Chapter Text
Ellie
Despite everything, Joel was starting to grow on her. He was an asshole at the best of times, but little hints of humanity had been poking out since Tess…
Since the capital building.
The way he’d attempted to shield her from seeing the hundreds of skeletons that spoke of a great massacre. And the way he’d draped his warm jacket over her without a word. He’d only responded with one of his unemotional grunts when she thanked him. It also didn’t hurt that the bruises he’d given her on their first meeting had faded away.
As they got closer to Bill’s town, she wondered if Joel had once been kind. He had laugh lines and crows feet that spoke to years of laughter and crinkled eyes, but Ellie hadn’t once seen him smile. She wondered if his face might break.
She was walking backward so the sun didn’t hit her eyes, humming to herself in deep thought. Joel was pointedly looking straight ahead.
“Stop staring at me,” Joel grunted. He had one hand wrapped around his backpack strap and the other free at his side, always within a few inches of his gun.
“Were you a cop before the world ended?”
Joel snapped his gaze to her and narrowed his eyes. “Fuck no, I wasn’t a cop,” Joel spat.
Ellie raised her hands and huffed. “All right, all right, Jesus.” She eyed his broad shoulders and beefy arms. There was no way his career hadn’t been labor intensive. “Firefighter!” Ellie pointed at him with an accusing finger.
Joel shook his head and returned his gaze to the road. “I think I’m tired of this game, Ellie.”
“You could just tell me what you did and I’ll stop guessing,” Ellie suggested sweetly. Joel sighed but didn’t say anything. “Hmm,” Ellie hummed. She decided to aggravate him some more. “Stripper?”
Joel sent her a look so scathing that Ellie nearly tripped. “Do I look like a stripper to you?”
“How would I know? I’ve never seen one!” That was sort of a lie— she and Riley had giggled over some nude magazines at school.
“Just shut up and keep walking,” Joel said. “We’re nearly there.”
Ellie rolled her eyes and kept walking backward. “You’re no fun.”
A few minutes later, Joel pointed behind her. “Watch where you’re going.”
Ellie turned and saw a rock in her path that was just big enough to trip on. She smirked up at Joel but he just sped up so she’d be behind him.
She didn’t bother him for the rest of their trek, until they reached the fence surrounding Bill’s town. Joel grabbed her arm outside the gate and gave her a hard stare-down.
“Do not touch anything, you hear me? If you steal from Bill, he will know and he will kill you.” Ellie scoffed. “I’m serious, Ellie. You just be thankful Frank’s here, or Bill would have probably killed us by now.” Joel punched in the code to the door and ushered Ellie in. “Let me do the talking and don’t speak unless spoken to. And don’t say anything about your condition, you hear me? Leave that to me.”
“Loud and clear,” Ellie said with a half-assed salute. Her eyes widened. “Wait, were you a soldier?”
“Joel?” There was a shout from the distance, and Ellie spotted a man with a cane waving at them. Joel went to him without answering her question.
As they approached, Ellie looked around in wonder at the well-kept flowers and manicured lawns surrounding them. The house that the man was standing in front of had a pristine coat of paint and looked completely untouched by time. Ellie had never seen anything like it.
“Frank,” Joel said. Frank clapped a hand over Joel’s bicep and squeezed.
Frank’s hair was mostly gray and his face was speckled with age spots and wrinkles. His eyes were kind but Ellie was still suspicious of him, even if Joel and Tess did trust them. She snuck a glance at his cane, which had a makeshift cushion duct taped around the handle.
“It’s good to see you,” Frank said. He looked down at Ellie and she quickly looked away from his cane. Frank frowned at her and looked behind them. “Where’s Tess?” Joel simply shook his head, and Frank started crying. “Oh god, I’m so sorry, Joel.”
“I need to talk to Bill,” Joel said, his voice weaker than it had been a moment before.
“Of course, come inside,” Frank said as he wiped his tears away.
The inside of their house was beautiful. Paintings hung on every wall, shelves were lined with trinkets and books and records, and it was clean! The air was fresh and everything was free of dust, making everything seem so colorful and vibrant.
