Work Text:
Eddie was smoking outside the fire station just before dinner time when the kids arrived, breathless and screeching their bikes to a halt, Will wobbling precariously on Mike’s handlebars, his own bike notably absent.
“There’s a fire!” Dustin blurted, heaving in lungfuls of air.
Eddie paused mid-way through lighting his cigarette, mournfully sensing his dinner break disappearing.
“Where?”
“Mirkwood,” Lucas answered, wiping sweaty hands on his t shirt, “It’s by Cornwalllis and Kerley, the trees there.”
“It’s not actually called Mirkwood, but we -” Mike interrupted.
Eddie waved a hand. “Yeah, yeah, I know it. Right, talk and walk.”
He guided them inside quickly, heading for the kitchen where he knew he’d find the Chief.
“How big?” Eddie asked.
“Big,” Dustin answered elaborately.
“And you guys are all ok?”
“Yeah, except we had to leave Will’s bike, the chain came off,” Lucas explained.
“And Chester,” Will said quietly.
Eddie reached the kitchen, ushering urgently to Hopper and Dmitri who were gathered there.
“Chester?” He quirked an eyebrow.
“My dog, he was with us, he ran into the trees, wouldn’t come when we called him.”
“We’ll find him, buddy,” Eddie assured him, “Chief, got a fire in the trees off Cornwallis.”
Hopper nodded, reaching for the radio at his hip, letting Nancy know what they were responding to and directing the rest of the crew to suit up.
“Use the phone in the kitchen, call your parents,” Hopper told the kids firmly, “I don’t want you biking back that way until we get this under control.”
Steve joined Eddie in the gear room, quickly tugging his overalls up and grabbing his helmet, following him out to the truck.
Dmitri hit the siren and the gas, and they sped towards the location the kids had described.
In the dull remaining light, Eddie spotted smoke from the window of the fire truck. Using an old logging path, Dmitri got them as close as he safely could, and the crew started to unreel the hoses and attack the flames.
All in all, it wasn’t too bad. Dmitri had to refill the water tank once from the quarry, but after less than two hours they had it under control. The source, they suspected, was a camping fire that had been less-than-perfectly extinguished, much to Hopper’s disgruntlement.
“Lucky the kids spotted it,” Steve pointed out as they began to put the hoses away.
Eddie nodded. “We need to have a look for Will’s dog, they said he disappeared somewhere around here.”
“Chester?” Robin asked worriedly, “I love him, he’s a sweet dog.”
“Chief, we ok to take a look around?” Eddie asked.
“Yeah, I’m gonna check for any hotspots. He’ll hopefully come when he’s called, but don’t hold your breath.”
It was no secret that Hopper wasn’t the biggest fan of the dog that came hand-in-hand with the Byers clan, wasn’t a big fan of animals in general, but Eddie could still see a hint of concern on his face.
Eddie, Steve and Robin headed into the trees, flashlights lighting up charred trees, boots squelching in saturated ground.
“Chester!” Steve cupped his hands and yelled, “Come here, boy!”
“Why’d he just run off?” Eddie questioned.
“He’s scared of lots of things,” Robin replied, “Chief’s always complaining about him. ‘Scared of his own damn shadow’,” she finished in her best growly Hopper impression.
“I think he likes him, deep down,” Eddie said thoughtfully.
“Oh hey, what’s this?” Steve crouched next to the remains of a child’s bike, giving the handlebars a tug with his gloved hand. The metal was charred and unsalvageable, the cheap paint job and seat melted off.
Eddie sighed, gave it a mournful look. “Will’s bike, I guess. He’ll be sad, these bikes are everything to them.”
Steve let it drop back to the forest floor, dusting off his gloves. “Let’s at least find his dog, then.”
“Chester!” Robin called, shining her flashlight in a wide arc.
A faint bark sounded ahead. Eddie looked towards the sound, his pace quickening. “Chester? C’mon, boy.”
Several yips followed, a rustling in the undergrowth ahead, and a shaggy dog appeared in the beam of a flashlight, bounding towards the firefighters.
Eddie crouched, ruffling the panting dog’s head and neck gently.
“He’s got a burnt nose,” Steve said, carefully checking him over, “And pads of his paws, by the look of it, but it’s nothing major. Let’s get him back to the truck, here, I’ll carry him -”
“I got him,” Eddie insisted, scooping the large dog up in both arms, holding him securely to his chest.
