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"-eel safer when you're around, even Mike." Eddie surfaces disoriented, hears a voice but can't quite place it in the moment of groginess with the beeping and the stark white room assaulting his eyes and the hospital smells burning at his nose. "You know he'd never admit that though."
A pause.
"Louisville beat out LSU by eleven yesterday, it was a pretty good game, I thought maybe we could watch it, I got my dad to... tape it... for us." Lucas, the voice is Lucas, wobbly as it gets towards the end he can still tell. "The finals are tomorrow so, you should hurry up and wake up, you know? You're gonna miss it. I know Indiana didn't get very far but, you like Louisville as well, right?"
Eddie cracks his eyes back open slowly, brightness of the room a lot less harsh the second go around, and looks over towards where Lucas is sitting. His back is facing Eddie and he's perched in a chair at someone's bedside, Steve's bedside. which, shit, the last thing Eddie remembers is... huh, bats, telling Dustin he loved him, Steve's worried face hovering over him.
So what happened to Steve?
"I have to go soon, Mom wants help setting up Max's room, she's gonna stay with us until she can get the casts off her arms, remember?" Lucas sighs, "I think she was hoping you'd wake up before she got sent home, it'll be hard to bring her to visit."
Eddie doesn't know if he should interrupt the moment, Lucas' voice taking on that wet quality that signals tears, Eddie's never been the best at dealing with tears. Hasn't been the best at dealing with Lucas in general really, which, he grimaces, is something he still needs to fix.
"Steve. Come on man you have to wake up soon. You promised to take me to see the Pacers, who else is gonna do that?" A sniffle, and Eddie can see Lucas wipe his sleeve across his face. "None of the other's even came to my game, but you-"
He sobs, a cut off quiet sound hand coming up to cover his mouth, and it gives Eddie time to feel like shit about that one before Lucas continues. God he was a dick about that, Steve had chewed him out about it too.
"I was on the bench and you still came." Lucas' voice lowers to a whisper and he adds, "you have to get better, Steve, nobody else understands like you do."
He stands, taking a deep breath to settle himself and grabs Steves hand, giving it a pat then fiddling with the blankets so they sit just so.
"Dustin will be here in a few, I'll see you soon, Steve, rest up." Call Eddie a coward, though he thinks he's earned a few weeks leeway on that at the very least, but he quickly snaps his eyes shut before Lucas can turn. He shouldn't have heard any of that, it wasn't for him, and he has things to make right with the kid but now's not the time for that either.
Lucas pauses at the foot of Eddie's bed on his way out, taps the railing twice before he goes on his way.
Yeah, they definitely need to talk, Eddie thinks as he opens his eyes again, looking over at Steve resting quietly in his bed. He's got a few apologies to make, jocks aren't all bad, after all.