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Rosary

As he watched, he noticed that the chain was moving through his fingers like he was praying the rosary. Maybe he was, prayer certainly wouldn’t hurt in this situation. He considered praying himself, but Steve had given up on God the day an otherworldly creature came through the walls of the Byers house.

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Eddie’s in the hospital after his heroics in the Upside Down. Steve and Wayne sit together, waiting for him to wake up.

Read on AO3 here.

Steve slouched in the uncomfortable hospital chair, glaring at the back of the nurse’s head who was checking Eddie’s vitals. How could the woman check a patient’s vitals when she was practically vibrating out of her own skin with how scared she was? He knew this nurse wasn’t the only one afraid of Eddie, because of his reputation and the cuffs attaching him to the bed, but she was the only one this obvious about it. Why bother sending her in here at all? Steve knew the kids, Robin, and Nancy were working on some sort of alibi or plan to keep Eddie from going to jail when he woke up, but until then, he was keeping an eye on the other man to make sure no one made off with him in the middle of the night.

Nancy’d asked him once, after he explained why he never left the hospital, who exactly he thought was going to kidnap an unconscious man. He wasn’t totally sure – either the cops, maybe the feds, or someone from the defunct government lab that Eleven had been raised in. Nancy had looked skeptical about the first two, after all there were no feds in town and the town cops couldn’t exactly hide a full grown man, but she admitted that the lab was a possibility. So she started making sure she and Robin came in once a day to relieve him so he could go home, shower, change, and eat some real food.

Steve continued to glare at the nurse as she marked Eddie’s chart, then turned on her heel to leave.

“That the nurse I saw leaving?” Wayne asked, pushing open the door with his hip and handing Steve one of the two coffees he carried.

“Mm-hm. Took his vitals.”

“She the one that shakes the whole time?”

“Mm. Like she’s afraid he’s gonna suddenly pop up and rip her heart out of her chest.”

Wayne snorted a laugh. Steve had been pretty damn proud of himself the first time he’d heard that laugh from Wayne. The older man hadn’t handled it well, seeing his nephew torn up and handcuffed to a bed – who would – but after a few days, he’d relaxed around Steve enough that the two of them started having small conversations about nothing consequential. The first snorted laugh had been over some passing comment about the Cardinals during the preseason baseball game they’d had on in the background. Steve had relaxed enough to smile himself. After that, their conversations became more frequent and with more substance to them.

Now, a month later, Steve felt like he’d known Wayne and Eddie his whole life. He learned a bit about the big things in Eddie’s childhood, the things Wayne was willing to share about Allen and Betty, his brother and deceased sister-in-law. Things like what Al Munson had been arrested for after his wife’s accidental suicide. A little about Betty’s drug addiction and how it terrified Wayne when Eddie started dealing. But he also got to hear stories about Wayne teaching Eddie to play guitar in the week after Betty’s funeral, or what it was like for Wayne and then Eddie growing up in a tiny town in Perry county, Kentucky. Introducing Eddie to first Woodie Guthrie and how that had somehow led the boy to heavy metal. How Wayne had left Kentucky after his own wife was killed in a car accident shortly after Betty’s death and how he felt guilty for abandoning Eddie when he knew what kind of a father Al was. And how relieved he was when Eddie joined him in Hawkins after Al’s arrest when he could have ended up with one of Wayne and Al’s sisters.

He heard about other, less heavy, topics too. Like Eddie falling out of a tree when he was eight and breaking his arm; about Eddie’s love for animals and how that translated to not going hunting which was considered incredibly weird for that part of the country, but also how that meant that the raccoons and stray cats of the trailer park gathered around the old Munson trailer because Eddie fed them all; how Eddie had tried to learn to roller skate one time and ended up with a concussion, giving up on any and all sports after that; and about his creative outlets other than DnD, like the fantasy novel he pretended he wasn’t writing but which Wayne had seen the seven different notebooks full of information about.

He figured he learned just as much about Wayne from those conversations as he did about Eddie, but he liked listening to them anyway. He liked that someone wanted to share their life stories with him, even if he was pretty sure that Wayne only talked to remind himself that Eddie was stronger than people gave him credit for. So he shared some of the high school stories he remembered about Eddie, making himself the target so the other kids in Hellfire wouldn’t get picked on as much, or how Dustin, Lucas, and Mike said he went out of his way to help the three of them when he could. Before Lucas had joined basketball at least.

