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Will’s relief at finally being released from the hospital quickly changes to shock when Jonathan turns down their street to reveal a sea of vehicles parked on both sides of the road.
There is an absolute swarm of reporters camped out in their front yard, and at first his heart stops because he thinks they’re there to ask him about That Place; but then one of them manages to shove a microphone in his face before he’s barely out of the car and asks (shouts, rather) “Will! Will how are you feeling after spending a week lost in the woods? How did you survive? Did the Department of Energy have anything to do with it?”
And now Will remembers the cover story Hopper and his mother have coached him on, but his mom’s got her arms protectively around him and anxiously murmuring “Just ignore them and get in the house, baby. You don’t need to talk to any of them.”
But there are so many, and they’re all pressing close and shouting and shoving microphones at them and camera flashes are going off from all directions. Will catches a glimpse of his Dad talking to a couple reporters off to the side before he’s obscured again by the crowd, and his stomach twists as he realizes that, once again, his mother had been right.
(Lonnie had come to see him in the hospital. Once. But the brief hope that his Dad had come because he cared about Will was swiftly crushed when Will had been in the washroom and accidentally overheard his Mom hiss, “Of course you want to talk to the reporters! How much did they offer to pay you per interview?”
Lonnie had snapped back, “Why are you so against this? It’s not like you don’t need the money –“
“You mean like the child support you never pay? Your son went missing for a week and was actually found alive, and yet all you care about is how much you can make off of him!”)
He hears a couple voices trying to order the crowd to move back – he thinks they’re Powell and Callahan, but there are so many voices he’s not sure.
And then he hears another voice, and it literally booms across the chaos like cannon fire across a battlefield.
“Everybody better get the fucking hell back before I toss all your fucking asses into lockup for disturbing the peace!”
Will’s heard the expression “Like Moses parting the Red Sea” before, but in this case it’s more like a bunch of chickens scattering when a grenade lands among them. Given some of the looks the reporters shoot Chief Hopper as he strides up to the Byers (not to mention the nasty expression he sends back), he thinks this isn’t the first time the Police Chief has dealt with the reporters.
“Hop,” the relief in his mom’s voice mirrors what Will’s feeling.
“Joyce. Will. Jonathan.” Hopper makes eye contact with each of them before jerking his head in the direction of the house. “Let’s get you all inside, alright?”
And then they’re following in his wake as he practically bulldozes his way back through the crowd, keeping the crowd away through sheer force of personality; while Powell and Callahan actually make an attempt at physically keeping the more insistent ones away.
All three of the Byers let out sighs of relief once the door closes on the chaos behind them, his Mom and Jonathan sharing a weak smile before his Mom says a word Will’s never heard her use before and scurries off to yank curtains closed as the reporters start taking pictures through the windows.
Hopper mutters something Will’s definitely not supposed to hear and goes to check the side door while Jonathan nearly rips the kitchen curtains off the rod in his haste to get them closed as well.
Will spots one of Chester’s toys underneath the kitchen table, and he has to bite his lip to keep from breaking down again at the reminder that his best furry friend is gone.
The front door swinging open is a welcome distraction, and while Will relaxes when he sees it’s just his Dad, Jonathan’s face goes blank and the expressions on the other adults are…less than welcoming.
“You need to leave, Lonnie,” his mom snaps, once again coming up to wrap an arm protectively around Will, and there’s a lump in his throat at the thought that she thinks she has to protect him from his Dad.
(And as the smell of stale beer reaches his nose, the realization that she’s probably not wrong makes his chest hurt.)
“You need to leave, Lonnie,” Hopper repeats warningly when Lonnie closes the door a little harder than necessary, the dark rumble of his voice making Will’s shoulders hunch instinctively.
“Fuck you James. This is my house, and my wife, and my family –“
“No it isn’t, Lonnie!”
His mom is furious, which is nothing new when she fights with their Dad, only this time…there’s something different, something stronger flashing in her eyes.
(Which Will finds hard to believe, given how strong she’s always been, that she can be even stronger.)
“I am not your wife! This is my house, and these two sweet, beautiful boys you never gave a damn about are mine! And we don’t need you! We’re getting by just fine without you –“
“Clearly!” Lonnie yells back, waving his hand to indicate the admittedly threadbare interior of the house.
But Joyce isn’t backing down. “Yes, clearly! Like we have been for the past seventeen years!”
“So now I’m not even welcome in my own house?”
