Chapter Text
HOLLY, JOLLY
The front door flew open so hard it rattled the walls.
“What are you doing here?” Hopper barely had time to turn before Kim was in the middle of the living room, standing with her arms crossed.
“Taking a break,” he said. “What’s wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” she laughed. “A little boy is missing, and the Chief of Police is playing house.”
“Watch your mouth,” he warned her.
“They’re saying the police don’t care. That you don’t care,” she informed him.
“That’s bullshit,” he said, shaking his head.
“Then aren’t you tearing this town apart looking for him?”
“Because this isn’t a silly action movie!” Hopper barked. “You don’t run around pointing guns and aiming at random shadows!”
“Mrs. Byers is alone out there with Jonathan. Will vanished, and you’re just letting her run around going crazy.”
“She’s grieving,” he snapped. “And I am not going to feed her false hope.”
“Hope is better than nothing!” Kim screamed. “At least she’s trying!”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Hopper’s face is serious.
“Then explain it to me! Because right now it looks like you gave up.”
The room went dead silent for a few seconds. “Take that back,” Hopper whispered.
“No,” she said, tears burning her eyes now. “You gave up. Just like you always do.”
That felt like a punch. “You don’t get to say that,” Hopper growled. “Not after everything I’ve done for you.”
“For me?” she laughed bitterly. “You shut down, drink, and disappear. And now a kid is missing, and suddenly it’s “procedure” and “protocol”.”
“I’m trying to do my job the correct way!”
“He’s probably cold and scared and calling for his mom, and you’re worried about paperwork?” Kim stared at him in disbelief. “If that were me,” she began, her voice cracking, “would you tear this town apart?”
Hopper froze; his heart was pounding now.
“Would you break every rule?” she continued. “But because it’s not your kid, you get to be careful.”
His face twisted with something that looked like agony. “You don’t know anything about what it’s like to lose a child.”
He regretted the entire conversation the moment he finished talking. Kim stared at him, her face scrunched up as if she was about to start sobbing. “Perhaps not, but I do know what it feels like to lose a sibling,” she whispered.
They stood there, in tense silence.
“So that’s it, then,” she said, defeated. “You’re so afraid of losing another one that you won’t even try for this one.”
“That’s not—”
“I’m done talking.” She turned, walking away. Her bedroom door slammed hard enough to shake the walls.
Hopper stood there, chest feeling tight. He knew how important Will was to her, Joyce had told him years ago. How Kim treated him and Jonathan as if they were her brothers, how happy she was when she went over to their house. And deep down, he knew they filled that emptiness in her heart from losing Sara.
Wiping the tears away, he grabbed his hat and left. He was going to find him tonight; there was no other choice.
-
Sattler Quarry is lit up like a crime scene in a horror movie.
Kim is frantically walking to the edge of the water in thin pajama pants and an old sweatshirt. She doesn’t remember driving here, just the sound of her dad’s spare walkie-talkie lighting up her room, the voices sharp and urgent, the word body slipping through the static.
A kid.
“Kimberly.” Hopper’s voice cuts through the noise.
He turns and sees her after one of the cops points at her, and for a split second, the chief disappears. He’s just a dad, staring at his daughter, who’s barely holding it together.
“What are you doing here?” he snaps, then softens immediately. “Kim, you shouldn’t—”
“Is it Will?” she whispers as a group of men pulls a small body from the water.
He doesn’t answer fast enough. Her breath catches as she stumbles closer and sees the color of the shirt. Hopper grabs her arm before she gets too close, pulling her back against his chest, cradling her face. “Hey. Hey,” he says, firm. “Don’t look.”
She twists in his grip, voice breaking. “I promised.” The words come out barely louder than the radios. “I promised he was gonna be okay.”
Hopper's jaw tightens. “I know,” he murmurs, steering her away. “I know.”
Behind a firetruck, four small figures watch. They see Kim fold in on herself as Hopper guides her farther back, see her shake as she whispers something only he can hear. They see the way Hopper closes his eyes in defeat.
Now he had to tell Joyce and Jonathan that Will was not coming home.
“Come on, you have to go home,” Hopper begins walking her towards the Jeep. “It’s going to be a long night.”
“I want to go with you,” she whispered.
“No.”
“I want to go with you,” she repeated, firmly now, pulling away from his grip.
“This is an ongoing investigation, Kimberly. You are going home.” Hopper opened the Jeep’s door, motioning her to get inside.
“Please!” She yelled. “I don’t want to leave Jonathan alone. Please.”
“Fine,” he sighed. “But you don’t talk about anything related to what you saw here, understand?”