Disclaimer : I do not own any character of (The Last of Us) TLOU is owned by Naughty Dog.
A/N: I never do any one-shot before, but when this idea came to my mind, I decided to just do it. I know this is not much, but I funded cool to do some season one-shot. This is the first one of them, so I hope that you like it. In this one Ellie and Joel are just like father/daughter, so no romance for them in this one just some action and adventure. Also this story is rated T just to be save. It only have minor violence and some bad language. Thanks for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving day for all of you.
Ellie's First Thanksgiving
*FALL*
A few months have passed since Joel and Ellie came back to Jackson. After they were accepted to stay in the small town by his brother and his wife, Joel and Ellie are trying their best to fit in. Things for Ellie have been a little hard after what happened during their trip to the Fireflies. Ellie is quieter and not accustomed to being around so many people, making it more difficult to fit in, so Ellie prefers to pass the time closer to Joel at first. After a while, Ellie starts to help Maria sometimes with the things she needs to do around the town. After that, things go a little better for Ellie. Lucky for them, no infected go close to the town, nor do hunters or bandits try to sneak inside to attack Jackson. As winter is getting close, people start to get prepared for it by collecting food and wood to keep their homes warm.
Today, Tommy goes to visit Joel at his new home - the one that he finished repairing a few weeks ago. After they stayed with Tommy and Maria for a time, Tommy found a house that Joel can use for Ellie and himself. It wasn't in great shape, but after Joel worked on it, it was ready for him and Ellie to move in.
Now Tommy and Joel are talking in the kitchen of that house. "So what do you think?" says Tommy, moving a chair at the kitchen table and sitting.
"I dunno, brother... you don't think that it's too risky to go out there, just for that?" asks Joel, putting a glass of water on the table in front of Tommy. Then he pulls out the other chair there and sits down.
"It's a low risk, bro… nothing that you and me can't handle. Besides, it can be a good surprise for the town if we find some in that place." Tommy grabs the glass with water and starts to drink it.
"If that's so easy, why didn't your scout people bring any with them?" asks Joel with curiosity.
Tommy puts the glass down, looking at the table, trying to avoid Joel's face. He knows his brother, and knows that he is not going to like it. "Well... they didn't because they also saw a few infected people there, too… soooo, they decided to come back here and talk to me."
"Ha, I knew it… there's always a catch for things like this. Did you tell Maria about it?... I mean about what you're planning to do?" says Joel, looking at him, waiting for his reaction.
"Of course not!" Tommy shouts back, still not looking at him. "What part of a 'surprise thing' don't you understand?"
Joel lets out a little laugh while he claps his hands together. "You know what I think, little brother - that you're too scared to tell her." Joel grabs his glass of water and takes a drink. "Man, what I would give for a good bottle of whiskey right now."
Tommy leans back in the chair and smiles at him. "Weeeell!... maybe I can find a way to grant your wish..."
Joel looks at him. "If I help you… right?..." He stands up from the chair and moves to the sink. "Do you really think that you're going to bribe me with a bottle of whiskey?... who do you think I am?" says Joel.
(A few hours later)
"Hey, Joel... I'm back!" says Ellie as soon as she enters the house and closes the door behind her.
"Upstairs, kiddo!" answers Joel from his room.
Ellie takes off her sweater and puts it on a small table that is close to the door, then walks toward the stairs and goes up. After she gets to the second floor, Ellie walks to Joel's room. As soon as she enters, she sees Joel packing some stuff in his backpack. "Why are you packing... are we going on a trip?" asks Ellie while moving close to him.
"We!... are not going anywhere," Joel says, not even looking at her. "Tommy and I are going on a little trip for a few days. So you need to pack some of your things because you're going to stay with Maria until we come back," says Joel while he continues packing.
"WHAT!... No, no, no… no way am I going to stay here again, Joel. If you're going out, I'm going with you."
