101 - 120 of 545 Bookmarks by CherryPine6
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An hour from dawn, just as Ellie catches the first strains of fluting birdsong, she hears that rustle again. She keeps her eyes squeezed shut and holds very still as Joel’s boots crunch their way over the six feet of dead grass in between their sleeping spots; as he breathes in once, noisily, like he wants to say something; as something heavy and warm drops over her body.
Joel’s jacket doesn’t smell very nice—like him—but it’s better than nothing.
Ellie goes through the stages of infection.
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
03 Jun 2025
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He frowns and picks the picture up, angling it to better see it in the light of the fluorescents of the hallway shining in. He looks over to Ellie’s sleeping face, smooth now in a brief reprieve from nightmares. He looks back to the picture. Back to Ellie. Back to the picture.
It’s…it’s her. It has to be. Same nose, same eyes, same ears. The baby has the soft roundness of a young infant that makes it hard to tell jaw shape or cheekbones, but there’s no denying it.
He’s holding a picture of an infant Ellie.
(the fireflies steal ellie's fedra file) (in the hospital, joel finds it)
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This is where she'd normally ask him something like "Where do rats go when they have a cavity?" or "What did the cupcake say to the frosting?" or whatever other dumb fucking jokes kids have to memorize now for entertainment because they've never so much as been in the same room as a TV. And Joel would bitch and moan until she'd rattle one off that was so goddamn stupid he'd laugh into his sleeping bag.
But that's not what she does.
She just says, "They put me in a cage."
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
03 Jun 2025
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“I thought it would be nice if you came over for dinner at ours sometime. It’s me, and my husband, and our two boys. I’m sure you’ve seen them around school?”
Now that she mentions it, she does recognize the name. The Erikson boys are nice enough, one older than her, one younger. Both humongous. Just like their mother, who is towering over Ellie as they speak.
“That’s…nice,” Ellie says, uncomfortable. “But, um. Why?”
Mrs. Erikson smiles. “Because, dear. I thought it would be good for us all to get to know each other. Seeing as Tommy Miller came and talked to us about the possibility of you coming to live with us.”
or:
A series of misunderstandings has Ellie doubting her place in the Miller family. The remaining Millers do their best to show her where she belongs.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 19,890
- Chapters:
- 3/3
- Comments:
- 146
- Kudos:
- 1,351
- Bookmarks:
- 365
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- 16,153
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
03 Jun 2025
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“Please,” and if it were any other time he would hate the desperation that has leaked into his voice, “you don’t understand.” That’s my kid, he doesn’t add, the thought scraping him raw, unwilling to give voice to something that personal to fucking Marlene. He’d been fighting it since Kansas City, allowed thoughts of her as his kid in after Silver Lake, but then outside the hospital…
I’m supposed to protect her, and I’ve already failed her too many times. You can’t take her from me.
Please don’t take her from me.
“I do,” Marlene says softly, sounding pained. “Her mother was my best friend. I was there when she was born, Joel. I held her as a baby, watched her sneak out and get into trouble as she grew up. But I have a job to do.” There’s a moment of silence, tense hesitation, and Joel feels his chest crack in two before she even draws breath to continue. “And you’re too late - she’s already gone.”
(or, the fireflies decide not to jump straight to brain surgery, but they don't exactly want joel hanging around while they do their little experiments) (marlene is a goddamn liar)
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Watching the Last of Us With My Best Friend - by Depeche Mode by joschmo
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV)
20 Apr 2023
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Ellie and Joel are less than a day out from Jackson, emotional wounds still raw, when Tommy rides out after them them. Maria found DVD's in Jackson, DVD's that can't be explained that will provide insight, change the course of the future, and cause multiple uncomfortable situations for everyone involved, now all they've got to do is get through watching them.
A "characters watch the show" story for the cast of the Last of Us, mostly to provide gratuitous emotional reactions to every scene and to create a "fix it" of sorts to the ending.
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collaborators by becomethesun
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
08 Jun 2025
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Ellie slows down and looks back at Joel with chagrin, raising her eyebrows and pursing her lips, but she elbows Sam and gestures for him to wait for Joel and Henry to catch up. He’s reminded with a pang of another little girl on another hiking trip, a far less perilous trip than this on one of the trails outside of Austin, scampering up a boulder that screamed a broken collar bone or broken ankle to him, but she made it down unscathed, rolling her eyes at his worries. Like every memory of her, it’s tinged with the reminder of how, ultimately, all of the worrying he did wasn’t enough, still left her dead, blood staining her favorite t-shirt.
