I hope everyone is enjoying this story! If you are (or even if you're not) I would love to hear from you through a PM or review. And thank you everyone who has already sent one.
XX
It took Two-Bit a little time to find Pony's floor - the nurses weren't so apt to share that information - and when he saw that it was the Pediatric ICU unit - he realized that was probably why.
Also, it didn't help that he looked like a masked murderer, the scarf over his mouth, the hood from his thick coat over his head.
When he got to Pony's room, a nurse was stepping out with a cuff, having just taken Pony's blood pressure. Stepping aside to let her pass, Two-Bit entered the room.
He caught sight of Ponyboy, laying listlessly against the pillows, dead to the world. He was leaning toward Soda on his left side and it looked like measuring his blood pressure had done little to stir him. Particularly jarring to Two-Bit was the large bandage on one side of his head and the fact that the left side of his face (including the left eye) was starting to swell up and look purple.
Soda and Darry were at his bedside, watching him. Steve was looking out the window.
"Ain't this room sadder than a Hank Williams song," Two-Bit called out and Soda almost fell out of his chair.
Darry did a double take. Steve turned his head from the window and grinned.
"Heyyy Two-Bit!" Soda said loudly, looking genuinely thrilled, then cupped a hand over his mouth realizing he had raised his voice.
"Hey Two-Bit," Darry grinned, "What in the world are you doing here?"
"I had to pay a visit to my favorite Curtis," he said. He jerked his head to the sleeping boy. "How is he?"
Darry turned to look at his brother, "He's doing ok. He's doped up on a lot of meds," he said, "He woke up not that long ago, complained about his head hurting so the nurse gave him more. His temperature is not fully down yet because of the infection. It's pretty serious."
"Yeah, Steve told me on the phone," Two-Bit said looking at Steve, who came forward and clapped his hand in greeting, "I had to come see for myself," he said.
"I didn't think you'd actually show up!" Steve said, genuinely astonished to see his friend.
"I'm full of surprises," Two-Bit quipped. "Well, it ain't exactly a cakewalk out there," he pulled at the scarf that covered his mouth to reveal a grin.
"Yea, we know," Darry responded, "The truck got stuck in the snow yesterday on the way back from the doctor. Almost thought I'd have to carry Pony home on my back. It's still pretty bad outside.
"Steve and I found them," Soda said, "Did you drive here Two-Bit? How did you get here?"
"Would you believe I hopped a cop car?" Two-Bit pulled down his hood, the proud grin still on his face.
"You what?!" Darry had stood up, his arms crossed, but he couldn't keep his own grin from twitching at the corners of his mouth.
"Oh I gotta hear this one," Steve said, rolling his eyes.
"I attempted to hoof it to the hospital," Two-Bit began, "Mind you, not one of my finer moments but even a blizzard can't keep me away," he looked over his shoulder at Pony who was dead to the world, "So there I am on my way minding my own business —-not a car in sight— when some cop car comes flying at me and almost runs me over. Turns out it was Officer Franks and boy was he sorry. I decided to milk it for all it was worth and got a ride here."
All the boys knew the story with Officer Franks and how he always tried to get on Two-Bit's good side to get closer to his mom. Two-Bit was certainly not one to keep his complaints to himself.
"Good deal," Steve said, nodding. "At least you got here in one piece. We still gotta get Darry's truck out of that snow ditch. They haven't even started to plow the roads yet."
"Don't worry about that now," Darry told Steve firmly with a wave of his hand. "We got more important things to worry about right now," he said, looking at Ponyboy. "Like my little brother beating this thing. And how soon I can get back to work to start paying off these medical bills - " he muttered.
"Darry, you know we'll find a way to help you out with the finances," Two-Bit began.
"Yeah? With what job, Two-Bit? Ever thought about gettin' a job for a livin', Two-Bit?" Steve smirked.
