The Delinquent's Daughter {An Outsiders Fanfiction - Sequel to Hope}

38

I ran to hug Ponyboy.

He looked at me, stunned, but still wrapped his arms around me. I didn't realize how much I had missed him until this instant. In the moment, he was more than the man who lied. He was the one who raised me. He was the one who held me when I cried as a baby, who taught me how to ride a bike, and picked me up when I fell. He was the one that tucked me in every night before bed, who kissed my forehead and told me he'd see me in the morning, that he loves me. He was the one who had been there.

In that moment Dallas Winston didn't matter, and though biologically he was my father, he wasn't my dad. Ponyboy was. Ponyboy, who stroked my hair and whispered in my ear, willing me to calm down as I sobbed in his arms.

"I'm so sorry," I mumbled. "I'm s-so sorry." He told me it was okay. He told me he wasn't mad. He told me he loved me. I cried even more. I cried until I felt like I'd be sick if I cried anymore, and tried to catch my breath. He led me to the couch, his arms still around me, and my mom followed.

"My baby girl is home," she repeated over and over, hugging and kissing me all over. I don't know when Eli left, or Soda, Emily the twins and Faith for that matter, but when I looked over towards the door next, they were gone. I assumed they had driven Eli home, not wanting to interrupt us, although I would have liked to say goodbye. It was a while before I saw either of them, being basically on house arrest for a good while after this scheme. 

School was still in session, but I was suspended for a few weeks, and I assumed they were too. I rarely went out, other than maybe to go grocery shopping with my mom to get out for a bit. I didn't even see Faith, even though she lived next door, and I didn't dare sneak out to see her. My mom rarely even left me alone. She got my work from school sent home for me, and since she started to become too pregnant to work, she stayed home with me. Her due date approached us, getting closer and closer every day. My dad left for work earlier every morning for a few weeks, came back late. He was just trying to avoid the fighting, but my mother needed him, and willed him to start coming home earlier again. 

It didn't take me long to realize that we had never picked out baby names, and we still didn't even know the gender. I think Dad finally got it through his thick scull how much Mom wanted that baby when I brought it up. I still didn't know really if I did, but God, Mom seemed so happy about it that I couldn't imagine not having it sooner or later. I couldn't imagine not being excited for them with her. I was going to have a baby brother or sister. I was going to have a little Nora or Johnny, just like I had always wished for. I wasn't sure why I was ever upset about it. Maybe it was the fighting.

During one late night talk with Dad, a tradition that began when I didn't have to be up for school in the morning, long after my mom had gone to bed and I should have been doing the same, I asked him why he didn't want the baby. He didn't have much of an answer, at first. 

"Money," my big talker father mumbled. "We can't afford another mouth to feed." He sounded like his eldest brother, my Uncle Darry, if you catch him on a bad day.

"That can't be it, though. We've figured the money issues out before. And you know she couldn't help getting pregnant," I told him. He sighed.

"We've been through it before... Why do it again?" He asked. For some reason, it made me feel warm inside. Didn't every parent crave more babies to raise? Was I just enough for him? I took it like that, in the best way a kid could, but still asked him something that had been on my mind a while.

"But... don't you want one of your own?" I asked, almost mumbling since I was so nervous to say it. He looked at me, and his face fell. He really looked upset as he cupped my face in his hands, made sure I was looking him in the eye.

"Hope, honey... You are my own," he said. He said it more confidently than I had ever heard such a soft spoken man say anything. I tried not to tear up.

"You've always been my little girl, Hope. And you always will be." He told me that he had chose me, that no matter how hard it'd been that he would never change that for anything. He said that maybe he had said some things before that may have lead me to believe something else, but those were the facts. I was always his, and maybe he had always been a little disappointed in the fact that he didn't create me, but it changed absolutely nothing. He told me he had just never felt the need for anything more, because he loved me more than anything. 

"I love you too," I told him. It was all I could think to say by the end of that, I was so stunned by his confession. It gave me more reassurance than I ever thought I could have, and I felt like I would never not be happy again. There was a slight pang of guilt in my stomach as I thought of how badly I had treated him lately, but since he didn't mention it, I didn't either. 

"You know, Hope," he had said a not too long later, as I was getting up to go into my room, "I guess there's always room for one more." I ran over to him, throwing my arms around him, beaming. I didn't realize I would be this excited for it. 

"I'm so glad," I told him. And I knew my mom would be too.

A/N: Whoo!! Here we go, the last chapter's on it's way... Are you ready?