Chapter Text
[CHAPTER 1] — THE UPSIDE-DOWN
The walk back to the trailer was the longest ever. Exhausted, Steve, Robin, and Nancy made the trek back to the familiar trailer of their friend. What they weren’t expecting when they got there was Dustin kneeling on the ground screaming and sobbing. Robin and Nancy shared a terrified look as Steve took off, sprinting over to his younger brother.
“Dustin!! Dustin, buddy, what’s wrong??”
Steve knelt next to Dustin only to notice him clutching something to his body. When he got a closer look, he noticed that Dustin was clutching Eddie’s body to himself. Horror flashed across Steve’s face as he looked over Eddie’s lifeless, blood-stained body.
“What happened? Dustin look at me.” He grabbed Dustin by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “What happened?”
Tears were pooling in Dustin’s eyes as he looked at Steve.
“He sacrificed himself.”
Slowly sliding his arms around Eddie to take him from Dustin, Steve checked all the pulse points he could find. Robin took Dustin into her arms and turned him away from Eddie. Finally, Steve found a faint pulse along Eddie’s neck and nearly shouted with relief. Picking Eddie up in a bridal carry, he raced to the trailer the others following him in confusion. “STEVE!!! Where are you going?!” Robin shouted from behind him. He ignored them and just kept running.
When he got to the trailer, he kicked the door open with enough force to shake the whole trailer. Spotting the couch in the corner of his eye, he laid Eddie down as gentle as he could given the circumstances. He turned towards the hallway and made his way to the closet that resides there. The others busted into the trailer just as he started grabbing as many extra blankets as he could. Nancy picked up on what he was doing and made herself useful by tying the blankets together into a rope. Robin still had Dustin tucked under her arm and, noticing Eddie on the couch, decided to lead him over to the kitchen chair. After making sure he wasn’t going to pass out on her, she moved to help the older two with their rope making.
When they had enough rope to throw through the gate in the ceiling and be able to climb. Steve moved back over to the couch and strained to move it with Eddie laying on it. Robin started to go help when Steve finally was able to move it. The movement jostled Eddie making him groan out load, the only sign of life he had made the whole time. Dustin let out a shriek at the noise, Robin and Nancy whipped their heads around to stare at the couch, and Steve paused his movement with a wince. When Eddie stopped groaning, Steve started pushing again, gentler this time, with a muttered “sorry Eddie.”
After a few more shoves and a few more pained groans, the coach was under the rope, giving an extra boost to whoever climbed up first. Steve turned to Dustin first, wanting to get him out of here as fast as he could. He pulled him up from the chair where he sat staring at Eddie ever since he first groaned. Dustin realized what Steve was trying to do and started to protest. “Steve. No. Steve don-“ Steve shook his arms to get his attention back.
“Hey! Look at me!” Dustin’s attention snapped back to Steve at the sudden sharp tone. Steve stared him hard in the eyes. “You’re going up that rope first. I don’t care what you try to say. I’m getting you out of here to see your mom. No protests. Understood?” Dustin just nodded his head, eyes as wide as saucers. Steve turned to shift Eddie so he wouldn’t be stepped on as people climbed. He helped Dustin get up the rope and turned back to the girls.
“Who’s next?”
Robin smacked his hand away when he tried to get her to step on it and instead shimmied up the rope at an impressive speed. Nancy grabbed the rope and turned back to look at Steve. “You’re going to make it out of here or I swear to god ill come find you and kill you myself.” Steve just gave her one of his signature smirks.
“Will do.”
After everyone was up, he turned back to Eddie on the couch.
“Just me and you, Big boy.”
He kneeled down enough to sling Eddie over his shoulder in an attempted fire mans carry. He was lighter than Steve was expecting and threw him off balance a bit. When he righted himself, he climbed up on the couch and gripped the rope with a death grip and looked up.
“This is it.”
Just as Steve started climbing the gate started to slowly shut. The others looked down at him through it and started shouting at him. His muscles burned with the effort to get up the rope fast enough, but he got through and fell on the mattress just in time to have the rope fall on top of him from the gate closing. A sigh of relief left him before he heard the groan from the man now smashed below him. He jumped up and snapped his head to the man still laying on the mattress. He was still losing blood and was now looking deathly pale in the light from the lamp. Steve snapped his attention to the others crowding around them.
“We need to get him to a hospital. NOW!”
