Chapter Text
The first time he woke up, it was to his mother's voice. He couldn’t make out the words, but the tone struck a chord with him, sending his heart rate spiking even though he couldn’t properly open his eyes to see where she was.
“It’s okay,” A deeper, more soothing tone said. Richie. “She’s getting kicked out. Your okay Eddie.”
He felt like he was floating, and a small part of him was screaming that there was nothing fine about this. But he trusted Richie.
He fell back asleep.
____________________________
The next time he woke up, he was a lot more lucid than he was before. That was not to say he was lucid in the least. He still felt himself drifting, even as he managed to peel his eyes open, the bright light glaring.
He lay there for a couple more minutes; the beep of the heart monitor his only company. The room was empty, which was weird because normally his mom would be all over him, and there should be someone else there, he just couldn’t place who.
His memories were all screwed up, drifting around in his mind just out of his grip. No matter how many times he tried to grab at them, they simply meandered away, just out of his ability to grasp. He was hurt, that much was clear.
His arm was in a cast, hanging limply by his side, and there was a tenseness in his stomach, although Eddie couldn’t see if there was any damage through the blanket. He distantly remembered Henry Bowers in the Quarry late at night, the flash of a knife glinting at midnight, Richie’s voice in the darkness.
Richie. He was there, Eddie remembered that. They talked too. If only he could remember what about. He must be on a lot of drugs. His head felt like he was floating.
The door creaked open, and Eddie’s eyes darted to the side, widening as Richie walked in, balancing a tray full of food.
“Hey,” He said, his voice rough from disuse.
Richie jolted when he heard it. Eye widening before they connected with Eddie’s.
“You’re awake,” Richie said, almost like he couldn’t believe it.
“Seems so,” Eddie said with a sigh. Everything was sore, and he distantly remembered something bad happening, but he pushed it from his mind, he didn’t want to unpack that right about now. “That food better be for me Tozier.”
“It isn’t,” Richie said, and there was an awkward moment of silence. “But it can be!” Richie said loudly, plastering on a smile to hide the awkwardness.
“Gee thanks,” Eddie said, attempting to sit up, the motion sent blinding pain through his chest, and he gasped loudly, abandoning his attempts as he fell back onto the pillows.
Richie was by his side in seconds, tray abandoned on the table. His hands were pressing gently on Eddie’s shoulders, keeping him in place as the pain swept through him.
“Deep breaths Eds,” Richie soothed, hands gently squeezing him in support. Eddie let his eyes close, focusing on regulating his breathing.
It hurt like hell, everything hurt. His chest radiated pain to every inch of him, his arm aching in protest as well. This felt like no pain he had ever had in his life. After a few minutes of staying still it started to fade, never gone, but more a dull throb than a stabbing pain.
“You good?” Richie said softly, his hands quickly leaving Eddie’s shoulders, he missed the weight of them against his skin.
“Yeah,” Eddie said, blinking his eyes open again. “Just had to take a moment.”
“You just woke up,” Richie shrugged. “That’s understandable, just maybe try not to move like an idiot?”
“Well sorry,” Eddie said dryly. “I forgot I was stabbed.”
“You forgot you were stabbed?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re are insane,” Richie shook his head, not even trying to hide the smile. “Such an idiot. Who the hell forgets that they were stabbed?”
“Well sorry I was delirious and still on a ton of meds,” Eddie grumbled, his eyes following the IV in his arm up to the bag it was attached to. He was guessing he was on meds, but the drifty feeling in his head was a pretty good indicator.
“That you are,” Richie said with a laugh. “You know if you wanted to get high I could have just given you some weed, there was no need to be this extra.”
“I’m not smoking any of your off-brand weed,” Eddie scoffed. “If anything I’ll get some from Bev, at least she has taste.”
“I’m wounded,” Richie deadpanned. “I need to call the doctor, but I figured you probably want some time to chill first.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Eddie said, eying the food on the table. He was feeling hungry. “Pass me some apple syces.”
“What are you, five?” Richie asked, but reached over without any other complaint and handing Eddie the food. The apples were kind of dry and tasteless, but it gave him something to do. If he didn’t do something he would start thinking.
“What day is it?” Eddie asked after a moment of silence. It was weird having Richie be this quiet.
“Saturday,” Richie sighed. “Regrettably I’m spending my weekend looking after you loser, what a waste of my time.”
“I didn’t tell you to.”
“Yeah but Dr. Anderson only allows your mom to come in occasionally and normally kicks her out when she gets hysterical, so someone’s got to watch you and make sure you don’t do anything stupid,” Richie said with a shrug, reaching for the juice box on the table.
“I was wondering where she was,” Eddie sighed.
He felt like he should be freaking out. Distantly, far in the back of his brain, he was. He was screaming and panicking and freaking out but his conscious mind was on way too many painkillers to react normally. He’s sure that when he wakes up again he’ll freak.
