Author's Note: Here we go, cranked this one out in one sitting! Got nothing productive done today like I had planned. But I got this out on time even with the new story I started! Very proud of myself haha. Hope you like it, please review!

Chapter Fourteen

Monday, October 31st

Over a month had passed since the accident and Darry was now, at long last, heading back to work. It was hard to believe that it had only been a month; to Darry it had felt like so much more time had passed since he had last been at work. But today he was about to take a big step. Today he was finally going back to work, which was huge in terms of getting his brothers back. And getting his brothers back was the only thing that mattered to him right now.

Things had been slowly evening out for him as well with his health. After he started taking the sleeping pills that doctor had prescribed he finally started sleeping through the night. He felt more rested than he had since waking up in the hospital. And he had to admit it was better than tossing and turning as he worried about Pony and Soda all night. With more sleep he was feeling more functional during the daytime. He cleaned the house, mowed the lawn, stocked up on groceries. Life was almost starting to feel normal again. Almost.

Darry pulled up to the work site early and was the first one there. It was a different house than they had been at the last time he had worked. That wasn't surprising though. They had probably had several other jobs since Darry's accident. Everything didn't come to a screeching halt because of him being gone. He was a good worker but he wasn't the only the only worker.

Darry got out of the truck and leaned against it, letting the cool breeze of the early October morning wash over him. He looked up at the roof of the house in front of him. Clearly they had been working on this for a few days now. The roof looked almost halfway done already. Quietly he sipped coffee from his travel mug. It was already starting to get cold. He kept drinking it though. Even though he had taken his pills the night before and gotten a lot of rest he still felt a bit nervous. Passing out due to exhaustion the week before had shook him up a bit. He wanted to be wide-awake for his first day back on the job.

Finally people started showing up. Most gave him glances while a few gave him greetings. Darry hung back for as long as he could. He felt a little awkward and out of place after being gone for so long.

"Hey Curtis." Darry turned to see James Cooper walking up to him. He remembered talking with Cooper the morning of his accident, telling him about how Soda had woken him up the night before when he had come in late. He remembered Cooper was the one who had yelled for him to look out right before he was knocked down. "Good to see you back. How you feelin'?"

"Better, thanks," Darry said, nodding.

"It's been pretty quiet around here since that day," Cooper went on. "What happened to you… scared people."

"Yeah… scared the hell out of me too," Darry muttered.

Cooper nodded, looking over at him seriously. "Yeah, I can imagine. Sorry." Darry just shrugged. "How're your brothers doin'?"

Darry closed his eyes momentarily, almost as if he were in pain. It would never get easier having to explain the situation. "They're fine," he said flatly after a small hesitation. He opened his eyes and started forward, heading for the house. He didn't have the energy to explain what had happened with his brothers. He was never really open with much of his personal business at work anyway.

Some of the guys were already starting to head up the ladder. Darry paused and watched a few of the other guys climb, Cooper included. Darry took a deep breath. He grabbed a bundle of roofing and started to reach for another before he thought better of it. Best to take it slowly, he figured. Normally he would be the first one up the ladder, or at least one of the first. Today he was among the last though. Despite everything he had done to get to this point, he still felt uneasy. Before the accident he had never even considered what could happen if anything happened to him at work. Now he knew exactly what could happen. It was a little unnerving.

He climbed the ladder slowly, placing his feet firmly on each rail before lifting himself up to the next one. He didn't glance down once. A minute later he was stepping out onto the roof of the house. He looked straight down at his feet, extra careful of his footing. He immediately moved up the roof, away from the edge. He found a spot and crouched down and began to work.

As the time went on Darry became more comfortable. He had always been good at this job and his hands clearly remembered how to do the work. It felt natural. The more he worked the more time passed. It was a nice change of pace from the mind-numbingly slow days since he had gotten out of the hospital. He was able to focus on something other than his worry for the first time in a long time. It felt good to do something physical, to work with his hands. After everything had been so out of his control for the past month, it was good to have something that he could control.

Darry didn't bother with a lunch break; he was too focused on his work. Nobody said much to him, but he didn't mind that. It wasn't like he had a strong desire to talk to anyone right now. He did his best to ignore the glances he was getting from his coworkers. All he wanted was to quietly get his work done.

