Chapter Text
Dustin handed his finished list to Steve who could already think of six more things to grab, they piled into Hopper’s truck and started the drive to the Byers house. It was quiet in the truck, some of the earlier tension lingering between them. Steve couldn’t handle any more silence so he reached over and turned on the radio. A song by Prince playing, Hopper furled his brows, “what is this?”
“Music.”
“This ain’t music” Hopper reached and changed the radio till he found a song he approved of.
“You don’t mess with Jim? Really?”
“This is real music, kid.”
“It’s totally not because it has your name in it” Steve said sarcastically.
“Of course not, why’d you think that?”
Steve rolled his eyes smiling, Hopper had a grin on his face as well. Steve looked back at Dustin who was laughing quietly. “What’s so funny Henderson?”
“You two are bickering. I never thought I’d see the day” Dustin said through laughs. Steve and Hopper shared a smile, they were both happy Dustin was laughing, especially after all the earlier tears. Steve still had worry behind his eyes, Hopper looked at the teenager and made a mental note to have a talk with him later.
The truck slowly pulled up to the Byers’ dirt driveway, they all got out as Joyce opened the front door, walking over with a kind smile.
“Hey Dustin, Will and El are excited that you're here, thanks for hanging out with us.” Joyce said in a maternal tone, she was being cautious to avoid anything that could set the boy off. Hopper had told her about the crying this morning and the breakdown from yesterday.
“Hi Miss Byers, thank you for having me”
“It’s no problem Dustin, you're welcome to come over anytime” Joyce smiled, walking the boy inside and making sure he got settled at the couch with Will and El before heading back outside. Her face immediately shifted to concern.
“You're sure about this Jim?”
“Positive, even if I weren’t I wouldn’t wanna take any chances. Me and Harrington are headed to the Henderson’s house to get the kid’s stuff, we’re gonna grab the box of his baby stuff too.”
“God I can’t even imagine what’s going on in his mind right now, Claudia always seemed like such a good mother,” She frowned, “Do we think he has abilities like El?”
“He wouldn’t have been in that lab if he didn’t. I don’t think the kid even knows he has them, I think it would be best to not mention it till we have everything more settled.” Hopper spoke, stepping closer to Joyce.
“I agree, are we telling the other kids about all this?”
“That’s up to Dustin but it would be good if we told the other teens, at least Johnathan”
“Why should Johnathan know? He and Dustin aren’t close, it should be Henderson’s decision” Steve spoke up to the defence of Dustin.
“He should know because he’s another adult in the house, if the worst case happens he will be able to protect the kids if we aren’t there”
“I’ll be there. I’ll protect them” Steve argued.
“You can’t always be around, a part of this is to try and remain as normal as possible, which means you can’t spend every waking moment with Dustin, no matter how much you want to.”
“Oh but Johnathan gets to?!” Steve retorts, jealousy thick in his tone.
“Johnathan lives here, Steve. We aren’t trying to replace you, we know that no one can replace your bond with him,” Joyce says in a kinder tone she usually uses for the younger kids. Steve can’t help but to take comfort in her words, she always held a motherly love in her voice, it makes Steve feel an empty pit in his chest.
“We should get going, do you want to say goodbye to Henderson first?” Hopper asks.
“Yeah,” Steve follows Joyce inside, he smiles at the sight of Dustin talking animatedly with Will and El about their latest campaign.
“And there were like twenty goblins that jumped out at us, luckily they were only level one,” Dustin says, using his arms to further the story, “level one means they're not too strong,” he explains to El, who looked a little confused but happy to be included. “I casted Cloud Of Daggers and got half of them to nearly three hit points!” Dustin explained excitedly. “And then- Steve!” Dustin had finally noticed Steve, he got up from the couch rushing over to the teen.
“Heya Henderson,” he smiled, even if he had no clue what Dustin was talking about, he was happy to see him so excited. “Me and the chief are gonna head up now, we’ll be back after lunch”
“Oh…” Dustin didn’t want Steve to leave, he felt safer knowing he was there, a small frown appeared on his face.
“Hey, hey, we’ll be back before you know it, then you can explain all that magic stuff you were talking about. What is it, D and M? D and P?”
