A/N: 'Focus right here. Right here or I'll pop your goddamn knee off. Now you're gonna mark it on the map. And it better be the exact same spot that your buddy points too' – Joel

With Dina possibly in Seattle, Ellie's priorities have shifted. She'd expected Joel to put up more resistance as his plans to track down Tommy's killers have been put on ice until Ellie finds her missing girl, but as it turns out they might be able to kill two birds with one stone.

Rated T: For obvious reason - Ellie swears like a sailor

Disclaimer: I own nothing (except my muse)

Warning: Getting into more concrete spoilers for TLOU II now (Abby, Owen, Nick and Leah are now outta the game, FYI)

Footnote: TLOU II had a lot of great scores throughout the game and I wanted to throw some music into this story, partly for the fun of it but also as a nod towards what I think was a nice touch in Part II. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't...that's just how the cookie crumbles. For disclaimer purposes the lyrics used are taken from Old Time Rock & Roll - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band.

Additional Footnote: Thank you again to all those reading, reviewing, favouring and following this fic x

Killin' Strangers

It had been ridiculously easy to get hold of a radio, they'd stumbled across two WLF guys less than fifteen minutes after finding Dina's horse, and given how the WLF were obviously expecting scar attacks, Ellie was a little surprised how quickly she and Joel had been able to take them out.

The radio is already tuned into the frequency so after stashing the bodies in a nearby garage they hunker down in an abandoned coffee shop to listen in. There's a lot of noise being broadcast over the channel, various deployment info and several patrol updates and as time wears on she's starting to question whether the WLF even knew Dina was in town.

The longer they wait, the more anxious Ellie finds herself becoming, which is odd as surely, she should be relieved that Dina might be flying under the radar?

But with the mess she'd left behind with Japan, Ellie finds it hard to believe that no one had stumbled across that by now...someone had to be looking for her.

Dina's chances of moving around unnoticed were slim. Ellie and Joel had the advantage of Abe's map...but Dina would be running blind. Her chances of crossing through a high-risk area were a lot higher.

Joel seems on edge too, which doesn't help, as Ellie knows he also finds the radio silence strange.

Radio: How many scars? Over.

The line crackles as the response patches through.

Radio: Negative on scars. Lone female trespasser. In custody at seven. Over.

"Dina," Ellie rushes out, glancing up at Joel. "That's her. It has to be."

She drops the radio, leaning forward over her knees to study Abe's map, which Joel had spread out earlier, tapping her finger against zone seven.

Radio: Where in seven? Over.

Ellie's scanning over the zone, half listening out for the response as she picks out several marked buildings. They're going to need a little more to go on as there's a lot of possible sites where the WLF could have defected to hold an intruder.

Radio: Eastbrook Elementary. Over.

Joel squats down by the map across from Ellie, pointing to a marker in the centre of the zone. It's one of the schools he'd circled earlier to check out when they'd been looking for Jordan.

"We can get there off the main street real easy," Joel explains plainly, motioning to a series of back alleys and small parks, a route he'd clearly planned out earlier.

Radio: Notifying Unit Alpha 3 of your position. Deploying to Eastbrook from two. Hold position until Alpha 3 arrives. Over.

"Easy is good," Ellie tells Joel, grabbing her pack and swinging it over her shoulder as she gets to her feet. Joel pocketing the map and following her. "How long?"

"It ain't that far. If we move quick, then we can probably beat that unit."

Joel's carefully mapped out route was easy to clear, and despite the WLF being more active in seven than they had been in nine, it's not too difficult to avoid the foot traffic as the majority of the patrols stick to the main streets and buildings.

The heavy WLF presence has the added benefit of severely limiting the volume of infected in the area and apart from a lone clicker in an old laundromat, which was easily avoided, they don't come up against any kind of resistance at all.

When they reach the school, it's a completely different scenario and they quickly write off the main entrance, after spotting several WLF guys with heavy duty rifles hovering at the door.

They're obviously expecting an attack, although Dina had been reported as a lone trespasser, they've got the school surrounded in the first strategically smart move Ellie's seen from the WLF.

It takes a couple of minutes but Joel's eventually able to get them in, having circled the school twice before finding a break in the chain link fence around the back.

All the main entry and exit points are crawling with soldiers, and whilst it isn't ideal, their best shot at getting in quietly is via the roof.

The back exit isn't as heavily manned as the double doors are sealed shut with several rusty chains and a crowbar but there are still two soldiers lazily guarding the door.

