I'm back and I'm sorry that it took me so long. I had a bit of writers block with this one. I'm already writing the next one though, so don't worry. Thanks for your support and for kicking me into gear.

The dirt under my cheek was damp and there was a sharp rock pressing into the side of my neck where the lard ass of a cop was pushing me down. But I barely noticed any of this because my whole world was focused on the two figures huddled on the ground across the yard from me.

My heart skipped a beat when Soda had crumpled after the gun had gone off, crashing backwards into Ponyboy sending both of them tumbling. I thought that I'd lost a brother and the combination of rage and pain that hit me was blinding.

Before I could take a step towards them, Philip was charging Steve, yelling at him to get away from his mother.

I hesitated for a second, longing to run to my brothers but not willing to let another Donovan get a hold of that gun. I sprinted after Philip tackling him to the ground in a move that you have made my old football coaches proud.

Philip struggled madly under me until I slammed my elbow into the side of his head. I felt a grim satisfaction as he fell back dazed. His family had hurt mine enough.

Still pinning him with my body, I craned my neck around. "Soda, are you alright?" I almost sagged with relief to see both of my brothers sitting up. They seemed okay, dirty and banged up but alive.

Soda turned towards me, "I'm fine Darry…"

Two police cars roared into the yard sirens blaring, sending a wave of gravel that pinged off my back.

"Drop the gun!"

I looked over my shoulder to see a cop with his gun trained on Steve. I froze. Steve paled and his hands shot up. We all knew how dangerous a cop with a gun could be for a greaser.

I felt hands on my shoulder and I bit back the urge to jab the cop in the gut as he pulled me off of Philip and pressed my face into the ground.

I gritted my teeth as my arm was yanked back none too kindly. These cops didn't understand. "Wait, you got it wrong!" I yelled, trying to see the cop over my shoulder.

"Stop, leave him alone!" The fear in Ponyboy's voice had me whipping my head around to find him. Soda pulled Pony into his side, both of them watching me with identical expressions of horror.

Glory, if I didn't feel a spark of joy at the sight of the two of them together, despite the fact that I was being made to eat dirt right now. After a week of worrying and wondering if we'd ever see Ponyboy again to have him standing there with Soda gave me some peace. Now if we could get Dudley Do-Right over here to lay off me, we'd do fine.

One of the cops approached Mr. Donovan. "Your neighbours called about a disturbance about an hour ago. Are these….hoodlums bothering your family."

I gritted my teeth of course they thought we were the problem. This fine upstanding family had been trying to shove my youngest brother into a trunk a few minutes ago and then had shot at the other one, but we were the problem here.

It didn't matter what they thought of me, I had Pony's custody documents in the car and Officer 's contact information in my wallet. The Donovans would never be able to explain their actions, not with Ponyboy standing right there.

I felt the cold metal of handcuffs on my wrists, and it stopped my train of thought. No chance in hell I'd let them arrest me and separate me from Ponyboy and Soda. I twisted to look up at the cop on my back. "You don't understand. They took my brother! Kidnapped him." His bony elbow was rammed into my side, forcing the air from my lungs. "We didn't do anything wrong."

"Please, he's telling the truth. We just wanted our brother back!" Soda's voice rang out and I looked over at him. His face was set in a hard line but his eyes were dancing with anger. Ponyboy beside him was sheet white.

I jerked against the cop to get a better look, Ponyboy seemed unnaturally pale. Paler than he was before but I couldn't really see him well from this angle.

The cop pushed my head down and I growled. I struggled and turned my head back towards my brothers, my cheek pressed into the dirt.

"Pony!" Soda's yell rang right through me as I watched Pony drop like a rock.

I twisted and tried to buck the cop off my back. I needed to get up, my brothers needed me. "What's wrong?!" I called out, unable to get the fat ass off of me.

I met Ponyboy's wide glassy eyes. They seemed to glow; they were so green. Soda moved and inadvertently blocked my view of Pony's face. I snarled as the cop pushed down on me harder. I had to get over there!

Soda was speaking in his soothing voice that always coaxed Pony back to sleep after a nightmare. I couldn't hear what he was saying though.

One of the cops approached them. "What's going on?"

"I don't know! He's bleeding. Help him!" Ice settled in my stomach at Soda's panicked words. I struggled harder but only received a hit to the back of my head for my efforts.

Two-Bit was standing a few feet away from Ponyboy and Sodapop, his hands cuffed behind him. His face was stony and more serious than I could remember ever seeing him. The expression doubled my desperation to get to my family, something was seriously wrong.

The air was broken by the wail of a siren and chaos started around me. An ambulance pulled up the drive with paramedics tumbling out as soon as it stopped. They joined the huddle around my brothers quickly and firing questions.

