A/N: This has been my longest update lag! Sorry for any confusion about whether the story ended with the last chapter. I've still got a lot of stuff in mind, as long as everyone keeps liking it!
Disclaimer: S.E. Hinton owns The Outsiders.
Dedication: Okay, this one's for Rock, who it seems to me would be a pretty good friend to have if I needed help. Enjoy the read and the weekend!
Darry's POV
I stepped into the bar and was immediately hit with a suffocating smog of cigarette smoke. How Ponyboy managed to suck on those things for so many years is beyond me. I was surprised to find the smell oddly comforting, though, bringing to the forefront the sense that my brother was somewhere nearby. I shook off the feeling and moved further into the room.
It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday, so not too many people had arrived yet for their weekend fill of booze, pool, and fights. There was a string of Christmas lights draped across the back shelf of the bar in a sorry recognition of the upcoming holiday, the only indication of anything decent in the place, but it came off as tacky. A couple of guys were playing pool, two people were sitting in a booth, and the guy who I assumed was the bartender half-heartedly moseyed behind the bar to see what I was ordering.
"What'll you take?" he asked gruffly.
"I'm looking for Tim," I replied. He almost looked relieved that I wasn't going to make him do any work, the prick.
"I don't know no one by that name," he drawled.
"Strange, since he signs your paycheck." I had been halfway around town and back again trying to pinpoint Shepherd's location. After a morning full of offering threats and providing a clearly busted jaw to one wiseass, I had ended up at a dirty little bar in the part of town where dirty little bars do their best business.
The bartender gave me a long stare. I stared back, fed up with all the run-around. Used to be if I needed to see someone from one of the other gangs, it took one question and ten minutes. Now, I was dealing with kids who were in diapers when I was out fighting with their current idols, and they're all a bunch of arrogant little punks. Hence the broken jaw.
"I'll get Curly," the bartender finally said, shuffling off into a back room.
Great. Curly. Now I'd have to deal with him. Hopefully he didn't get any smarter since he was a kid.
I leaned against the bar and watched the pool game that was going on. The guys playing were eyeing me suspiciously.
"Alright, I'm goin'. What the hell's wrong with you that you couldn't…" Curly, who was squinting blearily through red eyes and running a hand through his messy hair, stopped when he saw me.
"You're lookin' for Tim?" he asked me, visibly wracking his brain to remember where he had seen me before. I guess drugs don't help much when you're already not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
"That's right," I answered simply. "And you ain't him."
"No shit," he replied arrogantly, though he didn't move any closer as I stood to my full height and crossed my arms. What a crock this all is – I went as far as to wear a tighter t-shirt and left my jacket in the car so anyone I had to deal with would have a clear image of what their face would look like if they didn't cooperate. It's been a long time since I've had to deal with people in this manner. I couldn't help feeling a hint of pride, though, that it was still working.
"I asked for Tim," I explained calmly.
"I'm his right-hand man," he answered proudly. "You tell me what you want, I'll get back to you. Eventually."
I walked slowly toward Curly, not stopping until he had backed himself into the wall. "You're not hearing me. You go tell Tim that Darrel Curtis is here to see him." I saw the light of recognition in his eyes then, but kept going. "If you can't do that, I will personally hand-deliver pamphlets to every junkie I can find in every corner, alley, and warehouse in the city telling them what's wrong with the Shepherd's supply, and how much better the Brumley boys' dope is. I'm sure those guys'd be happy to take over some of your business."
"You're Ponyboy's brother. The big one," he added unnecessarily.
"That's right."
Curly gave a little smile. "Those were some good days, I'll tell ya'. Okay, I'll get Tim. Stay here."
Curly wandered off to the back room again, and I heard the sound of footsteps ascending a stairway. Five minutes later there were footsteps coming back down, and Tim appeared around the corner, shirtless and jeans still unzipped, carrying a cup of coffee.
"Curtis," he greeted.
"Shepherd," I responded.
"Been a long time. Come on back."
I followed Tim to the back room, which turned out to be something like a store room with a ripped up couch and a table with chairs squeezed in. Tim flopped onto the couch, spilling coffee onto the already stained fabric. I decided it would be safer to stick with one of the wooden chairs.