It seems to be a go to move for the WLF to pair up soldiers outside of a unit, something not too dissimilar to how Jackson runs some of their patrols but Ellie's able to down one with a flick of her switchblade directly into the woman's neck and Joel takes out the other, wrapping his arms around the guy's neck and smothering his mouth and nose. He struggles violently but the sounds are muffled and by the time his body sags motionless in Joel's grip, they're able to stash the bodies in the overgrown grass on the playing field without leaving too much blood behind.

Scaling the building isn't easy as the roof is weak in places and crumbling at the edges, so they have to be cautious where they put their feet as they move across it. It's a calculated risk as it's still the most sensible option for getting inside.

Ellie's got the radio strapped to her waistband, listening out for anything that might give them a more concrete idea of exactly where to find Dina. There are infrequent messages being patched through but nothing useful.

It's purely by chance when they stumble upon a skylight, glass panels streaked with hairline fractures, that Ellie spots movement on the floor below.

It takes a second for her eyes to adjust but when they do, she can just about make out the outline of two figures, men, if the overall height and build is anything to go by.

One is by the door, the other crouched low to the floor, hunched over another, smaller figure, and although she can't make out what's being said, she figures from the man's jerky movements, that it's an aggressive conversation.

When the man's hand abruptly strikes out, connecting heavily with the smaller figure, Ellie's finally able to get a look at the woman's features.

It's Dina. She'd recognise that dumb fucking vest jacket anywhere.

Ellie doesn't remember reaching for her pistol, doesn't realise she's fired it until she hears the glass shatter at the impact. The man who'd struck Dina slams to the floor, reaching for his bloodied shoulder, shouting for the guy at the door but Ellie can't hear anything through the blood pulsing in her ears.

That motherfucker.

What happens next is a blur of movement and noise, the men have taken cover inside and whilst Ellie wants to empty her clip into the fucker's skull, she's conscious that Dina's still prone in the corner, with no means of protecting herself against a shootout.

It's enough to keep her from being too reckless.

With the men hiding out behind a countertop, Ellie and Joel are forced to move to get an angle on them. They're mindful of their combined weight on the glass, careful not to step on the same panel, but Ellie realises too late they've been lured out there deliberately.

She's just about to line her next shot when one of the guys fires and the glass beside her explodes, Joel disappearing amongst the shards, despite Ellie's attempt to grab him.

He hits the ground below hard, letting out a pained grunt at the impact and Ellie's heart lurches into her throat...what if he'd hit his head? What the fuck do they do then if he'd cracked open his skull?

The men don't waste the opportunity and whilst Joel struggles to get up, one of them jumps him, yanking him to his feet and clamping an arm tightly around his throat.

"It's that...fucking guy from Jackson," the man stutters out to his buddy as he struggles to keep his arm locked around Joel.

Ellie can tell by the break in his voice and the hardness in his muscles that he's trying to choke him.

She won't be able to get a decent shot from the roof, the risk of hitting Joel is too high, so she pitches her foot on the ledge and waits for the man holding Joel to swing them round to face Dina (who's swearing up a storm at the guy in a fit Ellie's rather proud of) before hurling herself through the broken panel.

She lands heavily on the guy's back and punches her fist into his seeping shoulder, jamming her fingers into the bullet wound and twisting. The man cries out, arms falling away from Joel and as he stumbles back, Ellie catches a glance at his face.

It's Jordan and although she wants to fucking castrate him for what he'd done to Dina, Ellie's fuzzily aware they still need a name for Tommy's shooter and with Leah already out of the picture, they're steadily running low on source material.

Jordan makes a grab for her, but his shoulder slows him down and Ellie raises her pistol and whips him across the temple, knocking him out cold.

If she happens to hit him hard enough to break his fucking skin, then that's just a bonus.

"Got you, motherfucker."

Dina's managed to shake her bindings loose and despite her swollen face, she's found a wooden chair leg and smashed Jordan's buddy several times with it, until his rifle slips from his grip and he slumps to the ground, mumbling incoherently through the blood.

With the immediate danger gone, the chair leg slips from Dina's fingers, clattering noisily to the floor as she leans back against one of the tables, bracing one hand on the tabletop and using the other to swat at her bleeding lip.

Joel's back on his feet and whilst Ellie can't see any blood on his face to suggest his skull's been busted open, there's always the possibility he'd done some sort of internal damage.

It's something she'll need to keep an eye on but for the moment, his footsteps seem steady enough and when he digs the toe of his boot into Jordan's side to kick him onto his back, his balance seems fine too...Ellie's guessing that's a good sign.

Maybe they'd got lucky?

'It's called luck, and it is gonna run out.'

"Ellie, grab me one of those chairs over there."

