A/N: This blog was previously under the name “vecnawritesthings” but I’m making a few changes! From now on, this blog will only be Stranger Things related content. My motivation for other fandoms has dropped significantly.
ANY POSTS MARKED WITH A 🖤 CONTAINS POSSIBLY TRIGGERING CONTENT. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.
I currently write for Billy Hargrove, Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Jim Hopper, Robin Buckley, and Chrissy Cunningham.
Hi friends! I’m still here, I haven’t abandoned post. I still have quite a bit going on in my life but I managed to snag one week off in a few weeks so I will have more time to relax and dish out some writing! Thank you for sticking around :)
Hi friends! I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m currently dealing with a very sudden family emergency and most likely won’t be posting as much for now. It won’t be forever and I’ll update when I can but it will definitely be less frequent. Thank you to everyone who supports and follows this blog <333
A/N: This is a bit of a heavy one, ya’ll. Read through the warnings and view at your own discretion.
Word Count: 2.6k
WARNINGS: Neil Hargrove, blood, violence, abuse, swearing, death
Another hopeless night was happening at the Hargrove residence. Neil came home stumbling in the door drunk off his ass, a bottle still in hand. He was so gone that a dribble of booze was trickling down his chin as he walked inside. Billy’s blood ran cold when he heard the loud slamming of the front door, not expecting him to be back for hours. Neil wasn’t supposed to be home until eleven at night, yet he returned just shy of six in the afternoon. Not only was Billy afraid of what was to come from his father’s drunken hands, he was terrified because the girlfriend his dad showed so much hatred for and claimed to be nothing but a worthless whore was sitting in his bedroom. He normally refused to bring her around his house, afraid of what his father was capable of doing, but he was so sure today that he wasn’t going to be there. Even so, Neil was home, she was there, and Billy had to find a way to conceal her until he could get her out of the house safely. He was positioned in the kitchen when Neil walked in looking for a snack to grab for his hungry girlfriend. What was even scarier for him was that she was completely unaware of Neil’s presence in the house and could walk out of his bedroom in ignorance at any given point. Billy knew he had to either get her out before his dad figures it out, or get him out somehow before she realizes.
“The fuck are you looking at?” Neil scolded, his words slurring to become almost unrecognizable.
“Finding somethin’ to eat. Why are you here?” Billy said flatly.
“Why am I here? What kind of st-stupid question is that? This is my fuckin’ house, I’ll come and go as I please.”
“I just….” Billy ran a hand through his golden curls. “I just meant I thought you were going to be out until way later.”
“Hm. Bar was a shit hole. Better off getting wasted on my couch.”
Neil shook one of his arms out of his jacket, the other still holding the bottle of beer. He walked over to a side table next to the living room couch, steps wobbly and unstable. The glass bottle then left his hand and was placed on the table, the condensation quickly coating the wood underneath it.
“You know, I could ask you the same question, Billy.” Neil grumbled, plopping himself roughly down onto the couch, then shaking his other arm out of his jacket.
“Ask me what?”
“For fucks sake, you are stupider than I thought, kid.”
Billy looked down at the floor, standing in silence.
“Seriously, I gotta fuckin’ spell it out for you?” Neil continued berating his son, sighing heavily when he didn’t respond. “You asked me why I was here. So, let me ask you….why. The fuck. Are you here? It’s a Saturday night, don’t you have some skank to get up inside?”
Billy’s face visibly cringed. He regretted everything about the reputation he had built for himself before he met his current girlfriend. Every weekend, hell, sometimes every other day, he would find one of the girls who threw themselves at him like they were nothing more than meat and……become acquainted with them. When he was done, he would leave and never speak to them again. During that time, the females he associated with were disposable. He never cared about any of them even slightly. All that was before he met her. Never in a million years did he ever think he would meet someone he viewed as worth his time. There was something about watching her cuss out the asshole jock Jason Carver in the middle of the school cafeteria in front of everyone and not giving a single shit about who was watching that intrigued him. The fire lacing her voice and the way she looked so intimidating yet so soft at the same had him hooked from the second he witnessed the whole thing. Ever since he managed to get her to give him the time of day, and eventually did the impossible and asked her to be his official girlfriend, he hasn’t given sleeping with another woman a second thought. There’s not a damn thing he would do to betray her and there’s definitely nothing he wouldn’t do for her.
“I don’t do that anymore, dad.” Billy answered, still looking down at the floor.
“Ohhhhhh yeahhhh, that’s right.” Neil grabbed the arm of the couch and helped himself up into a standing position. “I almost forgot. You’ve got that other whore now. Stuck with her, huh?”
“Don’t say that.” Billy’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“What did you say? Care to repeat that?” Neil stepped closer to his son.
“Don’t….don’t call her that.”
Neil stared at Billy, unresponsive to his son defending his significant other.
“What?” Billy broke the silence.
“You’re feeling awfully ballsy today, William.”
Billy scrunched his nose at the name; it was something only his father called him, knowing how much he hated it. Neil would do anything to scrape away at any ounce of peace he had. Anything to get under his skin and get a reaction out of him. It was like he was always looking for an excuse to hurt him.
“What, nothing to say now?” His father brought his face mere inches away from his and Billy instinctively backed up a step. “I knew you were nothin’ but a pussy. Get the fuck out.” Neil scoffed.
Billy stood there, stunned, too afraid to move. Get out? Go where? He wasn’t about to leave his still unsuspecting girlfriend alone in his house with his dad. Over his dead body.
“No.” His voice was weak.
“Excuse me? Did you just tell me no? I said get. The fuck. OUT!!”
Billy’s head snapped to the side, his cheek stinging from Neil’s hand harshly coming down on it. There would surely be a bruise there in the morning. Great, yet another mark he would have to cover up and hide by picking a fight with some kid at school. Who would suspect that his own dad beats him up if half of the school sees somebody getting a punch in? He thought for a moment about what poor soul he would choose for such a deed before something grabbed his attention. A familiar creaking of his bedroom door crept up into his ears.
“Fuck.” Billy closed his eyes, whispering under his breath.
“What was that, boy? Somethin’ the matter?”
“Hey, Billy are you still-” Billy’s girlfriend stopped dead in her tracks. “Oh, um….hello Mr. Hargrove…..I didn’t know you were here.” She swallowed thickly.
Neil let out a concerning laugh.
“Oh, I get it now. You didn’t want to leave because you were hiding your whore of the week in your room.”
With her presence now being the main focus of the situation, Billy’s tolerance was getting lower, his anger growing higher. One wrong move from his father and he would be ready to burst. He no longer cared or worried about forming more bruises on his body or the potential short streams of blood that might roll down his face that night. His entire demeanor shifted to that of an attack dog, ready to defend the one he loved.
“So, I’ll say it again, kid. Get. The. Fuck. OUT!!”
“Fucking make me.” Billy taunted.
With those words, Neil grabbed the collar of Billy’s shirt and started to drag him towards the front door. His girlfriend stood frozen in shock, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. Instead of immediately opening it to shove him out, Neil roughly shoved his son’s body into the hard door.
“You will do what the hell I say!” Neil screamed inches away from Billy’s face, small strings of spit flying into the air.
“You can’t make me fucking leave!” Billy shouted back.
Billy glanced over Neil’s shoulder at his girlfriend, who now had tears streaming down her face. She was still being as quiet as a mouse. He knew she was absolutely petrified and this only added more fuel to the fire. In a burst of confidence, Billy grabbed his father’s collar, just as he had done to him, and flipped him around so he was now the one pushed against the door. Neil couldn’t believe his eyes. Never has his son really fought back against his abuse. He didn’t know what to do, and this enraged him further. His fists went flying at Billy. Several were able to connect with his face and chest, knocking him to the floor.
“Stop! Mr. Hargrove, please, stop!!” Billy’s girlfriend cried out, rushing forward to his fallen form.
“Baby, go back in my bedroom and lock the do-”
Before Billy could finish his sentence, terror replaced the air in his lungs. The disturbing fearful scream coming from his girlfriend was all he could hear. In a terrifyingly fast ten seconds, Neil was able to grip her arms and rip her away from Billy, throwing her into the glass coffee table in front of the couch like she was a rag doll. The glass surface completely shattered, both small and large pieces embedding themselves in her skin.
For the first time in his life, Billy was truly stunned in a fight. He felt as if his entire world just went crashing down. The room that just seconds before was filled with growling yells and blood curdling screams was so silent you could hear a pin drop onto the carpet. Somehow, Neil himself even seemed surprised.
“What….what did you do?” Billy blinked hard several times, trying to get the burning sweat to disappear from his eyes. “Why…..why the FUCK WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?”
Neil didn’t know what hit him. Billy flew up from his position on the floor and lunged at his dad, shoulder first. He channeled a new found strength and lifted him into the air by his waist, slamming him back down onto the ground. He was out cold.
