Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders.

A/N: Thanks to you tayrn at six, for beta reading

The ballroom was breathtaking. Individual candles were lit and placed at each name tag and tall flower center pieces took up most of the table. The lights were dimmed and rose petals were scattered across the floor. The room looked like it cost hundreds of dollars. I still questioned who was shelling out the money for all of this.

"Where's your mommy?" I asked Jack, bouncing him on my hip and looked around the room. Angela had me stuck now, all right.

"Hey, Curly!" I shouted over the blaring music. "You seen Ang?"

He looked around the crowded room for a minute and then shrugged. "See she left you with the kid. Good luck finding her now."

I repositioned Jake on my hip and huffed. My eyes darted through the room. Everyone was dancing away like they didn't have a care in the world.

"Ah," a dark voice spoke behind me.

I turned and looked. "Hey."

He smirked and came over closer to me. "Looks like you got stuck with baby duty for the night." He motioned towards Jack.

I nodded and bounced him on my hip. "No telling where Angela ran off to. My guess is to pick up some guy to take home." He chuckled and raised a glass of beer to his lips.

"You like the wedding?"

"Weddings are for chumps. Never saw the point in em'."

I looked towards the glass he was holding. "So, uh, the other night-"

"I was wasted," he snapped. "It ain't nothing."

I huffed. "So everything you said-"

"Ain't nothing," he barked again. "Don't sweat about it."

I sighed, knowing it was a pointless battle. Getting Dally to talk to me like a normal person was always a pointless battle.

"You just going to act like this every time I come around ya?"

I looked up and examined him for the first time. He cleaned up pretty nice for a guy who's never worn a tie in his life. "Act like what?"

He raised the cup back up to rest on his lips. "Don't play dumb."

I looked into his crisp, icy blue eyes, making my heart melt. "Do you want to go somewhere and talk? Somewhere more private?"

He took a minute to think it over before motioning me to follow him. He led me out into the cold quiet hallways. I stayed a step or two behind him as he stopped in front of a crystal blue table.

I rested Jake on the top and looked at the boy sitting in front of me.

Dallas Winston. Arguably the toughest greaser in Tulsa. Rumored to be a cold, unloveable bastard who cared for no one but himself; a bastard who was believed to have no mercy. As Ponyboy once said, "He's the real character of the gang." He likes to blow off steam in gang fights with whoever was dumb enough to challenge him. He was said to be the most dangerous member of the bunch—not even Darry wants to tangle with him. The local police have a large file on him the size of Texas that gets bigger with every passing day. He was even arrested at ten years old.

Cold, unloving, dangerous, uncaring, tuff, an unloveable bastard, good for nothing, heartless - all words I'd heard too many people describe him as.

I saw none of that in the guy sitting in front of me. This was the man who I gave my heart too, the man I once loved, and the man who shattered my heart into pieces.

"You going to say something sometime today?"

I took deep breath trying to remember what it was I wanted to say. "I still love you." I paused and took a breath. "I don't know if that will ever go away, but it's still there. You obviously have feelings for me too."

He nodded and pulled a cigarette from his jacket pocket. "Your point?"

I sighed. "My point is - I can't feel that way anymore, Dally." He glanced up at me, not responding so I continued. "I mean I know that sounds dumb, but I just can't allow myself to love you, not after-"

"Not after what?" he snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.

I blinked a few times, remaining quiet.

"Spit it out already!"

I looked to the floor. "Not after the way you treated me."

He smirked and stood up, slamming the wooden chair against the table.

"Dally, come on," I called as I eased up off my seat.

He just shook his head. "I was so horrible to ya, huh?"

I looked back down at the confused baby who was a barrier between us.

He turned back around and faced me. "I was so horrible to you when I let you live with me after you family sent you packing, when I got a damn job to please your ass, when I beat the hell out of the bastard who hurt you, when I kicked Sylvia to the curb after she beat the shit out of you. But none of that matters, right?"

I looked down at my white, Montgomery Ward heels. "Don't make this any harder, Dally."

"Oh, shit. Come on, Curtis," he barked. "If I'm so horrible, then why'd ya stay with me so long, huh?"

I continued to look at the floor, not wanting to see the possible flare in his eyes.

"Oh, but no, you still love me. Don't even give me that shit; I don't need your pity." He stopped and rubbed his head. "You know what? Screw you."

He waved me off and started to leave.

I jumped up from my seat causing the chair to fall to the floor. I grasped onto his arm and stopped him.

