I do not own The Outsiders or any of SE Hintons characters.
"Common Pony get up!"
Pony groaned audibly but opened his eyes unto slits none the less. He
knew Dally wouldn't stand someone not listening to him.
"Pony!"
"Yeah yeah I'm up..." Pony muttered while pushing himself into a
sitting position with his arms.
"Well you sure as hell don't look up," Dally said while flipping Pony
over with a flick of his toe, causing Pony to land face first in the sand.
Pony growled and angrily stood and stomped to the truck, spitting sand
out of his mouth all the way. Dally followed slowly, starting the
truck and turning from the side of the road wordlessly.
Dally kept his mouth shut for the first half hour of the drive. Every
time he would glance ever Ponys gaze would shoot straight out the
window away from it's previous position on Dally's face. Dally almost
laughed the first time it happened but after a while it got annoying.
"Oh common Pony lighten up it was a joke."
After a few minutes of silence he tried again. "Pony, stop acting like
your a little kid." Still he got no reply.
He couldn't stand it anymore. "Frig Pony I'm sorry! Can't you see
that? I'm just kinda in a pissy mood cause of the trial! Just frickin
forgive me already!" Silence.
"Pony..." he groaned. "I really am sorry kid. I'm just nervous cause
of the trial. I don't know if I can do this if your ignoring me..."
he finally admitted.
Pony looked at him solemnly for a second. A bright red slowly covered
his face as the corners of his mouth turned up. Eventually he couldn't
hold it anymore. A loud burst of laughter erupted from him. "Jesus
Dally I forgave you before I got in the truck. But you know if want to
grovel..."
Dally glared in return. "I am gonna kill you kid." he declared,
smiling all the same.
. . .
Dally opened the door slowly and stepped inside the house slowly. As
he slowly shut the door without as much as a click he grinned
triumphantly for getting in undetected. "And where the were you?" a
voice demanded behind Dallys back, crushing all his previous hopes. He
groaned as he turned around to a cross looking Katie.
"Does it matter? My trial ain't for another three hours." he pointed
out.
"Yes but how was I to know you'd come back in time? And you left
without any notice, last night! You could have skipped town, or worse!
Been dead in a ditch!"
Dally looked down and her words sunk in. He looked back up at her with
a longing expression. "You'd care if I was dead in a ditch?" he said
softly.
Her face changed almost instantly from her previous rage to a sad
look, so much so she almost looked pained. "Of course I would Dallas,
don't you know that?"
He shook his head. "No I don't, my own dad wouldn't care, why would
you."
She shut her eyes momentarily and remained silent. Taking a deep
breath she stepped so close to Dally she was almost touching him.
"Dallas, I may not be your mother, but your like a son to me. I'll
always care about you."
Dallas' face remained expressionless, but his head was reeling. He
felt different inside, like he belonged. Something that had only been
filled before with Johnny.
Katie watched Dallas' cold face for a second before she couldn't help
herself. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tight. She
didn't let go when she felt his body stiffen. She wasn't going to let
him go.
Dally remained tense for a minute, then as his body seemed to realize
she wasn't going to hurt him he relaxed, leaning into the hug
needfully. When it ended he was almost regretful. Almost.
"Alright let's go. You lawyer wanted to speak with before the trial
and get a few things figured out." Katie said heading for the door.
Dally followed her like she knew he would, watching as she walked
ahead of him with amazed eyes.
. . .
"Hello, my name is Mike Kennedy and I will be representing you in your
trial. Now to get started why don't you tell me..."
Dally just nodded and looked skeptically at him. He didn't seem to
old, not much older than Darry in fact by the looks of him. His light
brown hair fell in wisps on his face and he kept tugging uncomfortably
on his collar. Small beads of sweat dripped down the side of his face
near his sideburns. All in all not the kind of guy you want to be representing
you in a trial.
Dally looked up from his examination and noticed the man looking at
him expectantly. Shit. "What?" he asked stupidly.