"No," he said, crossing his arms matter-of-factly, "But maybe I'll start looking for one. We can help, Darry -"
"Can it, guys," Darry said, "No one's getting a new job right now. Nothing's even running. No one's going back to work. Everything's closed because of the weather. And no one's going anywhere, either. We're stuck here in the hospital - and now, you're stuck here, too, Two-Bit," he said looking at him pointedly.
"It's ok," Two-Bit said, "I wanted to be here," he said, without a sarcastic remark or joke for once.
"Even the doctors were stuck here last night," Soda told Two-Bit, "Hey, did you know that the doctor Pony saw yesterday at his appointment is actually a children's doctor here at the hospital? True story. We saw him last night and he'll probably come visit us today."
"No foolin'," Two-Bit said, peeling his wet coat and throwing it over one of the chairs by the door.
"Yea, good guy," Soda said.
Two-Bit went up to Pony's bed, with some hesitation in his step. "Geez, he's as white as the pillow," he commented.
Then, "Man, look at that shiner!" he exclaimed, referring to the left side of Pony's face which was slowly turning purple. The skin around the eye was heavily bruised, making it look like someone had socked him a good one.
"It's normal," Darry said, "At least that's what the doctor said. Has to do with trauma to the body from the surgery."
"What else did the doc say?" Two-Bit asked.
"He said there could be some complications from the infection, but they don't know anything yet, because he only just started waking up. He was sedated last night and he woke up for the first time just before you showed up. Doc actually said he'd come around this morning to do some checks. Hasn't been in yet." Darry explained.
"What kind of complications?" Two-Bit asked tentatively.
"Memory loss, hearing loss, headaches…" Darry trailed off.
He already had a pretty bad headache this morning," Soda said, frowning.
When Two-Bit saw his buddy's face, he decided he would quit asking so many questions.
"Can't believe Pony's back in the hospital already," he whispered under his breath, almost hoping that Soda hadn't heard him.
It didn't matter anyway. Dr. Wexler, the same doctor from the night before, showed up in the next minute, followed by the same nurse Two-Bit had seen leaving when he first entered the room.. Dr. Wexler wore a crisp white lab coat with a bland, dark tie, but he seemed nice enough and smiled when he entered the room. He held a clipboard in his hand.
"Hello again, boys," the doctor greeted them plainly, not paying any special attention to Two-Bit though he realized he had not been there previously. "I heard Ponyboy was awake for the first time about an hour ago," he said, "Nurse Linda here tells me he was coherent, but in some pain. The headaches are to be expected. He's had cranial surgery, after all. And it's possible there are some after effects of the lumbar puncture he had last night. Any neck pain?" he asked, looking at Darry.
"He hasn't said anything about his neck hurting," Darry answered, "Only the head. But it seemed bad…"
"Right, well that's why I gave the standing order for morphine," the doctor replied. "So now that he's been weaned off the sedation and he's already been up, I'm going to need to do some checks. We're going to need to wake him up,"he said matter-of-factly.
"I'll do it," Soda said in a low voice. He was closest to Pony's bed anyway.
He put his right hand on his brother's left shoulder and shook gently, "Pony...Pony...hey kiddo, wake up," he called, and it took a minute but soon Pony was prying open his heavy eyes. Pony felt achy and his mind was cloudy, so he sort of just looked straight ahead, willing his body to wake up.
"Pony, you ok?" Soda asked, taking his hand, and Pony just turned his head to look at him, grateful that he was there. Realizing the doctor and nurse were just standing there waiting for him to continue, Soda knew he couldn't ask his sick little brother anything else in the mean time.
"Pony," he said, "the doctor is here. He wants to check you over, since you only woke up for the first time this morning. You're ok with that, right?" Soda asked. He squeezed the hand he was holding, effectively telling his brother he would be right by his side.
Pony nodded faintly, but the doctor didn't really wait for an answer,and came forward.
"Good morning Ponyboy," he said, "I'm Dr. Wexler. How are you today?"
