Chapter 4 – Say You'll Stay Forever

When Two-Bit showed up at Tim's front door at 6 in the morning, eyes rimmed with red and a very scared looking Connor at his side, his first instinct was to ask where Jax was. She made him a promise to call or stop by nightly so he knew where she was. It was his last promise he made to Dallas before he died.

"She's gonna need you too," Dally said tiredly on the third night the youngest Curtis brother and that Johnny Cade kid went missing. "I ain't always gonna be around to keep her safe."

"She's a firecracker, that one," Tim mused. He didn't like the sudden turn of the conversation. "You not telling me something, Winston?"

"Naw," Dally said coolly. "But you dig how it goes. I keep gettin' hauled in. One of these days them good ol' boys in blue are gonna find a good enough reason to put me away for more than a few months here n' there."

"Ever think to stay outta trouble?" Tim asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Dally laughed at that.

"Just promise me you'll keep her safe, ya dig? Her and Johnny? They're the only family I've got," Dally said, taking a long drag on the weed in his hand. "She's somethin' special. Not like these other broads out here. She's tough, but she's tuff too."

"Yeah I dig, Dal. Just don't go hurrin' to get yourself hauled in," Tim chuckled. "What that girl sees in you I'll never get."

"Me either," Dally said honestly. "She sees the good in everyone. Even when there ain't much good there to see."

"What happened?" Tim demanded, ushering them inside. Two-Bit scrubbed his hand over his face. He looked ready to start bawling right there and then.

"There's been an accident," Connor whispered, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. "Darry and Jax are hurt. It's bad. My dad's dead."

"What the hell," Tim cursed, combing his hands through his hair. "Let's go."

Two-Bit nodded and pushed Connor towards the door, Tim close at their heels. They only stopped once and that was to grab Jax's bag off the floor of the room she kept at Buck's. Connor had suggested grabbing the blanket and sweatshirt off the bed too, saying something about maybe it helping. Tim wasn't so sure, but he wasn't about to argue with the kid. Connor was far too young to be dealing with this much loss.

Connor was half asleep, leaning heavily against Two-Bit's side as Tim drove like a bat out of hell. He couldn't help but think about to almost a year ago, when Tim carried his sister's broken frame through the front door of the Curtis' house only mere hours after the gang lost Johnny and Dally. Connor had sat upright, tears falling from his eyes as he saw the wisps of chestnut brown hair draped over Tim's strong arms.

"She knows," Tim said miserably as he laid Jax down on Darry's recliner, his face void of all emotion. "She went down like a ton of bricks."

"Pony's still in the hospital," Connor said softly, his voice hoarse from crying.

"He'll be okay, little man," Steve grunted out through clenched teeth as he lowered himself down on the couch, his broken ribs screaming in protest.

"I don't think she was expecting it to be Dally," Tim said truthfully. He stroked Jax's hair from her eyes as she slowly began to stir. "She told me how bad Johnny was earlier…"

"Dally is…was…her best friend," Connor said, his eyes locked on his clasped hands. "She doesn't know how to live without him. That's why she begged his dad to bring him here. She…Damnit," Connor sobbed. At nine, he had dealt with enough loss. His heart ached. First his sister and mom, then the only parents who gave a hoot about him and his older sister, now two of his older brothers, the only family he had. "She's gonna blame herself."

"Ain't none of this her fault," Steve growled, looking at their pale friend with worried eyes. "We'll make sure she knows that."

"Pony too," Two-Bit nodded. "He already blames himself for Johnny getting hurt."

"Johnny died a hero," Connor said softly, looking up, locking eyes on his sister's still frame. "Johnny died a hero for saving those kids. Dally died foolishly."

"Dally died cause the pain of losing Johnny was too much," Jax murmured as she blinked eyes brilliant blue eyes open, holding her brother's gaze, tears rimming her eyes but never falling. "Dally knew the score. We lose one of you kids, it's the beginning of the end," she said bitterly. "Johnny? You? Pony? Y'all were supposed to get outta this place. Be somethin'. Do somethin'."

