you're my safe place ~ MILEVEN ONE SHOTS~

353 Days

(Just a short and angst one for you all, be prepared) 

Hopper had thought that he was imagining it at first, hearing her whispers late at night. He could hear her crying but before he had the chance to poorly attempt at comforting her, she had slammed her door shut. At first he was concerned but as the days went by and it seemed to happen at the same time every night, he got more curious than anything. One night he finally saw her, blindfold over her eyes so that she couldn't see him creep into her room. Her sobs were loud, a small trickle of blood rolling down to her top lip as she whispered the same name over and over. 

Mike. 

Her voice was almost like a pleading cry as she whispered his name, as if she never wanted to forget it. The chief didn't need to have a brain to understand that she clearly missed him and that he must have meant a lot to her at one point. El would whisper his name in her sleep when she didn't think he could hear, the word almost sacred to her. 

Hopper sat down beside her one night, ignoring her panicked eyes focused on him. He kept his voice soft, looking at her shaking hands as she fiddled with the blindfold. 

"Mike?" he questioned gently. "Mike Wheeler?"

She nodded once, wrapping her arms around herself as if just the thought of being away from him was painful. He sighed, looking down at her shaking hands and tearful eyes, wishing that he could offer so much more for her. He wanted to turn back time for her, so that she could have a normal family and a normal life, where she could go outside and not have to follow rules to keep safe. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was for doing this to her, how he wished that things could be different, but he didn't want her to think of him as weak. 

"Do you use this to visit him?" he pointed slowly to the blindfold and television, "like...in the bath? Can you speak to him?"

El's voice broke. "H-He doesn't know I'm there...I-I say his name but he can't hear me well enough, he thinks he is imagining it. He calls me every night on his...s-supercom, asking if I can hear him...." her voice turned weaker. "21 days..."

"Every night?" Hopper raised his eyebrows. 

She nodded with a sad smile. 

He sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, kid. You can't speak to him, you can't tell him where you are...it isn't safe. You want him to be safe, right?"

El nodded and held in a sob. 

"D-Do you want to talk about him sometime?" he hesitated gruffly. 

She looked up at him with parted lips but he shrugged, sending her a sad smile as if to let her know that he was trying to help. He couldn't do anything to make it up to her and he certainly couldn't let her see the boy, but he wanted to understand how much he was hurting them both. It was clear that they had some special sort of bond, something which made him as pleased for her as it upset it, because he knew that she couldn't have a normal life like everybody else her age. He didn't know how he could ever apologize for that. 

"I-I stayed in his house in a little pillow hut so that nobody could find me..." she smiled slightly at the memories. "He gave me eggos-"

Hopper chuckled. "That's where your obsession came from?"

She giggled slightly but then her smile started to fade. "H-He kept me safe, taught me words like promise and friend...I've never had a friend. He told me that we would go to the Snowball together, a dance...he kissed me.." her voice turned softer. 

"He kissed you?" Hopper's eyebrows shot up. 

She smiled at his face. "I-I liked it."

The chief remembered the first feeling of love in his chest, the way that it was so innocent and pure like nothing could ever go wrong. A surge of guilt struck his chest at the idea of taking that away from her everyday, but he knew that there was nothing that he could do. 

"When can I see him?" El's voice turned more serious. 

He plastered on a fake smile, "Soon."

A sick feeling swirled in his gut at her hopeful face, the soft smile on her lips as she bit her lip gently as if already imagining being back out like a normal kid. He swallowed back the guilt as she smiled gratefully up at him, putting her blindfold back on the shelf. 

For the next days that went past, El would tell him more about Mike, her eyes lighting up with a certain kind of softness whenever she rambled on about him. She didn't have many words or an extensive vocabulary, but it never stopped her from trying to describe how great he was. She called him kind, smart and thoughtful, someone who always looked over her and every time Hopper saw Mike around Hawkins, it took everything in him to not apologize to the boy. 

He could only hope that one day they would be able to be happy together. 

xxx

Let me know if you would like a part 2, and what you would want to see in it! I have been wanting to do this for ages, to imagine how Hopper learnt about how much El loves Mike an how much she missed him in those days. Can't wait for more of this trio in Season 3, El, Mike and Hop are my faves and there is nothing better than scenes with them together. 

Can we get real for a sec? That scene where Mike yells at Hopper, I cry every time I watch it and it may be in my top 3 scenes of the show. Let me know if you would want a Stranger Things Q&A about my fave parts/characters! Leave questions!

~Jodie