"On it," she replies, quickly grabbing one of the wooden chairs from the stack in the corner. "Everybody good?"

Joel nods tightly, eyes fixed intently on Jordan as if he's expecting the guy to come round any second and Dina gives a half-arsed shrug from where she's slouched against the table.

"Mostly."

Ellie sets the chair down by Joel and helps him heft Jordan onto the seat. He's starting to mumble, his eyes fluttering rapidly behind the lids but his head lolls around in a way it definitely wouldn't if he was conscious.

Joel makes quick work of latching Jordan to the chair, securing a length of rope around his ankles, wrists and torso, pulling the bindings tight against the skin. He hauls Jordan's buddy from the floor next and sets him down on another chair.

From the spacing between them, Ellie figures Joel's gearing up for an interrogation and whilst she's heard snippets of how these things would go, she's never seen Joel in action...from the grim look that's settled on his face, Ellie's sure it won't be pretty.

"We should get out of here," Dina says. "This place is crawling with WLF and somebody's bound to have heard those gunshots."

Ellie glances from Dina to Joel but he hasn't even paused in his efforts to secure Jordan's buddy.

"Joel?"

Nothing. No indication he'd even heard her and Ellie glances unsurely at Dina, but the other girl just shrugs, eyeing Joel warily as she gathers her pack and guns from the table in the corner.

"We can try to hold them off," Ellie offers quietly, when it's clear Joel isn't going to answer them. "Buy you some time."

That seems to shake Joel enough to bring him back from whatever trance he'd been caught up in and he quickly tugs the ropes harshly against Jordan's buddy before turning to Ellie.

"Going out there is goddamn stu-"

"You want to talk to Jordan?" Ellie snaps, harsher than she'd meant too, but time is against them and with the adrenaline still coursing through her, she doesn't care about the tension this might create between her and Joel. "Then this is the only way."

She can tell by Joel's sour expression that he knows it's true. The room isn't defendable, it's got a couple of counters but other than that it's barren and the windows are broken, leaving the room exposed and with a number of entry points other than the door. If they wait for the WLF guys to arrive on the scene then there's a good chance one of them is going to get shot.

Depending on how fucking hardcore these guys are there's also a good chance they'll shoot Jordan and his buddy boy too and then (even if they do happen to survive) it's back to square one.

"Whatever we're doing," Dina rushes out bluntly, covering the doorway with her pistol trained on the hallway outside. "We're going to want to do it quickly."

"No time to argue," Ellie states firmly, moving to join Dina in the doorway as she reloads her clip.

"Fine," Joel's agrees reluctantly, his tone unhappy. "But if you girls get into anythin' you can't handle, you come back here."

"You got it, Chief," Ellie's trying for playful, giving a sloppy salute, because the stakes are high enough without her and Joel going for each other's throats over the game plan. "Be quick, okay?"

"Be careful," Joel counters and there's something soft in his voice that immediately cuts through her weak attempt to lighten the mood. Fucking asshole.

"Yeah…You too."

Dina moves out into the hallway and Ellie follows close behind, pistols held stiffly in their grasp as they listen out for approaching footsteps.

There are several pairs thundering loudly down the corridor not too far ahead, and if she had to guess Ellie's would say there's probably at least five WLF guys heading their way.

It's too many for the two of them to take head on so their best bet is to find some cover and wait for the assholes to come to them. They duck into a nearby classroom, where the window has been cleanly blown out and crouch behind an overturned computer desk. It isn't long before the WLF dart by the window and Ellie and Dina fire a handful of bullets into them. One goes down, dead, but the remaining WLF scatter.

They obviously weren't expecting the ambush, so Ellie cashes in on their confusion, shuffling quickly towards the door and finishing off the two nearest soldiers with a round each to the head.

Dina gets one as they try to vault over the window ledge and the last guy tries to double back on himself, bolting down the corridor but Dina sticks a bullet in his lower back and as he attempts to crawl around the corner, Ellie's able to jam her switchblade into his throat

It's quiet after that, no more footfalls echoing through the halls, so Ellie assumes they're good for now.

"You still good?" she asks Dina gently, wiping the blood off her switchblade on her jacket.

"Better than those fuckers. You?"

A scream, raw and broken tears through the air and Ellie swallow thickly when she realises it's coming from Joel's direction.

"Shit. Is that Joel?"

"That guy back there. Jordan. He was one of the fuckers at the lodge," Ellie explains tightly, glancing cautiously in Joel's direction before facing Dina. "He's trying to get a name for the asshole who shot Tommy. One of them must know something."

"Doesn't sound like much of a chat, El."

