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frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe · 1 year

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destiel!steddie pt. 6!!

Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | Pt. 4 | Pt. 5 | AO3: you can hear the call (when trouble's on the way)

sooo....it's been a while since my last part of this fic.... 😅 to make up for it, here's just under 6.5k words for youuuu

tw for self harm closer to the end of this part (just like in part 1, i am giving a warning, but it is not done as an act of self harm. one of the characters cuts their palm in order to create an angel banishing sigil with their own blood as is done in the show.)

The two of them arrive at the diner a half hour later, pulling in next to Ste–Robin’s BMW.

“You ready for this, Eddie?” Steve asks as he exits Baby.

“Yeah I suppose so; not quite sure what exactly ‘this’ is, but,” Eddie shrugs, holding the diner’s door open for the other man. “Wait, do you know what this is about?”

“I have not a single clue.”

“Eddie!” Dustin leaps from the large corner booth’s bench towards him as soon as a bell rings out above their head. Dustin careens toward them and would have fallen flat on his face if Steve wasn’t in his way.

“Dusty, dude. Calm down. That’s why we’re here.”

“Yeah, and what’s Steve, huh? Chopped liver?”

“Seriously man, I’m hurt.”

“Obviously I’m just excited for this! Eddie’s real!” Dustin says, rounding around the dark haired man and shoving him forward toward the rest of their little group.

Eddie recognizes Nancy and Robin, of course, a blond-haired, ponytailed, little girl is sat on the former’s lap, and a gangly, shell-shocked looking teen with a tragic bowl cut sitting to her left at the edge of the bench facing the door.

“I’m not real anymore?” Steve mumbles as he steps around Eddie’s stubbornly unmoving sneakers to scoot in next to Robin, who slides a strawberry milkshake in front of him.

Eddie smirks “Guess not.”

“Dude, seriously, move your feet.” Dustin grumbles, still slowly pushing Eddie across the linoleum floor towards the group.

Eddie follows the direction, taking one long stride forward to come up next to the table, putting his hands out behind his back to catch the now falling teen behind him.

“Dick.” Dustin mumbles, and gives Eddie one final shove into the booth beside Steve, who smiles warmly at the twos’ exchange.

“So,” Dustin claps his hands together, standing at the opening of the booth. “Eddie, this is Will Byers, Will, this is Eddie.”

Eddie smiles at the top of Will’s bowlcut (seriously, someone get this kid a new ‘do, it’s 2023..) since the teen is staring down at the book in his lap. “Hey man, how’s it going?”

Will’s hair bobs when his shoulders shrug.

“Will, are you alright?”

There’s a brief moment of nothing, then Will’s hair shakes back and forth, a resounding ‘no’.

Eddie gives Nancy a panicked look, her worried one shrugging back at him.

“Hey, bud, you’re okay.” Steve’s voice floats out from beside him. “Will you tell us what’s going on?”

Will remains quiet for another moment, then abruptly throws himself out of the bench and around his friend, speeding out the front door.

“Will! Wait–” Dustin calls, already running after his friend. Eddie stands immediately, not sure what to do, but feeling like he should be doing something.

“Eddie, it’s okay,” Nancy says at the same time Steve says, “I will go talk to him.”

Steve scoots out off the bench, and may or may not have mumbled a quiet “Excuse me.” as he stands to move out from behind Eddie, but if he did, Eddie has no idea. All he felt were the warm, solid hands on his hips as Steve manhandled him gently out of his way.

He comes back to when the bell jingles above the front door.

Eddie looks down at the snickering traitors at the table.

“Shut up.” he grouses, slouching back onto the bench. “I am but a man.”

The three of them chat absently while the other two are gone, and Eddie’s introduced to the little girl on Nancy’s lap, her youngest sibling, Holly, and Robin talks a little bit about Will’s scarily accurate sketchbook, the whole reason he’s here, and says “You know Dustin’s not gonna stop bothering you about what’s true and what’s not.”

He snickers, “I figured as much”

Though almost immediately after, Eddie worries how close to the present Will’s caught up to….and hopes to God (hah) he doesn’t see the dreams he’s had about their fearless paladin -slash- angel.

Eddie shudders outwardly at the thought, and Robin catches the movement. Her mouth opens as if she’s going to ask, but Is cut off by the door chiming once again.

