0 0 2 ━ [ 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘰𝘯 ]

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄

"Are you ready?" Hopper asked, wiping his watery eyes.

Sarah took a deep breath before turning to look at her dad because she knew the second that she laid eyes on him, the tears would get her too. "Yes," she answered confidently, her eyes beginning to water.

"You don't have to go through with this, you know," Hopper informed her, stepping forward to take her hands in his. He gripped them tight as he stared into her eyes with a serious expression. "The exit is right there and my truck is parked up front. We can go straight to the airport and fly to Costa Rica or Thailand or something."

A laugh erupted from Sarah, offering a short reprieve from the full-blown tears that were streaming down her cheeks. "No, I'm okay. I want to do this."

Hopper smiled, breaking the serious façade as he wiped away a tear from her cheek. "Can you just do your old man a favor first?"

"What's that?"

"Can you open a portal for me back to the day you were born?" Hopper choked on his words but his smile remained strong. "You grew up way too fast and I didn't even get to be there for most of it."

"But you're here now and that's all that matters," Sarah reminded him with a matching smile. "So are you ready?"

Hopper took a deep breath as Sarah weaved her arm between his and they turned to face the entrance. "Yes," he answered confidently.

The doors before them opened to a packed church, pews full with smiling faces from multiple worlds. As Sarah and Hopper slowly made their way down the aisle, Sarah picked out some familiar faces in the crowd: Chief Powell, Officer Callahan, along with some of the other members of the Hawkins Police Department; Amelia and Daniel sitting beside some of Sarah' old teammates; Adam and James, the latter of which gave her a wink and a nod of his head when she caught his eye; and even Quinn, who sat towards the back of the church with a supportive smile on her face.

The train of Sarah's pearly white dress dragged across the pink and red rose petals that littered the floor. The trail of petals led to Barb, who was only a little farther up the aisle, pulling fistfuls of flowers from a wicker basket and scattering them across the floor. Her younger brother, Robert, ambled beside her in a little suit with a cushion strapped to his wrist to which two gleaming rings were attached. Sarah chuckled when Robert decided to give up just before reaching his destination, dropping to his butt on the ground and refusing to move any further despite his older sister's attempts to get him back to his feet. Eventually, Mrs. Wheeler had to exit her pew and pick him up, carrying him the rest of the way.