Chapter 14

Soda had wandered into Sara's room where Darry was just getting ready to pull down her covers. "Where is she?" Soda asked leaning against the door.

"I sent her to use the bathroom." Darry said turning towards Soda.

"Do you think she'll go to bed alright? I mean, I just hope that power nap in the car won't make her feel awake." Soda turned to look out into the hall to see if she was coming.

"Nah, I think she is ready. Hey, is that Pony I hear out there with the boys?" Soda just nodded. " Damn it, I told him that he was to go to bed."

"Jeez, Dar, it's only quarter of 9." Soda tried to come to the defense of his younger brother.

Darry raised an eyebrow and looked sternly at Sodapop. "Really? You're going to still come to his defense about this, Soda? Do you know what this "little stunt" of his might do to our family? Mrs. Roberts is surely going to catch wind of this, I'm sure of it. Then that means that Sara, Pony and possible you, will no longer be calling this place home. You might want to think about that first, before coming to his defense."

"Darry, why wouldn't we call this place home anymore? Are we moving somewhere else?" Sara's tired voice asked coming into the room. Both Darry and Sodapop froze instantly in their spots. "Darry? What do you mean?" Sara was slowly moving her head back and forth between her two brothers.

"Ummm, I didn't mean anything by it, just giving Sodapop a hard time, that's all. Are you ready for bed?" Darry was hoping by changing the subject that Sara would forget about the conversation that she just overheard between him and Soda.

"Yes." Sara said yawning and shuffling over towards her bed.

"Good girl. Now, you get some sleep. You've had a long day." Darry reached down and placed a soft gentle kiss on top of her head. In a deep low whisper Darry moved his lips from her head to her ear. "Please do not let that ever happen again. You had us all scared out of our minds." Darry pulled away from her ear as he looked straight into her sapphire eyes making sure she understood him completely.

"I won't, Darry. I'm sorry, it was an accident." Sara said trying to hold back the tears that were starting to well up in her eyes. Darry released a little grunt and sat down on the edge of Sara's bed. He reached over and pushed a strain of her auburn red hair out of her face.

"Sara, I know it was an accident. I would never accuse you of getting lost on purpose. Now, just closed those beautiful blue eyes of yours and get some much needed rest. Can you do that for your big brother?" Darry let a small smile pull at his lips.

"I just need you to know that I didn't want to get lost." Sara rolled over onto her left side so that she could see Soda still leaning against her door. But she was still a bit upset with him so she decided not to acknowledge his presence.

"I know." Darry ran his hand down Sara's face and rubbed her check to help reassure her that things were ok between them. "Good night, Sara."

"Good night, Darry." Sara grabbed one more glance at Soda who was still watching from the door, but Sara was still having some lingering feelings about what happened at the Dairy Queen in Chandler so instead of saying good night to Soda she slowly rolled over and grabbed a hold of Mr. Bear and was now looking at the wall. Darry had captured what was just silently said by Sara and gave Sodapop a small pat on the shoulder as he left the room. Soda on the other hands was surprised by his sister's silence. He wanted to go over to her and talk with her about it, but knew that she needed her sleep. Knowing his sister as well as he did, he knew it might be better to let it go for tonight. Probably by tomorrow she would be back to her normal self. He reached for the door knob and started closing her door, but right before he closed it he stuck his head back in.

"Goodnight Sara. Sleep tight." Soda paused for a second to see if she would respond, and when there was still complete silence he latched the door shut. As he was walking down the hall he ran into Pony who was pouting into their room. "I see that Darry didn't change his mind, huh?" Pony just shook his head no as he brushed pass Soda. Soda followed him into their room. "I think he's right Pon. You could use the rest. It might help you feel better. Plus you're not missing out on much. Darry told me that he was gonna kick the boys out tonight anyways."

"Really? What for?" Pony eased himself onto his side of the bed.

"He just feels like we need a quite house tonight. I mean you know the door will be left open for anyone that needs the couch, but you know, it's been a long day for all of us." Soda said while flopping himself down on the bed beside Pony and propping up his right elbow so he could rest his head on while studying Pony's tired looking face.

"What are you looking at?" Pony scowled towards Soda's prying eyes.

"You." Soda said smiling, knowing that he was irritating his younger brother.

