Chapter 4. Fallacious Assurance

"Are you awake yet, shit head?"

His head was pulsing and his skin felt crusted. Every breath he took hurt and his muscles felt sore. Everything smelt like peroxide. Where was he? What happened? And why was the world swirling even though his eyes were closed?

"Kid, you really need to wake up."

The voice sounded oddly familiar, but he couldn't really place it. Steve? Steve always called him 'kid'. But why was Steve trying to wake him up? Was he late for school? There was a thud and suddenly he could feel whatever he was lying on vibrate for a split second.

"You better not be in a coma."

Coma? Why would he be in a coma? He was just sleeping. Sleeping, and feeling really shitty, too.

"I already saved you once. It's too early for me to save you again, don't you think?" There was a loud exhale of frustration before he felt the person, Steve possibly, kick the underside of the couch again.

Save? Why would Steve need to save him? If anybody was saving him, it was usually Darry. But if Steve was saving him from anything, it must be from Socs. Ponyboy shuffled through the black haze and tried to grasp any memory of his last encounter with a Soc. And when he did, he remembered that it wasn't just one Soc, but three.

And then there was a back. A back that stood in front of his flickering vision and guarded him against those three socs. A back that belonged to somebody that he barely knew, but had come to save him all the same.

And then the figure was turning, and he could see the face. A face that belonged to...

"Jace!" Pony bolted up from the couch, but immediately felt a seizing pain in his midsection, causing him to curl within himself. He was faintly aware of a light blanket falling off of him in the process, as he tried to gather his breathing.

"Well, it seems that it speaks, after all."

Pony carefully turned his head only to be met with a very amused Jace Stylinson.

"Jace," Pony repeated again, somewhat in a daze.

"Hmmm, yeah, we've established my name." Jace pointed the tip of his beer bottle in Pony's direction, looking seemingly bored. "Do you remember yours?"

"I'm Ponyboy." Pony stated softly. "Ponyboy Curtis."

"Good. Remember what happened?"

"I got jumped." Pony spoke slowly as he rubbed his aching ribs. He kind of wished that Jace would offer him some aspirin to relieve the pain, but he kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to look weak in front of Jace, especially not when the new shinner that Jace was sporting made him look so tuff. "Then you saved me."

"Congrats," Jace flopped down on the recliner across from Pony, the contents of the beer sloshing dramatically as he did so. "No memory loss for you, you little bastard."

Pony just nodded softly at that before finally taking in his surroundings. The living room floor was covered with opened gauze packaging and basin filled with blood. His blood. He crinkled his nose at the metallic smell. Of course, there were three or four empty beer bottles. It seemed that Jace was quite a strong drinker like Two-Bit considering how lucid he seemed.

"Want some?" Jace proffered a beer, before nodding toward Pony's hand where he was unconsciously gripping his sides. "Probably help with the pain."

"I'm not allowed to drink."

Jace just snorted at that which reminded Pony of Dally. "Alright, sheltered princess."

A light that reflected off one of the bottle caps caught his attention, and he immediately turned toward the window. The sun was low in the sky. It was dusk outside. Pony immediately relaxed at the sight of it, and figured that he wasn't down for too long.

"What time is it?" Ponyboy winced at how hoarse his voice sounded.

Jace shrugged as he stood from the recliner and popped a few bones into place and started to massage the crook of his neck. "Five or so."

Ponyboy made a face at that. Didn't he leave the library around five? The confusion must have been evident on Pony's face, because Jace spoke up to clarify.

"That out there," Jace tilted his chin toward the window. "Is dawn, not dusk, kid."

"What?" Pony quickly swung his legs off of the couch, stumbling as he did so. Jace just watched him nonchalantly. "Then that means I've -"

"Been bleeding on my coach for the past twelve hours or so." Jace took another swig from his bottle, not at all distressed. "I think I got a bad neck cramp, because of you."

"Darry is going to kill me." Pony swayed as he somehow managed to bang his knee against the coffee table. He let out another hiss and Jace just narrowed his eyes. Great, another bruise that he had to explain. "I need to get back home. I - I- do you have a phone?"

"Nope," he drawled slowly as he practically popped the 'p'. "Just moved in, remember? I don't go no landline yet. And I wasn't about to go trapezing around Tulsa to find your big brother to tell him that I had you."

Pony just shook his head and it was only then did he realize the gauze that was wrapped around his head. He touched it and was about to pull it off, before Jace stopped him with a hand on his wrist.

"Leave it, kid." Jace stated as he let go of Pony's hand. His voice sounding more serious than it did before. "You were bleeding real bad. I'm too tired to bandage your head up again if it starts bleeding again."

