Thank you for all the alerts, favs and reviews, I really appreciate it! It makes me happy. Sometimes I have a lot of doubt. More Fluff to come!

I rewrote this chapter a few times so hopefully it comes across okay.

Chapter Three: The Protectors

Eddie paced his trailer with an uneasy feeling hanging over him, a sense of dread that sat heavy on his chest, glancing down at his wristwatch for the hundredth time in the last five minutes. He knew she was probably just hanging with Steve, catching up on everything that had happened but he couldn't shake this feeling that something wasn't right. His feet taking him from one end of the trailer to the other, mind battling with the stupidity of it all.

"Stuff it." He muttered picking up his keys and heading out the door.

He drove to Steve's faster than he probably should have been driving down residential streets, but he didn't care, he needed Sarah to tell him what an overprotective idiot he was being. He got out of the car and walked up to Steve's door, knocking. Steve opened the door and the surprise of seeing Eddie Munson at his door was written all over his face.

"She's not here, Munson, I took her out to lunch then she walked to Nancy's."

"She's at Wheelers?"

Steve went to nod but saw a girl running towards the front door, she put her hands on her knees and took three deep breaths. Eddie turned around upon seeing Steve look around him and saw Chrissy. "Oh… that's lucky." She started taking another gasp for air. "You're both here."

"Chrissy? What's wrong? Where's Sarah." Eddie felt that uneasy feeling explode in his stomach, why else would the girlfriend of Jason Carver be looking for them.

"Jason… he took her to the lake…" The run had exhausted Chrissy, her limited calorie intake wreaking havoc on her body. "She's always been so nice to me... she doesn't deserve what he's going to do to her."

Steve grabbed his keys off the side table beside the door. "Let's go, I'm driving."

Eddie looked at Steve already at his car, opening the door. With no time to think he ran to the car throwing open the door, he glanced back at Chrissy, the girl smiled politely but shook her head, she couldn't go with them. Eddie gave a nod that Chrissy knew was in thanks of letting them know before climbing into the car. Steve reversed out of the driveway, tires skidding as he put it into drive not even fully reversing before accelerating down the street. "What happened that he would be taking her there?"

"Sarah punched him yesterday." Eddie answered, a little surprised she hadn't mentioned the cafeteria incident to him during lunch.

"Shit." Steve cursed. "I wouldn't have let her walk if I'd known she'd pissed off that jerk. He's got a serious god complex going on."

"What happens at the lake?"

"He's going to humiliate her. I've heard about what Jason does to his teammates. We used to do stuff like that too back when I was on the team but Jason's taken it way out of control. Sarah's told me of times she had to watch them punish a fellow cheerleader for disrespecting Jason. It's like a sick cult."

"And he calls me a freak..."

Steve came to a screeching halt, black tire marks leaving their print across the road. Eddie had been confused at the sudden stop, watching as Steve began beeping the horn over and over again until one of the house doors opened. Nancy came out with her arms crossed, annoyed look on her face, unimpressed at the boy being so rude.

"Nance, its Sarah." Steve called out through the opened window.

Nancy's annoyed face vanished as quickly as she did, rushing back inside the house before emerging once more with her purse and running to the car. "What's happened? Sarah's back?"

"Get in, get in." Steve urged. "She was on her way to see you, but Jason got her first."

Nancy climbed into the back seat and before she could even close the door Steve was driving once more. Steve doing his best to catch Nancy up on the situation while he sped through the streets, weaving around cars ignoring the agitated beeps of other drivers. The lake coming into view, cars sat parked out the front and the three of them knew they were here. Steve pulled up next to one of the cars and they got out of the car, Nancy pulling out the handgun she kept in her purse before running towards the lake with the boys.

Sarah was pushed to edge of the lake, she landed on her hands and knees just in front of the water, hissing at the sting in her palms. Jason stood in front of the group with a smirk on his face. "It's a shame this is your welcome back, Henderson, we all missed. Give me the clothes." Patrick handed the cheer outfit to Jason. "You know the drill; you've seen other people go through this enough."

Sarah looked at the outfit Jason held out to her, the skimpy cheerleading outfit that kept very little to the imagination. Sarah felt the bile rise in the back of her throat, it burned wanting its escape. She started shaking her head, using all of her willpower she swallowed the bile. "No. I'm not doing that."

