"Don't worry, Darling," his mom said as they all looked towards the doorway, "I've got this."

He trailed after his mother into the main part of the house with Eddie close behind him. It was ridiculous but he almost felt more nervous about his dad coming home than defending the house from Sullivan and his men. There was no one else to worry about when it came to his dad.

"David," his mom said, quickly walking over to where his dad was dropping his suitcase just inside the doorway.

"Sylvie, thank god," his dad said, immediately accepting a quick peck of a kiss and throwing his arms around his wife. "I saw one of the news reports after you called and when I tried to call back, I couldn't get through. What the hell is going on?"

"So much we have missed," his mom replied, "but, don't worry, I will explain it all like I promised on the phone. The lines are mostly up now, but they are still having problems with them."

It was when his parents broke apart that his dad finally looked up. Steve's breath caught in his throat when their eyes met.

"Hi, Dad," he said.

"Steve," his dad said, coming over quickly, "are you alright? I've been hearing terrible things ever since I landed."

Steve was more than a little shocked to be dragged into a hug before he could answer. They hadn't quite been back on hugging terms last time they had seen each other.

"I'm fine," he promised, automatically relaxing into his dad's arms like he had done most of his life. "It was bad for a while, but we got through it."

He was instantly distracted by a low-level pain, as his healing instincts fired.

"You're all in one piece though?" his dad checked when they broke apart.

He nodded.

"Kind of difficult not to be now," he said, distracted by what he had sensed.

It occurred to him he was picking up his dad's bad knee, an injury his dad had had since college from a bad jump playing basketball.

"What?" his dad asked.

"David," his mom said, rescuing him, "that's part of what I have to explain. I think it'll be easier if we do this in the study. Steve, why don't you and Eddie put on a new pot of coffee, I expect we'll need it."

He nodded, but didn't move as he watched his dad notice Eddie properly for the first time.

"Dad, this is Eddie," he introduced before his dad could ask. "He and his uncle Wayne are staying with us at the moment because their home was destroyed."

"Hello, Eddie," his dad said, extending a formal hand in greeting. "Have we met before?"

Eddie accepted the handshake like a pro.

"You might have seen my face on the news, sir," Eddie replied. "For a while the town tried to blame me for the murders that happened before the quake."

"There was a ridiculous Satanic panic, Darling," Steve's mom added, "just because Eddie runs the Dungeons and Dragons club at the High School. I always knew some people in this town were stupid, but it seems to have been worse than ever."

"Jason Carver has a lot to answer for," Steve said, not bothering to keep the protective tone out of his voice. "Shame he's dead."

His mom reached out and placed a hand on his arm. She had been horrified by his retelling of what had happened to Erica and Lucas when trying to protect Max. If it hadn't been for Carver, Vecna might never have broken through into Hawkins in the first place.

"Come on," his mom said, taking his dad's hand, "I have a lot to tell you."

Steve watched his parents disappear with his heart beating a mile a minute.

"Come on, Stevie," Eddie said. "Let's make that pot of coffee. If Wayne wasn't out with Hopper and his Russian friend, I'd get him to do it, but we're it I'm afraid."

He looked at the closed study door for a few more seconds before nodding and following Eddie back to the kitchen. The coffee was finished and just sitting there by the time loud shouting started coming from the main part of the house. Eddie hurried through the kitchen door, while Steve followed a little slower. What he could hear was not as startling to him as it was to his boyfriend. In fact, it was a little bit comforting given the situation.

"Steve," Eddie said seeming to relax a little at Steve's non-reaction to the raised voice coming from the study, "what language is that?"

"Hmmm, oh, Hungarian," he replied.

"Your dad's Hungarian?" Eddie asked, eyebrows almost at his hairline.

"Oh no, Dad's as American as they come," he explained, "his grandmother, my great grandmother is Hungarian, and she likes to teach every member of the family to swear and insult people in her mother tongue."

"You have a great grandmother who's still alive and likes to make sure all her relatives can swear in Hungarian?" Eddie sounded incredulous.

Steve nodded.

"How old is she?" Eddie asked.

"Umm, ninety-four ... no, ninety-five," he said after doing a quick calculation in his head.

"So do you know how to swear in Hungarian?" was Eddie's next question.

He nodded again.

"I spent the summer with Nana Katy when I was nine," he replied. "Came back swearing like a trooper, but since no one in this town speaks Hungarian, nobody cared. I trained myself out of it by high school because it didn't go with the all-American jock image I was going for. Robin thinks it's hilarious I can swear and insult someone's family heritage but can't ask for directions. My dad is currently comparing government agents to sperm."

"You just keep getting more interesting, Stevie," Eddie said with a small grin.

Steve wished he could have returned the expression, but he was still too anxious about what came next.

"I just hope Mom can calm him down a bit," he admitted. "When the Hungarian comes out, he's really upset."

"Yeah, well finding out about the Upside Down and that your son has been front and centre for the whole shit show is gonna be upsetting," Eddie said, leaning in close so their shoulder's brushed. "I'm guessing your dad is going to come out of that room and one of two things will happen, he'll hug you until you can't breathe, or he'll ground you for the rest of your natural life."

