Disclaimer: I do not own any character of (The Last of Us) TLOU is owned by Naughty Dog and their creators.

A/N: Okay people this is the final chapter of this super cool challenge for me. I never thought that it will be like this since this story has nothing to do with the game. So I want to thanks the person that encourages me to do this and give me some idea to make this story possible. (Thank you cakepop96 for helping me in a way to make this) Also, I wanted to thanks the rest of the people that read this story and I hope that you like it. I like to try to do something like this again in the future, so if anyone wants me to do another story like this one, just LMk know and I will try to think about something. Or if you have any suggestions for a story, just LMk and I will think it about. Again thank you all for reading this and thanks to all people that left a comment at the end, I really appreciated those. So take care of yourself and stay safe out there.

Chapter 17: Left behind

"Joel... wake up… please," Ellie was on top of Joel's immobile body. Tiers start to form on her eyes. Ellie doesn't know what to do, seeing Joel like that freezes her. Ellie moved from the top of him and knelt down on his side. She shook him a few more times and called his name, but as he did not respond, Ellie grabbed his head and put it on her lap. At that moment Ellie felt one of her hands a little wet, so soon she moved it off his head she saw a little blood on her fingers.

"Oh… my God!" she enters in panic. "Joel!... please wake up… please..."

Ellie moved her head down and put her ear on his chest. Then she heard his heartbeat, it was weak, but it was there. "Thank God… he's still alive," Ellie calls his name a few more times, but as he does not respond, she starts to think what to do. "I need to call 911… shit, what I didn't think about that from the beginning.

Ellie moves her hand and grabs her phone from her back pocket. She was nervous. She was trying to dial the emergency number while tears were falling down her face. After a minute, she manages to put the number on the phone screen. But before she pressed the button to make the call, she fell a hand grabbing hers.

"Don't!" a weak voice says from below her.

"Joel!" Ellie moves her hand away and looks at his face. "Oh, my God… I thought… you…" Ellie drops the phone to the ground and pulls him up a little and hugs him. Fuck… Joel doesn't do this to me again… I thought you're… Oh God, I was so scared," Ellie bore her head on his chest while holding him tight.

Joel moves one hand and starts passing it on the back of her head. "I'm so sorry Ellie… I don't mean to scare you."

"But you did… shit," Ellie moved away from him and looked at his face. "All this was my fault… and when I saw the blood… shit the blood," Ellie goes scared again when she remembers the blood on her fingers. "Joel, you have blood on your head… we need to call an ambulance," Ellie looks around for her phone, but Joel grabs her hand again.

"Don't call 911… I'm fine," Joel moves away from Ellie's lap and stays sitting on the ground. He feels a little pain in his head, but it wasn't that bad.

"But… I saw blood Joel, we need to go to the hospital just to be sure that-"

"Ellie is okay… I'm fine," Joel passes his hand on the back of his head and feels the little cut there. He looks at his hand and sees a little blood there. But he did not feel like it was a major thing, "Is only a scratch… don't worry about it."

"Don't worry about it? Joel, I called you to name for a few minutes and you didn't respond. And you have some blood on your head… I think this is serious."

Joel starts to get up from the ground. "Is okay Ellie… I'm just going to put some alcohol there and all is going to be okay," he says standing up now.

Ellie stood up and stood in front of him. Joel this can be serious… maybe it's good if we go to the hospital and get that check out."

Joel moves to the table and uses it to support himself. "We can't call 911 or go to the hospital together, they will start to ask questions… and I don't want that. Besides I'm fine so go there it will be a waste of time."

Ellie lowered her head and looked at the ground. She feels Joel's hand on her shoulders, but even though she was happy that he is okay, that doesn't change the fact that he could die. She doesn't want to cry, but the image of Joel's immobile body on the floor still on her head. "What if this was real… What if something happens to you?"

Joel sees that she started to cry, he did not expect this to affect her this much. So he pulled her in and hugged her. "Is okay Ellie nothing happens to me see!... I'm fine, you don't need to worry about it… Please don't cry." He lowered his head and kissed the top of her head.

Ellie wants to resist her emotions, but she can't. She feels happy that he seems to be okay, but also scared. Yeah, she felt really scared of losing him like that. She was younger when she lost her mother, so she doesn't remember that too much. But losing Joel now that will kill her inside. Ellie moved her hand on his back and hugged him back as hard as she could. "Joel... never do that again," Ellie made a sobbing noise while bearing her face on his chest. "You know that I lost my mother… and I can't lose you too."

