What A Strange Love Story - Eddie Munson

-fifteen-

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Clearing Eddie's name and helping the town seemed to be easier then Ozzy original thought it would be. Because Jason is now dead, so sad I know, and he was the reason that Lucas was so beat up when the rest of the party found, the fact that Jason was the last person who saw Chrissy before she left the party and was there when Patrick died as well while they had been together the whole day.

Eddie's lawyer was great, blind and dressed in a fantastic white suit that she said costed her next to nothing. He would be on parole, a officer checking in on him every once and a while but he was a free man in the eyes of the law. Maybe not completely to the public but you can't win them all.

When they all gathered together in the Overworld, they were devastated to see the destruction that Venca had reeked on their world. Large cracks in the ground that glowed with a mysterious red from below. Smoke coming from holes in the crust of the earth. Dust of ash floated down to the earth from the large cloud in the sky and the plants in the field seemed to be slowly withering away.

Arriving in a Surfer Boy pizza van, El, Jonathan, Mike, Will and a pretty cool guy with long hair named Argyle all filed out onto the Wheelers driveway. Ozzy immediately scooped El and Will into her arms, Mike hugging Dustin while Jonathan ran to Nancy.

Loud, purposely obnoxious kisses were placed all over the siblings heads as Ozzy held the two of them as close as she could to her. El's giggles at the affection combating Will's groans and noises of teen angst filled the air around the three of them."Oh, my children! You have returned and you are never leaving again. It's an official decreed now." She said to them before pulling back to look at them. One of her hands came up and ran a hand over El's newly shaved head. She looked beautiful with or without her hair grown out.

"You're starting to sound like Ms. Byers more and more." Mike said as he came back to greet her now.

He was pulled into her side with her hand on the back of his skull, ruffling the long hair there.

"Oh, I wish. That woman's got some ridiculously good instincts." Ozzy looked back over to Will before saying, "I see your hair is still the same."

"Yeah, I was trying to grow it out but she got me again before I could say no." He said, running a hand over the back of his head.

"Where's Eddie?" The other boy asked.

"He's over at his trailer trying to see if anything can be salvaged. I'm sure you'll see him later."

***

After collecting their spare clothes, toys and blankets from the Wheelers house, Steve, Robin, Dustin, Ozzy and Eddie drove over to the school and unpacked the boxes out of the trunks. They refused to let Eddie or Dustin carry any of the boxes because of the younger's limpy leg and Eddie's wounds that he didn't want to go to the hospital for as he said 'they already have too many people to deal with'.

Ozzy couldn't argue with him, not really, so she patched him up herself with the years of practice she had gotten from patching up Lucas.

When they entered the gymnasium, all she could feel was a pit in her stomach. All of these families, kids orphaned, some missing homes, others missing members of their families. She looked over to the large cork board to the side of the gym that had so many missing posters that they were starting to overlap each other.

They all walked over to the table at the end of the aisle where there was a girl with a clip board and a bright blue volunteer vest.

"Hi." Robin said as she placed her box down on the plastic table.