Ellie woke up laying on the couch with a huge headache to the smell of toast.
"Glad to see you awake, kiddo." Joel said with a small smile. He brought a plate two slices of toast with honey spread on top and wild berries on the side. "Got some grub for ya." He set the plate down on the couch's armrest in front of her. She slightly pushed it away, indicating she wasn't hungry. He sighed at her unwillingness to eat. "Ya didn't have a thing yesterday either. Have this at least. Sit up for a sec." and sat next to her. She sluggishly sat up and slightly leaned some her weight on him. He grabbed the plate and handed her a slice of toast. She took it and looked helplessly into his eyes and took a small bite out of it. "Here drink some of this too." He said handing her a glass of water. She didn't realize how dry her mouth was but when she did it was unbearable and she thirstily gulped in a mouthful. "Whoa, pace yourself there." he said putting his hand on her shoulder and pulling the glass back a little. She gave a small nod and instead took tiny sips. There was a long pause where neither of them knew what to say. "So what happened yesterday when you where out?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" Ellie asked while looking away.
Without noticing he gently stroked her hair "Do you remember any of what happened last night?" he asked with concern.
"Umm..." she faintly said. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she realized she didn't remember anything past drinking the yellow mixture other than the pleasant feeling she had and a few faint memories of running back home. Instead she just shifted to lean away from him which forced him to stop brushing her hair. "I went to go explore." she said knowingly looking back into his eyes.
"That's what caused you to throw up, huh?" he questioned with an arched eyebrow, he suspected there was something more she was keeping from him.
She tried to keep her eyes from bursting out of her head in surprise. 'Shit, I threw up? I don't even remember that. He definitely knows something's up.'
They both looked towards the door as they heard a knock. "I'll only be a moment." he whispered to her before going to check who it was. He cracked the door open and then all the way when he saw it was Tommy but kept his body in front of the opening to shield Ellie from view.
"Hey Joel, how's it been?" Tommy asked with a wide grin "Ya free? Got some work and I need an extra pair of hands."
"Now's really not the best time. I'm sorry." Joel said politely.
"Is everything alright?" Tommy posed.
"No, there's a lot going on right now but I promise to be there next time." he tapped his foot impatiently wanting to get back to Ellie.
"Alright fine but seriously everyone needs to put in they're share around here. I can't be seen showing favourites just because you're family." Tommy said already walking off. Joel could tell he was upset and made a note to help out as soon as possible to keep good favour with the other citizens. He closed the door, took a breath and turned to talk to Ellie but saw she was gone.
"Ellie!?" he called out, worried by her sudden absence. He rushed to check her room and found her laying on her bed, facing the ceiling. "Watcha doin' in here?"
"I thought Tommy might come in." she said simply.
He nodded in response "I see." he sat on the edge of the bed "Listen we really need to talk about whatever happened yesterday, baby." he said softly trying to pry the truth from her.
She rolled over to lay on her side and put her hands over her ears. She didn't want to hear any of what he had to say and much less talk about it. She was scared that if she told him the truth he would see it as a way of justifying lying to her, a way of saying she was too young and naive to know. Frustration stung at her as she got off the bed and strode towards the front.
"Where are you going?" he said following after her.
"Out." she replied while opening the door.
"Ya know ya need to ask me first?" he asked rhetorically on his way to stop her.
"Why? You're not my dad, right?" she deadpanned before pulling the door closed behind her. He stopped in his tracks at her pointed words. His throat felt like it was closing up remembering the day he said those words, he put his head in his hands and sat down on the couch. He was starting to lose hope that them living at the dam would mean a new start.
Ellie walked through the streets with tears swelling in her eyes. As soon as she said the words she hated herself for it, she wanted to turn around, apologize and for him to hold her. Although every time she thought of going back she remembered the lie that he created that drove a wedge between them. 'If he wanted us to be closer he would tell the truth, right?' She saw a small building with the words library next to it and walked in. She saw a multitude of books arranged in different sections on many bookshelves. "Can I help you find something, dear?" said an old woman with greying hair.
"Uh comic books by chance?" Ellie shrugged.
"By the back over there." the woman said pointing to an area with more comic books than Ellie's ever seen. Ellie went over and examined the comics. There where multiple series that she never even heard of and took a bunch of issues from one called ghost rider. "Can I borrow these?" Ellie asked the old woman.
