Chapter 25

It had now been 3 days since Joel, Ellie, and AJ had returned from their journey. It was probably 3 of the most peaceful days of their lives. They didn't have to deal with any infected or hunters. For once, they were just able to sit back and live life like the good old days. However, Ellie still had a broken leg to deal with, which made her quite upset that she couldn't do anything that she thought would be fun. She had woken up to the bright sun shining directly in her eyes, and when she sat up, she noticed Joel and AJ sitting right by her side.

"Good morning! Did you guys even get any sleep?"

They looked at each other and then chuckled.

"Yeah we did kiddo. We just wanted to check up on you to make sure you were doing alright."

"Oh. Well I'm fine."

"Good. Here. I brought you some breakfast. We already ate, so no need to worry about us."

He turned around and grabbed a plate. He turned back to face Ellie and handed her a plate with a tuna sandwich.

"Tuna? God. You know I hate tuna."

"Yeah well, you can't always get what you want baby girl."

"Well tuna's kinda shitty. But I'm starving, so I don't really have much of a choice."

She took a big bite of the sandwich and looked up at AJ. She noticed him starting to chuckle and immediately questioned him.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing. It's just...when you're starving...you look funny when you finally get food in your mouth."

"Shutup."

She playfully punched his arm and laughed. It went quiet for a couple of seconds before Joel grabbed Ellie's arm and started to speak.

"Ellie, do you mind if AJ and I go out to look for more supplies?"

"Can I come with you?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea." He hinted at her by pointing at her leg.

She sighed. "Yeah...I guess you're right. Alright, go ahead."

"You sure you're going to be okay to be alone for a little while?"

"Yeah I'll be fine. You don't need to worry about me all the time dad. I can handle myself, remember."

"I know you can honey. But you're not in any condition to be movin' around." He motioned over to AJ. "Alright kid. C'mon. Let's go scrounge up some supplies."

They walked down the stairs but stopped half way when they heard Ellie shout something at them.

"Hurry back! I'm going to be bored out of my mind in here!"

"We won't take long. I promise." said Joel.

Joel proceeded to continue walking down the steps but AJ just stood still. He felt bad that Ellie had to lie in bed all day with nothing to do. He wanted her to at least have some kind of fun while they were gone. He remembered that Joel told him that her walkman was broken and that gave him an idea. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Joel's voice.

"Aren't you coming?"

"Yeah..I just need to give something to Ellie first. Be right back."

Before Joel could even respond, AJ leapt up the stairs and ran into his room. He sifted through his backpack before finding what he was looking for. He casually walked over to Ellie's room.

"Hey Ellie. Got a sec?"

"Yeah. What's up? I thought you guys would be gone by now."

He scratched the back of his head before speaking again. "Uhh well, I felt bad about leaving you behind. I didn't want you to be as bored. And then I remembered Joel telling me that your walkman was broken. So here."

He handed her a walkman and a recorder. A big smile started to slowly appear on her face. It had been quite a while since she was able to listen to a walkman.

"Thanks! But don't you want it?"

"Nah. That's alright. You can have it. Don't use it much anymore. I don't know if you'll like the same music I do, but I hope you find something you like in there. We'll be back soon."

"Alright."

He gave her a wink before exiting the room. He ran back down the stairs and met up with Joel.

"Ready to go AJ?"

"Sure thing."

"Alright. Let's get a move on."

Ellie sat on her bed thinking about a number of things. She was so happy that she finally got the chance to listen to some music again. The last time her walkman worked was back in the Boston QZ. She sat there, staring at the walkman for what seemed like minutes before turning it on and plugging the head phones into her ears. She was really happy with what she heard. AJ's taste in music satisfied her needs completely. He actually had a couple of songs that Ellie had on her old walkman which made her quite happy as well. She got a little excited and turned up the volume but realized that it wasn't such a good idea considering the possibility of infected entering the house, so she decided to keep the music in her ears playing at a low volume. She had a habit of looking down when she listened to music. It was then that she noticed the recorder that AJ gave her lying on the bed. She instantly became curious.

"Why would he give me this?" she said to herself.

She unplugged the headphones from the walkman and put it into the recorder. She pressed play and was surprised by what she heard. It was AJ's voice. It was a message directed towards Ellie. She started to tear up in joy. He was expressing his feelings towards her through the recording. She thought it was really sweet of him but she also thought that it was kind of funny.

"Man. This is really sweet. It's so like him. He doesn't have the balls to say all these things to my face." she said to herself.

When the recording stopped, she pressed the next button to see if there was anything else on the recorder. She didn't expect him to have anything else on there, but to her surprise, there was, and it was the last thing she expected. She heard a voice starting to sing while strumming the guitar and she immediately became interested.

"Oh my god! No fucking way! He can sing too. Okay. I'm definitely going to make him sing for me whether he likes it or not! Joel did it, so why can't he?" she thought.

AJ's singing voice wasn't what she expected either. He was a fun guy and she loved him for that, but she expected his music to be somewhat more dark and gloomy in a way. But it wasn't. His song was so beautiful and soulful. He had such a beautiful voice. The thing she liked the most about the song was that it was about her. Joel had sung a song about her, but this was different. Joel sang a song that was written by someone else. It still meant the world to her, but this meant a lot more, considering that she knew for a fact that AJ spent the time looking for words to describe Ellie in a song.

When the song stopped she held it right by her heart for a few moments before replaying it. She was hooked to it. She liked it a lot. She couldn't wait until he got home. She missed him even more after listening to his message to her and his song about her. She wanted to show him somehow how much she actually appreciated what he did for her. But what could she do? What was a girl to do for the boy that loved her so much? She decided to erase the thought from her mind for the time being. She would deal with it later. She took the headphones out of ears and started thinking about the two men that were left in her life.

"I hope they come home soon."

A/N

Hey guys! Sorry for not posting any chapters for the last couple of days. I've been somewhat lazy and couldn't really come up with any ideas. But nevertheless, here is the next chapter in the story. I hope you enjoy it. As always, make sure to leave a review telling me what you think. Thanks.