Molly dropped the heavy box she was holding and surveyed her new room. Luckily it was bigger than her last one, but it was older and the wallpaper was peeling slightly around the edges. She lowered herself onto the big bed which took up most of the room, it was fluffy and soft, just like the one in Dallas but it was bigger. Which meant much better sleep.

Right on cue Cindy made her way into the room, dumping her equally heavy box on the other side of the room.

"Gosh, I can't believe it. This is a way bigger house than I thought we'd get." Cindy smoothed her long blonde hair and made her way over to her sister. Sitting next to her on the bed she observed the mess her sister had managed to make in the hour they'd been there. "If you think you're gunna keep this room in the same state you did in Dallas you'll be sleepin' on the porch. Ya hear? Mom won't wanna see that mess again, neither will DJ."

Molly nudged her sister's arm. "Yeah I know. Where is the lil' bug anyways?"

"Mom's got him out in the yard. Wants ya to sort your room out first so ya can put him down later. Reckons he needs his routine after the big move."

"S'pose she's right." Molly made the move to start putting her things in their rightful place. The movers had got their furniture set up and brought in most of the boxes before they got there, but now came the joy of unpacking everything. Cindy was lucky, she only had her things to move in. Molly had that plus all of DJs stuff. Not that she minded, but there just seemed to be never ending mounds of stuff that came with a baby.

Dale Jackson, or DJ as they called him, was only 3 months old, but he was the love of the three Jackson women's lives. Molly was the eldest, her dad ran out on her mum when Molly was only one, things got too hard and too expensive so that was him. At the age of 16 Molly fell pregnant to her then boyfriend, who couldn't even make it to DJ's first birthday before running out on them. He wanted nothing to do with them. Molly gave birth to Dale not long before her 17th birthday and had grown up quickly since. Cindy was Molly's younger sister. At 14 she was the complete opposite of Molly, stunningly beautiful, tall, with long golden blonde hair and blue eyes that shone with the light of the sun. Molly was extremely jealous of Cindy. Not just for her looks but because her dad had stuck around.

Lenard looked after them both, took Molly in as his own before her mum had even fallen pregnant with Cindy. He was handsome like movie stars were, and as gentle and patient as a southern gentleman. She supposed he was a southern gentleman. Their life together was perfect until a little over a year ago. Lenard died in a freak accident at his work. A truck he'd been working on came loose and ran him over. Since then Molly and her mum Martha went into a downward spiral. But Cindy held them together. She was as kind natured as she was beautiful.

But stroppy when she wanted to be. "Molly! You're not even puttin' things away well to start with! How d'ya ever expect to keep things tidy when they never started that way." She had a strong Texan drawl, like Molly's, which got higher and higher pitched the angrier or more frustrated she was.

"Oh hush up, it'll do for now." Molly finished shoving DJs clothes into a drawer and dumped his blanket on his crib.

Molly made her way through the muddle of boxes in the lounge and through to the back porch where her mum and DJ were basking in the sun. A smoke hung lazily in her mother's mouth as she looked over her grandson.

"So ya'll unpacked?" Her mother's honey thick voice drawled with a lazy Texan accent. Everything about Molly's mum screamed redneck. But she was surprisingly well put together.

They were by no means a rich family, but her mother didn't want them living like white trash. Lenard's work gave Martha some money when Lenard died and, after she recovered slightly from the grief, decided to make the move to Tulsa. Things were cheaper here and they needed a fresh start, the last year had not been easy. Between the behaviour Martha displayed after losing her husband and her teenage daughter having a child out of wedlock it was pretty clear they weren't welcome in their old neighbourhood.

"Kinda, Cindy is flippin' out over all the stuff. But she'll deal with it." Molly made her way over and flopped down on the blanket next to her son and started tickling his belly.

"You better start helpin' your sister out round here. Ya hear?" Martha pointed her smoke at Molly, "I start at the bar tomorrow afternoon so ya'll need to keep this house runnin'."

"Yeah I know, s'pose I'll need to get a job as well."

"I'd prefer it if you went back to school Molly."

This topic had been a sticking point in their relationship recently. After Lenard died Martha hit the drink, Molly did too. She dropped out of school, spent all her time hanging around with guys and ended up getting into a few hairy situations. When they found out Molly was pregnant they kind of came to their senses. Martha set plans in motion to move to Tulsa and wanted Molly to go back to school. Molly figured she'd already missed enough school and it was pointless going back.

"Mom there'll be no point, I'll be put into senior year and I won't be able to keep up-"

"You need to think about Dale and how you're gunna look after him long term."

"You managed just fine with us."

"Yeah totally." Martha rolled her eyes and got up. "Just finish unpacking, you'll needa put him down soon."

"Whatever." Molly muttered under her breath as Martha made her way inside. Molly had a long night ahead of her, unpacking, cooking, and looking after Dale, but she was kind of excited to go looking for a job tomorrow.

-:-:-:-

The door to his bedroom opened, letting in the light he'd spent all morning trying to ignore.

"What?!" He rolled over in his bed, shoving a pillow across his face.

