Author's Note: Fair warning, this chapter was written under the influence of cold medicine, haha. I been sick since Saturday, ugh. I hope it's okay! Please review and tell me what you think! :)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Doctor's Orders

Steve felt terribly distracted as he worked on an old Ford out in the garage. Soda was supposed to be helping him, but that fall that morning had really messed things up. Steve still felt shaken as he remembered how Soda had just laid there in shock after the porch railing had collapsed. He wished he had been standing just a little closer to Soda when the porch rail had given way. When he had realized what was happening he had turned and tried to grab for Soda just as Pony had, but they had both been just out of reach.

Steve worked right through lunch, trying to catch up from being shorthanded that day. He had lost all track of time as the day went on and didn't even realize how late it was until Two-Bit entered the garage.

"Hey Steve," he called. "Quittin' time."

Steve sighed with relief. He was anxious to get back to the Curtis house and check on Soda. He tossed his tools to the side, not bothering to clean up after himself as he headed inside to clock out. Two-Bit was already waiting in the car for him and he climbed into the passenger's seat. But instead of heading in the direction of the Curtis house like he had expected, Two-Bit started driving in a different direction.

"Hey, where're we goin'?" Steve asked curiously.

"We gotta pick up Pony from school," Two-Bit said, his eyes carefully trained on the road ahead of him.

"Why?" Steve said in surprise. "The kid can walk home. I wanna check on Soda and made sure he's okay."

Two-Bit sighed, glancing over at him uneasily. "Darry called me this morning," he started slowly. "I guess Soda passed out pretty soon after we left, so he took him to the hospital."

"What!?" Steve demanded, staring at Two-Bit in shock, feeling his anger boil over. "You got that call this morning and you're only tellin' me about this now?"

"Yeah, well Darry said that he didn't want us ditchin' work, he said it wasn't that serious," Two-Bit explained.

"Not that serious?" Steve practically shouted. "Soda's in the hospital! That fact alone makes it serious!"

"Look, Darry said that he'd call back if things weren't okay," Two-Bit said, still annoyingly calm. "He didn't call back so I'm sure everything's fine."

"He should have just taken him right away," Steve fumed, staring moodily out the window.

Two-Bit sent him a glare. "Don't give Darry a hard time, okay?" he said firmly. "I'm sure he's beating himself up enough about the whole thing without your help."

"We all told him to take Soda to the hospital," Steve insisted.

"Yeah, well Soda didn't want to go," Two-Bit pointed out. "Remember, Soda's nineteen now, Darry's no longer his guardian. He can't just make him do something that he doesn't want to do. Anyway I think he was just trying to spare Soda even more stress. Remember, he spent a good month or so in the hospital in severe pain before he came home. I'm sure he's not eager to go back there."

Steve just looked at him for a minute. That thought had honestly never crossed his mind. But the more he thought about it the more he realized that Two-Bit had made a good point.

Only a few minutes later they pulled up in front of the high school just as the students started filing out the front doors. It wasn't difficult to spot Pony as he paused outside the door in order to immediately light up a cigarette. Two-Bit opened his door and stood up on his seat so that his head stuck up above the car as he held on to the roof. As Pony started down the stairs Two-Bit waved to get his attention. He spotted Two-Bit's gesture almost immediately and hurried over as Two-Bit lowered himself back into the car.

"Hey, what're you guys doing here?" Pony asked as he climbed into the backseat.

"Soda's in the hospital," Steve said bluntly as he reached for his own pack of cigarettes.

"What?" Pony practically shouted.

Two-Bit glared at Steve but Steve just shrugged as he lit up. He wasn't in the mood to break it to the kid gently.

"He's fine, Pony, just getting his head checked out," Two-Bit assured him. "He passed out for a minute after we left and Darry just wanted to be safe."

"He promised to come get me if he had to take Soda to the hospital," Pony whined.

Steve rolled his eyes, not in the mood to deal with Pony right now. "Would you cork it, kid?" he spat. He took a drag off his cigarette. "Did you really think Darry would have time to come get you when he was taking Soda to the hospital?"

Steve didn't look back at him, but he knew that Pony would be glaring at him. He had tried to not give the kid a hard time over the years, but today was a bad day.

"Darry said that it wasn't too serious," Two-Bit spoke up, much less aggravated than Steve had been. "I'm sure he woulda come gotten you if it were really bad."

Steve snorted but didn't make a comment. He glanced around as Two-Bit drove and noticed with annoyance that they weren't even heading in the direction of the hospital. It was like some ridiculous wild goose chase.

"Now where are we going?" he demanded angrily.

"We gotta pick up Soda's cane from the house," Two-Bit said. "Darry said he forgot to bring it."

Steve sighed in exasperation. He was impatient and just wanted to see for himself how Soda was doing. Two-Bit was a fast driver but it still seemed to take forever to the Curtis house. Pony ran in to grab Soda's cane and ran back out, still obviously sulking from Steve's comment. Steve felt a little bad about it, poor kid's brother was in the hospital after all, but he was far too proud to go about apologizing. Instead the three rode in silence as they headed for the hospital.

When they finally reached the hospital they got out and all trooped inside. Upon seeing that the waiting room was void of any familiar faces they asked at the reception desk to find out that Soda had been assigned a room upstairs. Steve found this odd since it was supposed to be such a minor thing. They all hurried upstairs, each one anxious to find out what was going on.

As they entered the hospital room that the nurse had directed them to they found that Soda was laying in a bed with the top tilted up so that he was in a sitting position. He was awake and aware as he chatted easily with Darry, who was sitting in a chair beside the bed. They both looked up and smiled as the rest of the group entered. Overall there seemed to be a very relaxed atmosphere in the room.