Now that the threat was out of the picture for the time being, Billy rushed over to his girlfriend, who was lying unconscious in a pile of glass. Not only was she on top of it, glass also surrounded her and was mixed into the strands of hair that came loose from her ponytail during the attack. All he saw was the shine and shimmer of shards….and blood. A large portion of the broken glass was coated in crimson.
“Baby? Baby, come on. Wake up!” Billy shook her shoulders gently. “God, you’re fucking….blo-blood….” He shook her again, rougher this time. “Baby, come on! Wake the fuck up!”
The silence was piercing.
Billy hurried over to the phone hanging on a wall in his kitchen, dialing the number of the only person he thought could help.
“Yeah?” A gruff voice answered.
“Hopper! Hop!! FUCK! I need-she needs-FUCK!!!” Billy couldn’t find the words.
“Woah, woah, woah. What’s going on, kid?” Hopper’s voice was stern.
“Please! I’m at-I’m at my house….my dad hurt her, Hop! He fucking hurt her!!”
“I’m coming, stay put.”
Billy didn’t bother hanging up the phone, he dropped it and let it swing into the wall and dangle in place. He ran back over to his girlfriend, limping past the intense pain from Neil’s hits that was beginning to make itself known.
“Baby, please, why aren’t you waking up?!?”
Billy could barely see with the amount of tears fogging up his eyes and straining his vision. What he could see, though, was the most likely answer to his question.
Her head.
He carefully put his hand underneath her skull and felt the back of it. His palm almost instantly became filled with blood as he felt a small dent that most definitely should not have been there.
“GOD, NO!!” His voice was broken into heavy sobs. “No, no, no, no, no, no.”
In an act of desperation, Billy lifted his girlfriend’s limp form and cradled her body into his chest, ignoring the shards of glass that were starting to penetrate his legs.
“You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay. You….you have to be okay!” He was rocking her back and forth now. “Don’t you fucking leave me! Don’t you fucking do it!”
Billy almost didn’t hear the sound of sirens and his front door being kicked open over his loud sobbing. It was almost inaudible and he was startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, kid. Come on, let her go. We gotta get her to a hospital.” Hopper spoke as softly as he could to the destroyed boy.
He said nothing, only loosened his grip on her, allowing Hopper to swiftly grab her and run her out the door over to the ambulance waiting outside. Billy felt as if his feet were heavy boulders. His ears rang, his skin was numb. How the fuck was this happening? He thought he heard Hopper calling out for him but he wasn’t sure. It sounded unusually faded and distorted. He then wasn’t certain if the police chief running towards him was real or an illusion. A hallucination, even. Hopper’s voice got farther and farther away as he moved closer.
The black began to dissipate and fill with little spots of light, ever so slowly growing into large pools. By the time the darkness was finally gone, fluorescent lights invaded Billy’s sensitive eyes.
“What….what….the hell.” Billy tried to speak but his voice was hoarse.
“Hey, kid.”
Hopper?
“What….you…here….?”
“I’m here to make sure you ended up alright.” Hopper admitted.
Billy’s eyes were painfully squinting, the light feeling overwhelming. He lightly blinked, widening his eyelids a little bit each time, trying to force himself to adjust to the violating white lights.
“Where’s….where’s….” Billy groaned as he did his best to prop himself up straighter, resting his bruised back against the hospital bed. “Where is she?”
The longer silence filled the air, the more Billy was fearing the worst.
“Hop. Where……is she?” The boy’s strained voice sounded like gravel scraping his throat.
The sigh that Hopper made was a type that Billy had never heard come from him before.
“Billy….I’m so sorry. They did all they could. It….it was too much….for her.”
Cold. All he felt was cold. Any warmth he had within himself was stolen. A fate worse than death, in his mind. Nothing could compare to the numbness he felt. It…..it couldn’t be real. A million thoughts shot through his head. Was the only person he ever came to love….gone? The ONLY fucking girl to EVER show actual true love and care for him? The one whose touch was silk, whose….whose laugh was the calming sound of a light rain, whose gaze was sparkling glitter, whose smell was vanilla and lemonade on a hot summer day…..gone.
Billy’s world really did end that day. His heart and soul was ripped away from him without a second thought. Like….like she was trash. Dirty trash thrown into a heap of rubble. She suffered an end like that while his father escaped and was on the run. He could have been literally anywhere doing anything and she was going to be in the ground. He could be somewhere enjoying the puff of a cigarette, wasting his breath on the cancer inducing chemicals, while she had none to breathe at all.
Her funeral was typical, as far as funerals go. Her parents sobbed heartbreaking cries, her friends shed all the tears in their bodies, and then there was the token group of people who claimed to be close with her or friends at all with her but in reality probably didn’t even know her last name. He sat a row away from her parents, too ashamed to face them. In that moment, he truly felt lost. Weak. And upon seeing her lifeless face in the open casket, he vowed to her that he would find Neil; and take his revenge.
Turning this blog into only Stranger Things content for now! I posted what was left in my drafts but lately all I’ve been motivated to write for has been characters from ST
could i request 16 and 31 for billy hargrove ?? thanks <3
A/N: Thank you for requesting!! 16. "I'll take care of it, don't worry." and 31. "Let's get you fixed up." This features an original character as the bully.
REQUEST FROM THE PROMPTS HERE
Word Count: 2.1k
Warnings: Swearing, sexual harassment, fighting, sexual tones
Karma’s a Bitch
The party Carol was throwing tonight was going to be called the party of the year. Or so you heard. You weren’t ever one to party much or really even consider going to a huge gathering like this but you know your boyfriend, Billy, planned on going. He needed to at least show his face and act as king of Hawkins high. That’s how you ended up being talked into showing up. Billy was going to be by your side the entire night to ease your nerves.
Until he propped himself up on one of the kegs and tried breaking his record again.
“Billy, do you really need to do it again?” You asked, hands on your hips, watching him head towards Carol’s backyard.
“Come on, babe. Don’t be a party shitter. Just tryna’ top myself cause no one else can. Getting bored.” Billy stopped when he realized you weren’t following close behind him. “Gonna tell me why you’re not moving?”
“Gonna tell me why you have the excessive need to show off any chance you get?” You snapped back.
Billy quickly made his way over to you until he was in such close proximity that his face was almost touching yours.
“Watch the attitude there, babydoll.” His eyes were locked onto yours with one finger under your chin, tilting it up so you were forced to look at him.
“What about your attitude, babydoll.” You did your best to call him the nickname with the most condescending tone you could manage.
A smirk grew on Billy’s face.
“Guess I’ve gotta fuck the attitude outta you later.” His tongue ran over his bottom lip before he grabbed your chin more harshly and pulled you in for a hungry kiss.
Billy broke away and without a word continued his journey to the backyard where the kegs were. Unbelievable. You didn’t bother calling out for him, or even following him. It was pointless to argue with him about it anymore, he was going to do what he wanted. With a hard rolling of your eyes, you turned around and went back inside of Carol’s house.
The second you entered, you made eye contact with the last person you wanted to see. Xander Morgan. Fuck. The one guy in the entire school who still had the balls to mess with you even after getting together with Billy. After he became your boyfriend, every person who bullied you or picked on you for any reason at all went off the grid. It was like you didn’t exist to them anymore. Nobody was brave enough to take on the king of Hawkins high, who was known for pulverizing anyone who got in his way or fucked with someone he happened to give a shit about. Most people looked at Xander like he was a mad man whenever he made attempts to talk to you or corner you at your locker between classes. Other people wondered how he was still alive. You were Billy’s girl. No intelligent person messed with Billy, therefore, only a man with a dead wish would mess with his girl.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” You whispered to yourself under your breath.
Your feet were moving as fast as they could without straight up running, not wanting to draw anymore attention to yourself. It was one thing for Xander to torment you at school. It was a whole other ball game for him to be headed your way with intent at a party with at least a hundred people. Sweat was forming on your hands as you thought about the thousand ways he could humiliate you in front of so many people.
“Y/N! Wait up!”
Xander was jogging over to catch up with you, his breath heavy.
You had made it into the kitchen before you heard his clomping footsteps slow down behind you.
“If I didn’t know any better, I would say you’re trying to hide from me, gorgeous.” Xander said, practically panting after his run.
You felt nauseous from him calling you that. No other guy in the school made you as uncomfortable as Xander did.
“Oh, no….just….needed a drink.” You lied.
“Hm. Well, I know Carol keeps the good shit up here.”
Xander invaded your personal space and reached up into the cabinet directly above you, pressing his own body against yours. There was no room for you to slip out of the space, so you stood there frozen, waiting for him to move. The seconds he was there felt like hours. With each passing second you became increasingly aware that there was no one else in the kitchen with you. You were alone.
“Here we go.” Xander had a bottle of whiskey in his hand.
He finally moved, turning his back to you to place the bottle on the island in the middle of the room. He took two plastic cups from one of the many stacks in the center of the island and began pouring the whiskey. You watched closely as he did so. Your heart dropped when you noticed that your cup was almost filled to the brim, while his had maybe two shots worth.
