This is Not the Last of Us

Chapter 37

The next morning, Ellie woke up wrapped up in her girlfriend's arms. She was used to being the big spoon, but she had insisted her girlfriend be the big spoon so she couldn't escape from Ellie. Ellie must have woken up first, her girlfriend's breaths were slow, but deliberate. She seemed to be at peace with the world as she slept.

Ellie scooted back against her girlfriend and her girlfriend sighed in her sleep, squeezing Ellie and holding her closer.

She could see the perks of being the little spoon.

Her girlfriend's peace was ruined by Dina throwing up loudly. The two girls jumped to their feet on instinct, both of their bones ached as they moved. They moved carefully to the source of the sound and found Dina lying on her side with a trash can beside her. Jesse was tenderly rubbing her side and he turned towards the both of them.

"Oh, good, you two are awake. Do you mind giving her a quick check-up, doc?" Jesse said with a tiny smile.

"Of course, have you two eaten yet?"

"Not yet, we wanted to wait for you two."

"Good, good. I wanted to make everyone breakfast today." Ellie's girlfriend said awkwardly and rubbed her forearm.

"Oh, sure," Jesse smiled, "Sounds good."

The next thirty minutes were spent making sure Dina was okay. She checked to make sure there were no serious risk signs for mothers, and double checked that she had no signs of fever. When she was certain she would be fine, she finally pulled out a small container of medication and offered two pills to Dina.

"This is a pain reliever. It'll help with the stomach pain. I'm going to give you two for now and we'll play it by ear for now. I'm also going to give you a headache medication and some Bismuth Subsalicylate to help with the vomiting. This is all stuff we made in Jackson, so you don't have to worry about it being expired or anything. And it'll be fine if you take it all at once. We'll use some water to make it easier to take down."

"Yes, ma'am." Dina said with a tiny laugh.

Dina downed all of the pills and used water to fully swallow them.

"They're not fast acting unfortunately, give them twenty minutes and you should be okay. If this doesn't work I'll find a way to up the dosage without risking the pregnancy."

"Thank you, doc." Jesse said softly, "We owe you one."

"No, I'm just doing my job." She responded almost immediately. She sucked in a deep breath and looked up at Jesse, "Jesse... I want to apologize for yesterday."

"Huh?" Jesse blinked and laughed awkwardly, "I'm sorry?"

"No, I'm sorry. Yesterday. I was very aggressive about tagging along because I've always felt that I owe Joel a great deal. I felt the need to be involved with every step of this."

Jesse's face softened and he shook his head, "I can't blame you for that. Joel was like family to the both of you. I was over stepping."

"No, you were trying to be kind, which is one of your greatest strengths. You wanted to help the both of us, and I can't thank you enough for thinking about us like that."

Jesse scratched the back of his neck and smiled shyly, "Well, thank you. I accept your apology."

"Thank you, Jesse. Now, as an official apology, I'm going to make the I fucked up, I'm sorry breakfast."

"The what?" Dina asked with a loud laugh.

"Papa– I mean, Ace... Whenever he messed up and did something to make my dad mad, he would make breakfast and the first thing he would say is I fucked up, I'm sorry. So that's what we call it."