"The past is for learning. The present is for living. The future is for growing."

Steve thought this was a bad idea, but he went with Billy anyways. Billy was sure that there was more to find at Terry Ives place than just what El found, sad as it was, and this was the only weekend they could make it out there before Thanksgiving break started. El had been coming over most days and Billy had gotten her to open up a bit. She told them about her mom, about what they had done to her, and Billy got this look in his eye then. Steve wasn't sure what that emotion was, but it was heavy.

Billy was sure that they hadn't fried Mrs. Ives brain just because she wouldn't give up on El-Jane…so he was very sure that she knew more than they wanted her to know. Steve wasn't sure how he thought they would get that information, because the woman had her brain literally fried to keep her mouth shut. However, Billy was sure she would have something, somewhere, that would tell them more about their situation and El had already said Mrs. Ives had a bunch of papers from her research.

Hopefully, it was still there when they got there. Hopper was sure that they had straight up killed Benny because he found El and Steve was cautious even though Owens seemed like a decent enough guy. Steve hated that Nancy put her own plans in motion to expose Barb's murder because he had been justifiably worried it would get them all murdered in a terrible 'accident'. Maybe a gas line explosion, maybe a car accident, maybe a carbon monoxide leak…who the fuck knows when you're facing down a government that would literally kill/fry people's brains to keep their intel secret.

Steve still wasn't sure what the hell El had even done for them, and she was being very tight lipped about the whole thing Steve wasn't sure if he was grateful or not considering what she might have been doing. He didn't want to know more things that would get him killed but was Billy had so bluntly put it, not knowing was gonna get them killed anyways. They needed to know more, more about the upside down, more about what the hell the government had been doing to El, more about what they needed to look out for and more about the enemies that they had lurking in the dark.

That man…papa…Steve had nightmares enough about him from the little information that had gotten filtered to him from Dustin and from El. That guy was bad news, and Steve wasn't gonna be reassured that he was dead because he hadn't seen the body. Even if he saw a body he wouldn't be reassured considering what they had done with Will. They needed more information, and this was their shot at getting it.

"What the hell are we even gonna tell her Aunt?" Steve asked as Billy pulled into her driveway.

"El wrote her a letter, that will get us in the door…you distract the Aunt with it and I'll talk to her mom…I'm good with moms," Billy said pulling the letter from his jacket and giving it to Steve.

"I don't know how good you'll be with her considering she literally is stuck in a loop of the worst moments of her life according to El." Steve said sadly as he took the letter. "This whole thing is so fucked up…I wish we could help her somehow."

"If we can figure out what she knew maybe one day we will be able to at least get her some justice, down the road when all this is over," Billy said softly as he got out of the car.

"What's her name again?" Billy asked as they made their way to the front door.

"Becky…Becky Ives," Steve said as Billy knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" a woman's voice called out.

"It's Steve and Billy Ma'am…Jane sent us." Billy called out as a lady killer smile spread over his face as she answered the door looking at them narrowed eyed and suspicious.

"Who are you to Jane?" she asked cautiously.

"We're friends ma'am, got a couple of letters here for you and for Ms. Ives," Billy said nudging Steve with his elbow.

"This one's for you miss," Steve said smiling softly as he handed her the letter.

"And the other one?" Aunt Becky said softly as she looked at the letter.

"Oh…Jane wanted me to read that to Ms. Ives, if you would let us in?" Billy said as he looked at her with that look in his eyes that made most women weak to him. Steve didn't know whether to be annoyed or impressed.

"Yeah…alright…come on in," Aunt Becky said shortly as she led them into the house. She led them to Ms. Ives who was sitting in front of a TV on her rocker mumbling something about rainbows, sunflowers, four fifty and three to the left four to the right. Billy nudged Steve with his foot.