“There ya go, babe.” Xander held out the cup for you to take.
Hesitantly, you reached out and took the cup.
“You know…..I’m dating Billy Hargrove.”
“Okay…..and?” He took a sip.
“So….maybe don’t call me that.” Your voice was getting quieter with each word.
Xander narrowed his eyes at you and then set his cup back down onto the island.
“Maybe don’t tell me what to do. Now, drink.”
His tone was demanding enough to make you feel actual fear. Not knowing how to get out of the situation, you took a sip.
“Don’t play with me, hot stuff. I know you can take more than that.” He smirked.
Disgusting.
“I’m good, really. I don’t want to get too drunk, Billy would be upset.”
“You let him boss you around like that?”
“No…it-it’s not like that.” You defended, your voice trembling.
“You know what I think?”
Xander took a few steps towards you, closing the gap as he went. There was nowhere for you to go; you were still backed up against the counter.
“I think…you need to be with a real man.”
Xander took your cup out of your hand and tossed it into the sink. His hands then found their way onto your waist with an uncomfortably tight grip.
“Get off! I love Billy, I don’t want you! I’m here with him!” You cried.
“You’re here with Billy? That’s funny cause I don’t see him.” His head dipped down as he lightly kissed your neck.
“Turn the fuck around.” A much rougher voice than Xander’s said in almost a growl.
“Oh! Billy! Care to join us?” Xander taunted.
“Y/N. Get out.” Billy commanded.
“What? No! I know what you’re going to do!”
As much as you wanted to get as far away as possible from the scumbag in the room with you two, you knew that if you left Billy alone with Xander, the outcome would not be pretty. The images of wrapping up his bloody and bruised knuckles in the past filled your thoughts. You saw him get into dozens of fist fights, some of them brutal and resulting in broken bones, but you had yet to see him start one over you. Until now, you had managed to hide the fact that Xander harassed you often.
“Get. OUT!” Billy yelled, making you jump. He closed his eyes for a moment, then softened his voice and expression. “I’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”
“Listen to him, you obedient slut.” Xander chimed in.
Oh no. That was a mistake.
Before you could even exit the kitchen, Xander was being ripped away from you by Billy’s rough hands. Thrown off guard at your boyfriend’s sudden movements, he was easily tossed onto the cold tile floor. Billy then got on top of the guy and pulled him up slightly by the collar of his shirt.
“Don’t you EVER talk to my fuckin’ girl like that!” Billy screamed in his face, landing a punch before Xander could mutter out a smart ass response.
The punch seemed to give Xander a burst of adrenaline and he managed to land his own blow onto your boyfriend’s jaw.
“Billy!!” You cried out, tears flowing.
“WOO!! You’ve got more spark in ya than I thought, kid!” Billy yelled.
Xander scrambled up to his feet and lunged back into Billy. A loud ‘oof’ sound came from him as he was slammed into another nearby counter, a fist planting in his ribs following.
“Stop!!” You pleaded. You didn’t know how many more hits you could watch Billy take for you.
Billy regained dominance fairly easily, shoving Xander backwards and slamming his fist into his ribs to return the favor as he stumbled.
“Why the fuck are you beating on me when your little girlfriend was the one walking around here lookin’ like a whore?”
Another punch flew into Xander’s face. Your eyes widened in horror when you saw Billy’s hands. Blood was dripping down them onto the floor. Some was Xander’s, some was his own from the impacts.
“Billy, please! Let’s just leave! I….I want to go home.” You begged.
You waited for another punch to come into contact with Xander somewhere but it never came. Xander wasn’t moving and Billy was standing over him, staring.
“Billy….” You slowly crept up behind him, cautiously placing your hand on his shoulder. He instinctively flinched. “Come on….he’s had enough, okay? It’s time to go.”
“He hurt you?” Your boyfriend turned to face you, his bloody hand coming up to graze your cheek.
“No….he just….I don’t know.”
Billy sighed heavily. “Let’s go.”
Billy wrapped his arm around your waist and led you out of the kitchen, out the front door, and over to his camaro that was parked on the side of the road in front of Carol’s house. He opened the passenger side door for you and closed it after you were fully in. He took his place in the driver’s seat.
“Seatbelt.” He said.
You clicked your seatbelt in, nodding your head towards him to do the same. He let out a breathy laugh and followed your silent instructions.
The drive back to your house was a quiet and quick one, the sound of his normally loud hard rock music playing over the radio missing. Tonight was different from the others. He pulled into your driveway and couldn’t help but smile when he noticed that your parents weren’t home.
“Looks like we won’t be bothered.” Billy teased.
“I know what you’re thinking, Hargrove. Not after that.”
“Right. Fair.” Billy looked ashamed for even hinting at it.
Billy turned his car off and walked over to your side, opening the door for you again.
“You know, I’m not the one who just took a bunch of punches.”
His eyebrows scrunched together.
“I should be opening doors for you. Your ribs could be bruised!”
“Not a chance, babydoll.”
You rolled your eyes. “Come on. Let’s get you fixed up.”
The two of you strolled up to your front door. He stood back as you took your house key out of your pocket and unlocked it. When you got inside, you tossed the keys onto the end table next to the doorway. You went right into the bathroom and Billy followed behind you, knowing your intentions. Your medicine cabinet and underneath your sink was packed with items you never usually needed but stocked up on after becoming close with Billy. Gauze, bandages, disinfectant, pain relief gel, and even medical tape were some of the things among your supplies. He insisted that you didn’t need to go that far and keep all of it but you knew he was grateful for you. You would rather have them and not need anything than need them and not have something.
“Fuck!” Billy yelled as you dabbed a disinfectant soaked cloth onto his broken skin.
“I’m sorry, I know.”
You discarded the cloth into the trash bin next to the toilet when you were done. It hurt you seeing it covered in blood.
“Okay, shirt off.” You ordered.
Billy raised an eyebrow.
“Lemme see the damage, perv.”
Billy chuckled and lifted his shirt over his head, throwing it onto the floor. Your mood became even worse when you examined the reddened angry skin on his body. The large splotches would surely be blue and purple by morning.
“Well, I guess nothing is broken.”
“On me? Nah. On Xander?” Billy shrugged his shoulders. “Different story.”
“I love you, you know that?”
“Sure do, babydoll.” His hands lightly grasped your waist, frowning when you stepped back slightly.
“Sorry, I-”
“I know. My bad. Didn’t think about it.” Billy admitted.
“I love you, Billy.”
“I love you too, Y/N. That’s why I’ve got no problem beating the living shit outta guys who think they can make a move on my girl.”
Summary: You and Murray begin to set the plans in motion for getting to Alaska, moving to the next step in order to bring Hopper back home.
A/N: Jim Hopper taglist: @evyiione
The next day, three extremely difficult things had to take place. One, you needed to discreetly pack a duffel bag with whatever belongings you thought you would need for a sudden trip to Alaska, part of which would be the forty thousand dollars that you knew would haunt you forever, even if you and Hopper managed to build it back up. Two, you had to come up with a believable story to El about why she was going to be staying with the Wheeler’s for the next two weeks while you suddenly took off with an old friend of her dad’s. And three, you had to sell the same story to Karen Wheeler and pray that she agreed to take her in.
Although you knew it was necessary to the plan, you were dreading making the phone call to the Wheeler residence. And despite knowing she would treat El like her own while watching over her, Karen Wheeler left a sour taste in your mouth after her run-ins with Billy. If there was another who could take on the job, you would have jumped on it in a heartbeat.
“Hello?” A light and stereotypically feminine voice picked up.
You squeezed your eyes shut in reflex, feeling disgusted that you were calling her in the first place.
“Hi! Mrs. Wheeler, it’s Y/N!” You put out your best fake customer service type voice so she didn’t sense the tension.
“Oh, hi, Y/N! How are you?”
“I’m doing well, thank you. Hey, I have a question. Well, more of a favor to ask of you.”
“Oh? What is it?” Karen asked.
“I know it’s a lot to ask and a bit short notice but….” You bit your lip and paused, wondering if you should back down and figure out another way later.
No. There was no later. You had to meet with….god. You didn’t even get a name!
“Can El please stay with you for a while while Murray and I go on a business trip to Alaska?” You blurted out a little too fast to your liking.
“Oh, my….I guess that would be okay! She can sleep in Nancy’s room, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”
A wave of relief washed over you. You knew Nancy would have no issue with basically having a sleepover with El; not after everything the two had been through together involving the demodogs and various monstrosities of the Upside Down. Plus, being two teenagers, they probably wouldn’t spend a lot of time around Karen anyway.
A few hours later
“So….you’re taking a…..business trip…..to Alaska….with him?” El pressed in between bites of the chicken kiev Murray cooked for a group dinner.
Even after coming up with the idea and convincing yourself she would approve of it, you found yourself still stuttering and tripping over your words when answering her questions.
“Yes!” Murray jumped in. “We have um….important business to conduct! Meeting with some top dogs in Alaska, kid. Very important stuff. Life or death, you know?”
