I knew for years that I wanted to write a sequel to The Runaway. It feels like it took me forever, but I've finally started! The Runaway is still one of my favorite fics I've ever written, and I hope you enjoy the sequel.

A Letter

Sue,

Hi. It's Ponyboy. Or Mike. I hope it's alright that I'm writing you. Your dad gave Johnny and me your address and I know on the phone you said you forgave us, but I still feel bad that we left without saying goodbye. I'm sorry about that. I never really got to tell you anything about why I was in New York, but we were scared to tell anyone much of anything. Anyway, I'm sorry we had to lie to you. Like I said, I did want to tell you everything before we left…or most of it at least. There was a lot to tell. But we found out that my foster sister was willing to testify against that guy we were hiding out from, our foster dad, so we decided to come home, even though that probably wasn't the best idea. I hadn't seen my family in almost a whole year and I missed them a lot. It worked out okay…they arrested that guy, and my brother got custody again.

Darry, my oldest brother, has custody of me and our other brother, Soda, since our parents died almost two years ago. Me and Darry used to fight a lot, mostly since he used to worry about me a lot and I didn't really get that. Johnny and me got jumped one night after I'd gotten in a fight with Darry, and then we got a new social worker, so I got sent to a boy's home. Then I got sent to that foster house. It was real bad there, so I ran away, and that's how I ended up in New York.

Anyway, I've been home for a little over a month now. James (I think you met him…he's the guy we were staying with when we were in New York) and your cousin came to visit, and Marcus told my brothers and friends all about how I came to your church, and they thought that was real funny. It's been good to have them around over the last couple of days. I wish you could have come visit too so I could apologize, and thank you for getting us jobs and helping us out so much when we were there. They just went home yesterday after staying a couple of days, and I already miss them.

I've been studying a lot to take the final exams to see if I could pass my sophomore year. Hopefully I can take the tests sometime next week. I skipped a year in school before my parents died, but then it was hard to keep up with school in that foster house. I'm going to try but Darry said that even if I couldn't pass them and had to redo the year, it would be okay, which you'd know was weird if you'd ever met Darry. He's always cared a lot about school, and so have I.

If you want to write back or call again or anything, you've got my address and phone number. But I just wanted to say thanks again for everything you did, and to try to explain some of it. I was having a really hard time and it was nice of you and your family to look out for us, and to let us come to church with you. So thanks. I hope everything's okay there.

Ponyboy Curtis

Ponyboy stared at the notebook paper, fiddling with the edges of his sleeves and wondering if he was making a mistake as the front door of their house slammed shut. His school books sat in a stack beside him on his desk, shielding the letter from the rest of his empty bedroom, and part of him just wanted to rip it up and toss it. He could hear Sodapop and Steve talking too loud as they made their way from the front door to the kitchen, flipping on the TV when they passed. It was nearly five thirty, and he was sure Soda would be heading back out with Steve before too long, probably to a poker game or a race or something since it was still summer break and Steve didn't have to get up early for school even though it was the middle of the week. Darry would probably be home soon too.

Their new social worker had talked to his school from the year before and his old school to at least let him try to go to the next grade if he could pass some tests for science and math, which he hadn't had great grades in by the end of the year. Darry had told him that maybe he should just repeat the year…that it was no big deal. That Pony shouldn't worry about it. Sodapop had said the same thing…that it wasn't something he needed to be worried about. But Ponyboy didn't want to repeat the year. He didn't want to do it all over. He'd tried so hard for the last year to keep up in school…he didn't want it to be for nothing.

He didn't want his time in that hellhole to be for nothing.

So since the morning before when James and Marcus had gone home, he'd holed up in his room, studying his books and trying to see how far behind he was. He'd always been good in school, and even in that foster home, he'd done his best to keep up. The more he read, the more he thought he might be able to pass. Math hadn't ever been his strongest subject, but none of this was too hard, and the science he mostly knew too, except when it got into the more advanced chemistry stuff. That he needed to keep going over.

