The Other Story

Noel

"Pony!" I yell as I run into the church.

"Back here!" I hear him yell and I quickly dodge the flames to get to where they are. There are several small children screaming as Pony and Johnny start to break down boards. I help them and Dally's face meets us as we break down the last one. We start picking up the kids and giving them to Dally who sets them down on the ground. My breathing starts to feel tight and heavy as we get the last few kids out of the church. I hear small cries coming from the other side of the church and I glance between Pony, Johnny and Dally and the noise.

"Get out of there!" Dally yells but I run in the other direction in attempt to find the child.

"Where are you?" I call out to the child and the cries get louder. A board falls from the ceiling and lands in front of me, burning my leg. I cry out but keep looking.

"Noel get out!" I hear Johnny scream but I still search through the smoke and flames. I find the little girl sitting in the corner staring at the flames that start to surround her. I jump over the flames or at least try and quickly pick her up. I run back to Johnny and he helps us out of the window. I caught his dark eyes staring at me on the ground with the small girl in my arms as a board falls and hits his back.

"Johnny!" I scream as I try to stand up but the burns send pain throughout my entire body. The little girl in my arms is crying and has burns up and down her arms and legs.

"How old are you?" I ask her as I wipe away her tears.

"Four." She holds up her hand to show me and I smile.

"Everything is okay. I promise." I tell her as I take off the blue sweater and wrap it around her, I had a tank top on underneath so it's not a big deal.

"What's your name?" I ask her as I attempt to get my breathing under control.

"Maria." She tells me as four ambulances come up the hill. EMT's rush over to Johnny, Pony and Dally and put them on a stretcher. I somehow stand up and start to walk over to the ambulances. Tears roll down my eyes at the pain and Maria stares at me.

"Everything's okay. I promise." She repeats and I smile as a woman runs over to me.

"Mommy!" Maria yells and she opens her arms as her mothers takes her in her arms.

"Oh my god. You're okay, you're okay." She spins around in a circle as she hugs the little girl and then she turns to me.

"Thank you." She whispers as she hugs me. At first i'm taken off guard by the hug but I hug her back. The EMT's give me the decision of going in the fourth one or letting Maria go, of course I let Maria go. I sit in the back of a police car because it was the closest thing they could get to an ambulance which I don't care, I'm getting to the hospital one way or another.

-three hours later-

I sit next to Pony in the waiting room and wait. Pony looks like he just crawled out of a chimney and I sit next to him with an oxygen tank and bandages on the lower part of my legs. One of the people who was at the church, Jerry, sits a chair away from us as Pony smokes a cigarette.

"You shouldn't smoke." He states and Pony shrugs.

"You're smoking." Pony points out and I roll my eyes.

"Yeah but it's a bad habit to pick up." Jerry retorts and I sigh.

"Pony can you put it out? I can barely breathe as it is." I ask quietly and he puts out the cigarette.

"Thank you." I whisper and he smiles.

"How old are you two?" Jerry asks. I take a deep breath to answer him but Pony stops me.

"I'm fourteen and Noel is seventeen." He answers and Jerry looks like he's going to say something else but Darry, Sodapop and Two-Bit come into the room. Pony stands up and they all hug. I struggle to stand up as Two-Bit slowly walks over to me. I hug him when he close enough and he sighs.

"Don't you ever scare us like that again." He whispers and I nod.

"Okay. I won't. I promise." I say and he puts his hands on my shoulders and stares at me.

"Your hair-"

"Yeah I know." I cut him off and he smiles.

"Where's Blair?" I ask.

"She doesn't know you're back yet. She was asleep when I got the call." He explains and I nod.

"Ms. Jackson?" I hear a voice ask and I turn around. A nurse stands there with a clipboard.

"We need to do a checkup to make sure nothing is too severe." She says.

"Okay." I glance at Two-Bit and he steps back so I can walk with the nurse. We go down to a room and they check my legs, my arms, my back, my stomach, my head and my neck.

"Well the burns on your legs aren't too severe but you might not want to do too much walking or physical activity." She says and I nod.

"Are you pregnant?" She asks and I sigh.

"Yes." I answer and she writes something on her clipboard.

"And you have problems with breathing?" She questions.

"Sometimes."

"Alright we'll get you an ultrasound and I'll get the doctor to check your lungs." We walk down another hallway to another room with a screen in it. They do the regular routine with the gel and the remote to see into my small stomach. I look at the screen and see the small outline of a barely developed baby.

"You're very lucky." The nurse tells me as the ultrasound ends.

"Nothing is wrong with the baby." She says and I let out a sigh of relief.

-four hours later-

The sun is about to rise as the doctor checks my lungs for the second time.

"Keep up with the oxygen but don't turn off the tank until we tell you to which could be two or three months of you on the tank nonstop." The doctor explains but my thoughts are somewhere else.

"Can I ask you a question about my friends who were in the fire too?" I ask and he nods.

"Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston.. are they going to be okay?" I question.

"Well Dallas will be just fine after a couple days of treatment and I wish I could say the same for Johnny.. The flaming board broke his back and his burns are very severe. He may never walk again and may..." He trails off but he doesn't have to finish, I already know. As I walk out into the hallway I find Maria and her mother standing there with a bouquet of flowers and the blue sweater which now has burn marks on it.

"Thank you." Maria says quietly as she hands me the flowers and the sweater.

"You're welcome." I tell her and she hugs me.

"Thank you so much for saving Maria." Her mother explains and I nod. She tells me how grateful she was for me saving Maria but I barely say a word. I smile as she hugs me but my smile drops when I see a familiar girl with dark brown hair that falls down her back and her blue eyes that are something that you never see. I break the hug and start to walk down the hallway, staring at her. She runs to me before I can get to her and I hug her tight. Blair cries into my shoulder and I fight tears as we sit there on the hallway floor, silent and pathetic.