Chapter Text
“Joel? Get up. Joel, fucking get up!”
Ellie can’t breathe, she can’t fucking bring herself to breathe. It’s a nightmare, this is just a nightmare that she’ll wake up from any moment and she’ll be in bed next to Dina…It had to be a nightmare. Joel is not getting beaten to death with a fucking golf club right now, he isn’t…it’s just a bad dream…just a bad dream.
But it’s not, Ellie’s being held to the ground as Joel is laying in the ground getting beaten with a golf club, too weak to get up. His knee shattered from have a fucking shotgun blast go through it. She watches as the woman beating him- killing him, raises the club and slams it on his spine, causing a gasp, then his head, his head again, his shoulder.
“Stop! Please stop!”
Ellie screams at the woman with the golf club, she doesn’t care that it sounds pathetic and weak. Joel is getting beaten to a fucking pulp and she can’t fucking get up to held him. The men holding her down are too strong and she’s being forced to stare into his gray eyes and far too bloody face. Fuck, there is so much blood, there is too much blood, Ellie gasps as the club hits his face again, blood spewing as it does and Ellie can hear his cheekbone crack and sees him cough up blood that gets congealed is graying beard and mustache.
“Stop!”
She sobs out, she can’t bring herself to pretend to hate Joel at the moment, she can’t. Right now she couldn’t care less about what he did to the Fireflies, she couldn’t care less about the two years she spent ignoring him. She just needs Joel to be okay, to live. She struggles and growls at the men holding her down but it doesn’t do anything….they’re just too strong. If only she didn’t hesitate when she burst in here she might have been able to do something. Now she is stuck watching Joel get beaten to death with a golf club.
The woman with the golf club flips Joel onto his back, causing a pained wheeze to escape his mouth. He’s still alive, he isn’t dead yet, he’s still breathing. Ellie lets out a sob as the woman raises the golf club and slams it onto his chest, causing a sickening cracking sound as his ribs shatter. She screams out this woman louder now, she doesn’t care if it gets her killed. Just as long as Joel lives.
“Fucking stop! Stop! Stop! Please! He’s….He’s all I have! ”
This makes the woman with the golf club whip around and face her in anger, good. Ellie doesn’t care what happens to her right now, she just needs Joel to be okay. Maybe Dina and Jesse will find them after and can save Joel….maybe.
“ Stop? Fucking stop? No! He deserves to die for what he did!”
The woman snaps, Ellie has no idea who this woman is and what she’s talking about. Joel’s done a lot of….unsavory things in his time in the apocalypse. He could have pissed off anyone at any time and he’d not be able to remember because it’s just another person he pissed off to the long list.
“Please….whatever he did.”
Ellie whispers, causing the woman with the golf club to scoff and walk back over to Joel, clearly intending to kill him. She can see the muscles in Joel’s arm and hand twitch. She can’t tell if his muscles are just firing or he’s trying to push himself up and failing…..This is so much worse than when he almost died in that basement in Colorado. She was able to help him in that basement, even if the whole David incident happened there as well….
“Joel? Joel! Please get up, okay?! You have to get up! There’s so much shit I haven’t told you! Come on! We’re…..We’re supposed to watch that shitty movie you love so much!”
Ellie sobs multiple times as she thinks about everything she never told Joel, how right he was about Dina. How much she missed him. How much she wished she tried sooner to repair their relationship. How Dina is pregnant and they already have a name picked out, JJ, Jesse Joel….She doesn’t even bother trying to pretend she doesn’t need him anymore now. She feels like she’s that fourteen year old kid again who clung to Joel like her life depended on it, and back then it did. They were supposed to watch that shitty movie series Joel loves so much. Curtis and The Viper, it was supposed to be their attempt at repairing things.
