meet me in the middle of the air

chapter two: hospital

Hopper, it turns out, is Steve's next door neighbor - at least in terms of hospital rooms. Which sort of explains why Joyce Byers had been one of the first people he'd seen when he woke up; she'd probably been visiting Hopper and took pity on the sad, unconscious Steve Harrington, whose own parents were nowhere to be found. She's always been real nice to Steve in a way he's never thought that he deserved.

Hopper, though, Steve has had some...less than enjoyable interactions with in the past, outside of fighting monsters and saving the world. So it's genuinely dumbfounding - miraculous return from the dead aside - that he's chosen to hang out in Steve's room instead of his own.

He tells the former police chief this, but Hop just shrugs one big shoulder. "Ain't much to do around here, kid," he says, and lays back in the recliner with his hands folded behind his head. He's been spared the indignity of an assless hospital gown and is lounging in a pair of light blue scrubs, but between the shaved head and the loose fabric, it's easy to see he's as close to skin and bones as someone built like Jim Hopper could be. "Not once visiting hours are over, anyway. Only reason the feds let someone into your room at night is because the whole damn town knows you're a hero, and the kids made one hell of a ruckus til they knew you weren't gonna wake up all alone."

Steve fights down the flush that threatens to overcome his face, but he feels it heat up the tops of his ears and the bridge of his nose anyway. He feels like a moron; one vaguely complimentary word from an adult figure in his life and he lights up like some goddamn Christmas lights.

"'M not a hero," he mutters, picking at the grilled cheese sandwich Hopper had somehow convinced the night nurse to let him have. He's been slowly sloughing the crust off for the last ten minutes, cheese cooling and congealing beneath his fingers.

"Oh," Hopper says, drawing out the word. He tilts towards Steve with an amused look on his face, eyebrows cocked. "You'll have a real hard time convincing any of those kids about that. Way I hear it, you took an axe to the Devil and came out on top. Not to mention, carrying the Munson kid out of that nightmare when you were losing almost half the blood in your body."

What little there was of Steve's appetite sours, and he nudges the sandwich away. "Didn't do a lot of good," he mutters under his breath. That cold swooping feeling starts to build up in his stomach again; a cocktail of anxiety and guilt.

He can feel Hopper's eyes on him, staring at the side of Steve's head with a look of contemplation. He tries not to squirm under the scrutiny.

Eventually, Hopper looks away. There's a long, quiet moment where Steve aggressively tries to pin all of his focus on the movie Hopper's put on - chosen from a stack of VHS tapes that Robin had apparently dropped off when Steve had been thoroughly unconscious - before Hopper speaks again.

"You know," he says slowly, and even though Steve turns his head to look at him, Hopper keeps his own gaze forward. "I remember busting up parties at your house every other weekend and thinking, 'where are this kid's parents?'" He pauses, works his jaw like he's choosing his next words carefully before he continues.

"Haven't thought that way in a long time. Not til now." He cuts his gaze back to Steve and holds it there, his eyes dark and serious. "You've put your ass on the line for those kids without hesitation every time evil comes knocking. Son, I don't know if it's sunk in yet, but from what I hear, you damn near died this time. And now you're sitting here, talking about how you didn't do good?" Hopper shakes his head and jabs a thumb towards the hospital room door, but gesturing beyond it to the world outside. "I can tell you the Henderson boy is singing your praises to anyone in town that will listen; kid thinks the sun shines out your ass. And I know Wayne Munson has a lot he wants to say to you for getting his nephew out of trouble, and none of it is about you not doing enough."