"I'm too old to be grounded," Steve pointed out.

"Wayne grounded me when I said I wasn't going back after I failed to graduate for the second time," Eddie revealed. "He spent a week convincing me not to do anything stupid and that I should go back to prove the bastards wrong for thinking I was a lost cause."

"Wayne is a wise man," he said.

He had more to say but was distracted when the cursing from the other room stopped. That meant one of two things, his mom had or was in the process of calming his dad down, or there was a standoff going on and the yelling would start again, louder. When nothing happened for over a minute, he began to hope it was the former.

"The tension is killing me," Eddie commented. "How about you tell me more about Nana Katy to distract me?"

Steve thought it was very sweet how Eddie didn't call him on the way he was practically vibrating in place and made out it was the other way around.

"What would you like to know?" he asked, because he really could do with the distraction.

"Anything and everything," Eddie replied. "She sounds like a fascinating lady."

"Oh, she is," Steve agreed. "Came over to America by herself when she was nineteen. When she got here, she didn't have a penny to her name but managed to get mistaken as an heiress running from a despotic father and was adopted into the higher society set in New York. That's where she met my great grandfather, Jackson, and became a Harrington. Apparently, she confessed everything to him just before they got married, but he was so in love with her he didn't care."

"When do I get to meet this woman, she sounds amazing," Eddie said.

"Well, she lives just outside New York," he replied, smiling despite his worry because Eddie really did seem excited about his great grandmother. "She converted her house into a shelter for geriatric cats and dogs that people couldn't look after anymore. Last I heard she has twelve dogs and eight cats. They go for walks around her property every day."

"I thought you said she was ninety-five," Eddie said.

"She is, but she doesn't look a day over sixty," Steve explained. "No one outside the family believes how old she is. She says helping the animals keeps her young."

Eddie's forehead crinkled a little at that in a very thoughtful expression.

"Stevie," he said eventually, "I could be talking complete shit, but have you considered you might not be the first one in your family to be gifted?"

"How so?" he asked, not picking up what Eddie was getting at.

"Well, the theory is you healed yourself unconsciously every time you had a concussion, right?" Eddie replied. "It was slower and not as complete as the things you can do now, but it's probably why you don't have any permanent side-effects from all the concussions you've had."

Steve nodded.

"What if Nana Katy has the same ability, only she was never in the backlash from a psychic super girl ending an interdimensional super villain?" Eddie suggested. "Definitely sounds like she has the same instincts you do for collecting those who need help."

That was enough to distract him from his worry about his father.

"You think she could be like me?" he asked as he turned the idea over in his head.

"Could be," Eddie replied. "I mean, having an unconscious ability to heal yourself could definitely keep you younger than your peers. I'm not saying it couldn't just be good genes, but something to think about for later maybe?"

"She did break her hip a couple of years ago, everyone was worried we might lose her," he mused, "but she was up and about way quicker than the doctors thought she should be."

Eddie's idea made a scary kind of sense. Only it brought up all sorts of issues too.

"We can't mention this to anyone," he said as ideas began popping into his head. "After what he did for El, I trust Owens more, but there is no way I am letting him pick apart my family."

"Agreed," Eddie replied, making a little cross over his heart. "But I still want to meet your great grandmother. I am so basing an NPC on her in my next campaign."

Steve would have commented on that, but the sound of the study door opening distracted him. Suddenly he could barely breathe. It was as if everything was going slightly slower than normal as his dad stepped into the corridor, looked up and saw him. He was frozen to the spot, even as his dad walked over.

"Steven," his dad said, looking him directly in the eye, "I have been underestimating you for so long. Can you ever forgive me?"

Utterly stunned, he just about managed a nod, before his dad wrapped him in the biggest, most encompassing hug he could ever remember.

"I am so proud of you," his dad told him as he just about had the wherewithal to hug back.

It was almost worse than when his mom had done the same thing. He was determined not to cry, really he was. It was so hard though. All the emotions swirling through him felt too much and he was pretty sure his eyes were wet but the time his dad finally released him. It took everything he had and every distraction technique to fight back the tears as he stood back.

"Dad," he said, focusing on anything that would help him not embarrass himself, "will you let me fix your knee?"

His dad's eyes opened in shock at the direct question.

"Thank you, Steve," his dad said, "but I think we have more important things to deal with right now."

A neh-neeer sound, like in a game show, came from behind him and Steve glanced at Eddie.

"Wrong answer, Mr Harrington," Eddie said with a bright smile. "Don't make Steve break out the psychological tricks. I mean he got Hopper to agree with one conversation and that man withstood Russian torture."

For a moment Steve wasn't sure how his dad would react, until a smile broke out on his face.

"I am not caffeinated enough for this," his dad said with a shake of his head, before looking back at Steve. "Why don't you convince me over coffee?"

"Okay," he agreed as part of his brain wondered if maybe he'd stepped into a parallel dimension for a moment.

Not that he was complaining as they all headed towards the kitchen. His mom gave him a smile and a quick rub on the base of his back as they came close, and he finally started to breathe easier. It was by no means a done deal, but it was getting nearer.