Joel didn't really 'chat' when it came to things like this, he wasn't one for clever words or slow manipulations, but he was good at finding the weak link in the chain, at getting information. He'd rumbled a ton of hunter camps around Jackson over the years before they'd had the chance to strike the settlement.

If he'd come back caked in stale blood, then Ellie hadn't heard anyone complain.

At least his methods got answers and Ellie can't find it in herself to say that Jordan doesn't fucking deserve it.

"Look Dina...I don't want you to think badly of Joel-"

"Hey," Dina interrupts softly, touching the crook of Ellie's arm absently. "I get it. If I had my sister's killers, I'd do the same," she motions to her spilt lip and bruised cheek, the bleeding has stopped but it still looks swollen and angry. "Besides the guy's an asshole."

Radio: Seven. Report. Come in, seven? Over.

Radio: Unit Alpha 3. What's your position? Over.

Radio: This is Unit Alpha 3 reporting. ETA for twenty minutes. Delayed on route. Scars terminated. Over.

Ellie switches the radio off; the sporadic updates will give them away if any of the WLF catch onto them and she doesn't want to tip them off to the fact they're listening in.

"We gotta move. Reinforcements are on the way and we've still got WLF to clean out."

There are more soldiers in the school and they put up an admirable fight, Ellie's actually mildly impressed by their determination but in the end there's too many of them to be able to keep track of everyone's individual positions so Ellie and Dina are able to pick them off and by the time they reach the old dining hall, there's only one left.

He's tapping at his radio frantically, trying to get a signal from anyone else in the school.

It's Dina that shoots him.

"I think that's the last of them," Dina ventures tentatively, sweeping the room before dropping her pistol arm and relaxing.

"Yeah. I think you're right," Ellie agrees slowly, patting down the WLF corpse for any useful gear. "Good job, babe."

The endearment slips out naturally, she and Dina had always used pet names for each other even before they'd started down a more romantic path. She chances a sly glance at Dina, wondering if she's pushed too hard because she knows things were left badly between them when she'd left Jackson...she doesn't know if Dina's still mad about that.

"I don't know how you made it this far without me, Williams."

It's a light-hearted jab and although Ellie desperately wants to believe that whatever arguments they'd had before were finished, there's a tightness to Dina's smile which suggest she's still a bit pissed about Jackson.

'Fuck those wolves, steal their shit.'

They do a quick search of the bodies nearby, scavenging what they can to replenish spent stock. If they'd had the time then they possibly would've checked out the rest of the school but Ellie's switched her radio back on and it's crackling with messages, each one more desperate than the last as they try to check in with the school patrol group.

Ellie knows it won't be long until Alpha 3 arrives...that's if they don't send another set of WLF soldiers to investigate first.

Retracing their steps is easy and although Dina looks like she's going to pass out any second, she's tough and refuses Ellie's offer to shoulder her along.

Ellie gets it. Dina's running on pure adrenaline and little else, if she lets go of that now then she'll crash.

When they reach Joel's room, Ellie pushes through the door, coming to a grinding halt in the doorway.

It's...not a pretty sight. One of Joel's shivs is buried in Jordan's knee, and through the blood Ellie can see his kneecap, the white bone pried away from the flesh so violently his leg is almost unrecognizable below the wound. She can't see the state of Jordan's buddy from the doorway, but his chair has toppled over and he's lying on his side, unmoving against the floor.

Dina lets out a strange choking sound and in the next second she's doubled over, one arm wrapped around her stomach and the other resting on the frame to hold herself up, vomiting in the doorway.

"You okay?" Ellie asks awkwardly, feeling stupid as soon as the words slip out because puking up your guts was definitely a sign things weren't okay.

Dina wretches a couple more times although she appears to have emptied everything that was in her stomach and Ellie's hand comes up to rub her back as she dry heaves.

"Yeah. It's just...the smell."

Ellie catches Joel's eye as she carefully prises Dina away from the door frame and despite the blood speckled across his face, he looks worried.

"We gotta go," Ellie says gently. "Are you good to keep moving?"

"I'm good."

It's blatantly obvious from the parlour of her skin and the way her lips tremble around the words that she isn't but they don't really have much of a choice at the moment. With more WLF on route, they can't afford to catch their breath here.

Dina waves Ellie away, scrubbing at her mouth with her sleeve and Ellie moves to help Joel hastily pack up whatever shit Jordan and his buddy had on them. As she rounds Jordan's battered body, stepping around the fallen man on the floor she catches sight of his face and fuck, she hopes scar kills are usually brutal because she's pretty sure even Leah (had she still been alive) wouldn't have recognised what's left of Jordan.