Ellie and Sam are waiting when they catch up, back to giggling over some inside joke. Joel shakes his head, shouldering his backpack and forging ahead.
—
Sam and Henry live. Adventures and found family bonding ensue on the journey from Kansas City to Jackson and beyond.
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Joel and Ellie arrive in Jackson ready to live, not just survive, but it isn’t all smooth sailing. When Tommy first arrived in Jackson and thought he’d never see his brother again he confessed all his, and Joel’s, sins for everyone to judge. That, combined with the state Ellie is in when Joel and Ellie arrive, means Jackson wants to take Ellie away from Joel and find her “proper” parents.
Joel and Ellie don’t want to separate, but neither of them are ready to get back on the road just yet. Ellie endures family after family trying to make her stay while Joel experiences a fear over 20 years old: being separated from his daughter and fighting for custody.
Both of them have to define what they mean to each other after, and if Jackson can be their home after all.
Series
- Part 1 of A Father By Any Other Name
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Ellie is a young songwriter on most record labels' blacklists. Joel is the frontman of a band that was most popular in 2002 who spends most of his time producing music. Their paths predictably cross.
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it's a long way back (but a short road home) by cardigains
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
18 Aug 2025
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“It’s okay. I know a guy.” Ellie likes talking about Joel like he’s her mob lackey or something. Makes everything feel a little less looming and leering and lethal. She called Joel "a guy" when it came to getting an extra slice of pie or getting outside of Jackson's walls when she needed a day off of school, when she couldn’t fucking stomach it anymore. He told her to cut it out whenever she called him that. It was a bit. She liked all of their bits these days. “He’ll get you out too.”
“I’m Ellie," she volunteers though she doesn't want to. This woman isn’t an enemy. She’s as caged in as Ellie, worn down to the point that she barely had her wits left about her. There was a look in people’s eyes when they got that way, when they’d started giving up hope. Ellie would fucking know.
The woman shakes something loose from her bones, digs her teeth against her lip before she answers, “I’m Sarah.”
Ellie snorts. “Yeah,” she says with only the edges of humor clinging on. “He’ll definitely fucking save you.”
or: On Outbreak Night Joel and Tommy are separated from Sarah. They spend the next twenty-one years assuming each other is dead. Until Ellie and Sarah find each other in the same awful circumstances.
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Where you last placed your heart by itainthardtrying
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
01 May 2024
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Now that Ellie’s alone, she just sits on her bed and looks at her book. She can’t call it reading anymore – by now she has read the thing front to back so many times that she could quote some paragraphs word for word.
That’s why it’s weird that it took her so long to notice the message written on the front page.
There, nestled just below the title, there’s one line of writing addressed to her. It doesn’t mention any names, but it is for her. It can’t be otherwise.
It’s not Tommy’s handwriting, nor Maria's, nor Riley's.But it’s somebody’s. Somebody who knew she’d like to read about Moon landing, spaceships, and astronauts. Somebody who cared enough to take this book, fix the hardcover with some scotch tape, and give it to her. Somebody who wrote those words on the front page knowing that they would make her smile.
Somebody who loved her.
It’s late spring 2024 when Ellie wakes up in Jackson. She has a backpack full of books, a burn on her arm, and no memory of how she went from Boston QZ to Wyoming.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 157,080
- Chapters:
- 22/22
- Comments:
- 700
- Kudos:
- 1,036
- Bookmarks:
- 250
- Hits:
- 29,960
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
03 Jun 2025
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to carry the sky to the edge and out of sight by Vulpecula_et_Anser
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
13 Feb 2023
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Summary
In the end, the most invasive procedure the Fireflies perform on Ellie is a spinal tap.
Series
- Part 1 of an ocean quiet beneath our skin
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 7,783
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 3
- Comments:
- 74
- Kudos:
- 1,657
- Bookmarks:
- 289
- Hits:
- 15,509
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
01 Jun 2025
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Summary
Ellie can't stop thinking about Bill and Frank.
“Aren’t people from Texas supposed to, like… not approve of that?”
Joel looked at her, rolling his eyes. “There were gay people in Texas, Ellie.”
Gay. Ellie took the word in, and tucked it close behind her heart.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 773
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 4
- Comments:
- 105
- Kudos:
- 3,558
- Bookmarks:
- 339
- Hits:
- 22,034
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
01 Jun 2025
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moonbeam remedies by Scarlettprin
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
17 Jan 2023
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“Shit,” Joel swore, walking around the truck to Ellie’s side. “Kid?”