"I need to get home before Darry calls the police." Pony stumbled a bit and Jace reached his hands out almost as if to prepare himself to catch him and even took a step closer, but in the end, Pony stabilized himself by bracing against a wall. Ponyboy headed to the door, and even managed a few steps out of it, but paused and turned to Jace.

"What? You don't need me to walk you home like a girl, do you?" Jace's tone was sarcastically derisive, but his eyes actually portrayed concerned for Pony's wellbeing. The sight of Jace leaning against the doorway staring after him, reminded Pony of Steve. After Windrixville, Steve's words still had their stings, but the looks that Steve gave him were more soft and concerned than they've ever been before. It was strange, but welcomed.

Pony had a feeling that if he asked Jace to walk him home, he would, begrudgingly, yes, but he would. After all, he did carry him home from the library.

Ponyboy couldn't help but feel odd at how many similarities he found of each different gang member's attribute in Jace. Maybe he was starting to see Jace as part of his gang, even though the others didn't approve of him. After all, he practically forgot to thank Jace for saving him. Ponyboy hardly ever had to thank anybody for saving him, because that's what gangs do for each other; they had each other's back. It was easy to forget to thank a friend, but quite hard to forget to thank a stranger.

"Are you getting loopy on me, kid? Do I need to or not?"

"Thank you for helping me, Jace." Pony smiled at him, even though it hurt to do so. He probably had a swollen jaw, too.

Jace looked slightly taken aback at his words, and his only response was to snort softly. "You shouldn't be thanking me, kid. I'm no superman." Jace's jaw clenched. "Far from it."

"But you helped me. So, thank you."

"Just don't get into anymore trouble, you little bastard." There was a flicker of emotion in Jace's eyes, but it was too quick for Pony to interpret, especially in his sluggish mind set. "I won't be able to help you anymore."

"I'll try."

He didn't know the area as well as he thought.

He traveled down this road a couple of times with Soda and Johnny when he was a kid, but that was so long ago. They hardly ever went down here anymore, since there were no stores down the area. It was mostly just desolate land and some abandoned houses. He probably should have accepted Jace's offer to walk him home, or at least walk him to an area that he was familiar with.

The light headedness and the excruciating act of breathing, was making it hard for him to concentrate. The adrenaline rush from the fear of Darry calling the police and reporting him as a missing person, and then the fear of the States on them and calling Darry an unfit guardian, was now ebbing away. His mind was starting to feel too fuzzy to even care.

Pony couldn't even tell where he was walking anymore. His mind unconsciously took paths that looked trodden and worn down by humans steps and hoped for the best.

Somewhere in between that walking haze, he entered back into the main road where he crashed into someone. Actually, he crashed into a few people. He would have asked them for directions, but most of them gave him annoyed looks before quickly carrying on their way. All of them rushing to work.

The seventh person he crashed into nicked him right in the ribs, and he would have fallen onto the ground from the pain if not for the sudden strong hold on his arm that hauled him back up.

Pony tried to stutter out an apology between all that wheezing, especially since that said person whom he had crushed into still had their hold on him.

"What the? Ponyboy?"

Pony felt relief flood through him as he looked up to see none other than the famed Dallas Winston.

Pony tried to open his mouth to tell him what happened and how he had spent the night at Jace's, and how he needed to get home before Darry and Soda had a heart attack, but his mind was starting to cloud over. The only coherent thing he came out of his mouth from his jumbled mind was, "Dally, I'm lost."

"I can see that, kid." He thought Dally would be mad at him for stating the obvious, but he wasn't. Dally gave him a look over and his eyes lingered around the gauze wrapped around Pony's head. "What the hell happened to you? Do your brothers know where you at?"

"Can you take me home?"

"Yeah, yeah," Dally answered distractedly as he took ahold of Pony's arm again, as if frightened that Pony would collapse without it. Dally's voice was cold when he asked, "Who did that to you?"

"I was writing an essay..." He wanted to tell Dally from the beginning about what happened, because stories only made sense from the beginning, but he felt as if a shroud of sleep was being place on his mind causing his mind to stutter in its thought process. At least, his ribs didn't hurt so much now. Pony felt his legs start to shake and Dally's grip instantly tightened. "About a war...and...then...stop light..."

Dally just cursed as Pony became quiet and confused.

Pony's mind went to autopilot from there. He was dimly aware of Dally steering him into a place with a lot of beer and cigarettes and for a second he thought he was back at Jace's place. Then he remembered being concerned because he heard Dally yelling, but almost as soon as the raised vocals had started, Dally was back at his side, gripping his arm and tugging him into a car.

Then the wind was in his face, and Dally was muttering curses.

