The silence in the car was almost deafening as Melanie stared listlessly out of the window, thinking about what they had done and if they had done the right thing. Much to her surprise, the road was nearly clear and they didn't have any trouble at all with diversions when leaving the hospital. The sun was coming up and in the early morning sunshine, everything looked strangely normal like before.

How deceiving looks could be.

Joel sighed a little beside her and Melanie lifted her head a little from the seat and glanced at him, "Are you okay?" she asked softly and he looked at her quickly before his eyes went back on the road.

"Did we do the right thing?"

"Bit late to be thinking that now," Melanie whispered, looking over her shoulder at the sleeping Ellie on the back seat, "main thing is she's still alive."

Shaking his head, Joel looked slightly guilty, "I'm not sure that Ellie will see it that way…"

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Melanie replied sadly, "I hate lying to her but-"

"But nothing," Joel interrupted a little heatedly "she should know the truth about what was going to happen."

Melanie bit her tongue to stop herself from snapping at him as she raised an eyebrow, "Are you telling me, you've never lied to someone you care about to avoid hurting them?" she asked, Joel looked over at her with a guilty look in his eyes "Yeah, I thought so. In the long run, will it really matter? The doctor's dead, Marlene's… well, I doubt they'll be anyone there who can do the surgery now."

"You're right… I have done that," Joel murmured and Melanie wondered who he was talking about, "leave it to me."

They fell back into silence and Melanie sighed this time and winced a little at the pain in her side as she shifted in her seat and closed her eyes. She must have dozed off for a while as when she woke up, the sun had went behind a cloud and it had gotten slightly darker.

She was about to ask Joel if he wanted her to drive when there was a small groan from the back seat and she turned to see Ellie rubbing her face and slowly waking up.

"What the hell am I wearing?" she asked groggily and Joel shared a look with Melanie before looking out onto the road again.

"Just take it easy… drugs are still wearing off."

Melanie kept silent but knew the inevitable question was going to be asked anytime now.

"What happened?"

Joel was quiet for a minute before he looked in the rear-view mirror at Ellie "We found the Fireflies…."

Melanie thought back to the basement, of how Marlene had walked towards them, her gun on the ground and a small smile on her face as she looked at them "I knew you would do the right thing," she had whispered, her eyes falling onto Ellie.

"Turns out, there's a whole lot more like you, Ellie. People that are immune. It's dozens actually, ain't done a damn bit of good neither."

In her head, Melanie could still see the shocked look on Marlene's face as she fired her gun at her and shot her in the stomach. The look of betrayal as she fell to the ground and how Joel and she had looked at each other calmly. Thinking they had done the right thing.

"They've sto-" Joel stopped talking and closed his eyes before continuing, "They've stopped looking for a cure."

Melanie heard Ellie's breath hitch in her throat and nodded slowly, "We're going home," she said quietly looking over her shoulder, "you don't need to worry about the Fireflies anymore."

It broke her heart to see the young girl look so upset and turn away from her hugging herself tightly. Turning back, she glanced at Joel and seen a guilty look on his face, letting out a shaky breath, she reached over and entwined her fingers with his and squeezed his hand gently. Joel sighed sadly but gripped her hand tight in his and kept driving.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Come on, we need to get out of here before the rest find us," Melanie said, not even looking at Marlene as she walked over and looked inside of the car and let out a sigh of relief, "This one still has its keys in. Thank god."

She opened the door and held it open for Joel to carefully lie Ellie on the back seat, they heard a strangled cry from behind them and Melanie turned to see Marlene trying to crawl away from a pool of her own blood. Pushing Ellie up a bit more on the seat, Melanie shut the door and looked at Joel.

"What do we do with her?" she whispered and Joel hesitated before bringing out his gun.

"Let me handle her."

Staying by the car as Joel approached Marlene, Melanie bit her lip and glanced through the window at Ellie, if they had been a few minutes later, who knows what might have happened. They might have been shot… or not escaped with Ellie at all.

"WAIT!"

Turning quickly, Melanie seen Joel standing in front of Marlene with his gun still lowered, "Let me go," Marlene begged, her bare arms and hands covered in her own blood, "please!"

"You'd just come after her," Joel said quietly, glaring at the woman and raised his gun to point it at her head.

Melanie closed her eyes as the gunshot went off and glanced back to see the mangled mess that was Marlene's head slumped on the floor. Looking up at Joel, she noticed how he averted his eyes and headed for the front seat, "Let's go," he said gruffly but Melanie grabbed his arm and looked at him.

"We did the right thing Joel," she whispered, "I hope you know that."

He looked down at her and nodded slowly, "I know… just… just wished it worked out differently."

"Same here… but it is what it is… we just gotta live with it."

Joel smoothed her hair away from her face and his thumb gently swept across her cut lip, "You'll need to direct me back to Tommy's," he said softly, "back home."

Melanie couldn't help but smile at his words and she nodded, "Well, we better hop to it," she said and opened the front passenger door and got in the car.

A/N

Thought I uploaded this! So technically, a new chapter that takes place before the other new chapter. LOL enjoy :) Thank you all for the reviews and views xx