Disclaimer: S.E. Hinton owns The Outsiders; I'm doing this purely for fun, no profit involved!


Pony's POV

The first night that Vic was gone, I was jolted out of one of my own nightmares to the sound of screaming. Melissa was already scrambling out of the bed, grabbing for her robe and pulling it on as she raced toward the doorway. I followed, yanking on the pants I'd thrown over the chair, as the screaming continued.

"Linleigh!" Melissa said, quietly but sharply. "Lin, it's okay, we're here." She sat on the edge of the bed and put her arm around Lin, and the screams gradually gave way to sobs before tapering off into shaky gasps. "Shhh…you had a bad dream." Liss stroked Linleigh's hair and crooned softly while I stood aside feeling kind of inadequate.

"I need Vic," Lin finally said. "I need Vic."

I turned on her desk lamp and knelt on the floor in front of her. "He's not here, honey. Remember? He left today." I couldn't imagine why she would be asking for Vic in the middle of the night.

"But he sleeps with me," she blurted out, and the expressions on our faces must have made her realize that wasn't something she had actually wanted to share.

"What?" I asked, working to keep my voice calm.

Melissa put her hand on my arm as if there was a switch there that she could turn off to keep me from saying something stupid. I guess there was, because I shut my mouth and let her take over the questioning. "Lin, what do you mean?"

Linleigh shook her head. "He told me not to say anything."

I tensed, and Melissa tightened her grip on my arm. "It's okay, we're not mad. We just want to know what you mean," she replied with impressive calm.

Linleigh looked skeptical and brushed the damp hair off the side of her face. "I was scared. I have dreams, and when I wake up I'm afraid he'll find me and steal me through the window."

"Who will find you?" I asked, forgetting about Vic for the moment.

"Tom. Aunt Lisa's boyfriend."

Melissa and I looked at each other, startled. "Oh, sweetheart." Liss pulled Linleigh close to her. "Why didn't you tell us you were afraid? You know we have locks on the windows, and Pony and I are right across the hallway."

Lin shook her head. "It doesn't matter. He could still get in." A panicked edge was creeping into her voice. "I need my brother."

"Lin, what exactly was going on with Vic?" I was beginning to get the picture, and finally trusted myself to speak.

"You won't get mad?"

"No, we won't get mad."

Lin looked down and twisted the bow on her nightgown. "He came in here at night, after everyone was asleep, and slept on the floor next to my bed."

"How long has he been doing that?" I asked, my emotions jumping from shock and anger to pride in that instant.

"Since Thanksgiving weekend. He was awake when I had a dream. He said I didn't have to worry if he was there next to me, nobody was going to get past him to take me."

Melissa wiped at her eyes. "Vic has been sleeping on the floor every night for three months?" I asked. Lin nodded. I smiled. He'd probably done more for her than her psychiatrist, just by validating her fears. "Okay Lin, here's what we'll do. You go sleep in our room tonight, and in the morning I'll call Darry over to set something up. Sound good?"

Lin visibly relaxed and nodded. "Okay."

I didn't bother telling her that Tom had no idea where we lived, or who she was staying with, or that our house was locked up every night tighter than Fort Knox. She knew all that. But knowing it wasn't enough. If there couldn't be somebody right there next to her while she slept, she needed tangible evidence that her demons could not get into her bedroom.

Darry's POV

Zzzzzzp Zzzzzzp.

"There, I think that about does it." I put the drill on the ground next to me and gave the bars a shake. "Go ahead, give 'em a pull."

Linleigh held on to those bars and pulled with everything she had, then smiled at me.

"Good? And look, if you ever need to get out through your window, just undo the latch from the inside and push. It'll open right up." Linleigh followed me into her bedroom and watched me unlatch the bars without even having to open the window. Like an iron gate, it swung open smoothly. "Then, you just open the window and pull it back shut." I showed her how, then stood and watched while she went through the process a couple of times. "Nobody but King Kong himself is getting that window open, Linleigh, and he ain't big enough to fit through. Here, you go ahead and put these tools back where they belong for me. I'm gettin' too old to be running up and down the basement steps.

Linleigh laughed. "You'll never be too old for anything," she informed me.

