SILVER SPRINGS
Fleetwood Mac

TRIGGER WARNING;
Anxiety and childhood abuse memories.

Joyce Byers had never been more afraid in her life, hearing her own daughter's wails and yells of desperation for the Voice to stop talking to her. Will had a triggered reaction, it was like a sudden cloud on a cold dreary night which had came out of nowhere and cascaded around his own mind.

Will thought the mind-flayer forgot him and instead choice to torment Milly however he was so wrong. The mind flayer did in fact Not forget, Mike and Dustin were both the ones to have caught on to the mind flayer's tricks.

Melissa had went straight to her old bedroom, coming back home seemed right, with the door closing behind her and she collapses into a pile of sobs on her bedroom floor. Milly, drained of her energy fighting for her life, flinches slightly to the sound of a dried dead stick on a tree that taps her window.

She rocked her body, moving back and forth, holding her currently knotted hair. Self soothing her climbing anxiety. And it didn't take her long until there were trickling of a wet moisture on her skin, which she feels. Tears. It wasn't rain, or blood. It was her own bravery breaking and she begins weeping for it to stop.

Anxiety is a dreadful Monster. Worse than the mind-flayer or Dart. It lives inside of your own head, for you to listen to its sick perversions of pain and wretched woes that wanted to control the person which served its suffering to. Milly's hand tremors worsened, while her door opens, Joyce came in and shuffled her feet over where Milly relaxes her body into her mothers arms.

" I tried.. I tried to get him to leave me alone. I tried to get him to leave me alone and he didn't mom. He.. didn't.. he won't stop until I break. I just want to l.. leave me a.." Milly sobbed, in the crook of her mom's neck, her constricted crying turning into snot-filled dry choking. " I don't want to die, Mom. He is going to kill me! And.. and my baby. I don't know how to stop.. how to stop him. Before it's.. too late." Melissa whimpered, mortified at the realisation Henry is capable of such evil. " I can feel it. Feel him."

" You're not alone, baby. You are not going to die while I'm around, you hear me! You're not going to let this monster win. Like I've said to will, before. Whatever is going on in you, we're going to fix it? Okay? Mommy will fix it. That is a promise, you hear? A promise."

Will was drawing — well more like scribbling a nonsensical line of colours outlining the photo of the mind-flayer he drew multiple times — to make sense of his sketches when a barrage of frantic knocks came to the front door which he blinked back surprise at how aggressive each are. He rushed out of his seat, the broadening shadow made it easy to recognise chief hopper. Jim stalked into the house without a trace of a smile on his face, he looked like the terminator and will was a little intimidated. " Where is she kid? Where is Mils? I was told to find her he.."

Jim saw past will and directed his attention to Joyce bringing Melissa out of her room, which Milly immediately did a once over noticing he's in her house and Jim crossed the room leaving will to go back to his table of drawings. Hopper caught her, as she trembled her way into Jim's arms, bringing her close to keep the warmth of her body temperature steady. " Baby, I heard. I heard what happened, on the school field. That freaked me out, and I assume the worst thing's happening and scenarios all at once. Hey, hey."

All she wanted to do was to be held by hopper, to not think about Him or it. Joyce rubbed her daughter's back, doing soothing circles on Milly's and her aching muscles. Will dropped a crayon he was holding and using and ran up to Melissa hugging her by the waist. Melissa feels her heart soften at her brother's sudden hug.

" I'm pregnant, Hop." Milly quietly admits. " I am two months along."

Jim froze, his head had started to spin and he could feel the tension in her shoulders at her confession. Will gasps out loud, confusion at the thought of how Melissa didn't know she was pregnant and the fact she is going to be a Mommy. He's going to be uncle will. He's gonna be an uncle. Jonathan is too.

" I mean. I was wondering why I couldn't fit in my abba costume, correctly, and why my mood was off these past couple of months." She grins weakly. Hopper is unresponsive while his inner, destructive, monologue gets louder. The memories of Sara and how she died too young to cancer replaying in his mind. Milly raised a hand to firmly hold Jim's bearded cheek.

" Ji.. Jim. Are you okay? Talk to me, my love. Please hop. You're scaring me."

" Why don't we talk more about this back.. at my place. When we get back home, Mils."

