Chapter Text
His feet pound the rotten earth, trying to hurry and keep his eyes up as he struggles to see in the dark ahead of him. Dustin suggested holding the flashlight between his teeth, but that only worked for a few steps.
"You guys still back there?" He half shouts it, unable to look over his shoulder to be sure.
"We're fine! Just keep moving!" He recognizes Robin's voice.
"Please! I don't wanna be down here any longer than we have to."
"None of us do, Henderson." He isn't sure if he said that loud enough for him to hear, but he shakes his head, trying to quicken his pace and trying to blow a patch of dark, curly hair out of his face.
It's not like it wasn't justified, he had a right to be freaked out, they ALL did, they all just went through some serious danger in an alternate dimension, fighting monsters from said alternate dimension, and also having to watch one of their friends almost die in front of them. The one who was currently slumped over on his back and who's hair was getting in his face.
"You hangin' in there, Munson?" He mumbles it. No response. He figured as much, he's been passed out for however long they've been wandering through here, he's basically talking to himself at this point.
"How is he?" Dustin grunts as Robin and Nancy help hoist him over a thick, rotten tree root.
"Still out cold." He calls back, stopping to hoist him up higher as they continue through blackened trees and floating dust.
Part of him isn't even sure he'll make it, part of him isn't even sure what they'll do once they're out of here because they're in a town that wants him dead and he sure as hell doesn't know how to treat demobat bites, and he's positive no hospital does either, but goddamn it, it's not like they couldn't try. There had to be some chance that he'd make it out of this, I mean almost everyone had survived their little trysts with the Upside Down, most of the people he knew anyway, he had to too, right? I mean, they were all different situations to this, but they still had to try, I mean it'd be like losing one of the kids to him, he couldn't stand him dying and it being his fault because--
Something snaps not too far ahead of them and Steve stops cold.
"What is it?" Nancy asks.
"I heard something."
"Please tell me it's not another bat."
"Shh." He pauses there, staring ahead, squinting through the dark red light being casted all around them and struggling to see past the trees. I mean, it's possible that it really is nothing, but after everything that's happened, he's not feeling particularly risky.
"Steve, it's fine, let's just get out of here."
"Just--"
Something jumps out of the bushes with a screech and Steve all but falls back, instinctively gripping Eddie's legs to keep him from falling off.
"Demodog!"
"SHIT--" Robin curses loudly as Nancy fumbles for her gun. Steve stumbles back. It lunges for him and he kicks at it hard. It flies a foot away but gets up almost immediately. He raises his foot again and it latches on, gripping onto his shoe. Something dark and metal flies past him and knocks it off his shoe with a "thud".
"Yes!" He hears Dustin yell from behind him, and any other time he'd laugh.
"Nancy! Hurry!"
"I'm almost done!"
He hears the girls behind him, panicking as they try to double-tap this son of a bitch. He digs a clumsy hand into his pockets, there's gotta be a pocket knife or something he can--
A searing pain courses through his leg and he lets out a scream, strangled behind gritted teeth as he falls to his knees. The demodog releases as soon as he's down, about to go for a better part of his body when--
A shot rings out and it's head just about explodes, it's body flying about a foot away. Steve turns back, panting, to see Nancy holding up the gun and glaring the demodog down while Robin and Dustin look on in awe. She lets out a breath and lowers it slowly.
"It's ok." Steve says, and swallows. "I don't think it can come back from that."
"It better not. We've had enough surprises this week."
He lowers his head, scrunching his eyes shut and gritting his teeth at the pain in his leg. Just one more thing to patch up later, he guesses. He's about to chew himself out for it internally when Dustin speaks up again.
"Damn, all that and you didn't drop Eddie once."
A laugh nearly bubbles out of his throat, high and hysterical. "Guess so." He grunts as he stands up on his bad leg, hoisting Eddie further onto his back. "C'mon. Let's get outta here."
--One week later--
"You seriously don't have to do this."
"Uh, I absolutely do."
"Seriously, I don't mind just waiting for Robin."
"Harrington, I'm not making you sit around my house for the next half hour trying to keep yourself entertained. You've had enough of that from the last week."
Steve lets out a frustrated grunt as he pulls open the door to Eddie's van and slides into the passenger seat, stifling a groan behind gritted teeth as he palms the side of his leg, and hoping Eddie didn't notice as he climbs into the driver's seat.
"Well, by all accounts, you shouldn't be driving right now--I shouldn't be letting you drive."
