Sweet Child O' Mine - Eddie Munson & Y/N

Epilogue - How It Really Ended...

25th December 1993 - Hawkins, Indiana
As always, December leaves Hawkins coated in a blanket of pristine and glistening white snow, every yard adorned with snowmen of all shapes and sizes in a range of garish hates and scarves. The roads largely derelict on Christmas as families have already gathered for their festivities together, many waking bright and early to get a start on the day, the streets awash with the smell of decedent Christmas meals cooking in almost every home on the block. About hallways down this particular snow swept street, lies a modest 3 bedroom house, decorated in coloured lights and holly garlands outside, 3 little snowmen sit proudly on the quilt of snow covering the lawn and buried under a coat of snow lies a black and white van and little scarlet red corvette. The mailbox at the bottom of the footpath that's been swept clear of snow reads simply, "Munson".

Inside the modest house sits a living room at the heart of the home, in the corner sits a ceiling high Christmas tree adorned in a mess of colourful decorations and lights, presents litter the space around the bottom of the tree. Walking up the carpeted stairs from the living room, a well decorated hall leads to 2 used bedrooms and one that's awaiting a resident. In the smaller of the used rooms, a little girl wakes up very excited for Christmas morning, throwing herself out of bed she hurtles into the room next door to wake her sleeping parents and get a start on the festivities. "Mom! Dad! Wake up! Let goooo!" she shouts as she begins to bounce on the mattress, barely avoiding her sleeping parents feet. Her enthusiasm for mornings is, unfortunately, not something she gets from her father and her mother is exceptionally exhausted right now, being 8 and a half months pregnant.
"Alright, Junebug! We're coming!" Eddie groans as his face is buried in his pillow, his mess of curls shielding his face from the light peering through the curtains, he finally rolls over in the bed and tosses his pillow at his bouncing daughter, causing her to giggle hysterically and jump off the bed. She throws the pillow back at him, hitting the other person in the bed by accident and runs off down the stairs, knowing she's in a world of trouble for that mistake.
"I'm gonna kill her, Ed's. I swear." I chuckle as I hit him with his own pillow his fucking daughter just hit me with, he only chuckles as his hand starts running circles over my desperately overstretched belly. This baby is due any fucking day now and I'm getting impatient, having to celebrate Christmas with swollen feet and an aching back was not what I had in mind, thankfully, my mom agreed to celebrate Christmas at our house so she could cook on my behalf. I finally pull myself upright in the bed and with a good shove form Eddie, I'm on my feet, barely ready to start the day.

After a chaotic morning of Junebug tearing into presents, insisting of playing with them all right away and choosing cookies over breakfast, the Harrington clan arrive, shortly followed by Wayne. Steve proposed to Nancy this Valentine's Day just gone after finally moving out of my parents basement into a house of their own two streets over, meaning Nancy now spends Christmas Day with out family most years. My grandparents are enjoying a warm Christmas in Florida this year as they felt it would be too much for me being pregnant and having a house full, liars just wanted some time in their new condo. My mom got right to work with the cooking, Nancy chipping in to help out, Eddie tried to help but to be honest, the boy just gets in the way so my mom politely kicked him out of the kitchen almost immediately. Instead he was helping Juno set up her favourite present this year, a new personal cassette player. She'd inherited her parents taste in music, but her favourite tape by far was the one she received on a belated Christmas celebration in 1989. It was a homemade, or rather, "van made" tape that was given to her by her favourite person, her daddy, Eddie. When Eddie found out about Juno in 1989 he left the trailer on Christmas Eve and returned home with a mixtape he'd made for Juno of all the songs they reminded him of her mommy. Including the song released the week she was born - "Master of Puppets" by Metallica, which had become both of their favourite songs, even going so far as to learn it on his guitar for her, solo and all, which was impressive... and incredibly fucking hot. No matter how many tapes Eddie made for her, this one was her favourite and she loved the way he'd decorated it with black hearts and bats and written on it himself - "To Juno. Special songs about a special girl for another very special girl. Love, Daddy xx".

After another outstanding meal by my mom, we sat around the table and all shared our favourite thing about Christmas. Steve and Nancy gushed about each other and my parents spouted about being around family, Wayne talked about family and friends and being grateful for those around him and Juno obviously mentioned presents and cookies and food before finally saying how nice it was to be with her family. Then it was Eddie's turn, he took a sip from his water and cleared his throat, "Well, obviously my favourite thing is being around my family. But this year, I'm extra happy because my beautiful wife is carrying the newest addition to our wonderful family so this might be my favourite Christmas so far..." he blushed as he rubbed at my bloated belly. Everyone turned to me and waited to see what my favourite part of Christmas was,
"Well... like everyone else, my family of course, the Harringtons and the Munsons. And soon Wheeler will be one of the Harringtons too so that's exciting! But I think, my favourite part of Christmas is probably, all of it. Everything. When you've almost lost it all, it's hard to pinpoint something specific. So I love all of it, every single moment of it..." my words ground to a halt as my eyes grow wide.
"Everything okay?" Eddie asks, his face the picture of confusion by my sudden loss of words.
"Well, I think this might be about to become my favourite Christmas... since, my dear husband, your son seems ready to come out..." I chuckle as Eddie suddenly sits bolt upright in his chair, confusion replaced by panic across his face. "Yeah, big guy... my waters just broke." I confess, causing Eddie to shoot up from his chair, unsure where to start with getting ready for the hospital. Thankfully, we have an army of slightly calmer family members around us and soon enough we've sorted childcare for Juno and we're on the way to the hospital again on Christmas Day, but thankfully, for a far happier reason this year. And by 23:49 on 25th December 1993, Ozzy Edward Munson was born, screaming the walls down as he came.

This time, Eddie was there the whole time and got to see his second child arrive into the world, and as expected... he was a fucking mess.
Finally, the Munsons were whole.