“DnD!” Dustin rolled his eyes.
“Oh like that makes more sense then what I said,” Steve smiled again and pulled the kid into a hug, “I’ll be back before you know it,” he whispered into his kid’s hair, “you be good for miss Byers.” Dustin nodded then reluctantly stepped back.
“Oh! I forgot to add my school bag to the list, can you grab it? I have to finish my English assignment.”
“Of course, nerd” Steve smiled ruffling his hair a bit.
“Thanks Steve, oh and can you feed Yurtle?”
“Yes I’ll feed your turtle you just had to name Yurtle” Steve rolled his eyes.
“Bye Steve”
“Goodbye Henderson” Steve patted Dustin on the shoulder before leaving for Hopper’s truck.
Dustin frowned as he watched Steve leave, he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Joyce smiling kindly at him. “Why don’t you and the other kids watch some tv while I start on lunch?”
“Ok…” Dustin walked back to the couch, sitting down with Will right beside him and El beside Will. Dustin couldn’t feel the same excitement he once held, he was nervous to be away from Steve, he was scared to tell Will and especially El about what had happened, what if they didn’t believe him or worse they did and thought he was weird now. Then again no one thought El was weird, but she had powers, she was awesome and a literal superhero, he wasn’t.
“Hey Dustin, do you wanna pick out the channel?” Will offered nicely, he could tell something was going on, Dustin seemed off, he knew his mom knew something about it but unfortunately she wouldn’t tell him.
“You and El can choose it, I don’t care”
Will frowned but put on a channel playing Ghostbusters. The kids watched it quietly for a while, Dustin quietly explaining the plot to El when she didn’t understand. They sat there till Joyce left to start on lunch, then Will turned to Dustin, “what happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“My mom gets a call from Hopper at six in the morning then suddenly you show up here with him and Steve? You're acting like something's wrong.”
“You seem like a ghost is following you” El agreed, a little unsure about her analogy.
“It’s…” Dustin sighed, he wanted to tell them he did but he wasn’t sure how, “your right, something happened, something big, like code red big but I don’t know how to explain it…”
Will was worried now, code reds were a big deal, “you don’t have to tell us now, you could tell the whole party when we’re at mike’s this evening”
“I don’t think I’m gonna be able to go to Mike’s”
“What? You’ve never missed a meeting, remember the time you came while you had the flu?”
“I know… it’s not my choice to skip it… Hopper won’t let me.”
“Hopper won’t let you?” El spoke up, she was confused, Hopper let her go to the meetings even though she was supposed to still be in hiding.
“He said it isn’t safe, that I have to stay here or at his cabin, it’s bullshit”
“Mike’s house is totally safe, why wouldn’t he let you go? Besides, why is he making you stay at my house? Shouldn’t you be at home with your mom?”
Well there’s no time like now to say it, Dustin thought. “She isn’t my mom… that’s why I’m here and that’s why everyone is acting so weird.”
“What?! Your mom isn’t your mom? Are you like adopted or something?”
“More like taken… I found some of my old baby stuff and there was this photo album, turns out she worked with Doctor Brenner when I was a baby.”
“Papa…” El spoke, suddenly serious.
“Yeah papa, there was a photo of her and a bunch of kids with shaved heads like yours when we first found you. There was another photo of Brenner holding me as a baby, I thought it was just that my mom had brought me to work but I found a hospital bracelet. It was for a baby named Thirteen that my mom was the nurse for… the baby was born on my birthday exactly except that it was born two years after I was. I think… Hopper thinks that that bracelet was actually mine…”
“What? What do you mean? You're not eleven, you're thirteen, the bracelet can’t be yours.” Will couldn’t believe it, “it must just be a coincidence, just like your mom working for Brenner-“
“No.” El spoke, looking at Dustin with a new light, “I remember Thirteen, he was with us in the rainbow room when he was little, he disappeared one night, we all thought that Papa had gotten rid of him, he cried a lot whenever the nice nurse wasn’t there, she disappeared when he did.”
“Are you saying that Dustin is Thirteen?”
“Yes.”
