A/N All rights belong to SE Hinton

Jan 2010... I am going through and fixing all the mistakes that are so glaringly obvious. Please excuse the mess as I work through the chapters one at a time. thanks! Calla

Missing Days

Chapter 1

The Search Begins

XXX

I stood there, calling out into the night, "Pony, I didn't mean to," as his form quickly ran off into the darkness of the street. For a moment, I contemplated running off after him; but Soda's arm on mine held me back and I knew I'd never catch him. When Pony wants to run - he runs, and no one can even come close to his speed. Odd, his greatest asset, speed, was now my enemy. Resigned to my own grief as a failure as a guardian, I shut the door and stared abysmally at the floor. I couldn't even meet Soda's eyes, my shame was too much. What had I done?

"He'll come back, Darry. He will. You stay here, let me go out. Nothing's open at this hour, he can't have gone far." Soda was pulling on his shoes and reaching for his jacket. Within minutes I was standing alone in the house as I heard the echo of the door shutting behind Soda's form. I hadn't realized it but I hadn't moved, just stood there trying to figure out at what point I'd lost my control, my senses. In one swift movement, I had driven my youngest brother out of our house with one cursed blow of my hand. I'd vowed to protect them, but instead had driven him away. My head and chest hurt, what had I done?

XXX

Gosh, it's cold out here, I thought to myself. As I walked along the streets of our neighborhood, I tried to listen for Pony's worn out shoes slapping the sidewalk as he ran. I kept turning my head at shadows hoping I'd find him sitting down somewhere so we could talk. Somehow I've got to make this better. How the hell I do that, I dunno. Darry and Pony have been at odds for so long now it's hard to remember a time when the three of us really treated each other like brothers, doing stuff like playing ball and stealing cookies from the cookie jar. Darry and I always sent Pony in; even when he'd get caught his innocent eyes always won out. Mom may as well have given him the whole jar. We'd ruffle his hair and hug him for doing a great job. Nowadays Darry gets all bent out of shape if Pony even asks for a pop and a pack of smokes at the store. "Can't afford it," he'd say.

I went down to the DX figuring that's where he'd run to. He knew my station was safe, at least it's the safest thing to run to at this hour. But no luck, all was quiet. I turned around and headed off to the school. It was only three streets over but he wasn't there either. I turned up 9th St. figuring I'd swing by another one of his escapes - the park - before going home. In the distance I could faintly make out the wail of a siren. "It ain't got nothin to do with Pony," I muttered under my breath. They came around here all the time, what with the usual trouble our side of town gave the fuzz, but I didn't like it. My stomach knotted up and my blood went to ice. This wasn't good.

The sirens came closer and I sped up. I didn't realize it until now but my hands had clenched into fists inside my pockets. The cop car passed me going toward the park and I set off at a full run. A small crowd had formed by the time I got there and some cops were already taping off an area around the fountain. "Whassup?" I asked some grease that was already there, hoping he wasn't catching on to how scared I was.

"Dunno man, but there's blood everywhere," he drawled, a smoke dancing on his lip. He looked at the scene like he was only half interested; like how I probably come off when Pony drags me to the movies.

"You see who it is?"

He shook his head and smirked, and I had to fight the urge to slug him. Nearby, some other people had also shown up. I got closer to listen in.

"...young kid..."

"...blood everywhere..."

Darry, I thought. I gotta get Darry, cause I can't do this. I went to the pay phone and called the house.

"Darry, is he there?" I nearly shouted as the connection clicked. Please say yes, please say yes, I begged quietly.

"No."

"Oh Jesus! Darry, look man, you gotta get over here to the park. Something's going on... I can't... just come, okay? Hurry!" I was nearly screaming into the phone. I hung up, then picked up the receiver again. Hands shaking, I put a few more coins in, dialed another number and heard a sleepy ...

"hullo?"

"Steve, my God man! The park. Get here now! Hurry!"

"Soda? Whassup? Calm down, I'm on my ..."

