Ok everyone, here is the next chapter. Thank you everybody for reading. Enjoy.

The doc showed up in the afternoon. He took a sample from my infected arm. He said that way they'll know what antibiotics I needed. In the meantime they hooked me up to antibiotic that was most likely needed in cases like this. He said they'll know by tomorrow what bacteria it is and even then it's not guaranteed it will respond to antibiotics 'cause lots of times it's resistant.

At six the whole gang showed up in my hospital room. Dally had told them what had happened, and they all showed up. The doc explained that they started antibiotics, but since it's been only a few hours it wasn't clear yet if the bacteria were responding to this antibiotic.

"When will it be clear?" Pony asked.

"Same time tomorrow." Pony squeezed my palm and said, "It's going to be ok Johnnycake. Hang in there." I nodded slightly, trying to suppress the pain.

"So how are they treatin' you?" Pony asked. I wanted to tell him that the doc is clearly looking down on me, but I didn't want to sound like a wuss. So I said, "Fine. They wouldn't give me painkillers though."

"How come?" Pony gasped.

"The doc said it's the same chemicals as heroin and since I'm trying to quit…" I trailed off.

"You told him you were shooting up heroin?" Dally piped in and by the tone of his voice I could tell that he didn't approve.

"Yeah, I had to. He knew anyways that I was shooting up. You saw how he looked at me." Dally shrugged and looked away.

"So how are you holdin' up?" Soda asked, "Are you able to tolerate the pain?"

"So far it's ok." I lied. The truth was the pain was killing me.

They stayed a while and then they were ready to leave.

"You need anything Johnny?" Pony asked.

"Not really, but maybe you can bring a book next time and read it to me or something to kill time, you know."

They left. I was in a lot of pain from my withdrawal, and the wound on my arm was hurting. I needed to throw up, but I was hooked up to the tubes with antibiotics. I pressed the button to call the nurse, but nobody showed up. I could hardly keep myself from throwing up. I kept pressing the button. Finally, somebody showed up – a different nurse, not the one that took care of me before. "Where's the fire?" she asked.

"I need to…" I could hardly keep myself from throwing up right there and then. She sensed that and took out the tubes from my veins.

"Let me know when you are done," she instructed, "I'll hook you back up."

The next day Pony and Two-Bit visited me after school. The others had to work. Pony brought the book just like I asked him to. He sat on the edge of my bed and started reading. It was short stories by Charles Dickens, and I liked it a whole lot.

I could see though that Two-Bit was bored. Sitting and reading was not his idea of spending time. Not even at the hospital. But he was trying not to show his boredom and sit through the reading for my sake. I felt kind of bad about that.

So I was listening to Pony reading, and I felt a little better. I was not concentrating on the pain, but on what Pony was reading. Then the doc showed up. Pony paled and squeezed my palm. He was staring at the doc, and it looked like he forgot how to blink. Needless to say I was apprehensive to hear what the doc had to say. He cleared his throat, and began.

"Well, the tests show that the bacteria are not responding to this antibiotic," Pony swallowed hard and got paler.

"We are going to start you Johnny on another antibiotic," the doc continued. "The nurse will be here to hook you up right away." He still talked like he was looking down on us, especially me for shooting up, but at least he was doing his job trying to help me get rid of this infection. "We will find the right antibiotic," he said, "even if it's after several tries."

"But in the meantime infection can spread," Pony managed to say.

"That's true," the doc nodded, "but we will act fast enough to prevent that from happening."

"So, tell me doc," Two-Bit said, "how long Johnny is going to stay here?"

"After we find the right antibiotic it should take about a week to get rid of the infection completely. I wish you sought medical help sooner."

I remembered him saying that they might have to amputate. I shuddered as I thought about that.

After the doc left, the nurse came in to hook me up to the new antibiotic. She asked the guys to wait outside while she was doing that. She also cleaned my wound again. That really hurt. After she was done, the guys came back. Pony sat on the edge of my bed again and kept reading. Two-Bit could hardly handle this anymore, I could tell.

"Hey Two-Bit," I said.

"Yeah, Johnnycake,"

"You don't have to stick around for my sake."

"What makes you say that Johnny?"

"It's just I dunno, I can see you are bored. You are not the reading type."

He looked at me hesitant, "You wouldn't mind if I left?" He asked slightly embarrassed.

"No, go ahead. I'll be fine. Pony you don't have to stick around either. I'm sure you have stuff to do and you have homework."

"No, I'll stay," Pony insisted, "the next story is going to be really good."

"Ok Johnny," Two-Bit said, "Get better. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Sure Two-Bit." And then he left.

Pony stayed for the rest of the day, and I was thankful. I was concentrating on what he was reading, and I almost forgot about my pain. Finally, it got dark and he had to go. "I'll see you tomorrow Johnny, get some sleep. You'll feel better in the morning." And with that he left. Get some sleep, I thought, that was easier said than done. One of the withdrawal symptoms was insomnia, and I tossed and turned in bed for hours before I could finally fall asleep.

The next day Pony and Two-Bit came at four - right after school, and Dal showed up a little later. Then Darry, Soda and Steve showed up at six, after work. The doc told us that this antibiotic was not working either, and they hooked me up to yet another one. Dally was mad I could tell. His eyes were glistening dangerously as the doc spoke.

"Damn it," he cursed after the doctor left, "is this a hospital or what? Even we could take better care of him."

"It's ok Dal," I tried to calm him down, while cringing in pain.

"How is it ok?" he slammed his fist against the wall. "How is it ok? They said the infection can spread to other parts of the body, yet they can't even find the damn antibiotic to treat it."

Pony looked down, and Darry and Soda had pained expressions on their faces. Even Two-Bit wasn't grinning, and his gray eyes were stormy. I felt like I had to say something to calm them down, to make them worry less, but all I kept hearing in my mind was "we might have to amputate," and I realized that the more time passed, the more likely it was that they would have to amputate. I was terrified of that.

Finally, when it got late, and the visiting hours were over they left, and I was left alone with my pain and my insomnia. At least I got less throwing up episodes than before, so I was hoping that I would feel much better soon.