One Step At A Time

Summary: When he was only two, a car accident took his leg, and his mother. Now, Ponyboy must learn to deal with life as a fourteen year old with only one leg. With the help six brothers and dad, he's just going to have to take it one step at a time. (Mr. Curtis is alive!)

Disclaimer: No, silly, I never have nor will I ever own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton owns The Outsiders. *sighs* :( I simply borrow them for my own creative enjoyment purposes.

White collar black wolf: Thank you for taking the time to review. I'm glad that you did. :)

Kas3y: Thank you so much! :)

HappierThanMost: Thank you so much for reviewing, as always! I love writing Steve, I actually think my next story might include more of him, not sure. That's so true though! I'm sorry to be cutting it short. :(

Amanda (Guest): I'm glad that you do. Thank you so much for reviewing, Amandi.

SunnyDreams (Guest): Aww, thank you so much! Your comment made my day. And I used to hate Steve, but now I actually really enjoy writing about him. Again, thank you so much for your review. :)

Chapter 11: Thanksgiving Wishes and Drag Races

~ Wednesday, November 23, 1966 ~

"Darry!" Ponyboy exclaimed as he walked into the house, a huge smile spreading across the younger boy's face.

"Hey, kiddo," Darry greeted, wrapping an arm around Ponyboy's shoulder. "I'm sorry I'm late. There was a bunch of construction. Are you guys ready to go?"

For the past four years, the Curtis brothers went to the drag races the day before thanksgiving. The event was really popular with a lot of greasers, and Soda had been racing ever since he got his license. Ponyboy hadn't been able to go the first year Soda raced, he had a high fever over the entire Thanksgiving break, so today would be the first day he could see Soda race at such a big event.

"Yeah, I'm ready if Soda is," Ponyboy responded. Darry called out Soda's name impatiently, who just grumbled back, "I'm coming, I'm coming. Hold your horses."

A minute later Soda came rushing out of his room with only one shoe on, but neither brother spoke of it. As long as he exited the car with both shoes, the way he went in didn't matter.

"Wait, Darry, are you sure you guys should do this? It was raining earlier, the roads might still be wet..." Darrel spoke up suddenly, sounding worried and unsure.

"Yes, Dad, we are going to be just fine. I promise. Okay? See ya later," Darry responded as he turned the knob to open the door.

"Fine... Bye, boys," Darrel responded reluctantly, unable to shake the pit that weighed heavily in his stomach. They would be fine, right?

How very wrong he was.

OoOoOoO

"You're gonna kill it, Soda. Show Steve who's boss," Darry encouraged as Soda started his engine. Sodapop sat in the front seat, a competitive gleam in his chocolate brown eyes, while Ponyboy was in the passenger seat. Passengers weren't a common or encouraged occurrence, but Soda wanted to show his little brother a front row seat to the year-long anticipated event since he had to miss last year's race.

Soda and Steve made eye contact from their separate cars, both of their faces filled with excitement, but held a competitive hardness, similar to their expressions before a rumble. As easy going as Soda was, he was extremely competitive, and Ponyboy had no doubt that the car Soda had put together himself could outrun Steve's easily.

"Three...Two...One...Go!"

Tires squealed before the two were off. Ponyboy felt himself grinning, unable to help getting caught up in the excitement of it all. It seemed to take just three or four seconds to get to the finish line, just the blink of an eye, before he beat Steve's by just under half a car.

As Soda hit the brakes, a puddle of water went unnoticed by the two brothers, until the submerged tire began to spin. Even as Soda tried to correct his steering, he began driving on more wet pavement, causing the back end to go fish tailing.

And suddenly, going well above sixty miles per hour, Steve's car collided with the passenger side of Sodapop's, and then everything fell apart.

OoOoOoO

"What the-" Steve exclaimed after things finally stopped moving, letting out a few startled curses, his head pounding from making contact with the steering wheel. Broken glass seemed to cover everything, and a few pieces were embedded into Steve's arm. But besides the front of his car being totally bent and squished, that seemed to be all the damage the accident caused.

Until Steve looked over at Sodapop's bloody mess of a car and proceeded to get sick.

OoOoOoO

Pain. It seeped past the skin into the muscles before settling into the bones of his legs, seeming to eat away at him from the inside out. It pounded at the front of his skull, a constant jackhammer against his brain. It burned his chest, each breath a painful struggle. He begged for relief, to slip away from the agony of consciousness, as one word spilled repeatedly from his mouth.

"Ponyboy...Pony...wake up, please."

OoOoOoO

Darry couldn't tell you what had exactly happened that night, the details were too blurred with unrelenting fear. All he knew was one minute he was screaming and hollering for his brother's victory, and the next he was ripping open the door of his brother's car in all of its mangled, devastating condition.

"Soda!"

"''M okay. Just... Just get Pony," Sodapop mumbled, his voice filled with pain. Darry nodded, although Soda didn't see him, and began to carefully pull Ponyboy's broken body from its place inside the car.

"Tim! Help Steve. I got my brothers," Darry found himself saying, as he saw none other than Tim Shepard running up next to him out of the corner of his eye before he disappeared.

Darry hated to admit it, but Ponyboy looked dead. A steady stream of blood was trickling out of his nose, mixing with the blood that was pouring out of a deep gash across Ponyboy's left cheek. His prosthetic was obviously broken beyond use, and Ponyboy's or her leg looked worse for wear, bent awkwardly at the knee in a way that a leg was not supposed to bend. And that didn't even cover what Darry couldn't see, the injuries hidden by clothing and blood.

Ponyboy, what have you gotten yourself into?

A/N: Next chapter is the last! I know, I'm sad too. But I'm already working on my next story (A Ponyboy centered angst story) so if anyone has any requests for that, now would be the time. Thank you so much for reading! You guys have been a lovely audience. xD

Stay Gold,

~ Alee XxX