Disclaimer: I still don't own them. Sorry. The Outsiders tragically aren't mine.

Warnings: Same as the previous chapters. There isn't any actual slash in this chapter (Dally is still mad) but there is some discussion of it. There's a little bit of swearing but not much and I don't think that there is any violence in this chapter. Sorry if they're all a bit out of character.

Please review and let me know what you think.

"Darry?" Dallas asked softly.

"Yeah?" Darrel didn't take his eyes off the road.

"I got a knife in my right shoe, can you hold on to it for me. They'll probably take it if they find it at the hospital."

"Wait a minute. You had a knife and you didn't use it? What were you thinking? Some guys jump you and you don't even take out your blade?" Darry was about to jump into a full lecture when he realized that this was Dally and not one of his brothers he was talking to.

Dally shut his eyes, hoping that Darry would just assume that he'd passed out. He felt about ready to actually. Dally hadn't been about to pull a knife on Tim. He was mad, and he wanted to beat Tim's head into the pavement, but he hadn't wanted to kill him. Tim hadn't pulled a knife, so he hadn't pulled a knife. He couldn't believe Tim had pulled such a dirty trick though.

When they got to the hospital, Darry removed the blade from Dallas's shoe, and left it in the truck. He then picked the smaller teen up and carried him easily into the ER.

"All he needs is the cape," Soda commented watching. He was only half joking. Darry really did look like some kind of superhero carrying a poor injured boy to safety.

Dally wasn't exactly high priority in the emergency room. People there just didn't have much pity for what they saw as a white trash teenager who had obviously been fighting. Dally just sat there silently, pressing Tim's shirt against his side. The other boys sitting around him talked, but he could barely understand them.

In the light of the hospital, Tim's black eye was much more visible.

"What happened?" Darry asked.

"Earlier this evening I met up with Dally to settle that little tire slashing thing. It was just a skin fight."

Darry narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything. The story seemed a bit off to him. "So you guys fought and then later this evening you ran into Dally again and he'd been jumped."

Tim nodded. "Come on, you don't actually think I'd pull a blade on him!"

Darry was silent. It was true, Tim and Dally were always fighting, but even when they had the opportunity to use other weapons, they always kept it to a skin fight.

Finally they moved Dally back to one of the little curtained off rooms.

The doctor had offered to let one of the boys go back with him. "I will," Tim said before anyone else had a chance to answer. They others looked at him strangely but didn't object.

"Want to finish the job?" Dally asked bitterly as he lay on the cot in the little room. Tim sat in a tiny plastic chair next to him. They were still waiting for the doctor to show up.

"Dallas, would you please believe me: I didn't have anything to do with it. Curly's a moron."

"Damn straight he is."

"He's also my brother."

Dally was silent. He had a feeling that Tim was telling the truth about this. A neuron in Curly's already over taxed brain had misfired and he'd thought it would be a good idea to stab Dally. He was still plenty angry over everything else though. Just because Tim hadn't tried to kill him, didn't mean he hadn't cheated on him while he was in jail.

"What about Sylvia?"

Tim shut his eyes. At least Dally was willing to talk about it now instead of just destroying his property.

"Do you have any idea how messed up it is to find out that while you were in jail, your girlfriend has been sleeping with your boyfriend?" Dally kept his voice low, they didn't need everyone hearing this, but the anger was obvious.

Tim didn't mention how messed up it was to have both a boyfriend and a girlfriend.

Dally didn't want to admit it, but it wasn't that fact that Sylvia had cheated on him that he cared about. Sylvia cheated on him all the time, even when he wasn't locked up. It was Tim sleeping around that had really hurt.

Dally tried to sit up a little. He sucked in a sharp breath in pain and sank back down.

Tim looked at him worriedly. "I'm sorry." Tim really hated apologizing. He wondered if they made cards- sweetie, I'm sorry I was sleeping with your girlfriend while you were in jail cards. In this neighborhood they would probably sell pretty well actually.

The doctor walked in then kicking Tim out and saving Tim from further groveling.

Tim was pretty sure that Dally would forgive him eventually. In fact, if Curly hadn't have gotten involved, Tim thought that there was a pretty good chance that he would have been in the middle of some very steamy make up sex right now. He was going to kill Curly.

When Tim got back into the waiting room he didn't like what he saw one bit. Curly was giving a blow by blow description of how they had rescued Dally from a group of twenty socs.

"I thought you said that they were already gone by the time you got there," Soda said sounding confused.

"They were," Tim said firmly, giving Curly a dirty look.

Curly sulked. His story had been much better.