Disclaimer: Do I look like I own the movie/book? I'm still trying to remember if I actually read the book long ago, cause I honestly cannot remember (and the more I think about it the more I don't think so) since the movie was so good it's what I remember. And now after re-watching after years (I had forgotten about it until I came across it a few days ago) I love and appreciate it a lot more. Anyway, basic point: ownage honor belongs to SE Hinton.

A.N: Nothing to say...

Summary: Instead of cutting the Soc, what if Johnny had rushed with all his might back to get Ponyboy's brothers? Would they make it back in time to save Ponyboy from the Socs? Would Johnny forgive himself for leaving his best friend to fend for himself?

Chapter 4: Whose trip is it?

Johnny groaned lightly and slowly opened his eyes. He stared up at the ceiling lazily. He felt himself drifing...drifting on a sea of calmness. He felt so calm.

Too calm.

"Hey, kid, you awake?" came a voice.

Johnny shifted his eyes to find the source. He found Dallas grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Hey man", he said, "It's good to have you back."

Johnny blinked slowly almost owlishly.

"You still high on that stuff, Johnny?"

It took a moment before Johnny remembered how to open his mouth and speak. "Wha….?"

Dallas snickered. "Yep. Still high."

Johnny was slowly beginning to come down off the sedative as his brain began to work again. "Hey, where am I?" he asked looking around.

Dallas sobered and said, "Hospital." He paused before asking slowly, "What do you remember?"

Johnny looked back up at the ceiling. It took a moment before it came back. And when it did, tears began to fill his eyes.

"Hey, hey, calm down. Calm down." Dallas did not want to go through this again. He was hoping to stop it before it start, "Ponyboy is gonna be fine. Do you hear me?" Dallas said standing up from his seat next to the bed to stare down at Johnny.

"What?" Johnny asked after it took a moment sink in. He wasn't sure if he heard right.

"Ponyboy will be fine!" Dallas repeated, "Ponyboy. Will. Be. Fine." he enunciated.

"Seriously?" asked Johnny his eyes wide and hopeful.

"Yeah, man, seriously", Dallas smiled lightly, "It was a bit of a touch and go there for a moment I won't lie and Ponyboy hasn't awoken yet. They got him high on antibiotics but he'll be fine. You did good, kid." he gave Johnny a smirk.

Johnny was silent a moment digesting all the heard. Ponyboy was alive! Ponyboy was ALIVE! It kept ringing in his head. Ponyboy would be fine! The more he thought, the more the tears built in his eyes until suddenly they were overflowing and Johnny found himself crying. His hands flew up to this face covered his eyes.

"I said, Ponyboy's fine!" Dallas cried a little alarmed, "Why are you crying now? Calm down, man!"

"I'm just so glad that he's okay!" Johnny cried through his now relieved tears.

Dallas sighed. He couldn't take much more of this emotional roller coaster they've been on for the past several hours.

"I was so worried! I never would have forgiven myself if I didn't bring help in time. And then Ponyboy passed out and stopped breathing. I was so worried. I thought that I hadn't gotten help in time. I thought he had died and it woulda been my fault. Then I just remembered, I had a switchblade and I shoulda stayed and done something!" Johnny cried, his tears not ceasing.

Dallas fumbled for the button on the bed to lift the head up, during Johnny's talking. He was worried about him choking on his tears or something like that. This was getting out of hand; he needed to gete Johnny to calm down.

When he got Johnny's bed situated he said, "Look man, you've got to calm down. I've already managed to get two halfway off of their guilt trip, I'm hoping, I'm not letting you get far down the road on yours. Take a breathe and calm down!"

Johnny sniffted pitifully, lowering his hands to look at Dallas, "But….."

"No buts, kid!", Dallas snapped, "I don't want to hear it!"

Johnny sniffed again as Dallas softened his look, reaching a hand up. He lightly ruffled Johnny's hair. "You did good, Johnnycake. Even if you had stayed and tried to fight who knows what would have happened. Everything will be fine. Ponyboy will fine and then after he's okay we'll make sure the Socs get what's coming to them."

"Oh, Dally, please don't tell me you all are gonna track them down and beat them up."

"If need be."

"Fighting ain't no good. It's what got us here in the first place."

"I know, but if need be, I'll hunt them down and kill them."

.

.

.

And Johnny knew that Dallas meant that.

"Hey, you awake?" Two-bit asked sticking his head in the room, "I heard voices before I got to the door."

"Hey, Two-bit!" Johnny smiled.

"Hey! Glad to see you up and around." Two-bit said walking into the room. He frowned, "You okay? You look like you been crying"

Johnny nodded and wiped his face, "Pony okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, he will be", Two-bit smiled, "Are you gonna be okay?" he asked again.

"If Pony does, yeah, I will too."

"Good."

Dallas sighed and sat back down in his seat, glad that Johnny seemed to have calmed down. It was a moment before Johnny asked them to tell him what happened after he passed out. So reluctantly they told him. Dallas knew that was practically giving Johnny a reason to guilt trip some more and sure enough he did.

"I'm so glad he's gonna be okay…but I can't help but to think what a close call we had. What if…."

"Oh my...handle this...", Dallas said with a growl to Two-bit, standing up abruptly, "I've gotta go drag Darry down here. I am not going through this again!"

He walked out the room, leaving Two-bit and Johnny to stare after him.

Johnny blinked, "What's wrong with Dal? Did I say something wrong?" he asked worriedly.

"Nah, kid, he's stressed", Two-bit reassured.

