Stranger Things Oneshots

It Was Worth It - Eddie Munson x Chrissy Cunningham

Disorientated, that's how Chrissy felt when she first came to. She was aware of the bed moving and she could hear her daughter crying but she must have been in that deep of a sleep that it was taking her a while to come round but she supposed that lack of sleep from a new born baby could do that to someone. She could vaguely hear the sound of Eddie trying to soothe their daughter in attempts to stop the crying and when she'd woken up enough to turn over she could just make out Eddie's form in the dim light of the room, holding the restless baby.

"Come on now princess, you're going to wake Mommy" Eddie whispered, gently beginning to rock her in his arms which quietened her a little but when he looked up to check that Chrissy was still sleeping he let out a soft sigh of disappointment when he saw that she was away and making a move to get up to help, "No, no it's okay you go back to sleep, I've got this" he assured her, carefully picking his way out of the bedroom so that he didn't fall over anything in the darkened room so that he could settle the baby down to sleep again in the front of the trailer.

He was gone before Chrissy had any time to protest. He had been like that since they found out she was pregnant and sure it didn't come at the best of times as they had both just graduated from high school, she was due to start at college, Eddie had plans to make it big with the band but both plans were smothered with those two little lines on the pregnancy test.

They had both been scared at the time, who wouldn't be at their age but Eddie more so than her as he still struggled with issues that his own father left him with and he didn't want that to affect their little one. Then came the day when her parents found out and basically told her to get rid of it, when she refused they kicked her out of the house, telling her that she was no longer their daughter so with a bag stuffed full of her belongings she turned up on the front porch of Eddie's trailer. One look at the bag thrown over her shoulder and her tear stained cheeks and he knew exactly what had happened, he opened his arms and she fell into him and that was that, she moved into the small trailer which was going to become smaller than ever with the two new additions.

Wayne wasn't thrilled when he found out but there was no way he was going to let the mother of his granddaughter be left out in the cold and he promised to help them in any way he could but his meagre wage the had barely supported him and Eddie throughout the years was never going to support four of them. So Eddie got a job at the local garage, though he wasn't the best qualified, he did know his way around cars after having tended to his beloved van over the years. While Chrissy got a job at the local diner and attended classes at the community college on an evening and that was how they lived for the remaining months before the baby was born.

When the baby came the only ones at the hospital with her were the Munson men, her parents didn't even bother turning up to see their first grandchild which she had to admit upset her and she broke down, confessing to Eddie on their final night at the hospital before they could go home. It had broken Eddie's heart to see her so upset but there was one thing that he could promise her in that moment and that was that their little girl would be well loved and looked after by those in her life.

All that had led them to right now with the muffled sound of Eddie still trying to soothe the crying baby on the other side of the bedroom door that he closed on his way out. Giving up on going back to sleep when the sound of her daughter's distress was still ringing out, she rolled out of bed and padded along into the main area of the trailer. Thankfully Wayne was working a night shift so at least the older Muson's sleep wasn't being disturbed as he worked so hard that he deserved what sleep he got.

Eddie was pacing the room and humming as he continued to rock the small baby in his arms, the motion seeming to have helped as the cries had died down to sniffles. When Eddie turned around and caught sight of her, he frowned.

"I thought I told you to go back to sleep sweetheart? You look after her all morning, then you work and then you have classes, you're going to be so tired" he lightly scolded but Chrissy just smiled softly at him.

"And you work hard all day at the garage so I would say you need more sleep than me" she tried to reason. It was a routine they had settled themselves into, she would look after their daughter in the morning while Wayne slept, then leave his dinner ready for him waking up before she left for work and he would look after their little girl until Eddie came home from work just in time for Wayne to leave for his next shift. It was tiring but it was worth it.

"Well I guess we'll both be zombies then tomorrow" he joked, a small laugh following his words which was followed by a small watering giggle from the baby girl in his arms. "Oh is that funny huh princess" he smiled lovingly down at her, no sarcasm to be heard in his tone despite his words.

"You know if you keep calling her princess, she's going to think that's her name" Chrissy teased, moving to his side and cuddling into him to look down at the baby in his arms as well, taking pride in what they had created together and now where coping with surprisingly well with taking care of her in was that many thought they wouldn't.

"Well she is daddy's little princess, even when she's older" he smiled, watching as she smiled up at him, her big brown eyes a mirror of his own and for the first time in his life he's excited for what the future holds now he's got his two favourite girls with him for the ride.

They stood together in the centre of the trailer for a while, soothing her back to sleep until they were both heavy eyed and struggling to stay awake as well. They padded back to the bedroom where he very carefully laid her in the second hand cot so as not to wake her up again before he climbed back into bed with Chrissy. Laying so that he was on his back, he pulled her closer into him and she rested her head against his chest as her arm slid across his middle, her fingertips leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake.

After a while of silence where Chrissy thinks he's gone back to sleep, he surprises her by speaking. "Do you ever regret any of this?" he asks, voice quiet and almost timid in a way that's not Eddie like at all.

She's quiet for a minute as she thinks, which leads him to think that she's going to tell him she does, that she's just trying to find the right words to let him down easily but that's not it at all. "Do I regret it? No. Do I think it would have been easier if we waited until we had everything in place to take care of her without Wayne's help? Yes" she replies, pushing up on his chest so that she's looking at him as she speaks. "We've got a beautiful little girl with those big brown eyes of hers and she's definitely going to get your curls but let's just hope she follows me when it comes to graduating" she teases, giggling quietly as he pulls her back into him, his hand tickling her sides as he does to get back at her teasing, although he knows she doesn't mean it.

"What about you? Do you regret it?" she asks softly, when they've drifted back off into silence.

"Honestly I thought I would, you know us being so young but now we've done it and we're actually doing alright, I think it's the best thing that's ever happened to me" he smiles into the dark, even though she can't see it but she can hear it in the way he's talking. "And I know we've kinda started off backwards but I'm going to do this right eventually" he muses, feeling her body begin to shift as she moves to look at him in confusion but he takes her left hand in his before she has the chance to move and brings it up to his lips where he presses a kiss to the knuckle just above her ring finger in answer to her.

It's not something Chrissy is expecting but the promise and the gesture brings tears to her eyes. She has lost her parents and her family but she has also gained a new one in Eddie and Wayne and now her daughter, one she knows will never leave her.