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Hey, guys! I think I successfully plugged a plot hole in here, but I'm not 100% on that. So um... good luck!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 |
~
“Holy Diver,” Robin said into the walkie talkie. “Come in, Holy Diver, this is Babel Tower, over.”
Immediately the walkie crackled to life. “Babel Tower, this is Holy Diver, I read, over.”
“It appears that the Upside Down is trying to merge with Hawkins, over.”
There was silence for a moment before it cackled to life again. “Shit.”
“Where are you guys headed, over?” he huffed into the walkie talkie.
Robin looked over at Joyce who shrugged. “One moment, over.” She turned around and stuck her head into the cab of the truck. “Where are we going?”
“I was gonna go to the Hammond place as that’s the last safe house we had,” Hopper growled.
Robin shook her head. “That’s no good, both Creel and Kay know about it.”
“Well where do you suggest?!” Hopper shouted.
“Head to the radio station,” Will said, eyes wide. “We need to get up to pierce the Upside Down and place to hide out until we can formulate a plan to do just that. So it’s a win/win.”
Titus and Kali just shrugged. They had no idea where that was.
“Are you sure?” Joyce asked. “Because one wrong move and the whole world is toast.”
Will nodded.
“We’re headed for Shangri-la, do you read?” Robin said into the walkie walkie.
“Shangri-La,” Steve repeated. “Roger that. Over and Out.”
Kali tilted her head to the side. “Why did you call the radio station Shangri-La?”
Robin just smiled. “Where else would paradise be but a place where I could be me?”
~
Robin and Will were up on the radio tower trying to make it as secure as they could before everyone joined them because the last thing they needed was one of their last avenues of communication to go down.
“What did you mean about this place being the only place you could be yourself?” Will asked as he and Robin were putting up more railings.
“I think I’m more Babel Tower these days then I am Robin Buckley,” she explained. “Robin Buckley is a loud mouth band geek with few friends and no love life. But here, as Babel Tower?” She indicated around her. “I can be the badass monster hunter with a girlfriend and some of the tightest bonds a friendship could have.”
Will’s head shot up. “Holy shit. You have a girlfriend?”
She stopped for a moment as her brain caught up to her mouth. “Oh oops!”
“Am I the first person you’ve told?” Will asked excitedly. “I mean other than your girlfriend?”
Robin shook her head. “Other people know.”
“Like you don’t have to worry about people hearing it from me,” he assured her. “I’m... well. Similar but different.”
She blinked for a moment. “Oh! That makes a lot of sense actually.”
“Who was the first person you told?” he asked shyly, looking away and twisting his hands together.
Robin started going down the ladder to get more supplies. “Oh that’s easy. Steve.”
Will came to a stop for a moment and tilted his head to the side. “What like our Steve? Steve Harrington?”
“Yep!” she said still continuing to go down the ladder. “It felt really good after telling him. He was actually kind of sweet about.” She paused for a moment before half shrugging. “But like after he made fun of my for crushing on Tammy Thompson.”
Will rushed to the ladder and looked down at her. “But like the one thing Jonathan is always griping about is how Steve called me a fag when I was missing and that Jonathan beat the shit out of him for it.”
Robin paused on the ladder and then looked up at him. “People change, Will. They can change. We have to believe that otherwise what’s the point?”
Will thought about Vecna and then he thought about his friends. They had changed so much from when they were kids. Mostly because of the trauma. But also deeper than that. The way Lucas wouldn’t put up with the shit about his race anymore. The way Mike grew beyond being “the leader” and started letting the others help out. The way Dustin became darker in the wake of Eddie’s death.
Not all the changes were good or better. But they had changed.
“Yeah okay,” he muttered. “Is Steve–” he cut himself off and then shook his head. “I don’t need to know that actually.”
Robin grinned at him and then continued down the ladder, Will following suit.
Once they were both on solid ground, Robin put both her hands on his shoulders.