The bitter, biting edge in Lonnie’s slightly slurred voice makes Will edge closer to his mom in reflex, only to turn in surprise when Hopper snaps “This isn’t your house any more Lonnie. If Joyce wants you to leave, you will leave. Or I will help you.”
And clearly there is no love lost between the Police Chief and his Dad, given the clear dislike on both men’s faces. Jonathan not-so-subtly shifts so that he’s between them and his mom and little brother, and Will tenses again at the ugly energy beginning to fill the room.
Lonnie’s lip curls as he focuses on the Police Chief, spreading his hands mockingly. “Right, right; I better leave before big bad Police Chief Jimmy Hopper makes me. Man, don’t it get old, this little hero complex thing you got going on? Always the Boy Scout, always doing your part – ain’t that right Joycie?”
“You need to leave, Lonnie,” his mom repeats stonily, but Lonnie is undeterred, stepping closer to Hopper with an ugly look.
“Course, maybe it’s the thanks you get for it that keeps you at it, eh Jimmy?” he hisses, and Will’s doesn’t get the implication but clearly Jonathan does as he can see his brother’s back go stiff.
Lonnie’s practically vibrating with rage, while Hopper has gone scarily still.
He can feel his mom tense in shock beside him, and Jonathan – ever the mediator – immediately steps towards the two men.
“Dad, you need to leave, okay? This isn’t –“
Lonnie whips around, mean as a junkyard dog.
“Jesus, you really are a pussy, aren’t you? This is a discussion between men.”
Jonathan halts, and from behind Will can see his shoulders hunch as he absorbs the latest verbal blow from Lonnie, and he feels something inside him writhe at his father’s words.
“You asshole –“ and his mom is furious, charging around Jonathan to get right up in Lonnie’s face again, no fear whatsoever.
But Lonnie’s not finished, a cruel look in his eyes as he turns towards her.
“You always were too soft with him,” he spat, “ – and now he’s turned out –“ he waved a hand in Jonathan’s direction, “ – like this. Fuck, it’s like I don’t know my own kid any more. Hell, makes me wonder if he actually is my kid.”
His mom actually reels back, eyes wide as a stunned silence lands like a nuclear bomb.
Will begins to pant as a vise tightens around his lungs. The doctors had assured him that it was perfectly normal to experience panic attacks after what he’d been through – what they thought he’d been through – but his parents fighting have never triggered one before; then again, they’ve never fought about this before.
“What is that supposed to mean?!” His mom cries out, and Will cringes at the pain in her voice. “Of course he’s –“
“All I’m sayin’ is, the first one was Hopper’s, so how do I know he isn’t too? Hell, how do I know either of ‘em aren’t?”
And Will’s pretty sure the entire world goes silent this time.
What? He wonders abstractedly, managing to stumble backwards unnoticed into a kitchen chair. It’s not the first time his Dad has made disparaging remarks about him or his older brother, but he’s never suggested this.
What little colour there is left in his mom’s face drains completely away, and Jonathan lunges to catch her as her legs nearly give out.
Hopper’s gone white as well – though not, a stunned Will thinks distractedly, for the same reason – a shocked “Joyce?” falling from his lips as he takes a half-step towards her before freezing.
Lonnie laughs, a harsh, bitter sound that makes Will cringe.
“Never tol’ ya that, did she? Never told nobody except me. I forgave her, of course, even married her cause it wasn’t like anyone else would’ve wanted damaged goods –“ and shockingly Hopper’s right there, fist flashing out and before Will can blink again his Dad is flat on his back, out cold on the kitchen floor.
Will is so shocked he almost forgets that he’s having trouble breathing; not to mention pretty sure that if his eyes get any wider his eyeballs will actually fall out, but he can’t help it. He darts a stunned look at the Chief and recoils backwards in protective reflex.
He’s never seen an expression like that on Hopper’s face – or on anyone’s, really – but there’s no mistaking what it means.
Hopper’s going to kill Dad.
It’s a detached, clinical observation; Will’s too stunned at the moment to attach any amount of emotion to it.
But clearly his mom is thinking the same thing, because she staggers to her feet clutching onto Jonathan.
“Hopper, don’t.”
But the Chief’s expression doesn’t change, and fear starts to dance across Will’s spine.
His mom gets louder, stretching out a hand as she stumbles a half-step forward.
“Jim –”
Hopper bends over, fisting one hand in the material of Lonnie’s t-shirt, and his mom loses it, lunging forward to grab at his uniform, nearly hysterical.