Joel closes his eyes and leans his head on top of her. He knows how it feels to lose someone you love. But did Ellie love him this much? Yeah seems like a friend lying on the floor with some blood on his head must be serious, but this seems to affect Ellie too much. Yeah, he remembers when she told him about her mother who died when she was a kid and that she never knew her father. He knows that he is probably the only friend she had, and thinking that he could die must be too hard for her. Maybe He's been seeing the wrong signal, maybe she sees him as a father. "Is okay… Ellie I am not going to die… I know you lost your mother but you're not going to lose me," Joel is not sure if that was a good thing to say to her, but he needs to say something to calm her down.

"Do you promise?" Ellie asked with her face still pressing on his chest.

"Well, I can promise that I'm not going to die today… or any time soon. But you must understand that death is going to come to us one day," Joel kissed her head again and moved his head up to look at her.

Ellie opens her eyes and moves her head away from him. "I love you… Joel," Ellie said while looking at his eyes. "You're the best thing that happened to me in a long time and I don't want to lose you too."

Joel looked at her and saw the tears falling down her cheek, so he moved his hands and removed her tears from her face. Joel stays looking at her face, not sure what he is seeing in there. He saw her fear, worry, and love, but what kind of love? Yeah, she just said that she loves him, but like a father? He saw eyes like that a long time ago and those don't look like family love. Those feelings inside of him start to surface again, and he doesn't know what to do with them. He needs to stop this before they do something they would regret later. Having can't have those kinds of feelings for a 16 years girl, that is not right. She was getting too close to him and he needed to stop that too. Joel let go of her and started to move away from her, but Ellie grabbed his face with her hand and stopped him.

"Please don't go… I just..." she said in a low tone, not moving her eye away from him.

Joel continues looking at her not knowing what to do. Part of him wants to get away from her and the other wants to hold on to this. He has been trying so hard to stay busy, so that way Ellie doesn't come to his house too much. He really likes her company and spends time with her, it makes him want to move on with his life. But he knows that things are getting out of control now and he needs to stop them before something happens. He was going to say something to her, but before he had the chance to speak, Ellie moved forward and kissed him.

Joel didn't know what to do when he fell, Ellie lips pressing on his. He sure wasn't expecting that, so he just froze there while Ellie kissed him. Ellie kissed him and after not getting any response from Joel, Ellie moved away from Joel a little but stayed looking at him.

After an awkward silence, Joel comes back to his senses. "Ellie!?" Say Joel looking at her with a surprised expression. He can't believe that she just kissed him on the mouth. He doesn't understand why she just did something like that. Or maybe he just doesn't want to know.

But somehow, he knew that something like this will happen if they continue passing too much time together. How he can see this coming, or maybe he did but not want to do something about it. Now is too late, and Ellie will end with a broken heart because there is nothing they can do about all this. He is an adult and she is still a minor, and even though he was starting to feel something for her, he knows that is wrong.

Ellie notices the awkwardness of the situation and starts to feel embarrassed. Yes, she loves him and wanted to kiss him for as long as she can remember. But she wanted him to kiss her back, she wanted him to feel the same. This was the first time that she kissed someone in the mouth. Ellie always imagining her first kiss would be a wonderful experience. But Joel's expression after she moved away just made her feel bad. Maybe he doesn't feel the same way for her and that is going to break her heart.

How he can feel the same way if he only sees her as a kid. A lot of feelings were forming on her head and heart, and not all of them were good ones. Why did she kiss him? Now she is risking their friendship, just for this. She thought that he would respond to her feeling, but right now she just feels embarrassed. "I'm so sorry… I don't… I don't know why I do… that. I just… wasn't thinking," She said turning around and moving away from him.

Joel doesn't know what to say to her without making this worse. Ellie just kissed him in the mouth and he didn't even know if this was her first time. "Ellie… I… I just don't know what just happened," he started, but he didn't move from his position. He needs time to think. Think about what he is going to say to her or how to handle all this, but right now he can't. "Ellie, it's late… and maybe it will be good if we talk about this later. I need to finish this before it gets dark and-"

"I get it, Joel. We don't need to talk about anything. I can see that this does not mean anything to you."

Joel moves a little forward but stops before he gets close to her. "But it does. I… I just can talk about this right now."

