Waking up to a banging on the front door was not how Steve expected his morning to go. Sunlight was flooding through the window where the blinds and curtains were open, and Eddie was curled up beside and half over him. All in all, it made him smile. Then the banging came again and distracted him. 

"What the hell?" Eddie asked, peering at him in a barely awake manner.

He looked positively adorable with his curls in a wild mess.

"I think we slept in," Steve said, glancing at the clock on the side and seeing it read 9:53.

He was a little amazed. That he had managed to sleep again after the nightmare was not as unusual as it once had been, but that he had slept so long and so peacefully was. The banging returned.

"I better go and answer that," he said, reluctantly separating from Eddie.

Eddie whined and buried his face in the pillow Steve had just vacated, which was all kinds of cute. Shaking his head at how far gone he clearly was, Steve headed downstairs, running his fingers through his hair. He opened the door to find Robin on his doorstep.

"About time," she said, waltzing straight past him.

"You have a key," Steve pointed out, yawning, and rubbing one eye.

"Didn't want to walk in on anything," Robin replied.

"All you'd have seen was some first-rate cuddling," he said.

"Oh my," Robin said, looking at him with one of her analytical expressions that slowly broke into a smile, "you've got it bad. You should see the dopy smile on your face."

"Thank you so much for your insightful analysis, Doctor Robin," he responded in his best bitchy tone, not that he could really deny it.

His best friend snorted a laugh at him.

"Awww, Stevie is in wuv," she said.

He could feel the blush spreading up his face as he totally failed to reply to that.

"Oh my god, you are," Robin said, dropping the teasing tone.

"I... um... I don't know," he stuttered.

He'd only been in love once and he'd fallen hard and fast. It had ripped his heart out when Nancy had told him it was all bullshit, not that he really blamed her. Being older and wiser he could see it from her point of view as well. Not that it changed how he had felt, however. He'd only had Eddie back a couple of days, only really known him for a week before that. He was almost sure he was still in the falling stage, but now Robin had said it, he couldn't ignore it was happening.

"Deep breath, Dingus," Robin said, placing a hand on his arm.

"He played and sang Bridge Over Troubled Water for me last night after I had a nightmare," he confessed as the warmth of the memory curled through his chest.

"Eddie knows Bridge Over Troubled Water?" Robin asked, eyebrows raising.

"Hidden depths," he said, "but not really the point. I had a nightmare, a bad one, he played me music, we fell asleep and didn't wake up until you banged on the door."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," Robin replied, because she knew him almost as well as he knew himself. "Still happy for you, Steve," she said, giving him a big smile, "but if you need to freak out, you always know where to find me."

"Thanks," he said.

He had a lot to think about it seemed.

"So that means you haven't had breakfast yet then?" Robin asked and broke him out of his reverie.

"It's always food with you," he complained.

"Like you don't love feeding people," she said. "Chop, chop, go rouse that metalhead boyfriend of yours, I fancy French Toast this morning."

"Do you not have food at your house?" he griped, even as he headed towards the stairs.

"You expect me to make my own breakfast when I have you, my devoted, platonic soulmate to do it for me?" she made a dismissive noise. "Are you kidding?"

"Oh, of course," he replied as he began to climb, "how could I have been so dumb?"

"I don't know, how could you?" came the immediate response. "Be quick or I may have to root around in your cupboards for snacks."

"Robin, do not touch my cupboards ... Robin," but it was too late, she was already disappearing into the kitchen.

He resigned himself to coming back down to chaos, since Robin was clearly in one of those moods. However, he couldn't really focus on that because he had bed-head Eddie to look forward to back in his room. Robin could wait for a little, while he enjoyed waking up his boyfriend properly. They hadn't actually discussed what they were officially, but he was pretty sure the whole midnight music and cuddling all night thing gave him the right to at least think it.

~*~

The walkie crackled into life while Steve was loading the dishwasher. Eddie had offered, but the dishwasher had a few quirks, it probably needed replacing, so Steve had politely declined to do it himself.

"Code M, repeat Code M, over," came through loud and clear in Lucas' voice.

"What's code M?" Eddie asked.

"Max," Robin said, standing up and walking over to where the device was on the side.

"Ears on, over," Dustin's voice responded almost instantly.

"Ears on here," Will said with others in the background. and Mike replied shortly as well.

"Ears on at Steve's," Robin added.

"Guys," Lucas told them excitedly, "I just spoke to Max's mom, they're transferring Max back to Hawkins General today. Over."

"That's awesome," came from Dustin, because of course Dustin was first. "Does that mean we'll finally be able to visit her? Over."

"Yeah," Lucas replied. "I asked and her mom said she'd like that. It sucks they wouldn't let us before. Over"

"Yeah," Mike added.

The hospital Max had been evacuated to had been overcrowded thanks to the emergency so only immediate family members had been allowed to visit patients. It had caused quite a ruckus among the party when they had not been permitted to go straight away. Only Hopper putting his foot down firmly had stopped a minor invasion anyway.

"Look, I have to run, Mom has me cleaning the garage. Max's mom said they probably won't be here until late afternoon. We should talk later. Over," Lucas said.

"El says we'll come rescue you later. Over." Will promised with a laugh.

"Thanks, Guys. Over and out," Lucas said.

