Since the release of the incendiary tape, the once quiet town of Hawkins, Indiana, has spent time in a place it never expected. The national spotlight. Under mounting pressure, several high-ranking members from the U.S. Department of Energy have admitted involvement in the death and cover-up of Hawkins resident Barbara Holland who died due to exposure to an experimental chemical asphyxiant, which had leaked from the grounds of the lab. We sent our own April Kline to Hawkins to speak to residents, residents who told us they thought they lived in a safe town. The kind of town where, they say, nothing ever happens.
Steve and I hold hands as they lower the empty casket into the ground. Barbs parents weep over the death of their daughter. Soon, the funeral was over. Steve and I pay our respects to Mr. and Mrs. Holland before we leave.
"So, what movie are we seeing tonight?" I say once we leave the cemetery.
"I was thinking The Karate Kid?" Steve says holding my hand as he takes me home.
"Really?" I say excitedly. "I've been dying to see that movie. Ralph Macchio is such a babe." I say jokingly. However, Steve doesn't really take it like one, based on how quiet he is.
"I'm kidding, Steve." I say reassuringly.
"Thank, God." Steve says chuckling. "I was going to switch movies last minute."
I laugh as we pull in to my drive way. "Okay, I'll see you tonight?" I say getting out.
"Tonight."
I shut the passenger door and wave to Steve as he pulls out of my driveway. He drives away and I go inside, mom is on the couch with our new kitten, she named him Tews.
"Hey, Mom." I greet her as I shut the door.
"Hi, sweetheart." She responds as she caresses the kitten.
I walk through the living room and head to my bedroom when my mom stops me.
"Oh, Sweetie!"
"Yeah?" I say turning around.
"The Chief called. Asked if you could meet him in town later."
"Did he say why?" I ask a little confused.
"No, just that he'll be waiting at the Hideaway."
"Okay... thanks." I say and go to my room and change.
**
I pull in to a parking spot in front of the bar, next to Hopper's police car. I spot him outside, leaning against the brick wall, smoking a cigarette. I get out of my car and walk over to him.
"Hey, kid." He says as I walk up to him.
"Hey. My mom said you wanted to meet up? What's going on?"
"Yeah, about that. I'm meeting someone, he's inside. I have some business to take care of with him and thought it would be best if you joined."
"Um... okay. Who is it?"
"You'll see. Let's go." He says and flicks his cigarette.
Hopper holds the door open and I walk inside.
"Over there." Hopper says and points at a booth.
Dr. Owens is sitting at the booth Hopper pointed at. We take off our coats as we walk over and take a seat across from him.
"Chief-o." Dr.Owens says to Hopper as we sit down. "Jo-Danielle, nice to see you again." He says smiling at me.
"Likewise." I smile back.
"How's the leg?" Hopper asks smugly.
Gesturing to his leg, Dr. Owens says, "Better. Pretty sure my football career is over."
We let out a chuckle and his small joke.
"You guys want some?" Dr. Owens points at the food on the table. "No way I'm gonna finish it."
"No, thank you." I say.
"No. I'm, uh... on a diet." Hopper says pushing the plate away.
"Well, you're a better man than me. Hey, I got a little something for the both of you." Dr. Owens says and reaches inside his bag.
He gives Hopper his item first. Dr.Owens slides an envelope across the table and Hopper takes it, opening it up. Leaning over a little so I can see, he pulls out what is inside. It's a birth certificate.
"Congratulations, Pops."
The two of them exchange looks across the table. The birth certificate is for Eleven. Jane Hopper, the certificate reads.
"I thought-" Hopper begins to say.
"Sometimes, I even impress myself." Dr. Owens cuts him off.
Hopper puts the certificate away. "Still, I'd let things cool off for a while, if I were you." Dr. Owens says.
"How long is awhile?"
"Want to be safe? I give it a year."
"A year?" Hopper says and snags the other half of Owen's sandwich, and takes an aggressive bite.
"Why a year?" I cut in. "You put me up for adoption right away."
"It was different for you, Danielle. Everyone thought you were dead. Brenner even held a small funereal for you. I knew that no one would look for you."
"Oh."
"Anyway." He says and reaches back into his bag. He pulls out a giant yellow envelope and slides it over to me. "This is for you."
I take the thick envelope and open it. Inside, is a huge stack of papers. I pull a sheet out and see that a polaroid is paper clipped to top left corner. It's a picture of me when I was in the lab. However, on the picture is a red stamp that days 'terminated'. I pull the sheet of paper all the way out and it's a lab sheet. It has every detail about me on it. Everything from my age to my blood type.
