Chapter Text
Five years had passed, with no sign of Max getting better.
It was during the middle of the day when Max died.
That seemed to be enough for the upside down to open again.
Earthquakes hit Hawkins as a portal to the upside down tore its way through town.
The upside down was coming.
Steve was at the police station when it hit.
So he was on the front lines when the monsters started to pour out.
He ran to his car and pulled out the bat.
Tommy was also on duty, and Steve did his absolute best to keep Tommy in his sight.
The kids had all taken a gap year before college, probably because Max’s health had declined in the last year.
Nancy and Robin were in a different state, Nancy getting into NYU five years ago and was now a reporter for one of the bigger papers there and Robin was a translator for some foreign theater house in the same area; they shared an apartment together with Jonathan and Robin’s girlfriend Gina.
They wouldn’t be back for this.
It was just the kids, the adults, and Steve.
No one came to Steve, no one had to, but it hurt a bit that he was stuck out here with only Powell and Tommy.
Callahan and Hopper had gone to check out a disturbance and the rest of the force was out.
Powell was shooting the creatures crawling out of the upside down.
Steve was swinging his bat.
And Tommy was watching Steve with a frown on his face.
Powell shouted to Tommy to shoot.
They managed to barricade themselves into the police station to make a plan.
“What the hell are those things!?” Powell demanded.
“Demogorgans, and Demodogs, and Demobats, and I think I saw some Democats?” Steve tells them.
“They’ve been quiet for the last five years or so, but they used to be a big problem,” Steve finished with a shrug.
Tommy was still watching him with narrowed eyes. Steve didn’t want to think about that, about what it could mean once they were out of sight of Powell.
They finally ended up getting ahold of Hopper and figuring out a game plan.
Steve helped them thin out the herd and make distractions for the demo creatures so El could successfully kill Vecna/Henry/One.
And everything was over.
Eddie came back from the dead, Vecna/Henry/One had brought him back, probably as a ploy to hurt them, but he was alive and only slightly f*cked over.
He and Will shared a telepathic connection now, because of their shared possessions.
Which was cool.
Dustin was extremely happy to have Eddie back.
While the other kids had figured out their own lives, Dustin would make time out of his busy schedule to bug Steve at the station at least once a week for the last five years.
Steve always asked after the other kids, and they still hung out once a month for game night at Mikes, but it wasn’t the same.
Dustin was distant, and had been since Steve told him to back off his dating life.
Dustin had gotten desperate for something normal after Eddie and had tried to push Steve into dating more, which ended up with Tommy hearing Dustin badgering him and punishing him for thinking of dating other people, even though he wasn’t, and Steve snapping at Dustin the next time he saw him about how he had to lay off the dating advice.
Dustin had grown distant, even if he insisted on visiting.
They didn’t talk much now, just Dustin, stealing the table in the break room to do his homework until Steve got off work.
They’d go for a shake and have a stilted conversation about the other kids and how they were doing, then Steve would take Dustin home, and after Dustin got a car, they would just drive separately to the diner and part ways after.
Dustin always made it a point to point out how miserable Steve was.
Steve was fine.
He wasn’t miserable.
What was there to be miserable about?
He had a boyfriend who was more of a husband at this point, a good job, a house-trailer, and he had the kids, even if it was just once a month for a game he never played, just watched and provided food for.
Now Eddie was back, a bit f*cked up and still somehow twenty one, Steve was older than him now.
Wayne still lived in town, a few trailers down from Steve, and Steve would sometimes leave the man some food when he had extra. He never dared invite the man over, just in case Tommy saw it the wrong way, but he made sure the man knew he wasn’t alone.
Now he was here, he helped with the upside down, and he knew Eddie was still alive.
Or alive again? It seemed like a last ditch effort to throw El off than any specific plan.
The others hadn’t been resurrected, just getting Eddie back seemed to be the limit of Vecna’s power, and El helped by pulling his mind back to him when Eddie didn’t remember them.
Vecna ultimately got their friend’s body back, and El got his mind.
Tommy was also now in the know.
As was most of Hawkins.
Once Vecna was killed, the town was able to rebuild with the government's help.
Everyone was so desperate to get back to normal.
Nancy, Jonathan, and Robin came back after everything, just to visit.
They stayed for a few weeks.
Just long enough to witness the breaking of Steve Harrington.