Joel stops packing and looks at her. "Ellie, you're not going… sorry. So go and pack... I will take you to Tommy's before we go. It's going to be fine, kiddo - besides, it's only for a few days."
Ellie puts her hands on her hips and looks at him with an angry expression. "No!..."
"No?... what do you mean, no?"
"No!... I'm not going to stay here this time... fuck, Joel, you said that nothing was going to happen the last time and you almost got killed. So this time I'm going with you."
"Sorry, kiddo, but this ain't a negotiation. You're going to stay with Maria and that is final."
(4 hours later)
"Hey, Joel, can you tell me again how Ellie convinced you to let her come with us?" says Tommy, teasing him.
Joel gives him a look. "Shut up, Tommy!... like you don't do everything Maria tells you," says Joel while riding his horse behind him.
Tommy lets out a little laugh, then turns his head to look at Joel. "That is totally different, bro. She is my wife."
"So you're saying that your wife cont-"
"Hey, hey… guys, stop arguing, okay!" says Ellie, moving her horse close to Joel's. "You two must understand that women are always right. Beside, Joel and I... are a team. We do things
better when we're together," she says proudly.
"Yeah, whatever!..." Tommy looks forward, and continues. "It's going to be dark soon, so it's better if we find a place to pass the night."
"Okay, let's see." Joel stops his horse, then takes out a map from his shirt pocket and opens it. After a few minutes, he speaks again. "If this map is correct, there's a river a few miles from here, in that direction," he says, pointing north of the forest trail they are on.
"That sounds like a plan, and we need to fill the canteen anyway." After Tommy speaks, the three of them start to move toward the river.
Two hours later, Tommy, Joel, and Ellie find a spot close to the river and make a camp there to pass the night. Joel and Tommy start to prepare the dinner while Ellie takes care of the horses. As soon as Ellie finishes with the horses, she comes back and sits close to Joel..
"Soooo... what are we hunting?" asks Ellie casually.
"Who told you that we came to hunt?"
"Joel!" answers Ellie with a smile.
Tommy looks at Joel, then back at her. "Turkeys!" says Tommy quickly.
"Tur- Turkey?... that's some kind of a big chicken…. right?... don't tell me that you two wanted to come out here just to hunt some big chickens… because that's dumb. We have a lot of chickens at Jackson."
"Turkeys are not chickens - they're a different animal," says Tommy, looking at Ellie.
"I don't see what the difference is... for me, they're just a big chicken."
"Well, they don't… turkeys are bigger, yes, but they don't look like chickens, and the meat tastes different, too," answers Tommy.
"I still don't get why we're hunting them," says Ellie, looking at Joel.
Tommy looks at Joel like he is asking him what to say to her. But when Joel doesn't say anything, Tommy starts to tell her. "Okay... look, Ellie, in the old times, before the virus, people celebrated something called Thanksgiving. It was something that people did every year in November. It's an old tradition that was passed down for generations. And on this specific day, family and friends get together for a special dinner and give thanks for all the good things."
"We never had anything like that in the QZ in Boston. And I still don't get what that has to do with the turkey thing."
Joel is the one to talk now. "Well, the turkey was the main dish on the table. People invited their family to their home and cooked a turkey for that special dinner. So, what my brother here is trying to do is continue with that tradition."
"So, we came here to try to hunt some turkey to do that Thanksgiving thing for all of Jackson?"
"Yeah! it was a surprise. That's why we were going to come alone," answers Tommy.
"Okay… so where are we going to find some?"
"Well, the last patrol that we sent out saw a few of them on a little farm two days away from here. So the plan is to go there and catch as many as we can," answers Tommy.
After that, they continue talking about the dinner and what people did. Tommy tells Ellie about the special dinners they had when they were kids, and how their small family reunited every year for the Thanksgiving dinner. Joel tells her about a few things that Tommy did at those dinners. That gets some laughs from Ellie. She can't believe how close the brothers were before the virus destroyed the world, and how different the two brothers are now. Of course, things were different back then, and people did all kinds of weird things that she doesn't understand. But it's good to see Joel and Tommy laugh together when they remember those times. After the dinner is done, they eat, then they lay down and fall asleep.
