(Darry)
I've always had good instincts. It's part of what made me such a good quarterback when I played football. Growing up in the foster system, I learned to trust my gut feelings, they were almost always right. I'd know if the foster placement I'd been put in would be a bad one. I knew I could trust Officer McMann. And while I didn't figure out he was Ponyboy right away, something in my gut pulled me to the kid, telling me I needed to help him.
And right now my gut is telling me something is wrong.
I'd said good night to my brothers about an hour ago and had been trying to fall asleep but something had me tossing and turning, an uneasy feeling settling on me making me unable to sleep.
Finally unable to take it, I swing myself out of bed. Walking as quietly as I can, I pad down the hall to Soda's room to check on my brothers.
Easing the door open as quietly as I can, I peek into the room. The two of them are curled up in the bed, their chests slowly rising and falling. Soda has an arm slung over Pony and Pony has his head practically buried against Soda's chest. Neither one of them even flinch as I step into the room. Soda seems to have stolen most of the blankets so I pull them back over Ponyboy, smoothing the blanket over him. They both look so peaceful and I don't want to disturb them and wake them up.
Even seeing that they are both okay, I can't seem to shake the uneasiness.
A creak draws my attention, my head snapping towards the hallway. I debate waking the boys but decide to let them sleep, just in case I'm being paranoid. I'd hate to wake them up and make Pony feel scared over nothing.
Another creak breaks through the quiet, sounding like it's coming from the porch. I hurry out of Soda's room, pulling the door quietly shut behind me and then hurry to my bedroom, pulling the baseball bat I keep under my bed out.
I may have been a football player, but I sure as hell have a mean swing.
I creep down the hall, the bat held up by my shoulder. I pause at the end of the hallway before the living room. I can see shadows shifting out front from the dim glow coming from the porch light.
The shadows shift and another creak from the old wood echoes in the house. The figure outside moves closer, looking like they are coming to the door. I silently curse myself for leaving the door unlocked when those people were still after Pony! I flex my hands around the base of the bat, ready to bring it down on whoever is trying to come in and tear up my family. Over my dead body were they getting to my brothers.
The door knob turns slowly and the door eases open. I heft my bat up, ready to crack some skulls. My muscles tense up, about to swing, but luckily I recognize the dark hair of Steve Randle and stop the bat midswing before I bring it down on his head.
He jumps when he sees me with the bat, "Shit! What the hell, man? You trying to give me a heart attack?"
Still feeling tense, but also relieved that it's just Steve, I let out a small chuckle.
"Sorry. Thought I heard something out here"
Steve shakes his head and shuts the door quickly, leaning his back against it.
"You did, man. There was some truck out there" Steve hisses, his back still pressed against the door.
"What" I growl, going to the window to peer out. The street is empty, nothing looks out of place but I still feel a shiver go down my spine as my eyes scan the street.
"It drove off when I came up the driveway, man. I stood out there to make sure it didn't come back" he says, his eyes dark and serious.
"Stay here" I tell Steve, hoisting my bat back up onto my shoulder. I nudge Steve out of the way and open the door, the cold December air hits me, sending goosebumps up my arms.
I walk out onto the porch, leaning against the railing so I can see both ways down the street. There's no movement, the silence is only broken by the light hum that the porch light makes. Whatever monster had been lurking out in the dark is gone for now.
"Maybe it wasn't them" Steve says from somewhere behind me. I don't answer, we both know exactly who was out here.
I go back into the house, going past Steve who had been leaning in the doorway watching me. I push him aside and shut the door, locking it behind me. The sound of the bolt sliding into place rattles in my ears.
I sink into my recliner and put my head in my hands.
They had been right there. So close to getting Pony again. And I'd left the door unlocked like a fucking idiot, basically inviting them in to our home.
"Shit. I should have been more careful"
"You didn't know they'd find him Darry, it's not your fault"
"It is my god damn fault, Steve! I'm in charge, I'm supposed to be one protecting them!"
I settle into the recliner, determined to stay awake and make sure we don't have any unwanted visitors.
Steve shifts uncomfortably from where he's standing.
"Is it still okay if I crash here? My dad's in a mood and-"
"Of course you can Steve. Although you might be better off with your old man instead of here, with those guys hanging around" I say bitterly.
Steve just scoffs and goes to the closet to get the spare blanket and then sits down on the couch.
"All the more reason for me to hang here" he says with a determined edge to his voice.
I shift in the recliner trying to get a little more comfortable and then I grab the bat I had leaned against the coffee table. I twist the bat slowly in my hands, my eyes fixed down the dark hallway where my brothers are still hopefully sleeping peacefully. Steve eyes me from where he settled on the couch.