You shot Murray a warning glare when you watched El’s face contort at his ‘life or death’ comment. He should know by now that she took words quite literally and by saying this struck fear into her.
“Don’t worry, sweetie, he’s just trying to be funny. And failing.” You scowled, fork scraping against your plate as you spoke.
“She’s right, sorry.” Murray backtracked. “Picture this!” He rose from his chair. “Me….Y/N….the warmth of fireplaces in a five star hotel protecting us from the outside blistering blizzards, fish for breakfast, and at some point some boring conference that I wouldn’t wish on my own enemy…..It will be a lovely time, El. Nothing to worry about, my darling child.”
You bowed your head down and covered your face with your hands. What an idiot. At least you weren’t the only one feeling intense embarrassment. Mike, Jonathan, and Jonathan’s new friend Argyle all had stopped eating, Mike even being mid-bite, to stare and listen to the unusual half-assed description of the business trip. The bewildered expressions plastered on the boys' faces went unnoticed by El, yet were extremely obvious to the rest of the table.
“Sounds dope, dudes.” Argyle chimed in, happily returning to his almost empty plate.
“Yes….dope.” Murray repeated, squinting at the long haired boy and sitting back down into his seat.
“Will I be here alone?” El asked, her eyes darting between you and Murray.
“Oh, no! No, no, no, no! I’ve already arranged for you to stay with the Wheeler’s while we’re gone. You can spend more time with Nancy! Maybe she can teach you how to do that braid you were asking me about the other day. I bet you’ll have time to master it!” You shot El a reassuring smile, knowing she would be feeling a bit nervous about the whole ordeal.
“Yeah….the braid…..”
“It’ll be okay, kid. I promise.” You reached over across the table and lightly ruffled El’s hair, making her white headband go askew.
“What she said!” Murray exclaimed. “Everything will be a-okay. Now! Eat up, sweetheart! Get those calories!”
Unbelievable.
The next morning
You stared at the safe containing the money to El’s fund for what seemed like forever. It seemed to taunt you, knowing what you were about to do. The idea of emptying its contents was eating away at you so much that you felt the urge to smoke, something Hop always kept you away from. You were already making the ultimate sacrifice to get him back, so why not indulge in some sort of vice? Prying your eyes off of the menacing safe, you reached into the bottom drawer of the nightstand next to the bed the two of you once shared together. Digging through some random papers and forgotten trinkets, you found a half smoked pack of Camel non filters. You twirled the pack around in your hands for a moment before taking out a single cigarette. It had been flipped upside down. Not only were you resorting to pulling from Jim’s own pack, you were about to smoke his flipped lucky cigarette. It didn’t mean much to you but you knew Hop always did that for a reason. As serious of a man he was, he had his little habits and superstitions. Maybe smoking his lucky one would change his fate for the better and give him the luck that he needed. Or maybe….it would have the opposite effect and you were about to suck out the last ounce of luck your husband had. It seemed silly but you decided against it, not willing to take even the most miniscule of risks. You had to get him back.
“Hey, you okay?” Murray spoke from the doorway to your bedroom, having observed the silent dilemma you just faced.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. I was just….thinking. Thank you for staying the night, Murray.” You gave him a tight lipped smile as you placed the pack of cigarettes back into the nightstand drawer.
“You want me to get the money together for you? You can just tell me the code.”
“No, it’s okay, I can do it. Could-could you hand me the duffel bag though? It’s stashed underneath the bed.”
“Yeah, no biggie.” Murray dipped down onto the ground and peeked underneath the bed, pulling the bag out and setting it on top.
Your eyes returned to the safe. You had to do this. There was no other way. Tears began to pool in your eyes as your fingers hesitantly turned the dial to the safe. El had been taken to the Wheeler’s before you decided to get this done and you were thankful for making that decision. The fear of her walking in on you taking out such a large amount of cash and having to explain it on the spot was too much. How could you possibly tell her that you were risking the future that she didn’t even know about yet? Not happening.
As you finished gathering the money into the duffel bag, Murray started to grab all of the packed bags you guys had put together for the trip. You picked up the money bag and followed him out to your car, shoving everything in the space limited trunk.
The drive to the airport just outside of Hawkins was quiet and tense. Neither of you wanted to speak of the deed you were doing. Sure, plans needed to be made and details should have been discussed, but the huge glooming cloud of cash was storming through both of your heads. Yes, it was going to be done to save your husband but god you felt guilty. You felt cold. Heartless. Numb.
“Alright, here we are.” Murray announced, pulling into the airport parking lot.
“You couldn’t have parked closer?” You complained, realizing you would have to lug all of your bags across the lot.
“That’s what you’re worried about? Be glad we even scored tickets on such short notice!”
He was right. There was zero room for you to complain. You were given essentially a handout that told you how to bring back Hopper, you had the cash needed on hand, and Murray managed to snag two tickets to exactly where you needed to go in under two days' notice. This entire endeavor was turning you into a mess, someone you didn’t recognize. The mental strain you were experiencing was powerful and you were allowing it to get the best of you. Another wall of guilt built up when you thought about how Murray must be feeling. Jim was-is his best friend. He had to be feeling the exact strain and nerves you were going through, although he was a thousand times better at hiding it than you were. You should be grateful, yet here you were huffing and puffing about carrying bags.
“You’re right, I’m sorry….I’m just…..tired.” You said, sounding defeated.
Murray looked at you with a sympathetic gaze, then unlocked the driver’s side door and exited the vehicle. You followed closely behind his movements, offering to help take the bags out of the trunk, only to be swatted away by his hand. It’s like he suddenly understood the state of your exhaustion and wanted to give you a chance for a break. A tiny break but appreciated.
Upon entering the surprisingly bustling airport, your senses were filled with the sounds of meshed together unintelligible voices coming from every direction. The strong aroma of what you determined to be jet fuel was mixed with a musty stench of sweat and….feet? You began to think about how many nights strangers spent sleeping on the uncomfortable plastic seats as they awaited news on their delayed or canceled flights. The number of children who snuck away from their parents only to run around barefoot across the ultra thin fabric flooring masquerading as carpet was sure to contribute to the smell. Looking across the seas of people surrounding you and Murray, you wondered what their stories were; if any of them were in such dire situations like you. The idea that the person standing next to you could simply be flying cross country to visit a grandparent or visit their vacation home was almost comical. Here you were faced with a life or death situation, standing shoulder to shoulder with someone taking a weekend away for fishing.
“Alright, so it’s just hitting noon now and we’ve gotta be on that plane before one so we should head to uhhhh….” Murray checks his ticket. “Terminal four! That way we have enough time to get our luggage checked. This is not a flight we want to miss.”
“Wait….don’t you think they’ll find it a little weird that we have a duffel bag of forty thousand dollars with us?” You asked, frowning at the realization.
“Normally, yes. But our darling Hakwins airport’s security is….essentially non-existent. We probably could bring a bomb on the plane with us without anyone noticing.”
“Wow….somehow that doesn’t ease my nerves about flying.” You laughed nervously.
“Hey, I’ll tell you what.” Murray pushed the bridge of his glasses up to better rest on his face. “It’s more likely that there’s in fact no terrorists on our flight than being one, okay?”
“Yeah, thanks, Murray.”
Even with Murray’s attempted reassurance, you still motioned to lightly chew on your fingernails, not being in control of the anxiety you felt.
Luckily, Murray was right. Passing through the laughable airport security was a breeze. All you two had to do was pass through a metal detector while the oblivious set of employees assigned to that area were too busy engaged in conversation with one another between puffs of their cigarettes. No one suspected a thing.
The smell once on board the airplane was no better than the airport itself. If anything, it was stronger from being in an enclosed space with even less room between people. The only difference, that you were thankful for, was that the plane was much quieter. The dream of maybe catching up on your sleep for a few hours before you arrived had the chance of becoming a reality.
Unfortunately for you, that reality never came. You spent the entire duration of the flight wondering two things. One, how on earth Murray could sleep peacefully literally anywhere he was plopped down, and two, how one mortal human could snore so incredibly loud. If you hadn’t known any better, you would have thought the sounds escaping his throat and nasal cavity were plane turbulence.
As you landed and exited the plane into the Wrangell airport, you silently thanked yourself for packing some coats and warmer clothing. The minute you stepped off, you could feel the temperature difference. The frigid air was much different than the cool March spring weather back in Hawkins. Out of reflex, you shivered while you and Murray made your way through the building, seeking out the exit.
It didn’t take long before you caught a cab driver that was willing to drive you two to a car rental service, conveniently near the airport for needy travelers.
“Okay….we have a light blue ford escort available, if that’s okay.” The front desk worker said.
“Uh yeah, sure.” Murray answered.
“Great! I’ll just need to see a form of identification, sir!”
You froze. An ID! The last thing you wanted was the chance of being discovered and tracked! How could you not think about being carded?
