You got a what?

Soda helped Sandy clear the table and do the dishes. Afterwards, he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the front door. "I want to talk," he told her. He had been thinking all night and finally made up his mind what to do.

Sandy followed him meekly to the front porch. She leaned back against the railing with her shoulders and put one foot up against the wall. "It's about us, huh," she asked softly.

"Mhmm." Soda saw the rest of the boys crowded around a window, trying to hear the conversation. "Do you want to go down to the park? For old times?"

She followed his stare and understood. "Yeah, lets."

It was a 10 minute walk to the park, and the entire trip was in silence. Uncomfortably quiet. When they arrived, they sat on the merry-go-round and Sandy gently rocked it from side to side, pushing her feet against the dirt ring around the merry-go-round.

"So, how did it go today? Any luck job-hunting?"

She nodded, a little too enthusiastically. "Yeah, I've got an interview at Central library tomorrow. They said they'd consider me for the circulation desk." She laughed bitterly. "I can be a circ-jerk like my mom. When we left, I let Aaron play in the fountain in front of the library for a while. I don't think he's ever seen a fountain before, he loved it!"

Soda nodded nervously. He hated what he was going to do, but he knew it was needed. "Sandy.." How am I supposed to say this? "Sandy, I can't take you back."

Sandy inhaled sharply. She knew this was coming, but she didn't expect it to hurt so bad. She shrugged it off non-chalantly. "It's okay, I get it. Another girl, right?"

"No, no other girls," Soda shook his head.

"Girlssss, huh? Plural?" She wiggled her eyebrows at him playfully.

Soda grinned. "Nope, not even one. Just.. See, it's been so long.. We don't really know each other anymore. If we tried to just pick up where we left off, we'd just be living off old memories and lying to ourselves about things changing. Right now all we've got is memories and a son. And I don't even know him yet, so he doesn't really connect us that much right now." He took a breath and tried to clear his thoughts. "I'm not saying it'll - we'll - never happen again.. Just right now. I want to be here for Aaron, but that's all I am for you now." He was vaguely aware that not everything he said made sense. All he knew was that he felt horrible for saying it.

Sandy nodded coolly, trying her best to not break down and start bawling. She didn't need him to think she was begging. "Ok, yeah, I understand. You're just here to be daddy, right?"

Soda nodded.

"Well, what about friends? Can we at least be that?"

"Yeah, we can be friends." Soda threw his arm across Sandy's shoulders and they headed back to the house.

As they passed under a street light, Soda looked sharply over at Sandy. He stopped suddenly and turned her by her shoulders to face him.

"Sandy, you look awfully thin. You didn't used to look that thin. Are you ok?"

She rolled her shoulders away from his grip. "Yeah, I'm ok. Stuff like that happens when you've got two mouths to feed and only enough money for one." She turned away and started walking again.

Soda stood there for a moment longer, watching Sandy through narrowed eyes. She had gone to live with her grandparents... but would they really make her pay for all of her and Aaron's food? He tried to clear the thought from his mind and ran to catch up with Sandy.

A few months went by and summer was nearing. Memorial day was a few weeks past; Sandy and Soda had taken Aaron to see the parade downtown. He kept trying to run out to the floats to make friends. Kid was the friendliest thing Soda had ever seen. On one particular night, Aaron was telling the gang about something that he did at the parade.

"And one time........ one time........ this one time...." he paused for several seconds, staring into space. It was past his bedtime and he was trying desperately to stay awake. He snapped back to present time and started again, "This one time....." He looked up at Steve, a puzzled look on his face. "What was I s'tinkin' about?" The boys all cracked up. Aaron had a slight lisp that made him change anything with a "th" sound to a "st" or "sht" sound. He was fascinated with saying double and "shtriple".

"Yeah, you stink alright," Darry laughed.

Aaron turned on him angrily. "That's not what I said!" he yelled. "I said STINK!" The boys just laughed harder.

Sandy swept Aaron up. "OK, kiddo, it's definitely time for bed now." She carried him to the bedroom to change clothes, then led him to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he finished she tucked him into bed and left the room. The gang was trying their hardest to stay moderately quiet for a while, at least until Aaron could fall asleep. Soda, Pony, and Steve were playing Poker in the living room and Darry was reading the news. Who knew where Two-Bit was. No one had seen him much for a few weeks. Sandy turned on the TV and flopped onto the couch. She watched for a few minutes. Suddenly she froze. She could sense something, but she wasn't sure what. She stood up slowly and looked over the couch and there was.......Aaron. Sandy exhaled and relaxed. "Boy, what are you doing up?"