"You gonna wake up Soda and the kid?"
I shake my head, I don't want Pony to be more scared than he already is. I don't think I could take being the one to put that fear stricken expression back on his face.
"I'll tell Soda in the morning. But I don't know if I should tell Pony"
"Why wouldn't you? Shouldn't the kid know how close those guys were?"
I debated in my head, on the one hand, I think Pony should know those guys were circling, getting closer. On the other hand, I was worried he'd be so scared he'd run again. And I couldn't bear the thought of losing him again.
"They might not know he's here. They could have figured out we were brothers if they dug around, especially with the help of his old social worker. But maybe they don't know we found him. Maybe they were just snooping around" I say, trying to convince myself the words I was saying were true.
"So you ain't gonna tell the kid?" he asks bluntly. Steve has always been blunt, it's one of things I admire and hate about him.
"I'm afraid he'll run again. He's already so scared, I don't want to worry him more. I'll just have to keep a better eye on him, until they get caught"
"We'll all keep an eye out for him" Steve says with a nod.
We sit in silence for a minute or two.
"You planning on staying up all night there?" he asks.
"What if they come back Steve? I need to be ready."
"Don't you got work in the morning though? You can't be climbing roofs with zero hours of sleep"
I sigh, knowing he's probably right but too determined to change my mind. How could I sleep when I know the Moore's were just outside of our door?
"You sleep, superman. I'll stay up and keep watch and I'll wake you up if I hear anything"
"Steve, you don't gotta do that"
He just shrugs, "We watch out for each other, man. You've had my back plenty of times, I've got yours. And Soda's and the kid's".
I don't think I've ever seen Steve look that determined. I look over at the clock, it's almost one in the morning. I have to be up in less than five hours.
"Thanks Steve" I tell him sincerely, "Wake me in a few hours and we can swap?"
"Sure thing, superman"
And knowing that I'm between my brothers and the door and that Steve is standing watch, I drift off to a restless sleep.
I'd managed to get a few hours of sleep, though I'd felt like I had stayed partly awake the whole night, jerking awake every so often and looking frantically around, afraid of what could've happened as I slept. But every time I jerked awake, Steve would assure me quietly that everything was fine and I would be able to drift back to state somewhere between awake and asleep.
After jerking awake again at 5:30, I decided I might as well get up and make a start to my day. Steve settled into the couch, falling asleep pretty much as soon as I got up.
I get up and take a quick shower and then quietly go down the hall to my bedroom to get dressed. I can't stop myself from peering into Soda's room to check on them. Luckily, they're both still sleeping, their backs pressed against each other.
After quietly shutting their door and getting dressed, I head into the kitchen to make myself some coffee. Lord knows I'll be needing some today. I consider making breakfast for everyone but it's still so early I figured it'd be stone cold by the time anyone was awake to eat it. I'll need to wake Soda up before I go to fill him in on what went down last night. While Steve had been a real good guard dog last night, he needed to sleep a bit so I would make sure Soda was up so he could keep an eye on things.
Since it's still earlier than I need to leave for work, I pour myself a cup of coffee to drink at the kitchen table before I have to wake Soda and head out. Yesterday's paper is still sitting on the counter so I pull it over to me, flipping through it to see if there's anything interesting I might have missed in it.
A small sniff behind me has me turning in my chair. I hadn't heard anyone come up, but sure enough, Pony is standing in the kitchen.
"Hey Pony, I didn't hear you get up. I didn't wake you, did I?" I ask.
He shakes his head and comes a step closer. He looks as tired as I feel. His eyes are red rimmed, like he'd been crying and when he talks, his nose sounds stuffy.
"No, you didn't wake me up"
Taking in his appearance, I think I know what it was that woke him.
"Nightmare?"
He nods and sniffs again. He looks scared, like whatever haunted him in his dream followed him out here.
"You wanna talk about it?"
He shakes his head and then slowly lowers himself into one of the seats at the kitchen table. I'm not too good at handling emotional situations like this. Give me cut or a bully and I can deal with it, no problem. But I always feel like I'm walking on a tightrope over a pit of broken glass when faced with these delicate emotions.
Deciding to focus on something I can easily fix, I ask, "Hungry? Want some breakfast?"
Pony shrugs, "I'm really not that hungry right now". He stares down at his hands in his lap.
"You gotta go to work today?"
"Yeah I do. But I'll come home right after, okay? And Soda will stay with you until I get back"
"What if the social worker comes while you're gone?" he asks, glancing up at me, fear evident in his green eyes.