(Two and a half days later)
The trip to the little farm takes a little more time than they expected. As soon as they get close to the place, they dismount their horses and move close to the fence that surrounds the place.
Joel and Tommy hide behind some trees close to the place. Joel takes out his binoculars and starts to check the place. He sees a few infected inside the fence, close to the barn.
As soon as Ellie finishes tying the horses to a tree, she moves close to them and notices them. "Hey… are those infected?" Ellie asks, a little surprised.
"Yep!... that's the only bad thing about this trip. And from what I can see, there are more than I thought," says Joel, lowering the binoculars and turning around.
Tommy grabs the binoculars from Joel's hands and starts looking at the barn. "Shit!... they said that there was only a few of them."
"Why… did nobody tell me about the infected?" asks Ellie, a little worried.
"Well, for starters, you ain't supposed to be here, and secondly… you ain't supposed to be here," says Joel, sitting down on the ground.
"Ummm… there are more than we expected, but I think that we-"
"No!... the only thing we're going to do is get out of here before-" he stops when he sees Ellie moving behind Tommy.
"Where do you think the turkeys are?" asks Ellie while putting a hand on Tommy's shoulder.
"Well, the infected are surrounding the big barn over there. So I assume that they have to be inside," answers Tommy, checking the place.
Ellie and Tommy continue discussing what to do next while Joel just rolls his eyes in disbelief. "Hey!... didn't you two hear me?... we're going back to Jackson. It ain't worth getting killed for a few stupid turkeys."
Tommy and Ellie turn their heads back to Joel, but Ellie is the one to speak first. "Joel! We're already here. So it's going to be a waste of time if we go back empty-handed. Besides, it's an old tradition that I want to see."
"Sorry, kiddo, but there's a lot of infected there. And we didn't come prepared for that. So it's better for us to go before this starts to get ugly."
"But- but... we're already here!... I think that we can handle this-" Ellie starts with a pleading voice.
"Sorry, kiddo, but we're going back and that's final!" says Joel with a firm voice.
(Half an hour later)
"C'mon, Joel, hurry up - we don't have all day," says Ellie while Joel is helping her get on top of her horse.
"I don't know how you did this… I mean, convince me to agree to this. I think that all this is a bad idea, and you should not be doing it." Joel finishes pushing Ellie up on the horse.
Ellie grabs the reins of the horse, then she looks at Joel. "Well, you insisted that you didn't want me to be close to the barn, so this is the best way to stay away."
Joel grabs her arm before she moves away. "Being bait for the infected to follow you ain't what I had in mind to keep you safe." Joel looks at her with a worried expression. Even though Ellie seems to be older in her mind, she is only 15. And this kind of thing is not good for a teen girl like her, even if she saved his life several times.
Ellie puts one hand on top of his and gives him a small smile. "Don't worry, Joel, I can handle this… I'll be okay… I promise."
As Joel and Ellie are talking, Tommy walks close to them and puts a hand on Joel's shoulder. "Don't worry, bro, she's going to be fine; the infected can't outrun a horse. She only needs to make them follow her and lose them a few miles away from here."
Joel gives Tommy a look. "You make this look so easy, but sometime it ain't. If something happens to he-"
"Don't worry, Joel, nothing is going to happen to her." The two brothers move backward as Ellie starts to move her horse away. "Now as soon as Ellie makes the infected go out of there, we move into the barn and get as many turkeys as we can." Joel gives him another look, but Tommy just smiles and starts to walk in the direction of the barn. "C'mon, bro, we need to get in position before Ellie gets there."
Ellie rides her horse through the trees and goes behind the barn, where she finds a hole in the fence. As Ellie moves though there, she assumes that that's how the infected got into the farm. Joel and Tommy go to the other side with their weapons ready. They hide behind some trees close to the side of the barn. As soon as they go there, they hear the turkeys inside the barn.
