*I do not own the rights to Stranger Things
*I do not own the rights to any characters from Stranger Things
*I am not the creator of the character Autumn
*I do not own the rights to ANY music used or mentioned in this fan fiction
*This story is an extended ending to California Dreaming by brittyaustin89, please read her fanfiction first. Otherwise this might not make sense.
Monarch: Autumn's Butterfly Effect
Chapter 3: This Woman's Work
Neil, Susan, and Max were put into the back of a black Lincoln town car. They were driven far out of town to a small air strip, that they had never seen before. Another black hawk awaited them. They were aggressively pulled from the car, and shuffled into the helicopter. They flew in silence with the two creepy suits and ties, along with the chopper pilot, for what felt like an eternity.
When they finally landed, they were shoved into a humvee, drove for several miles, and eventually stopped outside an abandoned warehouse. One of the suits opened the humvee door, "Out...All of you." The three of them quickly unbuckled and started following the suit into the warehouse. "Mr. and Mrs. Hargrove, I need you to listen and listen good. Your son fell victim to a failed government experiment. How he got involved in what happened, is unclear at the moment. We are trying to get to the bottom of that, but it was necessary for us to extract him from your civilian hospital in Hawkins. Everything that I'm telling you and everything that went on is classified information. You'll know what we want you to know, and nothing more. You will be under strict military orders to remain silent about all that you see and hear. Any information that you attempt to leak will automatically cause you to forfeit your life." Neil stopped the man in his tracks right as they were about to enter the warehouse door. He stepped right in front of him, and blocked the way. "Now wait just a second pal! Back up! What the hell are you talking about? Government experiments, military orders, forfeit our lives? I'm not understanding any of this." The suit reached around Neil and jerked the door open, knocking Neil in his side. This immediately enraged him. "YOU CAN'T JUST FUCKING TREAT PEOPLE LIKE…" Before Neil could finish, the man had pulled a gun on him….again. The suit was ever so stoic when he spoke, it terrified Neil, which was hard to do. "Sir...we're the fucking governement. We can do whatever the fuck we want to do. So I suggest you shut the fuck up, and follow me inside." The suit holstered his gun, and began to lead the way into the building.
Neil, Susan, and Max were dog tired. It was almost 3 am. They couldn't do anything else except follow orders now. As they entered the warehouse, they were in complete awe. It was nothing like how they would have pictured. The bottom floor was all offices, the second floor was rooms that looked like sleeping quarters, the third floor was medical. They were brought into a cold poorly lit room on the medical floor and told to sit tight. On the way up to their room, Max spotted several phones and remembered her cousin, Autumn. Max had to get ahold of her, but she couldn't remember the number to her new place. "How do I get out of here?" She thought to herself, as they sat in that room. "Mom, I need to use the bathroom." Susan squeezed her daughter's hand, and the two of them rose from their seats. They walked over and Susan knocked on the door. There was an armed guard just outside. He cracked the door, and peered in at Susan. "Yea?" he said, with a sneer. "Sir, my daughter needs to use the restroom." The soldier eyeballed Max, before letting out a long sigh. "OK, only her." He gestured with a side nod for Max to come out of the room. "So where to?" Max asked. The soldier pointed with his entire hand. "Down the hall, take a right, then they will be the first door on your left. You have 10 minutes before I send someone to find you. And if I have to send someone to find you, your night is gonna get a whole lot worse." Max rolled her eyes, and smacked her lips, as teenage girls do so well. "Okay!" she said, with an attitude. Once Max was out of sight she started peeking in doors. Surprisingly, there were not a lot of people around. She easily found an empty room with a phone. She started dialing numbers as quickly as she could. First to all of Billy's old party friends. She got 3 voicemails and 1 "who the hell is this?" Then she tried Autumn's mom….another voicemail. The only other person that came to mind was Steve Harrington. Surely, he had to have made it home by now. Luckily, Steve picked up on the second ring. "Hello?" he answered, sounding confused. "Oh! Steve thank God you picked up! It's Max!" "Max? Where the hell have you been? Your friends were looking for you?" "Never, mind about that now. Listen, I need to get in touch with Autumn. I know she stayed with you for a while. Did she happen to give you her phone number before she left? I know she gave it to me, but I'm not home now and I can't remember it off the top of my head."
Max heard some rustling on the other end of the phone, like papers being shuffled around. There was a few seconds of silence before Steve answered. "Ok, yea I got her number right here. It's 228-758-3695." Max breathed a heavy sigh of relief into the phone. "Thanks, Steve! I owe you big time!"