He now, after getting to know him, understood Eddie’s seemingly off-handed comment about his uncle worrying about him. He’d wondered, at the time, if Wayne really would be worried. After all, in his experience, very few adults really worried about their kids. His parents certainly didn’t. He was pretty positive that the Wheelers would only start worrying if they hadn’t seen one of their kids in more than a week. He figured the Sinclairs and Max’s mom were about the same, seeing as they had never noticed anything that was going on with the kids. Claudia Henderson was better, but even then, he figured it’d be an unplanned day or two of not seeing Dustin before she started to worry. None of that applied to Joyce Byers, obviously. She worried about all of them, not just her own kids.

Wayne took his usual seat beside Eddie’s bed and settled into the quiet. Steve watched him out of the corner of his eye, recognizing that this would be a quiet day for Wayne, one where he didn’t have the energy to talk about his nephew, too consumed with worry that he wouldn’t wake up. He noticed that he’d taken Eddie’s necklace off, the one with the red pick that he’d taken to wearing after he came out of surgery, and was fiddling with it. As he watched, he noticed that the chain was moving through his fingers like he was praying the rosary. Maybe he was, prayer certainly wouldn’t hurt in this situation. He considered praying himself, but Steve had given up on God the day an otherworldly creature came through the walls of the Byers house.

He turned his attention more completely to Days of our Lives to give Wayne the illusion of privacy. He knew the older man wouldn’t be there more than a couple of hours, it was long past the ‘family emergency’ time off that the plant had given him and he’d be headed in for his overnight shift. When a commotion arose outside, Steve barely paid attention, too engrossed in the fictional drama on the screen. But then Eddie’s door swung open. He jumped up, only to back away again when he noticed Hopper in front of everyone else.

“Chief! This is –”

“Shitty police work, is what it is, Powell,” Hopper cut him off loudly, too loudly for a hospital, which probably helped explain the doctor and nurses who were behind Powell and Officer Callahan. Steve and Wayne watched as Hopper pulled his keys off his belt, strode to Eddie’s bed, and uncuffed him. “We don’t arrest people with no evidence, you know better. I taught you better. And reputation,” he steam rolled right over the beginning of Officer Powell’s complaint or excuse, “is not evidence. Now, do you have any actual evidence connecting Mr. Munson here to any of the victims? That doesn’t come from a girl’s distraught, and frankly stupid, boyfriend? No, you don’t. Wayne,” Hopper turned to Wayne, voice coming down to a more reasonable volume. “I’m sorry about the trouble here. I know it’s been rough for you.”

“Thanks, Hop,” Wayne shook his hand, more than a bit confused but willing to go along with whatever Hopper said as long as it meant his boy wouldn’t wake up with cuffs on his wrist. Steve wasn’t sure how Wayne and Hopper knew each other, just that the pair of them had apparently become good friends some years ago.

With a glare from Hopper, most of the room cleared out. Powell, who had been Chief last Steve knew, was the last to leave. “You got re-instated?” He asked, as soon as the door closed.

“About an hour ago. Took the time to look over Eddie’s file and the only thing they had on him was that someone said they saw Chrissy leave with him after the basketball game. Obviously they found nothing in the trailer, before it was destroyed, and there’s nothing tying him to Fred or Patrick’s deaths other than Carver’s ‘delusions’,” he explained, putting air quotes around delusions. They all knew Carver had really seen how Patrick died, but the only way the shadowy government types could keep things hidden about the Upside Down was to pretend he’d had some kind of psychotic break. “Probably people will still be suspicious of him, but he’s not going to be arrested. There’s nothing to arrest him for. Except the drugs, so make sure he keeps his nose clean with that. For a while, at least.” The last part was addressed to Wayne only, who grunted his agreement.

“Well, I’m real glad you’re back, Hop.”

“Me too. These idiots forgot how to do their jobs. Not surprised there was a witch hunt for your nephew with these morons manning the station. Anyway, Joyce said she’ll bring you two dinner. She’s making lasagna. El said she’s recovered and is willing to take a look in Eddie’s mind, make sure it is just healing that’s keeping him in a coma for so long, not that something else was done. If you’re okay with that, Wayne.”