"How do you think the turkeys got inside there?... the door looks very secure from here!" asks Tommy, looking at the front of the barn, where the infected are.
"I don't have any idea. But I bet that someone put them there. The question is who?" says Joel,
looking at the infected and seeing that some of them are wearing farmer clothes, so he thinks that maybe the owner of the farm put them there.
After a few minutes, he sees Ellie get out from the side of the barn and start to yell at the infected. Some of the infected turn around and start to run toward her, screaming. Ellie pulls the reins back and the horse starts to move away. Some of the infected go after her, but a few stay at the entrance of the barn.
"Well, seems like the distraction worked... just a few infected stayed behind. It's going to be easier to get what's left." Tommy takes out his special bat and jumps the fence, toward the infected. Joel does the same, but he takes his hunting knife and follows Tommy.
As soon as the infected notice them, they scream and start to run toward Tommy and Joel. As soon as they get close to Tommy and Joel, they start to kill them. One by one, they fall down, dead: some by Joel's knife and others by Tommy's bat. One of the remaining infected grabs Tommy from behind as he is distracted with killing another one. But as soon as Joel finishes with the one that attacked him, he goes to help Tommy and kill the infected. As they finish them off in a few minutes, they walk toward the door of the barn and notice that it's closed with a chain and a padlock.
After Tommy hits the padlock with the bat several times, it breaks. Joel opens the door and sees a few turkeys in there. "We need them alive," says Tommy, leaning the bat against one of the barn walls.
"I will get the horse and the bag with the drugs the doc gave you," says Joel. Tommy looks at him and nods, then Joel puts his knife back in the holster, and moves out of the barn. The Jackson doctor made a drug that he uses to anesthetize the horses or other animals when he needs to attend them, so before they left Jackson, Tommy asked him to give him some.
As Tommy is waiting for Joel to come back with the drugs, he sees turkeys starting to run around the barn. Then he hears a peculiar sound coming from the entrance.
Click, click, click… As soon as he knows where that sound is coming from, he runs toward the wall where his bat is and grabs it. Soon after that, one clicker enters the barn, and Tommy hits it on the head.
After Joel goes out of the barn, he walks to the place where Ellie tied up the horses and unties them. On his way back, he hears a gunshot. He knows that something is wrong because they're not supposed to use their guns. The horses start to get agitated by the sound, so he ties them up on the fence and runs toward the barn with his gun out. Joel told him not to shoot, so that way, the sound of the fired gun wouldn't attract more infected that could be in the area. But as soon as he gets close to the barn, he sees a few more runners and clickers there. Tommy! He moves faster and shoots one of the runners in the chest, making him fall down. The other notices him and runs toward him.
Inside the barn, Tommy shoots another clicker in the head, killing him instantly, but another one attacks him from behind, making him lose his gun. He grabs the clicker's head to stop him from biting him, but the clicker is too strong; that makes him fall to the ground.
After a few minutes of fighting, Tommy is losing the grip on the clicker's head, and when he thinks that the clicker is going to bite him, he closes his eyes and waits for the worst. But then he feels someone pull the clicker away from him, and he hears a shot.
Tommy opens his eyes slowly and sees Joel standing beside him with his hand extended to him. "I think that was the last of them." As soon as Tommy takes his hand, Joel pulls him up. "What the hell happened here?" asks Joel as soon as his brother is on his feet.
"I don't know... they came from nowhere," answers Tommy, then he moves close to Joel and hugs him. "Thanks, bro, I thought I was going to die today."
"No problem... Well, I'm sure that our gunshots are going to bring more infected. So I suggest we finish this ASAP and get out of here," says Joel, moving toward the door.
Joel goes out of the barn to get the horses, and comes back with them a few minutes later. He ties them up to a pole close to the barn, then he takes out a bag with the drugs they
need. He goes into the barn and gives the bag to Tommy, and they start to catch the turkeys.
