Chapter 22

Soda's POV

I walked in the back door of Halley's house. I was carrying cans full of a light green paint that Halley had picked out for the baby's room. "Halley, I got the paint." I put down the cans in the kitchen. "Halley?" I called into the house. I walked into the living room. "Oh my god, Halley!" She was sitting on the ground, leaning against the door, crying. "Halley, what's wrong? Are you okay? Is the baby okay?" I asked panicked.

"Oh my god Soda. My stomach hurts so much," she said crying.

"Come on Halley, let's get you to the hospital," I said and carried her in my arms to the car.

I drove to the hospital as fast as I could, without being pulled over by the cops. Halley was in pain the entire time. I pulled up to the emergency entrance and helped Halley through the door to the emergency room.

"Can someone help me?" I yelled when we entered the emergency room. A nurse quickly came over to us when she saw Halley.

"What happened?" she asked. Another nurse brought over a wheelchair and was helping Halley into it. The first nurse then took over and was bringing us to an empty room.

"I don't know. I walked into the house and she was sitting on the floor, crying, and said her stomach hurt," I told her. We continued the rest of the trip to the room in silence.

"Family only," the nurse said when I tried to follow her and Halley into the room.

"He is family. He's my fiancé," Halley said through the pain.

"Okay, you can come."

She helped Halley onto the bed and ran some tests on her. Then she left the room. I followed.

"Will she be okay? Will the baby be okay?" I asked worried.

"We won't know for sure until the tests come back," the nurse said and walked down the hall.

I went back into the room and walked over and sat down in the chair besides Halley's bed. I took her had in mine. She looked up at me. "Fiancé, huh?" I asked jokingly.

"Sorry 'bout that. I didn't want to be alone. I hate hospitals," she answered.

"No problem, Hal. Now are you gonna tell me what put you in so much pain?"

"Dallas is back."

"What? When?"

"I don't know, but he came by the house earlier to try and apologize. And I kinda just started crying, and told him I couldn't deal with him and told him to leave. I closed the door, sat on the ground, and cried. A few minutes later, I started having sharp pains in my stomach."

"Oh, too much excitement for one day," I said.

"Soda, can you do me a favor and try and get my family and the gang here?"

"Sure, Hal, anything for you." I got up and left the room. I asked the nurse where there was a phone and I headed in the direction that she pointed me in. I reached the phone and called Darry. He said he'd get Arya and be at the hospital as soon as possible.

Next, I had to go down to the school and try and get everyone else to the hospital. I went in the school and straight to the office.

"Can I help you?" the lady behind the desk asked me.

"Yeah, actually you can. I need some people to be dismissed. Family emergency."

"Names?"

"Ponyboy Curtis, Steve Randal, Two-Bit Matthews, Aubree and Hannah Johnson, Emily Shepard, and Johnny Cade."

"That's a lot of people to be your family."

"Yeah well. Pony's my brother, the other guys are cousins, and the rest are related to my fiancé."

She gave me a look that told me that she didn't believe me, but she called their classes anyway. In a matter of ten minutes, they all walked into the office looking worried.

"Sodapop? What happened? Who's hurt?" Hannah asked.

"Halley's in the hospital. She was having pains in her stomach so I brought her to the emergency room. They ran some tests but the results weren't back when I left. Now let's go. I'm not supposed to leave Halley alone for along time or she'll have my head."

We walked out of the school and piled into my car. It was a little snug but we all managed to fit. We drove to the hospital and everyone rushed inside. "Room 222!" I yelled, following behind them.

We all reached the room around the same time and walked in. Darry and Arya were already there. The room was crowded with people. There was barely any room for anything else.

"Hey guys," Halley said.

"Hey Halley Gally," Two-Bit said, "How ya feelin'?"

"Much better. The doctor gave me some medicine to help."

"Did he say what was wrong?" Aubree asked.

"Yeah, I have high blood pressure, too much stress, ya know. And the shock of this afternoon didn't help much. So I have to stay in bed for the next month."

"What happened this afternoon?" Pony asked.

"Dallas came by the house."

"He's back? What did he want?" Arya asked.

"He wanted to apologize and to make things right between us."

"Oh."

Johnny was standing in the back looking panicked and relieved at the same time. "Come here Johnnycakes," Halley said and motioned to the bed. He went and sat down. "It's okay for you to be happy that Dallas is back. I know you two are friends. And I'll be fine, so don't look so worried."

"The baby's gonna be okay, right?" Hannah asked.

"Yes, she is gonna be fine."

"She?" I asked.

"Yeah, the doctor told me earlier when I asked him."

"That's great Halley Gally. Another greaser for me to raise," Two-Bit said.

She laughed. "I don't want my daughter to be anything like you Two-Bit Matthews," she said smiling. The rest of us laughed, except for Two-Bit. He just stood there wearing a slightly hurt expression. "Oh Two-Bit Matthews. You know I didn't mean it. I love ya to death. Besides someone has to teach her how to have a sense of humor. We all know that Dallas doesn't have one."

"Yep, and I'm the perfect guy for the job," he said looking proud of himself.

It was getting late by that time and the nurse had already been in to inform us that visiting hours were over, but family could stay. The gang all said bye to Halley and her sisters and headed for my and Darry's cars. Steve, Two-Bit, and Emily came with me, and Johnny and Pony went with Darry. We all went to our houses and got some sleep. It had been a very long day.