A/N: I'M SO FREAKING SORRY GUYS. YOU HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT SUPPOTIVE AND I LOVE THE NUMBER OF REVIEWS I HAVE BEEN GETTING. IT'S UST THAT SCHOOL, AND MAZE RUNNER FANFICTON GOT IN THE WAY. I AM SOOOOO SORRY, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME.

It took a whole HOUR for the doctor to come back in and give us news on Soda. As soon as the doc walked through the door, I kicked off the wall and pounced on him for answers.

"Well?" I asked, rather aggressively.

"We have diagnosed Sodapop with extreme shock. You can go visit him in room 302."

Even before he had finished speaking I had pushed past him and was out of the door with Darry on my heels.

...

Room 302 was on the floor above us, far away from the pediatrics unit, which I knew Soda was going to be happy about.

When I opened the door, I was able to see him on his side, facing the wall.
I couldn't physically see anything wrong with him, except for the two IV's in his hand, and what I remembered from watching Pony to be a feeding tube. Little pads with wires attached to them peeked out from the hospital gown they had somehow forced him into. The wires led to a heart machine that beeped in the corner.

Even as the door shut behind us, Soda didn't even twitch. His eyes were open, but he just stared at the wall, his face completely blank.

"Soda? Buddy?" I tried.

No reaction.

"Pepsi cola?" Darry attempted.

Total blank.

I felt my heart sink as my chest seemed to freeze, my breath stopping as panic became to rise like bubbles in my stomach. I could feel my whole body start to shake violently.

Darry put a hand on my shoulder just as the beeping noise exploded from the heart machine at the corner of the room.

I could feel Darry stiffen behind me but as we looked at Soda, nothing seemed to have changed except from his arms were jerking a little.

A young nurse walked briskly into the room and turned off the beeping noise. She removed a syringes from the pocket of her lab coat and placed it into one of the IV tube endings sticking out from his hand.

"What," Darry chocked out. "Was that?"

The nurse turned and smiled sympathetically.

"Elevated heart rate means panic. I calmed him down with some very light sedatives."

"Why is he panicking?! Nothing happened!"

"It's a common symptom of PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder. He's getting flashbacks of what happened with your younger brother." She smiled sadly again. "Sodapop must really care about Ponyboy to be this affected."

"Yeah." Darry almost whispered. "They're real close."

I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't believe that even after the kid pulled through, Soda's mind was still tricking him into believing he hadn't.

That must be hell for him.

"I heard what happened with your younger brother. They're setting him up on life support as we speak so that his body can have a chance of getting better. He's too fragile for his own good right now."

I could hear Darry's breath get caught.

"Hey," I interrupted. "Do you think that if Soda could see Pony breathing, that he snap out of this?"

The nurse coked her head, considering.

"He wouldn't just "snap out of it", but I think he'd recover much faster. The only snag to that is that Ponyboy can't come up here because he's much too weak, and Sodapop can't go down there because we just can't trust that he won't have an episode and raise his heart rate to a speed we won't be able to control in time. Up here we have the equipment. In the elevator, we're screwed."

I felt my heart fall to my feet.

The nurse looked at her watch then started.

"Oh gosh! I have to go, another patient is waiting."

Then she bustled out.

I turned to Darry, whose eyes were glassed over and looking into space.

"Stay here with him. I'll go get Two-bit to keep you company. In a few hours, I'll join you guys. I'm going to sit with Ponyboy for a while." He said, breaking his gaze with the wall and looking at me.

I nodded and sat in the chair next to Sodapop bed.

Man, when is something good ever going to happen to the Curtis's?

…

I walked into Ponyboy's room holding my breath. What I saw sucked every molecule of oxygens from my body.

Ponyboy, poor, small, thin, young Ponyboy literally has tubes everywhere. They trailed onto the floor, twisting around each other on their way to the machines that were working his body.

"W-what-".

I couldn't finish.

The doctor, who was just finishing, turned and addressed me.

"Darrel Curtis?"

"Y-yes, that's me."

He smiled warmly.

"Hi, I'm Ponyboy's doctor."

"What's all this?"

"Those-", he said, pointing to the clear tubes that were attached to the biggest machine in the room, "are acting like "Ponyboy's lungs."

His finger trails up some of the tubes that are going into Pony's nose and mouth.

"They enter him here and do the breathing for him."

"Right here-"he points to the numerous small tubes funning along the floor full of red liquid, "are the tubes circulated Ponyboy's blood for him."

Automatically I looked at my feet to make sure I wasn't stepping on one. I wasn't.

"Bb-ut his heart's working isn't it?"

"Yes, but not very well. This machine takes some of the strain from the heart. These tubes have multiply entry points along Pony's body."

There were no words.

"As you can see, the IV's in his hand and providing him with fluids and medicine to keep him sedated while he is so weak. As we saw earlier, Ponyboy's body is not coping well with his injury and the surgery we had to perform. It is much safer for him if he stays asleep for now."

I heard someone choke behind me. Until now, I had completely forgotten anyone else was in the room.

Looking behind me, it seemed like it was Two-bit was the one who had made the noise. His face was completely white.

Johnny was clutching onto the top of the chair so hard that his knuckles were white. Dally hand was clutching Johnny's shoulder, but I had a feeling it was more for his comfort than for Johnny's.

"Two-bit" I addressed him "Steve's waiting for you in room 302 upstairs."

Quickly he nodded and walked out of the door.

I turned back to the doctor but he was already gone. He had walked out of the door and he hadn't even noticed.

Now what?

A/N: So, some dumb butt has reported Greasers life is hard and Craziness for "non-story", and they have been removed. I'm not sure what I should do, so I have set up a poll. Please vote so I know what to do with them. Thanks.