“How long have I been out?” He asked, turning to face Richie.
“Two weeks,” Richie told him gently.
“Cool,” Eddie said, before promptly passing back out.
_______________________________________________
He was alone in the room.
He wasn’t sure how long he’d been awake; the moments of sleep had slowly burred into awareness without him even realizing it, and for what felt like hours he was dully staring at the ceiling, his head drifting away from his body. He felt more pain this time, could feel it throughout his body, but it was disjointed, a faint memory.
He wasn’t sure how long he was sitting there blankly before the door slowly creaked open, and Doctor Anderson walked in, frowning as he looked down at his paper. Eddie thought about speaking, but his mouth wouldn’t cooperate with his mind, so instead he lay there waiting for Anderson to notice him.
It took the doctor an embarrassingly long time. But it was worth the wait when Anderson's eyes lazily drifted to his face only to widen in surprise.
“You shouldn’t be awake yet,” Anderson said, walking forwards and checking the heart monitor beside Eddie.
“Never was one for the rules,” Eddie managed to mumble, his lips moving slow and clumsily.
“Who are you kidding kid,” Anderson chuckled. “You broke a single rule once and cried. That has to be a fact.”
Eddie only managed to stick his tongue out at the man. Anderson seemed to get the message anyways.
“We amped up your drugs after the last time you woke up, you weren’t supposed to come out of a coma that soon, it wasn’t safe for you to be moving around,” The doctor informed him. “But we just started slowly pulling you off of them. It’s been four weeks since the accident. We kept you under for a while just to be sure.”
“When can I leave?” Eddie asked dryly, and he knew he deserved the glare Anderson gave him.
“You can leave once you go through at least another two weeks of physical therapy, then you will come back twice every week until you’re okay again.”
“Boring,” Eddie said, blinking sluggishly. He still felt out of it, although every moment he spent awake and talking it got better. He felt more human now at least. “Where’s my mom?”
“It’s currently only 7 am, so she should show up in an hour or so. Sometimes she’ll behave and stay the entire day, but most likely she’ll pitch a fit about some aspect of your condition and we’ll be forced to kick her out. Thankfully everyone here is fully aware of her past manipulations, so none of us take her seriously,” Anderson was checking him over now, carefully lifting his casted arm to check on it before lightly poking at Eddie’s chest. It hurt, but it wasn’t that bad.
“What’s the damage doc?” Eddie asked as Anderson pulled away.
“It’s almost healed,” The doctor sighed. “You’re really lucky you got stabbed where you did, an inch over and you would have hit a lung. Luckily you show no signs of collapsed lungs, and the wound didn’t go all the way through your torso, so it was easy to stitch up. We had a brief scare at infection at the beginning, which is why we kept you under for so long, but you look to be healing correctly.”
Eddie went silent, teeth worrying at his lip. HE didn’t want to ask the question, but he knew he had to.
“What about my skating?” He said softly, and Anderson looked just as torn as Eddie felt.
“It’ll be touch and go,” Anderson said carefully. “You won’t be able to get on skates for at least two more months, and even then it’ll be a close thing. You’ll have to be incredibly careful not to injure the repaired muscles.”
“So will I be able to compete?” Eddie asked, and he felt almost lightheaded at the possibility. He wasn’t sure if it was from fear or anger.
“We’re unsure,” Anderson said carefully. “If everything goes well, then yes, you can compete, but if something goes wrong, I will have to advise against it.”
Eddie nodded, his eyes shutting as he took a couple of deep breaths.
“I’ll leave you be,” Anderson said kindly. “But I have to warn you that if you remain conscious for the day the police will have to come and take your statement. I'll be back later to check on you.”
Eddie didn’t even want to know where Bowers and his goons were. Just the thought of the boy how stabbed him made anger light up inside him. Bower had tormented him for years, beat him up, intimidated him, made Eddie feel like crap. And now he had taken away some of the most important things in Eddie’s life. He threatened Eddie’s chances at going to the one event he had waited years to compete with, and almost took away his life.
Eddie knew that if he saw Bower again there wouldn’t be much stopping him from punching him in the face as hard as he could.
Anderson left quietly, leaving Eddie alone with his thoughts, and it was only at that moment that he remembered that he forgot to ask about Richie.
_____________________________________
Regrettably, Eddie was still awake when his mother came in.
He had spent the past hour staring blankly at the wall, replaying that one night over and over again. The fear racing through him as he ran through the forest, the stink of Henry’s breath and he shoved the knife into his gut, the tears on Richie’s face as he hovered over him. Eddie replayed it over and over again, his mind spiraling with every second he was left alone.
His mom walked in and shattered the memories, and for that he was a tiny bit grateful. His mom and him never had the best relationship, but she provided a distraction wherever she went, so that was good enough for him at that moment.
“Eddie!” She cried when she saw him, tears immediately springing from her eyes as she rushed forwards, nearly collapsing on top of him as she pulled him into a hug. It stung, his chest pulling uncomfortably but he didn’t care.