“Ah, of course. Let me just….” Murray dug in his pocket for his wallet. “Here you go!”
The employee stared at the ID once, glancing up at Murray, who flashed him a smile, checking to make sure the face matched.
“Okay! Kaiden Eagle! Here’s your ID back and I’ll be right back with the keys! Just swipe your card here and-”
“Oh, I’ll actually be using cash today.” Murray’s oddly large smile never left his face.
“Okay….I’ll just need the non-refundable deposit plus the actual rental sum.”
“Great!” He pulled a wad of cash out of his wallet. “Here you go, now keys?”
“Yes….Mr. Eagle. I’ll be right back.”
As soon as the worker was out of sight, you swatted Murray’s shoulder.
“What was that for??” He rubbed his shoulder as if you had just shot him.
“Kaiden Eagle? Really?”
“What, would you rather me have said Mr. Bald Eagle?”
You shrugged. Damn those kids and that nickname they stamped him with. At least he was the type of man who thinks of everything. You had no clue that he even created fake identification cards just in case. He really was on top of the situation before you even knew what that situation was.
A few minutes later, the rental service employee returned with the keys and passed them off to Murray.
“Thank you, kind sir! Now, off we go!” Murray shouted a little too loud for your liking.
As you entered the passenger seat of the rental car and shifted yourself until you were reasonably comfortable, you were glad Murray had already clicked on the heat to warm up the vehicle. Hawkins had freezing winters and thick snowfall during the season but you weren’t fully prepared for the chilled weather of Alaska while it was still the gentle coolness of spring back home.
“Ready?” Murray asked, making eye contact with you.
“Yes.”
“There she is! I was expecting another no.” Murray joked.
“Well, we’ve gotten this far….there’s no turning back now.”
Murray simply nodded his head at your statement, then pulled out of the business parking lot, ready to begin the drive to the mysterious “Vozrazhiz” building and become closer to bringing home the beloved Jim Hopper.
Requested by @borhapgirlforlife19 : Can I request a fluffy Eddie x Chrissy fic where Chrissy wakes up and hears laughter and finds Eddie playing with their toddler daughter in the living room and Chrissy melts at the sight and thinks about how great of a father Eddie is and how she never would have imagined that this would be her life and that she would have fallen in love, gotten married, and have a daughter with Eddie Munson? Also, their daughter looks just like Eddie?
Word Count: 1.1k
The rays of the early morning sun shone brightly through the thin light pink curtains draped over the bedroom window, kissing the side of Chrissy’s resting face. When she and Eddie first moved in together, he insisted on putting up black out curtains to shield any light source from disturbing his slumber. Chrissy, however, preferred being woken up by the natural light of the outdoors, rather than an artificial yellow of a bed-side lamp. After an hour of bickering about something so silly, they came to a compromise. Chrissy got her barely there veil curtains, while Eddie got to hang a huge framed Metallica poster right above the headboard of their queen-sized bed.
Chrissy’s delicate wide eyes slowly fluttered open, ready to welcome the warm sun. Although she loved basking in the sunlight, she was still squinting slightly, not used to the sudden burst of brightness breaking up the pitch black of sleep. She sat up next, raising her arms above her head, stretching out her tight muscles. Little white sprinkling dots filled her vision as she rubbed both of her eyes with her fists, finishing with a hefty yawn.
The soft heat of the sun was making the task of getting out of bed difficult. A fuzzy blanket, silk sheets, and the natural warming was a triple threat; a force to be reckoned with. As Chrissy started to sink back into the bliss of rest, her ears picked up on a familiar sound coming from the living room. Laughter. Laughter as light as the sunshine on her skin. A gentle smile formed on her face, the sound giving her the motivation she needed to place her feet onto the ground and make her way towards it.
Chrissy leaned against the archway to the living room with her arms crossed and a now beaming smile plastered across her face. The sight before her was something she never thought she would be witnessing. Right there in the middle of the living room floor was the known metalhead, nicknamed freak, Eddie Munson, holding a ‘peaches and cream barbie’. The straight-haired blonde doll wearing a white and peach colored ball gown was quite the contrast from the love of her life. However, the pretend female voice he was attempting to use while he acted with the doll was even more comical. This small and subtle moment was showing Chrissy how much he really loved their little girl, Violet.
“Daddy, you should try makin’ your hair just like this!” Violet exclaimed.
“Oh, darling…..I think Barbie pulls it off much better than Daddy would.” Eddie laughed at his daughter’s suggestion.
Chrissy couldn’t help but giggle at the image of her husband, who naturally has dark ringlet curls, sporting long pin straight golden locks. The sound of her own laughter mixing with theirs caught Eddie’s attention.
“Look at that lovebug, Mommy’s up!” Eddie’s eyes grew wide and flashed Chrissy a loving smile as he carefully swooped up Violet in his arms, carrying her over to his wife.
“Mommy!!!” Violet shouted, stretching out her arms, silently asking for Chrissy to hold her instead.
Eddie chuckled and passed her over to Chrissy.
“Good morning, sweet pea!” Chrissy placed a tender kiss on her daughter’s face, earning a giggle from the small toddler.
“Mornin’ mama!”
Chrissy’s cheeks started to feel a little sore from smiling as she gazed back at her daughter’s features. Her big brown doe eyes were enough to make her melt on the spot, not to mention her shoulder length dark brown princess curled hair complimenting them. Her adorable button nose and narrowed jaw fit oh so perfectly with her face.
“God, Eddie. I swear she looks more and more like you every day!” Chrissy claimed.
“Ah, come on, babe. She’s got your….” Eddie paused and took a closer look at Violet. “Ears?”
Chrissy rolled her eyes.
“She’s your twin! Your mini me! If I didn’t know any better, I would think I had no part in making her!” She joked.
“Oh, trust me, you did.” Eddie winked, receiving a scolding look from Chrissy.
“Anywayyyyyy, sweet pea, why don’t you play some more with daddy? I want to hear more of his girl voice.” She winked at her husband as she cautiously set Violet back down onto the floor, watching as she stabilized her wobbly steps.
“Thanks for that, angel.” Eddie sighed.
Violet wobbled over to the barbie doll on the floor and picked it up, brushing her tiny fingers through its hair.
“So Daddy, she’s the princess in a castle and I’m a big and scary dragon!” Violet yelled.
Eddie dramatically gasped.
“A big and scary dragon?!?”
“Yeah!”
“How big are you?”
“This big!!” Violet outstretched her little arms and far as she possibly could to show the intensity of her vicious dragon-self.
“What?!? No way!” Eddie clutched his chest and acted as if he was going to fall over.
“Yes way!!”
Violet’s demeanor shifted to something more serious and stone faced. Eddie stared at her, confused and silent. Just when he thought he was safe to ask what she was doing…..
“RAWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!” Violet screeched a ferocious roar at the top of her lungs, making an unexpecting Eddie flinch.
“Woah! You weren’t kidding! You are big and scary!!”
“It’s okay, Daddy, it’s just me! I’m Violet! I was only playin’.” The little girl brushed a loose curl that had fallen down out of her face and then jumped on her dad’s lap.
“Oh, thank heavens, it’s you! You see, there was this HUGE dragon that came after me and-”
“Daddy…..”
“Yes, lovebug?”
“You’re silly.” Violet tried to mimic her mother’s actions and placed a wet and sloppy kiss on Eddie’s cheek.
Chrissy stood back once more to watch Violet and Eddie play together. Even though he acted at first as if he wanted to store away his feminine voice forever, she knew he wouldn’t have it any other way. If raising his voice to a high-pitched tone riddled with cracks from being so out of range was the way to get his princess to laugh and smile, then so be it. If she wanted him to play out fearing her being a gigantic fire breathing dragon, then that’s what they’re doing. That man would do anything to make his little girl happy. Chrissy wasn’t sure what she did to stumble upon the amount of luck it took to not only be able to marry her one true love, but to create something so precious they could love even more together. What she did know was that she wouldn’t change a damn thing.
Eddie Munson and Chrissy Cunningham had what could only be described as an unusual friendship. I mean, who would have thought that a metalhead drug dealer and a sweetheart cheerleader would become the best of friends? When they were seen together, which was almost every day, most people thought one of two things; that Eddie was being an asshole with an ulterior motive against the innocent girl, or that they were romantically involved. But believe it or not, they were simply close friends.
Eddie knew the type of girl Chrissy was. Sweet, well-mannered, overly trusting, and pure. Because of these qualities she possessed, he felt the overwhelming urge to always look out for her, whether she actually needed it or not. She was by no means stupid, but sometimes she truly couldn’t see the real evil intentions of others. Which is why when she started to get closer and closer with the known jock and bully Jason Carver, he knew he had to step in.
“Come on, is he really that bad?” Chrissy questioned, fiddling with her hands underneath the picnic table.
“Yes, Chrissy! He isn’t good for you! I swear to christ if you caught him when he wasn’t looking, he would be stepping on kittens or something.” Eddie accused, feeling so strongly that he leaned half of his body over the table they were seated at.
