Chapter Text
On the night of Will Byers disappearance, Y/n Henderson, the local outcast of Hawkins High School, had been about to get arrested.
It must have been around eight before her peaceful tranquillity by Lovers Lake was interrupted. She had told her aunty Claudia that she meeting up with a few friends. A few friends that didn't, in fact, have names. Y/n did have friends. Well, she had people she knew and she had Johnathan Byers. But Johnathan certainly wasn't one for smoking.
Sat next to her at the lake, was a small tin box. It's lid flicked over to expose the packets of unlabelled herbs and a load of rolling papers. The setting was dark but the light from Hawkins reflected back onto the ripples in the water. For what had been an hour now, Y/n had been alone to it all.
She spotted the red and blue first.
The water she had been starring at was infected with the flashing lights that glowed back at her. Following it, the sirens that blared loud enough Y/n thought her ear drums might have popped.
There was only one cop car that pulled into the dirt space that was situated behind her. Y/n sighed as she flicked the half-smoked joint into the lake before pulled herself from the ground. The lights dimmed and the alarms finally stopped. Hopper got out of the car first. His expression was one Y/n would have imagined a father would send as to silently scold their child. An expression Hopper was used to wearing in the presence of the young girl.
"Got nothing better to be doing on a Sunday evening, Hopper?" She quirked as she threw her bag back over her shoulder.
"I have actually, got a nice date." He spoke as he slowed a few meters from the girl. "Which is why I'm going to take you home."
Y/n smiled a devious smile which made Hopper wish he had never said anything. "Oh, a date, what's her name this time?"
He huffed; he never should have said anything. "Sandra." Hopper walked over to the girl, gently trying to push her into the direction of the car. "Now let me go on that date after I drop you off home, huh, kid?"
The devious smile never dropped. "I didn't know the cops had enforced a curfew now?"
"No, but smoking cannabis in the state of North Carolina is illegal so I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Her smile dropped and they dead panned one another.
It was a stare off. Which may be childish, but as a police department which experienced little to no serious cases, Hopper stared back. "If I don't drop you off home, Callahan will just have to take you to the station. And, when I tell you these officers, they can barely work a 9-5 sitting on their asses all day. It's your pick."
Y/n broke first.
She huffed as she blinked, already beginning the wonder up to the cop car. "You know Claudia's going to kill me, right?" Y/n yelled back to him as he followed.
"Yeah, you said that last time." Hopper commented, more to himself than it were to Y/n.
Hopper jumped back into the drivers seat and Y/n into the back seat. "Can you just promise me you won't have the lights and sirens on? It'll scare Mews." She told the Chief as if he were one of her peers.
"For Mews? The hell is a Mews?" Hopper replied as he settled in the leather seat.
"A cat." Y/n answered as if her cat were local town knowledge. Which to be fair, with how much Claudia banged on about him, it probably was. "Idiot." She said under her breath.
Callahan glanced at her through the rear-view mirror. The girl stared back so piercingly that he broke eye contact all together with an awkward cough to fill the silence. "You alright?" Hopper questioned his co-worker as the car engine started again.
Callahan nodded through a stiff neck, "Yeah." He dared to glance back at her again. "Seatbelt." He instructed the girl through clenched teeth and infrequent case eye contact.
Y/n took a moment as her brows knitted but, nevertheless, she pulled the seatbelt across her body and clicked it into place. Then Hopper started reversing and headed down the empty roads towards the Henderson house.
At this time, everything was quiet. A Sunday evening meant catching up on homework due to the next morning, or salvaging what remained of the weekend snuggled up on a sofa watching reruns. When Y/n had left the house, Claudia was doing just that, with Mews sat in her lap purring - of which, Y/n doubted she had moved from. Dustin, her equally nerdy cousin, was at the Wheelers, finishing a 10 hour long campaign. But, by now, he should have returned home. Just in time to watch his cousin get dropped off in a cop car.
Hopper parked, and switched the engine off. The living room light still glowed. A small part of Y/n had hoped maybe Claudia had gone to bed by now. Truth was, she never got mad at Y/n for incidents like these, it was the disappointed glint that lingered in her eyes. And, usually, that glint was followed by a comment, something about how Y/n got her recklessness from her mother.
