Wrong place wrong time chapter 32

~Sodapop's pov~

I can't believe this is happening , getting into it with Steve, and now Steve was in the emergency room in who knows what condition and with who know s how long we have to wait to find anything out about him. The not knowing is always the worst part of any wait, just ask anyone who had spent a serious amount of time in the ER's waiting room. It's the wait that always gives you time to think about what could have been and what you should or shouldn't have or shouldn't have done. I should never have told Steve that he wasn't my best friend anymore; after all he didn't really have anybody else besides the gang that actually cared about him. If Steve died and at this point I understood that it was a very distinct possibility that could happen, I didn't know what I would do, after all I had lost my little brother, how was I supposed to live without my best friend too.

"Soda," Two-bit said quietly "Steve's going to be okay, you know Steve better than anyone."

"You don't understand" I muttered "you don't know the things I said to him."

"I know that I said some pretty harsh words to him myself" Two-bit remarked "none of this really matters right now; Steve needs his best friend."

"I'm not a very good best friend" I muttered before sitting down beside Dally and laying my head in my hands, the extremely clean smell of the hospital combing with pure nerves were making me sick.

"Please, don't die Steve," I muttered so low that the other guys didn't hear me. A few minutes later the boys conversation ended and the silence drifted over them. I honestly didn't like when it they were quiet because it was giving me too much time to think about everything that I had done wrong; which in the situation at hand was plenty, in fact in seemed like everything I had done was wrong, and that fact only made me more depressed which was very unusual for me.

"You're the best, best friend that, Steve has" Two-bit said out of nowhere "and I bet when wakes up you're going to be the only one he wants to see."

"If he wakes up" I said still feeling very depressed and broken beyond repair. I had never even considered that I might one day have to live without my little brother, or for that matter Steve. I didn't want to think about my life without either of them, it was just hard for me to even comprehend. But the more I thought about the more my heart felt like it was breaking into a million pieces and I wondered if I would ever be able to be put back together again.

"Why is this happening to me?" I wondered out loud, I had heard the phrase life isn't fair I don't know how many times but here I sat once again pondering what I had done wrong to deserve what was happening to me. "haven't I been through enough already, whoever is in control are they trying to break me because they are not far from achieving that goal"

"I don't think this being done break you as much as it to test your strength" Dallas commented in gruff voice that implied he really didn't care that much. I just turned to look at him like he had grown three heads, in all the years that I had known him I had never thought I would hear something like that come out of his mouth.

"Where did that come from Mr. I'm too tough to care?" I asked in a low voice honestly wanting to know, because Dallas wasn't exactly the caring and sharing type of person.

"It's something someone once told me" Dallas replied, and I could tell he regretted having said anything. "it's not a big deal"

"Does Dallas Winston have a heart after all" Two-bit quipped, staring at Dallas, who silently shot him a death glare.

"That's the first thing you have ever said that could actually be considered caring" Two-Bit continued, apparently not caring for his own well being. I could tell Dallas was starting to get angry from the looks he was giving our friend. If this situation wasn't so serious I would almost be laughing, but as it was I wasn't in the mood for comic relief. Even though I knew Two-Bit was trying to make things better, making Dallas Winston angry was not the way to do it.

"Why do we still not know anything" I grumbled my patience was coming to an end, and it would be much longer until I took matters into my own hands and that wouldn't be pretty. Everyone around me knew that I hated long waits and this had proved to probably be the longest wait ever for me, I was ready for it to be over.

"Steve was hurt pretty badly," Two-Bit said "it's going to take a while to fix everything that's wrong with him."

"Thank you captain obvious" Dallas muttered, smirking at the insulted look on his friends face.

"I ought to brain you" Two-Bit said good naturedly.

"Go on and try it" Dallas warned "and see if you don't get your ass handed right back to you." I choked back a laugh at the frozen deer caught in the headlights look on Two-Bit's face. We both knew that Dallas would do it; he wasn't afraid of anything or anybody. Dallas had even at one point knocked Darry a good one even though Darry was bigger than him. Nobody messed with Dallas when he was in a bad mood.