"What is this?" I say looking back up at Dr. Owens.
"It's everything from the lab. Records of every test that was performed. It was just collecting dust in my attic, so, I figured you might want to know a little more about your past."
Nodding my head, I put the page back in the envelope. Hopper is still munching down the sandwich. The next thing Dr. Owens says cuts me completely off guard.
"A file of your birth mother is in there as well."
"My-"
"Your mother." Dr. Owens says, nodding his head. "Along with a picture of her."
Immediately, I start to thumb through the papers, but Dr. Owens stops me.
"I think you should wait to look at it later. You might not like the things you read in there."
I, understandingly, nod my head again and place the file back down on the table.
"One more thing. Danielle... your father... Brenner is still alive, he's still out there. I just think that's something you should know."
I look up at Dr. Owens, worried. "But don't worry." He says, after seeing the look on my face. "He's not in Hawkins. In fact, he vanished to the other side of the country somewhere. He won't find you, I've made sure of that." He states reassuringly.
Hopper finishes his sandwich and says, "Okay, how about one night out." Bringing the topic of conversation back on El.
"Just one night?" Owens asks him.
"Yeah. How risky would that be?"
"What's so important about one night?"
**
After another twenty-minutes with Dr.Owens, Hopper and I make our leave.
"You're still helping El tonight?" Hopper asks as we head to our vehicles.
"Of course. You heading back there now?" I ask as I unlock my Jeep.
"Yeah. Do you want to follow me? Or do you have other plans first?"
"No-no other plans. Did you get everything off of the list I gave you?"
"Yes." Hopper says with a dramatic sigh. "I got everything. Now, let's go before she begins to wonder where I am."
"Sure thing." I chuckle and we both get in our vehicles.
**
I'm sitting on the floor in Eleven's bedroom, laying out everything I need to help her get ready for the Snowball dance. I'm laying out the small amount of makeup I'll be using, when she walks in, straight out of the shower.
"Hi." El says, shutting the door.
"Hey. Have a seat." I say gesturing to the empty space in front of me.
El sits down, wearing sweatpants and one of Hopper's flannels. She gazes over all of the products in wonder.
"You ready?" I ask her causing her gaze to advert to me.
With the nod of her head, "Ready." She says.
The first thing I grab, was a small eyeshadow compact. Taking ahold of the built-in applicator, I rub it into the purple. "Close your eyes." I tell El and she closes them. I rub the eyeshadow onto her eyelids. "Keep them closed." I tell her once I'm finished with the purple. With her eyes still closed, I use the other end of the applicator and rub it into a light pink. I do the same thing like I did with the purple but this time, I apply it to the inner part of her eyelid. Hopper doesn't want her to wear mascara, so we have no choice but to skip that part.
"You can open your eyes now." I chuckle a little and El opens her eyes.
I then add a rosy blush to her cheeks and finish her makeup off with a rollerball lip gloss.
"Pretty." I tell her as I examine my work. Eleven smiles a little. "Ready for your hair?" I ask, standing up. She nods as I hold out my hand for her to take. She accepts it and I help her up. El takes a seat on the edge of her bed as I begin to work on her hair.
**
"Undergoing experimental tests, 002 displays increased signs of highly developed intellect. Results conclude, 002, age of three years, acquires a mature, fully developed, brain. Future tests will continue to be performed by Dr. Martin Brenner (Father) and Dr. Samuel Owens. 002 will begin another round of "027" via injection on the seventh of November, 1970." I read from one of the file sheets.
Hopper and I are sitting in the living room, looking over my file from the lab, as we wait for El to finish getting dressed. He puts out his cigarette and takes the paper from my hands and begins to read over it. As he reads, I thumb through more pages in the envelope, looking for the file of my birth mother. I finally find it and pull the single sheet out along with a picture.
When Dr. Owens said that there was a picture of her, I expected just that. Instead, it's a family portrait. My mom, Brenner, and me as a baby.
"This is my mom." I say to Hopper as I point at her in the picture.
He breaks his concentration from my file and glances at the picture in my hand. "You look just like her." Hopper says solemnly and returns his attention back to my file.
I take another minute and gaze at the photo. Brenner is wearing a khaki suit jacket with a white dress shirt and a black tie. His typical attire from the memories I have. He's standing behind my mother with a hand on her shoulder as I'm cradled in her arms. My biological parents put me in a dress that looks way too big and extremely uncomfortable. My mother is wearing a floral top. Her hair is light brown, just like mine. She's smiling and so is Brenner. From the outside looking in, we look like your average, happy family. But that's not the case at all.