"Ah…Miss Ives…could I bother you for a glass of water it's been a long drive," Steve said with his boyish grin pulling Becky from the room wondering what Billy expected to accomplish here.

~~~~Billy~~~~

El's mom was pretty, she reminded him of his own mom in a very uncomfortable way since she was also blonde and pretty. Billy would have wondered where the curly brown hair came from but the Aunt's hair was just as curly and brown. He knelt by her as she rocked and opened the letter El wrote for her.

"This is from Jane, Momma, I'm sorry I left without saying goodbye. I'm at home now, with Hopper and my friends. Thank you for trying to save me…I'm so sorry that doing that cause you to be like this. These are my friends, Billy and Steve. They are good people Momma and help me with school. If you can try to talk to them for me, they have some questions for you. Love, Jane." Billy finished folding up the letter and putting it in his back pocket. "I'm Billy, Steve left with your sister. Not sure if you can hear me Miss Ives, but if you have anything that would give us some clue, we could follow about what the hell those people were up to I would appreciate it. I figure you must have known something, otherwise they wouldn't have done this to you." Billy said as he gently tucked a stray hair out of Miss Ives face smiling very softly.

Miss Ives kept her eyes on the TV, mumbling in a loop about sunflowers and rainbows. Billy was starting to regret not being able to take El with them but Hopper was sure that would be way too dangerous considering the eyes that must be on Terry Ives even now. Then the TV started flipping channels on their own, over and over until it was hissing static. Miss Ives hand grabbed his hand that was closest to her and Billy felt a piercing pain behind his eyes. The scarring on his leg from the Demodog heated up, it felt like it was going to bust open and the pain intensified in his head causing him to shut his eyes to block out the suddenly painfully bright lights.

Images flashed through his head, a painted rainbow, a safe, then baseboards, baseboards in a room with a crib, baseboard, baseboards, baseboards that opened, and the painfully tight grip on his hand loosened. His ears were ringing, and Billy felt a hot rush of fluid leave his nose that he wiped at hurriedly. The bright red splash of blood on the back of his hand felt both expected and distant like he wasn't sure it should have been there. The room tilted and he felt like he was going to throw up.

"I'm gonna use your bathroom if that's alright," Billy called out and heard Aunt Becky agree from the kitchen. Thankfully Steve kept her in there somehow and she just shouted directions at him. Billy wasn't able to follow them though and just stumbled up the stairs as the world tilted around him. He felt dizzy and like he should sit down. However the image of the green baseboards pounded in the back of his eyes like a hammer and he stumbled to his knees barely swallowing the vomit that surged up his throat.

He crawled forward, down the hall, to a nursery, pulling the crib from against the wall and using his pocketknife to separate the green baseboard from the wall. There, wrapped up in a cotton cloth was an old leather-bound journal/day planner. Billy tucked it into the back of his jeans under his shirt then stuffed the cloth back into the hallow place behind the baseboard and used the back of his pocketknife to roughly hammer it back into place.

His ears were still ringing as he pushed the crib back and he just laid down on the floor as the pressure slowly lifted from his head. His temples were throbbing as if his head had been put in a vise and the world was still tilting in the most gut turning occurrence of vertigo Billy had ever experienced. He stayed there for a while, then when the world stopped turning he actually got up to find the bathroom.

The reflection in the mirror did not look good, under his nose, over his mouth and chin there was a red brown trail of drying blood. He looked pale, his eyes looked bloodshot, and the left had a burst blood vessel in the corner that did not help any. Billy felt like shit. He hated that Steve was going to have to drive them home after this because he felt like someone ran him over then stuck him in a dryer to tumble.

Hot, achy, and so fucking done with the day.

Billy washed himself up as best he could and then made his way to the kitchen where Steve was comforting El's Aunt. The way Steve's eyes widened, his face flashed with concern before he schooled it and turned his attention to ushering Aunt Becky out the door, not letting her catch a glimpse of him. "You should read her letter to you to your sister, I'm sure she would love to hear about her daughter even if she can't show it." Steve said gently guiding her down the hall as Billy made his way to the front door.