“For what it’s worth,” she told him gently, “telling the people you love who are is the most freeing thing in the world. No matter what they think, because even if they react badly it means that they never loved you and that’s worth knowing too.”
Will let out a deep sigh and then nodded. He would try it out with his family first. After all they were all here. All but El, anyway.
He opened his mouth to say that, but closed it again. Then he started to move past her when he got the urge to hug her.
Robin huffed out a laugh as he put his arms around her and murmured ‘thank you.’
“You deserve to be happy, no matter what that looks like to you,” she murmured back.
Will nodded and ran off.
She shook her head and got to work again. The world was ending and she didn’t have time for pleasantries.
But she did look up once and saw how Will’s family was was hugging him and crying. Happy tears from Will’s big smile on his face. Good. That was how it was supposed to be.
A few minutes later, Kali and Titus were out there, helping her.
“Are they always that mushy?” Titus asked after a few moments.
Robin straightened up and looked at the happy scene the Byers and Hopper were having and then back at the two numbered experiments.
“Some people can stay soft no matter how hard life gets for them,” she muttered as she started packing up the tools.
Kali and Titus shared a glance and then they both shook their heads.
“Look, I can’t say I understand what you guys went through,” Robin huffed. “The experiments, the escape, the living on the streets not know who to trust, but shit was hard here too. So many more people have died since you guys left. Good and the bad. But you don’t get to look down on us for finding a way to survive that didn’t take our softness with it.”
She jutted her thumb back at the radio station. “Especially not that boy. He’s been experimented on too. Because Creel or One or Vecna, whatever you call his scaly ass, kidnapped him and has been chasing him for three years.”
Kali and Titus shared another look. They had been told all this on the way over. It was all just so hard to believe.
“What would One want with him anyway?” Titus huffed, rolling his eyes. “Other than the powers that, I’m assuming One gave him in the first place, I don’t see what’s so special about him.”
Robin raised an eyebrow and the guy had the decency to blush.
“Because he’s like me, isn’t he?” Kali said tilting her head to the side. “He had powers outside of the blood experiments like the others; like Ollie, and Titus, and El. He’s not like them, he’s an outlier.”
“That’s the theory,” Robin confirmed. “He sees the rest of the numbered experiments as inferior because they only have powers because of his blood. But Will? Will lasted in the Upside Down for a week. There is some speculation Will wasn’t the first, only the only successful.”
“He lured other children into the Upside Down and then when they didn’t survive he moved on to the next candidate?” Titus said with a shiver. “That sick bastard.”
Robin nodded. “Agreed. Which is why we appreciate you coming to town to help his kick his scaly ass to hell where it belongs.”
There was the rumbling of cars and a very ragtag group of people stumbled out of the assembled vehicles.
“That bastard!” Nancy spit the second her feet touched the ground. “He sent demogorgons after the parents who were at the house trying to get rid of them!”
Robin, Kali and Titus ran up to them.
“Is everyone okay?” Robin asked, turning to Steve.
Steve shook his head. “Ted and Karen were beat up pretty bad, and one of the other parents died.” He looked over at Nancy. “We don’t know who she was.”
“I think she was the mom of one Holly’s friends,” Nancy muttered. “Lanester, Lancaster, something like that.”
“That’s awful,” Joyce said coming up to the assembled group. “That poor family.”
“Both my mom and dad are in the hospital and Mike promised Dad that he would get Holly back,” she continued. “One I fully backed. So what’s the plan?”
“That’s what we’re all here for,” Dustin huffed. “We need to get to the Upside Down and stop Vecna before the two worlds merge.”
“Only we can’t get to the Upside Down,” Lucas growled, “because somehow he’s figured out how to stop El from creating a gate.”
“What?!” Kali shouted. “Then what the hell is she even good for?!”