"How are your brothers?" he asked.
"Good. Soda has a business working on cars, rents a garage downtown. Ponyboy works for social services. Married, baby on the way."
Tim nodded approvingly. "You did a good job with them, Darry. They was always good boys."
"Thanks." I waited patiently for Tim to get around to finding out what I wanted.
"So I ain't seen you around much. Working hard?" He took a sip of his coffee and stretched out leisurely on the sofa.
"Yeah, I'm running the business now. We stay busy."
"Good, good. So what can I do for you? Or is this a visit for old-times sake?" he joked, knowing I would never have come looking for him just to chat any more than he would've come looking for me to have a spot of tea.
"It's about my nephew. He's in ninth grade, and someone's got him roped into being a middleman in a drug game." I could see Tim was doing the math. He's not a stupid guy. "He's Ponyboy's kid," I explained. "They're adopting him."
Tim nodded understanding. "So what's the problem?"
"The problem is, he's a good kid, and we want him out of this. Four guys came after him last night, would have beat him half to death if we hadn't come along and jumped in."
"This the deal with the lockers?" Tim asked.
"Yeah. He got nabbed last spring. They leave stuff in his locker as a drop-off point. He already got hauled in for it once."
"It ain't my game, but I know who's helping run it. You give me his name, and I'll see what I can do."
"Not good enough," I answered. "I need to know he's out of it."
Tim laughed. "You were always a smart one, Curtis. If you hadn't been so damned concerned about your brothers and your future, you could've run half the East side." He sighed and gazed into his coffee for a minute. "Alright, what's it worth to you? I'm in a high position, ya' know. Can't just hand out favors like lollipops at the bank. Wouldn't be good for my rep."
I had known that was coming. Everything comes at a price. "Just tell me what you want, Tim. And make sure I'm not gonna land in jail for it."
Tim smiled. "You're a good guy, Curtis. We had us some good times. Remember that fight over at the river? What were we, about fifteen? You was always good in a fight, you kept your head better than anyone. You broke that guy's arm, remember? He must've been two years older than us." Tim stopped, remembering with fond nostalgia things that I had never even told my brothers about. "Alright, I got somethin' for ya'. Probably won't even have to hit nobody. I need to collect some money from some…girls…that work for me. Curly'll give you the addresses, or tell ya' where you can find 'em. All you need to do is get the money. And watch for the guys who monitor those girls. They'll try to keep too much of the cut."
"Fine. I collect your money, you get the dealers off my nephew's tail." I held out my hand, which Tim shook.
"You got it, buddy. You can go ahead out the front way. Stop by in a few hours for the list."
I saw myself to the door, reasonably satisfied with the outcome. Vic gets an out, and all I need to do is collect some money from a few whores.
Pony's POV
I had woken up early on Saturday morning, like around four o'clock, to Melissa's soft sobbing next to me. Vic and I had left Darry's around one and snuck into the house, but Liss and Lin were both in bed already.
"Melissa?" I whispered groggily. "What's wrong?"
"I'm sorry I woke you. I'm just so tired of feeling sick," she sniffled.
"Oh, honey, is there anything I can do?" I felt so bad for her. It seemed so unfair that she had to go through all this. I would have done anything for her right then.
"Just hold my hand," she said.
I curled up behind my wife and draped my arm over her body to hold her hand. She held it up to her face, letting the tears roll down it, and was asleep again before I was. I ended up laying there for a while longer, feeling her warmth, smelling her scent, hearing her breathe, before I drifted off again.
I woke up again around nine o'clock and carefully slid away from Melissa. I pulled on some jeans and a t-shirt, then headed out into the hallway, expecting the house to be quiet.
When I stepped out of the bedroom, though, I heard voices coming from the living room – Vic and Lin were already up. The tone Vic was speaking in stopped me in my tracks. I made my way silently down the hallway and stopped before I reached the living room doorway. I could see Vic and Lin standing in front of the couch; he was already dressed in a concert t-shirt and jeans, but she was still in her pajamas. They didn't notice me leaning on the wall in the dark hallway. Lin was waving something at Vic.