"Cut it out, Soda." Pony went to push Soda's elbow but ended up wincing in pain instead. After a minute of uncomfortable silence between the two very close brothers Soda finally spoke.

"Ponyboy, why?" Soda asked in a sweet, but yet serious tone.

"Why what?" Pony was fidgeting trying to find a comfortable position where it didn't feel like his ribs were going to poke through his side.

"Why did you keep telling us you were fine, when you weren't" Pony was embarrassed and couldn't look into his brother's hersey brown eyes, so he looked up towards their ceiling where his eyes were focused on an old water stain. "Come on, Pon. You know I'll listen." Soda tried to pull it outta him.

"I don't know Soda. I just knew how proud Darry was of me, and how disappointed he was that I went to the rumble. I just couldn't stand him saying I told you so. I guess deep down I knew that I couldn't compete, but my pride got in the way. Darry is hardly ever proud of me Soda. This was the one chance that I could do something to make him be proud of me. I can never do anything to make him happy anymore, so this was the one thing that I knew I could do. It just felt so good knowing Darry was proud of me for once. But then I guess in the long run, it didn't matter anyway, because he ended up being just as disappointed." Pony could start to feel some hot tears started to pop up. He quickly tried to hide them from Soda by covering his arm over his eyes.

"Sure, he would have been disappointed if you would of told him this morning or even last night. But Pony, the outcome would of still been the same. Even if you did place on your events, he was still going to punish you and be upset for runnin' off to the rumble." Soda noticed that Pony was fighting back the tears so he gently touched his shoulder. "He's still proud of you for just making it to States, Pony. No one can take that away."

"Yeah, then I can't wait to hear the wrath of Darry tomorrow. I'm sure I'll hear how proud he is of me in the lecture that I'll be getting'." Pony gave Sodapop's hand a little shake off his shoulder and threw a pillow over his face so he could let the tears flow willingly without anyone seeing him do so. Soda laid there for a few minutes watching his brother's chest rise and fall in between sobs. He knew that Pony didn't want any comforting at the moment so he slowly got up trying not to jostle the bed to much and walked to the door. Just like at Sara's room he reached for the door knob and started to close it shut. Right before he latched it he spoke to his brother.

"Try to get some sleep Pony." Just like before with Sara he waited a second to see if Pony was going to respond, but after a minute of silence he closed their door. He shuffled out to the living room running a hand down over his face. He noticed that the living room was still a little lively with the boys. Soda thought that Darry musta of changed his mind about kicking the boys out after all.

"What the heck were you doing? We've been waiting for you to join in a game of poker." Steve glanced over towards Soda as he was coming into the living room.

"Nah, I don't wanna play, Steve. Go ahead and play without me."

"Actually, guys, I need you to leave for a while. If you need a place to crash later, the door is always open." Darry said to the group of boys while he sat in his chair rubbing his hands on his thighs. The group of boys all just looked at each other and slowly started to retreat from their comfortable spots in the Curtis' living room.

"Jesus, someone must be in deep shit if Superman is kicking us out. Who wants to place bets on which one it is?" Dally said grabbing his coat off of the floor.

"I put a $1.00 on that it's little Curtis, running off like that." Steve said laughing while grabbing his beer to take with him.

"It wasn't her fault." Soda mumbled under his breath but loud enough for both Steve and Dally to hear him.

"I put $2.00 that it's Pony." Dally shot back towards Steve. "Two- Bit who are you putting your money on?"

"Well, I don't quit know really. Maybe seeing no one took Sodapop and the other two are in their rooms already, I'll put a $1.00 on Sodapop." Two said hitting Soda's leg on his way by to the door.

"Whatever, Two-Bit. You better be getting out of here before Darry throws you all out, and I mean literally throws you out." Soda grumbled wondering if he and Darry were going to finally exchange words about what did happen under his watch earlier today.

"You boys stay out of trouble, you hear me?" Darry threaten as they group of four boys were filing out their front door.

"We would of before you threw us out there, Dar. Now it's a free for all." Dally shouted from the front porch.

"Yeah, well, that doesn't mean that I want to be getting a phone call from any of you after midnight needing to be bailed out of jail. You all got it?" Darry warned back towards Dally.

"Yeah, Yeah, Darry. We hear you." Steve said descending the Curtis' front stairs.

"Hell, the whole neighborhood just heard you." Dally said laughing while lighting up a smoke.

