exsiliumlogs | closed | some black ink on some blue lines

Entry tags:

closed | some black ink on some blue lines

Date & Time: August 1st
Location: Transport clinic
Characters: Ellie, Joel, and ~~their hot nurse~~ Kaneis
Summary: Joel pops some stitches, Ellie brings him to a magical redhead
Warnings: Descriptions of blood/gore are likely!

Getting anywhere in the rain always seemed to take longer than anything else. Thankfully, they don't get lost on their way to their destination, and Ellie heaves a sigh of relief once she sees the clinic doors. Good. They made it. Her footsteps already feel lighter, any injuries of her own forgotten.

"Almost there. I got the door," she says to Joel, running ahead and holding it open for him. She leans inside. Sure looked like a clinic, or what remains she'd seen of labs and research facilities. Except this definitely felt alive. It felt hopeful.

"Hello? Need some help over here!"

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[Ellie fetches the cup of water that's been waiting for him.]

Here.

[She thinks he'll be able to drink by himself, so once she hands him the cup, she falls back into her chair with a loud sigh.]

My hair is gonna turn gray.

[Water almost goes up his nose when he hears that comment, snorting loudly while drinking. He coughs, clears his throat, giving her a look.]

What was that?

Edited 2013-08-09 07:15 (UTC)

Nothin'. [Ha, got him to laugh... sorta. Ellie's pleased by that, like she always is whenever she can get a chuckle out of him. All her worry and stress seems to have melted away, leaving behind a tiredness that gets a yawn out of her as she stretches her limbs out in the chair.

She got him help. She saved him, even if someone else did the fucking incredible magic. After what happened with David, it eased some of the terrible thoughts away.

For now, at least.]

Does it hurt?

Uh huh.

[Joel finishes up his water and reaches out to put the empty cup on the table next to the bed. Been a while since he's had clean and fresh water. It went down smooth, feels like it's been twenty years since he's last felt that with water.]

Ain't as bad as it was before.

What about you? How're you doin'?

Good. I'm fine. Just... glad you're alright.

[He wasn't grimacing in pain anymore. He wasn't bleeding. He was okay. Ellie keeps repeating it to herself.]

You get yourself patched up?

[Don't think he hadn't seen the blood on her face, the bruises and scrapes beneath her tears. His attention is focused all on her right now, eyes taking in her face to just be sure.]

[Busted. Ellie nods. She looks like she wants to say something--thank you, or something like that. Thank you for coming for her. Thank you for not dying. Thank you for not abandoning her. Thank you for everything.

The moment passes, though, and she just reaches for his hand with both of hers, to fiddle with his fingers for a moment. She doesn't know why she does it, but the contact is nice, even if she feels a little embarrassed for it.]

I'm okay, Joel. Everything's okay.

[Down his eyes drop to where her fingers play with his. He watches the movement for a few moments in silence, taking the long forgotten gesture in. Never before would he have expected her to do that; it kind of tugs on his heartstrings, strings that have only been recently restrung after being broken and left to rust for so long.

Joel needs a moment to find his voice again, his words quiet and somewhat gruff when he does.]

You scared me, you know that? I woke up and you were gone, I didn't know where you'd gone and run off to.

[And then when he had found her... Joel might need some time still to wipe that memory from his mind, the image of her straddling a corpse, blade in her hands hacking away brutally at what was once a human skull and was left mangled, chopped up in a sickening and bloodied pile of brains, bone and tissue.

Christ.]

[Ellie shrugs, focused on their fingers. She's never done anything like this with someone before, silly and simple as it is. She never had people in her life whose contact she found comforting and safe. She hugged Rylie, once. Huddled up with her when they thought they were going to die together. Joel held her and she felt grounded and secure, and dumb things like this were oddly nice.]

I had to draw them away. They were gonna kill you, if they found you.

[He probably wasn't fit for eating, with that wound and fever.]

I didn't have a choice.

[Joel pulls his hand free only to then grasp hers, his single hand large enough to cover both of hers, shielding them. His fingers wrap and squeeze lightly.]

You did good. Real good. [He's not talking about how she took care of David either.]

We're both here, we're gonna be just fine now.

[No clickers and runners and fucking hunters. There's no risk of infection of being bitten, or at least for him seeing as she's immune.]

Yeah. We will.

[She smiles at the squeeze before pulling away entirely. The look on her face as almost apologetic as she reaches down for her pack at her feet.]

I... uh, I have something for you. I've never found a good time to give it to you, 'cause... there's not. So.

What's that?

[He waits, settling back into the pillows when he starts to feel a bit of strain from sitting up on an elbow. While Joel waits he pulls up the bottom of his shirt to check out his healed injury, noticing that it was redressed with fresh wrappings.

He doesn't want to think about the weird magic mumbo-jumbo the redhead had done, simply content to not have to deal with the sickening sensation of there being nothing but bloating and pressure on that one side of his stomach for so long.]

[Joel doesn't talk about Sarah. Ellie knows this. But after holding onto that picture of them for so long, worrying she'd never have the chance to give it to him--it's now or never. She doesn't want to lose her nerve. If he gets pissed at her, so be it, but she saved his life so she must have some leeway, right? Right.

Ellie holds out the photo of a man and his daughter, happy and carefree, captured forever in a world without cordyceps. The man in the photo is the one before her, but they're two different people. Ellie's often wondered what he was like, before.

It's sad.]

Maria showed it to me. And... I stole it. You should have it. I'm sorry I didn't give it to you before.