"Lin, I'm warning you. Give it back," Vic told her in an icy voice.
She had found his switchblade and had it flicked open. That's what she was waving at him.
I wasn't sure if I should intervene, and was surprised when Linleigh smiled. "Why don't you just take it back, tough guy?" She was enjoying herself.
"Linleigh," Vic warned again, "give me the knife. Don't think that because you're my sister I'll treat you any different than some thug on the street."
"You're just afraid of me," she replied. Her head came about up to his chest. "You know you'll never get it away from me without getting hurt."
Vic sighed. "Don't back me into a corner like this. I'll give you one more chance. If you don't hand me the knife like a good little girl, I'm gonna hafta get mean. I'm warning you – I can take that knife away from you without even touching it, then I'll have you on your knees begging for mercy." His voice was calm, and he sounded serious. I couldn't imagine where he was going with this, but Lin didn't seem to feel threatened in the least.
In fact, she smiled at him again. "Just admit it – I'm tougher than you." She held the knife out in front of herself.
In one swift sudden movement, Vic snatched Lin's wrist and held it over her head. "I've still got the knife," she pointed out victoriously, clutching it tightly. Vic would have cut his palm open if he tried to take it out of her hand. Luckily that wasn't what he intended to do. Grinning down at his new sister, he used his free hand to tickle under her arm and down to her ribs. Lin screeched and tried unsuccessfully to twist away from his firm grip; there was a clank as the knife hit the floor.
"Oh, look," Vic mused, "you dropped something."
"Stop," Lin squealed, laughing uncontrollably. He was still holding her arm above her head, tickling her.
"I warned you, kid – just like some thug on the street." She strained to pull away, batting at him uselessly with her free hand. Vic gave her just enough slack to sink down onto her knees.
"Please!" she cried.
"What was that?" Vic asked innocently. "Were you begging for mercy?"
Tears streaming down her face and apparently laughing too hard to be able to speak, Lin just nodded. Vic ended his torment instantly and let go of her wrist. He was her brother, alright.
Arms crossed and still giggling, Lin looked sheepishly up at Vic from the floor. "Okay," she conceded, "I guess maybe you're a little tougher than me."
Grinning and shaking his head, Vic reached down and helped Lin to her feet.
"I guess things on the street are getting rougher than I'd imagined," I said, walking into the living room. Vic turned bright red. I winked at smiling Lin as I passed them on my way to the kitchen to make breakfast.
- -
"Pony?"
I looked up from my book to see Vic standing next to the chair, giving me a meaningful look.
"Yeah?"
"I need some help with that thing. You know…in my bedroom." He glanced over at Melissa, who was sitting on the couch watching an old movie on television.
"Oh…right. That thing. Sure."
"You don't need to speak in code," Melissa piped up. "I don't need to know everything that goes on around here. If you need to talk about something, go talk."
Vic and I gave each other a guilty look. "Let's go," I told him, getting up and heading for his bedroom. I closed the door behind us. "So what's up?"
"Did you hear anything from Darry?" Vic sat on the bed trying to look casual, but I could hear the concern in his voice.
"Not yet. He knows what he's doing, though, and he knows how to deal with the guys he's looking for. Darry and them go way back. I guess we all do. Is that it?"
Vic shook his head. "No. It's my leg. It's hurting more, and looks kind of red."
"Damn. Alright, let's take a look."
Vic lowered his jeans so I could pull the tape and gauze back. Sure enough, and as Darry had predicted, the knife wound looked like it was getting infected. Vic jumped when I pressed around it. "Sorry."
"So what do we do?" It was still a little strange having Vic so abruptly looking to me for advice and talking to me with some respect, but it was nice. It was kind of like having a little brother. I could say son, but I'm not exactly old enough to be his dad, and it's hard for me to look at him that way, even though I'm his guardian and take care of him. I wondered if it had been the same for Darry. I had always assumed he just felt like a parent when he had to start taking care of us.
"We need to get you over to the clinic. They won't ask questions, and all you should need is a round of antibiotics. Get ready, we'll go over now."
