Hello everyone, so here is the next chappie, hope you enjoy.

I do not own The Outsiders

The week was uneventful except for Johnny showing up with new bruises and scars. Dallas couldn't wait till the weekend so he could proceed with his plan. Finally, it was Saturday and Johnny stayed out of his house as always. He went to the Curtis. Everyone except Dallas was there. Dallas however, had different plans. He didn't tell anyone what he was doing. Just said he was busy, and nobody questioned him about it.

At twelve sharp Dallas was at Buck's. Tim and another guy were waiting for him.

"This is Alex," Tim introduced the other guy briefly. "Dallas." Dal nodded slightly.

"I know who you are." Alex responded. Dallas just took a drag on his cigarette coolly. Everybody knew who he was.

They got into Tim's car and drove to Johnny's house. They parked a little further, away from the house, so that Johnny's father wouldn't get suspicious seeing a strange car, and walked up to the house. Dal went to ring the bell, while the other two hid around the corner, once again to prevent Johnny's dad from suspecting anything.

Dallas rang the bell and ran around the corner, hoping Johnny's dad would come out looking for who it was. Sure enough Johnny's dad opened the door. Seeing nobody, he came out to the porch to see who it was. That's when all three attacked him. Dallas grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him to the yard. Johnny's dad was cursing badly and his speech was slurred - he was drunk.

Tim and Alex took turns hitting Johnny's dad in the stomach and in the ribs. Dallas kept holding him, preventing him from making any movement. They had him pinned against the wall and kept punching him with all their strength. They punched him in the stomach again then in the jaw and the nose. His nose started to bleed.

"So how does it feel? Now you'll know not to touch Johnny again," Dallas yelled. He wanted to take out his belt and give Johnny's dad a spanking just like he gave Johnny, but he let it go.

Finally, when Johnny's dad's face was bleeding all over, they stopped. He could hardly walk, and had to support himself by leaning against the wall as he walked.

"You better think twice before you touch Johnny again," Dallas yelled. To his surprise, Johnny's dad only laughed in response and cursed them out, after which Dallas delivered a few more blows in his jaw, and that seemed to shut him up. For now anyway.

They left Johnny's place satisfied by the outcome. They had accomplished exactly what they had set out to accomplish.

"Thanks, man," Dally said to Tim, shaking his hand. "You too." He shook Alex's hand next. Dallas hated going against Johnny's wishes, but he hoped that Johnny's dad would not touch him after this, and Johnny would realize that Dally did the right thing.

On Sunday night Johnny finally went home after staying away for the whole weekend. He usually did that – come home only to sleep and go to school in the morning, to stay out of the house as much as possible. So this Sunday, as usual, it was already 10:00 pm when he got home.

He was planning to go right to his room and go to bed. That was his routine every weekend. And it worked. It saved him from the beating. Today, however, was different. Johnny opened the door and was going to go through the living room and into his room, but his dad was standing in the hallway blocking his way. "You little shit," his dad's voice roared, "you come here now!" His belt was already in his hand. Johnny looked at his dad's black eye and swollen lip and he put it together right away. He realized what Dallas had done. He also realized that he was going to get it now worse than he ever gotten it before.

"Come here." Johnny's dad voce roared again. He grabbed Johnny and started hitting him with the belt. He hit him on the back and shoulders too. Then he punched him in the stomach, and when Johnny doubled over in pain he punched his back. Johnny felt like he wanted to punch him back, but he knew that would only make his dad madder and he would only hit him harder so Johnny didn't punch back. Johnny's dad hit him in the stomach again and he doubled over in pain again, at that moment his dad grabbed an empty beer bottle, since there were empty beer bottles everywhere, and he hit Johnny on the head with it. There was a noise as the glass broke against Johnny's head and the sharp edge that was still in Johnny's dad's hand cut through Johnny's head, leaving a huge bleeding gash.

Finally, his dad shoved him, so Johnny fell on the floor. Then his dad started kicking him with his feet. "You think you are going to send some of your hoodlums here to beat me up? You think I care about that? You little shit," he yelled, kicking Johnny with his feet with all his strength.

After he beat Johnny almost unconscious, he stopped and went to the room, giving Johnny one last look of complete disgust, like Johnny was the lowest scum on earth.

Johnny was laying there on the floor biting his lip and cringing in pain. He was trying hard to prevent tears from spilling from his eyes. He realized what Dal had done and he wished he hadn't done that. Didn't he tell Dallas that it would be no use. However, he couldn't be mad at Dallas. He realized why he did what he did. It actually felt kind of nice to know that Dallas cared enough about Johnny to go through with something like this. Johnny smiled to himself in spite of the pain. His hero, the one he looked up to cared about him. Then he forced himself to get up and wobbled to his room.

The next day Dal went to the Curtis and everyone was there except for Johnny. Two-Bit told Dallas that Johnny didn't come to school. Dal took it as a bad sign. He remembered that Johnny had said he didn't think beating up his dad would help, but only make things worse. He was worried that that's what had happened. On the other hand, he thought that the message to his dad was clear - they would beat him up again if he ever touched Johnny again, but that was a bluff. They couldn't actually go and beat up Johnny's father each and every time he beat Johnny. That would be too much. So Dallas was really worried if he made it worse for Johnny.

