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They almost miss her.
Joel almost brushes past the faint scratching noise at the end of the hall, arms full of Ellie- but something, some innate part of his subconscious, tells him to investigate. So he hoists the girl higher in his arms, and heads off further down the hall, towards the sound.
In a barred room, Joel finds the last thing he could ever have expected.
Connected by a chain to the wall is Tess, of all people. A collar is looped around her throat, connected to the chain, and he can tell how it digs into her skin, chaffing the pale skin. The bite on her collarbone is raised and scarred, a mess of swollen tissue against her freckled skin.
Scars litter her arms, needle pokes and blood draws evident, but there are also evidence of bites and skin graphs, and Joel feels nausea rise in his throat. He sets Ellie down on a spare gurney, and gets the door open; Tess shies away from the sound, and his chest aches.
“Tessa,” he whispers, and her whole body tenses at the sound. “It’s me- Tess, I swear, it’s Joel.”
Dark eyes slowly lift to his, disbelief clear in her body language; she studies him, fingers worrying at a curved bite mark on the inside of her wrist. She shrinks away when he moves closer, but he sinks into a crouch, lessening their height difference.
“I’m gonna get you outta here, darlin’,” Joel promises, and Tess’s lifeless eyes flick to his. He leaves the room briefly, and spies the key hanging partway down the hall. Lifting it off the hook, he returns to Tess, and squats before her; slowly, he unlocks the collar from the chain, and eases it from around her neck.
She sags without the weight of the chain, and Joel scoops her up, tucking her under his arm and folding her into his chest. Something inside him collapses at the feel of her against him after so long; after believing her dead.
Joel resettles Ellie in his arms, and keeps Tess tucked under the opposite arm, guiding them through the levels of the hospital until they reach the garage. He gets Ellie settled in the back, Tess in the passenger seat, and when Marlene appears, he dispatches of her quickly, especially when he learns that she’d been in charge of Tess’s…care.
Tess and Ellie both sleep most of the drive back to Jackson, leaving Joel alone with his thoughts.
Tess is so much smaller than he remembers. She’s thin- frail, almost. He can see her ribs through her shirt when she breathes, and her face is gaunt, cheeks sunken in. Whatever light had shone within her had been extinguished long before he’d found her.
When Ellie wakes, confused, her eyes widen at the sight of Tess. All thoughts of why Joel had taken her from the hospital cease at the sight of the woman they’d believed dead, here, alive.
“Yeah, kid. It’s nice to see you too,” Tess tells the teenager softly, though she cringes at the slightest touch, shying away even from Joel’s soft, seeking touches.
In town, the first place Joel takes both Ellie and Tess is the infirmary. Nina is flipping through a magazine which she promptly puts down at the sight of them; Joel gets Ellie up onto one of the exam tables while Tess hangs back, wary.
“She’s fine, Joel,” Nina assures him after she examines Ellie, taping off the place her IV had been, still tender to the touch. “Just needs to sleep off the drugs, she’ll be right as rain after some good rest.”
The redheaded doctor turns her attention to Tess, still lingering in the doorway- clearly uncomfortable in the sterile environment, but still wanting to assure herself of the teenager’s condition.
“I’m- I’m fine,” Tess tries to assure them, but she sways a little on her feet, and Joel is at her side in an instant.
“Let her check ya out, Tessa,” Joel pleads, and Tess’s spine goes stiff at his touch, even as she latches onto his forearm, clinging to him. Her body was at war with her heart, he could tell, and he gently guided her to the table next to Ellie’s, helping her up.
Her nails dig into the skin of his wrist as Nina examines her; some bites are more tender than others, clearly fresher, and Nina applies salve to the ones that look more infected than others.
“Did you get any care?” she asks gently, and when Tess shakes her head, Nina’s expression grows dark.
“Fuckin’ Fireflies,” she curses, and holds her hands out. “I want to feel your jaw- is that okay?”
Tess takes a breath, and nods, though her grip on Joel tightens as Nina probes her jaw tenderly with her fingertips.
“I think you’ve got an infection- your lymph nodes are swollen,” she tells her. “I’m going to give you an antibiotic I want you to take for a few days, and make sure you drink as much water as your body can handle. I know you’ve probably been dehydrated for a long time, and starved, so I don’t want you overdoing it right away. Broths and soft foods for the first couple days, okay?”
Tess nods, and once Joel has helped her off the table she puts a little distance between them, despite the fact that she’s shivering in her thin shirt. Every fiber of his being wants to care for her, wants to protect her- but he’d failed, the first time, and it’s evident.
By the time the exam is over, word had gotten to Maria, who appears as they exit the clinic, Tommy a few steps behind. His eyes widen at the sight of Tess, scanning her up and down and taking in her changed appearance.
“Tess- where the hell have you been?” he asks, tactful as ever, and Joel glares at him from behind her. She huffs out a scornful laugh.
“Beach vacation,” she answers, and Maria arches an eyebrow, taking in the new person.
“I’m Maria,” she greets, extending her hand; Tess lets it hang there, staring at it, before she nods.
“I’m Tess,” she replies, and Maria lets her hand drop slowly. “Nice place you’ve got here.”
“We make do,” Maria says in response, and Ellie finally pipes up, breaking the silence.
“Listen, it’s been a fuckin’ day,” she says, and Joel rolls his eyes skyward. “Any chance we can get some food and go to bed?”
Maria cracks a smile, and nods.
“Yeah, kid. Mess is still open.”
_
They manage some broth and bread for the lot of them, Tess looking absolutely stunned at the sight of hot food so readily available and placed in front of her, especially with silverware.
She eats slowly, seemingly aware that her stomach may rebel- but she gets half a bowl down, along with two glasses of water, and Joel spends more time watching her than eating himself. But he isn’t all that hungry, concern gnawing at him like a dog on a bone, and when Maria tells them the house they’d stayed in before is still free for them to use, relief fills him like a balloon.
Ellie wishes them goodnight and crashes in her room almost immediately, still somewhat drowsy from the drugs, and leaves them standing in the hallway. Tess opens her mouth to speak, but Joel beats her to it, unable to bear the thought of being away from her.
“Just…come to bed, Tess,” he says, almost asking, and she looks at him, eyes pained, before she finally follows him down the hall to the room he’d slept in last time.
It’s a queen sized bed, decently sized for two adults; he finds a pair of sweatpants and a thermal shirt, giving them to Tess to change into- she disappears into the attached bathroom, and he can hear the water running for a while. She returns some time later with a pink face, clearly scrubbed, and hair combed back, away from her face. The clothing dwarfs her, but she looks more comfortable without her scars on display, and she drops her dirty clothing in a pile by the closet.
He'd changed while she was in the bathroom into a pair of flannel pajama pants and a matching thermal shirt, and he gestures to the bed; she selects the left side, like she’d always slept on in Boston, and silently curls up under the quilt. He carefully gets in on the right, making sure to leave space between them, and lays flat on his back, staring at the ceiling.
Joel listens to Tess breathing, the sound comforting in the silence; there’s a rustle, and then fingers spider over the back of his hand where it lay in the valley between them. He relaxes his fist, and allows Tess’s fingers to curl around his- they squeeze tighter as her breathing changes, wet sobs echoing as her grip tightens.
He holds her hand as she falls apart, and wishes he could do more.