Authors Note: I can't believe it's been almost a whole year since I've updated! ( My friend Pyro Symptoms Unleashed probably can. She knows how bad I am...) Anwyay, hate me all you like. I'm still here. Still writing. Just setting my vision straight with where this story is heading. Will be completed I feel, in less than or just to ten chapters. The end is in sight. PERPARE YOURSELVES!
Disclaimer: See previous chapters...
The Process of Restoration
Chapter 6: Could It Be Our Boy Has Done Somethin' Rash?
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Dally jumped up at the sight of Marcia, and Ponyboy whipped around and paled. Marcia stopped dead in the doorway and dropped everything she was carrying. Her eyes were wide with shock as Dally rose and walked slowly over to her. He picked up her clipboard and her other papers and handed them to her. Marcia looked as if she was anticipating being jumped by him, and she frightfully began to back out of the door.
"Don't worry, I ain't gonna jump you," Dally said gruffly.
Marcia inched into the room, and nodded at Ponyboy, who smiled briefly.
"Well, um, I got transferred here from the capital so, I'm Johnny's new nurse."
"Good. Maybe you can wake him up," Dally muttered.
"I can't promise anything," Marcia returned quietly, surveying Johnny with a mixture of awe and fear.
Marcia walked quickly over to the table across from the foot of Johnny's bed. She dawdled around it, straightening the flowers and making a show of examining the vase. Ponyboy got up to leave, when he stopped and turned to Dally.
"Want to go check on Cherry?"
Marcia dropped the vase. Johnny stirred.
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Sherry whistled a tune as she walked rather confidently down the sidewalk. She didn't really notice that she was well downtown, and in fact, the exact opposite of where she wanted to end up.
A lone building rose formidably from the ground, and Sherry stopped dead in her tracks, the tune dying from her lips. Her mouth went slack as she gaped up at the hospital.
Is this where the Johnny kid was? Was Dallas here too? Kismet might have something to do with it, or it could have been pure spontaneity, but Sherry found herself inside the hospital. She walked awkwardly up to the front desk, and looked imploringly at the woman behind it.
"Could you help me find a friend?" she asked.
The woman looked her up and down disdainfully, and inquired after the patient's name.
"It's Johnny."
"We have several Johnny's here. Johnny Armatti, Johnny Brint, Johnny Bowden-"
Sherry listened to the list, and finally, something felt familiar.
"- Johnny Cade-"
"Yes! Him!"
The nurse sighed and told her the room number. Sherry walked hesitantly to the elevators, and rode up to the fifth floor, where Johnny's room was. She stepped shakily out of the elevator and sucked in a huge breath. Staring at the door to his room as if nothing else existed, she missed the commotion that was going on at the opposite end of the hall where the stairs were located.
"DAMNIT WOMAN- Ponyboy you're dead when we get back to the house- LET ME GO SEE JOHNNY!" Dally roared.
Marcia and Ponyboy were forcibly leading Dally away from Johnny's room. Dally was thrashing about, fighting tooth and nail to get back to Johnny. Sherry on the other hand, was still slowly inching towards the door. Dally threw a neck wrenching glance back towards the room. And he caught sight of a trembling redhead.
Sherry's head was starting to throb, and her steps became more slow and deliberate.
"Look!" Dally shouted, "Cherry!"
"Right," Ponyboy rolled his eyes.
Marcia however, through the little part that was so desperate to see Sherry again, humored Dally, and looked back.
Ear piercing shrieks resounded through the hallway.
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This time, there was not one, but three faces that contrasted against the blinding white of the hospital room that Sherry woke up in. Ponyboy, Dally and what looked like Marcia, her former nurse.
"Sherry?"
"It's Cherry!" she heard Dally grit insistently.
Sherry tried to speak, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a pitiful rasp on the first try. On the second she managed a 'where am I?'
"You're in the hospital," Marcia gushed, squeezing Sherry's hand.
Sherry bolted up and nearly strangled herself with the IV tube.
"Hospital?" she shrieked, thrashing about, trying to get out of the bed.
Marcia squeaked when Dally grabbed Sherry by the upper arms, and placing his forehead near hers, whispering gently for her to calm herself, and that everything would be okay. Sherry became still and tense, staring at Dally with wide, unbelieving eyes.
"Don't touch me Dally," she said slowly, beginning to shake.
"Dally, c'mon. You're squeezing her arms just a little too rough," Ponyboy mumbled, putting a strong hand on Dally's shoulder.
Dally shrugged him off, eyes seeing nothing but Sherry's gleaming green eyes. Her voice, thick with fear and the inclination to cry, carried through to his ears, soft but rich. The whole world disappeared as he watched her mouth moving, hearing nothing that she said. He felt her twitch, and he tightened his grip. This was the closest he'd ever been to actually holding her, and he had no intention of letting go.
Still he whispered his own sweet words, deaf to her shrieks of pain. Ponyboy wrenched him away from her and hauled him backwards into the chair near the wall where he threw him into the seat. Dazed only momentarily, Dally continued to stare at Sherry's frightened figure, tears streaming down her face as she cradled the arm with the IV needle stuck in it against her body. Marcia stroked her hair and dried her recurring streams of tears.
Dally leapt up, aching to be near Sherry again, but Ponyboy stood in his way, almost menacing as he balled his fists at his side and became red in the face.
"You hurt her, Dally! What the hell were you thinking?" Ponyboy snarled.
Dally jerked out of his spell and looked utterly crestfallen. He muttered an apology and left abruptly.
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Kal bounded up the steps and ran into Steve, who was smoking on the front porch of the house.
"Hey Steve, is Uncle Darry home?"
Steve shook his head negatively. "Ain't no one home but me."
Kal scuffed his shoe on the ground and looked up at him.
"How much do you know about Miss Sherry?" Kal asked, sitting down in the steps.
Steve's eyes blazed with a mixture of resentment and uncertainty. He made to sit down next to Kal, but stood for a while instead before answering.
" I know everything, kid."
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Dally threw himself at the wall and let out an animal roar. He was back in Sherry's old room at Buck's and he wasn't liking the emptiness one bit. He was trapped inside his own mind, raging and bellowing to be let out. He could think of nothing but her and Johnny, lying there pitifully in the hospital as a result of his own brute personality.
He looked at the spilled pill bottle angrily. He knocked it off the dresser and roared again. His cheeks became wet with misery and Buck finally had the sense to tear down the door before Dally had the chance to tear down the room.
"Winston, dammit! What the fuck are you doing?" Buck hollered, picking up Dally and throwing him into the wall.
Dally offered no resistance as he stared hollowly at Buck. Buck had seen that look before. It was the look Dally got when he was going to do something reckless and stupid. Buck hadn't seen that vacant stare in nearly ten years. It was the look on his face that terrible night ten years ago, he just knew it.
"Dally. Talk to me," Buck commanded.
Dally refused.
"Fine," Buck snapped, hating the sudden lack of power he had over Dally, despite the fact that he'd just thrown his best friend into the wall.
He left the room angrily, knowing that he'd really only ever had physical power over Dally. Just a few years older than the vacant eyed desperado, Buck sometimes felt like a father. He hated that feeling, but he felt it sometimes nonetheless.
Buck shut the door to his own room, where a woman was lying somewhere in the sheets.
He didn't care to find her, because he couldn't even remember her name.