Work Text:
The kids’ graduation party is the day after their graduation. They had suggested a joint party and Joyce had definitely been happy to oblige— as had everyone else’s parents— seeing as it meant splitting both the cost and the planning efforts. The party won’t start for another three hours, but Jonathan, Will, and all of their friends are already over at the Wheeler house. Joyce and Hopper had given the boys the news last night when they’d come home, and they’d both been thrilled.
Joyce is, however, not looking forward to telling the undoubtedly large amount of people that will be gathered in the Wheelers’ backyard later today. She’s thrilled to be engaged, of course, but she’s a bit less thrilled at the concept of everyone fussing over the news and asking questions. Not to mention—
“You had to go and steal the kids’ spotlight, huh?” Murray jokes, beaming at the two of them as he inspects the ring on Joyce’s finger.
Their friend is in town for the graduation and the party. It was nice of him to come, given how often she’s heard him refer to the pack of Hawkins teens he’d helped to save the world as ‘those wretched little gremlins’. She knows he cares for them more than he lets on, and she knows he gets lonelier than he likes to admit locked up in that bunker of his. His coming by before the party was unexpected, but not unwelcome.
She rolls her eyes. “This party’s going to be a nightmare of people grabbing my hand and asking when the wedding is, isn’t it?”
“At least there will be booze,” he hums. “Great timing, Jim,” he snorts, slapping him on the back.
“I— Listen,” Hopper spits, clearly embarrassed at having his proposal criticized. Mean as it feels, she sort of likes it when he gets flustered. Flustered is better than angry, and more and more lately, he’s becoming less of an angry person.
“Don’t listen to him, Hop,” she assures him, a hint of teasing in her tone, “it was a great proposal. It was sweet of you to do it when you did.”
It really was a thoughtful proposal, and she knows why he waited until he did. Will had graduated, he and his friends are moving away, and a huge chapter of her life is closing for good. He wanted to help her turn the next page.
“Seriously, though, mazel tov. Glad you finally did it.” His hand, still firm on Hopper’s shoulder, affectionately shakes the other man a little, and she can see her fiance trying to fight back a smile. “At least someone has opted to use a ring I helped them pick out, instead of losing it in the Upside Down.”
Hopper shoots him a look, something in his expression shifting to a mild concern, and Joyce is stuck on that comment. “What?”
“You don’t think Jim picked out that beauty on his own, did you?”
“For the record, I did not ask for his help, he found out and basically stalked me to the jewelry store.”
“Well, be glad I did, because that one—“
“No, no—“ she interrupts. “I mean, who else did you get a ring for?”
Murray’s face softens a little, his smile turning awkward. “Ah shit. Right, you didn’t know about that.”
She furrows her brow. “Know about what?”
Hopper’s hand is now covering his face in frustration, as Murray shoots him a glance that is clearly meant to be a cry for support. Hopper just shakes his head, hand rubbing his temple as though to communicate nope, you’re on your own.
Joyce glares a little harder. If there’s one thing she hates, it’s men keeping secrets from her. “Know about what?” she repeats.
“I uh… got one for Jonathan a while ago. Before he and Nancy broke up,” Murray admits.
“Well, you two have fun with this conversation—“ Hop offers, already slinking towards the door. She’d stop him if she weren’t still processing that.
“Jonathan asked you for a ring? And you got one? You didn’t even tell me? What the hell, Murray?”
“Joyce, in my defense… I thought it was a good idea at the time.”
“In what world was that a good idea? For fuck’s sake, they were barely twenty! You wanted them to get married?”
“The kid was desperate. He didn’t want to have to break up with her and… couldn’t see another way around it.”
“So you encouraged him?”
“I just— I don’t know! I wanted to root for young love! Sue me!”
“You should have at least told me, Murray, we’re supposed to be friends!”
“He asked me not to! I am many things, but I am no snitch, okay?”
“I am not joking!” she shouts at him.
“Neither am I!” he shouts back at her, and for a second, both of them are just staring at each other.
“Well… okay!” she exclaims, a bit quieter. Joyce isn’t entirely sure what to say to any of this. It feels like a massive slap in the face. If you were to ask, crazy as it sounds, she’d tell you that Murray Bauman is one of the best friends she’d ever had— second only to her new fiance— but right now, she doesn’t think she’s ever been so pissed at him.
“Jonathan’s an adult, I’m not going to tattle on him to his mother. He told me not to tell you,” he argues a bit more calmly.
“I… I get that,” she begrudges. “But you weren’t just keeping it a secret, you were giving him advice. Bad advice. You’re telling me that he came to you thinking he was going to have to break up with Nancy and you convinced him to propose instead? Do you even hear yourself?”
“It’s not like… it wasn’t that simple.”
“Explain it to me then!” she challenges. “Seriously, Murray, what am I missing?” She honestly wants there to be something missing. She wants for this to make sense, because the idea that he would do something so stupid is throwing her through a loop.