He remembered nodding to Dally when Dally told him to stay awake.

But he didn't listen.

He fell asleep.

And he dreamed of Jace Stylinson.

And how he saved him.

"What the hell happened to him?"

"Yeah, his face looks like somebody took a bat to it."

"Two-Bit!"

Voices. So many voices. They were all so familiar.

"What? It's true." There was a rush of air and a dull thud before there was a quiet exclamation of indignation.

He extended his fingers causing them to tangle between loose strands. Somebody had covered him with one of the old blankets his mother had made. It felt so nice and comforting around him even though the ends were starting to unravel from its old age.

"Didn't he tell you anything?" He couldn't tell if that was Darry or Soda.

"Nah, the kid was too out of it when I found him." There was some quiet shuffling, before Dally spoke again. "Kept blubbering about some war essay."

"Where did you say you found him again?" That was Darry. Pony was slightly surprised how long it was taking him to decipher who was speaking. Guess those Socs got him in the head pretty good.

"On Bristol and 74th." Pony heard the sound of a lighter going off and the smell of cigarette smoke followed soon after. Darry must have been too occupied by Pony's state to stop or even care about the action. "He's lucky that I decided to use that shortcut to Bucks."

Pony briefly remembered that Dally had sent Johnny home early when they went to a couple of town over after realizing that it was going to get a bit rough with the people he had business with. Guess he really was lucky that he happened to bump into Dally when he was coming back from his trip.

The cushion next to his head sunk a bit and not too soon after he could feel somebody's hand in his hair and smoothing out the hair against his forehead.

"Be careful with his head, Soda." Darry warned. His voice sounded very close. "It was bleeding real bad."

"I ain't gonna hurt him none, Dar." Even with that said, Pony felt Soda's touch become lighter, though. "I wonder who helped him."

There was a snort, before Steve spoke up. "Yeah, they sure helped him. Why the hell did they let him wander about after going through the trouble of bandaging him all up?"

Typical, ungrateful Steve. Ponyboy wondered if Steve has some inner 'Bastard Jace Radar' and subconsciously picked up the fact that Jace was the one who saved him, and was bashing him unknowingly because he just hated the guy.

"Maybe," Pony didn't even think that Johnny was in the room until he spoke up. "Pony woke up when they weren't around and he got scared and ran out."

"Guess we can't send a big basket of fruit and a thank you card to anybody's house if that's the case."

Pony tried to open his mouth then. Tried to signal to them that he was awake and that he knew exactly who saved him, but he found that he didn't possess the energy to do so.

"Shut up, Two-Bit!" Steve grounded out before there was another dull thumping sound, but this time Pony was able to decipher it as Steve punching Two-Bit, probably in the ribs.

"I'm just saying! Johnnycake is probably right. If it was somebody from Tim's gang they would have practically delivered Pony to the doorstep because they know how Darry gets." Two-Bit looked over at Darry who was hovering against the head of the couch. "Right, Superman?"

Darry just gave a distracted grunt.

His brothers were being oddly quiet through this whole ordeal.

"Why are we even discussing about who saved the kid?" Dally asked lowly. His voice sounded uninterested, but everybody in the room knew better. "We should figure out who beat him the hell up."

"It'll be hard to figure out who it is." Johnny spoke up softly. "There are a lot of Socs around the library area and none of them like us."

"Nothing new there."

Soda's hand stopped for a few seconds before it continued again, but this time the motion felt less smooth and more strained. He knew that Soda was mad. Heck, Ponyboy knew everybody in the gang was mad, probably except for Steve. Steve was probably just annoyed. He just hoped that they wouldn't declare another rumble because of this.

"Doesn't matter," Steve's voice was harsh and it reminded Pony of those Socs that knocked the air out of his lungs. Maybe Steve was mad for him after all. "We'll figure out who it is and teach them a lesson like we always do."

The gang started talking about who they could ask and who was most likely to do this to him. They went into explicit details on how to exactly 'teach' those socs a lesson.

The endurance he used to listen to the conversation was slipping now, and for the second time that day, Pony fell asleep.

It was the aroma that woke him up next.

Spaghetti.

Pony wondered what time it was now. Was it lunchtime or dinner? How long had he slept now? It seemed like he was just sleeping his life away these past two days.

There were small distinctive clinking noises as silverware clinked against china while hush whispers accompanied it.

Pony shifted slightly and groaned when his bruised ribs made itself known again.

"Did you hear that?" It was Soda, his voice soundly anxiously excited.

"What?"

"I think he's awake."

Pony wasn't too surprised when the sound of chair being pushed back soon followed the question.

