Author's Note: Sorry this chapter is a little late! I was moving last weekend and then we still don't have internet in our new house, of course, so I'm posting this from work, shhhh. This story is about to take a turn… hopefully you like it! Thanks to all my reviewers!

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Shock

The Curtis house was very subdued the next day. Darry went to work while Pony went to school. Darry worried all day about Soda, but he knew there wasn't much he could do about that. All he could do was rush home right after work and hope that Soda was okay.

As he walked into the house he was surprised to smell dinner cooking. He knew that Pony had track practice after school today, so he shouldn't be home yet. He wandered into the kitchen to investigate and was truly surprised to find that Soda was standing in the kitchen by the oven, leaning heavily on his cane.

"Hey Soda," he said, trying to keep the shock out of his voice.

Soda jumped slightly, but relaxed immediately as he turned his head and saw Darry standing in the doorway. "Hey, Darry," he said. He still sounded awfully tired.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he said, setting his tool belt down on the counter. "How are you feeling today?"

"Okay," Soda answered with a shrug, not turning around. "Just tired. I'm… I'm real sorry about yesterday."

"It's not your fault, little buddy," Darry said gently. He was afraid to say anything more than that so he decided to drop the subject and approached the oven instead to see what was for dinner. "What are you making?"

"Baked chicken," Soda said. He looked up at him and gave him a strained smile. It was one of their favorites. Darry smiled too, glad that Soda seemed to be able to find some sort of comfort in the familiar meal.

"Sounds great," he said. "I'm gonna go shower before we eat."

"Okay," Soda said. "Dinner should be ready by the time you're done."

As Darry headed for the bathroom he felt an odd mixture of relief and worry. It was good to see Soda up out of bed by his own free will but he still seemed uncharacteristically subdued. He could only hope that this would continue to get better, but somehow he had no idea how it could. Perhaps they would be lucky enough to at least not be thrown any more curve balls.

Darry showered and cleaned up. By the time he headed back into the kitchen Pony was home and helping Soda set the table. Pony grinned at him as he entered, clearly encouraged by Soda's actions.

They sat down to a quiet family meal. The food was good even it if didn't have Soda's old flamboyant flair to it. Overall it was looking to be a quiet night.

They were just finishing eating when they heard the front door slam. Darry figured Two-Bit and Steve must be done with work.

"I'll clean up," he offered, standing up and beginning to gather up the plates and taking them over to the sink.

"Hey Two-Bit," Pony greeted. Darry glanced over his shoulder as he stood at the sink, seeing only Two-Bit standing in the doorway. He paused and then turned to get a better look at him. There was some strange look on Two-Bit's face that Darry couldn't quite place. Something seemed off.

"Hey kid," Two-Bit said. He glanced over at Soda. "How're you feelin', Soda?"

"I'm alright," Soda said. He was studying Two-Bit as well. Clearly he couldn't tell what his expression meant either. "What about you?"

"I'm fine," Two-Bit said unconvincingly. He moved farther into the kitchen, closer to Darry looking at him carefully. He spoke in a bit of an undertone as if he were only speaking to Darry and trying to block Soda and Pony out. "You heard from Steve today?"

Darry gave him a funny look. "No," he said, wondering what this was about. "Should I have?"

"I dunno," Two-Bit said, sounding troubled. "He didn't show up for work today."

Darry cocked an eyebrow. That was definitely out of the ordinary. Steve had never missed a day of work before, even when he was horribly hung over from partying all night. He needed to money too badly to skip work for trivial reasons. He needed that particular job because he wasn't good at anything else. He fixed cars. That's all he ever wanted to do. He wouldn't jeopardize that.

"Did he call in?" Soda asked carefully, looking at up at Two-Bit.

Two-Bit shook his head, looking over at Soda with worry in his eyes. "Nope," he said. "No call, no nothing. Haven't been able to get a hold of him all day. And boss said that he didn't show up yesterday either for his closing shift. I even tried Evie's house on the way over here, but she hasn't heard from him since the day before yesterday."

