Hopper sighed deeply as once again, little Frankie placed the plate of chocolate chip cookies outside of the trailer, a glass of steaming milk an inch to it's left.

'Frankie, get back inside, it's cold out there.' he called out to the 11 year old who's eyes were wandering the trees next to the trailer. She sighed, her hot breath showing in the cold night. 

Frankie slowly made her way inside the home, her nose scrunching up at the smell of alcohol and nicotine. She locked the door and slowly walked inside the living room, eyeing her father. 

'I told you a thousand times to stop wasting the damn food, Frankie.' Hopper looked up from the bottle of brown liquid, tired eyes wandering around the messy living quarters. Frankie tore her eyes away from the bottle and made eye contact with her father.

'I know-'

'So why do you keep doing it?' Frankie gulped, cracking her knuckles. 'Because Sara might be hungry when she comes home.' 

Hopper chuckled, a humorless chuckle. Something Frankie picked up. 

'Don't you get it, kid?' Frankie's brows furrowed, blue eyes pooling with confusion. 'Get what, dad?' Hopper, finally having had enough of his daughter's lack of knowledge rose up from the couch slowly, towering over her.

'You sister is dead! Gone! She's never coming back, Frankie!' The young girl jumped at her father's loud yell, eyes widening as she tilted her head up to be able to look at him properly.

Her heart dropped to her stomach, her ears ringing as she processed the information. It felt like a punch to her gut. Her small hand held the wooden doorframe, the girl not trusting her legs to hold her weight.

'W-what do you mean? Mom said Sara went away for treatment.' Tears quickly gathered in her eyes as her father bent down to look at her.

'No, Frankie. Your sister died. We had a funeral and everything. Your mother didn't want to tell you so you wouldn't be sad.' Frankie's breathing picked up, her heart racing. Hopper quickly grew panicked as he watched his daugher hyperventilate, something he became hyper aware of since Sara's first episode. 

His hands wrapped around her small shoulders as he kneeled on the floor and brought her body in his embrace. Though, he didn't expect Frankie to roughly pull away, the confusion turned heartbreak in her eyes to become anger. She was furious.

'Were you ever going to tell me the truth?' Hopper sighed, shaking his head. 'Of course-'

'When?' The anger had turned to betrayal. When he stayed quiet, Frankie scoffed, grabbing her hoodie from the armchair. 

'Kid, come back.' His request fell on deaf ears as Frankie ran out of the room, ripping the front door open and jumping out, knocking over the glass of milk in the process. 

She could hear her father's loud footsteps behind her as she sprinted into the woods, taking advantage of her small figure as she dodged branches and low trees, running deeper into the woods. 

She only stopped when she no longer heard leaves crunching behind her and leaned against a tree, trying to catch her breath. It was impossible as she began sobbing, her cries filling the silent woods. 

As a branch snapped behind her she abruptly stopped, holding her breath. She stood up to her full 5' height and looked around. She didn't call out, not wanting whoever was in her presence to be aware they had been discovered. 

She let out the breath she was holding when no other sounds came. A hand over her mouth silenced the scream she wanted to get out, another around her waist stopping her from running off.

She yelped as a needle was stuck in her neck, vision blurring with lighting speed as she fell limp in a pair of arms. 

╚═══════ - ════════╝

Hopper sniffled as his shaky hand held onto Frankie's small one, another tear falling down his cheek. When fingers weakly tightened around his, he jumped, looking at her face where her eyes were slowly opening. 

'I need a doctor in here!' he called out and turned back to Frankie, cradling her head to his neck. 'Thank God.' 

A swarm of nurses pooled inside the hospital room, a man in a white lab coat directly behind them. Hopper was pulled away from Frankie as nurses surrounded her, blue eyes jumping from one person to another. 

She reached up to her face, peeling away the oxygen mask, only for it to be placed back. 'No, honey, keep it on.' Hopper watched as his daughter was shone a flashlight in her eyes, was given a shot and left alone again five minutes later.

