"No,no, no." You fiddle with the phone, it's not like there was anyway for you to call him back "God damn it" you slam it down on the receiver "Hmm, What I do?" Steve's eyes shot open quickly, rubbing at his face in confusion
"Eddie.. he called," You were trying to make sense of it "On the hospital phone?" Steve's brows knitted, a long, drawn out groan escaping his lips as he went to move
"Yup, that's not happening." He leaned back in place, "I woke up to it going off, then it stopped and went off again. It was Eddie, I'm sure." You say determined,
Steve makes child like grabby hands at the water on the bed side table, you roll your eyes, unable to keep yourself from laughing. Grabbing the cup off the table, you hand it over to him "Maybe.." he shut his eyes while taking a sip "Give me a second," he pauses.
Keeping his eyes closed a moment longer "World still coming back to ya?" You ask as he nods slowly, his lips pursed and eyes puffy from sleep "Well, you can make calls with in the hospital. It's not that far fetched that he called the room,"
Steve brings the cup to his lips again "How would he know I'm here or our room number.." it didn't add up to you, then again not much did these days. Steve's eyes blink sleepily as he raises a finger "Henderson." He merely states in fact,
"Okay so Dustin somehow found his room and managed to dodge security, doctors and nurses?" Now that sounded unbelievable.
"He's a funny little guy but.. he can get creative," Steve gives Dustin a small compliment. Your finger taps at your lip, "That's it, I'm snooping." You decide.
"Hey wait wait wait, " Steve starts rushed as you go to stand up "One, you really think no one's going to be suspicious about a girl with her leg bandaged out and about in the halls." He pauses, holding up a finger for you to wait
"Two, what about me? You can't go out there with out a sidekick. It's like.. our groups thing." Steve gestures chaotically .
You grab the crutches at your bed side, easing yourself up until you're standing on one foot stably. "Oh yeah great idea, not only will they be asking why I'm hopping around but why a guy who can barely move is out of his room. " you narrow your eyes at the dumb idea, tone dripping with sarcasm.
"You stay here and distract the nurses, keep them busy. Make up excuses," you hand out different options for Steve to keep busy in the meantime while covering for your ass.
Steve's lips contort into a pout, looking like a wounded dog as you hang your head to the side. "Really?" You ask deadpan as he gives a small shrug "Was worth a shot," he says quietly.
Slowly opening the door to your hospital room, you peak your head around the corner. The halls being empty, surprisingly.
Starting to get a hang of the crutches, you make your way down the opposite hall which you have not yet explored. You had only been to Hawkins hospital once before so you knew nothing about the floor plan.
For all you knew, there could be a secret floor where they keep criminals. Ugh. You hated saying that. Eddie is not a criminal.
You felt like you had been pacing the halls for hours, especially since it was slower getting around on crutches.
All the names on the clipboards next to the doors were beginning to blur together, none of them being Eddie.
"Excuse me miss, what are you doing out of your room?" You hear a doctor or nurse approaching from behind you, slowly doing around with your crutches "I just needed a change of scenery," you say sheepishly.
"Oh Y/N! There you are!" Dustin slides out from the opposite hall, almost falling on his face "I'm so sorry, I was looking for a wheelchair for her. We won't be any trouble," Dustin was basically batting his eyes at the doctor,
The doctor looked from you to Dustin, "Do you know him?" The doctor looks at you suspiciously "Yes this is my.." you start "boyfriend.. yeah, so in love. Aren't we.. pookie bear?" You wanted to throw up as you hear those words come out of Dustin's mouth, cooing et you.
"Oh yeah, soo.." You jab Dustin with your elbow "in love," now gritting your teeth as you both flash the doctor a smile.
The doctor thinks for a second then goes into one of the many rooms, it being unoccupied at the moment and rolls out a wheelchair for you.
"Pookie bear?" You burst out in a whisper, full of judgement - especially Dustin's own judgement "It worked didn't it," he prided himself "I feel sick," you hold your stomach, shivering as you hear the word pookie bear in your brain again. Haunting.
"I got some info, about Max and Eddie." Dustin whispers down to you as you guys round a corner "Max first," you whisper back up to him as he parks you at a bench in a hallway, seating himself on the bench.
"It's not good," Dustin frowns, making direct eye contact with you "Lucas said that Vecna started his usual attack. Breaking bones.. damaging her eyes," you gasp in horror, your hand covering your mouth.. now you really felt sick.
"She died, Y/N." He said quietly, sadly. "But she's here.." you trail off in confusion. He nods "They were able to bring her back, but she's in a coma." You search Dustin's eyes for more information, more details,. Something positive.
"They don't think she will wake up," He starts to choke up, "No," you shake your head adamantly "Make is strong, she's tough. She's going to pull through." You state, you're not willing to hear the alternative.