Will glanced at Dustin’s wrist, the wrist where El had her tattoo, it was blank. “Papa put them on when we turned four, Thirteen left when he was three, no numbers yet. The little ones had their names on their shirts.” El spoke, her eyes hadn’t left Dustin, she couldn’t believe that she had found another one of her siblings.
“El that’s all probably a coincidence, if Dustin was Thirteen wouldn’t he have powers like you do?”
“Babies don’t have powers yet, we had to train with Papa to use them,” El got up going in front of Dustin, “may I check?”
“Check what?” Dustin looked up at El, he himself didn’t really believe that he was Thirteen.
“Memory. I can see if you were in Rainbow room,” El held her hand outstretched towards Dustin, letting him choose if he wanted to hold hers. Dustin looked conflicted, he wanted to know but at the same time he didn’t want to deal with what it meant if it was true. Dustin couldn’t let any question go unanswered so he took El’s hand.
El smiled at him, then turned to Will, “tv static please and my blindfold”
Will glanced at Dustin worried then nodded and got up, he turned the tv to static and grabbed a cloth, gently tying it over El’s eyes. He sat back down on the couch watching as El used her powers.
Dustin closed his eyes when El did, he felt something shift around him, he tried to squeeze his eyes shut but something was nagging at him to open them so he did. The world around him had changed, he was in an empty black void, there was water under his feet, he was standing still holding El’s hand, she was standing in front of him with a smile.
“What is this place?”
“It is where I go when I use my powers, only Kali has followed me here before, keep a hold on my hand, memories can be tricky to get to.”
Dustin held tighter onto her hand, he watched as everything shifted again, they were in the room from the pictures, a white sterile room with rainbows painted on the walls, toys were spread all throughout. Standing in front of them was his mother, she looked young, she was in a nurses uniform talking with Doctor Brenner, El held his hand tighter at the sight of him. The doors opened and a large group of children walked in, they were all different ages, all dressed in a white uniform with shaved heads, some of the younger ones had numbers sewn onto their shirts in blue string. A young girl who looked about five was standing in the line of them, she looked familiar.
“That is me,” El said, noticing his gaze on the girl, she pointed at a toddler with Thirteen stitched onto his shirt, “and that is you.”
Dustin froze, the toddler unmistakably looked like him, he slowly walked towards the boy, he looked at the back of his neck where there was a small pinkish birthmark that kind of looked like a cloud. Dustin put his free hand to the back of his neck where he knew the same birthmark was. His whole world seemed to internally shatter.
El held tighter onto his hand as the memory changed, they were in a bedroom full of cribs and toddler beds, Thirteen, Dustin, was asleep in one of them. The door opened and Claudia walked in, she looked guilty, she sneaked over to the bed labeled thirteen, she stood there for a second watching the boy sleep before gently picking him up wrapping him in a blue starry blanket. She quickly left the room and Dustin wanted to follow but El didn’t move.
“You cannot go with her, your memory ends here”
“But she’s holding me, shouldn’t my memory continue?”
“No, you were asleep, memory isn’t made while you sleep.”
The room faded back to the black void, Dustin looked at El. “So I… I am Thirteen… can we go back further, can we find out who my real parents are?”
“I’m afraid you don’t remember them…”
“Then how can I find them? How did you find your mom?”
“I had a photo, I believe we should go back to Will now, it will be easier if you close your eyes first.”
Dustin didn’t want to go, he wanted to know more, he wanted to know why his mom had taken him, why Brenner had him in the first place, but as everything started to blur and spin he shut his eyes tightly.
When he opened them again he was back in the Byer’s living room, he looked at El who was wiping the blood from her nose. Will sat there in shock, staring at El expectantly.
“Dustin is Thirteen, his memory confirms it.” El spoke, folding up the piece of cloth she had used, she looked at Dustin with a smile, “I am glad that you are here, brother.”
On the other side of town Hopper and Steve were pulling up to the Henderson house. Hopper parked the truck and got out, Steve following him as they walked up to the door. Hopper grabbed a rock ready to smash the lock off but Steve quickly stopped him.