He looks up at the other half of their group as they arrive back at the table, scooting in at Steve’s gesture and giving him space to sit while Will and Dustin swap places; Dustin in the booth next to Nancy, and Will standing at the gap in the bench where Dustin was previously..

“Okay.” Will starts, taking a deep breath and glancing over at Eddie, exhaling as he does. “I’m not quite sure how to start this, but here goes. Up until what, a day, day and a half ago? I thought Eddie and his Uncle were my own creations; That I was suddenly, finally inspired to create something again.”

He hangs his head again, and fiddles with the multicolored post-its sticking out of the pages of the sketchbook in his hand. “When Dustin saw the drawings–the comics–he asked me how I knew you...” Will looks back up at Eddie. “How in the actual fuck are you real?”

“Well..” Eddie glances around at the people at the table, trying and failing to decipher whether or not to make a joke right now. “I mean, I was born and stuff…”

Steve snickers at that, the other three stifling their own laughs, “We know you were born, Eddie.” He smirks, patting Eddie on the thigh closest to him.

“When did this start, Will? What’s the first storyline you wrote for Eddie?” Steve continues, leaving his burning palm on black denim.

Will glances at Steve’s hand, but looks down at his sketchbook again, opening to the first sticky note.

“This one. It’s from his uncle’s perspective. From when he found him.”

Dustin and Robin both sit up straighter, trying to see the page he’s put in front of Steve.

Eddie barely glances at it, the phantom echoes of the hellhounds claws pulling at him are on him an instant, twisting his stomach in knots.

“This really happened didn’t it.” Will’s voice is quiet.

Eddie nods, almost imperceptibly.

“What did?” Dustin sounds like he’s going to get up from the bench but something stops him. Eddie’s not sure what though since he’s found himself locked into a staring contest with the tabletop in front of him.

“There were some hunts after that–is that what you call them?” Will changes the topic, much to Eddie’s relief.

“Yeah. A couple?” Eddie manages to croak out.

“There were three that I saw,” Will pulls a chair from an empty table behind them up to the open edge of their booth, clutching the sketchbook to his chest as he does so.

Steve moves at the same time, taking the chair and gesturing for WIll to scoot into the booth next to Eddie.

“And then I saw Steve.” the teen seems to be getting more comfortable, excited to be talking about this with someone. Even if that someone is the unfortunate subject of whatever it is that’s happening. “Our Steve.”

He flips to the first yellow tab in the book, and holds it up for both Steve and Eddie to see.

The comic he’s drawn depicts Steve, in the same jeans and sweater he’s in now, sitting on the hood of the same BMW parked outside beside Baby, looking up at a starry sky.

There’s dialogue written there too, in Will’s neat hand, but even sitting beside him, he’s unable to read it. Though he’s not sure he wants to.

Eddie hears Steve mumbling something to himself, catching ‘Munson’ in his words.

“What’s this about Munson?” He asks, looking up at the man. Nope, angel. Stevie and Steve have definitely swapped places again.

“The Munson Gospel. The new book of heaven. The last one was the Winchester Gospel–”

“Winchester?” Eddie and Will both question, “Like Sam and Dean?” Eddie continues.

“The very same.”

“What does this have to do with Supernatural?” Will asks.

“What’s Supernatural?” This time, it’s all but Steve that ask at once.

“They’re this series of older books. Basically like dime store novels, but horror not romance.” Will looks around at all of them, and continues when there’s no recognition on any of their faces. “They are what I thought I was basing my story off of, because I thought it might be a cool way to…deal with Steve’s disappearance. Like, maybe he’s an angel now and that he’s helping his own hunter duo with hunts like Sam and Dean had Castiel.”

Eddie feels his face twitch upward in a smile.

“Did you notice the car we arrived in, Will?”

Will looks up at him confused, then out the window to the parking lot. Guess he hadn’t.

“No.” he breathes, wonder plastered on his face. “You’re a fan of Supernatural too?”

Eddie shakes his head. “Can’t say I am, bud.” Will just looks at him confused. “I just recently got her from a friend of mine. Named Dean Winchester.”

Will scoffs and rolls his eyes, “Uh huh, yeah, sure, you can just say you’re a fan of the books, Eddie.”

