Author's Note: As always, thanks to all my reviewers! :) Also a shameless plug: I recently finished one of my other Outsiders stories and started a new one. I've been working very hard on this new story and it will have some similar themes as this story. It's called Don't Let Me Go. You should go check it out while you are waiting for the next update. ;)

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders.

Chapter Fifteen

Tough Love

Darry closed to the door to Soda's bedroom as quietly as he could. He stood outside the door for several seconds just listening. He was extremely grateful that Soda was finally getting some sleep. He had seemed even more run down than what had quickly become usual lately. But he was still really worried. Soda had seemed so defeated tonight, as if the life had been drained out of him. He wished so badly that he knew how to help his little brother.

Finally he turned and walked back out to the living room where Two-Bit and Pony were waiting.

"Is he okay?" Pony asked again tentatively.

Darry sighed as he heavily fell into the recliner. "He's exhausted. I think he was asleep before he even hit the bed."

"Well it's good that he's getting some sleep," Pony said, sitting down on the couch. "Do you think he'll be hungry though? He didn't have any dinner."

"We'll save him something," Darry said tiredly. At the moment he was more concerned with Soda getting some sleep than eating, though he made a mental note to make sure that Soda ate enough tomorrow. He looked up at Two-Bit who was leaning against the wall. "What happened tonight?"

"I just found him sitting on a bench out at the park," Two-Bit said. "He said that he dozed off and I guess when he woke up some kids had taken his cane."

Darry cursed under his breath.

"He doesn't have his cane?" Pony said, looking from Two-Bit to Darry and back. "But he can't get around without it."

"Yeah," Darry sighed. He looked up at the clock, noticing that it was getting late. "I can stop by the hospital after work tomorrow and see if I can get him another one."

"What's he gonna do until tomorrow night then?" Pony asked. "You know he won't lie in bed all day long."

Darry ran a hand over his face and up through his hair. He knew that Pony was exactly right. "Maybe I could try going over tonight," Darry said vaguely. He was tired and sore from work and didn't really feel like fighting the nighttime hospital crowd. But how could he leave his brother stranded for an entire day? Especially since he will be home alone tomorrow.

"Steve's got tomorrow off," Two-Bit spoke up. "He could probably go over to the hospital tomorrow morning."

Darry nodded, liking the option. Soda wouldn't need his cane until the morning anyway. "He'd probably have better luck tomorrow morning," he admitted. "The hospital is always busy at night. Where's Steve tonight?"

"He was goin' out with Evie," Two-Bit said. "He'll probably stay over at her place. I could track him down though, let him know what's goin' on."

"Would you mind?" Darry said, a bit reluctantly. He wasn't crazy about interrupting Steve's date night with their family drama. "He doesn't have to come over tonight. But it'd probably be good if he came here tomorrow morning and helped Soda around first. I don't want him hurting himself trying to get to the bathroom or the kitchen on his own." Darry knew without a doubt that if no one was home when Soda got up he would try and get around by himself. He was actually a little concerned with how early Soda went to bed he might try to get up in the middle of the night while everyone else was sleeping. He almost considered locking him in his room, but he knew that wouldn't go over well.

"I'll track 'em down," Two-Bit said. He started to head for the door.

"Did he say anything else?" Darry asked, stopping Two-Bit in his tracks.

There was a long silence and Darry and Pony both looked at Two-Bit curiously, who was standing with his back to them, still facing the door.

"No, not really," Two-Bit said finally. His voice sounded odd. Off balance. But before anyone could say anything else he had disappeared and the door was slamming shut behind him. Darry winced when the door slammed, hoping that the noise wouldn't wake Soda. Both he and Pony were quiet for several minutes, both straining to listen for sounds coming from down the hall. Thankfully the house remained silent.

"What was that about?" Pony finally asked, obviously referring to Two-Bit strange behavior.

"Honestly, I don't have the energy to figure it out tonight," Darry admitted.

There was a short pause. "I made some dinner," Pony offered.

Darry smiled over at him. "Thanks Pony."

XxXxX

Darry was restless all night. He kept waking up and listening for noises coming from Soda's room. He kept regretting not running right out and trying to get Soda a new cane despite how tired he had been. He didn't like knowing that his brother couldn't even get up and out of bed. It made him seen so helpless, and Darry knew that Soda was anything but helpless. Several times he almost had himself convinced that he should get up right then in the middle of the night and go to the hospital. He wasn't quite sure why he didn't. But soon enough the sun was coming up and it was time to get up.

As he got up and wandered out into the living room he was surprised to find a figure sprawled out on the couch. He hadn't expected Steve to be here that early, especially after a date night. Darry decided not to wake him right away and headed into the kitchen to make breakfast.

"Did you see that Steve is here already?" came Pony's voice as he walked into the kitchen, suppressing a yawn.