"She really is alright. And not mad at me?" Aunt Becky said a nervous tremble in her voice.

"Jane is good, she just wants to stay with Hopper because all her friends are there…and she's a little worried about bringing more trouble to you two." Steve reassured.

Whatever said to that Billy didn't hear as he made his way to his car and got in the passenger seat, it felt wrong, but he was in no condition to drive. When Steve came out the door he stopped walking when he saw Billy in the passenger seat and then all but ran to the driver's side.

"Dude, what the hell happened to you?! Are you okay?! Should I go to the hospital?!" Steve asked in rapid fire. His head was still pounding so Billy kissed him to shut him up, the action was more soothing than either anticipated but the coppery tang of Billy's mouth had Steve pulling away first. "Are you really ok? You need to answer me… please."

Billy grinned tongue swiping his bottom lip, "Love it when you beg Pretty boy."

"Can you be serious for five seconds; you look like someone bashed you over the back of your head! You definitely had a nosebleed and you're not driving …I don't know where the nearest hospital is?!"

"Relax Pretty boy, I just need some time to recover…El's mom put the whammy on me to tell me about this," Billy said pulling out the journal and waving it at him.

"You really found something?!" Steve asked surprised.

"Yeah, was there ever any doubt?" Billy asked smug. "What about you?"

"Aunt Becky helped me load up all of Terry's research that she had left into your trunk, what did you think we were doing while you were getting that? You were gone for like half an hour." Steve said as he started the camaro with the keys Billy tossed him.

"She let you take that?" Billy said stunned.

"She's a good person…plus she wanted El to have it because its all her mom's stuff." Steve said as he turned down the drive. "We will be giving her this stuff right?"

"I want us to go through it first, the journal she'll get as soon as I have gone through it a few times and made a copy. We need to make copies of all this shit, everything, you never know." Billy said darkly as he put on his shades to block the light head throbbing from his incoming migraine.

"I was thinking we should have multiple copies of all this stuff, everything, we should also write our own journals I think, I was gonna set up something with my parents Lawyer's firm to have them delivered to certain people if one of us dies…to ends up like Terry. I just…I don't want to go out like that." Steve said as his hands tightened around the steering wheel. "What they did to her isn't right."

"No…no its not and it doesn't make sense," Billy said.

Steve looked at him surprised, "Why? Seems like a good idea to shut her up to me."

"It doesn't make sense because they should have made her disappear, car accident would have been easy to arrange, suicide, given her mental history that they so painstakingly ensured she had to make her seem crazy. But they didn't do that…they fried her brain. Only two reasons I can think of to logically explain that and one reason I would rather not thing about." Billy said darkly as he rubbed his temples.

"So…you gonna tell me these reasons or make me guess?"

"The most logical reasons I can think of are twofold, Terry Ives knew something, and they didn't want her able ( able mind you) to say anything about it. As for why they didn't kill her…the only thing I can think of is they wanted more babies like El. With her mind gone, tucked away in some government care facility they could have arranged that, but Becky was more loyal to her crazy sister than they had anticipated."

"Yeah…that's disturbingly understandable…and the last reason?"

"Spite…I think they wanted to break her…break her for trying to take her daughter back. From the sounds of this… papa…he sounds like the type."

"I don't think we should tell El this…she barely knows anything of the world…I don't…I don't want to have to explain this yet and she isn't asking these questions right now. When she asks…we can tell her."

"Steve…I know you want to protect her, but doesn't she deserve to know?"

"We're making educated guesses right now, we have no idea what is in that journal, we have no idea if we are even close to the truth. We will tell her what we find…what we know is true…but not this. We are guessing Billy. Maybe we should wait until we know to break her heart?"

"Ok…yeah…alright. When we know…we can tell her. I'm…I'm gonna take a nap." Billy said shutting his eyes and leaning his seat back. His head hurt way too much to make life altering decisions for another person right now. Steve was a good babysitter. He would know.

