A/N: Again, please review and let me know what you think. And just to clarify Dally looks like he does in the movie version, but has blue eyes like the book. I just like that combination.

I'd had a pretty boring day today. The principal had told Pony, Johnny and I to take this week off school seeing as it was the last week of term. Pony didn't understand why seeing as he and Johnny weren't so badly beaten, and he actually liked school and wanted to go, and after yesterday off school he was ready to go back. But I knew why, he didn't want us there to cause a fuss about the Socs. Best for everyone I guess. Things were tense enough as it is.

Soda and Darry were at work like usual along with Steve. No idea where Two-Bit was, I doubted he'd gone to school given that we were off, probably out causing mischief somewhere. Then again he'd probably show up at school to keep an eye on him and Steve's sisters. They were a lot younger and didn't really hang around with us, but they were nice kids. Two-Bit's sister spent a lot of time with their older aunt seeing as their mum was always working, so luckily she didn't hang around us, it would have been bad for her.

Dally had gotten up fairly early this morning. I had a good sleep, having him next to me, but it was a broken sleep, he kept moving around in the night which would shake me and wake me up, I almost felt like pushing him off to go back on the floor at one point, but I suffered through it. I was pretty out of it when he left so I wasn't entirely sure where he was going, something to do with Buck so I figured it was work related.

Johnny, Pony and I had spent the day in front of the tv, messing around and eating some of the cake that had been left in the fridge. It was nice chilling out with them, they were the quietest in the group and so sometimes you'd feel like you hadn't spoken to them in ages because they just kept to themselves. But I'd managed to get them to talk a bit about their girlfriends and how things were going. Pony was totally in love with Diane and Johnny was heading that way with Loretta. It was funny to see Johnny like that, but good at the same time. Since moving out of his parent's house he'd really changed, for the better. He was slowly getting more confident. He was sad though as they didn't seem to notice, or care, that he was even gone. He made a point to go round there a couple of times but it didn't end so good.

"So I take it you and Dal have patched things up then?"

"Yeah kind of. He's still in the doghouse though. You don't sound too pleased about it Pony?"

"Only cause of what he did. I just don't wanna see him fuck it up again."

"For some reason, I don't think he will." I gave him a smile and Pony dropped it. I don't think he was too convinced. He had a weird relationship with Dally. He seemed to like him but at the same time he didn't.

Pony and Johnny cooked everyone dinner under my direction. I felt bad for Darry having to do it straight after he got in from work but I couldn't really move around or stand up for any length of time so Pony and Johnny agreed to assist. I think they saw it as a bit of a novelty.

Everyone showed up for dinner at the same time and come 6 o'clock we were finished and sitting around in the living room.

"Johnny and I are headed out to meet up with Diane and Loretta, we won't be back too late cause they got school in the mornin'." They were getting ready to walk out the front door.

"Alright Pony, but just be careful, it's pretty rough out there." Darry was ok about it, but he still sounded slightly concerned.

They were only going to May's Diner which was well and truly in Greaser territory and a 10minute walk from our place so they should be safe. Both of them had their blades with them anyways.

"Hey Blue, Dally's gunna stay here with you but the rest of us are goin' to go meet up with Tim 'bout this weekend, see what's happenin'. You be alright?" He was also still pretty mad at Dally. And I believe they'd had words last night.

"She'll be fine, I'm here." Dally loped his arm across the back of the sofa around my shoulders and took another sip of beer.

"If it's all the same Dal, I ain't askin' you." Darry shot him a look and Dally didn't respond, not wanting to push it.

"I'll be fine Dar. You guys go, we'll see ya later."

Soda, Darry, Steve and Two-Bit all filed out to head to their cars, but not before Two-Bit winked and told us not to get up to any hanky-panky, landing him a slug on the arm from Soda.

Finally we were in peace again. We were currently sat on the sofa, my legs propped up on the coffee table, watching some nonsense show on the tv. Dally was quiet, just drinking his beer, he wasn't in the best of moods. But when is he ever…

"So, what you get up to today?"

"Nothin."

"Uh huh… What work you doin' for Buck now?"

"Same old. What's with all the questions?"

