Disclaimer: I don't own any of it.
HARAGH! Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! Your reviews most definitely make me want to update more often *HintHint*! I'd also like to thank Artemis, who on vacation had to put up with the huge crap lode of stalkerish e-mails I sent her, telling her to edit.... If I were her I wouldn't have edited.... But, Artemis was nice and edited for me anyways.... Thank you.
This chapter is in Pony's POV.
I felt my body begin to warm up. and I became aware that I was surrounded by liquid. My eyelids feel heavy and I have to fight to try to get them open. They refuse to obey, no matter how hard I try.
I am vaguely aware of my surroundings. I know I am at home, and I'm guessing the warm liquid I'm sitting in is ... a bath?
I feel someone pull me from the tub and wrap a towel around me. They begin to walk with me in their arms. I someone else tries to pull the soft fabric that could only be a pair of worn sweat pants over my legs, and I try to help by wiggling my legs when need be. I feel throbbing pain, as though someone did something to my chest, and I know that my wounds were beginning treatment. I can hear a soft murmur, but don't understand what was being said. Suddenly, I feel something poke through my skin. I feel like weights have been suddenly lifted off my eyelids in the shock of what just happened, and my eyes pop open. I can see that Darry had stuck a sewing needle into my chest.
"Stop! What are you doing? That hurts, Darry!"I cry out in a hoarse voice as I try to move away, despite my sore body.
"You need to get this stitched up, little buddy. Stop moving so much." Darry tells me. I let out a pitiful whimper but tried to become as still as possible, in the vain hope that would somehow make him finish faster. "Now that you're awake, we could give you some aspirin if you want. It might help with some of the pain." He offers.
I nod as best I can, anything that could take away at least a little pain sounded good to me right now. I heard someone leave the room but, couldn't who from where I was laying. Moments later Soda enters the room and came up beside me with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin.
"Just hold on one second, Pony. Let Darry finish with your stitches and then I'll give you some aspirin to make the pain go away," He tells me in a soothing voice as he smoothed my hair away from my face. I felt one last tug at my chest and some gauze was taped over the stitches. "We're going to sit you up so you can take the aspirin, okay, little buddy?" Soda tells me as he grabbed my pillow. At the same time, Darry slid his arms behind my back and slowly started to help me into sitting position. Soda puts my pillow in back of me for support, proceeding to place the aspirin tablets on my tongue before putting the glass of water to my lips and tilting it upwards.
"Where's Johnny? Is he alright?" I asked. After all, he had been jumped too, and I was worried because I didn't see him around.
"Don't worry, he's in the living room. He wasn't hurt really badly and the wounds he does have, Darry and Dally have already treated," Soda tells me. "You need to get some rest, Pony, You can see Johnny when you wake up."
I am already slipping into deep slumber, though, and my eyelids suddenly become heavy again, and close shut.
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When I wake, dim light is streaming through the window and Soda is fast asleep with his mouth hanging open by my side. I feel light-headed and cold. Shivering, I realize I don't have a shirt on, and I pull the covers up to my chin. Suddenly, I feel hot and take them off. As soon as I do this, I freeze once again.
I sigh.
I just can't win, can I? I think to myself as I cover my body once again, this time with just the thinnest of the sheets. I feel barely comfortable when coughs erupt from my throat, hurting my cut-up chest with the movement it causes. I sit up and instinctively place a hand over my mouth as the coughing fit continues. I must have woken up poor Soda because he begins to gently rub my back.
"Do you want me to get you something to drink? It might soothe your throat," He offers, rubbing my back in a slow, soothing, rhythmic motion. I opened my mouth to speak when nausea hits me. I clasp a hand over my mouth and Soda takes this as a hint to what was happening.
He grabs the trash can and hands it handing it to me. I empty my stomach. Soda takes the can from me and hands me a tissue to wipe my mouth with.
