A/N: I know I've been posting short chapters for a while, so here is a longer one. As always, please review!
I awoke again to voices, and was completely surprised to find my basketball coach sitting in a chair next to Darry, talking Tulsa sports. I was awake for a good five minutes, just lying there listening to them, before Coach Karis glanced over and noticed I was awake. It had been interesting to hear Darry talking to another adult. I realized I didn't hear it very often.
"Scout!," He jumped up. "Hi! How are you feeling?"
I just adored him; not only was he a great coach, he was such a kind person as well, as evidenced by the fact that he was here visiting me in the hospital, months past actual basketball season. I was glad to see him talking with Darry; somehow I knew they would get along but I never figured they would have real occasion to meet.
"I'm OK," I said. "You didn't have to come."
"Well, I have to keep tabs on my team!" he said, smiling. "Plus, I didn't know I'd get to meet a Tulsa football legend, to boot," he said. Darry made a face but I knew he loved having someone around with whom he could discuss sports. He definitely missed Dad in that realm.
"I'm gonna go get a coffee," Darry said, suddenly standing up. "Can I get you two anything?" He obviously wanted to give us a few minutes to talk.
"I'm all set," Coach said.
"Can you get me out of here?" I asked, just being a pain.
"Sorry, baby… Not today," he said.
"Then, no, thanks," I said.
After he was gone Coach Karis leaned over the bed and took my hand. "So, Scout, I'm not just here because I'm your coach. I was worried when I heard you were here. I know your family has been through some rough stuff. How are you doing, really?" he asked.
I was grateful for his concern, but at the time it seemed like things might have actually been more OK than they had been in quite a while.
"I'm OK, Coach," I said. "Really. Things are real good with me and my brothers right now."
"That's great, Scout. I'm really glad to hear it."
"Yeah," I said. "Sometimes it almost feels like our family is back to normal. Except that we still miss our parents so much."
"Well," he said, "That's certainly to be expected. It looks like your brother's doing a real good job though."
"He is," I said. "He really is." I hoped that Darry knew that none of this was his fault. His only mistake had been hitting Pony – and he certainly felt badly enough about that; everything that happened after that had been nothing but circumstance. Bad timing, bad judgement, and just plain bad luck.
Darry came back in right then and I wondered if he had heard what I said about him. I sort of hoped so.
"Well, Scout, I'm looking forward to seeing you back in the gym later this spring," he said. "We have open practices, you know, starting in May."
"She'll be there," Darry said. Since he had seen me play he was my biggest fan, suddenly.
"I'll count on that," my coach said, standing up. "It was real nice to meet you, Darrel," he said.
"You too," Darry said. I was strangely glad they had met… Two really good men in my life. I imagined that if Darry wasn't stuck with us, he would be turning into the man my Coach was.
"Bye, Coach," I said, as he left.
"See you at the gym," he said.
After he left I turned to Darry. "You know now you're stuck picking me up after practice this spring, too," I said.
"So, you can practice with Anna," he said. I smiled. Now he was plotting to get time with Alison too.
"Oh, I see," I said, raising my eyebrows at him.
Just then Ben, Kevin, and his Mrs. Cummings came in. She was still in her hospital scrubs.
"How come you're not my nurse?" I asked.
"Be glad, honey," she said. "You aren't sick enough."
Actually, I found out later, at first I had been too sick. I had skipped the Emergency Room and gone straight to the Intensive Care Unit.
Kevin and Darry fell immediately into some sort of coded conversation that I couldn't understand, something about the Shepard gang, and as soon as they saw me looking at them and listening they moved the conversation into the hall.
Ben hovered around me and I got the impression that he really wanted to talk to me about something, but his Mom was hovering even more than he was and he couldn't manage to get a second alone with me. I felt bad but I was exhausted from all the visitors I had already and I was nodding off on them.
"Bye Scout," I heard Ben say. "Call me if you wake up later, OK?"
I thought that was odd, having just seen him, but I was too tired to question it.
When I woke up for lunch Two-Bit was there with Ponyboy. Apparently he was having some kind of brake problem with his car and he had me in hysterics describing how he had almost gotten himself killed.
"So no more lessons for a while, OK Scooter? Brakes are fairly necessary, especially when you're just learning."
"You're teaching her to drive, Two-Bit?" Pony was trying to sound shocked but actually sounded more jealous. "You do know she's only twelve, right?"
"I know," he said.
"Don't tell Darry," both Two-Bit and I said in unison. Pony just looked at us like we were both nuts, which, in this case, we very may well have been.
As Pony and Two-Bit were leaving I remembered Ben had asked me to call him, but I was too tired. I just turned over and slept again.
____________________
Around 3 everyone disappeared for a while and I dozed off. I woke up later to someone calling my name. It was nearly dark outside. I looked over and squinted in the dark to find Dallas sitting in the chair next to my bed.
"Hey, Kid," he said.
"Dallas?" I was surprised to see him. "I thought you were in the hospital too, I mean as a patient."