“James, please!”
The Chief looks at her with a face wiped clean of all expression, which makes the flicker of rage that goes across it that much more vivid. But despite flinching, his mom doesn’t let go.
“Please. The boys –”
He and Jonathan can barely hear her, but the way her shoulders start to shake is enough to have Jon step forward, his own fists clenched.
And Will can see the exact moment Hopper…comes back, is the best way he can think to describe it. Life flickers in his eyes as he looks at her before flicking his gaze between the two stunned boys, and even though his expression is not the warmest the vise around Will’s lungs loosens enough he can breathe a little easier.
“I’ll be right back,” is all Hopper says, and Will shivers again at the threat of violence still lurking in his voice.
He shakes off Mom’s hands and bends to hoist the slowly stirring man in a fireman’s carry that seems effortless.
“Hop –“ her voice gives out, hands fluttering helplessly in the air.
The Police Chief doesn’t respond, but pauses at the door until Jonathan darts forward to open it for him.
“I’ll be right back,” he repeats flatly, voice rising over the cacophony that starts up as soon as the door opens, a grim smile stretching across his face in response to whatever he sees on Mom’s face. “I promise I’ll leave him in a cell instead of a ditch. Hell, I even promise he’ll still be breathing.”
Will and Jonathan exchange identical holy shit expressions as Hopper disappears into the crowd; neither of them particularly like Lonnie, but….
Jonathan quickly closes the door behind Hopper, locking it for good measure, and Will chews on his lip as he glances at his mother.
The fact that his Dad had cheated on his Mom the entire time they were married was pretty much an open secret in Hawkins. Everyone knew it was going on, but no one talked about it except in sly whispers behind their backs.
But the thought that his Mom had done the same thing is ridiculous –
“Dad’s just being an asshole. And the math doesn’t add up,” Jonathan tells him quietly, causing Will to jerk in surprise. It’s not the first time his brother seems to have read his mind, and he finds it strangely reassuring; another little bit of normal seeping back into their lives.
But that still leaves them reeling from Lonnie’s revelation that there had apparently been a baby before Jonathan, and that it had been Hopper’s.
Their mom is still standing in the kitchen, staring blankly at the closed front door.
“Mom?”
Will scrambles to join his brother; cautiously coming up on his mom’s other side.
“Mom?” Jonathan tries again, and Will’s getting a little worried.
(More worried, really.)
“Mom –“
“I need to tell you boys something.”
She looks at them so abruptly Will takes an automatic half-step back in surprise.
His stomach drops to his shoes at the look on her face, one he’s seen a million times before.
It’s the face she gets when she has to do something she really, truly doesn’t want to but does anyway because it’s for him or Jonathan.
She ushers them both into kitchen chairs before busying herself with the kettle.
Once it’s on the stove she digs out a cigarette, hands shaking, and she drops the lighter twice before she can get the cigarette lit.
“Mom?” and Will hates that his voice cracks in the middle but she’s starting to scare him, and he had thought that that he was done being scared after being lost in the Upside Down.
“Hop and I have known each other since childhood,” she starts suddenly, “ – and while we never dated, really, we….” she stalls, taking a deep breath before trying again. “Hopper and I, we, well…” Mom trails off again, shoulders hunching, knuckles white on the hand not holding the cigarette.
“Had sex and he got you pregnant.”
Jonathan’s flat voice makes the two of them jump, and Will suddenly doesn’t want to hear this, wants to run to his room and stick his head under his pillows.
Because the thought of his mom doing…that with anyone is just not what he ever wants to think about. And the thought of her and Hopper –
But he stays rooted to his chair, because he can see how hard this is for his mom and he’s not going to make it any harder.
“No. I mean, yes. I mean – yes we had sex – Oh God –“ she leans forward, putting her face in her hands to take a couple deep breaths before straightening up and turning around, eyes flicking nervously between him and Jonathan.
“Hopper got drafted for Vietnam in ‘65,” his mom says quietly. “He’d come around to say his good-byes and I – I mean we….” She trails off again, looking at the two of them helplessly as she takes a deep drag, stalling.
“I was engaged to your father at the time – “ she says finally, “ – and I’m sorry boys, but he is your father – “ her weak attempt at a joke makes Will’s lips twitch in an attempt to smile, but Jonathan is stone-faced and his mom’s expression falters.
“It was a moment of weakness,” she continues quietly, “ – when we were young and stupid and scared.”
