Author's Note: Well I've got three rapid-fire chapters done, haha. I wanted to get a lot done this weekend because I may or may not have a lot of time to write this week, depending on how busy work is. Hope you like the direction I am taking this story. Please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders

Chapter Three

Haunted

Darry was not unused to being woken up suddenly in the middle of the night. For weeks after their parents' funeral Ponyboy would wake up screaming from a nightmare he could never remember. Those were nothing compared to what happened that night though.

Darry's reflexes were as quick as ever as he flung himself out of bed at the sound of screaming accompanied by a crash and some banging sounds. Out of habit he almost ran to Pony's room before he caught himself. It wasn't Ponyboy who was screaming. It was Sodapop. He heard Pony's door bang open and his brother hurrying behind him and he ran to Soda's room. He had a vague sense of déjà vu as he threw the door open.

Soda's bed was empty, his blankets trailing to the floor. Soda was sitting on the floor and had pushed himself into the far corner of his bedroom, his bad leg stretched out and his good leg pulled up against him. He was shielding his head with his hands and yelling something that Darry couldn't quite make out. Pony made to push passed Darry in order to run to Soda's side, but on a gut instinct Darry pushed Pony back behind him.

"Stay here," he told Pony firmly in response to his confused look. Then he started slowly walking forward, his hands out as if approaching an injured dog that was labile to bite him. Soda appeared wide awake, but made no indication that he knew where he was. "Soda…"

"Get away!" Soda screeched. "Run! RUN!"

"Sodapop, it's Darry," Darry said calmly, inching closer. He noticed shards of glass surrounding his brother and as Soda shifted he also saw that there was blood running down his arm. He had broken the lamp from his bedside table and was clutching a large, sharp shard of glass in his fist like a weapon.

"No! Please, don't hurt me!" Soda's panic did not lessen. Darry was shaken to his core at this sight, he had never seen Soda so panicked and scared before. Ever.

"Soda…" Pony stepped forward and Darry whipped around.

"Pony, stay there!" he repeated tensely, putting out a hand toward Pony in case he had to physically restrain him. Pony's eyes were wide and scared, but the last thing Darry needed right now was for Pony to rush at Soda and cause him to panic even more. Soda could accidentally hurt Pony… That thought was clear in Darry's mind. Soda obviously thought he was still on the battlefield and was prepared to protect himself.

"I have to go home," Soda whimpered. "My brothers need me… I have to go home…"

"You are home, Soda," Darry said soothingly, inching closer still, careful not to step on any of the glass that littered the floor. "You came back to us. You are here with Ponyboy and Darry. You are safe now, Soda."

Finally something stirred behind Soda's eyes. He seemed to focus on Darry for the first time. Darry slowly lowered himself to a crouch, still about a foot away from Soda, eyeing the hand that still clutched the shard of glass.

"Darry?" Soda whispered.

"Yeah, little buddy," he said softly. "It's me. It's Darry." Soda just stared. "Can you do me a favor, Soda? Can you open your hand?" He pointed at Soda's closed fist.

Soda looked at his own hand, suddenly confused. Everything was still for several long moments as Darry held his breath. Finally, Soda's grip slowly loosened. The piece of glass fell to the floor with a light ping and skidded away. Darry let out a soft sigh of relief. Soda looked back up at Darry with big eyes frightened and full of tears.

"Darry," he mumbled brokenly, a sound that cut Darry deep inside. All he wanted to do was grab Soda and hold him close and never let go of him. But his instincts still told him to go slow. He slid closer and slowly put a gentle hand on Soda's shoulder. "Darry, I'm sorry," Soda sobbed as the dam broke and tears overflowed.

"It's okay, little buddy," Darry said soothingly. He took his other hand and gently cupped Soda's face, making him look at him. "No harm done, Soda." Soda leaned forward into him, and Darry carefully wrapped his arms around his little brother, desperate to protect him but with no real way to take away the pain of what he had been through. "Pony, will you get the first aid kit?" Darry asked quietly. "And something to clean this up?" He indicated the glass on the floor.