Pony blinked up at him, "Ok," he said in a small voice.
"Can you tell me your full name, Ponyboy?" the doctor asked.
"Ponyboy...Michael Curtis," he said slowly.
"Good. Can you tell me your brothers' names?"
"Sodapop," Pony looked at his brother, who squeezed his hand in encouragement. Then he looked at his other brother, "Darry Curtis," he said, "Darrel," he corrected himself, catching Darry's eyes. Darry grinned at him.
"Do you know where you are, Ponyboy?" he asked, and Pony answered confidently that he was in the hospital.
"Do you know what time of the day it is?" Dr. Wexler asked.
Pony stopped to think for a moment, and then suddenly panicked. His eyes darted around the room as he tried to come up with the answer.
They settled on Soda, who wiped his own worried look off his face, when he caught Pony's gaze. "It's ok, Pony," he said softly.
"I - I - I don't know," he said, feeling disoriented. "I don't know what time of day it is," he said. "I can't see out the window. Maybe it's still snowing..."
"That's right, the weather has been pretty bad, Ponyboy," Dr. Wexler said, with no change of expression on his face, "Good that you remember that," he said, writing something down on his clipboard.
Soda exchanged a worried glance with Darry, when he saw that Pony wasn't looking. Did Pony really not remember or did he just not know because he hadn' been awake.
Dr. Wexler handed the clipboard to the nurse. The nurse had laid out a few medical objects on a tray that was rolled up near the bed.
"Ok, Ponyboy," the doctor said, "We're going to do a few tests now. Nothing too hard, we just want to see how you're doing after the surgery."
For one of the tests, Pony had to lift his arms and squeeze the doctor's hands to get a sense of his grip strength. The doctor also shined an annoying light in Pony's eyes and asked him to follow the thin flashlight.
Soda was by Pony's side the entire time. He could tell Pony was exhausted at the end of the checks.
"Ponyboy, how are you feeling?" the doctor finally asked, "Is the left side of your face hurting? How about your head?" he asked.
"I don't feel too hot," Pony said, and the doctor nodded.
"Can you be more specific?" Dr. Wexler asked. "Any shortness of breath? Nausea? Any pain?"
"My head doesn't hurt right now," Pony answered, "I feel sore," he sighed heavily. "Tired."
"As is to be expected," the doctor said, "You should be getting plenty of rest. I'm sure your brothers here will make sure you do."
"You can count on it," Darry responded.
"Darrel, let's talk outside," Dr. Wexler said. Darry looked pointedly at Soda, his eyes telling him to "Keep Pony distracted" before following Dr. Wexler and the nurse out the door.
"Soda," Pony said tiredly, after Darry and the doctor had left, "Did I answer all the questions ok?"
Still the same old Pony, Soda thought. Only Ponyboy would worry about how well he answered questions with no right answer.
"You did great," Soda said in his general understanding tone. He didn't want to stress Pony out.
"What about that question I couldn't answer - the time of day?" Pony asked nervously. "You think I'm losing my memory?"
"Well you remembered the question now, didn't you?" Soda replied with a smile. "Anyway, even if I couldn't answer that question without looking at at watch."
The doctor HAD said, "Good morning," Soda thought, but he decided he would keep this tiny piece of information to himself and ask Darry about it later.
Soda stroked his brother's hair softly. "You told the doctor the truth about how you feel, right Pone? You're not hiding anything, right?" he asked. It wouldn't surprise him if he had left a few things out. That was a very Ponyboy thing to do. "Because you know if you don't tell us exactly how you're feeling, you're not going to get better right?"
"I told the doctor everything," Pony said meekly, "My head doesn't hurt now. But it hurt a lot before and I'm afraid that the pain will come back."
No one could fault Ponyboy for being honest.
"The doctor's got you on painkillers," Soda told him, "It shouldn't hurt like it did before. But if you feel anything, anything at all, you tell us right away, kiddo. Savvy?"
