Archive of Our Own

1. 011

Though it is not actually the first name she is given, it’s the first one she remembers. It is the only one she goes by for the first twelve years of her life. It is the one branded into her skin.

She is one of many others just like her, all numbered from 002 to 017. It is mostly Papa who refers to them by their numbers, as most of the lab orderlies do not bother speaking to them, and do not acknowledge their presence as they drag them down the long corridors.

Only one of the orderlies actually says her number when speaking to her, and it always leaves her feeling a little disoriented and fearful. Papa doesn’t like it when the orderly talks to her.

Sometimes Papa enters a room and requests a number to step forward for their private lessons, and looks expectantly at the wrong child.  He always looks right at her when he calls her name. 

      2. Eleven

It is many years later she hears her name said by someone other than Papa. The word is exactly the same, but coming from the large man who gives her a clean t-shirt and hot food, it sounds completely different. He introduces himself as Benny, and then notices the small tattoo on her wrist. She snatches her wrist away, but she knows he has seen it, and for some reason he looks upset. 

“Eleven?” He asks. “What does that mean?”

He says it with some hesitancy and confusion, but laced within his voice there is a soothing comfort.  When she doesn’t answer him, he goes to take her food away. She is desperate, so points one of her tiny fingers to herself. 

“Eleven.”

Benny looks at her for a moment, and then nods. He gives her back her food, and later even gives her an entire tub of strawberry ice-cream and watches the bewilderment on her face as she tries it for the very first time. He smiles at her, and she mimics it, and it seems to make Benny happy. She decides she likes him.

He is dead less than a minute later. 

         3. El

This time, she knows what to do when the boy from the woods says, “Hey, um, I never asked you your name.” 

She pulls up the sleeve of the soft, dry jumper she’s wearing - his jumper - to reveal the tattoo on her wrist. 

“Is that real?!” He asks, incredulous, and reaches out to touch her wrist, but she flinches back from him. Whenever she looks at the tattoo, she can feel the phantom sting of the needle as Papa marked her. 

He winches, his face falling, and he looks at her bashfully. A blush creeps across his freckled cheeks. 

“Sorry.” His voice is much softer now, a sheepish smile on his mouth. “I’ve just never seen a kid with a tattoo before. What’s it mean? Eleven?”

She repeats the gesture she gave to Benny, silently pointing to herself. 

The boy’s eyebrows furrow. “That’s your name?”

She nods, and looks towards the floor. Even the way this boy says it is different to the way Papa used to say it. 

 “Eleven.” He repeats. “Okay, um. Well, my name’s Mike. Short for Michael.” 

She absorbs this, assigning the name to him. Mike.  

A small smile appears on his face as he suggests, “Maybe we can call you El. Short for Eleven.” 

El.

She has never thought about having a different name before, didn’t know that was a possibility. She likes it. 

She nods, and Mike nods back. “Um, well, okay.” He says quietly. “Night, El.”

He stands, and grabs the top of the blanket fort, ready to cover her when she speaks. 

“Night, Mike.”

Inside the blanket fort, she listens as Mike’s footsteps ascend the stairs and leave the basement. She curls up into herself, trembling, and eventually, sleep takes her. The last thought she has before drifting off is El, short for Eleven.

           4. Eleanor 

The man with the moustache asks her what her name is, and just as she begins to tell him, Mike cuts in. 

“Eleanor!” He says. “She’s my, uh-”

“Cousin!” Lucas adds.

“Second cousin!” Dustin joins in.

Mike nods. “She’s here for Will’s funeral.” 

The man looks at them oddly, but he smiles nonetheless. “Ah, well, welcome to Hawkins Middle, Eleanor. I wish you were here under better circumstances.” 

She glances towards the three boys, who give her encouraging looks.  

“Thank you.” She says, unsure, but everyone seems relieved with what she said.

The man asks, “Where are you from, exactly?”

She feels Mike’s, Lucas’s and Dustin’s eyes dart to her. She doesn’t know how to answer that one, so she goes with the truth. 

“Bad place-” 

“Sweden!” Dustin interjects, with Mike fast behind him. “I have a lot of Swedish family!”

“She hates it there.” 

“Cold!”

“Subzero!”

The man looks at each of them, but decides to drop it. He escorts them into the school assembly. Once seated, her mind drifts back to the conversation they had had in the hallway. 

Eleanor. 

She imagines a world where she goes by El, short for Eleanor instead of Eleven. Eleanor would go to school with Mike, Dustin, and Lucas. And Will. Eleanor would get to eat Eggos each morning, and sleep in the comfy blanket fort in Mike’s basement. 

Eleanor would get to wear pretty dresses and have long blonde hair. Eleanor would be safe. 