“‘M a little busy,” Ellie spat, coughing weakly as she wrapped her arms around her midsection. “Try again later. Leave a message at the–”
“Ellie,” Joel called out, a hand coming to rest on her shoulder. He frowned at the heat he could feel through her shirt. “You’ve got a fever.”
“That would explain the overwhelmingly shitty feeling.”
or, Ellie got sick when she barely knew Joel. And then, she got sick, again, when she very much knew Joel.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 3,343
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Collections:
- 3
- Comments:
- 90
- Kudos:
- 2,542
- Bookmarks:
- 354
- Hits:
- 24,102
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
01 Jun 2025
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somewhere in the desert there's a forest by wmthackeray
Fandoms: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us (TV)
25 Dec 2022
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Summary
"What, did the world end on his birthday, or something?" Tommy says nothing. Her jaw drops. "No fucking way. Really?"
or
Joel takes Ellie to a museum for her birthday. She decides to figure out how to celebrate his. She just has to figure out when it is, first.
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
01 Jun 2025
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Somewhere along the way, his girl’s gotten to believing that she’s a superhero. He doesn’t disagree, not necessarily, but he still sees the parts of her that are less man of steel and more little girl that grew up lonely and leans in to praise like a plant growing towards the sun. He sees it. Tommy and Maria see it. And evidently, Marshall fucking Green saw it.
Or, everyone has blind spots. Someone tries to exploit one of Ellie’s and its handled accordingly.
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Keep Going by stainedglasspanel
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
08 May 2023
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Joel sounds a thousand miles away. “Ellie? Are you listening? I said, don’t you *ever* do that again.”
Well, she thinks deliriously, that won’t be a problem after all.
“Ellie, what—?”
It feels like she has no control over her body anymore, like it’s someone else who is extending her arm, pulling back her sleeve, and exposing a ring of broken skin. She hears Joel stop breathing when he sees it too.
She's been bitten.
________AU where Ellie is already traveling across the country with Joel when she gets bitten.
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Ellie knows before she’s even told that the woman is a former FEDRA officer. There’s a way she carries herself that raises Ellie’s hackles at once, makes her stand up straighter, makes her hyper-aware of the dirt on her shoes and the way her ponytail is slipping out, both infractions that would be punishable under FEDRA regulations.
In an instant, Ellie knows they’re destined to hate each other.
(a former fedra teacher arrives in jackson) (it goes badly)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 18,999
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Comments:
- 108
- Kudos:
- 1,794
- Bookmarks:
- 371
- Hits:
- 16,726
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
01 Jun 2025
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the principle of the cuckoo chick by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
18 Apr 2023
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“Meet Tara, our latest resident,” he says to them before turning to the woman. “This is my brother, Joel, and my niece, Ellie,” he says, and her already-limited reserve of politeness is lost for a moment behind the way she feels mildly stunned by her casual inclusion as his niece in the introduction.
Thankfully, adults tend to look only at adults first, so she has a moment to recover before-
-but no, Tara is looking at her, only at her, with an intensity that makes her feel uneasy. Immediately she presses a bit tighter to Joel, who looks down at her before looking back up to Tara, frowning a bit. He shifts Ellie a bit, getting her just slightly more behind him before he extends his hand, breaking Tara’s unnerving stare with a blink as she registers it in her field of vision.
“A pleasure,” he says, and Tara fumbles for a moment before she takes it, even as her gaze flits back to Ellie briefly.
(ellie happens to resemble the dead daughter of a new resident in jackson) (surely this will not cause anything bad at all)
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 10,528
- Chapters:
- 2/2
- Comments:
- 165
- Kudos:
- 2,634
- Bookmarks:
- 467
- Hits:
- 20,592
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
01 Jun 2025
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sentinel by PenAndInkPrincess
Fandoms: The Last of Us (TV), The Last of Us (Video Games)
17 Feb 2023
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Joel’s on edge the entire time they’re in the hospital.
He’s not stupid. He knows how science-types tend to put the why above the how. He sees the way they look at Ellie, like she’s a fascinating specimen instead of a child. There’s a calculation in their faces that he mistrusts immensely, and he knows at once that he won’t leave any of them alone with Ellie.
They try to keep him out of the room at first when they do their tests, but HIPAA died twenty years ago along with the rest of their world, and it only takes pinning one doctor to the wall by his throat for them to see that he’s best left to his own judgment calls about whether or not he needs to stay with his kid.
The gratitude in Ellie’s grip when she reaches for his hand when they start drawing blood tells him he made the right one.
(an alternate ending in which Joel doesn't have to Rambo an entire hospital) (aka Joel being a great dad while terrorizing an entire building of medical professionals)
Bookmarked by CherryPine6
01 Jun 2025