The hospital is the last place that Eddie wants to be first thing in the morning.
Will goes through the motions of signing them in at the front desk and leading Eddie to the elevator; clearly he knows the way by heart, and Eddie appreciates that. He lets Will cling to his hand on the way up, leaning into the corner and staring at his own murky reflection in the metallic wall across from him. Whatever was going on in the kitchen this morning is certainly something they should talk about, but Eddie gets the feeling he might need to push to talk about it, or Will is going to shut him out of this one.
Why would he be so uncomfortable with his mom and brother fighting like that? The question persists as Eddie strokes his thumb over Will's knuckles, the callus there catching on soft skin every so often. You think he'd be more used to something like that.
"I want to check on the others before we go see Nancy," Will tells him, and Eddie blinks out of his thoughts, glancing down at his omega. "Once she's better, she's going to want to leave right away, and I don't think we'll be able to convince her to wait."
"That's probably true, knowing Wheeler. You wanna check on Max, I'm guessing?" Truth be told, Eddie does too. He was out of the hospital pretty fast after Will healed most of the damage, and he didn't really get a chance to check on their friends.
Their friends. Seems like such a weird quantifier now, but it is the truth. Eddie knows Will is part of their group, part of the pack, and had been long before Eddie came around and tried to steal- Harrington's word, not his- the pups into the Hellfire Club. But it still feels strange to consider that the two of them have had almost the same friends this entire time and just missed each other, first by moving, then by Vecna.
Eddie even had time to get to know Eleven, something he just did not get with Will.
Lots of lost time to make up for. He brings Will's hand up to his mouth and kisses it, and Will's hazel eyes noticeably soften up at him. "I don't see why we can't."
"Especially Max," Will says quietly, and Eddie winces. Yeah, especially Max Mayfield.
"Well, we kind of can't avoid checking on Harrington if he and Wheeler are still sharing a room. Which, wow, that has got to be awkward." Eddie tries to laugh it off, but Will just rolls his eyes a little and smiles fondly at him. "But it's good that things are fine. Have you talked to Robin? She'd already been discharged when I finally woke up."
Will nods, rocking a little on the balls of his feet. "Yeah. She had a broken arm, but I took care of it so she could go home. Her girlfriend's with her, so she'll be okay."
"Look at you, superstar. Getting everyone out of here as fast as possible, huh? Is there a reason Steve's still here, or is he just like, totally insufferable every time you go to talk to him?" But now that Eddie thinks about it, it is weird that Steve is still in the hospital. When they talked, he certainly was banged up, but bad enough that Will can't fix it?
"He's hanging around mostly because of Max. She's going to be discharged soon, too, I think? So he wants to be here as long as he can so he can spend time with her." Will's hand flexes against his, and Eddie cocks his head a little, waiting. "She's going to be staying with us, too. The house is going to be really full, but her mom isn't... Max needs someone to really look after her, and I've met her mom. I don't really want El around her."
That makes a lot of sense, Eddie supposes. He knows vaguely of Susan, Max's mother, and how little she visited the hospital compared to all the rest of them. Between Neil Hargrove leaving her and Billy Hargrove's death, Susan does not seem like she's holding it together all that well. No excuse for not visiting Max, though, because Eddie dragged himself back here as often as he could, even when moving at all still hurt him.