"I was. Now I'm leavin'." He was acting strange, agitated.
"Why, Dall?"
"Got me a rumble to go to. Just came in to check up on you, make sure you were really here. You were under the radar, kid. Your brothers knew I knew something about Pony, but you were just plain missing. Nice little disappearing act you pulled there."
I ignored the part about a disappearing act.
"What? Who's having a rumble, Dallas?" Suddenly it seemed very suspicious that everyone had left me. I had not been alone in the room for more than an hour or so since I had been there.
"Everyone. Greasers versus Socials. We're gonna fuckin' show them who's boss for that shit they pulled with Pony and Johnny in the park."
"Are you kidding me?" I couldn't believe it, with me and Johnny already in the hospital, the rest of the gang was gonna go out and get themselves killed now, too?
"I don't kid, Curtis. We'll let you know how it goes. I'm gonna go take care of some business I have with those asshole Socs. Johnny deserves some revenge for what happened to him. You take care, kid." He patted me on the head as he left.
"Dally, wait," I called, but he was already gone.
I sat up and grabbed for the phone between the beds, nearly knocking myself to the floor. I noticed there was no longer anyone in the other bed. I wasn't surprised, as the man who had been there earlier was none too amused with some of my visitors, particularly Two-Bit. He can be kinda loud.
I dialed my house. Steve picked up.
"Curtis House!"
"Steve, put Darry on."
"Who's this?" He knew it was me. Jerk. Another reason I can't stand him.
"Now, Steve. Put him on."
He sounded pretty annoyed that it was me, like answering my call had been particularly tedious for him. I heard him call Darry over a large amount of background noise. "Darry, it's the kid." I didn't mind anyone calling me kid but Steve Randle.
Darry picked up, sounding anxious. "Scout, you OK?"
"You're fighting in a rumble?!" I was livid. "What, the rest of you want to end up in the hospital too? And you weren't even gonna tell me about it? After you just told me we should communicate better? God, Darry! Are you kidding me?"
"Calm down. We didn't want to worry you, Scout." Even he sounded unconvinced that this was an acceptable defense.
"So, all of you are fighting in this thing? Everyone?"
"We'll be fine. Don't worry about us." It obviously wasn't Darry that I was worried about; he could take care of himself. It was everyone else.
"Right, Darry, like Pony's in any shape for this! I'll finally get out of here and I'll have nobody to come home to, you'll all be dead! Are you crazy? Have you guys all lost your goddamn minds?" I don't think I had ever yelled at Darry like this before.
"Look, Scout, It'll be fine." Even he sounded fairly unconvinced. "I gotta go. I'll come see you later, OK?"
"Darry! Think about it! Please. Don't do it! I mean it! Darry!" The background noise was deafening.
"Bye, Scout." He hung up.
I was so mad! How could he have not told me! None of them had told me! Treating me like a damned kid again! I was furious! I had to find out from Dallas, of all people? I tried to call home again and nobody answered. I slammed the phone down. I realized this must have been what Darry and Kevin had been talking about and what Ben had been trying to tell me. I gave him credit for trying, at least. I grabbed the phone again and dialed Ben's house. No answer. Great, he was out getting himself killed too? Great.
I lay there for hours, alternating between extreme anger and worry. I could feel my body getting more and more tense, and the nurses came in quite a few times and frowned at the machines monitoring me. There was no way I was going to sleep until I saw all three brothers and knew they were all right.
After what seemed like hours, I heard yelling in the hallway and recognized it as Dallas. He was yelling, and I could tell something was very wrong. I thought I heard Ponyboy's voice, as well. He didn't sound right either. I couldn't stand it. I slid myself off the bed and ran for the door, breaking free of my tubes and wires and setting off a chorus of alarms. I realized immediately that my ankle and feet were not quite ready to bear my full weight and I went down hard, halfway in and halfway out of the door.
I looked down the hall and saw Dally yelling and hitting the wall. Ponyboy stood dazedly behind him. He was bleeding from his mouth and looked sick.
"Ponyboy!" I screamed and he turned and started to come toward me. Dallas took off around the corner, still ranting.
Pony stood in the hallway, swooning. "Johnny died," he said, looking through me. He looked like he was about to fall over, but he grabbed the hall railing and turned, starting to follow Dallas.
Nurses had come running when my alarms went off and now they were covering me, trying to get me up and put me back in the bed. All I wanted, however, was to get to Pony. I lashed out at the nurses and screamed. "Let me go! It's my brother! Let me go! He's sick!" My view of Pony was completely blocked by the nurses leaning over me. I could hear the doctors yelling at each other in their unintelligible doctor language. Dr. Bryant wasn't there, and I wished to God he had been. He would have let me go to Pony.
"Get a sedative ready, she's gonna hurt herself!" one of them yelled. I struggled against them, kicking and punching, yelling for Ponyboy and struggling to free myself with all I had until I felt a sharp pinch in my arm and everything quickly faded to black.