"What're you going to tell Melissa?"
I shrugged. "I'll just tell her you got in a fight last night. To be honest, I don't think she'll really want the details. She trusts me enough to know when to tell her what she wants to know."
"Hey Pony?"
"Yeah."
"Thanks again for last night. Nobody ever did anything like that for me before. Thanks."
"That's what I'm here for."
"And Pony?"
"Yeah?"
Vic grinned. "I just need to know – there's nothing I could ever do that would make you as mad as you were at those guys last night – right?"
I grinned back. "Get yourself ready. We're leaving in five minutes." Interestingly, I didn't have to say it twice.
Darry's POV
This was the absolute worst job I could have imagined. Curly handed me a list of eleven women. I'm using the term 'women' loosely. A couple looked no more than fifteen. Some of their "addresses" consisted of street corners or alleys. A few of them were drunk, stoned, or passed out. And it took forever to track a couple of them down.
The only good thing I had going for me was that they seemed to feel threatened by me, if you want to consider that a good thing; but overall they didn't give me a problem with the money. Maybe it was my all-business demeanor. I just wanted to finish up and get back home to spend some time with Jenn.
I felt bad for a couple of the girls. One of them really seemed to have only about half of the money and was obviously covering for someone. She looked torn between who she was more afraid of – me, or the guy she was protecting. Her 'name' was Rosepetal, and she was one of the ones who looked too young to be out of school, much less wandering around the streets soliciting sex from men twice her age.
After about ten minutes of contrived explanations, tears, and pleading, the poor girl was shaking in her boots and I imagine thinking that I was about to tie her up and throw her in the river or, at the very least, give her a good working over. Based on the scars and bruises that she was trying to cover with makeup, I figured this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.
"Stop," I finally told her, holding up my hand, and she flinched. I put my hand back down. "Just tell me who's taking the money and where to find him. Then you won't have to deal with this problem any more. Okay?"
Rosepetal peered suspiciously at me through frightened eyes, but after a minute she relaxed a little. "His name is Jared. He hangs out by the pool hall over by the river, between the laundromat and the old movie theater."
"Fine. Don't worry, I ain't gonna tell Tim. Your cut will be in the envelope one way or the other, if I have to put it there myself." She looked startled, then grateful.
"If you ever want to come by," she started, "you know, for a free one…"
"Thanks, but no. It's not my thing." What else was there to say? Nothing I said was going to get her off the streets, she didn't even know me. It made me feel sick.
I tracked down Jared and dragged him out into the alley for a lesson in hierarchy. It didn't take him long to agree that Tim was, in fact, the boss, and that he would be in a lot more pain if Rosepetal's cut was ever short again. He had no idea he would never see me again, so I had no problem making threats left and right.
The whole time all I could think was how glad I was that this wasn't the path I had taken, and that my brothers had had the good sense to listen to me and keep out of trouble. It could have gone either way a few different times, especially when I started pushing Pony hard and he resisted. It took us a while to strike a balance and come to terms with each other, but in the end I learned how to give him some space and he learned how to deal with and eventually appreciate my persistence about his education.
It was getting dark out by the time I reached the last address. It was a house, and as I opened the creaky front gate I couldn't shake the feeling that I had been there before. Most of the houses in that part of town look alike, though, and my company's done a lot of work there. I found we got better business from the big places by doing some inexpensive residential roofing. Word of mouth is the best marketing.
I rang the doorbell, which didn't work, so I knocked on the door. There was the sound of feet running across the floor, and a little girl answered the door. "Yes?" she asked, looking up at me. Why did she look so familiar?
"I'm looking for…Butterfly," I told her, referring to Curly's scrawled handwriting.
"Who is it?" someone called from inside.
"He says he's looking for a butterfly," the little girl called back, and I smiled in spite of myself.
