I liked the idea so I wrote it down. Enjoy :)
"Mommy?"
"Yes sweetie?"
"How did you and Daddy meet?" 6 year old Jane is looking up at her mom, El Wheeler, with curiosity. She's never told her that specific story before and so she wonders if it's any good. She's asked a few times before but her or daddy usually just don't answer or change the topic. El looks at her husband of 10 years, Mike Wheeler, the love of her life, her rock and eternal protector and gently smiles at him.
"I think it's time we told her don't you think?" she says to him.
"Yeah I guess so. Should I tell her or do you want to?"
"I'll do it Key. She asked me after all."
"Yes I want to hear Mommy tell it. She has all the coolest stories" Jane chimes in.
"Alright I'll tell you then."
"So way before you were born and even before me and your dad got together, your uncle Will, you remember him right?"
"Yeah the one that draws a lot right?"
"Yeah that's the one", she says with a chuckle.
"Well back in 1983, so when we were all kids, he got lost in the woods, like really lost, no one could find him. The day after he went missing your grandpa, Hop, you remember him too?"
"Oh yeah that's Mr. Grumpy right?"
Mike chuckles at that, "yeah Mr. Grumpy" he says. Apparently, Jane had caught on to Mike's nickname for Hopper, who he still didn't have the best relationship with, even after all these years. El won't be too happy about that one though, given how much she loves her dad. Sure enough, El gives him a glare, but it's not angry this time, it's playful and cute almost like she thinks it's kinda funny that he has a nickname for him.
"Anyway, Hop came to the school and told Mike and his friends to not look for Will and that the police will handle it. But Mike, being the rebel he is," she says nuzzling his arm with her fist, "completely ignores him and they go out that night looking him anyway"
"Keep in mind that it was raining pretty hard that night"
"Yeah it really was wasn't it?" She smiles at Mike thinking back to that night.
"So while we were looking around the forest for Will, we heard a rustling around us so we tried to find who or what it was" Mike says, taking over telling the story for a little.
"Who was it daddy?" Jane asks
"Well it was your mom"
"What was she doing there? Wasn't it cold?"
"Yeah it really was. Cold and wet" she says somberly, remembering how truly scared out of her mind she was that stormy night.
Mike sits down besides her and gives her a side hug, trying to cheer her up.
"We can finish another time if you want" he says.
"No she deserves to know. At least a little bit of how we met each other. I mean I'm so grateful for that night. She should know."
"Okay then" he says before continuing.
"Yes honey it was pretty cold."
"So why was she out there?"
"Okay well you remember why we told you you can't use your powers at school?"
"Cause I'll get in a lot of trouble?"
"Yes well back then there were people, bad people, who were using mom as an experiment. To test and see how far she could take her powers. That night she might have taken them a little too far and caused some trouble. Mom used that chance to escape from the bad people and hide in the forest, waiting for someone to come help."
Upon hearing that her mom, who she absolutely adored and idolized, had to go through something so terrible sounding, got her instantly upset and she threw her arms around her and starting crying.
"I'm sorry mommy" she sniffles "that sounds really bad"
"It's okay sweetie", she says rubbing her child's back and shooting Mike a worried glance. He returns it with one of soft compassion.
"I'm fine now Jane really I'm okay"
"Yeah Jane, your mom is fine now. All of that is over"
"Oh okay. Well that's good" she stops crying but still stays wrapped around her mother.
"Would you like me to continue the story honey, or save it for another time?"
"You can keep going. I'm okay now"
"Okay. Well as I said before me and my friends found mom just wandering around in the forest that night. Now we had to decide what to do. I obviously wanted to take her in cause she looked really scared and cold and wanted to help her get out of the rain. My friends definitely had other ideas"
"Bad friends." Jane grumbles sleepily into her mom's side. El gets a chuckle out of this and Mike smirks.
"Now it took some convincing but I finally got them to agree to take her with us. We ended up hiding her in my basement for a few days while we figured out what to do. Lucas didn't really like her at first but he warmed up to—"
El nudges Mike's shoulder to make him pause his story.
"Yes dear?"
She gestures to the now sleeping Jane on her lap and Mike smiles fondly at her.
"Guess we kind of tired her out with that story huh?"
"Yeah I guess so" she says, playing with her daughters hair.
"Guess we'll just finish it the next time she asks about it"
"Yep seems that way"
El picks Jane up and carries her over to the sofa to lay her down and let her rest. She hasn't been sleeping very well the past few days so she's grateful that she's finally getting some zzzs in.
Mike looks over at El lovingly. Sometimes, he still can't believe that they're actually together and that they have a kid. He just loves both of them so insanely much. He's so happy they finally have a normal life that the three of them can enjoy peacefully. He just gets so crazy sometimes, but you know what they say, blank makes you crazy. Love that is, love makes you crazy. And he loves them more than he could ever express in words or thoughts.
