"We made it Nick!" Ellis cried, grinning towards his close friend. "We killed those sons of bitches."
Nick chuckled slightly, but suddenly frowned.
"What is it Ni-" Ellis started to ask, looking down where Nick was and stopped himself from continuing his question.
"Oh..." he whispered, shaking his head. "Oh no... Nick..."
Nick blinked and a few tears fell from his eyes. "You remember her?" he asked.
Ellis nodded not even a second after he asked the question.
"I'm so sorry," Ellis whispered in the saddest tone.
Nick shrugged. "Even if it turned out to be you who killed her..." he gulped and held back the tears that wanted to come bursting out all at once. "I could never be mad at you and... I understand."
He sighed, looking back at his niece's dead body for the last time. "She's better now though. She's no longer one of them."
Ellis nodded, putting a soft hand down on Nick's shoulder. "Yeah, she's... she's in a better place now Nick..." he whispered reassuringly.
Nick nodded and looked away.
"Let's get out of here," Ellis suggested. "I don't like it when you're this upset."
Nick nodded and sighed, shrugging.
"Let's go home..." Elllis' face formed a slight half-grin.
Nick grinned slightly and chuckled. "Yeah, wherever 'home' is now..." he sighed.
One Month Later
"Nick! Ellis is coming over soon. You can't keep avoiding him forever!" Elliot, his older sister, called upstairs from the kitchen.
From the smell of it, she was making Ellis' favorite macaroni casserole.
Nick also smelled a slight hint of bacon in the air; he'd most likely slept through breakfast.
He groaned and got up, going straight to the bathroom and staring at his unshaven beard.
He hadn't shaved since he saw his niece's dead body with Ellis about a month ago.
Bending down, he opened up the cabinet under the sink and found his razor.
He sighed and shaved, knowing Ellis had never seen his beard before.
Even when they were fighting all those zombies and special infected, he'd stop and somehow always find something, anything, to shave any little hair that grew on his face, besides his eyebrows of course.
When he finished, he grabbed a towel and pat his face dry.
He stared at himself in the mirror and sighed.
"Only for you Ellis..." he whispered aloud to himself, smiling slightly.
Ellis awkwardly walked up the sidewalk and up the small fight of stairs to Nick's house.
He slowly reached his hand up to ring the doorbell.
Suddenly before he could even reach the bell, the door flew open and he sort of jumped at the surprising sight he saw in front of him...Nick!
"Nick!" he cried, smiling shyly. "I was just about to ring the doorbell and-"
Nick chuckled, letting Ellis inside.
"Elliot told me she that she saw your car outside so I was headed out to see you." Nick explained.
Ellis grinned and let out a short chuckle as he walked inside and wiped his feet on the welcome mat.
"Hey Ellis!" Elliot smiled in her normal, always cheerful voice, giggling a little bit to herself.
Back when Nick and Ellis first met and Ellis told Nick his name, Nick actually thought Ellis had said Elliot and he told him about his sister.
Nick promised that Ellis and Elliot would meet one day and this was their second time seeing each other.
"Haven't seen you for a while..." she said.
Ellis nodded and gave her a hug.
"It's really been quite some time. Hasn't it?" he asked with a cute half-smile.
She smiled and nodded, looking at her brother.
Nick avoided eye contact with Ellis.
"Look at him!" Elliot commanded.
Elliot sort of jumped, startled again, and looked at her, realizing she was talking to her brother.
Nick slowly looked up at Ellis and smiled, looking over at his sister and glaring.
"There. You happy Elliot?" he asked.
She shrugged and walked into the kitchen with the silence of her accomplishment.
Ellis looked at Nick awkwardly.
"Soo," he grinned, playing with this hands and looking down at the ground. "How are things?"
Nick shrugged. "Honestly, and you haven't seen it before, I had a beard this morning."
Ellis nodded awkwardly, not knowing what to say.