Steve Swayed To One Side Then Tumbled To The Ground. The Slimy Ground Cushioned The Souls So That Dustin

Steve swayed to one side then tumbled to the ground. The slimy ground cushioned the souls so that Dustin didn’t hear it over the ringing in his ears. What he did hear was Robin screaming Steve’s name. It wasn’t even a true scream, just her hoarse voice cracking around the syllables, but it was enough to snap him out of staring transfixed at Eddie.

His first thought was “what’s wrong with Steve?” Then it dawned on him as he watched blood bubble up on his friend’s lip. He shoved a now fine Eddie off of his lap and and scrambled to Steve’s limp body, half crawling and falling over himself. His stomach bottomed out when he looked at Steve’s face, identical injuries to what Eddie had had. What had he done? “No.” His voice was broken and weak. “That’s not what I- I didn’t mean to… Steve. Wait, no, Steve this isn’t right.” He started to cry, reaching for Steve’s head.

Robin shoved the boy away. “What have you done?” She screamed, tears free flowing down her face. She threw off her shirt and tore it into strips, covering the worst of the injuries and synching it tight with her belt.

“Robin, I didn’t mean to… this is not what I meant.” Dustin could barely talk around the lump in his throat. He’d just killed Steve. When he’d asked he hadn’t been thinking it was just… Steve fixed everything. He always knew what to do, always protected them…… Dustin had just wanted Eddie back. What had he done?

Strong hands gripped Dustin’s shoulders. It was Eddie, standing behind him. His face was contorted as he tried to figure out what had just happened. Nancy was asking the same thing on repeat. Only Dustin and Robin really knew, and they shared this horrible weight between them. Dustin wanted to die. Why couldn’t it have been him?

Robin made a choking noise like an animal as Steve shut his eyes. Standing, she grabbed him damsel style and ran without hesitation. Some kind of inhuman power had come over her as she lay him delicately on the mattress in Eddie’s trailer and climbed the ladder.

Dustin lay crumpled on the ground, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. He kept repeating “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Eddie and Nancy desperately tried to get him to stand but he’d shit them out. Setting his jaw, Eddie grabbed him under the arms in a bear hug and dragged him to the trailer all the while saying in a panicked voice, “it’s gonna be okay. It’s gonna be okay.”

Once in the trailer, Robin was screaming at them. “Help him up, hand him up to me.” She was in the trailer on the other side of the ceiling portal, she had tangled the sheets around her feet so the she could stand in a way, reaching her arms through the portal.

Without thought of how this was even going to work, Eddie and Nancy hoisted Steve toward the ceiling, trying to be as gentle as possible. After standing on a chair, they were able to pass him off, how Robin lifted him through the rest of the way was beyond them, but her voice was so authoritative and her expression so crazy they felt they could do nothing but what she demanded.

As Nancy climbed up the rope of sheets, Eddie shook Dustin, trying to snap him out of it. “I need you to climb up to safety now. Dustin, climb up the goddam rope!” He was screaming in the boy’s face, trying to shock him into moving. It worked and Dustin was running for the rope. Each of them reached the other side just as they heard the wheels of Nancy’s car screech out of the driveway. The two of them ran to Eddie’s van to follow.

Steve woke to the sound of a heart monitor. The hospital room was uncomfortably bright, but it was obvious that’s where he was. He felt a wave of shock and nausea pass over him. Wasn’t he supposed to be dead? The memories flooded back to him. Eddie bleeding out, Dustin, cradling him, a mess, crying and begging for Steve to help, to save him, to fix it, just fix it. There was so much pain so much raw panic, Steve had had to do it. He was able to save a life, he couldn’t just not. And with the way Dustin had begged him to fix it, all hesitation left his mind. This was his purpose, this is why he’d been given the gift at all.

Looking around the room, Steve saw Dustin, sitting in the far corner on the floor. He was grey looking and stared at the tiles. On his other side robin sat on a chair, her knees curled to her chest, asleep. He tried once to day her name, but found his voice a rasp. He swallowed dryly and tried again. “Robs?”

