002 - Steve Harrington

The Piggyback

"Okay." I say as I stand in front of everyone. "I wanna run through it one more time. Phase one."

"Nancy, Steve, and I meet Erica at the playground." Robin says. "She'll signal Max and Lucas when we're ready."

"Phase two."

"Max baits Vecna. He'll go after her, which'll put him in his trance. You'll go into your trance and piggyback off of her, which'll take his attention off of her and onto you." Steve says.

"Phase three?"

"Me and Eddie draw the bats away." Dustin says and Eddie puts his hand on his head, shaking it a little.

"Four."

"We head into Vecna's newly bat-free lair, and flambé" Robin says as she shakes a bottle of kerosene."

"Nobody moves on to the next phase until we've all copied. Nobody deviates from the plan, no matter what. Got it?" I say sternly.

"Got it." They all reply and grab our gear off of the R.V. before getting off and trekking our way through the woods and into the trailer park, to Eddie's house.

We quickly jog to his house and Steve leads us inside. We circle around the gate opening. 

"You guys go ahead, I need to talk to Danielle real quick." Steve says nodding to Dustin, Eddie, Robin, and Nancy, before grabbing my hand and pulling me to the back of Eddie's trailer, into his room and shuts his door. 

"What's going on?" I ask him as he turns back around to me.

"I just wanted to tell you something really important before we jump into action out there. And after what you said to me earlier today, had me thinking, that... that's not how I want our possible last conversation to end."

"I understand." I say softly, nodding my head for him to continue. 

"Okay." He says nervously. "When I was a baby..."

Okay...

"I crawled backwards."

"Crawled backwards?" I ask surprised and a little confused as to what this has to do with anything.

"Yeah, it doesn't really make any sense, I know. But, it did to my tiny little Harrington brain. That is, of course until I reversed by baby butt down a flight of stairs and thumped my head really good."

"Oh no, you poor baby. That actually explains so much." I smile, jokingly.

"Yeah." He smiles back. "Yeah. I think it kinda does. I think, like, right out of the gate, like, I'm super confident. But I'm also, like, an idiot. Which is just... I mean, it's a brutal combination. But, I mean, the good news is, I get a big enough thump on my head, I can change, you know? I can learn. I can crawl forward. Listen, I guess what I'm trying to say in a really stupid, roundabout way is, um... is thank you."

"Thank me?" I ask surprised as I chuckle lightly.

"Yeah." Steve smiles adoringly at me.

"For-"

"-For giving my head the biggest thump of its life two years ago. I needed it. It's changed my life. You've changed my life. And now I'm crawling forward. Slowly."

"Steve..."

He smirks lightly. "Remember the dream I told you about? About Winnebago? About seeing the country with my six lil' nuggets?" He smiles.

"Yeah." I smile at the memory.

"It's all true. Every last word. But I left one part out. It's the most important part. You're there. You've always been there. And after you had told me that you'd think I'd make for a great dad. It really set in stone for me. I want you to stay there. I want you to be there." He finishes and tears start to well in my eyes.