Chapter Text
Nausea was all Joel felt as they were walking for miles. His head was buzzing, and he couldn’t quite see straight. He didn’t have any wounds, right? When was the last time he checked? Is he having an infection?
“Joel!” Ellie calls his name. “Are you going completely deaf? Because that’ll be a problem you know.” Joel laughs, hard. Laughs like he hasn’t done in years. Ever since he was a teenager.
“Uh…okay?” Ellie chuckles, unsure of his reaction. He didn’t find her puns funny, but he seems to be dying at an insult. “We should keep going.” Henry interrupts. Ellie rolls her eyes at the man, choosing to ignore him. One foot and then the next, Joel tells himself.
“Are you going to ignore me forever?” Henry finally says. Ellie doesn’t have to look him in the eyes to let him know the answer. “Ellie come on; you can’t be like that.” Sam enters the discussion, ticking Ellie off.
“I can’t be like that?! You traitors left him for dead!” Ellie yells as she points at Joel, who’s trying to follow what’s going on. “We all know the only reason you pulled us out of the water is because you need us. Because you’re too fucking incapable to go on by yourself!” Ellie throws the insult like it’s a casual hello. “Ellie,” Sam starts, but Henry puts an hand on his shoulder to stop him from talking. “You know he would have done the same thing.” Henry says and finally the rage in Ellie’s body comes to a boiling point. She shoves Henry back as a groan escapes her mouth.
“Fuck you! He would have saved your asses and you know why? He may sound like an asshole, but he’s actually really nice!” Joel puts his hand on a large rock, balancing himself so he doesn’t fall over.
“Guys…” the man breathes heavily. He just needs to catch his breath for a second and this arguing isn’t making it any better.
“Ellie…” She’s a beat too late as the man falls over on the ground, lying unconscious on the grass. “Joel!” Ellie shrieks, getting on her knees besides him.
“Joel? Joel, wake up Joel!” Her hands grabbed the collar of his jacket and shook him. Hoping it would do something, but he still. Henry kneels besides him as well, tapping his face.
“Wait…” Ellie gasps. “Turn him on his side!”
Henry looks at her with a puzzled look. “God damn it! Do it Henry!” The man does as she says and rolls him onto his side. And that’s when Ellie sees it. “His head…” She runs her hand over the head injury Joel sustained. Probably from when he hit that rock trying to protect her. “I think he has a concussion! We need to um…” Ellie closes her eyes to remember her time in FEDRA school.
”If your partner is hit in the head check for the following things,” the soldier portraying their teacher is holder her hands behind her back as she walks from one side of the class to the other with slow paces. “One enlarged pupil,”
Ellie holds Joel’s eye open with her flashlight, shining into each one to check. Left one is dilated.
”Inability to wake up, unusual behavior.”
She continues tapping his face, if he’s concussed, he’ll wake up any time now. She knows that she’s been taught that. Her sight is blurred by tears, so many tears she can’t see anymore. It’s all hazy until she hears that one godforsaken word.
“Kiddo?” When her tear drops directly on his face he flinches, and she couldn’t be happier. She has both her hands on either side of his face. Joel raises his left hand to touch hers and his heart broke at the anxiety she had in her, he hadn’t seen her cry very often.
“Ellie?” Her eyes are as wide as they go when he sits up. When he doesn’t see her calm down, he does the one thing he hasn’t done in over 20 years. He puts one hand behind her ponytail and the other one on her back, as he pulls her in for a hug. The hug feels stiff and unfamiliar at first, but not long after she melts into it. Releasing a hard sob that she was holding in her bones. She wraps her arms around his neck as Joel holds her face against his chest.
“I’m sorry babygirl…I’m sorry for scaring you.” He sighs, holding her a little tighter.
Henry frowns as he looks at the two. Guilt washed over him as he felt Ellie’s words sting. He helps Joel up from the ground. Keeping an unnecessary tight grip on his forearm as if he knew that if Joel fell one more time that Ellie would be at his throat. He new there was something odd about their relationship, but he never thought they were this close.
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Joel made his way to the sniper as fast as he could. The taunting words the shooter yelled, made his skin crawl. As soon as it was him behind the rifle, he tightened his grip around it. Making sure he would hit all those military scums.
