A/N: Wow, so long chapter. As always, thank you for all the follows/favorites/reviews. They mean a lot to me!


The ride back to my house was sufficiently awkward. I refused to say anything to him, and him being the stubborn son of a bitch he was, also refused to talk. We both stared straight ahead, fuming. He had a death grip on the steering wheel, and at one point I thought it would crumble. It started to rain lightly and the needle on the speedometer went up. We were about half way back to my house when the rain picked up. It was starting to downpour, but it didn't seem to faze Dally; the needle just kept going up.

"Dally, you better slow down." I said quietly.

"Did you say somethin'?" He snarled my way.

"I said you should probably slow down." I said a tad bit louder.

"Why would I do that? Huh? Neither of us are enjoying this ride. Why not get there as fast as we can?"

"Your tires are pretty bald, we might start to hydroplane." I tired to sound smart.

"Oh? And why would that be so bad? Would be a rush." He scoffed.

"Yeah, a rush to the grave." I replied.

"Oh, lighten up. We ain't gonna crash. We'll be fine."

The road ahead of us took a sharp turn and Dally was hovering around 80. I braced myself against the dashboard. "Dally! Slow down the goddamn car!"

He let out a small laugh that told me he was going to do no such thing. The curve was right in front of us and he jerked the wheel to the left. The front end of he car went right, but the back end had other ideas. We spun around on the road long enough for me to be completely disoriented and the passenger side crashed into a tree. Glass shattered all over me, and I felt a shooting pain go through my arm. I cried out while Dally beat his hands on the steering wheel.

He struggled with his door and jumped out of the car. He went to the front to take a look at the damage. It must not have been good because he kicked the front bumper and yelled a few obscenities.

"Shit! This is just great! Come on, Jill. Looks like we're walkin'." He yelled over the rain.

I held my arm close to me as I tried to climb over to the driver's side door. There was something stopping me from moving and I looked back to see that my leg was pinned in the door. I was too preoccupied with my arm to notice anything else, but as soon as I saw my leg squished up in crunched metal all hell broke loose. I screamed out in pain and Dally poked his head into the car.

"Come on. I know you're hurt, but we gotta get outta here." His voice took on a softer tone.

"Dal- I can't- I'm stuck-" I gasped, trying to suppress my pain.

"What do you mean you're stuck?" He sounded genuinely concerned now. I sat back in my seat and tried to relax my leg as best I could. It didn't hurt before I started moving it around, so maybe if I stopped moving it, the pain would go away. Nope. I focused on my breathing. Inhale, exhale. Repeat.

"I mean that I'm freaking stuck! My leg is pinned in here and my arm is busted up!" I cringed when my yelling caused my arm to move.

Dally took a step back and looked around before pacing around the front of the car. He had a frantic look in his eye like he knew something that I didn't. My eyes were waterfalls and my face was covered in warm tears.

"Dally, you gotta help me!' I yelled out to him.

"How am I supposed to help you?" He asked with that same crazed look in his eyes.

"Just help!" I yelled again. The pain was starting to get to me and my vision was going in and out.

"God Dammit." I heard his mutter to himself. He want around the back of the car to the passenger side and tried to push the car away from the tree. Who did he think he was, the Hulk? The car wasn't budging but he kept pushing. I heard him grunting on the other side of the broken window. I wonder what it would be like to be under his body and hear those noises; what it would be like to have his dog tags trail along my chest as he smiled down at me... Holy crap! I was trapped in an overheated car with probably more than one broken bone and I was thinking dirty thoughts of the bastard who got me into this situation? I need to get my priorities in check. I felt the car shift a centimeter to the left; just enough for me to slide my leg out from between the seat and the door. I leaned my head back in exhaustion from that simple action. The world seemed to be getting darker as the seconds passed. Or minutes. I really had no idea. I felt Dally grab my under both arms and pull my out of the drivers side. The last thing I remembered was him scooping me up and thinking that it was deja vu.

When I woke up, the rain had stopped. Dally was carrying me down some road. I must not have been out very long because the crash wasn't but a couple of miles from my house. Dally's arms must have been killing him from carrying me this way for a while.

"Hey. You can put me down now. I can walk from here." I told him.

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Oh yeah? You think you can walk?"

"Yeah. You must be tired from carrying me anyway."

He stopped walking and sighed. "If you say say so..." He slowly lowered me to the ground and the minute my toes touched the cement, I wished they hadn't. I let out a small whimper and he scooped me back up. "You wanna try that again?" He let out a small laugh.

I shook my head and tried to hold back tears. My leg killed every time Dally took a step, but it was better than trying to walk myself. My arm throbbed and I couldn't move my fingers and there was an annoying pain in my side. I turned my head to bury it in his chest. There was skin-to-skin contact. I pulled my head away and saw his pale skin.

"What happened to your shirt?" I asked.

His eyes slid up to my forehead. I reached up with my good arm and felt fabric wrapped around my hairline. "What happened?"