Eddie just shrugs, drops it, maybe he can arrange a visit to Hawkins for the remaining Winchester.

“Sooooo what does this book series have to do with Will? And what the fuck is the Winchester Gospel? I didn’t know you were religious..” Dustin asks, mumbling the last at Steve and giving him an appraising look.

“Carver Edlund, real name Chuck Shirley, was a prophet of the Lord. He didn’t know it until Sam and Dean showed up on his doorstep, much like Eddie has for Will.”

Will catches on to the implication easily, his eyes growing wide.

Dustin, however, says “What the fuck?”

“It seems Will is the next prophet.” Steve says, ignoring the exclamation, then his eyes grow wide. “This must be why I was sent to pull you from Hell!” he exclaims, turning to Eddie, “But why? What do you have to do with this directly?”

Eddie blinks at the angel. “Well, I mean, it is called the Munson gospel. That definitely seems like it's got something to do with me.”

“No, not always.” Steve says, still looking lost in thought. “Sometimes the prophet spends their time translating the word of the story they are in without ever meeting the person or persons they are writing about, or even knowing that they are even writing the Gospel in the first place. There must be something of import on the horizon, something that is worth being copied down…” The angel trails off in thought.

“Oh great, sounds wonderful. And what, may I ask, was the subject of the previous book?”

“The apocalypse.” Steve and Will say in tandem.

A solid seven seconds of silence follows.

“The…Apocalypse?”

“What the hell? Where were we when this happened?”

“You would not have much memory of it, if any. You all would have only been young children when it happened. It was around 2005.”

“OKAY! Okay, pause, what the hell is happening over there.”

The three of them look up, and Nancy and Robin are also looking over at Dustin.

“What the hell are you talking about, Steve? How do you know this? What do you mean that ‘This is why I pulled you out of Hell’?” he mocks, looking more distressed by the second.

Steve, still angel, glances at Eddie, as scared as he’s ever looked in front of him.

“I..um…” Steve again glances at Eddie, then says “I will return.” Disappearing with a flutter.

A beat passes, and before Dustin can scream out what is sure to be another ‘WHAT THE FUCK?!’, Will hands his sketchbook across the table, still open to the page of Steve on the hood of his car.

“Dustin, read this.”

Dustin blindly reaches for it while still gaping at Steve’s now empty seat. “Okay, no, you all knew about Steve having superpowers??”

“Not superpowers. Read.” Will points down at the book in Dustin’s hands.

Dustin reads.

“You’re taking this well, bud.” Eddie murmurs to Will.

“I’ve had practice.”

He’s confused for a moment, then remembers the shit these teens have been through in this town. “Ah.”

Quicker than should be possible, Dustin yells out “An Angel?!”

“Dustin–” Nancy starts, no doubt about to chide him for his volume, but:

“No! No. Seriously? An Angel? Steve–” he takes in a wide-eyed breath, staring at Steve’s vacated spot, “Steve’s…dead..?”

Oh boy.

Robin wraps an arm over Dustin’s shoulders and pulls him close to her, removing the book from his hands. “No, no, not quite, Henderson..he’s…it’s…it’s a long story..” she glances at Nancy then to Eddie and Will for help, passing Will’s sketchbook to Nancy.

“He needed a break, Dust; you know how much he’s been through.”

“Yeah, but he didn’t know an angel was going to come down and save him!! He could’ve just been gone! And no one would’ve known!”

The angel in question re-appears then, causing Dustin to clam up, glaring down at the table in front of him instead of up at Steve.

“I’ve consulted with my siblings on the matter.”

“You consult—how?? You’ve been gone for like, four whole minutes.”

A blissfully unaware Holly chooses that moment to squirm out of Nancy’s lap and climb over to Eddie, dragging her thoroughly crayon-debauched placemat with her into Eddie’s lap instead.

“Hey kiddo–ow!” her little toddler shoes squish into his leg muscles more than should be necessary as she reaches for Steve’s previously abandoned shake.

“It is not that far of a trip, though I admit I should not have gone.” The angel slumps back into his vacated chair. “Not all of my siblings believed me; they didn’t expect another prophet to appear after what happened with the Winchesters and my brother,” He pauses, glancing around at the table, “As such, I am worried they will come for him.”

“What?!” The group cries out at once.