Sarah had unfortunately seen many others be 'taught a lesson' by Jason, his ultimate power trip. She never participated, often standing at the back with her back to the scene next to Chrissy. He had always said it kept people in line, the jocks and the cheerleaders are a team and they needed to act like it. He would force the one who needed to be punished to wear the skimpy cheerleader outfit, whether male or female, while the others threw things at them, drew on them, then tied them up and threw them into the lake leaving them behind to get home by themselves. Sometimes he would use the boys as a punching bag, it depended on how much he liked you. It worked though, once it happened the person fell in line and followed Jason without question.

"You can do this the easy way, or the hard way, Henderson, either way works just fine for me."

"I'm not even a cheerleader anymore, I don't need to do what you say."

"It's the principle, I'll make sure you'll always be a good girl and follow, Sarah. We don't need one of our ex-cheerleaders disrespecting us, especially one who used to be Harrington's little bitch. How does that make me look? You heard the laughs in the cafeteria when you hit me. They laughed at me. All because the freaks new slut thinks she's still all that on her first day back."

Sarah felt sick, this boy was sadistic, she looked at each person that surrounded her, none of them looked even a tiny bit sad for her. "Jason… just let me go, please."

The smirk that crossed Jason's face made her skin crawl. He crouched down to be close to her. "Always so submissive when it comes down to it, huh?" Taking a hold of her ponytail he pulled back on it forcing her to look up at him. "Be a good girl like you used to be and maybe I'll forgive you."

Sarah stared at him, fire raging behind her eyes. She wasn't scared of anything these fools would do to her, anything they could do to her had already been done much worse by her father. She wasn't even worried about being thrown into the lake; she was a strong swimmer. She knew that once her clothes came off her secret would be out in the open, her marked body on display for all to see how pathetic she really was. Her fingernails dug into the gravel beneath her hands, she knew he wanted her to grovel at his feet and beg for forgiveness but she just couldn't give him the satisfaction. "Go to hell."

Jason ran his tongue along his teeth with a smirk, releasing her hair he stood up looking at Andy giving a nod of his head towards Sarah. She screamed as came at her tearing at her shirt, she could hear the fabric ripping apart while other hands grabbed at her jeans pulling the fabric she so desperately tried to keep her secrets hidden behind. They stripped her of all her clothes leaving behind just barely her under garments. Sarah was hyperventilating, trying her best to cover herself as tears streamed down her face, they were all staring at her. Her body was all skin and bones, covered in bruises whether the off yellow colour of an old bruise or the purplish tone of a recent bruise. Wounds on her wrist where she would fight against the handcuffs day after day on full display. Marks on her back from being struck by an object over and over. Sarah could feel their eyes burning holes all over her skin, looking over every inch of skin that held a mark on it.

The pop sound of a gun firing ripped through their ears, echoing around the woods surrounding the lake deafeningly loud it scared the teens making them duck for cover.

Nancy stood pointing her gun towards the group, Eddie and Steve standing either side of her. "Next time it won't be a warning shot. Get away from her. Right now."

"Just… just having a joke." Jason stuttered looking at the barrel of Nancy's gun that was pointed directly at him, hands held out either side of him to show her he had nothing. "Just playing… right Sarah?"

"You tell no one. Any of you." Sarah's voice was trembling. "Keep your mouths shut."

"Yeah… yeah we won't tell a soul." Jason agreed taking another glance at the girl on the ground trying to shield herself from their eyes. "Right guys?"

There were murmurs of yeses and a few nods, Nancy held her glare at all of them, grip on the gun so tight her hand was starting to twitch. She could hear Sarah crying behind the group of males that surrounded her, she wanted to shoot him, feeling so much rage for the boy her finger twitched on the trigger. Finally, she lowered the gun and they all took off leaving Sarah crying on the ground. The three went to go to Sarah before their eyes fully set on her.

"Shit…" Eddie breathed.

"Oh my god, Sarah." Nancy cried being the first one to go up to the girl, she very slowly lowered to her knees, she didn't want to startle her. "Sarah… it's Nancy." Her voice was so gentle, reaching out very slowly to touch her knee.

Sarah jumped at the touch, eyes snapping up to look at who was trying to touch her. "…Nancy…" Her voice was so quiet and broken, her head dropped down to lean her forehead on Nancy's legs.

Nancy let her eyes run over the girl taking in the damage, swallowing the lump in her throat she carefully began stroking Sarah's hair, looking towards the two boys with worry. Eddie took off his jacket and slowly made his way to the girl. "Hey, Sarah." He said softly. "I'm just going to put a jacket over you, is that okay?"