~~~~Steve~~~~

They got home late; Max was with Hopper so at least they didn't have to worry about her and Billy looked like he had recovered a lot after sleeping most of the drive back. Steve made them some sandwiches and they ate them quickly before settling onto the couch with the journal. They took turns reading it, Billy read the first five pages before trading off with him and it started out innocently enough.

Terry talked mostly about her life, her boyfriend Andrew, her college courses, normal things and then Dr. Brenner showed up. Papa . They both were tense reading her recounting of meeting Dr. Brenner for the first time and being offered some really insane incentives to 'voluntarily' join a project he was heading. A project named MKUltra. The tension just kept getting harder and harder as the entries continued.

At first it seemed all very banal, physicals, physical stress tests, psychological testing, then the first course of the project, being administered 'safe drugs' to monitor their effects while they asked them to do strange things like picturing themselves outside of their bodies. Eventually Terry noticed the drugs they were injecting her with were darker and darker in color. Any inquiries on what exactly the drugs were…were dismissed as inconsequential and classified.

Then Terry noticed that she was blacking out after doses, she tried to stay awake, but it was useless. Over time the 'training' got more and more odd…worse they were seeing results. Dr. Brenner was most enthused by Terry's results, he kept coming to find her, more and more he was taking over her training of her new emerging abilities. Terry never mentioned that she was slowly waking up sooner and sooner.

She faked being unconscious to listen to Dr. Brenner as he talked to his assistant over her 'unconscious body'. His assistant that Dr. Brenner called Henry and sometimes One. Terry tried to find the assistant when she 'woke up' but they were always gone by then. Then, once, she woke up very quickly and she felt a warm large hand on her wrist before she realized she was awake and she immediately forced herself to remain still 'asleep'.

Terry wrote down the conversation exactly as she heard it in the parking lot that day before she even left to make sure she could go over it for clues again later.

'She is most promising of all the women. She is taking your blood very well.'

"I fucking knew it !" Billy said clutching the journal.

"Knew what?" Steve said curiously.

"I knew they must have been injecting more than just drugs in her! If drugs gave you fucking superpowers to you or your babies then El would not be so special to them! Which makes you wonder…how the hell does this Henry/One have powers." Billy wondered.

"I have no idea, keep reading Tough guy and maybe we will find out."

'We will proceed with project HC1, you will be required give the nurse a sample tomorrow.'

'Wouldn't organic insertion be more effective sooner.'

'Alright…I'll double her dose tomorrow to insure no unexpected interruption.'

Terry was very scared to go in the next day, but she was more scared of what would happen if she didn't go in. She tried to stay awake but couldn't this time. It was nighttime by the time she woke up and Terry didn't know what happened to her while she was out. She tried to take stock of herself, but she didn't feel any different than normal. This happened to her every day for a week and then it went back to normal.

When it did Terry started to realize she could wake up after only five minutes of being out now, sometimes Dr. Brenner talked, but most of the time he didn't. His assistant, Henry, would be there every time she woke up and he would hold her wrist. It was reassuring and also confusing because she was sure he knew she was awake. He never said anything about it to Dr. Brenner though. Then one day Dr. Brenner left early, and Henry stayed.

Terry took the risk of opening her eyes to see him. She described him as handsome, but very pale like he hadn't seen the sun in much too long. At first, they just stared at each other, then Terry had asked, 'Your name is Henry?'

He had looked at her then, in a way that made her feel very uncomfortable before his face softened when he smiled, 'My name is Henry Creel…we shouldn't talk here.' He had hurried around the room collecting things and then he checked the hall before coming over to her to lean down to whisper in her ear. 'Come to me in your mind…if you can. We can't talk…they are always watching.' Then Terry remembered how strangely frightening the red blinking camera in the corner of the room had become with just a few short words.

"What do you think they did to her?" Steve asked, pulling Billy from staring at the journal to looking at him since he stopped reading.

"I think that's fairly obvious even if Terry doesn't realize it, yet she will soon," Billy said darkly.

"Then say it because I don't get it!" Steve said, staring at the journal as if it would magically tell him the answer he wasn't seeing.