He wrapped his arms around her, tears pouring from his eyes. His mother was warm against him, the familiar weight of her arms around him reminding him of home, no matter how little time he spent there.
“Mommy,” He sobbed into her, and he forgot how much he missed this. Over the past years he resented his mother so much, and for good reason too. But he missed when it was easy, when his mom would hug him and everything would feel alright, when his mom would smile at him and he would feel safe. He missed the innocence of childhood; he missed the simplicity.
No one got hurt there as long as you followed the rules, no one got stabbed, no one feared for their life, no one was so busy replaying the moment they almost died over and over again.
He wanted to go back to that. But he couldn’t, so instead he let his mom cling to him, because it was the closest thing that felt safe.
“Are you okay Eddie-bear?” She cooed, pulling back and running her hands over his face, wiping his tears before fussing over his casted arm. “Are you hurting? Should I make that doctor give you more painkillers? Do you need some food? Water?”
“I’m okay mom,” Eddie said, sniffing to himself. Normally the fussing would make him cringe, but right now he was too tired to feel anything other than relief that his mother was there with him. She would make everything alright. “I’m okay.”
“You shouldn’t be awake yet,” She continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “You almost died Eddie, I think this is way too early for you to be moving around, what if your stitches pull? Or your lung collapses? What if you get an infection? You can’t amputate a chest Eddie; you have to be delicate with these sorts of things.”
Eddie tuned her out, more than used to her fussing. He trusted Doctor Anderson, if he was awake he should be awake.
He focused back into reality when the police showed up though.
“Excuse me miss,” An officer said, knocking on the door. “We heard your son was awake and we wanted to pop in for some questions.”
His mother stood up from the chair she pulled beside his bed, her hand leaving where she had clutched Eddie’s good hand. She puffed herself up, standing tall and raising her chin, as if she could intimidate the two giant police officers standing before her.
“My son has been through a lot,” She sniffed. “He only just woke up and you want him to relive all those traumatic memories? He is still frail-“
“It’s okay,” Eddie cut her off. He wanted to get this over with. “I can handle some questioning.”
His mom looked like she wanted to protest, but the policemen were already sitting down on the other available chairs, so she only huffed and sat back grabbing onto Eddie’s hand and squeezing it as hard as she could.
“Now Eddie, I’m officer Reedman,” The first officer said before gesturing to his partner, who had yet to speak. “That’s officer Russel. We just want to ask a few questions about the night of your accident.”
“I don’t think getting stabbed is much of an accident,” His mother sniffed.
“Please ma’am, refrain from answering your son’s questions, it’s important that we get his input on all this,” Officer Reedman said patiently. “Now Eddie, can you tell us who stabbed you?”
“Henry Bowers,” Eddie replied without hesitation. “Him, Victor Cross and Belch, I mean Reginald Huggins, cornered me in the Quarry. Henry was the one to stab me.”
“Are you sure it was him?” Officer Russel cut in. “It was dark, you were scared, isn’t it likely that you got the wrong person?”
“I know who Henry Bowers is,” Eddie huffed, glaring at the man. He wasn’t some delusional wack job. “He’s been tormenting me for years, and it wasn’t that dark out. I saw all three of their faces clearly and heard and recognized all their voices. I am 100% sure it was Henry Bowers who attacked me.”
“Don’t you think you might be biased due to your past with him?” Officer Russel countered. “Isn’t it possible after the traumatic experience that your memories are messed up?”
“I don’t know what you’re implying,” Eddie said lowly, his anger rising. “But I know what happened to me.”
“But-“ Officer Russel continued.
“That’s enough,” Officer Reedman cut in cleanly, shutting his partner up with a look. “We don’t think you’re a liar Eddie. Just tell us everything you remember of the night.”
So Eddie did.
He closed his eyes and recounted how he went out for a walk, how Bowers and his gang cornered him, broke his arm, stabbed him in the chest. He detailed how he called Anderson and then Richie, and everything he remembered until he passed out sans the awkward conversation between Richie and him.
“Thank you son,” Officer Reedman said, smiling at Eddie. Officer Russell said nothing. “Now, I know this is very stressful on you, but it is important in the sentencing of Henry that you come forwards as a witness. Are you willing to do so?”
“I think that’s a lot to ask him,” His mom cut in, her voice cold. “He was almost killed, and you’re asking him to go Infront of a court against the boy who did this to him? Is that necessary? He has bad social anxiety already.”
“I’ll do it,” He cut his mom off again. “If it helps keep him away from me and anyone else he’s ever tormented, then I’ll do it.”
“Thank you,” Officer Reedman said, flipping closed his notebook. Officer Russell stood up without a word. “We’ll be in contact with you soon. Have a good day Eddie, Mrs. Kasprack.”
He nodded at them, and the two officers left without another word.