I could only pick up parts of what was being said. Heard Soda explain that Pony was bleeding from his back and had passed out but not much else. The paramedics were speaking into their radios, medical jargon about puncture wounds that I didn't understand, crackled instructions being returned.

I didn't understand it, what had just happened? How had Ponyboy been hurt? If the Donovans had hurt him, I couldn't be held accountable for my actions. The need to be in control, to take care of my family was blinding.

They loaded Ponyboy onto a stretcher with practiced efficiency. I strained so I could be let up to follow him or to at least see him but the cop wouldn't budge.

"I'm his guardian! I have to go with him." I yelled towards the cop in charge but he didn't even turn away from watching them put Ponyboy into the ambulance.

The cop sitting on my back laughed drily. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen buddy."

I gritted my teeth and imagined the feeling of my fist hitting his face.

"Darry?" Soda was standing near the back of the ambulance looking completely at a loss. He gestured helplessly towards where I knew they'd put Pony, silently asking me what to do.

I bit down the urge to scream and did my best to meet his eyes. "Go with him Soda. Watch out for him, find out what's wrong and make sure they take a look at your arm since she shot you." I said the last bit to the cop in charge whose brow furrowed in confusion. I looked back at Soda. "Take care of him."

Soda set his jaw and nodded, then disappeared into the back of the ambulance. The cop shut the door behind him and just like that my family was whisked away.

I pressed my forehead into the ground praying that Ponyboy was gonna be alright. He'd passed out and he was bleeding. They were taking him away to God knows where and I was stuck here. He just had to be okay. I don't know what I'd do if he wasn't.

"Alright." The cop in charge scrubbed his face with his hand. "Put those three over there and the others over here."

The pressure left my spine and I was pulled roughly to my feet. He frog-marched me a few feet away and pushed me down beside a cuffed Steve and Two-Bit, both of whom sported identical glowers.

Two cops stood a while away from us to keep watch I guess, while the others all crowded around the Donovan family on the other side of the yard. The Donovans all looked worse for wear. Daniel's lip was bleeding and his glasses were askew and I realized it was because one of the arms was broken. Philip's eye was starting to swell and the whole right side of his face was red, he was favouring his right leg. Mr. Donovan's thinning hair was standing on end as he agitatedly ran his fingers through it. Mrs. Donovan was still sobbing, the curtain of her short dark hair hiding her face.

I didn't have any room in my heart for sympathy. Losing someone sucked but everyone suffered loss sooner or later. My family had been hurt by their actions and I didn't have any forgiveness to give.

"I couldn't see what was going on, is Ponyboy okay?" I muttered to Two-Bit.

Two-Bit clenched his jaw and my heart dropped. "Don't know man. He seemed to come around a bit when the paramedics were there but wouldn't wake up fully. He was sweating buckets too."

"Was he shot?"

Two-Bit shook his head. "He was bleeding from his back like a stuck pig, I'm not sure why."

Steve cussed.

I wanted to start hollering, to run after the ambulance. Shoot, at this point I'd beg these no good cops to take me to my brothers so I could make sure they were safe.

"What happened here?" Two-Bit's question pulled me from my thoughts.

"We came to check out the place after we split up, when Soda recognized the car. We hid in the tree line and sure enough Daniel and Philip came out of the cottage soon after. They were trying to stuff Pony in the trunk of the car."

Two-Bit's expression darkened and he sneered. "I hope that you taught them a lesson in manners."

I smiled grimly towards Philip's swollen eyes and jaw. "I think they got the message." We fell into silence, all glaring towards the Donovans. "How'd you two find us?"

"The old lady next door heard a scuffle about an hour ago and had already called the pigs. She was nattering about no good neighbours disturbing the peace when we heard the fight. I came running faster than the Road Runner."

"Sure yah did." Steve muttered, rolling his eyes.

"What about you?" I prompted Steve.

"I hadn't made it next door yet when I heard the noise. I crept through the bush and around the side of the cabin to see that crazy lady pointing a gun at Soda and Pony." He growled and if looks could kill we'd be down a Donovan.

"Where'd you get the gun?" Two-Bit asked.

Steve smirked. "No gun. I just held a stick to her back and she fell for it."

Two-Bit chuckled. "We'll you saved the day Steve, I might need to start calling you Mighty Mouse or somethin'."

Steve bristled but any retort was cut off by the arrival of the lead cop.

"Alright. I'm Sergeant Clarkson." He brushed his large moustache and tried to hike his belt back up over his large protruding belly. "I just spoke to Mr. Donovan, now I want to know what you have to say about what happened here."

Setting my shoulders and looking him right in the eye, I told what had happened over the last week. How Ponyboy had missed our court date and no one knew where he was. How the Donovans had sworn up and down to the Tulsa police that they didn't know where Ponyboy had gone. I told them about coming out here because it was our only chance of finding him even though it seemed unlikely. I told him about how we found the Donovan brothers trying to stuff Pony into the trunk and how Mrs. Donovan had threatened them with the shot gun, before accidentally shooting Soda.