Even if this guy didn't look like much Jake said he was good and he
trusted that.
Mike rolled his eyes. "I hope you'll pay closer attention in the
future if you want to know what to do. And I asked what happened
exactly, and if there is anything that could go against you I suggest
you leave that out."
Dally growled under his breath for a second. He hated the way he
talked to him. Like he was a little kid. Like he didn't understand
anything. The same way teachers talked to him back when he bothered
going to school, the reason he decided to stop going, that along with
the fact he didn't see a point in learning all those subjects if it
was a known fact he would end up in jail for life or dead by the time
they'd actually come in handy. Besides with the amount of trials Dally
had had in his life he probably knew more about them than Mike did.
Taking a breath to calm himself he told of everything that happened
that night, right down to how he felt to how the store clerk looked.
After he was done he looked at Mike to see his reaction. Mike looked
back at him solemnly for a minute before he spoke. "I think I can help
you, all you have to do is..."
As Dallas listened his stomach dropped. He couldn't do that. He just
couldn't.
. . .
As Dally was led into the court room his heart thudded loudly in his
chest yet his face seemed as calm as if he was going to bed.
He looked around the room ignoring the odd dirty look he got from
people and searching for familiar faces. He was shocked at how many he
saw. Darry, Pony, Soda, Steve and Two-Bit all sat near each other at
the front of the room, Tim a row behind them with Jake and Katie
beside him. Randy was by Katie and even Cherry was there. He saw some
of his old teachers and realized one of them was Ponys gym teacher.
The store clerk was there naturally along with a few slightly
recognizable people Dally remembered to be doctors in the hospital. No one,
not even his friends bothered to show up to any of his other ones.
Dally glanced away from the crowd as the guy that was leading him in
shoved him gently into his bench.
After a few minutes a guy dressed in black robes walked in and after a
few steps faced the crowd. "All rise."
After a light nudge from Mike Dally stood along with everyone else in
the room. He shot him a glare. "This ain't my first trial ya know," he
said in a harsh whisper.
As the judge sat down at the bench he hit his gavel on the surface of
the desk silencing all previous whispering.
"How does Dallas Winton plead to armed robbery?"
"Innocent."
"Three cases of assault with weapon?"
"Innocent."
"Resisting arrest?"
"Guilty."
"Court is adjured" the judge declared, hitting the gaval against the
desk once again, sending a thundering bang echoeing against the walls
of the court.
. . .
"You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth."
Jake nodded reassurly. "Yes I do."
He walked to the witness stand and faced the crowd confidently. He was
surprised at how calm Dally seemed to be but then again this wouldn't
be his first trial.
As the prosecution representative stood up he strutted around the
room like he was a hot shot. Jake somehow managed to resist to laugh
when he suddenly stopped and spun quickly to face Jake. "Dallas
Winston, the accused, has been staying with you for the past month,
correct?" He only continued once Jake answered 'yes'. "So how would you
describe your time with him. Enlighten us on what kind of person he is."
Jake took a second and carefully formed his answer before he spoke.
"Dally is the most arrogant, ignorant, repentive, rude and disgraceful
person I have ever met." He watched as Dallas' eyes went huge with
disbelief, then quickly narrowed with anger. After a slight pause Jake
continued. "But, if anyone has a reason to act like that he does. He
acts the way we trained him to. It's no ones fault but ourselves. He's a good
kid"
Mike didn't cross examine him, much to every ones surprise. When Dallas
questioned this he just nodded reassuringly and answered him. "Any
questions I could ask him I would receive the same answers he gave
out. He didn't say anything that would turn the jury against you, so
right now we still are on fairly equal grounds."
Next Darry was called to the stand and questioned of the phone call he
received and what he saw happen at the park. He described it I'm
briefly, giving the time, date and events but leaving out what anyone
was feeling. He didn't want them in his head.
Slowly one by one people were called to the stand, until finally the
prostitution stood up and announced their last witness. "We call to
the stand Dallas Winston."