"Thanks," I croak, bursting into another coughing fit. The noise I had made must have woken somebody up-- more than one, I guess, due to the fact that I hear multiple pairs of feet against the floor.
Someone opens the door. Darry and Steve come in, and shortly after Two-Bit follows in, carrying a glass of juice. He hands me the glass and I take a large gulp of juice before putting it on the night table beside me.
I realize that this had probably not been the best move on my behalf, as a fresh wave of nausea hit me, making my stomach churn.
"You okay Pone?" Darry asks, kneeling down beside the bed. The only response he got was me grabbing the trash can from Soda and barfing the little amount of juice I had drank, followed by a bunch of dry heaves.
"I take it your feeling pretty crappy, then?" Steve piped up, trying to lighten the mood.
I start to feel incredibly hot, and I rip the thin bed sheet off my body. Darry reaches over and feels my forehead.
"Gee, Pony. You're burning up, lemme take your temperature," Darry says, holding a thermometer that he must have had in his hand. Before I can respond he pops the thermometer into my mouth. Two-Bit and Steve had silently left the room, probably realizing they were getting in the way. That, or they wanted to guarantee they wouldn't the ones cleaning out the trash can.
Darry finally takes the thermometer out of my mouth and frowns as he read it.
"Your temperature is way up, little buddy. We should probably try to find a way to bring it down," He tells me, just as I begin to freeze once again, shivering I grab all the blankets and pull them up to my chin.
"Hey! Were you not listening to me, we have to bring your temperature down, not up!" Darry laughs.
"But I'm freeeezing!" I complain, pulling the sheets up further.
"No, that's just the fever tricking you into thinking that!" He argues back.
By this time, Soda had left the room, not wanting to hear us fight. Darry grabs the sheets from me trying pull them down, but I held onto them fighting to keep them up. "It'll be much worse if you don't cooperate, Ponyboy," I ignore his threat and continue holding on to my blankets. "That's it." He says, frustrated. He swoops down, picking me up in his strong arms.
"What are you doing!?" I yelp, startled. He ignores me and walks into the kitchen, grabbing some plastic bags off the counter. Darry sits me down and starts wrapping up my bad arm. "Darry, what are you doing?"
"Wrapping your arm so it doesn't get wet." He simply said. Finishing, he picked me back up and started carrying me down the hall. I noted that Steve, Soda and Two-Bit had went back to sleep; and that Dally and Johnny both asleep as well, had elected to stay the night, too.
"What for?" I asked nervously.
"You refused to bring down your temperature the easy way, so now we have to bring it down the hard way." We enter the bathroom and I realize what he meant. I try to escape from his grasp, but he holds on tighter and turns on the shower onto cold, stepping in with me.
"Noooooo! Stop! NO, Darry, let me out of this shower right now!" I start to freak out. I do not like this.
"What are ya doin', Darry?" A very grouchy Dally comes from the other side of the shower curtain. I feel kinda guilty when I realized that I had probably woken everyone up.
"I'm bring Ponyboy's temperature down," Darry tells him through the curtain.
"Huh, by the commotion he's making, you'd think you were trying to kill him." Dally says laughing.
"Dally, save me!" I call out in one last desperate attempt to save myself from the cold shower.
"Wow, he sounds pretty delusional, Dar. You may want to keep him in there for a little bit." He laughing as we walks out.
Yeah, love you too, Dally.
We stand there in the shower, and after a little bit I realize that I can't escape from Darry's grasp. I stop struggling.
The cool water begins to feel nice against my feverish skin and the soft pitter-patter sound the water made as it fell on Darry and I's bodies was soothing. My eyes closed and I felt myself succumb into a light slumber as I stood in the shower, leaning on Darry for support.
So that's the end of chapter 11! Hope you enjoed it, I'll update soon! Please Review!
Hey, it's Artemis. I'm really sorry for being a slow editor. And for not actually reprimanding Sam for the plot stuff. ... I'm just here for grammar xD