Wayne glanced over at Steve, raising an eyebrow as if questioning him on whether he thought it was a good idea or not.

“If Supergirl says she’s up to it, I say go for it.” El had been drained after fighting her brother in Max’s mind. It had taken her almost a week to get any semblance of her powers back and she’d been working since then to get them back to where they should be.

“Alright, Hop. Whenever you’re able to bring her up.” A few hours later, before Wayne went off to work, Joyce brought El when she brought them lasagna. They cleared out of her way, only going into the hallway to let her do her thing. After a fairly short time, she came back out and announced that he was fine, there was no sign of anything from One, so it really was just healing from his injuries that was keeping him unconscious.

Over the next several days, their routine continued. Wayne came straight from work for an hour or two before going back to his buddy’s place, who’d been letting him stay since the destruction of his trailer. Steve still stayed in the room, except when Nancy and Robin came by to more or less force him to head home for a bit. He made polite, but not very interesting, conversation with Eddie’s friends when they came by. They were still, reasonably, wary of ‘King Steve’, so he understood why they didn’t talk to him much. The kids came by after school to share any gossip they’d heard about Eddie, which was much more interesting. Robin brought updates on the repair work that was being done to Family Video and the rest of the town. One/Vecna hadn’t succeeded in fully opening his portals, but it was apparently a near miss, with a lot of places taking a lot of damage. Particularly places in the center of town. They were blaming the damage, and any ‘delusions’ like Jason’s, on a gas main leak and explosion.

Wayne came back a couple hours before work and shared a couple more stories about younger-Eddie. Steve had started to share some stories about himself, but he didn’t really have any interesting things happen in his life before the Upside Down and it’s not like those were fun stories to revisit. Still, Steve told him some of it, just so he had a clearer idea of exactly what kind of mess Eddie’d stumbled into. And maybe because Wayne had shared the painful things about his and Eddie’s pasts.

Doctors and nurses came and went, checking on him to make sure he was healing like he should be. Dr. Roberts assured them that he was healing normally and that the coma was actually helping him to heal faster since his body didn’t need to do much else. They also started him on a form a physical therapy. Obviously he wasn’t moving on his own so it wasn’t normal physical therapy, but since the wounds were more or less healed, a physical therapist came in to do some limb stretches and things with him.

Then, in the middle of the night a little over a week after Hopper’s reinstatement, Eddie started thrashing around on the bed. Steve jumped out of his chair and hurried to the bed, reaching him just as his movements slowed.

“What fresh hell is this?” he croaked, voice scratchy from disuse, eyes narrowed against the light from his bedside table that Steve had been using to read by.

“It’s called a hospital, usually. Suppose it could be hell too.” Steve looked down at him with a smile, relieved to see clear brown eyes looking back up at him.

“Harrington?”

“Morning, Munson. Well, very very early morning.”

“What is happening?”

“You’re in Hawkins Hospital. They had to stitch you up. You lost a lot of blood too, man. Like, they weren’t sure you were gonna make it when we brought you in. Lemme get the nurse or doctor for you, okay?”

“Wait. Dustin?”

“He’s good. Sleeping at home right now. I’ll tell you all about in a few minutes.” Steve ducked out of the room and rushed to the nurse’s station. He probably could’ve used the call button, but figured this was better so they’d know what to expect. “He’s awake,” he told the night charge nurse, Janet.

“Awake?” She jumped up.

“And completely aware.” Janet shouted a few things Steve didn’t understand, something about codes, and she, another nurse, and one of the emergency room doctor’s rushed into Eddie’s room. Steve took that time to reach over Janet’s desk and make a phone call. “Hello sir, this is Steve Harrington. Could I speak with Wayne Munson? Yes, I understand he’s manning a machine right now. No sir, I…. I know bu…. Could you just tell him his nephew’s awake? Yes that’s right. Thank you.” Steve waited for just a minute until Wayne was on the line and he repeated himself. “Eddie’s up. The medical people are in with him now. Okay, I’ll let him know.”

Steve slipped back into Eddie’s room, watching the medical staff fuss over him. Janet turned to him as the others filtered out, gesturing him to come closer. “We’ll have Dr. Roberts check him over in the morning of course, but he’s aware, like you said. Mr. Munson, your cognitive function seems to all be normal, your vitals are as good as always, there’s the stiffness we expected in your reflexes. That’ll just take some time and physical therapy to get back to normal. If you could step back out for a moment, Steve, I’m going to remove his tubes.”

