Warnings: lots and Lots of hurting, but in a good way... Maybe?
Nobody is gonna tell Wayne he can't go back to his trailer! That's where he belongs. That's where his life is and where Eddie's life was.
He's going back no matter what...
Wayne was a stubborn man. He wasn't gonna move to a new place, the trailer was his home. It just needed to be fixed after what had happened.
His nephew hadn't done the things he had been accused of. Wayne was sure of that, even if others weren't. And no man or woman in the town of Hawkins was gonna shame him into moving.
Of course it was absolutely terrible what had happened to that poor girl, but it wasn't Eddie and he was damned to hell, if anyone tried to tell him otherwise.
No, Eddie was a victim, just as that cheerleader had been. So to honor and remember them both, he would stay, no matter what anyone else thought of it.
Eddie's young friend Dustin had visited Wayne more than once at the motel he was staying at, while he waited for the investigation to end. It took a while, since the earthquake took up so much of everybody's time. The police department was still looking for Eddie, even though Dustin and his friends swore up and down that Eddie had died during the earthquake, trying to save the town. So while Wayne waited for the police to get tired of looking for his nephew, he stayed in the motel.
Dustin came by a few times a week. Said he owed it to Eddie to make sure Wayne was doing alright. He brought casseroles from his mother, to make sure that Wayne ate.
Dustin always talked fondly about Eddie, and it was clear that the kid had huge love and respect for him and that he missed him just as much as Wayne did. It was a small comfort to know, that Eddie was surrounded by friends during his last days, when they just as easily as the town, could have turned their backs to him. Wayne liked Dustin for that.
During the visits, Dusting tried to talk Wayne into moving away from his trailer, telling him that Eddie would want his uncle to move on and not hold on to old memories. But it was to no avail.
When Dustin had figured that there was no way he could talk Wayne into a new place, he offered to help clean and restore the trailer to its former peak, you know... As a tribute to his friend that saved him during the earthquake.
Wayne had been weary about it, but he knew it would cost him a lot of money to get it fixed, and Dustin swore he had friends that could do it, if not for free, then at least very, very cheap.
Also, Wayne knew that nobody from town would want to work on his trailer, money or no money, so after some time Wayne gave in and Dustin promised to get it done as soon as possible.
Dustin got Steve to help, Steve got Robin to help, Robin called for Nancy's help, who then called for Mike's. Mike asked El to help and El didn't even have to ask Hopper, before he volunteered to be there too.
They all knew that it was important to remove every single trace of the upside-down from that trailer. One thing was the enormous crater in the ground of Hawkins, that could be explained with the so called earthquake. But a hole in the ceiling of a camper that showed an upside-down version of said camper? How could anyone explain that?
So before Wayne could count to three, all the kids, Hopper, Joyce and Murray were at work, fixing up the place trying to remove every trace of Vecna's ungodly world. Of course Wayne didn't know that last part.
They were a strange bunch. But it was a group of people that was on a mission and rather quickly, the trailer was as good as new.
Well... almost. It never had a wooden Plank ceiling before, but now it had.
Wayne liked it, a lot. It looked good and made the trailer look updated, he felt.
He was thankful for the people who had helped him in these hard times. Not only for the restoration of the trailer, but also for the fact, that he found out his beloved nephew had had people around him that cared. That made his heart swell and he hoped that Eddie knew that he had been truly cared for by others than Wayne.
The day Wayne moved back in, he was surrounded by the group of friends, the former police chief Hopper,Joyce and Murray.
They all stood outside the place in complete silence as they watched Wayne open the door.
What he didn't know was that they were all holding their breath, hoping he wouldn't find anything suspicious or surprising.
He didn't... Instead he stepped into the trailer, slowly, looking around inspecting the place. He was pleased to find it looking brand new, but still looking like his and Eddie's home.
He had a knot in his stomach and tears in his eyes, when he opened the door and saw Eddie's messy room, exactly like he left it.
"We didn't touch anything in there" Dustin had followed Wayne inside silently, standing in the front room of the trailer, looking behind uncle Wayne to see into the room of his lost friend.
His eyes were teary too. The wound of losing his friend was still so fresh, it hurt every time something reminded him of Eddie.
"Thank you" it was nothing more than a whisper, but Dustin knew the two words meant more than was said.
Dustin left Wayne in the trailer and walked outside to the waiting group of friends. As he walked up to them, Hopper put a hand on Dustin's shoulder and gave it a reaffirming squeeze. He had found a new understanding with the group of kids, that time and time again had helped save the town from something scary and unexplainable.
The time in the Russian camp, the feeling of dread of losing El and Joyce. The days not knowing what was going on, and only hope to keep him company. It had changed him. He felt Dustin's pain.