He murmured, his eyes softly gazing at Melissa's fallen features and her eyebrows crinkle at his distant tone. His forlorn face of conflict. Joyce nodded her head at Melissa, wordlessly saying it's alright for Milly and hopper to leave back to his trailer, in reality he had relocated to the cabin owned by his grandfather. It's unofficial but Joyce knew Melissa had practical moved in with him.

" Will and I, we're okay honey. Go. Hopper, I want you to take good care of her. Keep her inside. Don't let her out of your sight, please."

Joyce sternly said, close behind to Melissa and Jim, following both of them outside to the end of her front porch.

Hopper had secured an arm on Milly's waist. In Jim's mind he was annoyed at the fact Joyce is ordering him, to do a thing he is doing currently, but she is a mother who's concerned for her daughter. " I love you, honey bunny. Remember that." She whispered, while giving Melissa one tight last hug and squeeze.

" I love you too, Mommy."

The quote 'love is difficult. It's like sleep, it's not all at the same time. It's slow, growing, and it consumes you when you least expect it to hit' is one Milly learnt about from a book she read, in High school.

Love isn't easy and she learned how much of the quote itself is true. Not saying a word to her, the whole drive to his cabin, Jim had helped her in to their shared bedroom. He acted unattached, coldly, towards her which he tried to hide but Jim wasn't good at controlling his facial expressions.

In return Milly stayed in the four walls of their bedroom, under a warm throw blanket curled in a fetal scrunch, unaware of what is to come. A slammed door and heavy footsteps made her sit up, listening to hopper scolding eleven for leaving the house for her protection.

" Friends don't lie. Isn't that your bullshit saying? Hey! Hey! Don't you walk away from me!"

Jim yells, furiously, Milly unlocked the door to the room to see eleven try to close her bedroom door to avoid Jim's fuming-self. Jim glared, angrily, at El leaning on the frame. You could steam roll off him. " Where'd you go on your little field trip? Huh?" He demanded her, to answer his question.

Melissa ( still covered by her home-bought throw blanket ) slinks by hoppers arm and ducks under it, walking over to Eleven. El's neutralised expression softens.

" you went to see Mike, honey, did you?" Milly asked, dusting off the grown curls on eleven's forehead.

" That was incredibly dangerous, El. But I am not mad at you, I know it's hard. It's hard for me too. Where did you see him?" She elaborated her question, she could hear hopper scoff contemptuously like he'd been told a joke which wasn't funny. " Did anyone see you, El?" Milly listened to hoppers boots tread, with the sound of intense ridicule, and each step he did take she could feel the radiating anger he had. Jim gripped the frame of elevens bed, a look of intense disappointment riddling his eyes.

" Nobody saw me. I go to school, saw him and you there. You screaming. It scared me, I went to help but you were taken away." Eleven said, her mouth went dry at the sound which sounds in her mind of Melissa having her episode. " I am.. sorry." Jim ran a hand down his cheeks, running a thumb on his beard. Scenarios switching between the fact Milly is getting Worse to eleven ignoring the set rules he made for their safety. He paces back and forth, while Melissa rested her arms on elevens shoulders.

" You put us in danger. You put your Mother in danger. Do you realise the implications of it? Hmm? Did you think about the fact that there are others in this family, than you, at risk? Did you?"

Milly opened her mouth to defend eleven, and her actions. She is a little girl stuck in the place that should be her home but feels like a prison.

Yeah she agreed, with some of hoppers words, it's for her own good moreover it was the facts of how he is treating the situation. Eleven, her face twisting aggravated, pointed accusingly at hopper.

" YOU promised. I go!"

Melissa's heart broke as she hears eleven's voice crack, almost crying.

" And I never leave!" She cried out and Melissa tugged her blanket further in. Tears in her eyes too. " Nothing ever happens!"

Milly flinched when Jim rammed his hand on the clothing cabinet, the sound unlocking one memory she tried repressing all these years of Lonnie overturning a vanity and broken bottle of beers shattering on the ground in his rage.

" Yeah! Nothing happens and you stay safe! It keeps you, your mother, and I safe from those bad men that want to take you guys from me!"

Jim's voice progressively gets stronger, louder, as he leaned on the cabinet. Unaware of Milly's regression and self-deprecation currently being triggered.

" Jim.. stop.." she quietly said.

" You lie!" Eleven retorts, using a louder tone.