Steve winced in sympathy, knowing exactly what tubes Eddie had in his body. A very short time later, she came back out. “I’ll call his uncle’s work now, let him know.”

“I already did. He should be here soon.”

“Good. I’ll keep an eye out for him.”

Steve turned back into Eddie’s room, to see him sitting propped up on the raised bed and shifting uncomfortably. Rather than address it, since he figured he’d be embarrassed to talk about catheter removal, Steve made his way to the end of the bed and said, “Like I said, Dustin’s doing fine. He’ll be thrilled you’re awake. They all will. Max is also good, broken arm, but it’s healing good. Lucas had some bruises and a broken hand from Carver, who found them and broke into the Creel house. He’s fine, so is Erica. Well, she’s still pissed she can’t, and I quote “give that fucker what he deserves”. One of Carver’s friends tied her to the playground jungle gym while Carver went after her brother. He’s been arrested for assaulting Lucas and Max. Let’s see, Nance and Robin are totally fine. They had some bruising and shit from the vines, but it’s healed up. The Byers and Mike all made it back to town. They apparently had their own things going on and if you want to hear about that, Mike’ll talk your ear off about it, I’m sure. El’s got her powers back, so that’s been interesting. Hopper’s not dead and is police chief again. He’s also the reason you’re not cuffed to the bed any more. Told Powell off for being a bad cop, arresting you with no evidence.

Your stitches were taken out a few weeks ago, same as mine, but they said you had more internal damage than I did, so it’s not surprising you were out. And, uh, I think that’s it. Oh! The town took some pretty heavy damage, they’re still doing a lot of repairs. But, we won. Vecna’s ash, saw it myself. And your uncle knows everything. The kids told him while you were in surgery and I was being stitched up.”

“For how long?”

“Five weeks. Roughly.”

“Five weeks?”

“Mm-hm. We let El double check that you weren’t like, being held hostage in your own head or something.”

Behind Steve, the door was flung open. “Christ Jesus, Eddie! You damn near scared the life outta me.”

“Hey Wayne,” Eddie offered a watery smile, holding his hand out to his uncle. Steve silently excused himself to give the pair of them room when he noticed the tears in Eddie’s eyes.

Silently, Wayne held Eddie as close as he could, both of the silently crying into each others’ shoulders. After a while, when the pain in Wayne’s lower back got to be too much, he leaned back, slowly releasing his nephew. He sat down in his usual spot and just stared at him for a minute, basking in the knowledge that he was awake.

“What’ve I missed?”

“Your aunts have called a couple times.”

“You mean you called them.”

“Well, I had to tell everyone you were in the hospital. ‘Course, I didn’t tell ‘em the details. Your Mamaw’s doin’ what she does. She’ll be thrilled to hear it helped.” Eddie chuckled a little, before coughing. Wayne’s mom, his Mamaw, was a superstitious old woman at the best of times and would probably lose her mind if she knew exactly what had happened to Eddie. She was also known to be a folk healer by their neighbors and had definitely done some sort of healing-from-a-distance for Eddie. He’d decided when he was a kid to never ask her the details about what she did, always a little afraid to find out that she was making him drink something nasty when he was sick. “Steve tell you all the kids, and your friends, have been to visit you pretty much whenever they can?”

“He didn’t get to that part, just updated me on injuries and stuff before you came in.”

“Mm.” Wayne was quiet again, staring at his nephew. “You know you can tell me anything, Ed.”

“I know. Why?” Eddie narrowed his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me about your boy? Or, I guess, why didn’t you tell me you’d finally made a move on the boy you been pinin’ after for years?”

“What?! What have you said to him?!” Eddie sat bolt upright and gripped his uncle’s wrist, panic all over his face.

“Calm down,” Wayne reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, gently rubbing his thumb back and forth to try to calm him down. “We’ve been gettin’ to know each other, is all.”

“Wayne, listen to me. We are not together. I have not made any moves. Steve is very, incredibly, straight. Still in love with his ex, even. He’s barely even my friend. And that’s only because of life-endangering circumstances. Oh, I need to lie back down.” Eddie slumped back against his pillows, releasing his hold on Wayne. “That was too much effort. That’s so dumb, all I did was sit up.”