Will’s struggling with each new revelation; the rug keeps getting pulled out from under him and all he desperately wants is for things to go back to normal.
“Scared?” he blurts out, trying to focus on understanding what his mom’s saying rather than the larger situation, because that’s easier right now.
“Scared that he might not come back, you mean.”
Will blinks, attention drawn at his older brother’s soft tone.
“Yes,” their mom says simply, taking a deep drag on her cigarette before stubbing it out, and Will thinks he understands, but he’s still stuck on the revelation that his mom had cheated on Lonnie.
“…anyway, Hopper had been gone for nearly four months when I realized I was pregnant.”
She lapses into silence, and it grows and Will’s so afraid it’s going to smother them that he has to say something, but it takes three tries to venture a question, and even then he only gets two words out before his throat closes up too tightly to let words out.
“Did Dad…?”
“No,” his mom admits softly, making his stomach clench. “I….I told him it was his, at first.”
“At first?”
Will flinches at Jonathan’s harsh tone, but their mom doesn’t; and Will’s glad Jonathan’s still able to ask questions, even if he’s sure neither of them really want to hear the answers.
“I told him the truth when I….when I miscarried,” she says simply, eyes bright with tears and fresh cigarette shaking so badly it’s a wonder she hasn’t dropped it too.
Oh.
And Jonathan immediately deflates as Will goes numb. They’ve discussed pregnancy and all that in school, but the words haven’t really meant much to him beyond textbook learning.
“What was it?” Jonathan asks softly, but Mom shakes her head.
“Couldn’t tell,” she sniffs, wiping her eyes, and Will feels funny at the realization that he could’ve had another older brother or an older sister.
He doesn’t hesitate, but slides off his chair to wrap his arms around her waist as Jonathan gets up to wrap them both in a hug.
Their Mom clings to them for several minutes, before the whistle of the kettle necessitates them moving.
She makes all three of them hot chocolate, but they all sit and stare at their mugs instead of drinking it.
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It’s a long afternoon, the three of them drifting about the house; Will taking refuge in Jonathan’s room when he can’t stand being alone in his while the reporters lurk outside his window.
The tension that hangs in the air isn’t solely due to the media crowd, as the sun sinks lower and lower and Hopper still hasn’t come back.
They’ve stopped reacting to knocks on either door, and his mom has long since taken the phone off the hook to stop its incessant ringing.
The sound of a vehicle coming up their drive as they’re sitting down to a late supper makes his mom frown in exhaustion, but the heavy tread of boots on the porch causes her expression to shift in a way Will can’t define.
She’s halfway to the door when the knock sounds, but she doesn’t hesitate in opening it and ushering in the Police Chief.
Jonathan cautiously peers around the corner before breathing a quiet sigh. “Chief.”
Hopper strides in with a muttered “Thanks” to their mom, his blank expression making Will tense unconsciously.
“Boys,” and he relaxes ever so slightly at the calm tone as the Police Chief continues speaking. “I need to speak with your mother. Privately.”
Neither of them move and Hopper sighs, a sound that seems to rise up clear from his boots. He sweeps off his hat and drags his other hand down his face, and it’s obvious the man is exhausted.
His voice is rough when he says “Please,” making eye contact with first Jonathan and then Will, and oh.
It clicks for Will that Hopper has – in the span of one afternoon – not only discovered that he’d had another kid, but that he’s lost that one too.
And his stomach starts to roll as hard on the heels of that thought comes one of what the rumour mill had said about what Hopper had gotten up to the last time he’d lost a kid.
Sure, this situation is totally different, but suddenly he’s not sure it’s a good idea to leave his mom alone with the Police Chief.
He can tell Jonathan feels the same, but their Mom quietly tells them “It’s okay.”
Jonathan clearly doesn’t believe her because he starts to shift and then stops, clearly torn between protecting his Mom and the fact that it’s Hopper, who’s never hurt any of them.
“It’s okay you two, really. Hopper and I…” his mom’s voice trails off as she flicks a glance at the Police Chief and then rallies, “…Hopper and I need to talk.”
Will exchanges a look with his brother, and then by unspoken agreement both boys nod and head off to Jonathan’s room.
“Jonathan –“
Will cuts himself off, confused, as Jon raises a finger to his lips and then silently opens the bedroom door he’d just closed.
They can hear the bang of the side door, and he gets it as he watches Jonathan silently mouth the seconds until a minute has passed.