"Why not?" Ellie turned around and looked at him. "I just told you that…" Ellie stops before she says the two words again. It is obvious that he doesn't love her back… or he is too scared to admit. Either way, he is right maybe it is better if they talk about this later. "I think you're right, I should go home," Ellie turned around and started walking. Maybe this is for the best because she knows what Joel is going to say anyway. Like how all this is wrong and that is punished by the law and all that and right now she doesn't want to hear any of that.

"Wait!... Let me go to the house and grab the keys, so I can take you home."

Ellie turned her head around and looked at him. "Don't worry, you don't need to do that. I can walk back home on my own… but thank you." then she turned her head around and started to walk out of the shed.

Joel wants to stop her and talk to her. But what is he going to say? He already has his suspicions about her feelings and that kiss is just proved. His life was always a mess, that was why he didn't want her to get too close or anybody else. Now he needs to think about what is the right thing to do. "I don't want you to walk back home alone, so let me take you," he said while starting moving toward her.

"Is okay Joel, you don't need to do that. I walked here alone all the time, so I will be fine."

"Ellie…"

"Is okay Joel, I will be fine. Besides, my aunt is probably back home by now and I know that you won't like to explain to her why you were giving me a ride home."

"Well, maybe that will be good. I mean, maybe I can finally meet her and-"

"No, the last thing I need is starting to explain all this to her. I already feel bad enough about all this and I don't want to make it worse," She gave him one last look, then she ran in the direction of the woods where the path to her house is.

"Ellie!" Joel moved to stop her but decided that it was better to let her go. "Shit…" He doesn't want things to end like this with her. But maybe it was better for both of them. Things were good between them, so why this became a mess. He needs to clear his head on what just happens and think about what he is going to say to her later.

After a few minutes of running into the woods, Ellie stopped and reclined herself on one of the trees there. After getting some air back in, she sat down on the ground and put her hands on her face. Tears started coming out from her eyes as she started to cry. Stupid… stupid… Ellie, why do you have to do that? Now he is going to freak out and stop talking to you. She was mad with herself for letting her feelings get the better of her. Yeah, she loves him, but it was better to keep that to herself… until he shows that he feels the same for her. But now all that is ruined, and she doesn't know how she is going to fix it. She lies about her aunt too. She is not going to be home, but it was better to get back home before her aunt came back and saw her like this.

( Two days later )

After Joel finished with the job he was working on and got pay. He decided not to take any new jobs. He still needs time to think about what happened a few days before. That day, Joel texted Ellie an hour after she left just to make sure that she arrived home safely. Ellie answered him two hours later and told him that she arrived home fine. She didn't send any more text or call him after that. Joel was worried that after a few days Ellie would not even come to his house to talk or call him. Joel doesn't know what to think about all that. Maybe she was mad at him or still feels bad about what happened. Joel was missing her already, but maybe all this was for the best.

But even so, he has not been sleeping well for the past two days. He can't stop thinking about the kiss. He has to admit that her kiss feels good even the ones that she gives him on his cheek. But he doesn't want to feel this way, Ellie is only 16 and is wrong to have feelings for a girl that age. He needs to think about all this, otherwise, he will be a bad person.

He did a lot of bad things before, but nothing compared to this, and that is making me feel sick. He can't have feelings for her, and if he admits that he has some feelings for her, that is going to make things worse.

Joel was now in his living room thinking about what to do next. He texts her a few times telling her that they need to talk, even if she was mad at him. But he didn't receive any response. He will wait until she comes to his house to talk. But he needs to convince her that all this is wrong, that she needs to find someone her own age. But how he is going to tell her, that they can't be together like that without breaking her heart. He needs to find a solution to all this before it gets worse. Why does this have to be so complicated? Things were good between us before all this and now I don't know if things can go back the way before.

Joel was walking around in the living room when he heard someone knocking at the door. He stops and looks in that direction. "I'm coming," He starts walking toward the door and hoping that it was Ellie, so that way they finally talk and put an end to all this.

( A week later )

It has been more than a week since the kiss. Ellie went back to school after that weekend ended. Ellie thought that going back to school would be a good distraction, but it was making things worse. After a few days, she started to miss Joel and felt sad about what happened. Joel sent her a few texts asking how she was, but she didn't have the courage to answer him back. Ellie tried to hide her sadness, in front of her aunt, but Ellie knew that she was getting suspicious that something was wrong with her. So a few days later, her aunt started to ask her if something was wrong with her. Ellie only smiled at her and told her that everything was fine, she knew that her aunt didn't buy that.