I didn't give him a chance to finish. I hung up and ran back to the fountain. The cops wouldn't let anyone near the body.

"Officer...please...do you have an ID on him?" My voice was pleading but it got me nowhere. To the cops, I was just another troublemaker. They wouldn't tell me who it was if it were Elvis himself lying there. Suddenly, Darry was at my side. I turned my head, not wanting to look. If I didn't look, it wouldn't be him.

XXX

The crowd had a good 20 people in it, so finding Soda wasn't hard. Something bad had happened, but at first I couldn't tell what. Police lights flickered off the trees and police radio traffic blared into the cold night air. Then I saw the tarp covering a red stain and what had to be a body beneath it. My stomach turned to ice. No, my God no. I reached for Soda's shoulder hoping he'd turn to clue me in, tell me it wasn't ... but he only looked away and I couldn't read his expression. He shook, but only so lightly that you'd have to really know him to see it. Holding his shoulder, I felt the minute tremors raging within. He was scared. Scared bad. And that scared me even more. When the gurney was brought over and they lifted the body up, the kid's arm flopped out. My eyes caught the glint of rings on his hand and I could breathe again.

"It's not Pony, Soda, it's not him." I held Soda's shoulder trying to turn him, and at first he refused before finally turning to see for himself. The rings were obvious... it wasn't Ponyboy.

"Whaddya mean, 'It's not Pony?'" Steve was on Soda's other side. When did he get here? "Where's Ponyboy? Somebody tell me what the hell's going on."

"Come on, little buddy, we need to get outta here. Let's go home." The ride back to the house was short and silent, Steve driving us in his car.

Once back in the confines of the house, Soda collapsed on the sofa and started updating Steve of our night, while I got on the phone to round up the gang. I forgot the lateness of the hour...didn't really care about who I woke up - I needed all the eyes and ears I could get. I needed information and answers and I didn't care who I inconvenienced to get it. Within minutes I had Two-Bit loping on the couch beside Soda getting an update too. Dally couldn't be found but he stayed at a different place every night; not surprising that he couldn't be reached. No one wanted to bother finding Johnny, his parents were in the middle of WW3 and we knew he wouldn't be there in the middle of that mess.

"Two-Bit, you sober?" I'd noticed he couldn't lean straight, let alone walk straight.

"Sure am," he answered, his breath heavy with booze. Still, if he can answer that fast he must not be totally topped off. It'd have to do.

"You were supposed to be hanging out with Pony and Johnny tonight. What'd you see? They get into any trouble?"

Two-Bit rehashed what he could about the Nightly Double, about the socy girls, the run in with their boys and walking Pony and Johnny home. He'd sounded a little fuzzy on some details but not so drunk I didn't believe him. He'd left them outside Johnny's house just before midnight and went on to his own. That's it. Problem was, it didn't give us anything new. Why was there a dead kid in the park, and what did it have to do with Ponyboy? And where was Johnny?

"Where's Dally?" I asked out loud. The group in the living room stopped and looked at me.

"Sheppard was looking for him earlier," answered Two-Bit. "Caught him slashing his tires. He wasn't at the Nightly Double when I got there."

I reached for the phone and dialed some numbers. A familiar voice finally cracked on the other side. He'd be upset that I'd called him so late, but it was only payback for all the things his kid brother had done to us. Getting even was supposed to be sweet. This wasn't.

"Tim...it's Darry. You seen either my kid brother or Winston tonight?... Where was he when you left him?... Did you see where he went?... Because there's a dead soc in the park!... We've looked there... Look, if you see him, either of them, sit on 'em and call me!... yeah, thanks man, bye."

The whole gang was watching me, waiting for details.

"Sheppard and Dally had it out before 11pm, he last saw Dally headed out toward Bucks and said the whallop Tim gave Dally should keep him sidelined for at least the night. I'm going over there now." I grabbed my keys and opened the door, but facing me coming up my walkway were two police officers. Oh God, now what?

XXX

Calla Lily Rose