Below and Beneath -Jim Hopper-

009

Victoria's POV

"She's fine. Keep the stitches dry and come back in a week for checkup." A voice said, I slowly felt myself waking up. "Tell her to be more careful on the trails, would ya'?" 

I finally got my eyes  to open all the way, the bright lighting of the room blinding me for a short moment. It took me to realize where I was, once I looked around I soon saw I was laying in a hospital bed. I look over to see Joyce sitting next to my bedside. 

She hopped up, smiling. "Oh, there she is." She breathed out. "How are you feeling?"

I didn't answer her right away because I was too busy trying to gather my thoughts. Once I looked down at my arm, seeing it wrapped up in white medical tape and feeling it throbbing in pain It all came back to me. For a minute I hoped it was just a bad dream.

I looked back at Joyce. "I- um. I feel as best as I can after being cut open." I nervously chuckled.

She laughed a little bit. "Well, that's good I guess. As soon as you're feeling up to it you can get dressed and we can get you out of here." She said.

I nodded, sitting up. "Um... where is Hopper? What did the doctor say about this?" I said as she grabbed my clothes off of a chair.

"Well, after we got that thing out of you your arm was looking more... normal. So, I told him that you tripped and fell down a hill while hiking." She said, putting my clothes on the bed. "And Jim had an emergency. He said he'd meet us here if he had time."

I nodded, pulling the wires and tubes off of me. I once again found myself staring at my arm lost in thought. The chief of police whom I had only met a handful of times in my life cut my arm open, stuck his hand inside of it and ripped out a tiny creature living in me. Without me asking him to. Who does that? Not to sound like a bitch, but I couldn't. I wouldn't be able to stomach that.

Joyce kicked me out of my thoughts, patting my leg, smiling at me once I looked up at her. "I'll be outside checking you out. Your clothes are as clean as they are going to get." She laughed a little bit.

She made her way to the door, leaving me to a silent room. I looked around and took a deep breath. This is he calmest environment I had been in all day. I looked to the clock on the wall, seeing it was 6:30PM. Damn, I was out for hours. This was the longest day I had ever had. I would rather be at work.

I sat up, swinging my legs to hang off of the bed as I struggled to force myself to stand up. I was still processing, trying to get my mind together, making sure I wasn't missing anything. I'm sure you could imagine how I'd have trouble with the events that had happened today. 

So, at work I got attacked by a monster. It gave birth in my arm. Chief of police cut it out with a kitchen knife in Joyce Byer's living room. Now I am here. Perfect. Could be worse, right?

I let out a sigh as I stood to my feet, stretching out after standing. I untied the robe that I had on, finding my clothes nicely folded where Joyce sat the. Luckily they were clean, sadly the sleeve of my sweater was stained from the blood. I slipped it on anyway, followed by the rest of my clothes. I sat down in the chair in the corner to slip on my sneakers. Once I had I heard a slight knock on the door, causing me to jump a little bit. 

I paused for a moment before speaking up. "Come in." I said.

I stared as the door as It opened only a crack at first. It then slowly swung open all the way, showing Hopper standing in the door way. He only stood there, staring at me for a moment. I looked him up and down, seeing there was quite a bit of blood on his thigh, assuming it was mine. I felt my face get hot, looking away quickly.

"Hey, how you feeling?" He asked as he stepped in, closing the door behind him.

I slipped on my shoes, starting to tie them. "Not as bad as I thought I would. It's tender but not bad." I said casually, finishing my shoes, looking up at him where he stood next to the bed, getting a little more serious. "I- I don't even know how to thank you, Hopper." I laughed nervously.

"No need to. Just apart of the job." He said, sitting on the bed. I stared at his face for a moment, realizing he was kidding when he smirked.

I smiled. "Really, thank you." I said anyway.

He smiled at him slightly, nodding his head. "Of course, kiddo." He said.

I scoffed, leaning back into the chair. "You know, that's not an appropriate name for me."

"How?" He chuckled.

"I'm 29. Hardly a 'kiddo'." I said.

He laughed loudly, standing from the bed as well. "Still qualifies as one to me."

I rolled my eyes, following him as he walking out of the room with me. We walked down the long hallway in silence for a while, getting to the elevator, waiting for it to open for us.

"So..." I broke the silence. "What am I supposed to do now?" I asked nervously.

I looked at him waiting for an answer, but it took him a minute. He looked focused, like he was thinking. The elevator doors opened and we both stepped in, he pressed one of the floors, then leaning against the wall, taking his hat off and scratched his head as he sighed.

"Well, really there's not much else for you to do. Suppose I just take you home now." He said with a sigh.

I felt a little disappointed with that answer. I mean, I don't know what else I was expecting, he was right. What else was I supposed to do? I needed to feed my cat as well. So, I quietly nodded, not admitting that I really didn't want to go home to be alone now.

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Sorry I've been absent, going through some drama and a breakup and I find it kind of hard to write about love while dealing with this shit. I think I should be updating normally again now :)