Chapter Text
“EDDIEEE!”
Eddie’s eyes snapped open, his body struggling to remain upright as he involuntarily took a sudden step backwards and almost tripped over his own feet. He blinked, turning his head this way and that to take in his surroundings. He vaguely recognized where he was to be the lobby of the Townhouse, the only lodging option in his one horse hometown of Derry, Maine. There was the front desk, perpetually unstaffed, as always. There was the ornate staircase leading up to the rooms. There was the equally unstaffed bar, filled to the brim with various bottles of assorted spirits, many of which looked as though they had been sitting there untouched since the 1970s and may very well have been. Yes, he knew exactly where he was.
How he had gotten there, however, was, at the moment, a complete mystery. Hell, why he was there at all was just as good of a question right then.
“WE CAN STILL HELP HIM!”
He winced and shook his head, the faint voice still ringing in his ears. It sounded dimly familiar, almost like a song he’d heard once and forgotten, but he couldn’t quite place it. Not that he could focus enough to place it even if he tried. He was suddenly very aware of a dull ache in the middle of his torso, radiating down from his chest and into his stomach. He looked down at himself, patting his body down as he searched for the source of the mysterious ailment. Finding nothing, he let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and leaned tiredly against the reception desk.
Christ, Eddie, he inwardly chastised himself. You’re a fucking mess. First a blackout and now...whatever this is. A heart attack? Stomach cancer? Maybe it’s an allergic reaction to something.
He was in the middle of debating with himself over which deadly disease he must have picked up along the way when his thoughts were interrupted by the sudden noise of the bed and breakfast’s front door crashing open. Eddie jumped, adrenaline from the unexpected scare coursing through his veins as he turned to see a man standing in the doorway.
“What the fuck, man?” he admonished the stranger, reaching into his pocket for his inhaler as he struggled to catch his breath. “Your mom never teach you how to open a friggin door?”
The man just stared at him, his eyes wide and mouth slightly agape as he slowly took a step forward into the building. He looked absolutely disheveled. His hair was wild and untamed, his clothes were a rumpled mess and he had bags under his eyes as though he hadn’t slept in days.
“I...I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just...I…” The stranger stumbled over his words as he continued to stare weirdly at Eddie, a faint look of concern ghosting over his face as his eyes followed the inhaler. “God, I’m so sorry. Are you ok?”
“What, this?” asked Eddie, indicating the inhaler in his hand as he took one final puff. “It’s not ideal, but I’ll live.” He shoved the device back into his pocket and gave the man a thorough visual inspection, taking in the small details of him for the first time now that he could breathe normally. He was about Eddie’s age, taller than he, with unkempt brown hair and dark glasses that formed the centerpiece of his handsome face. Eddie let his gaze drift from the man’s broad chest down to the slight muscles visible beneath his short sleeved, mustard yellow shirt before he collected himself and focused back on his face.
“So, do you work here or what?” he asked, his face scrunching up a bit as he tried to figure out why, despite the fact that he had never seen this man in his life before ten seconds ago, he still looked vaguely familiar to him. “I kinda need to check in here.”
The other man’s eyes darkened and Eddie could swear he saw them well up for just a second, the well formed chin giving off the tiniest of quivers before his mysterious visitor shook himself out of whatever trance he’d seemed to be in.
“Fuck no, I don’t work here,” he said in a casual tone, one hand reaching up to swipe at his eye from beneath his glasses. “They couldn’t pay me enough. Can you imagine the kind of filthy ‘Fifty Shades’ bullshit the freaks in this town probably get up to here at the Bates Motel?”
Eddie snorted in spite of himself. A look of relief passed over the other man’s face at the sound.
“Sorry I scared you, man. I just….I was in a hurry and well, I guess I never was taught how to enter a room correctly.” The man sniffed and fidgeted nervously, and Eddie noticed that he didn’t seem to know what the hell to do with his hands. They were all over the place, in and out of his pockets in between soft taps on the side of his thigh. Truthfully, it was sort of endearing. He wished he could figure out why in the world this complete stranger still seemed so familiar. He knew...he could swear he’d seen this man before.
“That’s fine,” he replied, crossing his arms over his own chest protectively as he searched the man’s face for any indication of where he knew him from. “I don’t mean to stare you down, but have we met before?”
The other man blanched. There it was again, that weird, tiny quiver in his chin. “I don’t think so, sorry,” he replied, every word sounding as if it were a chore even though he was clearly trying to sound casual. “But maybe you’ve seen one of my Netflix specials.”
Eddie blinked. “Sorry, what?”