He didn't turn around.

"Dally, just let me talk. I'm not pitying you, and I mean it."

He glanced at me from behind his shoulder.

I continued, "I just…- I can't be with you. I'm happier now and-"

He let out a bitter laugh. "Sorry I made your life so damn miserable."

I sighed. "Dally, I just think we're better off apart."

He jerked his arm away and began to walk away again.

I stepped closer towards him. "It's just-"

"Don't," he said calmly. "Don't bother, Curtis. I get it." He smirked and started to walk away. "Hope you find some happiness in your life."

"Dally," I walked over to him again. "Please don't act this way."

His eyes narrowed. "How do you want me to act? he snapped. "Go lead your picture-perfect life."

I looked up at him. He didn't look back. "I just-"

"Don't!" he yelled, his voice going higher. "Get lost, Danni. I get the fucking picture."

I stood there and watched as he walked away. Every impulse inside of me told me to go after him, to just do like they do in all of the movies and let him sweep me off my feet and kiss me- to only have him kiss me like that again.

I shook my head. This was the right thing to do. It was for the best. Leaving Dally was the best thing for me.

"Danni," someone called for me. I looked over to see Angela running towards me. "Sorry, I had to take care of something."

I handed her the baby. "What's going on?"

She took him onto her hip and huffed. "Just Tim's dumbass getting on my case again." She waved it off. "Don't worry about it. What's eatin' you, anyway?"

I rubbed my aching head. "I talked to Dally. Told him it was over and done."

She smirked. "I take it by that look on your face that he didn't take it so well?"

I shook my head. "It's done now."

"You don't seem too jazzed about it," she said, wiping the drool on Jake's mouth.

I shook my head and rubbed my temples. "I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"Whatever you say, Danni." She walked away without looking back.

I folded my arms over my chest and headed back to the bar. The music blasted through the room. Couples were dancing right and left to it, like the night was all theirs.

I sighed and rested my head on the counter.

"Wow. You look like you've been hit by a bus." I slowly picked up my head and looked at the boy smiling down at me. "Hello to you, too."

I sighed and held my head. "Soda, what are you doing over here?"

He smiled and looked around. "You wanna dance?"

"Dance?" I asked.

He smiled and held out his hand for me to take. I smiled at little and took it allowing him to led me out onto the dance floor. "So what's with the face?" he asked as I placed my arms around his warm neck.

I looked up into his sparkling green eyes. "What was with that little conversation you were having?"

He spun me around and smiled. "Why, I don't know what you're talking about."

I laughed and hit him. "Come on, Soda. Tell me all the juicy details."

He laughed too and looked up at the ceiling. "We just talked, Dan."

I moved him over to the other side making him look back at me. "Well, what about? I'm not going to give up."

He chuckled and shook his head. "Fine, I'll tell ya."

I smiled at my win.

"We just talked about how things went last year. She apologized for not talking to me and just leaving me the way she did."

I took a minute to gather what he said. "So, is there something going on there now or-"

"No." He glanced over at her as she was spun about by her dance partner. "I love her, always have….We just can't be together."

I knew how he felt. "You still love her, though."

He nodded. "I'll move on, though. She will, too. It's just the best thing for us to do. It…it brought me closure to just talk to her about it."

I looked down and watched as my shoes swayed back in forth with us. I could feel his pain. He may not say it, but he was hurting. I could feel the pain scrub off of him and onto me.

I looked back up as he gave me a reassuring smile. "So, you okay?"

He brushed a piece of hair out of my face. "I'm good, Dan. Where'd Dally run off to, anyway?"

"I think he took off." I shrugged. "He got…a little upset."

He let out a small laugh. "What happened this time?"

I took a breath. "I told him it was done. That it has been for a long time and that we should just move on. He, well, he didn't take it real well."

"He wanted to get back with ya, huh?"

I slowly nodded.

"Why didn't you? I thought you-"

"No," I snapped before he could say it. "I'm tired of people saying that. Dally and I have been done for a while now. It's over - end of story. Show's over; that's all she wrote."

He smirked and stared into my eyes. He didn't believe me for a second. "All right then,"

I blew a lose piece of brown hair back out of my face. "What do you think about them?" I pointed to our older brother. "You like her?"

He looked over at the love birds. "Kathy and Darry? Dang, ain't that a fairy tale waiting to happen?"