“Thanks Joel!” Ellie yelled to him through the window. everyone thought they were done with being hunted. But when that swarm of infected came running in everyone's heart dropped.
“Run!” Ellie yelled at Henry and Sam. they're coming from everywhere and soon they are closed in. Joel Realizes he can shoot all of them, so he decides to clear them a path. “Help! Let go of me!” Sam yells. “Sam! Get off my little brother you son of a bitch!” Henry yelled as he hit one of the affected in the head making it drop down. As soon as the child is up on his feet and ready to run the three haul ass. The sudden wave of infected had gone so big that even Joel had packed up his stuff and left. “We have to go, now!” Joel says as the three come running in. “let's go!”
they found an old FEDRA sealed apartment building that they would be safe in. The tension in the room was high as no one really knew what to say to each other.
“Look...” Henry starts, but Sam beats him to it. “No. You know what? You do not have to apologize for what you did.” the child gets up from his seat and runs an agitated hand through his hair. “You can be mad all you want, but nothing's gonna change!” He says as he looks at Ellie. “It just shouldn’t have happened okay.” The girl says back. “You had the nerve to yell at my brother after he saved his life!”
Sam yells again as he points at Joel, who’s sitting with his elbows resting on his knees. Still recovering from the fall as he holds a rag with cold water on the bump. “You were mad at Joel after he shoved Henry to the ground. Can you imagine what you would do if he nearly killed him?” Ellie’s voice remains calm.
“It’s different.” Sam fires back.
“Oh really?” And that’s when Sam snaps.
“Because Henry’s my brother! Stop acting like he’s your dad!”
The room goes quiet, nothing is heard besides an enraged breath from the boy who had caused this all. Ellie thinks for a second she might be sick. Her gaze immediately goes to the floor as she does not wish to make eye contact with anyone right now.
Count to ten. She tells herself.
Instead of insulting the boy back she enters the room they were planning to sleep in and locks the door.
“That was low.” Henry says as he turns Sam around by putting a hand on his shoulder. “But,” Sam objects. “No.” Henry is quick to shut him down. “Go into the other room and come out when you’ve really thought about what you just said.”
As the exchange happened between the brothers, Joel’s eyes were glued on the locked door. “it’s best to…leave her alone right now. Give her a minute.” He sighs when Henry took a few steps towards her room. “I’m sorry about…Sam…I don’t know what got into him.” He apologizes. Joel takes the rag off his injury and sits up straight. “One time Ellie met a friend of mine,” Joel smiles at the memory of her and Bill. “He was acting like his…rude old self and Ellie, well the second she took a whiff of him possibly being a threat she made sure to let him know where exactly he stood.” Ellie hitting Bill, the precaution freak, in the head with that pipe will be something engraved in his mind forever. “We want to protect them as much as we can but…they do just as badly. They just do it verbally instead of physically…sometimes.”
”We stick together, Joel.”
Henry nods, sighing as he sits back down. “You know. You may not be her dad by blood, but you’re someone’s dad. And that never goes away.” Joel nods in appreciation. Not quite knowing what else to do. “Want to hear about a dream of mine?” Henry says, breaking the ice. “Harley’s.”
The two had been talking for hours about the bikes. Joel told him about how Tommy and he took two for a ride on his brother’s birthday and the man was completely and utterly impressed by the story he so badly longed to be a part of. When the lock on Ellie’s door opens and her frail frame comes out, the boys share a quick look. Her weary eyes speak louder than any words every could. Just as they think she’s going to join them; she goes to knock on Sam’s door. Right before opening it and stepping in.
“Hey…” Ellie starts, leaning on the closed door behind her. Sam looks up from the desk he was sitting at but doesn’t say anything. “What are you doing?” she asks, taking a step closer. “Sorting our food rations.” Ellie grabs a can of peaches holding it up. “How are we doing on the peaches?” She jokes.
“What are you doing here? Did Henry send you?” She puts the can back down, sensing he’s still mad. “No, I came by myself.” She sighs. “Look. I get that you stood up for Henry. I respect that.” Ellie says sincerely. “I know how important Henry is to you and how much you care about him…but Joel…” her voice trails off.