“You’ve been out for over a month, kid. So, you’re not together?”

“Decidedly not.”

“Hm. I figured that’s why he spent every day all day in here with you. ‘Cept when the girls come in for a couple hours so he can go home and eat and stuff.”

“All day?” Eddie asked in disbelief.

“Mm. All day, every single day. He was here before me the first day they let you have visitors. Sits in that chair there and watches soaps all afternoon. Bet he could tell you all about ‘em.”

“God, of course he likes soap operas. Argh!” Eddie pressed his hands over his face, screaming into his palms.

“Well, that was weird. I feel like I’ve missed something,” Steve said, strolling back in with three cups. He passed Wayne’s coffee off to him and held out the third cup to Eddie, keeping ahold of his own. “Doc said you’re not allowed to have caffeine yet, so it’s apple juice. They tried to give you orange, but Wayne said you don’t like that. And they’re gonna bring up some food from the cafeteria soon, see how you tolerate solid food.”

“You talked about me?” Eddie turned an accusing stare on his uncle, not that Steve took much notice of it.

“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’ sound. “What were you screaming about when I walked in?”

“Nothing. What do you mean ‘yep’? As if it’s a totally normal thing?” He took a long drink of the apple juice. “God, that’s delicious.”

“Eddie, you were laying here unconscious, after doing something I distinctly remember telling you not to do,” he glared down at him for a second. “Who else were we gonna talk about?”

Eddie didn’t say anything for a minute. “Okay, so, how did I get here? Like, last I remember, I was looking up at Dustin and very much not gon – topside.” he cut himself off, changing what he was going to say when he saw the same upset look on Wayne and Steve’s faces.

“When Nance, Rob, and I got back to the trailer park, you were already unconscious and Dustin was….” Steve trailed off, eyes looking into some middle distance as if remembering exactly what Dustin looked like. “Anyway,” he shook himself out of it. “Nancy tore up some of our clothes and we got those around you as bandages, then I lifted you over my shoulder and hauled you into the trailer. Shit was starting to come apart then, but I was able to push you through the gate to the girls. Then we… borrowed Max’s mom’s car and got you here.”

“You carried me out?” Eddie would deny the blush and the spike in his heart monitor if anyone said anything, but neither of them mentioned it.

“Of course I did. You still had a pulse, Eddie. We were never gonna just leave you there. Even if…. Not gonna happen, we don’t leave people behind.”

“Well, heard the freak’s awake and I guess it’s true.” One of the night orderly’s pushed through the hospital door, pushing a cart with covered food on it in front of him.

“Out!” Steve demanded, jerking the cart away from him then crowding into the man’s space, forcing him back out the door.

This time when Eddie’s heart monitor showed the spike in his heart rate, Wayne turned to him with a knowing grin. Eddie glared and tried to make his heart beat slower.

“You okay, Ed?” Steve turned back toward him, pushing the cart himself. “I know you’re…. Your friends said you’re used to shit like that, but I mean, that doesn’t make it okay. Plus you just woke up.”

“Yeah, I’m good. Just… surprised me, I guess.” Wayne quickly turned his laugh into a fake cough. Steve turned a quizzical look to him, but otherwise said nothing.

“Well, at least we know he didn’t tamper with any of it, it’s all wrapped up.”

“Hospital food, yay.”

“Keep it down and I’ll see if Joyce can bring you some real food in the morning.”

“Joyce?”

“Byers. Will and Jon’s mom.”

“Huh. Dunno why I can never remember that’s her name. She’ll bring me food? Real food?”

“I’ll talk to her in the morning. Like the actual, post-dawn morning.”

“Fair.” With some trepidation, Eddie dug into the hospital-provided lunch meat sandwich, chips, and Jello. Then, a while later, he drifted off to sleep, complaining the whole time that he wasn’t tired and he’d been asleep for long enough.

A few minutes after he was out, Wayne said, “Thanks, Steve. I know I don’t say it ever, but thanks for being around and for looking after my nephew.”

“You never have to thank me for that, Wayne. I…,” he sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “I like being useful and taking care of people.”