“I don’t know….he’s really nice to me! He even bought my cookies at lunch today when he saw that I forgot my money!”
Eddie groaned loudly and rolled his eyes, then stood up from his seat.
“Chrissy, I love ya, I do.” He leaned against the nearby tree, crossing his arms in the process. “But jesus child, you need guidance.”
Chrissy gasped with her mouth wide open.
“Eddie Munson, you just want me for yourself, don’t you?”
Eddie and Chrissy stared blankly at each other in silence for a moment….before bursting out in laughter.
“Don’t you ever say that again, you absolute booger.” Eddie grinned as he spoke.
“Booger? Gross!” Chrissy exclaimed.
“Listen, do what you want, I can’t stop you obviously, but I’m telling you….Carver is not a good idea.”
“What if I….” She paused and twisted her mouth in thought. “What if I just went on one date? See how it goes?”
Eddie pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers and then returned to the bench attached to the picnic table, this time on the side where Chrissy was sitting.
“Sweet pea, sugar, honey, snickerdoodle….you innocent little bean. Please do not do that.” Eddie placed his hands together in a praying position in front of him. “He may seem nice and would probably still have a nice guy act during the date. But. I. Promise. You.” He gently took hold of her hands. “He is not the right guy for you. You could do so much better.”
Chrissy’s eyes drifted down, seemingly staring at the silver metal of Eddie’s rings. Anything to avoid his pleading gaze.
“You….you really think it’s a bad idea?”
The softness of her voice tugged at Eddie’s heart strings.
“Yes.” He did his best to match her softness. “I swear on Ozzy I would rather you go for almost anybody else in our shit hole school.”
Chrissy giggled at the use of ‘Ozzy’. It reminded her how special their friendship really was, how unique they were. She valued his advice and opinions and wouldn’t trade their friendship for the world. Certainly, not for a jock like Jason Carver.
“Okay.” She said quietly, barely above a whisper.
Eddie’s eyes lit up like Christmas lights.
“Really?!?”
He jumped up from the table abruptly, causing her to jump. A large toothy smile grew on her face.
“Yes, really! I’ll take your word for it. No Jason Carver.” Chrissy wagged her index finger side to side with her lips formed into an exaggerated pout.
“Good. That’s what I like to hear.”
Eddie ruffled her hair like she was a small child.
“Eddie!! Careful!! You’ll mess up my ponytail!! And do you know how long it takes to get my bangs right?”
Another eye roll.
“Ohhhh noooooo!! I messed up Ms. Cheerleader’s hair!! Whatevverrrrr will we do?!??!?”
In a dramatic act, Eddie pretended to faint.
“What are you doing?? You’re crazy!” Chrissy was laughing so hard that her words had to be spoken between panting breaths.
“Yeah, maybe. But ya love me. Anyway, my stomach is about to start eating itself and I know Wayne is cooking his super secret spaghetti recipe tonight soooo….you wanna come over for dinner? I guarantee that you will get more out of this pasta than you ever would Jason.”
“He wouldn’t mind having me?”
Eddie shook his head.
“No, of course not.”
“Okay!”
The pair of friends grabbed their backpacks and began walking out of the woods the picnic table was in. With each step they took, piles of leaves crunched beneath their feet.
“So…secret recipe, huh?” Chrissy inquired.
“Yep! It’s damn good too.”
“What’s so secret about it?”
Eddie gave her a look of uncertainty.
“Ohhh I don’t know. It’s pretty secret.” Eddie teased.
“I won’t tell, I promise! My lips are sealed!” She moved her fingers across her lips to imitate the motion of a zipper being closed.
Eddie looked to his right, to his left, then behind himself.
“The secret is…..”
Chrissy stared at him with wide eyes, impatiently waiting.
“The secret is he uses canned sauce and tells everybody it’s homemade. The good ol’ Munson Ragu family recipe.” He snickered.
“Eddie!”
“Hey, I wasn’t lying, it is a secret!”
The sounds of laughter joined hands with the crunching leaves and light breeze blowing through each of their full heads of hair. At some points, Chrissy could swear that her best friend was listening to the loud rumbling of her empty stomach. She was more than happy to indulge in this top secret Munson Ragu recipe.
Saudade: the intense longing for something that has been loved and then lost
Word Count: 2.1k
Summary: After surviving the mind flayer attack at Starcourt Mall, Billy loses who he once was.
Warnings: Neil Hargrove, swearing, mentions of blood, disability
The screams.
God the screams.
They haunted you. They weren’t even just nightmares anymore, they occupied your mind every waking second of the day. Blasting music over your stereo didn’t even help anymore. You thought you would go insane each time the blood-curdling cries resonating from your boyfriend as he was pierced by the mind flayer played on repeat in your head. Every night you tossed and turned for hours with the images of his blood spilling out of his body like it was nothing. The feeling of the hot liquid seemed to still drown your hands, replacing your own skin. What you thought was his last breath stole yours away. His immense pain and suffering was all you could see, all you could feel, and all you could think about. It took over any other thought you could possibly have. It never left you. And to your dismay, it never left him either.
“Billy?” You called out quietly.
No answer.
“Billy, is that you? Are you awake?”
A low groan came from your boyfriend’s resting figure.
“Yeah. I’m up.” He answered plainly, his voice rough and gravely from first waking up.
“Okay. Let’s get you up, love.”
As much as you loved calling him that, you hated the way his face would contort when you did. It’s not that he didn’t love you or relish in the fact that you thought so highly of him, it’s that it made him feel weak. It’s something that he would call you, not the other way around.
“Yeah, sure.”
Ever since the attack, it was hard to get many words out of him. If you did, it was usually him sending empty insults that he never actually meant your way or he would complain about anything and everything, like he couldn’t find happiness or peace in anything in his life anymore. The only thing he ever felt content and at peace with was with you. He never thought he would feel such a love like yours. Your warm touch and soft heart being completely focused on him. He loved you more than himself and felt that it was his duty to protect you from all kinds of harm. But as life would have it, one shot to the spine from the mind flayer’s merciless tentacles took all of that away from him.
“Can you roll to your side a bit more, Billy?”
Billy inhaled deeply, releasing it in a weighted sigh. It took so little to agitate him but you knew to never think it was anything against you, no matter how it came off.
“There we go. That’s better.” You smiled lightly, sympathetically even, and watched how he rolled his eyes at it.
You chose to ignore it and lifted his legs closer to the edge of the bed.
“Alright, let me help you sit up so we can-”
“I’m not completely useless, I can fucking sit up on my own.” Billy snapped back.
You said nothing, only frowning at his response and watching as he struggled to use his once buff arms to prop himself up. It hurt so bad to watch as his arms slowly shrank over time while he was still in the hospital. Before all of this, he religiously worked out. If he wasn’t spending his time with you at a party, ravaging you in his sheets, or going on small dates to run down diners the two of you stumbled upon while going on drives in his Camaro, he was lifting weights. You used to joke about his arms being bigger than your head, about how you swore he loved the weights more than he did you. Now, here you were, watching him barely able to bring himself upright on his own.
Billy let out a loud growl, obviously feeling frustrated that he had to grab your shoulder for support just to sit up.
“It’s okay, I’ve got ya.” You reassured him.
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a fucking child.” His voice carried so much venom, yet his eyes seemed lifeless.
“I’m sorry, I’m just trying to help you, Billy.”
“I don’t need help!” You boyfriend shouted, startling you.
Attempting to hide the tears welling up in your eyes, you turned your back to him and went over to the wheelchair placed at the end of his bed, bending down to undo the safety lock, then gripping the two handles to push it over to him.
“Do you want me to-”
“No.” He interrupted.
“Okay.”
He was letting his stubbornness get the best of him but you didn’t want to force anything on him. Anything to relieve some of his suffering, you would do. Right now, it was best to let him try and wake up on his own. Today was going to be one of his bad days. Listening to his grunts and groans as he tried his hardest to lift his entire body with just his arms into the wheelchair certainly did not help the tears that had previously been building up in your eyes. With each sound of him wrestling with himself, you could feel the dams breaking.
“Why are you crying?” Billy asked, speaking monotonously.
“Nothing, I’m sorry.” You lied, swiftly wiping away the tears that got loose and were running down your cheeks.
“What, you can’t talk to me now?”
“No, that’s not-”
“Think I’m not strong enough to handle what’s bothering you, huh?” Billy wheeled himself forward, moving closer to you. “Think I can’t do anything now? I’m probably a shitty boyfriend now because of this FUCKING CHAIR NOW, RIGHT?!?”
Sobs were escaping you now, unable to hold back anymore.
“Fucking shit.” He mumbled under his breath, wheeling past you out of his bedroom, making his way into the kitchen.
You waited a moment before following him, giving yourself a minute to compose yourself and face him again. Once you excited his bedroom and walked into the kitchen, you found him yanking a loaf of packaged bread off of the kitchen table, taking out a few slices before throwing it back onto the surface.