She takes a deep breath before continuing. “I never had a dad, or a brother…or a family member in general. I lost my mom when I was a baby, so that doesn’t really count.” Sam straightens in his chair, ready to listen to what she has to say. “And somehow, even though we don’t have the same blood…Joel kinda fills all those things. He feels like my family. ” She’s cutting her heart out and putting it on full display right now. Showing him every corner of her there is.
“I care about him and when I thought he died I…”
Sam pushes his chair back, stepping around the desk. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t even really mean it. I was just…mad.” Ellie gently smiles at the boy in front of her.
She slips her backpack off her shoulder to reach into it and grab the toy she had taken for him. “Peace offering?” Sam stares at the toy with tears in his eyes. She didn’t realize he wanted it that bad… He takes the toy from her hand, smiling at the gesture.
“Thanks…Ellie.” She turns around to exit the room. Now that they made up there was one more person there was left.
“Henry?”
Ellie’s voice was soft as she called out to the man in front of her. When he turns around she doesn’t waste a second. “I’m sorry for being such a dick to you…I was just…scared. ” Henry puts his arm on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “No worries. I get it. I am sorry about leaving the two of you behind as well. That wasn’t cool.” Ellie nods back.
“Well…I’ll be going to bed you guys. See you tomorrow.” Even if she made up with the two brothers, she couldn’t bring herself to look Joel in the eyes. That would come tomorrow. After a good night’s sleep for all of them.
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When the sun hits her eyes, she is wide awake. The smell of something cooking fills her nose and she doesn’t waste another second before getting to the living room.
“That smells good.” She compliments Henry, who was sitting behind their little portable stove, cooking some grub up. “Just wait ‘til you taste it.” He smiles.
She looks around the room and notices one person missing. “Where’s Sam?” Henry and Joel make eyecontact. Leaving Henry smiling at the thought of them being friends already. “I left him to sleep in for once. You can go get him if you want to.” Ellie nods, turning her attention to the quiet room over to her left. She turns the doorknob and sees him standing by the window.
“Sam?” She says his name playfully. Thinking he’s playing a game with her.
As if he didn’t hear me come in. She thinks.
But when her friend turns around she can see the fungal bumps around his mouth. And that death stare in those eyes that have no more life behind them. She can’t speak nor move, so when he comes charging at her they both fall into the living room.
“Joel!” She yells as she tries to keep Sam from biting her.
Why isn’t anyone helping her?
“Joel, help!” She yells again.
A gunshot is heard, but Sam is still on her. Instead, Joel shrieked.
“Joel!” She yells for the last time before a shot is heard and the boy clawing at her falls lifelessly off of her.
The room is quiet for a beat.
“Ellie?” She tears her gaze off of Sam’s body to look at the man who called her. “Are you alright?” Joel kneels in front of her. Lifting her chin with his index finger to investigate the blood on her face.
“Sam…” Henry’s sob leaves the two of them staring at the man with the gun in his hands. Ellie thought Joel had shot him, but it had been Henry. “Sam?” The man says again, hoping his little brother would get up to stand behind him. His gaze shifts onto Ellie, who was sitting on the ground next to the corpse.
Without really knowing what he’s doing he lifts the weapon, pointing it at her. Not for long, because Joel had put himself between the two.
“Henry…put the gun down.” Joel gets up as slowly as he can with his arms raised. “No…Sam.” Ellie’s staring at him with wide eyes. Not knowing what will happen next. “Henry please, we can talk about this. Put the gun down you don’t have to do this…”
Joel knew this part all too well, a little too well. But when Henry put the gun to his head he knew he had to keep her from witnessing something like that. The shriek leaving her mouth when the gun went off is something he’ll see flash by in his dreams for months to come.
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“Joel?” the two are standing outside. In front of two graves Joel had dug. “How did you know what he was going to do?”
Ellie heard the desperation is the man’s voice when he begged him to put the gun down.
“After the outbreak…things were hard. They still are, but you find something to live for.” His eyes meet hers and there is so much behind them he wants to tell her, but he can’t. He promised himself he would never put himself in that position again, yet here he is. Falling straight back into the role he lost without even noticing it. “…until you realize that…the risk is always there.” Joel admits. Ellie swallows as she looks back at the graves.
“Do you have something to live for?” She asks him.
“I think so,”
You.
“Do you?” He asks her.
“I think so too…” Your ass.