Chapter Text
The doctor pulled up a chair and sat next to Pony's bed and smiled compassionately at him.
"Hey, Ponyboy," he started, "I just wanna start by saying your name is very unique, how do you like it?"
That's odd, he didn't think these were the type of questions he was gonna be asked, but then again he's never done anything like this, how would he know?
He thought for a second on how to respond, "I like it fine," he decided on, "Its gotten me made fun of before, but I've grown used to that, now I think it fits me"
The doctor scribbled something down quickly, did he say something wrong? Was there even a right thing to say?
"Well, that's good" the older man responded, still looking down at his paper, graying hair covering his face.
"Now, Pony," he said, now meeting the younger boy's eyes, "What happened quite scared your brothers there"
He was going to respond, but instead just looked shamefully at the ground.
The doctor crossed his legs and put his paper down.
"I won't make you, but would you like to talk about what happened?"
Ponyboy knew they were going to have to talk about this, but he still didn't want to. He didn't raise his eyes from the ground as he shook his head. He heard the old man sigh.
"Are you sure?" He asked, "This will only benefit you, we already know what we need to"
Of course they already knew, Pony thought, they would make him talk about it if they didn't. That means they already told Darry, that's probably what they were talking about when he left the room. At this point Darry has probably told Soda, it won't be long until everyone else knows too.
He shook his head again, and the doctor nodded back.
"That's okay, I can go get your brothers'," he started while putting his chair back, "you can't leave yet, but you might be more comfortable with them here with you."
Ponyboy was gonna stop him and tell him he just wanted to be alone, but the heavy, steel door was already slamming shut.
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Sodapop left the hospital room and went to find Darry, only to see him sitting in a waiting room chair with his elbows on his knees and hands in his face.
Soda walked over to the chair to ask his brother what was wrong, he he suddenly saw his face and realized it looked like Darry had been, crying?
That couldn't be right, Soda hadn't seen Darry cry in almost two years, and that was when their parents died. Since then anything that's bothered his brother has just made him angry, not sad.
Soda gets that their brother almost drowning was scary and all, I mean he cried on the way to the hospital until the time Pony woke up, but he's always been more sensitive than Darry, and the nurses said Pony would be fine, so what could be bothering him that much?
"Soda," Darry started, which scared soda as he didn't think his brother knew he was there, "I..."
"Darry? What's wrong? What did the doctor say?"
"Pony, he..." He said in between quiet snivels, which worried the younger boy even more, "it wasn't an accident, Soda"
"What?" Soda asked, confused, "Of course what happened was an accident, Pony can be dim sometimes but we both know he didn't go jumping in that lake on purpose or something".
"That's the thing, Soda," Darry half yelled at him, "he did do it on purpose! He meant to jump into that lake, and he meant to kill himself!"
The brothers, and hospital, went quiet, so much so you could hear beeping and other noise from the rooms around them. Soda didn't-he couldn't believe what Darry was telling him, it was stupid. Their brother would never try to do something like that, the doctors must have gotten him confused for another boy, there was no way.
Still, he couldn't talk, he couldn't even get a sound out when he saw the look on Darry's face. Darry would never lie to him, and he knew doctors were smart, hell they went to college and all that shit, would it really be a possibility they just... got Ponyboy confused?
The more Soda thought about it, he started to feel a wetness on his face, and realized what Darry was real, it happened, and he couldn't deny that.
Soda placed a hand on his brother's arm, and sat down next to him, trying desperately to stop his tears, which Darry took note of.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay," Soda reassured him, while wiping his eyes, "He's-he's okay now, right? He didn't die, it... it didn't work".
The older man didn't respond to the reassurance offered to him, but just let his hands fall from his face, and wrapped an arm around his little brother's shoulder, which the younger boy relaxed into.
Neither of them said a word, not making a noise, until they saw the doctor come out from their brother's room, and walk in their direction, calling out Darry's name.