He led the group of friends towards Steve's and his own car, watching as they one by one jumped in. Getting ready to go.
Wayne's voice called out, stopping the kid from going into the car. He looked back, and saw Eddie's uncle stand in the doorway of the trailer holding something in his hands. Hopper nodded to the kid, telling him in silence to go back to Wayne, they'd wait for him.
As he got closer, he saw what Wayne was holding in his hands. A stack of books. Very precious books of Eddie's.
"He would have wanted you to have these, kid"
Dustin's hands trembled when he took the books from Wayne. His eyes were huge and his heart filled with both awe and sorrow.
The Dungeon and Dragons book felt heavy. It felt like he was holding a treasure.
"Thank you, again" Wayne looked at the kid, who hadn't said a word, and nodded. No further words were needed and they both knew it.
He raised his hand and gave the group waiting in the cars a quick wave, before he turned around and walked back inside. Closing the door behind him.
Dustin stood in front of the trailer for a while longer, before he took a deep shaky breath and joined his friends.
Wayne paused in the trailer, looked around and sighed.
He was glad to be home, but something was missing. Something important... Someone important.
He went to the doorway of Eddie's room again and stopped.
Tears filled his eyes once more, as he felt the emptiness inside. The void that Eddie had left, hurt in the worst way possible.
A tear fell to the floor as Wayne closed the door to the room, leaving it as it was.
He went to his chair, sat down and sighed. Leaning the head in the backrest of the soft chair, running his fingers over his face, he closed his eyes and listened to the silence of the trailer.
There was no music blaring from Eddie's room, no rustling and scattering of papers all over the table planning campaigns for d&d, no plucking of strings on the guitar from the hours of practice that his nephew spent on getting better. No bad jokes, no laughter... No nothing. There was only silence.
Even though he tried, the tears wouldn't stop coming. And for once, Wayne let them come. He sat in his chair, resting his head with closed eyes and just let the tears flow as he clutched the necklace that Eddie had worn every day. The one that Dustin had given him, when he told him the world shattering news about his nephew.
Once in a while, he talked to Eddie, telling his boy how much he missed him, how much he loved him, and most importantly, how proud he was to have had Eddie in his life. His son of heart...
Wayne sat there for hours. The night came and he stayed there in his chair, only turning on a single lamp, standing right next to him. He didn't care to move more than that.
He had no idea just how long he had been there for, but it was a long time. He started to get tired, his eyes too heavy to open, his breathing getting heavier by the minute.
He'd just sleep there, he thought to himself.
As Wayne let sleep come, a quiet sound of guitar music filled his ears. It wasn't loud or heavy as he knew it from Eddie when he practiced for his band or taught himself the latest metal song from one of his favorite bands.
But it was the sound of Eddie's guitar. It was the song that he had played for his uncle more times than one could count. It was Wayne's favorite song, it was slow and beautiful and Eddie used to play it perfectly.
A small smile crossed Wayne's lips as he sighed deeply.
"Hello my boy" he whispered, before sleep finally overtook him.
In the dark corner of the trailer, a shadowy figure stood and looked at Wayne.
He had to be at that exact spot, looking up at the ceiling of the trailer he was in, to see through the tiny crack of the new wooden plank ceiling of uncle Wayne's trailer, at the other side... The right side of the world.
He watched Wayne walk into the trailer for the first time, after it was fixed up. He watched Wayne go into his room and get the d&d books so he could give them to Dustin.
He watched as Wayne sat in the chair, in the little trailers living room and cried as he talked to Eddie.... Talked to him.
Eddie's heart ached. He wanted to let Wayne know, that he was there, that he was still alive... Kind of.
He wanted to let his uncle know that he loved and missed him too. That the years he had been with Wayne, had been the best years of his life. That uncle Wayne had become the father that Eddie so desperately had wanted all those years, when his own father had done a great job of not being great.
But he couldn't, not now. Not like this.
The bats had done something to him. He wasn't really Eddie anymore. He hardly slept. He hardly ate. And when he did… well, it wasn't pretty.
He belonged in the upside-down now. He had become a creature of the night, like the ones he had spent hours on defeating, with his friends around a table filled with papers and dice.
Eddie grabbed his guitar and started playing ever so softly, the song he knew that his uncle loved more than everything. Just a tiny melody as he watched through the small line in the ceiling.
He watched as Wayne fell asleep.
No, he could never return. But he could stay in the darkness, and watch uncle Wayne through the tiny crack in the new ceiling of the trailer, that hid Eddie's new world away.
He could stay there, for as long as Wayne needed him to be, as a friendly ghost hiding in the shadows.
"I miss you too uncle Wayne"
The words were no more than a whisper, reaching Wayne's dreams from far away…
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