"Hey! You done studying yet?" Soda called, opening the door and grinning at him. Pony tried not to flinch and failed, hoping his brother didn't notice. He knew Soda hadn't done it on purpose. All the guys, but Soda and Darry especially, tried not to sneak up on him, or make loud noises around him, but sometimes Sodapop forgot…Two-Bit too. Ponyboy cursed himself for being startled. He'd known his brother was probably gonna come see him before he left. He wasn't scared of Soda. Ponyboy repeated it like a mantra, although it never seemed to help.

"Not yet," he told his brother, grabbing a random book off the top of the stack and putting it on top of his notebook, trying to act casual. His brothers knew a little about Sue, mostly from what Marcus and Mr. Williams had told them, and it wasn't like he wasn't supposed to be writing her or nothing. Still, he didn't want them teasing him, so he thought he'd keep this to himself for a while. Besides, he thought, he didn't even know if he was going to send it.

"You've been studying all day," Soda whined, coming in and dropping onto the bed. He was grinning, though, so Ponyboy did too.

"Have not. I went and saw Johnny on his lunch."

It's where he'd gotten the idea to write this letter. They'd been talking like usual about stuff back in New York now that James and Marcus were gone. Pony couldn't help missing her, and James too, even if he was glad to be home. He'd liked having a job, and having money, even if they had had to save just about everything they'd made. If it hadn't been for the circumstances, it could have been fun. He'd even like to go back and visit now that he wasn't on the run from someone trying to kill him.

They'd gotten to talk to Sue once since he'd come home, and she'd said that she forgave him for leaving without saying goodbye, but he still wanted to explain everything better, especially considering all she'd done for him. If she hadn't convinced her dad to give him that job, and if her cousin and his friends hadn't started looking out for him and Johnny, things could have been real bad for them. Not to mention, she and her dad had let them sit with them at church, and she'd taken them swimming…she'd been a good friend, and he felt bad for not telling her much of the truth.

Thus the letter.

But he didn't know how much to say, or how much to hold back. Would she even care that his brother had custody of him, or that he was trying to take his exams? They hadn't gotten to talk much, between them spending time together at church or when they were both working, and Pony had never really spent time with girls, especially not nice girls like her, so he didn't know what they usually liked to talk about.

Well…he'd talked to Cherry, but he remembered all too well how that had turned out.

Still, when he'd sat down at his desk after meeting Johnny, grabbing a book to read for a while, he'd found himself opening his notebook instead, deliberating for almost twenty minutes before finally putting pen to paper.

"Steve and I are going to a race tonight. You wanna come with us?"

Honestly, Ponyboy didn't. He'd gone to the races with Steve and Soda, and a few times with just Soda, several times over the last few weeks while they'd been waiting to find out if Darry would get to keep custody, and after the hearing and that therapy appointment, when James and Marcus had shown up, he'd spent lots of time with them and the guys. No one seemed to want to leave him alone for too long, and today was the first day he'd been able to spend mostly by himself.

It wasn't that he didn't like hanging out with his brother. He even liked spending time with Steve more now that they were getting along. But every time he went anywhere with Soda, or any of the guys except Johnny and Dal, he could feel their eyes on him, always watching. Always worrying. And he couldn't blame them for being worried. After living with an asshole that beat the shit out of him on the regular, and who he'd fought all the time to keep his foster sisters safe, he was different. A lot different. Loud noises freaked him out. So did people yelling, especially at him, but just in general too. He couldn't keep eye contact for long, and sometimes, when he got mad, he felt his temper like a stick of dynamite, exploding too fast before he could even figure out what was happening.

So he wasn't sure if the guys thought he was going to freak out and have a breakdown or black out and beat someone to death, but either way, he couldn't blame them, since he'd done both in the last few months. And he knew Soda wanted him to talk…he couldn't help thinking that it was part of why his brother kept inviting him places, even when he was planning on going with Steve. Pony had talked to him a little, just about the blacking out when he'd just about killed that guy in New York…the guy and his friends had been threatening Sue and…well, Ponyboy couldn't remember all of it, but he'd come to when Johnny had pulled him off the guy whose face hadn't been much more than a bloody mess.