"Well, thank you for the confidence, Miss Linleigh." I piled the tools into her arms and watched her haul them off toward the basement. It had taken a while, but she finally didn't seem to be afraid of me anymore.

"All done?" Ponyboy asked from the doorway.

"Yeah. Good thing, too, it's getting cold as hell out there with the sun setting." I've never been much for the cold unless I've got a couple of skis strapped on.

"Hey, thanks for doing this. I mean, I know we don't need bars on the windows, but…"

"Pony, I'm not stupid. It wasn't all that long ago that I moved you and Soda into the same room. The mind is a powerful thing."

"Yeah, I guess so. I really hope this works." He sat down on the bed and stared out the window.

"So," I began, hoping I wouldn't sound like a worried hen, "how have your dreams been? Soda and I could weld up another one of these things in a few hours."

Pony returned my smile. "I wish it was that easy. The sessions are helping, though. It's like when I was a kid – the dreams get worse when bad things are happening, to put it simply. Dad's journal is helping, too." I noticed he dropped his gaze then.

"Pony?" Amazing how using the right tone can communicate exactly what you want. Maybe it has more to do with the person you're talking to knowing what to expect from you, and the other way around.

"Darry, I miss Dad. I don't mean like after they first died, when I missed them because you love and need your parents and everything is wrong when they're suddenly not there. I mean, now that I have a wife, a family…"

"You want to ask him things that never occurred to you to even think about when you were thirteen," I finished, sitting down on the bed next to my brother.

"Yeah. There are so many things I want to talk to him about, and sometimes I think I'll go crazy just knowing I can't ever ask him. You know?"

"Yeah, I know. Happens to me too." For some reason Ponyboy looked surprised. "I'd only just turned twenty when they died. You think I ever asked him how he knew that Mom was the one he wanted to marry? Or what he said to fix things when they got into a fight? Or how to keep everything running smoothly when he wasn't sure he could even pay half of the bills? Haven't had that one for a while, but right after they died was the first time I really understood Mom and Dad. I mean, really understood them – for that matter, gave any thought at all to what they went through every day. I knew, but I didn't."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Just reading Dad's journal, it's like he was a real person, not just Dad. I mean, not that I didn't think he was a real person…" I nodded understanding, and Ponyboy continued. "Like, the way he wrote. I never knew before that he wrote. And some of the things he thought about and things that bothered him when he was in the war…it was like it was me writing it. And we read some of the same books, he talks about some of them in his journal."

"Ponyboy, if there's anything you want to ask me, I can give it a shot. I'm not Dad, but I can try." I almost gave him a knock in the arm for the skeptical look he gave me. "Want me to call Soda over instead?" I asked. That got a grin that saved him a little pain, since my next attempt at being helpful would have been to help him down onto the floor and remind him who had been in charge for five years of his life.

"Sorry. I just…Darry, I have no idea how to be a father. Here I am with Linleigh, and we almost had Vic, and now the baby will be here before we know it, and I just have no idea what I am doing. It's like I'm playing house and making it up as I go along."

He sounded desperate, and I had no idea what to tell him. So that was what I told him. "Ponyboy, I can tell you that I had no clue how to run things after Mom and Dad died. But do you think they knew what they were doing all the time? I don't think there is any parent out there who isn't second-guessing just about every decision they made and every comment they made or didn't make, when it involves their kids. And I mean that whether they're the parents because they gave birth, or because they got thrown into the middle when things went wrong, or because they met their kids when they were already bruised and bloodied from the world. You're doing fine, Pony. And you'll keep doing fine, because you know what's important and you know how to use your head." Ponyboy looked at me like I'd just told him I was an alien from the planet Hush. "What?"

"Half my life you've been telling me I don't use my head," he told me. Had I?

"Well, I guess you didn't for a while, but I guess a lot of fourteen-year-old kids don't use their heads for things I think are important. You made it this far, you must be doing something right."

He smiled, and I wondered about that grin as he stood and moved slowly toward the door. "Thanks, Darry. You were a lot of things for us, and parent was definitely up there on the list."

"But?" I prodded, and he grinned again.

