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Eddie stood a little shorter than he did. It made it easier to carry him.
Dustin was behind him, Nancy and Robin helping the little guy along - he was limping badly and he hadn’t stopped crying. Steve was amazed he’d managed to get words through the radio at all, but thank god he had. Steve had seen Eddie’s body on the ground, in the distance, and he’d been completely arrested by a sudden onslaught of emotion. His entire body seemed to yell NO all at once, a furious cry of dissent against the sight. He was still. Eddie Munson was lying still. He’d always been such an entity of movement, always in motion.
But he wasn’t dead.
Eddie was still breathing, or at least, his pulse was still there, very faintly. And whatever happened, they needed to get the body out - god knows what this haunted wasteland would do to it. Carrying Eddie felt like carrying a huge bag of tools - he was bony and awkward and all the ammo on him made it worse. They made it to the trailer - Steve didn’t remember how they managed to get him through the portal, he didn’t remember piling into the car, or even think about who’s car it was, he barely registered anything until he realised Robin was driving. He opened his mouth to complain, but his throat didn’t work. Those vines had done a number on his windpipe. Robin and Nancy were the same.
He looked down at Eddie, laid out across the back seat, his legs over Dustin’s lap and his head against Steve. Blood covered his chin and neck - had he bitten off one of the bats heads? He’d lost his bandana at some point from all the jostling, and his matted hair stuck to his face, twisting and coiling as if the upside-down had infected him. Steve brushed it out of his face, carefully. His skin was very cold and clammy, and Steve put a palm to his forehead, frowning, searching for any sign of heat. He checked his pulse again - it was still there, beating faintly on.
‘Hold up his legs. Prop them up or something.’ Nancy croaked from the passenger seat. ‘The blood … he’s … he’s lost a lot of blood -,’
She started coughing, hacking away like an old man, a fit that lasted a good minute. He saw a dark stain on her palms, which she swiftly wiped away.
’Nance?’ Robin whispered.
Nancy shook her head. ‘Keep - keep driving,’
The shirt they were holding to Eddie’s stomach was soaked through. He didn’t dare move it.
The silence was stretching on. It was broken by the occasional coughing fit - none of them had been wearing face-coverings, he realised. Robin coughed so bad that Steve thought she was going to throw up, and he almost tried to speak again, tried to offer to drive, but she stopped soon after, and she had a faintly manic look to her eyes that told him she wouldn’t be accepting any kind of offering from him.
The thought made his skin crawl - something was definitely in his lungs now, he was sure of it. Something had taken root and was growing and would burst out of his skin -
Dustin reached over and dug around in Eddie’s pockets. He retrieved a pack of cigarettes, pressed them into Steve’s hands. ‘Here,’
Steve looked at him, blankly. ‘Huh?’
Dustin looked too exhausted to make fun of him. ‘Smoke these. We need to clear out your lungs - you were in there for ages,’
‘And you think cigs will do that?’ Robin croaked.
‘I think the smoke will kill whatever you breathed in,’ Dustin said, flatly. It was disturbing to hear him talk so flatly. ‘You’ll probably cough some gross shit up, but it’ll stop anything … nesting,’
Robin shuddered. ‘Oh my god,’
‘Can we keep that as a plan B?’ Nancy whispered.
‘Ok,’ Dustin said, slumping back in his seat.
‘Nice idea, man,’ Steve added. ‘Thanks for trying,’
Dustin pressed the cigarettes miserably into Steve’s hand. ‘I just don’t … I don’t want anyone else to die,’
His voice cracked, and he shifted away from Steve, not meeting his eye.
Eddie moved, suddenly, and Steve stifled a yelp. Eddie shifted again, eyes half open.
‘Hey - hey, Munson?’ Steve tried, gently shaking his shoulder. ‘Eddie?’
Eddie didn’t move. It was so bizarre to see him so still - he was always so full of energy, like a machine that would fall apart if it fell still.
The lights of the hospital poured through the windows of the car, suddenly and blindingly. Nancy got out first, business as usual despite the live-wire terror in her eyes, as Robin fumbled with parking. Her hands were shaking too much.
Steve leaned forward. ‘Hey, dude - put the gear stick in neutral,’
Robin nodded, did so. The car fell still.