Mike nodded and told Dally to go ahead and remember what he told him.
After swearing his oath Dallas made his way to the stand and faced the
prosecution representative calmly. You can do this.
"So Dallas, do you agree that you were at the police shooting on
Decmember sixth?"
Resisting the urge to say 'no shit' he simply answered yes.
"That night you robbed Mr. Henrys convenience store with a hand gun
correct?"
Dally nodded. "Yeah but it wasn't-"
"Just answer the question." He snapped.
"Yes," Dally growled.
"So you agree that not only did you commit armed robbery, you were also
carrying a weapon, which you threatened police and a doctor at the
General Hospital with?"
"Yes."
"Now people of the jury I'm sure you'll agree with me that Dallas
Winston is truly a harden criminal that deserves to be locked away."
Dally looked worriedly to the jury and studied their expressions
trying to find out it effected their judgement at all. Thankfully Mike
began cross examining him before he could get too worried.
"Dallas, explain to us how you were feeling that night. Was your
judgement clouded, did something happen that effected you to the point
you robbed a store?"
Dallas looked into the crowd at all the expectant faces. The old Dally
would have laughed at the fact that something could have brought to
the verge of suicide, he would have told everyone to fuck off and that
he was fine, nothing could touch him. He would had rathered died than
them finding out felt things, for Tim to find out that the tough act
was him hiding from life, protecting himself from getting hurt
anymore. For Pony to find out he wasn't as strong as he portrayed
himself to be, for Cherry or Randy the socs to find out he got scared.
But that wasn't him anymore, this was the new Dallas who knew people
cared, that he was worth something, and that's why he answered
truthfully.
"My friend died that night, fuck my best friend died that night, and I
didn't want to live without him. I robbed the store cause I wasn't
thinking straight, but I raised my gun to the fuzz 'cause I didn't
want to live. I wanted them to shoot me dead."
Silence filled the court room as he said that, his words echoing
through their head as well as the room. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.
Finally Mike spoke. "So it was a suicide attempt? The gun was not
loaded?"
Dallas nodded. He didn't think he could bring himself to say words.
His eyes couldn't leave the eyes of the crowd, Tim's look of disbelief,
Randy and Cherry's of sorrow and Katies of pain. Everyone was looking
at him with pity. He wanted to yell at them to shove their pity down
their throats 'cause he didn't need it.
Eventually he looked down so he wouldn't have to face them any longer.
He listened to Mike';s closing sentence with all his concentration
trying to forget everything else.
"People of the jury, I hope you can now see what I see, a kid that
screwed up and made a mistake. He never set out to hurt anyone but
himself, the gun wasn't loaded and no one was ever in any danger. He
doesn't deserve to go to jail just for messing up. That would do more
harm than good."
Dally let himself be led away from the stand, never letting his eyes
leave the floor. He couldn't face the gang or anyone right now.
Less than an hour later they were called back into the courtroom, the
jury had made a decision.
Mike gave him a reassuring smile. "Thats the fastest decision I've
seen them make by far. I think we did good kid."
"I ain't no kid..." Dally responded automatically, but trailed offf when he
realized he didn't care.
As he sat back down at the defensive bench he watched as the judge
made his way to the bench. Once there he faced the crowd. "The jury
has decided. Dallas Winston has been found as..."
. . .
Hope you liked, if court was not in the correct order or was incorrect
my bad, personally I think it's pretty good for a thirteen year old
that got her info watching Law and Order :P
So hope you liked, next chap will be an epilogue/last chap sort thing.
Do you guys want it happy or sad but more realistic? Cause before I
wrote this I was a fan of happy cause enough shit happens in the real
world already, but now that I have the choice I'm not too sure.
Please tell me your opinion, I do not want to disappoint any of my
faithful reviewers.
PS Happy New Years!
PPS- Thanks so much Kari Suttle and Steff Malfoy and xXmissingmeXx
for reviewing and helping me with the trial :)