“Hey!” Mike snapped. “I’m getting really sick of you acting so high and mighty for having escaped and left her behind! You know god damn well if it wasn’t for El banishing One to the Upside Down you wouldn’t have been able to do that! So either get your head out of your ass and realize that’s she is STILL only a kid and fucking help us or get the fuck out OUR town!”
Kali was so shocked her head rocked back as if she had been slapped. She staggered backward and then turned on her heel and stormed off.
Ollie and Titus shared a glance. Then Ollie nodded.
“Even we think that Kali is being unreasonable about all this,” she murmured. “We want to help, even if she doesn’t come back.”
Steve tilted his head to the side. “Let me go talk to her.” Every head turned to him in a snap. He just held up his hands. “I think know what’s bothering her.”
Titus shrugged. “I say he try. If he fucks it further, she was already going to leave. Kali wouldn’t do anything to harm people here.”
“We don’t have time for this!” Hopper growled.
“You’ve got someone else who can banish Vecna’s illusions?” Dustin barked back. “Because without that we can’t tell what is real and what’s not!”
Hopper’s head jerked back in shock. He hadn’t thought about that. “Shit.”
“We need her help,” El said with a sigh. She had woken up with the attack on the parents. She still wasn’t fully recovered and that’s why the one mom died. But she could feel her energy sources slowly coming back up.
Max looked around. “Wait, where did Steve go?”
Erica burst out laughing. “While you asshole were fighting about whether or not he should go talk to her, he just went and did it.”
People just shuffled uncomfortably as they waited, but they didn’t have to wait long. About a few minutes later Steve came back with Kali in tow. But both of them refused to say what they talked about.
They gathered in the basement of the radio station and discussed plans. To everyone’s surprise it was Steve’s plan that made the most sense, even Steve’s. Albeit with some crude comments from the peanut gallery about the size of his dick.
Then they all ate and took turns resting.
Dustin pulled Steve aside in the middle of all this and asked, “Hey can I talk to you for a minute?”
Steve nodded and followed him into the hall.
“It’s about Eddie...” Dustin began, folding his arms and looking down at his feet. “Do you think it’s really him? The one you saw in the Void?”
Yeah, Steve really should have seen that one coming. “I don’t know, bud. I want to believe he is, but it’s far more likely he’s not.”
Dustin nodded. “I don’t want to believe it either, but I can’t keep the hope down. It crops up again just when I think I’ve convinced myself it can’t be him. It can’t be Eddie.”
Steve pulled him to him and gave him a big hug. “I want to believe so bad that he’s real and that we can save him, but I know that if I dare to hope and it’s not real, I won’t survive that.”
Dustin wrapped his arms around Steve’s waist and held on tight.
“I blame him sometimes,” Steve murmured into Dustin’s hair. “That he should have run. That both of you should have run. Ran for Max’s trailer instead of Eddie trying to buy us more time.”
“But he saved me!” Dustin wailed. “He saved me!”
“I know,” Steve whispered, “I know. But I told you two not to be heroes. Hell, getting up to the real world trailer and throwing a Molotov cocktail into the open gate would have give you two enough time to run for cover.”
Dustin looked up at him in stunned silence. “Well shit.”
They really should have thought about that, shouldn’t they?
“I’m sorry, Steve,” he whispered. “We knew the bats were going to be focused on us. That was the plan. But we didn’t come up with proper exit strategy for when it went sideways and that’s on us. But I think he wanted to be a hero. To sacrifice himself because he thought he should have died instead of Chrissy. And you were the only one who noticed.”
Steve just held him tight, tears running down his face.
“You’re the only one whoever notices,” Dustin continued. “You noticed Max back in the cemetery. You noticed Lucas pulling away before that. You’re the big brother we all need, but we treat you so badly and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Steve!”
“We’ll make it through,” Steve muttered. “We have to.”
"For the Wolf, we originally considered a stylised CGI model, but that would've cost millions. That's something an American studio can afford, but not a Czech fairytale movie. So we had to resort to puppetry."