"Sure, just bring it her so I can write it down." she said "And what's your name?"
"Ellie." she answered and waited for the librarian to finish writing down her checkouts.
"All done. Just bring em in back two weeks or sooner. Have a nice day." she said handing her back the comics.
"Thanks." Ellie said before leaving. She was walking but didn't know to where. She couldn't go back home and face Joel right now, as she was thinking of where to go, a familiar voice called out to her. "Hi Els!" she saw Lana trotting up to her.
Ellie backed away by a few paces on instinct. She was reminded of what she suffered through last night and how horrible she felt afterwards. "What happened to me last night?" Ellie asked, she needed to know.
Lana was caught off guard by Ellie's bluntness but answered anyway "Well from where I was standing you looked like you where tripping pretty hard, you lay'd there and giggled and then when you came out of it you just bolted." Ellie relaxed a little knowing that nothing worrying happened like if they saw her bite mark. "Do you wanna do something?" Lana asked "Me and guys are meeting up again."
Ellie got a tad excited at the thought of Lana asking to hang out with her "Yeah but I can't... do whatever that drink was yesterday." she responded even though a part of her craved the substance again.
"That's fine you don't have to." Lana said "We can still hang out. C'mon, not trynna be late."
Ellie followed Lana but kept her at a distance this time. Lana eyed the comic books that Ellie had with her and they talked about their mutual interest for them.
"Ghost rider is actually one my favourites after Spider-man" Lana chimed in "My dad introduced me to him."
"I'll check it out next. That's cool that you two share a common interest like that."
"I mean he's not really around anymore. He didn't make to the dam." Lana said looking off.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring back old memories or anything." she apologized sincerely.
"It's okay. I don't mind. I want him to be remembered through other people, kind people like you."
Ellie looked down to hide the blush she got from the compliment "You barely know me." she deflected.
"Yeah but I got a type of radar for that kind of thing." she winked. A comfortable silence fell over them and Ellie thought about how Lana was still so connected with her dad even though he wasn't around anymore and in that moment she knew what she had to go do.
"I'm sorry, Lana but I need to go. Tell Mac and West I said hi" Ellie said as she started to jog off in the other direction clutching the comics to her chest.
"Wait, why don't you come to the movie night tomorrow with us?" Lana asked with obvious hope in her voice.
"Yeah I'll be there, promise." Ellie rushed to get back home and was hoping Joel that was still there.
When she got to the door she stared at the doorknob. She was scared that she might of pushed Joel too much and he might have left or would start to hate her and wouldn't want her around, that he really would start to see her as a burden again. She opened the door and Joel was sitting on the couch with his face towards the door. He gave her a small warm smile "Ellie, come on in."
She hesitated before entering, she didn't know how to feel at his calm demeanour. She put her comics on the coffee table and sat down on the couch and stared at the wooden floor. He rubbed his thumb over her cheek. "Honey, can you look at me?" he asked in his soothing voice. She complied and looked into his eyes, she noticed there was a certain kindness to them.
"I'm sorry." she whispered with a cracked voice and tears forming in her eyes.
"Shh just let me say what I gotta say and I'll let ya talk all ya want. Ok?" she nodded and he put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close before continuing "I had no idea how much I hurt you when I said those damn words at that barn house until you said them back to me this morning. Truth is I started to see you as daughter and I got scared but I'm not anymore. So despite what we both said if you want we can make it official... let's be father and daughter." he was looking at her expectantly.
"You wanna be my dad?" she asked squinting at him.
"Yeah but it's a big decision so just think about it for a while and get back to me whenever you're one hundred percent sure. Alright?" he asked sincerely.
She had no words, on one hand she was happy that he did see her as his child which meant that he planned to be with her and care for her as long as he could. On the other hand she was still angry at him for lying although at the moment the pain from that didn't hurt as much. She hugged him from the side and in response he hugged her back and gave her a small kiss to the top of the head. He still wanted to talk about whatever happened to her the night before but instead just kept quiet hoping that he wouldn't have to worry about it.
Little did he know it wouldn't be over that easy.
I'll try to get chapter 3 up asap. Lemme know what you think, constructive comments are always appreciated.