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

Hi, again. I hope all of you are okay with the situation we're in. This COVID-19 is not only making people sick but also by keeping things close and people on their houses are hurting the economy. I still out of work because of that, but luckily I'm good at health and that s a good thing. Well, I wish the best to all of you and I hope this end soon. Again sorry for any writing mistake the story has, and thanks for all the comments you put on it.

Chapter 12: The Ranch

( Two days Later )

"Did you ask permission from your aunt this time?" asked Joel as soon he arrived at Ellie's house. He called the man from the ranch yesterday and told him that he will go to the ranch today to check what the place needs to be repaired. Ellie insists on going with him, and since her aunt was at work he doesn't mind taking her with him.

"Yes… I did and she said that it was okay," answer Ellie after closing the front door and walk toward the truck.

"Yeah, you said that the last time and you lied to me, remember?" Said Joel in a way to tease her.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Yeah… I know. I said that I was sorry about that… I just… I know that she will say no and do something to stop me to see you… and you know how that goes in the end..."

"Is okay Ellie… Now we need to go so get in the truck…" Joel starts the truck while Ellie opens the door and gets in.

"So… did you accept the job?" Ellie asked After Joel started to drive away.

"Not yet… I need to check it first and see what he needs. He told me about the roof damage on some of the stables, but I need to check how bad it is before I accept the job. It is going to be difficult to work on the roof with this weather. So I need to ask him when he wants this to be done"

"So we're going only to check the place out?" Ellie looks at him and asks.

"That right… so I don't think that we be there long. Did you eat something?"

"Yeah… I have my breakfast… so you don't need to stop for that."

"Good," Joel drove to the address the man gave him, and as Ellie said before the ranch was at the other side of town almost at the limit of it. So it takes Joel for almost one hour to get there. Soon he arrives at the gate of the ranch, he identifies himself to the control box. A person answers him and soon after that the gate opened and Joel drove in.

The ranch wasn't too big but it takes a few minutes for Joel to arrive at the front part of the main house. From there he can see the extension of the property and the stables on the other side of the house. Soon after he parked his truck, a man walked out of the house to meet them. Joel gets out of the truck and moves to the passenger side, where Ellie was already standing.

"Wow, I hear about these people, but I have never seen a rich house before," said Ellie while looking at the house.

The man in front of the house walked toward them and soon he gets closer he speaks. "Welcome to the Morrisons Ranch… My name is Gorge and I'm Mr. Morrison's assistance."

"Nice to meet you, my name is Joel and this is Ellie," said Joel extending his hand to the man.

The man looked at the hand but didn't take it. "Mr. Morrison is waiting for you on the stables… so please follow me." Joel moves his hand back and start follows the man.

"That was so rude… what is wrong with these people?" Ellie whispers at Joel while walking beside him.

"I guess they don't like people like us much… now stay quiet and don't say anything okay?"

The man guides them to one of the stables. Soon they get there, they saw an old man caressing a white horse. "Sir… Mr. Miller is here… hmm… with his daughter I guess," he said with some indignity tone.

"My name is Ellie and I am not his daughter…" says Ellie quickly while crossing her arm in front of her chest and put a mad look.

The man stopped touching the horse and looked at them. "Interesting… That will be all George, you can go back to the house now."

"But… Sir, you-"

"Just go, I will call you if I need anything…"

"Of course Sir…" the man turned around and look at Ellie and Joel. Then he got out of the stable, without saying anything to them.

Ellie watched the man walks out, then she looks at the old man. The man was older than Joel, probably 70 or 80, but he seems to be in good healthy condition. "You, butler or assistance, is very rude… mister. How can you have people like that working for you?"

"Ellie!" Joel tries to make her stop on the comments.

"Is true," Ellie whispered.

The man laughs a little. "Yeah, I guess it is true. Gorge is a great man so don't be hard on him. I guess that sometimes he doesn't know how to talk to people since he came from a high ranking family. He has been with me since the beginning and he is very good at his job. He practically runs things around here." The man cares for the horse head softly. "Actually he was again my decision on hiring you. He told me that it was a waste of time and money."

"Well, sir… seems all this, I don't really think he was wrong. I don't know why you want to hire a single handyman like me when you can hire a company to do a better job. I don't even know if I can do this kind of work."

The man looks at him and laughs a little. "That was the same thing that Gorge told me… But as I said to him, I like to support local workers. Also, I'm from Texas… and I like a fellow Texian to do this job." The old man looks at his horse and smile. "Do you know anything about horses Mr. Miller?"