Billy smoothed a hand through Steve's hair and leaned in close to whisper in his ear. Steve tried not to get distracted by how close Billy was to him or the feeling of his hot breath on his ear and neck. "They are probably trying to get her pregnant with that guy's sperm," Billy said flatly.

Steve felt like he was splashed with cold water, "What?!"

"As far as we can guess this Henry Creel guy is the only one that has powers. From the conversations Terry overheard while faking being asleep, they are using his blood to try to give his powers to other people. It just makes sense if they want to breed him like a stud horse." Billy said, turning his eyes back to the journal.

"Wait does that mean he… organic insertion," Steve felt a little nauseous. "What the hell are we gonna tell El?"

"I think…maybe leave that to Hopper…that seems like a parent question. Also…maybe she is gonna be as dense as you and not get it unless Terry points it out in here. Terry seems as clueless as you though so I think maybe…we will be good?" Billy took the Journal from his lap and started reading out loud.

Terry tried to find Henry using her newly trained powers, but she was never able to 'find him in the dark'. She thought it was because she didn't have his picture. Then one night Henry found her. It was a brief conversation, Henry avoided answering any of her questions about who he was and anything about Dr. Brenner's experiments. However, he did talk to her about her powers, showing her new ways to use them and Terry felt bad pushing him to answer personal questions about himself when he asked her some very personal questions in retaliation. Like why she was dating Andrew or what she liked about Andrew.

It took two weeks for Henry to talk about himself at all, and he only answered one question from her. It was an important one though, so Terry was very excited to finally have some clues. 'Where did you get your powers from?' ' When I was young…I had an accident…I went to a place…a place far from earth…Dr. Brenner calls it dimension X. I got it there.' He didn't answer any of her questions about how he had gotten into this new dimension or why going there had given him powers. All he would say was that it had changed him.

"Do you think this dimension X or whatever is the upside down?" Steve asked as he took the journal from Billy to look at that passage again.

"I don't think so," Billy said slowly.

"Why?" Steve asked, "It would make sense, or do you think extra dimensions are everywhere around here."

"It's not the upside down, if going to the upside down gave you powers Hopper, Joyce and most definitely Will would have shown signs by now." Billy challenged, "Will was there for like over a week right? And outside of being possessed by that mind flayer thing he has nothing to show for it."

"Then what could dimension X be?" Steve asked confused.

"I have no idea…I'm more worried about Dr. Brenner knowing about this dimension X than anything…it sheds a whole new light on what he was making El do at that lab." Billy said taking the journal back.

Terry was still continuing the MKUltra project and trying her best to piece together the mystery of what Dr. Brenner was really trying to accomplish. Then they put her out for a week again, as deeply as before and Terry was worried it was going to become a trend. Her boyfriend came back from his summer job out in California, and she wrote mostly about him for a few days. Then they found another entry about Henry visiting her in her mind again…this one was a little more unpleasant. She described him as cold, that he held her in the void and just stared at her for a really long time until she was uncomfortable then finally let her go without ever saying a word to her.

She was very disturbed by the visit.

It was forgotten a week later when she was puking her guts out and trying to remember her last period. Apparently, she had always been irregular, and she hadn't noticed anything abnormal but since she and Andrew had been carrying on a lot since he had been back, she took a pregnancy test. The way she described being both terrified and excited made Steve's heart ache since he knew how it ended up for her.

"You think the baby is Andrew's?" Steve asked hopefully.

"No way in hell," Billy said immediately, crushing Steve's very faint hope.

Terry was scared to pull out of Dr. Brenner's project, but she was more worried about what whatever they were injecting her with would do to the baby. She was nervous, sweating and shaking talking to the cold man. Steve felt his stomach drop because she told him why she was pulling out of the project. The way she described his reaction to her news of her pregnancy made Steve feel sick to his stomach since she had thought he was just being very nice to her about it. Dr. Brenner reassured her that she would suffer no penalty by pulling out due to this and then left her there in his office to see to another subject.