"But I'll tell you, it ain't easy being a kid, and it's even harder when you live with Superman, especially when he's a hard-headed…"

Pony never finished what he was saying; evidently he misjudged how long it would take me to cross the room. When Melissa came in to call us for dinner she found her husband sprawled out on the floor getting his arm twisted off. One of the few benefits of the position life had put me in, and which it took me a few years to realize – I can revert from father-figure back to brother whenever it's convenient. And it wasn't until I'd figured that out that I started to understand my youngest brother.

Pony's POV

The icy chill of February gave way to the howling winds of March, which gradually submitted to April, and just when it seemed like winter would never end, the trees sprouted new green buds and the heavy coats were put away in exchange for light spring jackets and sweatshirts. I pushed open the bedroom window and breathed in the night air. Linleigh was staying over at a friend's house, and Melissa was taking a shower.

"Pony?" Melissa called from the bathroom.

"Yeah?"

"Could you bring me a towel? I forgot one."

She was really forgetting everything these days. "Yeah, be right there." I pulled a fresh towel from the linen closet and took it into the bathroom. Liss was just stepping out of the shower. I stood there and stared at her.

"Pony? The towel?" I don't know what came over me, but it suddenly felt like I hadn't taken a good look at my wife for the last four months. I'd always thought she had a great body, but now, with her belly sticking out as big as a basketball, a whole new view of perfection overcame me. I couldn't stop staring at her. "Why are you staring at me?" she finally asked, looking down to see if there was something wrong.

"It's just…you're so…"

"Big? Fat? Bulky?"

"Beautiful," I breathed, and she blushed. "No, really. God, Melissa, look at you. You've got our baby in there." I stepped forward and put the towel over her shoulders. She started to wrap it around herself. "No, don't," I said. "I'm still looking."

"Should we…go in the bedroom?" she asked with a provocative smile.

"Yeah? No headaches or leg pains or anything?"

"No, I'm doing good tonight. Let's go." I followed her into the bedroom and pulled my shirt off while she laid on the bed. "Here, lay next to me," she said, patting the bed.

I wasn't about to argue. I laid down next to her, propping my head up on my arm, elbow on the bed. "Here, let's get this out of the way," I suggested, sliding the towel off of her.

"Remember when you used to stay at my place sometimes in college?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah. Only now, we don't have to tie a ribbon on the doorknob."

Her mouth dropped. "You're kidding. Right?"

"I forgot, you didn't know about that. Shelly and I worked that out together. You had a cool roommate."

Melissa shook her head. "Oh my God. So every time we were…that's why she never happened to come home?"

"Yeah. Let's not talk about that right now." I ran my hand up and down her side, feeling like I was more a part of her with every curve my fingers passed over. I leaned forward and kissed her, taking a shuddering breath as she traced my lips with her tongue and slid her hand down the front of my jeans. "You are perfect," I whispered.

"Thanks," she whispered back. "Oh! Wait a sec…hang on, sorry." I rolled onto my back while Melissa readjusted herself. "Sorry. Baby shifted, I need to pee…" Melissa rolled herself over and stumbled off of the bed with the clumsy grace of someone whose center of gravity has shifted drastically.

"I'll be here," I promised.

She was back in the room a couple minutes later and resumed her post on the bed. "Now, where were we before junior interrupted?"

I rolled onto my side again and kept rolling, until my leg was straddling both of hers and our bare chests were pressed together. "This about right?"

I slid my tongue into her mouth, and was barely aware of the contented "Mmmmm…" she replied with. Having her as my wife, I sometimes take for granted what great friends we are, and how well we work together, in everything.

It was nice to be reminded.

>>>>>

"Pony, would you quit that damn whistling? What the hell is wrong with you?" Steve peered at me from under the car he was working on.

"Aw, let him whistle," Soda said, smiling knowingly at me and giving me a punch in the arm. "Melissa must've been feeling good last night."

When I was younger that comment would have had me red and crawling under the floor. I just grinned at Soda's insight and wondered how he had got to figuring me out so well, even about things we didn't talk much about. "Hey Soda, you know if Melanie is coming to the shower?"

"Yeah, she is. I don't know, man, she keeps showing me that little outfit she bought. Keeps showing me how small and cute it is."

"Is it?" I smiled at Soda, and he grinned back.

"Looks like something that goes on somebody who's way too small for me to attempt to dress. So what's with these showers? How come they're just for women, anyways? What is it they do that we aren't allowed to see?"