She has to wake up. She's one of the strongest people you've ever known, you weren't going to allow yourself to think that being in a coma would be her final fight.
"We think that's why the gate opened, she did die. She was the fourth one Vecna needed," His voice was super quiet now "But she's alive now, shouldn't that cancel it out?" You tilt your head in thought "Honestly.. don't know." His palms face up as he shrugs.
No one knew anything about.. well, anything. It was all a guessing game and figuring it out as you go.
"And Eddie.." you're cautious as you ask, mentally preparing for the worst.
"I know you want this all to go away and a happy ever after, well.. yours and Eddie's definition of that," Dustin gives a small smile "But there's no way out of this for him." He sighs apologetically.
"He's hurt.. bad. Even if we broke him free and put him on the next bus out of town, he'd need to go back to a hospital and then he'd end up on the most wanted list." Dustin explained it slowly so you could take it all in.
The only words that echoed in your mind was that Eddie was hurt, bad. "So you have seen him," you say full of hope. Dustin nods in confirmation "Well then take me to him. What are we sitting around for?"
You begin turning the wheels of your wheelchair yourself, Dustin steps on the break "Not so fast," he says. "Because of the state of Hawkins right now, there's limited police here. Which means limited security." He whispers to you,
"At 12 AM there is an hour period where his room isn't guarded, but.." he stops abruptly "He's handcuffed to the bed," Dustin states one of many issues. "Eddie can't do anything unless someone has the key." He warns you,
Giving you a heads up as to what you're in for "And uh," He fiddles with his shirt.. there was more? What else could there possibly be.
"Believe me when I say, he's really torn up. It's horror move type stuff," Dustin says cautiously, well Steve was pretty torn up too and you could handle that.. you thought. "He doesn't want you to see him, physically see him.. with your eyes."
Dustin points to his own eyes as example, "So what I'm suppose to be blindfolded? Not look at my own boyfriend - fiancé," you quickly correct yourself. It felt like a lifetime ago already.
"That's actually.. not a bad idea.." Dustin think to himself "You got to be kidding me," you scoff in disbelief "It was his one condition. Not mine," Dustin states in his defence.
"So how bad is it, tell me." You demand as Dustin sighs, "He has a broken wrist, a broken foot, he had internal bleeding which they managed to get under control, "
Dustin thinks for a moment "They did emergency surgery to restore and stitch together his sides, back, legs. There were some deep bites, some chunks missing. He's got stitches that,"
Dustin pauses, motioning from his left hip bone to beside his belly button and up to his left shoulder. Forming a C type shape. "The legs are more jagged." He merely says.
If Eddie hadn't covered you, using his body to protect you from the bats.. he wouldn't be this bad off. You felt so insanely guilty, believing that it was your fault.
"But he's survived, so." Dustin adds that in as a little positive notion. "Barely, it sounds like." You retort, wishing you could take all of Eddie's pain away.
"Did you somehow give him the phone number for my room?" You ask, curious. "Yeah, did he call?" Dustin's brows knit together as you nod "Said one thing then the line went dead," you confirm
"Maybe he accidentally hung up. He does have a broken wrist so, might of dropped the phone." Dustin tries to come up with explanations "I'll be back, 12 AM tonight." He nods,
Dustin begins pushing you back towards your room "If you're able to get in and see Max at all, I know she's in a coma but just tell her I'm here." You say quietly, lips twitching "Yeah, I can do that."
You waited in your bed while starting at the clock, seconds feeling like hours and hours feeling like centuries. Steve was still awake, tossing and turning.
You filled him in when you had got back, he said it sounded like a bad idea. He was worried you'd get in trouble or something bad would happen.
You respected and appreciated his concern but nothing was going to get in the way of you seeing Eddie. Not now.
Hearing a quiet knock at your door. You use your crutches to stand up as Dustin walks in, urging you towards the door "I can only go so fast!" You mutter.
Dustin helps you into the wheel chair and you suddenly feel like you're in a James Dean movie, going way too fast and turning corners so sharply you were sure you'd fly out of your seat.
Holding on for dear life, Dustin comes to a halt and you do, along with him. The name on the door reading Thomas Atkinson, you look back at Dustin "Think you got the wrong room," he shakes his head slowly, "it's the right room. You really think they'd put his real name on the door when the whole town has pitchforks sharpened for him?"
Yeah for some reason that never crossed your mind and you can recall passing this room once or twice, it was at the very end of a long, creepy dark hall so now you were mentally kicking yourself in the ass.
Dustin knocks quietly, propping the door open with his foot and wheeling you in. The rooms nearly pitch black besides the moon light shining in, one straight line of light that aims at the wall.
You were honestly thinking Dustin was fucking with you at this point, it was just so.. strange.
"Hey Eddie," Dustin breathes out, you hear someone stirring in the bed, half expecting to be told to get out and you have the wrong room.