Staring at all the people in this room, she feels something in her chest, in her heart. They’re all part of the reason Joel is getting beaten to a fucking pulp. If….if Joel doesn’t make it she wouldn’t be able to live, to continue on, if these fuckers we’re still breathing…..and an icy chill washes over her. She gets it now, she fucking gets it. She understands his choice at the hospital, why he did it. She fucking understands it now……..but it’s too late.
“Please…He’s my dad.”
Ellie whispers through her tears, and that makes the woman stop and turn to look at her, malice still in her face but she looks confused as well. She walks back to Ellie with the bloody golf club still in her hand, Ellie feels sick seeing all that blood knowing it’s Joel’s.
“The hell you mean he’s your dad? Miller doesn’t have any kids.”
The woman says and Ellie lets out a shaky breath. Sure, she may not be Joel’s biological daughter but he did everything a father did. She wasn’t Sarah, but she was his daughter and right now, she wanted to wish she didn’t ignore him for two years.
“Not biologically….please.”
Ellie begs, the men on top of her loosen their grip on her, while the woman with the golf club doesn’t seem to be having her mind swayed. Her friend’s seem to be having second thoughts and Ellie holds onto a bit of hope that they might be able to convince her not to kill Joel.
“Abby…”
“Shut the fuck up, Lev!”
Abby….that's the name of this bitch who’s killing Joel. That’s a name Ellie will never forget and she’ll make sure of it as well. Abby’s friend seems to now be questioning whether this is a good idea.
“Abby, you kill him now. You’re no better than him.”
“I don’t fucking care, Lev! He killed my dad!”
Ellie’s eyes widen for a second when she hears Abby’s comment. She looks up at Abby and really takes in her features. It hits her like a freight train, this girl is the Firefly Surgeon's daughter…..the one that Joel killed so many years ago. She looks just like her dad, same hair and eye color, same face shape. His choice to save her is going to be the reason his life ends….
“Fuck it. Fuck everything!”
Abby hisses and stalks back over to Joel with the golf club, raising it to deliver the final blow that will no doubt kill him. Before Ellie can even try to scream and beg for her to not go through with this, that it won’t bring her dad back. That she’ll just be taking someone else's dad away from her. Gunfire explodes through the air, making Ellie let out a sharp cry of surprise, then dings him when she feels the bodies of the men holding her down fall, dead with multiple shots to the chest. Looking over at Abby, she sees the woman is still standing, until the golf club falls from her grasp and she stumbles before falling down. Six bullet holes in her chest, Ellie can barely process what’s happening now. She tilts her head in the direction the shots came from and gasps.
Tommy.
“Tommy!”
Ellie gasps out his name as she goes over to Joel and looks him over, at some point he has closed his eyes and it makes her feel like puking. She’s thankful when she finds a faint pulse on his veiny wrist. It’s faint, but it’s fucking there and that’s all that matters at the moment.
“Tommy! He’s fucking bleeding everywhere.”
Ellie gasps out and he runs over, gently pushes her out of the way so he can try and help Joel…He’s going to be fine. Tommy is here, he won’t let his brother die. He’s not going to let Joel die. Not like this, this is not the way Joel is supposed to go. He’s supposed to go doing something…Joel-y or of old age, not because a vengeful bitch bashed the shit out of him with a golf club.
Tommy uses a spare cloth to tie around Joel’s forehead to control the worst of the gently and then carefully hauls him into his arms. Joel moans softly, he must be in so much pain….Ellie can’t stand the idea of him being in pain. He’s lived through enough pain, emotionally and physically, to last five lifetimes. He doesn’t need this to add to all that pain already. Tommy readjusts his grip on Joel and it must jostle him too much because he lets out a small whimpering sob and it destroys Ellie’s heart to hear that sound come out of him.
“Sorry. Sorry. You’re going to be okay, big brother. You’re going to be okay.”
Tommy tells Joel softly and looks over at Ellie, his own green eyes show his worry and concern. Clearly he is having trouble believing his own words and it doesn’t make Ellie feel any better.