Then Eddie was in an operating theatre, and Steve was sitting in a chair outside. He’d seen them put an oxygen mask on Eddie, then they’d closed the door. He blinked - everything had been going so fast that he was blanking whole minutes. He rubbed at his face. He needed a shower, badly. His heart was still racing - he kept twitching as it slowed down to a recognisable pace.
‘Hey, there’s a vending machine down the hall,’ Nancy said, softly. ‘C’mon. We all need to eat something … keep up our energy,’
She looked at Dustin, who sighed, and got to his feet.
Steve didn’t follow them. He sat in his place for a long while, replaying the events of the past few days in his head. He really wanted someone to hold him right now - maybe that was why he’d been rambling on to Nancy about him and her and them together. He just needed a hug, or maybe something more, maybe he just needed a good slap to the face, he would kill for any kind of contact with something that wasn’t a mucus-dipped vine.
Robin appeared in his eyeline, holding a chocolate bar. ‘Stevie, here,’
Steve took it, but didn’t open it. His stomach turned at the thought. ‘How can you eat anything right now?’
Robin shrugged, took a seat beside him. She’d lost the hat - her hair lay flat to her scalp as if it had been ironed down. He wondered if she would be mad if he reached over and mussed it up, like he used to with his guy friends. He knew she didn’t like to be touched sometimes. Robin let out a long, rattly sigh, then turned to him and hugged him. He let out a grunt of surprise.
’I thought we were goners,’ she mumbled, leaned away. ‘I actually thought we were dead,’
Steve smiled gently at her. ’Yeah. No, I was pretty convinced, too, you know,’
They sat in silence for a while. An alarm trilled, distantly. Doctors and nurses dashed past, barely sparing them a glance. There was movement within the operating room, then they were wheeling Eddie out. Steve and Robin jumped up and followed them.
‘Is he ok?’ Steve asked, trying to get a look at him on the stretcher.
‘He’s still alive. Holding on,’
They wheeled him to another room, and Eddie vanished again, the door swinging shut. Steve paused with his hand on the doorknob, then stepped back. Robin found seats in a waiting room down the hall, and they both settled again. Steve tapped restlessly at his knees - it was as if some of Eddie’s energy had taken root in him.
‘Steve?’
‘Hmm?’
‘He’s going to be ok,’
‘I know, I know … it just sucks. I only just started getting to know him, properly, and … I dunno. I didn’t think he was actually gonna get hurt, Rob. Of all of us, I thought he and Henderson were safe,’
‘Yeah,’
Steve sighed. ‘It’s just you guys, you know. You, Henderson, Nance, and the rest of the little dickheads - its just you guys. You guys and Munson. I don’t have anyone else in the whole world I care about more, and I mean that. I really do,’
‘Steve …,’
‘You’re my best friend, Robin, in the whole world. My best friend,’ he said. ‘And I wanted you to know, in case anything else goes wrong,’
‘Oh. I don’t know if I’ve been a best friend before. Like, properly,’ she paused, thought for a while. ‘I was gonna ask you something. I know it’s probably the wrong time, but god knows I just need to take my mind off … all of this, just for a second. Um. And I’m sorry if this comes off as, uh, like … like … too needy, or too … too forward … and, um, please tell me if it’s something you wouldn’t want to do because I genuinely would never want to make you feel like you have to do something you don’t want to, ‘cause god knows we’ve been put through some less than ideal situations these past few weeks, and I know you’ve spent, like, a lot of your life having to do stuff you probably don’t want to, or stuff that isn’t fully you … um … but … I had this idea …,’
She cleared her throat, then coughed a bit, and leaned over fully, coughing heavily into her hands. Steve put one hand on her back and one on her shoulder, throat tight at the sight of her face screwed up in pain.
’S-sorry. Urgh. Anyway - um … yeah, anyway, I had this idea, a long time ago, when I was trying to be a rebel, when I was going through a hell of a lot … I had this idea of travelling Europe?’ She glanced at him, then looked quickly back at the linoleum floor. ‘Operation Croissant, I called it. I was going to travel Europe, see all the sights. Meet … people like me. See things you just don’t in Hawkins. Just be away from here, away from high school and all the stupidity that comes with it. It’s why I got the job at Scoops Ahoy last summer … I’ve been saving money for months. I have enough for, um … to cover two. Two tickets. Because I was going to … see if I could find someone to travel with me. To Europe. Because I’ll be honest, Steve, I’m not very good on my own. At all. I’ve been alone for a very long time and I don’t want to be lonely anymore… and I was just wondering if maybe you’d want to come with me?’