I shrugged. "Who knows? Gossip? Eat? Open gifts? Dance in a circle while chanting and burning a chicken?"

Soda laughed. "I guess I'd just as soon not know. Does she know about it?"

"No, not a clue, or so her mom thinks. I'm pretty sure she knows, though. I mean, there aren't too many weekends they could have picked, and her mom is all of a sudden inviting her over for lunch?"

Soda reached into the engine and gave something a twist. "Hand me that Coke. Thanks." I watched him swig half the bottle before handing it back to me. "Hear from Vic lately?"

"A few weeks ago. Said he wanted to make sure the phone was still working. I guess he couldn't come up with a good excuse this time." I smiled, thinking back on it. Poor kid had come up with every excuse in the book over the last two months. At first I had met up with him almost once a week to take him things that he'd "forgotten" when he packed up and moved. Lately his calls had been tapering off, though. It felt disturbingly like he was weaning himself away from us.

"How's Liss doing? Darry said you ain't too thrilled with her doc. What's the story?"

I gave a shudder and filled my brother in on the details.

A month earlier Melissa had come home from one of her appointments, all excited. "I have great news!" she informed me. I was washing dishes.

"Oh yeah?" I'd said. "What?"

"Doctor Gilman, well, you know how he tends to go with some of the newer birthing techniques?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, he told me today that he's been allowing fathers into the delivery room if they want! Isn't that great?"

"The delivery room?" I asked. "You mean, like, when you're having the baby?"

Melissa looked a bit taken aback by my reaction. "Well, yes. When else would you want to be there? You do want to, don't you?"

The disappointed look she was giving me was too much. "What? Yeah, of course I want to be there! That sounds great. I mean, wow!"

"Wow, alright," Soda commented. "How bad can it be, though? I mean, she gets in a bed, the baby comes out, the doctor catches it. It's not like you need to do anything, right?"

"No, I guess not. We're signed up for a class, though, so I can learn to not do anything."

"A class?" Soda stopped what he was doing. "What kind of class?"

"Teaches Melissa how to breathe, or something. It starts in two weeks." I took the wrench Soda was handing me and dropped it into the toolbox.

"Huh. Classes that teach you how to do something you've been doing since you were born, and dads going into the delivery room to not do anything. What next?"

"I dunno, Soda. Phones you carry around in your pocket?"

Linleigh's POV

I dug through the mailbox for a letter, which I do every day. Most days there isn't one, but today there was. I tucked it into my pants and pulled the rest of the stuff out to give to Mom.

"Do you want a snack, Lin?"

"No thanks, I'll be in my room."

Mom spotted the letter and smiled. Okay; I'll be in the kitchen grading papers. If you want, come out here when you're done reading your letter."

"Okay." I hurried to my bedroom, dumped my bookbag on the bed, and opened the window to let in the fresh spring air before flopping on the bed and ripping open the letter.

Linleigh,

Got your letter. Why are we doing this? I have a phone, you know. You're a nut. If anyone asks, I'm telling them I'm writing to my girlfriend.

I smiled. I could almost see him rolling his eyes and calling me "such a girl". But he always wrote back to me.

If that boy you wrote about makes any other cute comments, punch him in the face the way I showed you. Don't worry about getting in trouble, no way he'll be dumb enough to blab that it was a girl who gave him a bloody nose. My teacher's giving me looks, so I'm done with this letter. Have fun at Melissa's shower.

Your brother, Vic

Pony's POV

"So where do you want the rest of this stuff?" Two-Bit stood in the living room with an armful of boxes, spilling pastel tissue paper all over the floor.

"Umm…just toss it on the couch for now," I told him, nodding toward the couch as I sorted through the mail. It was the Tuesday after Melissa's baby shower, and I had finally gotten over to her parents' house to pick up the rest of the gifts. Or rather, Two-Bit had finally gotten me over there. Our car was having issues, so I'd gotten a ride to work the day before, and took off from work on Tuesday since Melissa had a half-day. She had a doctor's appointment after lunch, and I'd planned on going with her, but she thought it would work out better if me and Lin went and picked up all the stuff. It was just as well, there wasn't much happening at her appointments these days – she got weighed, measured, the doc listened for a heartbeat, asked if she had any questions, and she was done.

