Porcelain

Chapter 67

The whole gang celebrated when Estelle and Johnny got to leave the hospital. Estelle was still instructed to be taking it easy and resting, as she was recovering from numerous injuries, surgery, and pregnancy, but everyone was more than happy to help.

The nurse from the hospital, Charlotte, her name was, had been a lot of help to both Estelle and Dally. She wasn't afraid of a challenge, even one like Dally. She was there whenever the couple needed her, for whatever they needed. Without her, Estelle wouldn't have gotten to go home as soon as she did. Thanks to her, the couple knew the basics on how to take care of Johnny, and even gave Estelle her personal phone number just in case she ever needed something.

"You call me if you ever need anything, got it, sweetheart?" She'd said as they had prepared to leave.

Darry had shown up in Estelle's car, using the excuse that that way there would be room for all three of them, but Estelle knew it was an excuse for something, they would have fit in Darry's truck just fine with Johnny on Estelle's lap.

The whole car ride home, Dally held tight to Estelle's hand. Now that he had come so incredibly close to losing her forever, he had no plan to ever let her go. Estelle had just as tight a hold on Johnny from where he was held in her lap with her other arm, she already knew she would do anything for this child.

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Estelle wasn't even surprised when the gang jumped out from behind the sofa, greeting her with a welcome home banner and cake. She knew them well enough that there was no way they wouldn't take the chance to have a party.

Estelle quietly slipped away from the immediate commotion and carefully changed her clothes. Her wounds were largely healed, but movements still hurt her. She made sure Johnny had all of his needs covered, and walked back into the little living room, and laughed a bit at Dally. The whole gang was eagerly asking him questions about the newest member of the Curtis gang, as if they hadn't heard most of what there was to hear already.

"Here, maybe this will get them off your back, does anyone want to hold him?" She asked.

She handed him to Darry, who then held him for a moment before passing him around to the group. She was a little nervous doing so, she barely trusted the gang to keep themselves alive, but they held him very carefully, and made sure to hold him correctly.

After Johnny was passed back to her, she had to laugh a bit. She'd gone from a tuff Greaser who didn't bent for anything to a nervous mother. It was almost comical how drastic the change was in her role in life, but how little her actual personality had changed.

"What are we gonna call him?" Two-Bit asked. "It feels kinda weird to just call him Johnny, you know?"

She nodded. "I get what you mean. But I didn't name him, ask Dally."

He smirked. "I named him, ask Estelle."

"I dunno, call him Johnny Junior or something."

"Call him JJ for short," Ponyboy suggested.

She grinned as best she could. "Yeah! I like that. Dally? What do you think?"

He shrugged. "I don't give a shit, call him whatever you want."

Two-Bit gasped and comically covered little JJ's ears. "There are children present!"

Dally smirked. "Too late, I already said it."

Darry sighed dramatically. "Really, Dally? Do you want your son growing up cursing like a sailor?"

She heard a few snickers as the group imagined a toddler cursing like Dally.

"It would be funny as hell if he did," Steve chimed in.

"You're right, it would," Two-Bit agreed, taking his hands off JJ's ears.

"Realistically though, that kid is gonna swear no matter what, look at the people he's being raised around," Sodapop said.

"Yeah, you're right, myself included," she said. "Two-Bit, put the flask away, cursing is bad enough, we don't need JJ being a childhood alcoholic too," she scolded.

"Oh come on! It's not like I would give it to him!"

"You say that now, wait till he comes up and asks to try it."

"I'd tell him no!"

She just gave him a deadpan look.

"Okay, maybe I would give him a little sip, but it's not like he would like it!"

"We can only hope."

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Estelle crawled between the sheets of the bed she shared with Dally. The simple task suddenly felt foreign to her, so many things had changed since she had last slept in that bed.

As she lay staring at the ceiling, she wondered if this was her happy ending. The end of this long and gruesome chapter of her life. Not really a chapter, it was an entire novel. But in all reality, she had everything she wanted. She had Dally, the person she loved. She had JJ, safe and happy, with his whole life ahead of him. She was overjoyed to be able to be there with him. She had a dog, who could understand her when people couldn't. She had a house, she had money. She could finally live comfortably. She was surrounded by the kind of people she wanted around in her life, and she too had so much life ahead of her. In a way, it was the fairytale ending she'd wanted since she was a little girl.

But at the same time, this was an ending just as much as it was a begining. She could close that part of her life. It could now be her past. It was her chance to recreate herself again. Maybe this time she could be the person she wanted to be, and not who she felt she had to be.

A smile on her face, she rolled over onto her side, and snaked her arms around Dally's waist. She drifted to sleep, her head buried in his shoulder, finding comfort in his being there.