“Whoa whoa no breaking and entering is needed,” Steve pulled a key out from his pocket, “Claudia gave me a copy of the key forever ago,” he spoke as he unlocked the door, “we’re just entering, no breaking necessary, it’s not still illegal is it?”
“It’s still trespassing and since we’re gonna be taking Dustin’s things it’s burglary,” Hopper answered lightly.
“You're not gonna book me for this are you?” Steve joked as he walked toward Dustin’s room.
“Oh I might, I’ll save it for when you have your next rowdy party that I have to get out of bed to break up,” Hopper joked back, following Steve towards Dustin's bedroom.
“Don’t worry I won’t have time to throw any party with a kid around” Steve stopped in the hallway just before Dustin’s room, “the hatch to the attic is right here, you just gotta pull the string and hope no dust fall in your hair”
Hopper nods, opening the hatch and ascending up into the attic.
Steve walks into Dustin’s room, noticing with a smile that it looks like it had been recently cleaned, “glad the kid actually listened to me,” he mumbled to himself proudly as he started collecting all of the things on Dustin’s list. He made sure to grab extra batteries for the kid’s radio and took extra care when he packed his brown teddy bear Dustin swore he didn’t still sleep with. Steve grabbed a few extra things he knew Dustin would need and then fed Yurtle, giving the turtle a few treats to make up for his owner’s absence. He would’ve taken the turtle too if Dustin was staying at his place, but he didn’t think that Hopper or Joyce would appreciate the new addition. Steve smiled at the photo of Dustin and him Claudia had taken just before the Snow Ball dance, their matching hairstyles had made Claudia insist on a photoshoot, she said they were just sooo cute and sweet she just had to get a picture. Steve packed the photo too, he felt a little bad about taking it from Claudia but then again she didn’t deserve to have any pictures of Dustin after what she did, she didn’t deserve Dustin.
Hopper looked around the dusty attic, he immediately spotted the box Dustin had spoken about, the photo album laid open on the floor in front of it. He squatted down looking at the photo, rage immediately filled his veins as he saw Brenner holding a baby who had to be Dustin. He flipped through more photos, all of them were in the rainbow room El had described to him, there were even a few pictures that had a little tiny El in them, he felt no guilt in putting the one where she was holding baby Dustin in his wallet.
Hopper packed the box back up, then stood looking around the attic a bit, he noticed a filing cabinet that was half covered by an old sheet, he walked over to it pulling the sheet off, opening the drawers. The first drawer was completely empty but the second drawer held a few flies. He opened them and a deep frown set on his lips, they were all of Dustin’s documents from when he was in the lab, there looked to be about three years of them, starting from before Dustin was even born.
Dustin’s birth mother had been a teen runaway desperate for money, Brenner had promised her a large amount in exchange for her living in the lab in the last term of her pregnancy and for her baby. She had left as soon as Dustin was born, leaving Claudia to act as a midwife. Hopper’s grip on the file tightened as he read about how Brenner thought Dustin was a failure because of his Cleidocranial Dysplasia, how Brenner had considered “getting rid” of Dustin, Hopper was already gonna kill Brenner for how he treated El, now he was gonna make sure it was slow and painful.
Hopper read on, finding a journal kept by Claudia, a daily log about Dustin’s growth written down in her neat handwriting, she wrote about how despite his genetic disorder Dustin was progressing well and was on the path to becoming a strong and energetic toddler. Hopper saw another entry written by someone with the signoff of Henry, they wrote about how Dustin had a noteworthy potential for very strong and useful powers and how they’d like to work one on one with the boy once those powers were unlocked. Hopper felt a chill run down his spine, he knew that Dustin being in that lab meant he had powers but to see it confirmed was something else. He could barely manage one child with abilities let alone two.
Hopper packed the files into the box then picked it up and carried it downstairs, he nearly bumped into Steve who was also holding a box. “Find everything the kid needs?”
“Yep, though he could probably use some more clothes, I swear this kid has like two outfits, did you find the stuff?” Steve spoke, juggling the box in his arms, what it was heavy.
“I did.” Hopper spoke solemnly, “we can talk more about it when Joyce and I go through it.”