" I don't lie! I protect and I feed and I teach! And all I ask of you is that you follow three simple rules. Three rules. And you know what? You can't even do THAT." Jim stalks out of the room, fuming and you could his ears emitting a smoke like in a cartoon when someone is real angry. Melissa couldn't find her voice and she didn't know what else to do instead she allows eleven to express her feelings, kicking her foot on her book shelf.

" You are grounded. Do you know what that means? It means no Eggos. No TV for a week."

Milly exited elevens room, she saw Jim evict the pre-packed waffles out of the refrigerator and she held herself from crying. This is all getting out of hand fast. She wanted it to stop.

" Jim. Don't you think you are overreacting a.." Melissa stopped her sentence, mid-way, when eleven used her abilities and stops Jim halfway through moving the television out the living room. " E...El. Honey, stop. Hey, hey, El honey. Let the tv go, I will talk to your fa.." eleven dismisses Melissa while shrugging her hand off, shaking her head and simply continues to glare at hopper who is gradually growing more infuriated. " Eleven! I don't want you to get in more trouble, please."

" No." eleven plainly said. " Move. Away." She wasn't asking, she's stating. " Don't won't hurt you."

" Well congratulations. You just graduated to no TV for a month to no TV at all!" Jim said, in between his words he moved closer to the line which connected the satellite to their television and disconnects the power making it switch off completely. Eleven panics, it's her main source of communication to reach and watch mike on, yelling 'No' repeatedly. Milly watches helpless while eleven cried trying to get a signal back.

" You have got to understand that there are consequences to your actions."

Hopper stated, stepping away to try and calm himself down.

" You are like papa!" Eleven snapped, making Milly covers her mouth at the comparison she had made to Brenner. Jim might be bitter and a mean man but he was not her grandfather. It was when Melissa came into view, eleven turns her attention away to say " If you are momma.. you help me. Please."

" I can't.. I can't guarantee you will get to leave the house, today or tomorrow, El b..but you're right about the lies. We've been lying, but we are only doing it to protect yo.. eleven sweetie. El."

Eleven, betrayed, gently pulled Melissa hands off of her face and steps back hurt. In her mind Milly's lies had hurt way more, than hoppers. She shook her head. " You lie! You lie! You are liar! Like him! Momma isn't suppose to lie to me! Momma tell truth. You tell truth!" Eleven sobbed her words, her trickling blood nose was actively oozing the more intense her anger is. " I hate you! I hate you! You are not momma!"

" HEY! You don't talk to your mother like that, you hear me? You don't EVER use that word in this household. You understand?" Jim snaps at eleven, while Melissa's heart crumbles in half at El's admission, and Jim's face hardened at a panting eleven. She is still fuming to grasp the effect of her own outburst. " .. You are being a brat. You know what that word means? How about that be your word for the day, huh? Brat. Why don't we look it up? B-R-A-T." Jim threw a beginners dictionary, to pass it on to eleven. She caught it mid-air using her telekinesis. He narrowed his eyes. " what are you doin.."

Milly feels a magnetic, invisible, shift in the air relocate her out of the way and saw eleven use her hand to move her before shooting the book of definitions towards Hopper. " Eleven! Stop!" She yelled, her senses were numbed and each of her limbs are stuck in place. Jim lurched his body forward but El moved her right hand and flicks her wrist making the sofa connect to his legs. He grunted, at the impact, in pain. Eleven stormed to her bedroom, releasing Melissa out of her hold, and Jim in a rage followed eleven.

" Open this door. Open this door, Now! Open it now. You listen to me, you want to go out into the world? You will have to learn when to grow up.."

Jim exclaimed, pounding on the bedroom door, El's crying becoming audibly louder until she finally screamed out. Windows of the cabin combust, and it is hopper that ducked to cover Melissa who gasped out in horror at the sight. Glass cluttered to the groaning, rotting, wood. Her hands are scathed by falling shards and it made her wince at the connecting broken bits.

Milly, jim detecting stress in breathing, could but only stare bewildered at the glass which in fact surrounded her feet. Hopper checked her hands, furrowing his eyebrows, for incisions to notice little particles of glass inserted between the scratches. She didn't blame eleven, for the way she reacted. The glass shattering shocked her more. He breathed out; exasperatedly.