"That's really unlike him," Soda said slowly, clearly concerned.

"I'm sure he's around," Darry said, mostly for Soda's sake. It did make him nervous though, even though he tried to hide it. It was really out of character for Steve.

"I think you were the last one to see him," Two-Bit said, looking at Soda. "When he dropped you off here yesterday. Did he seem okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," Soda said, sounding a little unsure.

"Should we go look for him?" Pony wondered.

Before anyone could answer, there was the sound of the front door slamming. Soda shot up out of his chair but winced in pain as his weight fell on his bad leg. As Two-Bit and Pony went into the living room to see who had showed up Darry moved to Soda's side. He helped Soda limp along as they made their way to the living room.

As they entered Darry was relieved to see that Steve was standing just inside the doorway, looking unharmed. But then he took in the look on his face. The only word he could think of to describe it was utter shock.

"Jesus, Steve, where were you?" Two-Bit asked.

"Out," Steve said flatly.

"You had work today," Two-Bit pointed out.

Steve just shrugged. His eyes weren't focusing on any of them. Something was seriously wrong. Darry stepped closer to Steve while Soda stayed where he was. Later, looking back on the situation, Darry would see that Soda had already known exactly what had happened and was already frozen in shock.

"Steve?" Darry said. "What happened?"

Steve finally looked up at him, meeting his eyes. Slowly, mechanically, he reached his hand into his pocket, pulling out a crumpled envelope. Darry moved closer, taking the envelope from him. He didn't even look at the outside of the envelope, quickly taking the letter out. The words jumped out at him, tearing away at his heart. It was not the first time he had read those words but it was almost as painful as the first time. Dear Mr. Steven Randle, You are hereby ordered for induction into the Armed Forces of the United States… He didn't need to read the rest.

Suddenly it felt like the world was falling out from under him. Again. Lightening had struck their group once again. How could this be happening?

Feeling numb, Darry passed the letter along to Two-Bit so that he could read it. The only thing Darry was aware of was the deafening silence. At some point Two-Bit passed the letter to Pony.

"Steve," Darry said slowly. "Why don't you sit down?" He noted that the kid looked about ready to collapse. He didn't care that Steve was nineteen years old… he was just a kid.

Steve didn't move, he just kept staring blankly. Two-Bit moved forward, reaching out carefully and taking Steve's arm, leading him over to the couch. As they reached it Steve's knees suddenly gave out and he sat down hard on the couch. Everyone was watching him carefully, unsure what to expect from him.

Darry heard a choked noise come from behind him. He spun around to see Soda stumbling back against the wall behind him, looking pale and on the verge of passing out. Darry hurried over to him, taking him by the shoulders.

"Soda?" Darry said in a low voice, leaning down and meeting Soda's eyes. Soda looked up at him with pleading in his eyes, wanting for this to not be happening. Darry suddenly vividly remembered a conversation he had with Soda what felt like a lifetime ago.

"What if this thing doesn't end?" Soda said, suddenly panicked. "What if two years pass and you get drafted? Or Pony?"

Darry looked away. He knew it was a very real possibility. "We'll deal with that when the time comes."

"What about Steve and Two-Bit?" Soda went on. "They could be drafted any day. I… I couldn't handle that. The things I saw while I was over there… you guys can't go through that."

Darry had done his best to comfort him. He had said the chances of another one of them getting drafted were along the same lines of lightening striking the same spot twice. But somehow it had happened anyway. It was like life was just constantly out to prove that things could always get worse for them.

"C'mon, Soda, you wanna go lay down?" Darry said gently. He wanted to get Soda far away from this situation because he had no idea what kind of reaction he was going to have to it. Soda looked up at him and slowly shook his head. Darry sighed heavily. Deep down he knew it was too late to protect him from this anyway. "You at least need to sit."

Darry gently lead Soda over to the recliner. He carefully sat. The entire group was silent, each one at a loss as to what to do next. What could they do?