"Dally, we need to talk."

"Fuck off kid." Dallas didn't remove the pillow from his face. He didn't want to see the kid, not after everything. After all he had spent the last month avoiding the gang. The rest of the boys understood and left him to it. Ponyboy on the other hand was persistent. Dally couldn't figure out whether it was guilt or worry that led him to his door every few days, he figured probably a mix of both.

"This time I ain't goin'." Dally could hear Ponyboy shut the door and make his way over to the bed.

"I don't care what you do kid but you ain't comin' in my bed." Dallas finally pulled the pillow off his face and sat up. Pony looked drawn and sick, but he was dressed in his good suit.

The court case was today.

Pony sat on the chair across from Dal's bed. The two boys sat in silence for a moment until the older of the two couldn't take it anymore.

"Well?..."

"Oh, Soda, Darry and I are allowed to stay together. They figured my involvement in everythin' was accidental. Pretty much blamed it all on…" Pony shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Johnny."

Dallas looked away. "Yeah, well… that's good I s'pose."

The pair sat in uncomfortable silence again, but Pony couldn't bear it for long, funny he thought seeing as usually he didn't mind being quiet.

"Dallas, come to the Dingo with me. The guys wanna see ya, we needa all face it apparently."

"I don't need to face shit." Pony knew not to push the older boy but this had gone on too long. Dallas didn't even go to Johnny's funeral. He'd been let out of prison the day before but he just went to Buck's and that's where he'd stayed since. Didn't work, didn't leave the building, barely left his room other than to get more booze. Everyone tried to come and get him, Soda had spent several nights down at Buck's trying to convince Dal to come over, Steve and Two-Bit took it in turns as well. Darry had tried convincing Dal to come to the funeral the day he got out, but he came home later that night and wouldn't say much, although the black eye he was sporting said enough. Pony came by every few days, but this was the longest he'd managed to stay without Dal throwing him out. Most he had talked too.

"I ain't no psychologist but I do know you're gunna go crazy stayin' in here much longer." Pony got up, he walked over to Dally's drawers and pulled out a clean-ish shirt, threw it at Dally and moved to the door. "You got 5 minutes." He stood out in the hallway, he could hear Dally mumbling curses under his breath but he did hear movement so his new forthright approach was having an effect.

A couple of minutes later Dally appeared at his door, wrinkled jeans and shirt and mussed up hair, but he was up. Dally slung his jacket on a followed Pony down the stairs, grabbing a packet of smokes off the hall dresser as they passed.

Pony noticed Dal struggling to light his smoke, he couldn't move his left arm up enough to light it. He eventually got it, scowling when he noticed Pony eyeing him.

"How's the arm?"

"Fine. We goin' to the Dingo or what?"

-:-:-:-

"Oh my gosh that is the fifth shop so far who don't have openings, I'm never gunna find a job." Molly flopped onto the bench next to her sister who was happily rolling the pram back and forward.

"Maybe you'll just have to go to back to school after all." Cindy grinned.

"No way. There's a diner over there I'll try, probably better hours available than a shop. Plus we can grab some lunch while we're there."

The girls made their way into the diner with Molly leading the way.

"Hi, is the manager available?"

The tall blonde behind the counter looked up from the pad she had been doodling on. "Sorry doll he's not in till tonight."

"Oh, can I leave a job application for him?"

"Are you fast?" The tall blonde eyed Molly. Making her self-conscious. Molly knew she was an attractive girl, both her and her sister had inherited their blue doe eyes and supple lips from their mom, but Molly was short, and curvy, more so since she'd had Dale. Not overweight but bigger than she used to be.

"Uh… sure."

With another eyeball the blonde, said on her name tag Patty, looked over to Cindy and Dale and back to Molly. "That your baby?"

Molly sighed inside, she knew this was where the judgement was going to come in. "Yeah he is."

"My daughter must only be a few months older than your little one." She cooed over the counter at Dale in is pram before looking back at Molly. "Leave me your name and number, we need a new waitress for a few evening shifts. I'll make sure we call you."

"Oh cool, thank you!" Molly could hardly contain her excitement. "We're gunna grab some lunch while we're here, that ok?"

"Yeah sure, grab a booth I'll be over in a moment."

The girls made their way to a booth by the window, next to some rather handsome guys coincidentally. The three guys were talking loudly, messing around with their fries, Molly caught them eyeing her as they walked past. She couldn't tell if they were looking at her, or the baby.

Patty made her way over with a couple of menus as she passed the boys booth one of them slapped her butt.

"Mind yourself there Two-Bit, I'll bar ya again if ya keep it up." She gave a giggle as she wagged her finger at him.

"Whatever doll, you know ya love it."

Patty passed the menus down. "Don't mind them, there just the local hoods." She gave an exaggerated nod to the three guys. "They're actually quite nice. You two new around here then?"

"Yeah we just moved up from Dallas yesterday."

The door bell chimed as two more boys made their way into the diner. Patty turned around to check out the new customers. "Speakin' of Dallas…"