"Hey, Dad, did you see this thing?"

"No." How did we manage to get our electric bill that high? I looked across the room to Lin. "Huh? See what?"

"This. Isn't it adorable?" She was holding up what looked like a tangle of little teddy bears strangling on the ends of yellow string.

I was stumped. I'm the first one in our family to have a baby, and I'm finding more and more often that there's a lot about them I don't know. What would it be like when the baby actually arrived? "What is that thing?" I asked.

Lin gave me a sympathetic look, I assume in response to my blatant ignorance. "It's a mobile."

"Oh, right. A mobile." I didn't bother asking what a mobile was for.

"I'm home!" Melissa called from the foyer. She joined us in the living room, nearly shaking with apparent excitement. "Hi honey," she greeted, stopping to give me a kiss before dropping heavily into the chair. "Hello, Two-Bit!"

"Hi Mommy, how was the doc visit?" Two-Bit popped a Coke open and leaned in the kitchen doorway.

Melissa smiled. "Pony, sit down." I did, feeling something inside of me clench with worry, even though she looked happy. "Everything was good, but Dr. Gilman was still concerned that I've gained more weight than it seemed like I should at this point. Evidently some kind of pregnancy diabetes can result in a bigger baby…"

"You have diabetes?" I cut in.

"No, Pony, just let me finish!" She was still grinning, so I calmed down a little. "Well, he spent a little more time pressing around today, to check the position of the baby, and listening for the heartbeat, and…well,…he found two heartbeats!"

"Get the hell out!" Two-Bit piped up from the doorway. "The kid's got two hearts?"

He was just being funny, but to be honest, for some reason that was the first thing that popped into my head for a second, rather than the more logical explanation.

"Twins?" Lin asked. I still hadn't said anything.

"Yes," Melissa confirmed. "There are some twins on my Mom's side of the family, so I guess it's not too surprising. Apparently you also have more of a chance of having twins if it's the first month you're off the pill – something about the hormones – and since I had been…Pony? Are you okay?" Now Melissa was looking worried. Was I okay?

"Really?" I said stupidly. "There's two of them in there?" I had about six hundred new questions that I wanted to ask, things I needed to know. Two babies? At the same time? Holy…

"Twins," I said out loud, trying out the word in an attempt to get used to the concept. I stood up and went over to sit on the arm of Melissa's chair, reaching down and patting her belly. "Twins." It was sounding better every time I said it. I smiled at my wife. Was I crazy? No, I wasn't crazy. I was better than crazy. I was a dad.

Darry's POV

"Look, Jenn, I honestly don't care what we watch." We had been going in circles for ten minutes. How that happened when there are only five channels, I haven't a clue.

"But you said before that you don't like this show. I don't want you to watch something you're not interested in." She actually thought it made a difference to me.

"I don't care! Really. I'll just be sitting here staring at you, anyway…" I reached over and slid her up against me just as the phone rang.

Jenn smiled at me. "Sorry, Charlie. You'll have to watch me from over by the phone. While I watch my show."

I gave her a light pinch on the leg before getting up to answer the phone. "Yeah, hello?"

There was a pause on the other end, making my mind instantly make three different simultaneous assumptions: it was a wrong number; something was wrong with someone; or something so good had happened that somebody thought I needed to know about it at nine-thirty at night. The last scenario has never happened, so I wasn't hopeful.

"Darry?" It was Vic. "Sorry to call so late."

"No, hey, it's okay. What's wrong?" And I knew something was wrong, by the hesitation and his shaking voice. Was he crying? It terrified me.

"I…can you come over?" He paused for a second, sniffling. "I need some help. I just can't do this anymore. I tried, but…I can't. Can you come over?"

"I'll be there in ten minutes. Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Years of taking care of my brothers had taken the worry and panic out of my voice, but not out of my heart.

"No, I'm not hurt. I'm okay. But I can't do this anymore. I need my family." With the sob that came out with that last statement, I dropped the phone back onto the receiver and pulled my sweatshirt on.

"My nephew needs me, Jenn," I told her, leaning over to give her a kiss. "I'm not sure when I'll be back. Don't wait up."