Look, when I've been doing my Red Riding Hood asks, I've kept coming across the fourth and fifth one and I just had to find out where it was from, because that wolf is terrifying. Sooo cool.
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Snippet
Mrs. Jensen didn’t last long, but then none of them ever did. And always it came down to his mother.
She would accuse them of all sorts of things and send them packing. As near as Steve could tell it was never true.
He deep suspected that it was how close they got to him that sealed their doom. After all, the one that lasted the longest was the one his dad had been cheating on his mom with and she thought Steve was in the way of her wedded bliss with Clint Harrington.
Around the time he was fourteen, his parents decided that he could fend for himself and began leaving him alone when they would go these trips.
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Other asks here, here, here, here.
I choose Puss in Boots.
Snippet
Dustin’s first port of call was into the woods that lead into ogre country. There was a county that bordered King Richard’s kingdom but far from the main orcish territories. The county was very beautiful.
A river ran into a tranquil lake surrounded by woods teaming with deer, rabbits, and birds perfect for trapping. There were hives tended by one of the ogre’s servants, who also made the ogre’s mead. Everything a wealthy landowner could want.
There on the outskirts of the forest lived a brother and sister who hunted for the ogre and provided him with their game.
Their names were Lucas and Erica Sinclair and they were the best hunters in this or any other kingdom.
WIP Wednesday! Just clearing out my inbox join me next time.
Other asks here, here, here, here.
I choose Rockstar
Snippet
“It’s a tribute to you...” Robin murmured as she took the album from his hands. “Track Seven. ‘King of the World’. All of it. He didn’t just write a song about you, Steve. He wrote an entire album.”
Dustin dug into his pocket and pulled out the cassette tape of the new album. He went over to Steve’s boombox and slammed the tape in.
As the first song started, Dustin let out a string of curses. “I think it’s a love letter.”
They all turned to Steve and he ducked his head. They all knew he was gay, but this was different. This felt bigger. This was one of the great songwriters of the decade writing a love letter. To Steve.
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Snippet
Too soon, Mrs. Jensen was calling him in for the night. As he passed her on his way to his new bed room, he said, “You know, I’ve know how to swim since I was five, if that’s what’s keeping you from letting me play in the backyard.”
She let out a snort. “Be that as that may, you could slip and fall, and bump your head. Then you’d drown.”
Steve waved her off. “Did you know you can survive drowning? Drowning is just the act of water filling the lungs. Or at least that’s what Dr. Willis said when I survived drowning in the tub a couple of months ago.”
Before she could think of a response, Steve had moved passed her to go up the stairs to his room.
WIP Wednesday! Just clearing out my inbox join me next time.
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Got use this one for Puss!
Snippet
Eddie looked at the open window and then back down at the cat. “Right.”
“Any other questions, my lord?” the cat said with a smirk.
Eddie shook his head. He had asked where Dustin went pretty early on in their relationship, but the cat refused to say. Only that he was searching for the perfect place. The perfect place for what, he would never elaborate.
Dustin slipped out into the night and Eddie closed the door after him.
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I choose Rockstar
Snippet
“The throne?” Robin asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“When I was tearing through the drama room, I stopped when I saw this chair,” Steve explained, “because my brain couldn’t come up with a play it would be needed for.”
“‘Faust’,” Vince and Dustin said together.
Steve burst out laughing. “That’s what Eddie said when I told him that tidbit. But it was the chair he used as DM for his little D&D games and he had been trying to buy it off the school so he could take it with him and because it was the one thing not destroyed, they let him. And now here it is for all the world to see.”
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Snippet
“Oh yeah, he’s fine,” Steve said blandly. “He’s just really upset at the moment, so I figured I should give you a heads up on what we found.” And then he proceeded to do just that.
“Steve...” Hopper said, pained. “Do you have any idea how fucked up that is? And how much more dangerous you just became to these people?”
