It was early in the morning when the incessant phone ringing had pulled Hopper out of a deep sleep. It was Flo, as usual, with an 'urgent' case that needed his help. There wasn't enough coffee in the world that would be able to wake him up as it was still 3 hours before his normal wake up time. Completely annoyed, he trudged back into his room to grab his uniform.

Jane was still sound asleep in her room, unbothered from the loud ringing of the landline. She was easing into society comfortably. Hopper had even used some of his hush money from the lab to buy them a proper house in town so she could be closer to school, her friends, and that troublesome little Wheeler kid.

After a half-assed shower and shave, the clock read 5:30 am. Hopper was already on his second cup of coffee by the time he went to wake up Jane.

"Hey, kiddo," he started in a whisper, "I got called into an important case. You've still got about 40 minutes to sleep, but you're gonna have to catch the bus again today. Okay?"

Jane rubbed her fists into her eyes as she nodded sleepily.

"Or I can call Joyce and see if she can give you a ride?" Hopper suggested.

"I'll be fine. I'll go out to the bus at seven one five," she grumbled.

"7:15, right. I'm gonna call the school and make sure you're there safely, okay?"

"I'll be fine, I promise." Jane groaned, pulling the covers back over herself and turning over away from him. Teenagers. She really was a good kid, but that attitude of hers was something else.

He'd rather have Joyce take her, keep an eye on her while he's gone. He hated asking her for favors like that though, the poor woman had enough on her plate. Jonathan was away at NYU and she was left with Will on her own. After Jonathan left, Hopper could see that Joyce was a little lonely, so they started a tradition of Tuesday nights being 'family' nights. Will and Jane would spend time drawing and playing games while Joyce and Hopper would drink and watch Love Boat reruns.

It was nice. Being around her was nice. Their times together weren't nearly the same as it used to be in high school, where they spent their time sneaking around and defiling the back of his GTO, but this was even better. This was quality time... even if it was only as friends.

By the time Hopper rolled up to the station, the sun was finally peaking out over the horizon. Flo was sitting at her desk, clearly unbothered by how early it was. Hop never understood how that woman could insist on coming in as early as she could.

"What's this big case? More missing gnomes?" Hopper asked, riffling through the box of donuts on her desk.

"Better," Flo replied. "Arson. Some hospital up in Indianapolis got torched last night."

"Indy? Why the hell do they want me? That's quite a ways away; we don't even have any jurisdiction out there." he grunted, trying not to give the woman his worst case of stink-eye.

"Their main suspect is from Hawkins. Brass wants you to work on the case with them and help take the guy down."

"I fucking hate Indy," Hopper grumbled under his breath before leaving the station in a huff.

----

The drive to Indianapolis was hell. The morning rush of traffic had him jammed bumper to bumper for an extra 30 minutes before he was finally able to make it to the scene. The IMPD was already there and waiting, most of them probably still there from the night before. The place was so scorched that he could smell the burnt rubble before even getting out of the blazer.

"Chief Jim Hopper, Hawkins P.D. You rang?" Hopper snarked at one of the detectives that was kneeling down, investigating a shoe print made in the soot.

"Detective Russ Danvers, Indy P.D. Thanks for coming out, Chief. We were hoping to get some input on this case. A guy in your neck of the woods looks pretty good for the crime." the detective stuck his hand out as an offer to shake.

"If you've got your guy, why'd you need me?" Hopper grumbled, glaring at the cop with a tired look in his eyes. This was the last place on earth he'd want to be, no damn handshake would change that.

"Well, we thought we'd show you the scene and see if it matched any M.O.s of the arsons you've seen. " Danvers replied. 'Arsons you've seen.' nearly made Hopper laugh. As if he had seen any of this shit back home. Well, minus Will's disappearance and the lab, but you really don't see that kind of thing anywhere.

"C'mon. I'll show you where the fire started." the detective said as he headed towards the door. Most of the front building was fried and the hospital wasn't a big one. He climbed through the debris as he followed Danvers down the hallway.

"The records room?" Hopper asked, trying to make out what the plaque on the door read.