It's difficult to get around the bodies without stepping in blood and it isn't until Ellie's boot comes down next to Jordan's buddy that she notices the words scratched out onto the floorboards.

Nora

Hospital

It's written in blood, Jordan's buddy's fingers are slick with it, and she's suddenly thankful Dina is by the door because if the smell of blood set her off, Ellie's pretty sure this tops it.

Ellie isn't exactly blindsided by it, she'd always known Joel had a past and he'd explained this tactic to her, in detail, when she'd asked offhandedly once about how he'd found her that winter.

She also knows Joel has a temper, and whilst he usually had a steel grip on it, there were a few things that could set him off quickly. If Jordan had even mentioned Tommy in any way Joel didn't like, if he'd implied Tommy had gotten what he'd deserved or that his death was in any way Joel's fault then Joel would've lost his shit instantly.

Still...hearing about the tactic and seeing it in action were two different things and although Ellie had told herself she was ready to go toe to toe with Joel against whatever they needed to do in Seattle, she's still a little thrown by how fucking brutal Joel could be. She'd known he was capable of it, had seen him do some morally questionable things in the past but that had all been in the name of survival...when if they hadn't fought back, they would've died.

'You kill to survive...and so do we. We have to take care of our own. By any means necessary.'

It isn't the same this time and she isn't sure exactly what to make of that right now.

She risks a glance at Joel's hand, the skin barely visible under the blood as he looks through Jordan's pockets, and thinks she must be pretty fucked up because even now she isn't frightened of Joel.

Joel's bloody fingers twist at his watch strap absently every now and then and Ellie wonders if he knows he's getting blood on the leather.

She does her best to shake the thoughts away for now and instead scuffs her boots across the words, smearing the letters until their illegible.

They don't ask each other if they're okay, they're both still alive and that's pretty much as good as it gets.

Between the two of them they're able to rush Dina through the corridors and out a side door, cutting through the gymnasium and as they round the corner, they have to duck into a side alley to avoid a passing WLF trick, dogs barking loudly in the back. Once it passes, they make a beeline for a nearby theatre Abe had circled on his map. It hadn't been listed as a WLF base, so Ellie's assuming Abe had used it as a stopover when he'd skipped town.

That's what she's hoping, at least.

She helps Joel prise the entrance doors open and once they're in, they barricade themselves inside. The foyer is dusty, in a way that screams disuse, but they'll still need to scope the building to be safe.

"You girls stay put," Joel tells them, voice leaving little room for argument. "I'm gonna check this place out."

The theatre seems quiet and considering nothing had come bolting towards them when the door slammed shut, Ellie's guessing there aren't any infected here, or at least if there were, then they're not somewhere with easy access.

Still she's a bit wary of Joel sweeping the space alone, especially after that fall back at the school. She wants to offer to go with him but Dina is pale and lethargic and the two of them have things they need to hash out now she's rocked up in Seattle.

Joel seems to catch on to her unease.

"I'll holler if there's any trouble."

She nods, not expecting him to call, and he disappears up the nearest set of stairs.

Dina's slumped on the leather couch in the foyer, hunched over her knees and making a fruitless attempt to wipe the sheen of sweat from her brow.

"How're you feeling now?"

"Not great," Dina answers honestly, shedding her jacket and rolling up her sleeves. Skin prickling as it hits the air. "But I'll be fine."

From the look of her, Ellie can't see how she'll be fine anytime soon, but she doesn't say anything to contradict her and she does her best to keep the scepticism off her face.

She's in the dog house as it is...no use in stirring the pot.

"How long have you been sick?" Ellie asks instead, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot in front of Dina when there's more than enough room on the couch for her to sit down.

"A few weeks."

Dina rarely got sick, even when regular sickness like the flu spread through Jackson, Dina has always been fine despite spending most of her time running errands for resident who were actually sick. Ellie wonders how Dina had managed make it to Seattle if she'd been throwing her guts up every fucking day.

"Don't...don't you think you should've turned back?" and when Ellie hearshow brash the words sounds, she adds. "I mean, if you were that sick?"

"I didn't know what it was back then. I thought it was just a stomach bug from Eugene's stale fucking cereal bars."

And if that doesn't ring alarm bells then Ellie doesn't know what does because with the infection out there, it's easy to get caught up in that and forget that people still get sick, sometimes fatally, from other things.

Ellie's immunity means that although she occasionally still worries about whether the infection will mutate further and drag her under, she doesn't have to worry about getting infected the way other people do. It's part of the world they live in, just a fact of life and whilst Ellie doesn't have to worry too much about herself, she worries about the people she loves, the people closest to her, getting infected.