The other man smiled and finally closed the remaining gap between them, extending one hand for Eddie to shake. “I’m Richie Tozier. Not exactly a world famous comedian, but people pay me money to tell dumb jokes sometimes.”
“Oh!” Eddie exclaimed as he shook the offered hand. As it happened, he had seen one of those specials. He thought. Maybe. The name was familiar to him, anyway. “Ok, yeah, that explains it. I knew I’d seen you somewhere before. I don’t….um...I haven’t seen all of...I’ve heard the name before, for sure.”
Oh my god Eddie shut the fuck up, you’re making an ass of yourself.
“I’m Eddie. Kaspbrak. Edward Kaspbrak, nice to meet you,” he said awkwardly, feeling heat rising to the surface of his cheeks as he tried not to let himself wonder why he gave such a fuck what this man thought of him. He realized he was still holding on to Richie’s hand and dropped it like a hot potato, clearing his throat as he shoved both hands in the pockets of his maroon jacket.
Richie chuckled. “Likewise.” His dark eyes met Eddie’s for a brief instant before dropping down to the pile of suitcases at his feet. “Fleeing the country?” he asked cheekily.
Eddie followed his gaze and shook his head. “No, I just...I’m not a light packer. I like to be prepared for every possible situation at all times, so I tend to overpack.”
“Well I don’t think anyone’s showing up to check us in any time soon, so I guess we’re on our own,” said Richie. He resolutely moved past Eddie and stepped behind the front desk.
“What are you doing??” exclaimed Eddie. “We can’t just do that.”
“Oh my god, relax, I guarantee you nobody in this shithole is going to care,” replied Richie in a nonchalant tone. His voice was strangely comforting, as though Eddie had been listening to it his whole life.
“Yeah, but..”
“Really,” said Richie reassuringly, his eyes carefully scanning the wall of room keys before selecting two of them and sliding one over the counter toward Eddie. “Here. You take four and I’ll take lucky number five.”
Eddie looked at the key uncertainly for a moment before deciding to throw caution to the wind and take it in his hand. “Oh, what the fuck. Fine. But if we get caught and thrown out, I’m blaming you.” Oh my god you did not just talk to a semi famous celebrity like that, Chriiiist.
“Fair enough,” said Richie, a genuine grin spreading across his face for the first time since he’d entered the Townhouse. “You want help moving everything you own into your room, or have you got a handle on it?” He snorted at his own words. “Get it? Handle? Cause they’re suitcases?”
“That’s not one of the jokes people pay you money to tell, is it?” said Eddie snarkily as he made up his mind that he was going to do whatever it took to bring every single suitcase up the stairs himself even if it killed him.
“Nah, the ones I get paid for usually involve a lot more dicks. Usually my own,” answered Richie, and Eddie felt his cheeks flushing once again for reasons he couldn’t quite explain. He placed one duffel bag under his arm and took one suitcase in each hand, after which he stood there awkwardly for a moment, not wanting to admit defeat but knowing damn well he was going to have to struggle to find a way to get the fourth bag up the stairs without looking stupid.
“I’ll be back for that one,” he said finally, making himself as tall as he could under the weight of all his baggage. He moved toward the staircase, keenly aware of Richie’s eyes on him as he took one careful step after another so as not to upset his balance. He turned back to give him an “I told you I got this” look, which unfortunately caused him to lose focus and take a misstep that resulted in him tripping and dropping the duffel bag halfway down the stairs.
Richie’s amused expression quickly shifted to concern and he practically bolted out from behind the reception desk, reaching Eddie’s spot on the stairs in under three seconds. “It’s fine, bro, you’ve proved you’re a strong independent man who don’t need no man, but please, let me help you,” he insisted, grabbing the fallen bag and placing a gentle hand on Eddie’s back to make sure he was balanced. Eddie watched as the other man went to retrieve the last bag before rejoining him on the stairs.
“Really, I would have been fine,” Eddie said as he led the way upstairs and down the hallway that led to Room Four. “Hell, I’ve traveled with way more luggage than this. My wife always says-“ He stopped himself mid-sentence. Myra seemed a million miles away at the moment, and for some reason she was the absolute last thing he wanted to discuss with this mysterious, good-looking stranger.
Get a hold of yourself, Eddie.
“So, what exactly brings you to Derry?” he asked, trying to smoothly change the subject. He felt, rather than saw the other man pause for a moment.
“A reunion,” replied Richie at last. “A long overdue reunion.”
“Cool,” said Eddie casually. “Family reunion? You from here?”
“I am, actually,” said Richie.
