𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓 : 2.8k

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𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐍'𝐒 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄 her way up the front steps of her house. She had dropped each of the kids off at their respective homes before returning Steve, and Billy's car, back to the Byers'. When Steve insisted on staying there to make sure the others made it back safely, Owen didn't fight him on it too much; she wanted to make sure Gordon knew she was alright before he headed back to Purdue that night. So, she just decided to walk the short distance between the Byers' house and her own, the freezing air stinging against her cheeks.

To anyone else, Gordon and Law's excitement upon seeing her in the threshold of the front door would seem abnormal. But Owen was all too familiar with the thrill of seeing your loved ones alive when you believed that there was a chance they weren't. Gordon and Law leapt from the couch to pull her into their second group hug of the night, unbothered by the chill billowing into the living room from around her. Owen tiredly giggled against their shoulders, not sure if she would ever be welcomed back home so ceremoniously again.

Once she finally pulled away, she glanced over their shoulders, making sure nobody else had seen her arrive. She needed time to prepare a story about why she went to the movies with her "boyfriend" and came back with bruises and cuts all over her face. 

"What the hell happened?" Gordon hissed, examining her closely.

"The lights got all weird here at the house. Is everything okay?" Law asked, speaking just above a whisper. 

Without answering either of their questions, Owen grabbed them by their hands and dragged them down the thankfully desolate hallway and into her room. She could hear giggling behind the closed door of her father's bedroom and the shower running, creating the perfect, undoubtedly lucky storm that allowed her to sneak into her own house.

After tossing the boys inside of her room, Owen softly closed the door behind her and spun to press her back against it. When she was facing them again, the first thing she saw were the impatient expressions that Gordon and Law were both wearing, desperate to hear what had happened while she was gone.

She expelled a deep breath, her eyebrows scrunching slightly. "I don't even know where to begin," Owen confessed, gaze darting between her brothers. Gordon sighed dramatically. "Well, you'd better make it quick. Leo and I are heading back to Purdue once he's washed up," he warned with an urgency in his wide green eyes.

"Just start with wherever you went last Friday. I basically haven't even seen you since you left for work that day," Law reminded her. The corner of her lips twitched downward at the memory – her first escapade into the tunnels.

With that prompt, Owen launched into a speedy retelling of her weekend from hell. She watched as the boys' faces continuously shifted between surprise, scolding, amusement, and concern. With the time crunch, they both knew better than to ask questions, aware that they would get the most information by merely listening to her every word.

Owen rushed through the story, even going as far as taking minimal breaths just to make sure she could include as much of the tale as possible. Once she brought them into the present day, Gordon and Law were silent as they tried to process everything. But of course, after a moment's pondering, Law was the first to speak.

"Well, what happened to that document you stole?"

Then, it was Owen's turn to blink owlishly at him. The classified government document that she had folded and tucked into her bra this entire time. It was as if her brain had blocked it out in order to protect her from the terrifying truth.

"Oh... right," Owen said, shakily. Slowly, she reached a hand into the neck of her shirt, stretching the material as she pulled out the paper that had been pressed against her ribcage. She stared at it, unmoving as she tried to fully grasp what this document could mean, or better yet, how something with the potential to be life-altering could fit so easily in the palm of her hand.

"What do you think it is?" Gordon inquired, studying the look on her face more closely than the paper in front of them.

Owen shrugged timidly, lips screwing into a firm line. "I don't know. All I saw was the title of it. It said something about a test subject named, 000," she told them. Her free hand reached up, tugging her sleeve down her arm to reveal the tattoo she had from birth. "And not to be presumptuous, but the zeros looked a lot like my tattoo."

Law pulled in a quiet gasp, eyebrows shooting upwards. "Wait... so, you think you're-"

"I don't know," Owen interrupted, unprepared to hear it out loud just yet. "But I think this document will tell me if I am."

"Well, open it!" Law urged.

Her gaze lowered to the folded paper again, before looking back up at Gordon cautiously. As their eyes met, the reassuring nod that he gave her was one of the only things that gave her the strength to start unraveling the piece of paper. Owen knew that no matter what the document said, with her family and friends by her side, she would be able to figure it out. No matter what tricks her mind liked to play on her from time to time, she wasn't alone in this and she never would be. Owen scanned the paper upon being able to see it in its totality.

TEST SUBJECT 000

Just as she had seen in Dr. Owens' office. Her eyes continued further down the sheet.

