Notes: I removed a certain line from chapter 2. Hope it helps!

I heard footsteps heading my direction so I opened my eyes thinking it was a nurse but it was Steve and Two Bit.

"How's Pony Boy?" Steve asked sitting down next to me.

"Concussion, exhaustion and he has a fever of 105." Darry answered for me. I had my eyes closed again not wanting to deal. I know everyone expects me to be bouncing off the walls or something but I can be serious when I want to and right now I was serious.

"It's my fault." Two Bit said.

"What do you mean it's your fault?" Darry asked sounding a little annoyed.

"I knew he was running a fever before the Rumble. He made me promise that I wouldn't tell you because he wanted to fight. He said he'd take a couple Aspirins and he'd be fine. I believed him. I should have said something. If I had, he wouldn't be in the hospital."

"Not your fault Two Bit." I finally spoke up. "Pony's good at keeping things bottled up." Too good I added mentally. I should have seen something was wrong with my brother. I was so excited about him being home and still thinking about Sandy and worrying about Johnny that I didn't even think something was wrong with Pony. Darry noticed but let everything slide. What if we had been more careful? I wondered

"Are you here for Pony Boy Curtis?" A nurse asked. This nurse had curly blond hair and glasses. She looked to be in her mid to late thirties.

I jumped up as did Darry. "We are his brothers."

"Oh good. Well he's been asking for his brothers and not letting any of the nurses close enough to insert an IV. One went off looking for some kind of soda he could drink. Poor kid."

"Where is he?" I asked not really paying attention to what she said. Really I just want to see my brother.

"He's in room 525. It's up a couple of floor's ad down the hall..." She called but we were already on the way to the elevators.

I entered and saw him struggling with one of the nurses. "Don't touch me! I want Soda!"

"I'm right here Pony." I said grabbing his hand. He jerked it away and I was hurt.

"Don't touch me! I want my brothers!"

I turned to the nurse who was standing there. "He's delirious. It's not unusual for people with high fevers to experience delirium. He's been asking for soda ever since we came in here. I sent a nurse to get him a Diet Tab."

Under different circumstances I would have found that to be funny. "My name's Soda Pop. I'm Pony Boy's older brother."

"I'm so sorry! I didn't realize." She must have noticed the fear in my eyes because the next thing she said was, "we gave him a cold bath before we brought him up and we'll get some ice packs. Don't worry. We'll do everything we can to get his fever down." She looked at the other three men in the room. "Are you all his brothers?"

"I'm his oldest brother Darry and these are two of our friends Two Bit and Steve." Darry said introducing them.

"Darry?" Pony Boy asked reaching out for Darry. Darry was surprised by this and grabbed Pony's hand. "Johnny didn't mean to kill the Soc. Didn't mean to." He said passing out.

Later that day after the doctor told us to go home and get some rest, I was sitting on Pony Boy's bed just watching him sleep. The nurse gave me some food for Pony and said maybe I could get him to eat. I looked down at and didn't think anyone would want to eat it.

"Momma?" Pony called. "Dad? Don't go. Stay here! Don't want you to go. Don't leave me, Darry, and Soda. Need you!"

"Pony?" I said lightly shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes but they were so glazed over I don't think he saw me. "I have food for you. It's good." I held it up to him and he turned his head away.

"Don't like bologna."

"Pony it's not bologna. It's..." I have no idea what this stuff is. I think it was at one time Jell-O. "It's Jell-O. Come on try it for Soda Pop."

"I hate bologna!" He knocked the bowl out of my hand and hit the floor with a loud thud. I sighed. I went into the bathroom and grabbed some paper towels to clean up the mess. Course if I saw that Jell-O I might have knocked it down too. Since when did my brother hate bologna? That had always been his favorite kind of sandwich.

When I came back into the room he was out again mumbling something about monsters and fires in Atlanta. I am going to ask him what exactly he did in Windrixville.