“We can’t put him on a horse? Please tell me you have a car.”
Tommy says and Ellie is relieved that she came with Jesse and Dina so they had a reason to bring a truck. She just gives a sharp nod and Tommy carries Joel as she clears the room of infected. She keeps having to stop to wipe the tears off her face as she catches glimpses of Joel in Tommy’s arms…..he looks so dead, so lifeless, the only sign of him still being alive is the whimpering when he gets jostled and the rising and falling of his chest.
When they finally get out Ellie fucking bolts to the truck, ignoring Dina and Jesse’s confused that turned to horror when they saw the blood on her.
“It’s not mine! It’s Joel’s! He’s hurt badly!”
Ellie snaps at them, something she’ll regret later but right now all she can bring herself to care about is Joel. The fact that he got the shut beaten out of him and is slowly dying and will die if they can’t get back to Jackson on time……Her dad could die. She shakes her head and clears the thoughts, at some point Jesse got in the driver seat and pulled up next to Tommy so he and Joel could get in.
“Hold his head in place.”
Tommy tells Ellie gently as she slides into the back seat with her, Joel’s lower half resting on Tommy and his upper half on Ellie. The congealing blood staining her jeans but she doesn’t give a fuck. She can get more jeans, she can’t get another Joel, she does as Tommy instructed and gently keeps his head in place and doesn’t let it roll around. Jesse puts the truck in drive the moment they have Joel sorted out and drives as fast as he can while being safe.
Ellie can’t help but stare out the window, snow. Winter is official the fucking worst and she wants the season to burn in hell for everything that’s happened during it. Colorado, David, now this. She frowns as she feels her lap shaking and looks down to see it’s Joel shivering from the cold. Dina notices and reaches around the front passenger seat and pulls out a blanket to hand to Tommy and Ellie in the back.
“Here. Put it on him.”
Dina tells them, the blanket is thick and is fluffy and warm inside, but it shouldn’t be so heavy as to make Joel’s injuries worse. Tommy nods in thanks and puts the blanket around Joel so it’s only his head popping out. Ellie would think it’s fucking adorable if the circumstances that led to this moment were different.
Looking at Joel’s face in her lap her heart pounds when she sees how pale his face is. When she sees all the blood dried on his face, it’s all over his face from the gashes, his left eyelid has a gash too and he’s definitely concussed….she hates that he isn’t awake since he is hurt and has a concussion. She just wishes he could open his and look around, it would make her feel better to see his gray eyes.
When they get to Jackson Joel’s breathing has gotten swallower and he’s losing blood, they can’t doing anything in this fucking car however. So Tommy is rushing to the medical center with Joel in his arms where the doctors instantly grab Joel from him and rush him into a room. He needs surgery for the fractures in his skull and shattered knee, he’ll need a brace for his broken ribs….his spine….when they found Abby got him there as well they were unable to tell if Joel would forever be paralyzed from the injury. Even if he wasn’t, they said that his shattered knee would most likely make walking hard and challenging.
After he was out of surgery, they weren’t allowed to see him which pissed Ellie the fuck off and caused her to start to slowly loose it on the doctors. They try to explain to Ellie that because of how critical his injuries are it would be a bad idea for him to have visitors that might react emotionally when seeing him. She goes to snap at the doctors again when she feels a strong and warm hand on her shoulder and turns around to see Tommy.
“Come on. Let’s give him some time to rest.”
Tommy tells her and gently leads her away from the hospital, she keeps turning her head in the direction of Joel’s room but doesn’t fight Tommy. She’s trying to not start crying again as she really doesn’t want to look like a baby right now in public. Especially in front of Tommy. They go back to his and Maria’s place, Maria isn’t in sight as she’s busy with hers and Tommy’s baby. He motions for Ellie to sit in the living room and she does so.
“So…How ya holding up? You weren’t hurt back there, right?”
