I'd like to thank my four reviewers, and hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter as well. It won't be as long but my chapters for this won't be as short as the ones for JRC (I hope). And to correct something last time, the children, wives, and Aishwarya all belong to me.

Ponyboy slipped in through the front door just as the clock hit 2:30. Time had a fluid quality to him, and he wouldn't have believed that he could have been gone that long had his own watch said the same thing. He had been preoccupied with the candles, four of which were still burning brightly despite the breeze that had begun on his journey home and his own attempts to put them out for fear of burning himself.

When he unhooked Shep from his leash the Cocker Spaniel padded over to the back door and laid down on the mat, dropping his head onto the floor and yawning before falling asleep. Ponyboy stared at the dog, jealous of Shep's ability to fall asleep so quickly and easily while he was left to ponder what exactly those candles meant to him.

Setting them down on the kitchen table he picked up the silver one, seeing as it seemed one of the least dangerous because it wasn't lit. Tentatively he put it to his nose and sniffed, a small smile gracing his features as he did so. Cologne, chocolate cake and a strange hint of perfume, the sort that Maureen would wear when they were beginning to go out. When he had finished he set it back on the table and picked up the one with the blended colours, the orange, yellow and pink.

This smelled different, like rain, fall and smoke. It smelt of summer and even a little bit like the earth, a confusing blend of scents that under normal circumstances would make him turn away, disgusted, but it was oddly comforting. He set this down carefully, noting the swirl of the colours and wondering why none of the others were quite as colourful as this.

Last was brown. Ugly, considering the last two he had picked up, but when he sniffed it he was hit by a million different scents. Beer, cigarettes, gas, burgers, exhaust. Cheap perfume and sex were the underlying odors that made him wrinkle his nose in disgust and set the candle back amongst the others. Such a disgusting aroma, and yet he wasn't at all tempted to throw the candle in the trash and forget about it.

"Pony?"

He looked up from where he was staring at the newly acquired objects to see Maureen standing there, leaning in the doorway and rubbing her eyes. She wasn't making an effort to look beautiful, but he still found her attractive, even in that old pink bathrobe that she insisted on holding onto even though it was a good nine years older than Iris.

"What're you doing up, babe? I thought you were," Maureen yawned and stretched, "you were going to bed." Stepping into the kitchen she frowned, seeing his outfit. "Where'd you go?"

This was a familiar tune, making him think of the night a bit more than twenty years ago, when he had stayed out far too late with Johnny in the lot, looking at the stars, discussing their lives and the girls they had "picked up" at the drive in. They had drifted off, and Darry had snapped at him when he had gotten home at two in the morning. Everything had been blown out of proportion… and looking where it had ended up always made him feel more than a bit guilty.

If he hadn't stayed out, Johnny wouldn't have died. Dallas wouldn't have snapped and he wouldn't have robbed that convenience store, wouldn't have been gunned down under that streetlight (although something of the same nature was bound to happen sometime, Ponyboy would just rather not have been around to see it).

"Hm?"

He was jerked out of his thoughts by Maureen's voice and he smiled at her. "Couldn't sleep… I thought a walk would work."

"And did it?" She was mocking him in a way, her tone playful despite the fact that she seemed about ready to fall asleep. "You don't look ready to sleep."

Ponyboy shrugged, a teenager response to a question he didn't want to answer. "I guess not… I'll be up in a minute though, Mo… I promise--"

"Candles?"

Maureen was looking past him now, at the seven candles and seeing their strange assortment of colours, smelling the aromas wafting towards her as they burned but never actually shrunk. "You bought candles at two in the morning, Pony?"

"… yeah… I-I guess…"

She smiled at him, picking up the silver one and inspecting it. "Well they're pretty…" Slowly she bent forward, touching the wick to the burning wick of the sea green candle and pulling it away, watching the flame dance. Ponyboy felt the urge to blow it out, the urge to scream at her and tell her what she was doing was wrong in so many ways that it was hardly a laughing matter. She had no idea what she was doing, what force she was dealing with and what horrible things could happen.

As the world spun, Ponyboy's eyes widened in horror.

Neither did he.

Living on Borrowed Time

"Keith's coming over in a little while," she said casually as she inspected one of the pots in the sink. "Bringing Elizabeth… such a nice woman… why don't they ever have kids?"

Ponyboy looked up from where he sat at the table, frowning at his wife over his bowl of corn flakes. Two-Bit was coming over with… Elizabeth? His confusion was understandable, considering the last time he had spoken to Keith about anything of the sort he had divorced her and was currently paying child support for his four year old son, Andrew.

Maureen didn't seem to notice his silence as she scrubbed the pots, pans and plates that had piled up in the sink. Instead she just kept on working, scrubbing them and then putting them carelessly in the dishwasher.

"I think Jonathan's coming over as well…"

His blood ran cold and he felt the colour leave his face. Jonathan?

"… bringing Hazel, but I don't remember." She made a tutting sound as she put one of the finer china plates carefully into the lower rack. "You'd think that he'd learn not to try and raise a girl on his own but…"

"Wait," Ponyboy interrupted, and she turned to face him. "Johnny's coming over?"

Her expression was one of confusion, although whether it was at the nickname or the fact that he didn't remember this, he couldn't be sure. "Well… you invited them…"

"But what about the fire? His broken back?"

At the mention of this her expression softened and she walked over to wrap her arms loosely around his shoulders in an embrace. "Babe, I thought I told you, he's doing fine. The doctors performed surgery, they fixed everything and he's walking again…"

The joy he was feeling was downplayed by the overall frustration at how confusing the situation was when it shouldn't have been that way at all. However, Maureen already seemed concerned that he had forgotten their meeting, and he chose not to speak up about it. "Great," he said at last, taking another bite of his cereal to occupy himself until the big meeting.

At ten thirty someone rang the doorbell.

Ponyboy was in the bedroom, his eyes closed, hands behind his head and his chest rising and falling steadily. His soft snores were the only noises breaking the silence of the room as he slept, his fatigue unexplainable to Maureen because apparently he had been going to bed at seven-thirty every single night.

"Johnny's here," she called up the stairs, making him think back to past birthday parties when he had been playing in some other part of the house and his mother had called for him to come greet the guests. He smiled at this, but didn't open his eyes until he heard Maureen's irritated sigh and she called him a second time. Aishwarya's words didn't even register in his mind as he descended the stairs to greet the friend he had wanted to see for so long. When he came to the first floor of the house, he wasn't quite able to see Johnny, who was blocked by the door that Maureen was still holding open.

Audrey was downstairs as well, talking animatedly with a girl a bit taller than her, thin with large dark eyes and black hair. She wasn't dressed up, but her hair was back with a red scrunchie and she was wearing overalls which clashed with Audrey's dress.

"Don't tell me you were sleeping again," Maureen's teasing made him smile, but he nodded. She turned back to Johnny who was still blocked by the door. "Right! Oh… c'mon inside. Didn't mean to leave you out there," she mumbled as she moved aside.

Ponyboy's stomach did several large flips, turns, and knotted itself all in that span of a few seconds as Jonathan Cade stepped into the room, turned, and smiled at him.