Hawkins was once again open for business. It had been three days and the army had cleared all traces of Vecna and the Upside Down from the streets of the town. The rifts had closed, leaving weird scars on the landscape, but it all looked healed. Bits were badly damaged, but other parts had barely been touched and the population who hadn't just upped the first time and had been evacuated when the Upside Down started to properly invade, were being allowed back to their homes.

Steve was dropped off by an army van outside his house on a sunny spring afternoon. It looked just the same, having been completely untouched by Vecna's machinations either the first or the second time. Given where Barb had died, he had thought it might have been damaged, but Vecna's sacrifices seemed to have changed all that. Even his car was sitting where he had parked it before they had gone incognito to deal with Vecna.

Robin's house had been unscathed as well and her parents had welcomed her back, having just returned themselves. Dustin had been picked up by his mom. Lucas and Erica had been taken home as well, as had Nancy and Mike, and the Byers plus Argyle, Hoppe and El had all been in the same place anyway. They all had a cover story for why they hadn't been part of the evacuation like everyone else, but there was no one at home for Steve to tell. He'd managed to get a couple of very short phone calls through to his parents' machine, where he'd let them know he was fine and not to worry, but communication with the rest of the planet was up and down at the moment.

All he wanted was a long hot shower with all the fancy products in his own bathroom, to climb into his softest, most comfortable clothes, to lounge around doing nothing for a while, and to forget that the Upside Down existed.

It felt like a lifetime since he had last been home, even though it had been only seven days. When the evacuation order had come through and the army had started moving everyone out whether they liked it or not, they had grabbed everything they might need and regrouped at Hopper's cabin. In Steve's head it seemed like a different time.

Pulling his keys from his pocket, he walked up to the front door and let himself in. Inside it smelled a little stale from having no one in it for a week, but, other than that, it was weirdly normal. To look at his house no one would ever know Hawkins had been at war with another dimension. He had the sudden urge to fill the place with people, but that would have to wait. Everyone needed time to settle back into their lives.

Heading upstairs to his own room, he threw the few things he had onto the bed and headed into the bathroom. He was on autopilot as he stripped off the army fatigues he was wearing and turned on the hot water. The bat bites and road rash that littered his skin were healing well, so he was pretty sure he didn't have to worry about them as he climbed under the spray.

The labs had had decent showers, but the comfortable familiarity of his own space helped the tension flow out of him. Refusing to feel guilty, he luxuriated in the hot water and the expensive products on the little shelf. It felt a little like finally washing away what was left of the terror and danger of the last few weeks. The loss was still there, but he was refusing to think about that.

Once he was clean and dry, he pulled on an old pair of sweats, a shirt that was so well worn it was almost see-through and was done with it. Padding downstairs with bare feet, he walked over to the phone. However, when he picked it up, all he got was a beeping. The phone lines were low priority compared to other amenities that a lot of the town didn't have back yet, and every time they went to fix something the phone company seemed to break something else. It was hit or miss if calls were possible or not.

Abandoning the idea of trying to call his parents again, he wandered into the kitchen. Some of the fruit in the bowl on the counter had turned while he was gone, so he got rid of that, but almost everything else was fine. He was going to have to stock up at some point, but that could wait a day. Other people would probably need to do the same and they'd have to go out of town to do it, so he'd call around in the morning to check.

After making himself a cup of tea, he headed into the living room, turned on the TV, and curled up under a blanket. The western was mindless and enough to keep his thoughts from spiralling as he sipped his drink. They'd all been on high alert for longer than was good for any of them, and Steve knew he needed to decompress. It would probably take weeks, but he was going to do his best. He'd be no good if anyone needed him and he wasn't back on top form.

Steve hadn't even realised he was falling asleep, but he had to be dreaming. There was no other reason he could think of that his mind would be conjuring up the Void as Will had called it. It wasn't like El needed their help anymore.

"Harrington?" said a weak and confused voice.

Turning so fast he almost fell over his own feet, he found himself staring at a huddled, all too familiar figure.

"Eddie?" he asked.

"The one and only," Eddie replied, looking up at him with weary eyes.