"My brother is a tuff kid, he doesn't show fear very often but he was scared stiff of being put in that trunk. I wasn't gonna sit on my hands and let them do that to him."

Through my whole explanation Sergeant Clarkson remained mostly quiet except for a few questions to clarify here and there. He just wrote notes in his notebook and watched me steadily.

He tapped his pencil against the pad. "So how did your brother Sodapop…..?" He looked up and I nodded in confirmation. "Okay, Sodapop get wounded?"

"Like I told you Mrs. Donovan was waving that gun around, yelling about how we couldn't take her son Peter away from her when Steve came up behind her and told her to put the gun down."

"And Peter is her deceased son?"

"I guess." I shrugged.

The sergeant turned towards Steve. "Mr. Donovan said you threatened his wife with a gun to her back,"

"Nope," Steve said, snapping the p. "I poked her with a stick and she asked me if I had a gun. I never said that I did. She must have misunderstood." Steve smirked and I wished that I wasn't cuffed so I could slap him upside the head. If his attitude stopped me from getting to Pony, he'd regret it,

Sergeant Clarkson hummed and tapped his pencil a few more times. How I wanted to throw the damn thing into the woods, Pony and Soda were waiting for me!

"Well it seems like your stories match up and seeing there's no sign of any other weapon than the one registered to Mr. Donovan I think we're done here. I'd still like to call Officer Roberts that you spoke of to corroborate the story but I see no reason you can't wait at the hospital while I go back to the office to do so."

I stared at the cop. "Our stories match?"

"Yes." He cocked an eyebrow. "Did you think they wouldn't?"

"Umm yeah, I didn't expect the Donovans to admit to kidnapping my brother." I answered incredulously.

Sergeant Clarkson frowned. "That's not exactly how they put it. Just that Mrs. Donovan is unwell and did not understand what she was doing. Her sons and husband came to help Ponyboy and bring him home to you."

My jaw dropped and I exchanged a glance with Two-Bit and Steve to see similar looks of disbelief on their faces.

"And you believe that baloney?" Two-Bit asked, his usual humour missing.

Sergeant Clarkson straightened to his full unimpressive height. "I don't see the need to make such a good family suffer needlessly, do you?"

I glared at the pompous man. Of course he was worried about them when my brothers were taken away by ambulance. I ground my teeth together, this was not that time to fight it. I just needed them to undo these cuffs so I could get to the hospital and check on Pony. Once Ponyboy was safe by my side, I'd press charges no matter what crap the cop had to say.

I sure was sick of kowtowing to all these people who thought they knew how to take care of my family better than me. First the state and social worker, then the Donovans and now this cop, they'd all caused more harm than good in their attempts to help Ponyboy. Couldn't they see how much he meant to us? How we'd do anything for him?

"You morons saw that the Curtis' were the ones who left by ambulance, right?" Steve snapped. I shot him a look and he clenched his jaw but sat back in silence.

The sergeant ignored his comment and gestured to 2 cops who had been standing by. "I'll have Officer Morris and Officer Lincoln escort you to the hospital. Do you have a means of transportation?"

"Our car is parked up the road." One of the officers unlocked the cuffs and I stretched my shoulders.

"Good. I trust you understand that you are expected to remain at the hospital until further notice."

"That's fine," I said curtly. I honestly didn't care much what he wanted but I figured I'd be waiting around at the hospital for news of Ponyboy anyway and the faster he shut up the faster I'd get to him. There was one thing though. "What about them?" I gestured towards the Donovans, who were still in similar positions as before.

"I'm going to take them into custody for the time being, just until we figure this out."

I crossed my arms and watched him steadily, making sure to flex my biceps. Steve and Two-Bit moved to my side. We all knew how to look intimidating when necessary. "Are we free to go?"

He nodded, snapping his notepad shut.

I tilted my head. "Let's go." Steve and I started up the driveway towards where we left my car, trusting that the cops would pull up soon to give us our escort to the hospital. Nothing was gonna stop me from getting to my family.

"I'd like to say that the police department here has done a bang up job and it's an honour to meet Colorado finest." Two-Bit performed an elaborate bow and almost tipped over.

"Two-Bit, move your ass!"

We'd gotten to the hospital maybe an hour and a half after Soda and Pony. The three of us charged into the emergency room, ignoring the warning from officer whatever-his-name-was to stay at the hospital until we heard from them.

Soda was sitting alone on a plastic chair, his hands clasped between his knees and his leg bouncing a mile a minute. He didn't look up until I placed my hand on his shoulder. He jumped and his dark eyes met mine.