“Oh, yeah,” he replied with false cheer. “I’m not getting out of this alive. I think I made my peace with that the first time you called.”
Hopper pressed his head against the phone and closed his eyes. “I wish I could say that I had the confidence to refute that, but I don’t. Whoever planned this, planned it perfectly. But I’m gonna do my damnest to mitigate as much harm as I can.”
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Phew! I almost forgot to schedule this! It's been a hell of a week! But welcome back! This story is also complete so here we go!
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 |
~
Steve sat in the courtroom just behind Max. They had gotten lucky that they had gotten a different judge, one that might listen to her about what she wanted.
And the judge had sneakily postponed the hearing until after Max’s twelfth birthday, as well. to make sure she had the best outcome for the hearing.
Steve had already liked the guy, but after this he hoped that everyone of his charges got Judge Bob Newby going forward.
“Let me understand, Miss Fraser,” Judge Newby said dryly, “your client wants her violent and abusive ex to take custody of her twelve year old daughter, is that correct?”
“That is an over-exaggeration, your honor!” Miss Fraser huffed. She was Sue Hargrove’s lawyer. She was public defender, but she was good at what she did.
“This man has a rap sheet that is longer than my arm,” Judge Newby barked back. “His own son was removed from his custody three times for abuse. It’s an accurate depiction, counselor.”
“The law is for reunification,” she pointed out primly.
“At my discretion,” he said firmly. “And frankly sending Max Mayfield back to her former stepfather’s care is a death sentence I refuse to give a twelve year old.”
“Your honor!” Miss Fraser protested.
“I am awarding temporary custody to the state of Indiana,” Judge Newby said, ignoring her protests. “And I am requesting that Mrs. Hargrove take a good hard look at the future she wants to give her daughter and give up parental right all together. This in and out of prison is not good for the welfare of the child and as I understand it your client won’t be able for even parole until the child is eighteen, is that correct?”
“Yes, your honor.” Miss Fraser sat down hard. She knew she had lost.
Sue looked back at Max in the gallery and then back at the judge. “I’ll sign away my rights right now if you have a pen and paper.”
There was some quiet muttering from the gallery.
“Are you certain, Susan?” Miss Fraser asked. “You don’t have to do this. We can continue to push of reunification.”
Sue shook her head. “No. I need to do this. The judge is right. Max deserves every chance to excel and she can’t do that with me as her mother.”
Miss Fraser nodded and took out the appropriate document. She handed it to Sue, who promptly signed at the bottom after a quick scan to make sure it was the right one. She handed it to the bailiff who then brought it to Judge Newby.
“The court thanks you, Mrs. Hargrove for your sacrifice,” he said solemnly. “The custody of Maxine Mayfield will be released into the hands of the Hawkins Hope House until further notice. The next hearing will be in two months to decide where she is to be placed. Court dismissed.”
Steve and Robin leapt to their feet cheering while Max just sat there in stunned silence. She couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t going to Neil’s. She was going to stay with Steve for at least two months.
As her mom was being lead away to be taken back to prison, Max ran to her and hugged her tight. “Thank you!”
Sue kissed the top of her head. “Come see me once in a while, yeah?”
“I’ll try,” Max murmured and then allowed Steve to pull her away.
“Take care of my baby,” Sue told Steve.
Steve nodded and then led Max away, back to where Robin was waiting for them.
“Let’s get some ice cream to celebrate!” Robin said, tussling her hair. “I’ll call the Hope House and see if Chrissy could bring Dustin for a little cheering up too.”
“Do we have to bring him?” Max whined. “He’s either super mopey about his dad dying or he’s talking about D&D, there is no in between.”
“Be nice,” Steve admonished. “He’s just trying to get you interested in what he likes.”
“It’s boring,” Max said bluntly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “The only good thing about that stupid game is that it means Lucas comes over all the time.”
Robin and Steve shared a surprised glance over her head. That was certainly a new development.