Darry had gotten up and walked over to shut their front door, as he was turning he noticed that Sodapop's eyes were on him watching his every move. "Something on your mind, Soda?" He asked standing with his hands stuffed into his front pant pockets.

"I was just going to ask you the same thing, Man." Soda said picking at a stain that was on the arm of the couch that probably had been there for years, but Soda had just noticed it.

"I don't feel like doing this right now, Sodapop. We have ALL had a long day and I don't know about you but I could really use some sleep. I just need some peace and quiet. With the boys hanging around you and I both know that wouldn't happen. We all need some rest. Come tomorrow I will need all my strength to deal with all three of you. But right now, I am jumping into a nice hot shower and try to relax this tense body of mine. So unless it something urgent, I would prefer to hold off on this conversation." Darry scanned Sodapop's face trying to read what he was thinking but he couldn't quit read it. "Soda, are we all set here?" Darry was waiting for a verbal confirmation from his younger brother before he walked away from the conversation. Darry could tell that Soda was still thinking but after about a minute of just looking at him, Soda's eyes final met Darry's and he nodded his head. But when Darry just raised an eyebrow, Soda knew he was waiting for a verbal answer.

"Yeah, Dar, we're all set. I guess I'll join Ponyboy." Soda started to get up as Darry was already making his way towards the bathroom. The boys didn't say another word to each other and they went in their own direction. Darry closed the bathroom door and Sodapop opened and closed their door. Soda turned to hear deep breathing coming from his little brother. He was lying on his left side with his arms wrapped protectively around his ribs. Sodapop quickly threw off his shirt and pants and slowly moved onto his side of the bed. He leaned over and gently placed a kiss on top of Pony's head and whispered, "Good night Pon."

The house was quiet and all four of the Curtis' were comfortably sleeping until about quarter of 2:00 in the morning. It was about that time when the whole house was awakened by a high pitch, loud and long blood curdling scream. Darry had the covers thrown off of him in an instant and was flinging open his door. He was pretty certain from which room the scream had come from. He rushed down the hall and flung open the door to the room where he knew it had originated from. There in the dark curled up against the headboard of their bed was a crying child. The child had their hands covering their mouth so that not another scream could be released. But the sobs could still be heard coming from her. As Darry was rushing into the room, Sodapop was right on his heels along with a grumpy looking Dally who must have been sleeping on the couch.

"Sara, what is it?" Darry asked scurrying across her floor and sitting down gently on the edge of her bed. He slowly reached his hand over to rub her legs that were pulled into her chest. "Sara, honey, what is it?" Darry tried again. Sara's eye's continued to dart around her bedroom looking at all the faces that were all looking down at her and waiting for a response. Darry moved his hand from her leg up to her arms where she was still holding her hands over her mouth. "Sara, it's ok." Darry tried to pull her hands away from her mouth so that he could get an answer from her. Sara was being pretty resistant though. "Sara, come, take your hands away from your mouth." By this time both Soda and Dally had moved further into Sara's room to see what was going on with her. It was almost like a light bulb had gone off in Sara's head and just when Darry was moving in to try to get her to remove her hands away from her mouth; Sara had flung herself onto him.

"Oh, Darry." Sara managed to get out in between heavy sobs. Darry was caught off guard but quickly engulfed his sister and just started rubbing her back up and down.

"Is it safe to say that her little midnight scare is over?" Dally spoke into the room while Darry turned looking in his direction, unaware that Dally was even in their house.

Soda gave Dallas a slight push out the door and as Dallas was heading back to the couch he ran into Pony who finally was able to pull himself up outta bed. "Go back to bed, Kid. She just has a bad dream or something." Dallas scowled at Pony while brushing up against his shoulder and letting himself fall back onto the Curtis' couch. Pony wasn't ready to take Dally's word so he ventured on into Sara's room where he found Sodapop leaning up against her wall by the closet and Darry who was holding onto Sara rubbing her back.

"Shhh, shhh. I need you to stop crying Sara so you can tell me what happen? Was it a bad dream?" Darry asked in a soothing voice. Pony and Sodapop just waited quietly, hoping that they would soon hear some answers from their little sister.

"I… I can't." Sara managed to get out after taking several breaths to do so.

