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Wayne looked at him like he saw a ghost, hands shaking and hovering like he might pull him into a hug. He didn’t. Not until Eddie’s lips quivered and he reached forward, then he was falling into his uncle’s arms and hiding from the stares. He’s alive but… but no one really wants him to be. Except Wayne.
“I thought you were dead, boy.” His uncle growled into his hair, hand holding him firm. He thought that there might be tears and in truth he was too scared to look. So he hid.
“Me too.” He was dead. He was dead and there were the wounds to prove it but for some reason he… he woke up. He woke up scared and alone, broken and battered, and woefully unprepared for the shitstorm going on when he crawled back home. “ Me too .”
Nancy and the rest of the group came to him when Hopper did. Government coverups and horrible waivers and tests. They pulled him to the hospital, bandaged the wounds that bled only sluggishly and stitched the gaping holes that said he never should have been standing. Steve and Robin held his hands when the agents wouldn’t stop asking him questions that he didn’t have answers to.
“The boys missed you.” It was only a few days since the… the battle… but Steve sounds far too genuine for it to be a lie. He looked rough too. “Everyone’s kind of been staying together at the school or at the Byers’ place and you’re welcome to join us.”
Wayne had been talking about leaving, getting far away from Hawkins and the bullies and the rumors but… but they were holding his hands and his boys, Dustin and Mike and Lucas were standing in the hallway just waiting to burst in. He couldn’t leave even if he had somewhere to go. Gareth and Corey and Trace still had lives there. If they hadn’t been ruined by association.
“We’d like it if you joined us.” Robin reinforced.
Wayne understood. He smiled, said it was good to have him home, and that he’d always have a place with him.
The townsfolk spit at him. They had always side eyed him and whispered and been cruel but it was different in the aftermath. They cursed, pulled their kids closer, and spit on the ground after he passed them by and where he once might have stuck out his tongue, laughed and mocked, he didn’t have the strength any more. Putting one foot in front of the other was hard enough when his side always ached and he hadn’t slept in weeks. The drugs helped. The drugs kept him functional.
Dustin sat by him on the steps of the school one day and bumped their elbows together.
“You okay, man?”
No. No I’m not but I said I was staying and fucking hell if I won’t now. The world is ending and I’m not a coward - just too damn tired to run.
“Yeah, Henderson. I’m okay.”