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Ponyboy didn't have a single word for the situation he was in.
He was simply studying in his room on a Thursday night after school, when in two blinks, he was being dragged by Darry and Soda to the car and to the hospital. He didn't get an explanation until he was the waiting room, both his brothers panting heavily as they sat down on chairs.
Soda explained in near tears that a soc had taken advantage of Johnny not being able to walk. When Pony asked what Soda meant with dread pooling in his stomach, Soda finally let out a heart-wrenching sob and Darry put a hand on his shoulder.
"Shoot kiddo, you've taken biology right?" Darry asked, and Pony wasn't a dumb kid. He put two and two together and his face went white.
A nurse soon came for Ponyboy, and brought him into a hospital room with a very shaken up and sobbing Johnny on a soft bed. "He's been crying for you since he got here," The nurse explained.
Now Ponyboy was sitting on a hospital bed with his arms around his boyfriend's shoulders as Johnny sobbed to hysteria. Pony let him cry it all out as he sat there, trying to put it all together. Johnny had just gotten out of the hospital from the church fire around half a year ago, and now he was back in it because some horrible, sick, twisted human being had raped him. Pony was sure he was deep into his regression, wishing he had some supplies which they kept buried in a chest at the lot.
"Johnny, baby, can you look up at me?" Ponyboy cooed softly. Johnny looked up with his big baby deer eyes and whimpered. The baby had fat, hot tears running down his cheeks, and his greasy hair stuck to his forehead. His lips were quivering and his breaths came out in short little gasps. He looked purely miserable.
"Honeybee, take deep breaths, okay? I know how small and scared you are, but I don't want you to have a heart attack." Pony guided Johnny with breathing by letting him squeeze his hands every time he took a deep inhale. He was taking this quite well, Pony thought. He thought Johnny wouldn't want a single finger near him, but then again, he always felt the need to be cuddled when he was scared or sad.
When Johnny had calmed down to they point where he was sleepy, he cuddled against Pony in a carrying position on his lap. One thumb was in his mouth, which Pony would've usually stopped him from doing, but whatever could comfort the baby was enough right now. It had been three hours by now, and the elder Curtis brothers were aloud in the room by now. Darry and Soda sat in two chairs next to the bed as they looked on at Johnny with sympathy. Apparently, Soda had ran home to grab Pony's copy of Gone With The Wind to read to Johnny while he and Darry were still in the waiting room. He knew that was what calmed the boy when he was sad and little, even if he had no clue what the reader was saying. When Pony had gotten through the first chapter of the book, he heard a soft grumble come from his chest and saw that Johnny's eyes were fluttered closed. He smiled and dog-eared the page in the book, setting it on the table next to him.
"Think we should stay here with him for the night?" Darry muttered as he looked at Johnny cuddled up against Pony's chest.
"Dar, how is that a question?" Soda gave him a look and a firm nod. "Hell yes we're staying with him."
Pony smiled, and an idea popped into his head. "Can I stay with Johnny tomorrow, Dar? It's a Friday." He didn't think it would work, but to his surprise, Darry let out a sigh.
"For the sake of Johnny, yeah. He'd be shaken up without you in the mornin'."
Pony smiled. "Thanks. Wait, should we tell the gang?"
Soda pondered for a bit, then shook his head. "That's all up to Johnny if they haven't heard about it already. We'll ask him when he's bigger and awake. Oh, and Dally already knows." He grimaced and looked down at his feet.
"Well, where the heck is he?!" Pony asked, slightly angry.
"Jail."
"What? Why?"
"Ponyboy, that soc is long gone."