Sarah nodded slowly, her breathing uneven, she was trying her best to control herself but failing miserably. Eddie placed the jacket over her back and very gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't pull away from him so Eddie sat beside Nancy, leaving his hand on her shoulder to reassure her he was there for her. Steve stood back with his arms crossed, giving her the time to cry in a safe space with Nancy.

She lifted her head from Nancy's knees, wiping the tears that ran down her cheeks. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." The three of them spoke at the exact same time, reassuring her that they were all on the same page, this wasn't her fault, nobody blamed her.

Sarah pulled Eddie's jacket more around her shoulders, her eyes turning to look at Steve. "It wasn't good." She said softly shaking her head doing her best to hold back the tears. "He was so cruel; it was like he no longer needed to pretend to tolerate me so he had no need to hold back. No one knew us outside of Hawkins so he didn't need to pretend to be a father. He had been so mad I disobeyed him with the whole, um, mall incident that it just spiralled out of control. My very existence annoyed him, when he'd get really drunk he'd beat me just because I looked like my mother or I'd breathe too loud. When he got tired of me trying to escape he chained me to my room only letting me off to cook him food or clean the house. I don't know why he let me leave, maybe he was too drunk, or bored. I'm so scared he's going to come find me and drag me back." Steve moved forward and put his arms around her, gentle but secure, bringing her into his chest to hug her. "I want to go." She whispered. "Please take me away from here."

Steve looked up towards Eddie. "My parents are home."

"We'll take her back to mine." Was his answer, voice gentle when he addressed Sarah. "Princess, I'm going to pick you up, is that okay?"

Turning from Steve she gave a small nod, reaching out to wrap her arms around his neck. He lifted her up into his arms readjusting her to get a good grip, careful to not cause her any pain. She buried her face into Eddie's neck, she made no noise but he could feel the tears slide down his neck, his grip on her tightening just that little bit more. They walked back to the car in silence, Steve getting into the driver's seat, Eddie the passengers while Nancy sat in the back with Sarah on her lap, cuddled into her.

Eddie put her down on his bed, covering her with the sheets, she was too overwhelmed to pick out clothes and get dressed so he had put her in one of his hellfire shirts. Sitting next to her on the bed and gently patting her head until he heard her soft snoring letting him know she was asleep. Walking out to the living area he grabbed a bottle of whatever was on the counter and took a long swig, holding the bottle out for Steve who took it.

"She'll be okay here?" Nancy asked looking around the small trailer home, trying to hide her displeasure.

"She's been staying here since she got back to Hawkins." Eddie replied watching as Steve downed half the bottle in one long chug. "Slow down there, Harrington."

"Why didn't she come to me?" Steve was frowning at the bottle of alcohol.

"You were asking her all these questions about where she had been." Eddie replied with a shrug. "She was overwhelmed, didn't know how to tell you her father had beat the shit out of her the whole time she was gone, clearly." He sighed. "I need a smoke."

"Did she mention it to you?" Nancy asked.

Eddie shook his head. "Not really, she said he was violent. My uncle said he had heard her father hit her. I'd caught sight of her wrists but she always tried to hide it from me, I didn't push."

"When he took her from the mall I was so scared it would be the last time I would ever see her. He was so rough; shook her like a rag doll." Nancy sighed taking a seat beside Steve. "I should have held onto her tighter, I let go of her too easily. I always had my suspicious but every time she'd say the right thing to make me not worry so much."

"I should have fought her dad." Steve said finishing off the last of the bottle.

"Er, Harrington that was some pretty strong stuff you just downed."

"I can handle my alcohol." The words running into one another as they left his mouth.

"I wanted to shoot Jason." Nancy muttered.

"Prison wouldn't suit you, Wheeler."

Steve looked towards Eddie; lips pursed. "You have really pretty hair, I'm almost jealous."

Nancy face palmed, a somewhat of a strangled groan escaping her closed lips. "I'll be back in the morning."

"Wait, wait what?" Eddie scrambled after the brunette as she reached for the door. "What do you mean? What about Harrington?"

"You got him drunk, you can deal with him." Nancy exhaled. "Give me your keys I'll bring back your van in the morning." Eddie dug his hand into his front pocket to fish out his keys passing them to the girl. She gave him a small smile, turned and went outside walking towards Steve's car. "Look after them for me, please. Nancy, by the way, I don't think we've officially met. I'm the best friend with a gun." She held his gaze for a moment longer before climbing into the car.

Eddie stood at the door and watched her leave, driving off with Steve's car. "Jesus H. Christ." he sighed.

"Can I touch it?" Steve asked from the lounge.

"No."

"Just let me, it looks like the kind of hair you could run your fingers through."