He asks her and she’s not sure how to answer that question. Does Tommy want the truth or for Ellie to tell him she’s okay even if she isn’t? One look at his face tells her that he wants the truth and she takes a deep breath and thinks about it as she turns her head to stare at the ground. Physically she'd be fine, maybe a little sore and bruised from how Abby and her friends manhandled her but no serious injuries. Mentally? Emotionally? She doesn’t know.
“…They were going to kill him, Tommy. They were going to fucking kill him. How’d they even know it was him?”
Ellie whispers, unable to hold back the tears now, unable to really care if he sees her crying now or not. She’s just worried about Joel and she knows that seeing him lying there in his own blood and unblinking eyes will forever haunt her. She looks back up at Tommy and sees him leaning back on the couch with his eyes closed and his face an expression of nothing but guilt.
“What? What is it?”
“It’s my fault…I’m a fucking idiot. I was the one who gave her our names.”
Ellie freezes as Tommy drops this bombshell on her. Is he fucking serious, why the fuck would he tell stranger his and Joel’s actual names? Did he have a death wish or something, the one thing she knows she got from Joel is you never give someone you don’t know if you can trust your real name. She would’ve hoped he picked that up from Joel too but it’s clear he didn’t and it makes her blood boil. All of this pain and suffering could have been avoided if Tommy hadn’t given away their names. It would have been fine, Joel wouldn’t be fighting for his life in the Jackson medical center right now.
“The fuck??! Why did you think that was a good idea!? Joel could be-“
“I know! Alright! I know!…..It’s from being here in Jackson, once you trust it’s hard to stop.”
Ellie blinks as Tommy interrupts her and when she hears his explanation she sighs, yeah, she gets that. She can see how this happened, she’s just….so upset that Joel is so badly hurt and alone in the medical center in Jackson right now. She needs to tell him….to let him know that she gets it, that she can forgive him, maybe she doesn’t forgive him fully yet, but she can understand, and that’s a big step in forgiveness as well.
“You two stop yelling before ya’ll wake Lucas.”
Both Tommy and Ellie look over to see Maria, she had just gotten hers and Tommy’s son, Lucas, asleep in the crib. They both sigh and give an apologetic look to Maria.
“Sorry about that, darlin’”
“Sorry, Maria.”
They both say respectively and Maria nods, sighing and going to sit down next to Tommy and runs her hand through her hair. It’s been a long day for everyone included, Ellie leans forward to look at Maria to see her facial expression. She doesn’t know if she knows what happened to Joel or not, or if she’ll even care. Her and Joel have never been on the best of terms and she doubts that changed in the two years she avoided Joel…..but looking at her face now Maria looks worried.
“I heard about Joel….is he..”
“We..don’t know yet. It’s bad, Maria. Real bad.”
Tommy tells Maria and she takes in a shaky breath and nods her head. Ellie stares at the two for a moment before leaning back. She….honestly didn’t expect Maria to be worried about Joel given their history together. But right now she seems just as worried as herself and Tommy on whether Joel will make it through the night. After a few minutes of silence Tommy offers to make dinner, it seems like he needs a serious distraction from the day's events so neither Maria or Ellie objects to this. Ellie looks over at Maria and can’t help the words that escape her lips after a moment.
“…I thought you and Joel hated each other…you seem worried about him.”
The moment it comes out of her mouth Ellie realizes how rude it sounded and tries to backpedal. Maria stops her with a raise of her hand, making Ellie flinch the FEDRA kid in her making her fear getting hit. Maria seems to notice her mistake right away and lowers her hand quickly and instead gives Ellie a comforting half-smile, which fades as soon as it appeared.
“Joel and I are friends. We’re family.”
Maria tells Ellie and she can’t help but wonder when the hell that happened…..yet again she had been avoiding Joel for two years so it could have happened at any time but still…after all she’s seen from Joel and Maria it shocks her.
“How? How did that happen?”
