He'd liked Ellis six hours ago. He really had. But the more he thought about it, the more he found himself not wanting to think about the kid.

He'd laughed off Zoey's playful gibes in the hospital about how he'd look in one of the gowns and at the airport where she'd repeatedly told him his row wasn't boarding yet. But, in reality, every teasing remark, every shared joke over movie lines and every quiet moment of understanding during the eerie hours of the watches they'd shared together made him ache. He ached because he had not met this hilarious, vulnerable, courageous, amazing girl before the end of the damn world. Because if he suspended his disbelief enough, sometimes he thought they could have had a shot together before all this...

But then Ellis had appeared and announced repeatedly to his companions that she was just so bee-yoo-ti-ful until they'd finally fallen out of earshot. And when he, Coach, Rochelle, and Colonel Sanders had miraculously appeared on the other side of the bridge he was still yammering on about how good she looked with a gun and how he wouldn't forget her. She'd called after him too, lamenting that she hadn't gone along with him.

Suddenly feeling like a whiny sixth grader, Louis struggled to his feet and limped out to the open deck of the bridge where Zoey was sitting and keeping watch while he and Francis were supposed to be sleeping inside. She was lazily scoping out and disposing of the few remaining Infected as they meandered toward the bridge. He was about to comment on a particularly good head shot she made when he noticed her face was coated in tears that she kept angrily wiping away.

"Bill?" he asked, guessing the cause of her anguish.

"Yup."

"You wanna be alone?"

"No, it's okay. I wouldn't mind the company." He gingerly sat down beside her, carefully stretching out his injured leg.

"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" she asked.

"Couldn't in between all this thinkin' I've been doing and Francis snoring like a freight train." The corners of her mouth twitched as if it wanted to smile.

"I kinda wish we'd gone with the other guys now," she said. "I mean, not all the way to the military again, but it'd be pretty cool to be riding around in a stock car instead of sitting up here. And Ellis's dumb stories would make me not think about...well...what happened."

"Sure," Louis said tersely. He knew his response was rude, almost biting, but hell if he wanted to hear her talk about Ellis again. Couldn't she tell how it was affecting him? She hadn't joked with Ellis about hospital gowns and airplane seating. Ellis didn't know that her parents were divorced or that she liked zombie movies.

And Ellis had definitely not been there in that one awful moment back in Riverside when a Tank had thrown Zoey clear across a room or seen her head smash into the wall or watched her fall into a horrifyingly motionless heap. Nor had he taken her bloody face into his hands and felt as though he'd been reborn when she blinked back up at him. It was not to Ellis that she whispered "I knew you wouldn't leave me." Ellis had left her in Rayford while he sped off to New Orleans in his fancy car. Louis was still here.

"Hey. You okay?" Zoey's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "You sorta zoned out there, huh?"

"Uh...yeah, sorry. Let's not talk about Ellis." She gave him a strange look.

"Um...okay."

"Okay, good."

"What's this about, Louis? I thought you liked the guy."

"I appreciate his optimism."

"You appreciate-what the hell, man? What's wrong?"

"You...you just..." Louis found himself stumbling. "You don't know the guy, and you're already wanting to run off to New Orleans with him."

"Because he's funny. It's not like I'm gonna marry-oh." Realization dawned suddenly on her face. "You're jealous."

"No, I'm-"

"I didn't think you had it in you," she teased, playfully elbowing him in the side. "Louis has another emotion besides endless happiness."

"Sure." She reached over and took his hand in hers.

"I'm not going to just take off with another group of Survivors. We're a family. A broken one now..." She looked mournfully down at the generator. "But a family. And families don't forsake each other."

"Yeah," he said, cracking a grin. "A family." She suddenly pointed out in the distance to an orange streak in the sky.

"Sun's coming up. We should get going soon. I'll wake Francis."

"Have fun with that," he teased, squeezing her hand. She rose to her feet and stretched before propping her hunting rifle up against the railing.

"We'll talk about this later, okay?" she promised. "Let's get to the Keys and get settled."

"Definitely," he agreed. She made her way over to the doorway of the small shelter Francis was sleeping under and paused just outside of it.

"Although, I do want to say that I've always thought interracial kids are really cute." She disappeared into the shelter to wake Francis before her words registered in Louis's mind.

"Wait, what?"

Author's Note: Please know that I absolutely adore Ellis, so don't think I'm trying to bash him in this fic. I just adore Louis/Zoey even more.