So he'd talked a little. He'd told the police officer helping his brother his story, and once or twice he'd given Soda and Darry little bits of what had happened. They knew the gist. But like Johnny had said, he hadn't talked about it, and he didn't want to. If he did talk to someone, he didn't want it to be Darry or Soda. Like he'd said to Sodapop that night a couple of days ago, it would hurt them. He could see it every time they saw him flinch at something or when he'd mess with his sleeve, making sure to keep his arms covered. It hurt them. And he couldn't stand to see them hurt. Bad enough Darry had been there when he'd told the cop everything, and that Soda had seen his back where that asshole had belted him, leaving scars Ponyboy worried would never fade. With his stupid bleached hair and scar running across his cheek from where one of Richard's friends had gotten him with a beer bottle back when he'd barely escaped from them, he figured they could never get away from reminders that he'd been abused, even if he did keep his shirt on to keep the scars on his back and the cigarette burn scars on his arms hidden.

But, he figured, if things could get back to normal, maybe they would forget. Hell, maybe he could forget.

"Nah, that's alright. Steve probably don't want me tagging along anyway, and I need to keep studying if I'm gonna pass."

Soda grimaced, the familiar worry settling onto his features. Pony hated it…he missed when Soda was carefree, always laughing and joking around, and not worrying about him all the time. "You know you ain't gotta worry about those tests, Pony. Repeating the year wouldn't be so bad."

"I don't want to repeat the year." Pony's voice came out harder than he meant it to, some of that desperation leaking out, and he tried to move past it fast. "Besides, I just started studying yesterday, and I know most of it. Just need to catch up on math. Darry'll probably help me when I get to the harder stuff."

"Yeah…I'm sure he will," Soda told him, hesitant and trying to smile. "You can still come out with us for a few hours. And Steve don't mind. I think he's warming up to you." Soda said it as a joke, and Pony tried to laugh and sound normal, even though the reason Steve had warmed up to him was because he'd been taken away from his family, and had been beat just about to death and had had to run away, making the gang think he really was dead for a minute.

Pony tried to dismiss that thought that, like so many others, seemed to pop up out of nowhere…thoughts of cigarette burns and Rita, his foster sister, sobbing in the bed behind him, trying to be quiet so no one would hear, and Lianne…Lianne who had died behind some bar because she wouldn't keep her mouth shut.

Lianne, who he still dreamed about, waking from nightmares sobbing into a pillow and trying not to wake Soda and only sometimes succeeding.

"Y'all go ahead. Maybe I can come next time."

"Who the hell said we'd invite you next time?"

Ponyboy snorted, laughing for real then, turning and finding Steve grinning in the doorway, both of them ignoring Soda's incredulous look.

"You still studying?"

"Just started back. I went to meet Johnny for lunch earlier and read for a while so…" he trailed off, shrugging, and Steve nodded.

"Yeah, guess you'd better keep on then. You probably don't want to repeat the year." Steve told him, ignoring the way Soda gritted his teeth, shooting him a glare.

Surprised that Steve of all people seemed to get it, Ponyboy nodded, dropping his eyes when he couldn't keep eye contact anymore. He'd managed for a couple of seconds, so that was better than normal.

"Come on, Soda. They're gonna start soon."

"You sure you don't want to come?" Soda asked softly, leaning in and resting his elbows on his knees. "Darry won't mind since school hasn't started up again. We won't be out that late."

"I'm fine here. I'll see you later," Pony told him, trying not to hurt his feelings but also kind of trying to get rid of him. Because he couldn't stand making his brothers worry….especially not Sodapop.

Once Soda and Steve were gone, the house empty once more, Pony went into the kitchen and snatched an envelope and a stamp, hoping Darry wouldn't mind, then headed back to his room and shut the door. He'd offered the little bit of money he'd had left over from New York to Darry, but his brother had just stared at him for a long time, looking sad, before he'd pushed Pony's hand away.

"Keep it, Pone. It's your money. You earned it."

So Pony tried to be careful about how he used it, not wanting to have to ask either of his brothers for money for a long time, but maybe he'd spare a little for stamps if she wrote back. Plus he probably needed new shoes if he was going to go out for track. Maybe he could find a cheap pair. Or he could use that money to buy his lunch at school and pay for the bus and stuff so Darry wouldn't have to give him any. He couldn't smoke anymore, so it wasn't like he would need to spend it on cigarettes.