"Darry," he breathed, then flung himself at me. I was so surprised I almost didn't catch him. I wrapped my arms around him hard and pushed down the memory of Soda falling after the gun shot. He grabbed onto the back of my shirt just as hard, his shoulder trembled.

Ice settled in my stomach, "Ponyboy?" I croaked.

Soda pulled back and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "I don't know Dar. He was still unconscious when they took him away, he lots a whole lot of blood and no one will tell me nothing!"

I sighed partly in frustration, partly in relief. I'd take no news any day. "Alright Little Buddy, no use getting yourself all worked up. Why don't you and Steve take a walk and I'll see what I can find out."

Soda stiffened and I squeezed his shoulder. "Just a quick lap outside, you're going stir crazy. I won't go anywhere until you're back. Did someone look at your arm?"

"Yeah, it was just a scratch. They cleaned and bandaged it up real good."

"Good," I sighed, I ran a hand through my hair. "I'm gonna find a nurse to help us. Go get some air, Soda."

Soda hesitated again, then nodded. I smiled at him, relieved. He needed to blow off some steam before he flipped his lid. He started to walk away with Steve falling into step with him then stopped. "What happened with the Donovans?"

I grimaced. "Not much, the sergeant didn't seem to think there are any charges that need to be made."

Soda froze and his expression turned deadly. "You've gotta be joking."

I shook my head, I wasn't impressed either. "They're not my concern right now. First we're gonna make sure Pony is safe then we'll deal with them. I ain't letting this go, savvy?"

Soda's eyes were fiery, his body vibrating his anger. Steve shoved his hands into his pocket, looking like a real tuff hood.

Two-Bit pulled out his switch and began to pick his nails.

"Damn straight." He said darkly.

The nurse I found to help us could only tell me that Ponyboy was in surgery. They'd taken him back the moment he'd arrived at the hospital. She let me know that they'd send a doctor out as soon as they knew something.

I settled into a hard plastic chair to wait, and Two-Bit wandered off.

Alone, I dropped my head into my hands. What were going to do? Who knew how long Ponyboy would need to recover. We were hours away from home and the thought of having to leave Pony here to go back to work made me sick. My boss would give me more time if I asked but Soda's wouldn't. It would be a fight to convince him to go, one I wasn't sure I wanted to fight.

There was no point worrying about all that now, not while Pony was still in surgery.

What if he didn't make it?

I shuddered, pushing that thought away before it could overcome me. I wouldn't go there, he was fine.

I sat up to study my bruised knuckles. I always tried to stand between my brothers and any hurt, but sometimes there were things I couldn't protect them from. It made me feel small.

Soda and Steve returned not long after, the scent of cigarette smoke following them like a cloud. Soda seemed a bit calmer though the stress around his eyes was still clear. They both sat down beside me.

"Did you find anything out, Darry?"

I nodded slowly. "Only that he was taken straight into surgery and they'll send a doctor out go speak to us soon."

Soda jumped to his feet. "Surgery! Why does he need surgery?"

"I don't know Soda, she couldn't tell me much."

Soda took a step back. "This is crazy! He was supposed to be home with us after the court date, not a state away getting stabbed and shot at. Why is this happening?! We didn't ask for this."

I didn't know what to tell him. I'd asked myself the same thing more than once. Why was it always Ponyboy?

"Sometimes crap just happens Soda." Steve said watching his buddy carefully. "Your parents didn't ask to be in that accident and Johnny didn't ask for those Socs to jump him. It ain't all bad though, you didn't lose the kid in that fire and hell we found him all they way out here when the odds were against us." Steve lapsed into silence for a moment, then continued quietly but firmly. "He's tuff, he'll pull through."

Soda breathed out slowly and nodded looking more hopeful. I met Steve gaze hoping he'd see my gratitude for being able to say the words I was too sick with worry to say. He just rolled his eyes back and we all fell silent, waiting.

This felt like the place that time forgot. I wasn't sure how long I just sat there watching Soda pace like a caged animal as Steve fiddled with his pack of smoke. After a while Two-Bit came sauntering back.

"Anyone want a chocolate covered peanut?" He said as he pulled a bag out of the waist of his jeans. I was pretty sure that he must have used his five finger discount at the gift shop.

"Why would anyone want a chocolate that came out of your pants?" Steve snapped.

"Suit yourself." Two-Bit answered with a shrug and proceeded to happily munch away on his find.

"The family of Ponyboy Curtis?"

We all turned towards a doctor in scrubs standing down the hallway. His face was expressionless, I couldn't tell what kind of news he had for us. Like everything though I'd meet this head on. I pulled myself to my feet and straightened my shoulders.

I put my hand on Soda's shoulder as he came up beside me. I could feel how tense his muscles were under my hand and I squeezed gently.

"I'm his guardian, Darrel Curtis. How's my brother?"