Pony wandered the hallways, sipping on his Pepsi. He hated hospital's. They were miserable places and he hated to be in them. He knew they were for helping people and he liked that part but he just couldn't stand to be in them. He sighed and headed back towards room 956 where his two brothers were. Hadn't Darry had enough time to fill out the forms already? He can at least let me go sit in the hospital room with Soda. "He awake yet?" Pony asked, when he finally found the room and walked in.

Darry looked up a bit startled. "No, not yet." He said, going back to the paperwork. Pony sat down next to his eldest brother and tried to see what he was writing. "It really ain't that exciting Pon." Darry said, showing it to him. "Just a whole bunch of legal stuff and medical information."

"Should I call Two-Bit and Steve now?" Pony asked.

Darry nodded. "Yeah, sure. That'd be good. You got change left?" Pony nodded and started walking out when they both heard a low moan come from the bed. Darry and Pony both looked over quickly. Soda put a hand on his head. "Owe." He groaned. "Where am I?" They both walked over next to him.

"Hey little buddy." Darry said. "Glad to see your awake. You had me kinda scared."

Soda opened his eyes fully and looked around. "I'm in the hospital, aren't I?" He asked, miserably.

"Yeah." Darry said. "You passed out."

"I feel like I've been hit by a truck." Soda said. "Where's Stevie? Is he here?"

"I was just about to call him." Pony said. "You ok?"

"I guess." Soda said, groggily. "Can we go home now?"

Darry shook his head. "You gotta stay here for a day or two, kiddo. You're fever's worse." Soda sighed and rolled over onto his stomach.

"Pony, you got a smoke?" Soda asked.

Pony shook his head. "Sorry."

"You ain't smoking in bed anyways." Darry said, sternly. "Not to mention this is a hospital."

"I need a smoke." Soda moaned and buried his face into his pillow. "I wanna go home. This place is worse than laying in my own bed all day. Can't they just give me some more medicine and we can go home?"

"Just get some rest." Darry said. "Pony, go call Steve and Two-Bit and then will you go on down to the cafeteria and see if they have some soup?" Pony nodded and Darry handed him a few bucks. "Get some other snacks too so we'll have something to tide us over until I go pick up some kind of dinner or something."

"Ok." Pony said, walking out.

Soda turned onto his side and closed his eyes. Darry rubbed his back for a minute and then sat back down in a chair to finish the paperwork. After a minute or so he could hear Soda sniffling. "Sodapop." Darry said softly, getting up. He walked over to the other side of the bed so he could see him. Tears were streaming down his face. Soda brushed them away quickly. "What's the matter?" Darry asked bending down so he could look at him more closely.

"Nothing." Soda said.

"Soda, tell me what's wrong." Darry said.

He sniffed. "I'm just thinking about Sandy and all that stuff she said to me. It just makes me feel lousy. Like I ain't worth nothing. Like I did something wrong and it's all my fault.

"Soda, it was anything but your fault. You know that, don't you? It was her mistake, not yours. She left, not you. It was her loss, understand?" Soda nodded but then broke down in tears again. "Shhhh." Darry said putting a strong arm around his little brother and holding him close. "You've been under to much stress lately, that's what it is. Just stop thinking so much and focus on getting better, ok?" Soda responded by inching farther into the protective arms and crying into his big brothers shoulder.

************

"Hey man. How you doing?" Steve asked later that evening, walking into the hospital room with Two-Bit close behind. Pony had called them both and they came by to check up on their good friend.

"I'm all-right." Soda said, not even looking in their direction.

"Pony says you're real sick." Two-Bit said. "What you got?"

"The same thing he had last time you asked. A bad fever." Darry answered annoyed, taking a sip of his black coffee.

"Someone's moody." Two-Bit said.

"He always is." Pony muttered.

"Shut up. Ya'll are giving me a headache." Soda said. "Darry, is it time to go yet?"

"I told you you're staying here tonight." Darry answered.

"You ain't gonna leave, are you?" He asked.

"I wasn't planning on it." Darry said. "I was figuring you'd want us to stay. Do you?" Soda nodded. "All-right, go back to sleep now, ok?"

"Oooh, pizza!" Two-Bit exclaimed.

"Help yourself, there's plenty left." Darry said but he didn't need to. Two- Bit was already digging in.

A nurse came in a few minutes later and told Two-Bit and Steve they had to leave because there were to many people in there and Soda needed his rest. Darry didn't disagree about the rest part but he would've liked his friends to stay.

Ponyboy woke up the next morning, stiff and sore from sleeping in a chair. He stood up and stretched, noting that Darry was still asleep on the other side of the room and Soda was sitting up, watching television. "Morning, Pon." Soda said, drowsily. "Hey, you want this?" He asked, pointing to a tray of food. The nurse brought it in but you'd have to pay me to eat that stuff.

"No thanks." Pony said.

"Hey guess what? My fevers down to a hundred and five." Soda said.

"That's good." Pony said.

"Hmph, what time is it?" Darry said, waking up.

"Eight in the morning." Soda said.

"Good thing I don't have work today." Darry mumbled. "Sodapop, lie down. Don't you ever stay still?"

"No." Soda said, lying back down and closing his tired eyes. "Doc says my temperature's down to 105 now."

"Good." Darry said, relieved.

"Can we go home when it gets back to 104?" Soda asked.

"I dunno." Darry sighed. "I'll talk to the doctor about it. We have to make sure it doesn't get that high again. That's a serious fever. Man, 104 degrees is too.

"How much does it cost for Soda to stay in the hospital?" Pony asked.

"My insurance covers it." Darry said. "Since you're obviously not gonna eat that." Darry nodded toward the tray of food. "I'll go get some other stuff. I'm pretty hungry too. Any special requests?"

"Chocolate stuff." Soda said.

"Yup." Pony agreed.

"Ok. And STRONG coffee for me." He mumbled, walking out of the room.