Steve went back to his borrowed copy of The Return of the King, while Wayne just sort of sat there, watching Eddie sleep and knowing that he was actually just asleep, not in a coma. The two of them eventually drifted off to sleep in their own, less than comfortable hospital chairs for a few hours after that. They were woken up when Dr. Roberts got in for his morning shift and came to see them first thing. Leaving Wayne with the doctor, Steve made his way back to the nurse’s station and asked to borrow the phone from the morning charge nurse, Sarah. He dialed the Byers/Hopper house first, even though it’d probably piss off Dustin if he knew.

“Hello?”

“Hey Jon. Is your mom awake?”

“She is. She’s making waffles. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing at all. Can you ask her if she can bring some of those waffles for Eddie?”

“He’s awake?!”

“He is,” Steve smiled, hearing the cacophony in the background that greeted Jonathon’s question.

“Shut up a minute!” He shouted to the people around him. “Sorry, we had all the boys over last night. I’ll call Nance and Robin, see if we can get in touch with his other friends. We’ll see you soon.”

“Thanks Jon, I appreciate it.”

With a smile on his face and feeling lighter than he had in the past month and a half, Steve strolled back into Eddie’s hospital room in time to hear Roberts say that the physical therapist would be down later in the morning to start Eddie’s full rehab.

“You’re in a good mood,” Eddie commented as Roberts left.

“Joyce is bringing waffles. And children.”

“Excellent,” he grinned.

“They’re also gonna tell your friends.”

Soon, the room was flooded with boisterous teenagers, all trying to catch Eddie up on the minute details and gossip of Hawkins that he’d missed. Steve was pretty sure he didn’t care much about the gossip, but was just glad to have everyone around. Though he could have, Steve didn’t leave the room, choosing instead to find a spot where he was out of the way and could just observe and relax. He ended up leaning against the wall, near the tv.

“Feeling better now that your crush is awake?”

“Sshh!!” Steve shushed Robin who had come over to lean on the wall beside him.

“Of course he is,” Nancy commented quietly from Robin’s other side.

“Will you two shut up?” he whisper-yelled at them. Nancy rolled her eyes, knowing no one could hear them over the children. “I shouldn’t have ever told you guys,” he groaned, dropping his head back against the tile.

“Told us?,” Robin chuckled. “Steve, you didn’t tell us anything. You had a full blown, hysteric crisis. The kind they lock women up in asylums for.”

“They don’t lock women up for hysteria anymore. Besides, you two would’ve been put away long before me.” Since the trip to Pennhurst, Robin had gotten very interested in psychology. She’d devoured the few books available at Hawkins’ library and was trying to learn more. Steve was fairly certain she knew now what she would go to college to study, even though she hadn’t said anything to him yet.

“The point still stands, you can’t be upset that you told us when you really came to us in a hysteric crisis.” Nancy said.

“Yes I can,” Steve insisted, crossing his arms over his chest. Robin laughed again, bumping her shoulder into his. “Besides, it’s not like it matters. You know –”

“Yeah, yeah, we know. Might not be into guys, especially jock guys.”

“On the other hand, he might be into guys who carried him out of hell,” Robin added.

“Fuck off, Rob.” Both girls laughed at him.

A few days later, with physical therapy progressing well and his wounds healed, Dr. Roberts released Eddie. They hadn’t gotten around to repairing the damage to the trailer park yet, and Wayne was still staying on his friend’s couch, who didn’t have room for Eddie too, so Steve did the logical thing and invited him to stay at his otherwise empty house. And if he mentally kicked himself for it, because now he was sure he’d make a fool of himself somehow, well, only he needed to know that.

Which is how he found himself strolling into his own home and hearing Eddie’s voice, with a thicker accent than usual, on what seemed to be the tail end of a phone call. “Yes, Mamaw, I’m healin’ good, thanks to you. Promise I’ll come home to see you, soon as I can. Love you too, Mamaw.”

Steve stepped in the hallway to see Eddie grinning at the phone as he hung up. “Does your accent always get thicker when you talk to your Mamaw?”

“Steve!” Eddie jumped a little. “Hi, didn’t hear you come in. What?”

Steve chuckled. “Your accent was thicker just then, when you were on the phone. Is that a Mamaw specific thing, or does it happen with your aunts and cousins too?”

“How do you…? Wayne.” Eddie’s accent had all but disappeared now.

“Yeah, Wayne. He told me about your family in Kentucky.”