“Whatcha makin?” You asked, trying to lighten the mood a bit, leaning against the doorway of the kitchen.
“Toast.”
He always had toast in the mornings. You weren’t sure why but he refused to eat anything else. His breakfast plates used to be filled with eggs, sausages, bacon, you name it. Now, you’re lucky if he eats three meals a day.
“Do you want something more….filling? I could cook you something.” You offered.
“No. Toast is fine.” Billy grumbled.
“If the bitch wants to cook, let her cook. She knows her place.”
Both of your heads snapped towards the front door, where Billy’s father, Neil, had just walked in.
“I’ll just…finish the toast for him.” Your voice trembled.
“Baby, it’s fine. I got it.”
Baby. You didn’t hear that very often anymore so when you did, it was like music to your ears. You stood silent, your breath shortening from nerves, eyes darting between your feet on the ground. Billy noticed.
“She’s your woman, Billy. It is her JOB to serve you!” Neil shouted, pointing his finger at Billy while his eyes were glued on you.
“She’s not my fucking slave, dad!”
“What did you just say to me?” Neil took a step towards his son.
“I said, she’s. Not. My. Fucking. Slave. And you can’t tell her what to do!” Billy raised his voice.
Fear ran through your body. Any other time you were nervous when Neil went at Billy, sure, but this was different. It was much more terrifying when your boyfriend didn’t have use of half his body and it disgusted you that Neil seemed to use it to his advantage.
Smack.
The loud crack of Neil’s hand connecting harshly with your boyfriend’s face thundered throughout the kitchen. At that sound, you found yourself crying once more.
“Look at that, Billy. Now your bitch is crying. Good fucking job. Fucking useless and disappointing.” Neil spat, turning back into the living room and leaving out the front door.
An intense silence filled the room as you were frozen in place, unsure of what the next move was. You were doing your best to keep your crying quiet, not wanting to upset anyone else anymore.
“Baby.” Billy broke the silence.
You didn’t respond.
“Baby?” He turned his wheelchair to the side to get a better look at you.
“Sorry, yeah?”
“Stop saying sorry all the time.”
“S-...okay.” You didn’t know what else to say.
Billy inhaled deeply and wheeled closer to you, taking your hands in his when he got close enough. He just stared at them for a few minutes, never willing to admit in that moment, he was afraid.
“You still love me?” He questioned, eyes locked onto your hands.
The question caught you off guard, never expecting such insecurity from him. All this time you assumed that he knew you loved him more than anything, to the point of obsession. You’ve never so much as thought about another man, let alone considered leaving him or had faltering feelings. He was yours, and you were his.
“I….of course I do, Billy. Why wouldn’t I? You….you breathe life into me.”
“I breathe life into you, even though that flayer shit stole half of mine? Doesn’t make sense. You don’t make sense.”
You frowned. Was he angry at you this time?
“You are everything to me, Billy. You are….the air in my lungs, the blood in my veins, the stars in my sky, the-”
“Alright, alright, nuff’ with the sappy shit. I get it.”
You almost felt yourself start to chuckle.
“You know what I don’t get though? Why you feel that way when I’m half a man now. Stuck in this fuckin’ chair.” He balled his fist and punched the side of the chair. “Can’t do shit for myself. Can’t do shit for you. Can’t fuckin’ do anything.”
Your heart wrenched at the sight of his eyes growing glossy. He never cried in front of you; it made him feel lesser. The only time you had ever seen him cry before this day was when he started telling you goodbye as he bled out on the floor of the Starcourt Mall. His rivers of tears mixed with the blood caked on his face. Both of you thought it was the last time you were going to see each other and feel each other’s embrace. Neil had corrupted his mind so terribly that the ONLY time you saw him cry during your two year relationship was with his dying breath.
“Billy, I don’t care if you’re in that stupid chair.”
His eyebrows raised.
“No, I- I didn’t mean I don’t care. I mean that….it doesn’t change my feelings for you. I still love you just as much as I did when you could walk. You suddenly being in a wheelchair doesn’t take away my love for you. That’s not how love works. It’s me and you, Hargrove.”
For the first time in days, you saw a small smile appear on his face. Hargrove. Took him back to your earlier days of knowing each other. Before you really knew who he was under the thick armor he put on every day to cover his true self. Back when in your brain, he was just another asshole, womanizing athlete. Sure, the two of you had a rough start because of his tough exterior, but god were you wrong. And you’ve never been happier to be so wrong.
“Me and you, huh?” His hands left yours and pulled you closer by your waist.
“Yeah, me and you….Hargrove.”
A laugh left his throat this time.
“Quit teasin’, babydoll.”
“Teasing? Me? Never.” You grinned.
“Commere.”
Billy pulled you onto his lap, reaching his neck out to encourage you to move your face closer. When your lips met his, he moved with passion. He normally opted for hot and heavy makeouts but this was different. This was grace and gentleness, like he was pouring his love into you with his mouth.
You broke away from the kiss.
“There is nothing, I mean NOTHING that could take away how I feel about you, love.”
You waited for his face to grimace, but it didn’t.
“Guess you’re stuck with me then, huh?” The small smile he had on his face grew larger than before.
“Guess so.” You leaned in to kiss him again, then lifting yourself up off of his lap. “So! You want some eggs with your toast? You can make the toast and I’ll make the eggs.”
“Yeah, that sounds great, love.” He winked.
What started out as one of his bad days turned into a day of sweet and frequent kisses, gentle embraces, and a hot and hearty breakfast for the love of your life. Although you wished he never had to deal with the paralysis in the first place, you couldn’t have been happier that he was simply alive.
Summary: You and Murray head to his home to figure out how to speak with the mysterious contact without being thrown in jail or worse. You are determined to get your husband back home....but at what cost?
A/N: This took so much longer to get out, I’m sorry! I got promoted at work and started school so I’m much busier than I normally would be. Still lots of Murray in this one. The divider is by @natasharomanovf
“Did we really have to take your car?” Murray grumbled, shifting uncomfortably in the passenger seat as you carefully pulled into his secluded driveway.
“What’s wrong with my car?” You questioned, borderline offended.
Murray chuckled in disbelief. “Really? Is that….” He removed his seatbelt and turned his body towards you. “Is that a genuine question you’re asking me? Or are you pulling my leg?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” You tilted your head to the side.
Murray released an exasperated sigh. “Because….because! Your car is a-a microscopic puke green Ford Pinto! It’s essentially a clown car!” He continued to raise the volume of his voice as the both of you exited what he made out to be the worst vehicle known to man. “I am genuinely shocked that I managed to fit my giraffe legs in there. I mean shit, Y/N, how can I assist you getting Hop back if you crush my legs, huh??”
“Oh, quit being so dramatic.” You rolled your eyes and swatted your hand in the air.
You silently followed Murray up to his ultra secure front door, amused as he shook his head and muttered quietly to himself. What had you gotten yourself into? His little rant about your perfectly fine and functioning car reminded you of all the shenanigans and crazy antics that went hand in hand while being in his presence. If the words hijinks, mischief, and tomfoolery were inspired by any living human being, you were certain he was the muse. You had no choice but to put up with it, however, because much to your disliking, you could also describe him as brilliant, clever, genius, resourceful-GOD was that man resourceful. If you didn’t know any better, you would have thought the chunk of land that he called home was an official military doomsday bunker. The man had EVERYTHING. Some things you were afraid to ask how he even obtained in the first place, knowing that there were stories of too much vodka and evading police. For example, you couldn’t think of one logical scenario where Murray could have obtained the equipment and technology necessary to help the situation you were in. But after he completed the numerous steps to enter his home without being mistaken as some sort of enemy spy to be shot down by his complex security system, the second you stepped foot inside, you couldn’t have been more thankful for him.
“So! Shall we begin?” Murray questioned, a wide grin on his face as he rubbed his hands together before haphazardly removing his coat and throwing it in a random direction onto his living room floor.
Your eyes followed his rapid movements while you discarded your own jacket, opting to hang it on the coat hangers hanging on a hooked wall shelf close to the front door. He began to scurry about in what he called his dining room, aka a cheap white plastic folding table that you would expect to see at someone’s campsite, rather than inside of their home. His hands were furiously removing piles and piles of what appeared to be scrap metal and straight up junk, tossing them onto his already equally cluttered kitchen counters, some pieces of material landing inside of the sink. You inched closer towards the table of random objects and stood silently, trying to figure out what exactly his goal was.
After a few minutes of observing, the table was finally cleared. As soon as he was finished, Murray scrambled over into a nearby room, returning with a suitcase. Without a word, he slammed the fabric case onto the table’s surface and unzipped it, opening the lid and propping it to prevent it from falling closed.
“As if this couldn’t have gotten any weirder…” You thought to yourself.