“As unexpected as this development is, it stands to reason Heaven would want to get ahold of Will, to keep him safe.”

“Steve, what the hell?” Nancy this time, “They can’t just take him!”

“They will not.” his voice echoes with an authority Eddie cannot describe. “God himself would have to smite me down to get to Will. I will protect him with my entire being if I have to.” he pauses for only a moment, tense and rigid. “Your Steve agrees.”

The silence that follows is interrupted by a shrill ringing emanating from Eddie’s pocket.

“Aw shit, sorry, sorry, I have to take this.” Eddie scrabbles for his phone, in a pocket below one of Holly’s sneakers. “Here, hold this?” he asks, passing the now strawberry shake-covered toddler to the angel on his way out of the booth and towards the door.

“Can’t you do something? Hide him maybe–” he hears Robin say as he steps outside.

“Hello?”

“Hey Ted, you and your dad did some work for me a while back, the poltergeist?”

After a moment, it clicks. Poltergeist, family home, Will and Ted Marston–father and son duo–to the supernatural rescue, “Oh yeah, up in Pennsylvania right? How are you…?”

“Mark.”

“Mark! Sorry, I have a horrible memory for names; what’s going on?”

There’s a pause. “Can we talk in person?”

“Ominous Mark, very ominous.” Eddie chuckles, trying to break Mark's bad mood. It doesn’t work. “But sure, I'll head down there right away.”

Eddie looks back up at the diner where he can see the rest of them speaking with the waitress. "Actually, I will head out this afternoon. I'm with family at the moment.”

“Oh sure, not a problem..just… get here sooner than later?”

He irons out the details with Mark, who tells him where to meet him the following afternoon.

Nancy comes out to meet him as he’s finishing up the call, “What’s going on? Is there something wrong with Wayne?”

“Nope, duty calls though, Ms. Wheeler.” she scoffs at him at the formal name. “Heading over to New York this afternoon.” He says as he starts back inside “A guy Wayne and I helped out a little while back just called, said there’s something happening that sounds like it’s in my wheelhouse.” they come to a stop beside the table and:

“You’re leaving already??” Dustin looks crushed, and is still not looking at Steve.

“Sorry Dusty Buns, duty calls.”

“Do you need me to come with you, Eddie?” Steve asks from his spot under a milkshake-fueled Holly.

She’s standing on his knees to shove fries (and her little fist) into the half-full glass of pink mess left there and on the table, then turning to grab and pull on Steve’s hair and sweater with sticky fingers like it’s her most favorite thing to do.

The angel seems to have relaxed a bit in the youngest wheeler’s presence, and Eddie wrestles down his already too-big feelings for the being in front of him, which are now going feral at the sight of Steve with a baby on his lap.

“No, I will be just fine, big guy.” he places a hand on his shoulder, “Besides, someone needs to watch over Will the Wise here.'' Eddie smiles down at Will, who turns bright red and looks down at the burger on his plate “Let me know if he prophesizes my demise, though okay?”

Steve smiles wistfully “Sure thing, Eddie.”

The seven of them have late breakfast/early lunch together, Dustin only acknowledging Steve again after he takes back over control from the angel, scooting into the nonexistent space on the bench to hug Dustin close to his side.

It Turns out that the angel Steve does have a way to completely hide Will from the forces of heaven, but the rest of the Hawkins teens insist on experimenting with their own methods to hide him before letting the angel carve the enochian spell into the boy’s ribs.

“We have our own avenging angel of sorts here in Hawkins already,” Nancy explains, a small smile on her lips, “You should probably try her first before trying anything else.”

“Yeah, somehow I don’t think Joyce will be too keen on having someone carve anything into her son, not even a whole-ass angel.”

“I think she’d carve you a new one if you even tried.” Dustin mumbles, everyone’s responding laugh helping to loosen him up again.

Eddie grins over at the teen, “She sounds like a force to be reckoned with, sad I won’t be here to see all that.”

The group wraps up their meal with a plan to meet with the rest of their own monster-hunting family to explain the whole ‘Steve’ thing, and as they head their separate ways in the parking lot, Nancy approaches Eddie once again.

“Is Wayne coming with you?”

“Hm? Oh, you mean New York. no, I'm gonna let him relax a bit.” he goes back to checking over the armory in Baby’s trunk but stops when Nancy doesn’t leave. “Why do you ask?”

