Knock, Knock

Disclaimer: No, silly, I never have nor will I ever own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton owns The Outsiders. *sighs* :( I simply borrow them for my own creative enjoyment purposes.

Summary: "I could hear Two-Bit's voice next to me, wild and panicked, but I couldn't make out the words. I felt like I couldn't move. Suddenly, I saw Ponyboy swaying unsteadily on his feet before he hit the ground with a sickening smack. " A story about the time between when Pony passed out after the rumble and when Randy came to visit him.

"...and Two-Bit came blubbering over here with some tale about how you were running a fever before the rumble and how it was all his fault you were sick."

Darry's POV

My eyes widened as incoherent words spilled out of my mouth, begging, "please, don't shoot! It ain't loaded!" but to no avail. I saw Dally go down, a crumpled heap; desperate, violent, and suffering, the way every hoodlum went out, just the way I had always hoped that Dallas could avoid.

I could hear Two-Bit's voice next to me, wild and panicked, but I couldn't make out the words. I felt like I couldn't move. Suddenly, I saw Ponyboy swaying unsteadily on his feet before he hit the ground with a sickening smack.

I found myself on my knees next to him in an instant, brushing the hair from his eyes while Sodapop yelled desperately for someone to call an ambulance.

"Ponyboy? Come on, Ponyboy, wake up. I know you can hear me," I begged, but like the last time I begged, no one listened. Ponyboy stayed perfectly still. It was then that I realized I could feel the fever radiating off of him, and sweat beads lined his forehead.

He was sick and I never even noticed. He fought in a rumble after being a fugitive from the law for a week, barely eating anything in a cold, abandoned church. I let him fight sick and now he was seriously ill and maybe...I didn't want to think of a worse possibility.

I glanced up, realizing the ambulance was seconds away. I could hear the wails of the sirens almost on top of us. As the workers gathered around Ponyboy I heard them asking Sodapop to move, but his grip on his little brother remained tight. I grabbed him softly around the waist, gently pulling him to his feet and out of the way.

"No, Pony," he whispered brokenly, a look of pain on his face.

"Come on, Soda, we can ride in the ambulance with him. Just let the medics do their job," I tried to reason, even though I myself wanted nothing more than to stay and Ponyboy's side and make sure he was okay, something I hadn't done well enough earlier, but I knew that I couldn't.

The medics lifted Ponyboy up on a gurney before maneuvering him into the ambulance. He looked so young with his newly white blond hair sticking to his forehead, any evidence that grease was once in his hair was washed away by the rain, leaving a peaceful looking image that resembled a ten year old Ponyboy, back in a time where he didn't wear hair grease, a time when he was young and innocent.

"Only one person in the ambulance," one of the medics called, waiting to shut the doors. Soda and I shared a quick glance and I nodded. I was almost relieved, I wasn't sure how much more I could look at my sick and injured little brother.

Please be okay, Ponyboy.

Sodapop's POV

I hopped into the ambulance, immediately grabbing Ponyboy's hand and sitting down. The sight of him made me want to start bawling again. He looked so little, so sick, and I didn't miss the gut wrenching fact that there was blood coating his blond hair.

"Please be okay, Ponyboy. Come on, show them how strong you are," I whispered, squeezing my little brother's hand as tight as I could.

"His fever is at 103.2," one of the medics announced.

"Start him on some fluids!" Another one demanded, and I couldn't help but notice the urgency in their sharp, booming voices. As the ambulance made its way to the hospital, all too slowly for me, the only thing I kept repeating inside of my head was, "come one, Ponyboy, you have to be okay. Please be okay, you have to be."

I'm not sure if my prayers were answered or not.

OoOoOoO

Time seemed to pass in slow motion. The wait was agonizing, stretching out five minutes into what felt like fifty. Every few seconds I would have to get up and pace, too anxious to sit. I ended up eating three candy bars in an hour just for something to do with my hands. It gave my mind something to do, too. But when a doctor walked into the waiting area, making my stomach do a nervous gymnastics routine, there was nothing for my mind to do but run through a thousand different scenarios. When I felt Steve rise next to me, I was afraid that my knees wouldn't hold me upright.

"Family of Po-... Micheal Curtis."

I saw Darry roll his eyes as he stood up, but by the time that the doctor could see his face Darry was professional.

"How is he, doctor?" Darry asked, his face looking young and scared for a quick second. It brought me back to how he looked when the doctor came to give us information on mom's surgery the night of the crash. We had all been so young and scared back then...

"He cane in here with a fever of 103.5, but it's steady now around 101.5. He's dehydrated, malnourished, and is suffering from exhaustion, which is contributing to the fever. His body is trying to fight off a respiratory infection, but it's struggling since he's so weak. He's also in a state of shock, along with a concussion, and he's incoherent because of the fever."

"Is he going to be okay?" I finally interrupted. Darry gave me a hard glare, but the doctor just smiled.

"This all sounds bad, I know, but with a few days of rest, and some fluids, he can go home tomorrow and make a full recovery within a few weeks. If you would like, you can see him in room 714."

"Thank you so much, Doctor..."

"Lee."

"Thank you, Doctor Lee."

By the time that Darry finished his last word, my feet were already moving towards the nearest hallway. The signs eventually led me to where my little brother resided, confined to a hospital bed in an all too white, clean room, nothing like our messy but obviously lived in and comforting bedroom, where pictures hung on the wall. There were things in our room that made it ours, unlike this heartless room, like his favorite stuffed animal from his fourth birthday that sat under our bed, away from the prying eyes of the gang. Only Johnny had ever known about Alfred, and now...