“No way, so am I,” said Eddie as they finally reached the door to his room. “I mean, I live in New York now, working as a risk analyst, but I lived here when I was a kid.”
“So what, um...what brings you back?” asked Richie, his airy tone turning into a cautious one, as if he were trying to carefully choose how he phrased the question.
Eddie stopped in the middle of turning the key in the lock. He hadn’t given it a single consideration before Richie’s question but, now that he thought about it, he didn’t actually know why he was there. He remembered packing, for sure. Fighting with Myra. Getting in the car. Driving through the night to reach Maine, he remembered all of that. But after he entered the Derry town limits, his mind went absolutely blank. Try as he might, he couldn’t dredge up a single memory between driving into town and magically finding himself inside the bed and breakfast.
“Business,” he finally said as he finished unlocking the door and pushed it open. “I’m here on b- OW!” he exclaimed suddenly as a sharp pain radiated from the middle of his torso. He dropped his bags and slumped down against the wall, both hands clutching at his stomach. He vaguely sensed Richie dropping the bags he was carrying and rushing over to him, catching him in his arms and gently lowering him the rest of the way to the ground.
“Eddie...Eds. Eds, are you ok??? Talk to me, buddy,” Richie pleaded with him as Eddie took short, gasping breaths to help himself through the pain.
“I think I’m fine, I just...my stomach fucking hurts,” Eddie groaned, reaching into his pocket to make sure his inhaler was there just in case. “Ever since I got here, my stomach and my head have just been…” He felt the pain begin to subside just as quickly as it had come on and, for the first time, properly took notice of the fact that Richie was practically cradling him, the other man’s dark eyes full of deep concern that was weirdly unusual for someone he’d only met ten minutes ago.
“It’s passing,” he finally said self-consciously. He moved to get up and Richie took both his hands, delicately easing him back to a standing position before hesitantly letting go. Eddie looked down at his own hands, still feeling the heat from where the other man’s hands had been for a moment before he frowned and gave Richie a curious look.
“Did you seriously just call me Eds?”
Richie flushed. “Oh, you know. You’re not the only Edward I know, ok? I call a lot of people Eds.” He met Eddie’s gaze and looked at him with a face that was still rife with worry. “Are you sure you’re ok?” His eyes lingered on Eddie’s midsection, almost as if he were desperate to look and make sure everything was indeed alright.
“You don’t have to look so terrified,” Eddie said in what he hoped was a joking tone. “I’m not dying or anything.”
An unreadable expression flitted over Richie’s face, but be composed himself and patted Eddie awkwardly on the shoulder. “Good,” he said. “Cause I’m pretty sure there’d be one hell of a cleaning fee if you died in this room you didn’t even pay for.”
Eddie rolled his eyes, proud of himself for not dignifying that lame joke with a laugh. He opened his mouth, probably to embarrass himself, but before he could even form a sentence, a distant beeping noise interrupted his train of thought.
“You hear that?” he asked, looking around for the source of the noise. “Is there a smoke alarm on the fritz in here, or…” He trailed off as the room suddenly went blinding white for a few seconds, Richie and everything else around him slowly fading into nothingness right before everything went black.
*****
Beep
Beep
Beeeep
Richie carefully opened his eyes, blinking at the harsh fluorescent lights overhead as he slowly came back into reality. His surroundings gradually came into focus. The boring beige walls, the tile floor, the uncomfortable fake plastic chair he was sitting in, the noise of the various machines hooked up to Eddie, who was laying in the bed across from him, looking so small and helpless. Scattered around the room were the rest of his friends, Bill and Mike standing resolutely together in a corner while Bev and Ben shared the only other chair in the room. All four of them looked as exhausted as Richie felt, but he knew they couldn’t possibly feel as simultaneously elated and gut wrenchingly empty as he currently did.
“Hey,” said Bev warmly, getting up off Ben’s lap and crossing over to Richie as a nurse gently removed the electronic nodes that had been placed on either side of his head. “How did it go?” she asked, placing one hand comfortingly on his arm and crouching down to meet his eyes.
“Did it work??” asked Bill excitedly.
“Did you find him?” inquired Mike. Everyone crossed the room and gathered around Richie in solidarity, waiting with bated breath for his response.
“I….he….I found him,” whispered Richie, and he realized at that moment that he was crying. All the tears he had been struggling to hold inside during his session so as to not alarm Eddie suddenly let loose and he sobbed as though his heart would break. He watched the nurse cross over to Eddie’s bed and carefully remove the nodes, identical to Richie’s, from the smaller man’s head.
“I found him but...he doesn’t...he doesn’t remember…”