She had sat there stunned long enough that Henry found her in there and Terry had been even more surprised to see him. He wasn't someone she ever saw out and about while she was 'awake' so seeing him in the flesh disturbed her. Especially so since their last interaction was so…tense. Henry was smiling at her this time though; he helped her up from her chair and before she could say anything to him, he had put a cold hand over her stomach.

'I heard you are having a baby.' He had said to her as he rubbed his icy hand over her stomach gently. 'Yes…I'm am.' Terry kicked herself for being so short about talking to him in her journal but she was so surprised by it all that she had felt very off kilter. He simply smiled at her, a wide disturbing smile before he left as suddenly as he came, and Terry said she could feel the cold of his touch on her stomach for a while after.

"He definitely got her pregnant," Billy said finally.

"Yeah," Steve said softly before springing up suddenly to ask, "Do you think all the kids they took are his?"

Billy looked at him surprised and then contemplative, "I mean…its possible but I don't think so."

"Why do you say that?" Steve said stunned.

"Because of Eight or Kali or whatever she calls herself," Billy said.

"El's sister? Why does she make you think they aren't?!"

"Because she was taken from London, right? Seems like Dr. Brenner did all his work in Hawkins so until we know more about her parents and whether Kali/Eight's mom spent time in Hawkins I think its safe to say she wasn't forced into pregnancy like Terry." Billy said slowly.

"But then…how did Kali get powers?" Steve asked confused, "Do you think she's been to dimension X as well?"

"Well…maybe I'm not ruling it out, but they only needed his blood to spread it around, right? Blood travels easier than a whole person can and hiding Henry in Hawkins is a lot easier than moving him around risking him escaping or someone finding out about him. We won't know about Kali unless we talk to her, or Terry has something more in her research or journals. Or we go to London to look at her parents' records." Billy continued with that contemplative look on his face. "Also, from what Terry wrote down of the conversation she overheard Brenner and Henry having…it seems like they were waiting for someone who showed particular ability to adapt to his blood before trying to make babies from them. He was very set on her because she showed such aptitude."

"Let's keep going…maybe Terry figured this out," Steve said urging Billy to continue reading.

The next few entries were things normal everyday things, she talked about the relief she felt getting out of the program, how nervous and excited they both were on the baby. Andrew was particularly nervous about being a father and hovered over her treating her like glass. This lasted until the first ultrasound when they found out exactly how far along her pregnancy was…nearing the end of her first trimester and she was having a girl.

Andrew blew up at her, accusing her of cheating, but all Terry wrote about was her confusion. She had never cheated on Andrew, and didn't understand how she could be so far along when she hadn't had sex with anyone but him. However, facts didn't line up and she had no idea how to justify herself. Andrew accused her of cheating on him with Dr. Brenner and that sparked a thought that sent her running to the bathroom to throw up. Andrew broke up with her over it, cursing her out and taking his few things from his place.

Terry had been so excited to start a family, maybe it would have been a little early, but she had loved Andrew. They had been talking about getting married before the baby was born at the courthouse and maybe holding a ceremony after the baby was born. Now, Andrew had left her and her whole life felt like it was falling apart. She knew only one person could give her answers and as frightened as she was to face him…to face the truth she needed to know.

It was the first time she had been able to find him in the void, every other time he had been the one to come to her and now she had found him. 'What did you do?' She had screamed at him right away anger pushing her. 'You say that as if I had a choice.' Henry was back to looking gentle, like the cold scary presence he had before was an illusion and Terry refused to believe it. 'You got me pregnant…don't pretend…not now.' Henry had come to her, cupping her face looking at her so gently, 'Our daughter will be extraordinary.' ' Not ours! Mine! You'll never see her again!' She pulled away, meaning to leave him there too angry to even try to hurt him as he had hurt her. Not that she would have been able to…Henry…One…he was stronger than she could ever be.

'I am sorry for the pain that will come…I'll look after her.'

'You'll not come near my daughter!'

'Do you think you will be able to escape this?'