“How about a compromise?” Steve suggested. “We go out for ice cream and bring Dustin, Chrissy and Eddie some after we’ve had ours?”
Max tapped her lips for a moment, cocking her head to the side. “That is acceptable. We get the treat first and they don’t get mad at us.”
“Great!” Robin said, clapping her hands. “I’ll give the House a call and find out what they want and I’ll meet you guys at the car!”
“Sounds great!” Steve said and steered Max toward the car, both of them happily chatting about the outcome of the hearing.
They didn’t have long to wait before Robin came bursting out of the courthouse. She ran over to Steve’s car and yanked open the passenger seat, sliding in.
“Move it, dingus!” she huffed. “Max’s mom’s lawyer is on a war path and she gunning for you and me.”
Steve let out a pained sigh and shifted into gear, pulling out of the parking lot. “What did she want?”
“She tried to say that the cessation of parental rights was invalid because it was obviously done under duress and she was going to sue us and Judge Newby,” Robin explained.
Max scoffed in the backseat. “That’s just bullshit! It was the right thing to do! She just wants to try to squeeze more money from Mom and Neil.”
Robin whipped around to look her in the eye. “Wait I thought Regina Fraser was a public defender.”
Max shook her head. “Maybe she started out that way, but nope! Neil’s been paying her for awhile now.”
“Well that explains why she was pushing so hard to have Neil take custody of you!” Steve crowed. “That bitch!”
Robin mumbled her agreement. “She can’t win of course, especially since Sue wouldn’t pursue it. Neil might but it would be tied up for months even years and hopefully by then you would have been placed with a family all your own.”
“I wish Steve could adopt me...” Max muttered under breath.
Robin and Steve looked at each and shook their heads. They wished that too. But they doubted that the state would allow her to stay at Hope House not with all the coming and goings of people of every stripe.
“Me too, Maxie,” he murmured back. “Me too.”
~
They arrived back at the Hawkins Hope house just before dinner, bringing ice cream for the people at the House and burgers for all.
“I’m not sure I can eat burgers from elsewhere,” Eddie said as Steve handed him his, “it might be a conflict of interest or some shit.”
Robin snorted. “As if we would get shakes and burgers from anywhere but Benny’s? That would be a sacrilege.”
Eddie opened up his burger and then nodded. “Rightly so.”
Steve handed out everyone’s burgers, handing Max hers last. “Here you go, Miss Californian Girl. One Cali burger just for you.”
Dustin peered over Max’s shoulder to see what the fuss was about.
“I just like it this way,” she huffed, taking a bite and smiling happily.
Dustin looked at her burger and then over at Eddie. “So what’s in it?”
“It’s one patty with Colby Jack cheese, sliced avocado and Chipotle ranch,” Eddie said with a shrug. “It’s pretty popular, so Benny keeps it around.”
“But that doesn’t sound like a burger at all,” Dustin protested. “Where’s the ketchup and the American cheese? The tomato and mustard? You can’t go wrong with a classic!”
Steve looked over at Robin and lifted his eyebrow at her. “You want to tell him your burger order, Missy.”
Robin stuck out her tongue at him. “It’s just cheese, ketchup, and mayo. No veggies at all.”
“That’s horrible!” Dustin complained. “At least Max has a vegetable. What is wrong with you people?”
“I like mine with caramelized onions, lettuce, pepperjack cheese, and ranch,” Chrissy said with a shrug. “I think everyone has different preferences and that’s okay.”
But Dustin didn’t want to let it go. “What about you and Eddie?” he asked rounding on Steve. “What are you burgers like?”
“Oh, mine’s an everything burger,” Eddie said with a grin. “Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, three different cheeses, two patties, and drenched in all the sauces, ketchup, mayo, mustard, relish. Oh and for an extra punch I throw on three slices of bacon just to get that extra crunch.”
