More Than A Dream
By: Jetboard Kid

Jet: I own nothing. Wow, my first Last of Us fic. I like the way this turned out and I hope everyone else will too. Have fun reading.

The snow was falling gently over the ghost town; Callus' hooves were the only things that made a sound as Joel and Ellie rode on. Ellie looked over her shoulder to see if any of the hunters from the university were following them, "I think we're safe." She said when she didn't see anyone. To Joel her voice sounded so far away, even though he knew she was sitting right behind him. He felt dizzy, he had lost so much blood, his eye lids were heavy... he was so dizzy and tired. He slid off the saddle and laid on the ground. "Joel?" Ellie's voice seemed to be fading farther and farther away, "you've got to tell me what to do. You've got to get up. Joel…" Then he knew nothing.

Joel snapped up with a gasp, he covered his face with his hands to rub his eyes. The first thing he was aware of was he was sitting in a very nice bed, in a very warm and comfortable place- where had Ellie taken him? He looked up and he couldn't believe what he saw. He was in his room, in his bed, back in Texas. Not only that, but it didn't look like the last twenty years had even touched this place, it looked exactly like he remembered.

He got out of bed and walked into the hall; once he opened the door he could hear someone down stairs. It had to be Ellie, but how had she gotten him here? It just didn't add up. He walked down the stairs and over to the kitchen and what he saw he knew was impossible. A young girl with short blond hair was standing in front of the stove. She looked at him and smiled, "Good morning dad." She said.

Joel just stood there his mouth hanging open, completely dumb struck. "S… Sarah?"

"Well, who were you expecting? Uncle Tommy?" Sarah asked, laughing a little as she put the eggs she had been making on a plate.

Joel walked over to her and took her into his arms, he didn't care what was going on, he didn't care about how he was back home or how he'd gotten there. He didn't care that everything seemed to be the way it was before the outbreak, even though Tommy had told him that most of their stuff was long gone. All he cared about was for the first time in twenty years he was holding his daughter. This had to be real; Sarah felt too real in his arms for it to be a dream.

He pulled Sarah a little away from him just so he could look at her and she looked at him, "Dad, you okay?" She asked.

Joel had started to cry as he pulled her back into another tight hug, "Yeah, yeah, I- I'm fine." He just smiled at her and then something clicked in his mind, he had conversed himself he wasn't dreaming but this was too good to be real. He thought back, the last thing he remembered before waking up in his room was him and Ellie riding away from the university as he bled out. He looked at Sarah with a very serious look on his face, "Sarah, I'm going to ask you something and it may seem a little dumb, but I want you tell me the truth."

"W… what is it?" She asked.

Joel took a deep breath. "Am I dead?"

Sarah smiled, "No you're not dead." She looked over at the clock, "Oh crud!" She said, before stuffing one of the eggs in her mouth.

"What's wrong?" Joel asked.

"If I don't hurry, I'm going to miss my bus." She said with her mouth full.

She started to run for the stairs. Joel watched her go, was it truly possible that the last twenty years had been a dream? Tess and Bill, Sam and Henry, Marline and… Ellie, had they all just been people in a dream? Joel shook his head; that really didn't matter now, as far as he was concerned, he was home and he had his daughter. For the first time in what felt like twenty years he could spend time with his daughter, "Sarah," He called as she reached the bottom of the stairs, "don't worry about it. You're not going to school to day."

Sarah looked at him, "What do you mean? I have that math test today and my English paper's due and don't you have to go to work?"

"Don't worry about it, all that can be made up at a different time, I just want to spend the day with my baby girl, Okay?"

Sarah smiled, "Okay Dad." They both sat down on the couch, "So what do you want to do?" Sarah asked.

Joel looked at the T.V. stand and saw their PS3, he looked back as Sarah, "Why don't you pick out a game and we'll play for a while." He wasn't a big fan of video games but Sarah liked playing them. She got up and pulled out a game, they didn't have many two player games so they ended up playing an HD version of a combat racing game that was initially for the PS2. They only ended up stopping when lunch swung around. They ended up having some pizza that they warmed up in the microwave. And then they got out all the board games they had and played them the rest of the day. At a point Joel looked at his watch- which looked like new. "So, you want to tell me how you really got the money for this?"

Sarah smiled, "You know how last summer I spent a lot of time at Uncle Tommy's?"

"Yeah?"

"Well he paid me to do some chores around his place, wash his car, mow his lawn; I even cleaned the dishes a few times."

"You did all that just to get me this watch?"

"Yeah, I did."

Joel smiled, "What did I ever do to deserve such a wonderful daughter?"

"You were a great dad." She looked down at the table.

"So tomorrow Saturday right, what do you want do? We could go see a movie, or we could go and play some soccer, I wouldn't be opposed to throwing around a football for a little while. We can do anything you want." Tears filled Sarah's eyes as her father talked about what they could do tomorrow knowing that they wouldn't be able to.

