(A.N. The rewrite is coming along rather nicley! The sister fanfic will be posted soon!)

DISCLAMER: I do not own the Outsiders or any characters but Danielle!

Chapter 4 – Facing The Music

Ponyboy's POV

It was Sunday, five in the morning. I guess I was up pretty early, but I couldn't sleep. We would arrive at the hospital at nine-thirty to pick up Danny. I had spent a little bit of time up in the attic over the past four weeks making sure everything was perfect for her homecoming, even though almost everyone was convinced she wouldn't ever come back. Her bed was made, her books organized, I even read a few of them to her in the hospital if you want the truth,( The doctor said that she could hear me, even though she was in a coma, ) but the biggest gift I had I would give to her myself.

I quickly went into the bathroom and stripped down to take my shower, the water wasn't the warmest but I wasn't really focusing on that, would she be happy to see me, or would she still hate me? Anyways, I did my best to make breakfast just the way everyone likes it, but it's a miracle I did it without burning the house down considering the lack of attention I was paying to anything that morning! After a while everyone was up and moving around and about, Two-Bit and Steve even showed up, but I didn't pay attention at all to what they were saying, that was, until Soda shook me and began to say something,

"Hey Pony, Darry said we could head over to pick up Danielle early, he'll meet us at the hospital later." I was still spaced out, "Hello? Pony! I swear you've been a million miles away lately!" Soda said with a chuckle.

Two-Bit chimed in by saying, "Maybe he's got a pretty girl on his mind! You know the one in the hospital bed?" and then he continued to crack up at his own joke. I swear that guy could make a joke out of everything!

"Awww, shut up Two-Bit, let's go Soda." We went outside as quickly as possible and literally jumped into the truck. Or maybe it was just me that did it, I don't really know. I was still kinda scared to see what was going to happen between us but I was still excited.

Soda started driving with a jolt, as usual, and we sped off towards the hospital.

"Well someone sure is excited to see Danielle, man, you'd think you'd haven't seen her for over three years!" Soda let out a laugh as he watched the road, "I know that you like her Pony, Darry might be oblivious to these things, but I already know, and Two-Bit clearly caught on real fast." I felt my cheeks turning red. He was right.

For the rest of the car ride Soda just smiled to himself, his baby brother was finally interested in girls, wait no, scratch that. I was interested in a girl, no, not interested, in love with. Okay I admit it, I have fallen in love with Danielle Winston. I toyed with the small gold ring I kept on my finger and reminded myself who had given it to you and what you were supposed to do with it. I smiled at the thought, Danielle being my girl. It sounded amazing, I could just imagine it now...

"Hey Ponyboy, PONY! Get up" I slowly sat up, to my surprise I was still in the passenger's seat of the Ford. Soda was shaking me awake, I could barley even believe I fell asleep with everything that was on my mind,

" What, where am I?" I was a little bit confused, I did wake up pretty early that morning and I was dead tired. I barley even wanted to move my head.

" Come on Pone, we have to pick up Danny from the hospital, yer the one who woke us all up at six in the mornin', and you think your tired." I slowly sat up and walked out of the car. We entered the hospital and Soda walked up to the reception desk. I toyed with the ring again before whispering to Soda, "I'm gonna' head upstairs to see Danny, I need to talk to her alone." He gave me a quick nod and I rushed upstairs to her room. As soon as I entered the room, I felt my hands begin to shake.

Danielle was sleeping, she looked so happy and peaceful, I would too if I was her, these doctors and counselors never leave her alone. I walked in and sat down in the chair next to her bed, I slowly moved her blonde hair out of her eyes. She slowly woke up, it must have tickled when my finger touched her forehead. I smiled at her, I didn't know what she would do when she saw me.

She sat up like a rocket and yelled as if it was for the whole hospital to hear,

"PONYBOY!" She grabbed me into one of the biggest bear hugs I had ever had. That answered my question on if she would be happy to see me!

