[AN] This picks up right where the last chapter left off. Don't forget to R & R.

The silence was deafening. Neither of them spoke for a couple of minutes.

Everything can go to shit so easily, can't it. Joel thought to himself bitterly.

"Wha... What do we do now?" Ellie said. Joel looked down at the girl, she was still breathing heavily.

"What can we do? We've got to go."

"Shouldn't we bury them, or something?" Ellie asked.

"We can't-" Joel said immediately.

"They didn't fucking deserve this Joel. It's the least we can do." Ellie said firmly.

Joel was about to respond when her words sunk in. She's right, and you know it.

"Fine. I think I saw a shovel somewhere around here. Get it."

"Okay." Ellie, exhaled deeply when she got up. "Damn." Ellie said, commenting on what had just happened.

"Yeah." Joel replied somberly.

Ellie walked out of the room to grab the shovel. Joel walked over to Henry's corpse and pulled the gun out of his hands. He took the back pack off his dead body, and placed it to the side.

Ellie was right. You didn't deserve this. Joel thought sadly.

Joel saw the door open, and Ellie walked in carrying a shovel. "What do we do now?" She said.

"Follow me." Joel grabbed the shovel from her and headed out of the room.

Digging the holes had been harder than he expected. It had taken the two of them nearly the entire day. Now, he was standing in front of two piles of dirt, marked by two makeshift crosses and scraps of paper with the names Henry and Sam on them.

"How do you do it?" Ellie asked.

"Do what?"

"Deal with this. The loss?"

Joel sighed. He had more or less had this exact conversation with Henry that morning.

"First of all, you're lucky, you barely even knew them. Secondly, it fades over time. It'll never go away though. You just got to live with it."

"Okay." She said simply.

Joel turned to walk away when Ellie said, "Shouldn't we say something?"

"What?"

"I don't know. I just feel like we should say goodbye or something."

Joel walked back to the graves and said. "You didn't deserve this. Henry, I wish I could have stopped you, and I'm sorry I couldn't. Goodbye."

Joel walked back to the radio station, and had just reached the door when he heard Ellie start talking. "God, I'm not even fucking sure if you exist, let alone if praying even works. But if you're out there, give Henry and Sam peace. They deserved better than this." With that, Ellie turned around and walked back into the station.

Joel sat down on the floor and said, "We're gonna have to sleep here tonight. It's getting late, and this place is secure."

"You're right. It's just..." Ellie looked down at the remaining blood from Henry and Sam, now dried on the floor. They had cleaned most of it up, but he could still see some of it.

"We don't have a choice. Common." He lead Ellie into a different room, and put down his backpack.

"Pull out your deck of cards Ellie."

"What?"

"We're playing a couple of rounds. Common."

"Why?"

"Look, things happen, and we move on. Moping about them isn't going to bring them back."

Ellie looked down at the floor for a second before replying, "Fine." She sat down and pulled out the deck of cards.

"One last round, okay?" Joel said after a yawn. He was tired, and Ellie was slaughtering him. He was down to 45 chips to Ellie's 207.

"Oh, scared that I'm going to wipe you out already?" Ellie responded jokingly. She's handling herself pretty well. I'm glad I could get her mind off of what happened this morning.

Joel dealt the cards and looked down at his hand. "Two of hearts and four of clubs."

"I raise." Ellie placed a shotgun shell in the pot along with the one chip blind.

"Screw it." Joel matched her bet, than placed down the flop. "Two of clubs, ace of diamonds, seven of hearts."

Neither of them raised, and Joel placed down the fourth card "Nine of diamonds."

"I raise." Ellie said, placing three more chips down.

"I fold." I can't afford to lose any more. He was down to 39 chips now.

"Damn. I had double aces. What did you have?"

"The best I had was a pair of twos." Joel responded, happy that he folded.

"Well, that worked out rather nicely." Ellie said smugly.

"Speak for yourself. Goodnight." Joel said, placing his backpack under his head and closing his eyes.

After a minute of silence, he heard Ellie's voice fill up the dark room. "How come you never seem worried?" She asked.

"What'd you mean?"

"It's just that... nothing seems to bother you. You never seem scared."

"Trust me, I am."

"What are you scared of?" Ellie asked nervously.

Joel thought for a second before deciding, "I don't know. Loosing people I care about, I guess." Joel paused for a second before asking, "What about you?"

"I'm scared of ending up alone." Understandable.

Joel was about to fall asleep when Ellie said, "Um, Joel?"

"What?" Joel replied. Just let me sleep.

"Do you think that there is a heaven? Or anything at all, after this?"

Joel sighed. "Does it matter. Either way, the people you care about are dead, and all you can do is hope you don't need to find out the answer to that question are anytime soon."

"But.."

"You have to let it go Ellie. Thinking about this won't do a damn bit of good."

"It's just -"

"That's enough." Joel said firmly.

Ellie sighed before replying, "Fine. I'm sorry."

"Get to sleep, okay?"

"Jimmy, I am warning you. Don't!" Joel fired his revolver at Jimmy, and watched his neighbors body fall to the floor.

"Common Sarah", he looked behind him, where Sarah was standing right behind him...

"Sarah, where are you?" Joel looked around in a panic, she was just behind him, where could she be, if anything happened.

He heard his daughter crying next to him.

"Sarah!" No no no no, he had shot Jimmy not Sarah. Joel fell to his knees next to his baby girl, who had a gunshot wound in her stomach.

"Daddy... why?" Sarah said through tears and cries of pain.

"I didn't shoot you... I." This can't be happening, I was protecting her.

"This is your fault. It's all your fault.." Sarah looked up and stained at her father, and stopped breathing.

"Sarah? Sarah!" Joel picked up Sarah's body and pulled her to his chest.

"Common baby girl. Stay with me, stay with me." Joel was in tears now.

"Sarah, I'm so sorry."

"Joel!"

Joel snapped awake and saw Ellie kneeling next to him with her hand on his shoulder.

" 'Morning." Joel said as he sat up.

"You were having a nightmare. I woke you up."

Joel looked out the window. It was early morning.

"Lets get going." Joel said as he picked up his backpack.

"Who's Sarah?" Joel froze in his tracks.

"Ellie, don't you ever bring that up again." He growled out.

"Okay, jeez."

"Lets get a move on." Joel walked out the door of the radio station.

[AN] I updated this story to make sure all details matched official cannon. Nothing major, just some dates.