Note: In case anyone is more familiar with current practices: ultrasounds were not standard practice in 1976, so it wasn't uncommon for parents of twins to not be aware of the situation until delivery, or not very long before hand; also, up until around that time, dads either went home and waited for the phone to ring, or sat in the waiting room until the doctor/nurse came out to tell them what the sex of the baby was. Some doctors were just starting to allow fathers into the delivery room.

Won't be long before Chapter 17, it's already in the works. Thank you so much to all who reviewed:

Fairlane: Thanks! Glad you got it, and that you understood Vic's motives. I find I like doing adult-Pony's POV, so I'm glad it came off well. Yeah, I couldn't see either of them falling apart or getting too dramatic. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

horrorpop: Well, hope you enjoy the first six chapters if you get to them! Thanks for the review!

random stuff about stuff: Thank you! Glad you're enjoying the story, hope you liked the update.

nycgal5490: Thank you, and I don't think I could stop writing, whether anyone was reading it or not! Hope you enjoyed.

babygurl33: Ah, sorry! And thanks! Yeah, our last one would have been Katie, but he was a boy, so he's Will instead. Good to know so many readers have enough scruples to dislike Vic's mom.

darkdestiny2000: Thank you, everything's going well here! Hope you enjoyed!

Dawes123: Yep, not only have I seen it before, I'm related to one. Thanks, I've been enjoying writing this. That's interesting, I'm wondering which points came off as implausible; much of the story ideas come from either personal experience, or the lives of those around me. I find that many readers respond and relate at least as well to the mundane originality associated with everyday life as to the jaw-droppingly original stories; so, that's what I write about. I would probably make a mess of things anyway if I tried to write anything other than what I'm familiar with (notwithstanding at least one of my original stories, as I had to create the world for that one). I agree about the original characters, and it's funny you bring that up – this chapter and the last one were originally intended to be one chapter (if you noticed, the last one was only about half the length of my normal chapters). When it was pushing 5,000 words and I hadn't gotten to my endpoint, though, I decided to sever the chapter, post Vic's leaving and let it stand on its own, and finish this one up as chapter 16. I do like to try and keep a certain balance between the original characters and the ones I wrote in without making it seem like nobody has actually moved on and established other relationships in their lives, so it's good to hear when I'm moving too far on either side of the line. Thanks again for the review!

pumpkinhead0402: Thank you, hope you enjoyed this chapter!

fanficfan: Thanks so much, I'm really glad you're enjoying the story! It's good to hear the characters are coming off okay. Yeah, I'd always wondered what could have happened to them as well, so this was what I came up with. As for some of the more specifics that you brought up: I also thought Pony sounded better as an adult name, and I laughed when I saw that in your review, because if you notice in this chapter (I'd already had most of it written), Darry is one of the only people who still tacks the "boy" part back on his name, especially when he's thinking about him. I like writing about Two-Bit, but for some reason didn't get as many chances as I would have liked. I think he needs his own story! Maybe I can do some one-shots branching off of this one…hmmm…

As for the rest, I'm so glad you liked it all. Oh, and about Randy – in the movie his name was Anderson (if you look at the credits), and in the book it was Adderson. Thanks again for the review and the blessing; I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

iluvsoda: Oh, sure, blame the author when things go wrong! Okay, I suppose I do have some iota of control over the events…Hope you enjoyed!

RangerDan: Thanks, I'm working on it!

Taurus: Yeah, I'm behind on everything too. Thanks! Yeah, he's warming up to her, so hopefully by the time she's sixteen he's keeping an eye out for her! Yes, two more chapters – possibly three, if the next one gets obscenely long and I have to chop it apart (that sounds so brutal). Thanks, I'm glad you liked the ending. Hope this one did the same!

kimmerkay: Thank you! Well, when they say don't lift anything heavier than the baby and stay off your feet for a while, there's not much else to do other than read and write (aside from the diapers, feedings, burping, pacing with crying baby, etc.). How's the pup, by the way? And the floors? Mopping all done? Hahah. Oh, yeah – glad you enjoyed the chapter! I'm partway through the next chapter as well, so pretty soon now I should be able to wrap this one up. Thanks again for the review, hope you enjoyed this one!

