Authors Note: Okay, sorry again! This was one hard chapter to write and life only gets crazier. So I apologize for it not being up sooner. Hopefully the next one will go better, but I'm not guaranteeing a thing. So hope you enjoy! And sorry about the cliff hanger at the end...I decided to be evil. But mostly I just wanted to put this up. So be happy!
This may seem like a filler chapter, its not as exciting and doesn't seem to go anywhere...but I assure you that it has purpose. Remember this is before the book, that may help you out there. Well, I think that's it – except that I apologize, this could have been up two days ago if it weren't for my stupid computer and then family stuff. But it's here now. Enjoy!
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Darry's POV
The doctor appointments took hours of the day, it was one o'clock when we walked in the door. At that point I felt like a beam of steel to lean on and nothing more. The doctors hadn't taken too long with Soda, although I requested x-rays to make sure. They said he had whiplash and that he would be in a world of pain for long enough to last him a lifetime. At least they gave him some good medicine for it, pain stuff.
As far as Steve went, well, that was harder. They had taken millions of X-rays and drilled him to the core on every detail they could get out about his "accident" as we told them it was a street beating, it wasn't all that unlikely. Then after lines of stitches, and a lot of medicine, they released Steve saying I should keep a close eye on him.
That brought me to now. Both of them were asleep, Steve on the couch and Soda in his room. It was nice to know that both of them would be fine, and that neither were in pain. Unfortunately, those two were not the end of my problems. Dally was still lazing around our place, not that I minded, too hung over and in too much pain to be all that pleasant. He wouldn't even stop muttering and growling in my face long enough to down some aspirin, which he was normally good at when hung over.
Sighing, I got back to the bills in front of me. It wasn't all that bad, but it was still as boring as a chic flick drive-in movie, and as frustrating as a coach yelling at you for hours about doing one play wrong. Still it had to be done. Always did.
The door opened and shut quietly, and I heard a slight intake of breath. Looking up, I found Pony standing there, having dropped his bag with a reverberating thump on the floor; our house was definitely the quietest I had heard it since the night our parents died. Pony looked pained, a wince frozen on his still sweaty face.
"Pon? How was practice?" I was almost afraid to ask. But it had to be done.
"Gawd..." he dragged out the word, "it hurt so bad. The coach wouldn't let us go."
I looked him up and down, realizing it was late for him to be back, "Sit down, buddy. You want some water?" I moved from my arm chair, so he would have some place to sit. I knew all about long practices and anal coaches. I could give up my spot to get him water. I didn't want to do bills anymore anyway.
"Yeah." He started moving towards the now unoccupied throne, often referred to as "Darry's old man chair" by Two-Bit and sometimes the gang.
Pony winced as he moved and limped along. I wondered if he was just in pain from so much running or if he hurt himself. But I decided to get him water first.
When I walked back in, Pony was busy massaging his calves, his face contorted in pain.
"What happened?" I asked, handing him a glass of cold water and three aspirin.
"Shin Splints. I swear that new coach is going to kill us all. I don't know what his problem is."
I got down on my knees and started kneading the tense muscles of my brothers calves. They sure were tight. It was something I did all the time on the football team a few years back, nothing foreign to me.
All the while Pony was wincing, I was asking questions. "Pony...did he know you were in pain? You told him, right?"
"Yeah. He kept me running. I sat down once, refusing to run anymore, and he kept me after and made me run. Told me that he would kick me off the team if I didn't."
"He what?" I exclaimed. Coaches like that were the worst, and now that I was in a position to stop them, I was going to. Before I gave time for him to answer, I went on in a lower voice, "Well, he'll be hearing from me."
"Darry, don't...he'll just do it more."
"Then he'll get it from me. Don't worry about it, I have worked with my fair share of coaches. Now, IM going to go get you some ice, a wrap and something to put your legs up on. That should help." I got and left him there, getting those things. Like I said, I had been there and I knew what was up.
I cleaned up the bills as Pony made himself comfortable, watching some show on TV and downing glass upon glass of water. I could've sworn he was part camel in that half an hour after getting home. As long as he wasn't drinking alcohol like the rest the gang, I was fine. He was too young for that. But I think he had learned his lesson the last time he came home drunk, the one and only time from my knowledge.
Then there were those in the house that never learned, or hadn't yet. The evidence was overwhelming. Dally was still hung over, sitting on the couch, and out cold. I wondered if he had had more beer since the night before, but didn't worry too much about it. He was a big boy, he could take care of himself, and he let it be known well around our parts. Then there were the other two kids hung over in the house too, hurt, drugged, hung over and all because they got drunk. I didn't understand why they didn't learn, but I couldn't force it on them. Suddenly the thought hit me, what about Two-Bit? How was he doing?
