I woke up to the sound of the door slamming. I realized it was raining out and I heard four thumps as Darry and Soda both took off their shoes inside the front door, and then a louder one as Darry dropped his tool belt. Their voices wafted in from the living room and I could tell by his tone of his voice that Two-Bit was telling Darry about my breakdown. I glanced at Pony, who was sleeping as soundly as ever, and tried to hear the conversation.

"…I didn't tell her, Darry. She found the newspapers. She was reading them when I came in."

"Shit. I thought I took those out to the trash. What did she say she was upset about?" It didn't sound like Darry was mad at Two-Bit, at least.

"You know, you saw what they wrote- that shit about social services and all…you not being a good guardian..."

"Did you tell her about the hearing?" Darry sounded a little worried. I wondered if he was worried about me knowing or about me finding out about it from someone else.

"I had to, Darry. She wanted to know. She asked." Two-Bit knew he could have lied about telling me, and I would have covered for him, but, for the most part, we all just have too much respect for Darry to lie to him.

"So'd she do that to your face?" Now he sounded slightly amused.

"Yeah, I tell ya, you put a cast on that kid and she's a weapon. I took it like a man, though. I ain't such an old greaser that I can't handle a twelve year old."

"Yeah, well, 's long as you didn't hit back."

"Jesus Darry, I ain't gonna hit a fuckin' kid, or a girl, neither. She wasn't really hittin' me anyway, in her eyes. Just hittin'. She's mad. And I don't blame her, all the shit you all keep havin' to go through."

"Yeah, I know." Darry got quiet and I had to strain to hear him.

"You all set here now?" I didn't blame Two-Bit for wanting to get the hell out of there. This place was just a ticking timebomb of emotion, lately.

"Yeah, thanks for staying with them. You're not gonna stay for dinner?"

"Nah, not if there's gonna be drama. I had enough for today. See you tomorrow, though?"

"Right. I'll see you there."

I heard the door slam as Two-Bit left and then Darry and Soda's voices as they talked in the kitchen. I figured there was really no point in putting off facing Darry, so I slid out from under Pony's arm and walked out toward the kitchen. I had come out with no shoes on, so they didn't hear me coming. I was standing in the doorway for a full minute or so before they noticed me. They were talking about the hearing.

"It's not like you weren't gonna have to tell her, Dar. I mean, Christ, it's not like you could keep it from her, she has to be there. Hey, and at least this way she beat up Two-Bit instead of you. She probably saved some for us though." Soda seemed pretty amused with the thought of me hitting Two-Bit.

"I'm done. I'm not going to hit anybody." Both of them turned around, surprised to hear me. Darry came over to me.

"So I hear you took it upon yourself to clean Two-Bit's clock this afternoon."

"I guess so. I didn't mean it. I was pretty upset."

"I know. He knows, too. He's not mad at you about it."

"That's good," I did feel kinda bad.

"I'm sorry about the newspapers. I meant to get rid of them. There's no point in you reading that crap. What they decide to write is usually a pretty far cry from the truth."

"Then why'd you read it?" I asked.

"In case there was anything that could help us find you. All we wanted was to find you two. We knew Dallas had something to do with Pony and Johnny being gone, but we really had no idea where you were. We were grasping at straws to figure out where you were."

"So, now that I'm found, is it true? What the paper said? Are they going to take us away from you?"

"I don't know," Darry said. "Not if I can do anything to stop it."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Darry. That's what makes me so mad. You take good care of us. Those people, they don't even know us. How can they think they know what's best for us?"

"There's no making sense of it, baby," Soda said from in front of the far counter, where he was mixing the ingredients for a meatloaf. "It doesn't make any sense. Even for smart kids, like you." Pony and I both hated it when Soda called himself dumb. He was as smart as any of us, just in different ways. Smarter than us in some, as well.

"So how was Pony today?" Darry asked, peeking around the corner to check on him.

"He slept all day. But he knew who I was when I went in there…," I said, "you know… after I beat up Two-Bit." I giggled a little. I was starting to see a little humor in it; I must have looked ridiculous. Poor Two-Bit, stuck trying to hold me back from breaking something. If it wasn't for the cast, I'm sure I wouldn't have hurt him. Like I've said before, Two-Bit is far stronger than he looks. He probably wasn't even holding me back as strongly as he could have, because that might have hurt me even more. I knew from seeing him wrestle with the boys that he had a grip like a bear trap. He could leave bruises when things got real rough between them. He hadn't been holding me that tight, really. Just enough so I wouldn't do any real damage.

Darry laughed. "Yeah, well, he needs someone to put him in his place from time to time, anyway," he joked. "Soda, you all set with that?" he asked, pointing his chin at the meatloaf.

"Well, a few more secret ingredients and…" he started.

"Stick to the recipe, 'kay buddy?" Darry said. "Scout, come in here." He called me into the living room, and sat me down next to him on the couch.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the hearing sooner," he said. "I was going to tell you and Pony both, as soon as things calmed down."

"I just hate finding out about this stuff from other people, Darry. Just tell me stuff when you know, OK? I know you don't want me to worry, but you have to give me some credit."

"I know Scout. I'm trying. I am."

"I know," I admitted. Two-Bit had been right – it was really hard for Darry to let anyone else shoulder a burden that he could take on himself. I guess he just always held out hope that he would be able to work things out without having to get us involved. Unfortunately, when that didn't work out, things tended to get sprung on us at the last minute.

"They won't make Pony go if he's… like this, will they?"