Pony hurried out of the room as Darry helped Soda to his feet and they stumbled over to sit on his bed. He studied his brother carefully. Soda was pale, drenched in a cold sweat and all his muscles looked tensed up, as if preparing to run at any moment. Darry murmured to him comfortingly, never letting go of his hold on him. Pony skidded back into the room, holding the first aid kit and a small dustpan. He hovered by the door for a moment, looking unsure if he should approach.

"It's okay, Pony," Darry assured him, holding out his hand for the first aid kit.

Pony slowly walked forward, looking frightened as he handed Darry the kit. Soda was watching him too, silent tears still spilling down his face, but he didn't say anything. Darry carefully took Soda's hand that was dripping blood and started cleaning it as Pony began cleaning the glass off the floor. There was a thin cut along the palm of Soda's hand from the glass, but it didn't seem very deep. It was too long for a band-aid so Darry simply wrapped it with some gauze and tied it off.

"Good as new," Darry said, doing his best to sound casual.

"Thanks, Darry," Soda said in a quiet voice, finally calming down. Pony stood and Soda looked up at him. "Sorry for scaring you."

Ponyboy tried to smile. "I wasn't scared," he said lightly, though it wasn't very convincing.

Soda stared down at his bandaged hand.

"You okay, Soda?" Darry asked.

"I dunno what happened," Soda said softly. "I… I forgot where I was…" His eyes wandered down to the glass in the dustpan on the floor. Then he looked up at Darry, realization dawning on him. "I coulda hurt you. I coulda hurt Pony."

"You ain't gonna hurt anyone," Darry assured him.

Soda's face was suddenly hard. "I have hurt people…" he said quietly, a hint of darkness in his voice.

Darry froze. This was not something he was prepared for. Soda had been on the front lines in Vietnam for probably around nine months. He knew this. But he still had such a hard time imagining his little happy go lucky brother hurting anyone.

"But you came back," Pony spoke up. Soda looked up at him and Ponyboy shifted uncomfortably. "M-maybe you did hurt people, but it was all so you could come back to us." Pony looked awful shook up from the whole ordeal.

Darry nodded. "Soda, it was them or you," he said, sounding steadier. "I'm glad that you picked you."

"Me too," Pony said, nodding earnestly.

"I'm not who I was before…" Soda said softly almost as if he were talking to himself.

"You are still our brother," Darry said firmly. "We are still family. We will deal with whatever baggage you have together." He met Soda's eyes, willing him to believe him. "Everything will be okay now. I promise." Soda leaned into him and Darry wrapped his arms around his brother once again. Then Darry pulled Pony in as well and all three just hugged each other for a long while. Finally they pulled away. "You wanna stay up for a bit?" Darry asked Soda. "We still have chocolate cake in the ice box."

Soda shook his head. "I'm exhausted," he said. "I just want to go back to sleep and forget this ever happened."

Darry nodded, sympathetic. "Okay, little buddy."

With an effort Soda pulled his wounded leg back up onto the bed. Darry stood and picked up the blankets from the floor and threw them over top of Soda. Then after a moment he leaned back down and picked up the dustpan filled with the broken glass. Somehow he felt uncomfortable leaving the sharp objects in Soda's room.

Pony hesitated, sending Darry a questioning look and Darry knew what he was thinking. "C'mon, Pony," he said, leading Pony out of the room. "Let's let Soda gets some rest."

Out in the hall with the door to Soda's room firmly closed, Pony turned to Darry.

"You don't think I should stay with him?" he asked, almost pleadingly. "He always stayed with me when I had nightmares."

Darry shook his head. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Pony," he said.

"Why not?" Pony asked.

Darry sighed. "It's not the same as your nightmares," he said slowly as he led Pony back to his own room. "He really thought he was back in Vietnam. He didn't even recognize us at first." He paused. "Soda has been fighting for his life every day for probably a little under a year. He thought he was in danger and his survival instincts kicked in and… he'd never forgive himself if he hurt you, Pony."

