A/N: Hey guys! Here's chapter 10! I hope you like it! I'll try to update chapter eleven as soon as possible! :) Thank you for all the favorites and follows and reviews! Feel free to leave a review letting me know what you think! Big love! Stay gold. 3

XxX

*Pony's POV*

It was just before five in the morning when I was awoken by an apocalyptic pain in my chest. My chest felt like it was on fire, and no matter how deeply I tried to breathe, I didn't seem to be able to get air into my lungs. I felt like I was suffocating, like a heavy weight was on my chest, preventing me from inhaling at all.

Adrenaline was rushing through my veins. Something was wrong. Really wrong. I tried screaming to wake my brothers up, but no sound came out of my mouth. The pain was deafening. I extended my left arm and slapped my Soda's back repeatedly to wake him up. He woke up with a start.

"What's wrong, Pone?" I heard him ask.

I tried to say that I couldn't breathe, but I could barely articulate. A choked sound came out from my throat as I sat up and doubled over, one hand on my chest and another on my throat in an attempt to dull the pain. My lungs burned for oxygen that I somehow couldn't provide.

"DARRY!" I heard Soda scream next to me. "DARRY, GET IN HERE!"

I heard Darry stumble out of his bedroom as fast as he could and suddenly, the room was flooded with light. The tips of my fingers were tingling and I glanced down at them in my sheer panic to see that they were blue. I started coughing, which only impossibly intensified the pain in my chest. I tried taking deep breaths, but nothing was working.

"His lips are blue, Dar," I heard Soda say.

"I know. We're going to the hospital," I heard Darry answer. I had never hurt this bad in my entire life.

They told each other something else but I was coughing so loudly I didn't hear anything. Darry left and came back seconds later with a pair of pants on. Soda was wearing one too. Soda grabbed a pair of sweatpants from our drawer as Darry picked me up and off the bed. I was starting to see spots. I felt like I was breathing out of a straw.

Darry drove while I lay in the back of the car, my head in Soda's lap. Soda had managed to put the sweatpants he was holding on me before we got to the hospital. Darry sped through the city, the traffic non-existent at this time of the night as I hyperventilated, trying desperately to get air into my burning chest. I kicked the seat in front of me, trying to get Darry to hurry up. I was completely and utterly panicked.

When we got to the hospital, Darry picked me up again and ran with me in his arms in the parking lot, the cold night air contrasting with my burning chest and hot skin. Suddenly, the air got warmer and bright lights illuminated the room I was in. Darry screamed for help and seconds later, my brother set me down on a stretcher, brought in by two nurses. I tried rolling onto my side in an attempt to find air but hands held me firmly on my back. I saw the lights on the ceiling move as the stretcher was being pushed by my brothers and the nurses somewhere I didn't know.

"Sir, you can't go past these doors," I heard one of the nurses say.

I looked at my brothers and let out a small whimper as they let go of the stretcher.

"You're gonna be okay, Pone, we'll be right here waiting for you," I heard Soda say. My vision was starting to go black around the edges.

"Is there anything we should know about his condition?" the nurse asked.

"He's had pneumonia since last Friday, he's being followed by Dr. Walter Miller. He's deathly afraid of needles," Darry enumerated.

"We really must take him in, now," I heard the other nurse say just as my eyes rolled back and darkness surrounded me.

XxX

*Darry's POV*

Soda and I were both anxiously waiting for news about our baby brother. It had been an hour now and I had decided that I would call both the doctor and the gang sometime during the day to inform them of what was going on. It was still dark outside, the waiting room was pretty much empty and Soda was fighting sleep next to me, smoking on a cigarette to settle his nerves. A girl on the radio was whining about her cheating boyfriend. My knee had been bouncing nervously for about half an hour when a doctor wearing it's usual lab coat walked into the room.

"Ponyboy Curtis?" he called. Soda and I both stood up abruptly and walked over to the doctor.

"I'm Dr. Watson, Ponyboy will be my patient during his stay here," the doctor said. "Are you members of the family?"

"I'm Darrel Curtis, Ponyboy's legal guardian, and this is our brother, Sodapop," I answered, shaking the doctor's hand.

"Alright, well, we've managed to stabilize Ponyboy's condition," the doctor explained. "His lungs were filled with liquid, which explains the under-oxygenation and his inability to breathe properly. It's a common complication of pneumonia. You'll be able to see him now, follow me."

We followed him up a flight of stairs and through a hallway, then another. Finally, we stopped in front of a room.

"I have to warn you, before we go in, that this could be a bit of a shock," the doctor warned. My heart skipped a beat. What was he talking about?

"We've put in a chest tube to suck out the liquid from his lungs. He also is attached to five IV's, one for hydration, one for feeding, one for sedatives, one for pain killers and one for antibiotics to fight the bacteria in his bloodstream. We've put him on a ventilator to provide him with oxygen, which is why we need to keep him sedated. As soon as about 50% of the fluids are drained, we'll be able to switch him to an oxygen mask, but it's much safer to have him on a ventilator for now. Due to his fear of needles, we've put restraints on his wrists, but if he is able to control himself, we'll take them off as soon as he wakes up."