Steve stared at her, shocked. Robin pursed her lips, looked at the floor. A memory arose, suddenly, of her on a bathroom floor beside him, her face bare and open and expecting the worst from the world. She couldn’t meet his eye.
‘I thought, um … I thought we could all go. You, me, Nancy - I figured you guys could cover your own tickets, and then my money could cover Eddie, if he’s up for it. But, if not, it could just be you and me, touring Europe. You and me … against the world,’
Steve couldn’t stop staring at her. Robin scratched at the grime on her face, scraped stripes of it off with her fingertips.
‘Robin …,’ Steve paused, dragging his thoughts together. ‘Yes. Of course. Yes! That sounds … that sounds amazing!’
Robin smiled, a little bit. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah! The four of us, in Europe, on the road, seeing all that nerd shit - I’m sure Nancy would do anything to see bits of Italy, she always went on about going there as a kid, and Eddie …,’ Steve swallowed. ‘I mean, European concerts have gotta be wild, right? Tonnes of stuff for him. And, you know, maybe I can scrape together enough to have Jonathan come, as well, I have a feeling he’d love some of the British rock scene, and I reckon Nance would be a bit down if we left him behind,’
Robin was grinning now. It seemed strange on her face, for her to be smiling so earnestly.
‘Ok,’ she said, then slapped her knees. ‘Ok! Brilliant …,’
‘And, you know, if you do find someone … someone you’d want to bring … I reckon I could cover them, too,’ he added. ‘You know. A girl,’
Robin’s smile faded a little. ‘Yeah … thanks, Steve. Thank you,’
‘Only if she’s a babe, though,’
‘Well, obviously,’ Robin laughed, then started coughing again.
Steve winced. Robin wiped her mouth and got to her feet.
‘I’m going to see if I can wash my mouth out a bit. Back in a jiff,’ she said, heading in the direction of the bathrooms.
The door to Eddie’s room swung open, and Steve bolted to his feet. A nurse dashed past, holding a metal tray of used bandages, barely sparing him a glance. Steve dropped back into his chair.
Dustin was coming back from the vending machine. He sat beside Steve, and seemed to be trying to make himself as small as possible.
‘Where’s Nance?’ He asked.
Dustin shrugged, staring blankly at his hands.
‘Hey, man, listen,’ Steve leaned to face him. ‘It’s gonna be ok,’
Dustin put his face in his hands. ‘Please don’t say that to me,’
‘What?’
‘Steve … I’ve been here before,’ he said. ‘This hospital … god. My dad, he … he passed away here,’
‘Oh …,’
Dustin wiped his nose. ‘It was a long time ago, but … it’s happening again. And I was little when it happened, so everyone kept saying to me, kept saying “it’s going to be ok, he’s going to pull through, it’ll be fine” but he didn’t. He didn’t. And I wasn’t there when it happened, either - I wasn’t there,’
Steve put an arm around the kid’s shoulders. ‘Henderson …,’
Dustin leaned into Steve’s hug, miserably.
‘I just … I know you and Eddie aren’t much older than me, really, but … I dunno. It just feels like it’s happening again. And my friends, I don’t think they ever got it, not really. Lucas and Mike have dads, and even if Mike’s is kind of distant, he still has Nancy, and Will has Jonathan, you know, if he’s in trouble … I just don’t have anyone I can go to. Someone older, I mean. Like, my mom’s there and all, but … she’s anxious a lot. Like, a lot. About stuff that doesn’t matter. And I have to look after her more now. And … Eddie … he … I could go to him, you know?’
‘Yeah,’
‘Because he just lives with his uncle, so I think he just kind of understood, you know?’
‘Yeah,’
Dustin rubbed at his face. ‘Sorry,’
‘For the record … you can come to me, too,’ Steve said. ‘You know, for anything,’
‘I know. I know, and I was going to, but … I dunno. Eddie just gets stuff sometimes,’
‘Stuff you think I wouldn’t?’
‘No - yes, well … I mean … you were never treated like a freak, you know?’
