Don't tug on Superman's cape

One.

Chief Jim Hopper usually worked two full shifts on Christmas day, the hours stretching further and further into the graveyard shift as he scoured the town of Hawkins in his police cruiser; taking drunk teenagers home and explaining the state of the kids to their parents. While he'd like to lie and say that it was out of the good of his heart, a part of him knew he was selfish for ever thinking that working all of Christmas wasn't a half-assed distraction from Sara - his beautiful baby girl, whose navy blue hair-tie had wriggled around his wrist and left a soft red indent when he rolled it off at night.

But he has Jane now, and Joyce, and heck; maybe even Will and Jonathan if they'll have him. And he still misses his ex wife and his daughter, but he's got a new little girl who - while filling the void in Hopper's life - doesn't replace Sara whatsoever. They're both forces of nature in different ways, and Chief Jim Hopper will always have two daughters that take up an equal amount of space in his heart.

He thinks that because he's so used to driving around Hawkins late on Christmas day, it's become necessary for him to do so, even for a few hours; even when surrounded by three amazing kids and a beautiful woman whose fierce and surprising and loves Hopper with an appropriate amount of her heart - because obviously she loves her children more and he can't and won't ever blame her for it.

He'd kill someone if they hurt Jane.

It's the pull of the familiarity that guides him out to his car, because he doesn't want to leave Joyce to look after three kids on her own; and when he tells her this, she simply grins up at him and places a tupperware box in his palms, and sealed in plastic wrap are four sandwiches cut into eight triangles at two a piece - built from scraps of leftover turkey and bits of ham and stuffing that decorated the bottom of the oven tins. His heart flutters, and as he bends down to place a chaste kiss to her cheek she presses a thermos flask to his chest.

"It's tea," she speaks matter-of-factly, "you're going out in the cold, and I take care of my boys. You're no different just because you're a grown man."

Hopper dopily grins at her, eyes soft and moustache hairs twitching.

Jonathan's little 'so am I!' goes unnoticed by Joyce and Hopper, but sends Jane into a fit of giggles and causes Will to snort air harshly through his nostrils.

"I feel privileged that you classify me as one of your boys," he admits, pink tones dusting along his cheeks as he fiddles with the lid of the thermos. If the chief even slightly tipped his head to the side, he would have seen both Will and Jonathan wiggling their eyebrows; Jane watching them with a happy little smirk as her eyes glint under the kitchen light. One of Sara's hair ties was looped around her wrist, her brunette hair hanging loosely down around her shoulders; brushing against one of Jim's red plaid shirts and decorated with a pair of novelty reindeer antlers.

"You should," the woman nods, lifting her hands to cup Hoppers face in her palms. He continues to stare down at her, "I'm a good person to be loved by."

The man bites at his bottom lip, having only eyes for Joyce Byers.

"I know," he hums, and smiles into the kiss as she pushes herself up on tiptoes to reach him. Her lips are slightly chapped and she tastes like warm gravy and cheap white wine, and Hopper is intoxicated on how she smells like lemongrass dish soap and the strawberry cheesecake she'd made for dessert.

In one hand is the tupperware box and in the other is the flask, and they both almost drop to the floor with the reminder that there were other people - teenagers - in the room.