oh my God, I’ve just killed a man", she said, looking around at everything but his eyes.

"Shh, look at me. Joyce, look at me. Don't think about that now, we-we still have a date to go on, remember? You'd better start picking out your drink now if you're still taking as long as before to decide."

He gave her a reassuring smile, hoping it would help her think about something else, if only for a few seconds so he could take the gun out of her hand.

"I-"

"Just... Give me the gun, okay?"

"Jim... I took a man's life. I just... I saw you guys fighting and I-I thought you were going to die and I pulled and-and-"

"I know, hey, I know. You’ve just saved my life, okay? Just... remember that, you’ve just saved my life."

Joyce sniffed as she nodded her head before letting her forehead fall to his. She closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to try to calm herself. Hopper watched her and waited for her breathing to return to normal before speaking.

"Give me the gun, Joyce."

He gently placed his hand over hers, still holding the weapon with superhuman strength. He slipped his fingers under hers and slowly withdrew the murder weapon before setting it down beside him to keep Joyce from doing something stupid.

Joyce sniffed before wiping her face with her much too large sleeve.

A voice in the walkie-talkie sounded behind her, but Joyce paid no attention to it, her head was now down and staring at Hopper's uniform.

"Oh my God..." she muttered to herself, the same movie playing over and over in her head.

She had just stopped a man's breathing, she who didn't dare kill a spider. No matter how many times she told herself that he was trying to kill them, it was not a valid reason. She deserved to go to jail for what she had done, and what would Jonathan and Will do without her? They knew how to take care of themselves, she knew that, but that didn't mean they had to do it so soon in their lives! By carrying out this murder she had just abandoned them, just as Lonnie had done a few years earlier. Did this mean he was going to get custody now that she had to spend the rest of her life in a cell? Oh my God, she had really messed up her-

"Joyce, listen to me!"

She finally snapped out of her trance and looked up at Hopper who had picked up the walkie-talkie, she could hear Dustin's voice yelling at them to close the gate urgently. He reached out his hand to help her up.

"What?" She asked as his eyes scanned her.

"Joyce, I don't know what you were thinking, but what you did was self-defense."

She contemplated his words along with his bruised face, if she hadn't shot that man maybe Hopper wouldn't be in front of her right now, maybe he'd be lying on the floor instead of the Russian or God knows what. And she couldn't afford to lose someone who mattered to her again. So she told herself she could believe it.

"I know."

"Good, now let's finish what we started, shall we?"

Joyce took a shaky breath as she nodded her head.

"Okay..."

"Are you ready?"

"Yes..."

Hopper moved closer to her and put a hand behind her back to pull her against his chest, to her surprise Joyce wrapped her arms around him to embrace him, so he placed a kiss on her forehead to try and comfort her. 

"Hey, it's almost over. We're going to end this now, but I need you to do it."

"You see, this is a mission that requires three of us..."

He would have laughed if Dustin's voice wasn't screaming at them at the top of his lungs that they were in mortal danger and that they needed to close the portal as soon as possible. It was a Code Red.

They looked at each other with a serious expression before nodding at the same time.

"So on three...?" He asked as he stood in front of his key.

"Oh, fuck your countdown, Jim."