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“Ellie!”
The first thing that Ellie noticed was Joel’s hands cupping her face, his eyes wide. The second thing she noticed was the machete still in her hand, still raised and poised for attack. When she dropped it, the third thing she noticed was Joel scanning her head to toe, and she didn’t understand why, until she did.
“It’s not my blood.” Ellie’s voice was flat and emotionless.
Ellie had no idea why she felt the need to clarify that before anything else. It was obvious, wasn't it? Joel was the one who pulled her away from David, who stopped her from hacking into that piece-of-shit pedo again and again and again, because if she stopped, he would kill her, he would hunt her, he would touch her, and she wouldn’t, she couldn’t, she fucking goddamn refused—
“Good,” Joel said softly, tucking a tuft of her hair behind her ear, like it was that simple. Like he hadn’t just watched her chop a human being to guts and marrow and itty-bitty pieces, down to mangled parts instead of a whole person that could hurt her.
Ellie felt numb as Joel slowly pulled off her jacket, bathed and sticky in (his) blood; it took her a moment to realize that she didn’t flinch away, every part of her trusting Joel implicitly. His heavy winter coat draped over her shoulders, a mimicry of when Ellie had blanketed Joel not that long ago, lying on the cold concrete and dying and—
Joel was here. Joel was alive.
Like a switch had been flipped, Ellie pulled in Joel tight, suddenly desperate to be as close as possible. She tried to be mindful of his wound and not cling so hard, but she couldn’t really feel her bloody hands, even when they dug into Joel’s shirt. She was shaking, she realized belatedly. She was crying.
“He tried,” Ellie sobbed, “He tried to—”
“Oh, baby girl,” Joel whispered, his voice softer than she’d ever heard it before, and that just made her sob harder. It was real. It had happened.
He rocked her back and forth a little, his hand on the back of her head, tucking her inside his protective embrace, and Ellie didn’t fight it. Depleted, exhausted, terrified, Ellie let herself collapse into the one person she still trusted. The one person she still had.
“I’ve got you, Ellie,” Joel muttered into her hair, “I’ve got you.”