“Whoa,” Ellie gasped. She picked up a small figurine of a frog holding a strawberry and rubbed her thumb over the seed-shaped dents.
“Put it back, Ellie,” Joel said with his back still turned to her.
Ellie sighed but put it back. “I wasn’t gonna steal it.”
Frank led them to a room with a large table and he pointed to a closed door to their right.
“Bill’s in the kitchen making lunch, I’ll let you two talk,” Frank said. Joel sent one more warning glance Ellie’s way and disappeared into the kitchen.
Frank turned to her, and she froze. She hated meeting new people.
“What’s your name?”
Ellie considered lying for a moment, but she decided to trust Tess and Joel’s judgment. “Ellie.”
Frank chuckled and his eyes seemed to twinkle. “Why’d you wait so long before saying your name?”
“I was gonna lie,” she huffed.
“Next time, just trust your gut.” Frank smiled and gestured for her to sit down in a chair at the table.
She shrugged off her backpack but held it safely between her feet as she sat. Frank set a large pitcher and glass in front of her and took the seat opposite her with a tired sigh. She looked from the tantalizing pitcher to Frank.
“I didn’t poison it, it’s just water.” Frank laughed. “I would’ve poured it for you, but…” He held up a hand and Ellie watched it shake violently. “Not as nimble as I used to be.”
Ellie drank her first glass in one go and poured herself another one. She stared in disbelief at the ice cubes floating in her water.
“You guys have a freezer?” Ellie asked.
Frank chuckled. “Sure do. I would’ve made popsicles if I knew we were going to have guests.”
She didn’t know what popsicles were, but she had more important questions. “How’d you know Tess?”
Frank teared up again and Ellie shifted in her seat. “She was my closest friend. My only friend, besides Joel.”
Ellie nodded— her only friend had been Riley, and she didn’t think she would make any more friends. Who could compare to her?
She frowned as she finally processed his words. “What about Bill?”
“Bill is much more than a friend,” Frank said.
Understanding dawned on her, and she held back a grin. “Cool,” she said, a little awkwardly. She didn’t know how to communicate that she was gay too, so she just left it at that.
“Can I ask how Tess died?” He asked.
She looked away and stared at the slowly melting ice. “She got bit,” Ellie said. “So she stayed back to buy me and Joel some time to get away from the Infected.”
Frank let out a watery laugh. “She liked to put on her tough facade, but I always knew she had a heart of gold.”
Ellie couldn’t say anything else — she still felt responsible for Tess getting bit. If she had only stayed with Tess when she told her to run, maybe she could’ve saved her. It wasn’t fair that she was immune and Tess wasn’t. It wasn’t fair that she and Riley died instead of her.
Ellie jumped up as the kitchen door slammed open and a big man came out with a rifle pointed at her head.
“What the fuck?!” Ellie screeched, shooting her hands up in the air.
“Bill!”
“Hey!” Joel tried pushing the rifle away but Bill was too strong. “Goddamnit, Bill, put it away!”
Joel gave up on getting the gun from Bill and instead shielded Ellie with his body. Ellie wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t just shoot Joel and then her.
“Frank, get over here!” Bill’s voice boomed in the small room.
“Bill, what are you doing? She’s just a kid!” Frank got up and put a hand on Bill’s forearm.
“She’s not a kid, she’s Infected!”
“I’m not fucking Infected!” Ellie reached for Joel’s gun but he slapped a hand over his holster before she could grab it. “The fuck did you tell him, Joel?”
“Everybody just shut up!” Joel shouted. “Bill, you know me.” His voice turned soothing. “Do you really think I wouldn’t have shot her by now if she was Infected?” Ellie snorted. He definitely would’ve shot her. “Do you think I would’ve let an Infected be around— around my…” Joel trailed off and sighed, but Ellie could see that his words had affected Bill. “Ellie got bit weeks ago, and it ain’t progressing. She got bit again yesterday, and it hasn’t fucking changed! This is real.”
“Show it to me.” Bill gestured with his gun for Joel to move.
