Chapter Text
"Dustin, do you copy?"
The ground splits open right after they make it out of the upside down and before any of them can catch their breath. Hawkins is tearing down in the middle, right in front of them, red light pouring through like something underneath is finally breaking free. Everything is too loud, too bright, too wrong - and then suddenly, it's just silence, expect for the ringing in Steve's ear as he looks around.
“Okay, so, uh, this feels bad, right? Like, end of the world bad? Or is that just me?” Robin asks in a shaky voice despite herself, looking around, just trying to understand what happened.
Nancy still has the gun raised, her eyes scanning the place like something might crawl out of the cracks at any second.
Steve can barely register anything around him, Robin's voice sounds muffled but he turns, just a quick glance at them to make sure they're really there before reaching for the walkie again. "Dustin!" Steve tries again, his voice sharper this time, but for long moments it's just only static hissing back at him. “Dustin?” He tries once more, lower this time.
"Steve?" Dustin's voice is cracking on the other end and it's small and wrong.
Relief hits first when Steve hears Dustin's voice and he lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as he bends over, hand braced on his knee like he physically can’t hold himself up anymore. "Where are you? Are you okay? He asks, a little still out of breath.
“I’m out... I made it out. I’m at the trailer.” Dustin breathes out, trying hard to fight back something that sounds dangerously close to a sob.
"Okay..." Steve nods as he straightens up and drags a hand down his face. "Okay, good." He adds and just a second later something in his chest drops. Dustin said I. Not we. Steve lifts the walkie again, his hand starting to shake a little on the edges. "Dustin, where's Eddie?"
The line goes silent. It's the kind of silence where everything feels like it's in slow motion, where noises are muffled and the world spins like it might drop out from under him.
"Dustin?"
Steve can hear Dustin taking in a deep, shaky breath and it sounds so much different than just simple panic. He can already feel his pulse hammering in his ears and his limbs going weak, like his body is bracing for something he wouldn't be able to take.
"Steve, he - " Dustin cuts off for a second, trying to steady his voice enough to speak. "He said he was buying more time, he went back... And I - " He isn't able to finish the sentence, his voice breaks right in the middle.
Steve doesn’t hear the rest of what Dustin says, or maybe he does, maybe the words keep coming, maybe Dustin is still talking, but they don’t land, they don't stick. His mind keeps replaying 'he went back' and Steve feels like he's not even in his own body anymore. Everything feels slow and wrong, like something slipping out of place that he can’t grab onto again.
"No," Steve breathes out like his body is answering before his brain can catch up. His throat feels so tight he isn't sure he's capable of speaking anymore. "No, no, he wouldn't - " His voice breaks off like it can’t find the right shape anymore.
“Steve...” Robin says softly somewhere to his left, stepping a little closer.
Nancy lowers the gun, not all the way, but her eyes are on Steve now, not the cracks in the ground or on the sky.
“He’s - ” Dustin’s voice cuts back in, breaking apart again.
"Where?" Steve finally looks up, but not at Robin or Nancy, straight past them, like he's already mapping it out. His gaze then lands on the crack in the ground. "Where is he, Dustin?" The words come out flat, too calm and a little wrong.
"He's - he's still in there." Dustin sounds like he isn't even trying to fight back his tears anymore. "I tried to stop him. I tried but he - and then - " His voice breaks completely, the rest of it swallowed by a choked sob.
For a second Steve just stands there, staring at the crack in the ground, then lifting his head once again, like he's debating something. His grip tightens around the walkie, his fingers curling so hard they start to ache. “Okay.” Steve says and the calm in his voice is almost terrifying.
Robin flinches at the sound of him even, her eyes going a little wide and her stomach twisting in a deeply uncomfortable way. “Steve -”
Steve is already moving back to the house, the walkie dropping slightly lower in his hand. “Stay where you are,” He says, his voice rough now with something reckless underneath. “Don’t move. I’m coming.”
“Steve, wait -” Dustin’s voice comes through, panicked now, but Steve pockets the walkie before he could even finish.
“Steve.” Robin steps in front of him this time, forcing him to stop for half a second to finally get him look at her. “You don’t know what you’re going to find.”
Steve looks at Robin with a look that makes her falter. "Yeah."
Nancy doesn’t even try to stop him when Steve walks past Robin, she just lowers her gun without any word, already rushing right after him.
“Steve!” Robin turns instantly after them, stumbling for half a second before she takes off after him. “Steve, wait - just -”
Steve doesn’t slow down or look back, not even when he feels the ground uneven under his feet, still splitting and shifting, but he barely registers it. His focus locks onto the gate ahead, the crack in the ground, still pulsing and open. He doesn't hesitate, not even for a second when he reaches the gate, he just jumps straight in and the world tilts instantly - it's still cold and dark, wrong air hitting in his lungs as he lands hard on the other side.