         5. Jane Ives 

Most of the papers she finds in the Hawkins Lab box under Hopper’s cabin end up thrown across the floor she had just spent hours sweeping. Hopper had made her spend three hours practising her reading and writing every day since she started living with him, so she understood most of what she was reading, but she wasn’t yet familiar with words like conspiracy or MKUltra. 

She picks up a red file from near the bottom of the box, noticing it is significantly heavier than the others. She recognises Hopper’s handwriting on the front. 

“Ives.” She sounds out slowly. “Terry.”

She opens up the file to more papers about the lab, but something about these makes her concentrate harder than before. She wants to understand what they say, why Hopper kept them separate from the rest. 

First, she notices a photograph of a pretty young woman. The words around it report that the woman’s baby, Jane, had been taken. The woman looks familiar. 

She isn’t sure why, but this distresses her. Her chest feels tight. 

“Jane.” She says aloud. 

She reads on, noticing that there is another image hidden. She moves the clipping in front of it, revealing a photograph that makes her breath catch in her throat. At first, all she sees is the face of a man she knows very well. 

“Papa.” 

She traces her finger across the photograph to the other person. It is the same pretty young woman from before. Terry Ives. 

She looks up at the TV, and remembers the fight she had with Hopper the night before. A sour feeling churns in her stomach. Why did Hopper keep all these papers from the lab? What did they mean? She’s determined to find out. 

Her eyes drift to the small radio on the shelf. It will do. She tunes it until the frequency is off-kilter and the static buzzes through. She ties the blindfold tight across her eyes. She visits Mike every night this way, no longer needing an aid to seek him, only to think of him. It is much harder seeking this woman she doesn’t know, and it takes a while for the void to encompass her. 

Once there, she sees a woman in a chair facing away from her, muttering something under her breath. She slowly creeps forward until she is facing the woman.  She can hear what she is saying now. 

"Breathe. Sunflower. Three to the right, four to the left. 450. Rainbow.”

She feels the tightness in her chest creep upwards towards her throat. She doesn’t understand what the words the woman keeps repeating mean. She takes a step closer.

The woman’s - Terry’s - eyes are closed, but are moving uncontrollably fast underneath her eyelids until suddenly, they fly open, looking right at her. 

She wants to look away but can’t. Terry’s eyes become clear, and she looks happy to see her. 

“Jane.”  She says it like she has been waiting a very long time to say it, like it’s been on the tip of her tongue. She sounds relieved. 

It takes her a moment to realise Terry is talking to her, is calling her Jane. Her throat closes completely as it dawns on her that if the man in the photograph is Papa, then this is… 

“Mama.” She chokes. 

Hopper had lied to her when he told her she didn’t have a mother. Her mother was right here, in the void. She steps closer, reaching to hold her mother’s hand when the vision before her fades. 

“Mama!” She yells desperately, needing for her to come back. To help her understand. She reaches out once more to where Terry had been, but all is left is wisps of the vision. 

The tears start to fall. “Mama?” She tries again, her voice cracking. 

She drops to her knees in the void, sobbing. She begs for her Mama to come back, but she never appears. 

She rips the blindfold from her face, once again in Hopper’s cabin. She feels her tears mix with the blood from her nose. She weeps, asking for her mother, but knowing she is not coming.

Hours later, the tears have dried, and she has not yet moved. She thinks back to how her mother had instantly recognised her, despite having not seen her for many years. 

Jane. She thinks. I am baby Jane. I am Jane Ives. 

She waits for something to happen, for something to click, but all she feels is a suffocating sadness. 

     6. El Hopper

She notices that Hopper is fidgeting more than usual when he returns from his shift that night. When he first came in, he had been carrying a bag and when she had asked what it was, he had clearly pretended like he hadn’t heard her. He’d also suggested they have a Eggo triple decker extravaganza tonight, which usually meant he had done something wrong. She prepared herself for disappointment. 

He slides into the chair across from her, holding the dictionary they use together everyday. “Today’s word of the day is deserving.” 

She raises an eyebrow at him. “Deserving?”

“Yeah. Deserving. Defined as worthy of being treated in a particular way .” Hopper reads from the dictionary. “You are worthy of being treated with love, kindness and respect, kid. You know that, don’t you?” 

She blinks at him, then slowly nods. The conversation is not going how she expected it to. 

“I know the past year hasn’t been easy for you. Hell, I know life hasn’t been easy for you. And I’m afraid it won’t be easy for quite some time, but after everything, Dr. Owens and I thought you deserved a treat.” 

“A treat?” She asks, glancing towards the bag Hopper had brought in with him, but Hopper instead reaches into his back pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. He slides it across the table to her and she picks it up.

Official Birth Certificate of Jane Hopper. 

“I don’t…understand.” 

“Dr. Owens pulled some strings for me. That is an official document saying that you are my daughter.” Hopper places his hand atop of hers. “We still need to lie low, El, to be safe. For quite a long time. But, if everything goes well, then eventually…” 

She looks up at him. “I could… go out in the world?”

