you're my safe place ~ MILEVEN ONE SHOTS~

You Make Her Happy

Hopper opened the door to the cabin after yelling for El to let him in but frowned when she wasn't there to greet him. He heard mumbled voices from her bedroom as he removed his jacket and hat, placing his belt and gun on the table gently.

When he opened the door to her bedroom, she was leaning against the wall by her purple phone that Hopper had gave in to buying her. The smile on her face made him roll his eyes, he didn't even have to guess who was on the other side of phone that was making her giggle. El's eyes widened and she mumbled into the phone quietly asking Mike to hold on before she hugged Hopper, pecking his cheek gently.

"Mike, again?" he rolled his eyes but El just frowned.

"Why don't you like him?" she glared slightly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Just come and eat your dinner" Hopper rubbed his forehead that was beginning to ache slightly, "I don't have the energy for this."

El was concerned about her dad, he had been irritable and always looked like he was about to collapse onto the floor with exhaustion. He had been yelling all week, particularly at Mike who avoided coming over so that he did not have to deal with her father's comments.

"No."

"No?" Hopper turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"No. Stop it, you have been horrible to Mike all week. He has not done anything wrong! What is it?" El cried out, feeling tears fill her eyes.

"I really don't want to do this right now" Hopper snapped at her. "But I just think you rely on him way too much, it isn't healthy for kids like you."

"I am not a kid!" El protested.

"You're fourteen for god's sake, hardly an adult! You're barely a teenager and act as if you know a thing about love! You'll probably have a crush on some other boy next year."

His body froze slightly, catching up to what words he had spat out and he saw El's lower lip start to wobble slowly as she clenched her fists.

"How dare you" El sobbed and his head started to hurt even more, "You know nothing about our relationship, I knew him before you! I care about the both of you more than I do about anyone and you're just being mean!"

Hopper's pride was too strong and El stood there with her chin wobbling, waiting for him to apologize. When he continued to glare at her she burst into tears and hung up the phone on Mike who had been patiently waiting for her.

"Get out!" she snapped.

"Don't talk to me-"

"GET OUT!" El screamed and just like that night back in 1984, her bedroom window shattered, glass covering her bed. She used her powers to force him back a few steps before slamming the door, locking it with her mind so that he could not get in.

She cried herself to sleep, ignoring every time that her phone rang.

...

A few days after their fight, Hopper sat down and told El what was happening to him. His voice was quiet and shaky as if pleading with her to understand. He hoped she could hear it in his voice, how sorry he was for what he had said.

A brain tumor.

He explained how it had been there for a while unnoticed and how it made him go through several changes in behavior, many victims of the condition becoming angry and unreasonable. He also explained to her that it was growing fast.

El cried herself to sleep in Mike's arms, ignoring Hopper for days. While it broke his heart that she could barely look at him, he understood that she needed time and space to understand that she may be losing another person close to her. He knew how she was used to this and it shattered his heart into millions of pieces to know that he would be another person to cause her pain, although unintentional.