"Thank you for the concern, Nurse Harrington, but really, I'm fine." He puts the keys in the ignition and starts the car, quickly turning the volume on the radio way down just before metal begins to play through the speakers. "Seriously, look at me, I'm walking ALMOST normally now, my bites don't even hurt as bad anymore."
He lets out another grunt and plants his cheek against his fist. As stressed as he is at this right now, he's happy to see him doing so well.
Their return from the Upside Down was a complete blur, all five of them fumbling around the apartment trying to figure out their next move because how the hell do you explain this shit to a doctor? They eventually settled on things being too dire to wait to decide, and pooling together what they knew medically--Robin being the most, surprisingly, apparently she watched a lot of medical dramas--they cauterized his bat bites and bandaged him up with an old t-shirt, doing the same to Steve, with Nancy driving Dustin to the nearest hospital because his wounds were easier to make excuses for.
The last week had been a blur too, but slower this time, more drawn out, just staying at Eddie's trailer while trying to deal with all the red tape from the Hawkins Facility as they tried to explain away everything that happened and get Eddie and Wayne off the hook so the town would just leave them the hell alone. He'd spent most of that time bed-ridden and in a pained haze, constantly being administered whatever industrial grade pain meds the facility had given them, the others visiting as often as they could and crowding around his bedside in heaps to make sure he was still breathing, still alive, still there. Steve keeps thanking whatever god was listening that Robin was able to make an excuse to get him off work to be there, saying there was a family emergency, which technically wasn't super far from the truth.
But that's passed, and things are mostly easier now; Eddie's mostly healed up and he did so fairly quickly, same with Dustin, though he's still stuck on crutches, and the Munsons can live their daily lives in Hawkins without having to worry about getting mobbed. They still have to deal with the adamant few who still he think he was apart of some cult, but they were very much the minority.
All in all, things were going ok for everyone.
Everyone except for Steve.
He's really not sure what it is, but he feels like he's been on a steady decline since the group climbed up that bedsheet rope and fell back onto that dirty mattress. He excused his demodog bite being so painful the first few days, hell, it was still fresh, so were his and Eddie's bat scars. He just tended to them carefully and made sure they were clean as he kept watch over Eddie. But it didn't fade over time, in fact it seemed like they were getting worse. They were perpetually tender and pink, just beyond the precipice of raw, clearly healing but taking their damn time, and getting more and more agitated as time went on.
And normally he'd dismiss it as just part of the process, but as he noticed how well Eddie was doing, he got the sinking feeling that this wasn't normal.
But he couldn't address it, he just couldn't. He couldn't worry about this right now. He had a whole group of people he was struggling to corral and keep safe from whatever supernatural terror was gearing up to rip their hometown apart, a whole group of people that needed him. He couldn't let a little scar get in the way of that right now.
"Sooo, how long do you think until I can start playing shows again?"
He scoffed. "You're ridiculous, Munson."
"Oh come one, don't tell me you don't see the appeal. Corroded Coffin: Back From The Dead! Come see the frontman for Hawkins' most underrated band play after beating the odds once more!" He raised his hands for emphasis, the car swerving slightly before he clamped them back down on the steering wheel. "Fight your way through the tiny cluster of drunk people to get to the mosh pit! It's perpetually empty!"
Steve couldn't hide a snicker, glancing over at him. "Well, I can tell you it's a bad idea, but you and I both know that you're gonna do whatever you want."
"What can I say, big boy? I can't be contained."
"Clearly." He let his head fall against the passenger side window with a soft "thunk", letting out a quiet sigh and letting his eyes flutter shut. God, he was exhausted, too. That was another thing he was noticing, he was just starting to feel WEIRD, more tired and sluggish, I mean right now he felt like he'd just run a marathon. But he figured--HOPED--that it was nothing. I dunno, maybe he was getting the flu out of season, he just cheated death for the umpteenth time, feeling off was probably a bit normal.
Whatever, it didn't matter. He wasn't letting this get to him. He had an impulsive--colleague? acquaintance? friend? whatever--that was still healing from a brush with death that he was trying and failing to corral, that was taking his main focus.
People needed him.
And he couldn't afford to be weak right now.
The van pulled to a stop in front of his tiny apartment, and Steve's eyes fluttered as he looked over at it. He tried to shake off exhaustion as he pulled the door open and stepped out.
"Thanks for the ride."
"No problem, you highness." He bent over the now empty seat in a mock bow, grinning at him the entire time. He scoffed a final time before starting for the front door.
"Be safe, Munson."