"You think he'd hurt me?" Pony said, sounding shocked.

"Not deliberately," Darry clarified. "But if he gets confused again… especially if he was just waking up from a nightmare and didn't know where he was…" He paused again, thinking over his words carefully. "Soda is going to need some time to adjust to not being on the battlefield."

Pony nodded. "Yeah," he said. "That was… that was scary."

Darry nodded, putting an arm around Pony and squeezing him. "Yeah, that was really scary," he agreed.

Darry sent Pony back to bed and went to the kitchen to dump the broken glass into the trash. He walked back to his room and fell into his own bed, his head full of racing thoughts. He couldn't believe how much Soda had changed over just a year of boot camp and overseas combat. He shuddered to think what would have happened to his brother had he stayed for his entire tour of duty or, God forbid, had been called to do multiple tours. And even though watching him limp around with his cane at nineteen years old was heartbreaking… Darry couldn't help but think that maybe Soda's injury was actually a blessing. Because at least now he was home.

XxXxX

The next morning Darry sent Pony right off to school before calling up his boss and telling him that he had a family emergency and would be late this morning. His boss was very understanding… but Darry knew he couldn't take the whole day off and lose out on getting paid. But the thought of Soda waking up to an empty house after what happened the night before was more than Darry could bear.

It was almost nine o'clock before Darry finally heard movement come from Soda's room. He was sitting in his recliner reading the paper and it took all of his self-control not to jump up and run to help Soda. He knew he couldn't baby Soda and besides he was supposed to be walking on his own to strengthen his muscles.

He listened as Soda limped down the hallway and into the bathroom, his eyes still on the paper though he had stopped reading. A few minutes later the toilet flushed and the door opened again.

"'Morning, Soda," Darry said as he passed by the living room clad in his sweatpants and baggy t-shirt he had worn to bed.

Soda whipped around in surprise and then let out a yelp of pain. Startled, Darry jumped up.

"What is it?" he asked quickly.

"Ah, just twisted my knee a bit," Soda said, clutching his cane with one hand and holding his knee with the other.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Darry said with a pained expression as he hurried over to help Soda.

Soda attempted to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. "It's okay," he said as Darry helped him limp over to the recliner. "I just figured you'd be at work."

"Yeah, I got the morning off," Darry told him as he helped him sit. "I'll go in in a little bit."

"You can afford to take the morning off?" Soda asked skeptically.

"Yeah, we won the lottery while you were gone, didn't we tell you?" Darry laughed. He sat down on the couch. "How are you feeling today?"

"Better," Soda said, sitting back in the recliner. "I'm real sorry about last night."

"Don't apologize," Darry said. "It wasn't your fault. You've been through something awful, Soda. It's going to take time for you to get over it."

"Yeah," Soda said, vaguely. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a moment. "I just want to forget…"

"It'll get better with time," Darry said, though he had no way of knowing that for sure. He hoped, anyway. He felt so very helpless as he looked at his broken brother. In truth he knew that Soda had been through something awful… but he really had no idea how awful. He really had no clue what Soda had been through during the past year. He was at a loss for how he could actually help his brother.

He let Soda get his own breakfast. As Soda went and sat back in the living room with his scrambled eggs covered in grape jelly Darry noticed that he had left the stove on and flipped it off. Soda never used to be that absent-minded.

"If you use the stove for lunch, make sure you turn it off," Darry said as he got ready to leave.

"Yeah okay," Soda said distractedly.

Darry was about to walk out the door when another thought dawned on him. "Uh, Soda," he said, looking over at his brother. "I wouldn't bother with the TV today if you can help it. They tend to cut into shows with footage and updates from… from the war."

"Yeah… I saw the reporters…" Soda said vaguely, not looking up from his breakfast.

"Call me up at work if you need anything," Darry said, hating leaving Soda here alone.

"I'll be fine Darry," Soda said with a smirk. "Go on."

Darry turned and forced himself to walk out of the house. He jumped in the truck and took off… but not in the direction of work. He had to make a pit stop first.