A/N: Complexity is the third in a series of stories told from the point of view of Scout, a younger sister to Pony, Soda, and Darry. I hope potential readers will not dismiss the series just because I have added a character- albeit the dreaded sister! Scout is just an added point of view to the story. EVERYTHING that happened in the book still happens, Scout is just along for the ride, showing off an added dimension to each character, though I have tried very hard to keep everyone in character.

This story will make the most sense if you start at the beginning of the series, titled "Epiphany," then read "Complexity." You are welcome to start here, but some of the original characters will be confusing, as they were introduced in previous stories. Feel free to message me if you have questions. Thank you so much for reading.

I own none of the characters from the book The Outsiders. Thank you for the loan, S.E. Hinton!

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COMPLEXITY

The morning after the court hearing we all slept in. I think it was the first time in a very long time that we were all able to sleep soundly, without the worry hanging over our heads of somebody being missing, somebody being sick, or not knowing if we'd be able to stay together.

The ultimate return to normalcy was when I was startled out of my deep sleep that morning by a sneak attack from Sodapop. I could hear Darry and Ponyboy laughing at me from the kitchen as I shrieked. Of course I was tangled in the covers and, in the process of trying to fight back, we both fell in a heap onto the floor.

"Ow," he said, rubbing his head where it had hit the floor.

"Serves you right, scaring a girl like that," I said, sitting up.

"I was just waking you up," he said. "I didn't want you to miss breakfast." Right. The boys had been taking sick pleasure in this morning sister-torture for years.

"Well, now I'm up," I said. He took my arm and pulled me off the floor and we headed into the kitchen. We all sat down to eat, and, remarkably, even Ponyboy was in a decent mood. Two-Bit came in halfway through and pulled up a chair, regaling us with stories about his date from the previous night. Soda had to work the noon-to-five shift, and, by the time we had finished, Steve was bursting in the front door, looking for him.

"Alright Soda," he called as he came into the kitchen, "time to go to work. Gotta go work our asses off to support the family, you know, now's we know they're all stayin."

Darry and Two-Bit both glared at him. Leave it to Steve to made a comment like that; to try to turn us staying together into a negative.

"Far as I can tell, Steve, you're not supporting anything, except your smokin' and drinkin' habits," Darry snapped at him. "And I sure ain't seen none of your pay comin' to support anyone in this house. So I suggest you shut your trap before you find yourself off the meal roster permanently, around here."

In a rare show of common sense, Steve didn't respond. Seriously, I thought, that kid needs to learn to shut his mouth, or one of these days Darry is going to shut it for him. And, I had to admit, I was almost looking forward to it.

Soda went in to change and the mood changed back to reasonably pleasant as soon as the two had left.

"So, what's up for entertainment today, kids?" Two-Bit asked.

"Aren't you usually the entertainment around here?" Pony asked, and Two-Bit immediately tackled him backwards in the kitchen chair. Darry and I just looked on amusedly as they wrestled each other into the living room.

Suddenly Darry glanced at the sink. "Man, that kid's good," he said. It had been Soda's day to do dishes and he had an uncanny ability to get out of the house without doing them while managing to have none of us notice.

"I'll do it," I said, less than enthusiastically. "I did sleep through the whole cooking part," I admitted.

"You wash, I'll dry," Darry compromised. Neither of us had any expectations of Pony offering to help, so Darry and I both looked at him incredulously when he piped up, "Just leave it, you two. I'll do it."

"What?" Pony responded to our stare. "It's not like I never do them when it's not my turn."

We both continued staring and he thought for a second.

"Okay…" he agreed, "So maybe I never before did them when it wasn't my turn. But I know I was kind of a pain in the ass before court yesterday, so I'll do it."

I was more than happy to let him do it, but Darry helped him out by drying anyway. I wandered into the living room where Two-Bit had already set himself up in front of the couch with a beer.

It seemed hard to understand all the threats Darry was always giving me and Pony about what would happen if he ever caught us drinking, because I would swear it was beer itself that coarsed through Two-Bit Mathew's blood, and yet he was the happiest, most carefree person I knew. Besides in an actual fight, I had never known him to get upset about anything. The kid just rolled with the punches, literally. Of course there was the small fact that he was in his fifth year of high school and was only a junior, as well as the fact that he'd never had, nor did he seem to show any interest in ever having, a job… Even Soda and Darry always seemed happy after a beer or two, though. I suppose it was hit or miss, because Steve could be a real jerk when he was drunk, and Dally had usually been just plain scary.