A hand quickly rested upon his shoulder. He knew it belonged to Darry just by the size of it. It was surprisingly gentle. "Kiddo? You awake?"

There was a brief silence, before Steve spoke up. "Are you sure you heard something, Soda?"

But before Soda could answer, Pony groaned again. The couch sunk again as he felt another pair of hands go against his side. "Wake up, honey."

When he finally managed to open his eyes, Pony was greeted by the sight of a very relieved gang.

"Hey," Pony whispered.

"Hey right back at you," Soda smiled as he pushed his hair back. Pony felt guilty when Soda looked like he was going to start crying.

"How you feeling, Pony?" Darry asked softly as he looked him over and crouched next to him. "You hurting anywhere?"

"I'm good." Darry didn't seem to believe the answer, but decided to just leave it as that for now.

"You sure had us worry, kid." Two-Bit slid into view, his voice loud unlike his brothers. "Darry was going to take you to the hospital if you didn't wake up within the next hour."

Pony counted his lucky stars that he woke up when he did then.

He dry swallowed, before whispering a small, "I'm sorry."

"There is nothing for you to be sorry about, Pony." Darry answered back just as softly. Soda nodded fiercely at Darry's words. "It wasn't your fault."

"Who jumped you?" Of course, Dally did not possess any tact or patience for all the formalities when somebody just woke up from a traumatizing event.

Pony could feel Soda stiffen next to him.

"Dally, he just woke up." Surprisingly, it was Johnny who came to the rescue, but he seemed curious for the answer, too. They all were.

"Exactly." Dally answered back easily. "We've been waiting for answers for hours. Now we can start getting them."

Darry just shook his head while giving Dally a disapproving look. "You don't have to answer that now if you're not up to it, Pony."

"There were three of them." Pony answered instead. Soda slipped an arm around his shoulder, and he wasn't sure if Soda was trying to comfort him or comfort himself more.

"Bastards." He didn't catch who said that, but he figured it didn't matter since they were probably all thinking the same thing anyway.

"I need names, kid." Dally came closer and Pony unconsciously shrunk closer into the couch.

"I don't know their names."

"Are you just saying that or do you really not know?"

"Steve," Two-Bit warned, his serious demeanor coming through. Johnny looked frightened as he looked between the two.

"What? The kid is always protecting those stupid socs." Steve quipped back. "He doesn't like it when we fight."

"That doesn't mean you should -"

"I didn't recognize them from school." Pony intervened quickly. Steve seemed to relax slightly at the answer, although Two-Bit still looked annoyed at the former. "I-I think one of their name was ...Rich?"

Darry just sighed. "You must be tired, Pony." Darry gave a pointed look toward Dally when he said that. "We'll get a description of what they look like later."

Dally looked miffed at the statement, but relented all the same. Even Dally knew not when to push his luck with Darry.

"Are you hungry, little man?" Darry asked while trying to lighten the mood. "Soda made green spaghetti."

"Sure." Actually, he wasn't too hungry which was odd considering that he hadn't eaten anything in over twelve hours, but he didn't see the point of worrying his brother by denying the food.

Darry started to get up, but Soda spoke up.

"Wait." Soda picked up a bandaged arm and ran a finger lightly across the gauze. "Who did this? Who helped you, Pony?"

Pony already knew they weren't going to like the answer.

But he was already ready to defend Jace Stylinson.

Because he was his savior no matter what they said.

And maybe...one day...he could be part of their gang.

A/N: Hi, guys. I'm sorry for being gone for so long. My life has been utter shit these past few months, and well, yeah, I just wanted to get that off my chest, since you guys don't really know me in real life. Anyway, nobody cares. Writing really is a nice purging source.

I really am sorry for taking so long to update. I bet when most of you guys got the notification that said story updated, you were probably pretty bewildered at the unfamiliar title. So, according to my little time stamp, I wrote this chapter about 6 months ago, but I never posted, because I didn't really like it. I reread it today and couldn't figure out how to rewrite it, so I just gave up, and decide I would just post it. If I figure out how to rewrite a better version of this chapter, then I will do so. So, sorry if the writing isn't too great; I'm quite rusty in my writing.

I want to thank all of you for following, reviewing, and/or favoriting. I means a lot to me.

So, what do you think of Jace? He's just tugging Pony into that sense of security. But Jace seems to be having second thoughts. Hmmmm.

What do you think? You like? You hate? Want to vomit?

Anyway, please R&R. Reviews inspire me and make me happy. No flames, please. Constructive criticism is welcomed.

Reviews before this posted chapter: 53

(My goal is to always make this number go after a poster chapter. So, help me bring it up. ^^)

2/03/2017