There followed a few moments of everyone else signing off. Steve finished the dishwasher and closed it, before glancing over at Eddie who looked back in a way that had him believing Eddie knew exactly what he was thinking about.

"Okay, what's that look for?" Robin asked, fixing Steve with one of her penetrating stares.

"I can help Max," he said, going with the simple truth.

"Steve, while I appreciate you are willing to risk yourself for others, you don't know that," Robin said.

"No, I do," he told her. "I can help her."

"How are you so sure?" his best friend asked.

He shared another glance with Eddie.

"Because I did it for Hopper," he confessed.

"You what? When?" she demanded.

"Last night," Eddie provided for him, "after everyone else left. Seems they conspired when none of us were looking."

"I didn't quite finish, but he's mostly fixed," Steve said. "It was different than what I did for you and Dustin, and Eddie, but I think that had more to do with the Void ... um ... anyway, I can do it."

"You convinced Hopper to let you by bringing up Max, didn't you?" Robin said, giving him an exasperated look.

She knew him far too well. Maybe they really did share a brain sometimes.

"Yes," he replied, wincing a little at the way she glared at him.

Eddie laughed, because apparently his pain was funny.

"You are unbelievable," she scolded him, shaking her head. "You couldn't even give yourself a few days to rest and recuperate?"

"I don't think it quite works that way," he said.

"Then explain it to me," Robin said, "because I'm really beginning to worry, okay?"

He walked over and sat in the chair next to her.

"Sorry," he told her, doing his best to organise his thoughts because he did want those he cared about to understand. "When I healed Hopper, it needed more than me just speeding up his body's normal healing, because some of it was damage that had already healed wrong. I had to think about it differently and I kind of saw what I was doing."

"You visualised it?" Robin asked.

He nodded.

"There's like a pool of energy in me," he continued. "It's bright, metallic, and it didn't get smaller when I used it, it got duller. With Hop I could feel when it was time to stop, so I did. But as soon as I, well, refuelled I supposed..."

"I made a stack of grilled cheese," Eddie offered.

"It got brighter again. I was still tired, but I could have gone straight back in if I needed to," he explained.

"You were tired because you'd been concentrating hard for over two hours," Eddie said.

Steve shrugged, that seemed about right.

"So, you're saying as long as you eat, this reservoir inside of you keeps getting recharged, and you just have to deal with the stress you've put yourself through physically by focussing so hard, not how much energy you used for the actual healing?" Robin summarised.

"Yes, I think so," he replied. "Healing Hopper was harder because it was mostly active, I had to make it happen like chasing down another player and stealing the ball. Healing you and Dustin was easy because I didn't have to push it as much, like going through the motions on a learned play. And Eddie, well..."

"Involved Upside Down shit, so all bets are off," Eddie finished for him.

"Okay, sports metaphors aside, I think I get it," Robin said. "But what about pushing too hard? It happened to El, couldn't it happen to you?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "It's not the same as making things move, that feel harsher, wrong, at least to me, but I do still get the nosebleeds."

Robin pursed her lips.

"I think I would know though," he added before she could say anything. "If I was crossing that line, I think I'd know."

"I wish that was comforting," Robin said, shaking her head, "but I've seen you step right across lines just like that more than once."

"I try not to," was the best he could do as an apology.

"Ugh!" Robin threw her hands into the air.

"And there's also the question of how are you going to heal Max without the government finding out?" Eddie added. "I assume you don't want them to know yet."

Steve sagged, he hadn't thought of that. He knew sooner or later they were going to have to come clean about him and Will with Owens at the very least, but he'd much rather it was later given that there were factions in the government that had tried very hard to kill El.

"Well, that's easy," Robin said, much to his surprise.

"It is?" he asked.

"Yes," she told him, "we just pretend it is El doing it."

"I thought you were against this?" Eddie pointed out.

"I am against Steve hurting himself," Robin replied, "not against the idea in principle. Max is one of ours, if we can help, we should, I just want to make sure Dingus here, doesn't go running in exploding his brain."

"Did you watch Scanners again?" Steve asked at her choice of phrase.

"No, I'm still scarred from the first time," she said and gave him the how-dare-you look.

"I liked that movie," Eddie said.

"You would," was Robin's cutting reply. "Does anyone else know about you healing Hopper?"

He shook his head.

"Well, I expect Joyce does by now," Eddie commented.

"He wasn't going to tell her yet," Steve countered.

"Yeah, but you saw the scar on his neck, right?" Eddie said. "The one that looks like it might have been from a knife or a claw?"

Steve shook his head, he hadn't noticed that one.

"It looks a lot like ours now," Eddie revealed. "And Joyce is not a stupid woman, so she's going to put two and two together, especially if he's hiding more under his clothes."

The mental image that conjured in Steve's head made him wrinkle his nose.

"You just thought of Joyce and Hopper getting naked too, didn't you?" Robin said very unhelpfully.

"Yep," he replied, "and it's like admitting my parents have sex."

"With you on that one," Robin agreed, which Eddie found hilarious if his grin was anything to go by. "Moving swiftly on."

"Sounds like we need another planning meeting," Eddie said. "That's if Joyce and Hopper aren't busy getting their grove on."

"I hate you," Robin yelled and put her fingers in her ears, la-ing loudly.

Eddie all but fell off his chair, cackling.