Thanks, asshole, he thought with a grimace, picturing Richard's face and feeling sick. He'd saved him thirty cents a week.

Pony shook that thought off, trying to move on from it without throwing up. He was so sick of Richard popping up in his brain all the time.

Track was another thing he worried about. It would give him something to keep him occupied…maybe it would keep his brothers and the guys from worrying about him so much. But he was still underweight and got tired pretty easily, so he'd need to start training if he was going to even try. Who knew if he'd even make the team.

The front door shut softly, and Pony opened his math textbook, flipping through the chapters to try and figure out the last thing he could understand. The letter he'd stuffed into the envelope, now addressed and stamped, was in his desk drawer, and his notebook was opened to a fresh page where he scribbled page numbers of stuff he needed to go over.

Despite the fact that he'd heard his brother come into the house, and despite knowing that he would come and see him, Pony still felt his heart speed up when the footsteps approached his door. Shaking his head at himself, he squeezed the pencil in his trembling hand. "It's Darry," he whispered to himself, trying to make the shaking stop and failing. "It's just Darry. The asshole's in jail anyway, and even if he wasn't, he couldn't get me here."

"Pone?" The knock on his bedroom door, the soft rapping of knuckles barely louder than his voice, still made him flinch, and he shook his head, taking a deep breath, trying not to think about a fist pounding on Rita's bedroom door, his hands holding the knob and trying to keep him from getting in.

"Hey, Darry." His brother opened the door and Ponyboy forced himself to look…forced his eyes to meet Darry's for a few seconds. "How was work?"

"It was fine. You still studying?" he asked, coming in and sitting where Soda had. Pony knew that Darry kind of got it too…or he got some of it. He never stood over him anymore. Not that he'd done it a lot…it was just, he knew he'd never thought anything of standing beside him when Pony was sitting or laying down before. Darry had never been any kind of threat, no matter how big he was. But now he made sure to sit down or keep some distance so he wasn't towering over him. He moved slower too…not by a lot, but just a little. Slow and careful, like Soda had moved around that horse he'd loved, not wanting to spook him.

"Just started again. I went and had lunch with Johnny and read for a while." That wasn't quite a lie…he'd read that letter he'd written Sue, and before that he'd tried to look at a novel for a few minutes but hadn't been able to concentrate.

"You had dinner yet?"

Pony shook his head, knowing he couldn't lie about that. He wasn't really hungry…getting his appetite back after being starved for months had been a slow process but he was trying, mostly because he figured he had to, especially around his brothers. "Not yet."

"Burgers okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Want some help?"

Darry shook his head. "Nah…but why don't you take a break? Come watch TV or something?"

Pony wanted to laugh. Who'd have thought Darry of all people would want him to take a break from schoolwork. "I just took a break. I'll be fine."

Darry pursed his lips, but he didn't argue. "You need help with anything?"

He shrugged. "Not yet, but I might in a bit."

"Just let me know." Darry ruffled his hair, grinning when Ponyboy dodged and tried to swat him away. "I thought you'd go with Soda and Steve tonight." He stood, making his way to the door and speaking real casual like he wasn't worried.

Unlike him, Darry wasn't a great liar.

"Nah. Figured I ought to finish this. Besides, Steve's gonna get sick of me sooner or later."

Darry chuckled, heading to the kitchen to make dinner and leaving him to study…or try to. As the pain that had started as a dull throbbing at the back of his head started to get worse, he had to fight harder to concentrate.

When Pony started to smell the food, their front door slammed, making him jump so hard he dropped his pencil, his heart pounding too loud in his chest, and he wanted to scream, helpless frustration washing over him like a wave he couldn't stop. People slammed their door every day! Why the hell did it still make him think of Richard? Closing his eyes, he put his head in his hands and cursed Richard under his breath, words he'd only heard Dally say a couple of times, and smiled a bit when it actually seemed to help a little.

"Dallas!" Darry snapped, not as loud as usual, but sounding awful mad.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry," Dally answered, not sounding sorry at all, and Ponyboy smiled for real, shaking his head and wiping his stupid wet eyes before picking up his pencil again. He'd been working on algebra, and he figured he was in pretty good shape even if the end of the semester had been rough. "The kid here?"

