Porcelain

Chapter 13

By the time it was time for the rumble, Estelle and Dally had a kind of mutual understanding of each other. Someone to share their stories without judgement. At least not much. Estelle put back on her other personality, dressing back into a pair of leather pants and a leather jacket and greasing back her short hair.

"Where'd you even get those?" Dally asked, about the expensive pants and the jacket.

"Honestly I don't remember, probably got the money off a Soc or something, I was into stealing wallets for a while, especially since occasionally there was an ID I could use to get liquor. But that's not important right now, right now we're late for the rumble, let's go."

By the time they had arrived, the Greasers and Socs were already itching to fight. Dally went right in, but Babydoll stayed off to the side, not wanting to be the center of attention for once.

He didn't want to fight though, fighting wasn't going to help anything. Sure, maybe some people would feel like their honor was restored, but at the end of the day fighting would help no one. And as they were fighting, hurting each other, Johnny was alone in the hospital, getting worse and worse.

Babydoll saw Ponyboy pull a Soc off Dally. It hurt, to see him fighting. He didn't deserve to have to worry about crap like this. Hopefully, his future took him to a bright place away from Tulsa.

When he started screaming as a Soc kicked him in the ribs, Babydoll leaped in, pulling of the Soc and jabbing him in the throat. The Soc went to kick Pony in the head but at the last moment Babydoll hooked his leg out from under him, and he went crashing to the ground, where Babydoll stomped his chest, breaking a couple ribs.

Ponyboy was still bleeding though, and he looked dazed from the pain of several bruises and cuts.

"They're running! Look at the dirty- run!" Someone yelled.

There went the Socs, running from the fight.

All Babydoll could feel was relief that at least they weren't hurting each other anymore. He scanned all the Greasers, looking for Dallas. He stood a couple people away, and met his eyes.

"Come on! We're goin' to see Johnny."

Babydoll grabbed the back of Ponyboy's shirt, dragging him along as well.

Dally jumped into Buck's car, and Babydoll shoved Ponyboy into the back seat before jumping into the passenger side.

They got a decent distance before they spotted a flashing light behind them.

"Quick, act like you're dying, Pony," Babydoll commanded. With all of his bruises and cuts, it wasn't too unbelievable.

"All right buddy, where's the fire?" The cop asked Dally in a disgusted tone.

"The kid fell off his motorcycle, I'm taking him to the hospital," Dally said, gesturing with his thumb.

"And you?" He asked Babydoll.

"I found him," he bluffed as Ponyboy let out a groan.

"Is he real bad? Do you need an escort?" The cop asked, changing his tone entirely.

"How would I know if he's bad or not? I ain't no doctor," Dally replied. "Yeah, we could use an escort."

So with the police siren ahead of them for once, they made it to the hospital in record time.

_____
The cop left when they got to the hospital, and they all tore out of the car and through the doors, and past other people into the elevator.

They immediately ran to Johnny's room, where they were stopped by a doctor. "I'm sorry boys, but he's dying."

Estelle's life continued to crumble to pieces, with those six words.

"We gotta see him," Dally said, his voice shaking. His hand reached for Two-Bit's blade, but fast as lightning Babydoll ripped it from his pocket and out of his reach.

The doctor saw, but didn't bat an eye. "You can see him, but because you're his friends, not because of that blade of yours."

He was so still. If the doctor hadn't said he was still alive, they all would have thought he was already dead.

If only she had moved faster. If only...

Dally walked over to him. "Johnny? Johnnycake?"

He cracked his eyes open the slightest bit. "Hey," he managed softly.

"We won," Dally panted. "We beat the Socs. We stomped them, chased them out of our territory."

Johnny didn't even smile. "Useless... fighting's no good..."

Johnny was getting more white by the second, and Dallas was talking in a fast, calm voice that seemed wrong from him.

"... we're all proud of you buddy."

Johnny's eyes lit up. Hearing that Dally was proud of him, that was all he ever wanted to achieve.

"Babydoll," he whispered.

"It's okay, Johnny. You can drop the charade. You can call me Estelle," she said, because by then, it was all her. Her authentic self. The person Johnny deserved to have in his life. What little was left of it, at least.

"I'm sorry Johnny. I really am. I'm sorry that this is how it ended up. But it's too late for that now. Listen, I promise that I won't let this become my everything. I'll try and become a bigger, better person. I'll become the better person, the one you want me to be. I promise I'll do better. I'm just sorry this is what it took. I'll never love anyone else the way I love you Johnny. I really do. I truly love you. Even if we weren't in each other's lives for long, I'm so happy you were. I'll treasure our time together forever."

Estelle realized she was speaking in the same way as Dally. Trying to squeeze all the words she never said into time that wasn't there.

Johnny turned to Ponyboy, the light already dimming in his eyes. Everyone could see how much he wished he could say, but time and cruel fate weren't going to let those words ever be said.

"Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold," he choked out, before his head sank back and a light seemed to extinguish from within him.

Estelle knew exactly what someone dying looked like. She knew what it looked like, when life left them. But she still wasn't ready to accept that Johnny was gone.

"Johnny... no..." she whimpered, combing her fingers through his messy hair.

"Dammit Johnny, never could keep your hair back, that's what you get for helping people you little punk, that's what you get..." Dally rambled.

Suddenly, he bolted out of the room and down the hall.