"Just tryin' to talk to ya, but if you're gunna be like that I won't bother." I crossed my arms and stared at the tv.

He sighed. "There ain't much to talk about that's all… What did you do?"

I nearly fell off my seat! Dally rarely ever took interest in what I did day by day, other than asking if I was ok. Like I said, he's independent and he doesn't deal well with people relying on him for everything so it was up to me to look after myself most of the time. I didn't mind though, I wasn't exactly the clingiest person.

"Not much, kinda housebound. Just watched TV and mucked about with Johnny and Pony… thought about us a lot."

He raised an eyebrow, "Yeah?"

"Uh huh. Just about the future I guess. This whole baby thing got me thinking. I guess everything happens for a reason."

"S'pose so, or just means that Socs are assholes." He finished his beer, going up to get another one, reluctantly asking, "So what were you thinkin' about then?"

"Us movin' away I guess. Where would you go?"

"Anywhere. I don't care." He sat back down again. This time looking at me intently. "I promise you I'm sorry about everything."

"I know. I guess it was a lot to take in all of a sudden. I'm still pissed. But at the same time I wanna know what you wanna do in life, go where you wanna go."

"I ain't got no plans doll. Whatever you wanna do I'm down." He gave me a wink and went back to watching the tv.

I guess that was as good as I'm going to get. But I was happy. I could see a way for us to move on from here. We were in agreement. We both wanted a better life and we wanted it with each other. I could deal with that.

After a while I started to get real tired so Dally helped me to bed. He wanted to wait up to see what the guys had to say about the rumble so he went back to the tv. It was getting late so it'd shut off soon, but I reckoned he'd fall asleep on the sofa before that happened.

I woke a little while later, I could hear hushed voices from the living room, it sounded like Pony and Johnny but their voices were anxious. Dally made his way to the room, and I shut my eyes pretending I was asleep. He fumbled about in his drawer of my dresser and pulled out a revolver, I had my eyes just open slightly and could see him check it and make his way back out to the living room. He didn't shut my door behind him so I could hear what was going on, and catch a glimpse of Ponyboy. He looked terrible, and wet but he was changing his clothes and drying his hair with a towel. I could hear Dally and Johnny talking, I couldn't quite catch it all but could picked up something about a train and being careful. I started to panic, as they started to leave I tried to pull myself off the bed, but by the time I got up they had gone.

"Dal, what the hell's goin' on?" He was standing at the front door, his hands running through his tufty, brown hair. He jumped when he realised I was there and he looked stressed.

"Uh, nothin' nothin', go back to bed doll."

"That sure didn't look like nothin'. What were they doin'?"

"Trust me, you don't wanna know."

"Yeah I do wanna know Dal. Tell me, right now."

He sighed and pinched the top of his nose, "Johnny killed Bob."

"HE WHAT?! WHY?!"

"They were on their way back here and they got jumped in the park. Apparently they were tryin' ta drown Pony in the fountain and Johnny took out his switch and stabbed Bob."

"Oh. Fuck. Where are they goin'? What's gunna happen?" I was close to tears now, poor Pony and Johnny. That was so not in their nature, they were too innocent to be caught up in something like this.

Dally moved over to me, "S'ok babe, I got this. They're goin' somewhere the cops won't find 'em. Trust me."

I nodded against his chest.

"We can't tell your brothers 'bout this though."

"We have to." I looked up at him.

"No. They'll just wanna find them and bring 'em back here. And that's not a good idea. Not right now. Trust me, please." He looked down at me. I could tell he was desperate.

"Ok. But you gotta have a plan."

"Yeah I got it." He moved away and took Pony's wet clothes and hit them in the bottom of the laundry pile. "Just sit here with me ok. And when the guys come back you know nothin', they didn't come here. We gotta let this run its course and we'll go see the boys in a coupla days."

I sighed and moved myself towards the sofa. I wasn't happy about this. But Dal had a point. If they were arrested tonight that would be the end of it. The police needed time to figure out what really happened and let it die down a bit before catching them. They'd never believe it was self-defence, not right now anyway.

