- GIRLS ON FILM -

• Epilogue 1983 •

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With the passing weeks all bruises, black eyes, and aching heads healed. Steve Harrington did in fact have a slight lateral scar where Jane had broken the skin but nothing serious. In all honesty, he was the only one who noticed the imperfection, well, and his mother naturally. Lisa was quite the hypochondriac when it came to her son, strange that she hadn't sniffed out her husband's ruthlessness yet. Nonetheless, the gash from Jane's ring healed with minor complications, just two stitches Lisa required him to get. Though once the sutures were removed only Steve himself knew where the injury had been.

Jane's black eye and purple cheek actually healed completely just a week before the Hawkins PD annual Christmas party. Flo was terrified that Jane would look roughed up in all their holiday photos. Which would be quite a shame because those are the photos that remain hung up on the bulletin board all year long! At least that's what the secretary had said to the girl while she was holding an ice pack to her cheek one day at the station. Flo insisted on the icing whenever the girl was around which in turn made Jane steer clear of her father's work for a few weeks. Many nights were spent fingerpicking Randy Rhodes guitar solos in the Munson trailer in avoidance. And partly because Jane just enjoyed Eddie's company, the pair had far more in common than they ever realized. From their love of metal music to their inability to do a heel click correctly. Which they found out naturally while they attempted to line dance to whatever country music Wayne had playing in the garage.

The Hawkins county school district decided to elongate their winter break due to the recent events. After Will had come back to life and Dr. Brenner had been replaced, the town had enough to worry about. Jim Hopper was actually the first voter in favor of the lengthened school break when the city met on the subject. He just wanted his daughter home for a few weeks, he wanted to be able to keep an eye on Jane until he was confident the new head scientist in the lab had it handled. With a full three and a half weeks off of school, Jim would have plenty of time to keep tabs on his daughter and the laboratory alike.

With all the evidence compiled into one huge Manila Folder, Jane and her father had been working tirelessly on the case of the MK-Ultra mothers. Digging deep into the history of the project and why the CIA had even agreed to something so out there. Despite how controversial it seemed, there wasn't much to find out about how Eleven ended up being the only child from the experiment. Also unearthing the fact that the young girl the Hoppers had grown so fond of was also Jane. Jane Ives, daughter of Terri Ives, who happened to be experiment number five in the grand scheme of things. Jane Hopper had insisted that if the eleven-year-old was 011 then numbers one through ten were probably still trapped in the laboratory. With the rest of the children would come their history which would only aid in blowing this thing open.

Quickly her theory was debunked when Dr. Owens replaced Dr. Brenner and let the Chief in on everything that had been happening in the building. Along with promising to keep the gate under control, more specifically, working to get it closed for good.

All the teenagers and children were added to the Witness Protection Program under the guise that the laboratory's former doctor was handling some dangerous items that the kids might have seen, making their knowledge a government danger. In all reality, it wasn't too far from the truth but vague enough that the Hawkins residents weren't asking questions relentlessly. That fact surprised the Hopper girl, assuming that Will and his giant support system would immediately become the talk of the town. After all, it's not often that seven families get wrapped up in the same issues. Especially ones from such different backgrounds. Lucky for the Wheelers, Hoppers, Hendersons, Harringtons, Sinclairs, Byers, and Hollands most people left them alone.

Surprisingly, things went back to normal relatively quickly. Even with having a dead boy come back to life and a government scandal take place.

Hawkins Indiana was suddenly just as boring as it once was.