Quiet As A Mouse (Outsiders Fanfic)

Chapter 30- Knight in Shining Armor, Much?

When the world stopped spinning--literally--everything was eerily quiet.  I could still hear the dull thrumming of the pounding rain on the roof, and a light tinkle as glass from the shattered windshield fell.  My leg was wet from the rain leaking in through the cracked windows, and I squinted through the dark to see where we were in the beam of the headlights.  On the side of the road, in the ditch, the driver's side smashed up against a tree and the passenger side crushed from either spinning out or perhaps the car belonging to the headlights I had seen on the road.

My heart was pounding and my breath was coming in short, labored gasps.  Matthew's face flashed in front of me, covered in blood and missing an eye, that look of pure terror forever etched into my memory.  I was eleven again, crushed inside a car with no way to get out.  Calm down, it's not real, it's not real, I told myself.

I forced my breathing to slow, looking around the interior. I was in the front seat, and neither Dally nor I had smashed through the windshield, we were okay, for the most part.

"Dally, if you're dead, I swear--" I started, but he groaned and lifted his head from where he had been leaning against the window.

"What the hell?" was the first thing he said, and with a glance around the interior of Buck's crushed T-bird, he added, "Goddamnit," to his statement.  He had a gash on the side of his head, blood trickling down his temple.

"You could have killed us!  I already almost died twice in my life, I don't need another person to test my mortality!" I screamed at him, furious, but mostly scared.

"Well we're not dead, are we?" Dally said bitterly.  I wasn't sure if he was mad at me or pissed he'd completely destroyed Buck's car.

"We very easily could be," I insisted, wriggling in my seat.  I think my leg was jammed between the door and the seat, and half my body was throbbing from the impact.

"Wait, what'd you mean you almost already died twice in your life?  You really think getting jumped by a couple damn Socs is that bad?" he asked.

Oh, shit.

"Never mind.  What the hell are we supposed to do now? We're stuck in the middle of the nowhere in the pouring rain," I replied angrily.

"I've got no clue," he answered bitterly as he tried to open his door, to no avail.  He leaned back in his seat and slammed his boots into the cracked windshield instead, sending shards of glass raining down on me.

"Watch it," I snapped, but he ignored me and kicked the windshield again, and it cracked sickeningly before falling out onto the hood, shattering with a noise like a bunch of wind chimes.

Dal crawled through the hole out into the rain, standing on the hood.  "If you want to spend the night in there, be my guest, but I can't imagine it'd be comfortable, Mick," he remarked.

I shot him a glare and grabbed the dash, careful not to cut myself as I attempted to crawl out of my seat.  I was right, my leg was stuck.  I twisted halfway around and got it free, only to find my foot was stuck, too.

"Damn it," I muttered, cause I knew I had to ask Dally for help--again--if I wanted to get my foot free.  "A little help?  My foot's stuck," I asked, a bit rudely, but he was the one that got me into this mess, he should be the one to get me out.

He sighed and jumped off the hood, pausing in the beam of the headlights for a sec.  His white blond hair was plastered to his forehead, but he shoved it back so he could see, his ice blue eyes piercing through the dark like that of a lynx.  His shirt was stuck to his skin under his leather jacket, and I could see the lean flat muscles of his chest and stomach.  Knight in shining armor, much?

"Tell me what you meant before first," he said slyly.  Of course he had to be a jerk.

"Well I didn't mean getting jumped by the Socs if that's what you think," I said defensively, still trying to get my foot free, but it hurt.

"Then tell me what you did mean, or I'll leave you there," Dally challenged, taking a step towards the road. 

I was almost tempted to let him leave me stuck in a destroyed car in the middle of the night in the downpour but then thought better of it and grudgingly answered his question.  "When I was little I got in a car accident like this.  My brother and his best friend were killed," I replied before taking a deep breath and continuing. "And-a-while-ago-I-tried-to-kill-myself," I said, the words rushing out as one long one.

"What?" Dally asked, confusion the only emotion present on his face for once.

"I tried to kill myself a while back.  Right before I chopped off all my hair," I repeated, clarifying.

"You tried to off yourself?  Man, I knew you had problems, but that is messed up, Mickey," he said in disbelief, shaking his head as if he were disappointed in me.

"In my defense, I was on drugs.  But it's not like you care, anyways," I replied sarcastically, hiding my surprise that he had called me Mickey instead of Mick for once.

"You're right, I don't.  But I'm sure everyone else does, so do me a favor and don't try it again," he said dryly, although I caught a hint of something else in his voice. Concern, maybe? 

He came around to my side and jerked on the door handle, but the door wouldn't budge. 

He sighed and pulled off his leather jacket, passing it through the frame where the windshield had been.  "Knock the glass out of the side window," he instructed, stepping back.

"And I need your jacket to do that?" I asked, wrapping it around my hand to knock the shards down anyways.

"I'd prefer to not get your blood everywhere, too, so yeah," he replied as he went around back, and with a bit of grunting and the assistance of a tree branch, he pried the trunk open and came back with a crowbar to wedge in the door.

"The door's not going to open entirely, so as soon as you can, pull your foot out and climb through the front," he said, sliding the crowbar through the side window frame and forcing it into the seam between the floor and the door.  Using the floor of the car as leverage, he pushed against the top half of the crowbar, and the door bulked out just enough for me to wiggle my foot free.

Dally tossed the crowbar on the side and I passed his jacket back through the windshield hole before climbing out.  I had just straightened up on the rain-slicked hood when I slipped and fell on my back, almost sliding off the car, but Dally caught my arm and helped me down. 

What in the world was going on? He was actually being nice to me.

We stood in the beam of the headlights that had yet to turn off even though the car was destroyed, the light making the water droplets all over Dal's face sparkle as they dripped off his chin and nose.  I shoved back all the hair stuck to my face, for some unfathomable reason suddenly feeling an urge to kiss him.

"Are you always that talented at falling off of things?" Dal asked me, his voice low.  Okay, almost nice.

"About as talented as you are at being a grade-a asshole," I answered calmly, a smirk on my face.

He actually chuckled and agreed, "You're right about that one, Mick."

And then leaned in and kissed me, right on the lips. 

I was momentarily shocked but quickly kissed him back before pulling away and saying, "You know I hate it when you call me Mick, right?"

"Why else would I do it?" he asked coyly as we started walking towards the edge of the road.

I narrowed my eyes at him but couldn't cover up the grin on my face.

"Think we can hitch a ride?" he asked.

"At this time at night?  Probably not, but it's not like we could get any wetter," I replied, so we continued walking along the side of the road, him with a thumb out and an arm thrown around my shoulders.  For once, I didn't shrug it off in disgust.

Note to Readers: And that is...The End! Comment and vote to tell me what you think!