So, Dallas, Ponyboy and Two-Bit decided to go to Johnny's house to see if he was there and if he was hurt. Dallas told them about beating Johnny's father, and they seemed to approve. They felt for a long time that something had to be done. Dallas hated coming back to Johnny's house after what had happened, but he had no choice. He had to find Johnny and see if he was hurt.

They approached Johnny's house and rang the bell.

"Who the hell is it?" They heard Johnny's mother yell. "We are not expecting visitors." Then they heard footsteps approaching the door. Johnny's mother opened the door, but only a crack. Just enough to stick her head out. "What do you hoodlums want?" she hissed with disdain.

"Is Johnny here?" Ponyboy asked, "we need to see him."

"You don't say," Johnny's mother smirked. "The little shit's not here, so beat it." She slammed the door.

"Let's check the lot," Dally suggested. On the way to the lot, they passed by the park.

There were kids playing ball and jump rope. Happy kids, Dallas thought, kids that can enjoy their childhood, kids that are not beaten up by their parents, kids that are not afraid that every moment of their life they can be clobbered with the belt.

As they expected Johnny was at the lot. It was already dark and he started a fire, so they could see his face clearly, as the light from the fire illuminated it. They could clearly see a black eye and a busted lip and blood smudged all over the face as if he tried to wipe it off with the back of his hand or with his sleeve and just smudged it. It was chilly out, and he was wearing only a t-shirt. That must be why he started that fire.

He wasn't wearing long sleeves. Probably didn't get a chance to put his jacket on before getting out of the house. This way the marks on his arms were clearly seen. Old scars and marks from previous beatings, and fresh ones from the current one.

Johnny was just sitting there, his head in his hands. It was no point asking him what had happened, because that was quite obvious. Ponyboy came up closer to him, and put his hand on his shoulder. Johnny flinched. It was just a reflex.

"Sorry, man," Pony said. "That bad, huh?" he added. Johnny nodded without looking up, then he looked up, and there was this look of despair, defeat in his eyes. His eyes were red like he had been crying, but he wasn't crying now. Dallas noticed that Johnny's hands were trembling.

Then Two-Bit came up to him and patted his hand. "C'mon, Johnny, it's going to be ok."

"Ok?" he asked. "How can this ever be ok? What have I done to deserve it?" He sounded really bitter.

"Nothing, of course. Of course you did nothing," Ponyboy said, "but bad things happen even to good people sometimes." He stopped talking then, because she realized there was nothing he could say to make this better.

Pony stood a little to the side, and he was pissed off. At Johnny's parents, of course. Now that even beating Johnny's father didn't help, but actually made it even worse, he felt like there was nothing they could do to help Johnny get out of this horrible pain that his parents were putting him through.

"Alright," he finally said, "let's go. We've got to clean up your cuts. You are staying at my house tonight. Can you walk ok?" Johnny nodded. They put out the fire, and started walking towards the Curtis house.

As they were cleaning up Johnny's wounds, he cringed, but remained silent as the iodine made contact with the wounds. Darry cleaned up the face and the visible wounds on Johnny's arms. He also cleaned up and bandaged up the gash on Johnny's head.

Everybody watched in shock and in silence as Johnny took his shirt off revealing the bloody mess and bruises on his back and his chest. Dallas tried not to show his shock for Johnny's sake. Truth be told Dally felt awful. He felt like it was his fault. Johnny had told him not to beat up his dad, but Dallas thought he knew better, and decided to beat him up anyway. He really thought Johnny's dad would stop after that. Apparently, he couldn't be more wrong. Dally felt like he had to say something, but his pride stopped him from apologizing. Finally he cleared his throat and said, "I didn't mean to kid, I thought he'd really stop after the damage we caused."

"It's fine" Johnny replied, "I ain't mad or anything. Just one more beating no big deal". Dally just looked away. He hated being so helpless. He wished desperately there was something he could do, but there was nothing, absolutely nothing and it drove him mad.

Darry gave Johnny a clean shirt. It had long sleeves, and Johnny was glad that Darry was smart enough to know how Johnny felt about others seeing his wounds and scars.

The next morning Johnny woke up pretty early. He looked at his surroundings as the events from the previous night flooded his mind. His whole body felt sore.

Johnny walked into the kitchen, and saw that Darry was already up, and he was making pancakes. "Morning," he greeted, "did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, sure," He looked at the pile of freshly made pancakes on a big plate. He smelled the aroma, and felt jealous. Why couldn't his family be like that? But his family wasn't like that, and nobody was making pancakes at Johnny's house.

There was an awkward silence, but then Ponyboy walked into the kitchen. "Morning," he greeted, while rubbing his eyes.

"I better go now. Thanks for everything," Johnny said quickly.

"Oh, no you are not going anywhere. You are staying for breakfast. Then we'll walk to school together" Ponyboy said.