There's two other thuds behind him when Nancy and Robin follows, stumbling a little but not stopping either.
“Steve, we don’t even know if he’s - ” Nancy cuts herself off as she steadies herself. “Just slow down.” She says a little out of breath but sharper this time but she’s already following him anyway.
Steve doesn’t slow down, if anything, he gets faster, pushing harder, his lungs already burning and his legs protesting, but it doesn’t matter - nothing matters except that Eddie is still in there.
The thought repeats over and over, keeping him moving like if he slows down for even a second it’ll become real and the distance between him and the trailer is the only thing holding everything together.
Robin and Nancy are struggling to keep up, both of them breathless now, the distance between them and Steve stretching further with every second. Nancy’s confusion is obvious, Robin can see it in the way she keeps looking at Steve, like she’s trying to make it make sense. Steve and Eddie weren’t that close - Nancy doesn’t get it at all, she’s seen Steve care about people before, but not like this, not reckless, not like he’s already decided nothing else matters.
Robin’s chest tightens a little, because she’s seen this before. Not this, not the way Steve runs like the whole world would shatter if he didn't get there in time, but the way Steve looked at Eddie when he thought no one was looking. The way he stayed a little longer than he needed to, the way Eddie always seemed to end up just there by his side. She never questioned it, she didn’t push but things now suddenly start make a horrible kind of sense now.
“Oh,” Robin breathes, her voice barely audible, her legs already starting to give up. “Oh, Steve...” She doesn’t know how to stop him now - and she’s not even sure she should.
Steve doesn’t stop or even slow, he barely even breathes just keeps going like the ground might fall out from under him if he slows even for a second. He doesn't register any of the exhaustion, he doesn't register any pain and he even forgets the fact that they're back in the Upside Down and Robin and Nancy are still behind him calling his name.
The trailer comes into view long minutes later, but it felt like years getting there. Steve stumbles slightly as he finally slows, his steps faltering for the first time since he started running.
It's too quiet there and something in Steve's chest twists violently. "Eddie!" He shouts but his voice sounds off, already a little wrecked and too loud in the silence, like it doesn’t even belong here. Steve takes a few more steps forward slowly, looking in every possible direction desperately. "Eddie?"
"Steve..." Robin’s voice breaks through first unevenly as she finally catches up, bracing a hand against her side like she’s trying not to collapse.
"Eds, where are you?" The nickname slips out without thinking or realizing, his throat burning like he’s already been screaming for hours at least. Steve sucks in an unsteady breath, shaking his head like he can reset, like he can try again. "Eddie!"
Nancy comes up just behind Steve, slower but more controlled. Her chest is rising and falling too fast, her grip tightening around the gun still in her hand. “Steve,” She says, sharper than Robin, trying to ground him, to ground all of them. “We need to be careful.”
Steve isn't even listening anymore, he just paces around, his heart beating so hard it feels like it'd just fall out of his chest and his entire body feeling too weak at this point. He takes an other step forward when his gaze drops down and he sees something - not clearly yet, just a shape on the ground that shouldn’t be there and he goes completely rigid.
Steve's brain doesn’t catch up right away, it lags behind like it’s refusing to put it together.
"Eddie?" He takes an other step closer, but slower, his name coming out so wrong it's barely even a word.
Steve gets closer and the details start to fall into place in a horrifying way that makes his throat tight and his entire body physically ache. The jacket, the hair, the way he’s lying too still. “No.” He breathes and stays still for long seconds, eyes fixed on him like if he stares long enough it won’t be real.
Robin goes completely quiet behind Steve, her eyes flickering in between Steve and Eddie.
“No, no, no…” Steve takes the last steps too fast, like if he gets there quicker it’ll change something. “No, Eddie, please, no…” He drops down hard to his knees beside him, not even registering the impact.
Eddie is lying on his back, still, too still, jacket torn open in places and darkened by blood, clinging to his body like it’s soaked all the way through. There more blood on the ground beneath him, smeared and dried in some places and still wet in others. There’s blood at his temple, his cheek, dried at the corner of his mouth where his lips are still parted and his eyes still open and fixed on nothing.
“No, Eddie, please, don’t do this.” Steve’s hands are already moving, hovering beneath him, not knowing where to touch first. “Eds, come on, please.” His voice is shaking now, his hands eventually settling on his shoulders, shaking him lightly. “Eddie!” Steve is louder now, sounding desperate like someone just ripped something right out of his chest. His hand then slides up, fingers brushing against his neck, searching and waiting, but there’s nothing there.
Behind them, footsteps are slowing down before finally they come to a stop. Robin can’t even bring herself to speak when she sees it, the blood, Eddie, Steve on his knees next to him like the world has already ended and her breath catches in her throat.
