Faithfully - Journey

What followed was the longest weekend either of them had experienced in some time.

Eddie would have loved to have floated through the weekend in a literal cloud, but he knew from previous experience that if he was anxious it would just make him even more paranoid.

His anxiety was not missed by his uncle who could tell all this was about Beck because he hadn't seen her at all that weekend, which was almost unheard of now, but he did not want to pry.

But despite trying to stay out of it, Wayne felt like he was also going crazy from his nephew's pacing and told him to come up with a plan or play his guitar or something before Eddie made them both crazy. That seemed to point Eddie in at least a productive direction as he began sketching something out in his room.

As for Beck, Sarah's well intentioned attempts at distraction failed miserably. Waiting for Sarah to stop flirting with Steve and order at Scoops Ahoy was so exhausting that when she rolled her eyes at both of them, the other girl working there (name tag said Robin) laughed aloud.

"You actually want ice cream?" she asked and Beck grinned.

"Yeah, can I have cookie dough?"

She watched the girl, who she now placed as a band kid, scoop up some cookie dough ice cream and hand it to her.

"I can't decide if this would be amusing or if it would get old really fast," Beck said to her, nodding over at Steve and Sarah.

"Depends on the day," Robin replied with a smirk. "You're with Eddie Munson right?"

"Yeah…"

"Oh god! I'm sorry if–" Robin tried to backpedal at the look on her face.

"No! It's fine. This was someone's attempt to distract me, but…"

"Steve is not Eddie," Robin finished her thought.

"No, he really isn't," Beck said.

Sarah finally noticed them watching her and Steve and ordered something. When ice cream and wandering the mall didn't seem to raise Beck's spirits, Sarah suggested they see The Breakfast Club, which had come out only the day before.

When the lights rose after the movie ended, Sarah rubbed her friend's back as Beck wiped at her eyes.

"So maybe a movie where the rebel gets with the princess was a shit idea on my part," she said consolingly, causing Beck to laugh through her tears.

Sarah watched her friend wipe at her face and felt a wave of guilt. "You love him too, don't you?"

Beck's lip quivered and Sarah pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry, Beck. I didn't realize. We can try to find him tomorrow, okay?"

But Sunday yielded no results. The phone rang with no answer the first half dozen times. When Wayne finally picked up, he told Beck that Eddie had said he would be out for the day and back late.

"I was hoping he was with you, to be honest," he told her. "He can do some stupid shit but whatever he did, he is really torn up about it."

"If he gets back before too late can you tell him to call me?"

"Will do. I hope you two patch this up."

"Yeah me too," she said.

There was no call back from Eddie though so Beck resigned herself to seeing him at school on Monday.

"The hell is going on…?" Sarah asked as she parked in front of Hawkins High.

There was a crowd of kids around the front wing of the school building and no matter how Beck craned her neck she could not tell from the car what was going on.

As they walked up to the kids gathered there, she heard someone say, "She's here."

Heads swiveled to look at her and her skin went cold at being so exposed. She pushed to the front and immediately understood the staring and the crowd.

In four foot high letters meticulously stylized like an Iron Maiden cover, someone had spray painted across the brick and windows "I LOVE YOU, BECK." Her cheeks flushed scarlet but she couldn't help smiling.

"Get inside or get detention!" the principal yelled and students began to disperse.

Sarah grabbed her hand and pulled her away as Beck lingered on it, trying to imprint the declaration on her memory like a photo.

At her locker, Beck heard a familiar voice while she grabbed her History book.

"Well, who on earth did that?"

She shut the locker door and faced Eddie, her stupid, gorgeous, painfully sincere boyfriend. Her heart squeezed as he again pulled the ends of his hair along his jaw in shy flirtation.

"Some idiot who definitely went way too big with the grand gesture," she teased as someone passed them yelling "Valentine's was last week, dumbass!"

They both flipped the kid off as he passed, and Eddie turned back to her.

"I'm sorry I said that so badly but I meant it."

He pulled her closer to him and she slipped her arms around his neck.

"I love you, Beck."

"I love you too," she said before meeting his lips. Their kiss was met with some whistles and catcalls, and they broke apart, both grinning and blushing.

The warning bell rang and she dashed off as he watched her go, that stupid grin that she always brought out of him back on his face. His heart was exploding with fireworks. She had said she loved him too. They weren't just going to be 'fine.' They loved each other.

Someone put a hand on his shoulder and he wheeled, stomach dropping as he saw the principal behind him.

"We need to talk, Mr. Munson," she said. "Follow me."

Beck was leaving History when Troy Farmer caught her elbow. They were in drama club together but not really social so alarm spiked before he even started speaking.

"You need to go by the principal's office right now," he whispered urgently to her.

"Am I in trouble?"

"Not you," he said quickly.

She took off without another word. Stopping in front of the office door, she could see the principal at her desk across from Eddie with… Beck's heart stopped. There was a cop in the corner of the room and when Eddie jerked around to look at her she saw they had cuffed him.

She looked at the clock, mind racing. If she was fast she could catch her mom before she left for work. Beck bolted toward the front doors of the school, racing for the payphone.

"We know it was you," the principal exclaimed, clearly frustrated by Eddie's refusal to cooperate. "Your teachers and classmates all said that the two of you have been together for some time."

"Just because I'm dating her does not mean I did that," he said, stubbornly. "You don't have any proof."

"Convenient that this was on a side of the school that doesn't have cameras," the cop inserted, crossing his arms.