Don't think about it.

I took a deep, calming breath, willing myself confidence as if I could think it into existence. I felt Steve clasp me on the back after Darry walked into the room.

"He's going to be okay, Soda, 'member?"

I know, Steve, but last time my mother was here and now she isn't.

Ponyboy won't end up like that. He's fine.

If he's fine, why is he here? My mind argued, much to my annoyance. Fed up with my internal, unhelpful monologue, I stepped into Ponyboy's room, and the sight of him made my heart drop to the floor. Machines were hooked up to him, checking his heart rate and other things that I didn't even know. He looked so young, but he always looked young when he slept. But I couldn't pretend he was sleeping. There was too much blood soaked into the bandage that went around his head to pretend anything.

"Hey, Ponyboy," I whispered softly, surprised at the sound of my own voice. I wasn't sure I could even will myself to talk, but somehow, I kept talking. Whispering to someone who probably couldn't hear me, but it didn't matter. I hoped my little brother knew I was there for him, after everything that had happened.

OoOoOoO

"No, no bologna. I hate bologna," were the first words that Ponyboy spoke after fourteen hours. His eyes were glossed over and red, so we knew he was out of it, but to see him semiconscious gave me a small flicker of hope.

"Since when?" Darry asked, but I interrupted him.

"It's okay, Ponyboy. It's not bologna, I promise. It's just pudding."

Ponyboy shook his head, mumbling something about bologna again, but a few seconds later his eyelids slipped closed.

I grabbed the chocolate pudding off of the hospital tray and offered it to Darry, my first attempt at humor in a week. He gave me a glare, but he wasn't really mad. My lips twitched as I grabbed the spoon and took a huge mouthful, smiling with pudding still in my mouth.

"Mmm... Delicious!"

Darry pretended to gag.

Darry had never been able to stomach pudding. When he was eight and I was almost five, we had been sitting at the dinner table and had eaten pudding for dessert. Darry finished his pudding, and within an hour proceeded to puke up his entire dinner. He, being only eight, somehow decided it was the pudding that made him sick. Two days later and two more sick kids proved him wrong, but since that day he would gag at the mere sight or smell of pudding. That was the way the story was told to me, at least. I don't remember it, but Darry could recount every detail.

"Mr. Curtis, Ponyboy can be released now. All I need you to do is just to sign the release forms," One of the new nurses who's name I didn't know informed us. Darry stood up and began following her out the door when I spoke up.

"Hey, Darry, when we get home can we make some dirt pudding?"

He proceeded to flip me off behind his back. I choked on the pudding I was eating from laughing so hard.

Two-Bit's POV

The feeling that sat at the pit of my stomach made me want to puke in the bushes outside of the Curtis residence. I felt hungover, but I hadn't drank since the rumble. That was only a day ago, I reminded myself, but it felt like a lifetime ago.

My hand hovered outside the Curtis door. For the first time in around ten years I felt like I had to knock. After a moment of contemplation, and a calming second, I turned the door knob slowly, the creak of the screen door sounding like a scream in the quiet household as I pushed it open.

"Darry?" I called out, but instead caught sight of Ponyboy through his open bedroom door. The sight of him with a bloody bandage around his head made my stomach roll.

"Two-Bit?" Darry asked curiously behind me, his face reading nothing but confusion. Suddenly I found my knees too weak to stand, and before I knew it Darry was lowering me onto a chair as the previous day's events hit me like a freight train. I was crying, sobbing, actually, as much as it would totally ruin my reputation. The thought that Dallas would disown me if he saw me like this sent me into a whole new round of hysteria, and I didn't stop crying for a good four or five minutes, but it felt like longer. The whole time Darry rubbed my back, telling me it was going to be okay, and it would get better, and by the time that I caught my breath he has a glass of ice water in my hands.

"I don't deserve this," I finally chocked out. "Everything, it's all my fault. I should have never started flirting with those girls at the movies, and Ponyboy! Darry, it's all my fault."

"What are you talking about, Two-Bit? It's hard, but it ain't nobody's fault," Darry reasoned gently, but I cut him off.

"You don't understand, Darry. At the bus stop, before the rumble," I explained, my words coming out a hundred miles a minute, and probably sounding as incoherent as Ponyboy, "Pony was running a fever, and I promised him I wouldn't say anything! I didn't want to, but he told me he was fine, Darry. I'm so, so sorry, this is all my fault."

"Two-Bit," Darry sighed. "This ain't your fault."

He clasped my back, his ice blue eyes suddenly like melted lakes, kind and caring. "Come on, how about you go home and get some sleep. Come by tomorrow when you feel better. Ponyboy's gonna be just fine, and so are you. I promise."

I started to leave, not knowing what to do, but Darry called after me.

"Hey, and Two-Bit? Just for the record, I don't blame you. Pony can convince anyone of anything. It's one of the wonders of the world." He even cracked a small smile to seal the deal. Feeling a thousand times better than when I had arrived there, I descended down their porch steps, hoping that I would never feel the need to knock at their front door again.

A/N: This is the longest one-shot or chapter I have ever written! Big milestone for someone who has trouble with long chapters, so I am pretty proud of this. To tell me how the actual writing was, hit the review button below. :) Thank you all for reading, lovelies. You guys rock.

As always:

Stay Gold,

~ Alee XxX