Author's note: I'm back everyone! I just moved into my first apartment and had to get another computer because my old crashed! Eventful summer indeed. Anyway, I've been playing The Last of us and if you haven't yet, you totally should! Can you tell my new computer doesn't have spellcheck? Just a short but I'm still proud of it hope you enjoy, might write more when I get farther into the game, thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story itself.

Ellie looked over and spotted that Joel was hunched over the steering wheel of the car they had finally been able to get. (With the help of Billy) She figured that it had just been a long time since he had driven or had even sat in a car; they weren't exactly plentiful in this day in age. In fact, she had only had one over encounter with a car before. The few that were running today all seemed to be in the hands of the military.

She glanced over and saw they were indeed only going 50m/h. "Hey Joel?" She asked but decided to continue when she received a grunt in response. "Why are we going so slow, the car can go a lot faster than this ya know?" Joel's frown only grew larger, which made Ellie mentally slap herself; great way to piss off the person who you need to help you.

"These roads are dangerous and overrun with problems from not being used. It would be suicide to go any faster." Joel answered quickly, which surprised Ellie. They hadn't exactly talked since the drive had begun and she had just figured that he was blaming her for Tess. It had kind of been her fault after all.

Joel was probably the most forgiving person that she had ever met and Ellie was so thankful that this was the way her journey was going. She had started to be thankful for a lot of things since she had been bitten; living, not changing into a monster, being able to leave that rotten hellhole that she had lived her entire life in. The list was so much longer than that and she only hoped that it would just grow larger as time went on. In her 14 years of life she had seen a lot of people just give up hope for their lives, not all old people either; despair seemed to start young.

She wondered if older people had an easier time holding on because they had memories of better days and times when food was an everyday thing. Speaking of food, neither one of them had eaten since they started this journey and right now she really wished she could have packed some; but she hadn't had any to pack. Her stomach growled at the thought of food and she grimaced, it was painful but she had gone much longer without food before.

Joel glanced over at her when her stomach growled again, "Sorry." She mumbled, it was embarrassing that she could control her bodily noises. "When is the last time you had something to eat?" The question caught her slightly off guard, that wasn't a question someone asked these days. People worked for food or starved, and children never got hired even on the daily bases, no one cared for street children like her.

"A couple of days ago." That sounded better than the real answer of last week at least. Joel's eyes still widened at the words though; great that wasn't the right thing to say then. "Jesus girl, how the hell ya even been keeping up? Get the jerky from my pack and eat that, can't have ya starving to death after dragging your ass for so long." Joel said with frown.

Ellie couldn't help but just look over at him for a moment after that, it was like Joel was an angel shot straight into his life. Now he was letting her eat some of his food to, that tough guy act he put on sure had a buttery soft center! At the she smiled and whispered, "Thanks Joel." Joel glanced over at her once more, "For what kid?"

"For caring."