The thought scares me too but I can't let him know that.
"Officer McMann said he'll help us. I'll call him and make sure that he knows I have to be here whenever the social worker comes by, okay?"
He seems to relax a tiny bit. "Okay"
"Soda awake?"
"No, he's still sleeping"
An idea creeps into my head. Since I needed to wake Soda up anyway, I might as well have a little fun with it.
"C'mon. I gotta talk to him about something before I leave" I gesture Pony to follow me and he looks at me curiously as I shoot him a mischievous grin.
We go into Soda's room and I put a finger to my lips, telling Pony to be quiet as I creep over to the bed. Soda is sprawled on his stomach, drool pooling on his pillow below his open mouth.
"Soda" I whisper, my voice overly gentle. His eyebrows furrow and he swats at me.
"You better wake up, Soda" I whisper again but he rolls over, taking his pillow over his head.
"Okay. You asked for it" I lunge at him, tickling his sides as he tries to jerk away, laughter bubbling out from where his head is still buried under his pillow.
"Stop it, Dar! You know I'm ticklish" he says, trying to escape from me but I have him pinned with an arm.
"Too bad for you, little buddy. Because I brought back up" I beckon Pony over to help me and a devilish smile splits his face as he jumps onto the bed, one hand reaching out to poke at Soda's sides.
Soda's huffing out curses between his fits of laughter, and he takes his pillow and starts swinging it at us. Pony dodges away and then barks out a laugh as Soda nails me square in the face with his pillow. Changing targets, I narrow my eyes at Ponyboy.
"Oh, you think that's funny?" I lunge forward and snag his arm, pulling him back onto the bed and start tickling him. Forgiving my earlier assault, Soda joins my team and helps me tickle the kid. He kicks and squirms and laughs and it might be the best sound I've ever heard. It reminds me of when we were real little and would play tickle monster with our Dad.
Finally taking mercy on him, I stop and pull his arm again, helping him sit up. His hair is a mess and his cheeks are flushed and whatever fear that lingered from his earlier nightmare is gone from his face.
"Why the hell are you Curtis's so loud in the morning?" Steve yells from the living room.
"Pony, can you go tell Steve to chill out, I gotta talk to Soda real quick before I head to work"
Pony nods and leaves the room, leaving just me and Soda. The playful energy from a few moments ago is gone, Soda can tell whatever I'm about to tell him is serious.
"What's wrong?" he whispers urgently.
I fill him in on the truck as quickly and quietly as I can. His eyes go wide as I tell him what Steve saw.
"What are we gonna do?"
"I'll call Officer McMann when I get to work, since I need to talk to him about the social worker anyway. I'll see what he says and fill you in"
"I need you to stay at the house today, Soda, with the door locked. And I don't want Pony to know, he might get scared and run off"
Soda nods and looks at me, looking older than his sixteen years, "Don't worry, Dar. I'll take care of him, I won't let anything happen".
"I know you will. Call me if anything happens or you need anything today, okay?"
"Yeah Darry, I got it" Soda glances at the clock, "You're gonna be late if you don't head out soon"
Jumping up because I hadn't realized how much time had passed, "Shoot I gotta go. See ya later, little buddy" I give Soda a playful shove on my way out the door.
The water is running in the bathroom and Steve is no longer on the couch so I assume either him or Pony is in there.
Pony comes out of the kitchen as I gather my stuff for work. He holds out my thermos, which he had apparently filled up for me.
I shoot him a thankful smile, "Thanks Pony". He returns the smile and plops down on my recliner, eyes going to the television that is currently playing some cartoon.
"See you when I get home from work, love you" I tell him, ruffling his already messed up hair. He freezes under my touch as I realize what I just said. Of course I loved him, but I hadn't said it to him since he's been home. I've loved that kid since the day he was born so saying it wasn't too big of a deal for me, but who knows when the last time somebody said that to him was? Based on his reaction, it had been a long while.
Pony doesn't say anything and he doesn't move to look away from the television, his shoulders are still all tensed up but he gives a small nod of his head.
I didn't let his reaction bother me. I knew all of this was harder on him. While I'd cared about him all of his life, he didn't remember having a family at all. He was still adjusting to having brothers and I'd just have to give him all the time he needed to realize how loved he was. Deciding to just play it off, I shout my goodbye to Steve and leave, hoping I didn't make Pony too uncomfortable but also glad I said it. That kid had been through so much, he deserved to know he was loved.
Little did I know that when Soda came out of the bedroom, Pony couldn't stop smiling down at his hands.