“I’m afraid to ask what else he told you. But, no, it’s not a Mamaw specific thing. It happens with any of my family, even Wayne sometimes. It’s easier to hide with Wayne though, since there are other people with normal accents around.”

“Hide? You mean you do that on purpose, not just that you, I dunno, accidently started to sound like the people around you?”

Eddie snorted. “It’s definitely on purpose. I can handle the barbs about my music, DnD, even my hair. But I hate the looks of ‘oh he’s stupid’ or pity or whatever from the way I sound. It’s the way my Mamaw and my aunties sound. They ain’t stupid, Steve. They’re some of the smartest people I know. So’s Wayne, no matter what anyone says.” Steve listened, a small, fascinated smile on his face as Eddie’s accent got thicker again, the longer he ranted. “What is that look for?”

“Nothing, just, your accent’s back. Got thicker while you ranted. I’m kinda fascinated because that never happened with your table rants at school. I like it,” he shrugged, using the casual gesture to hide that he’d almost slipped and said ‘you’ instead of ‘it’.

“You… like it? Like, my accent?”

“Yeah. I mean, I like listening to you talk in general, but I definitely enjoy the accent. Anyway,” Steve continued on before he could respond to that. “Rob and Nance will be here soon. The brats want to have a movie night, so one of them is gonna stay to help set up, and me and the other one, probably Rob, are gonna head to the grocery store for supplies.”

“Wheeler, do something!” Eddie demanded a short while later, as soon as Steve’s car was down the drive and it was just the two of them.

“About what?”

“About Steve. Either take him back or let him down so he’s distracted.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Listen, I know he’s still got a thing for you. I saw the way he looked at you down there,” he tapped his toes once on the ground. “But I dunno if it’s just because he’s focused on me since I’m living with him for now, or what, but he’s getting weird, Wheeler.”

“Weird how? And stop calling me Wheeler, my name’s Nancy.”

“I was on the phone earlier with family back in Kentucky and Steve said he likes my voice. Likes listening to me and ‘enjoys my accent’.”

“You have an accent? Like your uncle’s?”

“Yes, but that’s not the point.”

“He’s not being weird. And he doesn’t still have a thing for me. We talked about that weeks ago, after Jon got back.”

“Ugh!” Eddie flopped down on the couch she was sitting on, head landing very near her lap. “So, what then?”

“Better question, why’re you making a big deal out of it? Why does it matter to you that he likes the sound of your voice?” Nancy reached out and gently ran her fingers through his curls.

“No reason, just seemed weird is all.”

“Uh huh. Try again.”

Eddie was silent for nearly five minutes. Nancy sat patiently waiting. “Okay, swear you won’t say anything to anyone? Except, you can talk to Wayne because he already knows.”

“I swear.”

“I may, possibly, have had a thing for Steve for… a while.”

“I feel like you could have been more vague with that answer if you tried,” she rolled her eyes, doing her best to hide her joy.

“Yeah, ‘cause it’s not awkward at all to talk about my crush on a guy to that guy’s ex-girlfriend,” Eddie rolled his eyes.

“So it’s a crush, huh?”

“Ugh!” He flopped over onto his stomach, burying his face in the couch.

Nancy chuckled at him, but otherwise said nothing, quietly planning in her head.

---

“Now what’s all this about girls?” Wayne asked, a couple days later when Nancy and Robin met him outside of work when he got off at 5:00 am.

“We need your help with Eddie and Steve,” Robin said, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“That right?” Nancy was pleased to note the little bit of mischief in his eyes when he asked.

“Mm-hm, and I think you know why.” The three of them sat in the bed of his pickup and made their plans.

---

“Please tell me I’m not the only one who finds this suspicious,” Eddie commented from the passenger seat.

“Why, our friends insisting on meeting us in the middle of nowhere with no explanation? No, not suspicious at all. Although, if they’d gotten Dustin in on it, I’d be more suspicious.”

“That’s fair. He’s obnoxious when he tries to be sneaky.” They both laughed. “Where are we going anyway?”

“The hill just outside town. The kids call it Weathertop, after the place in Lord of the Rings.” Eddie was silent long enough that Steve risked a quick glance over to see him staring in open-mouthed shock. “What?” he laughed.

“You know Lord of the Rings? Since when? I know you didn’t get my Mordor reference before.”

“I had a lot of time while you were in a coma,” Steve shrugged a shoulder. “Dustin let me borrow his copies, even The Hobbit,” he said proudly.