Max quickly hung up the phone and dialed her cousin. She listened as the phone rang and rang. "Come on, come on, pick up, pick up." "HI! You've reached Autumn's voicemail. Leave me a message!" "Oh my god damn, Autumn! It's Max. It took me forever to track down your phone number! Please please call me back! It's Billy! Something happened!"
Max hightailed it back to the room with 2 minutes to spare. The guard gave her a firm look and tapped his watch before letting her back in. Neil was starting to get antsy waiting around for answers. He kept pacing the room. Susan and Max had eventually huddled together in their chairs, and fell asleep leaned into one another. Neil's anger was building, the longer they were left in the room. It was pushing 4:30 am, when he had finally taken all the waiting he could stand. He walked over raising a fist to slam on the door, when it suddenly swung open on him. A new suit walked in, this one looking more official than the last, with his ID clipped to his jacket pocket. "Sir, please take a seat. I have some information to give you about your son." "Well it's about damn time!" Neil hollered. The suit shut the door behind himself, and took a seat as Neil gently woke Susan and Max. "Mr. and Mrs. Hargrove, I'm special agent Stevenson. Your son Billy has been placed in a medically induced coma. He suffered severe trauma to his torso, head, and extremities. There was an escaped government beast that wreaked havoc on the town of Hawkins. Somehow it took over his mind and body. It used him like a puppet to kill people. We don't know why it chose him, but it did, and sadly the outlook for you son is quite grim. If he wakes up it's likely he'll have to go through months of physical therapy, and he'll probably endure severe PTSD. Everything I'm telling you is highly classified information. You are not to tell anyone about what you've seen or heard here. We know this is difficult to digest, but if you tell anyone about what happened today you will be brought to justice by the US government." Stevenson folded his hands on the table and leaned back in his chair. The room fell silent. Susan, Neil, and Max couldn't believe what they just heard. A single tear started to roll down Neil's cheek. For the first time ever, Max could see that Neil actually cared for Billy. She felt overwhelmed with grief and emotions, she couldn't help herself….the words just jumped out of her mouth…"I called Autumn!" "You what?" Neil exclaimed. Agent Stevenson shifted in his seat. "Young lady, have you any idea what you've done? Who is Autumn?" At first Max wasn't sure what Neil would do to her, so she shut up, but Agent Stevenson asked again. "Who is Autumn." This time he asked in a more stern, almost threatening tone of voice. "She's my cousin, ok! She's Billy's girlfriend. She loves Billy and she has a right to know what happened!" Agent Stevenson cocked his head to the side, and gave Max a confusing look. "Little girl...you mean to tell me that your cousin is dating your brother?" Max huffed loudly. "No genius! I thought you people knew everything. Billy is my step brother." Stevenson got up from his chair, and put his hands on his hips. "My superiors are not going to like this." Stevenson slammed the door on his way out, but not before whispering something to the soldier guarding the door. The next thing they knew, they were being taken to the second floor. They were each given a cot to sleep on with pillows and blankets.
Autumn heard Max's voice, and came running to the living room. "PLAY IT BACK! PLAY IT BACK!" Autumn screamed. "What's the matter?" Stephy asked, her now frantic friend. "That's my cousin. Max is my cousin, Billy is my….he was my boyfriend." Autumn listened to the message again, and shook her head. "IDIOT, MAX! How am I supposed to call you back and you didn't leave your damn number?" "Autumn, just relax girl. Dial star 69. It'll automatically call back the last number." Stephy replied. "OH yes yes, thank you!" Autumn picked up her phone and dialed. It didn't even have time to fully ring before an unknown male answered. "Miss. Whitman I presume?" Autumn was taken aback. She didn't expect the person to know her name. "Yes..this is she." "Your cousin Maxine Mayfield contacted you concerning Billy Hargrove. Pack your bags and be ready to leave your apartment in an hour and a half. My men will be driving you to an undisclosed location. From there you will be choppered back to Indiana where you will be briefed on the situation. Tell no one what you're doing or where you're going. You may also want to pack quite a bit, you may be staying in Indiana a while. Do I make myself clear?" Autumn's mind was racing. She had so many questions she didn't know where to start. "Well...wait a minute. I just got an apartment I have rent to pay? How long will I be gone?" "Don't worry about that Miss. Whitman. The US government will take care of your affairs in San Diego while you're gone." The man on the phone hung up on Autumn before she could ask anymore questions. "Girl are you alright? Like, what was that about?" Stephanie had overheard pieces of the conversation, and was extremely concerned. "I….I can't say. Just...can you keep an eye on the apartment and check my mail while I'm gone. I'll leave you the box key. I just...I have to go back to Indiana. I know we haven't talked a lot about my past, but just trust me when I say I want to tell you. I don't know what's going to happen." Stephanie just shook her head, and hugged her friend. "I trust you. Just be safe please. That all sounded kinda scary and really serious." The two girls held each other for a few moments longer before parting ways. After Autumn gave Stephy the mailbox key, and said their last goodbyes, she started furiously
packing her bags. Autumn still had a million questions, which made it hard to think straight. Could she trust this mystery man from the phone? She wasn't sure what she was going to do for food or money. She wondered where she was going, and what Billy had gotten into that involved the government. It had to be serious. Maybe he was in jail? Maybe he was hurt or..dead? "No, not that. Anything, but that." She thought to herself.