"Why are you here Pony? Do I get to go back home with you guys?" She looked at me, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Yeah, you do. Me and Soda, well, I honestly don't think it was me and Soda, but Darry changed his mind somehow." She smiled at me and laid back down on her pillow.

After a while Soda showed up, he talked to Danielle with me for about an hour, (It was still only seven so Danny couldn't go home yet), he ended up leaving hastily to go pick up Darry from the house, Darry had to sign for us to be able to take Danielle home, so we just kept talking. She had told me about what a great brother Dallas was and how her Mother ran out on her and Dal. She was finally opening up to someone other than Johnny, and Johnny had refused to tell us any of the stuff she told him.

"Well, what about your father? You've never even mentioned him and Dallas used to always get mad whenever we got into a conversation even about parents." She looked up and got a sad faraway look in her eyes.

"I don't really talk to just anyone about him, the only other person I ever talked about it with was Johnny because he understood what was going on," She lifted up her shirt revealing a scar, a very very large scar near her hips, but it was more towards her abdomen. I had seen it before that night of the blizzard, but I thought she had done it to herself.

"After our mother left, he went crazy. If anything ever hacked him off, he took it out on us. I got the worst half of it. He would hit me, beat me, refuse to feed me. Dallas tried to protect me, but he would just get hit if he tried anything. When I was 10 or 11, he was really drunk and took things too far. He had used an old broken bottle on me. That is when me and Dal left New York and came here, to Tulsa. He was only around 13 or 14 so we basicly hitchhiked our way here and he did anything for money." I felt sympathy for her, no 11 year old deserved to be beaten like that! I simply looked into her eyes and finally realized what that other color was, it was green...

Danielle's POV

I couldn't believe I just told him that, I am now officially crazy!

"It is nothing to be ashamed of Danny, there is nothing wrong with that. It is not like you belted yourself, I remember Dal telling us something about that story." He smiled, "Good old Dallas," He glanced back at me and smiled. I smiled back at him. I heard the bed creaking as he leaned in close to my face.

"I gotta' tell you somethin' Danielle,"

"What Pony?" I asked, it felt a little weird with him so close to me, I could feel his breath in my face. "That you don't hate me anymore?" I giggled as I ran my hand through his hair, getting the grease all over it, it only made me laugh even more!

"No not that!" He laughed, he pushed me back so that I was leaning back on the pillow. He was on top of me and it felt pretty weird, "You know your shaking right?" I blushed and looked back up at him, "I need to tell you that you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in the whole world." I smiled up at him with tears in my eyes, "I can't take another day without knowing that you are really truly mine and that no other guy can even look at you the way I do." He slid Dallas' old ring on my finger, the ring he used to always give to his girlfriends, "Be my girl?" I could only nod and before I knew it we were laying there on the hospital bed making out. I promise you it didn't go ANY farther than that. I don't know how long we sat there kissing but we were both jolted back to reality when a sharp whistle rang throughout the room, I knew it was Two-Bit's

Pony quickly climbed off of me and I just laughed. His ears were redder than a cherry, his cheeks looked exactly the same way! He was standing at the edge of the bed, now that I could see, the whole gang was standing in the doorway, Soda, Darry, everyone. Now it was my turn to blush.

"So there was a girl! Wasn't I right Soda?" Two-Bit just laughed at his own joke and it was infectious. Soon enough, everyone in the whole entire room was laughing there heads off, but Pony's ears were still fire engine red, even though he did stifle a small laugh.

"So umm, how long have you guys been standing there?" Ponyboy asked. God he was so humiliated!

"Only for a second, thank god we didn't catch any of the mushy gushy crap you probably said to her!"

"Awww, shut up Steve, no one asked you anyway." He simply waved Steve away Darry slowly pushed his way through the boys,

"Danny," I didn't let him finish what he was even going to say. I just hopped off of the old hospital bed and ran into his arms. The only thing I said was, "I'm sorry," and I said that at least a million times. He placed the strap of my army satchel into my hand,

"We put some clothes for you in there, now hurry up if you ever want to leave!"