Next, he pulled out and opened an unmarked cardboard box that had been underneath the sink inside of a cabinet and took out not one, but two corded phones that were connected to somehow modified electronic boxes that you couldn’t quite make out. He placed one phone on the right of the suitcase, the other to the left. Stepping back and pausing for a moment, he double checked that he was satisfied with the placement of the phones and boxes along with their chords before smiling to himself and disappearing into another room once more. A loud and hefty grunt fills the otherwise silent home, originating from whatever room he just went to.
“You alright, Murray?” You called out, head poking out to the right, checking if you saw a body on the ground or a disheveled Murray being suffocated underneath a pile of god knows what.
“Just peachy!!” He returned from the other room.
“Okay…” You whispered under your breath, fidgeting with the wedding ring upon your finger. “What the hell is that?!?”
In came Murray, moaning and groaning, practically waddling back into the kitchen area like a duck unable to find its footing. Your focus was on the large heavy looking rectangular metal beast of a box he was attempting to move into the kitchen, all while balancing a fragile looking keyboard on the top of it. He dropped it as carefully as he possibly could into the suitcase and wiped a bead of sweat off of his brow.
“GOD, I need to go to the gym one of these days! You know, when I’m not busy battling otherworldly creatures or foiling the war plans of evil Russians.” He chuckled in between panting breaths, wiping yet another drop of sweat that had appeared on his forehead right after the last. “Anyway, this-” Murray swallowed thickly. “This beauty right here, is going to be the key to making sure the KGB doesn’t find out where we are as we’re making the call. Well, not right away at least. It’ll buy us enough time to come up with a plan afterwards. It’s sort of a uh….location scrambler? Location scrambler!”
“This…this thing,” You motioned to the metal box. “Is going to help us hide where we are?”
“Yes. For now. They’ll be able to trace us eventually, but with all of this stuff….plus!” Murray stopped mid sentence and ran over to the coffee table in front of his couch to retrieve another item. “Plus this little gem right here,” He placed the unknown object next to his makeshift location scrambler and plugged in two colored wires to connect them. “Is going to record anything said on the call so we can go back and listen to it if we need to. Now,” Murray sat down in one of the folding chairs in front of the table. “All I need to do is connect the phones in here, type this thing in here….andddd….VOILA!!” He exclaimed, giving the keyboard one last tap. “We are now calling from Durham, North Carolina.”
“North Carolina? Why North Carolina?” You questioned.
Murray sighed and closed his eyes for a brief moment. “That’s just the first place a signal connected to. The idea was to make it connect as far away as possible which right now is apparently about ten hours so….that’s the best we can do. Let’s take what we can get, okay?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s okay.” You nodded your head lightly, eyes glued onto the screen within the metal box, watching a glowing green dot blink over and over pinpointed in North Carolina.
“Remember, Y/N, this is only temporary. This call needs to be short and sweet, alright? The KGB will track us eventually and if this is a set up….they will be waiting for us. They’ll find us almost immediately, I’m sure of it. And I can’t imagine they would be showing up at the door with a blueberry muffin basket, if you catch my drift. I’m going to dial the number and as SOON as the first ring hits, I need you to hit this button here.” Murray took hold of your pointer finger and hovered it over the mentioned button. “Doing that will begin to record. At the same time, I’m going to press these here.” He motioned over to the rigged telephone on the right. “And then, ladies and gents, we should be golden for a sixty second phone call. You ready?”
Were you ready? Of course not. You were about to negotiate the return of your husband. Or….you were about to fall right into a trap and risk your life, Murray’s life, and the life you built up for El. The conflict within you was strong. What would Jim want? Would he want you to desperately hold onto the faith of him still being alive? Would he want you to take such a risk of losing everything you created with El? She was so innocently attending school while you sat here contemplating changing your lives forever…..again.
“No….”
Murray frowned.
“But let’s do this.”
A shine showed in Murray’s eyes as a grin appeared on his face. “Okay, ready…annnddddddd…..in 3….2…..1……go!”
At the end of the countdown, the first ring rang immediately. His fingers pressed down simultaneously on the various buttons while your trembling index finger pushed the record button.
Ring………..
Ring………..
Ring………..
Ring………..
With each passing ring, your hands grew more and more clammy. The agonizing wait that seemed like it was taking hours made your head cloud with the paralyzing thoughts of your own prediction being correct. This all being a trap and the images of Hopper’s cold and lifeless body was an overwhelming thought. Your chest was on fire and the fire only grew higher the more seconds that passed. Tears filled your eyes as the memories of your wedding replaced the terror. It was Hop’s idea to have a smaller ceremony with only a select group invited. The two of you made an insignificant small patch of land atop an ordinary cliff that looked over a typical beach seem like it was the most important spot you had ever walked on. You remembered how the gentle breeze blew through El’s grown out hair, something she likely hadn’t felt before living with the two of you. You remembered how Dustin’s unique smile never faltered and how Steve sat next to the boy throughout the event, the sight of Max wearing probably the only formal attire she had ever owned and looking absolutely stunning while doing so. Lucas gawking over her as if he had never seen such a beautiful creature before is something that would forever warm your heart. Hell, you didn’t even mind that Will and Mike were whispering to each other through most of the actual “I do’s”, even finding yourself giggling when you overheard a more responsible Jonathan trying to shush them. And you would certainly never forget seeing Nancy, Robin, and their new friend Eddie all sporting a steady river of tears flowing down their faces while Billy predictably pulled out a cigarette to deal with their sobbing, only to have it pulled away and put out by Robin.
Just as you felt a ping of happiness thinking of all the kid’s faces during your wedding, you were snapped back to current reality when you realized the ringing of the phone had stopped.
“Hello? Who is there?” A male voice with a thick Russian accent answered.
Your eyes grew wide. This was it. After almost a year of carrying a void in your heart, this was the moment that would determine whether you could bring Hopper back to you and El or not.
“Um…Hello?” Your voice shook as you spoke.
“Am I speaking with the American’s wife?”
Your eyebrows scrunched together. “The American? What do you mean by ‘the American’?”
“Ah. My apologies, miss. I am speaking with Jim Hopper’s so-called widow, yes?”
Your heart jumped out of your chest while the rest of your body froze in place. So-called? Did that mean he really was alive all this time?
“Uh-uh yes, th-that’s me.”
“Good. It’s safe to assume you received the letter, yes?” The man’s burly voice grew quieter as he spoke, like he too was afraid of someone eavesdropping his words.
“Y-yes, that’s how I got this number.” You chewed on your lip for a second before continuing. “So….Jim is alive?.....Right?” You glanced to the side at Murray, who was whispering the words ‘proof of life’ to you.
A heavy sigh came from the mysterious man. “Yes, he is still uh….breathing. Now, shall we discuss the arrangements? I imagine you want your husband back home with you, yes?”
Your breathing hitched. “Yes! Yes! Tell me what I need to do!” You were practically shouting at the man at this point.
“Go to Wrangell, Alaska. Bring with you forty thousand American dollars. Drive fifty kilometers south until you reach a grove with a dirt road passing through it. Take that road until you see a rickety building with a torn up metal sign that says “Vozrazhiz”. We will talk again soon.”
Just like that, as soon as the call began, it abruptly ended. You slowly placed the phone back down onto its mount and turned your head to face Murray.
“Well, what do you think?” You questioned.
“How are we going to come up with forty thousand dollars at the drop of a hat?” Murray stared at you like you were the one to propose such an insane idea in the first place.
An uncomfortable thought crossed your mind. One you would never have considered before learning that this could possibly be the only chance to give El her father back and to see your soulmate again.
“I um….” You rubbed the back of your head with your hand. “I have-we have….me and Hop had started a fund for El if she ever….if she ever wanted to further her education when she grew up.”
Murray looked down at his lap and sighed. “A college fund?” He asked quietly.
“Yes.”
A thick silence passed over the two of you for several minutes.
“I…..okay. I wouldn’t dream of asking such a thing before recent events but….” Murray ran a hand over his head and released another deep sigh. “What are you thinking right now?”
What were you thinking right now? Oh, just glossing over the idea of maybe taking away El’s head start to life after high school. After everything you and Jim had done and worked for to give her a better life, were you really thinking about doing it? You felt distrubed that you would even once consider using up her fund. The fund that she didn’t even know existed yet. You were also certain that Hopper would be extremely disappointed in you if you went through with it. You knew he would rather stay in god-knows-where and suffer than give her such a setback. Were you selfish? Were you selfish for thinking that maybe, just maybe, when you brought him back home you could just pick up where you left off and build up another fund for her? Why not take a risk and use the money to bring him back so she can have both her father and a chance at a future?
“Y/N?” Murray broke you out of your trance.
“Sorry…” You shook your head rapidly. “I….um….it’s just a lot to think about. This is insane.”
“Indeed it is. But let me ask you this. Do we really have a choice?”
“I don’t think we do, Murray. We have to do this.”
Murray watched you for a moment, waiting for more words to come out, unsure of what he himself should say.
“We could always just rob a bank.” Murray joked.
You chuckled lightly. “Why not? We’re probably going to end up in prison by the end of this.