I couldn't believe Bob was dead. It felt like such a relief. I suddenly felt safe again. It was like being told the monster under my bed had taken away and I could finally close my eyes without being certain it was under there. He'd been hanging around in the back of my mind since it all happened. And now he definitely couldn't hurt me any more. Well not physically. He was hurting me still seeing as Pony was now in trouble because of him.

Darry, Soda, Steve and Two-Bit arrived back not long after. They sat down and began to talk about the rumble, apparently it was going to be on Saturday, in the lot. But the Socs had reckoned they didn't call the cops last time and certainly wouldn't this time as they wanted to have it out. I wondered if that would change when they found out about Bob. He had it coming though.

I was having trouble keeping quiet about this. I was worried sick. On the one hand I wanted to mount a search party and bring the boys home, but I had to trust Dally and I knew this was the right thing. I just hoped they could look after themselves.

Almost as if he could sense what I was thinking Darry asked, "Hey, where's Pony and Johnny? I thought they were comin' back early? If he's still out there I'm gunna skin him! It's nearly 11pm!"

Darry got up and started pacing before going out and checking the street, he wasn't satisfied so he sent Two-Bit and Steve down to the lot to see if they were hanging about there.

"I'm gunna kill those boys, they know its rough out there, they should be smarter than this!"

"Calm down Darry, they're probably just hangin' around with their broads."

"That's probably worse Dally, gettin' into more trouble!"

I kept pretty quiet, I was going out of my mind, Dally just kept stroking my arm and giving me a look every now and again to make sure I was going to stay quiet. I let out a long sigh and hung my head on the back of the sofa. Soda was lying on the other one, clearly not worried. He believed Dal and just reckoned they were still out with the girls, making a comment that 'it was about time those two got some action' which earned him a glare from Darry.

A couple of minutes later there was a knock at the door, which was weird given that the only people that would have come back would be Steve and Two-Bit and I don't think they've ever knocked on our front door.

Darry looked just as surprised and worried and opened the door, to two police officers.

"Is this the residence of a Ponyboy Michael Curtis?"

Darry straightened up, "Yeah it is. Is he ok? What's happened?"

"I'm sure he's fine sir, I'm more worried about the young gentlemen he and his friend Johnny Cade have killed."

"THEY WHAT?!"

Soda jumped up at this and rushed over to the door, Dally helped me up and we stood behind them.

"We have witnesses that put them at the scene of a murder this evening and we'd sure like to take 'em in for questioning. They around?" This officer really seemed to be enjoying this. I'm guessing he held Greasers in contempt.

"No they ain't been back all night. How do you know it was them? Those two'd never hurt a fly."

"We have it on good word. Now if you wouldn't mind lettin' us in." He pushed past Darry and made his way into the living room. The other officer looked slightly more apologetic as he was ordered to look around for the boys. I held onto Soda's arm, petrified. This was real then. 100% real.

"Ah Dallas Winston. I sure ain't surprised to see you all caught up in this. What do you know son?" Darry looked over at Dallas. Not surprised that the officer knew him.

"I don't know nothin'. And I ain't your son."

"Good I'm glad. Maybe you can take a trip down the station with us. I'll bet you are involved in this somehow." The other officer came back and shook his head, so the annoying one nodded to Dally and so the nice one made his way over to Dal, pulling out the handcuffs.

"Ah for fuck's sake!" Dal was angry.

"He's been here all night with me officer!" I was more upset now. I'd only just got him back.

"A likely story sweetheart. You'd do good to stay away from his sort. You don't wanna know half of what he's been in for."

I glared at him.

"She ain't your fuckin' sweetheart pal." Dally's eyes were venom as he was pushed out the front door by the other officer. "Don't worry babe, I'll be home by breakfast." He winked and was on his way. Bumping into Steve and Two-Bit as they made their way up the steps. I heard them question him, getting a smart ass response in return. They pushed their way into the living room, confused as ever and ready to ask a hundred questions.

The angry officer turned to us, standing in the doorway, and said, "I sure hope those boys know what they're doin' cos they are in a lotta trouble when we get our hands on 'em."

"They're good kids." Darry made his way over to the officer, restraining himself as I'm sure he wanted to kill him.

"Oh I'm sure they are." He made his way down the steps towards the car out front and Darry slammed the door so hard behind him the whole house shook.