A/N: Hey there! Here's the chapter that I promised! Thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. I love them, they really make my day. Reviews make my day the most, so everyone review! It makes me happy and post faster.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Outsiders.

Darrel heard her car pull up in the driveway. A smile that he had no control over came to his lips as he read the paper in front of him. She would come bouncing into the house, her dark hair floating behind her, put her shoes in the closet, and then flop down on the sofa. That had been her daily routine for the past week and a half. Ever since Miss. Newton told her that she could stay, she'd been more than pleased, and if he allowed himself to admit it he was pleased as well. When he didn't hear her light footsteps on the porch a few minutes after he heard her car pull to a stop, he looked over the top of the paper. Faintly, he could hear the car still running outside. Something didn't feel quite right about this.

The man stood up from the chair, and left the paper open to the sports section on the table. After pulling on his shoes, he started outside. He could see her in the driver's seat, her forehead pressed against the steering wheel, and her hands on the top of the wheel. Darry walked towards her car, and as he could closer it became clearer that she was crying. He pulled on the outside door handle, and opened the door.

"Jacquelyn," he said to her quietly. Loud enough to catch her attention, but quiet enough to not startle her.

"Hmm?"

"What happened?"

She shook her head against the steering wheel and took a long, shaky breath. After a moment, she sat back in the seat and wiped her under her eyes with her thumbs, carefully removing any of the makeup that had started to run from under her eyes. She then grabbed napkin from her dashboard, angled the rearview mirror down towards her, and wiped her cheeks. She then pushed the mirror back to its appropriate position and looked over at him. Her light eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks tear stained.

"Wanna go for a drive with me?"

How could he saw no to her? He could hardly say no to her when she wasn't crying and looking at him through bloodshot eyes. He never said anything, he just walked around to the passenger side of the car and slipped into the car. After a moment, he looked over at her and she pulled the car out of park. He watched her as she looked over her shoulder to back out and into the road.

They headed east. The route was all too familiar for them. In springtime, Jacquelyn loved to see the flowers in bloom. She loved to be in nature. So one weekend, Darry took her to a place that he and his father had found on a camping trip they'd gone on. It was a small but beautiful lake surrounded by trees that were filled with songs bids and woodland creatures. There was a rope swing that was attached to one of the trees near the lake and they'd spent the day swing off the rope and falling into the cool water. That was where she was going. When she pulled off the main road and on to a dirt road, he knew that his assumption was correct. As her car rolled, dirt clouded around it. When she finally came to a stop, there was a dirt cloud behind the vehicle as far as the eye could see.

"What happened?" Darry questioned again as she pulled the car into park and turned it off.

"I went to pay the bills at home," she told him as she looked out of the windshield, her hazel eyes focused somewhere in the tree line. "So I went to the office before work this morning and paid, they said that it should be working by lunch or so, so I went home after work to see if the lights were on. I walked in the door and flicked on the lights, and the lights were working. So, then I went to the kitchen, no food, and my dad's nowhere to be found. So I hung out for a little bit, and he walked in about fifteen minutes later. He looked at me and then came over and hugged me, Dare this man hasn't hugged me since I was like ten. He said that he's so sorry, as he looked at my face, my neck, and that he wants to get clean. He said that he went to a job interview and everything." She brushed her hair over her shoulder. "I've heard this before ya' know? He always wants to get clean, he never does. He said that when mom said that she wanted him gone. He said that when she presented him with divorce papers. He's never done it. So I didn't believe him, and I just stood up and told him that I would like to see that, kinda like snarky ya' know. He said that he needs my help."

"And?" Darry pushed after she'd allowed her voice to trail off.

The brunette then resumed the position that she was in when he walked out of the house. Her hands at the top of the steering wheel, gripping it firmly, and her forehead pressed to the wheel. She continued in a much quieter voice than she'd started in. "I told him that I couldn't help him. If he wanted to get clean to go get help or something. He said that he needed support for me." She paused again, and before Darry could push her to finish, she got out of the car.

"Jacquelyn?"

The brunette tugged her navy sweater off and dropped it on the ground. She then kicked off her shoes. Darry stepped out of the car as well. His hands in his pockets as he watched her retreating figure. She pushed through overgrown grass and weeds, as she made her way to the rope swing. When she reached her destination, she grabbed the rope and pulled it towards her.

"Jacquelyn," Darry called out to her as she placed her feet on the lower knot. He looked up, the rope was old, as was the branch it was tied to, and he wasn't quite sure that it would support her weight. "Jacquelyn."

She wasn't listening. She pushed off the rock that she'd climbed on with the rope and sailed over the lake. The wind whistled as she flew over the lake. Her hazel eyes looked down at the water beneath her. She could hear Darry calling her name, but she really wasn't listening, or paying attention. They was way too much noise going on in her head, and she didn't need the outside noise too. She closed her light eyes, trying to block out the sounds from her head, and the outside world, as she swung back and forth over the lake. The one sound that she did hear was a loud snap followed by a dropping sensation. It all happened before she could even react to it. Before she knew it, she was underneath the surface of the lake. Water filling her ears. It was completely quiet there.