[Joel doesn't take the photo, not at first. He stares at it, eyes taking in the young man and his daughter. The smile on his face makes him unrecognizable. They both look so happy, they don't have a damn problem in the world, no need to hide and outrun clickers and runners or hunters in order to survive. Nothing. Seeing the photo for a second time has the same effect on him as it had when Tommy had pulled it out, eager for his big brother to take the rare treasure that belonged to him and only to him.

His hands remain where they are. Joel can't take it, he can barely stand to look at it and yet he sits there staring at it. At the little girl - his little girl - who stands there with that twinkle in her eye and the widest grin on her face flushed from the excitement of the win and the rush of adrenaline. It's exactly as Joel remembers that moment as it was, the memory fresh on his mind, almost like it had been yesterday.

A slow and measured breath.]

--Ellie.

[When Joel doesn't take the photo, she places it on the bed. Carefully, because she knows how much weight that piece of faded paper carries. She's not sure if he's about to yell or shut her out, maybe tell her to leave the room.]

Sorry.

[She's not sorry for taking the photo, but she's sorry it hurts.]

... she's pretty. [Surprisingly blonde, too. Maybe she got that from her mother.] And looks really happy.

[And Ellie's not sure what to say without saying too much, if she hasn't already.]

...she was beautiful. [ His words are soft, nostalgic, thick with lingering sadness. He reaches down to touch a finger to the glossy side of the picture, brushing it gently over Sarah's smiling face. A burning stings his eyes, closes his throat. It's hard to swallow.

Another breath, deep, shaky.

Sarah had her mother's fair skin, her hair, but from him she had inherited his eyes and nose, the same wide and toothy smile as he'd had as a child her age - or so his mother had kept pointing out. ]

It wasn't easy.

[ But Joel doesn't elaborate on those words. Raising her on his own for the most part, letting her go. ]

I can't imagine. [Losing a child. What Maria told Ellie had floored her, squeezed the air out of her lungs. It hurt to hear, so Ellie could only imagine the kind of pain Joel felt when there was so much to remind him of his daughter. Still, she had stolen the photo--she felt it was important for him to have more than just his memory of Sarah.

It just took a lot of nerve to actually give it to him, because she knew it would do a lot of hurting before it did any healing. She can hear it in his voice and see it in his face.]

... she was lucky to have you. [Even without knowing that man in the photograph, Ellie had no doubt that Joel was a good father. Hell, the way he held her, did his best to soothe her... even if it was somewhat clumsy at times, she could tell.]

... I was lucky to have her. [ After her mother had walked out on them, months if not weeks after her birth. Some nights he could still remember the way she had cried in her crib while he had struggled so hard, torn on what to do with her, how to go about handling her in his own scared, awkward and new-fatherly way.

Sarah had changed him in so many ways. Not just her birth or her death.

Joel realizes he had been wrong to turn Tommy away, to turn down the image his baby brother had salvaged for him. The only physical token of his daughter save for the broken watch at his wrist.

Baby girl, he thinks to himself, eyes gazing down in their sad way at her smiling face and twinkling eyes. ]

Thank you.

[ His head lifts again as he looks over at her, the grief there for her to see, to really take in. ]

... thank you.

You're welcome.

[Jesus, this man needs a hug. Ellie stands, a little stiffly, then leans in to slip her arms around Joel's shoulders. It's nice to be the one initiating it, trying to do the comforting, even if she feels awkward. She doesn't want to overstep, whatever that is.

She's not his daughter, but she's there for him.]

[ The hug takes him by surprise - it's just one thing after the other with this girl. Joel's tense for the briefest of moments when her thin arms go around his shoulders but then he's returning the hug, shifting to sit up so the embrace isn't awkward on his healing torso and isn't uncomfortable for her with the height of the bed.

While Ellie's not his daughter and he sure as hell ain't her dad, they have a relationship almost close to that now. He cares a lot for her, watches out for her, wants to do everything he can to protect her and keep her safe.

Joel's got both arms around her, picture in hand behind her back. Sarah may be gone now, but Ellie's still there, and she's whole and trusts him as he trusts her. She needs him just as much as he needs her. She, too, had changed him. All for the better.

After the quiet moment passes, Joel eases away and exhales shakily. To cover it up he reaches behind her to lightly tug on her ponytail, a corner of his lips quirked.

He won't admit to it but he had really needed that hug, the contact. ]

Edited 2013-08-30 01:27 (UTC)

[And with that, Joel's officially the person Ellie has hugged most. It feels safe, and she lets herself lean into him, mindful of his injury. She smiles when he tugs on her hair. It's alright.]

I can put it in your pack.

As long as it don't tear.

[ Joel eases back, absently swipes his thumb under his eye, and says nothing else. ]

It won't.

[Ellie gives him some time and space to collect himself, sliding away to do as she'd said. Before going to his pack, she grabs her own, pulling out one of the small joke books that had come along with her. She flips to the middle, and carefully tucks the photo between the pages.]

But, just in case... page twenty-five.

[She takes her time, zipping her pack, putting it aside, walking over to Joel's, and choosing a pocket to slip the book into.]

What was on page twenty-five again?

[ The question's a little rough even after he's cleared his throat, leaning back against the pillow as his fingers make a slow pass over the broken glass of his wristwatch.

Joel looks over then to where she's crouched down at his pack. ]

The photo and some jokes I don't get.

[She zips up his pack after making sure the book and its special addition are safe. She's glad to not have to carry it around anymore. She heads back over to her chair and sits.]

You can get some more sleep, if you want.

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