Steve stared at him.
Not yet, said a nasty voice in his head.
‘Yeah … I … that makes sense,’ he sighed.
‘Sorry,’ Dustin repeated. He’d taken off all of his dumb battle armour, and he looked very small without it.
Steve ruffled his hair, unsure of what to say. ‘If you ever want to talk about that dad stuff … I’m here for you, bud. Honestly,’
Dustin shrugged. ‘Thanks,’
‘And … I get what you mean, about Eddie being understanding,’ Steve said. ‘He’s a smart guy,’
Dustin smiled. ‘You two did seem to be getting on,’
‘… yeah. Yeah, you know he’s … not so bad, I guess. He’s kind of …,’ Steve chewed on his next words, then swallowed them. ‘Yeah,’
Dustin started eating his chocolate bar, which Steve took as a win. An alarm blared in another wing of the hospital, and didn’t turn off for a while.
Nancy appeared at the end of the corridor, marching toward them with a grim look on her face. Steve got to his feet.
‘Nance?’
‘Max is here,’ she said. ‘She’s … she’s not in good shape. Lucas and Erica are with her - Dustin, come with me,’
Dustin looked at her. ‘What? No - I need to be here, Eddie can’t wake up on his own!’
‘Lucas needs you right now. He - he really does. Come on,’ she said. She looked shakier than before, somehow.
Dustin got to his feet. ‘What’s wrong with Max? Did the plan go wrong?!’
Steve watched the two of them go, feeling sick to his stomach. Part of him wanted to go and see what had gone wrong, but he knew on a deeper level that Eddie needed someone to be with him when he woke up. Maybe it was cowardly of him to sit behind, maybe it was brave. He didn’t know. He was done with both concepts now. He just wanted a bit of peace.
An orderly left Eddie’s room, this time carrying nothing, and he sat up.
‘He’s stable - you can come in now,’
Steve hesitated for a moment, glanced to the bathroom, just in case Robin could be there to come in with him, could be there with all her words and nerves and energy that made him feel like he could actually stay grounded. But she didn’t, and he walked into the room alone.
The nurses had all left - there were a lot of patients coming in, something about an earthquake, Steve didn’t even try to listen, just nodded and promised he’d ring the alarm if Eddie’s vitals changed. His eyes never left the bed. Eddie looked tiny, in the same way Dustin had. He had always been a scrawny guy, but he was truly dwarfed on the hospital bed. His tattoos stuck out unnaturally against his pale skin like bruises, he was covered in lines and tubes that disappeared into the bandage around his middle. His clothes had been clumsily dumped in a waste bag in the corner - he was fairly sure that wasn’t standard practise, but the hospital seemed overrun, and he wasn’t going to complain. He dragged it over to the side of Eddie’s bed, and sat down. He rummaged through it, absently.
‘Dunno if you carry books on you or anything … I’d give anything for a distraction right now,’ he muttered. His searching was fruitless, and he leaned back tiredly in his chair. ‘Well. Here we are them, Munson. You can pat yourself on the back for being a hero, and curse yourself under for not being a martyr. It’s a funny old deal, I can ya,’
They’d cleaned the muck away from Eddie’s face. His face looked oddly peaceful in sleep. Almost beautiful, like a prince fallen out of a fairytale. His skin was very pale, pale enough that Steve could see his veins through it in places - he really must’ve lost a lot of blood. Steve folded his arms. ‘I still got your stupid vest, by the way, and for the record I’m too comfortable keeping a dead man’s clothes, so you better pull through, idiot,’
His hands found their way to his pockets, and he pulled out the pack of cigarettes. Marlboro reds. His eyes drifted to the window, he wondered if he could get it open enough to lean out and smoke. Might not be great to clog up a hospital with fumes. He remembered seeing Eddie smoke lighter cigarette brands than this, around the school. The guy had always clung to the edges of the school, no matter what environment it was. He blurred in with the rest of his metalhead crowd, and Steve had never really bothered to try and separate him from them. Maybe if he had, maybe if when he smoked on the edges of the school after practise he’d gone up to Eddie and offered him a smoke, maybe things would be different.
‘If you’re gonna light up, you better get on with it,’ Eddie said.
