With You In Your Dreams
Summary: Sick in bed and hurting over his parent's deaths, Ponyboy finds that his parents aren't really totally gone.
Sneezing again, I wiped my nose on the back of my hand and sat back into my pillow, sniffing. My throat was real sore and whenever I talked, my voice was scratchy and my throat hurt as if I had rubbed it raw with sandpaper. My eyes felt droopy and I yawned. For the first time in a long time, I had the flu... and for the first time in my life, I had no mother to make me feel better or comfort me.
My parents were gone. Killed in a freak accident where they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. How could they be gone? They were my parents! Parents can't die! They don't leave their children alone in the world to fend for themselves. But that was all proven wrong for me in a matter of seconds when a police officer appeared at our doorstep with the most life-shattering news anyone could ever receive.
"I'm truly sorry about this, boys," the sympathetic-faced police officer said. I looked at my twenty-year-old brother, Darry, confused, as the fuzz continued, "but your parents were killed while crossing the train tracks at eleven 'o' clock tonight. We need you to come indentify the bodies." He turned on his heel and walked away hurridly, leaving us shocked and scared. I broke down and I felt my brother Sodapop's arms hug me tightly as he cried with me. I stared at Darry, wanting to know what we were going to do. His gaze was hard and I couldn't read the expression in his icy green-blue eyes... and that scared me even more. What were we going to do?
I was nearly asleep when I felt a cool hand on my forehead, nearly making me jump out of my skin. Blinking a couple of times to clear my fuzzy vision, I found Darry standing there watching me with tired eyes. I felt a wave of guilt suddenly slide over me-- Darry had been planning on going to college, but since Mom and Dad were killed, he took over the guidance of me and Sodapop, who's almost seventeen. 'He shouldn't have to watch over us,' I thought. 'He should have gone to college, he shouldn't have to watch me and Soda like this, with the state breathing down our necks to see whether we do anything bad.'
"Are you all right, Pony?" he asked me quietly, breaking me from my thoughts.
I simply stared at him, feeling the tears welling in my eyes. "No..." I mumbled, turning away from him.
"Hey," he said softly, sitting on the edge of the bed and stroking my hair. "Tell me what's wrong, Ponyboy." I looked at him, then sat up, leaning into the pillows. I didn't meet his gaze as I muttered,
"I miss..." I heard footsteps and shut my mouth as Sodapop appeared at the doorway, surveying the scene with brown eyes. Usually his eyes are twinkling with a secret laughter, and a grin always seems to be playing on his lips. Tonight though, he looked as tired as Darry, and there was no sign of a smile on his face as he walked closer.
"Are you all right, Ponyboy?" he asked as he sat beside Darry, looking at me.
"I miss Mom and Dad," I said, staring at my hands. Darry and Sodapop looked at each other. Darry sighed, then gripped my shoulder.
"I know you miss them, Ponyboy," he said. "But they aren't really gone."
"Yeah," Soda piped up. "They're with you, even when you sleep."
Darry nodded. "You know what Mom used to tell me and Soda when we were scared and didn't want to go to bed?" I shook my head.
"She said her and Dad are with us in our dreams," Soda said. "She and Dad protect us when we're asleep, Pony... even though they're gone."
We sat talking a couple more minutes, when Darry left to make some chicken soup for my throat. Soda followed him and I layed back down for some more sleep. As I lay there, I thought of what Darry and Sodapop had said. Her and Dad are with us in our dreams. I repeated that in my mind a couple more times, and as I dozed off, it seemed that I could feel my parents standing there, watching over me like the guardian angels they were. I knew I wouldn't have the nightmares I'd been having for the past couple days ever since Mom and Dad's deaths-- I'd be having memory-filled dreams... dreams of my mother, who was golden and beautiful and wise. Dreams of my father, who was always the steady and firm one in the family...
With the memories flying through my mind, I drifted off to sleep.
A/N; I was the watching the Outsiders movie at ten at night by myself last night, and I was watching the talk between the Curtis brothers at the park. I had to wonder what Darry and Sodapop would do to comfort Ponyboy if he was hurting bad over his parent's deaths. I hope you enjoyed it. R&R!