"Okay, honey, I'll take care of it." An older girl moved the younger one out of the way, hurried onto the porch, and closed the door behind her, speaking in a desperate voice as soon as the little girl was out of earshot. "Oh, God, I won't have the rest until tomorrow. My brother got sick and I had to get some medicine, but I didn't have enough left from my paycheck…oh God, please don't hurt me, not in front of the kids, I swear I can get the money…"
Her voice was shaking, and it wasn't until she finally looked up at me in the dim light of the porch that it all came rushing back to me; her brow wrinkled in confusion first, then recognition crossed her face. She turned red and put her face in her hands. "Oh no…oh no…"
I could only think of one shocked thing to say. "Tracey?"
Hope you all enjoyed! On to the reviews:
Reviewer: Here it is, the update!
Tsuppi: Thanks, I'm glad you thought it fit so well, and I appreciate the compliment. Hope you enjoyed!
goldengreaser: Wow, that's so nice to hear! Sorry Pony's profession isn't working for you. I didn't find anything in the book to indicate that he had any malice toward social workers, but even if he had, this was more along the lines of, he saw a lot of kids that needed help, and it all got narrowed down to this being the best way he could get to them on a daily basis. That's just my opinion, I think there are lots of other careers that would make perfect sense for him, too. Hope you enjoyed!
callion: Thanks, I'm glad you liked the analogy. Yeah, you can't be held too responsible for the things you did when you were six. Glad you like Jenn, hope you enjoyed this chapter!
BonnieBlackCat: Wow, thanks. I think I'll have trouble topping that last chapter, though! Hope you enjoyed!
Just Playin: Thanks! No, I was afraid some people would think I had finished it. There's a lot more coming, I just keep going off in different unexpected directions. Hope you liked!
darkdestiney2000: No, it wasn't the end, sorry for the confusion! Yeah, this was one of my favorite chapters to write, and to read afterward. Hope you got better fast, and hope you enjoyed chapter 10!
mrs sodapop curtis: Wow, that's a great compliment, thanks! Hopefully the next chapter doesn't have such a long update lag. Hope you liked!
Aslan: Thanks, glad you liked it. It's my personal favorite, though I've got something coming up down the line that might be comparable. Thanks again, hope you enjoyed!
kaz456: Thanks, glad you enjoyed!
Tensleep: I had a feeling you would like that chapter, I don't know why. I liked the part where Steve finished Darry's sentence, too – it just sort of popped out without me expecting it. Don't you love when that happens? Hope you liked this chapter; not as much action, a little more Darry, and now some more loose ends. Happy Friday!
Rock: Thanks, I'm so glad you liked it so much! It'll be hard for me to keep up with the expectations now I think. That one just came so easily. I'll have to get some more action in this story I guess. Wasn't too fast on this update, but hey, I'm just starting to get some of my energy back now. Yay!
Keira: Yeah, I remembered. So how is 18 treating you? Feel all grown up now? Me neither, and that birthday was quite a while ago. I'm just playing house here. Thanks, I'm glad you liked the chapter. I wrote it a while ago and had a really good feeling about it. I actually couldn't wait to post it, but so much other stuff was happening in between. Think I should add some more Shepherd? I wasn't sure how I did with him, or if I should keep him in the picture.
Tessie26: Thanks, glad you enjoyed! Yeah, I couldn't imagine them not taking her in. I'm glad the parts with Vic opening up were realistic. I could only imagine. That's a really nice compliment, comparing to the book, thanks so much. I didn't put Two-bit in mainly because I didn't want over-kill. I figured if Pony called Soda or Darry and one happened to know where the other one was, and maybe Steve was with Soda, that was about all they would have time to hunt down. Hope you liked!
Ale Curtis-Carter: Thank you, glad you liked it so much!
screaming666: Thanks, glad you're enjoying! Chapter 9 is my favorite so far.
Fairlane: Thanks so much, I'm glad you liked it. I was kind of on the edge of my seat when I was writing it, if you can believe that! Yeah, I figured if these are guys that Ponyboy described as "tough as nails" and "neither of my brothers had ever lost a fight", they couldn't have lost much if anything in ten years. Pony was harsh with Vic, but I figured he wanted to get to the bottom of things for Vic's safety, one way or the other. Hope you enjoyed this one!
virgil-t-stone: Thank you, that's a really flattering compliment. Hope you're still enjoying, sorry for the confusion!
