Work Text:
He opened the door and the sheer cold hit his face before the blinding light of fire did, he hovered his hand over his eyes. “Jesus Christ, Ellie.”
He knew Ellie was in there. He just hopes she’s safe. He had killed all of the people after him, and the map matches up with his location. He’s really hoping she’s not fucking dead, he would never forgive himself for that. Considering Ellie has been taking amazing care of him for (god knows how long), he barely remembers most of it, probably because he was in and out of consciousness.
He rushes towards the burning building, and the heat is a major contrast from the cold, it's comforting in a way. He has to shiv the lock in order to get in. He tries to stay stealthy, but he can hear Ellie, and his instincts kick in. He’s been so fucking worried about her, worried if she’s okay, if she’s dead, if she’s never coming back. You name it. And when that man called her “David’s pet”, he was livid. Pet? Like she’s some fucking toy to be messed with?
He looks at Ellie.
He should’ve gotten here ages ago.
He finally sees her for the first time in what feels like forever, and relief does wash over him — but quickly fades as he realizes what she’s doing. Rapidly stabbing somebody with a machete. With all of her strength, it looks like. It almost looks a little funny, a little girl, 14 years old, stabbing what seems to be a grown man.
“Ellie!” He grabs her by the stomach dragging her off of David. She’s startled, and doesn’t know who’s grabbing her at first. She struggles against Joel, heavy with exhaustion.
“Stop, stop!” Joel shouts, they’re both yelling over each other’s voices, “no! Don’t fucking touch me!” Her voice cracks, she sounds so scared.
Joel is turning her towards him and trying his best to calm her down. “It’s me, look!" Ellie must’ve not heard him, because she tries to push away at first, she tries to use her hands and push away from whoever this stranger is, but then finally hears a—“it’s me. It’s me.” And slowly recognizes the familiar voice and southern accent. Could it be?
“It’s okay!” He rushingly says as he is trying his best to calm her down.
But her eyes are still locked on the man she had just killed ruthlessly.
“Look. Look.” Joel is caressing her cheeks and trying to make her just look at him. She’s crying, it looks like she has been the whole day. Her eyes droop.
He brings his head into her view, forcing her to look. So Ellie looks into his eyes, and recognizes those eye bags. She looks at his face, and recognizes that rough beard. She lets go of a sharp breath she’s been holding for a while now. And then another.
Oh.
It’s just Joel.
It’s him.
How in the hell did he find her? He’s been sick, he was supposed to stay back at the house. But now he’s here?
…
She supposes that’s all that matters.
She cries more.
“He tried to—“ Joel’s heart surges, almost like it’s been cut with a knife. He doesn’t want to imagine what David has tried to do, he just knows it was the worst. He hugs her, puts her head on his shoulder and wraps his big, strong arm around her small body. His other hand stays on the side of her head, trying to soothe her the best he can.
“Oh, babygirl…” he whispers, he should’ve never let this happen. He should’ve never let his guard down back at the science lab, he would’ve never been stabbed and had Ellie take care of him.
Ellie would’ve never got lost in this big mess.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Joel repeats, as he hugs her closer. He never wants to let go.
“Joel…” Ellie wonders what she’d do without him.
“It’s okay now.” He comforts her. He rubs his thumb back and forth on her upper arm, she’s trembling.
David was gone now, and the rest of his friends. They were safe, they can finally go to the fireflies, like they had planned.
They sit there for a little bit, but the building is falling apart and they have to go.
Joel ends the hug. He caresses the sides of her face again and says something Ellie can barely comprehend. She looks so tired, tears roll down her face and curl to her chin. Something along the lines of, “I’m never gonna leave you like that again, okay?”
Ellie understands, she nods. She still looked a little nervous, like Joel was gonna try and hurt her. But she pulled herself together, she takes a deep breath. And reminds herself that it’s Joel. Not David. Not any of the other creeps that messed with her. Just Joel.
“Cmon, let’s get you outta here.” He takes her left arm and brings up to her feet, with another steady hand on her back as they walk out of the hot restaurant.
Ellie disconnects with reality for some time and doesn’t really know what’s going on about now. She thinks about what’s happened the past couple of days, she doesn’t wanna remember any of it. She looks back every couple minutes, thinking that David is behind them. It still feels like she’s alone, that Joel is back at the house sleeping, and in pain. But he’s not.
He’s here to protect her like he always has. Kill the infected so they can get by, with his strong way of doing it. She started looking up to him once he beat the shit out of a hunter who almost strangled her to death. She saw the way he got angry, but what she focused on the most, was the way saved her.
She knew then that Joel would be with Ellie to stay. She even had started to rely on him, especially whenever he gets her across using a pallet.
Joel had led her to an abandoned home, different from the last. “We won’t be here for long,” he says, firmly. They settled inside and he started a fire in the fireplace. She sat down and leaned her head against the brick, warming up slowly. She closed her eyes and relaxed, for the first time in so long. So fucking long. She’s with Joel now. Everything’s okay.
Her eyes are closed and she breathed weirdly, it sounds unstable.
Joel had run off somewhere but shortly came back with something in his hand. He sits in front of her, taking up most of her view. Her eyes are open by now. But everything’s slightly blurry, she can barely focus on Joel in front of her. What the hell? She groans and rubs her eyes.
“It’s okay. You’re with me.” He reassures.
“I’m just gonna clean your face, is that alright?” His voice is low, thick with his southern drawl.
Right. There was blood on her face, and dried tears. It did feel a little dirty. “Sure…” she mutters under her breath. Joel smiles a small one in response. But she doesn’t notice.
He can’t stand the look of splattered blood all over her young face, it looks too… abnormal. Joel was supposed to be the one with blood on his face, the one who should’ve killed David the way Ellie did. Which was totally brutal, by the way. He should have been protecting her.
He wipes his wet cloth over her cheek gently, it feels nice. She leans against it. She missed Joel. So much.
“I—… wanted to thank you.” He quietly says, as he wipes her chin down.
“For what?” She opens her eyes, but she doesn’t remember closing them in the first place.
“For saving me,” he says unwaveringly, and continues, “I would’ve died if it wasn’t for you to help me back there at the lab.”
Oh. Yeah. She kind of forgot about that.
To be honest, she doesn’t really like thinking about it, or talking about it. She really fucking hated that mall. It reminded her of Riley’s last day too much and it was scary. So scary. It was freezing and she had to rush as fast as she could to make sure Joel wouldn’t bleed out, and kill all of the hunters after her and Joel.
“Didn’t wanna leave you.” She wasn’t ready to let go of Joel yet. After everything they’ve been through, she has started to really like him. “You’re saved me countless times, Joel. It was time I returned the favor.” She just… loves him too.
“Well, thank you. Ellie.” Joel says sincerely. That’s probably the first time she’s ever heard that, now that she thinks about it.
“Anytime. Joel.”