"Yeah, I saw," Darry said feeling a little guilty. "Guess his date night got cut a little short."

It was only after he had gotten ready for work and Pony had already left for school that Darry finally decided it was time to wake Steve.

"Hey, Steve," Darry said, shaking his shoulder.

Steve groaned as his eyes slowly blinked open. "Time is it?" he mumbled.

"Early," Darry said. "Thanks for comin' over Steve, I really appreciate it."

"Yeah, you better," Steve murmured, yawning widely as he slowly sat up.

"I left some coffee and breakfast for you in the kitchen," Darry said. "There's some for Soda too. He's usually up early, but I haven't heard anything comin' from his room yet. Two-Bit tell you what happened last night?"

"Yeah, he told me," Steve said darkly. "I ever get my hands on those kids…" he let the threat hang, possibly because it was too early from him to even come up with one.

"Well, since he's a war veteran if you go to the hospital they shouldn't give you any trouble about getting another cane," Darry said. "I wouldn't think anyway. But just in case I left the checkbook in the kitchen for you, it doesn't matter how much it costs as long as he can get around."

"Sure Darry, don't worry," Steve assured him as he yawned again.

"Call me up at work if you have any trouble," Darry said, feeling guilty that he wasn't taking care of this problem himself.

"Yeah, yeah, get goin'," Steve said, swinging his feet over onto the ground and standing up and stretching.

"Yeah, okay," Darry said. "I'll see you guys tonight." He turned and headed out the door, knowing this was going to be a very long day.

XxXxX

Steve headed for the kitchen first thing. He figured he should at least be mildly awake when he went in to check on Soda. He downed two cups of black coffee in just a few minutes. He had stumbled into the Curtis house at about three in the morning so he was currently running on about three hours of sleep. He was glad that Evie had understood about why he couldn't spend the entire night with her. He couldn't just leave Soda stranded in his house all day.

Blinking sleep from his eyes, Steve wandered down the hall, figuring it would be better to try and catch Soda before he tried to get out of bed on his own. He knocked quietly on Soda's door on the off chance that he was still sleeping. However, as he opened the door he saw that Soda was sitting up with his feet hanging over the edge of the bed, clearly about to stand up if he hadn't tried already. He was also still fully dressed from the night before.

Deep down Steve knew that he was being a hypocrite. He knew full well that if he were in Soda's place he would make how Soda was currently acting downright pleasant and cooperative. That didn't stop him from feeling annoyed at Soda's refusal to accept any help these days, especially with all the trouble Steve had gone through to get over here early this morning.

Steve didn't enter the room and immediately offer his help. Instead he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the door frame.

"Morning," he said casually.

"Morning," Soda mumbled back, not quite meeting Steve's eyes. "You're here early."

"Yep," Steve confirmed shortly. There were several long seconds of uncomfortable silence. "Darry left some breakfast." He jerked his head back towards the kitchen.

"Great," Soda said flatly. He reached over to the nightstand next to his bed and slowly pulled himself to his feet, heavily favoring his right side. Steve still didn't move, he just stood there and watched. He wasn't going to help unless Soda swallowed his pride and asked for it.

Soda's bedroom wasn't terribly big, but there was about six feet of empty space between his bed and the door. Steve figured the easiest thing for Soda to do would be to walk around the edge of the room so that he could hang on to the wall to keep himself steady. Of course that isn't what Soda did. Instead he turned and attempted to cross directly to the door. He made it about three small steps, grimacing the whole way, before he legs finally gave out and he collapsed to the floor with a small yelp. It took everything Steve had to remain where he was, especially when he saw that Soda was about to fall.

Soda cursed loudly and looked around for something to grab hold of, but found that there was nothing within reach. Steve sighed in exasperation. This was getting just plain pathetic. He still refused to ask for help. What was he going to do, crawl?

"Well, maybe you'll make it to the kitchen in time for lunch," he muttered darkly, but loud enough for Soda to hear.

Soda glared up at Steve, angry. "Go to hell," he spat.

"Hey, I busted my ass to get over here this morning," Steve shot right back. "I'm tired and I don't feel like getting my head bit off just for trying to help my best friend. If you don't want me here just say so and I'll leave. Crawl around the house all day, see if I care as long as your precious pride is intact."

Soda opened his mouth and for a moment Steve was afraid he was actually going to tell him to go. Darry would murder him if he actually followed through with his threat to leave Soda alone all day. Then Soda snapped his mouth shut and seemed to think better of what he had been about to say. He sighed.

"I need to take a piss," Soda said, a hint of anger and resentment still in his voice. "Would you… please… help me to the bathroom?"

"Well now, that almost sounded sincere," Steve said sarcastically. But he figured it was as good as he was going to get.