“You read The Hobbit and the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy while I was in a coma?”

“I mean, I only just finished Return of the King like two days ago. But yeah. I dunno, Wayne said it was one of your favorites. And plus, I know the kids like it. So, yeah.”

“No no, don’t add the brats to this. You read it because Wayne said it was one of my favorites?”

Steve sighed, gripping the steering wheel tighter, then relaxed again before answering. “Robin told me that a good way to get to know someone is by learning about their favorite things. Your music is apparently too much for my concussed head, it triggers a migraine. So, I went with books.”

“But you tried it? Listening to my music, I mean.”

“Yeah. I tried… oh hell, who was it? They’re on the front of your vest. Megadeth! Anyway, I was down for like a whole day with a migraine. But Wayne brought in a Woodie Guthrie cassette and that was way easier for me to listen to. I like him.”

“I need…. I need to take a minute and process that you tried to listen to my music, and read one of my favorite book series to try to get to know me while I was unconscious. This is blowing my mind. Seriously though, why would you… I mean, we didn’t even know each other before this whole thing started. Well, started for me anyway. I know you were involved way longer than I was. And I know Wayne was talkin’ to ya about me, so why the extra stuff, I guess is what I’m really wonderin’.” Steve listened with a small smile. Since he’d said something about like Eddie’s accent, he’d started to hear it more frequently. Yeah, Eddie still made an effort to sound ‘normal’, especially when other people were around. But when it was just them, or when he started off on a ramble like that, it got thicker again. “What are you so damn happy about?”

“It’s nothing,” Steve shook his head. “Are you still processing or did you actually want an answer?”

“I dunno. I kinda wanna make up my own thing. But anyway, do you know why they’re bringing us all the way out here?”

“No idea. I know Dustin had his Cerebro set up out here for a while.”

“Cerebro? You’re secretly a huge nerd, aren’t you Harrington?” Eddie chuckled.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” he grinned. “But I know some stuff. Hard to be friends with the kids and not know some of it.” He parked the car at the base of the hill as he spoke. “Alright, let’s see what these weirdos are up to now.”

As he got out of the car, Eddie looked around. “Do you find it as suspicious as I do that there’s no other cars – like Nancy’s or the Byers’ – and there’s no bikes?”

“I didn’t, until you just said something. I kind of assumed we were just here first.”

“Hm, yeah, I guess that’s possible.”

“Should I bring the bat?”

“The bat?” Eddie turned with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah.” Steve walked around to the back of his car, popped the trunk, and pulled out what at first made Eddie think of a medieval Morningstar, but turned out to be a regular wooden bat with nails hammered through it. “The bat,” Steve repeated, swinging the bat in his hand then bringing it to rest on his shoulder.

“Where… why…? Explain.” Steve laughed a little, but explained the history of the weapon, how Jon had created it way back when all the Upside Down stuff first starting happening to them, but how it had become Steve’s weapon after that first encounter. “I… I kinda wanna see you use that, actually. But yeah, sure, bring it just in case.”

Steve raised an eyebrow at Eddie saying he wanted to see him using it, but otherwise didn’t comment. Together, the pair of them made their way up to the top of the hill, then stopped dead at what greeted them. Steve was the first to understand what exactly was happening, and dropped the bat off his shoulder.

“It’s a date,” he said softly. “They set us up on a date.”

“They did not!”

“They very much did. Well, Nance, Rob, and Wayne did.”

“How… what makes you say that?”

“The blanket is from my downstairs closet, one of the ones that is meant to be used outside, and is the one Robin thinks has the most cushion. So she says. The whole layout, setup, whatever, looks like every time I ever set up a dinner or picnic for Nancy. And I’d bet money Wayne made the food – unless I’m very wrong, that’s a ham and turkey sandwich with mustard and pickles. Which I still maintain is gross, but he says is one of your favorites.” Steve turned to Eddie with a wide grin and held out his hand. “C’mon.”

“But…. But you’re straight.”

“I’m really not though.”

Hidden in the trees not too far away, Robin and Nancy watched as Steve tugged Eddie over to the picnic they’d just finished setting up. Sharing a high five, the two girls turned and headed to Nancy’s car which was parked a short distance away, and drove out to let Wayne know their plan worked.

#steddie

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