"Eddie," the principal sighed, "this will be worse for you if you don't tell the truth."

"What is going on here?"

Eddie and the principal both stared as a midtoned woman with black hair pulled up in a chignon stormed into the room. To Eddie's incredible surprise, Beck followed her in looking cowed.

"Who are you?" the principal asked, standing to match the other woman's height.

"Judith Knight," she snapped. "Why is he in handcuffs?"

Eddie's mind raced. Judith Knight was a lawyer who a billboard on Highway 69. His eyes flicked to Beck and she looked away from him as she turned scarlet. This was her mom.

"He's in handcuffs because he defaced this school which, as I'm sure you know, is at least a misdemeanor."

"And you have proof it was him?"

"Beyond the declaration directed at his girlfriend?"

Judith leaned in, placing a hand on the principal's desk. "So that is a no?"

When no one contradicted her, Beck's mom turned to the cop. "Uncuff him or you'll be on the line for putting handcuffs on a minor without proper cause."

Eddie was shocked when the guy did as she said. He watched, awed and understanding Beck's fear of her, as Judith turned back to the principal.

"I bet if this young man agreed to clean the offending declaration off of your school, whether or not he put it there, then we would no longer have an issue. Am I correct?"

The principal looked like she wanted to bite the lawyer in front of her but she nodded once.

"Perfect," Judith said with a smile that did not reach her eyes. "He will report to you after school, won't you?" Her gaze turned to him and his skin crawled but he nodded emphatically.

Beck followed her mom out into the hallway where a tense conversation ensued before Judith stormed away and was gone. Beck glanced back at him as the bell rang for class but the principal glowered at her so she darted off.

"I'm recording this as a warning. Get out of my office, Mr. Munson," the principal snapped and he all but ran out of her office.

Beck knew he was mad when he didn't come looking for her in the library but she also knew exactly where she could find him after school.

He was halfway through scrubbing away the word love when Beck dropped her bag on the sidewalk and leaned against her own spray painted name.

"I know you're mad," she said.

"What gave it away," he snapped, dropping the sponge back into the bucket of soapy water. He started scrubbing again as he asked, "Why don't you have the same last name as her?"

"I have my dad's last name. She changed hers back when they split up."

"And why didn't you tell me your mom was Judith Knight?"

"Does it really matter?"

"Don't pull that! You knew I would care or you wouldn't have hidden it from me!"

"She's the worst person I know! What difference does it make who she is?!"

"Because I wouldn't have brought you to my poor-ass excuse for a trailer if I knew you were some rich lawyer's daughter!"

"Has it ever once occurred to you that's why I didn't tell you?"

She pulled the sponge out of his hand and threw it back into the bucket, taking away his excuse for not looking at her. She held his face in her hands and said, "I didn't want to lose you to her."

He was still really pissed off but she wasn't wrong. If he was honest, he may have pulled back if he had known; that woman was terrifying. He sighed and pressed his forehead against hers.

"Beck, you shouldn't have called her."

"And let you get a misdemeanor over nothing? That was a bullshit power play because they thought they could get away with it."

He pulled back to look deep into her eyes.

"She's going to make it so much worse for you now," he said.

The sorrow in his voice broke her heart and all her uncertainty died in that moment.

"No. She won't."

"And HOW do you know that?" he cried, throwing up his hands in exasperation.

"Because I'm not going back."

Eddie panicked. Was she going to move? Going back to Detroit? He couldn't lose her like this, not after everything. Not after finding out she loved him too!

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean… I'm taking you up on your offer, if it still stands."

He shook his head wildly. There was no way he was hearing this right.

"What?" he asked again, aware of how stupid he must sound.

She looked embarrassed and said, "To move in with you. If that's still –"

Beck stopped talking as she was lifted off her feet, pulled into a crushing hug, and spun around so hard her feet flew out behind her. When he put her down she watched him almost explode with joy as he yelled, "Fuck YES!" at the empty parking lot and sky.

Eddie had insisted she could not go home that night and Beck agreed, but Eddie needed his uncle on board before just moving her in. So while she worked on a plan for getting her things, Eddie caught his uncle before he left for work.

These kids must think he was a fucking idiot, Wayne thought as Eddie explained to him that they were in love so he wanted her to move in with them. He had no doubt his nephew was in love with her but he also had ears and their home was not that big. He had overheard more than a few spats about her injuries and had his suspicions about why she might be looking for somewhere else to go.

"So I told you to make a plan and this was what you came up with?" he asked, waiting Eddie out to see how he would react.

"I just... I need her to be... here."

He could have sworn Eddie almost said the word safe instead of here. Yeah that sounded about right. Whatever was going on, his nephew had decided to try to save her because he loved her. It was reckless and exactly what a teen would come up with, but it was also loving and brave. Eddie looked so much like his father but where his father had been a callous asshole, Eddie was empathetic and creative. Bringing this girl into his house was the last thing Wayne wanted to do, but he also couldn't crush this side of his nephew, the side his brother had tried to obliterate in his own son.

"Alright," he said, watching Eddie's face light up. "But this isn't permanent. She finds her own place eventually or you both do together. Understood?"

In answer, Eddie grabbed his uncle in a tight hug, with Wayne eventually hugging him back.

"Ok," he said, gently pushing Eddie off of him, "let's clear some space so get her stuff stored away properly."

As always thanks for the comments! Just a note to offer some reassurance. They will definitely go through some shit (we're headed into season 4 after all) but I want good things for them as well!