Smoke -- Jim Hopper

10. LULL

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WOWWW oVER 2K READS WHATTTT!!! I can't wait for you guys to get to the good stuff at the end of season 1 and season 2 ;)

Seriously thats crazy, thank you guys so much, I really don't know what to say except thank you! It means so much to me and I love all of your comments, I alway smile when I get a notification for them <3

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Natalie woke up and rubbed her eyes, the memories of last night slowly coming back to her. She sat up with a sigh and looked down at Jim, who was sprawled out on his stomach. His arms holding her pillow tightly to his chest. She let out a snicker and quietly got out of her bed and walked to the kitchen, and let Bucky outside.

She put on a pot for coffee and sat against the counter, lost in thought. Honestly, she was thinking about Jim. He was really confusing her, one moment he was nice and the next he was yelling at her. She shook her head and poured herself and Jim a cup of coffee. Natalie grabbed the navy mug and walked to her bedroom and set the mug down on her dresser and waled over to Jim. She squatted down and shook his shoulder gently.

"Jim." she said quietly.

He let out a groan and pushed his face deepening into the pillow.

"Jim," she shook his shoulder again.

"What?" he grumbled, and then he suddenly sat up, his blue eyes wide with surprise. He looked at her and relaxed, "Sorry, I forgot I was here." he stood up to his full height, which towered above Natalie.

She looked up at him, "I made you coffee." she pointed to the mug on the dresser.

"Um, thanks." he nodded to her and grabbed the mug and taking a sip, "So uh-" he paused his eyes narrowing and he looked up at her ceiling fan.

"What?" Natalie asked and looked at her ceiling fan.

Jim set down his coffee mug and walked over to her bed and stood up on it. Natalie narrowed her eyes.

"Hey! Why are you standing on my bed?" she asked him angrily.

He held up a finger to his mouth, telling her to be quiet. Natalie huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, and watched Jim unscrew the light bulb that was attached to her ceiling fan. He carefully pulled the light off and took a wire out of it. Natalie's jaw dropped in surprise, and Jim hopped off her bed and took the bug apart.

He threw it into her trashcan and went around her house and looked for more bugs. Natalie helped too and after about twenty minutes there was nothing.

"Sorry, I forgot to mention that Hawkins Lab had bugged all our places-" his eyes widened, "Joyce." he grabbed his Jacket off the chair, "We have to go."

"I'm still in my paja-" Natalie began.

"you look fine," he told her as he opened the door.

Natalie suddenly became aware that she was in fact not wearing a bra. Her eyes widened and she gulped, "uh wait, just like a minute or two." she told him.

Jim rolled his eyes, "You look fine!" he called after her.

Natalie's face flushed as she raced into her room and quickly put on a bra and grabbed a pair of jeans to put on instead of sweatpants. She grumbled as she pulled them up and pushed her feet into a pair of converse before running back out to Jim, who was scowling at her.

"That was two minutes at most." she said in her defense as they jogged to his car.

"Whatever, get in." he grumbled.

Natalie rolled her eyes, there he goes again with the attitude, "I sometimes wonder who the girl is in this relationship." she said under her breath.

"What did you just say?" Jim looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he sped to Joyce's house

"Nothing." She said innocently with a toothy grin.

Jim narrowed his eyes, "Kid, I swear."

"What are you going to do?" she challenged him.

Jim made a growling noise and gave her a heated glare. Natalie let out a small laugh and watched the forest zoom past them as they drove to Joyce's house. What she didn't see was Jim glancing at her occasionally with a small smile on his face. Natalie jerked forward in her seat as Jim slammed on the breaks and turned the car off.

They both got out of the car and Jim pulled a notepad from his pocket and scribbled something on it. He knocked on the door and Joyce yelled something from inside the house. He knocked again and Joyce answered the door, her eyes wide with anger.

"Lonnie! I swear- oh Hop-"

Jim held up his finger to his mouth and showed her the notepad and Joyce's eyes widened. Jim and Natalie walking into Joyce's house and their mouths dropped. There was even more Christmas lights strung around the house. They immediately got started and unscrewed all the lights, looking for bugs and checking all the furniture and knick knacks.

After about two hours they all met back up in the den, and Jim ran a hand over his face, "Thats all we can do, I don't think they got to you yet." he sat down.

"So why are you here?" Joyce asked.

Jim looked at Natalie before explaining everything that they had seen at the morgue, and all the things he saw at Hawkins Lab. Natalie explained what she had seen in the woods the previous night. Joyce's face slacked with horror and she took a long drag on her cigarette.

"oh gosh, tell me again." she looked at Jim, "the lab part, was it upstairs or downstairs?" she asked.

"Downstairs, there was a laboratory. It was where they must do all the experiments or something, " he inhaled deeply, "there was this kids room."

"How do you know it was a kids room?" Joyce questioned.

"It was more like a prison." Jim said quietly.

"Why do you think it was a kids room?" Joyce asked again.

Jim put his cigarette up to his lips and took a drag and blew the smoke out, "Because, I told you, the size of the bed, there was a drawing, and a stuffed animal-"

"A drawing? What did it look like?" Joyce asked and leaned forward in her seat.

"It was some stick drawing of an adult and kid, it said Eleven on it," Jim said and disappointment crossed Joyce's features.

"Wasn't Will's," Joyce said quietly.

Jim furrowed his eyebrows looking deep in thought, "Earl... that night Benny died Earl said he saw some kids with a shaved head with Benny. Now, I pressed him, he said it might be Will, but maybe" he paused, "Wait, maybe it wasn't." Jim pulled out a newspaper over Hawkins Lab that he brought with him, "Look this women, Terry Ives, she claims that she lost her daughter, Jane. She sued Brenner, she sued the government, Now the claims came to nothing, but what if I mean, what if this whole time I've been looking for Will, Ive been chasing after some other kid." Jim said quietly.

"Maybe this Terry Ives can tell us more about her daughter and maybe it can lead us to Will?" Natalie pondered.

Joyce nodded, "Yeah, that could work."

Jim nodded, "I'm going to get some info on her, ill be back in a hour." he told them firmly and left the house.

Natalie sighed, "This is so crazy. Nothing makes sense."

Joyce took another drag on her cigarette, "Tell me about it."