"What the hell?" Steve immediately demanded.

"Well hello to you too, Steve," Soda said with a laugh.

"Are you okay, Soda?" Pony asked as he approached the bed.

"I'm fine, Pony," Soda assured him.

"Well if you're fine, what are you doing in a hospital bed?" Steve pointed out.

"We're just waiting for his MRI results," Darry explained. "I guess they can take a while to process."

"I'm sure I'll be out of here as soon as they come back," Soda said. "I've been feeling fine all afternoon."

Steve had to admit, Soda certainly looked fine. He wasn't hooked up to any machines or even an IV. It appeared for all intensive purposes that him and Darry were just hanging out. Perhaps he had overreacted when he found out that Soda was in the hospital. Maybe this really wasn't a big deal.

They all made themselves comfortable in the room even though Soda insisted that they didn't have to stay. They chatted normally to pass the time before a man in a white coat finally entered the room.

"Sodapop Curtis," the doctor read off the chart in his hand.

"Yes, sir," Soda said, a hint of military precision in his voice.

"Well your MRI scan came back looking good," he said. "However there was a small shadow on the scan. Now this is probably nothing, just a glitch in the machine or perhaps caused by movement during the procedure, but just to be safe I would like to keep you here overnight for observation and then do another MRI in the morning."

Everyone turned to look at Soda who had gone silent. Suddenly he looked pale and he posture was stiff. Steve was confused for a moment – it had sounded like good news to him – but then he remembered what Two-Bit had pointed out about Soda being in the hospital before coming home.

"Soda?" Darry prompted gently.

"Can't I just go home and just come back in the morning?" Soda asked. "I mean I feel fine."

"I would strongly recommend that you stay so that we can observe your condition," the doctor said.

"But my condition is fine," Soda said, a small hint of a sharp edge in his voice. Steve looked at him in surprise.

"Ultimately, it's up to you," the doctor said. "I'll give you some time to think it over." And with that he turned and walked out of the room.

Ultimately, it's up to you. Those words rang truer than they ever had before. Soda had only been eighteen for a few months when the government took him away from them and shipped him off to the other side of the world. They hardly had time to register that Darry was no longer his legal guardian. If Soda decided to go against the doctor's recommendation Darry couldn't do anything about it. It was just so strange to think about. Steve was nineteen now as well, but he hardly felt like an adult. Darry had always been the adult, Darry had always been in charge.

"Soda, if the doctor really thinks you should stay…" Darry started, letting his thought hang.

"I really don't want to stay," Soda said, his gaze falling down to stare at him lap.

"It's just one night though," Pony pointed out carefully.

"One night too many," Soda mumbled.

"I could stay with you," Pony said hopefully.

"You got school in the morning, Pony," Darry said reluctantly.

"I can stay," Steve spoke up suddenly. Everyone looked at him, including Soda. "I'm workin' the late shift tomorrow, so I can stay."

Soda was quiet as he considered this.

"C'mon, Soda," Darry said gently. "The doctor wouldn't strongly recommend it if he didn't think it really mattered."

Soda sighed in defeat. "I… I guess I could stay," he said slowly.

Relieved smiles went around the room. Nobody had liked the idea of Soda going against the doctor's orders.

"I'll tell the doctor," Darry volunteered as he stood. "Steve, you wanna come with me? We could grab some dinner for everyone down in the cafeteria."

"Yeah, sure," Steve agreed as he stood. He looked at Soda. "Be right back, buddy."

Steve followed Darry out in the hallway but before they made it to the nurse's station Darry stopped and turned to him, clearly something on his mind. "There's something you should know about the MRI this morning," he said bluntly.

Steve gave him a confused look. "What about it?" he asked.

"Well… the machine is very loud," Darry said. "It makes these loud banging noises which was really startling to Soda. He had a real hard time staying still during it, the first time he actually had a pretty bad panic attack and they had to pull him out before it was done. The second time they tried I had to stay in the room to him and talk to him the whole time, and he still barely made it through the whole thing."

Steve swore under his breath at this news. Nothing could ever be simple for them, could it?

"Don't worry, I'll look after him," Steve assured him, knowing Darry would hate not being able to be there himself.

Darry smiled lightly and clapped him on the shoulder. "Yeah, I know you will," he said.

They headed for the nurse's station to let them know of Soda's decision before heading down to the cafeteria to get sandwiches for everybody. They headed back to Soda's room to find that mood was significantly lighter than it had been when they left.

Pony, Darry and Two-Bit stayed well into the night to help keep Soda company, but eventually they had to admit that it was time to leave. Two-Bit rode home with Darry and Pony, leaving his car at the hospital so that Steve could use it to get to work the next day. Steve shifted the chairs around so that he was leaning back in his chair with his feet up on another chair, trying to get as comfortable as possible.

"That doesn't look very comfortable," Soda said skeptically as he watched. He was obviously feeling guilty about making Steve stay, but Steve also noticed that he didn't feel guilty enough to even suggest that Steve go home. That said something about how much Soda really wanted him there with him.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Steve said with half a grin. "This is incredibly comfortable." Soda rolled his eyes, but didn't say any more about the subject. "Now shut up, will you?" he went on good naturedly. "It's been a long ass day."

Soda laughed lightly at the comment, but he was already starting to drift off. It wasn't surprising, these days it seemed like he had half a day before Steve even rolled out of bed. Steve watched as his best friend slowly dozed off. He stood up and walked over to the doorway, flicking off the switch to shut the light off. Then he returned to his chair arrangement, settling in for the night. He could only hope that it would be a quiet night.