Trauma - Hopper Fan fiction

32. Compromise

Steve spit on to the ground as he felt the pain radiate throughout his stomach. He watched as the reddish drool dripped from his mouth and onto his jeans, and slumped his body forward as his weight was supported by the rope that held his hands tied behind the chair.

The man in front of him grabbed Steve's hair and yanked his head upwards so that he knew he had his attention.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, where is-"

"I told you I don't know!", Steve shouted once again and squeezed his eyes shut as he took another blow to the stomach.

"Well, do you want to tell me why we found your blood not even 100 feet away from his body? What were you doing there Steve?"

"Oh shit..." Steve thought to himself as his eyes grew wide. He remembered when he scraped his knee, but he didn't think to check if there was blood left behind. He wondered if these guys really knew if it was his blood anyways.

"Look... I'm sorry about the death of your-", Steve started until the man in front of him burst out into laughter. Steve furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the man in confusion.

"You're funny! You think he's dead?!", the man belted out.

Steve sat there silently thinking and would've passed out had he not reminded himself to breath. He took a big gulp as he tried to hide the astonishment on his face.

"But... Hop...", he whispered to himself. He was 100% sure that David was dead. He watched Hopper shoot him? Surely Hopper took all the necessary precautions after he left? Maybe the guy was playing mind tricks on him? He closed his eyes and tried to remember what happened.

————— ( flashback to chapter 20)———————

Steve stood to the side and saw David's lifeless body laying on the ground as Hopper stood towering over him. Steve jumped as David's body slightly lifted off of the ground with each additional bullet that went through him. Once Hopper was out of bullets, he climbed onto his lifeless body and started swinging at his face full force.

Steve turned away and shielded his eyes as Hopper let out all of his rage against David. Once Hopper's hands started to become covered in blood, Steve started to slightly panic.

"I-I think we should go", Steve stuttered.

Hopper sat there on top of David and looked at the frightened teen who stood shaking next to
him. Hopper sniffled and looked at his hands.

"You can head out to the car. I uh... gotta clean this up", he said finally after realizing what the teen just witnessed.

Steve slowly walked back to the blazer while staring at the ground. Once he got in, he'd finally let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Ah. Shit shit shit", he mumbled to himself as he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

The sound of the driver door opening startled him as Hopper got in. He looked at Hopper who had stripped from his long sleeve uniform shirt and sat there in a short sleeved henley shirt.
———————————————————————————

The man saw Steve thinking to himself and reached into his pocket and threw Hopper's bloody name tag on Steve's lap.

"It's either your life or his. Now what were you doing there?", he whispered as he knelt down besides Steve while his gun dangled in his hands between his legs.

Steve took a deep breath as a tear formed in his eye. He held his head down and prayed that Jamie would forgive him for what he was about to do.

"I'll talk", he whispered as the tear fell and hit his lap.