Chapter Text
Hawkins, Indiana
November 9th, 1986
Tommy, Nancy should have realized, was not a patient man. She watched him pout on the couch, switch to the armchair, pace in front of the television, and sit on the floor. Now, he was back to pacing the room.
“Jesus, man, what’s wrong with you?”
Tommy wheeled on Mike. “What’s wrong with me?! I’m stuck in the freakin’ past! They’ve had more than enough time to wake up and fix whatever the fuck this!”
Mike gave him an unimpressed stare over his comic book. “It’s been two minutes. It usually takes people more than two minutes to have breakfast.”
“A sense of fucking urgency would be nice,” he scoffed.
Dustin groaned. “Sure but you’re not actively trying to kill us so this is something we can pace out a little bit.”
“Oh so if I was trying to kill you, that would speed this shit up?”
“You could try,” Mike said with a smug grin. “And it’d be cute.
“But we know this house better than you do,” Dustin added. “And we know where the weapons are.”
“Weapons?” Carol parroted in disbelief. “Steve has weapons?”
Nancy found that hard to believe as well. Steve was, for lack of a better word, polished. His appearance, his words, the way he moved, all polished. Sure he did “bad things” but it was never enough to ruin his reputation. No public fights, no known extreme violence, nothing of the sort. She thought about the scars on his arms and neck of his older self. What happened to him? All of that polish was still present in 1986, albeit in a strange way.
“Steve can make anything a weapon really,” Dustin continued. He began listing things off on his fingers. “Bats, axes, kitchen knives, bottles, lamps, oars, cars. Anything really.”
“There are a couple guns around too,” Mike added. “Not that he uses them.”
“Steve’s not really a ‘fighting’ person,” Carol said. “So you must not know him all that well.”
“And he’s like the only person in Hawkins that hates guns,” Tommy added. “I mean, he’s shot BB guns but actual guns? No way in hell.”
“He doesn’t hate them,” Dustin said slowly.
“But there are different ways people can kick ass,” Mike said. “And when he’s actually trying, Steve can kick ass.”
Nancy could only sit in her thoughts. Mike wouldn’t lie about this, but this… this was just too different from the Steve that she knew and liked. Steve Harrington spending time with her brother and his friends? Steve Harrington using weapons? Steve Harrington hanging out with two people that she knew for a fact hated his guts in 1983? Nothing was adding up.
She stood up. Mike looked at her curiously. “Where are you going?”
“To the bathroom,” she said smoothly.
Mike and Dustin shared a look, one that said they didn’t trust her in the slightest. Nonetheless, Mike nodded. “Down the hall, first door on your left.”
“Thank you.” She followed the directions Mike had given her. Her hand was on the bathroom’s doorknob when she heard Robin’s voice.
“This is so trippy.”
She turned. It seemed the three older teens had set up shop in the dining room. She could sort of make out Steve on the phone in the kitchen. She pressed herself against the wall next to the dining room doorway.
“I can’t believe how trippy it is,” Robin continued. “Like just when you think ‘oh my god, it's over’ more shit just gets thrown our way. And this I think is just the worst thing for Steve.”
Eddie tutted. “It is indeed. But I guess this shit is never done. We can just be here for him.”
She heard the phone returned to its cradle.
Nancy slowly peered into the room. She knew she shouldn’t be spying but she just couldn’t help herself. There was something wrong, something they weren’t going to tell them, and she would find out what. If there was something she could do in the past, something they could avoid or fix, shouldn’t they do that?
She watched Steve enter the room and pace the length of his dining room table. “I can’t believe this. I should have just filled that fucking pool with cement after-” he cut himself off and shook his head. He sat down in the closest chair and slumped into it with a groan.
Eddie nodded sympathetically. “I know, sweetheart. Coffee?”
“God yes.” Steve took the offered mug and took a sip. It said “World’s Best Dad” written in black marker. He sighed in satisfaction. “Perfect. Thanks Eds.”
He smiled. “Don’t mention it, gorgeous. How you feeling?”
Steve ran his hand through his hair. “Better. Whatever you gave me was just what I needed.”
Eddie gave Robin a playful smile. “Tylenol and head. Works everytime.”
Robin scrunched up her nose. “Gross.”
“You know, Buckley, there’s actually grosser shit out there than Tylenol.”
She shoved him. A playful shove, like none of this was out of the ordinary.
“I just don’t get why Tommy and Carol are here too,” Steve whined. “They’re such assholes.”
“Weren’t they at your pool party from hell?” Robin asked. “Your words, by the way, not mine. That’s where they came from.”