Then his older brother is slipping back into the hallway, and Will shadows him as the teen sneaks into the bathroom.
He perches on the side of the tub as Jonathan carefully opens the window. Fortunately, it’s cool enough outside that it doesn’t stick any more, and it opens with barely any sound.
The adults clearly haven’t gone far from the house, because they both freeze when they hear their mom’s voice.
“ – I swear. I just – I know you said I could write, but I couldn’t put something like that in a letter. And then there was Lonnie –“
“He knew it was mine from the beginning?”
Hopper’s voice is carefully controlled sounding, but there’s a thread of pain in it that Will can hear all too clearly.
A pause.
“N-no. I told him it was his, at first –“ she breaks off with a suspicious sniffle.
There’s a deep sigh from Hopper, and then – “Hey, Joyce, I get it, okay? I’m not – come here.”
It’s a longer pause this time, and Jonathan returns Will’s surprised look with an eye roll.
“What happened –“
The choked off words sound like they’re torn from Hopper’s throat, and Will feels his own clench in sympathy.
His Mom’s “I lost it,” sounds even sadder the second time, and he can feel his eyes start to burn. Jonathan grabs his hand and Will holds on tight.
“I don’t know what it was though; I wasn’t –“
“Fuck Joyce – and I wasn’t – I should’ve been here for you.”
There’s a watery sounding laugh. “Hopper, you were in Vietnam. Pretty sure they wouldn’t have allowed you back just because you knocked up some girl.”
“Still –“
“No, Hop. I mean, the fact that that was your first thought – well, it’s nice to hear. But please don’t feel guilty. I’m the one who felt – feels – guilty about it. I should have told you, but I couldn’t bring myself to in the beginning, and then after I lost it I – and then I married Lonnie and you came back and moved away and got married and – well I figured it didn’t matter anyway. But I’m sorry, Hop; really I am.”
A deep, drawn out sigh.
“Hell, Joyce, me too.”
Both adults fall silent, and when five minutes pass with nothing more being said, the boys carefully shift away from the window. Jonathan reaches up to close the window, but freezes when their mom suddenly speaks, sounding…wistful?
“You have no idea how many times I wished I could tell Lonnie they were.”
Will shares a confused look with his older brother, and there’s the same level of puzzlement in Hopper’s voice when he asks, “Wished who were what?”
“That Jonathan and Will were – someone else’s.”
Which, honestly, isn’t really that surprising an admission (Will’s never asked Jonathan, but he knows there were times when he’d wished that somebody, anybody else was his dad).
But there’s something in his mom’s tone and the abrupt way she ends her sentence that makes Will think he’s missing something, but he doesn’t get a chance to ask Jonathan as the phone – which their mom must have put back on the hook before going outside with Hopper –picks that precise moment to ring.
He jerks in shock so violently he almost tumbles into the tub. Jonathan grabs him before he can knock over the bottles of shampoo and then bodily hauls him up and out of the bathroom, hissing, “Get into your room! I’ll answer it.”
And Will’s quickly scooting into his room only to linger in the doorway when he hears Jonathan say “Hopper – uh, the Chief? Yeah, um, yeah, he’s here. Just a minute.”
Their Mom comes in with the Chief, who grabs the phone and exchanges a few terse sentences with whoever’s on the other end (Flo, Will figures) before hanging up with an explosive snarl.
“Those damned reporters – I gotta go.”
The brusque nods he gives the boys stall when he turns back to their Mom, who exchanges a long look with him before nodding silently.
And then Hopper’s striding out the door and impulse has Will darting to the den, not really sure why.
He stands so that he’s mostly hidden from view, moving the curtains just enough to peek one eye out – unnecessarily, as it turns out; all the reporters have left – and watches as the Chief climbs into his Wrangler.
Hearing from his Mom and Jonathan about everything Hopper had done for them – done for him – while he’d been missing, and then comparing it with what his Dad did, well, the dichotomy between the men’s actions and their assigned roles in his life only serve to make him confused and conflicted.
“Will, baby? Are you okay?”
Will’s not sure where this fuzzy train of thought is taking him and abandons it at his mother’s voice; the distraction of the day’s events are starting to wear off as everything else that had happened begins to once again crowd his mind.
It takes effort to turn to his mom and dredge up an attempt at a smile. “I’m okay Mom, just hungry.”
And the relief that flashes across her faces cements his silent vow to make sure she never has to worry about him again.
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