"I think you either hit your head on the window or you got cut from all the glass that flew at you." His voice had no emotion. The crash must have been worse than what I thought. I was beat up everywhere. I turned my head to look at where we were. We were just a few houses away from mine and I could see Darry's truck in the driveway. Shit, he was gonna flip. Dally walked a little faster for the last few yards and he deposited me in Darry's pick-up. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. I had a massive head ache and I wished I could sleep. I heard Dally get in the other side and start up the engine. He backed out of the driveway and started towards the hospital.

"Take it slow this time. We don't need to crash again." I said with a small laugh. I looked over at him and he grimaced. I turned to the window and closed my eyes again.

I must be the world's deepest sleeper because the next time I opened my eyes I was in a hospital room hooked up to all kinds of machines and monitors. There was a vase of flowers on the bedside table but I couldn't make out the card from where I was. I saw a buzzer with a red button on top of it attached to the bed rails. I reached for it and I felt eyes on me. I looked up into the room and saw Darry sitting in the only chair available. He was looking back at me with wet eyes and a frown on his face.

"Hey." I said. My voice was scratchy. I looked around for water, but came up empty handed.

Darry stood up from his uncomfortable looking chair and came over to me. He grabbed a bottle of water from the counter and opened it for me.

"How ya feelin'?" He asked, looking really worried.

I was sore all over. From my head to my feet; everything hurt. "I've seen better days." I joked, "What about you?"

He let out a breath. "You kids need to stop scaring me like this." He pulled his chair up to my bed. He grabbed my good hand and rubbed his thumb over it.

"Where is everyone?" I asked, looking around like maybe they were hiding somewhere in the small room.

"They're out in the waiting room. They're only letting me in tonight since it's past visiting hours." He explained.

"How are they?" I asked. I was worried that Soda would feel bad for leaving me at the rodeo.

Darry laughed, "Why are you so concerned with everyone else? Don't you want to know what happened to you?"

"Come to think about it, yeah!" I laughed.

Darry got that worried look back on his face, "You have a broken rib, a fractured leg and your arm is broken in two places. Other than that, you just have some cuts and bruises. You did lose a lot of blood though. Mostly from up here." He pointed to my forehead. "Doctor's said that if Dal hadn't wrapped up your head, you coulda bled to death."

I smiled slightly at the thought of him carrying me all the way home, this time for real. "How's Dal doin'?"

"He's pretty shaken up, Jill. He thought you were a goner. I know you're probably mad at him about what happened at the rodeo. He explained everything. You should cut him some slack, though. He saved your life."

I scoffed, "He was also the one that endangered it." I saw Darry tense up. What was that about? "But I'm not mad at him. I never really was. I was just really upset when I saw him with that girl." I shrugged.

Darry glanced at the clock. "I'd better let you get some rest. We'll all be back tomorrow to see ya." He stood up and pushed the chair back to where it came from. He leaned over me and kissed the bandages covering my head. He left the room and turned out the lights. I wiggled around trying to find a comfortable position to sleep, but that wasn't going to happen.


The next morning, I woke up to see the guys all crowded around my bed grinning at me. I stared at the wide-eyed. Why were they all grinning at me like that? Did I have something on my face? Of course I did, bandages. Two-Bit broke the silence.

"Sleeping Beauty is alive!" We all laughed.

"Hey, guys!" After that they all started talking at once and I couldn't follow what any of them were saying. They were all yelling over each other when the nurse came in.

"Hey! One at a time, boys! You're overwhelming her!" I shot her a thankful glance. I could handle them like that on any other day, but I was still groggy from all the drugs they gave me. They all looked at each other like they were deciding who was going to be the first one to talk to me. I guess the decision was unanimous, because everyone but Dally left without a word.

"Hi," I mumbled. I didn't really know what to say to him after all this.

"I'm gonna start off with this: Don't let any of this conversation leave this room. The guys'll think I'm goin' soft."

I nodded in agreement.

"Good." He said. He walked to the side of my bed with my good arm and motioned for my to scoot over. When I did, he crawled into the bed with me. What was happening here?

"What are you doing?" I asked him, accusingly. If he thought he was gonna get lucky with a half-crippled girl, he was sadly mistaken.

"I'm just sitting next to ya. Got a problem?"

I shook my head.

"Good. Now, like I said. Don't ever tell anyone about this, but I'm sorry. I shoulda listened to you when you were yelling at me to slow down. And I shouldn't have been with that girl instead of you. I just screwed up a lot last night at your expense." He said quietly.

I stared at him blankly. He was apologizing to me? He never apologized to anyone! He looked at me like he wanted me to say something. "It's okay. I'm still alive, ain't I?"

His body shook as he silently laughed. He threw his arm around my shoulder and his hand fell on my cast. I heard it thunk of the plaster and he jumped back.

"That reminds me!" He pulled a black marker out of the pocket and reached for my cast. He carefully picked it up and looked around for the perfect spot. He blocked my view of what he was writing and when he pulled away I saw that he'd drawn a small heart in the crook of my elbow. His voice lowered to a whisper. "I'm gonna try to be better for ya, but don't expect too much."

I shook my head and smiled. I felt my eyes welling up and I leaned my head on his shoulder. We sat like that until Soda came in and informed us that it was his turn to talk to me.