FULL NAME: N/A

DOB: 09/18/1966 - 22:34

BIRTHPLACE: HAWKINS NATIONAL LABORATORY, HAWKINS, INDIANA

MOTHER: SOONHEE KIM — MK ULTRA (DECEASED)

FATHER: N/A

The next part was handwritten, like someone had added it in after the fact.

ABILITIES: GEOKINESIS, EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION, ENHANCED AGILITY

A bright red stamp, pressed into the corner of the paper read:

STATUS: PRESUMED DEAD

But the most chilling piece of information on the sheet was at the very bottom.

LAST SEEN: 06/05/1971

UPDATED: 11/04/1984

Owen could feel her heart in her throat, her hands trembling as she re-read the document over and over. Prior to that last line, she could have twisted everything she had recently learned about her past into a coincidence. Whether it be the photograph of her shaven head as a child, the experiment's Asian mother, the strangely familiar abilities, or the way her tattoo matched the zeros at the top of the page. Even the fact that the original Last Seen date was a mere four days before Owen was brought to a Social Services Department in Detroit could have been chalked up as a fluke in her mind.

However, what set everything in stone was the updated date on which Test Subject 000 had been seen. Even with all of the mental gymnastics she had been doing, Owen couldn't bring herself to call it a coincidence that this child experiment happened to be spotted on the exact same day she was at Hawkins Lab. She could see it in her mind's eye: Dr. Owens pulling this file back out and dusting it off after they met one another the night she and Hopper got pulled from the tunnels. The thought made her sick, now acutely aware that she was likely being watched by the sickos at Hawkins Lab.

With shaking hands, Owen refolded the paper and shoved it against Gordon's chest. Without a second thought, he reached up to take it from her, searching for some kind of explanation on her face. Their proximity allowed him to see the way tears welled in her dark eyes, telling him all he needed to know in that moment.

"What did it say?" Law pressed, still clueless. 

But with him, Owen had time to explain later. As for Gordon...

"You need to take that paper and get the hell out of here now. They're going to come looking for it soon, I'm sure. And I can't have it here, but I can't lose it either," Owen informed her older brother, voice cracking. "As far as I know, that's the only thing that proves I ever existed at Hawkins Lab and... I can't let them take that away from me."

Gordon nodded in swift understanding, his fingers tightening around the paper in his hand. Outwardly, he looked sure of himself, but the genuine fear was in his eyes. He had no idea what this meant for his sister's future, or their family's future at large. If that lab knew where and what she was now, they could turn their lives upside down and he didn't want to see that happen again.

"Please, just protect this for me, okay?" Owen begged with watery eyes.

Before he could assure her that he would protect this document with his life if necessary, banging from the other side of the door caused the three of them to jump. "Gordon! You in there, man? I think it's time we head back!" Owen reached up, swiping the palm of her hand against her tear-coated eye line.

"Uh... Sure! Sounds good! Be right out!" Gordon shouted out, peering at Owen warily before haphazardly shoving the document into his front pants pocket. "Go on, go," she coaxed him, opening her bedroom door and waving him out. But of course, just like every other run-in they had had in the past, Leo was standing right there when the door swung open.

"Oh! Uh... hey, Owen. I didn't know you were back," Leo smiled at her, the nervousness in his tone unusual amidst his typically cool demeanor.

Gordon slipped around him, saying something about grabbing his bag, and Law followed along, mumbling something about helping him with said bag. But Owen couldn't blame them for wanting to skip out on the awkwardness between her and Gordon's roommate. In fact, she barely even wanted to have that conversation herself.

Of course, it didn't take long for Leo's smile to drop upon seeing the blood and bruises painted across her face. But Owen was just as quick, intercepting his question when it was just a breath in his throat. "I'm fine, just so you know," she blurted. "I... tripped and fell right into one of the armrests at the movie theater."

Not one of her best lies, but to be fair, she was working on the fly.

"Right..." Leo trailed off with a cock of his head, smart enough to recognize a boldfaced lie and not to ask any further questions about it. Owen leaned her weight against the door, her eyebrows raising as if to question whether he was going to say anything else during their last meeting in this doorway.

Leo tucked his hand into the pocket of his jeans, rolling back onto his heels. "You gonna call me when I get back to Purdue?" Okay, so not smart enough to have picked up on the blatant hint she gave him earlier. Or perhaps he was a glutton for punishment. No matter the circumstance, Owen slumped at the thought of having to reject this man for the second time that evening.