He was pulled out of the room by the doctor, though it was hard to get him more than a foot away from the bed.

'She's gonna be fine. She's just extremely dehydrated.' Hopper scoffed rubbing his eyes.

'Just "extremely dehydrated" doesn't explain the hole in her head! I need some answers and I need them now!' His yells drew the eyes of the nurses, patients and visitors on him, but he couldn't find a single fuck to give.

His daughter had been missing for two weeks and when she was found she was in a hospital robe, passed out, lips blue from the cold and a hole drilled in the side of her head.

The doctor, who Hopper made no effort to remember sighed and tried to calm him down.

'Sir, I wish I could give you every answer you want, but I have no idea how it happened. It's too clean to have been from rock, and too deep to have been from a tree branch.'

Hopper grunted as he kicked over a chair. The doctor sighed and looked down.

'Look, all you can do right now is take her home, and treat her like you normally would.' Hoppers eyes narrowed in disbelief. He was supposed to treat her like what, she had scrapped her knee while riding her bike?

'She appears to also have a concussion, and might experience memory loss. For her own health, I recommend not telling her how long she has been missing. We don't want her thinking about it too hard.'

'You want me to lie to my kid?!' Hopper screamed, making the man jump.

'I'm saying, instead of two weeks, tell her it was two days. Luckily, the hole is pretty much almost healed. You can tell her she tripped and hit her head on a rock, causing her to pass out.'

Hopper wanted to punch the doctor in the neck, but contained himself. He nodded, just wanting to be with Frankie again.

After the doctor left, he took a moment to calm down, before walking back inside, shaking his head at the oxygen mask on the bed and not around Frankie's nose and mouth.

'What happened? How did I get here? How long have I been here?' Hopper sat down on the chair, trying to hold Frankie's hand again. His heart clenched when she pulled away.

'What do you remember?' Frankie frowned as she tried recalling the events, her head pounding as she thought.

'I remember you finally coming clean about Sara, running into the woods...' Frankie paused as nothing else came up. 'And that's it.'

Hopper nodded, cracking his knuckles. 'We found you passed out in the woods last night. You tripped when you were running and hit your head on a rock.'

Frankie touched the thick white bandage wrapped around her head, flinching when she pressed to hard on the side.

'When can I go home?' Hopper sighed again, scratching his beard. 'Tomorrow morning.'

Frankie nodded, finally taking a good look at Hopper. The dark circles around his eyes darkened, making the blue pop out, his beard looked thicker and messier than usual, and even his hair looked longer.

'How long was I in the woods?' Hopper's heart hurt as the lie slipped past his teeth.

'Two days.' Frankie nodded, lying back down on the bed.

'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have ran away.' Hopper brought the chair closer to her bed, resting his head next to her elbow.

'I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have lied to you about Sara. Your mom just wanted to protect you. I was going to tell you eventually, when I felt like you were ready to handle it.'

Frankie nodded, looking at her father. 'Let's make a pact. From now on, no more secrets between the Hoppers.'

Jim chuckled, wrapping his pinky around Frankie's. 'No more secrets.' The young girl smiled and turned on her side facing her father, allowing him to press his lips against the bandage.

He watched Frankie fall asleep, dropping his head in his hands. He was already breaking his promise. But to make himself feel better, he tried justifying it by telling himself over and over that it was for her own good.

A/N

so surprise !! i decided to throw in a couple bonus chapters because

one: I am extremely bored

two: I randomly got inspired to do it
while I was smoking earlier

three: I have big plans for season four and hopefully I can incorporate my idea in the plot because I surprised myself when I came up with it. though I hope it wasn't done before, and if it has hopefully it wasn't revealed like this.

I'm going to put out a couple bonus chapters on each book so I can show more of Frankie's character when she's not fighting demo-dogs or being drugged by Russians

also i have no idea how concussions are treated or if the hole thing seems believable but just roll with it

ALSO let me know if anyone picked up on what happened to Frankie and what it might bring for the future. there is a hint in this chapter ;)

till the next one

peace <3