“You need backup.”

“Not in particular.”

“I’m good with a gun.”

That makes Eddie pause “You want to come with me?”

Nancy shrugs as if nonchalant about her own proposition. “I think I could help. Plus, Steve told me that you almost wrecked the car trying not to fall asleep.”

Traitor. “Pfft, I'll be fine.”

“I’m coming with you.” It’s a statement this time.

“Oh you are, are you? What about your work, school? Family?’

“I’ve got to get out of Hawkins somehow. Robin will be here to hold down the fort, Steve will be watching over them…” she trails off and shrugs “I’ve never been out of Indiana and this seems as good a time as any.”

Eddie just stares at her.

“Let me just help you out on this one, and if I do horribly, you can drop me back here.”

“I already know you can hold your own.”

“So I can come?”

It’s the hopeful lilt to her voice that does him in (not like he was actually against it in the first place, just caught off guard). “Fine! Fine, you can come. Now let's get going, I'm sure you gotta go grab a bag right?”

Nancy just smiles and nods, turning on her heel back to Robin.

She passes her keys to taller woman, says a few words and gives her a quick hug, marching over to Steve, who’s still holding Holly to his chest, sitting on one of his arms so she’s facing out at everyone (‘Fuck that’s so cute…even though he’s covered in milkshake.’), and says something to him. They nod at each other once, and she’s heading back to Baby.

Steve catches Eddie’s eye and waves; first with Holly’s hand (cute cute cute), then with his own and a smile when Holly pulls her fist from his grasp.

Eddie can’t help it, he blows Steve a kiss through the open window as Nancy gets in beside him. He reverses out of his spot, and one pitstop (and one flimsy excuse of a campus tour to Nancy’s mom), they’re on their way to New York.

——

The next morning, after a long drive and late arrival at a local motel the previous day, Eddie and Nancy arrive at Mark’s warehouse.

“You have a sister?” Mark says in lieu of a normal greeting, shaking each of their hands and turning back to head further into the warehouse.

“Yeah, twins actually. This is Natalie.” Eddie jabs a thumb over his shoulder at Nancy even though he’s talking to the back of Mark’s balding head as they follow.

Mark turns his head to look her up and down, then over to Eddie again. “Huh…yeah, I can see it.”

“We didn’t really start getting along until recently so I'm just as surprised as you are.” Nancy smiles.

“I can understand that,” Mark chuckles, Eddie glancing around at the big sections of airplane that are strewn about them, “Well, your brother and dad really got me outta trouble last time.”

“I heard. Teddy said it was a poltergeist?”

“Damn right it was, nearly tore my house apart.”

Mark holds the door for them when they arrive at his office, “Have a seat, please.” he says, coming round to his side of the desk.

“So, wanna tell us what’s going on, Mark?”

The man lets out a long breath. “One of our flights went down recently. Britanica flight 4845. 100 people onboard, only 7 survivors.” Oof, yeah. He’d heard about this crash.

Mark clicks around on his computer, “I’m not even supposed to have this, but as soon as I heard it, I knew it was something in your area of expertise.”

“The black box recording?” Nancy asks, brows furrowed.

Mark nods, and clicks play.

The garbled recording fills the space between the three immediately. It’s hard to listen to, frankly, and is further proof that Eddie’s fear of flying is justified.

Mark's face twists up in discomfort through the duration of the clip; the pilot’s even commands and calls through the radio are frantic in tone, but are drowned almost completely out by something very distinct.

“There’s EVP on that recording.” Eddie says as the recording lurches to a halt.

The older man huffs out a breath, as if he’d been holding onto it throughout the clip. “Exactly.”

“Can you send that file to me so we can fish out the audio?” Nancy asks, already grabbing a post-it note and pen from Mark’s desk to scrawl out her email address.

“Sure thing, anything else you need?”

“Passenger manifestos, seating charts,” she hands over the note, “Anything else you can give us really.”

“Can we look at the wreckage?”

Mark grimaces. “Everything else, I can get, but the wreckage is locked up with the transportation authority for evidence processing; that, I can’t do.”

“That’s not it out there?” Eddie asks, gesturing behind him with a thumb.

“Nah, that’s just another of the same type’a plane we were already working on.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

—

“If we’re gonna pretend to be feds, we have to look the part, you know.”

