Chapter Text
If you were to ask people what Dustin Henderson was you would hear him be called many things, secretive is not one of them. Out of all the children currently involved in this Upside Down business, he was the last one anyone expected to be hiding a secret even slightly related to the strange events. Yet here he was, joining in on the raiding of the currently run-down and abandoned Hawkins Lab to prevent anyone from finding out a secret very much involved in the strange events.
Now you may be wondering what kind of secret Dustin would even have involving Hawkins Lab when he 1) didn’t have a number tattooed on his wrist, 2) didn’t have psychic powers in the slightest, and 3) didn’t have scientist parents and was, in fact, living with his birth mother. That can be explained in a few simple sentences. No experiment has a 100% success rate. Terry Ives wasn’t the only mother to go searching for her child. Lastly, what use would a secret laboratory have with a powerless child whose mother threatened legal action if she didn’t get him back?
In case you didn’t catch on, yes, Dustin was one of the many subjects of Brenner’s experiments that didn’t develop psychic abilities. He was the ninth failure of this kind, leading to him living under the designation of 009-F for the first four and half years of his life. Most of these failures were eliminated at age 5 after showing no signs of developing abilities of any kind, luckily his mom had gone full mama-bear and broken into the facility to get him out before that fate befell him. Unlike Terry’s attempt to rescue Eleven from the facility, Ms. Henderson was successful, with only one catch. If asked about the facility, even under oath, she couldn’t say or report anything about the experiments.
Both Ms. Henderson and the doctors assumed Dustin, as he grew older, would eventually forget about his time in the facility and with the other experiments…he didn’t of course but he never told anybody. Who would believe him? It wasn’t like he had anything to show for it, no powers, or tattoo, or anything. Besides, he didn’t think it would ever be relevant in his life again, what with him being a normal citizen now.
That was before Eleven showed up more than a year ago. At the time he was tempted to tell the others about his involvement but thought better of it. He didn’t have anything useful to bring to the table like El did anyways. He didn’t even have any solid proof of his involvement either, which didn’t help. But, in the present day, with Hawkins lab officially shut down, all the evidence anybody needed was sitting in a folder in a box somewhere for anyone to find. If this had happened last year he would be okay with the gang discovering this stuff on their own, but at this point, he had been hiding it from them for a year and he was not prepared for the sh*t-storm that would follow.
And that is how he ended up tagging along with Hopper, Nancy, El, and Mike on a hike to the old lab looking for any information it might hold. That and a lot of pestering on his, Mike’s parts, somehow convincing El to ask Hopper to bring them along.
Upon entering the old lab, Dustin couldn’t help but be somewhat anxious. He didn’t have many happy memories associated with these hallways. He was trailing a bit behind everyone else, with Hopper at the front of the group, Nancy close behind him, and Mike and El walking together behind her. Despite this El was the one leading the way down to the depths of the lab…to where the bad things happened. Entering that area did nothing to calm Dustin’s nerves as he glanced at the various doors, some numbered and others he recognized as testing areas.
“Alright, this should be where anything we’re looking for should be.”, Hopper said, halting a few steps into the hallway and turning to face the group, “From here on out we’ll split into two groups. the First group will be me and El, second is the Wheelers and Henderson.”.
“No, I’m going with El! The whole reason I’m here is to help her.”, Mike objected.
El nodded, “Mike come with.”.
“Alright, alright.”, Hopper relented, sighing heavily, “Nancy, are you okay with the other kid tagging along with you?”.
“I can manage.”, Nancy said.
“Hey, I can hear you two!”, Dustin spoke up, “I’m literally right here.”.
“Now, where is each group going?”, Nancy asked, ignoring Dustin’s annoyed look.
“Us three will take the right side of the hall, you two take the left, once we get to the end of the hallway we meet back up and make another game plan depending on what’s there.”, Hopper explained.
“Sounds like a plan.”, Nancy said, looking back at Dustin, “C’mon Henderson, let’s get a move on.”.
“Coming, good luck with finding stuff guys!”, Dustin called as he speed-walked past the other three to keep up with Nancy’s long strides.
He hadn’t meant the good luck part, or to seem so excited. He was actually ticked because for all he knew the file rooms were on the right side of the hallway and the other group would find his file. He was sure he had one somewhere, all the experiments probably did, failed or otherwise. That was what he was here to take before anyone found it.