"No. But you'll still have to go."

"Are you gonna come?"

"What? God, of course! I'm not sending you off to court by yourself! Soda will be there too. We all have to talk."

"OK… but...so, is this about us? I mean, our family? Or is it about that kid in the park?"

"A little bit of both," Darry said. "You're not in any trouble for the stuff in the park, but they are trying to make it look like because of that, you and Pony shouldn't be able to stay with me."

"None of it was your fault Darry. You weren't even there."

"I hit Pony, Scout. That's what started everything." There was a tangible sadness in his voice.

"That's not fair, Darry. Why can't they see that? It's like everybody else in the world is allowed to make mistakes, except for us. It's like punishing us because of what happened to Mom and Dad. Are they gonna take away that dead kid's brothers and sisters from their parents because he was out drunk looking for a fight? I bet not! But we get punished because we don't have Mom and Dad, we have you, and the stress of having to take care of us got to you, just one time. We're not even bad kids, me and Pony! What about all the good stuff you do for us?"

"I guess they just don't see it that way, baby. But you getting mad and hitting people isn't going to help things go our way. And no, you're not bad kids. At all."

"I know, Darry. But it's not right."

"Well, I agree. But, unfortunately, we don't decide.

"Well that's stupid."

He looked at me, smiled, and asked: "So, do you want to beat me up now?"

"No," I laughed.

"I mean it, Scout. Open season on Darrel Curtis, right now. Opposing football teams live for this." He spread out his arms, leaving his torso wide open. Even if I did punch him he probably hardly would have felt it. He was solid as a rock.

"No, Darry," I said, shoving my open hand against his chest playfully. "I didn't want to hit Two-Bit either. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"I'll hit you," Soda offered from the doorway, and we both laughed.

"Forget it," Darry said. "You missed your chance." I saw an opening and dug into his sides to tickle him. Soda followed my lead and the two of us had him on the ground in a second. We were no match for him, though, and within a minute or so he had us both pinned helplessly on our backs.

"Go check on dinner," he said, poking us both in the nose, "I'm gonna go see about Pony."

Soda pulled me up and we scampered into the kitchen. The meatloaf was almost done so I set the table. Darry came in and joined us.

"That kid is OUT," he said. "I'm gonna try to wake him up after dinner. He has to eat something soon or he's gonna end up back in the hospital."

We ate surrounded by what almost felt like normal conversation, except that Pony wasn't there. Soda talked about the girls that came for gas at work, and Darry complained about his lazy coworkers. Anybody who couldn't accomplish twice as much work as the average man in a day was, in Darry's opinion, lazy. After dinner, Darry went and sat in Pony's room and checked over the math I had done that morning. I could get really careless, just because I thought it was so boring. Finally Pony woke up and Darry came into the kitchen to get him some soup. He handed me my math paper to fix the stupid mistakes he had caught.

"He's gonna eat?" I asked.

"He says he'll try," Darry said.

I poked my head in his door. Soda was lying next to Ponyboy on the bed. I could see in Soda's eyes how much he had missed him.

"Hey Pone," I said.

"Hey," he looked up at me.

"Home sweet home," I said, winking at him. He smiled, and I knew he remembered. I went back into the kitchen and, soon after, Darry returned with most of the soup.

He looked up at me. "They fell asleep."

"Soda really missed him," I said.

"I know. He cried every night you guys were gone." I didn't tell Darry about Soda crying the night before. He had Pony back now, so maybe he wouldn't feel so lonely anymore.

We sat at the table for a minute without saying anything. Then, finally, I decided to ask.

"Darry, what happened to Dally and Johnny? Are they getting buried?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow. Just a burial, though, no funeral. Their families wouldn't pay for it. We couldn't do it for them, either, baby. We just don't have the money."

"I know. They wouldn't have wanted us to anyway." I knew both Dally and Johnny would have wanted us to save the money to keep our family together. We were the only real family they ever had. There was no sense in us falling apart because of them.

"Do you wanna come?" he asked, hesitantly. "I can't let Pony. He's not ready for it… I'm not sure he could handle it. But if you want to come, you can. I'll get someone else to stay with Pony."

I was torn. I felt like I should go. Johnny and Dallas had been practically brothers to me. But Pony really was my brother, and I didn't want to leave him. I couldn't think of who Darry would even get to stay with him. Everyone else would want to be there, at the burial. I'm sure that's what Two-Bit had meant when he said he would see him tomorrow.

"I'll stay with Pony. But maybe you could take me – to where they are… later?" I just wanted to say goodbye. My last moments with both Johnny and Dallas were etched in my mind, but they weren't closure. Dally… his eyes wide with anticipation of the rumble, and Johnny… sleeping peacefully in the church… That wasn't goodbye. I had to squeeze my eyes shut tight to keep the tears from coming.

"I can do that. You tired, baby?" Darry asked.

"I guess," I said. "But…can I just watch TV with you for a while?"

He agreed and I leaned over on the couch. He watched the news while I just lay against his leg. I knew I would fall asleep but I didn't care. I still was just so grateful to be home.

Finally he shut off the TV and it awakened me.

"Scout…" he said. "Can you get up?"

I sat up, half asleep, and he half-walked, half-pushed me into my bedroom. He pulled down the sheets and I slid in.

"Night, baby," he said.

"Dar?" I said.

"Yeah, babe?"

"I'm really glad we're all back home," I said.

"Me too," he said, with a tinge of sadness. I know we were both just hoping it would last.