But that lie didn't go well, because her aunt started to get concerned and didn't let Ellie get out of the house. Sometimes when Ellie came back from school, she told her aunt that she was tired and that she wanted to be alone in her room. But she really was missing Joel, so after and sometimes she cried in her room. Ellie can't call Joel from her house, because for some reason her aunt was staying at home and picked her up from school. At home, her aunt just let her go outside the house but didn't let her go out of her side. That was starting to worry Ellie because she thought that her aunt knew something.

It has been two weeks now since the incident and Ellie doesn't want to lose Joel like that. She needs to go to Joel's house and try to fix things, even if she has to bury her feelings deep down, and only be friends with him. That is not what she wants or needs, but at least she will be close to him. She loves him no doubt about that now, she has been feeling miserable for the last two weeks. She knows that her aunt is not going to let her go out of her side, but she needs to

see Joel. Maybe if she talks to him and is convinced to wait, until she turns 18 that will be great.

Maybe the reason that Joel does not want to be with her like that is because of the age problem, so maybe she can convince him to wait until she turns 18. She will be 17 next year, so after that, he only needs to wait one more year. Then she will be 18 and they can be together. without having any problem with the law, because she will be an adult by then.

Ellie saw her opportunity when her aunt told her that she needs to go out of town for the weekend. So Ellie will use that to go to Joel's house and finally talk to him. She will tell him about her plan, and that she will be willing to wait until she turns 18. But how Joel is going to react to that? Was he going to accept that? Did he really have some feelings for her? Those questions will be answered when she goes to his house and talks to him. She doesn't know what is going to happen when she goes there, but she was hoping for the best.

( Saturday Morning )

It has been more than two weeks since Ellie kissed Joel. And finally, Ellie's aunt went on her trip and that gave Ellie the time she needed to go to Joel's house and talk. So Ellie grabbed her phone and went out of her house. Been apart from Joel all this time was killing her, so she was hoping to fix all this. She tried to go before but her aunt was always on her, so this was her chance to see him again. The walk from Ellie's house to Joel's was only one hour through the forest, but Ellie was like eternity. She was practicing what she was going to say and thought of all the things Joel was going to say to her. After the long walk, Ellie put a smile on her face as soon she saw his house in the distance.

Ellie stops when she arrives at the tree line that divides Joel's backyard from the rest of the forest. Ellie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Okay… Ellie, you can do this. Just tell him that you love him… and… fuck I can't do this. Ellie opens her eyes and looks at the house. After a few minutes, she found the courage to do what she needed to do. Okay, let's do this.

Ellie walked into his backyard and noticed that his truck wasn't there. That was strange for Ellie since Joel always parks his truck on the back of the house. Ellie walked to the front of the house to check if his truck was there. But soon she went to the front of the house, she saw that it wasn't there either. Ellie thought that maybe he was doing another job or go to the store or something. Ellie walked to the front door and tried to check the inside of the house through one of the windows. But she can't see much since the curtain was blocking her view and the house

was dark inside. It was obvious that Joel was out, so she is going to need to wait for him.

Ellie was going to sit on the porch and wait for him, but she remembered that Joel has spare key hiding on the back of the Ellie walked to the back of the house again and looked for the key that Joel hid under a rock in the backyard. Joel told her about the key after she started to come to the house to help him. He just wants Ellie to know that she can enter the house if he was out doing something.

After Ellie finds the key, she goes to the back door and opens it. Soon she goes inside, Ellie starts calling him, just in case he was sleeping and left his truck in another place. It was unlikely of him, but she wanted to be sure. As he did not respond, Ellie walked to his room and opened the door. Then she saw that the bed was clean and fixed. Ellie looked around, but she had the feeling that something wasn't right because Joel was not that clean on the house. Even though she only entered his room one time, he told her that he doesn't fix the bed in the morning. After Ellie walked out of his room, she went to the living room and saw the same thing. All the place was cleaned up; not garbage, not haft eating food or clothes all around there.

Ellie was getting a bad feeling about all that, she ran to the kitchen and opened the fridge. He never had much there but, this time the fridge was completely empty. Ellie started to check all the cabinets and they were almost empty too. It looks like he doesn't buy anything in two weeks and eats all he has there. The panic in Ellie starts to surface. Joel… where you… go? Ellie starts to walk around the house, getting the feeling that she was left behind.