Her lips twisted downwards before she shook her head slowly. "I don't think so, Leo," she admitted, woefully. Owen could literally watch the hopefulness drain from his face. "I just think we've both got our own shit we need to figure out right now, y'know?" Her mind flashed to the other night where he chose a joint over her, which left her unsure if that was the type of guy she was meant to be with.

His eyes dropped to the warped floorboards beneath them, giving her a nod. "I... I guess I get that," Leo stammered, still not sounding totally sure about the whole idea. Although she didn't say it, Owen just couldn't see the sense in drawing out something that clearly wasn't going to work. It just seemed better to leave it as it was: lacking in any real heartbreak or malice. But she hoped that maybe he would understand such a concept later when he looked back on their short-lived time together.

"But it was really nice to meet you, Leo," she murmured, inching the door shut. "Drive home safe, okay?"

He looked up at her through his eyelashes, his stare meeting hers through the cracked door. "Have a good night, Owen," he nodded with a half-there smile before she closed the door between them.

Owen fell backwards onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling as her mind raced. If it had been any normal day, she would have been beating herself up for turning away a guy like Leo. Even at that moment, some small part of her was pleading to run outside and make sure he hadn't left yet so that she could beg for forgiveness.

But she knew that Leo wasn't the boyfriend of her dreams, no matter how much she wanted him to be. And on the other side of things, she knew that she wasn't the girlfriend of his dreams, especially at this current moment in her life. Because, from what she had heard, dating someone required making time for them and your relationship.

However, Owen needed all the time she could get just to understand this new side of herself. Choosing anyone other than herself to focus on felt as though she was doing a disservice to that little girl she once was. After all, no one had been looking out for Owen when she was Test Subject 000. It felt like it was finally time to put together the pieces of everything she had lost.

Gentle tapping on the glass of her window broke through her thoughts. Her neck twisted, peeking at the window situated on the other side of her bed. The familiar set of eyes and mop of brown hair that poked over the top of the window sill caused her to bolt upright. Owen marched over and jostled the window open, allowing a gust of cold wind to blow into her bedroom.

"Steve? What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" she blurted, looking down at him where he stood amongst their overgrown bushes.

The corner of his lips tilted upwards in a lopsided grin, amused at her doting on him all of a sudden. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, Webb. Don't worry about me," Steve muttered, playfully waving a dismissive hand. "I just figured you and I would need our cars to get to school tomorrow."

Owen's eyes widened in realization. "Shit..." she breathed, brows furrowing. "Do you still have my-"

Steve lifted a hand, dangling her keys with the Betsy keychain in between them. "Got 'em." The sigh of relief Owen let out turned into vaporous wisps in the cold. "I was just hoping you would walk back to the cars with me. Not too sure how comfortable I am with either of us walking out there alone," he confessed.

Owen's eyes softened at the proposition. Still, she cast a thoughtful look over her shoulder, listening out for any sign of life from within her house. She could no longer hear her father and Diana's lovesick babblings through the wall and Law likely knew better than to barge into her room at a time like this.

"It shouldn't take too long," Steve attempted to assure her, but she was already pushing the window as far open as she could to sit on the creaky sill. "Watch out, Harrington. Unless you want a foot to the face," Owen smirked, swinging her legs over the ledge once he maneuvered out of the way.

Although, he hadn't stepped so far away that he couldn't offer a hand to help her down. Taking Steve's outstretched hand of assistance was second nature to her at that point. With her palm pressed firmly against his, Owen leapt the short distance onto the wilted grass beside him.

Yet, when she peered up at him, he wasn't looking down at her like she assumed he would be. No, instead he was looking into her bedroom as best he could, a teasing little smirk on his lips. "Cute poster," Steve pointed out with a waggle of his eyebrows, nodding in the direction of the Tom Cruise poster Owen had plastered on her wall.

She rolled her eyes, letting out an irritated noise at his pestering. But it was the way she sullenly yanked her hand from his that brought his attention back to her with a scandalized look on his face. "C'mon, Harrington. We've got school tomorrow. We can't be out all night," Owen sighed, wading through the prickly bushes.

"Have you done the assigned reading for English yet?" Steve pondered as he followed closely behind her. "Y'know... Weathering Heights or whatever."

Owen sighed dramatically, head lolling back against the leather jacket over her shoulders. "First of all, it's Wuthering Heights. With a U," she emphasized, spinning around to make pointed eye contact with him. "And second of all, do you really think I've had time to do the reading?"

A beat of silence hung in the air. "Right, sorry."