Steve and Robin lit the way, the three of them plus Chester returning to the truck. Hopper turned to them, and Eddie didn’t miss the relief that flashed across his face, even if he quickly covered it up.
“Dumb dog,” he grumbled, but slowly lowered himself to one knee when Eddie put the dog down, “C’mere, buddy.”
Chester whined, wagging his tail at the sight of Hopper, letting the man stroke his head and turn his muzzle left and right, assessing the burn there.
“Hargrove, turn a hose on low, will you?” He asked.
Billy did as he was told, holding it so the stream of cold water ran gently over the dog’s nose for a few minutes, before repeating the same treatment to each of his paws.
“I’ll take him to the vet tomorrow, reckon he’ll be ok for the night,” Hopper said eventually, then lifted the dog carefully into the back of the truck to sit with the crew.
“We found Will’s bike, it’s ruined,” Eddie told Hopper during the journey back.
Chester was sprawled across both Steve and Robin, gazing lovingly up at Steve while the boy smiled down at him and stroked the top of his head.
Me too, Chester, Eddie thought, smiling softly at the sight of his boyfriend cooing over the dog.
“I’ll get him a new one,” Hopper assured them, “Although I got no idea what sort he’ll want, but I want it to be a surprise. Maybe you lot can help me with that.”
“Sure thing, Chief,” Steve piped up.
Arriving back at the station, they didn’t expect the kids to still be there, waiting anxiously outside the truck bay, but Eddie should’ve guessed they’d ignore Hopper’s instruction to call home.
Chester almost bowled the crew over scrabbling out of the truck to run to Will, yapping and leaping up despite his injured paws. Will laughed, wrapping his arms around his dog’s neck and cuddling him close.
“Watch his paws!” Hopper warned, “And his nose.”
Eddie smirked the tiniest bit. The Chief’s reluctant love for that dog was showing.
“You found him!” Will exclaimed.
“Yeah, your bike was unsalvageable though, sorry,” Eddie told him.
Will’s face fell a little. “S’ok,” he turned to Hopper. “Maybe…maybe for my birthday next year, I know bikes are expensive though, but -”
“We’ll work something out, kid,” Hopper told him gently, pulling him into a one-armed hug, throwing a wink back to the crew.
*****
Steve and Eddie were tasked the following week with picking out a new bike for Will. Hopper had given them the cash, insisted they could get a good one, but that he had no idea what the ‘kids these days wanted’, and since Steve and Eddie spent so much time with Will and his friends, they’d been designated the job.
“What about this one?” Eddie asked, pointing to one with red flame details on the handlebars.
Steve pondered it for a moment, then shook his head. “Nah, not right for Will. For you, maybe,” he teased, running a hand briefly over Eddie’s back, lingering as long as he could get away with in the store.
Eddie snorted. “Not gonna catch me dead on that thing.”
“What, you never biked around as a kid?” Steve scoffed, moving on to the next bike.
A lump formed in Eddie’s throat. He swallowed it back. “No, Steve.”
Steve paused, hand stilling on the seat of the bike he was inspecting.
“My folks could never afford one, even if they wanted me to have a bike,” Eddie continued, eyes straying to the shelves, anywhere but at Steve’s sad face.
“Eds…sorry,” Steve murmured, “That was stupid, I didn’t think -”
“It’s alright,” Eddie quickly assured him, “I mean, dad did try once, got me this bike on my 8th birthday, but I went outside to look at it, it was pink all over, had fucking unicorns on the handlebars. He’d stolen it from someone’s front yard, insisted he didn’t know it was a fucking girl’s bike, had been too dark for him to see it. I said I’d ride it anyway, that unicorns were cool, but he told me no son of his would be seen dead on it, and he smashed it up in a rage. Guess he’d rather I walk everywhere in the fucking cold than use a chick’s bike.”
Steve glanced up and down the aisle, ensuring it was empty, then reached for Eddie’s hand. Squeezed it gently, rubbed his thumb over his knuckles.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated softly.
Eddie managed a small smile, linked their fingers briefly before letting go.
“How about this one?” he suggested, eyeing another bike. It was the latest model, state of the art, a dark forest green colour.
“That’s perfect,” Steve breathed, peering at the specs on the label, “He’s gonna love it.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Eddie smiled. “Let’s grab it then. And hey, I think we have enough cash left over for ice cream. Shall we?”
Steve huffed out a laugh. “Ice cream on the Chief, huh?”
“You guessed it, sweetheart.”