Okay, longest chapter here. Just because there's a lot happening in this one. I know that it probably seems rushed, but if I split it up between two chapters then they would be real short. I'm kinda sad right now, because there's only one more chapter left of this story, but I still had a great time writing it. Again, I am thanking alley529 for reviewing. You keep saying I don't have to, but your reviews kept me motivated.

I do not own The Outsiders.

Alex lived with us for a week, and it wasn't that different from just the three of us. She made sure to keep all her things in her bag so we were never tripping over a pair of jeans. She did her own laundry instead of throwing her stuff in with ours, but she only did them once because it took her a while to get that much dirty laundry. We discovered that she didn't eat as much as we did so Darry only had to make a little bit extra than usual for her. She took her showers at night so that she wouldn't be interfering with everything we did in the morning and her shampoo and soap were never in the bathroom, always in her bag. Alex would help out with all the chores when she could, even helping Darry make dinner and helping Soda and I do that dishes in the same night. We would only get surprised when we saw her sleeping on the couch every morning because we kept thinking it was one of the guys. In the morning we would walk to school, and she tensed up less and less every time we passed her house. Her brothers surprisingly only bothered us the first day, after that they left us alone.

The gang welcomed her back, well almost. Two-Bit never had a problem with her, so he just acted the way he normally did. When Steve heard about what Jim did, he warmed up to Alex a bit more. He was still annoyed and didn't trust her as much anymore, but he didn't hate her any more than he did me. Dally still didn't like her and they usually got into some sort of argument when we all met up, but he never said anything about Jim. Whether that was because he didn't think it was fair or because he felt sorry for her, I never knew.

Johnny welcomed her back almost as well as Two-Bit, and that was what Alex wanted more than anything. She was afraid that Johnny would hate her as much as Dally did, because he was the one her brothers jumped. She thought she would never be able to rebuild trust with him. But he surprised all of us when he said that he understood how bad she felt and he knew that she wasn't to blame for what her brothers did. He also sympathized with her because he knew what she went through with Jim, even though what his dad did was much worse he still felt bad for her.

She liked that a lot, but she did notice that Johnny would tense up just a bit when she came around. The first time she saw that, she sighed and whispered to me, "I don't think that'll ever go away."

On Friday, Alex and I were walking back from school, both happy that we didn't have any homework for the weekend. We rounded the corner and walked up the steps, Alex's shoe catching on the last one. I laughed a little and she threw a glare at me.

"Shut up Pony, I've seen you trip on that step more than five times." She sounded annoyed, but she was smiling too. I opened the door and stopped dead in my tracks, making Alex bump into me. "You gonna move or do I have to help?" Then she looked over my shoulder and I noticed her eyes widen.

Darry sat in his chair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Soda was sitting on the couch in the same position, head turned to the person sitting next to him with a look on his face that was caught between sympathy and happiness.

Julie turned when she heard her daughter's voice.

I somehow moved out of the way in time before Alex rushed in. Julie stood up just in time to catch her. I closed the door and stood by Darry. I tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. "What's going on?"

Darry looked up, a smile growing on his face. "Julie has something she wants to tell Alex."

Alex let go and looked back at us, then at her mom. "What do you want to tell me?"

Julie smiled brightly. "Sit down honey." Alex sat down on the couch next to Soda and Julie sat next to her, taking her hands. "Alex, he's gone."

Alex just stared at Julie, wide-eyed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, when I told him that you wouldn't come back unless he left, he was furious to say the least. He said that he refused to be run out of his own house by an ungrateful daughter and a mother who couldn't control her." Julie paused for a moment, her head hanging in shame.

"Momma, what did he call you?" Alex asked, reading Julie's mind.

Julie sniffed and quickly wiped away the tears that hadn't the chance to spill over. "It's not worth repeating, honey. And I will shed no more tears over that man. He's a bastard. Anyway, two days ago, he got a promotion at his job, a real big one. He looked me right in the eye and told me that he was leaving because he stopped loving me years ago, when I gave birth to you and couldn't give him another 'perfect son' in his words. He packed all of his things, which didn't amount to much, and left with Brian and Tyler. I got a call this morning from a divorce lawyer. He's gone Alex, and so are your brothers," Julie said with a smile.

Alex was speechless. Her eyes were huge and her mouth was hanging open in disbelief, and she was frozen. She was silent as she took it all in. I had to take it in too. It was great for her, she didn't have to worry about Jim hurting her anymore and her jackass brothers wouldn't bug her either. I felt nothing but absolute joy for Alex, and I could only hope that was what she felt too. I couldn't really tell for a few minutes. When she finally did move, she merely turned her head and looked at the floor. Her mouth barely moved and her voice was so tiny when she spoke again.