I sighed wishing I knew what had made Steve think that my precious little brother was still alive. I wished there was a way possible for that to be the truth, but I had seen the body myself; I knew Ponyboy was never coming home to us again. I felt tears prick my eyes as I thought of Ponyboy; I couldn't stand the thought of him lying in the cold hard ground. Life was not supposed to end this way, Pony should have had years ahead of him and a chance to say goodbye to all his friends and family before he died. Thanks to some coldhearted person Pony had that chance stolen from him.

I shook my head to clear my head because these thoughts were not helping me any; I needed to remain focused on the things that lay ahead of me. I didn't know if my best friend was going to make it or not. Although I prayed mighty hard for Steve to live because I had a lot of wrongs to make up for, I needed to let him know that I still cared about him even though hardly anybody else did, including that scumbag father of his.

Twenty minutes and plenty of arguing later, I noticed a doctor in green scrubs heading towards the empty waiting room, well, empty except for us, I thought.

"Family of Steven Randle?" He asked.

"Right here" I said standing up and greeting the doctor.

"I'm Dr. Jared Winchester, I'm the doctor who was in charge of Mr. Randle's care." He stated taking in the somber look of the group of boys that surrounded him.

"Is he going to be alright?" I asked faintly; afraid of the answer. I was terrified that Dr. Winchester would say that Steve died upon arrival.

"Mr. Randle is gravely injured at this point" Dr. Winchester said "and if he does live it won't be without a large amount of physical therapy. Both of his legs were basically shattered, which required surgery to repair the damage. Along with that he has four broken ribs which resulted in a punctured lung." I drew in a harsh breath at what I had been told thus far, from the sounds of it Steve was even lucky to still be alive; and at this moment who knew how long that was going to last.

"The punctured lung led to Mr. Randle being placed on a ventilator to help his lungs heal; in due time the injury done to the lung will heal." Dr. Winchester continued almost as if he was a robot repeating information instead of a human being. I could feel a headache beginning to form from everything the doctor was still dumping on us; I had never been good at information overload that was a fact. "He also has bleeding in the brain. From all of our CT scans the bleeding isn't bad yet, but it has the potential to be which is why when we have him more stable we are going to undergo surgery once more, and hopefully we will be able to take care of that, without any major issues. And last and defiantly the least of his injuries, we had to remove several shards of glass which some of the deeper cuts required stitches, in which they were given where they were needed." Dr. Winchester finished, "any questions?"

"When will you be able to do the surgery to repair the bleed?" Two-Bit asked dumbly.

"Like I said before as soon as we get Mr. Randle stabilized once more, the reason we can't now is because of an unsafe drop in blood pressure from the last surgery."

"What about brain damage?" I asked meekly.

"Whenever there is a bleed in the brain there is always concern for brain damage but at this point we won't know until Mr. Randle wakes up" the doctor replied honestly. "He could be fine or he could never be the same again. We just don't know" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Steve never be the same again, it just seemed like it wasn't even possible.

"This is my fault," I muttered " I done this to my own best friend." I ignored the look I could tell the doctor was sending me, I didn't feel like explaining that I was not the one driving drunk but my words themselves caused enough damage to my best friend.

"You weren't driving were you?" I heard him ask and I was grateful to my friend when Two-Bit answered for me.

"Of course not, Sodapop's not stupid. He may look it but he's not"

"Shut up, Two-bit" Dallas said before Two-Bit could continue with his little tirade. "Steve, is Soda's best friend and they had a bit of an altercation before all of this happened that's why Soda's feeling like he is to blame."

"I understand" Dr. Winchester said "I can only let one person at a time in to see him right now would anybody like to?" he asked.

"Yes," Soda piped in, looking like he was willing to follow the doctor to the ends of the earth as long as he got to see his best friend.

"You can only stay for ten minutes at a time" Dr. Winchester explained "but I figure a little support from his 'family' will encourage him to fight a bit."

"Just take me to him" was Soda's terse reply. Jared shook his head; some patients' family's had no patience whatsoever. He led the young man down the hall to where the ICU was located, and took him to Mr. Randle's room.

Sorry it has taken me so long to update. I appreciate any and all reviews and thanks for staying tuned, even though its taking me forever to get this story out. Please pardon any grammatical errors and typo's. but whatever you do please don't forget to tell me what you think( even though I think this particular chapter drags a little, and for that I apologize) but like always reviews are much appreciated and they might even encourage me to get my chapters written and posted sooner.