"You died," he said, even though he knew this was a dream.

"Yeah, I got that," Eddie said. "Ass-face decided it would be fun to bring me back, use me as part of his army. Think I thought it was fun for a while too until the bastard finally died. How did you manage that?"

"El," Steve replied and found himself stepping closer as Eddie groaned and dropped his head.

"El? Is that the girl with the superpowers?" Eddie asked, sounding exhausted.

"Yeah," Steve said. "She went through some real shit to get them back. Saved Max when Jason almost screwed up our plan, then saved us all four days ago. Are you okay?"

He moved even closer.

"Pretty sure not, Big Boy," Eddie replied, lifting his head with what seemed to be an incredible amount of effort. "Think I'm dying again. What he put in me to resurrect me is fading away. When it goes, I go."

"No," Steve said, crossing the final distance between them.

He knew it was a dream, but it didn't make any difference. Losing Eddie again wasn't acceptable, even if it wasn't real.

"Sorry, sweetheart, don't have much say in the matter," Eddie said, leaning into him as Steve knelt down. "Don't even have enough strength left to feed."

"To feed?" Steve asked.

Eddie smiled before opening his mouth to show off long fangs.

"Bastard made me a vampire," Eddie said, head falling against Steve's arm. "Not as metal as advertised, in case you were wondering."

Since 1983 when he'd found out monsters were real, Steve had had his share of nightmares, but none of them had been like this. This was just so unfair.

"Feed from me," he said, holding out his wrist.

He could not let it end like this, even if it was just his subconscious. He refused to watch anyone else die, even in his dreams.

"No," Eddie said, trying to pull away from him.

"Eddie," he said, refusing to let go, "you can't hurt me, not here. Take what you need."

"How do you know?" Eddie asked, looking at him with red rimmed eyes, deep brown fading to bottomless black.

"Because I've been here before," Steve said, because dream logic didn't have to make sense.

"You don't know what I am," Eddie countered yet again.

"You're Eddie," he replied, "you fought with us, you died for us, that's all that matters."

Eddie's dark gaze flicked to his wrist, then back up to his face. He did his best to set his expression with all the determination he was feeling.

"Do it," he said.

The red around Eddie's irises intensified. When those eyes left his and stared back at his wrist, Steve knew he had won. Keeping himself very still, he waited as Eddie slowly reached out, long fingers wrapping around his wrist. Eddie did not look up again, slowly leaning forward until Steve could feel the other man's breath on his wrist.

He wasn't sure what he expected, but the pain of the bite only lasted a moment, or at least he only noticed it for a moment. It was like something clicking as Eddie's fangs punctured his skin. He couldn't really explain it, had no frame of reference for what he was feeling, but something inside of him moved. Something sat up, took notice, and aligned with Eddie.

What landed on him heavily was fatigue. As Eddie drank, Steve could feel the energy draining out of him. It was like a gruelling workout, even though his was just kneeling there. The even stranger thing though was he knew it wasn't Eddie. Eddie was taking his blood, he could feel it, but the rest, that was him. The bite made the connection, and he was feeding his strength through it.

He could feel Eddie strengthening, even as he was weakening, but he would not let it stop. Only when he could no longer hold himself up, sagging against the other man, did he finally give up.

Eddie reared back from the bite, breathing hard.

"What did you do?" Eddie demanded, sounding much stronger and more than a little pissed. "Harrington, what did you do?"

"Healed you," Steve replied, not that he understood it himself.

It was a dream, he didn't need to understand. He could feel himself slipping, but he couldn't stop as he crashed onto his butt in the water.

"Steve," he heard as he closed his eyes and let go.

He opened his eyes to his living room, noticing by the light he had slept at least a couple of hours. So much for sleep helping though, he felt wiped out. With the imaginations of his unconscious mind still floating in the back of his head, he turned over and pulled the blanket up over his shoulder, closing his eyes once again. He didn't dream.

It wasn't until he woke again later, hungry and a little cranky, he noticed the blood on the blanket and dried around his nose. He made a mental note to ask El or Will when the side effects of being party to El's powers would stop, and was just glad he hadn't gotten any on the couch cushions.