Joel was starting to get curious about this man. He has money, but he talks to him like he wants to be his friend. "I'm not a rancher… if that's what you mean, but yeah I know a little about horses. I worked for a few ranchers in my young days. It was nothing fancy, just cleaning them and feeding them most of the time."

Ellie looks at him with curious eyes. "Really? You never told me about that before."

Joel looks at her and smiles. "Well, that will be a story for another time." Joel looks back at the man. "So… what is the job you need to be done… Mr. Morrison?"

"Please call me Martin. I think that if we're going to work together is no need for that formality. I always like to know the people that work for me, so don't worry about that, we will get to that soon enough." Then he looked at Ellie. "Do you like horses? Hmm… Ellie? That is your name... right?"

Ellie looks at Joel then back to the man. "Well, I never saw one this close before, but yeah… I think they're cool."

"Yeah, they are. This one here is my proud one. He was born here five years ago, and I have his grandfather when I started my own ranch. Do you want to touch him?"

Ellie looks at Joel for approval. "Can I?"

Joel is grateful for a moment, not knowing why this man wants for him, or why he has been so nice to them. He knows rich people and they normally don't act like this with poor ones. But seeing Ellie smile is good enough for him. "Sure… but you need to be careful. Some time they bit."

"Great…thanks, Joel," Joel walks with her and gets close to the horse. He looks calm and well trained, so he doesn't see any danger in that. The man moves to the side and lets Ellie touch the horse side. "Wow… I have never touched a horse before."

"His name is Winter. I name him like that because he was born in wintertime." the old man laughs a little about that. "Don't worry, he is a good horse, I train him myself."

"Is beautiful…" said Ellie while continuing touching the horse.

The old man smiled. "Now, can you watch him, while talking to… well, you said that Joel here is not your dad...so I don't know what he is to you."

"I… we're… just- " Ellie lowers her head and doesn't know what to say.

"She is the daughter of a friend of mine. She just helps me with my work sometimes," said Joel moving close to them.

Ellie looks at him, surprised that he calls her aunt a friend of his. But what else he can say, without making the man ask more questions. Questions that can get them into trouble, especially to Joel. Besides she doesn't know what there are beside friends, even if she knew that they're more than that. She likes to think that they're a couple, but Joel doesn't like to call themself like that, not yet at least.

The man looks at them with curious eyes. "Okay then. Can she stay with the horse while we talk about business? I mean in a more private way?"

Joel moves close to Ellie and put one hand on her shoulder. "I don't know why she can't hear your job proposition. Besides, I don't want her to be out of my side in a strange place. I'm responsible for her if you know what I mean."

"It is nothing that she can hear, but I wanted to discuss it only with you if you don't mind. Besides nothing is going to happen to her here. I can assure you that. Besides we can stay on the stable so that way you can keep an eye on her.l"

"Well, I don't know you, sir… and even that you seem t be a nice person, I can leave Ellie alone here."

Ellie intervening. It is okay Joel… I think I will be fine here if you two need to talk in rivet."

"This is not going to take long, and we can talk over there Joel... can call you Joel?"

"Mr. Morrison… I don't want to be rude but why do you want to offer me a job here so bad. I can see that you don't need someone like me to do this job."

The man smiled at him. "You should not sell yourself so short… Joel. Yes, I have money, and I'm a successful businessman. But I wasn't born with money. I have to work hard for it. As I said, my father was a rancher before me. But he lost everything when I was young, so I decided to start over on my own after that. It cost me years, money, and efforts to get what I have now." the man looks away.

Ellie saw a sad expression come into the man's face. "You don't seem too happy with all this… why?" Asked Ellie with a curious tone.

"Ellie!" Joel tries to stop her again.

"No, She is right. Yes, I build all this so my children have a good future. I want them to follow our family tradition to be Ranchers… but all that died 10 years ago. When my only son and his family die in a plane accident."

"I'm so sorry. I don't mean to-" Ellie starts feeling sad about bringing all that out.

"Is alright child… that is why I wanted to talk with Mr. Miller alone. This is not a talk that I want to do in front of a girl. Don't get me wrong is not... I just don't want you to get sad because of me."

"I'm sorry for you to lose… but I don't understand how all this has to do with me or the job here?"

The man looked at Joel. "As I said, I have some recommendations from your previous work around here. And after my son dies, I have dedicated part of my life to help people like you." the man walks close to the horse and starts to pass his hand on it.

Joel looks at the man but doesn't get yet what exactly he wants. "All this sounds strange to me. I can get that you want to help people after you lost you, son. But I haven't been here long or done a lot of jobs around here. So why do you want to hire me?

