Joel leaned back on his hands, he was proud of the girl next to him. Aside from overcoming her fear of the water, she had seemed to be more cheerful these past couple of days. He knew Ellie and Maria talked to each other about things and Joel never asked Maria anything personal out of respect to Ellie, if she wanted to talk to him about certain things he knew she would. But ever since there was a new girl in town she wasn't as much indoors when she had time to spare. And Joel reckoned Chloe was the reason why.

''Maria told me you and Chloe get along pretty good.''

''Yeah, she's pretty cool.'' Ellie smiled, obviously content with herself because of her achievement of the day.

''Good, I'm glad you've finally found a friend.'' Joel had seen the girl a few times and whenever Chloe did notice him she would wave at him. At first he didn't know who she was until Tommy told him. Then Ellie introduced the girl one day when he found them sitting in the living room gushing over the comic books she had.

It had been a while since Ellie had made new friend ever since Sam had died. And back in Boston she didn't really get along with all the other kids her age. But then she met Riley and things just seemed to click between the two. She was this strange, crazy girl who'd she had come to care for a great deal.

But then…

Ellie sighed.

''What's up kiddo?'' Joel leaned forward to look at her. Ellie didn't really know if she was willing to talk about her painful memories. Joel never seemed to tell her anything about Sarah or the things that happened after his daughter's death, so what it alright for her to talk about Riley? Before they had gotten to the settlement she had told Joel about Riley, not so much in detail or how they got bitten, but maybe that was enough.

Ellie frowned as the memory of Riley's death flashed before her eyes. ''Nothing.''

''You sure 'bout that?''

Was there any point in denying when Joel already saw right through her?

''...No''

After a moment of silence Ellie tilted her head left and right, as if she was thinking through whether to tell Joel what was bothering her or not. ''Alright then.'' She sighed again.

''I… uh… I've told about my friend Riley before, right?''

Joel just simply nodded.
Ellie pulled her knees close to her chest, hugging her legs as she fumbled with her hands. Talking about Riley was never easy. Just like when Marlene questioned her about the whereabouts of her missing Firefly member.

''I never told you how Riley and I got bitten- well aside from how I told Tess that time we entered the museum, but that was the short version. One night Riley woke me up after she had just gone and left, back then I thought I'd never see her again, but she was standing right in front of me, safe. She told me she had joined the Fireflies.'' Ellie scoffed, if she had been looking at Joel she'd seen how his eyes seemed to twitch a little at the mention of the rebellion group.

''She tried to cheer me up, I guess. We'd gotten into a stupid fight and I think she felt guilty about that, so she had this idea of bringing me to the mall. We escaped the military school in Boston only barely unnoticeable. We knew if they'd see Riley they'd kill her and me as well for tagging along with a Firefly.'' Ellie continued, ''The mall kind of had a sentimental value to us…'' Ellie smiled, ''You know it's actually the place where I learned to ride a horse?''

''Really now? That's where Winston taught you how to ride a horse?''

''Yes, anyways, she told me the place still had electricity. So we played around a bit- heck I even rode a fake horse.''

Joel frowned, ''A fake horse?''

''Yes, it was this big thing with fake horses and carriages, we didn't know what it was. It had these flashy lights and I'm sure if it had enough juice it'd spin around.''

Joel thought about what it could be that had fake horses and carriages and something that would spin at that. And after a moment the answer came to him, paired with a memory that somehow didn't stung as much as he thought it would be.

Soft giggles that was like music to his ears.

A young looking Sarah with both her front teeth missing,

''Daddy look!'' She called out as she waved enthusiastically at Joel while only holding on with one hand.

''Sarah, honey. Hold on with both hands now, 'kay?'' He said while waving back.

The feeling of his heart swelling against his chest that day.

''A merry-go-round,'' Joel smiled as Sarah's laughter filled his ears yet again.

Ellie made a face, ''A merry-go-round? That's a mouthful for something that has fake horses and…. Goes… around, never mind I get it- I think.''

Straightening her arms she became distracted as she looked at her bite mark. Tracing her fingers over the scarring where once teeth had sunk into her skin.

"Thinking back about how runners had found us, we were pretty stupid. But we were just having fun, you know.''