“I'm not cutting my hair.”

Nancy rolls her eyes at him, “I mean getting some suits, Ed.”

“...Oh yeah.”

“Also, we’re gonna need some IDs.��

Eddie nods, “I’ve got us covered on that end, believe it or not,”

“I believe it,”

“Shut up—anyway, Wayne and I have a guy nearby, he’ll get us sorted out.”

So, after a thorough schmoozing of the Munsons’ on-call badge maker, the tailor shop down the road to get their suits fitted the same day, AND of the guard at the air yard to let the two ‘homeland security’ agents in to take a look at the wreckage, Nancy and Eddie are wandering through the meticulously placed bits and pieces of wrecked 737.

“I can’t even imagine.” Eddie mumbles out around the twisted feeling in his throat and stomach from looking around at the plane. “There’s a reason I drive everywhere.”

Nancy snorts at him, “‘Not afraid’a no ghosts’, but scared of a plane?”

“It’s a reasonable fear, alright? Shut up.”

Nancy only smirks, going back to examining the wreck. “So, what should I be looking for?”

“Sulfur–both by sight and smell, could be a demon in that case, ectoplasm, I dunno.” he shrugs, taking something out of the inner pocket of his suit jacket, “Just let me know if something looks really off and I’ll come take a look too.”

“What is that?”

“It’s an EMF reader, it reads electromagnetic frequencies,” Eddie explains, sliding one of the headphone speakers over an ear.

“Yeah, I gathered that from the name, but do they all look like busted up old walkmans?”

Eddie turns back to her, a grin on his face, “Nope, that’s just mine. One of a kind!” he holds it up proudly, “I made it myself”

Her responding smile is more of a grimace. “Yeah, I can tell.”

Eddie feels his face fall. “Shut up. Let’s see you do better.” he grumbles and turns back to the task at hand

“Give me a couple more hunts," she giggles, but follows as he starts to sweep over the wreckage.

And a couple more does she get.

Settling into long drives with someone besides Wayne on these hunts is kinda strange to be honest, but Nancy is a great passenger. She always has their route pulled up, always willing to help unwrap Eddie’s burgers for him while driving, and doesn't complain about the tapes and tapes of classic rock he is constantly switching out.

She reads, or writes in a leatherbound journal of hers, listens to her own music, or pulls research while they drive from case to case, always starting with a “Listen to this…”. Plus her aspirations for journalism really help when talking to victims; the gap between somewhat probing journalistic and slightly off-kilter investigator questioning is smaller than you’d think.

And she’s damn good with a shotgun. After joining Eddie, she’s always got a few sawed-offs in Baby’s trunk, and has a tiny handgun on her at all times.

Since the demon on a plane case, they’ve taken care of another poltergeist, a regular ol’ haunting, one whole urban legend (Bloody Mary is a bitch.), and another fuckin’ demon.

That last demon was quite the case; though after that, Nancy suggested needing something to protect them from possession. After a call to Dean (“Are you freakin’ kidding me? You’re a hunter and you don’t have a damn anti-possession tattoo?”, “...That’s a thing??”), they both got the symbol Dean sent them a picture of, tattooed.

Eddie’s is on the back of his neck, easily concealed and not easily fucked with (another suggestion of Dean’s (“Sorry man, that’s our fault. Me and Sammy had ‘em on our chest and now it seems all demons check hunters there first to break the symbol.”), and Nancy’s just underbust, centered on her sternum and just as easily hidden.

The two of them are walking back into Wayne’s after that one when Eddie’s burner rings.

Eddie answers and puts the phone on speaker, giving it to Nancy while he starts making some lunch.

“Finally you answer,” Robin sighed exasperatedly through the tinny speaker. “I was wondering if you gave me a dud number. What happened to Nancy’s phone?”

“We uh…ran into a spot of bad luck and I dropped it down a storm grate.”

Eddie chuckles at that; Getting an actual lucky rabbit’s foot back from a supernatural tchotchke dealer and burning it to get rid of its curse after Nancy touched it and nearly died from the bad luck wrought upon her when the dealers stole it back all boiled down to a single sentence like that? Hilarious.

“It’s about time you started getting burners anyway.” Eddie calls back to her.