"In his room. He's studying."

Dallas ignored the unspoken warning to leave him alone and came into his room anyway, not knocking. "Thought you'd be out with Soda," he told him, punching him in the shoulder and dropping onto the bed that was becoming more of a sofa apparently.

"Gotta study," Pony told him, not looking up until Dally leaned in close enough to knock shoulders with him. Dally didn't act much different around him…he was still irritable and he didn't hesitate to punch him in the arm or wrestle with him like the others sometimes did, but there was still a difference. He treated him almost like Johnny…like he'd kill anyone that messed with him. Like he cared a lot about him. And he knew that Dally had cared before…Dally had always looked after him, and he'd been the one to track him down when he'd been in that foster home. Then he'd gotten him out of town when Richard had wanted to kill him.

Dally had saved his life that night.

But now it was different. Just a little, but different. Almost softer, if anyone could call Dally soft and not lose some teeth. Pony certainly wasn't gonna try it either way.

"Never did figure out why they had to put letters in math."

Pony opened his mouth to explain then shut it, figuring Dally didn't actually care. "It ain't so bad," he told him instead.

"You think you can pass?"

"Yeah," he told him, even if he worried it wasn't true. "Just gotta take algebra and science. I don't want to do the year over."

"Hell, you ain't gotta tell me, kid. Lord knows I wouldn't want to be in school any longer than I had to."

"Is Two-Bit coming over?" Pony asked, putting his pencil down and not mentioning that Dallas had dropped out. He hadn't seen Two-Bit around as much as usual, but he figured that was because he was staying home with his sister Susie. Ever since Richard's friends had broken into their house looking for information about where to find Ponyboy and had roughed Susie up, Two-Bit had been staying with her more. The guys didn't watch her all the time anymore like they had at first, but Two-Bit still kept a closer eye on her than he had before. And sometimes she came over with him. Since Ponyboy hadn't been feeling great for a while, he hadn't talked to her much, but he'd never minded having her around. She was a year younger than him, but she still dug okay, and she borrowed his books sometimes.

He was pretty sure she had some of his now, come to think of it.

"Nah, he met Soda and Steve at the track since Rita is at his place with Susie." Dallas lay back on the bed, hands pillowed behind his head like he was going to take a nap or something, and Pony looked back at his homework, lost in thought.

Rita, too, had apparently been staying with Two-Bit sometimes. Sometimes she'd stayed with Darry and Soda when he'd been in New York, but not often since he'd come back, and he hadn't seen her around much…it wasn't like they'd talked much even when they had lived together. But he'd protected her every night, and she'd patched him up as best she could after Richard had hurt him.

She didn't stay with Susie to babysit or nothing…as far as Pony could tell, when she'd run off from Richard's, she'd stayed with her boyfriend who'd turned out to be an asshole too. The guys had all taken it upon themselves to watch out for her, and had all offered her a place to sleep if they could. She seemed to take Two-Bit up on it most of the time, but he knew she'd stayed with Dally at Buck's once or twice. A few nights ago, she'd told him that Dal, in a rare show of manners, had offered her his bed, not taking no for an answer, and not being sleazy about it either.

"You feeling okay, kid?" Dally's question jerked him out of his thoughts and he turned to find him staring at him. Wondering how long he'd been lost in thought, and wishing he could quit losing time like that, he nodded.

"Yeah. Tired." It was an excuse that worked with most people. But Dally wasn't most people.

"Even if you've gotta repeat the year, you're gonna be fine. You'll just have to graduate on time instead of early like everyone else," Dallas told him, almost nice.

"I know," he told him instead of arguing, rubbing a hand over his eyes. His head was starting to hurt, and he didn't know if it was from stressing out about everything or all the reading he'd been doing.

Dallas sat up, grabbing Ponyboy's arm and pulling them both to their feet, and Pony let himself be pulled, going along without argument. It wouldn't have done any good anyway.

"Give the books a rest for tonight. Come on. Let's go see if your brother's got dinner ready."

Figuring his friend wasn't just making a suggestion, Pony nodded, putting his notebook in his book and shutting it to keep his place, then following Dally out into the kitchen. He supposed his studying could wait.