"Yes you can. Just take a couple of more deep breaths like you just did." Darry tried to push Sara back some so he could let her know that he was right there. Sara took a quick breath. "There you go, just a few more." Sara did as she was told. Her sobs had slowed down some, but the tears were still coming fast and furious from her blue eyes. "That's a good girl. Now tell me what has you so torn up?" Darry continued to rub the girl's back to let her know that she was safe but still wanted answers.

"Faces.. faces everywhere." Sara stuttered out.

"What faces? Who's faces?" Darry urged her to continue so that they could get to the bottom of this midnight wake up call.

"Strange faces. I kept looking, and I couldn't see your faces." Sara threw her face back into Darry's chest where the tears started soaking through to his skin.

"Oh, Babygirl. You're safe now, nothing like that's going to ever happen again." Darry had moved his hand up to her head where he was smoothing out her hair. "It's going to be ok. Everything is going to be ok. You've got nothing to be worrying about. See we're all right here. We're all together." Darry tried to push Sara back so that she could see her other two worried brothers standing by the wall. Sara turned her head a little to get a glimpse of Sodapop and Ponyboy but she continued to lean back into Darry's chest. She didn't really care who was in the room with her at the moment, it was more of the closeness that she was feeling from Darry holding her. Once Darry felt the tension release a bit in her body he knew that maybe they could all get back to bed. "Hey guys, I think everything is ok in here with her. Why don't you two head on back to bed now." Darry looked over to the boys to give them a reassured smile.

"Are you sure?" Soda asked moving a little closer to Sara. "She still looks pretty shook up. I can stay with her a little longer if you want, Dar." Soda was now kneeling down beside the bed and was pushing the hair out of Sara's face that had glued to her tear stained cheek.

"Nah, you go on now. I can finish up in here." Soda started to get up when Sara's hand came over and touched his bare arm. Sodapop stopped and kneeled back down and was looking into her eyes.

In a soft, low shaky voice Sara spoke, "I couldn't find you, Soda." Soda's heart instantly felt a sharp pain. He was carrying around enough guilt from today, but to hear Sara say it in the way she just did, just about pierced his heart.

"I know Babygirl. But we did end up finding each other. It just took a little longer than it should of." Soda was relieved a little that she was finally talking to him. "I promise that it'll never happen again while under my watch. Now what do you say we get you back into bed?" Soda started to get up when Sara reached her tiny hand out to stop him.

"Cross you heart?" Sara's young voice asked her brother.

Soda crossed his heart with his finger, "Cross my heart. Try to get some sleep, Honey." Soda placed a kissed on her salty tasting cheek and turn back towards her door. "Come on; Pony, off to bed with you." Sodapop tried to tease his brother hoping that he felt better from the last time they had spoken.

"Night Sara." Pony waved at his sister and started back out the door towards the boys' room.

Darry shifted Sara back into her bed and was tucking her in. "Try not to worry so about what happened today, Sara. It's over and done with. We can't change the past, and I don't want you dwelling on it. It will just continue to cause you fear. What you need to do, is close those beautiful blue eyes of yours and focus on your upcoming birthday. I know you're very anxious and excited, am I right?" Darry was trying his hardest to try to get his sister's focus off of the bad dream and the events of the day and onto something happier.

"I'll try." Sara said in a tone that wasn't very convincing.

"Sara?" Darry warned.

"I will if you'll give me a hint." Sara half smiled hoping that Darry would give into her.

Darry let out a sigh, "A hint huh?" Darry paused and just smirked. "Ok, but just one. Are you ready?"

"Yes!" Sara shouted loudly.

"Then you'll go to sleep?" Darry asked.

"Yes!" Sara responded loudly again.

"Ok, then. Let's see." Darry tapped his face with his index finger.

"Darry!" Sara whined.

"It's bigger than a shoe box. How's that for a hint?" Darry smiled at his sister. "Now go back to sleep."

"Bigger than a shoe box.. is it a doll?" Sara asked. Darry just shook his head no. "Is it dollhouse? Or a game?

Darry reached down and kissed the top of her head. "I only promised a hint, nothing more. So close your eyes and sleep sweet dreams this time around." Darry started walking towards her door when he heard her sweet voice call out to him.

"Night Darry. I love you." A genuine smile crept across Darry's tired face as he stopped and looked over to her.

"Love you too, SaraGirl."