"Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold..." The pillow seemed to sink a little, and Johnny died.

A loud curse came from the door and someone shoved passed us. Dally grunted a little, but he seemed frozen. He was just staring at Johnny as tears started to gather in his eyes.

"Damn it, Johnny! I told you I was comin' to get you baby. You knew I was on my way Johnnycakes, why couldn't you have just held on a little longer?" The visitor, a girl around 18, I was surprised to notice, was holding on to Johnny's hand like he was a life-preserver and she was lost in the ocean. A couple of tears escaped her eyes and she held on with her hands so tight around his that her knuckles were turning white.

"Who the hell are you?" Dally demanded. He roughly wiped at his eyes with a fist and glared at the stranger.

She turned to face us with a glare of her own. Dally's jaw dropped slightly and I felt my blood run cold. Seeing her was like seeing a ghost of Johnny. They had the same face, same eyes, and same black hair. She was real pale though, and her long curly hair was a tangled mess.

"I'm his sister Carolyn. Who the hell are you?" She snapped back.

I started to give our names, but Dally cut me off.

"Johnny never had a sister and I've known him since he was 13!"

"I ran away from home when he was 10!"

Dally's eyes narrowed and his voice got all tight. "And you left him in that house alone with your parents?"

She looked down to Johnny and stroked his hair. She was a lot quieter when she spoke again. "I woulda brought him along if I'da known he was still alive."

That seemed to throw Dally off and he didn't answer. I asked the question for him. "What do you mean 'if I knew he was still alive'?"

She gave me a sad smile. "Pa beat him so bad that he knocked poor Johnnycake out. He wasn't hardly breathing and Pa was coming after me so I turned tail and bolted and didn't look back. I hitchhiked all the way to Virginia before I realized he might still be alive. I came back but it took me a while. When I checked through the window to his room and it was all empty. I didn't know it, but he had moved to my old room. So I headed down south to New Orleans and found myself a steady little job at a diner."

"Then how'd you know to come back here again?"

"One of my friends was passing through and saw the headlines. She called me right up and I was so excited I rang the hospital and told him I was coming to bring him home with me so Ma and Pa would never be able to hurt him again." She had stopped crying, but her eyes stayed all misty. She ran a hand through his hair again, whispering softly. "Oh, precious child. At least you're somewhere better know. Lord knows you deserve it."

We both jumped a foot when Dally slammed a fist into the wall. He braced himself against it and swore.

Dallas Winston had been in and out of jail since he was ten years old. He never gave up, no matter how bad life got. But there, in that little room where the only person he had ever loved died, he broke down. The tears rolled down his face and he pounded the wall again.

It was unnerving. I thought of Dally as the toughest person alive. I never would have believed he would, no COULD, cry, let alone in front of a stranger.

Carolyn rose unsteadily, moisture gathering in her eyes too. She stumbled over to where he leaned against the wall with his back to the room. She reached up and touched his shoulder. I saw him tense up. I blinked and next thing I know they were sinking to the floor and holding and to each other and bawling. They were just two broken people, reaching out for someone who felt the same.

I wiped my own eyes as I walked out, closing the door behind me. I had to break the news to the rest of the gang.

All through out Johnny's funeral ceremony, two broken people held tightly on with cold hands. They both have fair skin, but anyone could see the lightness at their knuckles. The grip was almost painful, but neither loosened up. Sunlight was shining bright through the windows at the church. The little hero in the coffin up front looked more like he was sleeping than dead.

More people came than expected. The gang thought it was just going to be them and their families, and maybe a few of Carolyn's friends that had met Johnny when they were younger. Much to everyone's surprise, Buck Meril and the Shepard gang showed up. All of the children from the church and their parents were there too. The little kids didn't get it, but their parents were all serious and even a little misty eyed. A couple moms were even crying. Everyone knew why. That could have been their child being buried instead of that mysterious boy with black hair.

The two broken people didn't notice. They absorbed every word the preacher said, focusing as if their lives depended on it. He spoke of a place of great peace and love, where their only treasure would be free and happy at last. They were only words, but they offered a small comfort.

After he finished speaking, he asked if anyone wanted to add anything. A dad rose from the pew, and told the room that everyday he got to spend with his daughter he would thank Johnny for. A reporter got up to say that he was such an inspiring hero, and she would never forget his kindness.

The preacher called up the coffin bearers. It had six handles, and Carolyn had asked for Darry, Sodapop, Ponyboy, Two-Bit, Steve, and Dally to take him. As she put it, they had carried him when she couldn't and she would like them to carry her brother one last time.

Carolyn went up front with them. She had talked the preacher into letting her be the one to close the casket.

The two broken people look down on the boy's face one last time, memorizing his features. They release each other for the first time in days.

The broken woman strokes her little brother's hair. "I love you. Sleep well darling." She closes the lid and locks it.

Five years later, two healing people kneel in the grass.

They clean off the little headstone and lay fresh flowers in front of it. A little picture of a laughing teenager grins out at them. The healing man holds the healing woman with one hand and rubs the picture with the other. The healing woman smiles gently and rubs her bulging stomach with her free hand. The healing man notices and grins impishly at her. The healing woman notices the look and smacks him lightly on the arm.

"Don't look so proud of yourself," she scolds. He laughs.

"You weren't complaining before," he replies with a roguish smirk. She rolls her eyes but blushes.

"Well, what do you think Johnny?" She directs her question to the sky, not the headstone. "We decided we want it to be a surprise when the baby's born. Even if the baby is a girl, we're going to name it Johnny. After you of course, you are the one that brought us together."

Dally nodded. He directed his words to the sky as well. "Can't say I forgive you for the way you did it, but I owe you Johnnycakes."

Carolyn grinned at Dally. "Dallas Winston, did I just hear you hint that you are happy in a relationship with a baby on the way?"

"Course not," he replied immediately. He winked, "That just might mean I love you or something crazy like that."

She snorted. "Something insane you mean."

He laughed and pecked her lips. They fell into a comfortable silence still gazing at the headstone. After a while, they heard a loud voice behind them.

"Aww, look at the greaser and his little girlfriend! I think they're on a date. Couldn't afford anywhere better than surrounded by dead bodies, grease?"

Carolyn sighed. "Make sure he hits first. I'm due in a month; if you're in the cooler for assault when the baby comes I'm going to kick your ass."

He smirked. "Will do." He kissed her head and sauntered over to the group of Socs.

Sitting on her little brother's grave, with the sun beating down and the wind through her hair, and the sounds of her boyfriend beating a rich kid's face in; Carolyn smiled. Her life was bittersweet, but she wouldn't trade it for the world.

. . .Until she heard the sirens coming closer.