"No, no, no,... no, this can't be happening." She walks again to the living room looking for a clue on why the house was like this and where Joel can go. After a few minutes, she saw an envelope on the top of the fireplace. Ellie ran toward there and grabbed it. The envelope has something written on it that says 'This is for Ellie' Ellie hand started to tremble. She doesn't know what this means, but she knows that is nothing good. After a few minutes of watching the envelope, Ellie opened and took out the letter that it was inside. Ellie checked the writing and it was obvious that Joel left the letter for her. It was only one paper, and even though she didn't know what it said, some tears started to form in Ellie's eyes. Ellie looked at the paper for a few minutes, before she started to read it. Oh, God doesn't let it be what I think it is… please. Then she started to read the letter.

Dear Ellie,

I'm so sorry that things have to be like this, but I think that it was better this way for both of us. I know that this is not the best way to say this, but I can't find the courage to say it in person. I know that you want to talk about what happened a few weeks ago. But after thinking for two weeks, I didn't know what to say to you…. I never was a good talking person and I don't want you to feel bad about what happens or blame yourself for it. Because of nothing if this was your fault. Yeah, you are going to think that I'm gone because you kissed me. But the thing is that I'm the one that left that happen. I was the adult one, so I should not let things get too far between us.

I came here for a reason, and even though I can't tell you why, that reason makes me take this decision. I know that this is going to be difficult for you to understand, but you will be alright. I never was a good man, and my pain made me make bad decisions in the past that cost me

a lot. But I can say that having you in my life makes me forget the pain, even for a little bit.

You make me open my heart again, and make me want to love someone again and I am always going to be thankful to you for that. I make a lot of mistakes all my life and for one I want to do the right thing. I'm not sure what that kiss means to you, or maybe I do, but I just too scared to

find out. I'm so sorry that I scared you that much that day, and forced you to do what you did. I know that it sounds stupid, but now that I know what you feel is time for me to be a good man and do the right thing. Please don't let this push you down, you have a beautiful heart and soul. I want to thank you for giving me the chance to feel something again, but it is time for me to go. You're young and beautiful and you have all your life ahead of you. I know that with the time you will find someone special that can give you all the love that you deserve, so don't give up.

I don't know what is going to happen now, but I have a lot to think about. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy the time we spent together and I'm glad that in some way I make you happy for a time. Don't be sad about it, and go out there and find new friends. Don't close yourself, because of this. I know that it will be painful at first and I am so sorry about that. I hope that one day you forget me if for some reason we see each other again. I don't know this world is so small sometimes that maybe we will. Writing this letter wasn't easy and I know that reading it is even worse. It took me several days to find a way to say goodbye without hurting you, but in the end, I did a bad job.

I don't know what is going to happen to the house, maybe I will sell it with time, but I want you to use it any time you wanted. If you need to be by yourself you're welcome here, you not where the key is. I don't want you to go to that old cabin close to the lake is not safe for you and I don't want anything to happen to you. I may be gone but that doesn't mean that I don't care about you okay. The electric bill was paid for two months, and the house is always going to have water, so you will be okay for a while. I know that this is not what you wanted, but you deserve someone better than me, someone, your own age. So go out there and find one, do it for me, and for yourself, you deserve it. Again sorry for making you feel bad and make you cry, not just for before but for now too. I know that you will understand someday. I know this will be hard, but you will be okay. Thank you for everything… I am never going to forget our time together.

With all my love, your friend Joel.

As soon as Ellie finishes reading the letter, she just goes down on her knees and starts crying. This was the worst day of her life, and now she doesn't know how she is going to continue her life without Joel.

To be Continued….

EndNote: While Ellie was reading the letter, just imagine Joel driving his pick-up truck out of the country, with some tiers coming out of his eyes too. ;)

A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger there, but when I start this story, it supposes to be a short one. But when I working on it and go to the last chapter, I saw that I can add more to the story, so I decide to make it a two-part story. I'm already working on the second part, so I hope that at the end of this part. I will be able to start posting as soon as I can. I don't want to left people waiting too long after this cliffhanger. So I probably going to start posting in two weeks after this one is finish. So see you soon in the next part and thank you all for reading this story and hope that you return to the second part. Thank you all and see you all soon.