The man looked at Joel. "All that is maybe true, but that is not going to change the fact that I want to help you. But if you still choose to accept the job or not I can't for you to do that."

"So what is the job you want me to do anyway?" Joel asked while looking at the stable roof. "Because I don't see anything wrong with this place."

"Well, this place is not so bad, but this is not the one that needs repair most… is the one I have in Texas that needs a lot of work. It was my son's ranch. I wanted to donate it to someone. But it has been abandoned for ten years and needs a lot of work and I want you to be in charge of that." the man said looking at Joel's face.

Ellie moves closer to Joel and grabs his arm. "You want Joel to go to Texas to work on your ranch?" Ellie asked, a little scared. I just have Joel back and this man wants him to go again? He can't do this to me. Ellie said in her mind.

The old man looked at them, especially at Ellie holding Joel's arm like she didn't want to let him go away from her. "I can see that you're two are closer than I thought."

Some tears were forming in Ellie's eyes. "That right… and you can't send him away from me… he just comes back and-"

"Ellie!…" Joel squeezes her arm to make her stop before she says something she isn't supposed to. "Don't worry, I am not going anywhere." Joel looks at her and passes his thumb on her cheek to clear her tiar. Then he looks at the man. "Sorry, but I can't go there… But thanks for the offer."

The man looked at them. "Can you at least think about it? I really want to give you that job and is going to be good money for you, if you accept,"

"Sorry… But as I said I can't go there, so thank you for your time and for thinking about me for that job." he was preparing to turn around. "But I know that you will find someone better in no time." Joel turns around and starts walking away. "C'mon Ellie let go back to the truck."

The man looks at them for a moment. He doesn't want to give up just yet. "Okay, what about here? Can you work here?"

Joel stops and turns his head. "You already said that you don't need any repair here… so why do you want me to offer me a job here?"

"Horses…"

"Horses?"

"Yeah… horses. You said that you know about horses, and I can use some extra help around here with that."

Joel looks at the man, then at Ellie. "Go to the truck and wait for me there," said Joel with a firm tone.

"Why… you're not thinking on-" Ellie started with a scaring tone.

"Just go to the truck and wait for me. I need to talk with this man alone. So go to the truck, I will go there in a few minutes… okay?"

"But…" Ellie tries to protest again. The last thing she needs right now is to lose Joel again.

"Just go, Ellie… Everything will be fine… Here, get the key and wait for me. This will not take long, okay."

Ellie looks at the old man and gives him a look, then grabs the key violently from Joel's hand and starts to walk away. Joel looks at her until she goes out of the stable, then walks toward the man.

"Well, I can tell that she is really something." The man moves away from the horse and looks at Joel. "I like her, she has spirit, and I can see that she is too close to-"

"Okay, mister. I want to know what is the meaning of all this? Why are you insisting on giving me a job?" said Joel with a hard tone.

The old man looks at his face and starts getting memories of his past. "I just… I just wanted to help you… And I really need you to work in the Texas ranch, but if you can't go there, then let me offer you a job here."

"Look I don't know you and you don't know me… and my work is not that good. So whatever your reason is, I am not interested… Now if you excuse me I need to go," Joel turned around and walked out of the stables leaving the old man alone there. A few minutes later, the old man walks to the entrance of the stables and watches Joel get into his truck and drive away.

After Joel truck was out of view a man walked from the other side of the stable and stopped behind the old man. "I told you that all this was a waste of time… Sir."

"Don't worry about that. I need to do this, and I still have time to convince him…"

Gorge shook his head. " know that you think you have a promise to fulfill, but I don't like this."

"You don't need to like it, just help me to-," The man turned his head and looked at him. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to say that. You have been loyal to me and-"

"You don't need to apologize, sir… I will help you with whatever you need."

The man put his hand on his shoulder. "Thank you Gorge, I know that I can count with you. Now I need you to keep an eye on him. Something is telling me that he will get in a lot of trouble before I have the chance to help him."

After Joel drives out of that ranch, he watches Ellie looking outside the window without saying anything. He knows that she was pissed about all that, so he decides to take her to another place to cheer her up. So after 30 minutes of driving, he arrived at the lake camp that was on one of the lakes closer to their houses. He stops in the front parking lot of the main building and looks at Ellie.

Ellie looks around the place. "Joel, why are we here?"

"It is a little surprise. Do you want to ride a horse?" asked Joel while turning the engine off.

Ellie looks at him surprised. "They have horses here? I know that they rent a canoe to use in the lake, but I didn't know they have horses."