I ran into the bathroom and quickly sifted through the contents of the bag, there was a pair of my old jeans, ripped at the knees from how much I used them, a navy T-shirt, hairbrush, and one of Pony's old blue sweaters and his old worn out white converse. I dug to the bottom of the bag and found a tube of hair grease. Before I changed, I opened the door and threw the tube at Ponyboy,

"I think I messed up your hair a little bit too much, you might want to fix it!" I shut the door again and all I heard were the laughs of the guys and Pony groaning, "Cut it out," way too many times. I just laughed and beat my own record before I changed into the clothes and brushed my hair back into a ponytail. I was glad they remembered to bring me a sweater, I was not going to let my arms flop around in public, but it was winter so it was either bring me a sweater or let me freeze my ass off.

I emerged from the small bathroom to find Ponyboy with his hair fixed, everyone was still poking fun at him. I just giggled as he put his arm around me and said,

"Okay guys, happy now? Let's go or it will start snowing again!" We rushed out of the door and everyone was practically running out of the hospital. I could barely keep up so Ponyboy decided it would be easier if he just gave me a piggy-back ride, he was definitely right! I ended up making Pony stop so I could flip off one of the nurses, now that was definitely worth it! After we were near the entrance of the hospital we all slowed down. I hopped off of Pony's back and we all got into some nonsense conversation about only god knows what.

Me and Pony hopped into the back of the truck, Darry decided he would be the one to drive, I don't blame him considering what a bad driver Sodapop is! Two-Bit took the passenger's seat and Steve and Soda followed us into the back of the truck. It wasn't long before Soda started to ask us a bunch of questions.

"So she is definitely your girlfriend now?" Soda asked. As a response I raised my hand. On my index finger was Dal's old gold ring that he had given to Pony. Soda looked impressed and patted Pony on the back. "I couldn't do any better myself kid." He gave Pony a big smile. I felt as happy as I had been since, well, since, since what what happened to Dal. Suddenly a question popped into my mind.

"What happened with Cracker Jack? Is he okay, has someone been taking care of him, has he been ridde.." Ponyboy stopped my rambling by putting a finger to my lips.

"Calm down Danny, I have been taking care of him myself," Soda must have seen the shocked look on my face because he chimed in,

"Don't worry Dan, as soon as I started going to the barn when I was eleven he came too, he knows how to care for a horse and rides pretty well."

"Really Soda?" I was surprised while Pony just sat there accepting the compliments.

"Yeah, he started working Jack over jumps, said somethin' bout' you wanting to compete in Spring." A huge smile lit up my face. I jumped onto Pony's lap and just started hopping up and down kissing him while I said,

"Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!" He smiled back at me,

"Ugh, you two really need to get a room," Steve said,

"Yeah, I'd prefer if they didn't!" Soda responded to Steve's comment we all started laughing and ended up home before we knew it.

Pony had his arm over my shoulder and his hand was holding onto mine. Wow it felt great to be back, even though I couldn't stop worrying about Cracker Jack. I tugged Pony's sleeve,

"Do you think we could go to the barn now, it's going to be dark in a couple hours and I really want to try Jack out over some jumps." I stuck my bottom lip out and made a puppy dog face. He just laughed.

"Yeah well, before you go you might want to head upstairs, there is a surprise for you." I literally ran up the stair's to see what was awaiting me. Spread out on my bed was a pair of Jet black horseback riding Breeches and on the floor was a pair of tall English leather jumping boots. I covered my mouth, it must have cost a fortune!

"Hey, calm down Danny, it was my mom's old stuff, it's good to finally have someone who could use it!" He gave me a kiss on the forehead and headed downstairs, I guess that was my cue to put the stuff on.

It all fit like a glove, I was starting to think he really did buy it for me until I saw the wear on the boots, but I didn't care. I ran downstairs and waited for Pony to meet me outside. He emerged in a small pair of Paddock boots (Short heeled boots) that were probably Soda's old ones.

"Alright babe, let's go," He put his arm around my shoulder again and we set off back towards the stables...