Love Affair (JOPPER)

Brain On Fire

Monday morning, kids are at school and Hopper decided to sleep in. This gave Joyce some well needed peace and quiet for a while, a while to soak in the warm morning sun on her face from her window and prepare herself a coffee and enjoy it. She sits on her empty couch and watches whatever show that was already on. Soon she hears heavy footsteps approaching which could only mean Hopper had finally awoken.

He doesn't see her at first until she starts walking towards him "Morning Hop" Her voice was quiet and sweet. She was happy to see him even if he was disrupting her time to herself. His presence makes her happy, just to feel him near her automatically lifts up her mood so she tries to be next to him any chance she gets.

"Morning, how did you sleep?" he smiles at her then returns to make a cup of coffee

"Honestly really well. Somehow when you talked to me last night it helped a lot, thank you for that." She leans next to him on the counter trying to gain his eye contact. 

He looks at her with the smile he remained on his face "I'm glad it helped; happy you feel better" Silence fell between them which left Joyce in thought

"Ya 'know we should go out today, get out of the house for a little bit. I can show you around like we talked about, and there's this great bookstore I'd like to show you." She suggested while she grabbed him the creamer "I know you don't read a lot, but I'd like to go there to see the new books they have and who knows maybe you might find something you like" 

"Yeah sure, maybe I should start reading. Pick up a new habit" He turns his body to face her so he can look at her properly while he sips on his hot coffee, almost burning his tongue

"Yeah, I mean it helps me get out of my own headspace, and from the world a little bit. It's kind of therapeutic" She nods

"Yeah, we should leave in about an hour or so, I just need to shower and wake up a little bit." he takes a sip of his coffee and looks away as if he hasn't been admiring her this whole conversation. 

Hopper eats and takes his shower while Joyce gets ready as well. Joyce is especially excited to hang out because she can introduce him to new things and finally clear his head, plus they can have some alone time. They both need something to distract them and being around each other helps. When they were younger, they use to hang out 24/7, it would drive their parents crazy. It didn't matter where they were, as long as they were right next to each other they were happy.

 She thinks about how easy it was to be happy back then but now wonders why isn't it so easy now?  Life is finally stable, there's nothing for her to worry about, why can't she find satisfaction? These thoughts go through her head on a daily basis but can never find the answer to it. Maybe it's something that has no answer. Maybe these questions are supposed to be statements that are true. Maybe this is what it's going to be like for the rest of her life. 

As she dwells in her own thoughts a sudden knock was heard "Joyce? Are you almost ready?" calls out Hopper

"Yeah, I'll be out there in a second" The tone of her voice didn't match what she was feeling but it was fake enough for him to believe.

As he sits in the living room waiting for her, he is filled with excitement and affection towards her. Being gone for so long changes you, in his case it changed him for the better. Being tortured and malnourished was maybe what he needed to be a changed man. Kind of like when he came back home from Vietnam, he was traumatized and it changed him into a man that his wife at the time wanted to divorce and he doesn't blame her, especially after Sarah. But this time when he came back from a place of torture, he was new again.  He has always wanted to be the right man for Joyce and El, he just hopes that he is the right man that both of them deserves.