“It’s not like their relationship was just… falling apart like normal. They were quarantined in a goddamned militarized zone, in a town they hate, their families breathing down their necks— no offense— and they were fighting monsters! Basically running an underground militia. They didn’t deserve that strain on their relationship. I thought that maybe some normalcy would be good for them. That it might give us all something to celebrate. That some romance in all that tragedy wouldn’t be a bad thing!”
“And what did you think was going to happen after? When they were actually married?”
“Well… it was hard to think that far ahead, at the time. Hard to be practical about the future in a situation like that! I didn’t… give it as much thought as I could have.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, no kidding.” She takes a breath. “Murray, I got married when I was around their age,” she says, quieter. Quieter than she even expects her voice to sound. It’s not like she’s ashamed of it; it’s common knowledge, another tidbit of Hawkins history, of her history.
It does feel shameful to talk about, though. To remember how stupid she’d been.
“Joyce…” His face starts to soften into something she never wants to see from him; something way too close to pity.
“Our relationship was on its last leg, too. But then… well, then there was Jonathan. So we got married, thinking that maybe this would fix everything. And things were better, for a little while. But then we were stuck. We had a baby and no money and we were stuck in this— this legally binding contract, and we started to hate each other, and… I was stuck with him.”
“Joyce, you know that Jonathan is— that both of them are— nothing like your ex. They’re good kids.”
“But they’d end up hating each other,” she reminds him. “They wouldn’t…” so many words pop into her head when she starts that sentence, but none of them are anything she can stomach. None of them are anything she wants to talk about. “It wouldn’t be as bad, but they’d still be unhappy. Marriage wouldn’t fix anything, it’d just… leave them with fewer options. It’d make them miserable. And so young… who knows how much of their lives they’d waste trying to make it work.”
“...Yes. Okay. You’re right. As usual,” he says in a startlingly genuine tone that almost makes her less mad at him. Almost.
“Good,” she sighs, finally moving to sit on the couch. “I’m still mad at you.”
He follows awkwardly, hovering near the armrest of the couch, cautious of her space in a way she’s never seen him be. She shoots him a look, hopefully communicating how stupid he’s being, and he plops down next to her.
“I was just trying to help,” he offers. “It wasn’t my finest moment, but I was… well-intentioned.”
“Jonathan is… so, so much smarter than me. Both my boys are. I made so many stupid mistakes at their age— I was stupid at their age— and I just… I can’t stand the idea of them making the same mistakes.”
“You’re not stupid,” he responds insistently. “You weren’t stupid. You were young, and scared, and… you didn’t have as many options as they do.”
Murray doesn’t know everything; no one really knows everything except for her and, depending on how drunk he may or may not have been towards the end, Lonnie. But Murray knows some things. He knows the things she’s told him and, somehow— maybe from others, maybe from all that research he’d done into everyone involved in this mess before they’d even met, or maybe just because he knows her— he seems to know even more on top of it.
And she knows he’s right.
“Your kids are gonna be okay,” he reassures her. And the phrasing stings; she’s always careful about her phrasing. She always talks about her boys. To make any all-encompassing statements about her kids anymore feels…
In all honesty, it feels like something’s been ripped out of her chest. Like there is an obvious, gaping, painful lack. Her kids can’t be okay, because one of her kids is gone. But that ache isn’t new; she feels it every day.
“My boys are going to be okay,” she repeats back, trying not to sound like she’s correcting him, but she thinks she sees a flicker of understanding in his eyes.
“They are. Because they have a great mother. And great friends. And pretty soon, a great step-father. You’ve given them so much. They’re going to be fine, Joyce. Even with idiots like me around.”
“At least he was smart enough not to take your stupid advice.”
“See?” Murray beams. “He gets that from you. I mean it, Joyce. I’m not friends with stupid people.” He pauses, pretending to consider before relenting: “Jim… can be clever, in his own way, I suppose.”
That gets her to crack a smile. “Shut up,” she laughs. “Or I’ll tell him you called him clever and you’ll never hear the end of it.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.” She raises an eyebrow, struggling to keep a straight face, and for a second, they’re just sitting there smiling.
“I am sorry, Joyce. I should have told you. I maintain the merits of my ‘no snitching’ policy for many things, but… something that big, I should have told you. We are friends, and I’m definitely more loyal to you than to your rugrats.”
“You are never allowed to keep a secret from me again,” she informs him, punctuating her statement with a light shove.
“I’ll take that deal if it goes both ways,” he grins mischievously.
“I don’t have any secrets,” she protests.
“You have something you’re not telling me.”
“I have something I’m not telling anyone,” she argues, knowing that at this point, she’s as good as told him.
“Come on, a deal’s a deal…”
She bites back a comment about how she doesn’t remember ever agreeing to his terms, but instead decides to voice the topic that’s been on her mind. “Jim wants to move. To Montauk. New York.”
“Oh. That’s pretty far,” he observes.
“Not as far as California,” she reminds him.
“That’s true. I guess I’m just going to have to get used to longer drives.”
She smiles, her face scrunching up a little as she starts to joke: “You should just come with us.”