"I need some.. other.. um.. you know," Aaron faltered. He was so tired he forgot his excuse for getting out of bed. "Pants?" he finished.

Sandy rolled her eyes. "Your pants are fine. Back in bed."

Aaron scowled and got back in bed.

Five minutes later, Sandy sensed him in the room again. This time she crept around to the side of the couch. Aaron was lying on his stomach, crawling army-style towards the other end of the couch. Sandy ran up behind him and picked him up. "Ok, mister. Enough of that. Get up again and you're in real trouble, and I mean it."

Aaron sighed. "But I don' wanna go to bed!" he whined.

Sandy pointed to the bedroom. "Git."

"Okay," he huffed, stalking off to the room.

Right at midnight, Two-Bit sauntered in. "Howdy!"

Pony jumped up. "Hey, Two-Bit, where ya been?"

"Bell's," Two-Bit winked.

"What were you doing there?"

"Yeah, like you need to ask," Steve laughed. It was common knowledge that Two-Bit loved to try to pick up girls at Bell's. It was the only amusement park in town, and during the summer it was packed with girls, Greaser and Soc, and now Flower children.

Pony grinned. "How many numbers didja get, Two-Bit?"

Two-Bit stared at Pony in mock disdain. "I'm not sharing! Oh, but check out this." He pulled a long rectangular paper from his back pocket and unfolded it.

Steve jumped up and snatched it out of Two-Bit's hands. "What's this Two-Bit? A PAYCHECK? What poor fool did you swipe this from, and how did you manage to talk them into putting your name on it instead?!"

Two-Bit reached to grab it back, and Steve took off outside, whooping. Two-Bit rolled his eyes at Steve's retreating figure. "Actually, THIS is what I swiped." He pulled a small stuffed elephant out of his leather jacket - he wore it year round, said it helped for stealing - and tossed it to Sandy. "For the kid," he offered.

Steve came back in and went back to the poker game he was in with Soda. The escape with Two-Bit's paycheck bored him when he realized Two-Bit wasn't chasing him down.

Darry stared at Two-Bit like he was a ghost. "You got a WHAT? You? The Two-Bit we know and love? What godsend got you to do that?"

Two-Bit's face flushed. Sandy had never seen him look nervous, and they had known each other longer than anyone else. "Well, see, The other day this girl came up to me and asked if she used to go to school with me and kinda laughed and she said wasn't I the guy her friends always called a waste of time? And you know, stuff's been tough for my mom lately, and with Kara growing up.. I want her to get to go to school, she's come this far and I dont want her to waste the rest of her life following in Mom's footsteps at the diner. It's not a bad place to work or anything, but, you know, Mom's so tired and I ain't ever given her a break. The only good thing I've done for her is not be around to make more of a mess for her to clean. So, I'm not gonna be a waste of time anymore. I'm helping out at home more now, and with me working, Mom can take less shifts at the diner and have time to rest. She's gettin' old, and she's just worked there her whole life, and I've got my whole life ahead of me. She needs this more than I do." The gang stared. They hadn't heard so much from Two-Bit without a joke thrown in here and there.

"You're really serious, huh, Two-Bit?" Darry asked softly.

Two-Bit nodded. "Hell, yeah." He broke into a grin, "It's a decent job, anyway. I get to ride as many rides as I want on my breaks, and there's plenty of hot chicks working there." He shook his head. "I wasted all my time going after the girls that pay to get in, and I should have been going after the ones that ARE PAID to get in!"

Pony grinned. Maybe they could get Two-Bit to sneak them in sometime... "You missed dinner. Sandy made tacos."

Two-Bit looked hurt. "You didn't save any for me?"

Darry patted his stomach. "Not unless you want me to feed you like a mama-bird."

Two-Bit's face contorted at the thought. "No, thanks, man." He walked over to the kitchen table and watched Soda and Steve play for a bit. "Hey, Sodapop, buddy, I would really recommend folding now. Steve's got ya beat!"

Soda and Steve both jumped up and tackled Two-Bit