Nancy stops behind her, her grip tightening around the gun like she needs something to ground her too. Her eyes move quickly, taking in the scene, the damage, the stillness before she looks at Steve. “Steve.” Her voice is firm but there’s something uncertain under it. She steps closer slowly if she’s approaching too fast, something might shatter there – even though it already did. “Steve, he’s…” She stops herself, because there’s nothing to say that isn’t already obvious.
Robin takes another step forward before she drops to her knees too, her eyes flicking between Eddie and Steve, something twisting in her chest as everything she thought she just imagined suddenly isn’t. “Steve…”
Steve’s hand slide under Eddie’s shoulders carefully, his hands shaking like he’s afraid of hurting him and doesn’t even understand how that’s not possible now. “No, Eds…” His voice is quiet now, full of desperation as he pulls Eddie up, lifting his upper body into his lap, one hand cradling the back of his head like muscle memory, like it’s something he’s done before. Eddie’s weight settles against him, too heavy, too wrong.
“Hey,” Steve’s breath stutters, his fingers trembling where they tangle into Eddie’s hair, pushing it back from his face. “C’mon, Eddie, please, don’t – don’t do this, please.” His voice shakes and cracks but keeps going anyway.
“You’re okay, Eds, you’re –“ He can’t finish the words, tears already blurring his vision before he even realizes they’re there, slipping down without permission. He swallows hard, like he can force himself to steady, like if he just keeps talking, Eddie would eventually answer. “You’re okay, Eds, I’m here. I’m right here.” Steve’s other hand is still on Eddie’s neck, still waiting, but still nothing. He shakes his head quickly and repeatedly, like he can physically reject it. “No – no, that’s – no, I just –“ His voice breaks again, sharper this time, panic starting to take over instead of denial. “You can’t, Eddie, you…”
Robin just watches Steve, the way his hands won’t stop shaking, the way he keeps talking like Eddie can still hear him, the way he holds him, too close, too careful like Eddie is something fragile instead of something already gone. She’s seen grief, and this isn’t just that – it’s something else and it hits her all at once. How Eddie bumped shoulders with Steve, how Steve’s hand lingered always a little too long, how they would go check on something and then just vanished at the same time, how Eddie always leaned just a little closer than necessary. The way neither of them ever pulled away. Her stomach twists and she almost reaches for Steve, but she stops because she doesn’t think he’d even feel it. “Oh, Steve…” The sound barely leaves her, because she knows now, she knows what she’s looking at and knows what Steve just lost.
Nancy watches from a step back, eyes moving from Eddie to Steve and stay there. Something about this isn’t right, not just the obvious, not just the blood, not just the fact that Eddie is lying there lifeless. It’s Steve, the way he’s holding Eddie, how he won’t stop talking and it makes her frown, something uneasy settling in her chest. Nancy glances at Robin then, like she’s expecting an explanation but Robin doesn’t meet her eyes and somehow that just makes it worse.
Steve goes still after a couple of more moments, not saying anything at all, his hand still pressed against Eddie’s neck. “I have to take him back.” He says eventually, quietly, like he’s talking more to himself than to them. He shifts, tightening his hold on Eddie like he’s afraid someone’s going to take him away. “We need to get him out of here.” He says more firmly now, like he’s already decided.
“Steve, wait,” Nancy steps closer, her voice sharpening, trying to pull Steve back into something rational. “We don’t even know if it’s safe, we don’t know what’s happening.”
“He’s not staying here.” Steve’s words come out fast and final.
“Steve, you need to listen – “
“No.” Steve cuts her off, finally looking up at her, and there’s something in his expression that makes Nancy falter. “I’m not leaving him here.” His voice cracks on the last word but he doesn’t stop. “I just got him – “ He cuts himself off, his jaw tightening as he fights back the remaining tears. “We’re going back.”
“Steve, he’s – “
“Don’t.” The word snaps out of Steve loudly, making Nancy freeze. “Don’t say it.” Steve says again, his voice lower now but no less sharp.
Robin decides to move immediately, shifting a little closer to them, only now realizing how her own hand are shaking now. “Okay.” She says quietly, nodding a little. “We’re not leaving him here.” Her hand moves to Steve’s arm lightly just to get his attention. “We’ll take him back, okay?”
Steve doesn’t look at Robin, but something in his shoulders shifts slightly, like he heard her.
“You don’t have to do it alone.” Robin adds quietly, glancing down at Eddie, then right back at Steve. “We’ll lift him together.”
Steve shakes his head and already moves, so carefully it hurts to watch – one arm sliding under Eddie’s shoulder, the other beneath his knees, lifting like he weighs nothing. Eddie’s head just falls against Steve’s shoulder, his curls brushing against Steve’s neck and he adjusts him instantly, out of instinct, like he can still make him comfortable. His hands are still shaking, but he doesn’t stop. “I’ve got him.” He whispers, already making his way toward the trailer, holding Eddie a little tighter than necessary.