"Yeah. Perp used a mixture of gasoline and turpentine. Little did he know that those metal filing cabinets don't melt and burn very easily... or at all. Our guess is that he thought the paper files would make good use as kindling for the fire to start while he ditched. Not a lot of the papers were damaged as the fire spread mainly through the building's structure, but this is where it started. The hospital had a few of the older files laying out and around that they were updating. Those were the ones that took some of the heat." Danvers commented.

Hopper kneeled and look through the pile of burnt files when one in particular stuck out. He furrowed his eyebrows as he read the name on the file.

"Horowitz, Joyce" Hopper whispered under his breath.

His fingers worked through the file's paperwork, skimming it until he saw a piece of paper that made his heart drop. It was a birth certificate. Jonathan's to be exact. Except, the line labeled 'Father' was blank.

Hopper stared at that paper, trying to figure it all out. He knew that Joyce and Lonnie weren't married yet when Jonathan was born, but why the hell hadn't Lonnie's name been put on the certificate? It didn't make the least bit of sense to him.

"Find something?" Danvers asked after Hopper was quiet for too long.

"No, it's nothing."

----

Hopper white-knuckled the steering wheel for the entire ride back from the city. He couldn't stop thinking about that birth certificate, it didn't make any sense! Even if she and Lonnie weren't married at the time, she'd still put his name on the paper, right?

Until it dawned on him...

Maybe she left it blank for a reason.

And suddenly he couldn't feel the air in his lungs anymore when those thoughts escalated.

Before he knew it, he had blank mindedly driven into an empty parking space at Melvalds. It wasn't any of his business, and he shouldn't have been snooping through her file. Still, it was a question that would drive him insane if it wasn't answered.

The bells that hung over the door jingled as he walked in, causing Joyce to look up from the pants she was hemming for Will. "Hey, Hop. What are you doing here?" she smiled sweetly, setting down the craft that was in her hands.

"Can we talk? Alone." Hopper questioned, his face completely emotionless.

"Sure, I was just about to take my lunch break." Joyce quickly signaled to Donald who was across the store, earning a nod in return. "Where do you wanna go?"

"Your place," he answered shortly, leading her out to the parked blazer. As she hoisted herself up into the passenger seat, she realized that he seemed mad.

"Everything okay?" she asked cautiously, suddenly feeling very small compared to him.

"Yeah, just need to talk," he grunted in return.

The drive to Joyce's house was a quick one but an awkwardly silent one. His jaw started to hurt from grinding his teeth so hard. He knew how this conversation would go. Maybe he had jumped to conclusions but the more he thought about it, the more the puzzle pieces started coming together. By the time they made it into the house, Hopper was nearly bursting at the seams trying not to break out into an argument.

"You never told me that you had Jonathan at the Indianapolis hospital." Hopper started, earning a confused look from the small woman.

"What? Wh- I never thought it was relevant? I had some complications with my delivery and they sent me to Indy in an ambulance. Is this why you pulled me out of work?" she replied, her face contorted into a look of astonishment.

"I worked a case today, an arson case up in Indianapolis. Your file was on the ground with a bunch of other old files, the fire hadn't burnt it to a crisp surprisingly." Hopper started. "When I was looking through it, I came across something that I found a little surprising."

"Okay?" Joyce asked, her lower lip stuck out as she stared at him. "What are you trying to say?"

"I saw Jonathan's birth certificate. Funny thing, the 'father' line was blank. I thought that was a little weird... until I did the math in my head."

Joyce's face went blank, her jaw falling slack at his realization.

"Jonathan was born exactly 8 months after I left for Vietnam, right? That one extra month being when you and I broke up and you ended up with Lonnie and I left a month later. Funny, isn't it?"

"Hopper.."

"Then I thought, 'I know Joyce well enough. She'd never lie on a legal document. She hates lying.' but leaving the name blank isn't technically lying, right? Because you didn't want to put Lonnie's name on the birth certificate if he wasn't actually the father, right?" the look in Hopper's eyes was one that was rare. It was anger, brewing but not bursting quite yet. The calm before the storm.

Joyce stayed silent; closing her eyes as if she could somehow disappear away from under his glare. She wanted to run so far away and so fast that nobody could ever catch her from the one thing she'd been hiding from her entire life.

"Who's the father, Joyce?" Hopper's voice came out in a whisper.

Silence.