She's had nightmares in the past where Sam's face has been replaced by Joel's, Tommy's, Kat's, Dina's.

It's that same fear which makes her afraid to tread further now.

"You didn't know? So...you do now?"

Dina's quiet for a long time and Ellie's at a loss of what to do. She's dangerously close to falling into her head and the frightening thoughts that wait for her there, fingernails biting into her palm as she clenches and unclenches her hands to try and stay present, when Dina seems to come to some kind of decision, huffing out a heavy breath and tucking her hair behind her ear.

She looks up at Ellie, staring at her in a way she hadn't done since they'd left the school.

"I think I'm pregnant."

The...fuck?

Ellie had been expecting some sort of sickness, smallpox or...she doesn't know, some nasty disease or something. Pregnancy...hadn't even crossed her mind. Dina was pregnant...pregnant...as in, brewing an actual human baby.

Ellie's not sure she's ready for that. That's if Dina even wants her to be involved. The fact that she'd travelled from Jackson to Seattle on her own whilst struggling through morning sickness suggests she still wants to pursue their relationship but at that point she hadn't known she was pregnant. Maybe things had changed now she'd figured it out?

"Don't worry, it's not yours."

Dina's obviously going for a joke, something to crack the tension and lighten the mood, it's familiar, Ellie's often the one doing it, but it doesn't land and, if anything, only makes this all the more awkward.

"Jesse?"

"Yeah," Dina confirms softly, fingers twisting nervously in her lap.

There's no way Jesse would have let Dina out of Jackson alone if he'd known. He'd have offered to go in her place and when he'd realised Dina was going to go regardless, he'd have offered to go with her. If Dina hadn't known for sure when she'd left Jackson then there's no way Jesse would have known, even if he had caught on to Dina's vomiting.

Given how close the two of them are, Ellie would have assumed Jesse would've tagged along just because Dina was going, pregnant or not.

"I'm surprised you got out of Jackson without him."

"He was meant to come," Dina offers cautiously and if she's at all thrown by the change the conversation has taken, she doesn't show it. "We were all set to leave but Maria sprung us at the stables."

Maria had been adamant that whilst they could get by without Joel and Ellie, they couldn't spare anyone else and what Maria said went, usually went, no questions asked. Ellie can picture Maria, abruptly shutting down the stables and attempting to squash their plans.

"I got out but she managed to ground Jesse," Dina continues lightly, swatting again at the sweat gathering on her forehead. "There was no way to go back, Maria was clued on so I carried on. By the time I got sick I was halfway to Seattle."

And whilst Ellie has always had a soft spot for Dina and Dina's calm, steady manner was usually enough to keep Ellie grounded, her thoughts are all clattering noisily all over each other and she can't latch onto any particular one long enough to have a reasonable discussion about this.

It's a lot to take in and she has no fucking idea how to deal with it right now.

...And Joel?

What were they meant to do about Joel?

"We can't go back," Ellie finds herself saying, somewhat involuntarily, as subconsciously, she still seems to understand that much. "There's no way Joel's going to give this up."

"I'm not asking you to leave," Dina says pointedly. "I just need to rest up and then tomorrow I can help-"

"No, you fucking can't," Ellie snaps harshly, losing the weak grip she'd had on everything altogether. "Why did you even come here?"

Dina's expression crumples into a quick flash of hurt before she drops her gaze from Ellie's, looking away to hide her face and Ellie immediately feels like shit for snapping at her.

She can hear in her head how the words had sounded, how the frustration, the confusion, the accusation had bled out even if she hadn't meant it too.

She'd partly meant it purely out of worry because they were up against people who were actively trying to kill them (Hell, Jordan had tried to choke Joel less than an hour ago) and Dina was pregnant and neither her or Joel would willingly put Dina or the baby at risk.

But there was also a small part of her, a dark part she isn't proud off and fights hard not to show too often, that's pissed at Dina for burdening them with this when the stakes in Seattle were already high enough.

In the end she stamps down mercilessly on the darker thoughts, because regardless of what happened before, Dina was here now, and tries to salvage things as best she can.

"Shit, D," she says shakily, roughly carding her fingers through her hair. "I didn't mean that."

Dina glances at her through cloudy eyes but her voice doesn't waver.

"Yeah, you did."

There's not really much Ellie can say to that because for a second, however brief it had been, she genuinely had meant it in the way Dina had assumed she did.

She's never been good with feelings, always awkward and unsure, which usually came off as abrasive. She's made a mess of this and she doesn't know how to fix it ...she's afraid of ruining things even more spectacularly than she already has.