Ellie cannot help but ask and sees Maria biting her lips and a part of her wishes she hadn’t asked when she speaks up. Telling Ellie how she and Joel were able to start becoming friends, family.
“We….learned to understand each other through shared….experiences.”
She knows what Maria means by that, she can tell what Maria means through her tone of voice. Joel had lost Sarah during the outbreak and Maria had lost Kevin….they both can understand that loss and how it can affect a person.
“Being a parent is everything….you’d do everything to protect that kid….and you can never heal from the pain of losing your child. It’s something you just…are burdened with…and Joel understands that as well as I do.”
Ellie just nods her head in acknowledgment, she’s never experienced that pain before and she hopes when little JJ is born she’ll never have to. They sit in silence until Tommy tells them he finished cooking and they all eat, Maria and Tommy try and keep the conversations light and upbeat but Ellie is too focused on Joel to contribute much.
They give Ellie the spare guest room they have for the night. She doesn’t feel like walking back to Dina’s at the moment. She might break if she does, being able to be here….helps keep her calmer. She feels like she’s letting Dina down at the same time however…so of course she’s got herself wrapped out in a state of worry and doubt. Which is solved when Tommy goes and gets Dina so they can be together and Ellie can stay with them at the same time.
“He’ll be okay, Ellie.”
Dina tells her as they lay in the guest bed together, side by side, Ellie can feel Dina’s growing baby bump and can’t wait for the little boy to be born. She focuses on what Dina just told her and sighs, everyone has been telling her that but he’s still in critical condition and may not….he may not. She guesses that’s why everyone is telling her that he’ll be okay, so she doesn’t have to think about the other option. It doesn’t help.
The next few days Joel is in a medically coma, the injuries he sustained need time to heal and all his energy needs to go to that. The doctors can’t be sure when Joel will wake up and that only makes Ellie more nervous. What if he never wakes up and stays asleep until they plug the pull? No, can’t think like that, he’ll be okay. He’s Joel, he’s always okay in the end. One day, in the middle of the night Ellie is being shaken awake by Tommy and Maria who are still in their pajamas. The shaking of Ellie also wakes up Dina, who is not a fan of being woken up at all. Ellie just sighs and looks up at Tommy with a sleepy look on her face.
“What is it Tommy?”
“Joel woke up”
The words take a second to process but when they do she’s flying out of the bed and running over to the medical center before Tommy, Maria or Dina can stop her. The rocks in Jackson’s pathways dig into her feet and sure that hurts but that isn’t important to her right now. What matters to her right now is Joel is awak, he’s alive. She bolts into the medical center, in her pajamas with no form of footwear and sprints to where she knows Joel’s room is, then hesitates. Why is she hesitant to go in, Joel’s okay, he’s alive. Maybe she’s scared of what he’ll say, of what this will mean for their relationship, that she can finally…try to forgive him fully. Getting a rush of courage she just goes for it and knocks.
“Joel?”
Ellie calls softly as she enters the room. His head turns towards her and she gasps when she sees his face. It’s stitched up almost everywhere, making him look very Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He has bandaged around his forehead from where they had to repair his fractured skull and a bandage patch over his left eye. He’s just bandaging and a brace over his ribs so the broken bones can heal. She can’t see any bandages from below his waist because of the thin hospital blanket. Looking back up at his face Joel blinks a few times before his good eye tears up, and whoa Joel’s tearing up, a clumsy smile spreads across his face as he recognizes the person in his room and he speaks slowly and quietly, his voice is a little broken but Ellie doesn’t care because she can hear that familiar gruff voice with the comforting Texan drawl.
“Hey…Baby Girl.”
Chapter Text
Joel’s shattered leg makes it so he can’t walk that much, doctors think that he might forever have a permanent disability from it. It upsets Joel for obvious reasons but he puts a brave face on for everyone else. It takes a lot of practice for him to be able to even be on his feet again, let alone walk. When he does he has a limp, that’s the disability the doctors were talking about….