Not completely.

A splashing sound was nearing her. Honestly, she just wanted it to go away. There was a pulling on her arm, and then she was above the surface of the lake; gasping for air and pushing her dark hair from her eyes. The pulling on her arm didn't stop until she felt solid ground beneath her.

"What did you think you were doing?" Darry shouted from beside her.

"What?" she replied.

"You not coming up," he clarified.

She was quiet for a long moment as she watched the ripples in the lake calm. When the lake had returned to its undisturbed glass like state, she looked up away at the sky. "My dad said that he hated me because I said that I didn't know how to help him," she told Darry. She pulled her knees to her chest and placed her forehead on her knees and sighed. "I help everyone, and when I need to help someone; I can't. I cannot do anything to help him," her voice broke. "I can't help him and he hates me for it."

Jacquelyn wasn't much of a crier. She wasn't much of anything but optimistic and bubbly. So it was easy for one to forget that she was human and that she had other emotions. Darry had seem her cry all of nine or ten times in the three years that they were together, and the majority of those were right at the end of their relationship. The first when she walked in on her father and his mistress. The second when he sat the family down to admit to the affair. The third when she found out his parents were dead. The fourth when he broke up with her. The others were just miscellaneous teenage girl things.

Darry moved towards her, lifting her chin from her knees. She tucked her body against his, and his arm found its way around her body. His fingers ran through her dark brown hair, slowly as to not pull out any knots. He could feel her tears on his neck. He literally could not handle her crying, it wasn't her nature to cry. It wasn't until she started gasping for air that he had to stop her. He took her face in his hands and forced her hazel eyes to meet his. "Jacquelyn," he said to her as calmly as he could. "Jacquelyn." Her light eyes flicked over to his and he held her gaze. "You gotta breath." Easier said than done. Her chest rose and fell at the same rate. "Jacquelyn," he tried again. "Breath." There was no change. "Jacquelyn, babe, stop." That might have done it. Her hazel eyes still looked frenzied, but her breath started to slow. He watched as the rise and fall of her chest started to slow. Her hazel eyes started lose their frenzied look.

"I'm sorry," she said after she'd regained her composure. She looked down, her wet hair dripping on to her chest and down her back. When she looked up, she pushed her wet hair to one side of her neck and wrung it out, the water staining the sand beside her. Darry stood up and grabbed her sweater and then brought it back to her. "Thank you."

Darry sat next to her as the moon rose above the lake. She'd tucked her body under his arm; his warmth warming her. He watched the rippled silvery reflection on the lake before speaking to her. "You don't have to take care of your father. He's not your responsibility. You're his and he clearly didn't do a good job at taking care of you, so you don't have to feel guilty. He doesn't hate you either, Jacquelyn. He just said that because he knew it would break you." When she shivered against him, he sighed. "Let's go." He pulled her up and pushed her dark hair from her forehead, before he kissed her there. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

Without another word, he started towards the driver's side of the car, letting her know that he knew that she as in no condition to drive and that he was driving. She made her way to the passenger side and hopped into the car. Darry pulled away from the lake and back on to the main road. The brunette rolled down the window, letting the cool night breeze dry her hair as they drove. Her light eyes focused up on the moon as it disappeared behind the trees and reappeared. Her attention was brought back to the car when she faintly heard a familiar song on the radio. A smile spread across her face as she reached over and turned the radio up.

"Do you believe in magic, in a young girl's heart? How the music can free her, whenever it starts, and it's magic, if the music is groovy, it makes you feel happy like an old-time movie. I'll tell you about the magic and it'll free your soul, but it's like tryin' to tell a stranger 'bout rock and roll," the brunette belted out of the window.

Jacquelyn was by no means a singer. She might have been able to talk herself into believing that she was a beautiful shower singer. However, anywhere outside of the shower, she was only decent. She knew how to stay in key and hold a note, but she was by no means a singer. That didn't stop her from singing though. It didn't stop her from belting out the lyrics at the top of her lungs as she danced in the car.

For some reason, as she belted out the lyrics to the song, Darry couldn't help but believe in magic. When she got in the car, she wasn't half as energetic, or happy, as she was now. Then suddenly this song about magic and music setting you free when it starts comes on, and then she was dancing and singing. Or maybe he believed for another reason. Maybe it was magic that brought Jacquelyn into his life. Her father could have been transferred anywhere, but he came here, and if he magic brought her to him then maybe it brought her back to him as well. Maybe he did believed in magic.

"Hey!" she shouted to him over the fading song. He turned his eyes towards her briefly. "What are you thinking about?"

"You," he confessed.

Her cheeks flushed a light pink as she ducked her head. When she looked up, her hazel eyes were curious. "What about me?"