"I'm going to go help Joel," it's an obvious cop out and a weak one at that but Ellie's always been better at running away. "You should get some rest."

Ellie's shifting away from the couch as she rushes out the words and although she isn't sure whether she wants Dina to let her go or stop her, the other girl's clearly exhausted and doesn't have the strength to chase her.

Dina makes herself comfortable on the couch, tucking her feet up by the armrest and turning her back on Ellie.

It's dismissive and Ellie takes off up the staircase in search of Joel. She doesn't find him on the upper floors but she's fairly sure after a quick sweep that the building is infected-free. The rooms are dusty and damp but there aren't any spores growing from the walls, which is always a promising sign.

There's a large intercom radio in one of the old dressing rooms upstairs and a larger version of Abe's map, devoid of Abe's personal markings. A quick examination reveals the radio is a dud, the wires a tangled mess and although it would have been useful to have a backup option, it's not going to happen so they'll just have to be careful with the working radio they already have.

She creeps her way back to the ground floor but Dina's still on the couch and whether she's asleep or not, she doesn't make any attempt to acknowledge Ellie.

"Just take those old records off the shelf. I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself."

It's faint but Ellie can vaguely hear the music, the twang of pretty decent guitar strings. It's Joel's voice, not his usual vibe, but it sounds smooth in a way that suggests he knows the song well.

The doors to the theatre are quality wood, heavy and thick and they muffle the sound from inside well enough that, if Dina is asleep, there's little risk of waking her.

Ellie's now certain there's no infected inside as there's no way Joel would've picked up a guitar if he'd had even the smallest inkling, they weren't safe here.

"Today's music ain't got the same soul. I like that old time rock 'n' roll."

Joel's sitting at the front of the auditorium, in one of the red velvet lined chairs which, even after all these years, still look to be in relatively decent condition.

Ellie's never been to a theatre, it had never come up during their time of the road before and when they'd settled in Jackson there weren't any "proper" theatres in the surrounding towns.

It's pretty impressive, the high, elaborately decorated ceilings, the rows of chairs and the large, lavish stage. She wonders what it would've been like in the old world, when the shows she can see advertised on the posters were filled with people.

Maybe she'll ask Joel if he ever saw anything on stage?

"Don't try to take me to a disco. You'll never even get me out on the floor."

It's not a song Ellie knows but the music is a welcome distraction from everything that's happened over the course of the day and as she reaches Joel, who's reclined lazily in his seat, guitar resting across his bent knee, she slouches down into the seat next to him.

"This doesn't sound like your regular vibe," she hedges teasingly, sizing up the guitar. It's in great shape, probably hasn't been used in years, and the finish on the wood looks recently polished even though, realistically, Ellie knows it isn't.

"It's not," Joel agrees faintly, strumming absently at the strings and even though the blood has dried, it's still clearly visible on his fingers. "It was one of Tommy's favourites."

Ellie's honestly a little surprised that Joel's speaking about Tommy so soon after what went down at the lodge. It isn't like Joel to bring up the dead, Ellie had always assumed that when people died, they were gone and in Joel's mind, that was it. She'd seen him act as if they'd never existed, he didn't talk about them and, when she'd first met him, not long after they'd lost Tess, Ellie had questioned whether he'd even thought about them again.

For a long time she'd been worried that's what he'd do to her, if she suddenly wasn't around anymore, that he'd blot her out like he'd done to Tess, Henry, Sam...Sarah...and her time with him would've been washed away as if it meant nothing.

'No matter how hard you try, you can't escape your past.'

It's been years since she'd thought like that though, ever since Joel took Sarah's photo from her and actually started sharing little memories here and there about what Sarah was like, the things she was into.

She knows that he still thinks about the people he lost along the way even if he doesn't show it easily.

He's starting to look old, although Ellie supposes he probably just seems that way because she'd gone so far out of her way to avoid him over the last few years...she'd missed seeing the changes happen gradually.

But Ellie knows that grief can age a person too, and judging by the sombre look pinching Joel's face and his faraway gaze, Ellie knows he's still reeling on the inside even as memories of Tommy trickle out.

The entire thing is too solemn, too dark and heavy for what they've been through today and although the feelings won't disappear, she's desperate to distract from them.

"Holy fuck, Tommy listened to some trash."

Joel chuckles, fingers stilling against the strings as he leans back in his seat.

"Yeah, he did but if you want to talk trash, you should've heard some of the shit Tess was into."

