The next day began like every normal Monday. I woke up, ran at practice, sat through the morning classes, then went down to the DX with Two-bit and Steve. It was what I did almost every Monday, except for the occasional time where I ran into Sarah and ditched the guys to eat lunch with her.

I walked into the garage, looking for Soda. He was under a car, changing its oil.

"Soda?" I called.

"Hey, Pony, what's up?" Soda rolled out from under the car and gave me a grease-smeared grin. Jumping to his feet, he thumped me on the shoulder and walked to the store to buy some Pepsi. I watched him go, examining his walk. I still couldn't understand how he did it. Get all the girls, I mean. With his stained mechanic's suit and smudged face, you'd think that any decent girl would turn their noses, but it seemed to only attract them more.

We weren't even halfway to the store at the gas station before a blonde with a skirt that was too short and way too much eye make-up walked up.

"Hey, Soda," she giggled. It was a high-pitched, annoying giggle, like fingernails on a chalkboard. I vaguely wondered why I hadn't decided to eat lunch with Sarah. Then, I remembered that I had no Pepsi. Oh, well, that must have been why I stayed with the guys.

"Hi," Soda said coolly, humoring her flirtations. She giggled and ran off.

"Girls," I scoffed, thinking that Sarah would never be that dumb.

"Hey, now, you," Soda teased, "What about a certain brunette you're always hanging with?"

I felt my ears get red. "She ain't dumb like some girls." I stated. It was true. Soda just chuckled and bought some Pepsi.

The rest of lunch hour, I sat on the tailgate of our Ford and watched girls constantly flirt with Soda. It got kind of irritating. Most of them were dressed in clothes skimpy enough to have been 2 sizes to small. There were a few nicer ones, and I noticed Soda talked to them more. I took mental notes. Maybe they might come in handy some day. Not that I liked girls or anything.... Sarah was an exception. Besides, she didn't act like a girl half the time.

When I got home from school later, the house was empty, as usual. I knew Two-bit would probably come slamming in here before long, followed by Soda and Steve. Taking advantage of the unknown amount of minutes before the peace was disturbed, I poured myself some chocolate milk and sat down with my homework. Ah, the Iliad. Most kids hated it. I found it entertaining. Those Greeks were nothing but trouble.

I was startled out of the book hours later when Darry came in from work. It was then that I looked at the clock and realized that neither Two-bit, Steve, nor Soda had so much as walked in the door for 4 hours. I rubbed my eyes.

"Hey, Darry, how was work?"

"Oh, you know the usual. Where's Soda pop? He's never late for dinner."

I looked at him sheepishly, "I don't know. I've been stuck in this book all afternoon."

It then hit me how odd that it was. Soda always, and I mean always, came home after worked, asked for the mail, kicked off his shoes, and had some chocolate milk. Sure, he might leave again after that, but it was his after work ritual, which he never missed. Unless...

Darry tried to hide his worry. "Well, I'll get out of these dirty clothes and start dinner."

I just nodded, dazed. I wasn't sure what to think. Soda, he never just went off. But, I couldn't let myself think something had happened to him. No, my imagination was not going to run off with me again. Soda would be here any minute. I was lying to myself again. I still didn't believe me.

When supper was cooked, the table set, and everything getting cold, Darry and I really started to worry.

"We can't eat without Soda. Besides, I'm not hungry." With that statement, I threw my tennis shoes on and headed out the door, Darry on my heals.

"I feel like I should be telling you to come back inside and eat supper, but I can't help but agree with you. Man, kid, I have a bad gut feeling about this." Whoa, I was shocked. Darry actually admitted to me that he agreed. Of course, though. Of course we should be out looking for Soda.

"You want me to go to Two-bits, or the lot?" I asked, knowing Darry would have a good plan. Also, knowing that we'd better split up, in case there really was something horribly wrong and time was against us.

"I'll go to Two-bit's. You take the lot. We'll meet back at the house." Darry sounded like a general issuing orders. Part of me felt like answering yes sir.

The lot was empty, save for a football that had been left there weeks ago. I still searched high and low, hoping that maybe Soda was just playing a big joke on us. I didn't think it was very funny, though.

When I got back to the house, Darry was there with Two-bit. Two-bit hadn't seen Soda since lunch at DX. My stomach did flip flops as I considered what this might mean. Darry just sighed, and we sat down for dinner. None of us were hungry, but we all knew that we couldn't waste food.

After dinner, we silently cleared the table, everyone lost to their own thoughts. Two-bit even helped clean, which meant that he was seriously thinking. When the dishes were done, we went out looking again. Soda was no where to be found. We searched everywhere, all over town, until a quarter to nine. Then, Two-bit headed in for the night.

"Well, y'all, I need to get home. Mom wants me with the kid after 9:00. See y'all tomorrow." With that, he waved and walked out the door. I figured. Two-bit's mom worked double shifts and didn't get home until past midnight. I knew she worried about Two-bit's kid sister, but, only half the time she could get him to worry about her.

Running out of placed to look, Darry and I headed home. Now, all we could do was wait.

At around 9:45, I was getting ready to doze off, when Darry stood and walked down the hall. A few minutes later, I heard the shower running. I guess Darry felt like he had to do something. I was sure he had already read through that paper five times. Yawning, I was about to let my eyes shut when I heard the sound of footsteps up our front porch.

Soda appeared in the doorway. There was blood streaming down his face from a gash on his forehead, and he was looked like he was about to fall over.

"Soda!" I jumped up and grabbed him before he hit the floor. "What the heck happened? Where were you? Oh, Soda..." I trailed off, his blood staining my shirt red. I dragged him over to the couch and tried to lay him down as gently as I could.

"Ohhh..." he moaned.