I glanced over at them. She had her arms wrapped around his neck and her head rested on his shoulder as her dark pink dress swayed with them.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning back and looking at him.

He shrugged and twirled me around again. "I mean she was always the one that got away from him."

I made a face and looked back over at them.

"She dumped him right after high school, Dan. He was a mess after it. Don't cha remember?"

Not exactly. I was twelve at the time and wasn't too interested in my big brother's love life. Darry kept those types of things to himself anyway. He was like Dally in a way. A closed book of emotions. No one goes in, nothing comes out.

"Well, he wouldn't even get out of bed for a month," he went on. "Mom was a mess over it. Bout sent him to a hospital or somethin'. Thought he was going to kill himself."

My head snapped back. "Was it-"

"Yeah, it was that bad," he finished for me. "I'd never seen him like that. No one could talk to him or anything." He sighed and tightened his grip on my hip. "He moved on, though. Picked himself back up and got back in there. When she came around again…I don't know, it bothered me. I didn't want to see her leave him again like she did."

"So, it's like you and Sandy," I spoke up.

He sighed and blew out a breath of air. "Suppose so. Never really thought about it like that; I guess you have a good point." He chuckled a little. "Lordy, we could all write a book about our love lives, huh?"

I giggled. "The never ending Curtis love lives. Bet we could make a best seller out of it."

The song stopped and he released me. I stared up into those crystal green eyes he had. How I wish I was blessed to have gotten those from my mother. Whoever said that blue eyes was the prettiest hadn't seen Soda's eyes before.

"Danni."

I turned around to an angry mother nearly charging towards me.

"I need to talk to you. NOW."

I looked at Soda as he smirked at us. "I'll leave you gals alone then."

I watched as he walked away. Something told me I'd want him here to referee for us.

"I can't believe you," she snapped, not missing a beat. "How could you do that?"

I looked back at her. Golly was she fuming about something. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play the dumb act with me," she barked, wagging a finger in my face. "How could you do that to him, again? He's my brother Danni! Did you even plan to tell me about it or were you just going to let it go like it was nothing?"

She was starting to gather looks. I rolled my eyes and grabbed her arm to lead her somewhere where she could yell at me in private.

"Angela, it wasn't a big deal. I-"

"Not a big deal?" The baby she was holding began to whimper. "You can just do that and it not be a big deal? I thought you were done doing that."

I huffed and grabbed the baby from her before she caused him to have a panic attack. "I am done with it. If you would just let me talk, I could have told you that."

She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest.

"It was one time. I don't even know why I did it, but I did. Call me crazy, but I made a mistake. Can you get off my case now?"

She huffed and turned her attention elsewhere. "Tim is just pissing me off. I can't even stand to be near him anymore."

I sighed. I'd heard this story oh-too-many times. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that. What's going on this time, besides the fact that he told you what we did?"

She spun back around and looked at me. "He treats me like shit, Danni!"

I inwardly sighed.

Angela continued ranting, "Ever since I had the kid, he treats me like the family whore. Like I'm a failure or a disgrace or something. I can't take it anymore. I need out."

I looked down at the happy, little boy in my arms. I knew all about Tim and Ang's problems. If I wasn't hearing it from one, I was hearing it from the other. Tim couldn't stand Angela anymore; that part she had down to the nail. Last, I heard he was on edge about kicking her out into the streets. Angela…she's just Angela. It's not like they didn't fight before she had Jake.

A couple months ago they got into a big blow up. Her and Jeff decided to take some money they "found" in Tim's room and head up to New York for some ungodly reason. Tim up and had a fit. He went into her room and threw everything out the window and left it in the rain. It wasn't like anyone in that house was going to care anyway.

Once she came back, he couldn't control himself any longer. She threw a temper tantrum, and he finally set his anger free. I just happened to be there and see the whole thing. It was a mess. They shoved each other right and left, spat out every horrible name in the book, and threw about anything they could get their hands on. I'd never seen anything like it. It was like a circus that I had front row seats to.

I thought Tim was going to explode and punch her or slap her or something. That's something Tim Shepard retains himself from doing. He would never hit a girl, even if you held a gun to his head. Angela was no execption. Never had Tim hit that girl, even though she deserved it a few times. No, Tim was a good guy; he was a good brother to her.

"Ang, he loves ya all right, it's just-"

"No!" She tried to hold back the tears that were ready to fall. "He hates me, Danni. You know it as well as I do. He won't even look at me anymore."

