"WHATEVER IT TAKES"
An Ellie oneshot
(inspired by the game "The Last Of Us")

The air is the freshest it's been in a while, it's actually...breathable. The sky is clear and the breeze is crisp, while the sun lightly showers it's warmth upon us. All I can say is that I'm glad winter has come and gone. It may be just fine over in the west, but out here in the east, a little north of what used to be Washington D.C. [I'm told], it gets intensely cold. Like, so cold your fingers literally freeze into place and almost drop off if you don't have proper gloves on.

Joel told me that everything would be just fine after we got back to Tommy's base camp. To be honest I was a little skeptical at first. The first time we had gone there Tommy's wife and their crew hadn't exactly welcomed us with open arms. I guess that's what happens when you've got too much bad history with people. Not the mention a whole bunch of surprises which came in the form of...well...me.
But thankfully "time heals all wounds". That's one of the many famous life quotes Joel once told me. And he was right. Even though it took some time for everyone to get use to living together at the base, eventually we became one big happy family. Joel and Tommy actually made up. Tommy's wife had a beautiful baby boy and Joel [bless his damn, stubborn heart] actually allowed himself to grieve properly for his daughter Sarah. He always said that she and I would've been great friends, had she still been alive. Hearing about her kinda tore my heart up because even though I hadn't known her, I felt connected to Joel so much because of the time we had spent together, that I felt like I knew her. And of course there's another part of the story...Joel and me.

After a three long months of taking on a death-wreaked winter Joel had finally made the decision for me to become part of his family, like officially! We had touched base on the topic quite a few times, but we hadn't come to any conclusions. I guess that was due to all the stuff that was still going on in our lives. But we made it through, whatever it took, as always. And now I'm officially known as Joel's daughter and he is my dad, even though I still call him Joel from time to time. I've gotta say, I'm probably the happiest I've ever been since my days with Riley back at the base in the quarantine zone, where we used to wreak havoc on the locals. If only she had been with us, she could've seen how amazing life is right now. I still think about her every day. She was like a sister to me. And even though all of that intensely crappy stuff happened, she'll still be with me in my heart, just like Sarah is in Joel's...I mean Dad's heart.

As far as the rest of our life together is concerned we're all doin' pretty good for ourselves. I mean we're not a super city or anything. We still have to go out and hunt for fresh food, seek out anything salvageable, as well as take down the occasional scavenger or infected that we come across.
I wish I could say that the fighting and death part of our lives is over and that we can live in peace. But if there's one thing I've learnt from all of my time with my dad it's this...
No matter what's happenin' around us or where we find ourselves, we forge our own path. We determine our own destiny and we pursue happiness in every spare moment we can. We do whatever it takes.