Austin awoke suddenly as his brother started thrashing beside him, clipping Austin's jaw with his fist. Austin quickly tried to stop his brother's movements, as they were causing a lot of harm to his new wounds. He threw his arms around his brother's chest, pinning his arms to the bed. His brother was having a nightmare. Dallas had been having nightmares since he was little.
"Hey buddy, your okay. It's only a nightmare," Austin tried to soothe his brother's panic with soft words. Dallas started to calm down eventually while Austin softly rubbed circles on his brother's chest to calm him down. Ever since Dallas was little, he would have nightmares and Austin was usually there to calm him down. When Austin wasn't there, the nightmares got pretty intense; Dallas would sometimes wake himself up with his own screaming.
Austin rubbed his eyes tiredly and his jaw painfully. It was around seven-thirty and he was weak with hunger. Sure that his brother was past his nightmare he slipped from the bed and made his way over to the cafeteria to get some food. Both Dallas and Austin were used to going awhile without food, sometimes days. They had been very poor living at home and when they ran away it only got worse. He ate his food and grabbed some for later. He didn't bother grabbing anything for Dallas, knowing the nurses would do that.
On his way back he saw the Curtis'. He waved them over and took them to see Dallas. Dallas was getting the bandages on his ribs rewound but smiled big and said a heartfelt hello when he saw the Curtis'. The Curtis' were good friends to the twins. When they weren't out at the Ranch or at Buck's they were with the three brothers. Darry and Dallas got along real well, both the strong silent type, but Austin could tell no matter how much Darrel liked them, he didn't really like the twins around his younger brothers too much. Austin figured Darry was afraid they'd corrupt them or something. Sodapop and Austin got along real good. They were both life drunk, happy go lucky type guys. Both loved rodeo's, wrestling and most any sport. Ponyboy was Johnny's friend, so they put up with him. He was the baby, everyone doted on him and they all knew he was going to make something of himself. Austin guessed that's why they resented him a little, that and his smart mouth. Austin strolled further into the room, with Soda beside him. Darry asked Dallas how he was and Pony just stood near the door.