I gulped. Restraints. I knew instantly that Ponyboy was gonna flip out when he woke up. The doctor let us in and the sight was heartbreaking. Ponyboy was as pale as the bed sheets. A big blue tube was shoved down his throat and taped around his mouth, his chest rising at an even, mechanical pace. He was wearing a clean hospital gown, and a tube attached to a container was disappearing into the collar of his gown, the container slowly filling with a weird, amber liquid. His hands and forearms were all connected to IV's, all five of them securely taped in place on the young boy's skin. The most heartbreaking part was the restraints on his wrists. All padded with soft wool on the inside, but rigid leather on the outside.

I sank into a chair, resting my hand on Ponyboy's forearm, stroking my brother's skin softly as Soda did the same on the other side, wondering how in the world this escalated so quickly.

XxX

The rest of the day went by agonizingly slow. Ponyboy was heavily sedated and he didn't wake up, or even stir, even when the nurses came and took his temperature. I had called Dr. Miller to inform him of the situation and then called Two-Bit and Steve. They had come over immediately and had tried to come into the room, but the doctor stipulated firmly that it was family only, since Ponyboy was considered a critical case, so Steve and Two-Bit contended themselves with hanging out in the closest waiting room, smoking one cigarette after another, Soda or me occasionally giving them updates on Pony's case. Around mid-afternoon, Dr. Watson had come back into the room and had switched the ventilator with an oxygen mask, which was already a huge relief, because he was also able to take him off the sedatives, which meant Pony was gonna wake up soon.

It took a whole hour for the sedatives to wear off. Ponyboy was lying completely still, his only sign of life shown by the mist forming into the oxygen mask every time he exhaled. Then, all of a sudden, he drew in a breath sharper than the others. His eyebrows furrowed slightly. He stretched slowly and let out a small groan.

"Pony?" Soda called, squeezing Pony's arm softly.

Pony stirred again and his eyes finally fluttered open. He blearily scanned the room around him, still kinda out of it from the sedatives.

"Good morning," Soda greeted, smiling at Pony and brushing his hair back.

"Wha- happened?" Pony mumbled, his voice coming out muffled through the oxygen mask.

"You had fluids in your lungs, Pony, which is why you couldn't breathe right. We took you to the hospital and now the doctor's gonna get you fixed, alright?" I said, but Ponyboy wasn't listening. His eyes had landed on what I dreaded him seeing. The IV's. Two on each arm. His eyes immediately widened. His first reflex was, as expected, to try and remove them from his arms, and that's when he noticed the restraints, keeping his arms from moving. I heard his breath pick up as he pulled at the restraints, whimpering.

"Ponyboy, calm down, they won't loosen up even if you pull on them," I said, placing my hand over the restraint to get him to stop pulling.

He looked at me, wide-eyed, sheer panic written all over his face. He shot me a questioning look, trying to understand what was happening, completely confused.

"Sorry, Pone, the doctor had to make sure you wouldn't remove your IV's. It's just a precaution, baby," I said, trying to be as reassuring as possible.

"Take the IV's out," he said, tears filling his eyes to the brim.

"We can't, Pone, they're gonna make you feel better," I answered, feeling my resolve breaking at how vulnerable he looked.

"Please," Pony whimpered, tears leaking out of his eyes. "Please take them out. I'll hold the pills down I swear…"

"Pony, the pills aren't powerful enough," Soda explained, brushing Pony's hair back softly.

"Please…" Pony repeated as he let out a small sob. He pulled at the restraints again, in vain. I felt my heart breaking, knowing that I was doing this for his own good, and knowing that there was nothing I could do about the restraints or the IV's.

"Do they hurt, Pony? Do you feel them?" Soda asked, motioning to the IV's.

Pony shook his head slowly.

"They're still there, though…" he said, letting out a quivering breath.

"Yeah, but they don't hurt, and they're never gonna hurt, ya dig?" I said as Sodapop used his thumb to brush Ponyboy's tears away from his cheeks. Ponyboy kept on crying.

"Can we take "em off now?" he said, pulling at the restraints for emphasis.

"Are you gonna try to take off your IV's?" I asked.

Ponyboy shook his head resignedly.

"You promise?" I asked.

Ponyboy nodded.

"Okay, well, I'll get the doctor and I'll see what I can do," I said before leaving the room. I came back merely minutes later with the doctor. Ponyboy had stopped crying but his eyes were still red and swollen.

"Hello Ponyboy, I'm Dr. Watson, I'll be taking care of you, okay? You'd like those restraints off?" Dr. Watson asked with a warm smile towards Ponyboy.

Pony nodded, fighting tears, slightly humiliated to have his arms pinned down.

"We can take them off, but you have to promise that you're not gonna pull out your IV's, okay? I understand that you don't like them, but this is really important if you wanna get better, okay?" the doctor explained.

Ponyboy nodded.

"Alright then," the doctor said. He proceeded to untie the restraints from Ponyboy's wrists and once they were off and he had checked the speed of the IV's, he left the room.

Ponyboy eventually calmed down and started getting used to the idea of the IV's. Soda talked to him a little bit, but you could tell that Pony was still exhausted and way out of it.

"Hey, go back to sleep, Pone, alright?" Soda told him, squeezing Pony's shoulder reassuringly. "We'll be right there when you wake up."

Ponyboy turned slightly to the side in his bed and, clutching to Soda's hand, he slowly fell asleep as I rubbed his back softly, thinking about how much things could change in just twenty-four hours.