Behind Closed Doors

December 23rd, 1984

The next few days, Billy went through a whole circus of forensic photographers, CPS interviews, and police questioning. They kept him in the hospital for two days to examine him for past injuries, do a psych evaluation, and put him and Max into a foster home. According to Chief Hopper, they did arrest Neil and he was going to be charged with child abuse, assault, and others that didn't matter as much to Billy. All he cared about was that the bastard was getting thrown in jail, and that he and Max were free.

The home they ended up getting put into was in a more neighborly part of Hawkins. It wasn't extremely fancy like Steve's place, but it wasn't a shit poor neighborhood like Neil's house. The foster family they were put in was a man and wife, middle aged, two dogs. Apparently they had been fostering children for a few years, and were the type to go to church every Sunday. Max actually seemed to calm down a bit once they were at the foster home, and so did Billy.

Throughout all of it, Billy hadn't talked to Steve. Not like that was a big deal, he hadn't even been near a phone to call him or anything. It wouldn't kill him to wait until school started again to see Steve (or at least that's what he told himself).

Unbeknownst to Billy, Steve had been keeping track of everything that had been going on thanks to Hopper. Since it was the holidays, the court hearings wouldn't be until after the New Year, but all Steve had to do was talk about how Billy showed up at his house, telling Max and Lucas to go to the police station, and Hopper showing up to his house. That wasn't to say that he wasn't nervous about it... or scared shitless. He'd seen crime shows, he knew Neil's lawyer would try to tear him down with any means necessary. He just had to keep a level head, for Billy and Max's sake.

At around 9 pm, Steve decided to call Billy to put his plan into place. He'd talked to his parents about the situation with Billy (excluding the queer parts of their relationship), and asked them if he could invite Billy and Max over for Christmas. Surprisingly, they'd been understanding and agreed, but only Christmas Eve because they had family coming over on Christmas Day. He put Billy's foster home number in, and was nervous as the phone rang. Hopper assured him that the foster parents were great, but he wasn't too sure.

"Hello? Parker residence." An adult female voice answered.

"Hi, can I talk to Billy? Tell him it's Steve Harrington."

"Oh! You're the boy who got him to the hospital!" She sounded absolutely overjoyed at that. "Before I hand you over, I'd just like to say how thankful I am that you got him the help he needed. If it weren't for you, him and Max would still be with that horrible father of theirs."

Steve couldn't help but blush at the praise. "Thank you, ma'm, I'd have done it for any of my close friends."

"You're very welcome. Let me get Billy."

Billy was sat in his new bedroom window with a cigarette, his sprained ankle balanced on a box of his weights. He and Max had just gotten their small amount of things a few hours ago, but he didn't want to unpack yet. Laura (his new foster mom) said until his ankle was fully healed, he could smoke out of the window in his room. The reason being was they had taken in kids who were addicted to drugs, and the residue of smoke could trigger addictive urges. Not that Billy knew anything about that shit, he'd only tried harder drugs once in LA, but it was too intense for him.

"Billy!" Laura called from downstairs. "You have a phone call. It's from your friend Steve that helped you."

Billy couldn't help but smile as he put out his cigarette. He actually noticed he'd been smiling a lot more lately, and he hadn't smiled this much since his mom was still with them. Billy managed to hobble his way down the stairs to the kitchen where Laura had already pulled up a stool for him to sit on next to the phone.

"Take as long as you need," She said as she handed the phone over.

Billy nodded as he got up on the stool, then she left the room. If he was honest with himself, she kind of reminded Billy of his mom. Despite what Neil had put them through, his mom would always give Billy as much love and attention as she could, and Laura Parker didn't seem to have a shortage of that. Billy got comfortable on the stool and put the phone to his ear.

"Hey, Steve."

"Hey, how's everything with...?"

"The Parkers are fine. They've treated us great, actually, better than Neil could ever do, at least."

"Is that... good?"

Billy looked to see if either Joseph or Laura were listening in, and whispered, "It's honestly amazing. But don't tell anyone I told you that."

"I won't say a word," Billy could hear the smile in Steve's voice. "So listen, I was wondering... do you and Max have plans for Christmas Eve?"

Billy paused and thought for a moment. Laura and Joseph hadn't really talked to him and Max about Christmas. They were so focused on moving in that he'd honestly forgotten it was almost Christmas at all. But he did hear something about Max spending Christmas with the Sinclairs.

"I think Max is heading to Lucas Sinclair's for Christmas, but not really anything else."

"So for sure you have nothing going on Christmas Eve?"

"Not really."

"Great, then you and Max are coming to my place for Christmas Eve-," Steve paused as if he realized what he said. "I mean, if you want to. I just - I talked to my parents about it, and they said they'd be okay with you and Max coming over on Christmas Eve. I just figured... you'd want an okay Christmas after everything this week."

Steve felt like he may have shoved his foot in his mouth with that reaction. He just got over-excited at the idea of Billy coming over to celebrate Christmas, even if it was Christmas Eve. Though he was happy that Billy was doing better at his new foster home, and he even sounded happier from it. Steve just hoped he hadn't overstepped his boundaries on this.

After a brief pause on the other line, Billy asked, "Do we have to bring presents with us for you and your parents?"

Steve smiled, "Nah, wouldn't want you guys to get the scraps after all the last minute Christmas shoppers. It'd just really be dinner and watching Christmas movies."

"I'll ask Laura and Joseph. Doctor said I can't really drive until they're sure my concussion is gone, so I'd have to get a ride with them."

"Ok, cool. Just let me know by tomorrow, mom wants to... y'know, buy everything we need for five people."

"Hey, even if we can't make it, you get extra food for leftovers."

"True, but that'd be even more work for my mom. And you don't want to miss out on her famous garlic salt mashed potatoes. You'll never wanna eat anything else again."

"Not to diss your mom's cooking, but Pacific Dining Car is life changing. If you ever get a chance to go to LA, you need to go there."

"I'll keep that in mind. So I'll hopefully see you tomorrow?"

Billy smiled softly. "Yeah, probably."

"Great, so talk to you later."

"Yeah... by the way, Steve..." Billy paused so he could figure out how to phrase it. "Thank you, for everything."

There was more Billy wanted to say with that. He wanted to talk about how most adults back in LA didn't say a word, how his mom just left him because she couldn't handle it anymore, just spill his guts about the entire thing, but he knew it was better to say it in person. He felt like Steve deserved to know the whole story after everything that happened.

"You're welcome."