A/N: Wow, it is about time! Ha, sorry guys! busy busy busy ... READ AND REVIEW PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

Chapter 10: Déjà Vu

"Soda!" I screamed without thinking, "Soda?"

"Pipe down Ponyboy" Darry demanded.

We were all silent, listening. The groan came again and we bolted in the direction. I got there first and slide to my knees right next to Soda like some kind of baseball player sliding into home plate. I examined him quickly and nearly shouted for joy when I saw he wasn't shot. But then my stomach turned over inside as I realized how torn up he was. Darry was beside me by now, holding Soda's head. His bottom lip was busted open and the blood coming from his nose mixed with the blood running down his chin from the cut. He right eye was messed up and already starting to swell up. There was blood in his wet hair and splattered on his clothes. He coughed and spit out red liquid on the grass.

"Danny –"

Darry tried to shush him but Soda just ignored the command, "Danny. We've got to find Danny."

"We will. You need to be quiet and rest little buddy. You're pretty banged up."

"It doesn't matter," Soda protested as he shakily rose to his feet, with the help of Darry and I, "we've got to find her, now. Believe me, she's worse off than me."

Worse off? , I thought. Did Danny get shot? My head was spinning. Not long ago I was sleeping and now the whole world seemed to be falling apart underneath us. As we ran off in the direction Soda lead, he explained what had happened.

Shortly after Soda and Danny split off, a group of Soc boys pulled up in one their tuff mustangs and had cut them off. They were drunk, and angry. One of them was the guy from the movie when we first met Danny and Jesse. That seemed like years ago, I had almost forgotten about him. He told Danny that he had been watching her and Jesse. He demanded to know why she would go with a greaser like Soda instead of someone like him, why she would choose to become one herself. He went on to call her every name in the book until Soda stepped in and told him to beat it. They were both scared, but neither of them showed it. Danny with her fierce eyes and Soda with his tough stance and jokes would have fooled anyone, except us of course. Soda was searching the area for a weapon or escape of some sort when one of them came up and smashed his face in, again and again. Danny belted the Soc on the back but they grabbed her and threw her down. Two of them held Soda back as the others tore and jabbed at Danny. He paused in the middle of the story and just stood there, "she never screamed", he murmured, "not once". She ordered them to get off of her and called them names but never screamed in fear. No matter how hard or how many times they kicked, punched, or spit on her, she just kept fighting. Courage, I thought to myself. Soda paused again, but this time didn't stop jogging. He said that the next thing was something the kid shouldn't hear. The kid? We all turned around to see Jesse following us, as if nothing had happened. Soda must've just figured we had found him. Steve was the first at him. He grabbed the boy by the shoulders and shook him real good.

"Where the hell were you, kid? What are you thinking being out here by yourself?"

"Nothing, I wasn't." He was scared. I had never seen Jesse scared. "My sister yelled at me about causing trouble and I felt bad is all. She never lets me alone so I snuck out to collect empty bottles and junk for cash. I just wanted to help." We were all quiet. No one knew what to say. "Were you talking about my sister just now? Do you know where she is? I went home after I couldn't find nothin' else but she wasn't there. I heard you guys out here and thought I could tag along. Soda, were you talking about my sister? What happened to her? Tell me!"

Soda didn't have to. Two-Bit was frozen, with a look I had never seen his eyes, worse than when he saw Johnny beat up that time, even worse than when he saw Dallas get killed. I turned with the others to see what he was staring at and I think my eyes did the same thing. I'd seen lots of guys beat up and bloody before, lots. I'd seen my own brothers torn up real bad but nothing had ever hit me like this. Seeing a girl beat up is just different. She was slumped over on her right side, eerily still. The streetlights in the distance made it so I could just make out the red stain pattern covering the grass and the drag marks in the mud, the mud now covering Danny's shoes and knees. Soda was already by her side, holding back tears. As he began to gently roll her over, his face became more disfigured than it already was at what he saw and he looked up just in time to see Jesse running towards him. Soda quickly hollered for him to stay back. By now, Jesse was screaming and crying at the same time and clawing at his sister as Darry held him back. He screeched and fought for Darry to let go of him so that he could see Danny. Darry's strong arms just squeezed tighter, almost into a hug.

"Get him back!" Soda ordered, "Get the kid out of here, now! Someone, get him away!"

"Steve," Darry commanded, "take him home and keep him there for now," Steve was ashen and blank and didn't respond. "Steve! Take him home, now! We'll call you!"

Steve snapped out of his trance and grabbed Jesse in the same lock Darry had held him in and wrestled him out of the lot. When Jesse was out of sight range, Soda gingerly pushed Danny all the way on her back and we all realized why Jesse had to leave. I wanted to leave too. I couldn't tell if I was going to run, get sick, or scream. Her face was covered with tiny gashes and the blood stained tree next to her revealed why. Bruises were already forming underneath a few of the deeper cuts. Her shirt was ripped open at the collar and her bra was exposed. As I traced her wounds lower I could see a deep pool of red at her lower stomach, almost reaching her side. It was pumping fast and flooded the area.

Danny Hill had been shot.