The three followed Ellis into the house where they could hear him in the bathroom, cursing lowly, as they could guess that he was trying to patch him self up.
As Coach and Nick got the door barricaded, Rochelle gently knocked on the door.
"Ellis, sweetie, are you sure you don't want any help?"
"I'm fine, and I repeat my earlier statement,"
"Ellis, no one thinks that," She cast an eye over at Nick.
All she got was a snort, and a humorless laugh. She sighed and moved away from the door. When she was close enough to Nick she hit him on the back of the head. He didn't mind, she could have made him wrestle a tank, no guns, no nothing, and he would still feel better than how he did now.
Ellis came out of the bath room, wrapped up, sort of ok-ish. With out even looking at the three he grabbed ammo, and reloaded his weapons.
"I'll search the rest of the house for supplies, and to see if its stable for the night," and with that Ellis went up stairs.
A little while later, he came down and his arms were full of food and a few more, better, health kits, and some high dose pain killers. Rochelle thanked him, and she got a shrug, that left Ellis wincing.
"Why don't you go to sleep, honey, you had a long day," Rochelle asked Ellis, after they had eaten and it was getting awkward with Nick trying to talk to Ellis and Ellis just shrugging, each time with a wince.
"Sure, whatever," And Ellis laid down, and was asleep pretty quickly.
Once Ellis's snores filled the room, Rochelle and Coach both let Nick have it.
"See what you did, he thinks that he's a burden, and probably won't listen to us that he's not," Rochelle rubbed her temples.
"Its gotta be you Nick, you need to get out old Ellis back," Coach finished her thought.
"I'll try," Nick said, staring at the table.
"There is going to be no trying, your going to get him back," Rochelle said in a threatening voice. "Now were going to bed, you get to watch the door,"
And with that her and Coach went and laid down, Nick watching the door.
About 2 hours later, Nick still had no clue how to get Ellis back, he knows he does care about the young mechanic, but he doesn't know how to express it. Hearing someone get up he turned to see Ellis up, and grabbing a shot gun.
"What are you doing?" Nick asked.
"Gonna keep watch, go to bed," He bluntly said, pointing to where he had just risen from.
Nick tried to argue, but Ellis just shook his head and pointed to the bed until Nick did as told.
The next morning, Ellis was still up and there was food on the table. There was actually ham and eggs, on four plates.
"Where on earth did you get this?" Rochelle asked, dumbstruck, sitting down at one of the plates.
"Found the ham, salted in a barrel and powdered eggs, in a metal container, Ellis shrugged.
"Mmmm," Coach hummed biting into the ham. "I haven't tasted something this good, since my wife was turned. Ellis just nodded his head.
"Thank you Ellis," Nick said, but was met with a shrug.
Ellis picked at his, then with a look like he remembered something, he got up and walked into another room.
"wonder what that was about?" Rochelle pondered.
Her question was answered, when Ellis cam back with four glasses and two cans that said orange just on the side.
"You are a god sent," Coach said, as Ellis poured them all a glass and drained him.
"Not really," He picked up his plate and finished his food, then went to the door, watching for anything.
The other three finished their food and juice then were ready to go.
All that day Nick tried to either talk to Ellis, or to help him, neither he accepted. Nor would he let the accept the healing of the others.
That night Ellis surprised them with more ham and some candy bars, then fell asleep.
This time it was Coach that was surprised when Ellis got up and forced him to sleep, with out another word. The same thing happened the night after that, but with Rochelle.
When they were getting up the next morning, Nick finally got an idea, and ran it by Rochelle.
"Sounds pretty good, lets just pray it works," She patted him on the shoulder lightly.
That day Ellis was grabbed by two hunters, a smoker, and a jockey. All of them tried to heal him, but he wouldn't allow it.
That night, thank the stars, they were in another two connecting hotel rooms, that were really secure so no one had to keep watch.
Ellis was in one room, while the others were in the other. Nick got up and went to the door, he took a deep breath and let it out, then opened the door and went into the room.