I sighed and continued to look at the baby. He didn't deserve all this. "Ang, I just think-"

"Just watch him," she said as she handed me the diper bag. "I have to…I got to do somethin', okay?"

She ran her hand through her long black hair and ran off.

"Ang!" I yelled after her. "Angela wait."

It was already too late. She was gone. "Looks like it's just me and you again, Jake."

The day seemed to drag out forever. Evie made the most of her wedding. Every little detail was thrown in there. Each table had the correct number of flowers, there was an exact even number of guest so everyone could have a dance partner, the music was just a perfect proportion of fast and slow, and the food was severed at an exact time in an exact order. Everything was perfect. If only she knew what was going on, on the outside of it all.

Ang was nowhere in sight, either. You get hold of her kid for a few minutes and she's going to make the most of it.

"Hey, Jake!" I smiled once he looked up at me. "Where's your mommy at?"

He giggled and threw around the blue rattle in his hands. She got an easy baby, that's for sure. Doesn't have his momma's fiery temper - yet. Thank Jesus for that.

It seemed like just yesterday I was holding her hand while she went through the process of being pregnant with him. Every morning puke breath, doctor's appointment, continuous peeing, I was there for her. Holding her hand and telling her everything would be okay, even though I knew she was in for a world of struggle. A world that would never be the same again.

The day she had him was one for the books. I got the call at, like, four in the morning to hear her screaming her lungs out and throwing every cuss word in the books out. I rushed over to the hospital and held her hand like I was supposed to do. It took five long, agonizing hours. She kicked, screamed, cussed; she even ended up throwing a bed pan at Curly's head.

Once it was all finally said and done, Jake came into this world. The moment he came out, our hearts stood still. I'd never seen a baby come into this world before, but let me tell you, it's really something. She grabbed him and held him like there was no tomorrow. I'd never seen her care for something so much, especially something that caused her so much pain and heart ache. It was her baby; she was going to make the most out of the crappy situation she got in. She was going to make her life worth something.

That's what she said anyway. Angela is a good mom in her own way. She loves her baby more than life itself. That's more than I can say. Look what I was about to do to my baby. Tim shouldn't treat her like he does. She tries her best, given the circumstances. She was a good mother. She was a good person. No one's perfect.

How long does it take to talk to Tim? He doesn't even talk that much. Longest conversation I ever had with him lasted ten minutes - and that's pushing it.

"You wanna go find Mommy?" I asked the now sleeping baby.

I carefully eased up and headed out the double doors. The narrow hallways were empty. Music was blasting from the inside so you wouldn't even be able to hear anything out here anyway.

Where is she?

I walked around the whole building looking right and left. She must've really took off this time.

I huffed and turned on my heel to look in the only place I hadn't looked.

The clear air breezed through my messy hair. It was finally feeling like summer outside. I stepped on a leaf that fell from the oak tree and made it crunch. I really hoped she was out here and Tim and her hadn't killed each other.

"I told you I was sorry! How many fucking times do I have to say it before it gets through your head?"

I sighed and turned the door knob. By George, I do believe I found her.

"You ain't sorry for nothing!" he yelled back at her. "Grow up for once and own up to your mistakes!"

She shouted back, "My baby is not a mistake!"

I eased myself into the storage building, taking a glance at her. Black tears ran down her rosy cheeks.

"I can't believe you'd even say that to me!" She cried, wiping the tears away.

He grumbled and rolled his eyes.

I eased myself behind a big box that hid me from their sight.

"Grow up," he snapped.

"I hate you!" she screamed. "I can't stand you! I'm tired of you treating me like shit all the time!"

"Then leave!" He barked, "hit the road. I don't care."

"Shit," I cursed as the baby's rattle fell to the floor.

I held my breath as they just continued to yell. I eased down to the floor and under the table where it fell. They were still at it with each other. Looks like they'd run out of things to say after a while.

"Just say it, Tim!" she demanded. "I screwed up. I'm a failure. You hate me; I get it!"

I peeked out the crack in the white table cloth.

Tim just shook his head at her. "You still don't get it do you?"

The door slammed open silencing them. Just then a gust of wind came rushing through the room.

I separated the crack a little more to get a better look at the dark man who swiftly strolled through the door. That very moment would haunt me for the rest of my life.

The two stood there with mouths open, not knowing whether to run or fight.

"Je-Jeff?" she managed to choke out.

A sly smile ran across his face. "Hello there, doll face. Miss me?"