Joel saw the struggle on Ellie's face. Even though he had always told her they were never to talk about the people they had lost during his job of bringing her to the Fireflies, he only just now saw how much she might have needed that- to just let it all out. Even though she had wanted to talk about it many times before, he had always shut her off whenever she did brought things up about Tess, Sam or Henry. He was only protecting himself from his own feelings, not realising that Ellie's were pilling up one by one.

''She had taken the walkman we shared from me and we were in an electronic store. So she hooked it up to a stereo and suddenly there was music booming everywhere. At first we just danced and laughed, but then…'' Ellie's voice drifted off.

Joel already knew what was coming next. Even though this Riley was just a kid, he kind of did expected a trainee Firefly to know better. But teenagers were stupid- heck, God knows he was when he was about Ellie's age. He would get himself and Tommy into trouble all the time. But times were different, death wasn't around the corner then like it was now.

''We ran. But the runners kept coming. I only had my knife back then and Riley was armed- turns out, she was a pretty good shot with her pistol too. We tried to escape through a window, but I couldn't make the next jump and I fell…Before I knew it this, fucking runner had me pinned to the ground. I fucking panicked and called out to Riley for him- she did come back to safe me, but she was attacked by another runner herself.'' Ellie shook her head as she continued, ''I didn't even realise I was bitten until Riley pointed it out. She was so calm but I lost my fucking mind.''

Ellie got up, grabbing her cardigan off the ground. ''So,'' she shrugged as if she had just told someone else' story, distancing herself from her past that still pained her. ''That's how I got infected. Now you know everything.''

Joel followed her example and got up as well. But something told him that Ellie wasn't done yet.
Some people might've called it a father's instincts

The girl went silent as she pulled on her cardigan, she always had something to cover her arm. No one but Tommy and Maria knew she was infected- even though immune no one in the settlement was to know about her secret. The chaos her secret could cause was unmeasurable. Thus, Tommy, Maria and Joel advised Ellie to always have something that concealed her bite mark.

''What?'' She asked as she shrugged, the look Joel gave her somehow didn't sit right with her.

''Nuthin.''

''Then stop looking at me like that and let's head back.'' Ellie pinched her eyes at her own stupidity. Why was she suddenly so angry? ''I'm sorry, Joel.''

''Look, kiddo… I get it, trust me. All this time we've… I've been telling you ever since we met that we were not to talk about our history. But I see now that's wrong, it certainly doesn't help you in any way.''

''Oh, jeez. Are you going soft on me now, Joel?'' She scoffed sarcastically at him and she got the right response from him, he smiled at her.

''Listen kiddo, I'm just saying. If you need to talk about anything- something that's not uncomfortable for the both of us. You can come to me with it, alright?''

Ellie hadn't seen that coming, she wondered what made him change his mind that he was willing to openly talk about feelings. Because she didn't say or do anything besides staring at him in surprise, it made Joel aware of himself suddenly, scratching the back of his head as he felt a little uneasy.

''Um… I mean, I know you and Maria talk- don't worry she doesn't tell me anything. It just seemed to me that you didn't get everything off your chest, just now.''

Ellie raised an eyebrow, ''I fuckin' hate when you do that.''

''Do what?'' Joel's confused frown edged his forehead.

''See through me. I've never told Maria about what happened to Riley, you know.''

''Okay, how about we walk back and you tell me about it? If you're okay with that, at least.''

After a moment of considering Ellie nodded, maybe talking about Riley's death wasn't so bad at all. It was still as fucked up as anything else that had happened. But maybe she could find some consolation in telling Joel about it.

''I shot her.''

So work has been crazy and on top of that I got sick, that did mean I had time to play Left Behind though, lol. Pro's and con's, right?
Anyways, there was a guest reader that wondered why i had the story on mature and if the relationship between Elie and Joel would change, I immediately changed the rating to 'T' because that's not the way this story is gonna go. To be honest, I find it simply disturbing people see Joel and Ellie that way. So no, it won't happen in my version of Ellie's and Joel's father daughter relationship. I will also try to keep the focus on them as much possible! =]
During my 'only second playthrough' of LB I've came up with some ideas here and there and figured that after Ellie's lessons on how to be a frog she might open up to Joel a little bit about Riley. That being said, I really struggled with this chapter for some reason. Hopefully it'll be okay enough for you guys to read. Keep those reviews coming, I would really like to know what you guys think =)