The next couple of hours were a blur to Steve. He doesn’t remember who called them or when they got here but the next thing, he remembers is sitting in the back of an ambulance with a shock blanket around his shoulders. He remembered a couple of EMT’s trying to get close enough to look at his injuries, but he wouldn’t let anyone close. When the shock wore off another EMT came up to him and asked if he was ready to go to the hospital. He looked around at the other ambulances that had his friends in them. Nancy getting checked for a concussion and robin having a cut looked at on her forehead. Dustin was sitting next to robin just staring at the ground. Steve realized that Eddie had already been rushed off to the hospital and wanted to be there for him, so he looked up at the EMT and just shook his head.
She helped him into the ambulance and had him sit on the gurney. She tried to look at his injuries better by taking the vest off him, but he reeled back.
“Don’t!! please.”
The lady noticed his look of desperation and backed off a bit.
“I still need to get a good look at those. They look pretty bad.”
He glanced down at his torso and got a good look at himself. He was filthy looking and was starting to bleed through his makeshift bandages. Reluctantly, he opened the vest enough for the lady to take the bandages off. When she finally had them off, she just looked at them and then let out a low whistle.
“Damn kid. The earthquake really got you, didn’t it.”
Steve just turned his head away as she started getting a better look.
“You have no idea.”
When they got to the hospital, Steve looked out the back window to see Eddie getting rushed out of his ambulance with an oxygen mask and a bunch of doctors and nurses surrounding him. The doors opened on him just as Eddie disappeared behind a different set of doors.
“Come on kid. Let’s get you patched up.”
Steve stepped out just to have a nurse come up to him and take his arm to steady him. He didn’t even realize he had been swaying. The nurse led him to a room and sat him down on the bed. The rest of the hospital visit was another blur. He got patched up and got the vest back, he didn’t even realize it got taken off him. He went to wait in the waiting room and found the other kids were also there. “Steve!!!” he got tackled into a hug by Dustin. Looks like his shock wore off. He looked up at Steve with worry in his eyes.
“Have you heard anything about Eddie? They won’t tell us anything.”
Steve just shook his head and lead the boy back to his seat and sat down with him. They sat in silence for awhile until a nurse came up to them.
“Which one of you is the oldest?”
Steve hesitantly raised his hand. The nurse just nodded and looked around at the others before speaking.
“Can you come with me please. I would like to talk to you.”
The nurse took him around the corner and looked at him with a pitying look. “Your friends with Eddie Munson, correct?”
Steve just nodded at her. A grim expression crossed her face.
“We can’t get ahold of his uncle and he doesn’t have any other emergency contacts so we figured you guys were the next best thing. He just got out of surgery. He has lost a lot of blood and well…,” the nurse trailed off and Steve just stared at her. “And well, what?” the nurse looked back at him. “Eddie Munson’s body has sent him into a coma. We don’t know if or when he will wake up.” Steve stood there in shock. “ill give you a few minutes to process that and tell the rest of your friends. Then ill let you back to see him.” The nurse pat him on the shoulder and walked away.
Eddie Munson was in a coma. The never-ending chatter box. Now he didn’t know if he would ever hear him quote another book Steve didn’t know or talk D&D with Dustin. He turned to where he could hear the others starting to wake up and move around. How was he going to tell them? What could he say? Hey, Eddie’s alive but in a coma and no one knows when he’ll wake up. That’s a shitty bomb to drop on your friends but he knew he was going to have to tell them.
Turning back to the voices he starts walking over, watching them from the corner. Nancy and robin were awake, but Dustin was still sprawled out across the seat he used to be in. His feet across Nancy’s lap. Robin heard him coming and turned her head towards him.
“What did the nurse want Steve?”
Steve turned his attention to the floor.
“Eddie’s out of surgery.” Robin’s eyes lit up at that. “Well, that’s great news. Why do you look so sad?” her eyebrows furrowed when she noticed his downturned expression.
“He’s in a coma. They don’t know when or if he’ll wake up.”
Nancy covered her mouth with her hand. Robin just stared ahead with her mouth parted. She then glanced at Dustin, her voice trembling slightly, “How are we going to tell him? Eddie’s half of his world. He’s going to be heart broken.”
Steve followed her gaze. Dustin was so peaceful when he slept. Not causing anyone any headaches or getting in trouble. Steve looked back at robin. “I don’t know. I really don’t want to, but I know if I don’t, he’ll find out eventually and hate me for not letting him know.”
In the end, they ended up shaking Dustin awake. “Hey, buddy. You got to wake up.” Steve knelt in front of him watching as he slowly woke up. Dustin slowly sat up and looked around. “What is it? Is it Eddie?” Steve just watched as Dustin looked around in search of the older boy who wasn’t there. “Yeah, Dustin. Its about Eddie. But you have to sit and listen to me.” Dustin sat there staring at Steve as he explained what happened and how Eddie was doing. Dustin just stared at him the whole time, not saying a word until Steve was done.
“Can we go see him?”