𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐒 | b. hargrove ²

𝟭𝟴| 𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙀𝙀 𝙈𝙊𝙉𝙏𝙃𝙎

"El," Lili cried, holding her sister close. El squeezed Lili close, crying into her blanket. Lili sighed, patting El's matted hair. Across the parking lot, Lili saw Will run to his mother.

Maybe Joyce knows about Hopper.

Lili detached herself from El, looking into her eyes. "Come on." Lili grasped her sister's hand and they both started to slowly make their way over to Joyce. El was looking around frantically for Hopper, but he wasn't there.

"Don't let go," El breathed.

"I won't," Lili looked at El. "I promise." Lili held El's hand tighter when Joyce made eye contact with her. From it, Joyce hugged Will closer and started to cry.

And Lili knew. She wish she didn't, but she finally knew. That ripple through her chest moments ago wasn't from the loss of Billy. It was from the loss of Hopper.

"No..." El sobbed, dropping to her knees. She pulled Lili down with her and Lili wrapped her sister in a tight hug as the two cried. Everything was crumbling around Lili. The love of her life, dead. Her father, dead. Everything, dead.

El clutched Lili tighter and sobbed into her shirt. Lili cried as she crushed El's head to her chest. El was all Lili had left and she was going to make sure that she'd never lose her again.

Sam Owens approached Lili who was huddled with her sister. He had his right hand over his heart and his left clutched something in it. He had a solemn look on his face as he watched the two sisters cry the life out of their eyes.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Owens said. His hand was outstretched with a medal. It was a gold heart with a purple ribbon from below. "Jim was a good man. I hope you find comfort in knowing that he's in a better place."

Lili stared at the Purple Heart in her hands. She shook violently from the sobs that erupted within her. "I thought..." she sobbed. "I thought that this was given to... soldiers."

"It is," Owens nodded. "But I sent in a special request for the family of Jim Hopper. He deserves it. You deserve it."

Lili looked at Sam Owens with a small, painful smile. "Thank you."

As Sam walked away, Lili looked at the medal as El continued to cry into her chest. The more she looked at it and memorized it, the more of a revelation she came to;

Hopper was dead.

THREE MONTHS LATER

Someone knocked furiously on the front door of the cabin. Lili slowly got up and out of bed, ignoring the freezing cold air since she hadn't found time to fix the roof since the... incident.

Lili unlocked all of the deadbolts of the door before opening it, coming face-to-face with Max.

"Max?"

"Hi," Max waved shyly. She had a blanket and a duffle bag over her shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" Lili asked. She looked behind Max to see if anyone else was here, but found no one.