Dally... This would be our first weekend without Dally and Johnny. There was a strange feeling in the house, once I thought about it. Especially with both Soda and Steve at work, things just felt…incomplete. I kept expecting more people to show up, like they always had for almost every weekend since I could remember, but I knew for sure that Dally and Johnny would never be walking through our front door again.

After he did the dishes, Pony shuffled off into the bedroom and shut the door. I thought about going in after him but decided to give him some time and see how he was later. Even though we had been getting along better, I wasn't going to kid myself that I could even begin to comfort him over the loss of Johnny. I would probably be even less help with that than I had been trying to comfort Soda about Sandy. Pony and Johnny had been best friends forever.

I imagined how I would feel if, instead, I had lost Ben, and just the thought of it made me feel sick, like losing my own arm or leg, so I could only imagine what Pony must be feeling. Maybe that's why he had offered to do the dishes; it bought him a few more minutes of not having to think about Johnny. He hadn't talked about him at all, and I didn't know whether that was good or bad. I guessed I could ask Darry about it later. I hoped that since both Soda and Pony were feeling a loss, they could be there for each other. They always seemed to be there for each other in the past. Losing Sandy must have been twice as hard for Soda without Pony there. Those two just knew how to take care of each other.

"Kid, your ears are gonna start smokin' if you think much harder," Two-Bit said. I had just been sitting on the arm of the couch staring at the door for at least ten minutes.

"Yeah, probably," I agreed. "Just feels lonely, without them," I added.

"I know what you mean. So we're gonna have to hunt down some action. Keep ourselves busy."

"Or, you could get a job, Two-Bit. That would keep you busy."

He rarely even bothered to respond to that suggestion anymore, though we never stopped suggesting it. Two-Bit would get a job when he felt it was time, he told us; and thus far, it just plain wasn't.

Just then Ben appeared, coming through the front door with a football.

"You guys wanna play?" He asked.

"Darry probably won't let me, with my cast," I said. I couldn't wait to get the thing off. One more week.

"Can you kick?" he asked. I thought about it. It was my non-kicking ankle that was sprained, and with the brace on it was feeling pretty good.

"I guess so," I said. Two-Bit leaped up off the couch and ran out with Ben. Kevin was waiting outside and Darry must have heard us because he followed us out, dragging an unhappy looking Pony along with him. It felt strange; usually Dally and Johnny would be with us. Ben had joined us often enough in the past, but Kevin usually didn't. Maybe Ben had convinced him to come along so it wouldn't feel so obvious that people were missing. It still felt pretty strange, but I guess we all tried our best to ignore it. I spent a lot of time studying Pony; he and Johnny used to hang around together in the lot pretty often. His demeanor was just… blank. Nothing.

We didn't have enough people for a real game, so what basically happened was that I kicked to Ben, Two-Bit, and Pony, and those three tried to move the ball back downfield past Kevin and Darry to where I was standing. Darry had made it clear to me from the beginning that I would not be running or catching. Honestly, I was pretty amazed that he let Pony and I play at all, so I didn't complain. I'm sure he told Kevin to go easy on Pony, too, because as fast as he is, he never would have made it past Darry and Kevin combined as many times as he did. I'm sure Darry was thinking that keeping our minds off things by letting us play outweighed the risks of us getting a little tired or sore.

We messed around with that football in the lot for a good few hours, eventually using it for target practice through an abandoned tire we found and leaned up against a fence.

Finally, in the late afternoon, Two-Bit faded off down the street in search of his next drink, Kevin took off for a date with Kate, and Darry, Pony, Ben and I ended up back at home. After an hour or so of boring television, Ben headed back to his own house. I was sitting on the couch reading some book Pony had brought home from school, and Darry was sitting in Dad's chair reading some sports magazine, with the TV still on but nobody watching, when suddenly the doorbell rang. We both looked up at each other over our reading. The doorbell hadn't rung much since the parade of casseroles after our parents died.