“And be your permanent third wheel?” he grins back.
“Exactly.” She lets her posture relax a little, a bit of tension melting away from her body as the conversation fully shifts into talk of the future rather than the past.
“And Jim is going to agree to this?” he hums.
She waves her hand dismissively, biting back a laugh. “We broke him out of prison. He owes us.”
“Fair enough,” he laughs. Then, his tone softens a little. “You’re moving then? You said yes?”
“Yeah,” she smiles. “Yeah, I… I always wanted to get out of Hawkins. And in New York we’ll be closer to the boys. It makes sense. I’m excited. Hopefully this move actually sticks.”
“Hopefully,” he agrees. “Congratulations again. I’m glad you two are happy.”
“Me too,” she hums. “God knows it’s taken forever to get here.” She lets herself move a bit closer to him, leaning comfortably into his side. “Where are you staying, by the way? In the motel?” She’s fishing for a certain answer, and it isn’t the motel.
He exhales in annoyance before he answers, as though he already knows how she’s going to respond. “With Scott.”
She narrows her eyes a little. “I thought you broke up.” She had seen them sitting next to each other at the graduation yesterday, and while she hadn’t had a chance to bring it up then, she had definitely filed it away for later.
“We were never together,” he rolls his eyes. “It’s just sex, Joyce.”
“And staying the weekend with him. And going to events together…”
“I don’t like commitment,” he huffs like a petulant child. She bites back a comment about the irony of that statement coming from a man who once followed her to California, to Alaska, and to Russia in a twenty-four hour period. She instead decides to focus on the other point of irony in that remark.
“And that’s why you want everyone else to get married?” she retorts sarcastically.
“Exactly,” he hums smugly.
“Are the fireworks done?” comes another voice from the doorway. Hopper is standing with the front door half open, leaning on the frame and smiling slightly at them on the couch.
“It depends,” she starts, “on if you feel like sharing why you apparently knew about this and didn’t tell me.”
His smile falters a little as he closes the door behind him, walking towards them with a more serious expression on his face. “I found out after the fact. A few months ago,” he informs her. “And I made sure he knew that that was a stupid idea.” He punctuates his sentence with a small glare in Murray’s direction. “But I figured… since it was over with and nothing actually happened, there was no point in telling you something that would just upset you. Besides, it’s Jonathan’s business.”
“Okay,” she sighs a little. “You’re both forgiven. But I’m serious. You’re never keeping anything like that from me again.”
“Yes ma’am,” Hopper smiles as Murray hums in agreement.
She nudges Murray a little, gesturing for him to scoot over so that she can follow suit, leaving space on her other side for Hopper to sit down. She beckons him over and he comes to sit beside her, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her in to kiss the top of her head.
“So,” Murray starts, “how does it feel to be empty nesters?”
“Will hasn’t moved out yet,” she reminds him, knowing that it doesn’t actually make much difference. In a few months, both of her sons will be out of the house and she and Hop will be packing to move too. “It feels weird. It feels like they were little kids just yesterday, but it also feels like…”
“Like an entire lifetime ago,” Hopper finishes for her. She reaches down to squeeze his hand a little, knowing that, for him, it probably really has been. He was a different person all those years ago, when a twelve year old Will went missing. He’s been so many different people in his life, it’s a little disorienting trying to keep track. Teenage Jim Hopper, she’d known. New York cop and Vietnam vet Jim Hopper, she hadn’t. She hadn’t known married Jim Hopper. She hadn’t known Sara’s father. She’d known bitter, grieving, suicidal junkie Jim Hopper, and she’d known the man he’d become shortly after. She’d known the newly determined Jim Hopper, devoted to saving her son and later, devoted to protecting his new daughter. She’d known the brash, temperamental, frustrated single father Jim Hopper that was kidnapped and imprisoned, and she’d known the quiet, reserved, remorseful man that came back. She’d known the soldier he’d become in those last few years, with Hawkins under quarantine. Most regrettably, she’d known the Jim Hopper who lost a second daughter. She watched him bury himself in alcohol and self-pity, watched him slowly lose hold on the world they’d fought to save.
And then she watched him get better. She watched him become the Jim Hopper who had to take care of himself, if only because he wanted to take care of her and Will and Jonathan and this town, slowly rebuilding itself from the rubble.
She’s glad she’s getting the chance to see empty nester Jim Hopper. A man who, despite all the children he couldn’t save, is still getting to see a whole pack of other kids off to college and the world beyond. A man who has learned to cherish what he has and to look fondly back on what he’s lost.
“I’m terrified,” she admits. “But… it’s exciting. An exciting new chapter.”
Hopper squeezes her hand back and she lets out a breath. Despite two years of ‘back-to-normal’ life, she’s finally willing to believe that they’ve made it out. She’s okay, he’s okay, and her boys are okay. The remaining children of Hawkins— even those who have already grown up and moved away— are alright.
Murray smiles at them both, raising an imaginary toast. “Here’s to it.”