"Yea," Pony said. He tried to move his arms, but they felt weighted down and weak, much like they had when he had tried to squeeze the doctor's hands. "Soda, I'm thirsty…"
"Man, I was just about to steal you a Pepsi!" a voice rang out gleefully from the shadows. Two-Bit appeared from the corner where he had been waiting next to Steve. He was happy when he noticed Pony's eyes light up, even though the rest of him was wearily sunken into the bed.
"I don't think a Pepsi's such a good idea right now," Soda said, laughing "How about some water?"
"Two-Bit!" Pony exclaimed, "Have you been here all this time? " he asked, as Soda poured water from the pitcher into a paper cup. "I could go for a Pepsi…"
"Nahhhh, I just got in this morning," Two-Bit answered, "I crossed mountains and hills of snow for you, kid," he lied as Soda placed the straw in the paper cup and got Pony to drink.
"Yeah right" Steve burst out, "You got a ride...in a cop car!"
A strange look crossed Pony's face.
"It's not what you think," Two-Bit said quickly, "Would you believe a cop car almost ran me over? I convinced him to give me a ride. He OWED me."
Pony pushed the cup of water away and swallowed what was in his mouth real fast before it landed all over his gown. Then he laughed again.
Boy were they happy to hear that sound!
XX
Darry stood with Dr. Wexler outside the room. He wanted to ask the doctor about what kind of side effects and after effects he should looking out for, but decided he would keep quiet and just wait to see what the doctor had to say.
"Ponyboy is doing as well as can be expected," the doctor said, "He's still very weak. That's common in his condition. Headaches and neck pain are also common - they will take some time to go away. But otherwise, he's fairly sharp all things considered."
"What about the memory loss?" Darry asked, "He didn't know what time of day it was..."
"At the present time, it's hard to say. We haven't given Ponyboy enough time to heal from the infection. It's possible that his mind is a bit foggy from the medication or that he's disoriented - we just need to keep an eye on him and see what happens. That's all I can tell you, Darrel," the doctor said.
"Look, here's what I'm going to tell you, Darrel. You need to be on the lookout for any meningitis effects, because they are fairly common," the doctor explained. "It is very possible that Ponyboy will have memory loss. But right now, it's still very early and the situation can change rapidly as he heals and improves. Let's take it day by day, shall we?"
"Ok," Darry agreed.
"About his pain medication," Dr. Wexler continued, "He will probably continue to be in pain, but I suggest not continuing with the morphine. There's a new non-narcotic pain medication at this hospital that has virtually no side effects. It's called Toradol. Toradol is like a super strong ibuprofen, given through an IV. It works almost as well as narcotics, but again, it's not likely to have any of the side effects. Also, it lasts a long time. Somewhere between 4 to 10 hours."
"The hospital is currently participating in a drug trial of this medication," Dr. Wexler continued, "I thought it would be a great fit for Ponyboy, along with the other antibiotics he is on to fight the infection. Since he is a minor, I'd have to get your consent, Darrel. What do you think?"
Darry held his chin thoughtfully, weighing what the doctor had just told him. "Well, if you say it's a non-narcotic...I'd rather not give him something that affects his mood. And it's not supposed to have side effects, right?"
"Right,"
"Well...yea, let's try it."
XX
"Hey Pone," the doctor told me they're going to be bringing in your breakfast any minute, maybe we can get you to eat something," Darry said when he came back into the room, taking a few long strides to get back to his brother.
"I-I'm not hungry," Pony said, his eyes downcast and looking like they were going to close any second. He gave a tiny smile when Darry sat down next to him by the bed and took his hand.
"You feelin' ok, kiddo?" Darry asked.
"Yea, I feel ok," Pony murmured tiredly, "Just not hungry."
"Cause you would tell us if you weren't feeling ok, right?"
"Yeah Dar, I already asked him," Soda piped up, "He'd tell us," he said, giving Pony a look.