I shrugged and Darry got up and went to the door. He opened it to reveal a sharply-dressed young man that looked vaguely familiar, though I couldn't place him.

"Can I help you?" Darry asked. His body language I couldn't quite read but it seemed almost intimidating.

"Hi, uh, my name is Randy, I'm... uh,.. a friend of Ponyboy's. I was wondering if I could talk to him?"

Darry was still sending some sort of nonverbal message to this kid with his stance, but after a second's hesitation, he moved to the side.

"I think he might be sleeping, but I'll check. Hang out here for a second." Darry looked at me like he expected me to keep an eye on him. Lord knows what he was thinking might happen, but from the nervous way this kid was acting, I actually thought it might be possible that I could take him. I almost laughed out loud at the thought and must have made some sort of noise because the kid looked at me, almost like he was scared.

"Hi, I'm Scout… Ponyboy's sister," I said.

"Hi… Randy," he mumbled. That's when I recognized him, from the paper. He was a friend of that kid that died. I tensed up at the memory.

"You can go in, " Darry said, coming back into the room.

"Do you know who that is?" I whispered to Darry after he was gone.

"Yeah, I know. It's okay, Scout. Pony told me he talked to him last week."

I was not comfortable with this. I was imagining he was here for revenge, expecting to hear Pony screaming and us running into his room to find him bleeding to death. I pretended to go back to reading but was really trying to hear what was going on in Pony's room, which was difficult with the TV on.

What happened wasn't quite as dramatic.

"Johnny is not dead. Johnny is not dead," suddenly Pony was practically yelling from his room. Darry leaped up. I followed him down the hall.

"Hey, Randy," he said. "I think you'd better go now," he said, ushering him out.

I went in to sit with Pony while Darry talked to Randy. "Don't ever say anything to him about Johnny," Darry said. I was worried. I had thought Pony was okay now.

"Pony, are you all right?" I grabbed his arm. He was smoking, and Darry was on his case in a second about it, as well as the state of his room. He and Soda just couldn't seem to keep their room neat. After Darry left he turned to me.

"I'm all right. I just don't wanna talk about that stuff with him. Or anybody."

"What have you been doing in here anyway?" He could sit alone without getting bored longer than anyone I knew.

"Just, reading, drawing and stuff…" he always seemed to think we thought his writing and drawing were a waste of time, but he did let me see and read it sometimes. Maybe he thought since I was younger I wouldn't be so judgmental.

"Can I see it?" I asked.

"I guess so," he said, reaching inside his desk to pull out a page from the drawing tablet that I had gotten for him for Christmas. He turned it around to show me and I was rendered completely speechless.

It was a pastel drawing of the sunrise at the abandoned church. He had managed to capture every single variation of red and orange that had made its way up from the horizon to the darkness of the disappearing night sky, as well as the alternating highlights of gold, pink, and purple that surrounded the wispy clouds. I just stared in awe.

"Oh my God, Pony." It was like when he had showed me the stars at the church. "How can you do that? That's unbelievable. You have to show Darry and Soda. I mean it, Pony. This isn't something you hide. You have an amazing talent."

"Shut up, Scout. It's no big deal."

"It is, Pony. I only wish I could draw stuff like that. I can't even see it that perfect in my mind, and you just drew it perfectly, on paper."

"I don't want to show them, Scout. Not now. I only showed you because you were there."

"I think you're crazy Pony. If I could draw like that I would be showing everybody."

"Well, not to state the obvious, but you're not me. And I'm not crazy."

"I know," I said, trying not to feel hurt by the comment, realizing my comment might have hurt him, as well.

We both heard the telltale noise of Soda coming in from work and I knew it was my turn to cook, so I hopped down off Pony and Soda's bed and asked, just thinking it might keep his mind off things,

"You want to help with dinner?"

He looked at me like I had two heads and said, "Just because I offered to do dishes this morning doesn't mean I'm gonna start doing everybody's chores, Scout."

"I wasn't asking you to do it, I just was looking for some company," I said. "But that's fine."

"I just want to finish the chapter I was on," he said.

"It's fine, Pony," I said. "Just don't let that Randy kid get you upset, okay?"

"I'm fine, Scout. Go make dinner."

I turned and ran straight into Soda, smelling like oil and, well… Soda.