Steve nodded. “It was the five of us. And… and I’m kinda happy that I don’t see all five here. I don’t know if I would be able to-”
“That wasn’t your fault,” Eddie said softly, moving to sit next to him.
“It was my pool.” He gestured to the window. “That pool. I was responsible for them. What happened was my fault.” He shook his head. “Least Nance and Hop will be here soon.”
“What do we got? Ten minutes?” Eddie asked.
Steve finished the cup. “Probably closer to five with the way they drive.”
“Plenty of time to get them up to speed.”
Robin cleared her throat. “I feel like there’s some things we shouldn’t tell them? Like for timeline continuity and shit? Like Back to the Future. Although just them being here is definitely going to change things.”
“I don’t want to talk about Barb,” Steve said with certainty. “I’ll talk about anything else.”
Nancy got a sinking feeling in her gut. What had happened to Barb that night that Steve didn’t want to talk about? Whatever it was, it was bad. Really bad.
“How about this?” Eddie suggested. “No Barb, no Vecna, no Russians. I don’t think we can get around not talking about the Upside Down if that’s how they got here.”
Steve nodded slowly. “I can work with that. Yeah, yeah, I can work with that.”
“No demos or Mind Flayer either,” Robin added.
Steve stood up from the table. “Then I think we’re all set. Ready?”
“Just one more thing before we go back out,” Eddie said with a grin.
Steve tilted his head. “What’s that?”
Eddie chuckled and pulled him into a sweet kiss, one that Steve smiled into and eagerly returned.
Nancy’s eyes widened in surprise and she quickly pulled herself back behind the doorway.
“Good morning, baby,” Eddie said. “Awake yet?”
“I don’t know,” Steve hummed. “Might need another one.”
Eddie chuckled. “Your wish is my command.”
Steve giggled into a second kiss. There was a snap in the room and Robin spoke up. “Dinguses, I’m still here. And we have people waiting.”
“Why must you spoil my fun, Buckley?” Eddie whined.
“Because if I didn’t stop you, you two would go at it on the table. Which would scar our visitors for life. Not to mention the children.”
“She’s got a point, Eds.”
Eddie sighed dramatically. “Both of you, conspiring against me.”
Steve laughed. Nancy heard shuffling in the room and made a quick retreat back to the living room.
Mike caught her eye as soon as she got back. “You fall in or something?” Dustin smacked his arm, making Mike smack him back.
“Mike, Dustin, it’s way too early for you two to be hitting each other,” Steve said as he came into the room.
“‘Bout time you got in here,” Dustin said. “We were waiting forever.”
Steve looked at the clock on the wall then looked back at Dustin. He crossed his arms, unimpressed. “It was fifteen minutes. Two five minute phone calls and one five minute coffee break.” He turned back to look at Eddie. “This is exactly what I’ve been telling you about, his lack of patience.”
Dustin flipped him off.
Steve sighed and looked over the group in front of them. He frowned when he saw Tommy staring at him like he grew a second head. “What?”
“You have guns in your house?” Tommy blurted out.
Steve blinked once. “Yes.”
“You can shoot a gun?” Carol asked.
Steve shrugged. “Oh, they’re not for me.”
“You have guns in your house that aren’t yours and not your dad’s?”
Steve rubbed at the back of his neck. “Well, they’re just in case. They're for… a friend.”
The front door opened and closed in the entranceway.
“Jesus, does everyone have a key to this place?” Tommy complained.
“Of course not,” Steve scoffed.
“Everyone just knows where he hides it,” Eddie teases.
“Steve?” came a familiar feminine voice.
Tommy looked over to Nancy, eyes wide. Was that… is that what she sounded like?
Steve ignored the younger teen’s internal panic. “Yeah, in here!” he called back.
“What am I shooting?” A curly-haired Nancy Wheeler came around the corner with a pistol in her hand.
“Holy shit!” Tommy and Carol both yelled.
“Hopefully nothing,” Robin said calmly.
“For now,” Eddie said. “Jury’s still out. Especially on Hagan.”
“Why me?!” he exclaimed.
Eddie stretched, shirt riding up a little to show off some gnarled skin. “You want the reasons alphabetically or in order of how much they piss me off?”
Her older self scanned over the group with calculating eyes. “Where are-”
“Harrington the Younger is outside with Sinclair,” Eddie said. “Playing sports or whatnot.”
“It was only us four,” Steve said, in a voice Nancy had to strain to hear.
Her older self nodded. “And you said they came from-?”
Steve nodded.
“So we have to get them back to that day,” she said with certainty. Nancy wasn’t sure she ever sounded so sure of anything in her life.
“We will,” Steve said in the same tone.