That question haunted her for her entire pregnancy and Terry didn't know who to turn to for help. Where were you supposed to go when your own government wanted to do something to you or your child? She had limited funds and couldn't exactly run off to a new country. Not pregnant. Not now. She told her concerns to her sister, about how she was afraid that someone would take her baby and eventually her sister agreed to come with her to the hospital when she gave birth.

The next entry was dated months after El should have been born, it sad to read about her knowing she isn't crazy and still questioning herself since her sister was so sure she was crazy. Terry had listed Andrew as the father on her 'dead baby's birth certificate, because she wanted him to be the father so badly. She was barely holding on; she couldn't find her daughter in the void and so after months of trying she gave in. She looked for Henry. He acted as if he had been waiting for her, he wasn't with Jane but still she had to ask, ' My baby.' ' Our baby.' 'Is she okay?' 'She is with Brenner.' 'That's not an answer Henry.' 'He won't do anything to her while she is so young. Won't risk killing his prize subject.' 'Where is she?!' 'I don't know.' 'How can you not know?!' 'He sent her away from here…another facility…doesn't want the two of us to bond…only he can be papa.' 'That…that…bastard! That sick son of a bitch!'

Henry had laughed at her, snapping her out of her rage. 'This isn't funny.' 'I warned you…I warned you this wasn't over…why didn't you run away.' 'Where was I supposed to go?!' 'Somewhere far, far away from here.' 'Henry please…tell me something…please I need to know why! I need to know everything! I can't get her back if I don't know anything!' Henry was quiet and stared at her for a long time. 'You're weak…go back now…one question…one question a night.'

"Do you think he'll give her any real answers?" Steve asked Billy wondering when it had gotten so late.

"I don't know…but we'll find out. We gonna finish this tonight?" Billy asked Steve looking at the clock and his exhausted face.

"Yeah…let…let me make some coffee…its gonna be a long night. I'll call Hopper in the morning and see if Max can stay till Monday. I think this is gonna take us all night and then…then I think I need a drink. I have a feeling we are only hitting the tip of the iceberg here and its only gonna get more fucked up from here." Steve said making his way to the kitchen to brew the coffee.

"I'm gonna get the boxes out of the camaro…maybe she has the reference materials in there we can cross reference as it comes up." Billy said placing the journal on the coffee table. It felt so much heavier now. There were so many secrets…and Billy was sure…Terry knew way too much. Brenner might have fried her brain for spite, but it was looking more and more like he did it to keep Henry a secret. He didn't want her to be able to talk even under torture…but he also didn't want her gone. Whether that was because she was useful as a brood mare or as leverage over that psycho Henry Billy thought they might never know.

Author's note: I always thought that the choice to basically make Terry Ives brain dead was one that didn't make sense unless they needed her alive for something. They showed with Benny in Season 1 that they are old hats at making murder seem like suicide so they had to have had a reason. The only explanation I could think of was that made sense was if they wanted more children out of her which having her be a defenseless comatose patient would make it easy. I don't think they anticipated that her sister would give up having any sort of life to care for Terry on her own. Now the information in Terry's journal I got by mixing canon resources with some of my own interpretation. From the stranger things book we found out about her boyfriend Andrew. From the stranger things play we get more backstory on Henry and Brenner. I used that information to form this narrative. It is the only thing that makes Henry's obsession with El understandable and also I think it plays well if a little tropey.

Let me know what you guys think? Do you think Andrew was El's father? Or was it actually Brenner? Or is it Henry? According to the book it was Andrew but that doesn't make sense to me since where the hell did he go? Also Brenner doesn't seem like the type, he seems very asexual. Henry on the other hand had his DNA changed due to exposure to an unknown dimension X and had his blood used in test to give people powers. In the play they said Brenner used his blood to expose babies in the womb of women in his MKUltra program to give the children powers. I still in the firm belief that El is Henry's daughter, if Henry was born in 1945, which makes sense with the canon timeline of him moving to Hawkins in 1957 at 12 and the events of the play happening in 1959. Henry was 25 when Terry got pregnant. It fits too well, Idk if its canon or not I'm running with it for this story.