A/N: So this is the first fanfiction I've ever written, so be forgiving if I make some mistakes (characterization, too short, etc.). I've had this concept going in my head for a while and figured that I should put it on paper, and what's a better place to do that than here? This is just a prologue, so the following chapters will take place after the ending of the game. I'll take any kind of criticism, because it is all constructive. Hope you guys enjoy!

BASED ON THE NAUGHTY DOG VIDEO GAME

Chapter 1: Prologue

"You can try beggin'."

The relentless fire that gnawed at the walls and ceiling of the restaurant was the least of her concerns as the monster of a man bared down on her with all his might. He had her by the hair, grasping her ponytail and forcing her face first into the carpet, as his weight kept her pinned to the floor.

Somehow, she managed to spit back, "Fuck you!"

A chuckle came from above, as she felt her small frame spun around to land on her back. He sat on top of her, like as if she belonged to him, and he was setting her straight. A meaty, calloused hand clamped down hard over her throat as her breathe began to draw short and desperate, fighting to come out. Tears welled up in her eyes from the pain as the vision of his face blurred from her view. His crooked grin sent chills down her spin.

The machete that she had been fighting so hard to get to was just a little out of her reach, lying unnoticed to her attacker above under the booth of the table that had once housed families, just wanting a meal. She fought harder than she could have ever remembered fighting before, battling against his iron like grasp for the weapon that would bring an end to her torment. From her view, that machete looked ever so friendly.

"You think you know me, huh..."

His grip on her throat grew stronger, more violent, as she began to lose the ability to breathe. Holding her breath, knowing that when it ran out, and she tried to inhale, she would suffocate, thanks to the maniac that held her.

Her arm explored the floor, desperately trying to find the machete that was just right there, right in her reach, as she so wanted the pain to end.

"Well let me tell ya somethin'..."

The cold metal feeling on her fingertips brought a new strength, a new rage that filled her weakening body with a fresh jolt of energy that wasn't there before, had never been there before. She grabbed hold of it, letting it slide down into her full grasp, the new feeling of power overwhelming.

"You have no idea what I'm capable of..."

And neither do you...

She swung, with all her might, with all the built up strength that had just arrived to push her forward, and she felt the wet resistance on the momentum as the blade hit its target. The new, deep gash in his arm squirt blood like a hose down onto her face, as his grip left her throat and focused more on the new wound at his side. Holding it, caressing it, wanting to make it better again, he suddenly came to a realization that he was done for. Falling to his side, Ellie jumped from the floor and landed hard on top of him. Even with the begging hand that he held to her, pleading for his pathetic life, she took another hefty swing, which cleaved the monster's face in two.

Unsatisfied, she took another swing, and another, and another. The blood that squirted up into her face burned her eyes, so she shut them tight and kept swinging relentlessly at her target until what had once been a human head was now an unrecognizable hunk of red meat. She knew what he intended to do to her, what his goal was. And it terrified her, almost beyond repair, as she kept swinging, hoping that each would also erase that bit of his face from her memory.

The machete then went straight through the weak flesh, striking the floorboards and lodging its way in between, startling her as she realized it was stuck. Reaching for it frantically, grabbing hold of the hilt and yanking upward, she realized it wasn't coming out. It increased her state of panic, suddenly defenseless. Then, as if on cue, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her, pulling her from the horror against her will as she fought against the new attacker.

"Let go of me!"

Ellie felt herself swung to the side, falling to her knees as the new attacker intended. She struggled at his mighty grip, but was failing as her tiring body betrayed her. Then, she heard his voice.

"Ellie! Ellie!"

How did the bastard know her name.

"Don't fucking touch me!"

She realized that his touch was consoling, comforting, as if it was to calm her down, to make everything better.

"It's me, Ellie."

No, no it couldn't be him. There was know way. The last time Ellie saw him, he was back at camp, lying on the mattress with a heavy fever setting in, a huge hole in his chest bleeding profusely. It couldn't be possible that he was standing above her, right in front of her, after a period of less than twenty-four hours.

She looked up, trying desperately to look through the thick tears that streamed as rivers down her cheeks, and she was staring directly into Joel's brown eyes.

"It's me."

Her incessant pants exhausted her even more, as she looked up at her rescuer and just about collapsed into his chest. Sobs began to rack her body as she knew what she had just been the brink on.

"H-He tried to..."