Her eyelids fluttered before she took a deep breath and looked at him. She stated for a groggy moment before it dawned on her. “Steve?” She whispered before repeating g it i a shout. She crashed to her knees, chest pressed against the side of the bed as she reached for him, holding his hand, touching his face, her fingers were butterflies flitting around his body, as if checking to see if he were real.

Dustin shot up from his corner. “Steve?” He dashed to the other side of the bed. He looked between Steve and Robin in disbelief. “Steve!” He started to cry. “I’m so sorry, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t want you to- why would you do that? I didn’t mean for you to die. I thought you were going to die.” He was sobbing and buried his face in the sheets.

Steve petted his head with one hand. “It’s okay, Dustin. It was my choice.” He squeezed Robin’s hand with his other. She began to cry too.

“What the hell, Dingus. I thought I’d lost you.”

“Where is everyone? Are they safe? Max?”

Dustin lifted his head slowly and shared a look with Robin. They both took a deep breath.

The heart monitor screamed as Steve staggered his way down the hall, having ripped off the monitors and IVs. Robin and Dustin were following, shouting at him to stop and be careful. He looked into the windows of each room, looking for the familiar red head of hair. Once he found her he threw the door open, causing Mike, Lucas, El, and Will to jump to their feet. He had a dark determination in his eyes as he marched for her bed, reaching out for her.

“What are you doing?” Lucas asked as Dustin and Robin skidded into the room.

“Just move.” Steve gritted out. The pain of moving had gotten so great he’d thrown ip in the hallway, but seeing max in all those casts doubled his fortitude.

The group realized what he was trying to do and move nearly in unison, standing in front of the bed to block the way.

“Steve stop.” Dustin said as he and Robin jumped in front of him, grabbing onto him to force him back. “Don’t do this. You’re already hurt enough. Anything else and you might-“ He choked a little.

“Let me go. Let me heal her.” Robin and Dustin threw themselves against him as hard as the could, trying to keep him back. “Let me heal her!” He shouted, halfway angry, halfway desperate.

“No.” Lucas said. “You’ve done enough. It’s enough.” He was almost giving Steve permission. Permission to stop, to heal, to live.

“We want you here, with us.” Robin said, her restraining changing to more of a hug.

“We don’t know what we’d do without you. Without your help. We need you with us just as much as anyone else.” Dustin said, remorse carving his face.

“It’s not what she’d want.” El said softly. “She’ll wake up… when she’s ready. She would never forgive herself if she healed at the cost of your life. The doctors say you can’t take much more.”

Steve collapsed, all momentum lost. Tears coursed down his face and neck as he struggled to breath. He just wanted to fix it. That’s what he was meant for. And yet his body burned with pain. He want even sure how he’d made it down the hall. Around him his friends help him, and each other in a group hug of tears and shaky breaths. Feeling more at peace, knowing that they, that Dustin, didn’t want to trade him for someone else. He wasn’t just of use to them, they loved him like he loved them. He wasn’t sure he could go on, stay awake as the others cried with him and around him. Steve felt light headed, like he was floating. The lights in the room seemed to grow brighter and dimmer then fade out all together. With a deep, tear stained breath, he slipped into darkness in the warmth of his friends arms.

There is a fic in the hobbit fandom where Bilbo has a Gift and he can take someone's injury from them. Aka. They scrape open their shin, he holds onto them a sec, and they're completely fine, but his leg is now bleeding. Direct transfer. This came about because that fandom really enjoys killing Bilbo in myriad horrifying ways.

So I was thinking about ST fandom, and how much we love to see Steve be insecure and self sacrificing. And If I'd watched the show maybe I'd have the details to do it right and talk about him taking head trauma from Lucas in 2, and undoing the damage to Robin before she wakes up and knows about it, but I don't know much more than that.

So just consider Dustin begging Steve to help Eddie after the bats. Dustin, who knows that Steve doesn't heal the injury, he takes it on. Dustin who would never ever ask for this if he was thinking straight. But Dustin is hysterical, and Steve is desperate, so he tries, and he succeeds. Steve sort of falls sideways after its done. For a second, Dustin is too focused on the color coming back to Eddie's face, and the way his eyes are focusing again to notice.