But the thought had to be postponed for a bit, considering someone barged in the door, screaming. A female howling of sorts, with flying objects; clothing, records, pictures, a sweatshirt, comb, a necklace, and of all things, even a hub cap.
The hubcap hit Steve, as did the sweatshirt and necklace, but he was out of it enough to just be groaning by the time I caught on to what was happening.
"Whoa! Evie! Stop!" I stood in front of her to find a greasy t-shirt hurled in my face before she stopped her ranting.
I turned, concerned about Steve. He was dumbfounded, trying to figure out what was going on through his haze of a world, and managing to only look around dazed and groan a bit.
"Steve, you okay?" I asked him.
He grunted, closing his eyes again. I supposed that was good enough.
"Of course he's okay! That bastard deserved everything he got and is going to get! Now MOVE!" Evie shrieked. Wow, I was grateful for the fact we were all guys.
"Hold up. Just calm down for a minute, huh?"
"Calm down!? He CHEATED on me!"
"Evie...just...lay off a bit? He's not in the best shape to be having things chucked at him."
"Sure he is! A cheater always is -- "
"Shut the HELL up!" Apparently Dally was partially conscious from the yelling. This should be fun, I thought.
"Evie, he's NOT in any condition to do this right now."
She stared at me, like repeating it for the third time made it more real or probable or...something.
"Why the hell not?" she almost growled.
I paused, how do I explain?
"Evie, take a look for yourself." I turned so she could see him. He had a blanket on him, but his face was still white as a sheet, and he didn't look too hot.
"So he's sick. Good, he deserves it! This is what you get, Steve! I swear to -- "
"Evie," I put my hand on her shoulder, stepping in front of her again, "You are wasting your time. Come back in a few days when he can at least defend himself."
"No! Go to hell!"
I took a deep breath, "Evie, really. He's hurt something bad. He spent the day in the hospital till a few hours ago, he's racked up on medications, and he doesn't need this." I was tired, and almost exasperated. Luckily, I kept myself in check. The hospital thing was an exaggeration, but if it worked, it was close enough.
"The hospital? What?"
"Yeah, he was in a bad car wreck last night. He's really not feeling to great right now. Keep it down?"
Her face turned to a surprised look. Then a little shame crossed her features before she went back to her rabid look, "Well, maybe he deserved it. Cheating on me like he did!"
I shook my head, "I doubt that, and I don't think he deserved it. So, if you have nothing better to say, I'll ask you to leave my home and let me take care of him. He needs more medications." I left the front room, only to grab a glass of water and the things Steve needed. The doctor had said to keep an eye on his temperature and keep up on his pain medication so he didn't hurt himself more fighting it.
When I went back in the room, Evie was staring at Steve, not saying a word. She almost looked like she felt bad, but I wasn't buying it.
I didn't say anything, for lack of anything nice running through my head. I really wanted to chide her, ask her if staring was a new hobby or if she was just at a loss of anything to do with her pathetic life. Instead, I just cut in front of her and woke up a very confused Steve.
"Hey, man. You need to take some more medicine. Sit up." I helped drag him to a sitting position. He was pretty much helpless at that point, too weak to do much of anything on his own and still in pain. He winced audibly, but didn't fight me. He knew I was only helping him.
Not long after, he had taken his medicine and at my insistence, downed the entire glass of water. I laid him back down, and proceeded to take his temperature. Little did I notice that the blanket had fallen from his shoulders to his waste, not until he started shivering, and Evie started cooing. She was at his head at once, rubbing the hair off his forehead and saying how sorry she was.
Obviously the site of his bruised chest was enough to get her. At least she wasn't throwing things at him. I put the blanket back over him and left, letting Evie coo all she wanted. I wasn't going to, and Steve didn't seem to care.
Before I left, I looked over to Pony, "Hey, Pone...you feeling any better?"
"Yeah. I'm fine." He responded.
"Alright. What about homework?"
"Aw...Darry! I just got home..."
"Yeah, and you need to go and do it."
He resigned to my demands and left the room with a sigh. I wanted Evie and Steve to have their privacy anyway. She seemed ready to make up. But before I left the front room, I took the chance of waking up Dally.
It only took one shake before he shot up, and groaned, "Fuck..." he mumbled as he laid back down.
"Dal...you feeling alright? Its almost five, man."
"Ugh...you need more aspirin."
I would have laughed if I wasn't worried he had taken all that was left.