“In here Henderson!”, Nancy called, already halfway through the door to a room Dustin recognized as a testing room.
Most of the rooms in this hallway were for testing, Dustin realized as he went into said room. Nancy was looking around, spotting a camera in the corner and how suspicious the reflected glass is.
“I wonder what they used this room for…it looks like the one me and Jonathan were interrogated in by Owens.”, Nancy wondered out loud as her hand traced the metal table that sat next to the wall with the mirror.
“Maybe where they’d interview the kids? Or this could be some kind of testing room.”, Dustin expertly pretended like he hadn’t known that beforehand.
“Maybe…”, Nancy mumbled, taking one last look around the room, “There isn’t much here, let’s keep moving.”.
Dustin followed her out of the room without a word, lucky that the detective lady didn’t catch him staring at the door while she closed it. It was a wonder he even remembered things like what the testing rooms looked like, but then again he remembers reading a psychology book about traumatic experiences, even in one’s early childhood, being permanently imprinted on a person’s brain. So, yeah, that was probably it.
-
Nothing interesting happened in that entire hallway, it was literally rows and rows of essentially identical rooms. Nancy was clearly frustrated at this, probably hoping to find something more interesting. Dustin was relieved that they hadn’t found anything interesting yet, but was nervous that the others might have. Regardless, they reached the end of the hallway, only to be met with it splitting off into two separate hallways at the end. Waiting patiently for the others, Dustin peeked down one of the hallways and spotted a familiar pair of double doors at the end of it.
‘The Rainbow Room…’, he thought, noticing that the rooms in that hallway were numbered, ‘So, if this hallway is testing rooms, and that’s the personal rooms, then the other hallway…should have the files!’
“Nance, did you guys find anything?”, Mike asked, startling Dustin, he hadn’t even noticed the group had arrived.
“No, just a lot of various testing rooms.”, Nancy said.
“Yeah there was, like, nothing, nada, zip.”, Dustin emphasized.
“Nothing on our end either.”, Mike groaned.
“Hey, at least that hallway looks important.”, Dustin pointed to the one with the Rainbow Room, hoping to nudge them over there so he and Nancy could look for the files.
El looked to see where Dustin was pointing, her eyes widening in recognition of the location. But there was also confusion in her expression that didn’t click in Dustin’s head.
El pointed at the hallway, “We go there.”.
“Alright then…you two good with investigating that hallway while we look at this one?”, Hopper asked Nancy and Dustin, although Dustin had the feeling that question was only directed to Nancy.
“Yeah, you guys go ahead, rendezvous back here again when we’re done?”, Nancy asked.
Hopper nodded and looked back at El, “Lead the way kid.”.
El nodded and walked off to the hall, Mike beside her and Hopper following behind.
“C’mon Henderson, let’s start looking again.”, Nancy said, turning around and walking down the hall.
Dustin sped-walked to catch up again, this time actually aiming to get in front of Nancy. This had to be the hallway with the files, so he needed to find his first.
“Hey, I have an idea. Let’s split up and just start looking in random rooms. When you’re done with a room just leave the door open so we’ll know we already looked there!”, Dustin suggested, rambling a bit.
“I don’t think us splitting up is the best idea, then we’d be wandering in this place alone.”, Nancy pointed out.
“Oh, c’mon, it’ll save time, be more effective, and this is literally an out-of-the-way hallway. As long as we don’t go back up to a different floor I doubt we’ll get lost.”, Dustin argued in a tone that screamed ‘I won’t stop bugging you until I get my way’.
“Fine, fine, just don’t do anything stupid.”, Nancy sighed.
“Nancy, please, in all the time you’ve known me have I ever done anything stupid?’, Dustin asked, Nancy was about to speak before he interrupted her, “Okay, did anything stupid on purpose.”.
Nancy rolled her eyes, but the small smirk she had said it with was more playful than anything. Dustin was glad he had gotten closer to her after the whole dance situation or this would’ve been a thousand times harder to pull off.
“Alright, I’ll check this room here y-”, Nancy started saying, but Dustin had already dashed to the nearest room and gone inside.
“Good luck!”, Dustin called, closing the door behind him before Nancy could say anything.