"Hey," Eddie manages weakly, his voice sounding shallow and rough. It almost didn't sound like him, "Y/N's here too, don't know how well you can see us."
Dustin says quietly.
It's different in here, fragile. Like one wrong word could break the entire room.
"B-Baby?" Eddie stutters, his voice getting even deeper. You could tell he was crying or at least on the verge.
"I'm here," you sniffle, slowly getting out of the wheelchair and hobbling your way over to his bed. You hear clanking, the sound of metal against metal "Fuck," Eddie mutters, "Did I do something wrong?"
You start to panic, wondering if you stepped on something you shouldn't have "No," his voice was raspy "I was trying to.." he coughs "Touch you but the one good arm I have," Eddie pauses, the clanking sound made again "Is handcuffed to the bed."
You try to look over at Dustin but even being just an arms length apart, the rooms so dark you can't see him.
"I can follow the sound," you suggest quietly, you hear Eddie shift slightly "Okay," he merely says, all choked up. "Dustin, can you help me?" You turn to the darkness, hoping he's still there.
You didn't want to risk tripping or losing your balance, not only as that could mess up anything Eddie is hooked up to but you'd injure your leg even more.
"Yeah, yeah of course." Dustin spoke in a whisper, grabbing your hand in his as you both followed the sound of the handcuff rattling against the bed.
Feeling around for the guard rail to hold yourself up, your hand trailed along it until you felt two fingers twitch against yours.
Eddie's hand grasped onto yours as tightly as he possibly could as soon as he felt your fingertips touch his.
A wave of complete and total comfort washed over you, everything may not be okay and it may not be okay for a long while but at this very second in time, you knew Eddie was alive and you could feel him again, hear him again.
That was enough for you. That's all you needed to push through everything else.
"Why did you hang up?" You ask, still confused by the call. "They caught me using it, that's why I have this." He rattles the handcuff once again.
You bring your lips down to his hand, placing a small kiss on the back of his hand. "I just want to see you," you cry in frustration,
"I can't see you either because of this," his words are drawn out as he sucks in sharp breaths "I'm not going to be scared," you tell him in extreme confidence
"That's not.. what I'm worried.. about," long pauses between his words again as his thumb moves over the back of your hand in circles "Then what?" You ask in confusion
"I don't want you to feel guilty," Eddie's voice is hoarse, you'd feel guilty no matter what condition he was in "I can't stop that, I'll feel guilt as long as I live." You whisper.
"I'm giving you a warning, Y/N. a real one, it's not pretty." Eddie starts coughing again, "None of this is pretty, but it's our life," you say in fact.. hand feeling around for the bed side table and when you find it, feeling for the lamp.
Finding the cord to turn it on, you yank down on it as the room gets an orange ambience to it, lighting up just enough to be able to see Dustin and Eddie.
Your hands fly to your mouth, gasping so loudly you thought it echoed. Eddies face was all bruised up with superficial cuts, his body though.. you had imagined what he looked like laying in that bed but it wasn't this.
His leg was raised with a cast around it, his right arm also stuck in a cast and sling. You could see the bandages all over his body and these were no kiddie sized bandages, through them you could see old dried blood and the many lines of stitches.
"I told you," his right eye was swollen and bruised, so swollen it didn't even look like he had an eye anymore, as he did his best to look at you.
You drop your head onto the guard rail, sobbing so violently that your entire body shook and felt like it was going to burst at the seams. "It's not your fault," Eddie manages out weakly,
His hand in the cuff reaches as much as it can to rub your head, "You should have never came to the other world," you cry into the railing "Then you would be dead," Eddie says slowly
"I'll heal.. slowly, but I'll heal." Eddie clears his throat, "I might not look the same," he lets out a small laugh "but this is better than losing you."
"Until you're transferred out of here.. into prison." You sniffle, "Yeah well, at least I'll still know you're alive." He murmurs.
"I hate this," your voice is muffled as you stand up, covering your mouth then wiping away your tears. Looking at Eddie, really looking at him.
You had no idea how he survived, If this was his condition now: after basically being put back together, you couldn't imagine what he came in like.
"Considering I get to see your beautiful face again," He pauses, drawing in a deep breath "After thinking I never would again.." you watch as tears roll down his face "This is the best day of my life," a fragile, trembling grin takes his face.
At least one of you could have a positive outlook though you never thought it would be Eddie.
Slowly, you bring your hand towards his face.. gently wiping away the tears on his cheek, his smile grows wider "I love you," the words are shaky as they come out, more tears rolling down his face "I love you," you manage a small smile.
You still believed it was your fault. You always would; that thought would never leave. On top of that you now had to think about the future Eddie had in front of him which wasn't much of one.
He'd likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for a crime he didn't commit and this time.. there was nothing anyone could do about it.