Darry shrugged and smiled over at her. "Thinking about your awful singing," he teased.

"Darry," she exclaimed as she hit his arm lightly.

The man laughed as he flicked on the blinker and turned. "I'm kidding," he said to her. The man looked over at the brunette beside him. The light pink color still gracing her cheek and her hazel eyes still held a level of curiousness. The man pulled into a parking lot and pulled the car into park. When he looked up, he realized that he was sitting in the parking lot near the football stadium at The University of Tulsa.

"You miss it?" she questioned as she looked at the stadium lights above them.

"Everyday."

The brunette looked over at him. "Did you miss me?" she questioned, her hazel eyes gaining more curiosity.

Darry looked over at her from the corner of his eye. Her hazel eyes meet his. "Everyday," he echoed, before he leaned over and pressed his lips to hers briefly. She touched her nose to his as his fingers tangled in her tangled hair. "Did you miss me?"

"Terribly," she responded in a faux southern accent. His lips touched her again, brushing against them gently. She leaned back against the seat and a question came to the front of her mind. She'd been trying to push it from the front of her mind, keeping it in the back, but it would always come back. "Dare?"

"Yeah?" he answered.

She twisted a stand of her wet hair around her finger. "What are we?" she finally questioned. She could see his eyebrow arch and she continued to twist her hair around her finger. She looked down before continuing. "Miss. Newton asked me where we romantically involved. I told her yes, but I just don't know. You said that timing was bad and that there were a lot of factors going into life."

"I guess I did," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. Darry was quiet for a long moment. "You were one of the factors. You've always been a factor. I just needed to figure out where you fit into the puzzle," he told her.

"Did you?"

"You're here, aren't you?" he questioned. "I shouldn't have said that to you, about it being poor timing. It just seemed easier than dealing with things."

"Things?"

He ran his hands over his face and sighed. "You're full of questions tonight, aren't you?" She looked down at her capris as she waited for his answer. "It was easier than having to deal with the way I feel around you." When he saw her mouth open, he shook his head. "You know that I don't do this, Jacquelyn. I'm not one for words. I know that you want me to be, but I'm just not."

"Try?" she pushed. This was something that she needed to hear.

Darry exhaled and opened the car door. He stepped outside and pushed the door shut behind him. He pressed his back against the car door, and sighed. Jacquelyn hopped out of the car, the cool night air chilling her to the bone, and walked around to his side of the car. His thumbs hooked in the belt loops of his own jeans and his blue-green eyes looking upward towards the sky.

"I feel around you," he told her quietly. "Not just angry or frustrated or worried or concerned. I feel happy and hopeful. I feel like things will be okay when you're around." He looked down into her light hazel eyes. "I mean, you know how I feel about you, right? It hasn't changed none."

Jacquelyn knew how he felt about her. She felt it when he touched her, when he kissed her. She felt it when he looked into her hazel eyes. She felt it when he would sweep her hair from her eyes. She felt it all the time. It wasn't the same though. She wanted to hear it. She didn't need to hear it every single day, she didn't need to hear it every hour. She just wanted to hear it. "You know how I feel about you. I told you."

"Jacquelyn," he groaned as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Nothing has changed."

"Say it," she told him a she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Jacquelyn, why say it? I show you all the time," he told her.

He did. He showed her all the time, but showing wasn't the same as saying. Her dark eyebrow arched as she shifted her weight to her right hip. "So then just say it." When he looked away from her, she groaned loudly, and started to walk away from him. If he wasn't man enough to say it, then maybe she'd made a bad choice.

Darry reached out and grabbed her wrist gently, and pulled her back to him. The brunette stumbled into his chest and looked away from him. He lifted her chin and caught her hazel eyes with his cobalt ones. "Jacquelyn," he started slowly. What was he so afraid of? If he loved her as fiercely as he felt he did, why didn't he just say it to her? Maybe it was because everyone he loved was slowly falling out of his life. His parents had died. Johnny was dead. Dallas was dead. He didn't want to lose her too. Granted, he'd lost her once already, and that coupled with everything else nearly broke him. Could he handle losing her again? He decided that he couldn't. "I love you." He exhaled slowly, allowing the words to settle.

The brunette had her lips pressed to his before he could even think of what to say next. Her fingers tangling in his brown hair. Her chest pressed against his. His hands on either side of her face. His heart racing under his shirt as her lips moved against his. A chill ran down her body in the cool night breeze.

"You're gonna get sick," Darry told her in a low voice.

Another chill ran though her, and this time it wasn't because of the night air. "I won't." She tilted her head up to his, her lips brushing against his. Another chill ran thought her body.

"You're going home," he told her his voice equally as low as it had been.

"Fine," she told him. She started back to her side of the car and when she put her hand on the door she looked over at him. "Hey," she called. He looked over at her. "I love you too."

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the lyrics to Do You Believe in Magic, I used The Lovin' Spoonful's lyrics.