Dustin spotted a file cabinet and was practically vibrating with anticipation, this was it, this was what he came for. Opening one of the drawers, he flicked through the files, looking for any that might be related to him. All he found were different experiment prompts to expand on and test different abilities. Like guessing what picture someone in the next room was looking at based on their emotions, or different ways to test a kid’s vision outside their own body, ones that promoted concentration with negative consequences…yeah Dustin stopped reading them after that. Closing the drawer disappointedly, he filtered through the other ones. It was all doctors' notes and nothing specifically about him or even failed experiments in general.
Exiting the room and leaving the door open behind him Dustin found that another room had a door open…oh no. He had neglected to think that maybe, just maybe, Nancy was a faster reader than him. This was an issue, changing his mood from excited to nervous at the idea of him and Nancy being in a one-sided race for something Nancy wasn’t even looking for. Dustin frantically entered the next room, his search coming up unfruitful yet again…until it didn’t.
Scanning the report between scientists, Dustin spotted what he was looking for at long last. Well, more like the directions to what he was looking for. The paper read loud and clear that the report on 004-F’s termination was to be documented with his file kept in room 0-25.
‘The failed experiment files are kept in room 0-25. My file is kept in room 0-25. Where in the world is room 0-25?’, Dustin’s thoughts spiraled as he left the room, not even bothering to close the door or put the report back where he found it.
‘0-19, 0-21, 0-23…0-25!’, Dustin thought scanning the doors and spotting his goal.
He walked with purpose over to the room, placing his hand firmly on the doorknob, and pushing it open to find…Nancy looking through a box of files…sh*t.
Nancy looked up at the sudden movement, “Hey there Henderson…we should have established a way to not accidentally end up in the same room, huh?”.
“Um, yeah, probably-probably should’ve thought of that.”, Dustin stuttered out, hoping his tone didn’t fully betray his racing heart and panicking thoughts.
“So, have you found anything? Well, anything we didn’t already know.”, Nancy asked, returning her attention to the box.
“Nope, just boring reports on tests…what about you?”, Dustin asked, praying that box didn’t house what he thought it did.
“Apparently not all the kids that survived childbirth got powers, this whole box is filled with their profiles and other details.”, Nancy said exactly what Dustin didn’t want to hear.
“I mean, kids without powers is kinda expected, no experiment has a 100% success rate.”, Dustin pointed out, thinking up a game plan.
“Yeah, I guess you have a point there…”, Nancy said, looking back and reading through the file labeled ‘008-F’ with a frown, “All of these kids…they were so young.”.
“Yeah…yeah…”, Dustin said, mood souring not only at Nancy’s words but at how close she was to his file, “Hey, um, if that stuff’s getting too depressing or something I can read it.”.
“Yeah, no, you’re not even in high school yet, you are not prepared for this stuff.”, Nancy answered quickly, not looking up from the file.
“Oh c’mon, I’ve seen El kill a Demogorgon, a demodog ate my cat in front of me, I’ll be fine!”, Dustin complained, getting slightly impatient.
“You’re not getting your hands on these files Henderson, just move on to another room already.”, Nancy said, setting 008-F’s file back down and picking another one out of the box…one labeled ‘009-F’.
‘Nononononononono!’, Dustin thought frantically, brain scrambling to find something to distract Nancy before she saw something compromising in those pages.
“Well, too bad, I’m reading this file now!”, Dustin announced, picking out a random file from the box.
“Henderson!”, Nancy scolded, looking away from his file, just as he had hoped.
Dustin smiled triumphantly, file waving in the air, “If you don’t want me to read it you’ll have to stop me yourself!”.
“Whatever, we don’t have time for this Henderson. You want to read a gruesome file so bad, read the gruesome file.”, Nancy sighed, going back to reading his file.
Dustin’s nerves were starting to get the better of him as he started considering more drastic measures to take before things got out of hand…but he failed to think of one quick enough. The first clue Nancy had spotted something was the way her eyes squinted as if she was making sure she read something right. Then her eyes widened, and her gaze slowly, agonizingly slowly, shifted over to Dustin. All he did was stand there awkwardly, knowing he was done for now. Nancy went back to reading the file, glancing over at Dustin occasionally. He didn’t dare move or speak, anticipating that Nancy’s building tension might snap if he did. He just waited there, as Nancy finished up on the file. She closed it, took a deep breath, and turned her head pointedly at Dustin, who was practically trembling under her intense stare.
