No good deed goes unpunished
All helpful urges should be circumvented
No good deed goes unpunished
Sure, I meant well -
Well, look at what well-meant did:
xxx
The next morning the phone rang, I hated that I hoped that it was Soda, hoped that he was calling to tell me that he loved me, and all was forgiven.
It wasn't Soda on the other end.
"Ali?"
"Two-Bit?" Two-Bit had never called my house before.
"Ya, look Ali, they found Pony and Johnny, and they're at the hospital. Ponys ok but...but I guess Johnny is pretty bad. We're headed down now."
"I don't know if I should Two-Bit...Soda and I..."
"Are you still family Ali?"
"Wh-what?"
"Are you still apart of this family?" Two-Bit said more forcefully.
"Yes, of course."
"Then get down to the hospital." Two-bit hung up the phone.
I didn't give it a second thought; I grabbed my purse and my mother's car keys and ran out the door.
When I got to the hospital I ran up to the emergency floor and quickly found the Curtis's standing in the hallway hugging. It was nice to see the boys back together...even if I wasn't really apart of it anymore.
I stood off to the side watching with Steve and Two-Bit. "Ali?" Pony asked looking at me. I walked past his brothers and wrapped my arms around that sweaty sooty kid.
"God I've been so worried about you Pony." I pulled back studying his face, whatever he had been through the last few days had aged him. "Look at your hair kid..."
"Ya, ya, I look real tough."
"Excuse me, are you the family of Johnny Cade?" A doctor asked.
"Yes." Darry said quickly before anyone could say otherwise. We all turned to look at the doctor and I tightened my arm around Pony's shoulders, whatever he had to tell us his face didn't make it seem like it would be good news.
"The young man is severely burned and he has a broken back. He's in room 309 if you'd like to see him. He's in a lot of pain though, so please try to make sure that he stays calm." The doctor turned to go.
"Is he, is he going to be ok?" Two-bit asked.
"No, I'm sorry, I thought I made that clear. He has 3rd degree burns over 3/4 of his body. I'll be amazed if he makes it through the night." With that he walked away.
Everyone simply stood there looking at each other. If he makes it through the night, Johnny was going to die, and there was nothing any of us were going to be able to do to help him.
"I...I can't leave him alone, I'm going to stay with him for the night." Pony finally said. "I don't want him to die alone." He looked from me to his brothers, a look of terror and panic playing over his features.
"Pony...we need to get you home and cleaned up, and we all need some sleep..." Darry said looking torn.
"I'll stay." I spoke up. "I'll stay with him tonight and I'll call if anything...changes."
"Thank you Ali, someone will come relieve you in the morning ok?"
I nodded; Darry wrapped his arms around me in a hug, holding me tight for a moment. I looked at Soda who nodded, but wouldn't look at me, still angry with me for this afternoon I imagined.
I broke away from the hug and headed into Johnny's room, Two-Bit following me. "Oh my God." I breathed out quietly. Two-Bit stopped short knocking into me.
"Christ." He whispered.
Johnny was laying on some special kind of bed; face down with a mirror system so that he could see around him. His skin was red and raw, peeling and whole patches missing. He looked terrible.
Two-Bit took my hand, "Come on, I'll stay with you." We sat down near Johnny's head hands still clasped, trying to provide each other some comfort in the face of what was happening to our friend.
"Johnny...can you hear me hunny?"
"Uh huh."
"Two-Bit and I are gonna be here all night love, if you need anything just let us know ok."
"Did...did those little kids make it?" His voice was raspy from all the smoke.
"Ya" Two-Bit answered. "The kids made it."
"Good, their lives are worth more then mine, their pure, they never did nothing wrong."
"Don't say that baby, your gonna be just fine."
"It...it hurts a lot Ali..." He said right before he passed out from the pain.
"Man..." Two-Bit said, running his fingers through his hair.
"No kidding, it's been a hell of a week..."
"Soda's real broken up over what happened with you."
"Ya, well, he said some pretty horrible things to me, I thought he loved me." I tried hard to not let the tears spill over. Between seeing Johnny like this, and talking about what happened with Soda I was quickly heading towards being a complete mess.
"Ya, he told me what he said...but he was real torn up about his brother...I'm not saying forgive him Ali Cat, just saying that you should talk to him about it. Seeing you yesterday with Randy really broke him, I've never seen him that upset."
I nodded, "I'm sure that we will talk, but I'm just not ready yet."
"I get it kiddo, let's try and get some sleep while Johnnycakes out." Two-Bit slung his arm around me and I put my head on his chest, getting the first almost decent nights sleep I had had in days.
xxx
The next morning I woke up by myself stretched out over both chairs. There was a note on the floor explaining that Two-bit had to leave in the night, he couldn't sleep and just couldn't watch Johnny cry in his sleep anymore.
"Hey kid" I looked up to see Steve standing at the door.
"Hi." I stretched out my back trying to stand up straight.
"I figured I'd come relieve you. Thought you might want to go home, sleep in your own bed, shower, maybe talk to Soda."
"I definitely need the shower, I'll come back this afternoon after I find something to eat."
I kissed Johnny carefully on the only part of his forehead that didn't look burned and started out of the room. Steve reached out and took me by the arm. "What about the talking to Soda part?"
I sighed, "Not yet Steve, I'm still pretty mad."
"I get that, but if this" he gestured towards Johnny. "Teaches us anything, it should teach us that life is short kid...just don't wait to long ok?"
"I won't" I said with a smile.
I went home and took a long hot shower, trying to wash away everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. Going to the diner, seeing Soda leave with Sandy, going to the hospital, and seeing Johnny in so much pain.
Not knowing what else to do with myself I grabbed a book and headed back to the hospital. When I got there I was surprised to see Johnny's mother there, yelling as always, and Two-Bit and Pony standing there watching as she yelled at the nurse.
"What do you mean he don't want to see me!? I'm his mother for Christ sakes!"
I stood near the boys, trying to blend in with the wall and not get noticed by Mrs. Cade. "Your letting them in!? These kids are responsible for this! Bunch of hoods!"
"At least we care about him you old drunk! No wonder he hates you!" Two-Bit yelled.
Mrs. Cade got quiet for a moment and then stalked off the hospital wing. "If you all can't be quiet we'll ask you to leave." A nurse said. "We can't have him getting upset."
"No, it's ok. We'll be quiet, I promise." I said stepping forward and putting a hand on Two-Bit's shoulder. "Come on let's go in and see him."
A/N – The song is No Good Deed from Wicked. Thanks to my two amazing reviewers from last week. I'm going to tell myself that we were low on reviews due to the hurricane. Show me some love and send some reviews my way!
I do not own the outsiders. Wish I did…if I owned the story and was on set with Rob Lowe…