Nice Hobbitses: Thank you! Wow, hope that didn't work! Let me know if/when the baby came, I've been wondering! (feel free to email, I'm here all the time!). Good to know Vic comes across to some others as real, as well. I know some kids who have had problems with one of their parents, and they were anything but fragile and immature growing up. I guess it can go either way – you end up turning into the parent, or becoming their opposite. A few of the ones I know went the second route. All of them, though, have had trouble letting go of the guilt that comes with trying to separate themselves from that parent.

I hope your husband is/was well-rested. Mine had gotten up extra early that morning for work, then came home and took Benadryl for an allergy attack (this was two hours before we went to the hospital), so post-epidural but pre-baby he finally got some sleep.

Again, it's good to hear that my research and information came off as authentic. I wish you and your husband the best, and good luck with the baby!

Oh, yeah – that game was pretty decent! Been a while since the Lions have had a really good year, so I was happy about it. We get to see more of the games now, too; ABC and ESPN don't seem to want to put them on when they're losing, go figure!

MisCeleste: Thanks for asking! This chapter was originally attached to the last one, but when it became very long and wasn't near the endpoint yet, I separated them into two chapters and posted the last one, even though it was rather short. As I told another reviewer, I like to try and keep a balance between the original characters (i.e. S.E. Hinton's) and the ones I created, so it's good to have people point out when things are going too far one way or the other. So, hope you enjoyed chapter 16!

printandpolish: Sure, anytime! I'll still have to get that story…Thanks so much, I'm so glad you're enjoying it. I can see all of it as I'm writing it, so it's good to hear when it is clear and makes sense to someone else as well. Wow, you had a dream about Vic! Now that's a compliment! I thought I was the only one who had dreams about my characters (love Justin, by the way!). Thank you, and best of luck to you with Kristina and Thomas!

Ale Curtis-Carter: Wow, you're one of my original reviewers from way back when, so it'll be sad for me too when the story ends. There may be two more chapters after this one if things get long, so it's not dragged out, but I'll try to keep it all flowing well. My intent was to take it through a year, so as I'm nearing that point I don't want to start dropping in new plot lines and stuffing things in just to fill it up. Some of the issues will be wrapped up (to an extent, anyway), while some I'm not planning on going back to at this point, since I'm afraid it would seem too neat and tidy if I do (like what's going on with Tracy). I hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks so much for the review!

Tensleep: Thank you! Yeah, very emotional, I'm glad you liked it. Thanks so much, that's a great compliment! It'll be sad for me when this one is over, it was my first one! Now I sound like I'm talking about…well, nevermind. Hope you enjoyed!

callion: Thank you; great name, eh? Thanks again; yeah, moms who need their kids instead of the other way around ("need" used in the true sense of the word in this case, as I feel like I need my kids, but not to take care of me for goodness sake (not for another fifty or sixty years, anyway!)).

Hahukum Konn: Yes, and the next is already started, too! I'm too close to the end for long updates! Hehe…well, I could have put The End on that one, but I think some reviewers would have been upset with me. I know what you mean, though; that would have been a great place to end in preparation for a sequel. Thanks for the review, hope you enjoyed!

Keira: Yes, sad has to happen so the happy times stand out more clearly! Corny, eh? Yeah, Vic's mom isn't too popular around here. Amazing that there are real people like that, and I know there are, because I know some of them and/or their kids. Oh, I have so many stories in my head, I'm constantly walking around with a notebook. Jack's always asking me, "how come you always have to write?" and I say, "well, you're using the TV, what else am I supposed to do?" Hahah! A few months ago I actually started writing a story about Gavin (it's handwritten), starting a week or two before the fair scene in the book (oh my gosh, I'm calling it a book now, I really need help!). Thanks for the review!

Rock: Wow, sorry! Controlled crying is good though, right? Yeah, it didn't take long for Pony to achieve that bond with Vic. Hopefully this combined with the next chapter make Vic's motives a little clearer with respect to his mom. Hope you enjoyed!

She Pukes Glitter: You have got some of the most visual-producing identities, I love it. Thanks for the review, glad I didn't get you crying! Yeah, Vic's in one of those parent/child role reversal deals, and he's keeping up his end of the role. Boys take care of their moms, or so I hear! Lucky for me, since I've got two of them…Thanks again, and good luck to your friend.