It was well into the afternoon when Darry had his first incident. He had exhausted all of the work that he could do in the middle of roof. He had slowly started moving closer and closer to the edge of the roof. Eventually he was working right on the edge. He was taking deep breaths, his eyes carefully focused on the task at hand. He noticed that his hands had become less steady though. At one point his eyes strayed, looking down over the edge of the roof. He froze as his vision spun, his stomach falling. He suddenly dropped his hammer, gripping the roof for balance.

"Curtis?" Darry didn't move. Suddenly he was gasping for breath. "Curtis, you okay?" There was a hand on his shoulder and Darry looked up sharply. Cooper was crouched down next to him, looking at him with concern. "Here, sit down for a second."

With Cooper's help, Darry slowly sat back away from the edge, resting firmly on the roof. He took a couple calming breath, willing his vertigo to calm down. He had never been sensitive to heights before. Apparently he had been more affected by the accident than he had cared to admit, even to himself. He kept one hand on the roof while he carefully lifted the other hand, rubbing it across his eyes in hopes to rub some of the dizziness away.

"You okay?" Cooper repeated.

Darry sighed heavily. "Yeah, I… I think so," he murmured.

"Just take a minute," Cooper said.

Darry closed his eyes for a minute. Things were finally starting to slow down and he was feeling steadier. He opened his eyes again.

"Thanks," he said quietly, looking over at Cooper.

"Yeah, sure," Cooper told him. He paused. "You know, if you've had enough for today I'm sure boss won't mind if you head home. You've already worked most of the day after being gone for a month. That's pretty good."

Darry immediately shook his head. "No, I just need a few minutes and I'll be fine."

"You sure?" Cooper persisted. "I mean, you didn't even stop for lunch, Curtis."

"It was just a little vertigo, I'm fine," Darry insisted. He paused. He glanced back at the edge of the roof then immediately looked away again. "I guess… we're pretty high up here."

Cooper nodded. "Yeah, it's quite a ways to fall. I can't even imagine." He hesitated, looking at Darry carefully. "You were real lucky, you know. As soon as I saw you go over, I thought you were… done."

Darry took in a sharp breath at that. "Yeah… me too," he said quietly, looking down at his hands. Then he looked over at Cooper. "What happened? After I fell?" It was something he had wondered ever since he had woken up. It bothered him that he didn't remember things that had happened to him.

Cooper sighed. He sat down next to Darry. "Well you got knocked over and you kinda toppled… head first. At that angle if you hit the ground you probably woulda broken your neck. But as you fell you sorta clipped a big tree branch. It changed your angle and you landed flat on your back. Everybody panicked thinking…" He let his voice trail, but Darry knew what he meant. They all thought they had just watched him die.

"My brothers… how did they know?" he asked. He knew from Steve and Two-Bit that Soda had gotten a phone call at work from the hospital but what he couldn't put together was how the people at the hospital had figured out how to contact Soda there. He had never been very open with people at work and though they all knew about his brothers he couldn't think of one person who knew where Soda worked… then he did think of one. One coworker he had told a bit more about his life.

"Well, we called an ambulance. When they were loading you up they asked about family that they could contact. I told them about your brother who works over at the DX station on Sycamore. I told them they really needed to call him right away. I figured with how close you boys are he'd really need to know as soon as possible." He cracked a half smile. "Let me tell you, it took some work to convince them that I was givin' them a real name and not just makin' one up."

Darry laughed lightly. "Yeah, Soda gets that a lot. Pony too." He looked over at him, his face growing more serious. "Thank you," he said sincerely. He was glad that Soda was notified right away. He couldn't imagine what it would have been like if they hadn't known right away. If his brothers had had to go home to an empty house and wonder and worry about where he was or what had happened. And it was a comfort to know that his brothers had been there with him, even if he hadn't been really aware of it.

"Hey, it was the least I could do," Cooper said with a shrug. "Those guys screwing around were dumbasses. You shouldn't have been the one to get hurt."

Darry shot him a half smile, more ironic than sincere. "C'mon, we don't wanna get caught slackin' on the job," he said lightly as he slowly got to his feet. Cooper followed suit, still eyeing him uncertainly. But Darry felt steadier now.

They went back to work. Darry had no desire to go home early, and other than the vertigo he felt pretty okay. He just had to get used to the heights again. He didn't want to give up this feeling either. Sitting around the house had been driving him insane. Now it really felt like he was actually working to get his brothers back. Like with this brute physical labor somehow he would be able to bring his brothers home again. The more time he was away from them, the more determined he felt. His brothers had to come home.