Steve snapped his eyes back to him. Eddie was looking at him with beady bloodshot eyes, almost gleeful at his shock.
‘Oh, shit, hey, hey man -,’ his voice was very worn and frail now, and he dragged his chair closer, clumsily.
‘Harrington at my bedside?’ Eddie said, giving him a weird smile. ‘World really has gone mad,’
Steve stared at him, lying there, and, finally, like a dam bursting, he laughed. He laughed until he felt his lungs start to complain, until he started coughing into his fist.
‘Ok, man, come on. I’m not that funny,’ Eddie muttered. There was colour in his cheeks again, thank god.
‘Sorry, sorry,’ Steve chuckled. ‘It’s just … it’s been a hell of a week,’
‘You’re telling me,’ Eddie pointed to his bandaged stomach. ‘Hey, hey, dude - we match,’
Steve grinned. ‘Yeah, yeah, we do, don’t we?’
Eddie was giving him that look again, a look that he couldn’t begin to decipher.
‘Did you bite the head off of one of those freaks?’ Steve asked. ‘Your bleeding isn’t internal, apparently, so I dunno how all that blood got in your mouth. Did you pull an Ozzy?’
‘Nah, I pulled a Harrington,’ Eddie said, a sneaky look in his eye.
Steve just grinned at him.
‘Where are the others?’ Eddie wondered, doubt suddenly flooding in. ‘Shit - Dustin - is he -?’
‘He’s alright. He went to help Max,’
Eddie frowned. ‘What’s wrong with Max?’
‘I don’t know … Nancy went, too,’
Eddie’s face screwed up a bit. ‘Shit. Shit … they’re only … they’re only little ones. Jeez,’
He was quiet for a while, staring at the bubbles moving up through the drip.
‘Of course something went wrong … of course I’m the one who got out …,’ he mumbled.
‘Dude, it’s too early for survivors guilt,’ Steve said, tiredly.
Eddie chewed his lip. ‘Where’s Buckley?’
‘She went to try and clear her lungs out, somehow,’
‘Oh, really? How’s she doing that? Did she take Henderson up on his advice?’
‘Huh?’
‘The smoking. He was talking about it in the car,’
‘You heard all that?’
‘Some of it. I was kind of … in and out. I think I might’ve hallucinated some shit, too,’ he frowned. ‘Did you … carry me?’
‘I mean, yeah. I’m easily the strongest here,’
‘Oh,’ there was definitely colour in Eddie’s cheeks now.
‘You look good being bridal carried, for the record,’
Why did you say that?
Eddie gave him an odd look. ‘Well, I’d certainly hope so,’
Steve bit back a smile. ‘Just so you know, um … Robin and I were talking, outside,’
‘Chatting shit about me? On mine own deathbed?’
‘No, we were talking about … going to Europe,’
Eddie’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline.
‘Um. Robin’s been saving money for a long time. And she’s always wanted to travel to Europe with someone. And I reckon I could cover the cost, easy, if you wanted to come too?’
‘Oh,’
‘And I know it probably wouldn’t happen for a while, you know, since Hawkins has … well, gone to shit, if we’re being honest. But … you know … maybe in a year or two … would you wanna come?’
Eddie was smiling at him. His eyes were big and dark - they looked a lot less bloodshot now, almost back to normal.
‘Yeah,’ Eddie said, his voice a bit gravelly. ‘Yeah, Steve, I would,’
The conversation had slipped into that nebulous area again. It was happening a lot with Eddie, Steve was realising.
‘Hey, c’mere,’ Eddie said, shuffling over on the bed. He winced, bracing a hand on his stomach. ‘You look like actual hell,’
Steve stiffened, alarmed. ‘Are you -,’
‘I’m fine, man, they’ve given me enough morphine to bring down a horse,’ he said, patting the mattress next to him.
‘I mean … I’m kind of gross,’ Steve mumbled, gesturing to his clothes. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Harrington,’
‘Ok,’
He perched awkwardly on the edge of the bed, then lay back, put his feet up by Eddie’s head. Marginally more platonic than lying side-by-side, in his head. A twitch of disappointment seemed to flash across Eddie’s features. Eddie reached out and patted his knee, looking blearily at the ceiling. Steve kept very still.
‘I’m glad you’re here, Harrington,’ he murmured. ’Thank you,’