STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED_JIM HOPPER

028

Seeing Dustin's requests to dance being rejected by several girls had Ana's heart clenching. She thought about offering to dance with him herself, but realized that being caught slow dancing with your teacher probably would make matters worse. She chuckled in relief when Nancy took pity on the poor boy walked him to the center of the dance floor instead.

"Every Breath You Take" by The Police came on next, and Mike was still sitting off by himself, obviously sulking. However, when the gym doors opened and closed gently, sight of the new addition finally brought a smile to the boy's face.

Eleven stood in the entryway donning a blue and pink polka dot dress, her hair pinned back with a light dusting of makeup across her face, looking beautiful as ever. Ana watched on as they slowly made their way towards each other smiling, sharing a few whispered words, then heading off to the dance floor.

Seeing them all then, observing a moment where they were finally carefree and happy, made it all the harder for Ana. Her decision had been made in Houston, but now, being back in Hawkins, her conviction was strained. She needed some air, needed some space, so she took her leave out the gym's back door.

The sight she encountered on the other side would prove to provide her with neither space nor air.

Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers were locked in an intimate hug while leaning against Joyce's car. They had not a care in the world, not a thought of her, certainly.

Well, isn't that romantic, Ana thought cynically while watching the two embrace.

She allowed the gym's metal door to loudly slam behind her, hoping the harsh noise would utterly ruin their quite moment, before stomping off towards her truck.

She wanted to get out of there, and she regretted ever bothering to return.

"Ana!" Hopper called out after her, but she was determined to make her escape as quickly as possible. She didn't want to see him, she didn't want to talk to him, and she certainly didn't want him to see that her eyes were tearing up.

Damn him and his long legs, though, because he was catching up to her in no time, halting her retreat with a well-placed hand around her bicep. "Hey, will you wait a minute?" He asked, giving the arm he held a little tug to bring her back towards him, but wasn't budging. She refused to either turn nor let their eyes meet.

"You know, I get it, I really do," she announced as though picking up in the middle of a conversation they were having. Ana had chosen an indiscriminate spot on the horizon and was willing her eyes to rest there and only there.

"What're you talking about?" Came Hopper's confused reply, still clutching to her without his hold letting up.

"You and Joyce, I get it," she restated, her voice strained from the effort taken to keep her tone even. And Ana did get it, she supposed, in some warped way. There was so much history there, so much shared life experience, that it made sense. What had Hopper once said, 'you're not a parent, you wouldn't understand?' She still wasn't, but at least now she understood.

"There isn't a me and Joyce," he scoffed, acting as though it were the most absurd statement she had ever made, completely negating what she had previously witness.

"Isn't there?" Ana made the mistake of looking at him then, and her eyes locked with his. Fuck, she knew she was easier to read than a book, but she managed to summon some levity into her voice, despite the apparent tension. "I talked to the administration at my old high school, and they're willing to give me a job at the start of next year. I'm going back to Texas."

"The hell you are," Hopper replied angrily, still gripping her arm. He'd asked her to do it once before, when things had first started to go awry, what mattered if she was willing to comply now, albeit late?

However, this was the band-aid she needed to tear off quickly to avoid elongated pain. The earth needed to be salted so nothing could ever grow there again. "She's going to make you feel needed, and I never will," Ana culminated in the smallest voice he had ever heard her use. He almost preferred the biting sarcasm to the defeated timber her words now carried.

Hopper dropped her arm in favor of cradling Ana's face in both his hands, making sure she was looking at him, making sure she couldn't run away. "But you make me feel wanted," he reasoned in return.

Her bottom lip gave a weak tremble, but she wasn't there with him just yet. Hopper could still see the walls up behind her misting eyes, locking him out because of fear or some misguided sense of self-preservation.

"She can give you a family. Hell, you're already part of it," she argued in another feeble attempt to push him further away. God, did Ana feel pathetic in that moment, desperately clinging to a resolve that was already slipping through her fingertips like water aiming to be held.

"I already have a family," he said firmly before dropping his hands from her face and withdrawing a piece of folded up paper from within his jacket pocket. He handed it over to her and began walking away without so much as an explanation. "Hopefully, you'll reevaluate staying in Hawkins because the kids gonna need a mom," he said without turning back to her.

Gingerly, Ana unfolded the document, afraid of what she might find inside. It was a birth certificate that bore the name Jane Hopper. So, Doctor Owens had held up his end of the bargain after all.

There was a line, though, that caught her particular attention. One that left her breathless aside from the choked sob that escaped her throat when she read it.

Next to the words 'child of' read her name, Ana Thompson.

Fuck, that was a checkmate if she had ever seen one.