One hour later, Ellie comes back riding her horse and sees all the infected dead in the entrance of the barn. As soon as she gets close, Ellie dismounts her horse and ties him up with the other two. Ellie goes inside the barn and sees Joel holding a big-looking chicken that she presumes is the turkey they were talking about. She's never seen one before, so it's a curious thing for her.
"What happened here?... I don't remember seeing too many clickers out there," she says, looking around and getting close to Joel.
Joel turns and looks at her. "Are you okay?" He lets go of the turkey and stands up. He moves close to her and hugs her. As soon as he lets her go, he looks at her, more calm now. "No, you didn't. They attacked us after you left... Did you have any problem with the ones that followed you?" Joel asks, a little worried.
"No, they followed me a few miles away, then I lost them at another farm I found," she says, then moves close to the turkey and looks at it. "Is he dead?" she asks, getting closer to the bird and looking with some curiosity.
"Nahhh. The doc gave Tommy something to make them sleep for awhile, so that way, we don't have to kill them." Joel gets down and ties the legs of the bird and pulls it up with him.
"Wow, they look like big chickens... I've never seen one before."
"Well, now that you've seen one, wait 'til you taste the meat… it's really good." He smiles at her while he passes the bird to her. "Here, and help me with the other ones." Both of them proceed to grab the other turkeys they caught in there and start to take them out of the barn.
As soon as they get out with the first 4 turkeys, Ellie starts to look around. "Where's Tommy?... did something happen to him?" she asks with a worried tone.
Joel smiles at her while he ties the turkeys to his horse. "No need to worry about him… he's just fine. A few turkeys got out of the barn and he went after them to catch them." As soon as Joel finishes his explanation, they hear some commotion coming from the side of the barn. Ellie starts moving toward her horse and Joel puts one hand on his gun to get ready. But soon after, they see turkeys running like crazy beside them, and then they see Tommy running after them, trying to catch them. Both Joel and Ellie start to laugh hard at the scene in front of them.
(Three days later)
Joel, Tommy, and Ellie arrive at Jackson two days after they found the turkeys in that barn. They come back with 8 turkeys, but decide to leave 2 alive, so that way, they can breed them in Jackson. Of course, Maria gets furious with Tommy for lying to her about the trip, but forgives him quickly after he tells her the reason for that. The next day, Maria organizes and informs the town of the special Thanksgiving dinner. Some people volunteer to prepare and cook the food for the town the next morning.
The next day, they use a community center and set up tables and chairs. The food is done by midday, so there's a lot of food for everybody by the time people start to show up there. They cook 6 of the 8 turkeys they brought with them. As soon as Joel and Ellie arrive at the place, Ellie is intrigued by the sight of so many happy faces for the event. She's never seen anything like that before, living in a QZ for so long with people that don't have much to celebrate... it was sad.
After all the people arrive and take a seat, Tommy and Maria ask the people to say grace and give thanks for all the good things they have. They give thanks for being healthy and for giving them another year to live in peace. As Ellie doesn't know anything about this, Joel has to explain to her why people take a day every year to give thanks to God, even if some people don't believe in that after the world went so bad. But some people are happy to be alive and have another chance.
After Tommy and Maria finish, a few people stand up and give their thanks. Even Ellie stands up and gives thanks to Tommy and Maria for giving her and Joel a new place to live. After all the people finish, they start to eat; they only receive a small portion of turkey, since there isn't much of it, so that way, everyone can enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving meat. In the end, everybody in Jackson County enjoys the Thanksgiving day. Joel is happy to watch Ellie enjoy her first Thanksgiving. And Ellie is happy and thankful that her first one is with Joel, and for being safe in their new home. After all that, she can't wait for her first Christmas in Jackson with Joel.
THE END…
A/N: I just want to say to all the people that read this and to all the rest out there. That you have a happy Thanksgiving and have a good time with you family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.