Ellie spends time with Joel again, slowly, their relationship is still awkward and that’s mainly from the two years apart from one another. But, and as pathetic as it is that it took her this long to realize, Joel isn’t getting any younger. His wavy hair is grayer than ever and wrinkles mix in with the scars on his face. She sometimes struggles to talk to Joel, with the awkwardness between them, but she’s getting the hang of it. She’s finding her grounding and they are getting their relationship back together.
She finally got to watch Curtis and Viper 2 with Joel, and she forgot how much she enjoyed watching cheesy 80s action movies with him. When she lets herself into Joel’s house she sees him attempting to move around on his own without the cane or walker the doctors gave him.
“Dude! What the hell are you doing??”
She says as she looks over at him and Joel looks over at her. She’s still not used to his facial scars, she’s never noticed before but he’s also missing part of his ear….its a small piece but she has to wonder how the hell Abby accomplished that….it makes her pissed.
“What’s it look like I’m doing, kiddo?”
He sighs and gives up and sits down on the couch in his living room. For a piece of furniture from the apocalypse it’s in rather good condition. She watches as he runs a hand through his graying brown hair, and she sees its thinning in the back. Making her remember he isn’t getting any younger and reminding her of how old he is getting…she wasted two years with him. But she pushes the guilt away, no taking it back now. She might as well focus on the present.
“Joel, it’s only been a week, it’s already a miracle that you can walk with a cane according to the doctors.”
Joel sighs when Ellie says that and definitely doesn’t pout, nope, out at all. He’s acting like a totally mature adult…okay maybe he is pouting a little bit but he won’t admit that. But Ellie also knows that this hasn’t been easy for him. He hates not being able to do the things he used to do, he hates that he was pulled off patrol for a multitude of reasons. The golf club fully damaged the hearing in his right ear, his vision in his right eye going, the permanent limb he has from the shotgun blast he took to the knee, and just how he can’t move like he used to because of the tremors he gets.
Ellie fidgets nervously and grabs her bag, sitting next to Joel on the couch without saying anything at first. It’s weird sitting next to him knowing that she spent the last two years ignoring him. It’s weird knowing that not too long ago she could have lost him forever if Tommy hadn’t come to and shot Abby…no. She doesn’t want to think about that, there is no point in thinking about that. Joel’s safe and he’s alive and they can finally get their chance to rebuild their relationship.
“You know…I found a movie while I was out on patrol a while back.”
She says feeling awkward and she wishes it wasn’t things were so much simpler when they were simple before. Things will probably never be that simple between them again but they can find a new normal for them. A happy normal. Ellie picks her head up and looks over at Joel, he’s looking at her now. Blinking his eyes like he’s shocked that they’re talking about something so mundane.
”Really? Now ain’t that a pleasant surprise. Whatcha find?”
He asks her and Ellie smiles a little at that, at least he isn’t brushing her off. She doesn’t even know why that concern was in her head, it’s Joel he would never do that. He’d protect her, kill for her, sing for her, and love her but he’d never brush her off. She nods her head and reaches into her bag and pulls out the DvD and shows the cover to Joel. A small gasps escapes his lips as he snatches the DvD from her and looks it over. Curtis and Viper 2.
”Ohhh. This is the one with the deleted scenes.”
Ellie snorts when he says that because god he sounds like such a movie nerd and not a cold blooded killer. Right now he’s just a guy who loves cheesy 80s actions movies like MadMax, Code of Silence, and of course the whole Curtis and Viper series, he loves being able to gush and drool about them. She gently bumps Joel on the shoulder and leans over to get a look at the DvD cover.
”Yeah. Imagine how lame those be eh, Old Man?”
She teases him and Joel is hit with the memories of another girl he loved so much saying something some familiar. The memories of a girl whose life was cut short far too soon and Joel gives his head a little shake. Sarah may be gone and that will always sting and hurt him on some level about think, but Ellie is still here.