Still, the girl opened the car door. "See you soon, Hop." She forced a smile and exited the car and wondered towards the front door.
Hopper then too exited the car, leading for Y/n to speed up, thinking if she got to the front door first the man would somehow disappear too. "Please, this was not apart of the deal." She begged with her puppy dog eyes as the two stood on the porch.
Now, Hopper wore the devious smirk. "Just doing by job, kid." Y/n crossed her arms and shared an expression similar to a toddler in the midst of a temper tantrum.
Hopper knocked on the door and they both waited patiently as the voice from behind the wall came.
"Did she forget her keys again?" Yelled Dustin.
"Mews," Cooed Claudia, bypassing Dustin's question. "It's okay baby."
Then the door swung open and Claudia's expression fell. And there it was: that disappointed glint. Y/n swore it would haunt her forever if she weren't careful. "Sorry to disrupt you at this time Mrs Henderson, I'm just bringing Y/n home." Hopper grinned. A grin of which Y/n noted was the same one he used when trying to impress some of the women that walked into Station. The same one she was sure he'd use on Sandra later tonight.
Claudia sighed, "What'd she do this time?"
Hopper glanced down at her. Y/n didn't look back. "We suspected her of smoking cannabis." He informed. "But rather than taking her to the station at this time, we thought it best to bring her home."
To be fair, Y/n should be grateful to Hopper. Had it not be for him, she should currently be sat in some christen, youth, rehabilitation camp, learning about the consequences of drug use. Alas, the man had avoided every law, taken every loophole and looked the other way for everything he could.
"Thank you, Hopper." Claudia gently dragged the girl back into the home. "I appreciate it."
"Keep an eye on this one." Y/n deadpanned the man as he still smirked. But, with that, he said his goodnights and left.
And before Claudia even started, Y/n was already throwing her hands up in surrender. "I know, I know, I'm very much irresponsible just like my mother." Y/n was taking her jacket off as she spoke, throwing it back to the floor where it would stay until she left (probably late) for school the next morning.
"I was just going to ask if you were okay." The women corrected.
The girl came to a halt before spinning on her heels to face her aunt. "Oh." That was the only thing to slip out from her mouth.
She tiled her head as she went on, "Grab some food as well, me and Dusty already ate." And with that she went back to her seat on the couch and cooed Mews back to her lap.
A delightful surprise.
Y/n wondered her way into the kitchen where Dustin was leant against one of the counters. He had been previously searching for a drink after his cycle home from Mike's. But Chief Jim Hopper returning his cousin home certainly provided a kind of entertainment his science project couldn't.
The girl reached around the cupboards, finding two slices of bread for herself. She popped them into the toaster and leaned against the counter, Dustin still lurking. "What's up with you?" The girl questioned with knitted brows and crossed arms.
Dustin stumbled and shrugged. "Nothing..." There was definitely something. The longer Y/n stared the more likely Dustin became to break. And he did. He broke every time. "It's just, on the way home, me and Will made a bet."
Her brows raised, "A bet?"
"You know, as kids do." He spoke as if he were a full blown adult. "And in that moment I made a stupid, stupid decision." This conversation was beginning to sound all to familiar for Y/n.
"The hell did you bet on Dustin."
"It was just...you know..."
"Dustin."
"Your X-men 134!"
The toaster popped.
"Are you shitting me!" Y/n snapped at her younger cousin whose face was beginning to grow head.
And from the comforts of the living room, there came a loud, "Language!"
Y/n huffed and shook her head, turning to tend to her dinner. "You know Will's not taking it." She said as she took a knife that made Dustin somewhat nervous.
"It was a bet, I have no choice." Dustin attempt to defend.
The older girl scoffed, "I don't care, Dustin. You need to say sorry to Will and explain that you betted on something this isn't even yours." Y/n turned, plate in hand that emitted the scent of fresh toast and cold, strawberry jam. "Give him your talking iron man action figure instead."
With that, the girl finally escaped into her room for the night. In that moment, she couldn't have thought anyone else could have had a worse night than hers.