“Henderson.”, Nancy said, voice leaving no room for light-heartedness, “Care to explain?”.
“Explain what?”, Dustin asked, knowing playing dumb would end up fruitless, but he was kind of desperate at this point.
Nancy simply tossed the file down on the desk and opened it to a page full of information. His information, Dustin realized, his information laid bare for everyone to see after so long.
“This, Henderson, explain why it says your mother was one of the women participants and that the test subject she provided has your exact medical condition. Missing collarbones, under-developed teeth, and everything.”, Nancy got straight to the point.
Dustin didn’t really know how to respond to that. What was he supposed to say? “Oh, yeah, that failed test subject, that’s me! Sorry I failed to mention that this facility is where I spent the first 4-5 years of my life. Oopsy daisy!”?! Yeah, no, this was way too far into this stuff for that kind of response to this.
“Henderson…is this you?’, Nancy asked, emphasizing each word, making her question that much more daunting.
“...Yeah…”, Dustin mumbled.
There was a beat of silence between them, which Dustin hated.
“Why didn’t you tell us? Have you told anyone about this?”, Nancy started questioning.
“I haven’t told anybody, okay, and I just…look at the file Nancy, see the big F on it? That means no superpowers, so why would this be important?”, Dustin pointed out.
“Because, being a part of a government experiment and being on death row at age 4 is important information, superpowers on not!”, Nancy argued back, “It could give El someone to bond with over everything because we all know she needs it. And, having your mother as a resource could have really helped in taking down the lab.”.
“She couldn’t have helped, she’s under an NDA.”, Dustin mumbled.
“How do you even know any of this, according to this file you weren’t even in kindergarten when this happened.”, Nancy changed the subject.
“I don’t know…honestly, I don’t know how I remember this stuff. Maybe it was all those memory tests they put us through for, like, preparation for psychic powers. Or just traumatic memories being clearer, it doesn’t matter.”, Dustin dismissed.
“Dustin…”, Nancy said, causing him to halt, she used his first name…that wasn’t normal.
“Yes?”, Dustin asked tentatively, unsure where this was going.
“I still don’t get it…why didn’t you tell us about this?”, Nancy asked, she didn’t even seem mad, just confused.
“Well…I don’t have cool powers like El or the others. I’m not even really supposed to be alive, I’m just kinda a fluke so…I was going to tell you guys after the first incident but…I just never ended up bringing it up and the next thing I knew it had been a year so.”, Dustin admitted.
Nancy paused before picking up the file again, “Well, better now than never, huh Henderson?”.
“Wait what?”, Dustin asked as Nancy pushed past him and out of the door, “Where are you going?!”.
“To find the others. You said you were going to tell us, right? So, you’re telling us now.”, Nancy said simply, unfazed by Dustin frantically trailing behind her.
“Nooooooo no no no, please, Mike is going to kill me for keeping this a secret for so long!”, Dustin whined anxiously as he attempted to keep up with her fast-paced stride.
“Too bad, this is what you get for not telling us sooner.”, Nancy said as they reached the other hallway, “HEY HOPPER, WE FOUND SOMETHING IMPORTANT!”.
Dustin made various incoherent noises of distress as Hopper, El, and Mike found where they were.
“What’s going on? And why is Dustin all panicky?”, Mike asked.
“Well, do you want to tell them yourself, or should I?”, Nancy asked Dustin.
Now all eyes were on him, and he hated it, he just looked at Nancy practically begging her not to do anything.
“Alright then, I’ll say it.”, Nancy said, opening the file and starting to read aloud.
“Subject designation, 009-F. Participant Counterpart, Claudia Henderson. Current Status, Alive, no longer held inside the facility, to be regarded as a normal citizen. Abilities, None. Additional Medical Conditions, Cleidocranial Dysplasia.”
Everyone seemed to just stand there for a moment. Dustin knew exactly what was going through their heads. Hopper was wondering if Dustin had a secret sibling he wasn’t aware of, Eleven had no idea what Nancy was insinuating…and Mike knew exactly what was going on.
“WHAT THE F*CK?!”