“Yeah…”
He says with a small teasing smirk as Ellie takes the DvD and pops it in and while the movie loads up Joel takes a breath. They have time to work everything out and fix this, and that’s more than Joel knows he deserves. He knows he’s gotten more second chances than he deserves but they keep coming to him and shocking him. In a lot of ways he is one lucky man and he isn’t going to forgot that, not now.
Ellie plops herself down right next to Joel and rests her head on his shoulder. Ignoring the shocked look he gives her and just keeps her eyes on the screen as the beginning starts. She tries to ignore that this is the first time she’s even touched Joel two years and just enjoy the moment.
“Eyes on the screen, Old Man.”
She teases and she can hear him tsk but relents and focuses his attention on the screen. The acting isn’t great, the action scenes are fake as hell and things seem to be blowing up every five seconds. She absolutely loves it. It’s so stupid she can’t help but like it, and god, who the hell thought Russian spies was a good twist for a movie? So unoriginal.
”You know…Sarah gave me this same movie for my birthday.”
When he says this Ellie tenses up a little bit. As open as Joel had become in the past five years…he still doesn’t talk about Sarah that much. Ellie never asks about her that much…still afraid to hurt him with that topic even after so much time has passed.
“…Really?”
“Yep. Fell asleep within the first ten minutes.”
Now, she does feel a little guilty for the snort that escapes her but goddamn that’s funny. She can imagine it, Joel and Sarah sitting on some couch in their house in Texas before the apocalypse. Sarah giving him the movie and they plug it in and she realizes her dad had shit taste in movies and ends up falling asleep.
“Falling asleep might have been a smart move. Saved her from watching this torture.”
“Hey now, it ain’t that bad.”
”Sure, Old Man. Whatever makes you happy.”
It’s amazing how easily they just fell into their old rhythm like no time has passed at all. Giving each other shit in a way that shows how much they care for one another without having to speak about feelings and emotions. It’s perfect for them and it’s just how they interact.
“Tommy asked if we wanted to have dinner with him and Maria tonight.”
Joel says when the credits for the movie roll. He tried to get up and clean up the mess of drinks and popcorn. Ellie quickly shut that idea down and gently pushed Joel to sit his ass back down on the couch. Muttering something about stupid old men and how stubborn they are, making Joel chuckle a little.
”Really? What time did they say?”
”5:00. Old people time.”
Ellie always joked about how early Joel, Tommy, and Maria eat dinner. Affectionately calling it ‘Old people dinner time’. Not her most creative name for the old people things Joel and the others do but it serves its purpose.
“Sounds nice.”
She tells him with a smile and Joel gives one back…yeah…they’ll be okay in the end. They always are okay in the end, no matter what the world throws at them.
During the dinner with Maria and Tommy they all laugh and hug and just…enjoy each other’s comment. Did she mentions there were a lot of hugs shared? Like a lot. One of the best parts of the evening in her opinion. They don’t take it for granted like they clearly had been for the past five years. Sure they’re all a little fucked up and Joel also has a lot of healing to do. But they’re together…a family forever and until the end of time.
Looking over at Joel as he laughs at something Tommy said she gives a small smile…yeah…she’ll have to do tell Dina they’re definitely named the kid Jesse Joel when he’s born..seems perfect like that. Joel looks over at her and raises an eyebrow.
“What’s that look for, Kiddo?”
He asks and even after all this time he still worries about her. Still cares about her, and she realizes she couldn’t have asked for a better family, because that’s what they all are. A family.
”Nothing…just. Thank you, Joel.”
She says softly, she isn’t completely sure what she’s thanking him for. For giving her a family, for watching after her all these years. Even if they’ve only known each other for five years they’ve been the best five years of her life. Joel seems to understand however and gives her a simple but soft smile in return that speaks so many words that don’t need to be said.
Ellie’s glad she got a second chance at this…at having a family. And this time? She isn’t wasting it.