"They do now… they rent them for a two hours ride. So you want to learn how to ride a horse?" Ellie smiles at him and noodles. They go out of the truck and walk toward the office.

( One hour later )

Joel has to give Ellie a quick lesson on how to ride a horse, with a little help from the camp trainer. As is going to be just a slow ride it is not difficult to learn how to stay on the horse and guide him to where he needs to move. So after 30 minutes, Ellie learns the basics. So after that, both of them were alone in the path closer to the lake.

"So… you're not going to take that job… in Texas… right?" asked Ellie with a whisper tone. They're riding now side by side through the forest.

Joel looks at her. "No. even if I need the money, I am not going back there."

"Why not… that is not your home state? No that I want you to go there… but is not your brother living there too?"

"Yes… he lives there… but I don't want to go back there. It is a complicated thing, so don't worry about it," Joel doesn't want to tell her the real reason why he can't go there. Even if he doesn't give a fuck of what his brother or his wife thinks about him he doesn't want to go back there. Texas is a place full of painful memories and after he goes back there for a short time he doesn't want to go back.

Ellie lowers her head. "I know that you told me that your brother and you are not close, but you saw him when you went away?"

"Yes… I saw him, but I don't want to talk about it. So we can talk about something else?"

Ellie knows that talking about his brother is not a good thing, so she doesn't press on that. Joel told her about a few places he goes after he leaves, but she now knows that he is not telling her all. They continue riding until they get to a part of the trail close to the lake, where people stop to rest the horses and look at the view.

After they stopped, Joel got off his horse and helped Ellie to get down of hers. Then tie them to a pole that was there and walk toward the lake lookout platform. Ellie put her arm on the railing and looked at the lake.

"I never came here before, thank you for bringing me… this place is so beautiful."

Joel put himself beside her and put his arm on the railing too. "I'm glad that you like it. I saw this place a few weeks after I arrived here, but it was summer then."

"I think the view is better now, even if it is a little cold out here." Ellie looks at the mountain in the distance. They were all covered in snow now but look pretty.

Joel moves closer to her and wraps his arm around her shoulder. "Do you feel better now?" he pulled her close to his body.

"Yesss… much better… thanks," Ellie lay her head on Joel's shoulder. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She always feels safe and warm around Joel, but something still bothers her. "Joel, can I ask you something?"

"Sure…"

"What are we?" Ellie asked and soon she opened her eyes again.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… right now." she pauses for a moment then continues. "I know that we become friends… but all that changes when I fall in love with you. Even when you go, I knew that I love you… and you told me that you love me back… but right now I don't know what we're supposed to be?"

Joel doesn't know what to answer that. Because falling for a 16-year girl is wrong. "Well, I don't have an answer for that yet. If you ask me if we're together? I can tell you that I will be with you as much as you want me to. But if you're referring as a couple? We can get there yet. You are still a minor and it will be illegal and if we say that to someone it could be bad for us."

"I know that we can't say anything to anyone, especially to my aunt. She maybe accepts you as a friend of mine, but be together as a couple? that will be another thing."

Joel almost laughs at that. "I think that your aunt can be open-minded if you let her," says Joel squeezing her shoulder.

"Why can't people be together no matter the age? I mean if they fall in love and are happy together, why the law has to be again that. Love is an important thing in this world… is not that right?"

"It is for some people, but society has laws against all that and we can change them." Joel uses his other hand to grab Ellie's. "You told me that you want me to wait for you… and I will if you want me to. But for now, we can't show any faction in public or tell anyone that we're together."

Ellie moved away from Joel's embrace and stood in front of him. "So… we're together? I mean like in a romantic relationship?"

"I don't know if we can call it that yet… but we can be close to that…"

Ellie smile at that. "Can I ask you another question?"

"Sure…"

"Why didn't you return my kiss?"

Joel knew that question coming, sooner or later. He doesn't know what the answer was back then. But now, he is more sure of what he feels for her, even if people think that is wrong. "I… I don't know what I really feel back then. And it was wrong to kiss a 16 years old girl… and I still think that." Joel looks at her green eyes. He knows that he promises her aunt not to act like this with her until she turns 18, but right now he can't help himself.

Looking at her face was like looking inside her soul… he can see all her love and her beauty inside. So after a few minutes, Joel moves his hand up and grabs her face and slowly leans his head toward hers.

Ellie saw him coming and closed her eyes. And in slow-motion, both of them get closer and closer until their lips touch. Ellie can feel Joel's mouth on her. He was kissing her this time and it wasn't a quick one. Joel was taking his time to make sure that she felt it. Feel that he wanted to do it this time, and show her how much he loves her.