“Um we won’t have to talk about it because I’ll be there when you go through it”
“No, Steve you won’t. From what I’ve read already there’s things in here I don’t want you to read. That’s that Harrington, end of discussion, you may be Dustin’s friend but you are still a teenager, this is an adults only thing.” Hopper quickly shot down that idea, there was no way he was letting an eighteen year old kid read those files.
“Hopper I hope you know that’s utter bullshit! I don’t wanna read it because I’m curious. I want to read it so I can protect Henderson!” Steve was incredibly annoyed that he was treated like one of the little kids. “So I can help him, he turns to me for help,” Steve said a little proudly, he was glad the kid went to him over everyone else, “I need to know what I’ll have to help with.”
Hopper took in a deep breath trying to keep himself from yelling at Steve, “look kid I understand, you feel responsible for Dustin, you wanna do anything you can to help him but you can’t do this. I won’t let you. I’m sorry if that annoys you or pisses you off but I don’t care, I am already going against what I want by even talking to you about it afterwards, and that’s only because I respect you and understand that you're like that kid’s father. You need to trust that me and Joyce have got this, we aren’t gonna let anything happen to your kid, I swear. This whole situation only works if you trust us.”
Steve froze, he couldn’t help but to feel happy that hopper referred to Dustin as his kid, despite this happiness Steve was still enraged, “you think you just get to walk in here and take this whole thing over? You wouldn’t even know about this if I hadn’t called you, you know why? Because Henderson came to me, not you, me. He ran to my house, not yours. I get to be involved because I say I do, you don’t get to decide what I know or don’t know about him,” Steve almost yelled, “You're already taking him away… I can't handle being in the dark about this too,” Steve felt tears rolling down his cheeks, he was so worried about all this, he couldn’t push it down any longer.
“hey… hey” Hopper frowned, setting his box down and gently taking Steve’s box, setting it down next to his before wrapping an arm around Steve’s shoulders, “I know this is hard, I know it’s not fair, and I know all this worry is eating up at you. It’s ok to cry, you told that to Henderson and it applies to you too. Let it all out, you're not alone in this kid, let me carry some of the weight.”
Steve let himself lean into Hopper’s embrace.
“Listen, I’m sorry that it seems like I’m taking Dustin, but I promise I’m not, I’m not trying to take him away from you, I understand that it feels that way. I promise to you, Steve, I will never stop you from seeing the kid, I will never come in between you two unless it is absolutely necessary for his or your safety. I will do my best to not leave you in the dark about things. Steve, listen to me, you're doing a good job with him, you’ve kept him safe when I wasn’t there and I thank you for that, it’s not your responsibility to protect these kids and yet you do, you're a good man Steve, I’m proud of you.” Hopper spoke quietly, keeping a hold of the teen.
Steve broke at those words, turning and hugging Hopper, no adult had ever said that to him, his own father hadn’t even spoken to him since he was fourteen. Steve felt Hopper return the hug, they stood there for a moment then both let go, Hopper ruffling his precious hair before he stepped back and picked his box back up. Steve did the same and they walked back to Hopper’s truck in a comfortable silence.
The drive back to the Byers house was mostly quiet, there were a few jokes here and there and a little bickering over the radio again but it was good. Steve hopped out of the truck almost as soon as it stopped, he was anxious to see Dustin again, they left the boxes in the truck and walked into the house. Hopper went off to find Joyce while Steve looked around for Dustin, when he couldn’t immediately spot him he panicked, looking around frantically till he spotted Will walking into his room with a plate of food and a cup of juice.
He walked after Will making sure to announce himself before entering the bedroom, his vision zeroed in on Dustin, who was curled up on the bed looking like he was anywhere but here. Steve frowned looking at Will who looked like he had no clue what to do.
“He didn’t eat lunch… I thought maybe he would eat it now?” Will spoke sadly.
“Thanks kid” Steve sat on the bed next to Dustin and El, he pulled Dustin into a hug, holding the boy close, “heya Henderson, I’m back.”
Steve's heart plummeted as he got no response, he looked at Will for an explanation who looked at El.
“Dustin got upset after he found out he really is my brother, Thirteen.” El spoke, her hand still resting on Dustin’s arm.
If looks could kill Will and El would be very dead right now.