Work Text:
Summer 2034
We approached the gate quickly. Joel had his arms raised. Ellie and I followed. We didn’t want a repeat of the hydropower plant. Noticing that we were friendlies, they disengaged and called for the gate to open.
There, standing in the middle, was Tommy. As soon as he saw us, he was running out and pulling Joel into a bear hug. Once we all hugged it out, Tommy brought us into Jackson.
Looking at Ellie, I could see she wore a small smile. I nudged her a bit. She gazed up at me with her brows slightly creased. Raising my eyebrows, I nodded to the small settlement. In her eyes was a little twinkle. This sparked a little hope in my chest. Jackson was a great distraction to the whole Firefly ordeal. It wasn’t a long-term one, but it would help her as she healed and moved on.
“We’ve been waitin’ on you to return. Maria and I have a house picked out for y’all. I hope this isn’t too forward but uh, we just- We hoped that you would come back and you would stay awhile. You are gonna stay, are ya?”
“Yes, Tommy. We’re not going anywhere.” I spoke up before Joel could. I flashed him a bright smile.
“That’s good. The house we picked out had a garage out back. It’s been made up to be an extra room. But you can make it into anything ya want.”
Upon reaching the house, Tommy unlocked it and let us in.
To my left was the living room. Instantly, the large bookshelves drew in my eyes. They both had several books in them. I was looking forward to reading those. I looked at Joel and he was already rolling his eyes. Ellie looked just as pleased as me.
To the right was the dining room, moving further dead ahead was the mudroom. It was complete with a washer and dryer. I flashed Joel an excited smile and he just chuckled at my reaction. I scoffed at him. Can a girl want clean laundry?
In the mudroom, to the right, was a doorway that led into the kitchen. Straight away, I was in love. This place was one giant present. Oh, my gosh. I sound like my mom.
I wasn’t ready for what awaited me upstairs. There were several rooms. Most of them were empty. I figured one could turn into Ellie’s room. It had the bathroom next door. She’d get it all to herself. Then I saw the master. This made me love the place.
The room was massive. It had a king-sized bed, a massive bathroom, and a freaking walk-in closet! Before all this, I had my bedroom. It was small. Not to mention I shared a bathroom with my three siblings. This place would be the first “nice” place I have ever owned. Obviously I would share it with Joel and Ellie, but still. I haven’t ever had anything like this.
“What do you think?” Tommy asked when we all made our way back to the living room.
Joel looked at me. I could see that he wanted my input. Joel wasn’t someone who cared too much about where he stayed. I guess the zombie apocalypse is that to a person.
“I love it! It’s definitely an upgrade to that dingy room at the military school in Boston.”
“Ugh, that place smelled.” Ellie chimed in.
“You lived at the school?” Joel flashed me a look.
“Yeah, I practically raised Ellie there. She and I shared the room until she got old enough to attend the school. She was then placed in a room with a roommate. Well, she was supposed to have a roommate.”
“What can I say, I was pretty lucky.” Ellie had a small smirk on her face.
“Okay, I’d leave y’all to it but uh… I need to steal my brother for a few hours.” At Tommy’s comment, Joel flashed him a confused frown. “It ain’t much. I just want to show you our routes and introduce you to a few people.” Tommy explained.
“Yeah, just give us a sec?” Joel then raised a single brow toward his younger sibling. Without thinking, Tommy waved a nonchalant hand and walked out to wait outside.
“What are y’all really thinkin’?” With a twinkle, Joel’s eyes switched to Ellie and me.
“I, uh. I can see myself living here.” Ellie spoke first.
Looking at me, Joel raised an eyebrow.
“I’m ready to move in whenever you are!” I smiled as Joel chuckled.
“Okay, I know this was more my idea and if you don’t like it here, we can go look for another place. Just let me know and we’ll do it.”
I rested a hand on Joel’s shoulder. “Joel, we like it. Don’t worry about it.” Stepping up, I pressed a light kiss on his cheek.
Once our conversation was over, Joel gave us a nod and walked out the door. Ellie and I stood where we were for a moment. I looked at Ellie.
“Hey, you wanna check the garage out back?”
“Yeah, sure.”
It was late. Joel hadn’t been back since Tommy took him. I figured that they needed some time to catch up. I mean, really catch up. Yes, they talked when we met at the hydropower plant. This time we were here for good. The boys could finally have some deep conversations and get into the nitty gritty things.
I, however, had moved some things around. A bookshelf here and a chair there. Nothing too exciting. Ellie had decided that she wanted to be left alone. She was in the garage space. I hoped that she’d choose to stay inside the house, but I knew that she needed her space. That certainly was enough space.
A shout came from the garage. I was rushing to the backyard. Hurriedly, I opened the door. A horrifying sight awaited me.
There Ellie was a bottle of Drano in her hands while her bitten arm was severely scarred.
“Ellie! What the hell are you doing?” Walking up to her, I rip the Drano out of her hands and slam it on the coffee table.
“I am solving a problem. I can’t just walk around this place with a bite mark on my arm. I took care of it.”
“Oh, Ellie. We could have talked about this. You shouldn’t have to do these things on your own. Oh, baby girl. Come here. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
I led Ellie into the house to clean off the residue on her arm. I used cold water so it would sooth the burn. When that was all taken care of, I led her into the master bathroom. I whipped out a homemade first aid kit I found under the bathroom sink. Tommy and Maria really thought of everything.
In the kit was a salve and a roll of bandages. As carefully as I could, I rubbed the ointment onto her burn and sealed it with a bandage.
“There, taken care of. Please tell me next time you decide to do anything that might hurt you.”
With a nod, Ellie left the room and laid down on the master bed. I followed her. She had curled up on the right side. I sat down behind her and ran my hands through her hair. It had fallen out of her usual ponytail.
“Mom?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“Hold me?” Her voice came out as a whisper.
Laying down on my side, I wrapped my arms around her. We laid like that for a while. SHe fell asleep before me. It was maybe thirty minutes after she fell asleep that I felt my eyes slowly start to droop.
The door opening rudely awakened me. The door closed and heavy footsteps walked around downstairs. I listened as they crept up the stairs. I wasn’t concerned about who it was. I assumed that it was Joel. My suspicions were confirmed when he walked into the room.
I watched as he stopped mid-step. His eyes had landed on the sight before him. His two girls were all cuddled up in bed. Ellie was fast asleep while I was half asleep. Flashing him a lazy smile, I motioned him over.
As quietly as possible, Joel came to sit on the left side of the bed. I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. Lightly running his thumb over the back of my hand, Joel squeezed back. There was a softness to his eye.
“Hey there handsome.” I whispered.
The corners of Joel’s eye crinkled with his smile. “Hey.”
“D’you have a good time with Tommy?”
“I, uh… Yeah, I did.”
I could tell there was something off. Soo, I questioned him about it.
“What? Did something happen?”
“No, no. I just told him what happened.”
“So he know about-”
“He knows everything.” Flashing a pointed look at me, he nodded his head toward Ellie.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “Now that out of the way, come to bed. It’s late.”
Joel groaned while walking to the closet. “I haven’t owned a bed in twenty-one years.” Dressed in looser clothes, Joel walked back to the bed and climbed in.
Wrapping his arms around me, he moved so that his chest was against my back. I felt Joel buried his face in my neck. He placed a kiss or two there.
“Yeah, I could get used to this.”