Joel looked at her the smile falling from his face, "Sarah? Baby, what's wrong?"

The young teen wiped her eyes and sniffled, "I… I have to tell you something."

Joel got up, walked over to her, knelt down and took her hands, "Sarah, whatever it is, you can tell me. I promise if you're in trouble I won't get mad and we'll fix it okay? Now tell me what's wrong."

Sarah looked at him with tears in her eyes, some fell down her cheeks, "All that stuff you talked about doing tomorrow, I want to do it- I really do. But… we can't and we'll never get to."

"What are you talking about? Sarah, even if we don't do everything tomorrow we'll still have Sunday, and it's not like I work weekends usually."

Sarah shook her head, "Dad, that's not the problem."

Joel looked at her confused, "Then what is?"

"You asked me if you were dead, and you're not but…" She sobbed a little, "I am."

Joel looked at Sarah not understanding, "No. No, this is real it has to be. You're not dead. Sarah…?"

"I've been dead for twenty years dad; I died the night the infected showed up."

"So this is just a dream." Joel said, his heart breaking.

"Not exactly. We're kinda at a half way point; that injury you had nearly killed you, but Ellie won't let you die." Joel just looked at his daughter who smiled as more tears fell down her cheeks, "I've been watching you, all this time. And I've got to tell you, Ellie's the best thing that's happened to you in a long while. You care about her, I know you do, you care about her like you cared about me." More tears spilled from Sarah's eyes.

"Sarah, baby, no one could ever take your place." Joel said, worried that was what she thought.

"I know that and I also know… you need her, about as much as she needs you, maybe even more. So stop trying to hide the fact you care about her." Sarah threw her arms around her father's neck and slid off her chair, "Don't lose her… like you lost me." Joel wrapped his arms around his daughter, "Go back to Uncle Tommy's with her, you'll be happy. I know it." She was fully crying now.

"Shhh." Joel said, "Sarah, it's okay. Please don't cry."

They just sat there holding each other, "I've missed you. I've missed you so much daddy."

"I've missed you too, baby girl. You must have been so lonely."

Sarah smiled, "Well, not recently, Tess said hi by the way."

Joel laughed a little. They quietly sat there and then he pulled away from her. "I have to go back."

"I know."

"How do I do that?"

"Just… walk out the front door."

"Okay." He held her tight again and kissed the top of her head, "I love you." He said, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"I love you too." She said nudging her head against his neck. She didn't want her father to go, she wanted him to stay and hold her, but she knew there was another little girl that needed him a lot more than she did at the moment, so she pulled away from him, "You have to go." She said, standing up. Joel also stood up and pushed her bangs out of her face; as tears rolled down his cheeks, a sad smile slowly appeared on Sarah's face, "Don't worry dad, we'll see each other again. You'll come back someday and then we'll always be together and then... we can do all that fun stuff." He hugged her one last time and then walked over to the front door. He grabbed the handle and looked back at Sarah, "I'll see you when you come back. I love you dad."

Joel sadly smiled, she was talking as if he was just leaving for work, "I love you too Sarah." He looked away from her, opened the door and walked out.

The first thing he was aware of was cold; he coughed a little, "Joel?" he heard Ellie say. He opened his eyes just a bit and looked at her, "Don't try to talk, and don't move, we're someplace safe okay? I stitched you up but I don't think we should move until you're healed. I can hunt us some food and you'll make it. So just get some rest okay? Everything going to be alright." He could hear the worry in Ellie's voice, he was able to move his hand enough to grab her's it was the only way he could tell her that everything was going to be alright, he saw Ellie smile as he closed his eyes again and fell asleep.

Fin

Jet: Just a little story I wanted to do, I tried drawing it into a comic but that's taking a lot longer then I thought it would, so I figured why not just write it out?

Joel: Now you're writing fan fics about me?

Jak: Get used to it.

Jet: Don't worry Joel, I'm going to back to Jak and Daxter stuff; I just wanted to do this one Last of Us fic. Mostly because after you passed out in the game, I was kinda hoping for a scene like this, not this long and more to the point, but still.

Joel: I did like it.

Jak: Lucky you, you like the one fan fic she does with you. Most of the time she's driving me nuts.

Jet: You know Joel I was also thinking about do a fic where you get busted for lying.

Joel: Don't.

Ellie: Lying about what?

Joel: Nothing. (Glare at Jet) Now I'm starting to not like you.

Jak: Welcome to my world.

Jet: Ah great, now I've got two Naughty Dog heroes that hate me. Well I'll see everyone for my next story. Oh and lucky Joel, he had an HD version of Jak X. Really, why didn't Naughty Dog put that with the other three games? I would have like that.

Jak: Haha

Jet: Okay it is now 3:20 in the morning. I'm going to bed. Oh also I got a firefly tee-shirt.