"Well, excuse you," he said, picking me up and moving me around him.

"Sorry… I got dinner tonight," I said.

"Well, hell, kid, get on it, you got a starving teenager here!" Soda joked. Since Mom and Dad died, the only one who really still watched their language around me was Darry.

I went into the kitchen and, in my hunt for something quick and easy, settled on grilled ham and cheese with tomato soup. Surprisingly, I had acquired a taste for this in the hospital. The sandwich on its own was not that great, but once I discovered the secret of dipping the sandwich in the soup, I was sold, and planned to sell my brothers on it, too.

They sat down and I demonstrated the proper way to dip the sandwich, and, even Pony, the pickiest of all, who had refused this very meal in the hospital, didn't mind it.

"Not too bad, Scout," he offered.

We ate quietly. Soda talked a bit about work that day and then suddenly suggested,

"Hey, Darry, Steve's working tomorrow and said I can use his car. You think I can take Scout and Pony out to the rodeo?"

I was shocked. I was usually never allowed to go with the boys to the rodeo. I imagined it as a place of absolute hedonism, where everyone there swore like Dallas and had less morals than that Buck Merrill, who had paid Dally to ride for him. Two-Bit had told me stories about the rodeo that would have turned Pony's ears redder than pickled beets. But I wanted to go more than anything.

"Scout, Soda? Really? I don't think that's a good idea." Darry knew he had promised to stop treating me like a kid, and here was his chance to prove it.

"C'mon Darry, we'll look out for her," Pony said. I couldn't believe he was on my side. I looked at him, shocked, and he squeezed my knee under the table.

"Well… you guys get Two-Bit to go with, and she can go. You two forget all about her sometimes but I know Two-Bit'll keep an eye on her 'cause he knows I'll kick his ass if he doesn't."

I didn't mind that. As much as I complained, Two-Bit really wasn't a bad babysitter. He was pretty fun, actually. Maybe I'd get another driving lesson out of it, too.

"Thanks, Darry," I said.

"I'm trusting you, to use your head, regardless of how these two behave," he said, motioning to Pony and Soda. "Though I expect you to tell me, if they don't behave."

"I will," I promised, shooting a superior glance at Pony and Soda.

After dinner we all seemed really tired, even though we had slept late that morning. I personally was tired enough to go to bed earlier than usual, and changed into my pajamas and read for a while in bed but couldn't concentrate. I knew I needed to talk to someone about it or I wouldn't be able to sleep. I got out of bed and walked into the kitchen where Darry was writing down his schedule for the next week on the calendar. He looked up when I came in.

"You need me for something?" He must have seen it in my face.

"Can I talk to you… in my room?" I asked.

"Okay," he said, looking at me quizzically, and getting up and following me into my bedroom.

"What's wrong?" He asked, immediately after I shut the door.

"Nothing, I hope," I said, sitting on my bed. "What happened with Pony, today, when that kid Randy was here? I thought he was getting better."

Darry looked relieved that it wasn't something else.

"He's still confused, baby. The doctors just say it will take some time."

"How much time?" I asked. I wanted Pony back, whole.

"Nobody knows. I guess we all just don't mention Dally or Johnny until he does, until he wants to talk about it."

"Doesn't he still have to go to court about it? He'll have to talk then, won't he?" I couldn't figure out how you would testify in a murder case without mentioning the murder.

"It's not for two weeks. Hopefully he gets it all worked out by then."

"Do you think he'll be okay, Dar? I mean, mostly? Even after Johnny?"

"I hope so, Scout." He sat down next to me and pulled up my covers. "There's nothing you can do, though, okay? Don't worry about him. He's home; he's where he belongs. We'll help him figure things out."

Darry looked more confident than I had seen him in a long time. I believed him.

"Okay," I said. "I'm just worried."

"Don't be," he said. "I'm the one who should be worried, letting you go to the rodeo with your crazy brothers tomorrow."

I laughed. "Thanks for that. I'll be good."

"You better be," he mock-growled, and stood up.

"'Night, Scout."

"'Night."

A/N: Okay, not so much action in the very beginning. But stick with me… things get busier. Please review so I know if you followed me here from Reality. Thanks and hope everyone had a great holiday!