Dallas walked briskly to Ponyboy's room. He was so not up for the challenge of going through what he just went through not a scant hour ago. And besides if Johnny heard it from Ponyboy's brothers it might sink in longer than five minutes.

"Hey, Johnny's awake!" he said sticking his head into Ponyboy's room, "And Darry, talk to the kid, he's guilt tripping!"

"About what?" Darry asked incredulously standing up and walking out the door. Sodapop checked on Ponyboy once before following after his older brother. Steve brought up the rear.

Dallas growled. "We asked you the same thing."

"Well ours makes more sense", Sodapop said, "Johnny saved Ponyboy's life by coming to get us. He doesn't have anything to be guilty about."

"Then tell him that!" Dallas was getting aspirated over these morons. The trio didn't say anything more until they entered Johnny's room to see him with his head down. He lifted his head up when he heard them come in.

"Hey, Johnnycake….." Sodapop said with a smile as he took the seat that Dallas was previously occupying. Dallas himself was leaning on the door. Two-bit was standing by the window looking out.

"Hey", Johnny said trying to smile but failing.

"You okay, buddy?" Darry asked walking over to the other side of the bed and perched on the edge.

"Yeah…." Johnny's voice cracked.

"Quit lying", Steve said gently with a small smirk.

"Okay…no", Johnny said as a few stray tears slipped down his cheeks. He had made the mistake of thinking while Dallas was out and right now, that was very dangerous.

"What's wrong?" Sodapop asked.

Johnny shrugged.

"Aww, Johnnycake…" Sodapop stood sitting on the bed and wrapped his arm around the younger male, "Ponyboy will be okay."

"Yeah, I know…I'm so relieved", Johnny said his voice cracking.

"Then why are you crying?" Darry asked.

"I don't know…I was scared……and then……what if…."

"Uh-huh, we aren't going there! I just sat through this", Two-bit said shaking his head. He had no desire to go through this again. When would his friends get it through their heads? He resisted the urge to bang his head against the window or better yet bang their heads against the window.

Johnny started to protest, "But…."

"No", Darry said firmly making Johnny look at him, "Who knows what would have happened if something else was done?"

"I coulda stayed and fought. I just remembered a few minutes ago that I had my switchblade in my pocket. I hadn't remembered until then. Didn't even cross my mind."

"And I'm glad it didn't! You might have gotten hurt as well." Said Sodapop. He continued gentling his voice, "Both of you still could have. Two against several is not good odds. Who knows what could have happened? "

"I coulda run faster", Johnny said after a moment had passed.

"You pushed yourself to your limit. That is why you are currently in a hospital bed", Darry refuted, "Try again."

"Don't tell him that! Johnny'll take it literally!" Dallas cried pushing off the door frame.

And take it literally he did as he came up with something else, "I could have sent Ponyboy back home instead of going to the park with him or just convinced him to stay at the lot until he cooled off."

"See! What did I tell you morons?" Dallas growled as he throw his arms up before leaning back in the doorway looking out into the hallways. Two-bit sighed and Steve rubbed his temple.

"Doesn't matter, as a peeved friend of ours said, what happened, happened, so we gotta deal with it." Darry said ignoring Dallas. Dallas did look back into the room with a raised eyebrow. Guess something did sink into his brain.

"Yeah, it could have been worse, but thank God it wasn't. What matters is that both of you will be okay.", Sodapop said with a glance in Dallas' direction as he hugged Johnny.

"Either way you slice it, you have nothing to be guilty about. In fact, we owe you one." Darry said.

Johnny blushed and looked at his hands, "You don't owe anything."

"Yeah, we do and I'm sure Ponyboy would say the same. So thank you…really…thank you", Sodapop said his own eyes getting misty again. He had not moved his arm from around Johnny's shoulders.

"Yeah, thank you", Darry said his voice cracking lightly.

Dallas sighed and rubbed his temple, "So you people done guilt tripping now?"

"I want it to be known, that I was not guilt-tripping", Steve said raising his hand, "And I still want to go beat up those Socs."

Two-bit raised his own hand as he moved from the window to the door, "Nor was I and if there is a beat down scheduled, I want in on it."

Him and Steve exchanged high-fives and a whoop of agreement. Sodapop and Darry rolled their eyes. Johnny just sighed.

Dallas growled lightly with a roll of his own eyes. "You two know I wasn't talking to you guys."

"Hey, you said, 'you people' that includes all in the room", Two-bit argued.

"Alright, seriously, the next one to say a word, I swear I will start swinging."

Silence and then...

.

.

.

"Word."

Dallas reacted his arm stretching out to punch Two-bit but Two-bit having anticipated that ducked out of the way and pushed Steve between him and Dallas. This made everyone but Dallas chuckle who was muttering choice words under his breath.

"So. Who else was guilt tripping?" Johnny asked curiously. He felt he had a valid reason to guilt trip.

Dallas looked pointly at the Curtis' brothers.

"Uh. Why?" Johnny asked looking between the two, not seeing any reason for them to do so.

"I am so not sticking around for this…" said Dallas as he turned on his heel to walk away.

"Hey, you gonna come back?" asked Johnny leaning forward slightly.

Dallas grunted. "I need a smoke."

This was way too much action for Dallas' tastes. More like not the type of action that Dallas liked.

"Soooo", Johnny drawled after Dallas disappeared, "How bad did you guys piss him off?" he asked.

"Oh…bad", Sodapop answered with a small chuckle.

"How bad?"

"You do not what to know", said Darry with a small chuckle.

"And do not make the mistake of asking", Steve said.

"I think I already made that 'mistake'" said Johnny.

Two-bit laughed.

TBC…