{The Upside Down, Part IV}

Alice didn't trust Dr. Owens, not for a second.

Sure, he gave her a serum to stop her body temperature from getting any hotter, and he believed her when she babbled about the Demogorgon, but he was from Hawkins Lab—the bad place Eleven had escaped from.

"Are you going to take me away?" Alice asked bitterly a few hours after her episode. Dr. Owens and two of his nurses were running some blood tests, but Alice wanted nothing more than to just go home.

"Take you where?"

"To live in the Lab. Torture me, like you did to Eleven."

Dr. Owens wrote a few notes on his clipboard and ushered the nurses out with the vials of Alice's blood to test.

"I know you don't like us very much, Miss Henderson," Dr. Owens said calmly, "but I'm not like the people who were running Hawkins Lab before. We're a whole new staff, and we plan to do things a little differently."

Alice jutted out her chin defiantly.

"How am I supposed to trust you?" she said.

Dr. Owens sat in a chair next to her hospital bed and pulled a folder out of his medical bag. 

"I don't know if you'll ever be able to trust me, Miss Henderson," he admitted. "But I do hope you'll give me a chance. I need to ask a few questions."

Alice stared straight ahead.

"I'll take that as permission to start asking," Dr. Owens quipped. "When did you realize you had these healing abilities?"

Silence.

"Alice, please. Answer the question. We're trying to help you."

"A few days ago. I burned my hand and it healed almost immediately."

Dr. Owens nodded, adding more notes to his folder on Alice.

"What is the extent of your power?" he pressed. "Can you heal others, or just yourself?"

Alice fidgeted with the corner of her blanket.

"Others too," she said. "I think I've always been able to do it, I just...didn't realize."

"Do you know the identity of your birth mother?"

Alice gripped the edges of the blanket.

"Wait," she asked, "do you know who my mom is?"

"We have some theories," Dr. Owens said. "I take it you don't?"

Alice shook her head.

Dr. Owens wrote a few more notes and closed the folder. He tucked it away and unclipped something from his clipboard.

"Here is your confidentiality agreement," Dr. Owens said, standing from his chair. "Sign this to ensure us you won't tell anyone about what happened in Hawkins this month—that includes the nature of Will's disappearance, the passing of Barb Holland, Subject 011, and your own abilities."

He paused as Alice flipped through the pages.

"It also says," he continued, "that you'll agree to come into Hawkins Lab twice a week for the foreseeable future so we can run some more tests—"

"You want to turn me into a lab rat?" Alice exploded, slamming the folder shut. "No fucking way!"

"Miss Henderson—"

"I'm not a science experiment, I'm a person. I have a life—I have school! I'm not going to be a test subject!"

"Alice," Dr. Owens said, "the reason you fell into a comatose state is because you overused your abilities. You don't understand them, and neither do we. We want to observe you for the time being and help you learn how to control them. Please, it's in your best interest—"

The door burst open. Behind a half-deflated smiley-face balloon was none other than Steve Harrington.

"Shit, sorry," Steve said. "I didn't realize—I don't usually burst into rooms like that—"

"Come in, son," Dr. Owens said, smiling kindly. "Miss Henderson and I were just finishing up."

He gave her a pointed look and gestured to the contract.

"I do hope you'll sign that," the doctor said quietly. "Give me a call anytime if you have questions. Talk soon." 

He patted her on the shoulder and left.

"Sorry again to interrupt," Steve stammered. "I didn't mean to—"

Alice cut him off by running across the room and hugging him tight.

"Oh!" Steve said, hugging her back. "This is nice."

"Thank you," Alice said. "If that guy was here for another second, I would've lost it."

"Of course," Steve said. He pulled away and handed her the balloon. "Uh, this is for you. Sorry that it's kind of flat, I was in a rush at the gift shop because I came straight from basketball practice—"

"How did you know I was up?" Alice asked, furrowing her brow.

"Dustin called Nancy, who told me," Steve explained. "She's on her way—I think she and Jonathan were waiting for Maria and Samuel so they could all come up and see you. I didn't want to wait."

Alice awkwardly shuffled from one foot to the other. "Oh, cool." She cleared her throat. "Thanks for the balloon—and thanks for coming around. I haven't had much time to catch up with my family, but Dustin says you were here a lot."

Steve rubbed the back of his neck.

"Yeah, no problem," Steve said. "I kinda—I guess I kinda felt guilty."

"Guilty?"

"Yeah...like you were in the coma because of me. Because, you know, you did that—thing—with your hands and the glowy stuff because I couldn't stop the creature."

"Steve, if you hadn't quite literally swung in, we would all be dead!" Alice said, touching his arm. "Don't feel bad about that when you don't need to."

Before Steve could respond, a knock at the door startled them. It opened, and one of Dr. Owens' nurses peeked in.

"Sorry to interrupt," she said, "but we have some test results to discuss with you and your mother. All visitors out, please."

Steve didn't realize that meant him at first. After a beat, his eyes widened.

"Oh, right," he said. "I'll just—I'll just go."

Why was he acting so strange? Alice wondered. She didn't think anything else of it, however, and just gave him a quick hug goodbye, wanting to get her next meeting with Dr. Owens' people over with as soon as humanly possible.

❄️ ❄️ ❄️

Alice pulled her jacket sleeve farther down her arm, ignoring the bright yellow "Fall Risk" bracelet still adorning her wrist.

It was Christmas Eve. After a few weeks of observation in the hospital and a few weeks at Hawkins Lab, Alice could finally be back home full-time. She wanted to celebrate her return to normalcy with a bike ride in the snow, but her mother forbade it.

"You'll catch your death!" she said with a huff. "Now, kids, help me set the table."

Alice obliged, wondering if it was shitty to pretend to feel woozy to get out of chores. She decided it was, but that didn't keep her from planning to use that excuse on trash day.

Dustin had just been dropped off by Mrs. Wheeler after spending most of the day playing D&D with his party. The boys were finally back to normal too, but they missed Eleven a lot—except for Will, who only met her once in the void.

"Hey, Al," Dustin asked as he arranged the plates. "What's the deal with Steve Harrington?"

"What do you mean, what's the deal?"

"I mean," Dustin said, "he won't stop asking about you. It's annoying."

Alice laughed while folding napkins.

"Yeah, he's got that effect," she joked.

"I'm just saying," Dustin continued, "if he wanted to know how you were doing, he could just call the house and ask you flat-out instead of cornering me at the Wheeler's house."

"I think it's sweet that Steve is worried about Alley-Cat," Mrs. Henderson said, bringing out the turkey. "He's a very nice boy, Alice."

Alice rolled her eyes.

"Okay, Mom."

The Hendersons sat down for Christmas dinner, thankful that they were all together—and healthy—again. However, Alice's troubles were far from over; she still didn't understand her abilities, and she still had to get check-ups at Hawkins lab and had zero clue who her birth mother was. But she was back with her family, and that was all that mattered. xx

{Edited July 9, 2020; Reposted November 6, 2024}

A/N [from 2019] End of book one! I'll be honest, I never thought I'd make it this far.

Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading! :)))

July 2020 Update: If you're reading this, you are wonderful and amazing! :)

November 2024 A/N: Happy Stranger Things Day! Randomly choosing to reupload the rest of the Part One chapters on Wednesdays and Saturdays worked out. Eat an Eggo waffle today and think of Alice and the whole Hawkins crew.