"He's really gone?"

Julie smiled again and nodded. "Yes sweetheart, he's really gone. And I am so sorry that I didn't do anything sooner. I realized too late that I should have and…" She never finished her sentence because Alex threw her arms around her mother's neck and started laughing. Julie hugged her back and laughed too. I felt myself smile at the scene. Darry stood up next to me, also smiling, and gave me a small slap on the back.

Alex pulled away from her mother and kept laughing. Soda laughed along with her, pulling her up so he could give her a big hug. He swung her around a bit, making her laugh harder. When he put her down she ran over and jumped on Darry, barely making him stumble, giving him a hug too. He let out a chuckle as he set her down. Then she tackled me with a hug, squeezing so tight I had a hard time taking a decent breath. Even so, I still hugged her back just as tightly, truly happy for her. I mean, even if Darry hollered at me all the time, it was nothing compared to getting hit and thrown around and I was glad that she was free of that.

Alex stepped back and looked at the three of us. "Thank you guys so much for everything." Then her face fell slightly and she turned back to Julie. "Wait Momma, are you gonna be able to make payments on your own? Will we have to move? Do I have to get a job?"

Julie laughed again and took her daughter's shoulders. "Calm down Alex. I never told you this, but it's really just been me making payments since we moved here. Jim used his money to take care of that ridiculous car of his and to buy things for the boys. He didn't contribute at all to the house or food. I think we'll be just fine." Alex gave her mother a big smile and hugged her again.

"Can I come home Momma?" I heard Alex whisper. I shook my head at her, thankful she couldn't see me do it.

"You don't have to ask sweetheart. Nothing would make me happier than to have my baby girl back." Alex stepped back and grabbed her bag from the end of the couch where it had been sitting the whole time. She walked back over to us to give us all one final hug.

As she stepped out of mine, she gave me a big smile and her eyes were sparkling. "Guess things are starting to look up."

I wish she had been right. Because after she moved back in with her mother, everything happened.

Alex had been with us in the park that night. She had been sitting on the fountain with her back to the Socs, doing her best to ignore them. To say I was surprised when I saw her brothers with Bob and Randy would have been an understatement. I had been about to tell her when Brian spoke up, saying that we had picked up our own slut. Alex had bitten the end off of her cigarette when she heard that and slowly turned around, earning shocked looks on her brothers' faces. Clearly they hadn't known that it was her.

But not even being their sister stopped them from jumping us. Then Johnny killed Bob.

Alex had gone up to Windrixville with us, torn apart that she had to leave Julie behind. But she knew she couldn't pull her mother into all of this. It had a hard week for all three of us and she kept up a touch exterior, but one night I woke up and I could hear her crying, whispering her mother's name every now and then. She was so happy when we got back; I knew we felt the same about seeing our family again, even if the situation was bittersweet.

It seemed like Alex took Johnny's and Dally's deaths pretty hard. I knew why she took Johnny's death so hard. Up in Windrixville she had finally regained Johnny's complete trust. He stopped being jumpy around her and he actually apologized for it all. She had looked so relieved and now I knew how hurt she was. It wasn't fair at all that she finally didn't make Johnny nervous anymore, only to have him get taken away so soon afterwards. I couldn't figure out why she took Dally's death so hard, because he still hated her the same when he died. I tried to ask her a few times, but she closed up and didn't say a thing.

Just like all that changed me, it changed her too. She still acted tough like she used to, but if I looked real closely at her eyes I could see those ghosts swimming around behind the hardness. She spent a lot of time around us now; hang out with us as long as she could after school and on Saturdays. She never left the house on Sundays, only stating that she needed that day to be with Julie. She didn't get into that many fights anymore, just with her brothers when they still bothered her at school.

Oh her brothers are another thing. They got charged with underage drinking, but the fine wasn't that big and Jim paid it. Alex thought that Jim would finally see that Brian and Tyler weren't perfect, but according to them he still blamed her for what happened. She told us that she didn't care if he did or not because she hated him too, but I could see that it just enraged her.

Oh, how I wish she had been right when she said that things were looking up.

I didn't go into detail on the last part, because I'm safely assuming you all have read the book and I'd rather not rewrite it. Only one more chapter now. T_T. Oh well, everything must come to an end. I'll probably have the last one up in like, an hour or two or early tomorrow because it's not gonna be that long and I'm on a roll so it won't take me too long to write it.

Ciao,

Kris