“You guys need to come back to Hawkins, Will is…there’s no way I can explain this thoroughly over the phone. He’s not hurt, just…kinda losing it a bit. When can you be here?”

The two share a worried glance . “We can head out now, give us a day or so.” Eddie says, changing gears from making one sandwich, to packing up a nearby cooler with sandwich ingredients to take with them instead.

The first leg of the drive is tense, Nancy texting back and forth with Robin to get a somewhat clearer picture of what’s going on, but she’s right. It’s just super confusing.

“Can we get a room please? Two beds, thanks.” Eddie asks the older woman when he steps up to the counter of the motel when they do stop for the night, absentmindedly tapping his wallet on the counter after pulling out a $100 bill.

“Of course dear!” she starts shuffling papers around on her desktop. She looks up when the door opens again and Nancy drops their duffel at his feet.

“I’ll be right back!” Nancy calls over her shoulder, walking towards the door marked as the bathroom.

The receptionist is silent for a moment, “You know, you don’t need to pretend, hon, we get all sorts through here. I’ll get you set up with a king bed.”

“Whoa, hold on. What are you talking about?”

She looks up at him with a haughtier-than-thou expression. “We get affairs here more often than you’d think, dear, you don’t need to pretend by asking for two beds. I’m not gonna say anything to her husband.”

Eddie’s speechless for a hot second. Then responds with as pissed off an attitude he can manage over how incredibly hilarious the situation is.

“First of all, I’d hope you wouldn’t.” The woman is still smirking to herself and nodding while she types into the computer, “Secondly, you shouldn’t assume,” she looks like she’s about to say something smart alec-y but Eddie interrupts before she can begin, “She’s my sister.”

The woman splutters as Nancy walks back up to the counter.

“Are we good, Ed? I’m tired as hell.”

“About to be, this lovely woman was about to grab our key.”

The receptionist looks between the two of them, no doubt noticing their similarities, and does just that, handing over the keycard with Eddie’s change.

“Ugh, imagine being in everyone’s business like that? Couldn’t be me.” He grumbles louder than normal to Nancy as they head back outside to their door, making sure the woman could hear him.

“Oh, ew, she assumed we were together?”

“Don’t they always?.” he says with a shudder and unlocks their door.

Eddie tosses his bag onto the bed closest to the door as usual, and while Nancy locks up behind them and starts laying out salt lines across the windowsills and just behind the door, he takes care of checking the tiny bathroom.

His head keeps spinning around what in the hell could be going on with Will, his line of thinking always coming back to whatever it is, it’s something that Steve may not have been able to help with.

And that’s a thought, isn’t it?

As if reading his mind, Nancy asks, “Have you heard from Steve lately?”

“Not since coming back from Hawkins last time. Why?”

“Just wondering if he’d been checking in or not, I worry about him.” she shrugs, packing away her toiletries again.

Eddie thinks it over for a moment, and his stomach starts to sink. “Actually, now that I really think about it, I haven’t heard from him.”

“Yeah Eddie, that’s what you just said.”

“No, no, no,” he waves her off, “I mean, usually, as soon as I say his name, he appears. Now that I’m thinking back, I’ve talked about him since then and after about what? A week after I met Will? He stopped showing up.”

The sinking feeling in his stomach fell further. So much further that he needs to sit down.

It looked like Nancy was starting to get worried too. “Try calling him now?”

Eddie nods, then looks upward at the dingy hotel room ceiling. “Are you there, Steve? It’s me, Eddie.”

“Classic, good start.” Nancy does her best to alleviate his worry.

He gives her a quick, hesitant smile before closing his eyes and bowing his head. His elbows rest on his knees, and his hands are clasped together tightly. “I’m worried about you Stevie, please at least stop in for a minute? Just to let us know you’re okay?”

He keeps his eyes squeezed shut, listening for the angel’s beat of wings around the sound of his own frantic heartbeat.

Nothing. For a whole minute he listens and waits, silently praying. And nothing.

Eddie’s eyes snap open and he shoots up to his feet. “Nancy, what’s happening, he normally comes immediately! And if he’s not answering, that must mean he wasn’t answering the party either; why else would Robin have sounded that worried, is something angel-y happening with Will and they can’t find Steve either and—”

“Hey! Hey, it’s okay, I’m sure he’s just busy with angel things.” She pats his shoulder comfortingly but her tone and facial expression betrays her worry too.