Pulling her in closer, into a full embrace, his soothing voice brought the rest of the world to a stop. There was no longer the burning fire that surrounded them, no longer the body of the monster that had just violated her, no longer the hunters that were stalking them to no end, it was just them.

"Oh, baby girl... I'm so sorry."

The next few words that had left his lips knocked any fears or any dirty feeling out of the equation. Calling her baby girl did something inside of her, sparked something that had not been there before, even on top of the caring and consolation. It was love. An undying love that was born between the two right then and there in that burning restaurant, and it meant so much to her. Ellie knew what those two words meant: they were what he had called his daughter Sarah so long ago. It almost made her feel guilty, as if she was replacing her. As if she had stolen her love. That couldn't be it, though. The thoughts there themselves brought even more tears to her eyes, as Ellie's sobs grew more frantic.

Unknown to her, Joel was crying too. Crying with her, as his own tears streamed down to mix with hers on the rusty carpet. He held her tight to his chest, trying desperately to fight off the emotion, to be strong for her. But, it was a failing task. This little girl had brought so much light into his dark world, and healed an old wound that he thought would have never gone away. She had been so strong over the past year, so giddy. So happy, so energetic. She was almost oblivious to the horrors that surrounded them, it seemed. However, to see her like this, it tore him to the core, and so he let it out with her, not allowing any space between them.

It felt like hours, just the two of them holding onto each other, not willing to part, until Joel's emotions slowed down, the ringing in his ears stopped, and his dreadful thoughts floated away. He lifted an arm, wiping away the tears, sniffing to keep it hidden from her, and pulled her back, interrupting her own sobbing. Placing both of his hands on her cheeks, he looked right into her emerald eyes and began talking to her, soothing her as he knew how, trying to be strong for her in the wake of such devastation.

The words were muffled, unheard through the ringing and the burning, but Ellie heard them clear as day, and it shoved the tears away for the moment. They were words only Joel and Ellie heard.

Bringing her to her feet, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and took one of her hands in his other, and felt it squeeze his palm tightly. With that, he led Ellie out of the still burning restaurant and out into the blizzard before them, leaving behind the blood-stained machete that bored right into the floor that had once been David's face.

The only place Joel could landmark was the cabin he had woke up in hours before, so he decided that it was definitely their best, and only, option. Now carrying Ellie in his arms, her tiring figure requiring such attention, he pushed his way through the thickening snow as the flakes that fell from the sky above blocked his view. His knees began to hurt, fighting against nature as it tried hard to push him to the ground.

Ellie had her arms wrapped around his neck, her face buried in his shoulder as she shook violently in his arms. Joel felt relief as he found the resort cabin hidden in so much white. He felt so lucky over the fact that the two of them had not encountered one hunter after the restaurant, so the only trouble had been getting there.

Forcing the front door open, he closed it behind them and locking both locks on the knob tightly, forcing it as far as it would go until his rough, tan fingers grew white. Joel landed hard with his back on the wall and slide down until he sat with Ellie sprawled out in his lap. She was still crying.

"Baby girl, it's okay now. We're safe. We're safe."

He rubbed his fingers through her auburn hair, which was still drenched with snow and sweat, and blood. They both were. Her sobbing wasn't loud like it had been before, not what Joel could categorize as hysteric. It was just a low, steady sound that echoed through the hallway. Her tears stained a large, wet spot on his gray t-shirt and jacket as he began to cradle her gently and softly. Burying his face into her hair, he felt relief as her crying came to a well-deserved end, and they both clung to each other as much as they could, as Joel rocked slowly and surely to the left, and then to the right. Ellie couldn't stand any distance between them, so she pulled her own face into his chest, smelling the damn cologne that he still bothered to put on even in times like this. It almost made her laugh.

They just sat their, rocking, desperately trying to keep the demons at bay. Their own thoughts weren't that far apart, because they all revolved around the opposite person that sat in the hallway with them. Their steady breathing synced as they quietly came to an understanding that love was with out a doubt now realistic. Neither, however, being the hard heads they were, would come to admit it for a long time. They just sat there, among the dreadful thoughts of what could have happened if this went that way, or if that went this way, as the tears began to return.

Ellie finally spoke up.

"J-Joel."