Finally Steve turned and focused on Soda. Soda was staring down at the ground.

"It… it's gonna be okay… right?" Steve said slowly, his voice practically begging. It was very out of character for this tough hood.

There was silence. For several minutes Soda didn't appear to have heard him. Finally he looked up. There were tears brimming in the edges of his eyes. Slowly, very slowly, he shook his head. "I don't know," he said quietly.

Clearly that wasn't comforting. Steve looked at him, eyeing his cane, eyeing his injury. There was fear in his eyes. He reached up and ran a hand through his long, greased hair, not seeming to notice or care that he messed it up. He stood up very suddenly.

"I won't go," he said firmly.

"Steve," Darry said.

"No," he said, backing up like a cornered animal. "No, I'll run, I'll go to Mexico."

"Steve, you can't run away to Mexico," Darry said rationally.

"I can't run away to Mexico but I can get shipped off to shoot people in fucking Vietnam?" Steve demanded angrily.

"If you got caught you'd go to prison," Darry pointed out.

"Still sounds like a better offer to me," Steve countered.

"Steve, please just sit down," Darry implored.

"I don't wanna sit down," Steve shot back angrily.

"It's no use," Soda said quietly. "You can't run away from this." Steve glared at him. Clearly it wasn't what he wanted to hear. "You just gotta deal with it."

"Yeah, 'cause you've been dealing with it so well," Steve shot back sarcastically.

There was silence as the painful truth of this comment hit the entire group hard. Slowly Soda pushed himself to his feet and they all watched as he silently turned and limped out of the room. After another moment they all heard Soda's bedroom door slowly close.

"Way to go," Two-Bit said in a low voice.

"Well I'm sorry but I can't baby him right now," Steve said still staring off in the direction Soda had gone, though some of his anger had melted away.

Darry nodded. He could understand that. This was a lot to deal with. None of them really even knew where to begin with processing this news.

"Soda could help," Pony pointed out carefully.

Steve sighed. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "I know," he said, a note of defeat in his voice. "I just… don't wanna go."

"Yeah. Soda didn't either," Darry said.

Steve looked at him for a minute. He sighed to himself. Then without a word he turned and headed down the hall toward Soda's bedroom.

XxXxX

Steve softly knocked on the closed bedroom door. He listened for an invitation to come in, but all he heard was silence. Cautiously he pushed the door open. Inside he found Soda sitting on the edge of the bed, his shoulders hunched as he stared down at his cane.

"Soda?" Steve said carefully. Soda didn't respond. Steve walked into the room, closing the door behind him. "Soda, I'm sorry for what I said."

Soda shrugged not looking up. "You weren't wrong," he said quietly.

"Yeah, but I was an ass for sayin' it like that," Steve said.

Soda looked up at him. "You're scared," he said seriously. "You're scared as hell of what's gonna happen over there."

Steve stared at him. He briefly considered denying it. He was a tough hood after all. He wasn't supposed to be scared. But he knew that Soda would see right through that. After all… he was speaking from experience.

"Yeah," he admitted quietly. He walked over to the bed and sat down next to Soda. He clasped his hands in front of him tightly. He was quiet for a minute. "When I saw the mail… I couldn't believe it. It took all day just to wrap my head around it. I still don't feel like I've got my head wrapped around it."

Soda nodded, looking at him carefully. "It won't feel real until you get there," he said steadily. "Even all through boot camp it still won't feel real. Even when you first get there it won't feel real. It won't be until that first fight… that first fight for your life. Then it'll feel real."

Steve swallowed. "What if I don't make it back?" he said softly, his voice betraying his fear.

Soda was silent for a minute. "I learned very quickly that no one is guaranteed to make it out of there," he said slowly, looking down at his cane. Then he looked back up at him, determination in his eyes. "But if anyone can make it back, I know Steve Randle can."

Steve gave him a strained smile. "Gosh, I hope so," he said unsurely.

Soda looked at him seriously. "Yeah. Me too."

Author's Note: What do you think? Should I run and hide? Haha!