If it was strange before to hear him speak about Tommy, it's fucking surreal to hear him talk openly about Tess. She'd slipped out a handful of times over the years; but Joel was usually tight lipped, and Tess was another thing they'd never actually sat down and talked through properly.

'There's enough here that you have to feel some sort of obligation to me.'

Ellie still doesn't know the details, but it had been obvious there was more to Joel and Tess than they'd let on...or at least there had been more to them at one time. She hadn't known Joel well back then but any idiot could see Tess's death had ripped the carpet out from under his feet.

It's...nice to hear him talk about her. Ellie, however briefly she'd known the woman, had liked her. Back then she'd wanted to be like Tess.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"She was always real big on her music," Joel tells her fondly, a ghost of a smile on his face. "Had a stash of old tapes. She had a lot of stuff from the 90's."

"You're shitting me," Ellie accuses, laughing. Riley had some old 90's band stuff, tapes she'd collected from random stores in the mall, tracks with lyrics that had always made Ellie crack up when she'd listened to them. "Tess was into cheesy pop?"

"Wouldn't have thought it to look at her, eh?"

They're quiet for a while after that, Joel's gone off somewhere in his head again, something Ellie's noticed is happening with alarmingly more frequency and Ellie wonders what it is he thinks about.

She knows he thinks of Tommy, she's certain he still thinks of Sarah, but she wonders now if he's thinking about Tess. She wonders if he thinks of Tess the same way she thinks of Riley sometimes, whether after all these years it still hurts him like it does her.

It's...definitely not territory she wants to get into tonight.

"So Nora…," she hedges when she can't think of a decent joke to pull him back. "She our girl? Did she shoot him?"

It might not have been the light-hearted feel she'd been chasing when she'd joined him in the auditorium but at least he's back with her.

"No," Joel grunts on an irritated breath. "She might've done, I ain't sure. The kid had nothin' and his buddy didn't know shit about Jackson."

"But he knew where to find Nora," Ellie supplies lightly, connecting the dots. "Well...it's better than nothing."

Joel doesn't look particularly convinced and Ellie knows he's a little disappointed with how the day had turned out. Once he'd got hold of Jordan, he was blatantly expecting to get answers about Tommy's killer. To come away without that must've stung...

...Ellie hopes they'll have more luck with Nora because after seeing the mess Joel had left behind at the school, Ellie isn't sure how many more setbacks he'll be able to take before he loses his fucking mind.

"How's she doing?"

Joel asks eventually, in a pointed attempt to change the subject, nodding towards the double doors leading out to the foyer where Ellie had left Dina, curled up, on the couch.

For one, mad second Ellie considers telling Joel about Dina's pregnancy. She doesn't have a clue what she's meant to do here so it might be nice to get a little advice. Besides, Joel has done the baby thing...a long fucking time ago but he'd done it. He'd also had Sarah pretty young so...there's a good chance he'd understand.

She might've done it but the bottom line is she's barely made any sense of it herself, her head is still spinning and she isn't even sure if Dina wants her around at all because she'd lost her shit, put her foot in it and scarpered...she has no idea how to even start explaining it to Joel.

"She's sleeping," Ellie offers, going for casual but not really carrying it off. The harder she tries to be casual about it the more wooden she seems. "She seems to think she'll be good to go by tomorrow, but I don't see it."

"She managed to make it all the way out here on her own, girl's probably exhausted."

Ellie figures that's probably close enough to the truth for now; so she fudges her next words into something like weak agreement.

"Yeah, something like that."

The mention of Dina drags all Ellie's muddled thoughts back to the surface and although she's dreading tomorrow and having to face Dina in the morning, she just doesn't have the energy to think about it now.

For the moment, at least, she just wants to enjoy the relative safety they've found at the theatre, forget about the WLF, Tommy's asshole killers and Dina's hurt expression and, if she's lucky, get some sodding sleep.

Joel's not singing anymore but his fingers are picking at the notes of the song he'd been playing earlier; and Ellie reaches for the guitar resting in the case by Joel's feet, picking it up and settling it across her lap.

"Hey..." she says brightly, forcing as much enthusiasm as she can muster into a tired smile, fingers dancing over the strings to get a feel for the instrument. "You want to teach me this one?"

We pack demolition
We can't pack emotion
Dyanamite, we just might
So blow us a kiss, blow us a kiss
Blow us a kiss, and we'll blow you to pieces

We're killin' strangers, we're killin' strangers
We're killin' strangers, so we don't kill the ones
That we love
Love, love, love

And we got guns, we got guns
Motherfuckers better, better, better run

We're killin' strangers

Lyrics courtesy of Marilyn Manson

A/N: Review? If you feel like it? x