"How much did you take?"
"Enough to be able to sleep and move."
"Right...you had better be careful with that, Dal. You wanna lay down on my bed?"
"I could give a damn...God...I'm never letting Steve drive again."
"Well, everyone's hurtin'. Go in on my bed, you might be more comfortable."
He grunted and got up, gritting his teeth hard. I could tell he was in pain, but other than saying he couldn't sleep and had taken aspirin, he wouldn't openly admit it. Lucky for me, he wasn't a complainer, just a grump when he felt like shit.
I glanced at Evie, she was just watching Dally leave the room. He didn't even look her way. I grinned, at least he was himself. She looked my way then, giving me a gracious smile. She knew what I was doing.
I went into the kitchen, it was time to cook dinner. I didn't really like cooking, but it came with the territory of taking care of a house of hoods. Today I wasn't sure if many would eat, most were too drugged out to care, but it would get eaten soon enough. Nothing ever went bad in our house, unless it was masterfully cooked by Soda, and that was on a very bad day.
Fisrt things first, I looked into the aspirin situation. We were going to need a lot in the next few days. Sure enough, Dally had popped more than he should have. But he seemed fine, in fact, I was sure he would be. I would have to go and get more after dinner though. I made a mental note to make sure and do that before the end of the night.
Then I went back to cooking dinner. It always took a while to do, but I had come to find that casseroles or things that you made and threw in the over were among the best ideas women had come up with. So I stuck with some chicken and rice that night. It was soon in the oven and I almost couldn't think of anything to do. There were bills still waiting unfinished, but I needed a small break so I went into the front room to get the newspaper. Time to catch up on current events.
Sure enough, Steve and Evie were back together. Quick and painless I was sure. Steve, as out of it as he was, was trying to tell Evie what had happened. Blaming all his injuries on the accident, of course.
"...We rolled...and...that was it." Steve finished simply. I didn't know how much she had understood of the story by the look on her face and I would surely tell her more later. For now, I was planning on leaving them alone.
"Oh my God! You rolled the car?"
"Yeah..." Steve shut his eyes, obviously tired. Evie didn't seem to mind.
"Was everyone okay?"
"Yeah...I think so."
I piped in then, an I think so answer never did good for girls. That was one thing I could thank my dating days for.
"Evie, everyone is fine. Steve is the worst. Soda and Dal are fine."
Steve opened his eyes then and stared at me for a minute before he said anything, "Dar?"
"Yeah? You all right? Want something?"
"What...what about Two-Bit? He...has he..." Steve was obviously running out of energy fast, but the broken sentence said enough.
Was it truly possible that all of us had forgotten about Two-Bit? That I had forgotten about Keith Matthews, that his lack of presence hadn't alerted us to something.
I stopped, "I'm sure he's fine, Steve."
"No...he hit his head. He was...pretty messed up."
I furrowed my brow, surprised I hadn't heard anything about this before. All I knew was that everyone was fine. "I'll go call Mrs. Matthews." I got up without a response from Steve to go call her.
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Keira: So? You take a long time to do reviews too. And Tens takes even longer! SO there! Anyway, thanks. Im soo glad the last chpter came out well, I wasn't so sure there for a while. But yeah. Now worries. And I know, Mrs. Paul would be proud, but she isn't good enough to read my absolutely ingenious work yet. Lol. Jk. See ya later!
Tensleep: You are too nice! And I got your review! YAY! Anyway...Hmm... Thanks! Deep huh? I don't feel like being deep. SO im going to keep this short and sweet for now. Thanks, you know how much it means to me. All the usual, but what else do you want me to say? Sorry I haven't been around much. Busy busy busy. See ya round!
CinderBrat: Wow, I inspired you? Wow. Thanks! Well, sorry for the long wait, but I hope its worth it. It was last time, right? Thanks again for your support. And good luck on that story of yours!
Stephanie: Whoa, because of me you like Darry? Cool! Steve and Darry are my tow favorite characters. But yeah. Glad you enjoy this soo much! Thanks!
priceless advice: Well, thanks! I try, if you cant tell by the long periods of time between updates. Anyway, thanks. Keep reading!
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DaNNi BaBezZz: Welcome. Now, you'll just have to wait and see what we do about Steves dad. Its coming, no worries! And what can I say, I like onions and layers, and emotions and silly Soda and Parental Darry. Its all fun! Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much! I appreciate your continued support! Thanks
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steves-girl: He got pretty close to a hug in this chapter, don't you think? I hope that counts. Anyhow, thanks! Hope you enjoyed!