Chapter 10

Ellie was heartbroken. She spent all this time caring for this man. Heck, she even saved his life a couple of times. And how does he repay her? By shooting her surrogate mother. She didn't really know why he did it, but the fact that he did it made her furious. She stopped listening to what he was saying right when she heard him say that he killed Marlene. She didn't want to believe it but knew that he couldn't be lying about something this serious and that he was completely capable of doing something like that. Just then, she heard the sound of the doorknob twist and she began to stare hard at the door.

"What the fuck are you doing up here Joel! I said I didn't - ...Oh. AJ. It's you."

She slowly started to calm down at the site of AJ. She didn't want him to see her looking like this, all broken down and in tears. He walked over and tried his best to comfort her.

"Look Ellie. I'm really sorry about what he did to Marlene. What he did was wrong. But I still think that you should listen to what he has to say."

"Why should I?"

"Because you're only aware of what he did. You didn't listen to why he did it. You're not realizing the bigger picture."

"Even if I find out why he did it, it's not going to bring back Marlene, is it!"

"Ellie. Listen. He said that they were going to kill you. Apparently they had to kill you in order to extract the vaccine from your brain."

She was in shock. Could it be true? Was she going to die at the hospital at the hands of the Fireflies without her permission? Either way, she still felt guilty because she was alive and all the people that she ever got close to were dead.

"Well maybe I wanted to sacrifice myself for the cure! Maybe I wanted to help the world. Make a difference. I shouldn't even be alive right now, but because of him, I am!"

"Ellie don't say that. I know it hurts but there's more to life than feeling guilty about what happened in the past. You have to move on. You're alive for a reason. You two were meant to be together as father and daughter. He loves you, and deep down, you know that you still love him too no matter what he did. Now I don't know about you, but I would die to have my dad back in my life. And I just don't want you two to grow apart because of a damn lie."

Ellie stared back at AJ in disbelief. He seemed to be emotionally worn out. It wasn't his job to help them make up, but he did it because he wanted to. She thought about and realized he was right. Being angry about this lie wasn't worth losing the closest thing to a father she's ever had. She decided that she needed to go back downstairs to Joel and get more answers from him.

"Alright. I guess you're right. Come on. I need to go talk to him."

AJ was proud of himself. He was happy that he was able to somehow able to change Ellie's mind about talking to Joel.

"See. I knew you couldn't live without your daddy."

She chuckled. "Shut up. Don't make me kick your ass."

He laughed. "Ouuuu. I'm so scared."

She didn't appreciate AJ's remarks at the moment and simply decided to ignore it for the time being.

"I'll deal with you later. I got more important things to do."

AJ laughed and followed close behind her. She walked up to Joel who was sitting with his head down on the table. He didn't even notice Ellie standing next to him when she began to speak.

"Hey..uhh..dad? Can we talk?"

He lifted his head in amazement. He couldn't believe that Ellie was talking to him again after what she had said. It was a miracle. He knew this was AJ's doing and he had to thank him somehow later on. He smiled at Ellie who returned it right back.

"Yeah sure thing kiddo. Look, I'm really sorry about..you know...but I can show you why I did it."

What did he mean show her? She didn't understand but was curious enough, so she let him continue. She witnessed him reach into his bag and pull out three recorders. They were the recorders from the hospital. One recorder had the voice of a doctor whereas the other two had Marlene's voice. One by one he played them out loud so that the three of them could hear every single word. Once he played all of them, he looked back at Ellie.

She had a blank look on her face. She couldn't believe it. Marlene was going to kill her. And she didn't even have the decency to tell her to her face. She looked back at Joel and felt really bad about all the things she had said to him. Now she realized why he had done it. He loved her so much and he couldn't handle losing another daughter. They needed each other and they did everything they could to make sure that the other was okay. Before she knew it, she was hugging Joel so tight as if she never wanted to let him go. He hugged her back knowing how hurt and desperate she was for comfort at the time.

"Promise me. Promise me that you'll never leave me." She said.

He kissed her on the forehead. "Oh baby girl. I promise."

She gave him the smallest hint of a smile. They were silent for a while until Joel tried changing the subject.

"So, were you guys able to find Tommy and Maria?"

Ellie didn't want to be the one to break the bad news to Joel. She nudged AJ telling him to tell Joel what happened.

"Well Joel. I'm sorry to tell you this. But you're brother...he's dead."

Joel's face turned pale. He couldn't believe his ears. After so many years of knowing that his little brother was around to comfort him when he needed him the most, he was gone. Ellie noticed Joel's state and hugged him immediately.

"I'm so sorry dad. We tried. But we were too late."

Joel was still very upset but then he realized something. They had only mentioned Tommy. They hadn't mentioned anything about Maria.

"What about Maria?"

Ellie let out a huge sigh. Joel instantly expected disappointment. "We didn't find her. That guy Earl from Tommy's crew. You remember him? Yeah he was captured too and we were able to save him. He told us that he would go looking for Maria but we haven't seen him since. And we saw him 2 days ago."

"Well seeing as though we didn't notice them on our way back, we have no choice but to assume the worst. They're most likely dead. And it's too dangerous for us to go back and look for them."

"Yeah I know."

He tried to change the subject. He was tired of this talk that was making them all depressed.

"Alright. I think we should eat and get some sleep. We've been on a hell of a ride as of late and we need to get as much sleep as we can get."

"Yeah. You got that right. Let's eat!" said AJ.

They prepared their meal. They made a whole pot of stir fry. It tasted more delicious than ever considering the fact that they hadn't had a lot to eat in days. Once they were done, and all the plates were washed, Joel went over to Ellie and AJ.

"So kids. What did you guys want to do tomorrow? I reckon we should try to have a little fun sooner rather than later."

"Hunting! No. Swimming! No. Guitar! No." said Ellie.

AJ chuckled. "How about we do all three? It'd be the most fun we had since you guys got here."

"Great idea. Can we do all three dad? Please!"

He couldn't resist. There they were again. Those big, green, beautiful eyes. It's like every time he looked at them, he was under her control or something. Nevertheless, he gave in, and they were set to go hunting, swimming, and learn to play the guitar the very next day.

"Well looks like we got a busy day ahead of ourselves tomorrow. Get some rest kids."

And so the three of them dozed off to sleep, knowing that they were in store for some hard earned fun the following day.