He dropped his arms and walked forward, crouching down beside him. Soda reached up and put his arm over Steve's shoulders and Steve hoisted him up off the floor and back to his feet. Soda leaned on him heavily as they made their way down the hall to the bathroom. Luckily the reinforced shower rod was in easy reach of the toilet, so Steve stepped out to give Soda some privacy. Soda reluctantly called Steve back in after he had finished and Steve helped him limp into the living room, letting him fall into the recliner.

"I'm gonna get some breakfast, you want some?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, sure," Soda said flatly.

Steve went and fetched the two the plates that Darry had left for them from the kitchen and brought them back out to the living room. He handed the plate of eggs with grape jelly to Soda and then settled himself onto the couch. They ate in silence.

"So, Darry wants me to go over to the hospital this morning and see if I can get you another cane," Steve said after they had finished. "You wanna tag along, or you gonna stay here?"

"I'll come," Soda said. "Since you're not blood family they might not give one to you just because you say you know me."

"Good point," Steve agreed.

Steve stood up and cleared away the dishes. When he came back he saw that Soda had moved himself from the recliner to the couch and slid down to the end so that he could get to his shoes. Too impatient to wait for consent, Steve went into Soda's room and grabbed him a clean t-shirt. Without comment he tossed the shirt to Soda in the living room and Soda quickly changed out of his work shirt. Then Steve went and silently waited by the door. He knew it was kind of an unspoken rule to not make Soda ask for help, but Soda had been especially uncooperative lately. It was time for some tough love.

Soda sighed as he looked at Steve who just stared back, unmoving. "Could you help me to the car?" he asked flatly.

"Sure, buddy," Steve said.

He helped Soda up once more and the two of them stumbled out of the house and down the walk to where Steve had left his car on the curb the night before. Steve helped Soda into the car before heading around to the driver's seat. He took off in the direction of the hospital. There was an uncomfortable silence for a few long minutes. Steve glanced over at Soda who was looking out the side window, clearly sulking.

"Look, Soda," Steve said finally. "I don't mean to make you feel bad. You just have no idea how unbelievably frustrating it is when you refuse help when you clearly need it."

"Yeah, well you have no idea what's it's like to be forced to leave your family and fight in a war that you don't even believe in the cause for," Soda muttered. "And you have no idea what's it like to come back from that and be nothing but a burden on your family."

Steve shot Soda a sympathetic look. "How can you think that you're a burden?" he said. "You know we'd do anythin' for you, all you have to do is ask. Sometimes not even that, sometimes we just help you anyway." He slowed to a stop at a red light and looked over at Soda carefully. "Soda, you don't know what it was like for us for the year that you were gone. Obviously it was nothin' compared to what you went through, but it was hell for us too, not knowing whether we'd see you again or not, not knowing whether you were safe or not. Having you back, no matter what kind of condition you are in, Soda, it's the best thing that could have happened."

There was a honk from behind him and Steve whipped around to see that the light had turned green at some point. He hit the gas and started off again.

"I just…" Soda murmured, letting his thought hang. Several seconds went by before he spoke again. "I just wish I could put it all behind me. Everything I saw, everything I did while I was over there. But every time my leg hurts I remember how it happened. I remember everything. I remember too much. I just want everything to go back to the way it was before."

Steve sighed. "I wish things could go back too," he said. "You have no idea how many nights I lay awake while you were gone and wished it were me instead of you. You of all people didn't deserve that."

Soda turned and looked at Steve, shaking his head firmly. "No, don't you ever wish for that," he said firmly, a hint of pleading in his voice.

Steve figured it was best not to reply to that as they pulled into the hospital parking lot. "How do you want to do this?" he asked, indicating the front door as he pulled into a parking spot. "You can either lean on me or I could go get a wheelchair for you."

"I'll just lean on you," Soda said. "This shouldn't take long."

Steve just nodded, not at all surprised that he refused the wheelchair even though that would have been easier on both of them. He figured that to Soda, leaning on someone was the lesser of two evils. He got out of the car and walked around to the passenger's side. He helped Soda out, noticing how much he winced with the effort, and they made their way into the hospital.

Thankfully there weren't many people in the hospital that early in the morning. Steve helped Soda to the front desk and let him lean up against it as he explained the situation to a nurse. The nurse was extremely kind and after checking his chart she gave him a new cane and sent them on their way. Steve was especially grateful since it was only after they were standing at the front desk that he suddenly realized that with all the commotion that morning he completely forgot to grab Darry's checkbook before they left.

Soda limped on his own aided by his new cane as they crossed the parking lot back to where Steve had left the car. Steve allowed Soda to get into the car himself and he seemed to manage without much difficulty.

"Well, all is right with the world again," Steve said as he started up the car, trying to lighten the mood.

"No," Soda said vaguely, staring down at the cane in his hand. "It's not."