"Just don't feel like eatin'," Pony said softly, shrugging his shoulders. Which hurt of course and he winced.
"And your head is ok?" Darry asked.
"It would be if I didn't have to answer any more questions," Pony said, gritting his teeth.
He hated his brothers fussing over him, although he knew he needed it.
"Darry-" Soda warned, as if he was the authoritative figure in the family.
"I'm ASKING," Darry began, "because the doctor said he wants to put Pony on a different kind of medication for his head. One that's as good as the hard stuff but shouldn't have the side effects. So I wanted Pony to tell me when his head starts hurting again."
Two-Bit jumped in, "Why would he need to tell you when all he has to do is blink twice and rub that magic lamp of his to make it all go away. Hey Pony, if I rub your bald head, can I see into the future?" Two-Bit laughed, thinking he had made the funniest joke on the planet.
"Two-Bit - " Soda started, but it was too late. Pony's face went white and he tried to lift his heavy arms to touch his head. He couldn't, for the tubes, and he was too worn out anyway.
"My - my hair is - gone?" he asked timidly. "They shaved my head?"
"It's not gone," Darry said, grabbing Pony's wrists as he attempted to touch his head again. "They took half of it on the side with the staples. They had to in order to make the incision."
"Good going, Two-Bit," Steve snarled, swatting his friend across the back of the head.
Sodapop glared at him. "Two-Bit, sometimes you need to keep your trap shut."
"Can it, Soda," said Darry, the logical one, knowing that Two-Bit hadn't meant to hurt Pony. He probably had assumed that the brothers had already told Pony about the lack of hair.
Two-Bit's face had also gone white. "He- he didn't know? He didn't know?"
"Ponyboy," Soda said, trying to calm down his brother. "I think having half your head shaved makes you look tuff. And you'll have a cool scar once the bandage comes off."
"Pony, don't touch," Darry said, trying to keep Pony's hands down. It wasn't too hard, Pony wasn't at his normal strength.
"I had no idea he didn't know," Two-Bit said, with shock in his eyes. He was feeling mighty guilty.
He was getting worked up. "I want to see," Pony whined, when Darry told him to relax. His bottom lip trembled and he couldn't control it. "It's like Windrixville all over again," Pony said in a quivering voice and his vision blurred as hot tears began to run down his cheeks.
"Aww, honey, no it's not," Sodapop said but you could tell the comparison freaked him out and he felt bad for his brother. "It's just gonna take some time to grow back, that's all." He tried to wipe at Pony's tears but Pony turned his head to the side so he wouldn't have to look at anyone.
Two-Bit had turned around, too, feeling like he wanted the ground to open and swallow him up.
"Pony," Darry said almost sternly, but his eyes were soft and scared, "You really need to rest. You're never gonna get better if you don't. Why don't you try to sleep a little?"
"I don't want to sleep," Pony huffed, like a stubborn child.
"Here I'll help," Soda said, and before anyone could say another word, he pulled the bar to the bed down and got in on Pony's left side, gently moving the tubes out and away so he could climb in under them. He draped them across Pony, who had turned back. Then, sitting up in the bed, Soda leaned back against the pillow and pulled Pony towards him, easing his arm around the middle of his back. Pony nuzzled his face into Soda's chest, still trembling, and Soda began gently rubbing his back in a soft and soothing manner that would put him to sleep.
"Shh...shh...It's ok, baby, it's ok," he said, lulling his brother to sleep.
Soda leaned forward and kissed the top of Pony's head, where there was still hair left. Continuing to work his magic, he felt the trembling stop, Pony's body relax, his breathing ease, and soon he was asleep.
XX
Here's one of those instances where I didn't keep to the 1960s timeline. Toradol is actually a non-narcotic, anti-inflammatory drug used to treat pain that was was patented in 1976 as Ketorolac and approved for medical use in 1989. So yeah, let's just assume it was already around in 1965.
Reviews please!
~Simona