A/N: Before you read the story there's a few things you should know. The baby is Soda's. Sandy never went to Florida. And this is set in 2008. Though it's not a time travel fic. Johnny and Dally are alive.

Chapter One

"What's her name?" I asked. Sandy shrugged, keeping her eyes closed. I looked down at the baby, our baby. She wasn't awake yet but she looked just like Sandy, I thought. Though Steve said she looks like me. Steve had brought me to the hospital and we arrived maybe two minutes after our little girl was brought into the world. It was crazy to think she was mine, but that's how it is. Darry doesn't know about her yet. I mean he doesn't know Sandy gave birth to her. So I'm a little worried about telling him.

"What do you want to name her?" Sandy asked opening her eyes. I looked over at Sandy and shrugged, grinning. I really had no idea what to name her. I mean its hard thinking of the perfect name. And this name has to be perfect, she will have to live with it forever so it has to be good.

"I don't know. When do we have to name her by?" I asked. Sandy chuckled at my question.

"She's not a dog. I'm staying overnight so by tomorrow morning," she said and settled down again to go to sleep. I sighed. A name, I thought. I knew lots of names but I needed the right one. I looked down at our baby. Cheryl, Julia, Sarah, I thought. But none of the names suited her. This was going to be harder than I thought. I'm sure Sandy has an idea of what she wants to name her, but I'll wait until tomorow morning to ask. She's tired.

"I'm gonna go," I said to Sandy. She opened her eyes and looked at me. "Why are you staying over night anyway?"

"Because Soda, it's almost one am. The doctor said I could stay if I wanted and I want to. Here," she stretched out her arms and I stood up and gently settled the baby down in her arms. I smiled at them. I was so happy but I was scared to show it. People think it's crazy for two sixteen-year-olds to have a baby. But I don't think it's so bad.

"I'll come by tomorrow," I said. I took one last look at them. Sandy nodded lazily at me and shut her eyes. She looked perfect. She was perfect. I walked out of the room quietly. Or as quietly as I could. I had no way to get home. I went to the payphone down the hall and put in fifty cents. I dialled our house number and impatiently waited as it rang.

"Hello?" Pony asked. I knew it was him.

"Hey, is Steve there?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'll tell him to come get you," Pony said and I heard him yawn.

"Thanks but don't tell Darry-" and the line cut out. Damn! I thought. These damn stupid phones.

Ponyboy knew why I was at the hospital and I made him promise not to mention it to Darry. If Darry asked where I was he was supposed to say I was out with friends. I should be the one to tell Darry about this. Besides it would make me look lousy if I got my brother to tell my other brother my daughter had been born.

I left the phone hanging by the cord and took the elevator downstairs. I waited just inside the doors for Steve. He shouldn't be too long. And he wasn't, he arrived ten minutes later. I jumped into his car and put on my seatbelt.

"Hey," I said. I was still smiling about my baby. I had a baby. That last time I looked at Sandy and our baby together was perfect.

"Oh yeah you've had a great night. I'm trying to sleep and you make me come get you," Steve said, pulling out from the car park and onto the road. "Why couldn't you get Pony to come get you?"

"Because he doesn't have a license."

"Well either did you when you started driving. He can drive can't he?" Steve asked, looking at me.

"Don't look at me, look at the road!" I said pointing at the road in front of us. "Anyway he can drive, I taught him," I said.

"Oh no," Steve mumbled. I punched him playfully, of course, on the shoulder. We went the rest of the way in silence. We got home; the light from the front room was on. Please don't be Darry, I silently begged.

"What did you say to Darry about me not being here?" I asked Steve as we got out of the car. After Steve had dropped me off at the hospital he had gone back to my house so I could call him to come get me.

"Told him you were on a date," he said, walking up the porch steps. I thought about that, that was a good excuse. Better than the one I had thought of. We went inside where it was much warmer. It was November 29. Our baby was born November 28, 2008 at 11:42pm. It was the end of Spring but tonight was one of those freezing cold nights that just happen and I hate them.

"Hey Pony," I said, sitting on the couch. Lucky it was him who was awake, not Darry. He nodded. "Where's Darry?"

"Asleep. Lucky you didn't wake him when you called before," he said, smiling a little. I turned on the TV. Pony had been reading before we got here. There was nothing on, just the TV shows that aren't good enough to be shown at day. I sat back on the couch, I was pretty tired. After a few minutes of sitting there, staring blankly at the TV I decided to go to bed.

"I'm going to sleep," I told them walking down the hall. Steve was staying the night and Pony followed me right away. We got into bed and lay in the dark. I could see the outline of Pony on the other side of the bed and I began to think about what to name our baby. It had to be a special name, a different name. I thought about every girl I had ever known, but they had all had plain names. You know your everyday names, Michelle, Shannen, and Brittany. I wanted something different. "Pony," I said, poking him in the back. He rolled over facing me.

"What?"

"I need a name for our baby. A cool name."

"Cool? What are you five?" Pony asked before sitting up and turning on the lamp. "Like what?" he asked.

"I don't know just something different, like our names," I said, trying to come up with anything. I wasn't sure whether Sandy would like our baby to have a name 'like our names'. But she had always said my name was what got her attention at first.

We sat there for a while coming up with names. But I didn't like any of them. I gave up and layed down. "I didn't know it would be this hard to choose a name," I said. Pony shrugged and picked up his book off the desk.

"Yeah whatever," He sat up properly against the wall and opened his book. There was a picture of a glass of milk on the cover. A Clockwork Orange, I read. I remembered that book. In tenth grade our English teacher used part of the book as an example for something. Then she decided that we should read some of it as well. Now I'm not the best reader and what with the language in the book I had no idea what was going on. Darry and even Pony tried to explain it but it was hopeless and I gave up.

"You're not supposed to read that," I said, to Pony before I rolled over facing the doorway.

"And you're not supposed to have a baby either," he said. I sat up and smacked him across the head.

"Shut up!" I sat up and leaned against the wall. Now that I was awake I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. I looked over Pony's shoulder and tried reading some of the book. But then a sentence caught my eye, 'You could peet it with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches.' It wasn't the whole sentence that I liked. Just the word Vellocet.

I've rewritten this chapter but I've tried to keep it as close to the original as possible.