Eddie rolled his eyes, walking over to sit down next to the intoxicated male. Steve grinned reaching up to touch his hair, running his fingers through it. "You should probably drink some water, Harrington."

"Who knew big ol' metalhead Munson was a big softie."

"Only to those who deserve it."

"Well, I'm glad Sarah is one of those people."

Sarah woke up in a start, gasping for air, she felt like she couldn't breathe, disoriented as to where she was and if she was safe. It took her a long moment to realise she was safe back in Eddie's room. It had been a while since her nightmares hadn't consisted of Russians or monsters trying to kill her, now it consisted of a memory, the way they looked down on her etched into her mind. She had never felt so exposed and it made her feel ashamed.

"Hey, it's okay. You're safe." Eddie came into the room, immediately beginning to reassure her, sitting on the bed beside her, careful with every movement as to not scare her.

Sarah looked down at the clothes she was in, her bruised arms on full display. "So, it wasn't just a nightmare... it actually happened?"

"Yeah, sorry sweetheart."

"Shit... are Nancy and Steve mad at me?

"I love you!" Steve slurred pulling himself into view using the door frame.

Sarah looked to Eddie with a questioning gaze but broke into a giggle when Steve threw himself on her. "Are you drunk?" She asked looking down at the boy who was now faceplanted on the bed.

"Maybe a little." Steve dragged himself up to one of the pillows, pulling on Sarah's waist so that she was now the little spoon. Although he had been a bull stumbling into the room he had still been so gentle with Sarah, careful not to hurt her even in his drunken state. A moment later he was snoring.

"You got him drunk?" Sarah sighed.

"Harrington got himself drunk, doesn't know how to go slow on the strong stuff." Eddie scoffed, he rolled his eyes at the boy passed out cuddling up to Sarah's back, even plastered he had more game than he could ever hope to have. "Looks like you're covered I'll let you get back to sleep."

Sarah reached out to grab his hand, stopping him in his tracks. "Can you stay with me too?"

Eddie thought for a moment, looking down at her, she was already looking back up at him. The look in her eyes was one of pleading and need, she needed him there with her. He had never had anyone look at him the way she was right now, no one ever needed him. Eddie had always grown up relying on no one but himself, his uncle was kind enough to take him in when his parents died however they did their own things. After having a silent battle in his mind, he climbed onto the bed letting her rest her head on his chest, worried she would feel just how crazy she made his heart flutter.

"Was Nancy upset with me?"

"I think she was just concerned for you." He replied, his fingers moving to play with her hair. "Those two were ready to jump the whole basketball team for you."

The corners of her lips turned upwards, an affectionate smile gracing her face. "Yeah, we'd go to hell for each other."

"Eddie was concerned before we even knew what was up." Steve mumbled from behind her, voice thick with sleep. Scooting himself as close to her as he could to reach over and pat whatever part of Eddie he could reach, settling on his hip and leaving his hand there, burying his face in Sarah's hair. "Came knocking on my door looking for you."

While Steve had been scooting himself he had pushed Sarah right up against Eddie, her hands coming up to rest on his chest. She titled her head back to look at him. "You came looking for me?"

"Just had a feeling." Eddie gently ran his hand along her cheek, brushing the hair behind her ear. The rings on his fingers felt cool against her cheek, eyes locked with one another. "I gotta know, sweetheart, how do you even move without pain? You are covered."

"After the first few months my body just became numb." She said it so casually that it made him frown. "Sorry. I just don't think about the pain."

Eddie rest his hand against her face, thumb softly rubbing against her cheek in a continuous motion. She could feel his warm breath on her face, the smell a mixture of cigarettes and alcohol with a hint of mint. He looked at her emerald eyes, such a pretty colour, the visibly golden freckles kissing across her nose and checks standing out against her tanned skin. He had been with a couple people in his life, never anything serious just casual hook ups after one of their bands gigs. He'd had a silly little crush on both Steve and Sarah through the years, the two often getting nothing but stares as they walked down the corridors together arms linked. There was a time where Steve 'The Hair' Harrington was everybody's high school crush. Eddie had never been in a relationship, let alone fallen in love, and yet here he was, staring at this girl in front of him, ready to throw his life on the line for her at a moment's notice. She gave him a small smile, her fingers closing around the fabric of his shirt as if to hold onto him, fighting every urge in his body to kiss her he leaned down and gently kissed the top of her forehead then replaced his lips with his own forehead.

"I'm not going to let anyone hurt you ever again, Sarah Henderson."