"Two is verbally unresponsive to everyone excluding One. Two refuses to comply unless One is with her at all times." Hopper reads causing me to break my attention from the photo. "Do you remember One?" He asks me.
"Sort of. From what I remember, he was older than me and I guess we only really trusted each other." I say as I set the picture back on the table and begin to scan over my mother's file. "I don't remember much."
Hopper picks up another sheet out of the scattered mess on the coffee table as I read.
"Cynthia Alice Brenner." I say out loud as I read her name. "Her name was Cynthia." I say smiling a little as I scan further down her file. My smile fades as I reach the bottom of the sheet. "Subject was terminated..." I say in a quiet voice as tears begin to well in my eyes. "Dr. Martin Brenner treated subject via electroconvulsive therapy followed by lethal injection."
"Oh, kid." Hopper whispers and pulls me in for a side hug.
Tears begin to stream down my face as I rest my head on his shoulder. Hopper starts to rub my arm, trying to comfort me. "I'm sorry." He whispers to me.
"He killed her." I whimper. "Brenner killed my mother. How could he do this?" I ask pulling away from Hopper's embrace, aggravated.
"I don't know, kid. I don't know." He says solemnly.
"Ready." We hear El say from behind us.
We didn't even hear her come out of her room. Hopper and I quickly stand up. He turns around to face her as I quickly wipe my tears and do the same. El is wearing a dark blue dress with small pink polka dots on it.
"You look very beautiful El." I tell her as I sniffle and force a small smile at her.
El gives me a smile in return and turns her look to her dad. Hopper just smiles at her, so I give him a nudge. Silently telling him to give her a compliment.
"Wha-oh, uh, yeah. Yes, El, you look very beautiful."
"Alright, let's go." I say as I turn back around and collect all of the pages before shoving them back into the envelope. "Don't want to leave Mike waiting." I say, turning back around and grabbing my coat off of the back of the couch.
"Mike." Hopper scoffs and rolls his eyes.
**
Eleven and I are walking up to the doors of the school, when she stops in her tracks.
"Hey." I say to her. "Everything will be fine. Mike is going to die when he sees you."
Her eyes widen at my words. "Oh, no. No, not like that. I mean it in a good way. Like, he is going to fall head over heels for you."
El gains some confidence back and holds my hand as we walk to the door. We meet Dustin half way.
"Woah, look at you." I call out to him. "Your hair looks great."
"You think so?" he says, slightly touching it.
"Oh, yeah." I say nodding my head. "Such a lady killer."
Dustin purrs at me.
"No." I shake my head, causing him to stop. "Go, get em' tiger." I smile nodding my head towards the door.
Dustin walks inside leaving El and I alone again. Cindy Lauper's, Time After Time begins to play.
"Okay, remember, Hopper will be outside the entire time. So, if you feel uncomfortable-"
"Leave." She finishes.
"Yup. Now get in there, Mike is waiting." I say giving her a little nudge inside. Slowly, she walks through the doors.
Seeing that Dustin has already arrived, I search the parking lot for Steve's car. I finally spot him, leaning against the hood of his BMW. I walk over to him.
"Ready to go?" I say standing in front of the passenger door.
"Not yet." He says and walks over to me.
"What are you doing, Harrington?" I ask teasingly.
"About to ask my girl to dance."
"Oh." I whisper quietly.
"So, Danielle Henderson. May I have this dance?" He asks, holding out his hand.
"You may." I say taking his hand.
"Every Breath You Take" by The Police begins to play inside. Loud enough for us to hear.
He takes my hand and wraps it over his shoulder. I put my other one up there as well. Steve places both of his hands on my hips, pulling me in, our bodies touching, as we sway to the music.
Oh, can't you see. You belong to me.
Steve starts to lean in, not taking his eyes off of my lips. I begin to lean in also, not taking my eyes off of his.
My poor heart aches. With every step you take.
Our lips connect.
Since you've been gone, I been lost without a trace.
Our kiss burns with passion, it almost knocks me on my ass. His tongue briefly runs over my lips, begging for entrance. I open my mouth, his tongue slips inside.
I dream at night, I can only see your face. I look around, But it's you I can't replace.
Slowly, we break the kiss. We smile as we lean our foreheads together, still dancing.
I feel so cold, and I long for your embrace. I keep crying baby, baby, please.
The song fades out. "Okay we should probably get going, or we will be late for the commercials." Steve says pulling away and opening my door.
"You're such a dork, Steve Harrington." I say once I'm sit down in the passenger seat.
"Yeah, but I'm your dork." He says and closes the door.