Disclaimer: I don't own the Outsiders, I just own Sunny.

Authors Note: I kinda like this chapter. It's pretty dark, though… Thanx to all my reviewers, who are the best people on this website.

Chapter Nine: Another Trip To The Hospital

It was Dally. From the looks of it, he'd been beaten badly. He had a black eye, his lip busted open, and a gash on his forehead. His arm was resting at an angle it shouldn't be. Something on his chest was bleeding through his jacket. He looked bad.

I could hear my blood rushing in my ears as the wind blew through the dark grey cold sky. I didn't know why this was so disturbing to me.

"Did you call an ambulance?" Someone said. I didn't look to see who it was, I was too busy staring at Dally's unconscious body to look, but I could tell it was Johnny's panicked voice.

"Yeah," Came the reply from Steve.

Soda came up to me and pulled me close to him, wrapping his arms around me. I hadn't realized how cold I was until he started to warm me up.

"Soda... who did this?" I managed to choke out.

"We didn't see who it was," He said in a quiet voice, but somehow made himself heard over the impending storm, "But we saw some guy walking away from the lot when we came here. He was bald and he had a tattoo on his neck.

I went cold.

"Soda… I know who that is…" I said in a voice barely above a whisper. He looked at me quickly.

"You do?" He asked.

"Yeah… well, I don't know his name, but he was the guy that was with Dally when he got out of prison, the guy that asked Dally if I was his girlfriend Sunny," I said.

Soda looked like he was in deep thought as the ambulance arrived. Johnny rode in the ambulance with Dally while the rest of us ran back to my house, and Darry drove us to the hospital in our Ford.

I sat in between Pony and Soda in the waiting room, while Darry sat on the other side of Soda. Two-Bit sat beside Pony, and Johnny beside him. Steve sat on the other side of Darry.

"I hope he's okay…" Johnny whispered.

I couldn't make up my mind about if I wanted him to be okay or if I didn't.

After what seemed like hours, a doctor came out. Darry walked up to him.

"How is he?" He asked. The doctor looked at all of us and said,

"He'll be fine. He's just got a broken arm, and we had to give him stitches in his lip and some stitches on a switchblade cut on his chest, but other than that he's fine, he can go home tomorrow."

Everyone drew a sigh of relief, and to my own surprise, so did I.

"Well can we see him?" Johnny piped up.

"Yes, you can. One at a time, though." The doctor said.

So, Johnny went first, and when he came out he looked happy. I guess at the fact that Dally was okay.

Two-Bit went in next, then Steve, Darry, then Soda, then Pony.

"Do you wanna go in?" Soda asked me. I thought for a minute, then nodded.

"Okay," He said and led me to the room. We stood outside the closed door.

"Soda, did you and Darry and Pony get mad at him?" I asked.

"No," Soda said. "We were going to, but then he told us the story. I think you should hear it too before you yell at him." Soda said.

"Alright," I said.

"Good." Soda said and kissed me on the forehead. "Be strong." He whispered and left me outside the door. I took a deep breath and pushed it open. Dally looked up and saw me.

"Sunny…" He said quietly.

"I thought you didn't know me," I said coldly, still standing by the door.

He sighed shakily.

"Come sit down. Let me tell you why that happened."

I said nothing, but sat down on the chair beside his bed.

"Listen, Sunny, when I was in jail, that bald guy you saw and me got some real beef together. We got in a lot of fights, and I made a really bad enemy in him. Thing is, before the first fight we had we were friends, and I told him I had a girlfriend named Sunny. Well, we got released on the same day. He threatened to kill me if I didn't take him to my girlfriend. I knew what he was gonna do to you, Sunny. That's why I lied. That's why I said I didn't know you. He was gonna hurt you. He had a gun in his pocket for Christ sakes!" Dally said.

A tear escaped my eye.

"Oh Dally…" I murmured. He continued with the story.

"So, today, this morning, we were in the lot. I just told him flat out that I wasn't gonna take him to my girlfriend, so he could just kill me. He beat me up, real bad, and just left. I got unconscious just when Steve, Soda and Darry found me. I'm really sorry, Sunny, I just had to protect you." By this time, tears were streaming down my face and I had grabbed hold of Dally's hand.

"I love you," He said.

I smiled through the tears.

"I love you too, Dally," I said and leaned down to kiss him.

When I leaned back up, He was smiling too. He reached up and wiped the tears off my face.

"Don't cry, babe, It was nothin'," He said.

"No, no Dally it wasn't nothing, you probably saved my life, thank you," I said and kissed him again.

Soon the doctor came in.

"I'm sorry miss, but you'll have to leave the room now. You can stay in the waiting room tonight if you want, but you can't sleep in the room." He said.

"Alright," I said.

"Night babe, seeya tomorrow" I said and kissed him again. "Love you,"

"Love ya too Suns," He said and I left.

I went into the waiting room where the rest of the gang was waiting for me.

"Did he tell you the story?" Two-Bit asked. I couldn't talk for fear I would start dropping tears of joy again, so I just nodded. Soda jumped up and hugged me.

When he pulled away, he left his arm over my shoulders and I left mine around his waist. We stood facing the guys.

"Darry, can I stay here tonight?" I asked, giving him puppy dog eyes. He sighed.

"I guess so," He said.

"I'm staying with her then," Soda said. I smiled at him. Darry sighed louder.

"Fine," He said, "but the rest of us better go," They all stood up and headed for the door. Darry and Pony each kissed me on the cheek.

"We'll seeya in the morning," Darry said as they left the hospital.

Soda and I sat down.

"Well Sunny, you tired?" Soda asked.

"Nope," I said and yawned. Soda laughed.

"No, huh?" He said.

"Well, maybe a little. Let's do coffee," I said. We stood up and went to a coffee machine.

We got back to our seats and drank it, but somehow we both ended up falling asleep anyways.

We woke up to someone shaking us.

"Soda, Sunny wake up!" It was Darry.

"Darry?" I asked tiredly.

"Yeah, it's me. Now get up, we can take Dally home," He said and walked away. I sat up and stretched.

"Hey Soda, did you—" I said, but stopped when I looked over at Soda and saw that he had fallen back asleep. I laughed and shook him.

"Soda, honey, wake up!" I almost yelled. He finally woke fully up just when Darry walked out from down a hall with Dally beside him, arm in a cast and sling and a bandage over the cut on his head.

"Dally!" I said, running up to him and hugging him. I hoped it didn't hurt him, because of his chest stitches. Then I looked around.

"Hey Darry, where's Ponyboy?" I asked.

"In the car," Darry replied. "let's go,"

So that's what we did after checking Dally out of the hospital. Darry drove and Dally and I sat in the front while Soda and Ponyboy sat in the back seat, play fighting, which pissed off Darry and he told them to stop because it was "distracting the driver".

"Loosen up, Dar," I said and stretched my feet out, resting them on the dashboard.

"Feet down," Darry told me.

I did as I was told but turned up the radio really loud because a Rolling Stones song was on that I liked.

"Turn that down!" Darry nagged. I rolled my eyes and chuckled because Darry was so uptight.

Everyone laughed and I could tell this was going to be a good day.

Alright, I liked that chapter. Don't forget to review, thanx!