“Wait! Wait, he told me he has a sister, maybe she can help?”

She looks worried, “Do you know if she’s also a…a nice angel? One that’d help us find him and not immediately try to smite us?”

“I…I don’t know..” Eddie combs through his brain, not finding much more that Steve’s ever said about his sibling, but he does remember something else.

“Here,” he says, going to the nightstand between their two beds and pulling out the hotel-branded pad of paper from the drawer there. “I need you to draw this sigil in your own blood.”

“My own–what?!”

“Just..trust me, okay?” he pleads, passing the drawing to her. “It’s a banishing symbol. If Steve’s sister isn’t a nice angel, you’ll slap your hand to the sigil and it will banish her.”

“...Where the hell’d you learn this?”

“I found it not long after Steve found me.” he shrugs, tugging on his hair worriedly, “It has to be relatively fresh, and has to be drawn in the blood of the person who’s using it.”

Nancy looks at him a moment longer, then nods in finality, getting to work on slicing her palm and copying the sigil onto the back of the motel room door.

She gives him a nod once she’s finished, and for the second time that night, Eddie prays.

“Levanael? I don’t know how much Steve has told you about me, but this is Eddie. Can you help us? We’re worried about your brother.” He feels ridiculous for about 20 seconds before there’s another person in their room.

“Robin??”

Levanael’s head tilts to the side in exactly the opposite direction Steve’s head normally does. “No, my name is Levanael. I assumed you would know that since you were the ones who called for me.”

“Yes, you are right, Levanael; We are just surprised that we know your vessel already.” Nancy soothes the angel, ever the steady presence.

“Levanael, can you tell us where Steve is?”

“You keep using that name; that is not my brother’s name.”

Eddie blinks at the angel. “Uhh..”

“That is what he introduced himself to us as?” Nancy questions, looking over at Eddie.

“When I first met your brother, he told me that his name would be ‘incomprehensible’ to me.”

Levanael huffs. “My brother tends to be dramatic. And with how much he loves humans, he should know how easily you can understand Enochian. His name is–”

The racket that comes from Robin’s mouth is the same high-pitched squeal Steve once tried to get him to understand after pulling him from hell, and he and Nancy both cover their ears as fast as possible.

”Put much simpler, and easily translated into understandable English, his name is Leoc.”

“...That’s it?” Eddie can’t help but bark out a hysterical laugh at that.

Nancy is smiling too, “What a dingus.”

Levanael tilts her head again. “My vessel has found immense joy in this conversation.”

“Your vessel, Robin, always calls Leoc’s vessel, Steve, ‘Dingus’.” she explains to the being.

“I see.”

“Let’s get back to how St–Leoc is missing. Do you know where your brother is?” Eddie asks her.

Levanael tilts her head once more, looking toward the ceiling as if she is listening for something.

“Yes.”

“...That’s it?” Eddie asks.

“You asked if I knew where he is, and I do.”

Eddie blinks at her. “Care to elaborate?”

“Would you like me to?” She asks with full sincerity.

“Please.”

She goes back to her thinking/listening pose and Eddie takes the chance to look over at Nancy.

Nancy merely shrugs in return and looks back at Levanael.

For the first time since arriving, Levanael’s face shows the slightest hint of expression, her brow furrowing in confusion. “He is in the Beautiful Room. Why does he not leave?” she says to herself.

“He’s stuck?”

“Angels cannot be trapped in the Beautiful Room. The room is designed to keep those without grace in, and those with grace are free to enter and exit.”

It clicks for Nancy first. “Levanael, if the soul of your brother’s vessel was there with him, would he be able to leave?”

“No. The non-angelic soul would be ripped from its body if my brother were to take flight.”

Nancy and Eddie share a look.

“Thank you Levanael, may we call on you in the future?”

Any emotion the angel had shown previously drops from her face.

“You may. Though be warned that my orders come from Heaven and they come first.” then she’s gone in a blink.

In what seems like another blink, Eddie’s burner rings again.

“Hel–”

“She is with us.”

“Robin?”

“She told me. She said ‘All the might of heaven may not take me from my brother. I will help you.’.”

“We need to get back to Hawkins.”

Part 7 will be here!

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