"Soda, what hurts?" I asked worriedly. Man, I had never seen him that bad. Sure, he'd had black eyes and bruises before, but normally nothing worse than that.

He didn't answer right away. Instead, he lay there, not moving or talking. I could tell he was in some serious pain. Glory, what could have happened? Soda was a tough fighter. I couldn't believe that he had been beat up, so I tried to think of other things. Maybe a part from a car he was fixing fell on him. No, that couldn't be, because there seemed to be more wrong than just that cut on his head. Then I realized it was still bleeding.

I grabbed a dishcloth and wet it with cold water. The shower stopped and I heard Darry walk into his room to get dressed. Good, he could have a few more minutes before he had to see Soda like he was. I started dabbing at his head as gently as I could. It obviously wasn't gentle enough, because Soda moaned again and started to writhe in pain.

"Easy, Soda, easy," I soothed.

"Oww..." he moaned again. "Don't go so hard," Soda gasped, his voice barely a whisper.

"Do you remember what happened?" I questioned.

"Socs.... a bunch of them. One said something about... about a girlfriend." He stopped to wince and grab his side, take a slow, short breath, and then continued. "They surrounded me. I tried to run... Beer. They had a beer bottle... Glory.... Can't...breathe..." I thought he was going to pass out. I wasn't sure what to do. Lucky for me, Darry walked in just then.

"Hey, Pony, any sign of.... Glory, kid! Soda! What the heck happened! Is he? Soda, are you..." He didn't finish his sentence. Running over, he examined Soda's head, then pulled up his shirt, at which Soda let out a howl. I drew in a sharp breath.

Soda's ribs were bruised and swollen. You could tell he had been hit all over, and hard. Lordy, no wonder he couldn't breathe.

"We have got to get you to a hospital, little buddy," Darry said solemnly.

"No... don't move me... don't want any doctors pokin' at me."

"You have got to go in, but we can wait until tomorrow," he hesitated. I knew he thought Soda should go in right then. Darry wasn't any doctor, but he had seen enough injuries to know that this was serious.

We all sat there, Soda gasping for each breath, and me and Darry watching. After a little while, Darry spoke.

"Pony boy, go to bed. You have school tomorrow," his voice was tired. I knew I had to stay with Soda. I owed it to him for all the times he had been there for me.

"No," I said with finality. "No, I have as much right to take care of Soda as you do. I'm part of this family, and I have to help."

Darry sighed. "Fine," I knew he didn't want a fight.

"Hey, Soda," Darry whispered, "Do you want to stay out here all night, or can I help you to bed?"

"Mmhh," he moaned, "I wanna go to my bed, but I don't think I'll make it..."

"Take it easy, kid. Me and Pony are right here. We'll help you get there."

Soda drew in a slow breath and tried to ease himself up to sitting. That resulted in what appeared to be immense pain as he curled up, hugging his side. Darry gently slid an arm under him and helped him up. From there, Darry and I half carried, half dragged him to our room. When we finally got him in a good position on the bed, he was as white as a ghost, and I could tell he was holding back tears of pain.

"Get some sleep, Soda," Darry advised. "You need anything?"

Soda stayed quiet for a minute. "No," he gasped.

I could tell Darry was stalling, wanting to stay up with Soda the whole night, but we all knew he was working tomorrow. Soda pop wouldn't want Darry to be up all night. As it were, I could tell he was wishing both of us would go to sleep and leave him to his pain. Tough luck for him.

"Darry, you ought to go to bed. I'll be here, and I'll holler if Soda needs something."

He hesitated before conceding to my request. He still worked too hard, worried too much, and didn't take care of himself. Soda and I were trying to fix that, but Darry is a hard guy to convince to do anything for himself.

"Alright, goodnight you two."

When Darry left, I got undressed and climbed into bed. Soda was resting peacefully, but I knew he wasn't asleep. As I shut off the light, I got a feeling that there was going to be a long night ahead of me.

I awoke later that night to Soda moving around in the other bed.

"Soda? Are you alright?" I started to kick off the covers and walk over.

"Man.... I think I'm gonna be sick..."

I wasn't sure if it was a statement because of the pain, or if he was serious. Either way, I grabbed the wastebasket by our door incase he was serious. It was just in time. When he finished getting sick, he laid there and breathed heavily.

"Do you need anything?" I asked, concerned. I wasn't sure what was normal for someone who had been beat up this badly. I remembered when Johnny got beat up. He had stayed at our house for a few days and laid low. After about a week, he was back to normal, with the exception that he jumped at his on shadow from then on. From what I could remember, he hadn't been as sick as Soda was. Then again, he hadn't had his ribs busted as much as Soda's were.

"Just... help me," he winced, struggling to get off his side and on to his back. I guided him over and he shut his eyes.

"What was that about?"

"I don't know. My ribs.... Ohhh," he moaned.

"I'm gonna get Darry," I jumped up and headed for the door.

"Don't," he pleaded, grabbing my arm.

I looked at him, begging with my eyes to let me get him help. Gosh, I might have been his kid brother, but he needed someone to take care of him. Before I had fallen asleep, I remembered all the times Soda had taken care of me. It only seemed right for me to return the favor now.

His grip relaxed, and he closed his eyes. His quick, short breaths let me know the amount of pain he was in. My gut told me to get Darry right away; that this was not normal, and we had to get help. But, I didn't want to think what moving Soda might do. Instead, I felt Soda's head. He was burning hot. I got a cool rag and sat there with him the entire night.

A/N: This one was long, I know. The idea just popped into my head. Pony is learning what loving and caring about someone is all about, starting with helping Soda. Part of me couldn't believe I would let something happen to Soda pop, but to get the lesson across to Pony, it had to happen.

P.S. Thank's for all the great reviews! I can't believe how nice you all are. I don't mind a little criticism, but, the encouragement is great!