A small, sad smile appears on his mouth. “Yeah, kid.”

She traces her fingertip across the letters on the birth certificate. “I am Jane Hopper now? Not El?”

“That’s your choice. You are legally Jane Hopper, but if you prefer El, then that’s what we’ll call you.” 

Maybe we can call you El, short for Eleven. She nods. 

Hopper rubs his hands together.  “I’d better get started on the Eggo extravaganza. Unless, of course, you have any questions to ask me?” 

Her eyes dart to the bag near the door, questioningly. 

Hopper grins at her. “Oh that little thing? Oh, you know, just a pretty dress for a pretty girl.”

“For me?” She walks over to where the bag is leaning against the wall, and opens it to reveal a soft blue dress. 

“What, you were gonna stand poor Wheeler up tomorrow night at the snowball?” He whistles. “Wow, remind me not to mess with El Hopper.”

       7. Jane Hopper 

Three days before the Byers are due to move, Joyce knocks on the door to her current bedroom, which once was Will’s before he started rooming with Jonathan when El moved in. 

“Hi, sweetheart. Can I come in? I want to talk to you about something.” She nods, and Joyce comes and joins her, sitting on the foot of the bed. 

“I just got off the phone with the school at Lenora, and I have enrolled all three of you. I just wanted you to know that you are in the same classes as Will, and your records say you’re step-siblings.” 

She looks at Joyce. “You are my step-mom?” 

Joyce smiles faintly. “Yes. The records Owens created for us say that I was married to Hop.” There is a slight catch in her voice, like there always is when the two of them talk about Hopper.

She nods. “Okay. Thank you.” 

Joyce continues. “Speaking of Owens, we both agreed it would be best for you to go by Jane. Is that alright?” 

She frowns. She understands why, but it leaves her feeling funny. She nods at Joyce again, who squeezes her shoulder, and leaves the room. 

Later, she is in the Wheeler’s basement with the rest of the party. They are all aware the moving date is just around the corner, but no one is acknowledging it. They are simply choosing to spend every hour possible together.  

Lucas is laid on the couch reading a comic book, whilst Mike, Dustin and Max argue about whether or not a new horror film is scary. She is sitting next to Will at the desk in the corner of the basement, both of them doodling, when Will asks, “Can you pass me the green crayon please, Jane?” 

The argument stops mid sentence, and Lucas peeks over the comic book towards them. 

“Um, Byers, did you inhale the paint fumes again?” Dustin asks. 

A blush appears on Will’s cheeks. “No! This morning my mom told me El had to go by Jane at school, and I needed to get used to it before we started.” 

“Why Jane?” Lucas asks. 

She hands the green crayon to Will, then swivels around in her chair to face the others. “Jane is the first name I had. The one my Mama chose.” 

She sees shock on Max’s face, but she hides it quickly. Dustin and Lucas look equally as surprised. Only Mike, who is staring at her with an odd expression on his face, knows all about Terry. 

Max softens her voice, “Would you like us to call you Jane?” 

She shakes her head. “No. It is a pretty name, but it was chosen for Mama’s baby. I didn’t get to be her.” 

Later, Mike asks her to help him grab some snacks. She heads upstairs with him, but instead of going into the kitchen, he leads her to the living room, checking it is empty. 

“Hey. Um, I just wanted a second alone to apologise to you.”

She raises her eyebrows. “What for?”

“Well, back when you told me about your Mama and stuff, and about your name, well - I guess I never even thought to ask you about it. About whether you’d prefer to be called Jane, and I’m really sorry. I just didn’t even think, like I’ve always thought of you as El, but that’s not my call to make. I should’ve asked you. Max asked you straight away.” Mike rambles, running his fingers through his unruly hair. “I’ll call you Jane if you want to be called Jane. Or any other name you want! You can choose -” 

“Mike.” She cuts him off. She is used to having to do this to him, when his brain goes eighty miles an hour. She cups his face in her hands. 

“I want to be called El. Okay?” Her voice softens. “El is the name I choose. I just have to go by Jane for a little while.”

His shoulders relax, and he draws her close. 

    8. Jane Hopper-Byers

She has never felt such pure delight as she does the day Hop marries Joyce. Surrounded by their friends and family, she can’t help but think that this is where she has always meant to be. 

She wears a long flowy dress the same shade of blue her dress to the snowball was so many years ago. She laughs, she dances, she sings. She delivers everyone’s favourite speech. She even manages to catch the bouquet, which in turn makes her dad shout don’t even think about it Wheeler!

That day she gains a mother, two brothers, and an extra surname. 

     9. El Wheeler 

When they are twelve years old, Mike-short-for-Michael gives El-short-for-Eleven her first real name. 

Many years later, he gives her his last name.