Trauma - Hopper Fan fiction

30. Boundaries pt. 2

Hopper semi assisted Joyce with most of dinner until 6:45. She hadn't paid much attention to him constantly being on his phone, but once he loudly clapped his hands, she nearly dropped the pan of lasagna on the floor.

"Goodness gracious, Hop", she whispered as her heart began to race.

"I have a surprise! I'm gonna get the girls!", he said overly excitedly.

"Wait! Can you tell me what the surprise is? Or atleast give me a hint?"

Hopper thought for a second while Joyce batted her eyes.

"Well... I would say start thinking of dog names, but he's already got one", he said with a wide smile.

"You got the dog?!", Joyce gasped.

Hopper nodded and skipped to the back and knocked on the girls door before entering.

"El, Jamie, come on. It's time for dinner!"

Jamie continued to lay there with her eyes closed as Hopper stood in the doorway.

"Come on, girls. Time to eat!", he repeated as he knocked his knuckles on the door.

Jamie groaned and rubbed her eyes before throwing the heavy covers off of her and swinging her feet over the edge of the bed.

"Fuck, dad. It's hot in here", she complained as she pulled off her hoodie. Her hair was already a complete, tangled mess with dried up goo, but now it looked even worse.

"LANGUAGE!", Hopper scolded her before his attention fell on the hump of pillows.

"Where's El?"

Jamie's eyes grew wide as she looked at the pillows behind her. She quickly shut her mouth which was nearly wide open as she saw the look on his face.

"Huh?", she asked stupidly.

"I know god damn well you heard me", he mumbled and fully entered the room.

He walked over to the bed and snatched the covers off causing a gust of air to blow a few papers that were on the floor. The yellow sticky note that El left under the blanket caught his attention which caused him to pick it up.

"Fuck is this?", he whispered to himself while reading the note and then looked at Jamie. "You know about this?"

"No, sir", she responded as she swallowed spit.

Joyce appeared in the doorway with a 'what now' look on her face. Hopper handed her the note and folded his arms while she read it.

Once she finished, she looked up at Hopper, then at Jamie.

"You told me that you and El were in here talking. Did you not?", Joyce asked Jamie which caused Hopper to look at his daughter with disbelief.

Jamie nodded her head slowly and looked at the ground. The motherly instincts came out in Joyce while Hopper still appeared to be a hard ass.

"Oh, sweetie we're not mad at you", Joyce said in a soft tone as she saw Jamie start to cry.

"We're not?!", Hopper asked Joyce sarcastically.

"No, we're not", she repeated as Jamie gave a sigh of relief.

Hopper observed Joyce's interaction with Jamie, and then coughed awkwardly to immediately change the subject as he was embarrassed as to how he would've handled the situation hadn't she stepped in. After all, she did just come back from the upside down.

"Uh... dinner's ready, kid. Come on and eat."

Joyce gave Hopper a side smile of reassurance as they all slowly made their way to the dinner table. Jamie sat on the opposite side of her parents and picked at her food as Hopper and Joyce made casual conversation.