"WHO'S THE FATHER?" he bellowed, his voice strong enough to nearly knock her over.

"You left, Hopper!" Joyce screamed back, her volume matching his. "You left! Not only did you leave, but you dumped me right before you left!"

"I had no choice! For god's sake, Joyce! I was trying to protect you! Jesus, if I had died out there while we were still a couple, you would've been crushed!" he cried back, his face turning as red as blood from the anger.

"But you didn't die, Hopper. Instead, you lived and ran off to marry Diane! Like that wasn't crushing enough!" Joyce yelled, her voice dripping with pent up jealousy and rage.

"You went to Lonnie! How is that any different?" he replied, realizing that he was now in a full on screaming match her.

"How is it different?" Joyce repeated in an appalled tone with a sarcastic laugh. "You practically pushed me into his arms! I had no one, Hopper! No one!"

"You couldn't have told me that I have a son I didn't know about? You just let me miss out on NINETEEN YEARS? Worse than that, you gave those nineteen years of my son to a scumbag who didn't even want them!" he barked, his voice loud enough to break the windows if he tried hard enough.

----

After both of them nearly lost their voices, they both stepped away to calm down. Arguing wasn't going to solve anything, even though Hopper had a lot he wanted to argue about. He wanted to yell and scream until the sun went down, but he wanted his answers more than that.

He was sitting on the couch when Joyce hung up the phone, calling Donald to tell him she wouldn't be back until later and she needed the afternoon to sort out some 'business'. It wasn't completely bullshit, but she knew the business she was sorting out would take a lot more than an afternoon's worth of time.

She sighed as she slumped down on the couch next to Hopper, rubbing her palms over her face. The silence was deafening and they both hated it more than words could ever explain, yet neither of them knew what to say.

"Does he know?" Hopper spoke up first, his voice completely monotonous.

"Who? Lonnie or Jonathan?"

"Either, I guess." he shrugged.

"Jonathan doesn't know. I sure as hell don't know how to tell him." Joyce shook her head, unable to shake the feeling of impending doom that was currently causing her anxiety.

"And Lonnie?"

"I did the best I could to convince him that he was Jonathan's father when I got pregnant since it was only a month's difference. I don't think he ever really believed me. Didn't help matters much once Jonathan was born." Joyce's gaze traveled away from her lap as she looked out the window instead, the awkwardness would be the death of her.

Hopper's brows furrowed at her last comment. "What do you mean?"

"Are you kidding me, Hop?" she scuffed out a laugh, turning to look at him. "He's your twin. He always has been ever since he was born." she stood up and walked over to the cabinet to grab a framed photo of Jonathan before sitting back down next to Hopper.

Jim looked down at the photo, a small grin creeping onto his face while a small swell of pride grew in his stomach. "Yeah, I guess he kinda does look like me."

"He has your temper too," Joyce replied, resting her cheek to her palm as she stared down at the childhood photo of her son.

Hopper rolled his eyes, trying not to laugh. "I don't have a temper."

"Pssht. Fists before words, that has Jim Hopper written all over it."

"Yeah, I guess so." he chuckled dryly.

"Poor kid spent his entire life being terrified that if he got angry, he'd turn into Lonnie. Little did he know..." she trailed off, unsure of how to end that sentence.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Hopper's voice sounded as if it was just about to break. Joyce had rarely ever seen him cry, but when she did it usually started with that little crackle in the back of his throat. It made her heart wrench in her chest.

"How could I? By the time you came back to Hawkins, you had just lost your daughter. I didn't want to add to that pain by telling you that you'd lost all of those years with your son too... I couldn't do that to you, Hop." Joyce looked up at him, her eyes glazing over with tears threatening to spill.

She wanted to tell him, oh so badly over the years. She wanted to tell him most when she was busy living in the memories being made. All of Jonathan's first days of school or birthday parties. Those days were always spent with her trying to bury that twinge of regret and sadness in her stomach.

Unable to find the right words, Joyce gently leaned her head on Hopper's shoulder. Her fingertips traced around the edge of the photo's frame. She always wondered how this moment would go... when he would finally know the truth about Jonathan.

Weird. She never quite pictured it like this.

"I'm sorry, Hopper... I'm so sorry."