"Dally died because knowing he failed any one of us was too much."

Tim mused over her words. Jax was always different. She saw the good in everyone. She could hold her own and was often the glue that held the gang together, not just Darry's boys, but his own. But she was also so good at reading a room, it amazed him sometimes.

"Dally…Dally died," Jax said softly, looking directly at Steve. "Dally died and you're hurt."

And just like that, Jax was snapped back into maternal mode, tending to Steve's ribs and Tim's black eye and busted nose. Just like that, Jax pushed down the pain and went on doing what she did best.

"Why did you sedate her?" Tim barked as soon as the doctor gave him as much information as he could on Jax's condition. Connor was bawling his eyes out and Two-Bit looked torn between punching the doctor and crying himself. "Don't you know that's the one thing she'd never, ever, consent to?"

"We had no other option, sir," Dr. Finnigan, the newest doctor added to Jax's case explained. "We believe she is suffering from what we call shell-shock and she was a danger to herself and others. Her health proxy is in a coma and clearly, there was no one else to talk to about her care. As far as I'm concerned, this was in her best interest."

"Like hell it was!" Steve growled. "Her mother died because some know it all doc decided sedation was the best course of action!"

"I can assure you, your friend isn't going to die," the doctor sighed. "But if we can't get her to snap out of this state of mind, we'll be forced to transfer her to a hospital that specializes with…this kind of trauma."

"Like hell you will!" Tim growled.

"Ice it man, before they kick y'all out," Soda said glumly. "How long before she'll wake up?"

"It's too soon to tell. She fought sedation like nothing I've ever seen before. But once it's out of her system, she should wake up shortly after. Depending on her mood, we'll go from there," the doctor said, eyeing Jax's stats on the monitor in front of him. "I am concerned about her heart though. She's too young to have had a heart attack, yet here we are."

The tension in the room was suffocating. Steve got up from his spot next to Soda's bed and sat heavily in the chair closest to Jax's head. His fingers laced into hers as he drew her hand to his lips.

"You gotta wake up Jax," he pleaded.

Soda studied his best friend with a concerned look. Steve wasn't the tender type. That was his job. He was the only one who knew about Evie breaking his heart a few months prior, but he had a weird feeling maybe Jax knew too. Steve had tears in the corners of his eyes as he whispered softly to Jax, begging her to open her eyes.

Connor sat next to Tim, who sat heavily, a grim look on his face.

"Did you…did they tell you anything else about Darry?" Two-Bit asked Ponyboy hesitantly.

"No," Pony sighed. "They won't let us seem him yet. Said maybe this afternoon."

"Hell kid, they ain't gonna have a choice if I've got anything to do with it," Tim growled, getting up so quickly Connor flinched. "I'm tired of these socy doctors thinkin' we ain't smart enough to know what's goin' on. C'mon Two-Bit, you an' me are gonna get these kids some real damn answers."

Two-Bit stood without question. Tim had a dangerous look in his eyes. One he didn't want to argue with.

"Y'all need anything?" he asked carefully as Tim stormed from the room.

"Naw," Soda shook his head, holding Pony's hand while Pony leaned against the bed, his eyes mirroring the exhaustion everyone felt.

"Don't let Tim get himself arrested," Connor sniffed. "Please."

Two-Bit nodded and followed Tim into the hall, sighing miserably. His normally comical tone completely gone. This was too heavy. This was too much. If they lost Jax or Darry…No. Two-Bit couldn't even think about it.

Steve didn't let go of Jax's hand as he thought back to the night Evie left him heartbroken and alone and how Jax was the only one who could get him back from the edge of the cliff. He knew he'd never be able to repay her for all she'd done for him…for any of them, but he could do this. He could coax her back from the edge, just like she had done for him.