Joel stepped aside and Ellie pushed up her sleeve, displaying a middle finger along with her bites. “Shove this up your ass!”
Frank laughed but Bill’s rifle didn’t waver. She yanked her sleeve back down and turned to Joel.
“Let’s just get out of here, Joel.”
He ignored her. “You trusted me with the medicine I got you, just trust me on this.”
“Penicillin can’t turn you into a Clicker, Joel!”
Ellie chuckled but stopped abruptly when Joel glared at her.
Frank leaned over and whispered something in Bill’s ear that made him lower his gun slightly. They kept whispering until Bill finally shook his head.
“I won’t have her near you, Frank.” Ellie sighed in relief as Bill finally shouldered his rifle. “You wouldn’t be able to fight her off.”
“That’s why I’ve got you,” Frank said. “We have to hear them out. For Tess.”
Bill sighed and looked at Joel for a moment before nodding. “Fine.”
Ellie took her seat next to Joel and looked away as Bill helped Frank sit down. She focused on a stain on the table, trying not to think about what came next.
“Take her to Bill and Frank’s,” Tess had pleaded. “They’ll take her off your hands. They’ll handle it from here.”
There was no way Frank could travel, and obviously Bill wasn’t going to leave him. But Joel didn’t seem to understand that, or he just didn’t care.
“I need you to take Ellie to the Fireflies,” Joel said. It hurt for some reason, but she didn’t know why. She didn’t even like him that much.
Bill’s remained stone faced. “You’re shittin’ me, right?” Nobody said anything, and Bill started to laugh. “Now, you were right earlier— I do know you.” His expression hardened. “So I know you’d never ask me something as stupid as that.”
“Bill, I—”
Bill slammed his fist on the table and Ellie flinched. “Fucking think about what you’re asking me before you speak, Joel!”
“I need to get to Tommy!” Joel said quickly. “My brother is out there, and I… I don’t even know if he’s alive or dead. And I do not have the time to get this kid to the Fireflies!”
“And we do?” Bill snapped. “Look at us!” He gestured between himself and Frank and flopped his hands on the table in exasperation. Ellie could see what he meant— they were pretty old.
Frank held up a shaking hand to calm them down and then laid it on Joel’s forearm. “I’m dying, Joel.”
Ellie watched Bill’s face contort in pain and felt Joel go still beside her.
“What?” Joel asked. The room was suddenly very quiet.
Frank smiled underneath his graying beard. “We think it’s MS. My father had it.” Frank let go of Joel and pulled Bill into a half-embrace. “I’m afraid there’ll be no more adventuring for me or Bill.”
They sat in silence for a few terrible minutes until Ellie couldn’t take it anymore. “What are popsicles?”
Her words seemed to have broken the spell over Joel and he rushed out the front door and slammed it. Ellie tried to ignore how that made her feel, but she felt a lump form in her throat anyway.
“I’m sorry you’re dying,” Ellie said quietly. Frank gave her a small smile.
“Me too.”
Ellie got up and left the house, but she bypassed Joel and walked down the street. She ignored Joel’s calls and kept walking.
“Goddamnit, Ellie,” Joel half-yelled, “get your ass back here right now.”
Eventually Joel caught up to her, grabbing her arm and spinning her around to face him. Ellie yanked out of his grip and took a step back.
“Why do you care?” She snapped. “You’ve made it very clear you don’t want to take me, so I’ll fucking go by myself.” She rubbed her bitten arm absentmindedly. “And you can go back to Boston and sell drugs to homeless people or whatever.” Joel stilled, and Ellie realized she hit a sore spot. Whatever, fuck him. “Goodbye, Joel.”
Joel stopped her from walking away with a firm hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged him off.
“No, no, no,” Joel growled. “You don’t get to walk away from me! Tess died for you! You don’t get to let that sacrifice go to waste.”
Ellie suppressed the hot tears that were building up. “I didn’t fucking ask for this!” She yelled.
“Yeah, well, neither did I,” Joel said.
Ellie shook her head and started walking away, and this time Joel let her. “Don’t fucking follow me.”