" I will get the disinfectant and gauze. To clean these cuts." Jim grumbles, eyes torn on how to feel about his previous convictions about Milly and her pregnancy. " Stay here, Mils." He left a kiss on her nose, leaving his lips on the angle that turns up on the nostrils, and retrieved the medical box he had stored in the bathroom.

Milly self-consciously held her arms together, like seeking the warmth of a hug. She had the feeling of Loneliness even if she wasn't actually alone. Hoppers distance, Elevens anger at her. It was all too much for Melissa.

Things were changing and Milly had a feeling there will come a day where nothing will ever be the same.

Boarding up the broken, shattered, windows of the cabin and sounds of nails hammered in the wood hopper grunted at each thump it made. Sun rays leaked into the cabin, hitting the face of an exhausted Milly Byers. Dragging her feet Melissa sat on the reclining chair and watched Jim bang a nail in place. She puffed her cheeks out. " We have to discuss about the baby sooner or later, Jim. He or she are here, there is no going back from it now." Milly scoffed as her arms fell to her side, standing up.

" Can we not do this right now, Melissa." Jim, stiff, stated. He used her full name. She walked straight up to hopper, tearing his arm away to make him look at her. " Mils."

Milly read Jim's face; frustrated at his disparaging attitude. The fact he didn't want to talk about their baby, it hurts her. Why didn't he want to know the life growing in her belly? What is so wrong about her carrying this baby? The product of their love? She sniffled and Jim sighed. " Mils, baby.."

" Why aren't you happy about our child being in my stomach? Huh? Why.. are you acting as if me being pregnant is an inconvenience? To you? It takes two people to make a baby, Jim!"

Melissa snaps, her eyes stung welling up with tears of both irritation and sadness, pushing a hand on his broad torso. He didn't budge. Jim understood she needed to get her anger out on him.

" Answer me. Jim. Is it 'cause of Sara? It's not your fault, Hopper! It was never your fault. Her dying, her cancer, that wasn't something.. that wasn't something you could control, Jim! Sara's death isn't your fault. It NEVER was."

" BUT IT WAS!" Jim screamed back, his chest rising rapidly. " it was." He raggedly breathed trying to constrain himself and not cry.

" Her.. her cancer, everything that went wrong, was all cause of me. 'Right! I was exposed to this agent in the army called Agent orange and.. and it.. it fucked with my bodies immunity and hers."

Milly's face is flushed, blotched from tears. He sat on the arm of the red sofa head in hands. " I don't want... I don't want to ever, and I mean EVER, have to go back to experiencing that pain of losing a child again. I am terrified. I'm terrified I'll not only lose the woman, I am madly in love with, but also he or her that grows in your tummy. That's why I am scared to acknowledge them 'cause of that exact fear!" He finally broke. His face constricting into one of a dejected man; faltering and his body racks with violent, pain-filled, cries he would never let anyone see except for Milly. " it's my fault."

Moving towards hopper Melissa cradled both his head, and shoulders, while he held her by her hips crying into her flannels material. The feeling of her hands fingering the hairs on his head soothed him.

He sniffs, moving the shirt part of her outfit up to take a look at her bump. He brushed a knuckle on her abdomen.

" Hey, little tike." He mutters. He could have sworn a kick is felt. " I know you heard your mom and I arguing, I caused that by being the biggest dick on earth."

Melissa wiped her cheeks using her the back of her thumb. " You have an amazing mother that loves you heaps and she hasn't even met you. I hate how I was the cause of her being upset the way she did." Hopper rested his forehead, on her stomach. " I'm sorry, Kid. For the way I did act."

Milly nuzzles her nose in Jim's hair closing her eyes. There were going to be ups and downs in their relationship, it's the matter of how they'd handle and deal with those differences. Those are the most important factors that defied it. He pulled her down to the sofa and sweetly he put her on his lap, encasing his arms over her.

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

JASMINE SPEAKS;

There are gonna be ups and there are gonna be downs in this relationship. I hope this chapter showed a good but realistic look at what their relationship is like. Their love will be tested, in ways like these. they always come back to each other, though.

That conversation needed to happen one way or another. About Melissa being pregnant. The hardest part was how Jim acted, when he did find out about the baby, and like he even hurt me. I hated writing it but like I said it was the best decision, it was a necessary step in Milly and Jim's relationship.

What did you think of this chapter?

Eleven and Milly's scenes? Jim's reaction?

And Melissa confronting hopper?