Exactly an hour and a half later there was a pounding on her door. Two men in beige khakis, navy blue quarter sleeve dress shirts, and dark sunglasses escorted her to a black Chevy Impala. All together, Autumn's entire trip took about 5 hours. The only time anyone talked was when the men asked Autumn if she was hungry or needed a bathroom break. Autumn was too terrified to say or ask anything until she got to her destination.
It was dark by the time the two men and Autumn were pulling up to the warehouse. Near 8 o'clock in the evening. The car parked, Autumn grabbed her duffle bag and book bag and began following the men inside. Autumn was brought to the same room Billy's family had been in the previous night. She sat and waited in silence for 30 minutes, before someone came in. "Hello, Miss. Whitman my name is special agent Stevenson. I'm the one who took your phone call earlier today. Now let me be frank. Your cousin was not meant to contact you about any of this. As a matter of fact, she put her own life in danger to do so. I had to have a long meeting with my higher ups about what to do with you. That is, if you should be briefed about what happened to Mr. Hargrove. We had to do a background check on you and make sure you were a trustworthy person. Can I Miss. Whitman...can I trust you?" Autumn still didn't know exactly what was going on, but she just shook her head in agreement. "Good, that's what I like to see. Now, I'm gonna shoot ya straight. Your boyfriend got mixed up in some crazy stuff. We aren't proud of what happened, but one of our "experiments" broke free and attacked Mr. Hargrove. I'll spare you the disturbing details, but what happened to him was quite gruesome. The government is taking full responsibility for what happened, but to be honest, Billy is damn near dead. We are keeping him alive and in a coma. It's the only way his body can heal from all this. Now your family is here. They should be up in a minute. When you're all ready I can take you guys to see him." Autumn could feel the lump in her throat growing while agent Stevenson spoke. She was doing her best to choke back her tears.
No more than 5 minutes had passed after agent Stevenson left the room, before Autumn heard a scream and a squeal. Max had burst through the door, and ran to hug her cousin. At that moment, Autumn couldn't contain her emotions anymore. She cried with Max, and felt the hand of her Aunt Susan rubbing her back. Soon, there was a gentle knock on the door. It was Stevenson. "Are you all ready?" Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. "Now, I want you all to prepare yourselves. He is very badly tore up. He has got a tube in his throat, and a machine is breathing for him. Obviously, he can't speak with you, but feel free to hold his hand and talk with him. It could help to bring him out of the coma. No guarantees though." Neil, Susan, Max, and Autumn all walked huddled together through the halls, in the elevator, and right up to the door of Billy's room. All 4 of them stood just there. None of them wanted to go in first. Susan was the brave volunteer that mustered the strength to finally grab the handle after a moment of waiting. "Stop!" Neil exclaimed. "Listen ladies...I know I haven't been nice to any of you. I've especially been a son-of-a bitch, to you Autumn. But now that we are all here together, I just...I want things to be better from here on out. We have to come together as a family. I'm gonna work my damndest to treat you ladies with respect. And I'm so...so…I'm sor..." Neil couldn't finish. He was getting too choked up. Max squeezed Neil's hand… "We know, dad." She smiled up at Neil. She had never called him "dad" before, and she probably wouldn't ever again. But, she felt his pain. They all did. Neil leaned down and kissed all 3 women. Susan on the lips, Max on the forehead, and Autumn on the cheek. "Together." Neil said, and they all stepped in Billy's room at the same time.