Darry's POV

How in the world would we tell him? It was hard enough on his when he found out that he might not be able to walk again. But now, when half of his hope for normalcy was cut away...

"Why is my left leg bandaged so much now?" Pony asked, looking down at his leg. He reached down to trace it with his hands...

"No!" I exclaimed, but it was too late. He had reached the bottom, which was only his knee.

"What?" Pony said shakily.

He at up as quickly as his aching body would allow, and then he looked down at his leg, or what was left of it.

"This isn't funny, guys." Pony said, shaking uncontrollably.

"Pony, baby, they had to... It was infected. It was either that or you would die for sure..." I said, unsure of myself.

"What? Why?" Pony's breathing was fast. He was starting to panic.

"Calm down, bud. I'm so sorry. They had to." Soda said, trying to console him.

"This can't be happening." He said, shaking all the more.

I put a hand on his arm, but he shook me off, backing farther into his bed, only to hurt his sore leg.

He gasped in pain.

"Pony, breathe. You're making yourself sick." I said, fearing he'd hurt himself.

"This can't be happening. I need to wake up!" Pony said, not looking at me or Soda, as though we weren't even in the room.

"Get a nurse." I said to Soda, and moved to Pony's side.

"No! Get away! Soda! Darry! Wake me up!" He screamed. He put his hands over his ears, curled into an awkward ball, and rocked himself back in forth, saying over and over again, "It's just a dream."

The nurse rushed in and I stepped back. She injected a sedative of some sort into Pony's arm and he calmed and eventually fell back to sleep. I was relieved that he was calm, but I didn't like the fact that he couldn't fully comprehend what was going on. I figured since he was still so feverish that that would have something to do with it.

Soda and I stood by, watching Pony sleep.

"You think he'll remember all that?" Soda asked.

"I don't know, little buddy. I don't know."

Pony's POV

No! My leg! What's going on?

I was trapped in one of my nightmares, but this one seemed all too real. I remember sitting up in bed, only to find that part of my left leg was gone. Soda and Darry tried to comfort me, but I couldn't let them. If I did, it would be admitting that it really happened.

How could my leg be gone and yet hurt so bad? It must be a nightmare, because I can feel the pain. Wait, I couldn't feel the pain before. I was numb. I never felt it after the burning. Am I healed? Will I be able to walk now?

I woke up, shivering and sweating. I looked around the room. It was dark, the middle of hte night. Soda and Darry weren't around and I whimpered in fear.

"You okay?" A soft voice asked.

I turned to see a girl about my age sitting up in the bed beside me.

"Who are you?" I asked, and I hated the way my voice trembled slightly.

"I'm Rose. Who are you?" She said back.

"I'm Ponyboy Curtis." I replied, hating having to tell her my name.

"That's a nice name. Your brothers went home for the night. The doctors made them leave." She explained.

"Oh."

"How are you feeling?" She asked me.

"Pretty lousy." I said, attempting a smile.

"Me too."

"Why are you here?"

"I had to get my appendix taken out. But it's already out now. I should be able to go home soon, if nothing goes wrong."

"Lucky."

"Your brothers seem nice. The bigger one seems to be really scared."

"He does?" I asked, not believing that Darry could ever seem scared.

"Yeah. You can see it in his eyes when he watches you. And when he touches you it's so light, like he's afraid you'll break if he touches you too hard."

Darry? Why would Darry seem like that?

"Personally, I like it when guys do that. He seems to be so big and strong and tough, but when it comes to emotional things, he's actually pretty soft."

I sat there, pondering what she was saying. It was still hard to believe that she was talking about Darry. Wait, Darry's only 20. That's not that much older than me. Why wouldn't he be scared?

"So are you a greaser or a Soc?" I asked Rose.

"What?" She said, confused.

"You are from around here, aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Where do you live?"

"Out in the country. I have to commute because we live so far out of town."

"Oh. You're really one of the lucky ones then."

"So what are greasers and Socs? And which one are you?" She asked.

For some reason, I was able to talk to her. We stayed up most of the night talking. I told her about greasers and Socs, about Johnny and the rest of the gang, about Soda and Darry, and for some unimaginable reason, sunsets.

I never looked down long enough to see that part of my leg trully was missing.

Soda's POV

We woke up early in the morning. Darry was already up when I got out of bed and it was only 5:00 in the morning.

"'Morning." I said when I walked into the kitchen.

"'Morning." Darry said with the same lack of enthusiasm as me.

"You sleep bad, too?" I asked, noticing the dark circles under his eyes.

"Mm-hmm."

"When we leaving for the hospital?"

"As soon as possible."

"I'll go get ready." I said, getting up from the table.

"Wait. Eat something first." Darry said, motioning toward the eggs with grape jelly he had set out for me.

I sat down and ate, though it was the farthest thing from my mind.

I dressed and got ready quickly. It was time to go see Pony, and worse, it was time to tell him the truth once more, should he have not remembered.

We drove quickly to the hospital and rode the elevator up to Pony's room. When we stepped inside, I was surprised to find Pony smiling and talking to a young girl.

"Hey, Soda, Darry. This is Rose. Rose, these are my brothers." Pony said, introducing us.

Darry managed a smile as he extended a hand to the girl.

"Nice to meet you, Rose." He said. I shook her hand next., commenting on how she managed to make Pony smile.

"It's not that hard, really." She said, blushing slightly.

"Rose, if you wouldn't mind, we'd like to speak to Pony alone for a minute." Darry said.

"That's fine. I wanted to go explore the hospital anyway." She got up to leave.

"Bye, Pony." She said, smiling at him.

"Bye, Rose." He said, smiling in return.

When she left the room, Darry and I turned back to Pony.

"How long have you been awake?" Darry asked.

"About five hours." Pony replied.

"Then I guess you've figured it out." I blurted out.

"Figured what out?" Pony asked, and Darry sent me a glaring look.

"Pony, when we had to take you back to the hospital, when you were acting so sick, it was because your left leg got infected. The infection was so bad that...the doctors had to amputate part of your leg." Darry said as calmly as he could.

"What?" Pony said, fear creeping into his eyes.

"Buddy, part of your leg is missing." I said.

"So...it wasn't a nightmare?" Pony asked, the tears welling up in his eyes.

"I'm afraid not." Darry said, taking one of Pony's small hands in his large ones.

Pony shook Darry's hand off and reached for the covers that hid his legs. He lifted it up and looked down at his leg.

He gasped at the sight and quickly dropped the sheets. He broke into tears, and Darry and I reached for him.

"I-I thought it was going to get better. I had hoped..." We knew what he meant. He didn't have to finish.

"I know, baby. I know." I said, hugging him tightly as he buried his face in my shoulder.

Darry rubbed his back as we held our baby brother as he cried. His hope had been destroyed. I hated this. I hated that this had to happen to Pony. What did he do to deserve this?

Rose is angeloves1's character.