Her voice was muffled in his shirt, but he could still hear it as clear as day. Bringing his head up, he looked down at the emerald eyes of the fourteen year old that he held in his arms, which were red and near raw from what he could tell had been caused by pain that had started long before he had gotten there. He brushed her hair from her forehead as she allowed him to do it. His touch did the opposite of what she'd expect after what David had done to her, it gave her a feeling of comfort, of peace. With that, she wrapped her arms further around his abdomen.

"Ellie..."

Neither of them could form words, but just looked at each other with a longing wish for an end to such torment. Fuck the Fireflies, and fuck the world around them. What truly mattered right then and there was them, and them alone.

"They... they were going to..."

"Just, don't Ellie... don't even think about what could have happened. The two of us made it here, safe and sound. That's all that matters now."

"Joel, I... I can't just stop thinking about it."

He looked down at her again, pulling himself from the cold stare he was giving the wall, and opened his ears fully to listen.

"What happened, while I was out."

She told him the story, of how when he passed out at the University, she had carried him the rest of the way, through the mall with the helicopter where she had seen the group of soldiers, or the aftermath anyway, where she got the medication. Ellis, and Regan, a story brought to a tragic end.

Then, she continued with how she'd found the cabin resort that they were sitting in right now, and how she'd gone out hunting one morning, finding and killing a deer, and how doing so brought her face to face with David.

She had to stop there, where she began to shake incessantly and violently, but Joel's touch on her sides brought her back from the brink of a mental breakdown, and she sighed heavily. Her voice shook as she continued.

"He had said... that everything happens for a reason..."

Of course. Of course that's how he thought.

"and that... that his men... from the university..."

Joel nodded, getting the picture now.

"T-that they'd been slaughtered, by a crazy man."

She then pointed up to him.

"You."

A small chuckle escaped him as the minuscule smile that formed on his lips surprised him. A crazy man, huh?

"He then said that... it wasn't my fault, and I could accompany him. T-that he'd... protect me."

"Ellie, you don't have to say anymore. I get the picture."

He could see the torture in her eyes as he reassured her, rubbing her silky hair through his fingers as she looked up at him almost with relief.

He easily put the rest of the pieces together. There was no more need for an explanation, especially from Ellie.

"I was so afraid Joel."

He was surprised then that he was successful in pulling Ellie closer to him.

"I was so scared... that I'd come back, and that you'd be gone."

Her voice began to crack again, and Joel came to a full realization how much he meant to her, and how much she meant to him.

"Ellie, everything's going to be okay. We're going to find the Fireflies, and be done with the whole damn thing. Then, we'll go wherever you want to, okay?"

She nodded, and inhaled with a shaky breath before lying back down onto him.

"I'm not going anywhere. Whether you like it or not, Ellie, you're stuck with me."

Despite the confident tone in his voice, he felt doubt. Doubt that came from the fact that he'd almost died already in front of Ellie, and that scared him even more. He felt the urge to cry again, for her, for the pain that she felt. Knowing he had to be strong, he was successful in fighting back the tears this time, but just barely. Seeing Ellie near broken in his arms broke his heart, and he didn't know what to do about it, so he changed the topic to something else, something to keep them thinking of anything else.

"I'm sorry, Ellie."

She looked up at him, near startled.

"For what?"

He cleared his clenching throat, realizing that he was not as good at holding back the emotions as he thought, so he just started talking.

"Back at the cabin... back at Tommy's, I said things..."

"Joel."

She pulled herself up, to where she could evenly see his face and pull him into a perfect embrace. He hugged her back, tightly and warmly, feeling her breath on his neck as he closed his eyes, the tears betraying him and peaking out of his closed eyelids.

"I'm sorry too, Joel."

Her own voice was cracking again, and he knew that it was because his own was as well. He had to keep himself strong for her, no matter how much it hurt. No matter how much he wanted to give in at times.

"I need you to promise me..."

Joel pulled Ellie back, staring directly into her own tear stained eyes with his, and placed a hand on her cheek.

"You promise me that you'll never leave me. No matter what, we stick together on this, you hear?"

He nodded, not wanting the emotions to betray him again.

"I promise you Ellie."

He put a finger on her chin, lifting her face up as it began to drag back down. He then remembered something that she'd said to him back at Tommy's.

Everyone that I have cared for has either died, or left me...

"As long as I'm still kicking, as long as I'm still breathing, you'll never be alone, Ellie. You have my word."

Ellie glanced back at Joel, a new light in her eyes that had been absent for so long, and a small, hopeful grin tugged at her lips, even with fresh tears streaming back down her red cheeks.

"Okay."