“That is the most unhinged thing I’ve every heard,” Max said with her eyes wide. “That’s wicked!”
“I have ketchup, mayo, mustard, cheddar cheese, and bacon,” Steve said with a shrug. “I don’t like warm veggies that should be cold.”
Dustin threw his hands up in the air. “I give up with you lot. None of you are normal!”
“Sounds great to me,” Eddie said around a bit of burger. “I never wanted to be like anyone else. Like sure, finding people who like the same things I do is good, because everyone needs a tribe, but pass me on that conformity bullshit.”
Dustin blinked up at him for a moment. “So you’re saying it’s good everyone likes something different?”
“Right in one, kid!” Eddie said ruffling his hair.
Dustin turned a bright pink and it took every ounce of will power Steve had not to giggle.
~
Steve was running out of time for Max. He needed find someone who would be willing to foster her so that he could start the process of being made her official guardian. And he only had two weeks to do it.
But the people he trusted to not traumatize her further couldn’t take her in at this time and he just couldn’t leave her to the system.
Far too many foster parents were only in it for the pay check they got for taking the kid in and that meant abuses that would make the Geneva Convention gasp in shock and horror.
The one good thing that had come out of the whole mess so far was that no judge would hear Regina Fraser’s lawsuit against the Hawkins Hope House for manipulating Sue Hargrove into giving up her rights to Max.
“And you’re sure Joyce can’t take her?” Chrissy asked for the billionth time.
Steve shook his head. “For the same reason I can’t. Conflict of interest. And if I don’t find someone willing to take her before school starts, Judge Newby will have no choice but to put her in the system.”
“That’s just bullshit,” Robin cursed. “You should be able to keep her here! This is where all her friends are! Which is amazing, she’s making any to begin with!”
He let out a pained sigh. He knew all this. He had been letting it rotate in his head like a washer stuck in the spin cycle. But he didn’t have anymore answers today then he did almost five months ago since Max had been brought to the House.
Just then the door opened, the bell above heralding the man’s arrival.
He was in his mid to late forties with weathered appearance of a man who had worked hard his whole life and loved every minute of it.
“Hi!” Steve greeted cheerfully. “I’m Steve and welcome to Hawkins Hope House. How can I help you today?”
The man chuckled. “Oh good, I have the right place. Hi Steve, I’m here to see my nephew.”
Steve frowned, he didn’t remember Dustin having an uncle. Because then he would have been placed in the man’s care instead of here.
“That’s sweet,” he said instead. “Can I get your name please?”
The man burst out laughing. “He said you lot were tight lipped, but I guess I never really put much stock in it.”
Steve’s frown deepened. He was even less sure about this whole thing with each passing moment.
“I’m afraid we have to be,” he explained. “We get some battered spouses and abused kids we don’t want to give any information to the wrong person and get them hurt or worse.”
The man cocked his head to the side. “That is very wise. And no doubt a lesson learned the hard way.”
“Sad but true,” he acknowledged solemnly.
Just then Eddie came tearing down the stairs. “I thought that was your truck!” he cried, running straight into the arms of the old man.
It was slowly dawning on Steve who this was.
“What are you doing here, you old rascal?!” Eddie said pulling back from the hug to look the man in the eyes.
“I’m here to see your scaly white ass,” the man huffed.
“Uncle Wayne!” Eddie crowed, confirming it for him. “There are civilized people present!”
WIP Wednesday! Just clearing out my inbox join me next time.
Other asks here, here.
Snippet
“How fun!” she said, following his example, happily eating her corn on the cob. But if Steve noticed she only had the one, he wisely kept it to himself.
After dinner, she let him back out onto the front yard where Steve played while she cleaned up and put away the food.
Tommy and Nick hadn’t come back out let, but that was fine. Steve had learned to play by himself since he was five.
He had gotten a basketball for his birthday a couple of month ago and his dad had set up a hoop above the garage. So he decided to practice just getting it into the hoop.
