Smoke -- Jim Hopper

52. THE TERMINATOR

So sort of a filler?? Idk but wow we're gonna meet Alexei soon and I'm pumped

not edited

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Jim looked back at Natalie and Joyce, his facial expression deadly serious, "you two stay here."

"Be safe," Natalie said quietly with wide eyes, for once not begging to go with him, even though she wanted to.

Jim gave her a soft smile and proceeded to walk down the hall, gun pointed forward and his flashlight brightly illuminating the lab in front of him. Natalie's heart hammered in her chest as she watched him disappear around the corner.

"We should follow him," Natalie said, picking at the sleeves of her sweatshirt, ignoring her previous thought about staying put.

"Oh yeah, definitely," Joyce agreed with a nod.

Both of them silently followed where the thought Jim had gone, shining their flashlights around the lab, hoping that they didn't run into anything or anyone. Natalie bit her lip in worry, hoping that it was just a raccoon or something.

Suddenly a slam from the furthest room ahead of them echoed in the hallway, and Jim's shout of pain shortly followed.

"Jim!" Natalie called, rushing towards the room where he was at, Joyce was hot on her heels.

More sound of what Natalie could only assume was fighting got increasingly louder and more violent as she got closer to the room Jim was at. Her breaths were heavy as panic raced through her veins making all her senses go into overdrive.

"Hopper!" Joyce called out after they heard a gnarly snap echo around them and another one of Jim's howls of pain.

They finally reached the room Jim was in and Natalie let out a cry when she saw him crumpled on the floor, badly beaten.

"Jim," she said as she raced to his side, tapping his cheeks trying to get him to get up. Her eyes quickly scanned his body, looking for extremely bad injuries. She sighed thankfully he wasn't shot or stabbed. "Jim, wake up," she said lightly shaking his shoulders.

He was out cold.

Natalie looked at Joyce who was looking out of the sliding glass door at something, "how are we going to get him out of here?"

Joyce looked down at her with a scowl, "I think we're going to have to drag him. Is he okay?"

Natalie nodded, "I think so, he doesn't have any severe superficial injuries but lord knows what's wrong on the inside." she stood up, "I guess I can take his legs if you take his shoulders?"

"Gosh, hope this works," Joyce said as she looped her arms under his and pulled up with a grunt.

Natalie grabbed his legs, "okay, we got this. This is fine."

Joyce nodded, not being able to speak. Natalie got that, carrying dead weight was awful. Jim was a big guy and he was crazy tall too, so they had to bend his body in really strange angles so they could fit themselves and Jim through doorways. Natalie and Joyce were completely winded after dragging him through the lab and out to the car. Now they were completely drenched and Jim was still unconscious. All they had to do was get him into the cruiser and they would be good, at least until they got back to the cabin.

"I can get in the back of the car and try dragging him up and you can push him up at the same time as I pull?" Joyce said, thinking out loud, "would that work?"

"It's worth a try," Natalie said with a shrug.

They both got into position and Joyce pulled on Jim's forearms with all of her might as Natalie tried to hoist his lower body into the trunk. So far it was working pretty well until Jim's started to slip back down to the ground and Natalie had to push her shoulder into his bum to keep him from falling.

"Joyce?" she asked with a pant, "everything good up there?"

"His arms are so slippery, I can't get a good grip," she said through gritted teeth as she continued to try and tug on him.

Natalie pushed her shoulder harder into Jim and lifted with her legs causing them to shake a little. Jim thankfully was now level with the trunk and Natalie shoved him in with all the strength she had left, and he finally was in the car.

She and Joyce got into the front after digging the car keys out of Jim's back pocket and starting the car. The ride back was silent. Reality came crashing down and they both knew that yet again something was happening and they were caught in the middle.

Once arriving at the Cabin, they both had to try to lower Jim to the ground as gently as they could, and drag him up the steps. Thankfully, Bucky, such a good boy, tried to help and tugged on Jim's sleeve to get him to move, and actually, he did help the girls a lot.

It was almost midnight when they got Jim onto the couch after Natalie took off his wet clothes and pretty much wrapped him a sheet. Her eyes watered at the sight of all the dark bruises starting to bloom by his kidneys and liver, whoever he was fighting knew exactly what they were doing. She was sure Jim was going to be in terrible shape when he got up.

Now they had to wait for him to wake.

"I guess I should take the test," Natalie said as she pulled the box from her pocket. She looked at Joyce with a small, uncertain smile.

"I think it's a good idea. We can't change that all this stuff is happening again, but you might get a little relief if you have a certain answer," Joyce said and clasped her hand over Natalie's, "I hope that made sense, I'm running on no sleep here," she said with a quirky laugh.

Natalie nodded, she was so grateful for Joyce, "it made sense, and thank you."

"Of course, you are practically my daughter, dear," Joyce told her, her eyes watering.

Natalie sniffled and gave Joyce a tight hug before walking to her bathroom, her hands shaking. She still was so scared to be pregnant. There were so many what if's and dangers she would be facing, especially with all the shit hitting the fan in Hawkins again. What if something happened to her and she died suddenly, like right that second? Jim wouldn't even know she was pregnant. What if she had the baby in the future and something happened to her and Jim, and it was just El and the baby? What if something happened to Jim and she was left alone?

Her watch beeped, indicating that her five minutes were up. Natalie swallowed thickly and grabbed the test. She shut her eyes tightly before looking down.

She was pregnant.

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alright alright alright here we go