Never going Back ⋆ Stranger Things

8. The Hanged Man

Content warning; homophobic slurs (not actively used, mainly repeated from the previous chapters).

Monday, March 24, 1986.

Eddie knew something was wrong the moment Steve and Oz got back to the house. He'd been hiding under the tarp of the boat, just like they discussed, and only crawled out when hearing the sound of Steve' voice. Steve's pitched, panicked voice.

"Stay awake, come on."

Eddie's entire body flooded with dread and panic, scrambling up to get to the door before Steve could even think to open it. When he did, he came face to face with the bloody, mangled face of Oz, lulling to the side as Steve attempted to keep him upright.

"What happened? Who did this?" Eddie shot rapid-fire questions Steve's way as he helped to carry Oz into the main house. Breaking rule two. Again. They dropped Oz on the couch and while Eddie searched through the cabinet, frantically, to try and find something to fix him up, Steve was talking to Oz and trying to get him to talk back.

"I—I thought he was getting better, but he passed out right when we got here."

"What happened?!"

Eddie rifled through the cabinets in a frenzied haze, only slightly coming above the panicked fog when he found something that looked suspiciously like a first-aid kit.

"Here!" He chucked it towards Steve as he moved, "I'm going to look for painkillers!"

Steve sat, on his knees, looking through the kit for something useful. He pulled out a handful of band aids but tossed them to his side, not bothering to put them on yet. They weren't going to do anything if they couldn't manage to keep Oz awake.

"Oscar, wake up," Steve tried in a gentle but firm tone. He didn't want to shake Oz too much, knowing that his brain was already shaken enough. "You have to talk to me, man, please."

Oz's head rolled on the arm of the couch, semi-conscious but not entirely there. Not exactly satisfactory. Steve grabbed Oz's sides, moving to lay him on his side, and checked his breathing.

"What are you doing?"

Eddie walked back up just as Steve had his ear to Oz's mouth.

"He's breathing. Gotta check."

Steve had had enough experiences with head trauma to know what to look out for. As long as Oz was on his side and breathing, they were going in the right direction.

Eddie, for his part, seemed to trust Steve.

Steve backed up and away from Oz after a good few seconds, seemingly satisfied with how he was doing. He was still not all-there, but he was breathing, and Steve could see his eyes twitch behind their lids, which meant that he was processing something. It was about as much as Steve could hope for, considering the beating Oz had suffered.

Once he moved away, something strange happened.

Eddie was on Oz almost immediately, wet cloth in hand and wiping at the semi-dried blood on Oz's face. He took care of Oz almost wordlessly, save for the fact that he was still pestering Steve about whatever happened to Oz. Steve attempted to give an explanation, though there wasn't much he could say. He told Eddie; "He was attacked by the basketball team," which felt like enough of an explanation. He didn't want to mention why. He believed Eddie to be an okay person, but having spent enough time talking about it with Robin he knew that certain things simply weren't that easy to talk about.

Even when seeing the way Eddie took care of Oz in a gentle way Steve never figured Eddie Munson to be capable of. Even still, he wasn't sure he could tell Eddie everything.